| What is fair in any agreement is, basically, what everyone involved in the agreement agrees is fair. Everything is always negotiable.
Oftentimes, an investor will front the money for studio time, promotion, etc., and will wait to get paid back in eventual royalties. So, for instance, let's say your investor spends $50,000 to produce a CD and promote it and "shop it around". When you start making money off your project, all of your royalties would go first to the investor, until the initial $50,000 investment is paid back. You, therefore, would need to make over $50,000 in royalties before collecting a percentage.
Percentages are hard to figure until you have a contract. If your investor arranges a deal with a recording company, say, then you have a percentage of royalties going to the recording company, your investor's initial investment coming out of the royalties earned, and percentages agreed to by all of you in your recording contract. Lyricists generally tend to get a lesser percentage than the composer of the music.
Your best bet, really, is to sit down with an entertainment lawyer and hash out all of the details. Music deals are complicated and there is a lot more involved than just writing a song and getting it produced.
And, even if you can come to what all of you agree is a fair arrangement without the help of a lawyer, a lawyer should definitely review any agreement prior to signing.
What you might want to do is check out [url]http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties.htm[/url]. This explains all of the different ways percentages and royalties, etc. works. A good primer.
And please wait for others to post, who know much more about the music industry than I.
Last edited by quincy; 04-01-2008 at 12:50 AM.
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