whats a good percentage amount for royalties n stuff

static

static yessir
ill o.g.
iight.

so im asked

"how much percent do you want when the song blows"

and im stuck because i havint had a artist like this pose that question


so im here to ask yall

whats good for someone that might sell like soulja boy?


plz i need answers asap .

thanks
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
From what I understand, it is half for the producer and half for the artist/songwriter.

The more people involved with the process, the more people you have to split the royalties with. So the breaks go sort of like his:

Producer and a rapper = 50/50

2 producers and a rapper = 25/25/50

Producer and 2 rappers - 50/25/25

All of it is negotiable.
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
Oh shit he has a point.. I was thinking if its at a label or some shit they always wanna give you like 3-5 points


Yeah... his question is kind of general so it is hard to tell where he was coming from exactly. I was going of what they were telling us at that Sha Money producer conference. They gave us a sheet to break down royalties so we could understand what to expect if we were lucky enough to get a song sold with a major artist.
 

Relic

Voice of Illmuzik Radio
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 83
Ominous; said:
Yeah... his question is kind of general so it is hard to tell where he was coming from exactly. I was going of what they were telling us at that Sha Money producer conference. They gave us a sheet to break down royalties so we could understand what to expect if we were lucky enough to get a song sold with a major artist.

Well hell thats good knowledge, what did they say?
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
no no no , lol, I was in the mind fram of guy has 1 song that a label wants to pick up , thats the type of shit I would be thinking, if your building from the ground up its diff.
We keep posting at close alternating times! lol

LOL. Yeah, I was thinking from the ground up because I stopped thinking about major labels these days.
 

Relic

Voice of Illmuzik Radio
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 83
static; said:
iight well this person is on a label....so i mean 50 should do good right?

and i need someone on here good with typin contracts up

yes 50 is very good, but your going to need a lawyer to type a contract up.
Especially if its a Major Label!
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
Well hell thats good knowledge, what did they say?

They gave us a green handout that was like 2 pages long explaining what the normal setup was regarding selling beats and royalties.

There is the initial fee for your beat and then the royalties. First of all, everything is negotiable. That is why so many people have beef because they realize they negotiated a bad deal. They were saying an unknown producer would get like $2500 for a beat and then 50% royalties for their beat. But if you produced the song with another producer you had to split the royalties based on your prearranged agreement. Which is usually half. So 25% for you and 25% for your partner.

Relic and I were really talking about the same thing.

A CD usually has like 16 songs on it. Sure, sometimes it's 12 songs and sometimes it is 19 songs. But for this example we'll say 16 songs.

1 album = 100%

16 songs = 100%

1 song = 6.25%

I write the lyrics and get half which is 3% and you produce the beat and get half which is 3%.

I think it was Sanova who posted up a .rar file with all the contracts in it. You can get a boiler plate prewritten contract but a lawyer will make sure that the negotiation is clear so there is no problems in litigation. Then you are supposed to get the contract notarized.... which is what the lawyer is supposed to help you do. Instead of suing over the agreement to pay, you can sue over whether or not the defendant paid up.

They were all Word documents so I couldn't use them but I am sure you can find them somewhere from someone on this forum.
 
Before signing onto anything......Speak to a specialist music lawyer, one with a few years experience behind them.
They will be able to give you the advice you need. I wouldnt rely on anyone else to write up a contract.
Things like promotion and distribution artwork etc have to be taken into consideration, as they also will be getting paid. Who has to pay for that? If it is you, then you might be wanting a larger cut to cover those costs.
As I said speak to a lawyer, it costs money but its very much essential before signing any dotted line.
 

God

Creator of the Universe
ill o.g.
Dude - first of all - who the fuck knows if the song sucks? Why are you letting the artist frame the negotiation where you capitulate half already? What if the song is good - you're making the artist better - don't sell yourself short.

Just say some shit like "you'll figure it out" and keep it vague until you talk to a lawyer. Make sure the lawyer is not connected to the label or any industry heads that work with them.

That's a fucking low-ball question on part of the artist. Ask him "how much would you give me if your singing/rapping sucks?"

Anyway, be aware, ask a lawyer. It just seems like a low-ball question.

And the 2,500 ShaMoney says they buy beats as a "standard" is bullshit. they're giving you pennies for a song they know will have a huge return.\

Make your name, sure, you have to get your foot in the door, but once you get in the door, your value goes up.
 

djswivel

Producer Extraordinaire
ill o.g.
is the artist on a label already? To be honest, you dont have to do any contract shit. If the artist is signed the label is gonna give you the contract to sign. You should have a lawyer read it, but you wont have to draft anything. Also, since you're not a big producer, the business on the track is for the most part, non-negotiable. Well, it's always negotiable, but my point is, good luck getting a major label to pay you more than you're worth in this day and age, when they're all posting losses on their annual income. If you don't like the deal you get, you can always say no, u cant have the record. If the song is VERY important to the artist and album, maybe they'll give you a generous deal. But then you have to worry about the A&R who's pissed you want more money, and never calls you to do a track again. And that A&R tells all the other A&R how much of a pain in the ass you are to do business with....Anyways, moving on with the generic deal most producers get

They'll give you the standard which is like 3-4 points, and a $10k advance (maybe less), which is recoupable on the income you make from sales. But the album's all have 12 song caps in most cases. This means, the label only pays out for 12 songs, so if the artist puts 18 songs on the album, that means 6 other producers have to split your share evenly. Your 3 points just turned into 2. This accounts for the money you make based off sales. Now if the album only sells 100,000 units, you're not gonna see a dime on the backend, because they already cut u a check for 10k anyways, and only selling 100,000 units will not recoup that. The artist will likely have to sell 300-500k copies to break even.

