Originally Posted by Danzo @ Soompi
Identity Album vs. general music laws
Ok so lets talk contractual issues here, again. In my Songwriting for Business handbook by Jason Blume -songwriter for singers like Nsync. It speaks in the earlier chapters much of what you said.
IN fact, there are NO Ifs about it. The book states that an artist or songwriter must always recoup his/her advances spent from the previous job. This is general for all record labels. So for instance, if a persons last project costed him/her $500,000 and the royalties earned are usually 50% against profits. The first 50% is the PUBLISHERS share. It does not count towards recouping any losses. (pg 30)
So a person must learn $1,000,000 to recoup costs. The publisher will subtract advances owed for the next project.
That means if Avex wanted to give BoA $500,000 for the next project in line, she still needs to earn $1,000,000 and thus.. there are no advances left! (But a debt)
This is true even if an artist has made tons for a record label in many previous years.
THUS, BoA’s newest CD, sans songwriters is ..drum roll please….. SELF FUNDED!!
It is most likely an early decision for this CD to be a self production because there’s no budget to hire songwriters, despite what some of you may think. It is great for her to do this herself, and YES I believe shes musically gifted. But if you look at the contract side of it, it was very much an early decision.
Avex most likely did not put a cent into this CD. Remember she has to recoup expenses, unless she already paid her debts from her bank in advance. While this affects BoA greatly, the song writers Bloodshy and Avant, Sean Garrett won’t be too affected for long. It’s a shame they didn't make a penny (but owe 200,000 a track –typical cost for Britney song producers)
BUT.. They can easily make 1-3 tracks for a big artist like Lady Gaga, or anyone who they usually work with and recoup that money in a couple months.
The royalty rate from Jan 1, 2006-2007 each unit generates 9.10C PER SONG (Up to 5 minutes) pg.31
So if her RECOUPABLE royalties are 9c a song, she might be getting only $1.17 or so a CD.
Because Avex isn’t helping BoA on this album, ie its self funded, I hope you hardcore fans can actually go out and buy it. But that won't be enough. It is not enough for just the hardcore fans to buy BoA's album.
So as you can see, its a rich get richer, a poor get poor schematic. From this one can learn that its imperative, if not mandatory to keep the production of CD costs down to a minimum, and be a sniper when it comes to promotion. Only spend on good promotion, don't waste time on useless random websites that will surely rot..
Due to the recoupable fees that BoA owes, she'll be self funding her CDs without promotion for the next couple of years, until something will break through for her.
Note: these are general laws for all music publishing under ASCAP. I can't imagine the rates for Japanese laws are any better than American.
Summary for the lazy:
BoAs album was over budget for US, no royalties produced, yet a debt.
So therefore shes back in Japan for her new Japanese album which has NO promotion, and NO songwriters .. you wonder why its self produced? thats why
Avex trax published Best and USA
It was a combo deal, remember? Avex did put a lot of money on that and she did perform her US songs in Japan, so there was a deal that went on.The Best and USA album did not really sell that well, despite it having an enormous amount of great tracks on it. (Certified GOLD 145K, but according to how much she spent on producers..its not much)
She still needs to recoup losses from her album failure BoA us album +Best and USA. I think its agreeable that her last album sales plummeted and thats why theres not enough funding going on.
And what I put was a sample rule statement, not a precise calculation.
But I think I could of made it clear that she owes SM much more than Avex, who did fund the majority of the costs associated with the USA album. I think thats a crap deal if you ask me, because there was no promotion. (NO promotion no sales!=no recoup of advances)
Sorry for any confusion.
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