The Berkleemusic blog network brings together music industry professionals, music educators and Berklee faculty to discuss topics and current events relating to the music business, music production, songwriting, music theory, performance and online education.
Some succinct thoughts in this interview from the guitar player in Radiohead who is not named Jonny Greenwood or Thom Yorke. Ed makes two good points in here, when talking about the physical release of In Rainbows. My paraphrase:
A) consumers are set in their ways, and if you are not making your product available in all formats (and stores) you are limiting your pool of potential consumers (as well as leaving money on the table). It’s a great point, and something artists need to consider on a large scale (whether to release digital only vs physical and digital) as well on a micro level (releasing music to 3rd party streaming retailers with lower pay rates, vs releasing only to higher paying permanent download options like iTunes and Amazonmp3).
B) artists need an “equitable, fair, and balanced relationship” with whomever they decide to work with to help them market and sell their music. This goes for labels, or any other artists service based company. As Ed says, many label deals are “an analog model in a digital era.”
Watch the full interview here, courtesy of paidcontent.co.uk
After an upbeat pep talk to begin the year, it seems appropriate now to acknowledge what we all know:
Things do not always go as planned.
Have you noticed that? If you’ve tried any of the previously given tips on how to get your music out there, I’m pretty sure you’ve definitely noticed that as good as the ideas look on paper, they don’t always play out as well in real life. The truth is that the work of putting your music out into the industry is every bit as difficult as the creative work of writing songs and making records. And that’s pretty hard.
Unfortunately, most of us bring a lot more tenacity and determination to making the music than we do to selling it. It’s always interesting to watch musicians, who have spent countless lonely, isolated hours honing and refining their ability to play a musical instrument or to sing, then devote all of twenty minutes to researching potential contacts. Producers who will miss deadlines or blow out their budget to fix tiny flaws in a recording (which are probably noticeable only to them), will balk at spending money to attend a conference, or will choose to send out mass emails to A&R contacts, rather than personalized ones, in order to save a few minutes worth of work. Songwriters will work and rework one simple line in a hundred variations, but give up in despair when their first phone call attempt to an A&R person goes unreturned.
Be forewarned: no matter how strategically you approach it, getting your music out there will always be challenging. You will run into closed doors everywhere you turn. Everyone does. But somehow, each year, a handful of people do break through. We know then that it can be done. It’s simply a case of trying every possible avenue until you find the one that works. So, to conclude a series of blogs on “How To Get Your Music Heard”, here’s three ideas of how to trouble-shoot when your sales approach isn’t working. Most importantly, don’t panic and don’t get discouraged. This problem is no harder than learning to play an instrument, finding the perfect title, or figuring out why your Protools isn’t working. When your first approach fails…
1. Check your connections.
The most common response you’ll hear when trying to get someone in the industry to listen to your music is this:
Our company does not allow us to accept unsolicited material at this time.
Welcome to the dead zone, from which most songwriters and publishers never return. Indeed, that’s part of the reason for such a policy. By its nature it will eliminate at least 50% of the people trying to call the company. Most will just give up.
Don’t give up. At the same time, don’t get mad– as irritating as it obviously is. The person who is telling you this is telling you the truth. Almost every major music company has an official policy, drafted by the corporate lawyers, that no A&R person is ALLOWED to accept material that is “unsolicited”, which is to say, from someone the A&R person doesn’t know. This is to protect companies from the very real threat of lawsuits, launched by amateur songwriters who are sure that their song was stolen by a superstar act. An A&R person who violates the policy and suddenly finds himself or herself at the center of a lawsuit could very likely lose their job.
The best way around this obstacle is to get out of the category of “someone the A&R person doesn’t know”. You need a connection. If you can drop the name of a lawyer, your ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC writer rep, another songwriter or producer who the A&R person has worked with, a friend in a different department of the company, or an established manager, booking agent, or radio programmer who is recommending you, you are now no longer “unsolicited”. This is the cover that the A&R person needs to be in compliance with company policy. It’s also the test you need to pass in order to make the person on the other end of the phone believe that it’s worth his or her time to speak with you.
If you’re getting the “unsolicited” line, then it’s time to go back and figure out who on your team (lawyer, manager, writer rep, songwriting buddies, studio engineer or owner, gear salesman, friends, etc.) might know the person you’re calling and be willing to refer you. If no one on your team can help, see if they know a friend of a friend of the person you’re calling. If you’re still unconnected, then you need to expand your team. Figure out who might be able to get to the music weasel you’re after, and go after that new person, starting the whole process over again.
I didn’t say it was easy.
2. Check your levels.
The second most common issue, after the “no unsolicited material” roadblock, is “nothing”. That is, total silence. Unreturned phone calls. Unanswered emails. The big freeze-out. You’re trying to get your music out there, and it seems there’s no “there” there.
Again, don’t get mad. Remember– just because you want someone to hear your music does not lay an obligation on the other person to take your call or listen to what you send. The person on the other end of the phone is being given priorities and duties by his or her boss, and they probably don’t include speaking with you. This is especially true as you move up the corporate ladder, and start trying to reach out to the higher-ranking executives on the A&R staff.
Most major record labels do have people that are searching for the next “developing” star– the hot, unknown songwriter or the undiscovered artist. But they are junior A&R people– not Sr. Vice-Presidents. The more elevated executives are supposed to be devoting their time to the superstars that are already signed and paying the bills. The same is true in major publishing companies and management firms. If you don’t yet have a track record or the calling card of a current “hit”, you will probably not have much luck reaching the Big Weasel. But that’s not who you need anyway, nor is that the person that needs you. You want to speak to the hungry, ambitious, excited, 22 year old kid that works for the Big Weasel and who wants more than anything to discover the talent that no one else knows about yet. This is how the kid will eventually become the Big Weasel. It is also how you will eventually get a returned phone call.
If you’re hitting a wall, it may be that you’re aiming too high. Adjust your aim one or two levels down the corporate pecking order, and you might find an open door.
3. Check your sound.
I know it will come as a shock, but some people may simply not like what you do. They have that right. In fact, if what you do is reasonably stylized, quirky, or clever, you can be sure that most people in the industry will not quite get it. Sony dropped Alicia Keys. Jive dropped Kid Rock. Lady Gaga is already on her second record deal. The fact that some people don’t like what you do might mean that there’s a problem with your music– you’ll have to determine how to address that. But it also might mean that you simply don’t have the right match between your sound and the person listening. There’s no accounting for taste–and you don’t have to. All you have to do is find the person whose taste is suited to your music.
As a veteran of the music industry, one of the few advantages that I enjoy is that I have begun to understand the likes and dislikes of the people to whom I’m pitching music. This means that a huge part of my job is simply knowing how to match a particular song, a new artist, or a producer with the people in the industry who will “get it”, whatever that “it” is. If I hear a great Swedish style pop song, I know to send it to Jive Records or Syco, and not to Island/Def Jam. If I’ve discovered a new female singer/songwriter or a Triple A band, it’s going to fit better for Chop Shop than Activision. Much of song-pitching is not how you send it out, but who you send it to. If you’re not getting results, it may simply be that you haven’t matched your sound with the correct listener.
4. Check your options.
Every office has multiple entrances. There is always an alternate way into any project. Persistence is vital, but persistently beating on a closed door will not make it open. The good kind of persistence is the kind that knocks on a door once, twice, maybe a third time… and then circles around the back, and goes in the side entrance. If an A&R person refuses your “unsolicited material”, try the artist manager. Many managers are one or two person companies, and thus have far fewer corporate “policies” that have to be respected. If the manager won’t respond, try the producer. If that proves to be a dead end, just keep searching– try the artist directly on MySpace or Facebook, or a friend of the artist, or the recording engineer, or the fashion stylist. Whatever crazy idea you have, I promise you, someone has tried something stranger. Not quitting doesn’t mean picking one person and torturing them until they listen to your song. It means searching for every possible person to torture. Just joking. But it does mean that you never stop looking for another way to approach the project that you’re targeting.
I hope the little series we’ve done on “Getting Your Music Out” has been helpful. I know in the opening paragraph of this blog, I compared the challenge of selling your music to making it– and in many ways the two things are quite similar. But in a few important ways, they’re as different as night and day. You know that rush you feel when you play a great guitar solo, or come up with the perfect hook line for a song? You’ll probably never get that feeling when you’re pitching music. It just doesn’t have that kind of reward. Instead, you get rejection followed by rejection followed by a slight glimmer of hope.
But here’s the thing: if you don’t do it, nothing happens. No stranger is going to find a song hiding on your hard drive and decide to put it on the radio. You’re going to have to make that happen. That’s the point of my book, “Making Music Make Money”. The only thing that can move your career ahead is if someone else hears your music and wants to buy it, sell it, perform it, or help you to do one of those three things. That won’t happen if the song never leaves your home studio.
If you haven’t made your New Year’s Resolution yet, here’s one: resolve to spend one hour pitching songs for every five hours writing or recording them. Get your music out there, and let’s see what happens…
Many of my online students ask about additional reading once their course has finished. For the most part, they’re looking for additional reference material or reading to get them deeper into the technology. Every year around the holidays I try to stock up on books, not to learn more techniques, but to get inspired. I’d like to share a few of the things that I’ve been reading and will continue to be inspired by in the new year.
The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music is a great place to start if you want to get an overview of the current scene. The book is really a series of essays edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escrivan featuring authors who are active practitioners of electronic music. While the Cambridge University Press imprint might imply dry, academic reading on academic music, the authors make no distinction between high art and street art in parsing the roots, trends, and directions in current practices, and the book makes for fascinating, thought provoking reading. There are also a number of artist statements from early pioneers like Max Matthews and Pauline Oliveros to emerging artists like Warp recording artist Mira Calix and chiptune musician Bubblyfish.
Starting in 2000, New York Avant Guard saxophonist and composer John Zorn has edited a series of four anthologies called Arcana: Musicians on Music. Like the Cambridge Guide to Electronic Music, these are made up of essays by a wide range of modern musicians. Their thoughts and perspectives on how and why they make music and how their art reflects the society they live in are totally engaging. While each musician has a distinct, iconoclast view of music and their role in it, it’s remarkable to see the common threads that run through these essays, and taken as a whole this series provides a remarkable look at the fabric of modern music.
