Getting Prepared

I reconnected with one of my fellow alumni from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. For his privacy I will use a different name, Bill. He is a professional music engineer now, in addition to being an aspiring music producer. He has conducted several negotiations, but only had one negative experience during his 4 years as an industry professional. That is a refreshing fact to hear. Most aspiring producers, including myself, have paid our dues in numerous negative experiences in this industry.

Considering the negotiation and deal making lessons I am learning now, I paid attention to what Bill shared with me about his negotiation experiences. I learned that Bill has chosen to keep things simple in his collaborations and negotiations by offering a mutual benefit gain with a 50/50 agreement. Even if the creative split was not really 50/50, Bill still offered this to avoid the personal issues that could come up in collaborations. Bill shared how some people will try to dominate the collaboration. His preference is to not collaborate with someone he cannot be friendly with. However, if necessary to still work with a dominating personality, he would negotiate his agreement upfront, so if the song is used for commercial purposes, the agreement is set. Bill normally conducts his studio sessions to end with filling out a split sheet. His priority is to keep the creative process flowing, with few to zero technical interruptions. That is admirable.

Bill’s negative experience was in relation to collaborating with an artist who had a conniving personality. The artist expressed a lot of lip service, but did not deliver the deal he portrayed to Bill. Instead of having a deal with a record label, the artist had a business connection with a company that distributed music to DJs. As a result of this dirty trick, there was very little to negotiate and Bill decided to end that music collaboration.

I am aware that everyone will have a different experience in negotiating, but I appreciate the mutual benefit gain concept that Bill has decided to practice. Bill advised me to be aggressive to get the most of what I can get. I am looking forward to it!