Artist Contracts

When leaning how to start and run an independent record label, you are going to come across the business side and contracts. In your artist contracts with your artist, the main thing to consider is what you are going to commit to do for them. Also, you want to define what you want them to give in return. For example, you may be able to offer a commitment as to how many singles or albums you will release and when. You may also want to explain how much you can spend on recording and promoting their records. Lastly, you define what sort of royalty, which is the percentage of the sales or the profits,  you will pay them.

While exploring how to start a record label and write contract you will discover that in return you may want the artist to commit to recording exclusively for your company for a certain period and producing an agreed amount of material – amount to produce. Also they need to assign you the rights to their recordings and do an agreed amount of promotional work.

The absolute basics of a simple agreement would set out how profits are going to be split between artist and record company. Or you can split them equally between business partners or the members of a band. For example, you could agree to recoup all the money spent on the recording and split any profits after that equally. This will all be learned throughtout the process of how to start an independent label.

At least coming to a simple arrangement like this and making a written record of it will put into place a contract, so that every body knows where they stand on this basic point.With more complex agreements, you will probably require an artist contract to make it enforceable. You should also advise your artist to take their own independent legal advice on the artist contract . Some music industry professionals would recommend you use a specialist media or entertainment lawyer to draw this up for you but others would agree that you could do this on your own with proper guidance. Learning how to start and run an indpendent label doesn’t have to be an impossible feat and learning about contracts doesn’t have to be either!

If my title is not cynical, what can I possibly mean when funds are being cut to non-profits, when people look twice at the cost of theater tickets and stay home to watch broadcast television, when even masterpieces fail to bring in money for Christies? All luxury or nonessential purchases like books and art will be scaled back. Strapped corporations and executives are dumping their vanity collections onto the prestige auction houses who are seeing prices and attendance fall precipitously. Many small art-related businesses will fail, including bookstores, small theater companies, galleries, even museums. Surely this is a time for a great wailing to arise in the land of the creatives, who have already pinned their last hopes on a new W.P.A program that will surely be announced soon.

So why in Picasso’s name would this be a good time to be an artist or writer? Letâ??s start with Bush or should I say Bush-hating. Artists and writers have been a disproportionate amount of effort â??fighting the man.â? The stance, however justified, made it easy to structure plots and feel good about poorly realized efforts because the artist was focused on the urgent need to topple the evil regime. How much subtlety was required?

With a new dynamic Democratic administration firmly gripping power in Washington, there is no longer a need to waste any more effort haranguing the public about the war in Iraq, and his other unpopular positions. Soon â??hisâ? mistakes will be â??ourâ? mistakes as Democrats innovate and/or borrow from the previous administration and we will only have our own to blame. Only the farthest left of us (like the ones already unhappy with Obamaâ??s practicality) will continue to use artistic outrage as their main source for inspiration.

 I am hoping the whole concept of â??artist as politicianâ? phase will come to an end. Sure, we can still support our causes of global warming, corporatism, land mines, and nuclear disarmament if we like, but adults in Washington will be doing their best to represent the constituencies that have promoted these causes. We no longer will have to shout at them, though there is no guarantee that we will like their solutions or pace. Nevertheless, artists will find the protest stance somewhat emptier, somewhat less compelling and, hopefully will be moving on to new, less knee-jerk, less repetitive, less strident content.

Back to the issue of business failures in the art community. Itâ??s not that I think the art world is too fat and will benefit from a crash diet, but itâ??s worth thinking about who the market for art has been and who it might become. Art has been, in a sense, also feeding at the trough of the high finance world. How many people can afford a painting over say $10,000 (and Iâ??m stretching here). Clearly the middle class doesnâ??t buy much original art. Why not? Because the content (often incomprehensible but supported by museums and academics) is largely non-compelling to average people.