Now for beach reading… One of the least documented aspects of post production for visual media is the art of foley, or literally performing sound effects to picture. The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation by Vanessa Theme Ament, provides an insider’s view of the full gamut of post production sound. From the historical background to current practices, the author provides a wealth of firsthand knowledge in a very readable and entertaining book. For those of you interested in learning more about getting involved in post production sound, this will be a very useful point of departure.
Your art is the humanity you bring to it, technology is just the tool. Don’t forget to nourish your spirit and imagination as you get deeper into music technology.
Here are 10 recommendations for strategies that can lead to success in music, and in life, which are excerpted from the Online Course taught at Music Power Network. Take them with a grain of salt. With this new decade comes the promise of digital music, the power of the entrepreneur and the tools to connect with an audience and deliver the goods. Here are 10 Strategies for Success in Music from Music Power Network.
1. Living a life in music is a privilege. Earn it.
There is very little more satisfying then spending time making music. If you make this your life’s work, then you can be truly joyful. However, the chances of being successful are extremely low and the only people who are going to get there are going to have to work hard and earn the right to be a musician. Respect the privilege of being free enough to have this choice (if you do) and honor the opportunity.
2. No one is in charge of your muse but you. Be happy and positive.
People can be their own worst enemy. Countless times I have heard artists tell me the reasons why their career is not working out. Most of the time they are putting blocks in their way and pointing fingers at people and things that are holding them back. Stop whining and blaming other people and make the conscious decision that you are going to be successful and that things are going to work out in your favor. You are creating your own reality every day, so make it a good one and excel.
3. Practice, practice, practice – then go for it. Over prepare.
You can never be ready enough for opportunity. Your live shows can always be better, your songs can be more amazing, and your playing can only improve. As the CEO of your own musician business, you can learn how to run the company more effectively, reach out to more fans and be an more effective social media marketer. Don’t hold yourself back by not being ready. Be a professional.
4. If you suck, you will never make it. Find a way to be great.
Lets face it, it is really hard to be amazing. Some people have the natural talent and you can see it in the first 5 seconds of meeting them. They are truly blessed. The rest of us have to find our niche, our passion, our calling and then reach for it. Ask people around you for feedback. Find what you are good at and focus on that. Get other people to help you. If you don’t stand out and rise above the pack, you will struggle forever. Be amazing.
5. Learn how to breathe and keep your focus. Stay calm.
There is nothing more pleasant than working with someone who knows who they are and what their goal is. Remember the old adages of thinking before you speak, and taking a deep breath before you lay into someone. Most of us have a lot going on in our lives and we can all benefit from staying focused on our goals and remaining calm in most situations. Learn yoga, exercise, run, meditate, sit still, breathe, learn who you are.
6. Don’t take yourself too seriously, no one else does. Have fun.
I am amazed at how many people spend so much time looking backwards and trying to understand what people think of them. This is worrying about the past and not embracing the future. Reviews are important, but don’t run to them or let them ruin your day. Not everyone is going to like you, but more people will if you are having a good time.
7. No matter how difficult things get, move forward. Don’t give up.
The only thing that will help your career take off is forward momentum. That is how you are going to reach your goals. A lot of people are stuck in their own mud. Take action, make a move and then see what happens. Don’t spend time procrastinating or worrying about how hard it is, just do something positive to advance your cause. You will feel much better by acting instead of waiting or worrying.
8. Find a way to make money. Start small and grow. Avoid being in debt.
This is probably the most important strategy of them all and why so many artists have gotten into trouble in the past by taking label advances. All that is, is a big loan. Get some kind of cash flow happening right away, no matter how small. Sell merch, play for the door, license your songs, play sessions, teach, write, start your musician business. The biggest mistake you can make is to borrow a lot of money and then spend it on things that don’t matter.
9. Be unique and true to your vision. Say something.
The people that we remember are the ones that are unique, exciting, special, provocative, fascinating, original, inventive, interesting. Music is a basic form of communication. The really successful artists have something to say and work on delivering their message. Your chances of success go up exponentially if you have a unique position and message and create a following of fans who really listen to you because you have something important to say.
10. Work and play with people you like every day. Collaborate Often.
Music is a tribal experience. You cannot make great music alone. Surround yourself with talented people, write together, play together, try new things. Bounce inspiration off of each other and learn. Listen to each other and let the music weave it’s way around you. Find a producer, songwriting partner, other musicians and dive in together. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
This New Year 2010, I am going to open up my vaults of pre-Internet material, heretofore only available in non-digital hard paper magazines packed away in attics and garages. This remarkable conversation with Mose Allison appeared in 1992, in both Mix magazine and Japan’s Sound & Recording. But here you get the complete and unedited version for the very first time. It is an education in the structures of music, and the structure of a lifetime career. At 83, Mose is still performing. Check out his website and ketchup: http://www.moseallison.net
From the intro to the 1992 interview:
Mose Allison is a National Living Treasure. At 65, he’s in his prime time, treating audiences around the world to his unmistakable gumbo of Jazz, Blues and Black Humor. One of the friendliest singers around, Allison sneaks up on you with zingers like “You know, I don’t worry ‘bout a thing — ‘cause I know nothin’s gonna be all right.” His heart is in the right place, and his mind is working overtime.
As a tribute to this unique character in American music, a surprising range of major artists have recorded his songs, including The Who, Bonnie Raitt, The Clash, The Yardbirds, Van Morrison and Robert Palmer. Allison himself is recognized for such unforgettable originals as “Your Mind Is On Vacation” and “Parchman Farm,” as well as renditions he has made his own, such as Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son” and “I Love The Life I Live.”
Everybody goes home with Debbie and Friends’ tattoos and a free new song download card!
In honor of this new series, the Cactus Club is offering 20% off lunch entrees for anyone with a Debbie and Friends’ concert ticket! The Cactus Club is in the same building as Cafe 939, so you won’t even have to put on your coats to go to lunch!
I know I said that this blog would carry on our current theme, which is how to get your music out there to people– and it will. But I’m going to save my trouble-shooting blog, what to do when you run into obstacles in pitching your music, for just a minute. After all, has anyone really been making pitch calls over the last two weeks? If you have, you’ve been leaving a lot of voice mails, because it’s dead out there. All of the music business weasels have departed for ski vacations or the Caribbean (nothing like a weasel in a swimsuit) and left LA and NYC to the tourists. So instead, I thought I’d offer up a quick set of ideas to kick off the New Year, and to put me thoroughly in sync with the rest of the blogosphere, offering Top Ten lists ad infinitum. Here’s mine:
TEN THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO IN 2010 TO MAKE YOUR MUSIC MAKE MONEY!!
1. Identify your market.
This year, try narrowing your vision and focusing on the one specific market that best fits what you do. No more dabbling in one style, then another, then another. Most of the reason that songwriters struggle to create that two minute “elevator pitch” that we discussed last week is that they quite literally don’t know what they’re doing– they have never forced themselves to focus on one specific thing sufficiently to be able to articulate precisely what it is that they do.
2. Know your market.
In 2010, the music business is a business of specialists– A&R people, managers, publicists, engineers, producers, and yes, even songwriters, are segmented by genre, and expected to be experts in that particular area of music. That means being familiar with all of the artists old and new in that market, knowing the key business players, the labels, the current production styles. Sound like a lot of information to digest? That’s why you “identified” your market. It’s not plausible to be an expert in three or four genres at once.
3. Strategize.
Once you know your market, and you know all about the artists, labels, managers and producers in it, then you’re in a position to start looking for the openings. Where are the opportunities? Don’t focus on the superstars if you don’t have any track record– those are out of reach. Look for the up and coming artists, or the new trends, or the hot new label, or the young entrepreneurs. That’s where you’ll find your opportunities. Once you see where the openings in the market are, you need to look at every possible way in which you can take advantage of it.
4. Know who you are.
You can’t start meeting people until you know how to introduce yourself. That doesn’t mean just saying your name and handing out business cards. You need to be able to explain in three or four sentences who you are and what you’re doing. You can talk about what you’re doing now (”I’m promoting a new single that just came out…”), what you did in the past (”I had a song on Kelly Clarkson’s last album…”), who you work with (”I co-write with Brett James in Nashville”), or who you are (”I’m a producer from Norway” or “I’m a recording engineer for a jingle house, but I’m also a songwriter”), but you need to have two or three sentences to present a picture that’s clear, interesting and memorable. Whatever it is, memorize it. Ideally, it should be a conversation-starter– that way it won’t be the only two sentences you get.
5. Know what you want.
This is such a big one that it needs to be divided into a big picture and a small one. In the big picture sense, you need to know what your goals are for your music and what would constitute success. Do you want to get rich? Do you just want to be able to have a full-time career in music? Do you just want to support your hobby and have one song on a record somewhere? Everything is acceptable, and there’s a strategy to get you to each goal. But it won’t be the same one. You can’t read a map until you know where you’re going. If you want to take on the big picture question, and you shouldn’t waste a moment on any other plan of action until you do, take the “Music Business Weasel’s Pop Quiz” in my book, “Making Music Make Money”.
On the small picture side, you need to think about what you want from the person to whom you’re presenting your music. Are you looking for a record deal? Do you want them to record your song with an artist to whom they’re connected? Do you want them to sign you to a publishing contract? Are you looking for an introduction to someone they know? If what you want doesn’t match up to what the person on the other end can feasibly deliver (a BMI rep can’t offer you a publishing contract; a NY-based A&R rep can’t get your song to a country artist) then you’re wasting everyone’s time. Figure out what each person can do for you BEFORE you reach out.
