Producers: Understanding Exclusive Contracts Pros/Cons

[pkay]

edited: I no longer work for the mentioned company

[back2onett]

Nice post man it's gonna be a while before this is relevant to me but useful nonetheless

[krispy]

Thanks
That was really interesting!

[Kochari]

Nice one Pkay, good to know

[lowpass]

Nice to see the contract Culprate signed with you

Seriously though, good info for those not in the know and thinking of releasing their stuff through a label

[Depone]

Great post!

I believe Unitz, or was it the others? who were stuck with an exclusive contract with Dub Police, only to find they didn't put out releases as regularly as they hoped.

[pkay]

edited: I no longer work for the mentioned company

[FSTZ]

quality post!

[green plan]

Thanks for the info!

[Phigure]

Good read!

What if youre in an exclusive contract and lets say you write some completely different sounding music and your label doesnt want them? Can you release those under another label?

Or what if you're in an exclusive contract, and secretly release some completely different sounding music under another alias to another label? Is there a way they could find out about it?

Both scenarios are purely hypothetical, just a bit curious

[hakka]

Thanks for this, for people like me who are unsigned, things like this really help us out in making the right decision

[marshy]

Phigure beat me to my question. Say i'm signed exclusively to a filth label, where by it's agreed that all original material is released through them. If i start to make more chilled on the side which they're reluctant to sign, is that the end of the road? Or do they sign all music released by 'Marshy' exclusively, but if i wanted to make an alias to release deeper dubstep/DnB/House whatever, that's ok?

[pkay]

edited: I no longer work for the mentioned company

[legend4ry]

hmm, well you described a exclusive contract correctly but anyone with 'alf a brain wouldn't take an exclusive contract, surely?

Even if I got a contract like this Culprate(was that the name?) fellow I would turn it down... UNLESS the label was forward thinking and was open to new and different sounds, the whole point of a exclusive contract is you're signing an ARTIST not a track or sound, artists change direction and get inspired by different inspirations, develope and move on, if a label offering a exclusive contract what isn't allowing artist developement is a shit one whos only looking to make money and not appreciate its artists, I get labels have a fan base but if they're not open to taking risks they'll be "just another label" and not a Warp..

To get out of a exclusive contract, just alias it...They won't know its you unless you start telling people your alias's.....


My advice is to not sign contracts if you ain't thinking 3, 6, 9 months even a year in the future and jumping to the chance to get tracks signed, most dubstep labels are awful, closed minded and run really badly from my experience(even quite successful vinyl labels) so I have given up on signing tracks and just putting everything out free apart from a couple of tracks what're going to be on compilations.

Trust me, for what its worth, releases and labels are more hassle than trying to create a hoover bass, less rewarding too.

[pkay]

edited: I no longer work for the mentioned company

[legend4ry]

Even if I got a contract like this Culprate(was that the name?) fellow I would turn it down... UNLESS the label was forward thinking and was open to new and different sounds

Come now. No need to try and be condescending.

Honestly didn't intend to be, I was just speaking awfully generally.

[Recessive Trait]

exclusive, eh? is this a common thing? seems pretty limiting for the artist.

[Dyssomnia]

I think this could be deleted from the bible, as the OP deleted everything..