And for good reason. During one presentation, NMS’s organizers Tom Silverman and Eric Garland from BigChampagne laid out the real numbers that music makers and marketers are up against, and as most of us in the industry already knew, it wasn’t pretty. These numbers have since been flying around the internet, as a rather fitting post-script to an event that was supposed to celebrate new music. If this is the revolution, I think we’re losing:

Albums that sold at least one copy in 2009: 98,000
Albums selling less than 1,000 units in their first year of release: 92,601
Albums selling more than 10,000 units in 2009: 1,319
Albums selling more than 5,000 units in 2009: 2.058
Albums selling more than 250,000 units in 2009: 85

As these numbers have circulated, I’ve seen several comments questioning their accuracy– wondering for instance if they include worldwide sales. It doesn’t matter. Anyone who is hoping that international numbers will significantly change the picture is dreaming– the record business in Europe is in a free fall and Latin America just posted similarly dismal results. We can’t kid ourselves. The fact is that no one working in the industry on a daily basis would dispute these numbers. There is simply far too much music chasing an ever-dwindling audience.

Rather than making excuses or trying to find a silver lining in the storm clouds, our best response to the crisis is a crash course in survival skills. Of course, there are obvious external forces that are causing much of the industry’s pain– most notably the fact that every kid around the world over 10 years old has figured out how to take our product for free. Certainly, there’s a need for a concerted effort across the industry to combat piracy of all kinds. But you and I, working on our own, aren’t going to solve that one. Given the daunting situation staring us in the face, let’s focus on what really matters: saving ourselves.
How do we rise above the masses of people spending money, putting out music, and seeing little or no results? Here are three fundamental tips:

1. Be Strategic.

Most people making albums have put more thought into the artwork and the credits than they’ve put into what they’re actually going to do with the music. Incredibly, that is as true at a major label level as it is with self-funded indie efforts. Projects are green-lit, recording studios booked, producers engaged without anyone having given serious consideration to basic marketing questions like:
Who is this act’s audience?
How does that audience listen to music?
What kinds of records are they willing to purchase?
How do you reach that audience in order to market to them?
Which of those marketing methods are feasible, given your budget?
If it needs the support of radio, do the record have a clear radio single?
If you need to sell the CDs at shows, do the act have opportunities to tour?
Given the results of similar acts, how many records can you reasonably expect to sell?
How much then can you afford to spend on making and marketing the record?

If you are a hip-hop or a dance-pop act, your audience is entirely single-driven, even at a superstar level. Consequently, until you have a hit single there is no reason to make an album. If you make jazz records, all indications are that the audience responds only to artists who have established a level of credibility through touring and playing with well-known musicians. If you haven’t done that yet, then don’t make a record. For a country artist, there are very few ways to reach a sizeable audience without radio airplay. If your budget is tight, then better to record one single and use the rest of the money to promote it than to record ten songs that no one will ever hear. For a singer-songwriter with only a small local following, selling 500 CDs might seem like victory, rather than defeat. And indeed it can be, providing you can make the whole product for under a few thousand dollars. The key here is to have a plan.

2. Be Realistic.

The reason that most artists, record label executives, and producers approach their recording projects without the requisite strategy is that the process of planning requires a reality-check. As Simon Cowell would happily point out, most artists could benefit more from a look in the mirror, an honest self-appraisal and perhaps some frank feedback from family and friends than years of lessons and words of encouragement.

In pop music, artists have to look like stars, have endless stamina, possess a drive and work-ethic that go well beyond obsessive, and rely on a charm that wins over anyone who meets them. If that’s not you, then don’t waste what could be a successful career as a producer or songwriter churning out ill-fated solo albums. If you’re a rock band that can’t play live, then making records is an exercise in futility. Hip-hop acts need some kind of street-level following. If you’re not generating a response on that basic level, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. A DJ/producer who makes records that differ drastically from what he or she plays at a club is bound to disappoint the audience.

Don’t fool yourself. Don’t rationalize and don’t look for miracles. If you can’t hear your music objectively or see yourself clearly, then you’re not ready to make a record.

3. Be Frugal.

Most major record companies spend both too much and too little–blowing money on travel expenses, dozens of misguided mixes, over-cutting and endless experimenting with changes in direction, only to suddenly pull back when the marketing, promotion, and tour support bills come in.

While the scale of spending differs drastically on an indie level, the same kinds of mistakes show up again and again. Artists operating on a shoestring cut an album where a single would have sufficed, or an album when an EP would have been more effective, or put 15 songs on a record rather than 9 or 10, as if the sheer number of songs would be a selling point. They spend money on vague, abstract artwork for their album cover that presents no visual image to communicate their identity to an audience. They hire an independent radio promoter to work a song to radio without a budget sufficient to break the song in any meaningful way.

While it’s not going to make anyone a fortune, to sell less than 5,000 records, or even less than 1,000 is not necessarily a bad thing. One thousand CDs at $15 a piece still makes $15,000. If it cost $5000 to make and promote the record, then it was a profitable venture– putting you ahead of 90% of the major label releases each year. The problem occurs when you’ve spent $17,000 to make the record, and you haven’t even begun to market it. When you’re operating in a sales environment as difficult as the one we face at the moment, you must be able to record at minimal expense, get the most value for your dollar, and put your money where it can generate results. This is a market the leaves no room for error, and even less for extravagance.

I’m continually amazed at the number of beginning artists, with no following at even a local level, no obvious radio single, and not even a clear artistic direction, proudly announce to me that they’re “working on their record”. Former multi-million selling acts like Matchbox 20 struggle to sell records in the current market, and yet here is a new act with less than a hundred people in their fanbase making an album. Why?

The answer is: because it’s too easy. The ease of home-recording, the universal availability of digital distribution, and the rise of the DIY ethos have removed many of the barriers to music-making, and that’s a good thing. But by doing so, it’s caused many artists to feel that recording their own record is some kind of rite of passage that must be fulfilled at the earliest possible date.

Athletes often talk about having “a respect for the game”. That just means that no matter how talented or gifted a sports star might be, he or she still has to appreciate the difficulty of what’s being undertaken, whether it’s hitting a 90 mile an hour fastball or pedaling a bicycle up a mountain, and must be prepared to do the hard work necessary to be victorious.

The scary numbers that many of us have been looking at for nearly five years now indicate that artists, producers and record labels need a little more “respect for the game”. It’s not difficult to make an album. But to make even one song that a significant number of people genuinely care about enough to purchase is a monumental undertaking. Before you go marching into a war zone, have a plan, be realistic, and consider the costs. Let the revolution start there.

Multi-platinum artist Avril Lavigne and MLS Founder Ken Krongard

Krongard first hatched the idea for Major Label Scout in 2000 (before MySpace, before bittorrent), when he was working as an A&R rep at Arista Records. A contact outside Arista made him aware of a 17-year-old Canadian singer named Avril Lavigne. As Krongard tells it, “Avril was a girl in Belleville Ontario, a town of 3000, who’d never played a real show, never had an album, never had a song on the radio. The only way to find her was by finding someone who knew her.” Krongard brought Lavigne to New York, where she impressed Arista head L.A. Reid into immediately signing her to a two-album deal plus publishing.

The experience left Krongard convinced that unknown talent existed in other tiny towns across North America, and when he left Arista in 2001, he founded Major Label Scout to try and turn his idea into a sustainable business venture.

“[Major Label Scout] was an idea for a scouting network,” explains Krongard, “that was kind of a combination of an A&R community and a means of tapping into the talent of tastemaking young people who were looking for the next big thing, and who wanted to learn the A&R business from a mainstream major-label perspective. “I’m looking for a scout who knows everything that’s going on in his hometown,” explains Krongard. “And I want to know about the kid down the street in his basement with a ProTools rig who is a genius and who nobody knows about.”

This talent is discovered in a process that works like so: every scout must submit two songs by an unknown artist each review cycle (a period of about six weeks). An automated system then randomizes the tracks, and sends them to ten other scouts. These scouts listen to each track once anonymously, and then are given information about the artist so they can research further. Based on their findings and their opinion, the listeners then rate the tracks. These findings are aggregated into a chart which is reviewed at a conference call attended by all the scouts. The top-charting artists are then considered for management or publishing agreement with Major Label Scout itself, and shopped to the A&R departments of the major record companies.

MLS Recording Artist Joe Brooks (Lava/Universal), MLS Founder Ken Krongard and MLS Recording Artist Jason Reeves (Warner Bros.)

As it turns out, Krongard was right about where unknown talent was to be found. As with Avril Lavigne, Krongard’s goal was to find the talent anywhere, “even,” as he put it to a colleague, “in Iowa.” And on the very first chart report his scouts produced, the #2 artist was Jason Reeves, an Iowa musician who has gone on to multiplatinum success with his own records and as a songwriter for Colby Caillat.

Krongard is also sure to lavish as much attention on his scouts as they do on the music they champion. Many music companies are content to hire eager and inexperienced warm bodies and then wring every ounce of effort they can out of them, investing relatively little in the individual’s career growth and long-term prospects. By contrast, to become a Major Label Scout, applicants must submit an exhaustive six-page application and pass a grueling round of interviews, all designed to ensure that new hires have the drive, talent, and mindset to tirelessly seek out new mainstream talent. And before a new scout can hit the streets, they are sent through a training and orientation process that includes course content provided by Berkleemusic.

“I’ve done a lot of internships in my life,” explains Krongard, “and the best internships I’ve ever had were where I really learned something, so we wanted to make sure we gave our scouts a positive learning experience. We try to structure it so our scouts have access to something they don’t get anywhere else, and Berklee was part of that.”

“We thought about who these people are—the music executives of tomorrow—and felt it’s important that we give them guidance and information on the music business. So, where better to go than the #1 online music program? Fortunately, Berklee was very receptive to us and gave us some great content to build out the training system. That has been hugely helpful and the partnership just makes sense. A huge number of our scouts have gone on to take Berkleemusic classes, and it’s been a classic win-win.”

In fact, Krongard is quick to acknowledge that many of his scouts remain with Berkleemusic long past the required orientation phase. “Some of our scouts are really interested in A&R, but some people are just curious about the music business in general,” he says. “Berkleemusic exposes them to a number of different areas; after the introductory lessons… they can branch out and take classes on their own in the areas that benefit them most.”

