diff --git "a/tl2-extracted_data.json" "b/tl2-extracted_data.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/tl2-extracted_data.json" @@ -0,0 +1,444 @@ +[ + { + "filename": "251937336-Music-Business.pdf", + "text": "Networking Strategies\nfor the\nNew Music Business\nby Dan KimpelNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n©2005 by Dan Kimpel. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in\n any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrie val system \nwithout written permission from Thomson Course T echnology PTR, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.\nThe ArtistPro and Thomson Course T echnology PTR logos and related trade dress are trademarks of \nThomson Course T echnology PTR and may not be used without written permission.\nPublisher and General Manager of Thomson Course T echnology PTR: Stacy L. Hiquet\nExecutive Editor: Mike Lawson\nAssociate Director of Marketing: Sarah O’Donnell\nManager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot\nMarketing Manager: Kristin Eisenzopf\nSenior Editor: Mark Garvey\nMarketing Coordinator: Jordan Casey\nProject Editor & Copy Editor: Dan Foster, Scribe Tribe\nThomson Course T echnology PTR Editorial Services Coordinator: Elizabeth Furbish\nCover Designer & Interior Layout T ech: Stephen Ramirez\nIndexer: Katherine Stimson\nProofreader: Gene Redding\nBack cover photo: Davis & Davis–www.davisanddavis.org\nAll other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.\nImportant: Thomson Course T echnology PTR cannot provide software support. Please contact the\nappropriate software manufacturer’s technical support line or Web site for assistance.\nThomson Course T echnology PTR and the author have attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks\nfrom descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer.\nInformation contained in this book has been obtained by Thomson Course T echnology PTR from sources believed to be reliable.\nHowever, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Thomson Course T echnology PTR, or others, \nthe Publisher does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any\nerrors or omissions or the results obtained from use of such information. Readers should be particularly aware of the fact that\nthe Internet is an ever-changing entity. Some facts may have changed since this book went to press.\nEducational facilities, companies, and organizations interested in multiple copies or licensing of this book should contact\nthe publisher for quantity discount information. Training manuals, CD-ROMs, and portions of this book are\nalso available individually or can be tailored for specifi c needs.\nISBN: 1-59200-753-8\nLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005923856\nPrinted in Canada\n05 06 07 08 09 WC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1\nThomson Course T echnology PTR, a division of Thomson Course T echnology\n25 Thomson Place\nBoston, MA 02210\nhttp://www.courseptr.com iiiAcknowledgments\nThank You:\nTo my family in Ohio, and Yuji and Nick in Los Angeles. To my associates at \nASCAP, BMI, and SESAC for inviting me to interview their songwriters and \ncomposers; to Arthur Bernstein, Mark Featherstone-Witty, Ian Gardner, and Martin \nIsherwood at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA); and to my students \nwho inspired this text.\nTo my friends and colleagues: Luis and Gloria Villegas, Keo Woolford, Jeffrey \nTennyson, Bobbi Marcus, Dan Desouza, John and JoAnn Braheny, Scott and Denise \nDavis, Marta Woodhull, John Philip Shenale, David Edward Byrd, Joe Beserra, \nRichard Moll, Susan Wong, Armando Soria, Kenny Kerner, Guy Marshall, Brett \nPerkins, Denise Bradley, Martin Cervantes, Simon Barber, and David Quan. And to \nthe amazing Karan Longbrake, whose energy has inspired me since high school.\nThanks to Mike Lawson at ArtistPro and to my diligent editor, Dan Foster. \nAppreciation always to Mark Garvey, who fi rst convinced me that I was an author.\nGrateful thanks to Tena Clark and the staff at Disc Marketing/DMI Networks and \nFirehouse Recording Studios in Pasadena, California, with special gratitude t o \nRonny Schiff, whose support is immeasurable.\nSelected interviews in this book were conducted for “Song Biz Profi les” and feature \nstories written for Music Connection magazine. Thank you to senior editor Mark \nNardone, publishers Eric Bettelli and J. Michael Dolan, and associate editor Michael \nMollura. The profi le of Lindy Robbins appeared in Songwriters Market 2005. Thank \nyou to editor Ian Bessler and Writer’s Digest Books.ivAbout the Author\nDan Kimpel is one of the American media’s foremost authorities on popular \nmusic and songwriters. He contributes to a dizzying variety of print and electronic \nmediums, including books, interactive CDs, magazines, Web sites, videos, and new \nmedia. If you fl y United Airlines worldwide, you can hear his audio interviews with \nhit recording artists and songwriters on The United Entertainment Network. Dan \nconducts workshops on the subject of music business networking at universiti es, \nconferences, and seminars across North America and in England. Visit Dan’s Web \nsite at www.dankimpel.comvContents\nIntroduction .................................... xi\nCHAPTER 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business .................. 1\nThe Kind of Person... ............................... 2\nAssessing Your Strengths ............................ 3\nSongwriters ...................................... 3\nMusicians ....................................... 4\nMusic Biz Pro’s: Aspiring Moguls ..................... 