6. Take the conference call.
No industry in the world has more conferences and networking events than the music business. That just means that there is no excuse for not knowing anyone, or not understanding the business. Every conference has a full array of industry executives in attendance, many of whom are on panels where they share the knowledge of the business and take questions from the audience. Beyond that, there are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC educational events, programs sponsored by songwriter groups like the Songwriters Hall of Fame and NSAI, or events hosted by industry trade organizations like the Recording Academy, NARIP, and the NMPA. Depending on your genre, your goals, and your financial and geographical situation, you can check out: MIDEM, CMJ, South By Southwest, Winter Music Conference, Billboard & Hollywood Reporter Film and TV Music Conference, Biillboard’s Music & Money, Amsterdam Dance Event, or ASCAP’s “I Create Music” Expo. That should fill your calendar for the year. If you can’t afford to register, consider contacting the conference and volunteering to work at the registration desk or within the conference itself. Sometimes you can trade some labor time for a free pass…
7. Ask one good question.
If you do attend a conference, here’s a tip for meeting that key industry player that you want to know:
Find a panel on which he or she is speaking. Then, when the Q&A portion of the panel arrives, step up to the mic and ask one good question. A good question does not directly involve you (”why didn’t you listen to the package I sent you?”), and is not too basic (”how can I get music to you?”). A good question reflects a knowledge of the business and the panelist, is relevant to all of the industry people in the room, and could be the topic of discussion among other panelists (”What do you think of the new rate decision from the Copyright Board?”, “How is your business using the social networking sites to target an audience?”, “Do you see your show widening its use of music, or the genres it uses, or narrowing it?”).
Having done hundreds of such panels, I guarantee you that if you ask one good question, you will be the only one who does. I also guarantee that if you approach the panelist at the close of the discussion, you will be remembered, and probably walk away with a business card and an invitation to be in touch.
8. Educate yourself.
At the music publishing company where I work, someone called our office this week, and began the conversation with “I don’t really understand what you do there…” Believe it or not, this happens EVERY DAY! For whatever reason, music seems to attract a large number of people who are almost entirely ignorant of the business of which they supposedly wish to be a part. Is it any surprise that most of these people are either ignored or taken advantage of?
If you’re serious about pursuing music publishing and/or songwriting as a business, it only stands to reason that you need to have the same knowledge as every other professional in the industry. Invest 12 weeks in “Music Publishing 101″ at berkleemusic.com, and learn exactly what a music publisher does, how to do it, and how to set up your own music publishing business. You’ll come out not only with a thorough knowledge of the business, but also with a full strategy for how to make your music make money.
9. Write hits.
The truth is, most songwriters’ primary obstacle to success is not a lack of knowledge, contacts, or strategy. Most of the time, the real problem is that songwriters are simply not selling what the industry needs. Most songwriters are trying to write good songs. Some are even writing great songs. But what is needed by every A&R person, manager, artist, is something else entirely. These people need “hit” songs.
If you don’t understand the difference, then check out my book, “The Billboard Guide To Writing and Producing Songs That Sell”. In an age where the album cut has become entirely irrelevant, there is no formula for success that doesn’t involve writing “hits”.
Perhaps the most profound point made in the article was this, and I paraphrase:
most people don’t succeed simply because they are not willing to do the work required.
Having had the opportunity to work with superstar writers from Steve Diamond to Billy Mann to Andy Goldmark to Stargate to David Guetta, the one thing that all of them share is a “work ethic” that simply dwarfs most of their competition. This is not to diminish their individual talent, which is significant and unique. It is to say that there is no way you will be able to compete with these A-level writers on the basis of talent alone. Even if you have the same gifts as a songwriter, their drive, ambition, and willingness to go anywhere and do whatever it takes will put them on top. If you are going to compete, you have to do what is needed to win.
I know that most of the songwriters reading these suggestions will ignore them entirely, and search instead for a shortcut to success that involves less effort. A few will resolve to try three or four of the ten, and at the end of the year, will have excuses for why they only accomplished one or two. But be aware: the successful songwriters and music publishers will do all of these every year.
You can’t “try” to do something. Either you’re doing it, or you’re not.
Best wishes for a great 2010! Thanks for your support of the blog. See you at the top of the charts…
If you haven’t already heard, Propellerhead has released a brand new recording application called, Record. Though Propellerhead doesn’t advertise it as a DAW software program, this is indeed what it is. There’s been a lot of buzz about Record, so chances are you already know something about it. But, even though Propellerhead’s promotional video is informative, and very entertaining, there’s nothing like actually using the program to hear how it sounds and feel how it handles. Over the past couple of months this is exactly what I’ve been doing, putting Record through it’s paces. Now, after spending some quality time with this new DAW, I feel comfortable commenting on Record and answering the questions I keep hearing from students, “Should I buy Record? Is it a good DAW and can it take the place of other DAW programs like Pro Tools and Logic?”
If you’re a registered user of Reason (any version, from 1.0 to 4.0), it’s hard to pass up the deal that Propellerhead is offering. For only $149 USD you can pick up a copy of Record. Plus, if you haven’t yet upgraded your last version of Reason, you’ll get the upgrade to Reason 4.0 in the package. So, if you’re a registered user of Reason, picking up a copy of Record is a no brainer.
Considering that this is only version 1.0 of Record, it’s a fantasy to think that it could replace a time tested DAW program like Pro Tools or Logic. But, Record does indeed sound impressive, and if you’re already comfortable using Reason, transitioning to working in Record is a piece of cake. Indeed, as I was composing and mixing in Record I couldn’t help but feel like I was using Reason on steroids, with a side of audio tracks. It’s really much more than this, but the user interface and general operations very closely mirror Reason’s interface and operations. For example, there’s a rack of virtual hardware devices, complete with a backside view and a jumble of cables, just like in Reason. And, the sequencer window in Record looks pretty much identical to the sequencer window in Reason. It’s the improvements that make me feel like Reason has been pumping up on steroids, such as the ability to have racks side by side, the virtual SSL mixer, and the Line 6 guitar and bass POD effect devices.
There’s a ton of great features in Record, far more than I can cover in a single blog. For example, its real-time audio time stretching algorithm that allows the audio tracks in your song to follow tempo changes. And, this is after you’ve recorded your audio to track. This feature is similar to Warp in Live and Elastic Audio in Pro Tools, and sounds just as good. It’s also easy to find fault with Record. For example, it doesn’t support third party plug-ins and there isn’t a bussing function on the mixer. But, these shortcomings are more than made up for in the fact that Record supports rewire. That’s right, it will operate as a rewire slave. This means that you could compose entirely in Record and then rewire your tracks into a Pro Tools HD system for a killer TDM mix down! Don’t try this with another DAW program. I’ve always said that the rewire slave mode is one of the coolest features about Reason, and I’m happy to see it lives on in Record.
To summarize, Record is an awesome program. And, it didn’t crash once on me while using it these past couple of months. If you use Reason and want to get into recording audio, Record is an excellent choice for your first DAW program. But, don’t expect it to replace a tried and true DAW program like Logic or Pro Tools. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if someday it has features that rival today’s most popular DAW programs.
“With recording revenue plunging, bands must draw fans to their live shows in order to make a living. The common wisdom today dictates that musicians need a personal connection with their fans. They must blog, tweet, maintain their MySpace and Facebook profiles, and generally act like your next door neighbor who’s always pestering you to see his band. There’s a word for receiving “personal” messages from your favorite 100 bands–it’s called “spam.” Eventually, this cloud of self-promotional noise will dissipate, and will be replaced by old-fashioned word of mouth. Only acts that put on a great show–not just singing and playing songs, but entertaining in the old-fashioned sense of the word, with video and stagecraft and humor and spectacle–will cut through the noise. Bonus points for the first act that somehow integrates an audience-accessible game console into their act.”
“There’s no doubt that consumers like streaming music when it’s done well, as illustrated by the success of Spotify and Pandora this year. And it seems equally certain that streaming has a significant role to play in the future of the music industry. That role, however, will be alongside other revenue streams, rather than being the downloads killer it’s sometimes painted as being by the media. However, as 2009 draws to a close, there is still huge debate around the economics of streaming music, with ad revenues nowhere close to paying for the licensing costs, and artists and labels still grousing about their royalty cheques while fearful about cannibalisation of music sales. ‘Freemium’ has replaced ‘ad-supported’ as the business model of choice; but even that has yet to prove itself as a truly sustainable option.”
“The 15 start-ups chosen by Music Ally and a jury of entrepreneurs cover a range of digital fields that offer opportunities for the music industry including live applications (Awdio, Songkick, Streamjam), digital licensing of sheet music and lyrics (DigiClef, TuneWiki), artist management (BandCentral), managing key data for artists (Band Metrics), digital distribution (Pops Worldwide), web radio (Radionomy), remixing (Aviary, GoMix and Tracksandfields), musical discovery (Thesixtyone), artistic financing (Kickstarter) and on-line advertising (Silence Media).”
My friend Mary aka DJ Fusion wrote this rant on Hip Hop for 2009. This is a great example of an indie scene flourishing and a good read for anyone thinking about a career in music these days.
“We’re approximately 35 – 40 years into a musical art form and culture that has traveled from the ‘hood to the corporate boardroom with some dallying around a bit with college folk, the ‘burbs and outsiders worldwide wanting another groove to dance to and a way to use the spoken word for expression.
As one of the many musical great grandchildren of the African Diaspora born from the coupling of what some call American Classical Music (Jazz, Funk, Blues, Soul, Funk, Rock, etc.) and Reggae, Hip-Hop has come a long way from its beginnings.
There’s more of a hungry audience on the hunt for new and diverse types of music than ever before because of the mainstream music industry dropping the ball on what they’re supposed to do in the first place – promote great artists for different audiences to listen to and spend money on.
The second the Hip-Hop A&R rep became more an regional area SoundScan Excel Spreadsheet reader instead of the person who hunted for new music from all over the planet or took time to craft a music artist’s long term career, the Old School Music System started to collapse.
Luckily during this time, the huge technological & social advancement of the Internet becoming a normal part of life though people’s computers, mp3 players or telephones created totally new options for music to expand it’s reach to essentially anywhere, to anyone and at anytime in a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way.
This fundamental shift is one of the great gifts ever given to all aspects of the Independent Music Community.
The playing field has gone from a huge mountain to climb to even get a demo a listen or for getting people to check out your viewpoint of Hip-Hop to at least become a slightly more manageable hill for music lovers to negotiate a successful career and outlet of expression.
Audiences who want to connect to dope music don’t really have to be around the corner anymore and are just a few clicks away through sites like MySpace, BandCamp, FaceBook, Twitter, Imeem, ReverbNation, CD Baby, YouTube and more.
An indie music artist or outlet can hit up that audience and give major record labels and distributors the finger by promoting themselves at pretty much however they like with promotional singles & mixtapes or any other product via tons of ‘net companies and the right applications.
With some dope audio software, an e-mail address, file sharing programs and a solid work ethic, new forms of musical collaborations can occur as long as there are like minds in the mix.
