Six Secrets To Getting The Best Deal On Your Music Catalog #3: Hire a Specialist

Secret #3: Hire a Specialist

By Gary Young, EVP and co-founder, Royalty Exchange

If you’re in legal trouble, you hire a lawyer. If you want to sell your house, you hire a real estate agent. If you want a hit, you hire a songwriter.

We don’t know how to book shows or negotiate label contracts. We know investors. We know what they want. And we know how to present opportunities to them.

It’s all we do. Imagine for a moment that you’re going to get heart surgery next month. And imagine you have the choice of two doctors:

Doctor 1 does a few heart surgeries a year. He also has a family practice and spends a lot of time giving people antibiotics for strep throat. He even does house calls for his elderly patients.

Doctor 2 does 4-5 heart surgeries a week. That’s all she does. She’s a cardio-thoracic surgeon… she spent 4 years after graduating medical school specializing in doing heart surgery. She’s spent long hours studying all the details and nuances of the human heart. She dreams about it.

Who do you pick to do the surgery when the stakes are high? Doctor 2. Of course. You want the specialist. It seems obvious no?

But I see artists like you make this mistake all the time. You have a good lawyer and a great business manager. Maybe they both do a few catalog deals a year for their other clients. Your lawyer also negotiates your publishing deals. Handles copyright disputes. Figures out the right split sheets. And helps you get clearances for the samples you want to use.

Your business manager keeps the books, pays your taxes, collects the money, reports on it to you, and pays your mortgage when you’re on the road touring. This is not a knock against them. They’re valuable and a key part of your team.

But they’re like Doctor 1. They’re generalists.

And when it comes to a big deal like selling your catalog, you’re going to want a specialist handling the deal. I talk to a lot of great lawyers and business managers that do 4-5 catalog deals a year.

We do at least 5 catalog deals a week.

We don’t do anything else. We’ve built a specialized machine and system for getting you the highest price for your catalog. And our business model means we don’t make money unless you make money. In fact, the better your result, the better our business does. We’re in this together.

Your lawyers, managers, and business managers can be great counselors for you. But they’re not going to get the kind of results a specialist will get when it comes to catalog deals. You’re only going to do a few catalog deals in your life.

After more than 875 catalog deals, we know the perils and pitfalls of selling your catalog. We know what songs investors will pay a fortune for and we know what songs they won’t be interested in. We know how to create the perfect environment so that you get the highest and best price possible.

Hire a specialist to sell your catalog. You’re leaving money on the table otherwise.

And if you don’t want to work with us, I have a few trusted attorneys that do specialize in catalog deals and I’d be happy to introduce you to them if we’re not the right fit.