Jump to content

Fuck agitato records


traveller

Recommended Posts

Guest The Journey Man Project

Acutally I"m surprised... I read a very candid interview with Jay from Jamerequi (dunno the spelling)... they are considered kinda loq end artits, their sales aren;t huge etc... you know the video clip where he walks thru alls and stuff? (I though it was pretty classy)... his label gave him like $1000US for te a clip and he paid the rest out of his own pocket... now if this happens in the maintstream then of course the underground will suck... I love Michele, and my girlfriend who cannot stand most electronic musicreally enjoys the songs she has done... I'd love to see this album lead to a bigger opening into mainstream for her... she has great talent and I"m sure she has alot to offer the msic world... Agitato will get what they deserve...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 177
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I now see it as promotion to get gigs and not as a release to make sales.

 

That's the point. Many artists nowadays try to get their money from live gigs because there isn't much potential in albums anymore because of the p2p networks.

But on the other hand this is the argument of the p2p downloaders. "They make their money with live gigs anyway..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@DETOX

Sure you might get an advance on the royalties.

It's usually only the case with bigger labels and artists.

But if you get it before or after the release is not really the issue here, but rather the final amount received.

It seems quite obvious from this case that she did not get a promise of an advance, so she is disspointed about how much the royalties amount to.

 

When you say "570 dollars for an album is a joke and i cannot think of any serious artist that will sign an album for this ammount of money" it sounds like you do sign for a fixed amount.

For sure the top artists in this scene would probably demand more than $570 in advance, but you don't sign an album for a fixed amount because you get an advance but still for a percentage of the sales.

I don't know about this scene, but in the mainstream music industry it happens that you do have to pay back from your advance if the sales is not enough to cover for it.

 

I cannot agree at all with that the amount you receive correlates to the amount you invest.

There is a lot of sucessful artists in this scene that does not have expensive studios, and there is many with expensive studios that will never get back what they invested.

What decides how much you receive is mainly dependent on if you have a talent for producing commercially viable material.

 

And...I didn't miss a zero...that was in the mid 90's though, when trance was trendy in Europe.

It was a mainstream label making a Goa compliation. I got no advance and the track paid about $700 that I shared with my partner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spindrift most of the artists today (at least in the psy trance scene) ask for an ammount in advance and dont care at all about the royalties simply because there are no big sales around.For example artist X that wants to sell his album will ask you for lets say 5000 euro in advance and thats the whole story,he doesnt care if you will sell 1000 or 3000 copies and he doesnt even mind about royalties.Take the example of Michelle Adamson and you will understand why most artists work like this simply to avoid situations like getting payed 570 dollars for a whole album.

 

I already said before that i sign tracks and albums for fixed ammounts,i always pay my artists in advance what they ask me so this keeps me and them very happy indeed.And like i said before even the top artists of the psy trance scene ask for a fixed ammount of money in advance and dont give a toss at all about royalties,i mean even if they wanted to know how many copies you printed and sold that is not possible to do easily simply because most artists dont belong to companies like Acum or Segem to check their royalties for them or labels can print more copies than stated to the artist and also labels are in direct contact with their distribution companies and can even provide the artist with false statements concerning the sales.Because me personally and most of the artists that i work with dont like at all the idea of royalties we all work on fixed ammount of money in advance and this keeps us both happy.Afterall not many labels sell more than 2500 copies in our days so that the ammount of royalties could be a serious one.I mean Madonna and Britney Spears sell millions of records and ofcourse they do care about royalties but psy trance artists really dont care,at least most of them.

 

When i said that the more you invest the more you will get i was mainly reffering to labels,i mean the best (and most expensive) names you will get into a compilation then obviously the more you will sale.At least thats how it works for me so far.

 

I thought that your label released a compilation that sold 15000 copies which is impossible in our days except if you are selling an Infected Mushroom or Astral Projection album or Shpongle or something like that.Ofcourse you are talking about a track you released in a compilation by a big label that sold 15000 copies long time ago.

 

By the way you got just 700 dollars for a cd that sold 15000 copies?Sorry but this sounds like a rip off to me,i signed a track for a friend of mine back in 1999 in a greek label that sold around 5000 copies (1/3 out of your compilation) and he got 800 euros (it was greek money back then ofcourse) for a lousy trance track in a very average compilation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I know it don't seem to be the norm that you get all in advance, but with the amounts involved I totally agree with that it should really be the case.

