Chapter 433 433 Million Contracts

Although he interrupted the album positioning meeting of Glory to Death, Henry was not aware of it at all. Instead, he took out an old briefcase behind him. Shi Shiran walked into the room and sat down directly on the edge of the bed. "This is a preliminary contract, formulated in accordance with our company's rules and regulations," Henry raised his head and glanced at Hugo, because Hugo is an artist under the International Innovation Management Company and is no stranger to the company's standard contract, "You can read it first. Let’s discuss it with each other, if there is no problem, we can ask the head office to make changes, then fax it over to complete the contract.”

The band's discussion meeting was interrupted, but it was not a big deal for the members. They could continue the discussion anytime and anywhere. Now Henry said the situation is indeed more urgent.

The contract is very important and must be done with caution. Henry looked at the band members, "You don't have your own lawyer, right?" He got a blank expression, and then he looked at Hugo again, "How about you?"

Hugo has appeared in several movies before, but because of the agent Joseph, he is responsible for sending the contract to the company's legal department for review, and then showing it to Hugo, and finally completing the signing, so he did not hire his own specialist. lawyer. Of course, the real big-name actors will have their own law firms that they have always cooperated with, so the contracts will be handed over to the firms to protect their rights and interests, but Hugo has not yet reached this level.

Seeing the expression on Hugo's hands spread out, Henry stopped the action of paying out the contract, put the briefcase on the sheet, and then turned his neck as if very tired. In fact, for the newcomers, most of them signed the contract directly when they saw it. Few people would ask the professionals. If they needed help, they would turn to the union, but Henry knew that Glory to Death would definitely not compromise so easily. of.

"Let's go, let's find a large law firm to complete this job." Since Henry is affiliated with the company, the contract in his hand is protected by the company's legal department. What he needs to do now is to find a professional for the band. Lawyers, pay a certain fee, the lawyers help the band review the details of the contract, and then complete the final signing. Although Henry seems to be lazy all the time, he shows a completely different speed, ruthlessness and accuracy when doing things.

So, the band came back for less than half an hour, and then set off again in a mighty manner towards Manhattan. After finding a law firm, reviewing the details of the terms, negotiating with Henry, and communicating with the International Innovation Management Company, all the contract details were confirmed. Signed with Henry.

For the next five years, Henry Bloom became the band's manager to death.

After solving the first problem, the next day, Henry discussed the details of the contract with EMI on behalf of Glory to Death. Surprisingly, EMI did not sign Glory to Death to its independent label, but It was signed at the parent company EMI. This contract took Henry up to five days to negotiate the price and sculpt every detail.

In addition to the conditions that have been negotiated before, Henry refused to give an inch on the value of the contract, hoping to obtain a larger contract for the band.

No one can predict whether an album will be successful or not. There is a saying in the industry that only five albums out of a hundred albums can achieve gold album sales—that is, 500,000 albums. Everything else is a failed record. Therefore, it is very difficult to make money for a record, so the record company and the singer must share the interests, which is very particular.

Prior to this, Henry had won 15% of the performance royalties for the band, and 50% of the distribution royalties belonged to Hugo alone. Among the performance royalties, there is still 85% remaining. First of all, it naturally includes the production cost of the album itself, the production cost of the music video, the cost of promotion and promotion, and the cost of touring performances. This part of the cost will generally occupy the Twenty-five percent.

The second is the prepayment fee, which is the contract value that ordinary people understand. This fee is the living expenses paid by the record company to the singer during the creation of the album, as well as the cost of purchasing the right to release the singer’s album, that is, it is usually seen on the news that a certain singer signed a new record company with a high price of 40 million, that is such a fee.

After deducting these two parts, the remaining income is divided between the record company and the distribution company, which is pure income.

Therefore, the ratio of cost and prepayment is very important. Record companies must measure according to the strength of the singer and their expectations for the album, because the increase in the ratio of the two means that their profit space is bound to be compressed. Similarly, band managers must also strive for more space for their own bands, more production costs, and more advance payments. This is the protection of the band itself, and it is also a competition for interests.

