Beggars woos artists with new contract: Beggars' revamped, artist-friendly contract may have significant implications for future label-artist relations.(News)

The Beggars Group is overhauling its standard artist contract, creating a concise, "artist-friendly" agreement, which could have significant implications for label-artist relations moving into a post-CD age.

XL's recent signing of hotly-tipped singer and graffiti artist M.I.A. was the first to use the new agreement--a slimmed-down, 20-page document which, according to Beggars chairman Martin Mills, enshrines in law Beggars' commitment to a fair royalty stream, transparent accounting and artist approval on recoupable investments.

XL finalised the hotly-contested deal with M.I.A. in a week, in the face of strong major-label interest. The artist, whose debut single Galang was issued on Jonathan Dickins' Showbiz imprint and appeared on the MW playlist in November, is managed by Dickins through Chris Morrison's CMO Management operation.

The new-style contract was first drafted by Beggars Group head of legal affairs Rupert Skellett in the summer. It comes in the wake of BMG's own streamlined artist agreement, but was mainly inspired by the changing role of the record company in the 21st Century, says Mills.

"Our aim is to be as attractive as possible to artists," he says. "I think we already are, but that doesn't mean we can't be better at it."

The key points of the contract include:

* Artist approval over all recoupable costs