I've read a very similar article that was written by Steve Albini a long while ago because Tera Melos put a link to it on their myspace page. I also believe in largely D.I.Y. music and recording, and maybe even producing. Not only because this is the best way for artists to have complete control over their music, but also because it is fully doable in the world of today as recording and mastering music has become much, much easier, and much much cheaper as well. A lot of my favourite bands and various bands that I have come to respect, do this, or at least record all their music on their own and then a second party does the mastering or whatnot. It's really not surprising to me that some of these bands either have their own independent label or collaborate with a few other bands under a common label (the Japanese math-rock band Toe has their own label, there's Isis that made their own label and now has a slew of other common bands with them, in example).

What were the people that you were arguing with saying?

edit: And the story of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" is always brings the lols. Too bad High on Fire fucking sucks.

7mk

Germany10157 Posts

March 05 2010 01:26 GMT

hmm interesting
not sure when I'll be able to work myself through all of that though ^^

On March 05 2010 10:25 koreasilver wrote:
I've read a very similar article that was written by Steve Albini a long while ago because Tera Melos put a link to it on their myspace page. I also believe in largely D.I.Y. music and recording, and maybe even producing. Not only because this is the best way for artists to have complete control over how their music will sound like, but also because it is fully doable in the world of today as recording and mastering music has become much, much easier, and much much cheaper as well. A lot of my favourite bands and various bands that I have come to respect, do this, or at least record all their music on their own and then a second party does the mastering or whatnot. It's really not surprising to me that some of these bands either have their own independent label or collaborate with a few other bands under a common label (the Japanese math-rock band Toe has their own label, there's Isis that made their own label and now has a slew of other common bands with them, in example).

What were the people that you were arguing with saying?

I don't think that ISIS releases their albums on Turner's label though.
Although they certainly have full control over what they do.

koreasilver

9109 Posts

March 05 2010 01:35 GMT

Hydra Head allows pretty much complete freedom over what their associated artists do though. From the couple of bands that I used to follow pretty closely, the bands themselves do all or most of the recording and mixing. Hydra Head is pretty much just the distributor, which is how record labels should work in the first place.

Etherone

United States1898 Posts

March 05 2010 01:36 GMT

i read this, and it is pretty much what i expected, the music industry is a business and a famously greedy business. dreams where made to be awoken from, and that contract is a wake up call to any band trying to "go big"

JohannesH

Finland1364 Posts

March 05 2010 01:53 GMT

Just what kind of record label is this? If you expect to sell barely 500 copies, it kinda makes sense that professional labels cant give you very good deals.

Publish the record yourself. Or if you insist on professional promotion - yeah its gonna cost you if your records cant make the profit for the label.

Chef

10810 Posts

March 05 2010 01:58 GMT

The thing is, it costs a lot of money to produce a record, and most of them fail. The deal between an artist and a producer of any medium has to understand this.

That said, in this age of the internet, you can pretty much produce yourself, just only in a digital format. But if you become popular and successful, you might be able to negotiate a nicer contract with studios.

There's a saying that goes "I'd rather have a little of a lot, than all of a little." If you want to make a living and you're in business, it's something you have to deal with.

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

March 05 2010 01:59 GMT

the hairrrrrrrrrrrrrr

T.O.P.

Hong Kong4685 Posts

March 05 2010 02:28 GMT

#10

I basically know this already.

On March 05 2010 08:24 boesthius wrote:
I dont understand how someone would still sign to a contract like they're saying is 'unfair'. It's the job of the lawyer to explain what all the fine print means - and they should explain to you whether or not you're getting yourself in a shitty situation; aka 13 year contracts and the like.

The point is that you're not going to be a artist in Korea if you don't get signed by a big company. The big companies controls the media, so only their artists will get screen time. The contracts are "unfair" because the only way you're going to make it big is by signing a shitty contract.

Don't complain about your metal contracts. Look at Korean contracts.