5\nTechnical Triumphs ................................ 6\nBorn to Succeed ................................... 7\nReinvention ...................................... 9\nSigns from the Universe ............................ 10\nThe Commitment Key .............................. 12\nTime Has Come Today ............................. 13\nSummary ........................................ 15\nCHAPTER 2 The Modern Music Business ........................ 16\nTransmission Is Secondary .......................... 16\nExpanding and Contracting Genres ................... 17\nThe New Music Entrepreneurs ....................... 18\nMusic for Kids .................................... 19\nSoundtrack to a Fast Track ......................... 20\nInternet Notions ................................. 22\nFish or Fowl? .................................... 23\nA Mosaic of Mediums ............................. 25\nRadio Is Our Salvation ............................. 27\nSatellite, Public, and Internet Radio .................... 31\nchris and thomas: Acoustic Essence .................... 33\nMusic Publishing: The Way In ........................ 35\nMajor and Indie Labels ............................. 37Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nviMusic Biz Marionettes: Who Pulls the Strings? .......... 38\nValidation ...................................... 39\nAmerican Idolization .............................. 40\nSummary ....................................... 42\nCHAPTER 3 Personalities Plus ................................. 43\nTen Successful Attributes of Music Biz Professionals ...... 43\nNegative Notions ................................. 49\nThe Put Down .................................... 51\nNegative to Positive ............................... 52\nFind Reasons to Feel Good about Yourself .............. 54\nVisualize Your Success ............................. 54\nNetwork with People You Respect and Observe\nTheir Traits ................................. 55\nThe Smooth Road ................................. 55\nMyths ......................................... 57\nReinvention ..................................... 58\nSame Old Same Old ............................... 59\nSummary ....................................... 60\nCHAPTER 4 True Tales ...................................... 62\nThe I’s Don’t Have It .............................. 62\nThe Power of “You” ............................... 63\nCould’a, Should’a, Would’a ......................... 64\nYou’re It ........................................ 66\nBridges Aflame .................................. 67\nCelebrity ....................................... 68\nTen Strategies for Interacting with Celebrities ........... 69\nHow Would I Reach You? ........................... 71\nWho Needs You? ................................. 72\nLook Around .................................... 74\nSixth Sense ..................................... 75\nDrugs in the Music Biz ............................ 76\nOn the Road with John Mayer ....................... 77\nAm I Too Old to Rock? ............................ 78viiCritical Crises and Drama Queens .................... 81\nTen Networking Strategies for Dispelling a Crisis ........ 83\nTreat Everyone with Respect ........................ 84\nSummary ....................................... 86\nCHAPTER 5 Making Contact .................................. 87\nBody Language .................................. 87\nGood Grooming ................................. 89\nClothes Horse ................................... 90\nUps and Downs in the Capitol Tower .................. 91\nTen Visual Cues for Your “Look” ..................... 93\nConversation Instigation ........................... 94\nTen Conversation Leaders .......................... 95\nSensitive Areas ................................... 97\nAssumptions to Avoid about Anyone to Whom You’re \nIntroduced ................................. 98\nComplimentary Consideration ...................... 98\nRemembering Names ............................. 100\nDid You Drop That Name? ......................... 101\nBusiness Cards ................................... 102\nWorking the Room ............................... 103\nHidden Opportunities ............................. 106\nPractice Makes Perfect ............................. 108\nThe Fine Art of the Studio Hang ..................... 109\nCHAPTER 6 Telephone and E-Mail ............................. 112\nThe Telephone ................................... 113\nSound ......................................... 114\nReflections of Power .............................. 115\nTelephone Basics ................................. 116\nTelephone Tracking ............................... 117\nCell Phones: Antennas of Satan? ..................... 118\nCell Phone Etiquette .............................. 121\nE-Mail ......................................... 122ContentsNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\nviiiCHAPTER 7 Creating Effective Tools of the Trade ................. 125\nPress Kits ....................................... 126\nThe Folder ...................................... 127\nThe Cover Letter ................................. 127\nA CD or DVD ................................... 128\nThe Bio ........................................ 129\nYour Photo ..................................... 133\nFull-Court Press ................................. 134\nCredibility in the Credits ........................... 136\nThe Man in the Gorilla Suit ......................... 138\nExtreme Strategies ................................ 139\nRejection ....................................... 140\nTen Thoughts on Overcoming Rejection ............... 