Ableton Forum

Hi guys what up today?

For a remix, I've read some people ask to be paid up-front few hundred dollars without royalties after that, and some ask for a % of the sells.

Personnaly, I had something like that :

"REMIXER agrees to give exclusive rights to LICENSEE. Compensation will
be paid at a rate of fifty percent (50%) of royalties earned by ARTIST as stated in ARTIST contract. Payment will be made in accordance to Accounting statement.
Royalties are delivered two (2) Terms Yearly – delivered by means agreed upon by LICENSEE and REMIXER in appendix “information sheet” – no later then 30 days after January and July 1st each year when balance of Royalties exceeds $50. If balance is below, LICENSEE will hold onto royalties until balance is above such value. If four (4) Consecutive terms pass where balance remains below $50, remaining royalties are returned to LICENSEE and account is closed."

So %50 of what the artist earns, and I get the money if my balance goes above $50...

Well I had this few times, and I actually never earn anything from remixes that I did. Sweet. Although I'm pretty sure the sells were extremely low so I don't blame anyone, I wonder how can I even check if it's dodgy or not.

So how do you do guys ? isn't it better to be paid upfront ? it seems a better way to earn some money.

Anyway, discuss about it, give advices, experience, how much do you ask for, upfront, percentage , how do you check, etc ... share with the forum !!

Are you in a position where a label -will- pay you an upfront fee? i.e. Are you a 'popular' and/or well known artist?

I believe lots of people get cash upfront with no royalties, it all depends on the situation but if you're remixing for people who aren't selling then charge them an upfront! As long as your name's on the remix because then it's promotion too

If it's going to be released by a label there must be some upfront value in it, even if it's just a few hundred dollars. Unless you're doing it strictly for promotional reasons. If you're doing it for free, remix a big song or artist and get it played out by other DJs as a way to get your name out there (even if it never gets released). Then hopefully you'll get noticed and better paying remix work will come your way. But I've heard of typical upfront fees of between $300 to $1500 (higher if you're a big name). As the market has become saturated the big remix fees of old have gone down!

thanks guys for the answer.

Well no, I'm not popular so I guess I cannot ask for upfront.
It just amaze me how many tracks are released everyday and probably most of them don't generate any benefits.

I'll like to know something, timothy, I 've read you were (are) top chart in may, so are you driving a porsche now ? If you don't want to talk about that, just forget about this question.

I'm just wondering how much artists earn really once they have a successful track.
One day, maybe I'll be able to eat something else than Homebrand pasta with Homebrand sauce.

Currently, my most 'successful' tracks have been remixes, which meant I get an up front fee and that's it. The original artist gets all the royalties from the music videos, radio, licensing to compilations, sales etc etc. So if it ships 50k units, I still just get my upfront fee That said, if a track sells 4 copies, I still get my upfront fee... so it's a gamble. However, I do get a ton of publicity and more work because of the successful ones.

This is part of the reason I started mixplant.com now rather than earlier. I'm using some of the publicity off my remixes/singles to push my side business to help out others with their tunes.

hehe, indeed it's a gamble
Thanks for the info tim.

if you can get money upFront GET IT!!!!!
it's almost impossible to get any money from sales nowdays

Hum, I undersand that asking for upfront, is safer, but like Timothy said, who is going to pay upfront an not-so-popular producer, if the label itself doesn't even makes money ?

The Carpet Cleaner wrote: Well no, I'm not popular so I guess I cannot ask for upfront.
It just amaze me how many tracks are released everyday and probably most of them don't generate any benefits.

Welcome to the digital age

The time of fee's/upfront-payments for remixes are long gone as well as most of the advance-payments upon single-releases.
It's a tough time for everyone