This
article discusses performance contracts for single performances,
commonly called a "BOOKING AGREEMENT" or "ENGAGEMENT
CONTRACT".
It never
hurts to review and improve even a contract you've been
using for years.
In some
situations, a "handshake" or verbal agreement
is quite acceptable--it's legal, but difficult to enforce.
But people who think they don't need contracts
must either have a well known reputation if you're the talent-buyer, or you
really trust the people you've been working with. But times
change and mis-communications
happen, and a contract protects both parties. Of course, the more money is
involved, the more the need for a contract. If you handle
performances like a
hobby, then you don't need a contract, but if you want to treat them like
a business,
you need one. If you're haven't used contracts before, it
can be intimidating to ask someone to sign it, but the other party will actually
respect your professionalism by doing so, and the worst that can happen is
they won't.
There
is no perfect contract for any situation, and there are
too many clauses to touch on in this article. A common
practice is to make a brief standard
contract, and attach a rider for specific situations. Here's some important
considerations:
Date,
time, compensation, and signature by BOTH parties. In some
cases, this is all you need!
Definition
of performance. Both parties should know what is expected
for a "performance." Provide
a clear yet concise description of the nature of the performance, including minimum
length, set breaks, and anything else unique to the performance (1-3 sentences
is fine).
Location,
date and time. This seems like a no-brainer, but we've
heard horror stories about performers showing up on the
wrong day, two performers
booked
for the same time, enough said. Length of performance can be described
here or in
the definition.
Compensation.
It should be clear hether a fixed amount (guarantee),
a percent of door or revenue, or both. Include when payment
will
be made, to who, how,
and any deposits. Be very clear here as to payment method and who
specifically receives it. For example, if the deposit goes to the
agent, and the
remainder to the performer, it should be in the contract. If payment
is based on
percent of door, both parties should have the right to be present
in the
box office
and access to box office records or gross receipts.
Recording,
reproduction, transmission, photography. This is usually
the artist's right to grant specific permission, but press and
publicity is a good thing.
Flexibility is key. It is common for the Buyer to have the right
to use
the Performer's name and likeness in advertisements and promotion,
so its good
to make sure the
Buyer has appropriate promo materials.
Right
to sell merchandise on premises. For smaller venues and
engagements, this right is usually the performer's, because
its a large part
of the performer's compensation. But for larger venues, they
may have
specific
terms for merchandise,
but they may also have their own people to sell it.
Meals,
transportation, lodging. This completely depends on the
performance type and gig type. Corporate and College gigs
usually
cover most
everything, and public
venue gigs and benefits are a little less gratuitous. Guest
lists, passes, dressing rooms, and other hospitalities vary.
Sound
and production. It should be clarified who provides sound
and how. It's too often that a performance is ruined
by improper
sound
production,
so its
good to allow the performer to designate a representative
to control sound equipment.
Permits,
licenses, and taxes. It is customary for these to be covered
by the Buyer.
Acts
of God. These events, such as weather or illness are intended
to protect both parties.
Cancellation.
There are a number of ways this is handled, and again,
it depends on the gig. Usually if there
is enough notice,
neither
party is
penalized.
But again, it helps to be clear.
Royalties
and licensing. Responsibility for this clause usually goes
to the party with deeper pockets.
Brett
observes, "a small performer is probably not
going to get sued, but a performer with 6-7 CDs and plenty of merchandise sales
will." A venue or large promoter on the other hand is an easy target for
a lawsuit. But its smart for performers to either have permission or the necessary
licenses when performing copyrighted material.
Specific
requirements/restrictions for performer. Eating, attire,
language. Depending on the gig,
there may be
certain requirements
of the Performer
or the Buyer depending
on the gig, such as thanking a sponsor, announcing
the performer, attire or language at corporate
or private gigs, etc., etc.
Agent
terms. Often the agent is the Seller, and the agent may
draw a separate contract with the performer. Or the
contract is between the Performer and the Buyer,
and in
that case, the agent's
compensation should be clarified
in this contract, along with any obligations
of the agent.
Insurance & Security.
Personal liability insurance and property insurance are
usually the responsibility of the Buyer. Although not often
in the contract, the performer
should
insure their
own equipment.
There
are numerous other clauses, but the above are the most
common.
I
recommends that you look at a variety of contracts and
decide which clauses apply to your situations.
