How to really get signed!

I am going to give you some advice that is so true but no-one wants to admit it.

There is really only one thing that will guarantee you will be sought after and desired by any and all major labels. Say SALES.
1. sales
a. Activities involved in selling goods or services.
b. Gross receipts.
2. The exchange of goods or services for an amount of money or its equivalent; the act of selling
3. An opportunity for selling or being sold; demand.
4. income (at invoice values) received for goods and services over some given period of time

You & I must understand that if you sell enough records, to where you don’t need the labels (30,000 to 100,000 units or more) you will attract the attention needed for a serious deal. How many records did Master P, Xibit, Too Short, 2 live Crew, E40 ect… sell before they signed. Truth be told I doubt they really would have signed the deal with the knowledge they have now. Just some food for thought.
Flame on….
Who’s got a comment?

can you say J5??????

all those artists you just mentioned did have significant sales prior to being scooped up. however, at that time, soundscan spikes were put in place and the labels didn't really understand what was really happening.

today, record companies are much more saavy in looking at soundscan numbers and look at the ratio of chain to independent sales along with precise markets. Also, the labels are also expecting BDS spins out the ass which are much harder to get.

So while I do agree with your synopsis, i must add that it aint that simple jack!

It seems like pretty good advice to me...My last release sold 17,000 copies. Not much by todays standards but, I never signed with another label. We (family) controlled the distribution, owned the publishing rights, record label, studio, copyrights - everything. The only thing we farmed out was pressing, packaging, and shipping which cost us about $2.00 per disk. As we sold them wholesale for $6 we got to keep the rest - about $70,000 and in the process built up a small mailing list and fan base. While this is not a million bucks we can put out about 1-2 releases per year which, when combined with our advertising and score projects pays the bills quite well. I was offered a deal from one of the big new age labels after getting some press but turned it down to keep control of my music. One of the first things they wanted to do was make minor changes that would dillute my ownership and assign another Producer which would further reduce profits. And while the advance was almost what we made on the release, there is no guarantee that signing a deal will get your music into the mainstream. I have a friend who is a songwriter. He signed a 5year deal with a major who advanced him $50k plus alot of promises on royalties from his tunes. In 5 years the didn't release a single one of his 200 song submissions. Even worse, he couldn't shop his tunes with anyone else. Now he's 5 years older and just getting his music back....

fader-pro wrote:It seems like pretty good advice to me...My last release sold 17,000 copies. Not much by todays standards but, I never signed with another label. We (family) controlled the distribution, owned the publishing rights, record label, studio, copyrights - everything. The only thing we farmed out was pressing, packaging, and shipping which cost us about $2.00 per disk. As we sold them wholesale for $6 we got to keep the rest - about $70,000 and in the process built up a small mailing list and fan base. While this is not a million bucks we can put out about 1-2 releases per year which, when combined with our advertising and score projects pays the bills quite well. I was offered a deal from one of the big new age labels after getting some press but turned it down to keep control of my music. One of the first things they wanted to do was make minor changes that would dillute my ownership and assign another Producer which would further reduce profits. And while the advance was almost what we made on the release, there is no guarantee that signing a deal will get your music into the mainstream. I have a friend who is a songwriter. He signed a 5year deal with a major who advanced him $50k plus alot of promises on royalties from his tunes. In 5 years the didn't release a single one of his 200 song submissions. Even worse, he couldn't shop his tunes with anyone else. Now he's 5 years older and just getting his music back....

Now that's a damn good example.

Labels will hold you if they think you are a threat of making them loose money, they will sign you just to hold you back. The friend made 50K, that's 10K per year minus taxes (do the math) Burger King would have been more lucrative, so now he had a catalog he couldn't even use for 5years and some of it may be a little dated now!!

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