Commercially and Technically Satisfactory Delivery of Masters

In the services section of almost all producer agreements, there will be a sentence stating that the master has been deemed commercially and technically satisfactory for the manufacture and sale of records. This is included to make sure that the producer doesn’t turn in any records that don’t meet their technical and commercial requirements.
The technical requirements are easy to quantify. All major record labels have a one-sheet that details what bit rate and frequency the recording must be in and any required equipment. Often labels will go a step further and say that a “live recording” of the artist will not be acceptable. When beginning the production of a record the producer should find out exactly what the technical requirements are. Commercially acceptable requirements are more qualitative and harder to narrow down.
Commercial requirements have more to do with the genre of music that the label expects you to deliver and the current sound of the genre of music, but it’s intentionally left vague because a little bit further down from the sentence saying that the master must be deemed commercially and technically satisfactory is another sentence that states that the artist, label and/or distributor shall determine satisfactory delivery of the masters at their own discretion.
To ensure that all of your masters are deemed commercially and technically acceptable and that you get paid for all of the masters mentioned on the contract whether they release the material or not you should include a sentence in the contract stating that all of the parties, “hereby acknowledge the producer’s delivery and our acceptance of a commercially and technically satisfactory master and the completion of the producers’ services”