How does it work when an artist gets signed to a record label?
What does the producer do for the artist? What does the artist have to do, still write their own songs, or does the record label write your songs, what about the beats, money deals?
it totally depends on the artist. it can be that the singer is also the songwriter but if not songs are written for them or given to them (with their agreement obviously). the beats go hand in hand with songwriting.
recording facilities and marketing/production are provided by the record label.
money once again varies but the record label get’s more from sales than the artist. the artist can get anything from just 1% to 40% depending who they are.
It does completely vary from artist to artist and the level of creative control also varies from artist to artist. In some cases an artist has recorded and album and the label just picks it up and releases it as is. In some cases a label will find someone who has a few of their own songs but has a great voice and lots of charisma (usually pure pop stars) and they will arrange for co-writes or songs for them to sing and which producers to work with.
A producer generally tries to help an artist make the best album possible. Producers also vary in their approach and the degree to which they get involved. Many of them help with songwriting and arrangement – some of them are more engineering oriented and just help with the recording process and don’t tamper with the song structure or writing too much.
Money deals vary. Most major labels are doing what they call 360 deals whereby in exchange for putting the record out and putting money behind the artist the label gets to participate in all of the streams of revenue that and artist has including publishing, merch, touring, corporate sponsorship etc.
With regard to who keeps what – classically an artist would keep between 10-20 points (percent) of the income generated by record sales after the costs of making and promoting the record had been recouped but this was in an era before labels participated in other revenue streams as well.
Hope that helps.