Singing on in a compilation, but no deal

I just recently was offered an opportunity to have one of my breakbeat track placed on a 12 song compilation CD, but I have no rights to royalties, and no percentage of sales, just a flat amount for the rights to my song. NOr did the record company offer an opportunity to be signed with them, which I might not have wanted anyway.

I figurered the exposure is good, but I fear that this might not be on the up and up, and I could lose out in the end. The company is a small, locally based company in Manhattan that will sell the CD in its store and indicated that they are trying to get distribution rights to Tower and other bigger retail chains.

Is this common, or should I push for more in writing from them?

Next time... you should do it as a Work For Hire... that way you'll get your $$$ up front (you can usually get anything from $1,500 to $7,500 depending on if it's a Original composition (higher $$$) or a remix (lower $$$ end of the scale))... and while your at it make them sign for a receipt of the master recording... Always remember your copyright is in full effect once your music is in tangible form if there is sole ownership and no samples (but filing out the necessary forms from the Library of Congress is always the best process and if the copyright doesn't stick... your work will still be protected for 3 to 6 months while it's being considered)... was it an actual compilation or a mixtape... will it be White Labeled??? It's often hard to get yours on the backend (pause)... but sometimes you have to do what you have to do... to get your name out there... if you signed any paper work... look and see if it states anything about Worldwide exploitation of your works... while your at it... you might want to pick up the following... Confessions of a Music Producer, Don Passmans book, or and titles by Kashif...

Its just going to put on a continuous mix that was spun. Since there were no samples included, there was no issue there. I have most of my tracks that I submit to labels. Harry Fox agency is pretty good. Allot of the other items I need to look into. I'll bring them up though.

Thats wassup... rule of thumb... if someones making money of your sh!t, you should be making money off it too... another suggestion is to submit snippets and tracks with Digital Watermarks... just incase they try to loop your material...

digital watermarks? can you explain

digital watermarks? can u go into some detail about that

it means that you put a "vocal tag" like let's say for example "this is a BeatHeadz production" every 3 seconds so that nobody can sample your ish