Now publishing is different. This is money you make from Radio/TV etc. The songwriters own 100% of the writers publishing. So if someone made the beat, and another person wrote the lyrics its usually split 50/50. If there's a production team of 2 people who made the beat, and the artist wrote WITH the producers, it might be split 33/33/33. This is all negotiable. Keep in mind, if your beat used a sample, your 50% might actually turn into 0. When trying to clear the sample, the owner of the samples publishing might say, fuck you guys, u can use it, but we want to own 100% of the publishing on it. If that song is important to the artist, most cases they will agree.

You will even have cases with larger artists where, even if the artist doesn't write a single word, they will still take 25% of the publishing. Beyonce in particular. Any songwriter who works with Beyonce has to be prepared to give up 25%, because Beyonce feels her star power brings more to the record. It's a legitimate argument. That same single with a lesser artist would do fractions as good at radio. So its more a matter of, do you want 100% of $10,000, or 75% of $1,000,000. Some songwriters dont mind, and others do. It's more or less take it or leave it. You don't like her dipping into your pockets, dont work with Beyonce, very simple.

Anyways, this has gone on long enough. Hopefully it clears some things up, although I'm sure it just made it more confusing. lol
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
And the 2,500 ShaMoney says they buy beats as a "standard" is bullshit. they're giving you pennies for a song they know will have a huge return.

Make your name, sure, you have to get your foot in the door, but once you get in the door, your value goes up.


Agreed. I guess I shouldn't have said "standard" so much as his particular practice. He was basically saying Timbo and Primo can charge what they charge because they have established themselves and have proven a history of return on investment. But if you are a no-name producer, they give out between 2500 and 5000 a beat. They when you start showing you have a great sound you get 10,000 to 25,000. Until you reach crazy prices that people like Swizz, Neptunes, Polow and The Affiliates charge.

The dude who made the 50 Cent "Get Money" track, APEX, got paid a small amount for what turned out to be a hit.
 

static

static yessir
ill o.g.
Dude - first of all - who the fuck knows if the song sucks? Why are you letting the artist frame the negotiation where you capitulate half already? What if the song is good - you're making the artist better - don't sell yourself short.

Just say some shit like "you'll figure it out" and keep it vague until you talk to a lawyer. Make sure the lawyer is not connected to the label or any industry heads that work with them.

That's a fucking low-ball question on part of the artist. Ask him "how much would you give me if your singing/rapping sucks?"

Anyway, be aware, ask a lawyer. It just seems like a low-ball question.

And the 2,500 ShaMoney says they buy beats as a "standard" is bullshit. they're giving you pennies for a song they know will have a huge return.

Make your name, sure, you have to get your foot in the door, but once you get in the door, your value goes up.

is the artist on a label already? To be honest, you dont have to do any contract shit. If the artist is signed the label is gonna give you the contract to sign. You should have a lawyer read it, but you wont have to draft anything. Also, since you're not a big producer, the business on the track is for the most part, non-negotiable. Well, it's always negotiable, but my point is, good luck getting a major label to pay you more than you're worth in this day and age, when they're all posting losses on their annual income. If you don't like the deal you get, you can always say no, u cant have the record. If the song is VERY important to the artist and album, maybe they'll give you a generous deal. But then you have to worry about the A&R who's pissed you want more money, and never calls you to do a track again. And that A&R tells all the other A&R how much of a pain in the ass you are to do business with....Anyways, moving on with the generic deal most producers get

They'll give you the standard which is like 3-4 points, and a $10k advance (maybe less), which is recoupable on the income you make from sales. But the album's all have 12 song caps in most cases. This means, the label only pays out for 12 songs, so if the artist puts 18 songs on the album, that means 6 other producers have to split your share evenly. Your 3 points just turned into 2. This accounts for the money you make based off sales. Now if the album only sells 100,000 units, you're not gonna see a dime on the backend, because they already cut u a check for 10k anyways, and only selling 100,000 units will not recoup that. The artist will likely have to sell 300-500k copies to break even.

Now publishing is different. This is money you make from Radio/TV etc. The songwriters own 100% of the writers publishing. So if someone made the beat, and another person wrote the lyrics its usually split 50/50. If there's a production team of 2 people who made the beat, and the artist wrote WITH the producers, it might be split 33/33/33. This is all negotiable. Keep in mind, if your beat used a sample, your 50% might actually turn into 0. When trying to clear the sample, the owner of the samples publishing might say, fuck you guys, u can use it, but we want to own 100% of the publishing on it. If that song is important to the artist, most cases they will agree.

You will even have cases with larger artists where, even if the artist doesn't write a single word, they will still take 25% of the publishing. Beyonce in particular. Any songwriter who works with Beyonce has to be prepared to give up 25%, because Beyonce feels her star power brings more to the record. It's a legitimate argument. That same single with a lesser artist would do fractions as good at radio. So its more a matter of, do you want 100% of $10,000, or 75% of $1,000,000. Some songwriters dont mind, and others do. It's more or less take it or leave it. You don't like her dipping into your pockets, dont work with Beyonce, very simple.

Anyways, this has gone on long enough. Hopefully it clears some things up, although I'm sure it just made it more confusing. lol



both helped

thanks god <-- lol

and thx swivel


i got both of em. kuz i took the time to read em.

i had a lawter peep the contract n what not. so im having his ppl peep it over
 
Top