NOVEL NEXT Chapter 110: Record Company
"Link, you're too hot right now. Many agents from record companies have been reaching out to me to discuss signing you. Take a look at these. Do any of these record companies catch your eye?"
At noon, while he was lifting barbells in the equipment area, Simon approached him with a stack of documents.
He had still been training at the boxing gym during this period and when Taylor or Selena had time, he would learn guitar and piano with them. He let Simon handle all the song-related matters.
But Simon was a boxing agent, not very adept with music matters.
Link put down the barbell he had been holding and sat up to wipe off his sweat with a towel.
"Can't we release it ourselves?"
Dynasty Promotion Company had a promotional department and a certain distribution capability.
"We can, in Florida and Miami it's not bad, but if we want to sell records throughout the whole of America or even the entire Americas and Latin regions, our channels and manpower are very limited. Moreover, Dynasty Promotion is a sports company, lacking experience in music promotion and distribution, which would make it too costly. It's better to leave it to professionals,"
Simon said.
Link nodded, the idea that professionals should handle professional tasks was indisputable. He opened a few documents and looked them over.
Currently, over thirty record companies had contacted him, including Universal Records, Sony Records, American Broadcasting Record Company RCA, Hollywood Records, New Force Music Records, as well as many small record companies, among them Big Machine Company where Taylor was.
There was no signing bonus, only album royalty sharing ratios and various promotional packages for the songs; for example, Hollywood Records offered him a Level B artist package, committing to spend no less than $2 million in album launch promotions, and planning for a worldwide tour in the future.
Your next chapter awaits on empire
Link didn't understand these matters well and after looking over them, he still didn't know which company offered better terms.
Simon was also an amateur.
So he called Catherine and Taylor to seek advice from these two industry insiders.
Catherine told him that large and small companies each had their pros and cons. Large companies had broad channels and strong distribution capabilities, but they had many artists and limited resources, resulting in fierce competition and fewer royalties.
Although small companies had limited resources and channels, if one could become a leading artist fully backed by the company, it would be much better than joining a big company.
Taylor directly advised him to join Big Machine Company so they could take on the music scene together.
Naturally, Link wouldn't agree to this. Big Machine Company was founded in 2005, registered with capital of less than $5 million, and had too few resources and channels. Struggling to promote Taylor alone, let alone two people.
If he joined Big Machine, the company's resources would be stretched even thinner. Even if he didn't want to compete with Taylor, the teams behind them would covertly compete, which would inevitably affect their relationship, and that was not the outcome Link wanted.
Additionally, Scott Borchetta, the owner of Big Machine Company, wasn't a good guy. In 2017, after Taylor's contract with Big Machine Company ended, she announced that she would not renew it.
Borchetta was furious and, behind Taylor's back, sold her first six albums' rights to Justin Bieber and Kanye's agent—another guy named Scott.
Afterwards, he banned Taylor from performing her own songs in public.
This incident caused quite a stir online that year; Taylor had social media spats with Justin, Kanye and Scott, shaking up the music scene in the US and Europe.
Link had also followed the drama and knew a bit about the incident, so he was even less likely to join Big Machine. He was also planning to find an opportunity to help Taylor break her contract with Big Machine early.
"Stop persuading me. Big Machine is a new company already struggling to manage you alone. Adding me would overload it and hinder your future development. It's not good. If you don't believe me, ask Mrs. Andrea.
She definitely knows the situation better than I do."
"Huh, how did you know my mom was here?"
Taylor laughed.
"I guessed."
"You guessed right, my mom said, if you're a new singer, just releasing a few singles for fun, joining Big Machine is a good choice, but your fame is too great, your first single hasn't even been officially released and it can top the charts, your potential is very large, and the platform of Big Machine Records seems too small for you."
"Yes, Mrs. Andrea is right, I should choose another company. I just have a few more questions for you."
Link then asked some more professional questions, such as the division of record royalties, album copyright ownership, and the division of streaming income after signing, among others.
Taylor told him that according to the contract between a singer and a record company, a singer could get 20% to 40% of the royalties for each album; the lyricists, composers, and producers would split 5%, and the rest would go to the record company.
Regarding album copyrights, even if the songs were created by the singer themselves, since the record company also participated in the song production and music video filming processes, it was considered a joint creation, so the copyrights mainly belonged to the company, and the singer only owned part of the copyrights.
Unless it is an independent musician who writes, produces, and publishes their own music, they can own the copyrights to the entire album and receive all the royalties.
Being an independent musician mostly suits strong or well-established musicians, who have strong creative abilities and a fixed fan base. They do not need the support of a record company to sell their albums.
This path looks cool, but it's only suitable for famous singers, not for newcomers.
After hearing Taylor's words, Link felt he was more suited to be an independent musician. He was a celebrity, had his own audience, and most of his songs were popular, which could sell well without much promotion from a record company, completely removing the need to give away money.
However, being an independent musician meant working solo; he had to train every day and didn't have so much time and energy to manage a company.
He shared his thoughts with Taylor, seeking her opinion.
Taylor told him that he could cooperate with a professional, like Scott Borchetta, the owner of Big Machine Records, who was a music producer at Universal Records' Nashville branch before leaving Universal in 2005 to start Big Machine.
There were many people like Scott. If you look hard enough, you could always find a few suitable candidates.
"You make a good point, I'll consider it. What time can you come home today?"
Link asked.
"Are you missing me?"
Taylor asked sweetly.
"Yes."
"I miss you too. I want to come home now, but 'Fearless' is about to be released, and I have a lot of work recently; I probably won't finish until about seven tonight."
"No problem, come home early. I'll cook and wait for you."
After hearing Taylor hang up the phone, Link put away his phone and thought about whom to collaborate with.
Catherine was a suitable choice since she was an industry insider and family, which made cooperation very convenient. However, their current relationship was good, and becoming business partners might complicate things.
Besides Catherine, he couldn't find a more suitable candidate.
Just as he was hesitating, Eva called, asking if he had time to go to Madison Square Garden to watch the boxing match between Holyfield and Giant Valuev. She had two tickets.
Link was somewhat surprised. Since coming back from Miami, Miss Eva had called a few times to talk about boxing arrangements, rarely discussing personal issues. This time, however, she took the initiative to invite him to a boxing match.
Link thought about it for a moment. It seemed like a formal matter, so he agreed to go.