What’s the bag look like on a platinum single? Part 2 ft/ Corbett

Part one covered the structure. This one is about the gap between what the structure promises and what shows up.

Three things eat the difference

Three things eat the difference, and none of them are anybody cheating you.

The first is the advance. It was real money and you already spent it, but it was also a loan against the points, so the points earn nothing new until they have paid it back. Producers who take the biggest advance available sometimes wait years to see a second check, and that is the deal working as designed.

The second is administration. Publishing collection, distribution, and any admin deal you signed all take a percentage before the balance moves on. Individually these are small. Stacked, on a record with a lot of hands on it, they are not.

The third is the split you agreed to informally and never wrote down. If three people were in the room and two remember it differently, the money sits unallocated while that gets resolved, and unallocated money is slow money.

The one that is actually in your control

The fix for the third one is the only one fully in your control, and it costs nothing: get the split in writing on the day, before anyone knows whether the record matters. The producer business guide covers what that document needs to say.

Corbett's account of the second half is in the video at the top of the page.