What about current subpar TV, Radio and written media outlets that don’t play or acknowledge dope Old School Hip-Hop artists (a lot of which are now back to either being Indie Music Artists again or having to function like one to get any worthy promotion for their projects) or any innovative New School heads?
Well, there’s probably either a website, blog, podcast, internet radio station, conference call, newsletter or online video outlet to avoid all that. Old School Hip-Hop as a whole is literally being kept ALIVE through it’s accessibility through the internet from these sort of outlets.
And the great thing is if there isn’t such an outlet yet, fans OR a music artist can make create their own such sites with the numerous free services out there for self-expression and upgrade GoDaddy.com style later on if one chooses.
The Old School mentality that made truly great Hip-Hop and is still keeping it alive has made a comeback that can revolutionize a positive artistic creativity and business model – you got to do for self (D.I.Y. game proper) to come up, work hard as hell, stand out with fantastic musical product not just to get people to pay attention, but to stick around as a long time fan.
Basically, you got to earn your way homey – no shortcuts. Even some of your Top 40 Hip-Hop MCs didn’t just emerge from a record crate pre-packed for consumption – quite a few of them have been in the music business for years before getting to that point and had to climb as up as an indie to get to their current status (from Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, UGK, the list can go on for days).
An music artist really has no choice BUT to build from the ground up to earn the respect of fans so they can give up their hard earned cash & word of mouth.
Indie musicians have more ways now than ever to develop a rabid niche audience that digs their individual musical foundation and to expand from there. Along with great support team that wants to promote the hell out of a person and do business on the up and up, next thing you know there’s an empowered Hip-Hop artist who doesn’t have to pimp themselves out to the latest trend to get a crappy major label/distributor contract in hopes of riches.”
2009’s 25 Great Hip-Hop Music Related Websites (Besides PlanetIll.com, of course) That You Should Always Be Checking For Dope Writing, Music Content, Information And Balance Away From The Norm:
Here is a link to the mix for “Innocent Wonder,” written in part for my daughter Annette and performed/recorded live on 10/27/09 at the Berklee Performance Center here in Boston. If you know anything about live production, you know that concept of mixing tracks that were recorded live, is fraught with many perils and situations to try and get out of – like a video game! (if you can).
The audio can be found at:
www.myspace.com/compjgates
or
www.reverbnation.com/jerrygates
I feel like I owe an apology for the lack of activity on my blog lately. While I’ve been better about keeping up with Twitter, I’ve definitely let the posts slip here. A resolution of mine for 2010 is to get back on the horse and get the posting schedule back on track. Not that it is any excuse, but I’ve been particularly busy with creating content in a couple of other ways. Here’s what I have been up to over the past few months.
I’ve written two new marketing courses that are enrolling now for Berkleemusic’s next term, starting January 11th. As I have mentioned on this blog before, Online Music Marketing with Topspin (co-authored by Topspin’s Shamal Ranasinghe) will teach you how to use Topspin’s unique marketing, management, and content distribution platform to help you market and retail direct to your fans. In the course, students will develop the in-depth marketing expertise necessary to properly execute a successful sales and marketing campaign using Topspin. You can watch some videos of Topspin’s CEO Ian Rogers and myself talking about online marketing and the course here.
I also just finished a second online music marketing course called Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, and Digital Distribution. This course covers some key areas that all marketers need to focus on, such as social media marketing, effective use of data to direct you campaigns, what partners you should be aware of, and much more. By the end you’ll have a fully timed, integrated, and optimized online marketing plan that you can use to generate interest in your music, acquire new fans, and sell your music online. It’s a great companion course to Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail, with a greater focus on the online side of marketing.
Finally, the companion book to Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail is done and available. The book contains additional interviews and content which complements the online course of the same name. I’m giving away a free chapter and selling the book on a discount here if you’d like to check it out.
That’s all from me. I wish you the best in 2010!
Here’s a video of me talking about the new Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, and Digital Distribution course:
I thought I’d take a moment to talk about the files used to make notated scores versus the files used to make audio mockups. My personal opinion is that these two processes are quite different and are best kept separate.
Of course, most people would love to combine them. The most common shortcut is to create a notated score…and then import that data into a sequencer as a MIDI file. This saves a lot of time but reduces the quality of the final audio product.
First, the underlying MIDI data necessary for the ideal mockup and ideal score are typically quite different (even for the same piece of music).
In a sequence, the exact rhythmic performance of a part typically differs (both in placement and duration of notes) from an exact interpretation of the notation. In your sequenced performance, notes are likely to overlap slightly. You may slightly ritard or accelerando here and there. A quarter note may not be a full beat…but something like 90% of a beat.
In addition, you may have several tracks in your sequence for a single instrument, where you would only have a single staff in a score. If you are using different programs, the samples and effects available from your sequencer are typically different than those available from your notation program.
For all of these reasons, you will always need two separate files if your goal is to make the absolute best audio mockup and the absolute best notated score. This is true even if you are using the same software program for each purpose.
It’s worth noting that most software programs are designed to do one or the other really well. The sequencing programs are designed to create the best audio recording possible. If you are creating a recording, then you should be using your sequencer of choice. The notation programs are designed to create the best notated score possible. If you are creating a notated score, then you should be using your notation program of choice.
Notably, the two functions are rarely combined in professional settings. Most professional film composers write in their sequencer. When satisfied, they pass this on to their orchestrator, who creates a notated score for the recording session. In this case, the sequence and the score are created in two different programs by two different people.
In short, creating the best possible score and the best possible audio recording are two different processes. While it would be nice to do them simultaneously, doing so inevitably compromises one or the other…and you end up with the perfect recording and a less-than-perfect notated score, or the perfect notated score and a less-than-perfect recording.
Here is a great info-graphic from the New York Times showing the relative performance of various music formats over the past 37 years. Unfortunately it does not show the impact of free music online. That would be an interesting addition to see how big file sharing and torrent downloads really are, relative to the physical formats of the past and the new “paid” digital formats.
Had quite a few comments this week from people who found “Back To Basics” quite helpful, and a good way to re-focus at the end of a year. So this time, let’s go one step further– not just how to come up with a general “strategy” to get our music out there and earning money, but an even more specific concern that we all run up against sooner or later:
What Do I Say?
It’s fine to understand that we should be directing our efforts to getting songs out to developing artists (as opposed to aiming at inaccessible superstars), or that we need to create a network to help introduce us to the A&R people, managers and artists that we need to know. We may even have forced ourselves to open up a specific window of time each day to make our “sales” calls. But once we pick up the phone, and hear a voice on the other end, we’re suddenly faced with an inescapable moment of panic when we realize… we have to say something! How do you present yourself in a way that will make the call or the meeting or the two minute “nice to meet you” moment at a cocktail party into something actually productive?
In my Berkleemusic class, Music Publishing 101, there is an assignment on “Song Pitching” in which each student is challenged to actually pick up the phone and make a pitch call to the instructor, just to get the feel of what such a call is like. Inevitably, students greet the opportunity with initial enthusiasm, which quickly gives way to high anxiety, as soon as they try to figure out what they’re actually going to say. Especially when you’re still in the early stages of developing your career, it’s hard to imagine how you can grab someone’s interest without wildly exaggerating your experience in the industry. Clearly, the more you have going on in your career, the easier it is to present yourself to others. Nevertheless, there are a few basic principles that can help even a beginning writer put his or her best foot forward, once you actually have another human being standing in front of you, or waiting on the other end of the phone:
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Just because you are a beginner in the industry, you don’t need to sound like you’re a beginner in the industry. Knowledge is free, and in the age of the internet, it is immediately accessible to everyone. Before you call anyone, or meet with anyone, or go to an industry event, you MUST do your research on who it is you’re speaking with, or who you’re hoping to speak with.
Someone once told me that Michael Eisner, the former head of Disney, used to ask anyone with whom he was scheduled to meet to fax a resume or bio prior to the appointment. Of course, he would also have his staff google each person on his calendar, and he would expect a brief the day before the meeting. If the power players whom you dream of having an opportunity to meet are prepared to invest that kind of research time when they conduct meetings, you can be sure that they expect you to do the same.
At some point in the first two minutes of meeting someone, emailing them, or having a phone conversation, you need to send a clear signal that you know who you are dealing with. You do that by dropping a compliment to them for a recent success, by inquiring about the status of a current project, or at the very least, by tailoring your pitch to fit their specific needs. You don’t call an A&R person and offer to send songs in for an act that writes all their own material. You don’t call the manager of Avril Lavigne to pitch him your new artist who will compete directly with Avril Lavigne. You have to show that you understand not only who you are speaking with, their background and their current activity, but also their interests– what is it that they need or want? How can you help supply that?
Of course, some meetings– the scheduled ones or the phone calls– are considerably easier to prepare for than the chance introductions at an industry event or backstage at a show. Certainly, if you’re attending the ASCAP Holiday Party in New York, you can anticipate meeting some of the Writer Representatives, some of the major New York writers who are affiliated with ASCAP, and some of the A&R people from the top publishers. At a minimum, you’ll want to have done some basic research on those people, and have formulated a “wish’ list in your mind of the ten people with whom you would really like to connect. If you have a chance to go backstage at a concert, you should have researched the artist’s manager, A&R person, tour manager, music director, and booking agent, as those are all people you are likely to see there. If you attend a music conference, you can easily get a list of attendees and panelists in advance, and begin to plot out who your key “targets” will be.
Beyond that, the best preparation is to always be prepared for anything. You do that by always maintaining a wide knowledge of the industry in general. Every songwriter and publisher should read Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and the more specific trade magazines for specific genres. You need to follow the industry blogs and newsletters. Check out:
AnR Worldwide.com (http://www.anrworldwide.com)
Music Connection.com (http://www.musicconnection.com)
The Deans List (http://www.ascap.com/playback/2009/spring/action/Dean.aspx)
If you have a genuine knowledge of the music industry, that intelligence will immediately come through to any industry insider that you meet, and you will have instant credibility. Without it, you will eventually be exposed as a neophyte, no matter how thorough your research for that specific meeting might have been.