Multi-platinum recording artist Colbie Caillat and MLS Founder Ken Krongard

In recent years, Major Label Scout has begun directly publishing and/or managing some of their finds, thereby diversifying their business from being a pass-through company funneling talent to labels, to being a revenue participant in some artists’ career. When asked why he chose to diversify, Krongard replies that “all the major companies, whether labels, management companies, live entertainment companies, are all morphing into all-around full-service companies. Whether the major labels in the future will still be called major labels or… just music companies, some are going to be bigger and more successful than others, and some are going to be smaller and make very fine livings at it.”

As for whether there will still be major labels in a few years for MLS to shop talent to, Krongard muses, “clearly the ascendency the major label has been over for a long time, but the ones that survive are the ones getting into other areas. One thing we’re all watching very carefully is how this 360-degree model plays out, where labels acquire all assets, not just recorded music assets but they now have revenue streams from publishing, merchandise, and touring and anything else. So in a sense the [major labels] are not really record companies anymore, because they’re not just about records, but about commissioning revenue from 360 degrees [of an artist’s output]. The ones that succeed are the ones that hire the right people, move into the right areas, and learn those areas the quickest. The ones that don’t do this will be gone.”

When asked where a company like Major Label Scouts fits into the future of the business, Krongard muses, “great talent is great talent—it just needs to be discovered. And I think that’s true now more than ever, since there’s a glut of artists; there are seven million bands on MySpace at last count. Someone’s got to go through them all and find the diamonds in the rough, and I still think the ability to perceive something special is a skill you can learn. There will always be a place for people that can discern talent, period. “

Moreover, says Krongard, it always makes good business sense to see out what millions of people want to buy, and remaining focused on that fact might just give Major Label Scouts an edge. “There seems to be this attitude in the music business where everyone tries to be cool,” he says, “where everyone tries to find the hippest band on Pitchfork on this week. But those bands come and go, and the people that love these artists tend to be on the poles of taste, and on the coasts. And there’s a huge market of people between the coasts who buy their music at Wal-Mart and think Nickelback is a great band. And you know what? Who are we to say that they’re wrong? Nickelback have sold millions and millions of albums.”

MLS Founder Ken Krongard, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, MLS Recording Artist Joe Brooks (Lava/Universal)

“It’s music, and music is subjective, and I reject the argument that one person’s opinion is better than another person’s opinion. At the end of the day, Nickelback have sold a hell of a lot more records than name-your-hipster-band. As an A&R guy, my job has been to find artists that will sell. Whether or not people think they’re cool is not a problem for me. Everyone should fall in love with the music that reaches them, but in terms of the business itself, our approach is to find superstars who can sell a lot of records. And obviously in the new model, it’s not all about records, but we need to find superstars who are going to appeal to a massive audience.”

For the foreseeable future, the world will need large music companies, and Ken Krongard is betting that those companies will continue to need the services of Major Label Scout. By selecting the right people, and training them using Berkleemusic’s award-winning course materials, he hopes to give his scouts the edge they need to make that bet a certainty.

- John Owen

For this weeks post, I just wanted to let you all know that I finally received my pedalboard power supply. They are finally available!

It is called the Sanyo KBC-9V3U Pedal Juice—a pretty fancy name for something that does something so well and so simply.

This is one of those inventions that was sooo long overdue, one of those “Why didn’t someone think of that years ago?” kind of products.

And it works like a charm. It is a handsome little pedal slightly bigger than a phase 90 that charges in about 3.5 hours. This pedal keeps you free from wall-warts and batteries and extra things to plug in.

Also a plus, at little more than a 1/2 lb, this pedal weighs in at less than the average pedal, so no worries about adding too many extra pounds to your pedal-board.

While charging a small flashing LED informs you of the rate of progress:

Flashing RED: less than 30%
Flashing ORANGE: 30-60%
Flashing GREEN: 60% or more
LED OFF: Fully charged

When the power supply is being used to power your board, the light is steady but the RED ORANGE and GREEN colors indicate the same power status. It has a power switch that comes on with a touch, but needs to be held for a couple of seconds to switch off…no risk of accidental power downs with this bad boy! Well thought out.

So I am sure many of you have questions on how long the power supply will last…well it powered my small pedalboard (see Pedalboards Part 1 and Part 2) for a couple of practice sessions lasting a couple hours or so each, then for for a 6-7 hour recording session, and then a couple more days of practicing for a couple of hours before finally shutting down!…not bad in my book…here is a list that Sanyo provided of some devices and the approximate time that your Sanyo Eneloop pedal with provide power on a single charge.

Analog Effects: Distortion/Overdrive (10mA current draw) 50 hours
Digital Delay/Digital Reverb (50mA current draw) 27 hours
Digital Multiple Effects/mini amplifier/graphic digital multiple effects/graphic EQ (100mA draw) 17 hours
Muti-Trac recorder/synthesizer (300 mA draw) 7 hours
Electronic Drum/percussion instrument (1000mA draw) 2 hours

Powered by a Lithium-ion battery, the unit charges with a provided 5v power supply plugged into a dummy-proof input plug (no mixing up the 5v ins and the 9v outs here), and has 2- 9v center tip negative outputs to power your pedalboard.

The unit is not to be charged while supplying power to your pedalboard and when the output of the two 9v plugs exceeds 2A, the unit will shut down but that is quite a bit in pedal speak, so more than enough for most of us. And if needed, you can always have 2 to power an oversized board.

So there is a good amount of hi-tech safety in this product. Most importantly there is no memory issue with it, so no needing to drain fully before recharging etc etc . And, of course, the charge time will be less than the estimated 3.5 hours, if there is any residual power left from the last charge…

So charge up fully before each gig and you will be more than guaranteed good clean safe hum-free power through your show…and then maybe a (some) day(s) of rehearsing afterwards…of course, be careful to check the power reqs on your pedals before doing your show…I used mine at home for a few days before confidently taking it into a pro recording session. But it really did make everything much easier: just plug the amp in, and then the guitar into the pedals into the amp..no extra chords.

I am loving this pedal…it does everything I was trying to design into my prototype (see pictures of my home made rechargeable power supply) except it is a lot more hi-tech and certainly a lot prettier…

Check out the KBC-9V3U Pedal Juice on Sayno’s site.

1. Agree on a goal: Having a well-defined goal is crucial to any collaboration. Whether you are forming a band, working with a lyricist, or hiring a publicist, everyone involved must be working towards the same vision. Before the collaboration begins, you yourself should have in place a solid idea of what you want to accomplish. Going into a collaboration with an unformed idea leaves you open to being hijacked by your partner(s) and their interpretation of your request. They may not realize that they are doing it, and you might not catch it at first, but nothing kills a collaboration quicker than realizing the project you end up working on is not the one you started out wanting to do.

2. Establish ground rules: How long should this project last? How should profits or proceeds be distributed? How should the division of responsibilities be handled? Should any additional people be recruited to help and, if so, who decides when/how they are brought on-board? The list of potentially contestable issues that could arise is too long to be published here, and I would most likely miss many important points. The thing to take away from this step is to think ahead, and anticipate conflict. I’m not saying you need a formal contract, but by agreeing to ground rules, you set yourself and your collaborators up for a successful and open relationship. Also, by discussing and establishing these ground rules, you learn a lot more about your partner(s) than you would otherwise—you may get to this step and realize that the person you are talking with is not the right one for your project. That’s ok! It’s better to find this out now and keep looking then to try and force things along with the wrong people. I liken it to putting one square tire on a hotrod—it ruins the entire machine. This brings us to step three:

3. Pick the right partner(s): This is, perhaps, the most difficult step in the collaborative process. I must admit, my first instinct is to reach out to my immediate circle of friends when I get a new idea, need a second point of view, or need someone with a particular skill set. This is self-defeating in two very major ways. The first is that you have a pre-existing relationship. This makes establishing ground rules and agreeing on a goal particularly difficult, as you are more likely to compromise your vision. Think about how many times a friend has talked you into doing something that you’re not entirely comfortable with. Now imagine that, instead of that extra drink at the bar, you’ve agreed to alter a portion of your project that can affect your entire musical career. Secondly, by recruiting your immediate friends and acquaintances, you limit your connections. The music business is all about fostering relationships, and meeting new people. Collaborations are one of the best ways to self-promote, but it does no good to show off your skills, ingenuity, and drive to the people who already know you! Ask your social network, reach out to friends of friends, join a local musician’s group—any of these options will allow you to meet new people and make new connections.

4. Begin: I know, this one is obvious. However, I can count on both hands the truly successful collaborations that I have completed. These are exactly equal to the number of collaborations that I have started. On the flip side, I have a drawer full of ideas half-formed and filed away for “another time”. I have logged hundreds of hours discussing potential projects with potential collaborators. All of your work on steps one through three are for naught if you and your group never take the first step. It’s scary, it’s nerve-wracking, but by following these steps you give yourselves a much higher percentage of success. You have a shared vision, you have a structured working environment, you have the right people by your side—now get out there and start doing what you love!

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Nominated for best kids’ music cd. Vote now!

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As musicians, producers, performers, songwriters, or composers, it doesn’t matter how amazing you are, you need to know how to promote yourselves and how to network! The old days of having to be signed by a label to be heard beyond your own city’s limits are long gone. Things are different now. The tools are out there for independent artists to use, and most of them are free.

If it is viral—it will spread! I’m stating the obvious here, but instead of thinking about it in the figurative sense, apply this concept to your career. The internet has made networking very easy to do. It doesn’t matter where you are anymore, now you can reach out to pretty much anyone around the world.

I would start by recommending the obvious: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MyspaceMusic. Many people use these sites for personal (and sometimes overly dramatic) content, but you can use it in a smart, original, and professional way. Major record labels use interns 24/7 to update statuses, post comments, reach out to fans, and tweet on behalf of their artists. You can approach it in the same way, no matter how “big” you are.

