Tween metal trio signed for $1.9M
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Signed … Malcolm Brickhouse (L), Jarad Dawkins (C) and Alec Atkins (R) of tween heavy metal band Unlocking the Truth have inked a $ 1.9 million record deal with Sony. Picture: Facebook
Source: Supplied
LAST summer a Brooklyn boy band performed on a Times Square street corner to collect spare change.
They filmed their performance and posted it on YouTube.
It went viral with 1.5 million views.
Now they’ve turned that exposure into cold, hard cash. Unlocking the Truth just inked a whopping $ US1.8 million ($ 1.9 million) Sony record deal.
“I’m so excited! We’ve made it!” 12-year-old drummer Jarad Dawkins told the
New York Post
.
“We were discovered on YouTube,” Dawkins continued, shouting over the noise at a New Jersey stadium where the boys were scheduled to perform on Friday night.
“After that we started getting calls and performing more and as we performed we got bigger and bigger,” the pre-teen said.
The street sessions were supervised by the group’s “mumager”, 13-year-old guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse’s mother Annette Jackson.
Bassist Alec Atkins, 13, completes the trio.
The band’s manager, Alan Sacks, said a Sony exec called him after seeing the viral video.
Sacks says the boys have a chance of becoming the new face of rock because they are unique — black artists excelling in heavy metal, a genre typically dominated by white musicians.
The seven-figure Sony contract was submitted for a Manhattan judge’s approval on Friday because the musicians are minors.
The deal includes 16 to 17 per cent in royalties, a fee that’s slightly above the industry average, said entertainment attorney Richard Wolfe.
The deal is particularly impressive for artists without a track record, added Wolfe, who has repped Mariah Carey and Marilyn Manson.
But there is a hook on the exclusive five-album deal — the boys will only see the real money after an initial $ US60,000 advance if their first album sells over 250,000 copies.
Another industry expert, James Sammataro of the law firm Stroock, called that bar “extremely high” noting that Beyonce’s last album sold just over 600,000 units.
“The question is whether Sony is committed to seeing whether these precocious rockers can change the face of rock if their YouTube success does not — as often is the case — immediately translate into paid downloads,” he added.
Read more at the
New York Post.