141\nTen Reasons Your Calls Are Not Returned ............. 142\nWeb-Wise ...................................... 145\nDo I Need a Web Site? ............................. 146\nAdditional Resources .............................. 151\nCHAPTER 8 Live Venues and Ventures .......................... 153\nGigology 101 ..................................... 153\nCreative Outlets .................................. 154\nAlternative Venues ................................ 156\nInventing Your Own Show .......................... 157\nSoft Ticket ...................................... 157\nHow to Make a Soft Ticket Show Work for You .......... 158\nYou Sounded Fabulous! ............................ 159\nTen Post-Performance Tips ......................... 159\nPerformance Peeves ............................... 160\nTen Commandments of Club Land ................... 161\nClub Clues ...................................... 162\nSoundman Scenarios .............................. 163\nScams ......................................... 164\nCompilation CDs ................................. 166\nPerforming Rights ............................... 169ixCHAPTER 9 Success Stories .................................. 172\nJeffrey Steele: Country Craftsman .................... 173\nLindy Robbins: Late Bloomer ....................... 178\nLuis Resto: Lost in the Music ........................ 183\nBob Malone: Road Warrior ......................... 185\nSummary ....................................... 187\nCHAPTER 10 Go Where You Wanna Go ......................... 188\nNashville ....................................... 189\nNew York ....................................... 193\nLos Angeles ..................................... 196\nEmerging Cities ................................. 200\nAll Over the Map ................................. 201\nMusic Conferences ............................... 201\n15 Tips to Maximize Your Conference Experience ....... 202\nWorld Beat ..................................... 204\nFurther Afield ................................... 205\nCHAPTER 11 Defining Your Direction .......................... 207\nQuestions for Artists ............................. 208\nQuestions for Aspiring Moguls ...................... 210\nTeamwork ...................................... 212\nManagement .................................... 212\nWhen Do You Need a Manager? ..................... 213\nWhat to Look for in a Manager ...................... 214\nDo You Want to Be a Manager? ...................... 215\nYour Law yer .................................... 215\nAgents ......................................... 216\nYour Publicist ................................... 217\nArtist’s Responsibilities ............................ 218\nGet a Job ....................................... 219\nCHAPTER 12 It’s a Wrap ..................................... 221\nCreative Confluence .............................. 221\nFive Tips for Personal References ..................... 222ContentsNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\nxBack Home ..................................... 223\nMaking It Happen Where You Are .................. 224\nWhat Have You Been Given? ....................... 226\nIn Conclusion ................................... 227\nAppendix A\nResources ...................................... 229xiIntroduction\nWho you know, what you know, and who knows you: \nEvery single deal I’ve ever seen go down in the music \nbusiness has been the direct result of a personal contact. \nIn this way, the music business is not that different from \nany other enterprise because people will do business \nwith those whom they know, whom they trust, and who \nthey believe will deliver what is required and expected \nof them under any circumstance. In many other ways, \nhowever, the music business is radically different from \nother industries. It’s built on a vibe; it’s tied to trends, \nfashion, and media; it communicates an intangible com-\nmodity capable of mirroring profound emotions.\nWhat Is a Networking Strategy?\nNetworking is communication—simple human interac-\ntion. Strategy is the art of devising or employing plans \ntoward a goal. It follows that Networking Strategies\nare plans toward a successful career via personal \nrelationships. Truth be told, it’s always a new music busi-\nness—the most signifi cant recent changes have been the \nmerger of the major record companies, the rise of inde-\npendent labels and artists, and the leveling of the playing \nfi eld through the Internet. Although all of these changes \nare signifi cant, success will still be determined by per-\nsonal relationships. I repeat: Every single deal I’ve ever \nseen go down in the music business has been a direct \nresult of a personal contact.\nThis book is intended as a guide to making your \npersonal strengths and relationships with others work Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nxiifor you. It’s about connecting to others who share your \naspirations, energies, and enthusiasm, and allowing \nthese collective talents to shine for all, whether you’re \na professional or an aspirant in the music business: a \nsongwriter, recording artist, musician, composer, music \neditor, music educator, music publisher, DJ, publicist, PR \nexpert, entertainment lawyer, or if you plan on working \nwith any of the above.\nRaging Rivers and Tiny Ants\nAn upbeat, positive attitude, a sense that all will work \nout well in the world, and a drive to evolve, progress, and \nsucceed in the music business are all attitudes that will \nlight your path. Our destinies are self-fulfi lling prophe-\ncies and the positive energy we transmit via our music \nwill return amplifi ed and multiplied.