STAND AND DELIVER
While it’s important to convey a knowledge of the activities of whoever you happen to be meeting, that alone will not produce much in the way of results. After all, the point is to let the other person know who you are and what you’re doing. Often, even songwriters with plenty of background in the industry falter when the conversation leaves the area of small talk, and turns the spotlight on them. In a business as “schmooze” oriented as the music industry, you can not survive out there without a well-oiled, frequently updated, confidently delivered “elevator” pitch– that is, a thirty second explanation of who you are and why you matter.
Essentially, there are four basic approaches you can take to your thirty-second bio– and they will change all the time, depending on the person to whom you’re speaking and your current activity in the industry. If you can, try to prepare a quick pitch for yourself around each of the four angles– just to have in case you need it. But if you’re relatively limited in your experience, accomplishments or current activity in the industry, you may need to work your way down the list, until you find an angle that works for you. Here are the four approaches you can consider. You can talk about:
1. What’s happening.
“I’m releasing a new album.” “I’m playing a show next week.” “I’m nominated for a Grammy.” “I’m traveling to Europe to work on a project in France.” Clearly, this is the easiest and most straightforward angle to take– its success will depend entirely on how interesting or relevant what’s happening actually is. Do not lie. You can stretch a bit, but if nothing is happening, or what’s happening will clearly not be of interest to the person with whom you’re speaking, then move on to idea #2…
2. What you’ve done.
“I wrote the first single for Madonna’s last record.” “I was in a band signed to Mercury.” “I toured with Charlie Daniels.” “I DJ’d at Pacha.” Past credits are never as strong as current activity, but depending again on their relevance, the level of achievement, and how long ago they happened, they can still pack a mighty punch. There are plenty of industry types who have been living off one hit project for a decade. If you’ve only got thirty seconds, you go with your best shot. If you’ve got a big past success on which to hang your hat, by all means, get that into the first two or three sentences out of your mouth. If not, then read on…
3. Who you’re with.
“I write with Keith Urban.” “I do some programming for Howard Benson.” “My friend Dan at ASCAP suggested I call.” “My lawyer has mentioned that I should meet with you.” “I worked at a studio with Dan Huff.” “I studied guitar with Pat Metheny”.
It’s always helpful to have a name that you can pull out. Most credibility in the music industry is through association– if you can indicate that you are part of the hot buzz scene, or that you work with people who are established, or that you have a team of industry players around you, or that you share a mutual acquaintance with person to whom you’re speaking, you will be viewed as an insider. As we discussed before, this is why it’s so important to build your network on every level, with other musicians and songwriters, engineers, club owners, or local radio people. Without a lot of current activity or past accomplishments, you will need a little help from your friends.
4. Who you are.
Now we get to the angle that is the hardest to pull off, and also the one where far too many songwriters and publishers find themselves. When faced with concocting an effective thirty-second presentation about “who you are”, you may realize that it would be easier to go out and generate some current activity, or add some people to your network, than to try to figure out a way to describe yourself that sounds interesting and engaging. Still, it’s a good skill to learn– the ability to present yourself in a way that is consistent and interesting will serve you well in many walks of life. What is unique about you that will engage a person meeting you for the first time?
Maybe it’s your background or family (think Paris Hilton, Ivanka Trump or Jakob Dylan). Maybe it’s where you come from (”the new writer/producer from Norway”, or “the new DJ from France” or “the new urban writer from Atlanta”). Maybe it’s a funny experience you had that led you into the industry, or charity work that you’re involved with, or political causes you’re associated with. Perhaps its something quirky in your industry background (”I started out in hip-hop, but now I’m writing an opera…”) or in your approach (”I use only vintage gear from the Eighties” or “I primarily play at private listening parties in people’s homes”). But you have to find something that will give someone a quick idea of who you are, something identifiable that they can remember, and a reason to at least follow your statement with a question, which can lead to more conversation.
If you can’t find anything that fits into one of those categories, it may be time to do some serious soul-searching. If you don’t have any current activity of interest, no past accomplishments, no friends or colleagues in the industry, and nothing unique about your personality, work or background, it’s hard to know why anyone would be interested in speaking with you.
Someone once commented to David Letterman that he could be a bit hard on his guests. He responded, and I paraphrase, that anyone coming on his show came to promote a project or themselves or both–if they can’t bring along one funny story or observation, or at least an interesting topic for discussion in order to fill five minutes of airtime, then they deserve what they get. It’s cold– but the same is true of making pitch calls. Remember: you’re the one making the call, or pushing for the introduction. It’s your obligation to have something interesting to say.
Next week, we’ll take a quick look at what to do when you run into problems in getting your music out there– and believe me, you will. In the meantime, to all of you who support this blog throughout the year, here’s a big Thank You for all your comments and encouragement. Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday, or good vacation, whatever suits you.
I had the opportunity to talk about Berkleemusic on Fox Business News Live on Friday, Dec. 18. This will become part of a larger music business piece to be aired nationally soon. I’ll be sure to post the date when it becomes available.
In this economy, it’s hard to imagine anyone making thousands of phone calls trying to give money away. But that’s exactly what is happening as Sound Exchange contacts musicians who have earned, but not yet claimed, digital performance royalties. And they are building their database fast, by tapping into the cloud of musician profiles available online. How cool is that?
Sound Exchange is a performing rights organization undertaking a massive education campaign about the fact that the rights and revenue exist, and how to go about getting the money. In the past few months alone, thousands of artists have been contacted.
When sound recordings are streamed on the Internet, played on digital satellite radio, or used on cable music channels, the performers on that recording accrue a small royalty. Those digital performance royalties are collected by SoundExchange, who processes logs from services and distributes the payments to artists. Unlike other royalty societies, who collect and distribute only to their members, SoundExchange collects royalties for all performers, then has to locate and register artists so they can be paid.
If you want to get paid, you have to register with them at Sound Exchange. If you think your music has been played on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio, Internet radio such as Pandora, Yahoo, Live 365.com and AOL, or on digital cable and satellite TV services like Comcast’s “Music Choice” and DirecTV, you can collect.
The data being collected by today’s digital music companies is being knitted together to connect the dots between online listeners and the copyright holders. By partnering with CD Baby, ReverbNation, SonicBids, Nimbit and others, Sound Exchange is tapping into the long tail of the market, and rewarding musicians who have online profiles – with cash.
CD Baby says they were notified by Sound Exchange that many of their artists were owed money. They matched their databases and found that thousands of artists had not registered with Sound Exchange and therefore were not receiving their payments. CD Baby then reached out to these members with the good news.
According to iLike founder Ali Partovi, a database matching effort for artists that had uploaded their information onto iLike found more than $8 million for more than 8,000 artists. According to Partovi, the $8 million was just a first-run effort, and a broader initiative involving MySpace Music remains forthcoming. “MySpace has a much larger database, so we’ll be unlocking even more money.”
To stake your claim visit Sound Exchange, or to send an email to info@soundexchange.com
“Whatever you need to do in the music industry today, Berkleemusic is going to teach you what you need to know in order to have a successful career,” says Dave Kusek, co-author of The Future of Musicbook and instructor of the online course.
Berkleemusic offers over two dozen forward-thinking online music business courses and programs, covering everything from Music Marketing to Artist Management to Concert Touring. “We’ve had the chance to recreate our curriculum from the ground up to face the industry and all the changes that are happening right now,” says Kusek.
“One of the great things about the courses is that you’re conversing with people from all kinds of different backgrounds,” says Kusek. You’re going to learn things you just never thought you’d learn, and discover new ways of looking at the music business by learning, first hand, what other people are doing.”
Say to it, “Thank you,” chuck it, and then try again.
It’s okay. Probably, objectively speaking, your first few projects in any genre are going to stink. Maybe, they will have an appealing naïve energy, and maybe your newcomer’s exuberance will give it that certain something. But really, master works are created by people with experience. People with experience have generally created a lot of mediocre work in the process of evolving.
So, expect that your first draft of your first book is almost certainly going to stink. It’s hard to write a book. It’s even hard to write a mediocre book. You learn to improve at writing books by doing it and then getting high quality feedback. It would be perfectly natural to work hard for months or even years on a first draft, and then totally scrap it—even reimagining it afterward, chucking out dozens or even hundreds of hours of work, and then creating something totally different instead.
Hooray for you, if your trash can is full! It means you care more about the end result than about hanging onto every precious word or note that you write. You care more about communication than about profit per minute. We arrive at better drafts by taking hard looks at our worse drafts, and then cheerfully moving forward and rewriting.
The first few songs you write will probably really, really suck. Really, they will, even if you like them. Even if your friends say they are awesome. You probably need to write a whole bunch of sucky songs before a good one will show up. So, get them out of the way now, if you haven’t already. Hurry up and write. Maybe, keep your first few songs or poems or book chapters or paintings secret. Acknowledge that they are in service of the better work you’re going to do in the future.
Improvement is a matter of getting your craft together and making technical decisions that will make your works better, rather than holding onto flawed ideas for personal and sentimental reasons. It’s the difference between articulating universal truth, which captivates everyone, and anecdotal truth, which might be what really happened, but which nobody really cares about. You, dear reader, don’t care that, say, my specific pet kitten died. You only care about how I talk about death and loss generally, so that you can relate it to your own life. In art, it is often better to change “kitten” to “goose,” if the technical requirements (e.g., rhyme scheme) of song or poem or story or blog post demand it, rather than to insist on calling it a kitten, just because it was one. The old gray goose just might have to be dead.
(By the way, an “old” goose is technically one that is older than twelve weeks. Before that age, it is called a “green” goose, even if it is gray. But, I digress.)
The first time you write a song, the inspiration for writing might have come from the loss of your kitten, so you’ll want to keep it in. After song number 20 or so, you’ll be more inclined to call it a goose, to suit the melody. Then, you’ll be getting somewhere. So, if you’re still writing your kitten song, acknowledge that it’s part of the learning curve. Only show it to people whose feedback can help you grow. That might not be the random drunks in your neighborhood bar.
Even though it might have involved a lot of work and money, your first album will stink, too. Maybe your third album or book or exhibition will be your first good one. Maybe your eighth. Almost certainly, not your first. For your sake, I hope that your first one is the worst one you ever do. I hope that your current project is worse than all your future projects. If not, you’re probably doing something wrong in your creative journey. Or, maybe you’re just temporarily derailed. Sometimes when you’re learning something new or exploring a new direction, you’ve got to regress and create some stinkers, even if you’ve done good work in the past. It’s the same thing though, in service to your better work to come.
