Before You Sign, Learn to Read It Yourself
This site won't tell you if your contract is fair. No website can — that takes someone who's actually read your document, in your state, knowing your history. What this site can do is teach you to spot the questions that matter, so you know when you're in over your head.
Can you answer these questions about the deal in front of you?
What rights are you giving away?
What expenses can be deducted?
How long will you be committed to the deal?
Will you own/control your works?
What happens when the deal ends?
If you can't answer all five with confidence, that's not a failure — most artists can't, especially early on. It just means you're not ready to sign yet, and you have some homework to do first.
I built this site because I kept seeing the same five or six mistakes on repeat — different artists, same clauses, same regret. Most of it isn't complicated once someone points it out. That's what this site is for.
Note: I write and review the content here myself. Where AI tools are used to help draft or organize material, that's disclosed — and none of it replaces me actually looking at your contract.
The Free Checklist (If You Want It)
Artist Contract Survival Checklist
This is a starting point for a conversation with a lawyer, not a substitute for one. It exists to help you ask better questions when you do talk to someone — including me.
(email required — you'll also get one plain-English lesson a week)
What This Site Is and Isn't
It is: a place to build enough literacy that you know what you don't know, and can spot when a deal needs a professional look before you sign.
It is not: legal advice, a substitute for reviewing your specific contract, or a guarantee that following this content will catch everything in your situation. Every deal has details — your state's default rules, your prior catalog, your co-writers, your leverage — that no checklist can see. AI-assisted tools on this site can make mistakes. When money, rights, or years of your career are on the line, talk to a licensed attorney who has actually read your document.
Start Here…no email required.
Read a free article. These aren't teasers — they're the actual explanations, in full, no signup wall.
Here's the Deal (Tuesdays) — one contract concept explained in plain English, with a real clause example. I've Seen This Before (Fridays) — a real, anonymized situation and specifically what went wrong and why.
Here’s the Deal
Producer Deal’s Explained: What Happens When a Producer Foots the Bill?
The Producer Wants 50%. What Artists Should Know Before Agreeing to Producer Splits
I’ve Seen This Before
He Thought It Was an Administration Deal. It Took Him Fifteen Years to Learn He Was Wrong.