"Why Would I (Artist) Ever Let My Producer/s In On Master Recording Splits?" - My Thoughts On This and Why Entitlement (in this case) Is Dangerous

Someone told me about an interesting experience recently, and in this context, I have heard of less than a few times in my 11+ year pro stage career. It was only down to a complete lack of acceptance that there are many ways of doing business in the new music industry. A personality issue if I am honest. Over the years, I have learned that my job often seems to be 80% psychology and maybe 20% music. That could just be my luck (and obviously effortless skill at making dreams audible :). Part of this is navigating the perils of other people's tunnel vision and character traits that seemingly have no basis in reality or place in business. Or rather just inconsiderate people that thought music was the thing for them and they disappear a few months or years later. In any case, I recognize it is never personal, but rather the inability to process something new and out of their comfort zone. The issue is something I had heard of for years while coming up through the ranks, although has been (at least in my extended network) largely eliminated, or so I thought when they came to me with this problem! I'll add that it never affected me as an engineer at the start of my career, but became hugely important from the day I started living off production/writing work and added the wonderful world of new talent at the start of their journey to my growing list of services. The conditions for this problem are not always black or white, but they can be from the perspective of a creative professional providing a service, depending on whether the client has the correct budget or not. However, it is very much rooted in character traits.

The person who came to me for advice was wondering basically why producers (and other industry professionals) who inherently help artists get to the next stage, are consistently being offered the short end of the stick when (genre depending) they are often equally responsible for the outcome of a song. The aim behind this discussion is for producers, artists, writers, legal representatives, management, and A&R types to engage and help people understand this. I don't put up with poor deals personally, and just cut my losses occasionally, but there was one situation I was told about in particular, that got me thinking on this subject. Also because it is highly relevant to what I do with my life. This is about producers who do everything on a session by the way. They co-write, engineer, produce, play, direct performances, outsource talent where needed, mix, and sometimes even master for the sake of development. So for clarity, keep this in mind while reading because as with everything, there are always conditions. We are also not speaking about those who don't pull their weight equally (like "I wrote this word on that day, and my friend, wrote the 'as' from the bridge" - hilarious). Let us make sure the context is clearly set up. There should be no entitlement in any case, but balancing fair compensation for a service versus egos and those that only care to listen to the next sentence coming out of their mouths is difficult to mitigate against!

So what is the big problem? The age-old topic of who should own a sound recording IE Master Recording. The general guidance out in the old world (and still sometimes concerning major label deals now) is that an artist should never, at all costs, give up "control" of their master rights or share a portion of it. Why is this? Because traditionally the big old bad record companies would own it (they paid for recording costs while you were broke) and they would make money off your copyright, or rather their investment to you as it is seen from the other side. If you had a deal based on recoupment, great, if not, herein lies the problem. Deals were usually bad and often rights were never returned post recoupment, leaving the artist worse off than they could have been. Opportunity cost is something not often understood in music but is a real concern too.

With this explanation of why artists are so scared to discuss it, and immediately block any conversation of master rights historically, let me propose this scenario which is commonplace these days amongst the wealth of untapped talent out there. Lack of music business education in my previous article linked above does also tie into this, but hear me out. When an artist has "no money" (even though they probably have a job), and they want a professional to provide the vision they hoped for sonically, and you offer your time, guidance, passion, love and experience to this project and complete it, you need a way to be compensated fairly, and more for sharing in the risk in the first place (Just like the artist would get!). The answer to this? A cut of the Master and preferably with a distributor that splits automatically. Streaming payouts, as low as they are, at least offer some compensation toward your efforts in a faster way, provided the act has any sort of infrastructure in place. Where does this come from you ask? HURRAY! The Master Rights. Contractual producer/mixer point agreements, unless enforced legally, tend to be pretty useless with an unsigned act (and sometimes major acts, unfortunately), as they have no idea how to account and their teams are usually not forthcoming with statements sadly. You are forced to try to recoup from elsewhere on what should have been your upfront costs for the roles played, and for your opportunity costs (IE belief in artists from the start, a common excuse to not pay). Now, of course, you can do whatever you want, but your business will never be sustainable if you don't work smarter and prepare for this issue.