Here are great examples of how other musicians are making the most of these free social media sites:

YouTube: Karmin is engaging fans in a smart and original way with quality homemade videos of their original songs and covers. The perk with YouTube searches is that fans of the artists that you cover will find your videos while searching for their favorite tunes. Once captivated by the cover, the audience will then get to know your original music! Karmin’s latest video post already had over 13,000 views just over a week! http://www.youtube.com/karmintube

Twitter: Debbie and Friends – Debbie tweets about her concerts, radio shows, new videos, blog posts, and collaborations. Twitter is a professional, concise, and a perfect way to get your fans’ attention, let them know you, and expose them to all other media that you use on the web. http://twitter.com/DebbieCavalier

Myspace: Midatlantic uses MyspaceMusic to its fullest. On one page, you have an actual press kit with videos, music, bio, reviews, upcoming shows, contact information, and pictures. You can also see their fan base and buy their music, too. It’s ideal for musicians! http://www.myspace.com/midatlantictheband

Facebook: Dear Havannah plays it smart on Facebook. They make it personal yet keep it professional. Their wall is completely dedicated to their fans. Each post lets you know them as a band and as individual musicians. It’s a smart way to keep your fans engaged in what you do and to stay approachable. http://www.facebook.com/DearHavanah

Basically no matter what you do, keep it real, simple and network as much as possible. If you can think of a reference in regards to online networking or if you want to share your own don’t hesitate to post your comments below!

The story begins just before I graduated from Berklee College of Music, when, like most graduates everywhere, I was searching out possible job opportunities with a mixture of anticipation, excitement, ignorance and desperation. While I didn’t know much about what I was doing, at least I knew enough to be reading Billboard regularly, and that was where I happened on an article about a young whiz-kid named Tom Silverman, who was the founder of Tommy Boy Records, one of the seminal record labels in the history of hip-hop.

Riding high off the success of “Planet Rock” at Tommy Boy, Tom was quickly emerging as an industry leader, having also co-founded the New Music Seminar. Based in NYC, this conference was at the epicenter of a wave of new music taking shape in the early 1980s, it was where new wave and punk rock, hip-hop and electronic dance music all met and mingled, with hundreds of new artists, indie label owners, A&R people, press and other entrepreneurs plotting out their path into the industry.

The article I read about Tom Silverman concerned his plans to launch an industry group called “The Independent Label Coalition”, which was intended to be a trade group controlled by independent labels from across genres. The hope was that by working together to improve the business environment in the independent music world, the ILC could increase the ability of these smaller companies to compete with the major labels that dominated the industry. At the end of the Billboard interview, Tom pointedly mentioned that he was looking for volunteers– and I quickly reached out to be in contact.

Tom Silverman, from Tommy Boy Records and the New Music Seminar

To me, The Independent Label Coalition seemed like an ideal opportunity to meet people in the music business, learn about the industry, and hopefully build relationships that would result in gainful employment. To Tom, my willingness to volunteer undoubtedly confirmed yet again one of his pet theories, that in the music business, there was always a young kid who would work for free just for the chance to be involved. Happily, I did manage to meet Tom shortly thereafter, and was given a small role in the Independent Label Coalition.

I moved to New York from Boston in the middle of July, 1984, dropped my still-packed boxes in my tiny apartment, and immediately reported for duty at the New Music Seminar, where the Independent Label Coalition was officially being launched. I helped to check people in for the conference; I stood for endless hours at the ILC booth in the exhibit hall; I worked the door at Studio 54, where the Independent Label Coalition had a kick-off party. I was yelled at by Bob Krasnow (the head of Elektra Records); I screwed up most of what I touched; I tried to network in rooms of hundreds of people where I didn’t know a soul. But I also met dozens of new entrants in the music business sweepstakes, saw early performances from artists that ranged from the Beastie Boys to Run DMC to RuPaul to Madonna (check out the video below), and sat in dozens of panels where I learned the realities of how our industry is structured. Thanks to Tom Silverman and the New Music Seminar, I suddenly entered the music business, and I’ve been fortunate enough to remain there ever since.

The Independent Label Coalition didn’t actually work out very well– the idea of coordinating activities among indie record labels, made up of some of the most defiantly “independent” personalities in the world, proved to be a little Utopian for the real world. To me, it didn’t much matter. The ILC did exactly what I needed it to do, which was to give me my first network of friends, supporters and mentors in the music industry. In fact, many of those people I still maintain relationships with today, more than twenty years later. One of the leaders of the ILC was David Renzer, who at the time was a successful songwriter and producer. David went on to become the head of Zomba Music Publishing, where he wound up signing me to my first publishing deal. Now, David is the worldwide president of Universal Music Publishing. Another early compatriot from the ILC days was Duncan Hutchison, who became the president of Caroline Records, and is now the Chief Content Officer of RightsFlow, the licensing organization.

The ILC also introduced me to to a wide group of record industry entrepreneurs, including Eddie O’Loughlin at Next Plateau Records, who continues to be a colleague and mentor to me, Sergio Cossa, for whom Shapiro Bernstein, the company where I work now, administers the Emergency Music catalog, and of course, the illustrious Tom Silverman.

To bring this story to a well-crafted and slightly ironic conclusion, it turns out that Tom Silverman, along with my friend David Lory, one of the industry’s most creative and forward-looking executives, has now relaunched the New Music Seminar. After concluding in 1995, the New Music Seminar was brought back to life in 2009.

Dave Lory, New Music Seminar

As it turns out, I’ll be participating in NMS 2010, being held July 19-21st in New York. I’ll be promoting my books, “Making Music Make Money” and “The Billboard Guide To Writing and Producing Songs That Sell”, as well as my new consulting service, “Ask The Music Business Weasel”. If you can be in or around New York during this time, I strongly urge you to be a part of this conference, which is all about uncovering new paradigms and business models for success in today’s music business. And if you’re there, please find me and say hello. I’m looking forward to signing some books, chatting a bit, and being part of an event that played a key role in my own development as a songwriter, producer and executive.

http://www.newmusicseminar.com

Contrary to what many believe, the music business is not really such a tough thing to break into. There are no entrance exams, no licenses to obtain, and far less financial commitment than in almost any other business (have you ever thought what it would cost you to get into the restaurant business, or steel-manufacturing?).

Even better, there are hundreds of organizations, societies, conferences, and trade groups to help you start your network. The New Music Seminar is one of many such points of entry. All you have to do is show up, start learning how the industry works, and make some friends. It worked for me. I’ll hope to see you there…

As a rule, I don’t generally have time to enter the many amazing remix contests offered on indbamusic.com. But, this time, I couldn’t pass up a chance to remix a classic Peter Gabriel song, “Games Without Frontiers”. And, more importantly, a chance to have Gabriel listen to my work and maybe even meet him in London! That’s just to cool of an opportunity to pass up. With everything that Gabriel has done in his life, both musically and as a philanthropist, he’s definitely a hero of mine. So, I went for it.

Remixing is a form of music production. Just like producing a song for an artist, the object shouldn’t be about imposing your musical ideas on another musician’s composition and performance. Instead, it’s about helping the artist and their material to be the best that they can be. To this end, I think it’s important to respect the songwriter’s original message and the vocalist’s performance when remixing, especially when the vocalist is the songwriter. Ideally, the recognizable elements of the song, such as vocal phrases and guitar lines, should be audible in your remix. With this in mind, I felt “Games Without Frontiers” could benefit from a more guitar-driven, pop rock arrangement, with a full kit played over an updated Roland CR-78 drum loop, and a touch of orchestral elements for added texture and movement.

In these videos, I take you on a mini tour of my “Games Without Frontiers” remix session using Pro Tools and Reason. There’s a lot to explain in this session, so I broke the tour into two videos. The first focuses on drums and rhythm section instruments (bass, guitars, piano, etc.). And, the second focuses on orchestral elements, voice parts (lead and backing vocals), and mastering. I’m also attaching the Pro tools session file, without its audio files, to this blog so that you can look through the session and see how it’s all set up.

Peter Gabriel Remix Session Video Tour (Part 1)

Peter Gabriel Remix Session Video Tour (Part 2)

*Remember, you can double click on these videos and watch them directly on YouTube to see them in HD. The session file as a Zip.
PG REMIX VIDEO TOUR
Download directions:
Right-click PC and from the pop-up menu choose, “Save Link as…”
Control-click Mac and from the pop-up menu choose, “Save Link as…”

Performers! Have you ever found yourself in a position where you thought perhaps that show was not going to go on? I experienced this for the first time last week, just minutes before a Debbie & Friends concert for 200 families with young children in the Greater Boston area.

The band and I were set up and ready to perform as a major thunderstorm rolled through the area. Minutes before the downbeat, two telephone poles in front of the building were struck by lightning and fell over. As the families started to arrive, we heard a loud “POP” and the power went out in the entire neighborhood! The theater became dark and the sound system was down for the count.

The event coordinators talked of rescheduling, but as each minute passed more and more families arrived. We knew we had to figure something out. We couldn’t disappoint all of those kids. (Many our devoted fans wearing their Debbie & Friends concert t-shirts!)

Thankfully, we found a large classroom in the building with a piano and some natural light. Our guitarist grabbed his acoustic, and we all squeezed into the classroom together for a fun (and sweaty) sing along. We all had a great time and the families were most appreciative.

I related this story to my good friend and colleague Jonathan Feist, and he shared a simiar experience:

“I was once at a wedding where they lost power, but the band was ready with a whole set of unplugged songs, including some accompanied by just clapping along, with no instruments. It was great. They were total pros.”

Do you have a story related to this as a performer or concert goer? What are some things bands should do to make sure “the show will go on” when lightning strikes, or some other unforeseen circumstance gets in the way?

For the most part, I will keep this post in layman’s terms…best for me too, because when I start trying to rap my brain around some of this stuff, I get a headache! Just wanna play my guitar…

So here is the scenario: You finally get your D-style (or otherwise) amp and you might have opted out of the reverb option or the buffered effects loop (pedal level) due to the additional expense.

However when you plug your pedals into the non-buffered loop, the amp sounds anemic, low in volume and you dreams of a sprinkling of cool effects on your expensive investment, seem to fall short of  tonal heaven.

Then someone comes and tells you about a device called a Dumble-ator, or clone thereof, such as a Loop-a-lator by Bludotone, or the Kleinu-lator by Ceriatone, or the ELI 1/2 by Two Rock.

Well these units for sure will remedy the problem. But that means another piece of gear that you have to carry around, to your gigs more power chords to plug in to AC, more 1/4 inch plugs to plug in (twice!)  to the amp and then a few more knobs to tweak. NO MORE KNOBS… Arrrrrghgggh!!

Then someone else tell you they just use pedals through the front of the amp that will work great….What? Why? Which?

