The document discusses various types of deals in the music industry, including: Standard deals where labels try to get multiple album options upfront. Singles deals focus on single sales rather than full albums. 360 deals give labels a cut of various revenue streams. EP deals involve private releases of extended plays. Profit split deals share profits between artists and labels who invest in marketing. Licensing deals allow artists to maintain copyright while labels market existing work. It also outlines agreements for songwriters, including splits between co-writers, publishing deals where copyrights are transferred or administered, and placement deals where houses pitch music for licensing.

1. THE ART
OF THE DEAL

2. DEAL BASICS
• Know the industry
• Know the business
• Know YOUR business objectives
• Know the people the deal is
being done with
• Know your non-negotiables
• Know your ultimate power

3. STANDARD
The label will attempt to position
itself into having numerous
album options (1 album + 4
options, and albums being
defined as 10+ songs per
album).

4. SINGLES DEAL
Unlike the SRD based upon the
concept of “albums,” clearly SD’s
are based on “singles.” This new
mindset is due to a sobering
market reality – singles sell, not
albums.
When a Label funds a full album
production, it cost lots of
money. The Label will likely push
only a handful of those singles
into the market place, and more
so, those singles will be the
primary investment breadwinner.

5. 360
A 360 deal is exactly what it sounds like – the
Label takes a percentage of numerous income
streams (recording, touring, merchandising,
ancillary activities, fan club, etc.).
The Label justifies this multi-payment approach
due to the fact that IF they break an Artist, they
helped create all those income streams,
therefore should be paid from those income
streams accordingly.

6. EP DEALS
There are a growing number of Labels
exploring private EP Deals. Under this
situation, Label X may offer Band X (or Band
X may request from Label X), an EP Deal.

7. PROFIT SPLIT
If you’ve got a solid unreleased project and want a
label partner, approach labels under a project split
scenario. Labels love this because their only real
investment is on the marketing side due to the fact
the artist already funded the project.
Profit splits allow labels to evaluate artists purely
through a creative filter as opposed to a monetary
filter. If the release works, everyone shares
equally. If the project sucks, the Label doesn’t care
because they had no money at risk. In most cases
profit splits also allow for both sides to evaluate the
partnership after a release, therefore nobody is
locked into a long-term relationship.

8. LICENSING DEAL
You can license an album to a Label, which
essentially means the artist still owns the
copyright. This is key. The scenario is
most applicable if a previously unsigned
artist (with large sales) is offered a 360
deal with a major.
The major will either (a) want control of the
previous album(s), or (b) want the previous
album(s) off the market so that it doesn’t
create clutter with their album release
strategy (i.e. blackout option).

9. SONGWRITER
AGREEMENT
A Songwriter Agreement usually involves
a writer transferring 100% of the
copyrights to the song(s) in your
catalogue and/or written during the term
to a music publisher and a 50/50 income
split between the publisher and the
writer. While these were some of the
most common agreements 60 years ago
and are still used today, they aren’t
entered into as often because many
writers value owning their content more
in today’s music market.

10. CO-PUBLISHING
GREEMENT
A Co-Publishing Agreement is very common today and involves a writer
transferring 50% of the copyrights to the song(s) to the music publishers
and an income split of 75/25 where 75% goes to the writer and 25% goes
to the publisher.

11. ADMINISTRATION
AGREEMENT
An Administration Agreement is also very
popular today and involves no copyright
transfer—the publisher administers
(handles licenses, tracks royalties, etc.)
without owning copyright. This agreement
includes a 90/10 income split where 90%
goes to the writer and 10% goes to the
publisher as a fee for doing the
administration.

12. SONGWRITER SPLIT
AGREEMENT
A Songwriter Split Agreement is something that always needs to be
completed when co-writing songs with others. It is essential to minimize
disputes between co-writers, but is also usually required by publishing
companies, whether you are your own publisher, administer for co-writers
or other unrelated writers, or are signed as a writer to a music publishing
company. A Songwriter Split Agreement can be custom drafted, or from a
template.

13. LICENSING/
PLACEMENT AGREEMENT
Many “placement houses” or “pitching
companies” that have traditionally just
focused on pitching music for placement
in TV and film are now getting into the
publishing game. The copyright transfer
and income splits tend to vary on these
deals. These can get tricky because of
term variations as well as retitling and
other practices.

14. CONCLUSION