How much would you pay for this?

digitalscream

Our band's been approached by a studio who runs this "Unsigned in the East" thing, where you get to record a song for the compilation and then get royalties when they sell it on iTunes.

Couple of catches:

1 - It costs £150, plus any extras or runover

2 - They have equal artistic control over the song with the band

3 - You only get access to the masters, not the stems.

4 - Wherever the resulting song is played, you have to put the studio's logo on it

Have a listen:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/circles/id661714129?i=661714322

I know what direction I'm leaning in. What about you guys? Would you pay?

John_P

Does the fee include recording time?    Assuming it doesn't then the big question is about the exposure and number of sales they produce. As I'm sure you know it's easy enough to sell on iTunes and similar so gains are down to how much extra marketing they can bring over what you can do yourselves...

digitalscream

John_P said:

Does the fee include recording time?    Assuming it doesn't then the big question is about the exposure and number of sales they produce. As I'm sure you know it's easy enough to sell on iTunes and similar so gains are down to how much extra marketing they can bring over what you can do yourselves...

Yes, it does, but you only get one day.

Did you listen to it? That's kinda the key part...

GIJoe

Seems a bit rotten to pay for it...

lustycourtier

wow, Im shocked this still goes on in this day and age. Youre paying for something that wont sell much, make no money. £150 to record a song? View it like that.

GIJoe

Exactly - what does this company bring to the table?

Say they have a deal with a studio who will record for say £100 a day as you will bring a few customers, 10 x 100 = £1000.

10 Customers pay £150 = £1500 - bung it on Itunes £500 for very little work!

They then also get royalties (which may or may not be that much) and lots of advertising!  

I know there may be other costs but they do not do much work - do it yourself!

digitalscream

lustycourtier said:

wow, Im shocked this still goes on in this day and age. Youre paying for something that wont sell much, make no money. £150 to record a song? View it like that.

Yep. The quality of the end result, in my opinion, leaves a huge amount to be desired. Even our own rough mixes of quick-and-dirty recordings sound better than that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the demos of song ideas I record at home before handing to the band sound better than that.

Worse is the fact that despite the £150 fee, they still only hand you royalties from sales once all their "other costs" are covered. Honestly, it seems like a total scam to me. Worse is the fact that loads of local bands fall for it.

GIJoe

digitalscream said:

Yep. The quality of the end result, in my opinion, leaves a huge amount to be desired. Even our own rough mixes of quick-and-dirty recordings sound better than that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the demos of song ideas I record at home before handing to the band sound better than that.

Worse is the fact that despite the £150 fee, they still only hand you royalties from sales once all their "other costs" are covered. Honestly, it seems like a total scam to me. Worse is the fact that loads of local bands fall for it.

So it sounds like they cannot even record properly - even more 'profit'!

PolarityMan

2. is a deal breaker for me

ChrisMusic

Vanity publishing.

With a few caveats.  (what is 2, 3, 4, all about?)

One winner, the studio.  Designed to fill time and create revenue for them. esp when you runover time trying to get it right.

GuitarMonkey

Sounds like these photo shoot modelling scams

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0071-look-out-modeling-scams

Branshen

They kinda sound terrible.. But I guess what they're offering is an easy access to decent recording equipment and studio time without having to fuss about all the arrangements. I'm sure lotsa inexperienced bands wouldn't know better and are probably not experienced enough to sort stuff out with the studio without a scheme like this.

octatonic

Studios are going bankrupt daily- good on them for coming up with a way to survive. I wouldn't do it myself, but it is one of the reasons I don't have a commercial studio anymore. For a band it is an ok deal f they can output a decent product. It is arguably fairer than most label deals. This is how the industry works. If I was in a band I wouldn't go for it- I'd work to pay for a recording and then want to own my own song 100%.

digitalscream

Branshen said:

They kinda sound terrible.. But I guess what they're offering is an easy access to decent recording equipment and studio time without having to fuss about all the arrangements. I'm sure lotsa inexperienced bands wouldn't know better and are probably not experienced enough to sort stuff out with the studio without a scheme like this.

Did I mention it's basically live recording only?

octatonic said:

Studios are going bankrupt daily- good on them for coming up with a way to survive. I wouldn't do it myself, but it is one of the reasons I don't have a commercial studio anymore. For a band it is an ok deal f they can output a decent product. It is arguably fairer than most label deals. This is how the industry works. If I was in a band I wouldn't go for it- I'd work to pay for a recording and then want to own my own song 100%.

Trouble is, the quality of these recordings is horrific. I can't see it ever being a good deal - in fact, the sound is so bad that I think it has the potential to do a band more harm than good.