Kalistani Major History

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ARC to distribute FOMAT 9 Concert Album
Excellence in Talent leads many fans to demand Preservation of Event
Sulari, Suldanor
January 2, 4880


Album Cover Draws heavily on Selucian Festival Theme

FOMAT 9 might have been completed a couple of years ago, but due to exceptional performances at the contest and large scale demand among the listening population in Kalistan, ARC Records in Sulari has secured the publishing rights for the live performance of the show from FOMAT.

"It's a fairly cut and dried deal," said ARC spokesman Jacob Holly. "ARC accompanied Kalistan's entry Salgo to the show intending to make a recording of just their performance to use on later records as like a B-Side or something... You know when your star is on the rise, people start scrambling for any and all content. Well, Jan from Salgo asked the engineers if they would just record the whole show, and so ARC worked with the sound crew at the show to tap into the feed to the boards and pull off a direct recording of the show. It ended up turning out phenomenally."

The benefit of the direct feed recording instead of a side stage or pit recording is that in the non-direct recordings rely simply on a two track recording of the concert, and the crowd noises often drown out the performers. "Think of your own experience at huge concerts. The acoustics mess with the sound and there is invariably a superfan standing next to you losing their s--t keeping you from enjoying the concert. That is how every single fan heard the show," said Holly. "With the direct recording, we got to put an eight track recorder onto the sound board and individually mix all channels. We got crowd noises via the mics when the songs went down, but we didn't have to play with acoustics, we got to mix each channel to come out with a pristine recording, and we now get to deliver the songs not as the audience heard them, but as the artists played them. And that is a dramatically different show."

The Record, which contains the recorded live performance of all FOMAT 9 Contestants, without regard to where they eventually placed in the show, will be made available both in the Republic and internationally, and it will be available on all international streaming services, all after the debut of the record on January 20 of this year. "We have worked out deals with all the performers and the show promoters themselves. The FOMAT organization was paid an undisclosed, but significant amount of money for recording and publishing rights, and all revenue that sales of the record and streams of the record generates will be placed in escrow, to be paid out monthly in 13 equal shares, one for each artist or band, and one for the record Company, until costs of ARC are recouped, and then all revenues will be divided equally among all the artists."

This royalties escrow account is aimed to continue to generate residual revenues for artists who performed at FOMAT. "You might say it is the first licensing arrangement for music that I have heard of," said Holly, "to make sure Artists are paid a fair amount for a demanded product, while continuing to honor our commitment to free and open dissemination of music as far and as wide as possible." Holly said that ARC is looking into a way to create licensing deals like this with other artists as well, to ensure that residuals can be paid to artists without the need to enforce monopoly and copyright in the Republic and internationally.

"At ARC, our mission is to make sure those artists who record get the best deal possible. We were started by artists who were getting ripped off by major labels like KMI, and now that we are their chief rival, and operate over an equal market share in Kalistan, we are beginning to explore ways to expand our relationship with our artists while not fundamentally altering our core philosophies of putting Artists first and more importantly making sure they are paid for the things they do."

As Holly said, the ARC recording of FOMAT 9 in Selucia will be released on January 20. Physical media (Vinyl and CD) will hit stores that day both locally and internationally, and streaming will be available as well. In Kalistan, physical media will come with an individual code for electronic download of the album to compliment the physical copy. The full electronic download will also be available for purchase on the Label's website.