At Proton, a record label's accounting with artists is entirely automatic. Statements, payments, and even expenses are handled by Proton. This saves lots of time!
This advanced FAQ/guide is for label owners who want to setup Remix Fees on their releases, to help recoup costs paid to remixers before artists start getting paid.
The Normal Way
When creating an expense inside Proton, you'll have the option to select a "Remix Fee" -- this is the normal way most of our labels recoup their remix costs.
With this approach, a remix fee is declared on the remix only -- and royalties are recouped from both the original artist and the remixer.
However, this approach ONLY recoups the remix fee from the remix itself. While this is the normal approach for many labels, it's not always the best or most powerful option.
The Advanced Way
To better recoup your remix fee and potentially go bigger (bigger fees for bigger artists), there's a more advanced way to do business.
In this advanced approach, the remix fee is recouped not only from the remix, but all the tracks on the release. Here's how it works:
Instead of creating a "Remix Fee" expense, you instead create 2 "Artist Advance" expenses. One for the remixer, and one for the original artist getting remixed.
In this approach, you'll declare some percentage of the remix fee for the original artist and another percentage of the remix fee for the remixer. In most cases, it's 50/50, but it's up to you and the artists how to handle it.
For example, if you paid $100 for a remix, you might declare it this way:
$50 Artist Advance, for the Original Artist
$50 Artist Advance, for the Remixer
But here's the big difference: when creating the expense for the Original Artist, you'll select not only the remix itself, but *all the other tracks on the release.*
This allows you to recoup the remix fee more quickly because the Original Artist will have deductions across all their tracks on the release, not just the remix.
IMPORTANT: This approach means the original artist would not get any royalties on their release until the remix fee is recouped.
For this reason, it's usually a VERY good idea to discuss with the original artist and make sure the remixer is someone they're excited about.
A good way to do this: at the beginning of your release development, tell the original artist you'd like to make a bigger investment to get a solid remixer onboard for their release, but only a remixer they'd be excited about.
When speaking to the original artist, we recommend:
Explain that only a portion of the remix fee will be recouped from all their earnings on the release. For example, 50%.
Give the original artist a list of potential remixers you're thinking about and ask them to remove any names they're not excited about.
This way, the original artist understands and is excited about the remixer!
And if the original artist agrees, this gives you a powerful pitch to the remixer: you'll only be recouping 50% of their remix fee from their royalties, not the full amount, so they'll start getting earnings from their remixer faster than the usual way.