Dealing With Labels

[if6was9]

Can't recall seeing a thread about this on here much before and since I've recently had an experience I figured I'd like to hear other peoples experiences.

I'll start with mine, recorded an album for an up and coming band in my area who I'm friendly with and recorded a few times before. They had recently signed to this label who while not huge, is international, has been around a while and appeared to have money and a really good distribution network behind it.

I trusted the band but told them since I'd not dealt with this label before I wasn't gonna give them a second of music, even a rough mix of anything, until I got paid in full. Few months later and the original deadline of the end of this month is upon us and payment has failed time and time again with a wide variety of reasons being given to the band by the label.

So I've it all tracked and 4 songs finished and mixes started on everything, so realistically I can finish the last 6 tracks in a few days. They've no mastering booked as they don't know when they'll have the tracks from me and it's getting to the point where the label is asking now for the album or to at least hear it but still no sign of a cent from them to pay for it, or the rest of the bands advance which was gonna go towards gear for the upcoming( and recently completed) tours.

Not fun as I'm also waiting on the payment for this album to finally upgrade my interface and pres.

I was under the impression dealing with a label would be easier with money things but seems like its not the case!

 

[006]

My experience with Willowtip and Relapse has been that they send money when they receive an invoice from me, not a minute sooner. Doesn't mean I have to have the audio ready or sent, just an invoice. But, I suspect every label could do things differently, I've only worked with those labels so far.

 

[Aaron Smith]

It's not really the band members' responsibility to be an intermediary between their label and a recording engineer. I would get contact info from the band for their A&R at the label, introduce yourself, send an invoice, and then go from there.

 

[if6was9]

I'm being paid by the band, who are using their labels advance to pay for the album. As in the label aren't paying for the album, but the band are financing the album using the labels advance that they were supposed to get when they signed. I've been in contact with the label people here and they know the deal and have been promising payment for months. The head of the label in the US keeps promising money and sending it over in various ways like cheques that keep bouncing, money transfers that have failed and even was supposed to visit and sort it out but was a no show.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Well in that case... Checks bouncing, failed money transfers, and a ditched in-person visit doesn't make it sound like you and the band are working with a very upstanding label, to say the least. If I were in the band, I would be very upset to have signed a deal with a company like that.

If there's no budget at all from the label, then that sucks for the band big-time, but that just means that you should treat the whole thing like you're working with any other unsigned artist. If you want to do all the work before getting paid anything, knowing that the band's source of funding is so shaky, then that's your decision to make, but I wouldn't do it. If there's a deadline to meet and the label wants it by a certain date, don't let anyone (band or label) pressure you into working on it until you've collected at least the first half!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I've been in contact with the label people here and they know the deal and have been promising payment for months. The head of the label in the US keeps promising money and sending it over in various ways like cheques that keep bouncing, money transfers that have failed and even was supposed to visit and sort it out but was a no show.

Sinking ship alert right there. Labels can be really slow, but that's another thing.

 

[MetalSound]

i think you should treat labels as you would treat bands. get 50% in advance from them. without that i wouldn´t even start to put mics on a drumset.
the other half is due when the mix is finished and you send them the invoice.

usually a band doesn´t get an advance these days (at least not on small labels). they get a production budget which is due when all masters and artwork are delivered and not earlier.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

God, middle man shit would absolutely drive me through a wall.

I only want to deal with the person paying. If that's the label then cool, if that's the band then I don't want to hear a fucking thing about "well blah blah label hasn't given us money blah blah."

 

[Jordon]

I'm being paid by the band, who are using their labels advance to pay for the album. As in the label aren't paying for the album, but the band are financing the album using the labels advance that they were supposed to get when they signed. I've been in contact with the label people here and they know the deal and have been promising payment for months. The head of the label in the US keeps promising money and sending it over in various ways like cheques that keep bouncing, money transfers that have failed and even was supposed to visit and sort it out but was a no show.

Sounds like the label I was on. Then got myself fired from