\nThat said, our ability to control the course of our \nspecifi c destiny may be questionable. I was in Nashville \ninterviewing songwriter and vocalist extraordinaire \nMichael McDonald when he offered this analogy: \n“Imagine a raging river; down through the rapids comes \na 100-foot-long log moving at incredible speed. At the \nfront of the log is perched a tiny ant who looks out and \nmarvels, ‘Man, I’m really driving this thing!’”\nWho Am I?\nI’m a music business survivor who has survived and \nfl ourished through a career that has taken me from \nthe hard scrabble bars of Ohio to the power centers of \nNashville, London, Tokyo, New York, and Hollywood. xiiiFor the past two and a half decades I’ve made my home \nin Los Angeles where my career trajectory includes \nphases as a songwriter and musician, a manager and pub-\nlicist, creative director, event producer, journalist, editor, \nlecturer, and author. I continue to invent new outlets that \nrefl ect my love of music and songwriters and to utilize \nand expand my knowledge in an ever-shifting fi eld.\nI’m a strong believer that like the tiny ant in the \nstory, we cannot make things happen; we can only put \nourselves in a position where things will happen. Case in \npoint: When I penned my fi rst book, Networking in the \nMusic Business , I was not an author; indeed, at that point \nI had barely published any articles. What I had was a \npivotal position with a non-profi t organization, a grow-\ning list of stellar contacts, and boundless enthusiasm for \nthe subject.\nUnder the ministrations of a patient editor, I \nlearned how to write a book. I was subsequently invited \nto travel across the U.S. and Canada to lecture at music \nconferences and institutions, but I soon fi gured out that \nsomeone who was an expert on personal contacts in \nthe music business would be best served by using these \ntalents to advance his own career, rather than making a \nquestionable living foisting his views, and his words, on \nimpressionable readers.\nAs creative director for the National Academy of \nSongwriters, I was honored to work with many of the \ngreatest singer/songwriters in the history of American \npopular music: Joni Mitchell, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, \nRobbie Robertson, Gamble and Huff, Ashford and \nSimpson, Jackson Browne, and Burt Bacharach. I wrote, \nedited, produced, created, and made invaluable contacts.IntroductionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\nxivAlas, the destiny of non-profi t organizations is \na treacherous one, and after three years I departed \nmy cushy corner offi ce on the 10th fl oor of a Sunset \nBoulevard high-rise, and moved my operations to my \nhome in the hills of the Los Angeles district known as \nEagle Rock.\nRemember what I said about being in a position \nwhere things could happen? A continent away, at the \nLiverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), the \ncollege founded by Sir Paul McCartney, the head of \nmusic, Arthur Bernstein, dropped into the school library \nto fi nd a book to read on a train trip. He grabbed mine. \nThe next day he sent me a fax, inviting me to come \nto England to teach a one-week master class based on \nmy book to LIPA’s graduating seniors. This turned \ninto a fi ve-year venture, and expanded my realm of \ninternational contacts, if not my appreciation for British \nfood, immeasurably.\nWho Are You?\nSadly, the people who need this book the most will never \nread it. You know them: they’re the ones who are too \nhip for the room; who bluster their way about, often \nusing their aggression or belligerence to mask fears and \nuncertainties, always remaining clueless. I remember \na call from a singer/songwriter in Arizona when the \nNetworking book was fi rst released. “All this network-\ning is OK for some people, but I just want to stay in my \nstudio, write songs, record, and get paid.” Me too! But \nthe caller never told me how to get that gig. I suspect he \ndidn’t know either.xvThe Power of Yes\nI learned long ago in the music business, when someone \nasks you if you can do something, the correct answer is \n“Yes!” I’m not talking about jumping out of airplanes if \nyou’re afraid of heights or playing a classical toccata if \nyou’re a speed metal guitarist, but within the realm of \nreason, the possibilities others see in us often exceed the \nlimitations we see in ourselves. \nIn order to do the gig, you have to get the gig; in \norder to get the gig, you have to understand the gig. \nIf you aspire to a position at a record label, a publish-\ning fi rm, or a performing rights organization, you will \nseldom see these positions advertised in the paper or \nanywhere online. Why? Because they will be fi lled by \npeople from the inside of the business, never the outside.\nMy career took another dramatic leap when a \nlongtime friend, Ms. Ronny Schiff, VP of audio pro-\ngramming for Disc Marketing (now DMI Entertainment \nNetworks), asked me to conduct an audio interview \nwith the classic British rockers, the Moody Blues, for a \nprogram to be heard worldwide by United Airlines pas-\nsengers on The United Entertainment Network. Since \nthen, I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews for United, \nspeaking in studio to everyone from Leonard Cohen to \nHolland/Dozier/Holland to Brian Wilson and Rufus \nWainwright. From legendary Rock Hall of Fame induct-\nees to the hottest new band, it’s my pleasure to interview \nthem all. Had I not known Ronny socially, this incred-\nible opportunity never would have arisen.