The email landed in your inbox: a music label or management company is interested in signing you. They're talking about tour support, marketing budgets, brand partnerships. It sounds like everything you've been working toward. But buried in the contract is a term called a "360 deal" — and if you don't know what that means, you could be handing away far more than you realize.
What Is a 360 Deal in Music?
A 360 deal (also called a "multiple rights deal") is a recording contract where a label or management company takes a percentage cut of multiple revenue streams from your career — not just record sales. The label's argument is simple: they're investing in building your entire career as an artist, so they want to share in the upside across everything.
Before streaming, labels made their money primarily from selling physical records. When streaming gutted record sale revenue in the late 2000s, labels started looking at the other ways artists make money — touring, merchandise, sync deals, endorsements — and started writing contracts that let them take a piece of all of it.
The 360 deal became standard practice at major labels by around 2010. Today, it's so common that many new artists don't even realize it's negotiable.
What Revenue Does a 360 Deal Actually Cover?
The specific terms vary widely, but a typical 360 deal can give the label a cut of:
Recording royalties — the income from streams and digital sales, which is what most people expect a record deal to cover.
Live performance income — a percentage (often 10–25%) of what you earn from touring, concerts, and live shows. This one surprises a lot of artists, because you built that fanbase yourself.
Publishing royalties — songwriting income from your compositions, which is separate from master royalties. Some 360 deals reach into your publishing, others don't. If you want a deeper look at how publishing works, read What Is a Music Publishing Deal? Do Independent Artists Need One?
Merchandise — T-shirts, hats, vinyl, anything you sell with your name or likeness. Labels have taken 10–40% of merch revenue in some deals.
Endorsements and sponsorships — if a brand wants to partner with you because you're gaining visibility, the label may want a cut.
Brand deals, acting, TV appearances — anything that leverages your public profile as an artist.
Not every 360 deal covers all of these. The scope depends entirely on what you negotiate — or what you fail to negotiate before signing.
Why Labels Push for 360 Deals
From the label's perspective, this makes business sense. They front the money for recording, marketing, publicity, and radio promotion. An artist campaign can easily cost six or seven figures before a song charts. Labels are betting that investment pays off — and with streaming payouts as thin as they are, they need additional revenue streams to make the economics work.
Their pitch to you will usually sound something like this: "We're not just signing your music, we're investing in your career. We want to share in your success across everything."
That logic holds if the label is actually providing substantial support: a real marketing budget, a radio campaign, national press, tour support, genuine A&R attention. Some do. Many don't. The question you need to ask is: what exactly are you getting in exchange for handing over 20% of your touring income?
What Independent Artists Give Up in a 360 Deal
If you've built a following on your own — social media, local shows, self-released music — a 360 deal can feel especially lopsided. You created the demand that makes your live shows valuable. You designed the merch your fans buy. The label didn't build any of that.
Consider what this looks like at scale. If you're selling out 1,000-capacity venues at $20 a ticket, that's $20,000 per show before costs. A 20% 360 cut to the label would take $4,000 per night — money earned entirely from work you did before the label was in the picture.
Publishing is another area where artists give away significant long-term value. A song that gets licensed for a commercial or placed on a streaming show can generate royalties for decades. If your 360 deal includes a publishing stake, the label participates in that income for the life of the copyright. For more on why publishing ownership matters, read Music Publishing 101: A Beginner's Guide for Independent Artists.
Master recording ownership is a third area. Some 360 deals include a full master rights transfer, meaning you don't own the recordings themselves. If the label owns your masters and takes a cut of your touring and merch, you're essentially a revenue source for them, not a partner. Learn more in What Is a Master Recording? How Ownership Works for Producers and Artists.
When a 360 Deal Might Actually Make Sense
Not all 360 deals are predatory. If you're genuinely pre-fanbase and pre-budget, and the label is offering substantial infrastructure — real marketing spend, tour support, national publicity, a meaningful advance — then sharing upside across your career may be a fair trade.
The key is that the terms should reflect what you're actually getting. If the label is providing tour support, their touring revenue participation should be capped or time-limited. If they're funding recording, the master ownership terms should be crystal clear. If they're covering marketing, there should be full accounting transparency.
Always get a music attorney to review any recording contract before you sign. Not an entertainment paralegal, not a general practice lawyer — a music attorney who reviews these agreements regularly and knows what's standard versus what's a red flag. Spending a few hundred dollars on legal review before signing can protect years of income.
Protecting Yourself Before Any Deal Conversation Starts
If a label or manager is circling, your first move isn't to lawyer up — it's to document what you already own.
Split sheets for every song. If you've written or recorded anything with collaborators, you need signed split sheets before you enter deal negotiations. Labels will want to know exactly who owns what percentage of each track. Undocumented splits become expensive legal problems when real money is on the table. Read more in What Happens If You Don't Have a Music Split Sheet?
PRO registration. If you're not already registered with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC and your songs aren't in their database, you're leaving performance royalties uncollected. Do this before a label gets involved — once they're in the picture, publishing ownership gets complicated. Need help choosing? Read ASCAP vs BMI vs SESAC: Which PRO Should Independent Artists Choose?
Master recording clarity. If you've recorded independently, you own your masters. Understand that clearly before you sign anything that could transfer or dilute that ownership.
A Letter of Direction on file with SoundExchange. If your music is on streaming platforms, SoundExchange owes you digital performance royalties. A Letter of Direction tells them exactly where to send those royalties. If collaborators are involved, this document determines who gets paid — and it's included in the $5 bundle when you generate your split sheet. Learn more in What Is SoundExchange and How Do You Get Paid?
The split sheet is step one. Get that documentation in place for every track you've made, before you walk into any deal conversation. You can generate a custom split sheet at musicsplitsheets.com/pages/create — it takes about two minutes and costs $3. It's not a substitute for legal counsel, but it's the foundation that legal counsel needs to do their job.
A 360 deal might be the right move for you. But go in with your paperwork in order and your eyes open — not the other way around.