In the literary world, where the readership is shrinking, agents and publishers are running scared. They want another J. K. Rowling phenomenon but arenâ??t sure where and how to find it. Meanwhile a tsunami of self publishers and bloggers are going around the publishing world for their reading. Both the sellers and makers of art need to accept this challenge. If they have something to say, how should they say it and where? New forms, hybrids and experiments are springing up and the world of criticism (e.g. The New York Times Book Review) are holding up their noses in hopes that the riff-raff will all go away soon and everyone will return to network television, Broadway shows and industry-picked â??geniusesâ? in the print world. Thatâ??s not going to happen. People are entertaining themselves in new ways, from YouTube, to bloggers, to game designers, to â??low-browâ? art that embraces illustrators, graffiti artists and tattooists as â??realâ? artists. Some see this as a devastating collapse of â??highâ? culture, I see it as evidence that in many ways the arts have not been doing their job.

 Music might be an exception as well as an example. While mainstream media continues to site declining CD sales something weâ??re supposed to fret about, an explosion of interest in music is happening all over the world. The internet is allowing us to create our own custom radio stations (e.g. Pandora), iTunes is making it easier to buy exactly what we want, and portable music devices have freed us from Big Radio and Big Music companies. This is partly because, unlike say painting or the literary novel (the bad ones not the good ones), the general public has never given up its love of music and never will. So music will lead the way. Will there be fewer superstar groups but more people creating the music they love? I hope so. Will it be difficult to find the new geniuses if they are not picked out of the crowd and promoted by Big Music? Maybe, maybe not. Most likely the internet will evolve forms of self criticism which will allow more diverse music to survive as the cost of getting that music to the public continues to decline. Overall will less money go to music because people are used to getting it free? Maybe. Inevitably good stuff costs money, think organic produce. People pay more everyday for both the label and the confidence in its quality and taste, even if they canâ??t prove it or taste it.

People will pay to be entertained. Collecting original art on a small scale could conceivably be something people do again once their more confident of their taste. How many people worry about their taste in music needing outside experts to tell them whether or not itâ??s good? I know what I like is the rule. In fact, for millions, if its popular itâ??s already time to dig deeper and find the creatives (the new new) that have already been there and done that and are now doing something altogether new.

 So we might be on the edge of a burst in creativity. Iâ??ll make my final point be referencing an economically difficult but extremely creative period another country experienced: The Weimar Republic. This from Wikipedia:

â??The 1920s saw a massive cultural revival in Germany. It was, arguably, the most innovative period of cultural change in Germany. Innovative street theatre brought plays to the public, the cabaret scene became very popular. Women were americanised, wearing makeup, short hair, smoking and breaking out of tradition. Music was created with a practical purpose, such as Schoenberg’s ‘atonality’ and there was a new type of architecture taught at ‘Bauhaus’ schools. Art reflected the new ideas of the time with artists such as Grosz being fined for defaming the military and for blasphemy.â?

Thereâ??s plenty of opportunity out there, folks, stop whining and get busy!

Supreme Regime is the new millenium of Hip Hop, words can’t describe the music or the style. However, the hip hop world has been longing for a new and innovative rap group to hit the industry and Supreme Regime has done it by storm.

Suprem Regime is the Indy label of mixtapes,Hip-Hop, and R&B Mixtapes.

Juigstrumental is the super producer hailng out the streets of Hollis Queens, New York and the hip hop world has been longing for a new and innovative rap movement to hit the streets and Supreme Regime Entertainment is in association with Jig4Life.

Our street team agenda:

We have gift bag sweepstakes once you join our mailing list with CD’s, Shirts, and various promotional items.

Our albums are the hoodz finest wih a waveof new artists signing “In Us We Trust”.

Now who is the face of the company and how do we get the streets to rep them.

Ali Lyles is the mayor of the city of our street team.

Jigstreumental “The beat King” is the super/producer music mogul who’s looking to network with many talented artists.

Here’s are our 5 key elements for success:

#1 Identifying the goal by creating a buzz and awareness for the artists and the product through the street team marketing and promotions.

#2 We target our audience in Queens, NY from  the ages of 17-39 male and female.

#3 Find your niche-The black Holloywood project (Ya no good slogan campaign).

