Exclusive Rights to Label?

[timbreman]

Is it normal for a Label to ask for exclusive rights to my music if they are going to be selling on beatport?
I dont know enough about how labels commonly handle rights so anyone signed to a label giving me some info on it would be appreciated.

[Beermaster]

Are they asking for exclusive rights to just the song or exclusive rights to you and any future songs ?

If its just the song or songs in question then yes it is pretty much standard for a label /publisher to demand exclusive rights. Why would they want to take a chance on promoting your song for you if other companies can also do the same thing at the same time ? They need to know that they have the sole job of doing this for you.

Not sure what the beatport scenario is ?

[rhythmtech]

^^like he said. no label is going to take a track on non-exclusive in digital land.

it works slightly differanly in physical products where two labels may join up to work differant territories though.

[RobJB06]

What sort of money can you expect to make for a single tune on Beatport etc? (Dont know shit about all this type of stuff)

[rhythmtech]

nothing (unless sales goes thru the stratosphere). and thats being honest.

[Martin Dubka]

Any label will want exclusivity just depends on how much material.

If it's just one track, you haven't much to lose... but don't count on gaining much either

[msl]

Yes usually it would be exclusive rights for a set period of time, five years is common.

As Rhythmtech pointed out, unless your getting on well known dj lists, lots of airplay, etc, profits are very low, €50-€150 range. It's the same thing as always with the internet, if nobody knows you, they won't find you... there are 73,000+ artists and 7300 labels on Beatport at the moment, just to put that into perspective

[Milesy303]

In many ways the digital market is too saturated. With vinyl at least many records (not all) had to go through some sort of mastering process, and distribution deal, which in the day filtered out a lot of crap. It's great that people can get their tracks out there, but there should definately be some sort of filter in place for getting tracks onto respected digital mediums.

[rhythmtech]

Originally Posted by Drone

I think some of the big players are getting pissed off by this as the market is so diluted with sub-par production.
They seriously need to implement some sort of quality control on some of these sites.

i agree 100% - i'm sick to the teeth of wading thru crap just to find the good stuff.

i think the biggest problem is that a lot of sites dont have a dedicated person with sufficient knowledge to look after each genre. trackitdown and juno are pretty good in that respect but some crap still filters thru.

back in the good old days of vinyl distro the distro themselves would have no problem telling you they thought a release was crap. simply because they had an investment in the label too.

i worked for intergroove's warehouse in london for a short time in the 90's and the amount of stuff that got rejected or sent back for another mix was fairly high but then again those were the days of runs of 15,000+ units, so a lot more care had to be taken or you could end up with a lot of unwanted vinyl sitting on your doorstep.

[crufty]

A DJ for the DJ's?

[rhythmtech]

Originally Posted by crufty

A DJ for the DJ's?

well it seems to work well over at trackitdown. they had pedro delgardo looking after the techno section and now its dj vitamin D. the guys know their stuff and what not to take on the site as its crap. just means that unlike beatport, where you have thousands of crap releases to wade thru, at trackitdown theres only a few hundred crap ones. just makes it more possible to find that hidden gem.

[iangomes]

timbreman, i love your sig lol

[d1rtynyc]

Originally Posted by crufty

A DJ for the DJ's?

In essence that what the record buyers at stores and distributors were.
I was a buyer for a Nyc techno record store I was part owner of. As well as buyer for Tower records way back in the day.
The record shops choose what music they sold in order to appeal to their clients or in some cases dictate what clients they sold to. Each shop had it's own flavor and style & djs & people went to that shop to get those types of records.
Now with Beatport and others stocking every run of the mill track I am overwhelmed by the choices and underwhelmed by the quality of my search results. Too much stuff out there & no one really at the source weeding out the best material to get to their clients.

To the author of this thread:
Sorry to derail the thread. I just felt like venting.
I wish you luck on your record! Let us know when it is up so we can check it out.