First off, most of these hi-end Dumble amps and clones come standard with a passive, +4 signal level effects loop.

In layman’s terms (based on information that my engineer copied and emailed to me after my begging for simplicity on the subject!)  +4 is the “pro” signal level – the level that high quality units expect to see, otherwise referred to as “line level”. Cable connectors for this type of signal are usually XLR (like mic cables) or TRS – which are like guitar cables except they have Tip/Ring/Sleeve balanced connection (an extra stripe on the plug) as opposed to instrument cables which are usually just Tip-Sleeve and unbalanced.

The alternative to +4 level is -10, which is the consumer or semi-pro standard. These connections are almost always unbalanced, and you need to maintain shorter cable lengths to avoid hum, buzz, radio interference, and signal degradation -  compared to good balanced line level cables (+4) can be run for a couple of hundred feet. The connectors on -10 equipment are either 1/4″ guitar/instrument cables, or RCA plugs and jacks (like you see on a home stereo). Note that on many of these D-clones, the effects loop, even though it is +4 line level, will often have simple 1/4 inch guitar jacks for ins and outs. This is still compatible with the effect unit, even the the effect unit might have the TRS (ring-tip-sleeve). Both have 1/4″ guitar jack connections.

So in a nutshell, if you use a guitar level pedal (unbalanced) with your D-Style effects loop, there is a mismatch in signal level, hence the anemic tone that you might experience. What is the solution?? Well… there is the Dumble-ator, or clone thereof, of which we spoke earlier. This device, about the size of a single space rack unit or smaller, is the missing link that will correct this signal level disparity and restore your full tone. Depending on the model, it might also allow you to add in the appropriate and matched level of effect in parallel.

These loop devices essentially allow you to match the signal of the output and input of your amplifier effects loop with the signal of the effect device that you are using, whether balanced or unbalanced, +4 or -10. Of course, if the effects unit that you are using has the line level option, then you probably do not need them! (Unless you like the extra work of pluggin stuff in and having and more knobs and  stuff to tweak!)

An amp that comes with a buffered effects loop, essentially has a built in Dumble-ator or maybe it is the other way around…a dumble-ator is essentially the workings of an amp that make the loop “buffered” except it exists outside of the amp. hmmmm….I guess the reasons for this unit being separate might be a few…

a) amp is cheaper and possibly quicker to make (some of these boutique babies have 2-3 year or more waiting lists!!
b) less “stuff in the amp, so it can be smaller and lighter, and in simple terms, less complicated technically, maybe even a little quieter.
c) If you are going to be using hi-quality studio grade +4 effects, a buffered loop it is really not needed.
d) Certain effects (other than delay and reverb) can simply go through the front of the amp, especially if your amp does not have an OD switchable channel

Most floor guitar effect pedals run inputs and outputs at the unbalanced level.  And today most effects loops on non-boutique/mainstream amps are buffered. However, increasingly,  we are finding manufacturers catering to the avid, growing population of folks owning high end boutique amps that come ready with a +4 loop, ready for studio hi-quality studio grade effects.

TC Electronics seems to be on the wave of this trend with products such as their Nova System and Nova Repeater pedals. (Click on the images below to enlarge.)

Some other boutique manufacturers such as Fuchs also create some options for +4 effect loopers. Andy Fuchs makes a very interesting pedal called a Verbrator which has High Quality Tube Reverb along with what amounts to a built in tube (Dumble-ator) effects loop. This comes in a relatively small pedal sized packaged. Check this one out if you get a minute.

There are many rack units that offer this option, and few floor pedals that do. If there are any of you that are hip to any other high quality floor pedal manufacturers that are offering the line-level option, please list in the comments section of this post. I like small, light and not too many knobs!!

Now some of you might be just thinking well why not just plug in through the front of the amp? Why not use whatever effects you have after the guitar before the amp.

Well, the answer to that is…hmmm..why not? Well I guess the most appropriate place for certain types of effects is after the preamp and tone-stack and before the power amp (Through the effects loop). If your amp has an OD channel, as do most D-Style amps, and you plug your delay through the front of the amp, when you hit your OD footswitch you will be OD-ing your delay sound…Well…that can be an interesting effect, but most agree that delay will sound better AFTER the signal has been overdriven. Effects such as delay, reverb sound best through the loop.

If your amp does not have an OD channel, the placement of effects in the chain, might be a little less crucial, since you are probably either turning up and cranking the amp or maybe using an overdrive pedal or boost to get your “up to eleven” sound.

I will say that I think a high quality effect unit, whether reverb, delay or otherwise (or some combination of these) sounds HEAVENLY through a +4 effects loop. Essentially there is no added noise and your amp will take on a 3-D quality.

Depending on your set up and pedal choices, it might makes sense to get a buffered effects loop at the time of purchase of your D-Style amp. It will probably add expense and a little weight to your rig.

Many manufacturers of these D-Clone babies don’t offer the buffered loop as an option. My personal optimal preference might be to just use this +4 effects loop with an effect that is hi-quality line level. Seems that way you carry the least amount of stuff to the gig.  (Especially considering more pedal manufacturers are making this line level an option on their pedals, sometimes with just a flick of a switch.)

Please share your thoughts and experiences with this… Happy Looping!

My friend Peter Brambl at Topspin put together a post that details a few examples of the work some of the course graduates have been involved in. Take a look:

Crush Luther

Sheila Hash has been using Topspin to set up what she calls “The Living Room Sessions” for artist Crush Luther.  “Basically, you can request the band play your living room,” says Shelia.  “You need to send pictures of the space and guarantee that at least 20 people will show up. We set up a private ticket link on Topspin and every ticket purchase gets a hard copy of the album upon arrival to the show. It’s been highly successful and the band is booked at various houses throughout the summer. They love it because it’s much more intimate and interactive than a regular show. “
http://www.crushluther.com/

Jonesez

Annmarie McMath is kickstarting a fan acquisition project for artist Jonesez.  “The course was instrumental in not only honing my online marketing skills but educating my artist on best practices for social media marketing and direct-to-fan initiatives,” says Annmarie.  “We have had a steady intake of sign ups, and social media interaction is increasing. We have received a stack of great feedback from fans, musicians and others in the industry..and of course the widgets and music players have been a hit too. Thanks Topspin & Berklee.”
http://www.jonesez.com.au

Brandon Hines

Dan Conway is applying his marketing skills to student projects at Drexel University as well as his own record imprint:  “With our latest release on Drexel’s student run record label (called MAD Dragon Records), we utilized Topspin in creating a new website for the band (streaming player, mailing list, store functionality, etc.) as well as marketing the album using techniques covered in the course. Next year, I plan on incorporating Topspin into the everyday classroom through courses like Marketing and Promotion in the Music Industry and E-commerce in the Music Industry. I will also use it as our direct to fan platform for every Drexel released artist.  Along with my work at the university, I have applied the knowledge at my own record label, Revel Music Group. We used Topspin to release a free promotional “mixtape” for an R&B artist, Brandon Hines, that we have signed. We were able to grow his mailing list from 0 to over 5,300 in a few months (and still acquiring an additional 100 per week) using the email for media widget to exchange 10 free tracks for an email address. We continue to view Topspin as a large piece of the puzzle in both our distribution and marketing strategy and plan to incorporate it into all future releases.
http://maddragon.ning.com/
http://brandonhinesmusic.com/

Soul Mekanik

Ian Clifford is applying the best practices from the course to the marketing of online stores for artist Soul Mekanik. “I had some internet marketing experience already, but I had never applied it in an indie basis,” says Ian. “I learned about the process from the course. In six weeks we have added 600 fans to the email list.”
http://www.soulmekanik.com

Sign up for Online Music Marketing with Topspin, get your own hands dirty with the tools, and send me your success stories to feature next term!

And all of this is meant to reassure the investors.

Roger Faxon, Chief Executive EMI Group

The real irony is that after three years of completely inept decision-making, Terra Firma is actually making a pretty good call on this one. At least Faxon has a genuine understanding of the business. While he didn’t build EMI into an industry-leading publisher (that was the work of Marty Bandier, who is now at Sony ATV), he has maintained the company’s status despite the ever-present rumors of the corporate parent’s financial demise. EMI Music Publishing still has one of the strongest executive teams in the business, a catalog full of classic songs, and a current writer roster that made it the Publisher of the Year once again at this year’s ASCAP Pop Awards. The obvious strategy here is to try to use the strength of the publishing company to shore up the weakness of the recorded music division. It makes pretty good sense… on paper.

For reasons that are fathomable only to the executives that run major media companies like Universal, Warner, Sony and EMI, none of the major music companies have ever managed to create any relationship between their record companies and their associated publishing companies. There are remarkably few acts that are signed both to Warner Bros. Records and Warner Chappell, or to Sony ATV and Columbia Records. In fact, the relationship between many of these publishing companies and their affiliated labels is downright hostile. At Sony ATV, I was well-aware that many top-level A&R people at Columbia and Epic were steering their new acts to EMI Music Publishing, convinced that the artist would get more money and promotional support at that company than at Sony ATV. Likewise, EMI Music Publishing has made no secret over the years of their disdain for the hapless label that shares their name.

Some of the hostility can be attributed to executive envy, political gamesmanship, and the general corporate tendency to put one’s personal bonus ahead of the interest of the company itself. Some of it comes from the fact that many of the publishing companies and their associated labels have very different histories, areas of specialization, and financial means. To call the relationships “dysfunctional” would be something of an understatement.

Not too surprisingly, in the world of independent music companies, the idea of having a label and publishing company cooperate for the greater good has been far less elusive. In fact, many of the great success stories among independent labels have been built around the idea of record company and publishing company working together– from Motown Records and Jobete Music, to A&M Records and Almo-Irving Music, to Jive Records and Zomba Music, to Disney Records and publishing. It’s not terribly tricky. It simply means that the record label either strongly encourages or demands that their artists make a publishing deal with the related company, and likewise, the publishing company tries to keep any new talent they discover or hit songs generated by their writers “in house”, by bringing them to the associated record company.

So the idea now being put forward by Roger Faxon and the string-pullers at Terra Firma, to use EMI Music Publishing to bolster the fortunes of EMI Records, is not a crazy one, even if it’s relatively untried at a major music company level. I can almost understand how the non-music business weasels within Terra Firma could see this as the last best hope– and could have great expectations for the power of the two companies when finally brought together. It certainly won’t be the first time during their grand experiment in the music industry that Terra Firma has had their hopes dashed, though it may be the last time.

