Throughout the first decade of the 21st Century, we started hearing a lot about this contract known as a 360 deal. But exactly what is a 360 Record Contract? And importantly, how does it benefit (or not benefit) artists?
How the 360 Record Deal Originated
Throughout the first part of the last decade, record sales began a steep decline, which left labels scrambling to find a way to continue to make money. By the last half of the decade, many artists were only making money on aspects unrelated to record sales, particularly from touring and merchandise sales.
In traditional record contracts, labels typically have no stake in an artist’s touring proceeds. But seeing a chance to make up for the lack of record sales, labels began introducing 360 deals to claim a larger share of an artist’s income.
What is a 360 Record Deal?
Like all contracts, a 360 deal will vary from label to label and artist to artist. But essentially, the contract grants the label more control over the artist, and entitles the label to more of the artist’s income from sources other than record sales.
In return for this, the label typically agrees to invest more money into all aspects of the artist’s career (including touring and merchandise), as well as to offer more promotion since there is more investment to recoup.
Do the Contracts Work?
It depends. While that answer is vague, the truth is the success of the contract will depend on many factors, including the actual amount of promotion provided by the record company, how the contract favors (or doesn’t favor) the artist, and the overall success of the artist in general.
The contracts have proven fairly effective for already established artists. Two famous examples are deals signed between Madonna and Jay-Z with Live Nation, which essentially serve as 360 deals giving the company more control over the touring careers of the artists.
But a Madonna or Jay-Z tour is almost guaranteed to be successful regardless of the record contract they’ve signed, and 360 deals can be much more risky for new artists.
Are 360 Deals Good for Artists?
Again, it depends. While the contracts can provide additional financial and promotional support, that might mean the difference between success and failure for a new artist. The deals open up even more risk than a traditional contract. In the event an artist is not successful, the label has its hands in even more aspects of the career, meaning more and more debt can easily pile up.
Whereas in a traditional contract, artists can sometimes make money touring even if an album proves unsuccessful, this is likely not the case with a 360 contract since the label will be taking money from tour revenues, as well.
In the end, it comes down to the specific contract and how well it suits you as an artist. It can’t be stressed enough that a lawyer should always be involved with these contracts to ensure the agreement is a fair as possible.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
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2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
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4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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