Gaga's Recording Contract

[gagzus 15,103]

What i get from this is;
 

Spoiler

1) 4.04 disproves fan theories that Gaga can be forced to work with Interscope associated artists like Robin Thicke on the original Sex Dreams- she can make the conscious choice to agree or disagree and change her mind (as she has done many times), it is also how she managed to get out of having to promote DWUW with R Kelly any further as he is a royalty artist on DWUW. It's also how she avoids performing it as he would get royalties.

2) Interscope will not allow her to record music for almost half a year AFTER a studio album is submitted (4.01a3), meaning that this period, plus her schedule and other commitments and her work ethic are the reasons why it often takes from 2 years now for her to make a pop record. As an example; after submitting Born This Way in April she was not allowed to start recording ARTPOP until at least September 2011.

3) If Gaga left interscope when this initial contract draft from 2007 was up she would've needed their permission to perform any songs from Born This Way, ARTPOP, Joanne and Chromatica respectively but was free to perform anything from The Fame and The Fame Monster. 

4) Because she doesn't own her masters, they have the right to use the songs any way they see fit HOWEVER, they must consult her first and she may object, if they use her masters for anything she has not been consulted about then she may either sue them or break her contract. For example, they could use Bad Romance in a Trump re-election campaign if she and the other parties involved (Nadir for example) approved it. 

5) She gets less royalties for picture disc vinyls than a regular vinyl or CD.

6) She MUST chart within the top 50 of the BB200, if not then Interscope can refuse physical release of her albums outside the US.

7) She must use her production costs and distribute her own royalty percentage on her own when SHE choses her producers, which she often does, otherwise interscope will fund other producers salaries and give them cuts of royalties equivalent to their contribution. This explains why she gives her producers a lot more credits such as writing so they can have more of her cut. An example of her not having to do this would be; when Interscope brought in Bloodpop to help in the late stages of Joanne's production, to which she had the right to refuse.

8) Interscope has no obligation to release her music, meaning she could finish an entire album and they can shelve it for as long as they like. But she can still record new music for another release after said album is shelved.

9) Originally Born This Way was only given a budget of just over half a million dollars but after the success of TFM they upped it to $1.5m, then after The Monster Ball started raking in the money and she became bigger, then finalised a $14m budget for recording, marketing and other materials such as the album photoshoot for example.

and finally

10) A BIG ONE FOR FANS; 
She cannot release unreleased songs from her studio album sessions (like NOBTR, Reloaded, BN, Temple etc) unless they're on approved re-releases or otherwise with permission and factors that interscope can determine, for example the rewrite of Heard It On The Radio for ARTPOP instead of her Born This Way sessions and the inclusion of Earthquake in FOHL.

This is why she cannot simply leak or release B-sides on her own as Interscope can sue her for breach of contract.

 

Hopefully the last one makes fans understand why she's never put out some of her older unreleased material.

 

[gagzus 15,103]

Also, Interscope having the choice of her album lengths explains why they also put The Fame Monster out with The Fame, and it explains why she simply couldn't just include BN, Temple and Heard It On The Radio on ARTPOP

[Putang Ina Mo 2,070]

17 hours ago, justhislife said:

Gaga may only use songs intended for a specific album it was written for unless Interscope approves otherwise (3.03)

So in layman's term, she cannot release a song that was an outtake of an old album of hers unless Interscope says yes?

For example, let's say Gaga wants to use Frankensteined (from the original LG6) or Brooklyn Nights (an outtake of ARTPOP) in her future upcoming album, does that mean she is not allowed to use the said songs unless Interscope says yes?

[gagzus 15,103]

Just now, Tangina said:

So in layman's term, she cannot release a song that was an outtake of an old album of hers unless Interscope says yes?

For example, let's say Gaga wants to use Frankensteined (from the original LG6) or Brooklyn Nights (an outtake of ARTPOP) in her future upcoming album, does that mean she is not allowed to use the said songs unless Interscope says yes?

Basically yes. That's why we don't have releases of unreleased tracks to celebrate album anniversaries or a b-sides album.

[Genuine Guy 09 13,941]

17 hours ago, justhislife said:

Gaga may only use songs intended for a specific album it was written for unless Interscope approves otherwise (3.03)

Why nothing on but radio isn't on Chromatica 

Sad 

[Putang Ina Mo 2,070]

6 minutes ago, gagzus said:

7 minutes ago, Tangina said:

So in layman's term, she cannot release a song that was an outtake of an old album of hers unless Interscope says yes?

For example, let's say Gaga wants to use Frankensteined (from the original LG6) or Brooklyn Nights (an outtake of ARTPOP) in her future upcoming album, does that mean she is not allowed to use the said songs unless Interscope says yes?

Basically yes. That's why we don't have releases of unreleased tracks to celebrate album anniversaries or a b-sides album.

