[SceptileMaster]

Right I haven't read all the posts but as a fellow musician I can give the following advice especially since I know someone who has had a number one single and have done many classes (I'm on my 3rd year on a music course I'm taking before university) looking at record contracts and so forth.

But basically if you want a career in music then unless you're massive (and that's very unlikely) then a record contract could be one of the worst things you've done. The record companies are evil fiends who don't care how much they screw you over or ruin your lives as long as they make even more money even though they have more than they could ever need. Plus they can screw you around and avoid committing to their contract for many reasons such as them having the best laywers money can buy (and lot's of them) as well as they're ridiculous amounts of money.

In the class we watched a documentary about the music industry and about artists who got signed to major labels and got screwed over by the companies because they couldn't fight against them even though the companies were in breach of contract. They're just too big and have too much power. One example is this woman who wouldn't change things about her music after a couple of albums to keep hipo basically. So even though it was in the contract for the company to do a certain amount of promotion for her albums and gigs they did the opposite. Dropped all promotion didn't arrange any of the gigs promised and all the like. Just dropped her completely and let her smother in the debt the contract puts on you and basically ruined everything for her.

Also with modern technology great sounding records can be made with a decent everyday desktop PC (with a special recording soundcard), a mixer and some good quality mics (oh and a recording program like cubase or protools or the like). Overall this can come to a few grand and can be done in a room in your house. Instead they'll give you a 200 grand advance and send you off to one of their own overpriced studios where there is even a guy in charge of the metronome (drowning more monies anyways) where with all the stuff they stick on recordings now take weeks to finish the album and uses up most of your 200 grand advance. It will sound pretty much no better than the one you did on your own as long as you've had practise producing your stuff. Then any money from album sales you get doesn't go to your band until you paid back the advance. If you sell a decent amount you might just break even.

I'll give an example. Jamiroquai was very popular at first. Platinum selling albums and the like. Didn't start to see any cash what-so-ever until his third album and by that time he was a megastar. He was on the documentary expressing his disgust if I remember correctly.

Doing as much as you can yourself is a very good idea (even though the record companies wont like that because it's less money they can screw out of you.

Also everything pretty much that needs to be said on a record contract can be said in a couple of pages. The average record contract now is over 50 pages long meaning those other 48 or more pages are out to get you. Plus from a lot of the contract we read through in class everything is worded so it can mean one thing or exactly the opposite. Meaning you're screwed legally.

I'm not going to go into it much further unless any wants me to continue. But remember don't go the record company route for a career in music, record some people and play gigs on the side with your band or something. Start a function band, do some live mixing, session work or teaching. And remember it's far harder to get out of a recording deal than to get in one.