\nOver time, I’ve become the “go-to” guy for song-\nwriter-related mediums. In print, Music Connection IntroductionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\nxvimagazine, a bi-weekly West coast music publication, has \nbeen a welcome home for my prose, as I contribute the \ncolumn, “Song Biz,” and a profi le of a songwriter, com-\nposer, or singer/songwriter to every issue as well as cover \nstories and feature interviews. I estimate I’ve interviewed \nover 200 hit makers for this magazine. I write and inter-\nview for all three U.S. Performing Rights organizations, \nASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, and I’ve been conducting on-\ncamera interviews for ASCAP’s Pop, Film and Television, \nand Rhythm & Soul Awards, quizzing, on camera, every-\none from Elvis Costello to Clint Eastwood.\nI love to say yes. When ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC asks \nme to moderate a conference panel, I never ask, “How \nmuch does it pay?” Whether or not there’s a check \ninvolved, I’m always glad to be of service. The visibility \nof these endeavors, the introductions to hit writers, and \nthe credits are of far greater value to me than a few hun-\ndred dollars.\nDedicated to the Gig\nSometimes when people react to how busy I always seem, \nI have to remind them of this truth: When you don’t \nhave a job, you have to work extra hard.\nI had to invent my career because it never existed; \nit is singular to me, but it’s the people within my exten-\nsive world of contacts that have made it possible. I have \nalways made it my creed to deliver above and beyond \nwhat was expected and to do it with joy. In the real \nworld—that is, outside the entertainment sphere—we \noften encounter an attitude that is much less than 100\npercent committed. At the store, the post offi ce, the car xviiwash, or wherever we interact with others, don’t you \nsometimes have the feeling that those who work there \nare simply going through the motions—sleepwalking \nuntil quitting time?\nThe music business is not like this . It’s made up of \npassionate, energetic, super-charged individuals who \ndedicate themselves totally to their craft and cause. \nExecutives well into their fi fth decades begin the day \nwith a personal trainer or a fi ve mile run before strap-\nping on the headset for a round of calls to the East \ncoast. Successful managers are combing the clubs on the \nSunset Strip, checking out bands and artists until the \nwee hours, then making it to the Farmer’s Market for a \npower breakfast. Recording engineers are taking advan-\ntage of free studio time to develop their own projects. \nSongwriters are collaborating for hours perfecting a line. \nIndie bands are scouring the hinterlands in vans, sleep-\ning on fans’ fl oors, and enlisting street teams to spread \nthe news. They’re not looking at their watches, waiting \nfor quitting time, or waiting for the proverbial “some-\nthing to happen.”\nIn the changing course of our business, the only con-\nstant is our commitment to our career and the support \nof those around us. In the context of these pages it is my \nsincere intention to offer options, possibilities, affi rma-\ntion, inspiration, and the occasional harsh slap of reality.\nBe True to Yourself\nI suspect that you, dear reader, already have many of \nthe tools of communication to help you succeed. You’re \ninterested enough in honing your people skills—and IntroductionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\nxviiiunderstand how vital this is—that you’ve chosen to read \nthis book. Please note: I never encourage anyone to be \nanyone other than who they are. Networking Strategies \ndoes not involve transforming yourself into another \nentity, becoming some manipulative, reptilian creature \nor disguising yourself in any way; rather, it’s about tak-\ning the most positive aspects of yourself and projecting \nthem to others.\nI’d like to conclude this Introduction with a brief list \nof precepts that defi ne my overall philosophy. Talent, \ninformation, and ability are all necessary ingredients for \ndeveloping a career, but “people power” will ultimately \ndetermine your success.\nPrecepts of Networking Strategies\n 1. Be the person others want to help succeed.\n 2. Your objective is a long career; play a long-range game.\n 3. Treat everyone with equal respect.\n 4. Understand others, not only their words, but emotions.\n 5. Fame and fortune are not synonymous.\n 6. Your happiness in life is not dependent on either of the \nabove.\n 7. Change is good.\n 8. At the crossroads of technology and show business is \nopportunity.\n 9. Play the game you truly believe you can win.\n 10. Project yourself with genuine, positive energy.1CHAPTER 1\nPersonal Paths in the \nMusic Business\nEvery networking trick in the book will not help you if \nyou do not have the goods. I don’t claim to be able to \nimprove your chops as a musician, your word fl ow as a \nsongwriter, or your business acumen as a music biz whiz. \nHowever, if you have the necessary talents and con-\ntinue to develop them, you will ultimately fi nd a way to \nexpress yourself and build a viable career.\nAs I mentioned in my Introduction, my personal \npath in the music business began in my hometown \nand ultimately led me to all three music capitals and to \nEurope. As a boy, I dreamt of rocking stadiums, endless \naccolades, unfathomable riches. As a struggling musician \ndealing with shady club owners, elusive agents, and bare-\nbones tours in rusted out vans, I kept this image in my \nmind, but it grew fainter and was replaced by another \nimage: a signpost inquiring “What talents have you been \ngiven and what are you doing with them?” It’s a deep \nquestion. What do you think you were put on this earth \nto do?2The Kind of Person...