Brenda, anyone was lucky to have you as their A&R person...I know there are some really fine people out there doing A&R. But your advice is wise...to always know the motives of the people you are dealing with...lawyers included. Basically, I don't think artists can afford not to know as much about the business as possible. The resources & knowledge is out there now. Lots of its negative but that is how to learn what not to do.
>>I did A&R for five years. We're not all bad! ; ) However, I will say that when you get interest from a company it is very important to find out what their motives are and what the individual's motives are and what your potential success will mean for them. >>>Again, you have to know what the lawyer's motives are, who else they work for and what other deals they may have on the table which might effect yours - meaning will they make concessions in your deal to try get something favorable in another deal with the same party.<<< >>>I believe that the key thing for artists to understand when dealing with labels is that there are at least three profit-loss statements. One is what the labels tell you they've spent. The second is what the labels actually spent. (Those two get reconciled by audit.) And the third is the artist's. The artist has to understand that the label can get to profit faster than the artist will because they have a huge share of the profit compared to the expense that comes out of that profit. The artist's share of the profit is small compared to what get's charged back to them. So if an artist does not make an effort to keep the recoupable costs low and watch like a hawk what gets charged as recoupable, they will constantly be in deficit. (And hold on to your publishing. Owning the song is where the money is at.)<<< Thanks Brenda...I think I will send this to my niece...hopefully her A&R guy is one of the good ones...I think the perception she has is that because the label is Christian, they have integrity...I hope that is true.
