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Does the label tend to shun the artist who already has a publishing deal with a third party publisher?

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Guest Fri, 02/16/2001 - 06:04

There's one that's way left over from the 50's. I've seen a few deals where the label wants a share of 'publishing', but usually they don't get it.

The last deal I saw signed, got signed pretty much because the artist had a publishing deal and was selling songs left, right, and center. He also had released his own CD's with the songs, and got the deal based on his 'catalog', but mostly because his songs have been placed in a bunch of TV shows...which happened because of his 'publishing deal'.

Bob Olhsson Sun, 02/18/2001 - 08:08

One thing I've seen people in the U.S. get real confused about is the relationship between foreign label deals and publishing.

Because in Europe it is music publishers who do all of the record promotion, a European label is going to insist that either they or a major European music publisher handle your publishing as a condition of signing. While most labels would love to grab it for themselves, if you have any track record at all, you usually can work a co-publishing deal for Europe with a major European publisher. This is what we did (and still do) with the Motown catalog. If nobody local has any publishing, there isn't much incentive for a European label to sign somebody.

This is also why Brian Epstine "gave away" the Beatles' publishing. A very good case could probably be made that Dick James of Northern Songs "made" the Beatles because HE is who got their records played on the air.

anonymous Mon, 02/19/2001 - 09:35

Originally posted by Robert Olhsson:


This is also why Brian Epstine "gave away" the Beatles' publishing. A very good case could probably be made that Dick James of Northern Songs "made" the Beatles because HE is who got their records played on the air.

And here I though it was because of the mix engineer they used...

Mixerman

harveygerst Mon, 02/19/2001 - 10:00

Originally posted by Robert Olhsson:


This is also why Brian Epstine "gave away" the Beatles' publishing. A very good case could probably be made that Dick James of Northern Songs "made" the Beatles because HE is who got their records played on the air.

Originally posted by Mixerman:
And here I though it was because of the mix engineer they used...

MixermanHow naive these new kids are, huh Bob?