1.0 The Problem of Delay

1.1 Confusion

There are several reasons for the frequent delays in concluding deals for producers. One reason is poor communication between the A&R department of the record company and its business affairs department. The business affairs person may only come to hear of the deal after the preproduction work has started. Even if he is aware of the position he may have difficulty in obtaining clear instructions from the A&R man as to what the producer is required to do and what he is to be paid. This is not necessarily due to the fault of the A&R man; there is often a reluctance on everybody’s part to commit to (and define the parameters of) a particular project until the producer and the artist are seen to be able to work together effectively. The position is sometimes made worse by poor communication between the producer, the record company and the artist. The preliminary discussions will concentrate upon artistic issues. In the case of most artists (and many A&R men) there is an inbuilt reluctance to discuss money or anything businesslike. Many producers suffer from the same malaise and tend to be shy (particularly when talking to artists) of raising the matter of their deals. Most such producers will engage a manager and eventually there may be a businesslike discussion with the A&R man. As a result, the producer or his manager may think that he has agreed something in principle. Too often he will subsequently find that the business affairs man thinks otherwise.

1.2 Inertia

It is important that any confusion is clarified at the earliest opportunity before this degenerates into a period of inertia so far as the deal making process is concerned. The risk of inertia arises partly because nobody (and this usually includes the producer) is prepared to treat the matter of the deal as one of priority. The producer is too busy building his relationship with the artist and in any event may well be in the studio day and night. For the producer’s lawyer the producer’s agreement is a dull affair when set against the excitement of a recording contract or publishing deal for a “hot” artist. Similarly, the business affairs manager will view his batch of producer agreements as the most dreariest part of his workload. The record company executives may pester him as to why the latest artist has not yet signed his or her recording contract but there is unlikely to be any internal pressure to deal with a producer agreement (other than in the rare event of a much needed producer refusing to work until his deal has been properly sorted out.) Moreover, there is no incentive for the record company to hurry because generally the record company will refuse to make any final payment until there is a signed contract. We deal in Part II below with how best to overcome this inertia.