\nThe most powerful character trait you can possess in the \nmusic business is being the kind of person others want to \nsee succeed. There is no substitute for this quality and no \nway to manufacturer it synthetically because it’s an inner \nstrength.\nTo be effective, successful interaction in the music \nbusiness must benefi t both parties equally. This con-\ncept is based on the radio call letters “WIFM,” which \nis broadcasting the question, “What’s in it for me?” \nFortunately, if you’re just beginning your career, you \nprobably have strengths that may not be immediately \napparent to you: for instance, your level of enthusiasm \nand power of potential. As we progress in our careers, \nsometimes the joy of creating music, or being around \nthose who do, becomes obscured or diluted. Meeting \nsomeone who is energized about what they’re creating \nand who is on an upward career trajectory because of \nit, can be inspiring. This is one of the reasons I enjoy \nteaching and lecturing, because it gives me special \nopportunities to meet those who are coming up. And \nmake no mistake: The music business thrives on new \nblood.\nNot everyone in the music business is like this, how-\never. I have longtime friends in the industry who seem to \nhave disconnected from cultivating this quality, prefer-\nring instead to work only with those with whom they’ve \nworked over the years. In my opinion, this leads to stag-\nnation. I feel that at any given moment there might be an \nairplane landing at LAX with someone getting off of the \nplane whom I should meet. And I probably will.Networking Strategies for the New Music BusinessChapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n3Assessing Your Strengths\nSo if you have enthusiasm, are the kind of person oth-\ners want to see succeed, and believe that a life in music \nis your calling, how do you proceed? First, what do you \nlove to do most? Second, what are your skill levels?\nKnowledge-based skills are generally acquired from \neducation and experience. These include computer \nskills, languages, and technical or musical abilities, to \nname a few. Transferable skills are portable skills that \nyou take with you, such as communication and people \nskills, analytical problem solving, and planning. Equally \nimportant, personal traits are your own special qualities, \nwhich can include being dependable, fl exible, friendly, \nhard working, expressive, formal, punctual, and a team \nplayer.\nSongwriters\nAre you capable of creating words and music that move \na wide audience? Are you directing your energies into \nyour songs and, at the same time, fi nding outlets for \nyour music? Remember that what exists at the core of \nyour songs—the intent and belief—are the qualities \nthat resonate the strongest. By accepting special songs \ninto the rarefi ed stratosphere of hits, however, buyers \nof music continually remind songwriters, “Don’t write \nabout your life—write about mine .” Often, experiences \nthat are the most personal are paradoxically the most \nuniversal as well.\nSongwriting is all about collaboration. It’s no \nsecret—just look at the Billboard charts: co-written songs Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n4rule the marketplace. How and why these collaborations \nexist—and what makes certain combinations work—are \nsubjects of strong opinions, heated debate, mercenary \njudgments, and a certain amount of cosmic songwriter \njuju (mystical beliefs) . The trio of genres that currently \ncomprises the majority of record sales—R&B (including \nhip-hop, which often has lists of collaborators because \nof the use of samples), country, and pop—are all over-\nwhelmingly dominated by groups of writers. Choosing \nthe right partner, or partners, is probably the most cru-\ncial decision a songwriter will make.\nHow do you meet collaborators? If you live in a \nmusic capital, you have the advantage of endless classes, \nworkshops, panels, and seminars. If you live outside of \nNew York, Nashville, and Los Angeles, you may have to \nwork harder, but it’s still possible to make contacts. I’ll \naddress the best ways to do so later in the book.\nNetworking Strategy for Songwriters\nSongwriters are sometimes indistinguishable from the public at large. Songwriting \norganizations in your area are a great way to make local contacts. Online, check out \nwww.justplainfolks.com.\nMusicians\nThe music business is the most cooperative of endeavors. \nSure, maybe you can play solo or perform exclusively at \nkaraoke bars, but sooner or later you’ll need to include \nother players to expand your sound.Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n5Playing in a band can be a profoundly challenging \nexperience and, of course, can be equally rewarding. \nSome bands in the history of pop music, such as The \nRolling Stones and U2, are long-lived. Most often, how-\never, a band will be a unit that you perform with for a \nshort time until you leave or the band breaks up, and \nyou continue on your way.\nNetworking Strategy for Hanging Out\nYour local music store is a great place to interact. Ask the clerks for advice; they’re \nprobably players themselves and totally “plugged in.” Post ads online or in local papers \nto make contacts. Sit at your favorite coffeehouse with a copy of a guitar, bass, or \npercussion magazine prominently arranged on the table and see who begins talking to \nyou because of it. Wear T-shirts that display the logo of music manufacturers.