Great Artist

Chapter 31: Contract Conditions

At three o’clock in the afternoon, it had been a while since the sun was at its peak, and now it was the end of October again. But Jacob Tibo sitting in the cafe, his entire back was soaked with sweat, his hands and feet were shaking restlessly.

Although he made an appointment with Universal Music to meet at three o’clock, in order to show his importance, Gu Luobei was dragged to the meeting place by three teammates at a quarter to two. From this move alone, you can see the melancholy mood team’s desire for this opportunity. Gu Luobei is the only one who can keep calm. In his opinion, even if he wants to sign a contract, he can’t be too eager. Only in this way can he take the initiative in the negotiation. This is basic negotiation common sense. Unfortunately, this common sense does not apply to the three people in the melancholy mood.

If I miss Warner Music, if I miss Universal Music again, I am afraid that the hearts of the other three people will not be able to bear it. But to be favored by these two big labels is the dream of countless independent bands; but if they fail to seize the two opportunities, I am afraid that people and gods will be angry.

In fact, Gu Luobei learned later that a small record company had also called Gillen Haas earlier yesterday, but he had not waited for Gillen Haas and his teammates to report the good news. The call for music is coming. For newcomers, the allure of a big company is naturally much greater than that of an unknown small company, so they didn’t tell Gu Luobei right away.

This record company called “Option” is indeed an authentic small company. The entire company is only twelve people. It is an independent record company in the Los Angeles area. This poor information was only found by Gu Luobei after searching the Internet for a long time.

Generally speaking, for big record companies like Universal and Warner, first of all, they have a complete distribution network, and secondly, they have a series of objective environments such as modeling, publicity, recording, etc., as well as a complete marketing plan. Therefore, it often has the ability to shape an ordinary person into a big star.

Therefore, for Jacob-Tibo and others, it is not difficult to choose between an independent record company that can’t even find much information on the Internet, and Universal Music, one of the top five record companies in the world.

It is worth mentioning that in Gu Luobei’s memory, Universal Music has always been the leader in the US music market share. About 30% of the albums released every year are from Universal Music. This advantage lasted until 2006 or 2007, when it was broken by Warner Records. Gu Luobei couldn’t remember the exact time. But in the first half of the first decade of the 21st century, when the American recording industry was still dominated by Universal Music, it was no wonder that the other three teammates in a somber mood were so excited.

After three o’clock, the people from Universal Music still didn’t show up, and at a quarter past three, there was still no one. Just when everyone was beginning to wonder if yesterday’s phone call was a prank, a slightly thin man pushed the door and walked in. He glanced at the scattered customers in the coffee shop, and quickly walked towards Gu Luobei and the others. .

“Hey, you are in a melancholy mood. I’m so sorry, I’m late.” The visitor sat down in the only empty seat with a smile on his face, and everyone sat around a small glass low table, “Forgot to introduce myself. Now, I’m Craig Cook, the manager of Universal Music.” As he spoke, he took out his business card.

Gu Luobei didn’t like Craig Cook, at least the first impression was not good. Being late for half an hour, this behavior is a common practice when such a big company as Universal Music signs a new talent, or Craig-Cook’s slack for them, no matter what, Gu Luobei doesn’t like it. Looking at Craig Cook up close, the thick dark circles under his deep eyes took the focus away, his cheeks were sunken abnormally, and his lips also showed a faint wash of red. From Gu Luobei’s personal point of view, the person in front of him is obviously over-smoking and drinking, his body hollowed out, and he looks very weak.

Taking the business card, Gu Luobei glanced down, the company name, phone number and other information on it were quite detailed, but in front of Craig-Cook’s name there was only a lonely word “broker”. Gu Luobei estimates that the comers are either the lowest-level talent scouts and agents, or the intermediary agents who are specially responsible for finding new talents for Universal Music. Now it seems that it is the former.

While Gu Luobei was looking at the business card, Gillen Haas had introduced four people and greeted Craig Cook.

Craig Cook didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all, and chatted about a lot of other topics, such as school life, band life and so on. It would be wrong to say that these topics are not related at all. They mainly focus on the band. After talking about it for more than 20 minutes, Craig Cook understands the situation in the Melancholy Team. Clear.