You
can copy and paste this contract clauses right into your
standard contract.
How
Record Labels and Radio Stations Work Together
IRadio
stations and record labels need each other. Record labels
need exposure for the records they release, and music-formatted
radio stations need programming to attract listeners. If
you thought that a commercial radio station's priority
was just to play music, you were wrong. They need to deliver
an audience of listeners to their advertisers. The money
they charge for on air advertising is their sole source
of income.
College
and non-commercial public radio stations have more of a
commitment to new or esoteric music, but most of them continue
to lose government grants and
find themselves under pressure to focus more on pleasing the listener. They,
like commercial stations, choose music they hope their listeners will enjoy.
The Label Side of Things:
Promo
reps secure airplay for records released by a label. They
work in conjunction with the label's sales division, coordinating
any radio adds. with distribution
and sales connections in various markets. They create weekly reports for
label personnel on progress of getting airplay. They communicate
regularly with A&R,
Publicity, and Artist Development departments. to coordinate marketing plans
and touring commitments of label artists.
What
Makes an Artist's Record a Priority at a Label?
Wanting
to pick up on a hot new trend (sound) that is coming up
from the streets. Significant $$$$ investment
by the label in signing an act. In-house
political
reasons (inflated egos, bidding wars, impressing industry peers). Star
status of the artist. Being genuinely excited and supportive
of the act they signed.
What a Good Promo Rep Should Know
What's
going on in the constantly changing radio broadcast industry
(buyouts, format changes) What radio personnel have been
hired, fired, promoted,
or moved on to other industry gigs. What music trends are the trade
magazines reporting,
talking about, and/or hyping. Any possible station/artist promotion
ideas being coordinated nationally/regionally. Awareness
of the volume of competing
new
product. Label Reps and the Sales Pitch-Prep Issues
Strong,
reliable work habits: on time, research data updated and
accurate, positive attitude. Is the station exclusively
contracted with any independent
promoters.
What the Arbitron trends are saying about the specific stations they
work. What are the personal tastes and business style of the Music
Director and
Program Director. What are the Music Director and Program Director's
hours for taking
label rep calls. What type of songs/artists were their stations adding
to their playlist in the last few weeks. How many songs do their
stations have
room
for
on their playlist. Know all the "up to the minute" facts about the
artist being promoted. (Chart action, etc.) Aware of the station's competition,
if any, regarding playing the songs being promoted. Check any notes taken from
the last conversation with Music Director or Program Director. Set objectives
for the call. Get a commitment of some kind. (Get song on station's playlist.)
Check on any special promotional items available to give away. Check on any special
station promotion tie-ins available. Check weekly music trade magazines to make
sure that stations reported the song to them. Follow-Up Issues
Reporting
to relevant label departments (Sales, Publicity, A&R, Label/Dept.
Executives). Working out any promised issues that came about during the call.
Constantly monitoring and tracking, as well as analyzing any breaks that come
their way, and being able to respond quickly and efficiently to developing situations.
What a Program Director and a Music Director Do
PD:
Supervises and approves all MD music choices o checks with
station consultants for music selection o hires, supervises,
and fires on
air staff o meets with
station dept. heads regularly o approves all on air activity
(news, commercials, announcements etc.) o meets regularly
with station
management and/ownership
MD:
Auditions and selects appropriate music for their station
in cooperation with PD or consultants o prepares music playlist
o
reports playlist
to music industry trades o maintains library o deals with label
promo reps
and other
music issues as delegated by PD
Now
you know a bit about who does what, and as they say when
you enter the ballpark, "You
can't tell the players, without your program."
WMIZ "The
MIZ" is 100% in Complience
with full royalty/licensing coverage for SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI
and SESAC.
We
Support the Music!!
Working
With the Press
By Marcus Treufont
StreetLevel.Biz Staff Writer
The
job of a music publicist is to create a database of contacts
within the entertainment industry, and determine which
magazines, newspapers, fanzines, and e-zines are most
likely to review a client's record, interview them, or
write a feature story. This job is not any easier than
finding a distributor or getting radio airplay.
Publicity,
by itself, does not sell a lot of records. It is most
effective when your name is consistently in front of
music fans. That will not happen overnight.