\nMusic Biz Pros: Aspiring Moguls\nThe music business might be viewed as a pyramid, with \nlarge numbers of people and resources supporting the \ntiny fraction of artists who go on to be hugely successful. \nIf you work in the business, you must adjust as it \ntransforms itself and develop new skills to go with the \nfl ow. In many ways, if you’re in a support position in \nthis business, then you are possibly in the best position \nto ascend in the industry. I recall being in a class on \nartist management at UCLA Extension (a great place to \nmeet people, by the way) observing a panel of eminent \nlawyers, agents, managers, and record execs, when one \nof them stated fl atly, “The only people who have long \ncareers in the music business are sitting up here.”Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n6Networking Strategy for the Energetic but Economically Challenged\nVolunteer to help coordinate a music conference or event. You’ll be in a position t o \nmake valuable contacts from the inside. However, never let your primary responsibili ty \nslide; you are not there simply to hype yourself, but to help the event. Still, it’s a tried \nand true way of meeting others.\nTechnical Triumphs\nTeaching in colleges, I encounter some students who are \nfull-fl edged musicians but who don’t play conventional \nmusical instruments. The tools of their trade are sam-\nplers, ProTools, and similar studio gadgetry. DJs and \nremixers are experiencing unprecedented prominence in \nthe music business. In Europe, dance music rules, and in \nthe urban centers of the U.S., the latest trends are often \ndelivered by club savvy DJs.\nThe palette of creation has been widened dramati-\ncally by technology and sampling, and this has been a \nboon for many songwriters. It’s not uncommon to see a \nwriter who penned an R&B chestnut in the late ’ 60s or \nearly ’ 70s being honored as a co-writer for Song of the \nYear by the performing rights organizations because a \nsample of the song was used in the latest Beyonce smash.\nNetworking Strategy for Studio Wizards\nStudio and technical people are generally more at home behind the mixing board than \nin social situations. I recently lectured to a group of audio engineering students at a \ncollege in Sacramento who had requested that I help polish their networking skills for \nthe Audio Engineering Society convention in San Francisco. Having worked with some Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n7of the most prolific engineers in Los Angles, I’ve observed that one common trait is a \nsense of quiet assurance, sympathy, and concentration. If engineering or studio work \nis in your future, you can’t go wrong with studies of basic psychology. In addition, the \nmost effective engineers I know are also proficient musicians. \nBorn to Succeed\nI always ask the students to whom I lecture where they \nrank in birth order. This has become a new area of \nstudy and is an intriguing barometer of personality. In \na collaborative situation—particularly in a band—birth \norder can make a huge difference in the interaction of \nthe various personalities.\nThe oldest child often has the weight of expectations \nplaced on him by his well-meaning parents. Oldest chil-\ndren are often moody and occasionally lack sensitivity. \nThey can be intimidating, particularly by pushing people \ntoo hard or refusing to take no for an answer. Oldest \nchildren gravitate toward positions of responsibility: \ncorporate heads, doctors, ministers, and band leaders. \nAlmost all of the U.S. presidents were either the fi rst-\nborn child or the fi rst-born son in their family, and all \nbut two of the fi rst astronauts sent into space were fi rst-\nborns, and the other two were “only children.” Often the \neldest is also responsible for his or her siblings, so they \nlearn to give orders. In the music biz, many producers \nand recording artists are oldest children.\nMiddle children are often mediators, adept at \nbridging opinions. Middle children have the ability to \nsee both sides of the story, to empathize with a diversity \nof opinions, and often to peacefully resolve potentially Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n8disruptive confl icts. Middle children may feel they have \nthe most negative lot in life and are less than special \nwhen, in essence, they have the best of both worlds. \nMiddles tend to make friends easily. Once they have \nthem, they often work harder to keep them. They’re \nusually good at keeping secrets, too. Middle children \nmay gravitate to positions as musicians, lawyers, or artist \nmanagers.\nAn exercise that usually impresses classes I teach is \nwhen I correctly predict that the majority of the students \nare the youngest children in their families. The reason is \nquite simple: Youngest children, to compete with their \nolder siblings, often use clowning or other entertainment \nto call attention to themselves. The down side is that \nthey may expect others to make their decisions or take \nresponsibilities, but they are many times overachiev-\ners, using every means at their disposal to compete with \ntheir older siblings. Later-borns tend to be more creative \nand much more likely to reject the status quo. Many per-\nformers are youngest children.\nOnly children are often self centered, in their \nyounger years not as effective in relationships with other \nchildren, but more at home with adults, so they can \noften be confi dent and well spoken. Only children are \nusually not afraid to make decisions and are comfort-\nable with their opinions. They generally like things to be \norganized and are often on time. Often they can be the \nmost creative of all.