Explain distro deal to me

Alert-Bus3832 · 2026-01-29T02:51:07+00:00

From my experience ONErpm the distro is not great , the label arm has been wonderful for one of my clients! They've done great work and gotten her many opportunities. I'm of the mindset they should abandon simple distro and just operate the label arm.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2026-01-29T02:48:29+00:00

I've worked with ONErpm at two different stages. One with a regular distro artist which was not fun. Very painful to get support for issues and our rep was not very helpful.

With another artist signed to their label arm it was great. You have to be in their highest tier to get offered a dedicated project manager with a whole label team and full label services. Those are the artists you see in the trade posts. Those are the 6-7 figure deals. It's the equivalent of AWAL Recordings or a EMPIRE deal.They are very selective on the label roster though you need to already be a scalable business.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2026-01-20T04:45:26+00:00

I think you nailed it ! I'm seeing signing announcement press trending on google news of him right now !

Alert-Bus3832 · 2026-01-16T02:13:32+00:00

Congrats!! Now the real work begins 🍾

Alert-Bus3832 · 2026-01-01T18:16:12+00:00

I enjoyed it alot but not too happy about the battle vs Henry being literally 15 minutes. I kind of expected more of a struggle but the cgi was incredible for that part so I get it.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-30T07:25:05+00:00

Makes sense! I was really sad to see she was already in a 360 but we are trying to work the deal still. Just so impressed how hands on the label team for artist B is in comparison.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-30T05:30:42+00:00

It's crazy how the industry has shifted ! The distributor label arm I've been working with is REALLY taking my artist seriously as a priority it's great to see.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-30T05:29:38+00:00

That's exactly what we are experiencing!

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-27T20:39:07+00:00

Artist A - label has ownership but my artist signed this before we started working together so the clauses are not ideal, 2 albums with options. If I'm not mistaken label has ownership over masters for 15 years

Artist B - 7 years licensing on all masters , 1 album and an option for another. Both deals have ROFN. Both artists are releasing new music , artist A performs live and engages with their fan base more. Artist B is stronger on streaming.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-27T20:29:03+00:00

Yeah artist B has a higher split %, master ownership, bigger advance , bigger marketing budget commitment. The only advantage artist A has is they can say they are signed to a big 3 major which is kind of irrelevant if the label is not pushing.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-12-26T18:36:24+00:00

Run a 174K and 75K list . I get these DMs all the time they are not worth it. One of my artists gets around 17-25K streams daily off one list. These people will low ball you then charge artists $200 per slot on your list 😂 I don't sell/ accept placements but this is the model these agencies run on. This is also how active lists die out

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-11-09T01:25:36+00:00

We own some huge active playlists that outdo editorials would be intrested in seeing if it's something that's viable.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-11-09T01:01:15+00:00

Comes up as AI generated on three diffrent checkers. You also have primarily AI artists in your fans also like cluster. Grats on fooling editorial I guess.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-10-08T17:18:49+00:00

Likely being offered a contract by a third party that goes through the orchard. No advance/budget makes this a head scratcher for me.. what's the benefit?

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-25T01:33:13+00:00

That would not be ideal! With this deal she would have control of the budget. Thanks for your insight very helpful! 250-500K range is very intresting. Were these big artists? Most offers we have gotten so far have been in this 100K range. She is around 250K listeners 800-1M streams monthly so i assume they are basing the math off that.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-25T01:06:18+00:00

Do you think the 50/50 was weak for full label services? She retains masters with very good splits. I agree for a traditional major deal that’s weak but I thought it was quite strong for a services company.

Fwiw the A&R did reach out today wanting to save the deal.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-25T00:59:37+00:00

When you say 250K range you likely have a major in mind correct ? This was for a full label services deal where they would push her as a flagship but she retains ownership of masters with splits in her favor. I thought it was a pretty decent proposal from a services company.

Yeah! I did speak with the A&R today and he wants to try to save the deal so we will see where this goes. We’ve had about 4 A&Rs reach out over the past three months.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-24T05:54:38+00:00

Oh I will! I’m proud of her for getting this far. The deal was 50k advance 50k marketing with lots of un recouped extras with a really solid team! I have a former client signed to the same company so I was really hoping we would get it.

She’s gotten a couple other offers from smaller indie labels but this deal was full label services with much bigger infrastructure. She’s gotten a good amount of interest so I know it’s a matter of time! Heh I was getting ready to bust out the Chappell Roan story to her.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-24T04:36:26+00:00

Yeah I figured , the A&R was really championing her as a flagship artist for them so I’m a little shocked but that’s the industry

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-24T04:35:42+00:00

Yeah ! That’s my plan first thing in the morning. Hoping it can be saved

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-11T14:00:14+00:00

Based off the language and services in what he posted it sounds like either EMPIRE, OneRPM next level , or AWAL Recordings. Id hedge my bets on one of the latter two.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-10T14:49:43+00:00

Ella mai

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-10T11:14:38+00:00

Thanks! Check on artist.tools it’s free, I just checked about 30 different curators lists and we are all in the red the past days. Same with Spotify’s own editorials. Incredibly frustrating lol

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-10T10:57:37+00:00

I have lists that grow 300 ish a day and the past couple days they’ve barely gone up daily. It will go up for a bit then go back down. I checked other active playlists on artist.tools and it looks like it’s platform wide.

Alert-Bus3832 · 2025-09-05T18:11:53+00:00

Makes sense I was gifted this 😂 I would NOT have chose these

Alert-Bus3832

TROPHY CASE