+ Show Spoiler +

In the contract, it states that TVXQ must pay for all of the expenses required for their activities and this implies the wages for their managers and road managers. “TVXQ must pay for their travel fees and rent fees, as well as their meals, make up and coordinators’ wages, dance crew and any other stage crew costs. They must also pay for the wages of their managers’ monthly wages (The wages of the manager is 800,000 per month and the wages of road managers is 600,000 per month, and this increases by 10% every year.)”

Exclusive Contract Periods – ‘TVXQ’ is 13 years and ‘BoA’ is 15 years
TVXQ’s Kim Jaejoong finalized his contract with SM on May 14th, 2003, Kim Junsu on February 12th, 2000, and Park Yoochun on June 30th, 2003. There were five changes to the contract after this. The contract period was extended from 10 years to 13 years and the income division was slightly increased for the celebrity. However, the clauses regarding the extended contract or compensation which were ruled by the Courts as unlawful were not changed. The five changes of the contract occurred in December, 2003, February, 2007, March, 2007, October, 2008 and February of 2009.

If you look at the contract, it can be seen that SM holds almost no obligations. All there is for the agency to do is to take care of the group’s popularity and tell them of their activities. On the other hand, TVXQ must follow the orders of the manager SM gives them, and cannot personally make any promises or contracts regarding activities.They cannot talk about the internal affairs of SM. If a show or performance has a setback for no special reason, TVXQ must compensate. They must make two full albums every year and must release an album six months before the termination of their contract and perform all activities diligently. TVXQ must get permission from SM to give any of their compositions or arrangements to a third party. But SM is allowed to give any SM singer TVXQ’s compositions without the consent of TVXQ.

Although the income division aspect has improved, they do not receive any money until at least 50K copies are sold. If they sell 50K~100K, the group receives 2% of sales, sell 100K~200K and receive 3%, sell over 200K and they receive 5% of total sales. The group must then split this income. If the appearance on a show is not regular, SM receives all the money for publicity. If the contract is terminated for any reason, TVXQ must pay compensation worth three times the investment money and twice the amount of their forecast income as well. This also applies when both sides have agreed to the termination or when SM is the cause of the termination.

credit:Seoulbeats

koreasilver

9109 Posts

March 05 2010 02:33 GMT

#11

They must make two full albums every year and must release an album six months before the termination of their contract

rofl that's retarded. No wonder the Korean music scene has been pretty much the same shit for the last 10 years.

Floophead_III

United States1832 Posts

March 05 2010 02:53 GMT

#12

Interesting side story: The current Guns & Roses guitarist Ron Thal aka Bumblefoot has been doing his own original music for over a decade. Not only is he a virtuoso guitarist, but a phenomenal songwriter and great vocalist too. However, at a young age, he signed up with a recording company for the album Hermit. The company still will not release rights to the album. He can't even rerecord it himself because he doesn't have rights to the music.

Since then Ron has recorded and produced all his albums from a home studio, and honestly, they're fantastic recordings. It's proof that if you have the talent, you easily can do it.

I, myself, have been a home recorder for a while, but I've only recently had the money to really invest in some quality equipment. With DAWs it's really easy to reproduce the sound and feel of a $10000+ analog studio with a third of the investment.

I'm not looking to get signed, I do that stuff for fun, but if the offer did come up, I don't even know if I'd take it. From reading that contract it's pretty much slavery to the label.

boesthius

United States11637 Posts

March 05 2010 02:57 GMT

#13

--- Nuked ---

ieatkids5

United States4628 Posts

March 05 2010 03:07 GMT

#14

skimmed through the article, read a lot of the highlighted parts and explanations...
i thought it was pretty informative, i didn't know about this stuff behind the scenes in the music industry.

now im gonna go laugh at some of my friends in high school who thought they could drop out of college and make it big with their band

KwarK

United States43219 Posts

March 05 2010 03:37 GMT

#15

I like the "recording costs will be met by the label.... out of the artist's advance.... which is nothing....".
That's just brilliant. They're handing you a bill and calling it wages.