Produce a report highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of signing with a publishing or record company
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Recording
A recording contract is basically a contract which entitles a record label to a percentage of the profits from sales of an artist's music, in return for loaning the artist money for the recording / production costs in the form of an advance, releasing the final product, and getting it distributed (sometimes with the aid of an external distribution company).
In general, there are two types of record label it is likely for an artist to sign a recording contract with, a major label; one of the big 5 (soon to be big 3 or 4 depending on the mergers of Sony/BMG and EMI/ Warner, the other being Universal), or an independent label, any label that isn't an affiliate of the RIAA or a subsidiary of a major label.
Major Labels
The advantages of signing a major label record deal are numerous. If an artist is in negotiation with one of the major labels, then it is clear that the industries biggest players have seen some kind of profit potential in the act.
The main advantage of the major label record deal is the large advance paid out by the label for recording / production costs, and living costs during the recording process. Although the advance is basically a loan, sensible usage of this large lump sum of money can set up an artist for life, even if their music career fails. A major label advance can be anything from 100,000 to several million, depending on the label, their faith in the artist, and other considerations such as genre and marketability.
Major label acts also get a large amount of exposure and publicity, due to the amount of money invested in act, the label wants to make back the money spent, as well as make a tidy profit. Thus the label will promote and publicise the act as well as is in their considerable powers.
Artists with major label deals also get access to some of the industries best employees, as the major labels are obviously the labels that will pay the most, the best producers, engineers, image consultants, publicists etc gravitate towards them...