 

Since a release rarely sell more than around 2000 copies it would be very generous to give $5000 in advance though, since that would be more than double compared to the normal percentage you get per sold copy.

 

In this scene it's not so big chance to make a massive hit or get plenty of re-releases, but thats something for the artists to consider normally.

To sell creative work on a fixed rate is normally considered rippoff otherwise.

And I'm quite sure that also your contracts does oblige you to give more than the advance if the sales exceed expectations.

So technically it's not a fixed price, although it might turn out to be in practice.

 

When you use expressions like "most of the artists today" I must say that you only seem to include a very small part of the artists in the scene.

I know a lot of artists, but it's very few of them that can expect decent advances.

In every scene there is a big number of struggling ones on every sucessful one, and trance is no exception.

For sure the biggest acts will be in a position to get labels to bid over eachother and get advances that sometimes exceed the sales.

But "most of the artists" very rarely get advances, and if they do it's for sure not close to $5000 for an album or $500 for a track.

 

About the compilation...it was actually a double CD that was sold at around normal price, so hence a lot less than you would have expected otherwise per copy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i just checked michele's web site to confirm the release of her album and ooooppps....

its a different story, now looks like michele tell a different version, which looks like agitato didnt riped her off!! & she was fully paid by them.

 

 

9.06.05

it's getting messy! agitato have demeded that i apologise here for alleged

disinformation. so let me clarify.

the originalcontact (which they will be making public soon) states that i will

be paid 900 euros and that for gigs agitato books me they will take 25%

booking fee. i do not need beration for signing this demned thibg as i know

already what a fool i have been. that aside...here is my version...

i signed the contract in december under the understanding that they would

release my album quickly. we had a verbal agreement that they would try to

have it out by my mum's birthday at the end of Feb.

agitato recently gave me my first booking to go to brazil. i told them my fee

was 1000 euros for live. they booked me and offered the first booking to me

at no commision. they told me i would play the first party for 1000 dollars

and the second at 600. therefore making a deal (without informing me first

of the pay cut) that i would play at 1000 dollars or 800 per party if

subsequent bookings were made for the trip.

when i arrived i was told that the 2nd party was cancelled, however the

promoter of the first asked if i would as a favour to him play another party

for 300 dollars. i agreed as Injoy showed me such an amazing time and took

such wonderful care of us. Renato also arranged another party for me so

that i would not be out of pocket from the cancellation.

i pressed agitato on my return for a release date and you see from below i

was on for July 5th. on july 4th i received the email stating that the transfer

of my advance would go through minus 330 euros commission they were

taking from brazil. this means they calculated the 330 as 25%. even if that

were correct i feel that they should nat have taken that maney from my

advance without telling me. they are separate issues.

so i'm sure this is very boring for you to read...i'm boring myself now. it's

going to the lawyers. i took the deal with Agitato in the hope my album

would be out on the shelves last Feb. it's now July 9 and i am still getting

emails from them saying "let's concentrate on releasing the album". i am

also in trouble as promoters have been putting me as Hommega or other

labels and not Agitato on flyers. this is not from me telling them to do that. i

have been very clear with bookers that i am on agitato. they just know my

music on other labels and put that without thinking. these details and more

are too tiresome to go into. don't believe what you read. search your

feelings and use the force. X;o)

thank you very much for your messages of support lovelies. this learning process is opening my eyes to the music business. it's not affecting my desire to create and share. i hope after this i can still do that on whatever scale.

love and light

xxx

 

 

now her deal looks realistic.

 

I personaly think that michele needs to apologize to us as well as she did to Agitato :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i just checked michele's web site to confirm the release of her album and ooooppps....

its a different story, now looks like michele tell a different version, which looks like agitato didnt  riped her off!! & she was fully paid by them.

 

now her deal looks realistic.

 

I personaly think that michele needs to apologize to us as well as she did to Agitato :blink:

293727[/snapback]

What the hell are you talking about? She didn't change her story. It's still the exact same story. There's just a new message where she thanks people for their support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to that page after your original message before you edited the copy pasted the message in it and message wasn't there then. Where did you find this, since you copy pasted it after I had checked it out?

