Does Your Band Want To Get A Million Pound Record Deal? Volume 1

Each day we are contacted by three or four acts from around the world looking for an agency to help them promote their music in the UK, and at the end of most of these conversations there will be a discussion about how to get a label deal.

Now there is always a feeling amongst developing artists who are unsigned to either say all they want is a label or they do not wish to sign a label deal. Either one is perfectly valid but the overall consensus from a band is at all costs they want a major deal. Now that we have decided that a major deal is what you are all about then you will need to follow two or three similar – but different – paths. Within these regular blogs we will come back to this issue but let’s start by understanding one thing. Major labels are banks with expert advisors, they should – but are not always – staffed by people who love music, but somewhere within the major label structure there will be someone who loves number crunching and ultimately these are the people who can decide the fate of your band or your solo career.

Let’s take a step into the future and say that you have been discovered and all your dreams are now reality. You have signed a major record deal. Does my band want a million pound or million dollar or million euro record deal.  Well first off dreams are not all they are cracked up to be and the small print is the gateway to whether your dreams are going to truly come to fruition, so sit down with your lawyer, I cannot stress enough the importance of these guys, like Sheridans’ Stephen Luckman, make sure you understand as much about your agreement as they do. Why? Because then you will clearly understand that this is a business you are in and not something that is judged by the number of people who like your music, it is about giving the team you have signed to the chance to help you grow without looking over your shoulder at ledger.

The big ‘advance’ and the 360 deal allowing every breath you take to be recouped against is brilliant, but that is where the pressure starts as this figure is not going into your pocket, some may but whatever you get will be accounted for by giving you a series of releases to prove you can build an audience to offset the money paid out and hopefully make money for the label rapidly. Hence the bigger the budget the bigger the stress, but if you are signing away a large chunk of your life to a nail biting 360 deal best to get money in your pocket and then hold on to the tail of the donkey and try to learn as quickly as possible how to ride it and help it go in the right direction.

Here are Quite Great Music PR, Promotion and Marketing we can advise you on the best steps forward when dealing with a label, or if indeed you need one at all. We have years of industry experience and have worked with a huge variety of acts, artists and bands.