Points Mean Prizes In Your Music Contract

This is a true story and even if it weren’t the principles would still apply to any music contract you sign. At the time I was 26 in 1996. My manager brought a producer up from London who was interested in working with me. I was really excited because he had many hits under his belt. However, despite his musical credentials his legal and financial acumen were nowhere near as finely tuned as his creative ability.

 

You see on that day I learnt that points mean prizes in a music contract. The producer in question, let’s call him Tony, had for many years been in the service of a production company in London. Obviously, between them they had had a string of hits. So all seemed well. As Tony the producer pointed out to me at the time,

 

“When you are getting cheques for thousands of pounds dropping through your letter box each month you don’t think there is anything wrong.”

 

Well indeed at first glance, there was nothing wrong with his music contract agreement from what I could tell. However, at that time I was young and not privvy to any in-depth knowledge about what clauses are in a music contract. Remember, these were the days before the Internet was being used seriously for do it yourself distribution, with the likes of The Orchard or Tune Core and digital download retail outlets like itunes or Amazon.com.

 

So I hear you cry, “Get to the point what was the problem”.

 

Notice I referred to my mystery man Tony as the producer and this is the point.  Well as someone wisely once said “life is a numbers game”. What had gone wrong for Tony was that he for years had been signing music contracts with the production company as a producer who typically get between 1 to 5 points towards any royalties they might receive from the sales of records. Obviously this can vary depending on how sought after you are. According to Tony, he had in actuality written the songs as well and should have been getting many more points in the music contract for his efforts. The implication here was that he had lost a great deal of money from this lack of legal knowledge.

 

Well both myself and the friend I was musically involved with at the time sloped off to MCDonalds after the meeting feeling sick as parrots. By the way we felt like this before we had the big Mac meal. It seemed to me especially that even if you were lucky to get any kind of record contract, unless you had a law degree from Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge preferably all three to be on the safe side you were going nowhere fast . These days I am more philosophical and the Internet has made things a great deal easier for artists to carve out their own niche. Indeed, I have had many hours of pleasure writing and producing my own tracks for sale on retail sites globally on the Internet. Be warned though, in my opinion I still think you need to know a little about music contracts especially when working in a collaborative situation if you are going to go down the DIY route with other people.

 

Well back to Tony. He had, of course, after the fact sought legal advice from a music lawyer and what happened after that is anyone’s guess. I’m a lot older now, and as one of my business interests is in property where contracts are awash and points mean very very big prizes, Tony’s story has been imprinted into my mind. I have been to court on several occasions, where I have won all my cases hands down, and have learnt that if Tony ever managed to get to have his day in court he will have most likely had to stump up the legal fees for the case with no certainty of success. A very daunting thought especially if you are strapped for cash.

 

So take notice of this warning, get professional advice before you ever sign a music contract. Let your creative efforts mean points mean prizes for you in your music contract.

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