I hope you find this encouraging, not discouraging. I’m currently working on my first CD of songs, and am trying so hard not to make it stink. But I have to assume that it’s going to be the work of a beginning album-maker, and give myself a break. The fear of it stinking has probably kept me from working on it for a few years. That’s bad. I’m now a few years older, but still have the same number of CDs to my credit (i.e., zero). But one of the revelations I’ve had recently is that it’s much more likely that my third album will be my first good one, so I have to get the first two awful ones out of the way first. C’est la guerre.
So, perhaps a good New Year’s resolution would be to get some stinky work out of the way, so that we can get over the hump and get closer to the better work that’s in our futures. If you’re working on a project that stinks and it is almost certainly a lost cause, try to wrap it up and call it done, so that you can start the better one. Maybe you’ve got ten songs recorded and three of them really stink. Just chuck the worst ones, and release the CD with just the seven best songs. Or, maybe the current draft of your book just isn’t right and you can’t put your finger on why. Try throwing away the current draft and redoing it from scratch. Yes, ouch, but do it. It will almost certainly be better in the future. Maybe the stinky draft helped you get your head in the right place to write the version that will actually be useful to someone. Only publish the good one.
Remember, you are not your work. You’re just a person—an evolving human spirit. Your work is something separate, on a hard drive, or in a file cabinet, or in a pile somewhere. It is your footprints, not your feet. Most drafts stink and should never be made public. But stinky drafts are necessary to the process of creating good work, even if the fabulous final product doesn’t much resemble the horrendous early drafts.
Hopefully, after a point, you’ll arrive at something that the rest of us will find a positive addition to the world. We’ll thank you, when you do. On behalf of your audience, let me say what a pleasure it is to read/hear/see something that’s had all the stinkiness removed from it, so that we can enjoy it. We’ve got enough crap to wade through, so as much as you can save us from having to get through more of it, we thank you.
Hey again. Michael Moyes, Student Advisor for Berkleemusic here. I have been furthering my harmonic knowledge this term and have been spending some time thinking about Tritones and their numerous functions in music of all types.
A tritone is a musical interval of three whole steps, or 6 half steps. The interval is also known as an augmented fourth, a dimished fifth, or the ‘devil’s interval’ due to it’s dissonant sound.
This interval has been and continues to be utilized in music of all styles and can be found in tunes like “Maria” (from West Side Story), “Purple Haze, “and even Rachmaninoff’s famous Prelude in C# minor.
Tritone substitutions in chord progressions use the same concepts used to build tritones, but the focus is on the harmonic level, not melodic. These substitutions can be used in 12 Bar Blues, ii V I progressions, and many more complex changes as well.
Let’s take a standard ii V I progression in the key of C major to show a tritone substitution in action.
The typical progression would be as follows…
Dmin7
G7
CMA7
The chord substituted in the progression will be the dominant 7th, the G7 chord. Three whole tones above the note G is the note Db, which will be our new root for our dominant 7th chord.
The new progression would be as follows…
Dmin7
Db7
CMA7
Musicians use tritone substitutions to vary the feel of repeated chord progressions and to facilitate stepwise motion. Re-harmonizing is one of the more interesting advanced topics taught here at berkleemusic and is covered in Getting Inside Harmony 2, which is authored by esteemed Berklee Professor and Assistant Film Scoring Chair Michael Rendish.
Interested students should either complete Getting Inside Harmony 1 or have equivalent experience.
Berkleemusic’s online winter term begins January 11, 2010.
Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:
1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com
Musicians of the future need to know the reality of the business today and seek the tools of tomorrow that will enable them to participate and prosper in the creative industries and carve out a niche and an audience that can sustain them. These are the underpinnings of the Music Power Network and what we hope to accomplish by helping to guide musicians, songwriters, managers, producers and business people seeking careers in the music industry.
Music Power Network is a new online information service that I started for independent musicians, songwriters, producers, artist managers, and people starting new music companies. It is a framework with which you can plan your future in the music industry. MPN provides online lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of hand-picked resources designed to help you achieve success in the new music industry.
Here is an sampling of some of the in-depth video interviews I did over the past year with industry luminaries including Terry McBride, Derek Sivers, Mike King, Phil Ramone, Kelly Cha and many others leading the way. More interviews are being collected and added as I seek out the people who are helping to transform the music business and light the way into the future of music.
As a result of publishing The Future of Music, many people have asked me to help them with their careers. MPN is the system that I developed to help people get organized and make money in the new music industry. With MPN you can learn from industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.
The successful artists and writers of the future will start independent and stay independent. They will create businesses around themselves to suit their ambitions, personality, and style. They will connect directly with their fans and control their own destiny. MPN can show you how to do it. Make a 360 degree deal with yourself and find ways to generate revenue from your writing, performing, brand, name, activities, and interests that suit you and what you stand for.
Join MPN and get immediate access to:
• Online music lessons that will help you understand the new music industry.
• Exclusive video interviews with industry experts on the latest strategies.
• Custom business planning tools to help organize and guide your career.
• Thousands of hand picked career and market resources to help you build your team.
Here’s what people are saying:
Terry McBride / Nettwerk CEO – “Dave Kusek has an amazing grasp of where today’s music business resides, where its been and where its going. He has a unique ability with factual analysis to cut through the hype and buzz and give us all a clear picture of what is actually taking place in today’s environment.”
Corey Smith / Artist – “It is safe to say that the “Future of Music” was very much the catalyst we needed to quantify our intentions instead of it being assumptions and guess work. I thought hey, this is possible. And that, alone, made a huge difference. It’s amazing what you can do once you realize that something is possible.”
Milan Kovacev / MPN Member – “MPN’s services are remarkably well suited for 21st century independent artists. As a songwriter, producer, artist, and music publisher I wear different hats every day and that requires a clear focus and goal-oriented approach to my music business endeavors. MPN’s online course, video interviews, resources and practical tools for building a business plan helped me move fearlessly and confidently in this new dawn of the music industry.”
Debbie Cavalier/ MPN Member – “MPN is the best resource for independent musicians who want to take their career to the next level. My goal for “Debbie and Friends” is to connect musically with as many families as possible via national tours, while maximizing my catalog’s potential through music publishing, licensing, distribution, merchandise, and music teaching opportunities. MPN has all of the resources I need to help me achieve my goals. It’s exactly what I have been looking for.”
Fernando Grecco / MPN Member- “Music business today is not for beginners. It is an open field where there are lots of opportunities for artists and professionals, but where there are very few right answers. MPN is the best way to go from beginner to pro in this brave new world of possibilities. Designed by Dave Kusek, who foresaw this new scenario more than 5 years ago, in his book about the Future of Music, MPN was key for me to choose and develop the 360 degree label business model for Borandá. MPN helps turn inspiration into action for serious people who want to thrive in this new reality, regardless if you are a musician or a entrepreneur.”
Debra Latimer / MPN Member – “Terry Mcbride is a genius. He articulated some of the most dynamic and innovative concepts pertaining to the music industry that I have ever heard. This video has opened my mind to new models of thinking about producing and distributing music. Just a wonderful and insightful video.”
We posted last December about Corey Smith, a clever artist who is blazing a new trail through the music business using entirely new ways of thinking. Corey’s whole business model is based on giving away lots of music for free and building relationships with his fans. He does it primarily through touring and developing seriously close relationship with his fans. And it was this giving away of the music that was Corey Smith’s tour support. They didn’t have any label support, but grew their fan base. Because once people heard Corey’s music, they had to see him live. Which they did. In 2007, Corey Smith grossed $1.7 million. Last year Corey’s gross $4 million. Free music built the base.
Corey Smith made headlines when his independent music career slowly grew into a multi-million dollar business, selling out large venues normally reserved for those with chart topping hits. Corey toured diligently and worked hard to make honest connections with his audience. As his fan base grew, he stayed focused on building that connection and being intentional with his business decisions.
I’ve had some interesting inquiries come to me recently on the blog site and it got me thinking… after all is said and done, the problems of most songwriters and music publishers are not really the complex issues of negotiated royalty rates, streaming on demand versus downloads, or flat rate licensing schemes. Those big, multi-faceted bones of contention certainly affect us as songwriters and music publishers. They may weigh on our minds, get us in a fighting mood, or, best case, bring in some unexpected money. But they are not what is front and center in our mind as we go through our daily career struggle.
What we think about almost all the time is a challenge that seems considerably more straightforward and simple, but is in fact, far harder to conquer:
What specifically can I do to get my music out into the world to start earning me money?
So I thought that in the time leading up to the holiday break, perhaps I would try to address that subject, from a variety of different angles. In the end, it’s what music publishing is all about. It’s how my first book, “Making Music Make Money” got its title. It’s the primary focus of my class, Music Publishing 101 at Berkleemusic.com. And yet the questions keep on coming. And the challenges to actually getting our music into income-generating opportunities keep increasing. Let’s go back to basics one more time.
But in order to do it, we’re going to start with three more questions, all of which usually follow the big question of “what do I do to make my music earn money?” If we can tackle these fundamental issues, then we’ll have a start on conquering the bigger question in the following weeks. Here are three selections from the “greatest hits” compilation of questions to ask the music business weasel:
Question #1: How do I get my songs considered by major, superstar artists?
Answer: You don’t. You also don’t get to pitch in the World Series with no professional baseball experience or become the president of a Fortune 500 company on the first day on the job. In songwriting, as in every other business, there is a concept of “working your way up the ladder”.
Songwriters who have yet to have even one successful single do not need to be spending their time trying to figure out how to get songs to Rihanna, or Taylor Swift, or Daughtry. The truth is, most major artists want to be directly involved with writing most of the songs they record, and the ones that they don’t write will largely come from the proven, successful hitmakers so sought after by the record companies. Trust me, if it were your multi-million dollar investment on the line, you’d probably take the same approach.
If you are a developing songwriter with no real track record, you need to concentrate on writing for the next Rihanna, or Taylor Swift, or Daughtry. That means working with artists who don’t yet have a record contract, and helping to write the song that clinches the deal. Or finding a lesser-known act still trying to break-through with that one big hit. Or meeting local developing artists or managers in your local community, and trying to write the song that will expose them to a larger audience. If you can do that successfully, then you’ll get approached to work on slightly bigger, more high-profile projects. Then slowly, but steadily, you’ll be building the contacts and the track record that can move you up the ladder.
