When you sign a 360 deal, you are not just giving up a bigger royalty cut, you are handing over slices of income streams the label had nothing to do with building. Touring revenue, merchandise profits, endorsement deals, publishing income, and even fan club money can all fall under the label’s commission. Count every stream before you sign away a piece of it.
Touring is usually the biggest shock. Labels typically take ten to twenty percent of your gross touring income, sometimes more. On a tour grossing a million dollars, that is up to two hundred thousand dollars to the label for showing up to nothing. And that commission often applies before your touring costs, meaning you can lose money on the road while the label profits.
Merchandise and endorsements follow the same pattern. The label takes its cut of your t-shirt profits and your brand deals, even when their marketing team never touched those opportunities. Publishing is the quietest killer: giving up a share of your songwriting income affects your earnings for decades, long after the record deal itself is a memory.
Before signing, list every dollar you currently earn and every dollar you plan to earn, then apply the label’s commissions to each line. The total is your real cost of the deal, and it is always bigger than the advance they dangled in front of you. Negotiate carve-outs for income you built independently, cap the commissions, and set expiration dates on every stream you give up.
Add up the real cost before you sign anything. List every income stream, apply every commission, and look at the total clearly. The advance is a loan, the commissions are forever, and the math does not care about your dreams. Run the numbers like a business, because that is exactly what you are.
About the Author – Ruben Burgos: Ruben Burgos brings over 25 years of music expertise and more than 15 years of model guidance to the table. He is the indie major pinnacle to retaining credits for musicians and helping them navigate this wicked industry without the fuckery.