ptk921 wrote ...
My friend and I have just VERY recently got a band
together. We havn't even all been together in the same
room. Said friend, Jacob, happens to have neighbors
who own an indie record label ( www.lessavenged.com ).

These label characters have heard Jacob play two or three
songs accompanied by his brother and sister on cello and
violin respectively. No shows have been played, band
hasn't practiced.

Less Avenged wants Jacob to sign with them for a one-cd
deal that will span one year. These are the details:

Seems remarkably suspicious unless you left out some other
salient facts. Especially for a band that does not yet actually
exist in the real world. What is Mr. Avenged's track record
with those other bands? What genre of music would your band
play if they were "together in the same room"? I didn't see much
that would suggest that any ot the other bands were using either
celli or violins.

Jacob has to take care of the recording and pays for it,
then delivers the CD to Less Avenged by August 1st.

Why the short fuse? Seems completely out of touch with
reality for a band that has yet to even schedule the first
practice.

Less Avenged does promotion, merchandising, website
management, and we have to pay for CD manufacturing
through them (1,000 Cds for $950). CD sale profits split
60% to jacob, 40% to Less Avenged. And this is after Less
Avenged has "covered costs" (wait, costs of what?). I'm a
bit hazy on this last part.

Go to a Hollywood (or New York) restaurant and chances
are significant that you will be waited on someone who
would otherwise be independently wealthy from their share
of the movie/CD/whatever if the "costs" hadn't eaten up all
the profits. Have you seen "The Producers"? (Either the
original or the remake.) Do you think it is fiction?