Check out tipsheets like Songlink International or Myhitsonline.com. They are full of projects in various stages of development, all looking for songs. Or get active in your local community and find the potential talent you can work with there.
Certainly, most of these projects will amount to little. But if you can provide a key song, you will at the very least make a new set of contacts, who will go on to other projects after this one. This is how “networks” are built. If you can show up with a genuine hit, you might create a new star, and immediately put yourself in a different level of the industry.
Question #2: How do I cold-call A&R people, managers, and others who I want to listen to my music?
Answer: You don’t. In my Music Publishing 101 class at Berkleemusic.com, we don’t get to the subject of pitching music until halfway through the semester. Instead, the early weeks of Music Publishing 101 are devoted to laying the groundwork that will make the pitch effective. This means building a team of support around you– a music lawyer, a Writer Relations rep at ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, a network of friends and colleagues in your local community that could include everyone from a music journalist to a studio owner to a radio programmer.
Just as importantly, it means researching and studying your music genre and identifying the major and minor artists in that world, the key labels (both major and independent), the A&R decision-makers, the managers, the radio stations, and the clubs. It means identifying what business strategies are the most effective in your market. In the pop-rock or indie band world, advertising placements can be crucial stepping-stones. In the heavy metal biz, video games are key. You have to be an expert in whatever field of music you’re pitching songs. That’s what gives you the right to bother someone else, who is also an expert of sorts, in the middle of his or her workday.
Only when you’ve established your team and network of business contacts will you be in a position to change a cold-call into a referral. Once you’ve decided who you want to approach with your music, you can then try to figure out if there’s someone on your team, or in your network, who might be able to make an introduction, or at least allow you to use their name as a reference. Obviously, the bigger your circle of supporters, the fewer real “cold-calls” you’ll make.
In the same way, proper research and understanding of your musical genre will ensure that you’re approaching the right people, and saying the things that they want to hear. If you understand the nuances of the business environment in which you’re working, know the background of the person with whom you’re speaking, and can show how your music fills a need in that person’s world, you can speak with the A&R person, manager or producer as a colleague. That’s not cold-calling. That’s connecting.
Question #3: How do I find time to get my music out to people– music supervisors, A&R, artist managers– when I’m so busy actually making and recording the music?
Answer: You don’t. The one thing I can tell you without any doubt, having been a songwriter, producer and music publisher for more than twenty years, is that every single thing that happens to you everyday will conspire to prevent you from actually getting songs sent out to the people that need to hear them. You will always be needed in the studio, or have to pick up the kids, or be exhausted from last night’s gig, or be stressed from tonight’s gig, or in need of a new computer, or SOMETHING. And each night, you will vow that tomorrow you really will get those songs sent out…
You will never find the time. There are no spare hours lying under the bed somewhere. Trust me- I’ve looked. The only hope that you have is to make the time. You will have to change your schedule, cut back on certain things, try to find an intern to help out, or figure out a way to run your business on the road. But one way or another, you must make the time to get songs sent out to the people that need to hear them. Because…
Your business depends on it. Without that, nothing happens. There is no music publisher anywhere that has built a business solely by doing administration and collecting money. At least in the beginning, someone has to get the music out to people who will use it.
What would you think of a widget-making company that invested solely in production–building a factory, hiring workers, making widgets– but had no sales team or strategy in place to sell the product? Yet, that’s what so many songwriters and music publishers do– retreating to their comfort zone of writing music, recording music, acquiring music and listening to music, until there’s no time left in the day to sell any of it. Check the number of songs sitting on your hard-drive and compare them to the amount of songs that were sent out this week. It may be happening to you.
The point of these negative answers to oft-asked questions is not to be discouraging. I’m a publisher too. I know that none of us need more discouragement. The point is to give a reality-check, and to adapt realistic strategies to our businesses.
It is the nature of show business to sell dreams, and this is one of the most prevalent– the sudden opportunity that leads to instant glory. I’m not saying it never happens. Almost every career is built on a few such unexpected moments. But it’s not a day to day strategy for approaching your business.
I heard a great story recently of a hard-working musician laboring in relative obscurity, who was playing in a band that recorded several records for small labels, none of which found any great success. However, one of the records was picked up by a dance music DJ and producer in another country, and began to garner some underground buzz. When that buzz led to more calls for material from the DJ-producer, he turned back to our friend the musician, who after more than a decade of playing and touring, had virtually given up on his band and was looking for a new line of work. But the musician answered the call for more material and sent it off to the DJ-producer, who then added his own magic touch. One of those tracks was recently released as the first single off a recent Madonna album, and it became a world-wide hit.
That’s the reality of the music business. Doing your work, getting the music out, meeting the right people and building on those contacts, as you slowly climb the ladder. Only then can you hope to finally get that lucky break that catapults you to the top.
Last question: When do you give up?
Answer: You dont. You just keep moving, one rung at a time.
Home | Help & Support | Products & Services | Tools & Resources | For Your Home
Verizon Privacy Policy | Copyright 2003 Verizon. All Rights Reserved.
Use of Verizon Online’s Internet access services and Web sites are subject to user compliance with our Policies.
“Maybe music consumers don’t have to own their songs anymore.” – USA Today
After years of resisting efforts to offer music fans the ability to “rent” music instead of buying downloads, Apple is finally joining the party. Apple’s purchase of online music service Lala brings the No. 1 music retailer into the streaming music business.
For years, the music industry has advanced subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster, saying they made more sense for the consumer and better profits for the labels. But the services have not panned out.
What has changed is the popularity of free streaming services, led by Pandora, which has 40 million monthly listeners worldwide. You can’t choose specific songs, but you can choose your favorite artists. Pandora then creates a music experience for you with similar-sounding music. Pandora is widely popular on the Web and on smartphones, including the iPhone.
Inside Digital Media analyst Phil Leigh says
“There’s no doubt this will become the successor to radio and be how new music will be popularized”
Hello everyone, a student posted in one of my classes asking about this cool warped ambient piano he heard on a recording. It seemed like a cool challenge so I tried to make an instrument that would give a wide variety of spooky warped piano sounds. I created a really cool patch and used some of the more advanced features in Sampler and Instrument racks, so here is the video explaining it all:
The coolest feature I have used here is Zone Shift in Sampler. I explain it in the video, but you need to play with it to really get a feel for how it works. Say you have Zone Shift at -12, then Live is going to play the sample from an octave up, but transpose it down to the pitch you played. So, by moving Zone shift you are transposing all the samples, but the instrument still plays at pitch, try this on EVERYTHING, it is awesome.
The next great technique in the video is how I set up a delay. It is an effect rack with two chains, the first is for the delay and the second for the dry signal. After all the delays a compressor is added, but it is listening to(sidechained to) the dry signal. This way when the dry signal is present, the delays are quiet, but as the dry signal fades away the delays get louder, Very Cool.
If sidechained compressors are confusing you, please see my earlier post on the topic.
Anyway, Here is the Project so you can download and play with it, you will need the Live Suite keys piano patch to use it, I tried to include it in the project, but the patch is just too big.
You outta be in pictures! In fact, as a performing musician in today’s self-promoting, DIY world, every one of your shows should be photographed and everyone who is there supporting your music should be included. Take pictures of your fans having a great time at your show. You should also have pictures taken of the band performing, the crowd interacting, the sound man, the club manager, the show poster on the door, the waitresses… everyone! (Of course, if you do children’s music, it’s important to secure the proper permissions before taking pictures of your audience.) Then, immediately after each show, follow up with everyone who was there using the pictures from the gig for viral marketing!
There are several web-based applications, such as Flickr, that will provide storage for your images online, and easy-to-use tools that enable you to share your memories with fans through your email newsletters, and Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Reverbnation, and your band’s own Web site.
Before you know it, your fans will link to the images from within their own personal blogs and social networking sites, and your gig pictures will quickly become viral marketing vehicles, making more and more people aware of your music!
With Flickr, you can upload pictures, add descriptions, links, and keyword tags, and then organize them into “Sets.” Here’s a link to my gig Sets on Flickr. A screen capture of my gig Sets page is presented below. Notice, each Set is focused on a particular show.
Each thumbnail image above leads to a Flickr Set page. Here is a link to a Set of pictures from a recent Debbie and Friends gig at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA. The Set contains 17 pictures. Interesting to note that even though I only sent the link to a handful of people, the gig Set has been viewed 290 times on Flickr as of this article’s writing. The hits came from link-sharing and viral marketing efforts by a few fans. Nice!
You can add descriptions and thank you messages to the fans as a way to personalize your gig picture Sets, along with a link to drive traffic to your band’s site, after the images have been enjoyed. See an example of this below.
Here’s a quick, step-by-step list on how to get started using Flickr for your band’s gig memories.
1. Create a Flickr account. There are free- and fee-based versions available, depending on your needs. You will also need a Yahoo email account to create a Flickr account.
2. Log into your account.
3. Upload pictures.
4. Edit your pictures with comments and tags.
5. Organize your pictures into sets.
6. Spread the word: embed the set page link into your email newsletter and on your Web site(s).
There are many more features to explore on Flickr. To learn more, take the tour at http://www.flickr.com/tour
Sharing pictures after a gig is a great way to help build community with your fans and provide tools that enable them to share their excitement about your music with others.
Hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving! And on that note, if you were struggling last week to find something for which to be thankful (and those things were definitely in short supply this year, particularly in the dark and lonely corridors of the music business), I received one from my friend and fellow Berklee blogger, Mike King, who writes Music Business and Trend-Mongering…
http://mikeking.berkleemusicblogs.com/
Mike brought to my attention a very informative and interesting blog at thefutureofmusic.com, which explained, as clearly as could possibly be expected within such murky waters, the recent settlement on a mechanical royalty rate for songs played on online music services. Check it out:
Given that we’ve been following in this blogspace the ever-raging war between the Israel and Palestine of show business, that is the digital media community (which includes large companies like Yahoo and AOL, relatively established ventures like Pandora and Rhapsody, and new companies like Spotify) and the music industry (including labels, publishers, performing rights organizations, artists, and writers), it seems worth taking a minute to try to put some perspective on what has been achieved with the latest peace treaty. As always when entering a war zone, it’s probably best to dredge up a little history, just to understand what’s been achieved, and why everyone was so mad in the first place.
