When Counting Crows got signed to Geffen records in 1992 I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The first thing they did was give us $26,000 each so we could write and rehearse without any work related excuses. Then they gave us $40,000 more to buy new gear so we'd sound our best. I ordered a new drum set and bought nine new Zildjian cymbals. All we had to do in return was have a hit record. "No problem." we thought, with the same stupid confidence that had helped us land a major label deal in the first place. What followed was an eye opening look at how the industry works on it's highest level. 

It started with the courting process. The first class plane flights and lobster dinners I'd heard of were true. Another fabled perk was getting a tour of "the Vault", which was the room filled with every record on the company's catalog. A vault tour meant you got to take your pick of anything you wanted for free and at the time Geffen had Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Aerosmith, Hole, Gun N' Roses, Joni Mitchell, and much more. All free! I picked up Peter Gabriel's entire collection! One of the albums in the Vault was stacked a little higher than the rest. It was a CD from a hair band called "Roxy Blue" Their logo had a lipstick kiss for the 'O' in Roxy, and the picture of the band on the back, with their hair and scarves and fringe... They looked, well, flammable! We used them to temper our excitement and to remind us that not everyone on this level makes it in the end. "Don't want to be Roxy Blue'd" we'd say.

With a huge budget we were able to secure T-Bone Burnett as our producer and the label's deep pockets allowed us to take our time and record without worrying about how much we spent or how long it took. Then when the record was finished we were given a big push by the company to radio and press, and put out to tour until the record took off and we were successful. And we did become successful. Our first record went the way every band dreams it will with a major label, with a big hit song out of the gate and a nice long stay in the Billboard top ten. But without great luck and timing things could have been very different. It could have gone the way so many other record deals went back then and devolved into a slow, gut-wrenching waste of time. We could have ended up in the same spot many of our friends were in; cursing the day they signed their "Major Label Deal".

We had friends in a band called The Green Things who had signed a major deal before us. When it happened they got a bunch of local press and had a big party at a nightclub in town. But in between the time they recorded their record and the time it was released Nirvana's Nevermind came out, and suddenly the people at their label wanted the Green Thing's record to be a little dirtier and more passionate. Nirvana was a hit after all and these were "new times"! So they spent a whole bunch of money remixing the record. Then they asked them for more songs and recorded them. They shot new pictures and badgered them into changing the artwork on the disc. And in the end, after waiting and watching and redo-ing, the Green Things record was shelved. The band was stuck without money to tour, without a record in the stores, and without any control of their destiny. They couldn't get another record deal because they were still signed to the label that wouldn't (and didn't) release their record. Soon the label was hot on newer signings and was willing to take The Green Things as a tax write off. The members of the band were forced to hang in there and hope something changed (not likely), or give up their name and songs and start again from the beginning. 

When you sign a deal one of the things a band negotiates for is "Points". Points are short for percentage points and you try to get as many as possible. For "August and Everything After" we got 18 points. Since most bands were topping out at 16 points back then it was a big deal at the time. Of course the points you negotiate get reduced as different people are cut in. The producer gets 2-4 points depending on how big he/she is, and other people like writers, managers, agents, etc. can get cut in as well depending on what you agree to. When we were in the middle of negotiating we heard that Salt N Pepa had agreed to 8 points on their deal (what?) and were now both hugely successful and dead broke at the same time.

You are entitled to your points only after the band breaks even on all the advancement/recording/touring/promotion costs. When a band reaches this break through it is called Recouping. Recouping is a magical time because it means you can finally start making record royalties. It's also an amazing feat in that it is rarely accomplished - even by some bands you would consider successful. Here's how it happened with Counting Crows.

"August and Everything After" was recorded for an astounding $600,000. The cost of the radio promotion was another couple hundred thousand. The video for the first single, Mr.Jones, came in at $125,0000 and the video for the second song, Round Here, was $180,000. On our first tour we opened for the Cranberries. They had a hit song and didn't need our help filling venues so they paid us $250 per night for the band. We paid ourselves $400 dollars a week each to tour. (A salary so low I moved back in with my parents.) Six band members and three crew. 9 times $400. $3,600 a week in salaries and we were only making a little over $1000 a week total. Now add to that the expense of gas, food, and hotels on the road and you can see we were losing lots and lots of money. Fortunately we had Geffen to pick up the difference. Of course, the "tour support" was added to the money we already owed them. 

Our record did well thanks to some lucky breaks and great timing. We were in the Mtv "Buzz Bin", which meant they played our video almost every hour of the day. We also got onto Saturday Night Live and Letterman. We got the cover of Rolling Stone. These things helped get the ball rolling and we were able to "move a lot of units" as they said downtown. But even when our record was a "hit" we still hadn't recouped. 

We stopped through L.A. to play some shows and the record company put on a nice party at a swanky restaurant to celebrate the fact that our record had gone gold. A gold record represents 500,000 copies sold and was a huge deal. The party would have been even more enjoyable if we weren't still a long way from recouping. Even with a gold record, we still had to sell over 330,000 MORE copies before we could start making royalties. But here's the kicker. Remember the "points"? After we'd paid off all the debt to the record company (including the party they threw for us) we would only be receiving 18 percent of our sales for the record, minus the points that had gone to different other people in the process. Whew!

"August and Everything After" went on to sell very well and everything worked out in the end. The record peaked at number four and sold over 7 million copies. The major label experience was great to me, but I'm still amazed at how lucky the whole thing was and how fortunate I was to be there for the ride.

Today major labels are teetering on the brink of extinction and I may have been in one of the last generations to enjoy the excesses of "getting signed". Two things happened that changed things drastically. First was computer downloading. Once people learned they didn't have to pay for music many chose not to and it cost the labels hundreds of millions of dollars. The second thing, though, was a blow that hurt them even further, and that was the way the industry reacted to computer downloading. Rather than look for an angle of opportunity in the new era. Rather than observe the medium and figure out how to capitalize. Rather than reinvent themselves in some capacity, the label execs showed their age by fighting and suing and trying to crush the new standard. Record labels had been fat and drunk with wealth for so long that they couldn't react to the changes. And so, like the dinosaur, we will move on without them.

Most of the labels that courted Counting Crows in the early nineties have merged or gone out of business, and the ones that are left are still trying to play a modern game with old ideas. Labels are still suing random downloaders for example, to "send a message" they say. But the message getting to the teenagers, who used to be the largest record buying demographic, is threatening and is making the labels even less relevant. People can make records in their bedrooms now, and Mtv doesn't play videos anymore. And in the last twenty years the perception of major labels has gone from "the cool older brother who showed you the latest bands" to "Principal Skinner from the Simpsons". 

Reasons to sign with a Major:

They have lots of money to record your music and keep you on the road

They have big connections to radio, TV, and press

They have great distribution to get your record in the stores

The possibilities are, well... MAJOR!

The downside:

You make a pittance per record sold

You give up sole creative control 

You will be dropped if you don't get a "hit" 

Your odds of success are better with an Indy label 

Next time: Independent Labels