Hello Ron! We've been debating the idea of signing on, and have had a lawyer review the contract you sent to us. The lawyer had no objections aside from a few minor clarifications of terms. We are looking at it positively, though we are finding that most of the things we view as desirable in regards to signing on are intangible and not offered or defined in the contract itself. There are also a number of questions we would like to discuss before going further. We would first like to bring out into the open details about what we've done so far. --Our album is already in the recording process, and is nearly entirely paid for. --Drum tracks have been recorded, and the remainder of the tracks are currently being recorded. --There are 12 new songs. --Album art in the works. --CD pressing has not been arranged or paid for. Prior to this contract offer, we had intended to pay for our own pressing and reap the full benefits of sales of the album. This is the area that causes us the most concern in regards to signing a contract, so we'd like to share with you our numbers vs. our estimate of what the contract might provide us. In the case that we covered all recording and pressing costs, our total cost for recording and pressing 2000 CD's would be roughly $4500. Selling the CD's at $10 per unit, we could recoup our costs by selling 450 CD's. If we sold all 2000, we stand to make a net profit of $15500. This is obviously not including show pay and other merchandise sales. In the case that we sign on with Rotten, and take a $4000 advance, we estimate that we would need to sell roughly 600 CD's before the advance is paid off. The sale of 2000 additional CD's would net us roughly $2600 (at $10 per unit, 13% royalty per unit). We understand that these numbers are poorly estimated, and may even be highballed in our favor. This also does not include/consider CD's that we would purchase from Rotten and sell on our own. Looking at these numbers alone, you can clearly see where our concerns lie. However we also understand that there are other benefits to signing on that may offset the loss of profit on sales of the album. --Numbers are one - we would expect to sell considerably more than 2600 CD's if we were to sign on. --Being signed to a record label provides a level of credibility and clout that an unsigned band does not have. --We assume that you could/would get us out and playing around the country, booking shows and tours. --Show pay guarantees are expected to be higher for a signed band. --Quality of venues and shows in general are expected to be better than the typical local dive. --We assume that you would provide us with a good level of promotion and exposure. --We assume that you will provide distribution channels that would not normally be available to us. --Given all of the above, our own additional merchandise (T-Shirts, stickers etc.) would likely move faster and in higher volume. These benefits - though desirable - are for the most part intangible and are not mentioned in the contract. We understand that you cannot state them in the contract, but we would gratefully appreciate if you could spell out for us what benefits you can or intend to provide for us that would offset the opportunity cost of pressing our own vs. signing on with Rotten Records. The specific questions we have are as follows: --Will we be provided booking/touring opportunities? --What sort of promotion/distribution do you intend to provide? --How many CD's do you intend to press initially? --Are there limitations on the CD packaging? (we intend to have a multi-page insert) --Are there limitations on the use of the Advance monies? (as our album is already paid for, we would instead spend the money on merchandise, gear, transportation, stage attire/props) --We intend to re-press the Progress CD - Is this allowed under the contract terms? --Is the album (12 new songs) acceptable to you? In regards to the acceptability of the new album - this is our final concern about signing. We are wary about signing any contract until we are certain that the album is viable and acceptable to you. We would be in a difficult situation if we signed and then discovered that you wouldn't accept it as the finished product. In the meantime, we will provide you with our pre-production demos for your review. We can also provide samples of the work in progress as soon as they are available. Thank you for your interest and consideration, we are looking forward to hearing from you and working with you. Please send your response and any further communications to ideamen@gmail.com. Sincerely, Mark Vasquez, Dave Solar and Tim Swanson