It is worth mentioning that the band can get 15% of the performance royalties, and the record company will set a sales floor, such as a gold record. Only when the sales exceed the 500,000 level of the gold album can the band get the 15% of the income; otherwise, the band will not earn a penny, and all they can get is the advance payment - this fee is in The band was in their hands when the contract was signed.

The battle over these details was undeniable, and in the end Henry secured a $1 million upfront contract for Glory to Death, which was announced as a $5 million, two-album contract. The bottom line for performance royalties is 500,000 copies sold, and the two albums must be completed within three years.

Although this is a huge gap compared to the tens of millions of contracts for top singers, the band owns 15% of the performance royalties, which is definitely not to be underestimated. It can be said that this is far far beyond the rookie level.

The million-dollar contract is even higher than Hugo's salary when he took on the film "Scent of a Woman", so it can be seen that the speed of the record industry's short-term plundering of profits in the golden period is indeed faster than that of movies. Just signing a contract, there is a million dollars to start, even if this million dollars is the income of two albums in the next three years, it is still very impressive.

Of course, there are five members in the band, and 20% of this advance must be paid to the International Innovation Management Company first, and the remaining part will be divided into five and shared equally by five people.

The International Innovation Management Company only takes 20% of the money, and it still takes 10% of the other projects after that. The amount after they take the money is also shared by the company and the broker. For an outstanding agent, he can get 80%, and the company gets 20%; a rookie agent like Joseph usually gets 60%, and the company gets the remaining 40%; of course, there are also top agents who are Treat 100% as your own commission.

The manager gets a lot of money, and the contribution is naturally great. Henry won a contract for the glory that a newcomer could never get, and also won the most rare "initiative" for the band when confronting a large record company. This huge rake is still worth it.

After reaching a consensus on the contract issues, the five members of the band of Glory to Death signed their names on the contract. In the next three years, they "sold themselves" to EMI Records. As for what will happen after three years The development depends on the achievements of the two albums of the band.

While Henry was in a tug-of-war with EMI, the band was still figuring out the direction of the album. In the end, Hugo succeeded in persuading the band members to follow his ideas to create the album, but the band still had a dispute over the choice of tracks.

In fact, Hugo originally planned to put all eleven of his favorite songs on the album, but "Hollywood's. Not. America" ​​was composed only recently, and the band hadn't started practicing at all, Neil Neither Fokjin thinks the song should be put on the album.

The result led to the controversy between Pedro and Alfonso. Pedro believed that "Love is a lie (Your. Love. Is. A. Lie)" should be put on the next album with a more punk style track, but However, Alfonso thought that this song was Hugo's "spare response" to Uma at the beginning, and he couldn't miss it. Even if Hugo had denied it, everyone still believed it. Alfonso thinks "Kill. Your. Heroes" is too electronically advanced and should be put on the next album.

This fierce quarrel was finally ended by Hugo's sentence "All are included". The reason given by Hugo was, "Even the tender songs like 'Home' have been included, what else is there? Is there a difference?" This made the band members feel helpless, but in the end they all agreed.

"Guys, you are already the singers of EMI Records, and you can enter the studio tomorrow to start preparing for the new album." Henry finally got the contract after EMI Records stamped, and announced the good news to the band members, " So, we can go partying, you're all millionaires already!"

"Yeah!" The band members boiled instantly. The sweat and tears of the past four months have paid off at this moment, and the road of chasing music dreams has found a home at this moment, and the joy in my heart suddenly burst out. , so that the brain fell into a blank.

Fukukin left a new day and found his future at the end of glory. Alfonso returned to the music road after three years and found an exit. Neil and Pedro's perseverance over the years has finally been exchanged for the stage. The opportunity, and Hugo, Hugo looked back at his staggering struggle in the past eleven years, and it is even more difficult to express in words.

The most special thing is, "Glory to Death", the name started from the depths of Chen Hugo's soul and continued in Hugo Lancaster's body. The light of dreams finally began to shine!