Interview: Negotiation and Deal Making

In my Negotiation and Deal Making course I learn the importance and different aspects of deal- making and negotiation. The best way to understand what you may encounter through negotiation and deal making is to encounter or discuss the situations that others who are in the entertainment business may go through. I choose to analyze the founder of this grass roots independent label that I will be interning at to gain more experience in the entertainment industry. The three areas that we discussed in our interview about different situations she may encounter when in the process of negotiation and deal making was positional bargaining, objective criteria and mutual benefit.

When I asked about situations that you may encounter where positional bargaining was displayed, she replied that there are many times where you will come across artist who will not sign off on certain parts o their contract unless they get what they want. There will be many artists that want money in advance which is one of the popular positional bargaining that she encounters. She handles this situation by offering free stylist for performance the artist may have, free studio time or free marketing and promotion.

Objective Criteria is somehow always displayed when making deals and negotiations through out the entertainment business. I asked what are some examples of objective criteria that you use to get artist to sign to your label. I was told that previous artist contracts and research about the artist and the currency value of their previous projects (mixtapes, albums and singles).    

Mutual Benefit was another component in deal making and negotiation that my interviewee stated that she encounters often when getting artist trying to sign to an independent label.  My interviewee explained that mutual benefit is sometimes hard to complete because every party wants their needs meet through the deal or negotiation. Since the label is grass roots and up and coming its hard to promise everything that the artist wants. In order to get the artist to sign and for the artist to receive a decent salary and get at least 75% of their wants she often have to go through investors and third parties to get the artist to sign.

Overall, I learned from my interview that deal- making and negotiation is not easy. I learned that there will be several people that will tell you no, but the key is to somehow make the artist say yes. I learned that you have to use your best strengths and do your research about each artist you try to sign so that your bringing the right artist to your label. Based on the interview positional bargaining, objective criteria and mutual benefit are common situations you will encounter.