Things To Consider Before Accepting Any Record Label Contract

A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artiste (or group), where the artiste makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artiste under contract are normally only allowed to record for that label exclusively, guest appearances on other artiste’s record will carry a notice “By courtesy of (the name of the label)” and that label may receive a percentage of sales.

These days you find lots of record labels in Nigeria, but the question you should ask yourself is, “How many of such record labels do have the finance and other capabilities of making you a star?”

In this article I’m going to elaborate on things to consider before signing any record label contract.

Some upcoming artistes are already victims of signing deals with Labels that don’t have what is takes to really be a record label, they might have spent years in the label, and yet not even making any impact, nor hit.

Dear Artiste, don’t be in a haste to sign a record deal, you may be anxious to get signed, forgetting you have music to sell to the mass. Take your time to get a good record label, but its common that labels that usually sign music artistes overnight happens to be Record labels without standard, maybe because they love the idea of having a record label, even while lacking the qualities of owning a Record label, still they go ahead to trap upcoming musicians career.

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE ACCEPTING ANY RECORD LABEL DEAL

The Label’s Financial capability:- I Know that It’ll be very difficult for you to investigate into this, but Finance is the sole power of every business, a Record label with sufficient finance with be able to record your songs with Top and high-quality music producers, shoot quality music videos for you, promote your music massively online, and on air. In fact, Finance is the major factor of being a star.

There Impact On Their Current Acts:- This is only applied to Record labels that already have a music artiste signed, Investigate on how far they’ve pushed their current music artiste, it must not be till they make their current music artiste star, No, some artistes are not commercial, and no matter how the record label pushes them, they’ll never make a hit, and maybe they might have noticed your commerciality in the music industry, but since the record label has already pushed their current artiste to an impressive level, then consider that deal.

Review the written contract with your lawyer:- Many record labels knows quite well how upcoming artiste are so anxious of getting signed, so the news of getting signed might make you sign the deal without reading it. But let me tell you something, you are there investment, they know quite well that you’ll make them lots of money, and they might bend to your will pertaining the deal. Take the record contract to a professional music Lawyer, let him or her review the contract, he or she can point out places where the Record label might be trying to make you sign a deal that won’t be of benefit to you, and where you should stand in the contract, and the lawyer will ok the deal if it’s good enough.

And finally your lawyer, your friend, or family member should be your witness when signing the deal, and you should take photos of you signing the deal, in case they change their mind and tries to deny signing any deal with you.
Keep working hard.