[space2012]

once i signed exclusivity contract with EMI for a few years,
and it felt like i was prisioner.
when contract ended, i felt nice/released again.

make shure you like to be owned by males.

dont forget to add in the contract, that you will receive a free copy of every release they make/have in their label. "get free music/promos"
and that you will be asked to make a remix every 1 o 2 months that you choose.
also free VIP tickets to party/concerts/radio and every other event the label is related. "at least 3 tickets per event"
and a copy of the financial transactions of the label, every month.

[rhythmtech]

Originally Posted by space2012

once i signed exclusivity contract with EMI for a few years,
and it felt like i was prisioner.
when contract ended, i felt nice/released again.

make shure you like to be owned by males.

luckily most electronic releases are signed track by track these days.

thats how you'll see releases from the same artist name on multiple labels.

[space2012]

Originally Posted by RobJB06

What sort of money can you expect to make for a single tune on Beatport etc? (Dont know shit about all this type of stuff)

big record labels usually pay $1usd. per each cd/12" sold to the distributor,
distributor buy cheap, but in quantity, and re-sale to stores.

if the cd has 10 tracks and only 1 is yours.
1/10 of $1usd. is what you get per each unit sold.

every body wins more than you, the CD presing plant, makes /sell each CD to the Label more than $1usd.
the label sells the CD to the distributor for $5usd.
distributor sells each CD to stores at $10usd.
stores to public >$15usd.
those are aprox. and old numbers.
dont know the busssines today.

if sales were not over *** units you get nothing.
if you sell ***-1 CDs you get nothing.
the minium units requirement depends on the contract signed. usually 500-1000 units for new artists.

the BIG label will try to sell your song to other smaller labels in WMC "winter music conference".
also give "not for resale" copys to radio or DJs.
make shure you sign in the contract that you will get at least 3 units of "not for sale" Promos where your song is.

if its not written in the contract they will f*ck you up.

make shure you like to by fu*ked by males.

[rhythmtech]

Originally Posted by space2012

big record labels usually pay $1usd. per each cd/12" sold to the distributor,
distributor buy cheap, but in quantity, and re-sale to stores.

if the cd has 10 tracks and only 1 is yours.
1/10 of $1usd. is what you get per each unit sold.

if sales are not over 1000 units you get nothing.
if you sell 999 CDs you get nothing.
the minium units requirement depends on the contract signed.

if its not written in the contrac they will f*ck you up.

make shure you like to by fu*ked by males.

dude he's talking about digital downloads only (beatport).

[d1rtynyc]

Originally Posted by space2012

make shure you like to by fu*ked by males.

What does this have to do with anything?

[space2012]

Originally Posted by Milesy303

In many ways the digital market is too saturated. With vinyl at least many records (not all) had to go through some sort of mastering process, and distribution deal, which in the day filtered out a lot of crap. It's great that people can get their tracks out there, but there should definately be some sort of filter in place for getting tracks onto respected digital mediums.

internet radio stations have a share of that task.
big djs also. they get lots of free promos for their sets.
labels also share a bit of that... some labels receve 1000s of records.
they listen the first 30 seconds, each track.
some movies, soundtracks also share a bit of responsability.

make shure you make a verry good 30 seconds.

[space2012]

Originally Posted by d1rtynyc

What does this have to do with anything?

music is emotions
emotions are everything in this bussiness for the buyers and the producers.
but...
label managers/owners/distributors are not people that want to fill the world with good music, peace and love for everyone.
they only think about money for them.
music is not pleasure, music is bussines.
money = pleasure.
how much money they can get from you.
what is your resale value.
whats your future value, like stock market.
they are not there to make you ritcher & famous.
they are there to see how much You can make them ritcher.

if you dont live to expectations, guess what...

[d1rtynyc]

Originally Posted by space2012

music is emotions
emotions are everything in this bussiness.

fair enough.

[space2012]

Originally Posted by rhythmtech

dude he's talking about digital downloads only (beatport).

to understand the whole picture, you must understand the whole bussness.

to recognice a good or a bad deal.

