The 360 deal that most record labels are going after, are very new in today's music industry. The 360 deal was first introduced to the recording industry by Robbie Williams and EMI in 2007 and have since been the main stay of most major record deals. 360 deals are contracts that allow a record label to receive a percentage of the earnings from all artist activities instead of just record sales. Under 360 deals, also called "multiple rights deals," record labels may get a percentage of things that were previously off limits to them, like: Ringtones, Endorsement deals, Merchandising Sales. Despite the splitting of revenue, many artists are continuing to sign these types of deals because the major labels offer many resources and connections that most artists could never achieve on their own. Critics of the 360 deals would argue that these types of deals do not work for an artist. They would say that the emergence of 360 deals within the recording industry is a pure reflection of greed upon the record labels behalf. While there are some recording artists who have grossed enormous amounts of income as a result of the deals, others have suffered miserably. Despite the critics, supporters, such as myself, would describe the emergence of the 360 deals as a necessity based on the changing market conditions, causing a continued reduction in revenue derived from record sales, physical and digital collectively. We look at 360 deals as a way of branding the artist or band, providing them access through various commercial outlets. “Branding of artists opens up revenue streams that would have been entirely unattainable by artists before entering into a 360 Deal. Despite the differences regarding the relevance of the 360 deal, one thing that’s not up for debate is the 360 deal as the “New Industry Standard.”
References:
1)Day, W. (n.d.). Warning: Hip Hop Artist Need to Know About Today’s 360 Record
Deals « Davey D's Hip Hop Corner-(The Blog). Davey D's Hip Hop Corner.
2)Ostrow, J. (n.d.). The Musician's Guide To The 360 Record Deal - MTT - Music Think
Tank. MTT - Music Think Tank.
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