The other day I was explaining some of the operations of Slingshot Records to an artist that’s contemplating signing on with us. Below is part of the conversation. And, I’ve attached a trackback article that discusses the current state of the music industry… which is very much
in FLUX!!!
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As an artist (I know because I’m one too) you’re focused on your songwriting/production/singing - your music. Slingshot Records (like most major and indie labels) takes care of most of the business side of the “music business.” We have our own publishing company set up through ASCAP, a data base of press/industry contacts, radio promoters, and are currently developing an in house booking agency. We help develop your web sites (artist, artist community, myspace, online press kits, etc). As an example of the diverse areas that we try to operate - We recently signed a song-plugging contract for ALL OF OUR SONGWRITERS with a Music Row company that sells songs to country/rock artists. I’m praising God because six of our songs are being considered by a major country and a major pop artist for their next CD!
That’s a bit of an overview.
Primarily, while you decide where you’d like your career to go, we stand with you and seek God for the wisdom/resources to help reach that goal.
Now, you can do everything I’ve mentioned above with out us. But, just like us it will take you several years to cultivate the industry contacts, etc that we’ve garnered. And tens of thousands of dollars to get the business in place. Or, you can continue seeking a major record deal… Or, we can continue discussing whether Slingshot Records is right for you… and us!
As for WHY we operate this way? I’ll try to be as brief as I can. Growing up playing in a top-40 rock band in SC, then moving to LA to pursue a career in hard-rock we’ve witnessed and learned a lot about the music industry. In a nut shell: Record deals are pretty fragile. I’ve witnessed many friends who have been signed to one major contract or another only to see their A/R person leave the label, or get fired, or the record label get bought out, or go belly up… and on and on. The artists are usually shelved or left waiting in limbo hoping someone notices them again… which is very rare. I truly hated the thought of an artist’s dream being in such unstable hands/circumstances. Example: TLC and Tom Petty both had to declare bankruptcy because their original record deals left them broke! Basically, the record label is a glorified lending institution… a bank. They’ll pay for your recordings, videos, touring costs… but, you’ll pay them back - FIRST… before you see any money. Slingshot can lend you money, too. And, we’ll have to recoup our investment. But, we try to be fair financially so that both artist and label win - ie: partners… not employer/employee. The music industry had approximately 30% less sales last year. And, notice that currently a lot of big name artists are forming their own indie record labels. Things are a-changing for indie artists!
** The “beneficial catch” is that our artist/label agreements are almost reverse the current industry standard. Right now, a major label contract will have the new artist splitting around 15% (at best) with the producer… and the label takes the rest. Because we encourage self sufficiency, our financial agreement is almost the reverse the industry norm.
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