[timbreman]

Wow in light of all this info I am almost tempted in keeping all my rights and just submitting my music to pump audio. That way I would keep all the rights and get my full % of anything made on pump.

[vyedmic]

Check out

TuneCore: Digital Music Distribution

Seems nice site but I don't have any experience with it. Anyone?

[Acid Hazard]

Originally Posted by timbreman

Wow in light of all this info I am almost tempted in keeping all my rights and just submitting my music to pump audio. That way I would keep all the rights and get my full % of anything made on pump.

Anybody can release their own music. Not everybody gets chosen to be released on a label.

[chrisso]

I thought the internet was a free for all?
It seems a bit strange to ask some arbitrary DJ to pass judgement on individual tracks at Beatport.
If the site is too chaotic you need to look elsewhere, at a more specific site, perhaps with a specific dance genre as a speciality.
Historically the best music has come out of left field, with no record company and barely any DJ understanding it, or the importance of it. Why anyone would want to put power back into the hands of one or two individuals I can't fathom.

[ripe]

Originally Posted by chrisso

I thought the internet was a free for all?
It seems a bit strange to ask some arbitrary DJ to pass judgement on individual tracks at Beatport.
If the site is too chaotic you need to look elsewhere, at a more specific site, perhaps with a specific dance genre as a speciality.
Historically the best music has come out of left field, with no record company and barely any DJ understanding it, or the importance of it. Why anyone would want to put power back into the hands of one or two individuals I can't fathom.

I agree with d1rtynyc, when I used to buy tracks at the local record store (gramaphone in chicago) my usual buyer had a stack of vinyl for me to check out, over the months he got an idea of what I liked and would pull records out for me as they came in.

This meant that I sometimes got records that had already sold out/gone out of print and also that I didn't have to listen to hours of horrible music on the listening stations, which you had to wait forever for anyways.

Having something similar on Beatport (for example) would help, right now I rely on the top 100 downloads list...

edit: and also when I bought music, it wasn't for listening enjoyment per say, it was for DJing. "left field" tracks didn't usually go over well unless they were something really special, and they usually came as albums not 12"

cheers
ripe

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by ripe

when I used to buy tracks at the local record store (gramaphone in chicago) my usual buyer had a stack of vinyl for me to check out,
Having something similar on Beatport (for example) would help, right now I rely on the top 100 downloads list...

Yeah, I'm just pointing out the irony here although I totally see your point.
The internet has given more people from all over the world a chance. Back in the record company/record store days it was much harder to get noticed. Unless you were signed to a label that was really into your music you had to have friends in high places, influential dj's, buyers and distributors. That leads to a closed circle of people who can successfully make music.
Kind of anti what the internet and DIY productions have come to represent.
Ironic I think.
On topic, I think think there are as many different contract models as there are labels and distributors. These days it's unusual to agree to a worldwide exclusive over a number of years, unless it's one of the major labels and there is reasonable money involved.
My experience is that most will take as much as they can off you if you let them.
Contract signee beware.

[timbreman]

Originally Posted by Acid Hazard

Anybody can release their own music. Not everybody gets chosen to be released on a label.

True but if you've got any amount of skill it should be easy to get placed on a label in this day and age. Especially just for selling trax on beatport.

[Milesy303]

Originally Posted by chrisso

I thought the internet was a free for all?
It seems a bit strange to ask some arbitrary DJ to pass judgement on individual tracks at Beatport.
If the site is too chaotic you need to look elsewhere, at a more specific site, perhaps with a specific dance genre as a speciality.
Historically the best music has come out of left field, with no record company and barely any DJ understanding it, or the importance of it. Why anyone would want to put power back into the hands of one or two individuals I can't fathom.

Historically where? I have been a working DJ for over ten years, and I miss the days of quality control. The impracticality of so many labels and artists makes my job so much harder. I dont physically have time to listen to thousands of artists.