There's a simple negotiating trick that can save you from devaluing your work as a freelance music producer.

Even if you never see a penny in royalties...
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Producers working with indie artists sometimes get confused about whether or not they should ask for royalties.

I've seen a few different approaches...

Some producers opt to only do "work for hire" when working with independent artists.
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They just get a fee for their work and no royalties on the back-end.

The reasoning is that they feel it gives them a competitive advantage in their market.

Another reason is that if the artist is earlier on and not educated about royalties yet, there's a risk you'll confuse them trying to explain it. So some producers just avoid it altogether.

Other producers have a different strategy. They always ask for royalties just in case the song ever blows up.

These producers treat their production fee not as work-for-hire but as an advance. Meaning they don't start receiving royalties until after the artist has recouped the upfront fee they paid.

But even if you're working with indie artists or on smaller projects, there's still a reason why you may want to ask for royalties regardless...

It's a negotiating tool that prevents you from having to devalue your work.

Here's what I mean:

Let's say you typically charge a $1,500 production fee and no royalties.

The artist can't do that, and they want to keep the budget around $1,000.

You're fine with that and you want to avoid an awkward negotiation, but now you're devaluing your work by just immediately lowering your fee.
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The artist starts wondering: "If they would do it for $1,000, then why were they asking $1,500 in the first place?"

However... things change when you ask for royalties.

Now you can lower your production fee in exchange for higher royalties.

Suddenly there's a reason you lowered your fee...

You aren't devaluing your work. You're changing the terms.

Whether the song ever generates royalties for you or not it doesn't matter. Asking for them allows you to be more flexible with your production fees (if you ever need to be) without devaluing your work.
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Produce prosperously,

Daniel from Dark Label​