You will most likely be your own music publicist in the beginning, and it will
take you some time to learn how to work with the press. But, learning some
basic facts about music journalists and how they operate
is as important as the tips
I gave you for working with distributors and radio stations.
Music
journalists are a strange breed. They are, for the most
part, a fickle group of individuals with their own inconsistent
musical tastes, egos, and
attitudes. If you want your local music magazine, or some music e-zine to
write a story
about you, even review your record, there are some things to learn about
these important gatekeepers. If you anticipate getting
a newspaper entertainment
editor to pay attention to your latest release, or write a feature story
on you; being
aware of the work habits of these professional journalists can be a great
deal of help to you.
Here
are some important facts for you to know about the people
who may write a review of your new record:
-
There is a hierarchy of influential music writers across
the country, and everyone of them, from the tiniest local
music fanzine editor, to the
writers
who work
for Rolling Stone or Spin, all have egos. Even the guy who writes reviews
for some start-up dot.com site dedicated to rap and hip hop cops an attitude.
That
attitude can either help or hurt you, depending on what you know about
them, and their likes or dislikes. This goes for any music reviewer for
any genre
of music; from rock to blues to folk to jazz and world music - so research
the tastes
of your local music writers carefully before you mail out your press
kits looking for reviews.
-
Never address your press material envelopes generically
to any publication - Music Sandwich Monthly, or whatever.
If you do that, most likely what
will happen is that your record will be put into a large pile of similarly
addressed
envelopes, and the lowest ranking writer on the staff of the publication
will be assigned to check out your music. If that happens, your music
might be listened
to and reviewed by someone who hates your kind of music and uses their
review to rant and stomp all over your precious release.
-
Always research the music magazines, newspapers, fanzines
and e-zines carefully. Take time to read some of the
reviews, articles and feature
stories, and
take note of who wrote them. When you find a positive review for
a records that
is close to your genre or style, remember the writer's name and when
you do your
mailing, address it to that person.
-
When you find a negative review of a record that is close
to what your music is like, take note of that writer,
and do not send them
your record
for review.
-
Follow-up on every press mailing you send out. Give it
a week to 10 days, then phone the publication, or email
them asking if
they
received your
record. If
you actually make contact, find out if the record has been listened
to
yet, and if they plan to do something with it. Be polite and
professional. Most
writers
are quite conscientious about responding to publicist's calls
or emails, but I can assure you that you will meet your
share of characters
in
the world of
music journalists.
-
When you leave a phone message or write an email, be
very specific in your message. Introduce yourself, and
state clearly why you
are calling or writing
them. Leave contact information too. You would be surprised
how many people
don't.
-
If you have had trouble getting a response from a publication,
watch your attitude. I have seen and heard many messages
that start to argue
with a
reluctant reviewer.
That is a sure way to not make a new contact, or lose an
established one.
-
If you score with a publication, and they agree to do
a story on you, or interview you - keep any promises
you made
to get
them more
information,
or sending another
copy of your CD. If you flake out on an appointment, or
show up late for an interview, you may have lost a valuable
ally.
Writers
are
busy people,
just
like everyone
else in the entertainment industry, and too many artists
and bands have an
unprofessional attitude when it comes to dealing with writers
and editors.
-
When a review or article on you comes out and you find
things about it that are objectionable to you, watch
your temper.
No artist gets
only glowing
reviews.
Bad, or mediocre reviews are part of the game. Avoid
the temptation to write or call back when you are emotionally
heated about
the story. Publicity
is
about making and keeping relationships with the press.
You never want to get a reputation
for being a jerk or a troublemaker. If you do lose your
temper, I can assure you your tirade will show up in
the
next issue
of their
publication
- and
no, I am not one of those people that believes all publicity
is good publicity. Working with the press, finding contacts,
making
the initial
connections,
and
nurturing
the relationships along the way from local, to regional
to national recognition is a time consuming commitment.
But,
publicity done
well and consistently
over time can be a career rewarding experience
Music, Business and Technolgy:
Adapt
or Die
When
FM radio began taking away listeners from the inferior
sounding AM band in the
late 60's the recording
industry viewed that as a threat to their sales. "Why" they
said "People will begin taping off the radio onto reel-to-reel
tapes and they will have a near perfect analog master…people
will never buy records again".
People
still bought vinyl LPs and 45s by the truckload.