So as fans dying to hear her unreleased works, our only hope are leaks. 😂

 

[Head Empty 24,375]

21 minutes ago, gagzus said:

Also, Interscope having the choice of her album lengths explains why they also put The Fame Monster out with The Fame, and it explains why she simply couldn't just include BN, Temple and Heard It On The Radio on ARTPOP

I don't understand the reasoning behind cutting album length short, other than creative differences. Commercially speaking more material usually means more value right?

So that means that either Gaga or someone at Interscope creatively didn't like the material enough to publish it, or thought that it would bring the overall quality of the record down. But that leaves the question why songs like Brooklyn Nights and NOBTR were apparently invested in, approved and mastered for the album, only to be left out in such a late stage. The argument "the album was too long" doesn't make sense to me .

Although for ARTPOP we can always argue that they withheld the songs to release them on the app or ACT II later.

[gagzus 15,103]

16 minutes ago, Tangina said:

So as fans dying to hear her unreleased works, our only hope are leaks. 😂

 

Yup and my guess is, anything that leaks and wasn’t on albums would most likely be out of any consideration for release all together I think 

[gagzus 15,103]

Just now, Why am I on GGD said:

I don't understand the reasoning behind cutting album length short, other than creative differences. Commercially speaking more material usually means more value right?

So that means that either Gaga or someone at Interscope creatively didn't like the material enough to publish it, or thought that it would bring the overall quality of the record down. But that leaves the question why songs like Brooklyn Nights and NOBTR were apparently invested in, approved and mastered for the album, only to be left out in such a late stage. The argument "the album was too long" doesn't make sense to me .

Although for ARTPOP we can always argue that they withheld the songs to release them on the app or ACT II later.

Because when albums are pressed they’re pressed in lossless quality typically FLAC and the longer the album length, the larger the disc space and the larger the disc space the more time they need to press them, plus in the age of streaming the longer the album and it’s tracks; the less streams they can get in the least amount of time.

That’s why back in 2011 she could have a 22 track deluxe album with songs of 4-5 minutes each vs now where she can have an 18-20 track deluxe with songs 3.5 mins and under.

ACT 2 never came out because a) they didn’t have enough finished material to make a new album up and b) she would have had to give Troy his cut because he was associated with the “ARTPOP” project, so any time she performs ARTPOP songs he also gets a cut, same for the streams and sales. Hence why she just moved on and cancelled all the plans she had with him. Same reason the app got cancelled because he had a stake in it.

My guess is the reason Haus Labs was gonna be Haus Beauty originally was because in 2017/18 Troy still had copyright rights to Haus Laboratories from FAME and Eau De Gaga. It was probably the company he sold from under her infamously.  Then she bought the copyright back. 

[NewUsername 11,031]

14 hours ago, justhislife said:

Because labels generally put a whole lot of resources into developing artist. They finance all her projects and use their connections in order to manufacture, distribute, and promote her work. It's not something she could replicate to scale by herself unless she has deep pockets and that creates a reliance on the label. It doesn't help that Gaga owed them money.

It's tragic.

 

14 hours ago, justhislife said:

I'm not sure Gaga is the best with her finances though and she's owed the label in the past. She would also need to build a lot of connections in order to be successful. All these documents just show how much work is involved in her career.

Exactly. Gaga would have to be extremely rich by herself to pull off what she's doing now by herself. Labels have a lot of money, that they put in artists, money that individuals don't have (except if your Bezos )

[Doot 2]

So as it stands now, once Chromatica comes out, how many more albums is she under contract to do through Interscope?

[Doot 2]

Also, I'm surprised nothing about her agreement to be in charge of promo was mentioned within these documents. 

[gagzus 15,103]

2 minutes ago, Doot said:

So as it stands now, once Chromatica comes out, how many more albums is she under contract to do through Interscope?

She has another contractually and an 8th as a choice I believe. Interscope must front as a minimum $3m which means even if Chromatica were to tank she could still at least put together a decent album campaign on par with The Fame. 

She will undoubtably have a review again after the next album I believe and she will probably review some of her non-negotiables. But one thing’s for certain; they will not budge on owning her masters and she will not own her image either. They also won’t budge on her life insurance either.

[NewUsername 11,031]

10 minutes ago, gagzus said:

That’s why back in 2011 she could have a 22 track deluxe album with songs of 4-5 minutes each vs now where she can have an 18-20 track deluxe with songs 3.5 mins and under.

I actually hate this phenomenon tbh, it's detrimental to the quality of music.
People's attention span... + stream quick quick quick and more, like, I-

[gagzus 15,103]

10 minutes ago, Doot said:

Also, I'm surprised nothing about her agreement to be in charge of promo was mentioned within these documents. 

Because she’s always technically been in charge of it, Interscope always gets the final say but Gaga and her management come up with the schedule. Gaga was the one who came up with The Fame schedule of doing clubs after gigs. If Gaga wishes to take a break she has the right however Troy probably never brought it forward as requests as she had been working a busy schedule for years already.

Bobby is her friend and probably allows her to have more freedom, by subsidising the income from promotional opportunities with private events, they also seem to focus more on larger promotional opportunities now and also her health has to be taken into consideration as part of her contract.