293738[/snapback]

:ph34r: he... h.. he made it all up !!! :ph34r::ph34r:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so she wrote an appology message towards agitato into her homepage and deletet it afterwards? what a wierd chick?!?!? and lucky for us traveller copy/paste before....

 

it looks to me like this is quite much her own fault, im no artist, but even i would know how to sign a contract and clear subjects like money, gigs and fees before signin anything.....how naive can you be??? :unsure:

 

What an obnoxious fucking web site *PUKE*

indeed, same as the cd cover, im asking myself more and more about her real bad taste and weird way to do business.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's something fun to think about; ask yourself the following question: if she were a fat, horribly crippled, pimple covered freaky looking bitch, would anyone have heard of her? Would you give a dam?

 

T&A only impresses me when it's sitting on my lap. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest .::E.P

Here's something fun to think about; ask yourself the following question: if she were a fat, horribly crippled, pimple covered freaky looking bitch, would anyone have heard of her? Would you give a dam?

 

T&A only impresses me when it's sitting on my lap.  ;)

293790[/snapback]

 

I got to agree here. She not such an impressive singer. I guess there's just a lot of hype when a cute girl enter the scene.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest .::E.P

Spindrift most of the artists today (at least in the psy trance scene) ask for an ammount in advance and dont care at all about the royalties simply because there are no big sales around.For example artist X that wants to sell his album will ask you for lets say 5000 euro in advance and thats the whole story,he doesnt care if you will sell 1000 or 3000 copies and he doesnt even mind about royalties.

293075[/snapback]

 

What if the "impossible" happen and you sell 8000 - 10000 CD's (I know it's a long shot)?

Would you then keep all the money and not pay the artist royalites because they already had an advance?

 

I have always worked with an advance from royalties and i will continue to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's something fun to think about; ask yourself the following question: if she were a fat, horribly crippled, pimple covered freaky looking bitch, would anyone have heard of her? Would you give a dam?

 

T&A only impresses me when it's sitting on my lap.  ;)

293790[/snapback]

Ah, I just love the openminded, none-judging world of the psy-trance community.

 

Here's another fun thing to think about: why is it that women are always judged by their appearance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was scroling down this topic and this is what cought my eye:

 

"6.06.05 ........ they also emailed me to inform me that due to their private calculations i will only be paid 570 euros for the album. this is 14 tracks made with the most killer producers of our scene. the usual minimum for a track on a comp is 500 dollars. with my 570 euros i will be able to pay the amazing folk that helped me (ie did most of the production work) between 10 and 20 euros each.

 

9.06.05

......the original contact (which they will be making public soon) states that i will be paid 900 euros and that for gigs agitato books me they will take 25% booking fee......

 

So i spent 1 more min to do the simple math -

570 euro : 14 tracks = 40.7 euro

900 euro : 14 tracks = 64.3 euro

 

In my opinion, Michele had never had any intentions to slip here advance money with the artists with whom she produced the album (from her first version it sertanly sounded so, but the second version i think - no chance)

 

this girl is definitely riding hard on the rollercoaster of lies <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kristian if one day i release a cd that will sell 8000 copies instead of the 2000-3000 that i sell now then i shall pay that artist 10.000 euros as a bonus in order to keep him to my label :)

 

Oh and concerning the women subject,ofcourse women are ALSO judged by their appearence in this scene,i mean its not a coincidense that Michelle,Dali and Stella Nutella are all very cute.

 

BUT appearence is not everything and because i happen to know Stella Nutella preety well and have worked with her couple of times she is indeed cute but also a very nice dj and great person :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kristian if one day i release a cd that will sell 8000 copies instead of the 2000-3000 that i sell now then i shall pay that artist 10.000 euros as a bonus in order to keep him to my label :)

 

Oh and concerning the women subject,ofcourse women are ALSO judged by their appearence in this scene,i mean its not a coincidense that Michelle,Dali and Stella Nutella are all very cute.

 

BUT appearence is not everything and because i happen to know Stella Nutella preety well and have worked with her couple of times she is indeed cute but also a very nice dj and great person :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...