It's highly advisable that a music attorney oversees all the details of a contract then the artists should arrange a meeting, ask questions about any concerns to get a better understanding before signing a contract.

Please note that all contracts are not exactly the same, the following are examples only

Basic Contract
This is where everything relating to the artists career is handled by producers, promoters, marketing people, and managers. The artists (writers/musicians) become a product that is given massive saturation to promote and sell. The artists are also required to perform in concerts, appear for interviews! This is no walk in the park and at times can be very stressful.

The artist often gets an advance (loan) from the record company, in return the artists will not have final say in matters such as creative decisions. Not all artists have great success and in the contract usually the record company owns the rights to the artists songs, to do whatever it pleases such as using a song for a diaper commercial on TV.

Licensing
This is actually similar although better than a basic contract (above)

A License Deal will give the record company a limited time (years) to retain control of the artists and works after the specified years have expired the artist retains the copyrights and ownership of their works (songs and instrumentals)

No two deals are all the same especially with a Licensing Deal, there is a period of time signed and agreed to anywhere between 5 to 10 years where the record company has the right to exploit the artists works.

The good news is, after the agreed years has expired the rights revert back to the artists. In that regard this isn't such a bad deal. However! Once the record company loses those rights less or no financial support will be given to the artists, basically the artists will retain their rights therefor earn more in licensing fees but receive less financial support from the record company.

Standard Distribution
The good news is, the record company finances just about everything, the recording, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, promotion. The artist gets royalties after all costs are repaid.

The bad news, usually with a standard contract the artists (Writers/Authors) signs away their copyrights, the record company owns the copyrights indefinitely.

Profit Share Deal.
The artists will usually get a small advance (loan) yet retained ownership of their works and receive more of the share on sales. This deal is good but success in sales is no guarantee.

Manufacturing and Distribution
The artist finances the recording, production and master. The record company manufactures and distributes the product.

Depending on the contract the record company may also finance promotion/marketing but this sort of M&D Deal is rare with major record companies because they will make less to the point of not being profitable.

The artist has total creative control and retain copyrights. The M&D Deal is good but only if the artist has great success with marketing and sales.