The conflict is rooted. as is all evil, in money, and who gets how much of it. When the digital world first emerged as a place to both purchase and/or stream music, the music community was forced to redefine the idea of a “mechanical royalty”, which is the royalty that is paid to songwriters and publishers each time a “mechanical reproduction” of their song is purchased. In the old world, this translates to .091 cents for each song on each CD that is bought by a consumer. This “per-penny”, “per-song” system is at the core of the music publishing business, and it’s something that publishers were desperate to preserve even within the new digital environment.
In part the attachment to this system is rooted in accounting realities: each songwriter needs to be paid each time his or her specific song is used, not just given a random portion of a lump sum paid out to songwriters in general. But more importantly, publishers wanted to establish with finality that each digital use, whether a digital download (as on iTunes, which has been paying the 9 cent mechanical royalty from the beginning) or a stream (in which the music is not actually owned by the consumer, but is constantly accessible to the consumer) constituted a “mechanical reproduction” of the song, and therefore was subject to a mechanical royalty.
Not too surprisingly, the digital media community saw things quite differently. While generally willing to acknowledge that an actual digital download constituted a “purchase” of the song and therefore required a mechanical royalty (unless of course one were to do like the vast majority of music listeners and simply download it illegally), services that offered “streaming”, as opposed to downloads, felt that they should be treated more like a radio station, and that their music uses should be subject only to “performance royalties” (the money collected by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC for public uses of music on the radio and television). The music industry was quite happy to acknowledge that “streaming” should be licensed by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, and indeed, most of the prominent streaming services are licensed by those performing rights organizations. However, the music weasels also wanted the mechanical royalty, in addition to the performance monies. Them were fightin’ words.
That’s where the war began, and we’ve been following it on this blog ever since. Having reached this impasse in the early days of the digital music revolution, the two parties agreed to fight it out… later. The publishers, not wanting to miss the boat entirely on a new way of marketing music, but also not wanting to lock in an unfair compensation system for a pivotal new technology, agreed to make their catalogs available for a one or two cent royalty, under the proviso that some kind of more reasonable “per-song, per-play” mechanical rate would be negotiated in the not-too-distant future.
It’s worth keeping in mind that much of the publisher’s wariness came from their prior experience with licensing music to DVD’s. In that instance, publishers agreed to very unfavorable terms for the use of music in “DVD” ’s, after receiving promises from the film studios that once the new technology took hold, there would be plenty of money to go around. Of course, the new technology did take hold, there was plenty of money, and none of it found its way into the pockets of the publishers, who were stuck with that first, precedent-setting agreement. This resulted in much gnashing of teeth, and vows of “never again”.
On the flip side, the digital media, filled with myriads of start-up ventures, felt that if they could buy some time to get their new companies off the ground and into a profitable position, the music industry would view them as valuable partners, and be willing to agree to a more equitable royalty situation. Or maybe they just figured they could get the music really cheap for now, and then later use their increased bargaining power and hopefully some favorable court decisions to really put the screws to the copyright holders. Hard to say exactly.
Unfortunately, the war didn’t quite go according to plan for either party. The music industry quickly found that the new “mechanical” royalties from digital downloads were draining off their old “mechanical” royalties from CD album sales, and actual overall income was plummeting. The digital music services found that consumers were not that eager to actually fork up money for something that they were now used to getting for free. On top of all that, the music industry sensed that they’d once again been out-weaseled, as the DMA (Digital Media Association) backed away from negotiations, and focused instead on legal efforts to re-define which uses required a mechanical royalty in the first place.
And yet, out of this ugly little tale of self-interest, deception, suspicion and greed, springs a small blessing– which leads me back to the whole idea of what we can be thankful for this year. After years of arguing, the two beaten-down, weary factions finally reached an agreement, and here’s what it amounts to:
Limited download and interactive streaming services will pay a mechanical royalty rate of 10.5% on the revenue they generate, MINUS any amounts for performance royalties.
In other words, services like Rhapsody and Napster are indeed subject to both a mechanical and performance royalty, but the entire compensation for songwriters and publishers from any limited download or interactive streaming site is “capped” at 10.5% of the site’s revenue. For the record, an interactive stream is one that’s selected by the user (that is, music on demand), and a limited download is one that’s based on a subscription (and which disappears when that subscription ends). The mechanical royalty does not apply to “jukebox” type streaming, which is not selected specifically by the user (like Pandora).
Like most blessings, this one is decidedly mixed. It does give the DMA what they needed most, which is some ability to gauge what their overall music costs will be, and some flexibility in their price-setting to the consumer. Obviously, if you’re in the business of selling a product, you like to know what it’s going to cost you to provide it. By assuring the digital services that the combined PRO royalty and “mechanical” royalty will not exceed 10.5% of their revenue, the new agreement should help the digital music services build a more stable financial model in the future.
The new deal also gives publishers part of what they wanted, which is the legitimate claim to something more than a performance royalty from services that offer a consumer direct access to specific music. It opens a Pandora’s box (yes, that’s a pun) of accounting problems, as publishers will now have to somehow negotiate, audit (?), and continually adjust rates for each of the thousands of services that exist or are in the launching stages, not to mention figure out how to collect and properly apportion the new money to the appropriate songwriters.
But in a barren land of nothing, at least this is something, so let’s raise our cups in thanksgiving, especially to the powers that negotiated the agreement on behalf of the publishers, labels and others: the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the RIAA, and the Songwriters Guild (SGA).
Now that we’ve laid our weapons down (temporarily at least) it’s time to turn our attention to something a bit more productive:
Let’s make some money.
If it seems strange that Mike King brought to my attention an agreement that directly affects the publishing community, it’s because most publishers haven’t exactly been on the edge of their chairs, waiting to see how this war turned out. A growing number of us increasingly suspect that we’re fighting over a useless piece of land in the desert.
The fundamental problem with this agreement is that none of these services are generating much in terms of real revenue. The subscription model is growing less and less attractive, as consumers have quite literally not bought into it. The “free” streaming services are generating plenty of activity, but very little in the way of advertising revenue, which is where the money is supposed to come from. In the end, receiving ten percent of the total revenue of these services may wind up being less than the one or two penny rate that we were getting as part of the temporary agreement.
Worse than that, many of us suspect that these services may not actually be intended to make money. Looking at the YouTube model, it’s clearly quite possible to use “free” music as a “carrot” to attract loads of visitors or viewers to a site. A buzz-savvy entrepreneur can then use that high level of traffic to foist the new start-up venture off to a giant corporate media company like Google (YouTube) or News Corp (MySpace)– all without ever having generated any real profits. In that scenario, the founder of the site gets rich, and the publishers and songwriters who provided the music that brought all that traffic are left with, yep, ten percent of nothing. Sound familiar?
I suspect that somewhere towards the end of the first Thanksgiving feast, after the pie had been consumed and the last bit of wine drained from the bottle, someone on the side of either the pilgrims or the American Indians probably mentioned that there was still some work to be done in the harvesting, and that they should all probably get back to work. Judging from current music sales, publishers and record labels and songwriters all need to get back to trying to make music that the public is truly compelled to purchase. Across the table, digital media services need to start figuring out how to sell that music in a way that actually generates profits, rather than simply giving it away. If both parties do their jobs, maybe next year we’ll all have more to be thankful for…
With big record companies willingly bucking technology, musicians and software types gathered in Cambridge to revolutionize the industry.
On an unheralded fall weekend right before Thanksgiving, a roomful of amateur hackers and Web rock stars gathered in East Cambridge for a historic convention that could dramatically reshape the way we get our music. At stake in this laptop orgy on the quiet end of Memorial Drive, appropriately held at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development (NERD) Center: how you and everyone you know will discover your next favorite band, and how artists will reach audiences in an age when the media and music industries are in steep decline.
The collaborative powwow, dubbed Music Hack Day, was the first-ever such event held in the US (earlier iterations took place this year in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London). But while such recognized brands as NPR, Apple, and Yahoo! were astute enough to show up, the confab was more populated by non-household-name Web sites, from Boston’s own tourfilter.com to CBS-owned last.fm, which, generally speaking, share an aesthetic that is anathema to the record industry: they want to make music — and virtually everything related to music — available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Most radically, they want to do that all for free, and claim that such a model could benefit consumers and performers.
The complimentary public conference was as notable for those who were not in attendance as it was for those who represented. Most glaringly absent were the Big Four — Sony, Warner, EMI, and Universal — and their major-label peers. Considering how mega-imprint executives continue to defend dated hard-distribution models as their businesses implode, it’s hardly a surprise to watch them miss the train. After all, tech mavens have long alleged that industry fat cats would rather toast past successes than discover how invention propels multimedia.
With big record companies willingly bucking technology, musicians and software types gathered in Cambridge to revolutionize the industry.Long before consumers, artists, or reporters noticed that established entertainment systems were growing increasingly irrelevant, developers were synthesizing music and applied science. And though many pioneer programmers are now being applauded, in the past such trailblazers were marginalized as everything from geeks to criminals. David Kusek, a vice-president of media at Berklee who was hacking complex circuit boards when his legionnaires were tweaking Speak & Spells, remembers the reaction when he used to tell people that he worked in music software: “They would say, ‘What the fuck is that?’ ” Commencing Hack Day festivities, Kusek preached his gospel to approximately 300 attendees: “Things have changed a lot . . . it’s such an open world today, and I think that’s wonderful. But don’t just share the code — share the money.”
Berklee Press just released a new book from Mike King titled Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail. The book presents a step by step integrated approach to marketing 2.0 which leverages the new music marketing opportunities available for musicians and managers and the best practices for traditional outlets that still matter. If you are looking to develop a targeted marketing plan for your band, this book will be a big help.
Chris Stone, Founder of the legendary Record Plant Studios, says:
“A strategic, real-world, down-in-the-street approach to selling music in today’s music marketplace, that takes advantage of the most effective contemporary tools, while remaining well grounded in the traditional marketing techniques that remain relevant. If you want your music to see the light of day, follow this indispensable step-by-step advice, clearly put forth from the industry trenches by an unusually effective and creative marketing professional.”
Hey again. Michael Moyes, Student Advisor for 