People will want to know what this is no doubt about that and to try to find something that will make people more curious about you which gives them a reason to want to know more.

#4 Branding-We get your name out there and we also make up some stickers, badges, posters, T-shirts,etc. or anything else you can think of that includes your bands name. Then you leave the stuff anywhere you can in order for us to help you gain exposure.

#5-We keep track of your contacts.

Remember: It’s always easier to keep the fans/customers you have rather than coming up wih elaborate schemes to find new ones.

However, we need a strong and solid research team to find out as much information as possible with each topic because we do not move until we have valuable information to move with.

We do not have lots of cash or a lot of peole involved, so we must be very strategic in order to win.

What do we need in order to make the street team a success and how?

Our street Promotional package-which is a backack with items we need to hit any and every spot we attack

-Pictures                                                              -Flyers promoting the products and our services.

-Biography                                                          -T-Shirts

-Your 5 best songs on a CD

-Poster and Stckers

Our media promotional package is a press release detailing our news, this can also go on the internet media forums such as well. and a short brief one page ali band biography

-your contact information

-A nice color photo, a website where they can reveiw, listen and purchase your cd or singles.

Here are the major papers that we hit.

-The Queens Courier

-Queens Public Television

-The Queens Tribune

The constant contact list and industry list of 21,000 e-mails.

VIP: Your e-mail is critical to any artist or band, so utilize it to its maximum and offer giveaways to individuals such as Cd’s, business cards, etc. You meet as an incentive to gettting their e-mail address.

Where do we need to go to make the street team a sucess?

1-Attack your locals first Queens hot spots.

The spots in Queens we would want to attack.

-The schools, highschools, and colleges

-The clubs and showcase events

-The subways and bus routes

-Your local hang out spots such as lounge spots and sports bars.

How can we market and promote them: By creating an e-mail blast, giving off that good word of mouth, and showcasing your music and talent.

Where do we market and promote them to? All over

However, our internet team has a constant contact of 21K e-mail lists to all of our fans for each project that is created and completed.

We put your videos on you tube and websites such as myspace and SR site that we both update ASAP and you can also get our information on marketing strategies for myspace, soundclick, all hip-hop DX, and our mixtape pass.

Remember: Your next hit could be a phone call away!

Imagine that you work with a high salary while meeting celebrities and other famous people, make others look presentable and get paid by doing something you are passionate on? These are just some of the benefits of a makeup artist! If you have the talent for making other people look good and you have a good eye and good hands when it comes to makeup, then you may consider becoming a good makeup artist.

Work Options

Once you get a chance to enter into the business, you can have a chance to succeed being a makeup artist in salons and spas – to someone who does the makeup of movie and television stars! In the entertainment scene, you can have a job as a makeup artist for modeling agencies, print ad agencies, magazines, television commercials, music videos, runway shows, weddings, photo shoots and theater. Of these many choices, witness that there is an entire world of known people who are on the look out for makeup artists to groom them – or bad, if needed, which is true in the case of costume makeup or special effects makeup.

Make a Research and Sell Yourself

Now you know what career awaits you, here are the steps that you need to note on how to be a makeup artist. First, see if there’s any competition in your place. Are there already a lot of makeup artists? Is there a wedding coordinator, a film outfit or an advertising company that you can work for? For the next step, see if the salary is just right for the number of clients that you can possibly get while working as a makeup artist. Now, there are two paths to go when looking for employment as a makeup artist. If your current contacts can refer you to people they know, you can get a career as a freelance makeup artist. Another thing that you need to remember when you choose to work as a freelance makeup artist is that you need to continuously market yourself and work doubly hard to build a regular clientele. On the other hand, if you want to have the stability of getting a regular paycheck, you can work for employment agencies, like wedding services, salons, and movie outfit establishments.

Don’t Stop from Learning

When you are already working as a makeup artist, keep yourself up-to-date with the latest trends in beauty and fashion. Make sure to avail of nature friendly cosmetic products, since this is what some of your clients may be looking for. Constantly keeping your clients happy, improving your skills and loving your job are the steps to succeed as a makeup artist.