As obvious as the idea to unite the two companies sounds, it’s about ten or fifteen years too late. At this point, with EMI in such precarious condition, it’s almost impossible to see how this plays out. Most top artists with any other options would be understandably hesitant to sign to EMI Records right now, and quite frankly, it is probably not the first place that anyone from EMI Music Publishing would recommend for their artists. The publishing company needs its top writers, artists and producers to focus on creating the biggest hits possible, regardless of which label they happen to be released on.

Even if EMI Music Publishing were to encourage their top new artists to consider going to EMI Records, many are under contract with other labels for years to come, or are signed to production companies with ties to other companies, or have managers with relationships at other organizations. To create any real synergy between the two divisions is probably a five-year program, even in a best-case scenario.

Best-case scenarios have not served Terra Firma well. Indeed, the real problem with its buyout of EMI and the subsequent meltdown that followed has been a simple case of unrealistic expectations, which when unrealized, only increased the need for greater miracles in the next financial quarter. The ultimate result of this is the kind of ridiculous game of CEO musical chairs that we see now, where each new person is brought in with high hopes and a touted “turn-around” plan, only to find themselves doing a disappearing act as soon as the “turn-around” doesn’t turn out as planned. Every business should challenge its leaders to do the very best they can do. But if you challenge people to do the impossible, you will inevitably be disappointed. If you bet on them doing the impossible, you will not only be disappointed– you’ll be broke.

Terra Firma CEO Guy Hands

From the moment that Terra Firma purchased EMI in 2007 for the wildly inflated price of $4.7 billion dollars, they put themselves in a corner from which they can never escape. The loans that made that purchase possible were made on earnings expectations that were unrealistic for any music company in the present business climate, especially a company that was hardly a market leader even three years ago. In order to make the interest payments on those loans, Terra Firma now needs EMI to generate income at a level that is simply not possible for a music company in this environment.

If you try to drive a Volkswagen in the Indy 500, it won’t win the race– even if you press the gas pedal to the floor and keep it there. It’s not that it’s a bad car. It was never built to run that way. Further, if you insist on trying to do it, you’ll eventually ruin the engine– all because your expectations were not remotely in keeping with what the automobile was designed to do. EMI has plenty of talented, dedicated people in its offices around the world. It’s not inherently a bad organization. But music companies are not investment banks or oil companies. They don’t generate that level of cash. If you try to force them to do it, you’ll wind up cutting the creative experimentation you need, taking dangerous chances on high-priced “sure things”, demoralizing your staff, and draining your most productive assets to pay for your least-productive ones.

As remote as the problems of EMI might seem, the lesson of unrealistic expectations is one worth keeping in mind, even for individual songwriters and entrepreneurs entering the publishing game. As Andre de Raaff, the CEO of Imagem Music once sagely pointed out to me in a discussion about the disappointment of many investment firms who recently acquired publishing catalogs– music publishing is indeed a relatively steady business, but only over the course of about ten years.

When looked at over a decade, most established music publishing catalogs tend to hold their value and provide a relatively predictable rate of return. But within that ten year period, there can be wild swings in income from one year to the next. Currency fluctuations, copyright lawsuits, split disputes, hit songs or big flops can cause unexpected spikes or dips in the financial picture. Should you happen to buy into a catalog during the wrong three or four year period, you could easily panic when you don’t see the results you expected. If you can’t afford to wait it out for ten years, at which point the good and bad times will probably even each other out, you risk taking a sizable loss on your investment.

For those starting up a company, that means that you need to have a clear, level-headed understanding of the risks involved, the potential profits, and the time-frame in which you expect to see some action. Here are three rules to keep in mind that should help you avoid the dangers of great expectations:

1. Don’t buy anything based on what it could be.

The music business is built on dreams of endless potential. Every catalog you will ever be offered for purchase will be “full of undiscovered hits that have never been recorded!”. Every songwriter you consider signing will be on the verge of becoming the next big thing. Every cut you get will be under consideration to be the next single. None of it means anything.

Of course, all of it is possible–and hopefully one of the acts or songs you sign will turn out to be wildly successful. But you don’t do the deal based on that expectation. You negotiate the price based on what something is earning now (if it’s an established artist or catalog) or on a very conservative estimate of what it could do (for new artists or songs). You don’t plan for success. Plan for slow and steady growth, and make your financial decisions based on those plans. Then be surprised by success.

2. Don’t look for a quick money.

There isn’t any. All money in music publishing comes through the proverbial pipeline– a CD is sold at a retailer, who pays the distribution company which then pays the label which then pays Harry Fox or the equivalent which then pays the music publisher. Most of the time, that process takes somewhere between a year and a year and a half– longer than that for international royalties. Performance money is somewhat quicker, but still at least 9 months from when a song is on the radio. This is why songwriters want advances from publishers– because it’s very easy to find yourself starving, even while you’re hearing your song on the Top Forty countdown.

If you sign a new writer with an advance, no matter how minimal, it’s very unlikely that you will recoup that advance within the first year. Even if the songwriter is able to write a song in the first week of the deal, and you’re able to get the song picked up by an A&R person in the first month, it will still take three to six months for the artist to record it and release it, and another month and a half before it starts to impact at radio. It’s almost impossible that the money for that airplay or sales will show up in your coffers before the end of the first contract period. When it comes to signing and developing songwriters, you have to be willing to stay in the deal for at least a couple of years in order to get your money back.

3. Desperation is dangerous.

Decisions only get harder when you’re desperate. If you need to show results quickly, you will take foolish chances, be too aggressive, overpay for deals, or put too much pressure on the songwriters signed to you.
If you’re trying to stave off financial disaster, you’ll make budget cuts that will impair your ability to find new acts, drop unrecouped songwriters too soon, and sell off songs or catalogs at a fraction of their real value.

The music biz is a risk-taking business– but in order to take risks intelligently, you need a solid, supportive environment in which to work. That means enough capital in the business to survive while you’re waiting for your pipeline to come in, low overheads that can be covered by slow and steady growth, and enough patience and belief from your partners or investors that you are able to follow your instincts, and even make a few mistakes along the way.

A little more than a month ago, when Terra Firma was desperately trying to raise funds from its investors to stave off a Citibank takeover of EMI, they trotted out the new CEO at the time, Charles Allen, and announced that Allen would be unveiling “the new plan” to turn EMI from investment bust to boom. It was hard not to feel badly for the new leader, who was essentially being asked to create a fantasy picture in which everyone’s expectations would eventually be met, even as everyone knew that this was a completely unlikely scenario. As it turns out, he didn’t stick around long enough to even initiate the plan. And now there’s a new dream on the table.

As my father in law likes to say, you can’t teach a pig to fly. Trying will only frustrate you, and annoy the pig. Keep your expectations in line with reality, and you’ll have a far greater chance at not only meeting them, but maybe even exceeding them.

Mike King: You’ve been playing with the Dave Matthews Band for 20 years. How did you go from playing small clubs in Virginia to this?

Stefan Lessard: This band, for a while, took every single gig that we were offered. We played every party, every rooftop party, every fraternity; we never said no, we just played everything. I think the most that we played was three gigs in one day and each one of those where about two and a half hours long. So we just worked ourselves silly for four years and when things started growing, we got on the Horde tour. And back when we started, taping was huge. We let people tape our shows and those tapes started getting everywhere and after a few years, we thought, “well, we should probably release a professional sounding live album for our first record.” So we did and we threw a few studio numbers on there but it was mostly just a live show and people loved it because all they had of us was these crappy sounding mix tapes. So finally there was this quality representation of who we were and what we did. It just really grew from there and it was a steady increase. After our first studio record, it really shot up to some sort of success.

Our business model was a lot different back then from most bands at that time, too. For a lot of bands, who are just struggling to play and keep afloat, a record company comes to them and says “We like you guys. We think we can make something out of you. Here’s X amount of dollars upfront and when you are done, we’ll give you X amount more and we’ll give you this amount for tour and give you this percent of merchandise.” What the bands didn’t realize is that the record company was pretty much taking control of the full aspect of things, like the merchandise and the booking and the touring and everything. Once you are theirs, everything went through record companies.

We had such a machine already happening by the time the record companies all got hip to who we were, that they were like, “Well, what do we do with this band? They’re already kind of doing it.” RCA was the first company that came out and saw what we did and said, “This is great! They have their touring and merch down, all we have to do is help them make a great studio record.” They signed us with that sort of freedom and we’ve had a lot of freedom from the start and only have been given more freedom throughout the years. It’s helped us not have to repay so much. It’s really helped us look at the future and move forward.

MK: Was Coran [Coran Capshaw, DMB Manager; founder of Red Light Management; co-founder of ATO Records] helping you set up your infrastructure at the beginning stage?

SL: Well, we were incorporated as a band, which was another thing that a lot of bands did not do, where the lead singer kind of owned the whole thing or the guitar player or whatever, but we came together, and incorporated. The merchandise thing…we just made t-shirts one day and just started selling the t-shirts and people loved them so we just kept doing that. Coran came around because he ran a club that we played at, and we started playing there every Tuesday and he became pretty interested in what we were doing because he saw that there was a lot of momentum. So when he came into it, there was already a lot of momentum, but he definitely helped sculpt the business model that we have used throughout our career. He’s a pretty powerful force when it comes to the business side of the music.

MK: I know you are active on Twitter and Facebook. Can you talk about how you are engaging your fans online?

SL: Our band has always tried to be at the forefront of cutting edge technology when it came to the fan site. When we first started, a fan site was more or less just a mailing list where you would sign a piece of paper and send it to a P.O. box and then maybe you got a t-shirt or a couple stickers or something. There wasn’t really too much incentive to be a fan member. So we created an online fan site and it just took off and that kind of became the model for every band after that.