I am fortunate to have dealt with this problem very few times, likely because my network and those I do business with possess a minimum level of understanding of the roles within the industry, and more importantly, the various types of deals being made across the board. What I had to tell this person, was that over the years, I personally have noticed a lack of education on foundation level practices within the music business, plus a combination of greed, fear, and poor ethics, from new artists and their teams. This is probably compounded by terrible advice from people without the whole picture from both sides. So it can translate into a lethal concoction which presents itself as entitlement and little to no compensation offered toward producers, mixers, and writers that help these acts "make it". That is a real danger and is unnecessary. When you see somebody's inability to recognize the need to compensate those that they receive help from, that is a warning sign, especially if they have received favours. It is a very simple life principle that doesn't strictly apply to music, although seems too often ignored in music. The most successful teams are ones that share and grow collectively, and when that is automatically dismissed as an option, then I feel you don't deserve to be helped. They were surprised to hear something so harsh from someone who loves bad jokes all day and night. But the reality is that things are changing daily in the industry, and the old way of thinking and working is still hanging on for dear life. Unfortunately, this problem is still being spread to newer more inexperienced generations to the detriment of their progress.

I figured I should shed some light on it for the benefit of those who battle it often or will encounter it on their path to Artist, Producer, Writer, or whatever you want to be. For those that do sessions with me, you will already know how the backend should work, but this is a perfect topic for my next panel and seems to be rarely discussed.

Publishing splits are not part of the discussion right now because those are automatically assumed in this case as "beat maker" or however you choose to label yourself. If you also provided other services such as studio time, mixing, etc... you should be entitled to an agreed portion of the publishing in my opinion if no money has been exchanged (again a new concept for those that are stuck in the old way). But why does this Master Rights mentality persist in the scenario above? I really don't know because it is so illogical. It likely stems from placing hope in the people around you who tell you how they think it is, without actually thinking for yourself. But what you are really doing is ensuring nobody will want to work with you in the future. Put simply, you pay for a service you request, if you cannot pay and still want it, you figure out a way to achieve it. If the artist's reaction is "No, Never". Then I would steer clear. It sounds a little harsh I know, but that is likely the fair way to get people with the "My Song, My Master" mentality to think about it in an alternative appropriate way. And also the way to protect against people who say "Hey if you do this, I promise you will be rewarded when this goes huge".

You as producer and facilitator of everything didn't actually have to sit there and make a banger, you chose to, so the partner in crime should recognize that and get rid of that attitude. Generally, the norm is that you reward the people around you that contributed to growth, ensuring loyalty and that they want to continue working with you (shockingly smart business plan!). I can't even mention the number of times people expect something for nothing without offering a solution. It is very bizarre to me. Especially when the producer, writer, and mixer is equally responsible for the outcome. Just go ask the following simple question to the person who tells you that you don't deserve an equal split of anything (publishing, master, royalty, performance, or anything else) when you actually did everything, and watch them struggle to come up with an answer as to why your contribution is lesser than theirs. When you phrase things simply and effectively, even novices who have been taught in a wrong way will realize (not always though! Some people just can't get it together or understand).

Why do you think that my contribution is of any less value than yours?

In the title of this article, it states that entitlement is dangerous, and for the mentality discussed here, you can now see how it could affect those mixers, producers, and writers who have been offered nothing and have been told that they can't receive any rights because the artist "can't give it up". These splits should go the right way toward fairly compensating those that helped you, provided the act and their team have a business plan in place. Again, this is when cash payments are tight or "non-existent". We musn't generalize either, because I work with plenty of artists who understand this concept and for the good of everyone involved, are receptive. But when this happens, unfortunately, the only rights the artists are giving up in this specific scenario is the right to any professional respect or courtesy. For those that this situation applies to, you really should be figuring out ways to help the people who help you, otherwise, you should be doing something else. That is my personal feeling on the matter. I don't often share the specific topics discussed on consultancy work, because this takes time and I offer sessions for that (hint hint), but this is bigger than that.

I would love to hear reasons as to why this mentality still exists from the artist's perspective, producer perspective, and anyone else in the business. Where do you think it comes from, and why you think artists believe they are being "hard done" by in the example above between unsigned artists and producer/s? Nowadays, producers are often directly and equally responsible for what goes out there, so why is there an inability to think properly? It is a very different scenario than a "big bad company" coming and bulldozing over you obviously. Just 2 individuals or more trying to build something for themselves. I know when I discuss deals under my artist project, I share the responsibility and desire for its success so I ensure my collaborators are appropriately compensated. Some thought-provoking rambling from old man Wilson. Be good to each other and you will have an enjoyable time, make a mistake, the consequences are on you. But really, does any of this matter when you split 5 pence or cents between everyone? haha.

In all seriousness though, let's see some thoughts in the comments below!

Bryan "Boom Dice" Wilson

Multi-Grammy Nominated Producer/Writer/Mixer

Single “Ready To Go” Out Now!