Record contract red flags: what to check before you sign

Before anything: get your own lawyer

Not the label's. Not a friend's. A music attorney who represents artists, paid by you. It is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy, and courts have repeatedly upheld harsh contracts precisely because the artist had access to advice and signed anyway (see George Michael v. Sony).

The red-flag checklist

Ownership

• Who owns the masters? If the label owns them in perpetuity, your recordings are theirs forever. Push for a reversion (ownership returns to you after a term) or a license deal (you keep masters, they distribute for a period).

Term & exit

• How many albums, and how long? A long multi-album "option" deal can freeze your career (see JoJo). Know your local law — California, for example, caps personal-service contracts at seven years.
• Is there a release commitment? Make them obligated to release your music on a timeline, or you can be shelved.

Money

• What's recoupable, and at what royalty rate? Everything recoupable + a low rate = you may never get paid. Run the recoupment math.
• Cross-collateralization? Try to strike it — it lets one project's debt swallow another's earnings.

Scope

• Is it a 360 deal? If the label takes a cut of touring, merch, and publishing, ask what they actually do to earn it — and cap or remove the streams they don't build.

Rights & control

• Image, name, and creative control — who decides? Can you re-record later (the lever Taylor Swift used)?
• Audit rights — can you inspect their accounting? If you can't audit, you can't trust the statements.

Questions to ask out loud

1. "Do I keep my masters — and if not, when do they revert?"
2. "What exactly is recoupable, and what's my royalty rate?"
3. "Are you obligated to release my music, by when?"
4. "How and when can I leave this deal?"
5. "What do you take outside of recordings, and what do you provide for it?"
6. "Can my lawyer and I audit your accounting?"

If the answers are vague, that is the answer.

The takeaway

A contract is just a list of who gets what when things go right. Read it as if you'll be a success — because the painful deals are the ones signed by artists who did succeed. If a deal can't survive these questions, staying independent is the stronger hand.