I have started thinking about a solo record. It’s one of those things, in the history of music, most people that do that, their solo record isn’t something that carries because everyone sees it as project from the bass player for the Dave Matthews Band. So I decided that I would start a website – a platform that I could express myself, so people could see me outside of being the Dave Matthews Band bass player. So it worked and for a little while, people were signing up and talking and I would do little blogs on stuff. MySpace came up and it completely obliterated my whole concept because my concept was MySpace. All of the sudden, I signed up for an account to MySpace and I had 400 more people becoming my friends on Myspace than on my own site. I sort of left my site to the side and I went to MySpace and then from there, I went to Facebook and then from there, I went to Twitter. Next thing I know, I had a voice with the fans. Now it’s gotten to the point where I have to be really careful about what I say because people can take it one way or the other. Sometimes I like that because I don’t mind a little bit of controversy, other times, I want to go out there and squash the rumors. There are a lot of people pretending to be us online. If I find out I’ll go straight to the source, ask BT [Boyd Tinsley, violinist for DMB] if he had a Twitter account and he’d say, “what’s Twitter?” and I was like “Alright guys, FAKE! Don’t talk to him! He’s pretending to be BT”. I think I gained a sort of trust inside the community. Now its just fun and it’s a promotional thing for me. If something happens like the Grand Canyon Adventure [Stefan co-wrote the original music for Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk], I can just start talking about it. I’m taking courses at Berkleemusic, and fans love hearing about the homework I’m doing. I’ve been posting about homework and I think people are starting to think I’m crazy because it’s 4 in the morning and I’m like “still working!” and they’re like “When do you sleep?” It’s been a lot of fun for me and I think the fans enjoy it, so it is something that I’ll keep doing.

Record Club: INXS “Need You Tonight” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Also: is it just me or is this bass line borrowing from Sly Stone’s “Thank You For Talkin’ to Me Africa?”

More from Beck’s Record Club (including the Velvet Underground!) here.

Whether we realize it or not, music theory is essential to being a successful musician. It is all around us, built into the core of the Rock, Blues, Jazz, and Classical styles. What makes these styles distinguishable is how they utilize the basic elements of theory. What would Blues be without the 12 bar form? What would Classical be without the big V-I cadence? Our culture is steeped in these traditions, and our ears have been trained to listen for, and even expect, music that follows these rules.

Now, here is why I think music theory is fun, and even exciting (yes, yes I know—bear with me). Because our music follows these rules, and even casual listeners unconsciously expect these conventions, we can create a unique musical experience by messing with the rules. Musicians playing with, stretching, and even breaking musical convention goes back to those stuffy old dead-guys. (If you don’t believe me, check out Haydn’s Surprise Symphony—the guy had a sense of humor!) They realized that keeping the audience engaged was important, and since they did not have fancy flashing lights, background projectors, or fireworks, they used theory.

The clever songwriter, composer, and even soloist learns the rules and conventions of music so that, at the precise moment, they can break the rules and do something so surprising, so unexpected, that they command immediate attention. It doesn’t matter if the audience realizes that the artist threw in a tri-tone substitute dominant, or switched modes, or even just pulled a deceptive cadence—they just know that, instead of the same old patterns, something new just happened. That, my fellow musicians, is the beauty of music theory.

So, the next time you listen to your favorite artist, whether it’s B.B. King, the Beatles, or even Franz Joseph Haydn, think about the moments that really catch your ear and draw you in. Odds are that it’s no accident—that surprising, unexpected, attention-grabbing moment that is the crux of every classic piece has its genesis in music theory.

Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:

1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

Me, I’m just a hack survivalist, but lately, I’ve found the need to develop my own little checklist. It’s meant to complement what your mastering engineer is doing, not replace it. Mastering engineers are better at this than I am.

So, here’s my own checklist for CD masters—specifically for CDs that accompany books about music. Many of these items have a horrific war story attached to them. If you are the unfortunate recipient of a CD that I had something to do with that doesn’t work due to one of these issues, or something else, please contact me privately about this at jfeist@berklee.edu.

Anyhow, here’s my current list. Let me know if you have other suggestions.

CD Master Checklist

Starting point: CDs should conform to Red Book standard.

Among the things to confirm:

CD:

74 minutes maximum; less is better
99 tracks maximum
1 second or more space between tracks (unless there’s a really good reason not to)
files are WAV or AIFF and not MP3 (iTunes likes to sneak in MP3s)
Works in audio-only CD player; don’t test it only on a computer
CD is labeled with project name and date of CD, what type of CD it is (audio, data, CD-plus, etc.), and whether it is a master or a draft

Content:

Notes on CD match notation in book
Examples are repeated in accordance with book’s notation
Tracks are in the correct order, matching CD Tracks page in the book
Countoffs/clicks are used consistently
No distortion
No pops
No random talking or other extraneous noise, particularly at beginning and end
No long spaces of silence at beginning or end of tracks
Track names are correctly spelled, and rendered just like CD tracks list, if there is one
Volume levels consistent from track to track

An important check to do is to use the >> button on an audio CD player to begin each track. It is possible for the start points to be out of sync, which you’d only notice by doing this, or otherwise starting each track fresh. (The track would not start at the beginning.)

###

What all this worldly thinking does is to bring home to me the fact that most of us are missing opportunities all the time, simply because our sphere of awareness is not sufficiently global. In fact, much of the time, it’s barely even local. When I was a writer-producer, the world was frequently contained entirely within the four walls of the recording studio, for weeks or months at a time. We are all worrying so much about what we’re doing, that we forget that where we’re doing it could make all the difference. If you’re searching for gold (or platinum records), it’s usually easier if you go where the gold is found.

This does not mean that you should immediately join every other songwriter from New York, Nashville, and London in moving to Los Angeles. Quite the opposite in fact. The herd mentality is exactly what you want to avoid if you’re looking for opportunity. You can’t dominate a market that’s over-saturated. You become the big fish by going where all the other big fish are not.

Of course, those little placid pools of opportunity seldom feel terribly exciting when you first arrive at them. In fact, most of the time, when a songwriter is in a small town, or a mid-size city, or a relatively small country, or in an economy that is still developing and has little infrastructure for media or music businesses, all he or she wants to do it get out. I recall having a writer/producer from Denmark make a writing trip to New York, and within days of arriving, he was already talking about moving here. Now Denmark is actually a very vibrant country with a thriving music community. Nevertheless, it’s not a large market, and as such, certainly doesn’t offer the financial pay-off that making it in America does. I can easily understand the appeal of relocating to a city full of other artists, writers, and music business people.

What I had to explain to the Danish writer was that much of his appeal to A&R people, American co-writers, and others in the industry was that he was something exotic. Simply by coming from a different place, and bringing different influences and ideas, he had a story that opened doors. It’s a lot easier to suggest to an A&R person that they take a meeting with the hot new writer in town for a week from Denmark, or Berlin, or Peru, than to interest them in another songwriter from Brooklyn or Hoboken. People in the music industry are constantly searching for something new and surprising, and more often than not, those things do not emerge from the same community of songwriters that is creating the current hits. The hot new thing comes from outsiders– whether it’s from a regional scene (think of the music coming out of places like Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis, Portland and Vancouver), or from another country. Today’s Hot 100 is full of international success stories, from RedOne to Stargate to David Guetta to The Phoenix to The Script to Greg Kurstin to Akon to Rihanna. Being from a place outside of the music centers can seem like a disadvantage, especially if there’s no local music community with whom to work. Yet, it’s also an advantage of sorts, as it gives a story and a new, fresh perspective. It also makes it relatively easy to become a dominant player in the local scene.

RedOne

That reality has a flip side for songwriters, producers, publishers and others who are located in a music center, like New York, London, Nashville or LA. While you might be fighting for every breath in a big but very crowded pond, perhaps you would be a big fish in a smaller, less competitive environment. I often find this to be especially true for melody and lyric writers working in the urban/r&b market. What if instead of struggling to break out of the pack of the hundreds or thousands of topline writers in a market like LA or Atlanta, you were to go to a European country, where people who could write believable, authentic lyrics with an American urban sensibility and slang were in relatively short supply? Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, or Amsterdam are full of fantastic programmers and producers who can compete with many of the top urban producers in the US. But they lack the topline writers who can provide lyrics that work for American audiences. It doesn’t always make sense to go where the action is. If you’re trying to get to first base, the best thing to do is “hit ‘em where they ain’t”.

That goes for the business side as well. Just as many developing countries are in need of experts in insurance, banking and medicine, they may also be in need of people to build their creative industries, like music, film, radio, and entertainment management. It’s hardly news to anyone that the music industry in America and much of Western Europe is contracting, or maybe even collapsing. But in places like Eastern Europe, China, and the Middle East, the music industry is just getting started. It’s often not very pretty, frequently lacking in infrastructure or even basic copyright law, and sometimes actually at odds with government authorities or local customs. That’s about what the industry looked like in America in the Forties and Fifties, when people like Leonard Chess, Ahmet Ertegun, Don Kirshner, and Col. Tom Parker first made their fortunes. If you want to strike it rich, the place with the least rules, the fewest entrenched power brokers, and the lowest number of competitors is an ideal place to do it.

Since it’s that time of year, I would then offer this up as advice to all of the graduates of music schools and music business programs this month:

Get outta here.

Don’t go where everyone else is going, wherever that might be. Find a place where there is an interesting local scene that’s just taking shape, or an economy that’s growing rapidly, or a place where whole segments of the music industry have never existed. Then bring your knowledge, talent and ambition to somewhere that really needs it. It will be very difficult, especially in places where there is relatively little legal or economic infrastructure on which to build. But trust me, trying to break through by gigging at the Mercury Lounge or the Whiskey is pretty difficult too– as is working your way up through the executive ranks of a major label teetering on extinction. At least this way, you have the chance to truly hit the jackpot, rather than just hoping for a decent advance or a good severance package.

Sooner or later, you will in all likelihood return to London, LA, New York, Stockholm, Munich or Tokyo– that’s why they call them music centers. These places are the ones with the lawyers, agents, major publishers and labels, and collection companies that make the business run. But when you return, you’ll come back with a story (hopefully a successful one), some momentum and credibility, and with any luck, the kind of power that comes from having created a thriving business model in unlikely circumstances. That’s very different than showing up in town with a degree and a suitcase full of resumes.

Realistically, in order to pull this off, you’ll need more than just a basic background in the music biz. You’ll want some foreign language skills, an understanding of the culture and economic system of wherever you’re headed, a musical knowledge that extends beyond the current US Top 40, and an understanding of how different aspects of the music business can change based on local custom, copyright laws (or lack thereof), and different collection systems. Needless to say, that will take some extensive studying and research.

