Getting a Record Deal is not Always Good

A lot of rockers often feel that getting signed by or being offered a recording deal is the ultimate goal of their musical career. In some cases this can be true but a lot of times it can be the start of a whole new set of problems that no group could ever foresee or think about.

Nowadays, a record contract is nothing more than a loan. You pay back the loan through record sales and concerts. The music industry is a business and they are making an investment in you. They want to see a return on that investment. The music company uses its distribution channels to help you promote yourself and make money. Then you pay them back. The music business has little to do with the music and more to do with the business.

If you can get a recording company to get behind your music, that’s good. But beware of recording companies who try to influence and change your sound, often to the point of rewriting your songs and even changing members of your band or, worse still forcing you to record songs made by other peoples.

Many times the band doesn’t produce the sounds a company wants and the music get shelved. Since you signed with the company, they own you and you can’t produce any music with any other company while under contract. You simply have to wait it out and this can take years. Just ask Billy Joel.

After you are ready to record your songs, you might find the recording company will bring in a co-writer that changes your lyrics beyond all recognition to fit in with labels style. You started to make a hard rock album and you end up with a rap album with all your instruments removed and samples and remixes replacing them.

Beware the big advance of money, to make and promote your music. If it doesn’t sell you will have to pay the money back, with interest, just like the banks. How do you pay it back? Live gigs, touring, radio shows, shopping centres etc for the next ten years. How do all those artists who make millions of dollars end up bankrupt? All the bills they didn’t know they had to pay. They had so much fun, they never watched where the money was going. Read the fine print so you don’t end up like MC Hammer.

Increasingly recording companies are trying to cross media any act in anyway they can. They will market you anyway they can, and they will get you to do things to increase your and their exposure any way they can. You may end up on dog food commercial, on big brother or, god forbid, on Australian Idol. Many recording companies are just offshoots of the big media groups who control TV, radio, music, and the print media, and they will market you anyway they see fit to re-coup their investment in you. Most musicians have a short shelf life so companies want to maximize their profit now before the public listens to the next big thing. (Weve all heard of the sophomore slump!)

Remember that the music business is 95% business and 5% music. Try to go independent if you can, market yourself on the web and build your own presence in the world. The more successful you are in the beginning the more bargaining power you have with the recording companies. If you do get an offer, get a good lawyer. You don’t want to waste five years in piano bars.