In fact, the music circle is not too small, not too big. The outstanding performance of Melancholy at the Eagle Rock Music Festival has been heard by all companies, and Warner Records has taken a fancy to the lead singer of the band. It’s not hard to find out. Craig Cook listened carefully when the company found the master tape sent by Melancholy, and found that the band really has great potential, and he could sign the whole band for training. The reason why Warner Records gave up the entire band and chose the lead singer alone, of course, has a factor in the ability of the lead singer, but it is also partly because Warner Records has just signed Linkin Park, and there is no more resources and energy to cultivate another rock band. . Therefore, Craig Cook gave birth to the heart of recruiting talents, and only met today.

Craig-Cook’s unhurried behavior made Jacob-Tibo very anxious. He wanted to point out the subject directly several times, but he looked at Gu Luobei and Gillen-Haas who were talking and worried again. Your own recklessness will do you a disservice, so you can only hold back. This led to the active Jacob-Tibo, but today turned off the fire, and did not say a few words for more than 20 minutes.

“May I ask if Melancholia has a contract now, if not, we at Universal Music welcome you to join this big family.” Craig Cook finally stopped going around in circles and said that Jacob Tebow could Cardiac arrest news.

In all honesty, aside from being late today, and Craig Cook’s appearance of smoking and drinking too much, and Craig Cook’s condescension, intentionally or unintentionally, during the conversation, in fact, Craig Cook Gram is indeed a good hand in business. Understand the situation from simple and relaxed conversations; have a good grasp of the company’s position and know how to deal with newcomers such as melancholy; at the same time, quietly in the words, showing the advantages of a large company. So, when Craig Cook came to the final conclusion, not to mention the other three, even Gu Luobei was overjoyed.

“No, of course not.” Jacob-Tibo’s voice was very loud, but after he finished speaking, he felt ashamed of himself. Think about it, it’s really embarrassing for a good 20-year-old to yell like a child in public. Jacob-Tibo didn’t mind, and smiled and scratched his head.

However, Craig Cook did not continue to speak, but turned his head to look at Gu Luobei and Gillen Haas, because Bruce Sterwood did not say a few words from beginning to end, so Craig – Cook also knows that Gu Luobei and Gillen-Haas have the right to speak in this band. After the confirmation of the two nods, Craig Cook’s expression became a little more relaxed.

“This is a temporary contract. You can take a look at it first, and go to the company to sign the official contract in two days.” In a big company like Universal Music, everything has to go through a process. Craig – Cook is optimistic about the blue mood, but he can only offer a temporary contract. After returning to the company, Craig-Cook needs to submit the information he has organized, and then go through the company process to apply for a formal contract. After the process is passed, the melancholy mood is considered a Universal Music artist. If the process does not pass, then the melancholy mood can choose whether to continue to hone in Universal Music for a period of time, or to invest elsewhere, which is somewhat similar to the existence of trainees and reserve talents.

Regarding the contract, Gu Luobei really didn’t study it. Whether it was in his previous life or in this life, he really had nothing to do with the law, so he decided to bring it back and let Eden – Hudson take a look. Now, Gu Luobei directly turned the contract to rights and obligations. Seeing the royalty part, the contract actually only provided 8% of the royalties for Melancholy.

The so-called royalties, in fact, are the share of records. Record companies record albums and sell them through distribution networks such as record stores. For every album sold, singers get a percentage, called royalties. Of course, there are other ways for singers to make money on the album, including the inclusion of film and television works, the cover of other singers, the use of other people’s concerts, etc., but the royalties from album sales are still the main source of recordings brought by the album contract.

Royalties and copyrights are different. The income that singers get from the sale of records is called royalties. Copyright is the ownership of the song by the songwriter. People pay fees, and the income from copyright is much higher than the income from royalties.

For example, Gu Luobei composed the song “Broad Ocean and Sky” and owns the copyright of this song. Melancholy released the song “Breakthrough” through Universal Music. Then, Gu Luobei can first get royalties from the album as a member of Melancholy Mind Band, and secondly, he will get another income because of his identity as the copyright owner.

As far as Gu Luobei knows, the percentage of royalties for singers here in the United States is generally between 10% and 20%, and most new singers get the lower limit of this range, which is 10%. But Craig-Cook’s contract was deducted by another 2%. Gu Luobei frowned and directly raised his head to ask his doubts.

Second update today. Favorite…Recommend…