At the moment, I’m knee-deep in updating my Berklee Music online class, Music Publishing 101. One of the key changes I’m hoping to make in the new course is a greater emphasis on the international differences in music publishing. It’s a very tough subject to address, simply because there are so many of those differences, some rooted in variances in the copyright laws between territories, others related to the size of the market, and still others based on custom and history. The US system is neither the oldest nor the most representative– it’s just one way among many of publishing music. You need to know the variations in each market, not just so that you can speak intelligently with sub-publishers and colleagues in other regions, but also so that you can take advantage of opportunities that lie outside of your own national borders. If you want to check out the new version of Music Publishing 101, visit Berkleemusic.com

When I first told my parents that I wanted to be in the music industry, they reminded me frequently that success in that field seemed to hinge entirely on being “in the right place at the right time”. Those words always drove me crazy, as they seemed to imply that anything that happened in music was all a matter of sheer luck—never a great basis upon which to build a business strategy. While I’m still not a big believer in the “lucky break” theory of career development, I now have to admit that Mom and Dad had a point. By doing a little research, keeping your eyes open, and being willing to go wherever it takes to grab an opportunity, you can put yourself in the “right place” at the “right time”, and make your own luck. Don’t be afraid to pack your bags and go west, east, north, or south to find a place where the pasture is greener.

After writing, producing, and mixing the fourteen songs on my upcoming album I had seriously had it with listening to my own tracks over, and over, and over again. So, when I finally made the decision to spend a couple thousand to hire an experienced mastering engineer, I breathed a big sigh of relief. Even though it would be a significant dent in my pocketbook I knew the right mastering engineer would be worth the price.

My choice of a mastering engineer was Michael Denten at Infinite Studios (and, on Myspace). Uploading my project to him was an exciting moment because I knew he would listen to my project with fresh ears, in a completely different studio, and give me some honest feedback on my mixes. Having worked with Denten for a few years in the 90s, I knew how he liked his mixes, phat and present. I knew that with his extensive experience working with some of the biggest names in hip-hop, from Digital Underground to E-40, that he would naturally bring this big, round, bass heavy sound to my project. And, I was confident that my project would benefit from this sound. It’s critical to choose the right mastering engineer for a project, because as much as the right mastering engineer can blow up your sound, the wrong mastering engineer can totally screw up your sound.

Denten was busy so it took him awhile to get to my project, but when he did take his first listen he opened up my eyes and ears to some mistakes that I had made in my mixes. I figured he would have some suggestions, and I figured there was no way I was going to nail all my mixes right out of the gate, so I was able to listen to his feedback with an open mind. You’ve got to remove your ego from the equation in order to hear blunt feedback on your own material, especially material you’d been working on for months and months. You’ve got to remember that this is about what’s good for the song, not what’s good for your ego. Denten didn’t disappoint, he took me to school and made suggestions that where spot on and really helped me to improve my mixes. Let me paraphrase some of his suggestions so you understand what I’m talking about.

“This song is muddy in the 500 Hz range, you need to clean this up.”

“What happened to the kick drum here, it’s leaning to one side.”

“The lead vocals are way to dry on this song, they’re not sitting in the mix right.”

“The drum loop in this song isn’t punching through the mix enough, you need to split it out to different tracks so that you can treat the high, mid, and low frequencies separately.”

“You need to add some sub bass here for more bottom end. You should use the Waves MaxxBass plug-in.”

“Your mixes aren’t very wide. Don’t be so conservative on your panning, spread things out.”

Some pretty blunt criticisms, and those were just the main ones. There were many other smaller, equally helpful suggestions that he made throughout the process.

After receiving his initial feedback I went back to my studio and made the changes. My mixes sounded so much better, and, as a result, my masters sounded a whole lot better, and my entire album sounded better. Thank you Mr. Denten! This is what a great mastering engineer can do for your mixes before they’ve even touched them, they can be a second set of ears and give you crucial feedback to help you improve your sound. Then, when they actually do their job and master your music, your songs are going to sound a whole better than if you had skipped this step and gone straight to mastering all of the tracks on your own. So, if you’re serious about releasing an album worldwide, and you plan to spend the money on physical CDs, don’t skip this step, hire an experienced mastering engineer to take your project to the next level.

Some of the control room monitors at Infinite Studios.

Something that doesn’t get talked about enough (but is incredibly crucial to the success of how your music is performed) is how the individual parts are laid out for the players to read. I’ve uploaded several examples of various instrumental parts for you to use as models (you might even recognize the titles big. I like to think about creating individual parts as though every situation is going to be a “sight reading” situation because there is really never enough time to rehearse and teach a player their part. To this end, I make sure the part is very legible in the following ways:

First, print out the pdf’s I’ve uploaded on 8.5 X 11 inch paper (or something close because what you see on the computer screen is normally not what you REALLY see when printed). Then, when looking at the newly printed pages, note the following:

• Generally 3-5 measures on a line works well. If you have an 8 measure section (extremely common), then I would use 4 on each system. Generally, think of it this way – beginnings of sections start on the far left (like a paragraph of text), and end on the far right. As much as possible, place double bar lines on the far right as well.

• Rehearsal numbers, placed at the beginning of each section, can be the measure number that starts that particular section. Although you could use consecutive letters instead (A, B, C, D etc), when using computers to record with live musicians the measure numbers are consistent between the computer and the live player (computers don’t read letters).

• Measure numbers are easily placed below the clef at the beginning of each system. If you place measure numbers below each measure, the numbers easily collide with ties, notes and other dynamic information.

• I find that a percentage of 100 (% tool in Finale, then click on the upper left side of the page) with respect to the size of the image is a bit large when printed, so I reduce it down to about 94% or 95%. This also allows a little more space on the page. Be sure that the “hold margins” option is checked or else the image will shrink within the page.

• Lastly, when lyrics are involved (a vocal part), it might be necessary to have only 2-3 measures on a system because the lyrics do take up space. The bigger the syllable or word, the more space that is needed.

• All pages should be taped edge to edge with an individual part – not overlapped. Tape both the front and back of the page to avoid pages sticking together.

ALWAYS AVOID the idea that if you put more measures on a page it will save page turns (and you’ll be doing something “green” by saving paper). True, it DOES do that. But, if the player has a hard time reading the notes it won’t matter how many pages of paper you saved because it will sound terrible due to difficulty in reading. The player is reading from roughly three feet in front of their eyes in most cases (and shouldn’t have to be closer), so they need it to be large enough to read it.

If you ever have questions about this in the future, feel free to e-mail me anytime. Also, there is a great guide to score and part layout in the Berkleemusic Bookstore called, “Music Notation: Preparing Scores and Parts” by Matthew Nicholl and Richard Grudzinski – it’s a great resource for for this unheralded, but extremely important part of the writing process.

I hope this helps!

Jerry

Harp_Memory_Cb
Innocent_Wonder_Piano_Rev
Innocent_Wonder_Tpt
Soprano_Sax
Violin_2

Copyright law dictates that any venue that hosts live music is required to have a performance license, and pay the associated annual licensing fee. As Joan Anderman points out in her Boston Globe piece this morning, the Performance Rights Organizations (who are tasked with collecting these licensing fees and distributing the proceeds to their members) are aggressively pursing these smaller “venues,” many of which make little or no money from the music they present. As such, many of these smaller business owners are eliminating live music from their schedule. As Anderman points out:

Among them is Magret Gudmundsson, who until recently hosted a monthly acoustic open mike in her Middleborough, MA cafe, Coffee Milano. “I like having it here, but we’re not making any money from it and they wanted $332 a year,’’ Gudmundsson said. “The town really needs something like this. They ruined it.”

The PROs counter that the music provided by these artists is adding value to these businesses, and they should pay for this value in the same way they pay for other utilities. There is no doubt that music has value, but if tiny outlets truly are not generating enough revenue from these performances to cover the costs of the license, is it more beneficial for the artists (whom the PROs are representing) to consider these outlets as a way to get their live chops down and hopefully start their local following, as opposed to an income generating vehicle? Are the PROs, as my friend Milan might say, killing an ox for a pound of meat?

I’m all for artists collecting money for their work. But if the end result of PRO field agents (who get paid a commission based on the fees they collect) working coffee shops for a license fee means that there are fewer small outlets for developing artists to perform at and perfect their craft, I’m not sure the ends justify the means.

Take a look at Joan Anderman’s Globe piece here

The first topic is the Trailer Trash Pedalboard Pro Series, that I mentioned briefly in my last post.

This is one I tricked out myself, using a Marinco inlet for AC leading to 2 T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior power supplies (5- 9v power outputs on each) provided power for 10- 9v pedals. These are velcro’d to the bottom of the board.

Of course, if you don’t know anything about electricity, please get a tech to wire it up for you… Don’t try this at home, kinda thing. But even for me, it was pretty easy to match green black and white wires to get what I needed for power. For a power chord from the wall, I just got an extension chord and attached the matching Marinco outlet that fits right into the inlet on the side of the board. In a pinch you can use any extension cord available since the housing is larger than most outlet plugs.

I also added some 1/4 inch input jacks on the right side of the board and soldered them to a couple of George L cables to feed through to the first and last pedal (just drill a hole through the bottom and attach a George L plug to the cable on the top side of the board). That way, you can just have the board wired up ready to go..all you have to do is plug a guitar in and a cable out to your amp.

This is a very practical approach to getting a board that would otherwise be quite expensive. And, of course, you have some options with the wiring and power supplies, depending on power requirements for your pedals.

This board is essentially the same as my other custom Trailer Trash Board (Though not as pretty! ahem!) Here are the photos.. you get the idea…

To follow up to some requests for more info on my other pedalboard, I am posting some photos of the latest incarnation of the Pedal Train Mini board.

My new recent addition is the Morley Mini Wah…Now!…finally a great sounding wah that does not take up most of the board. I am totally in love with the sound! It is just the right amount of traditional in most of the sweep, then at the end it gets really synth like and contemporary sounding. My favorite wah so far! Can’t beat the footprint for sure..!

Here are the photos:

The signal path is as follows:

1) Korg Pitch Black Tuner
2) Cusack Screamer
3) Morley Mini Wah
4) Love Pedal Magicboy Vibe
5) Dark Echo Delay
6) Fulltone Fatboost

This mini board has become my go-to board. Light, portable, sounds great, no noise! With this board, I can basically get pretty much what I get from my larger board (pictured in the previous post), but I only need a fraction of the floor space and no power chord/wall wart needed. I am very very happy with this board.

