A good book to pick up is "This Business of Music." It will tell you more than you every wanted to know about this stuff, and can usually be found in used bookstores since it's such a popular volume. Get a recent edition, though, and beware that specific legalities change from time to time.

15% is an excellent offer on their part. Well established and famous artists can command significant revenues from their record companies, but that's the rarity. Someone like Michael Jackson may get 50%, but record sales still aren't his best music income.

Somes friends of mine, for example, released several CDs on their own that sold quite well (for an indie band) until they got a big contract with A****. They got a fair advance, which enabled them to be musicians full time (but just barely) long enough to cut and album and start touring. I don't know that exact figure, but they bought a big Ford cargo van for touring with the money. All the money. So you get the idea.

Anyway, one record and good sales later, the only money they are making is touring, and that's just enough to feed them and buy gas. Because: when you have a contract like this, it's an "advance against profit," and before you make any money off the album (your 5%), you have to pay the record company back for all or part of the expenses of making it AND pay them back for your advance. If sales never recoup the costs, the record company eats it -- UNLESS you make another album under the same contract, in which cases the debt adds up on the second album. Still, though, you never have to pay them back at any point unless it's from sales. The r.c. takes all the risk.

A contract for someone making public domain fare could probably have a higher percentage, because the costs of making the album would be less and the r.c. takes less risk laying out their money.

Needless to say, when A*** decided to part ways after one album, they weren't too upset once they got over the feeling of being rejected, and went back to making their own records -- which they DID make money off of.

Long story long, 15% is great if they are handling the production side of things. Take it and smile :)