Excuse me for jumping in late in the streams - the Major label structure
can be a beast to decipher.
The major publishing companies (at least in the UK) all at one time
had recording studios for demoing songs, etc. Some have closed, and
I understood Sony's in the UK was in process of closing this year if
it hasn't already. I think Universal may still have their studio
running in the UK. Publishers - including independent ones - and
labels also have affiliate deals with studios they've worked with so
that if they dont have a study, they may have a "writing room" in a
studio somewhere on a retainer that can be used.
When a record label and/or a publisher puts you in the studio there is
always a charge for the time and services, ie, engineer, etc. And
depending on what the deal is, at some point this will appear against
an advance and in some instances you might even have trouble accessing
the masters depending on what agreement you put your signature on and
how much money you've got upfront.
And because a recording studio bears the name Sony recording that
doesnt necessarily have anything to do with Sony Music or Sony Music
Publishing or Sony Playstation or Sony Walkman.
Here's a kind of interesting resource on how things run but it does
have a UK bias:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic
At 1:11 am -0600 26/11/03, Aaron Trumm wrote:
quoted 49 lines oh, i beg to differ. a label doesn't run its studios for free. it's
> > oh, i beg to differ. a label doesn't run its studios for free. it's
>> a business, and anyone who has the money can book time. just because
>> an artist is on one of their labels doesn't mean they're going to let
>> them have a free ride. what if, they can argue, another client
>> wanted to book that time? then they've lost that money. so everyone
>> pays. especially because a lot of major labels own any number of
>> subsidiary labels - all technically separate companies. they'll
>> charge the artist's advance against royalties. the money goes out
>> and comes right back in the company. this happens in all kinds of
>> different businesses.
>
>well, yeah, of course they don't just spend the money, they'll want to
>recoup it directly on a given project. although it is conceivable that an
>artist or a small label with enough clout and a good enough lawyer could
>manage to negotiate a contract where the funds for the record are not
>recoupable - but even without that, you're not likely to pay rate out of
>pocket if you're on the label
>
>like you said, the way it usually works is, the label funds the album
>project, and this cost is recoupable later on out of the artist's share of
>album sales, which basically means that the label gives you the opportunity
>that you wouldn't have had, but they stick you with the risk. so in the
>wash, you've funded the record. another way that it's done sometimes is the
>label will give a bigger advance and expect the artist to fund the record.
>and of course then there's P&D deals, where the artist or smaller label
>takes full responsibility for funding recording, and then the bigger label
>handles pressing, promotion and distribution (and, unless you've really got
>a bad lawyer :), gives you a larger percentage of sales)
>
>now this where I don't have a clear understanding - does Sony pay itself for
>studio time? Knowing a bit about how Shell Oil works (my girlfriend works
>there :) ), I would say that in fact, yes it does. At Shell, one department
>will come to my girlfriend's department and pay them for their time, and in
>fact, her department has to compete for their business, as they have full
>freedom to buy the services outside of the company.
>
>Obviously any contract with any set of agreements is possible.
>
>I don't suppose it's necessarily true, however, that anyone with money can
>book time in any studio. I imagine there are plenty of private commercial
>quality studios that are not open for business. I say this because my
>studio (not commercial quality *laugh*) is not open for business, and I know
>other people who basically feel the same way. (I do not, by the way, charge
>myself for studio time :) ).
>
>anyway, I guess it's sort of stupid to conjecture about what they do as if
>they didn't exist and we couldn't just ASK them. But since that's a bit
>inconveinent right NOW, we discuss a little
>
--
http://www.tymusic.org
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