Quote:
Originally Posted by Dayze
curious, how the record labelt / artist thing works.
say a band has 2 hugely successful albums right out of the gate, can they - the band - then record their own stuff on their own label? Or is it a deal where the record label signs a band and has them under contract for X number of albums etc.
...if any of that makes sense.
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Generally speaking, a band signs a 2 album record deal with a record company option for a 3rd release.
The record label generally owns the Master Recording Rights in Perpetuity, although smarter bands (like Motley Crew, believe it or not) had their Masters revert to them after 15 years. That allowed them to take their original albums from Elektra Records to Universal Records, along with a hefty advance on future album sales.
Now, there have been many cases in which an artist signed a 7 album deal, which is pretty ridiculous. Don Henley did that with Geffen (who screwed the Eagles pretty had when he ran Elektra, so Henley should have known) and he wanted out of his deal because he felt they weren't marketing and promoting him as he saw fit.
He sued under the California "Indentured Servant" law, claiming that being under contract for more than 7 years violated that particular law. Geffen and Henley ended up settling, with Geffen receiving the Lion's Share of the
Hell Freezes Over album.