When
the cassette tape arrived in the 70's the recording industry
was so concerned they lobbied for and got
a blank tape tax to cover any possible
losses of income
they might have incurred from people dubbing off vinyl recordings for
private listening. "Why", they said, "People will never buy records again".
People
still bought vinyl LPs and 45's by the truckload.
When
CDs came out in the early 80's the recording industry
was concerned that a digital recording
in the hands of a consumer would severely hurt
their sales,
so they raised the price of the new CDs and left their recording
contracts with artists with a clause stating that
because CDs were a new technology
the artist
should be paid less per unit sold. That clause can still be found
in some recording contracts today. They also encouraged
the rapid demise
of vinyl records from
retail store shelves in order to force the consumer to adapt to
the new technology.
People
bought their new and favorite old music over again on
CD and the recording industry went
from a multi-million dollar annual business
to
a multi-billion
dollar business in less than a decade.
People
bought CDs by the truckload.
When
downloadable digital music arrived in the late 90's the
recording industry saw another threat to their
income. Instead
of embracing
the new technology immediately
and seeing MP3 as the greatest promotional opportunity of
the century, they huddled in hotel meeting rooms devising
ways
to encrypt and
watermark music, and while
they were spinning around and around like an old 78, computer
nerd music lovers were busy downloading and sharing the label's
music,
becoming an army of unheralded
promo reps.
Napster
was born….and people began downloading music by the gigabyte
truckload.
All
hell broke loose, and computer illiterate label executives
lost their load. "Off
with their heads", "Put those SOB fans and greedy young computer genius
turks in jail. We are the only ones who can be greedy!!" they screamed.
And the recording industry became a police force armed with leaden lawsuits to
punish their customers for spreading the music around for free. (What is radio
all about anyway…hmmm) and lies were spread and press releases were written
and many outraged millionaire artists piped up, threatening too to sue their
fans, (those dirty bastards who dared support them when they were nothing). Why
the next thing you know, some of those mighty celebrities might even threaten
to stop recording altogether….
ah
come on, say it isn't so!
It
is an outrage...can you imagine….people are taking music for free
off the internet and not bothering to pay the artist properly the way a
record company
always has paid an artist. (?!)
"We can't have people taking for free a digitally perfect master recording
of the music we own. Why, its not fair" said the labels. (MP3 the
same as a digitally mastered studio recording?????)
Well,
let's pause for a moment to reflect on some facts. In
1999, the sales of music product went
up again.
Almost $14
billion
truckloads of dollars were spent
in the U.S. on music. We are a long way from
music fans completely detaching themselves from the emotional
attachment
they have
to a plastic
storage
device that contains a plastic disc surrounded
by paper product with pictures and lyrics
of musicians on them. Yes, the future of the
music
business will mean an eventual shift in the general
order of things.
More and
more music
lovers will continue
to take legally, or illegally the music of creative
people. Yes, both artists and labels will have
to adapt to this
inevitability. Artists
and labels will
always need each other. Not every artist will
want to start and
run their own businesses devoted to promoting
and selling their music.
All
parties need to get a bit of a grip right now.
The
number of people downloading legal and illegal music
files will be growing rapidly.
As of the
spring of 2000,
over 3,000,000
blank
CDrs
are being sold every
month, and as CD burners get cheaper and
included in more and more computer packages, the number
of people
burning
their
own CDs of
favorite music
will escalate dramatically.
What
this means is that there will be an ever-increasing need
to investigate other
sources of income
from music. For example,
the
live performance
and touring phenomenon will never go away.
You cannot download the live experience
of being
at a club or concert, and you can't autograph
a bit or a byte, so there will always be
a demand for popular
acts to
play live
and musicians
should prepare
to live on the road more weeks out of every
year.
Also
more creative thinking will have to come about regarding
finding alternative
sources
of income
from music. Songwriters
and Publishers
will have to devote
more time to securing film and television
sychronization deals for their songs,
as well as advertising
opportunities. Merchandising
of artist-related
products
must be produced and sold more aggressively
by aspiring artists, as well as the time-tested
classic acts.
The internet itself
will also
continue
to open up new
ways for musicians, labels and music
fans to benefit from working together.
But
it is time to stay on your toes, and looking for alternative
ways to expose
and sell music
should be
an around the clock
activity for
the new millennium
musician.