I also want to let you all know a little more about the power supply I built for this mini board.  Here is one of the responses I wrote about the description of the power supply. I decided to put it in the body of a post so everyone can benefit:

The rechargeable power supply is really simple..with the help of my good friend who is an amp tech genius, we built a prototype with regular 9v batteries and tested it for a few weeks, measuring the voltage each day, while it powered a couple of pedals. I was amazed that it worked so well for so long (7 days continuously), and that it was impossible to find a product like this anywhere, even one that just allowed you to use non-recharge-ables in parallel.

So then I refined it in the next box that I built myself. I use 5 Li-Poly batteries in parallel and it works like a charm to power the whole board for a few gigs…I wired them into a aluminum project box the size of a phase 90. 5-9v Li-Poly batteries fit perfectly with a little organizing of the wires before you solder them together and then shrink wrap them.

The only part that is a little bit of a  drag is that I take them out to use a special fast charger (about 45 min)…but I only do that, say once per week, and I play the board every night for the most part for a couple of hours. The good thing about Li-Poly is there is no memory problems….so I always charge them up to full right before an important gig regardless of when the last time was they were charged…..my next project would be to figure out how to fast-charge them while they are still housed in the box, which I am sure is easy, but I have not gotten around to it yet.

In my upcoming post, I will write about a pedal manufacturer who is making this Li-Poly recharge option available with his amazing pedal. His pedal actually charges with any regular 9v power supply. It is one of those ”How come someone has not thought of this yet?!!! ” kinda things.

Well there is a big company that is jumping on board with this concept, which is why I did not bother to try to go into manufacturing rechargeable power supplies after I refined and proved the concept.

I found out a few months after I made my power supply that SANYO is starting to make a product called an eneloop pedal power supply which is basically what I have made with a couple of extras. A company like SANYO can use their existing tech infrastructure to make what sounds like a great product at a great price (something like 160.00 or so). The 9v Li-Poly batteries are not cheap, at something like 20 each, so a small boutique manufacturer could not possible keep up and still make a profit.

But the SANYO product, from what I have seen, looks good and has battery strength indicator lights..I am waiting for it to hit the market. It was at the last Namm. I may even get one myself!

Here are pictures of my power supply: The stickers are just something I had lying around…my Independent Music Award Stickers! Putting them to good use!

I get a  lot of questions about the power supply when I play live…

Happy Pedal-boarding!

The award is the highest recognition possible for online curriculum from UCEA, a membership association that promotes excellence in continuing higher education. The competition judges courses from all colleges and universities nationwide, representing all disciplines. Online courses are judged on lesson content, assignments, student assessment, course layout, design, and the use of multi-media elements.

“Music Production Analysis is a visually engaging, beautifully designed, and masterfully constructed course. The instructional videos are stunning,” said Kay J. Kohl, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of UCEA.

Music Production Analysis joins past Berkleemusic UCEA award winners Orchestration 1 (2009 Winner), Concert Touring (2008 Winner), Guitar Chords 101 (2007 Winner), Berklee Keyboard Method (2006 Winner), and Getting Inside Harmony 1 (2005 Winner).

“We’ve taught over 25,000 students from around the world, from arena rock stars and music industry executives to hobbyists and developing musicians, and everyone in between,” said David Kusek, VP of Berkleemusic. “We’ve been changing musician’s lives for the past 8 years, and it’s fantastic that UCEA has continued to recognize the depth and content of our online music courses.”

More here

Thanks to Ihor Gowda for the tip!

“I think it’s critical that you have your own website and drive traffic to your own website in any way imaginable, and that you set up ways…

Small is the new big.

He’s right– in more ways than one. Clearly, small companies with low overheads and fluid business plans are better suited to manage the challenges of the “new” music industry than the massive conglomerates that have been the dominating forces over the past several decades. In fact, even many large, well-established companies have realized that small profit ventures like low-percentage administration deals, music library businesses, gratis sync licenses that yield only performance income, and no-advance sub-publishing arrangements have replaced the big-money pay-offs on co-publishing, life of copyright deals and six-figure sync fees. Small money is not only the new big money. It seems to be the only money there is.

But “small is the new big” in another sense as well–perhaps it would be more accurate to say, “small is tomorrow’s big”, and it always has been. The music industry is full of niche markets, many of which are deemed too small or specialized to interest the major record labels, or their colleagues at the major publishers. These little pockets of activity probably don’t show up on the Billboard charts. The music may not even be sold through conventional music outlets (whatever those are anymore). The markets are too obscure to interest the big industry players, not nearly sexy or cutting-edge enough to bring up at an A&R meeting, and too limited in their earnings to attract the attention of the investment community or the financial guys at the major music corporations. And yet, if you look at some of these markets twenty years later, you’ll usually find that at some point, a smart, wily, unconventional entrepreneur came in and quietly made a killing, while all the rest of the industry slept. Out of nowhere, the small business person becomes the new big one.

Happened to read an article today about one such example– a very dramatic one at that. Check out an article called “The Influencer”, by Connie Bruck, in the New Yorker magazine.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/10/100510fa_fact_bruck

New Yorker articles being what they are, this is a long and fascinating story of entertainment mogul and political powerbroker Haim Saban, full of complex political and ethical implications. But for music business weasels like myself, the primary point of interest was this one:

Saban made his initial fortune as a music publisher. He’s now estimated to be worth more than $3 billion dollars. Do I have your attention now?

In 1986, Saban sold his first music publishing catalog to Warner Communications for about $6 million dollars, which he then used to expand his empire, buying additional catalogs, and then expanding his media holdings to eventually include Fox’s Family Channel and now, Univision. Still, I feel fairly confident that most in the music business would hardly recognize his name, except for having seen it on the outside of office buildings or theaters in LA. For all his years in the music industry, Saban doesn’t seem to have any big hits or legendary acts to his credit. He probably didn’t often hang around the schmooze circuit of awards shows and music conferences. I can’t see him checking out bands at Stubbs at SXSW.

So how did he manage to make a fortune in the music business, anyway? The answer:

Cartoons.

Not exactly the mainstream of the industry. Indeed, it was even less so when Saban got into it, in the late 1970’s. At the time, Saban was managing a young French singer from Israel named Noam Kaniel. The manager brought Kaniel to Paris, taught him French, secured a recording contract and had a minor hit with the artist when he sang the theme to “Goldarak”, a Japanese cartoon series broadcast in France. You can’t get much further from the mainstream music business than that. Yet for Saban, it became the opportunity of a lifetime.

The exposure to the cartoon business allowed Saban to see that a huge amount of music publishing income could be generated by TV cartoons, which are licensed to television stations around the world and played countless times. If you’re wondering what the word “perennial” means, think about Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner, and how many times you’ve seen certain classic episodes– and how many times your kids have seen, or will see them as well. Now, imagine what those generate in performance income from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the other societies around the world.

Quickly, Saban seized the moment and began signing writers to create music as “works for hire”, which he then provided to the cartoon production companies for free– Saban registered the works and took the publisher share (and often the writer share as well). In less than ten years, he was selling the company for seven figures. Small got big and was getting bigger.

It’s a remarkable story, but not an entirely unique one. There are similar tales throughout the music and entertainment industry of people who found a spot in the shadows where they could quietly mint money, while others grabbed the headlines. Actually, the story of Saban reminded me of Clive Calder, the founder of Jive Records and Zomba Music, who I had the good fortune to work for in the late 90’s, before he sold his company for more than 3 billion dollars. Like Saban, Calder found his initial opportunity in niche markets like heavy metal and hip-hop, snapping up the publishing on early hip-hop artists and producers when the general consensus was that hip-hop was unlikely to yield any enduring copyrights. Rap was too small a business to matter much, and even many of the other entrepreneurs that were pivotal in the expansion of the genre failed to see the value of the publishing rights, and focused only on starting record labels.

All of this came to mind when I met this week with Chrisie Santoni, a talented songwriter, performer and publisher. In our discussion about her band and the success she’s had in creating a self-sustaining business around her music, she happened to mention that there was another element to her company which focused on children’s music. As it turns out, she has constructed an exciting new business, Dancing Bears Music, built around her work as a performer and music educator for children– playing shows and selling CDs. Still, I could tell that she was a little hesitant to mention it, knowing that music for children was something that rarely registered on the radar of most music business weasels.

http://www.dancingbearsmusic.com

That’s their loss. The fact that most of the major labels have entirely abandoned the children’s market is incredible, especially since it’s one of the few genres that can still move physical product. People who balk at paying a dollar to download a song for themselves will happily buy a fifteen dollar CD for their kids (especially if it keeps the kids quiet in the car!). Why label A&R’s and music publishers would rather wager money on a buzz band from Brooklyn, instead of a children’s project that could be sold to all the people wheeling strollers around Park Slope is utterly beyond me. But I know that it spells opportunity.

It’s not the only such opportunity out there. Niche markets like world music, foreign language releases, theater music, modern classical, jam bands, soca, dancehall and many others all have the potential to generate big money, and yet fall outside the purview of most major label and publishing A&R people, who are segregated into pop, rock, country, urban, and (maybe) Latin departments.

Of course, there are no guarantees. Many small niche markets never grow much, and others quickly become over-saturated to the point where no one can make any money. Niche markets probably won’t get you a profile in Billboard, or generate a major label bidding war. At worst, a niche market provides a small but steady income with a minimum of risk. At best, it could be tomorrow’s hot new thing, and you’ll be there before anyone else. So never be embarrassed or hesitant to focus your company in areas that the mainstream industry dismisses as marginal. There’s a lot of money to be made on the margins. For small publishers who want to get big– this is where you start.

A quick note in closing:

I want to be sure to let all of you who follow this blog know about my new business: Ask The Music Business Weasel! This is an hourly consulting service aimed at songwriters, artists, and publishers looking for information, feedback, or advice on confronting challenges in their business. The consultation can happen in person, over the phone, through skype, or whatever suits you– but it’s a chance to chat and try to brainstorm about opportunities and strategies for your music career. If you’re interested check out my brand new website:

www.ericbeall.com

If you go to the section marked: consulting, you’ll find more information about the service. Just drop me an email at ericbeall@ericbeall.com, and I’ll be in touch to set something up.