NON-exclusive Production Contract

[capkom]

Ayo wdup everybody. I been on the low for a while. This is the story. This washed up producer (never really made it big) who's about 40 heard my tracks and saw my potential. He got all the equipment i need to get me moving for real. I got a little equip but i dont have the money to invest n what i need right now. He offered me a contract where he gets 12.5% of profit on beats made at his studio, with no fee for studio time (sounds reasonable). BUT, he wanted 1/2 of the royalties on any song i made there, that just dont sound right to me. I was gonna negotiate it down, but he said that in the industry thats not negotiable. ...? ANy and all advice is appreciated.

capkom

 

[Cleverwon]

PM God on that one. He usually has good advice.

 

[Copenhagen]

I would negotiate it down if I could, but accept the offer even though I couldn't. To me, he has the upper hand. There's plenty of producers he can go see instead of you, how many other studios will give you the same offer?
It's not like it's for the rest of your life. Accept the deal no matter what. The studio and good equiptment will inspire you a lot and step up your game. Then, whenever you sell a beat, put most of your cut aside and save up for your own so you don't need him.
Also, if you sell a lot of beats out the studio to local artists, you can perhaps also have them pay for "studio time", and earn a little extra that he doesn't know about.
I am basically saying, sure it is a lot, but do you have any better offers?

 

[capkom]

thanks Cope, I was kind of leaning in that direction until i get myself established. half is way more than nothing. I just figured i'd throw it out there in the open so if one of u more experienced guys knew something i didn't i could be warned. Good lookin out

capkom

 

[Copenhagen]

No problem Capkom. I won't say I'm more experienced or tell you I am sure my advice is the best, I am just saying what I would do. It's not that I don't trust my own advice etc, I just want you to be aware that I'm no expert or legal advisor.
However, as I already said, as long as you can terminate the contract, within a given period of e.g. max. 30-60 days, then you can always try it out and quit it if it doesn't work for you.

 

[alkota]

Id try and keep the royalties... you never know, you might hit it big on a track and some creme. Publishing revenues would be wonderful in the long run.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the situation you are in (this seems to be how he is choosing to run his business which is a production company of some sort), see he is paying for your tools and in essence you are working for him......this relationship is almost the same as if you are employed by a job...this is US law so I dunno about anywhere else......there is a little thing called intellectual property....if you work for someone, they provide the tools and especially if you are compensated, this can be construed as you providing services for his PRODUCTION COMPANY......so with intellectual property if you have the relationship of employee and employer and he compensates you either in a monetary exchange or other wise, what you create he has a stake in and in some situations may have full rights to what you created......but if you are working together in the venture as say a partnership you need to negotiate something fair....but there doesn't appear to be anything shady with what you described.....its that you need to educate yourself some more about your rights and what can go down if you don't understand all of the implications how he is running his business, you can get all of the advice in the world and yeah Illmuzik has a ton of knowledge from people like GOD but I too have been dealing out advice like this since 2002...and way b4 Illmuzik..lots of it is Common sense advice and real world situations and lots of MUSIC panels and conferences.....LOL....but I won't step on any toes.....find yourself some legal advice and digest what we give you but don't eat too much of the advice on here especially if it concerns career or livlihood....Good luck with your situation.....Royalties are generally 50/50 between producer and writer.........in other words as the producer of the track thru say ASCAP.....you get a maximum of 50% of a due royalty on the quarterly schedule.....and the writer(rapper or singer that wrote to the track) gets the other 50%,
so in essence he wants your half of production.....if it is his production company and he has it set up like that he can actually do that through a contract..........this is what labels actually do.....they have contracts that slice into certain amounts that if you didn't work for a label you could get the whole amount.....the label or Production Company will always find a way to get a slice.....whether they provide you with, Cars, money, studio time, equipment....PERKS....then they own you....especially after you sign a contract.

 

[Frictionbeats]

negoitable

Nothing is Non-negotiable in those contracts...I read book that said Watch out for people that say that. But the deal sounds cool and Reasonable.

How long is the Contract for?
just try a year or two, and see how it works out.
you could make a name for yourself in those couple of years. Then get 100% of your royalties. because the contract isn't valid no more.
Plus you would probably make enough money in that time to buy your own equipment.

Ya SMELL ME!!??!

I aint no expert. just some input...

-Fric