quoted 10 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
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