Hi All,
Speaking on behalf of the Evolution team here. CGR, our manager Dave will be emailing your directly but just wanted to clear some things up on this thread.
Regarding the main clause that people have taken issue with (11.6.5), I’d like to clarify what this means. As per the bit in capitals, this recoupable would only ever be applicable when agreed before the release of a track, so it would never be forced upon a composer. CRG using your example of a £1,500 sync, it would be a straight 50/50 split after the recoupable mastering fee of £25, so in no way would you be getting a 90/10 split. To be explicitly clear on this, we will not touch your writers share of 50%. The performance share of royalties always comes to you via your PRO and we never see it. The mechanical royalties are paid out by us every 6 months, this is 50/50 on royalties received. To be up front on this clause, after 86 albums released at market this has not been used once. The reason it is in the contract is purely to cover us legally. For instance, if a composer was on an advance and didn’t deliver mixes that were of a releasable standard, forcing us to hire a mixing engineer to sort. Personally, I feel its unlikely this clause will ever be used because if mixes are not up to scratch, we usually know fairly on in the curation process.
As has been mentioned by others on this thread, we do indeed invest considerable amounts of money on each album with extensive curation (currently 5 producers curate all material), artwork, and all associated background tasks. We also invest in recording where needed, having recorded in Budapest (Strings for our Natures of Wonder release) and Abbey Road (Strings & Guitar for our Plucky & Playful release).
Mastering is handled by various outsourced mastering engineers, all of whom are incredibly talented, and we feel deliver the highest standard for the market. Artwork is also outsourced to a variety of highly talented artists.
We are a 7 person strong team based in the UK, sub published with BMG, Sonoton, Groovers, and many others. We are all composers and writers, from the executive to the curation team. The business was started by our executive as a route to encourage emerging talent, and has always had the composer in mind. We are always on hand for a Skype, call, email, or face to face (in London, Brighton, or Manchester). We have never, and never will, scam composers.
So please contact us at
[email protected] and we would be more than happy to go through anything else with you. We’d be more than happy to provide a full copy of our standard contract to anyone that needs it also.
All the best
Josh
Music Curator & Production Assistant