The Finnish Music Blog

(Disclaimer: I've not worked in the record production business, but I've worked in event production and handled some contracts between a major recording artist from a big label and an event organiser. For the purpose of this post I've done some research, but some of it is based on things I've learned here and there over the years. Also! This information is based on what I know and researched about this business in Finland. So like, whatever you have heard about idk American artists etc. does not apply here, as different countries have different laws that do affect the way a business like this can work. Warner Music Finland is a Finnish company that is part of a global conglomerate.)

So.

Record labels tend to offer two types of deals: artist deals and licensing deals. What Jere has is an artist deal, meaning that Warner Music takes on the production costs of the music. (In a licensing deal the artist would take on the cost of the production, make everything themselves, and then license the music to a label for them to publish and distribute it for a predetermined amount of time.)

Artist deal contracts are usually based on either 1) the amount of publications, such as albums or 2) a time period. So, the contract might be for, for example, 3 albums that both parties agree to make, or it might be for, for example, one year, during which time the label will publish the music the artist makes. Now, of course, at the end of the day, the label has the last say on whether or not they publish the music at all, and that will be in the contract. So, say someone has a contract that spans one year, but during that year they don't make anything the label likes, the label will not publish it, and the contract will eventually fall through. The artist is then free to make another deal with someone else.

Now, Jere was originally signed by Monsp Records. Monsp Records was sold to Warner in 2019 in its entirety, artists and staff and music catalogue. If you look at the publishing and copyright data on Jere's published work, Cha Cha Cha was originally still released under Warner Music & Monsp Records. It's Crazy It's Party was released under Warner Music only. So, it's safe to assume that sometime during the spring of 2023, Jere signed a new contract with Warner Music and moved on from the Monsp Records roster to "regular" Warner roster. If I had to guess, I'd say his contract was most likely for a set number of albums.

The details of a contract like that are built around the making and publishing of music. That contract means that Jere has to make a certain amount of music for Warner, and Warner publishes it. In return, Warner takes on the cost of making that music: they pay for the studio, they pay any producers and musicians involved - but if Jere wants to, he gets to choose who those people are. His choices seem to be Allu, Kiro, Sonny, Jukka etc. but that does not mean all of these people are under contract with Warner. Think of them as freelancers or session musicians. They are not artists under a contract.

The label appoints an A&R (artists and repertoire) for Jere, and we know that that person is Kalle Lindroth, a musician and former band leader himself. Kalle's job is to support Jere's vision, or create it with him, and just basically help him with whatever he needs. His job is not to tell Jere what to do.

Because that would make no sense.

It is in Warner's interest that Jere is happy with the contract and their relationship. Otherwise he'd just walk. And it's important to remember that Warner cannot change the conditions of their contract by themselves, without Jere agreeing to it.

I'm inclined to believe that Jere is still under the same contract he signed in 2023, because big labels like to use their big artists new contracts as news. "Good news! This big artist has signed another multi-album deal with us!" that sort of thing. I've seen it many times.

But, of course, I don't know. It is entirely possible that he signed for one album and they've signed a new deal after People's Champion.

Either way, to get back to what these contracts are about, they are about who pays what to who, when, who makes what and who has the final say. They will also include things like how much royalties the label pays to the artist.

Warner Music also offers a so called "360 deal" where they take care of everything for the artist, including selling their live shows and making their merch. Now, Warner Live does sell Jere's live shows, but Warner does not seem to own his merch, as he has been free to do with that what he has wanted. So, I'm inclined to say he does not have a 360 deal, but a "regular" record deal and a live show sales deal on top of that.

The point is, it is a contract regarding work. It is a working contract. Under the contract Warner owns the music Jere makes. They do not own his likeness, his face, his voice, or his social media accounts. They do not control who he gets to spend time with.

And they definitely do not get to decide which ones of Jere's friends can make and post Instagram stories with him. There is absolutely no reason why Jere would have signed a contract like that, nor is there really a reason why any record label would ask for such a thing. It's also like. Not legal? For a contract to involve people who did not sign it, you know?

Since signing his contract with Warner Music, Jere has, for example, opened an OnlyFans account. He has refused lucrative deals to hang out with his friends. And even though his social media presence has changed recently, I personally do not see any indication that he was somehow forced to do so by his label. He has continued to post, comment and do funny and weird shit on social media, just a bit less than before. Why he has scaled back, who knows. But it's not like some sort of a record deal staple to force artists in line.

What he does most likely have is a person who is in charge of his marketing and PR. That person most likely does have conversations with him about his use of social media and his public presence. But at the end of the day, Warner knew what they signed up for and Jere doesn't strike me as a person who would sign away his existence (even if that was legally a possibility, which I don't think it is). Any label would happily sign him. He has no reason to sign bad deals.

I get that people are frustrated by what we've heard about Warner, how they've been against the release of certain songs or what type of marketing and brand deals they've brought on to Jere. But all of those are just regular (dumb) music business stuff. Because it is about money. But they are not stupid about it, and it is always in their best interest to keep one of their biggest artists happy. And we have seen proof that Jere will advocate for himself - he started performing the songs Warner didn't like live, because, in his own words, Warner could not stop him. And, as we know, in the end, People's Champion for example ended up on the album. So again, I get that people are frustrated and annoyed, but Warner is a record label business, not a soul eating monster with a gun to Jere's head.

So, tl;dr: There is no world in which Warner can control what Bojan posts on social media, even if Jere is in it, because they do not own Jere. They own his music. Not him. Not his face, not his likeness, not his free time. Just his work. That is all. And whatever work contract Jere has with Warner, has nothing to do with Bojan or frankly even Jukka.

1300 BC: Embalming priests treat the Pharaoh's body.

kuumaa picture of the day #700

this does not. they're playing world of tanks which is like the "call of duty" of tank games (casual, players only slightly bad-smelling). it also doesn't have support for tank peripherals. no game does. no trainers do afaik. which means that (assuming this isn't just a video editing) all of that shit they are fucking with translates into mouse/keyboard inputs that the game understands. that's weird/hard and perplexing, uh, and considering that "tank peripherals" aren't a thing that exist i can only guess they built them theirselves