I have a song with a japanes artist is cutting. They want my track production. They said they pay a small flat fee and that they dont pay producer royalties. They said they dont pay roducers royalties in japan. This seems insane. Does anyone have experience with this. I know some acts sell over a million copies. The producer is getting ****ed in this scenario.

If this comes from a record label, it's BS. I get royaltystatements from Japan twice a year. It depends on what you agree on, I guess.

If this comes from a party that distributes or licenses the master, it might be true. Then I still wouldn't agree with it.

If the company is "Blues Interactions" of Tokyo or any of it's affiliates - whatever you get up front is probably all you will ever get!

Not true. You are getting ****ed.

Yea, no name producers with no track record seem to have to bend over backwards to get their foot in the door. Labels know that - they have the power.

Sounds very negative but the cards play out like this:
They'll find someone else if you don't agree to being exploited. Pretty sad really.

Yep. Now, AFAIK the Japanese music market is actually good, you could get some money if this takes off. So re-negotiate. Or make a once only deal and re-negotiate later in case you are in demand.

I have some experiences with smaller japanese electronic labels, sold them a few instrumental tracks of mine and they used it with a female vocal artist. I was paid once and upfront, which is fine to me - the electronic music market is crowded with homemade productions and it is hard to get noticed.

I sell lots of music in Japan, no idea why! But it accounts for 1/4 of my income from album sales. The back end could be good.

You should get a cut of the artists royalty at least surely?

you can always say no.

Ok, I have been working with Japanese artists for 6 years so I'll try to answer in a simple way.

First, when you say "producer", I think you mean producer in the "hiphop" way right ? It's about the back track and you won't be there to produce the song in the studio ?

In Japan, the usual way of splitting royalties is 50% to the lyricist and 50% to the writer of the topline (main vocal melody). Track or additional arrangement are "work for hire".

Now, in today's economy and if the project is not "that big", they will try to obtain from the songwriter a "full package". That mean you provide topline melody and arrangement (track) together in exange of your 50% royalties cut. If you're working with a not too much greedy label, they will offer an additional flat fee to cover the track recording expense. I would say something between $300-$1000. If the production doesn't have money, it could be 0.

If you provided only the track without the topline, then chances are that you're considered as the arranger of the song. You get a flat fee from the label and that's about everything you can get, unless you're a pretty big name with some leverage and can negociate a share of the songwriter split. I have worked with a publisher who does a lot of hiphop / rnb stuff and he offered a songwriter split for my tracks, but most of those artists will not sell enough to play the royalties game and you'll be doing far better (with less headache) working for a flat fee.