\nThe above scenarios are not meant as empirical \nscientifi c facts. Moreover, any character trait that is nega-\ntive can certainly be recognized and muted as need be.Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n9Reinvention\nIn biology (not my strong suite, I assure you) we learn \nthat cells mutate and change in order to survive. A suc-\ncessful music business career should be emotionally \nfulfi lling and hopefully a long one, but what we want as \nchildren—glory, riches, etc.—is generally supplanted at \nsome point by a desire for stability, contentment, and a \nsense that we’re doing something right in the world.\nThe music business is not, and has never been, a \nstable environment. Changes are sweeping and huge. \nArtists have become the most disposable part of the \nequation, yet paradoxically, it is the artists who drive the \nbusiness and remain at its center. Around them swirls \nevery imaginable participant, from the lawyer who signs \nthem, to the makeup artist who makes them look good \nfor the camera, to the roadie who changes their guitar \nstrings. \nThe choices of careers in the music business are \nincredible. The outside public sees only the artist, but we \nas music business insiders know that there are legions of \nhard-working, creative souls who are propping them up \nand propelling them forward.\nSo what happens to artists after they exceed their \n15 minutes of fame? They might produce records, write \nsongs, develop talent, open recording studios, or become \nrecord label executives. Remember, they’re already \ninside the business, so they can move laterally if they so \nchoose.\nLong-term practitioners in the music business will \nmost likely have more than one career. Beginning as Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n10musicians, love and understanding of the music will \ncreate more options. Having spent many years in the \ntrenches as a songwriter and musician, I know what its \nlike to call my answering machine and sing a fragment \nof a song I don’t want to forget, to have a song placed “on \nhold” interminably, to have a track with a major artist \nbe taken off the record a week before its release. Most \nimportant, I know the miracle of a seamless verse and a \nmelody that seems to have written itself. This experience \nis invaluable in interviewing songwriters.\nI consider myself a songwriter, even though I no lon-\nger write songs. I prefer to express myself now through \nprose, which allows me many more words to say what \nI want to say. But when I write prose I still think as a \nsongwriter: I concentrate on an intro, a second verse that \nmoves the story foreward, and a bridge that takes the \nmessage upwards, and I always remember the songwriters \nmantra of “Don’t bore us, Doris, get to the chorus.”\nSigns from the Universe\nI had a recent conversation with a young man I’d met \nwhen he was an electronica composer/performer in Los \nAngeles, who informed me that he is now pursuing his \nnew career as an actor. “The universe sent me signs,” he \ntold me. He was paraphrasing words he heard me deliver \nat a lecture, and fl attered as I was that he could quote \nme, it inspired me to revisit the message behind this \ndirective. \nAt one point in my life, worn down by performing in \nclubs, I decided to take a respite from playing live music. \nAll well and good, but I still needed to pay the bills. I Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n11applied for a low-level part-time public relations gig and, \nas the saying goes, the veil was lifted—I realized that I \nhad an untapped reservoir of talents and abilities. I sub-\nsequently returned to the music business on the other \nside of the desk with much greater reward. The universe \nhad sent me a sign.\nYears later, I was managing Keo Woolford, an artist \nfrom Hawaii. Despite the power of his charisma, song-\nwriting, and conceptual abilities, we were having a rough \ntime getting him signed to a record deal. However, we \nwere approached by a prestigious Los Angeles theater \nwho inquired if Keo would be willing to write and per-\nform a one-man piece based on his Hawaiian origins for \na segment of a multi-artist performance. Although he \nwas skeptical (“But I’m a singer,” I remember him say-\ning), I convinced him that this was an unprecedented \nopportunity. The show was a smash. The Los Angeles \nTimes theater critic raved, the show was held over, and \nsuddenly the young man who thought he was a singer \nbecame a sought-after actor. A nice coda: I saw him \nperform to an audience of 1,500 starring in a revival of \nThe King and I at the London Palladium. He now lives \nin New York and continues to break new ground as an \nactor and a writer. And, yes, he writes songs. He also \ncontributed to a project nominated for a recent Grammy \nfor Reggae Album of the Year.\nThings that happen of signifi cance in the entertain-\nment world often happen naturally and easily. There is \nno science involved—it’s a vibe; they just feel right. Your \ninstincts will tell you—if you’ve been trying to knock \ndown doors for years with your songs and your music, \nmaybe it’s time to step back, be quiet, and listen. Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n12The Commitment Key\nOne situation that often comes up in the course of my \nlectures and consultations is that I meet artists or song-\nwriters who defi ne their career trajectories this way: “I \nwas a professional musician. I was out of it for awhile. \nNow I’m getting back into it. Do you think I have a \nchance to make it?” \nLet’s defi ne our terms. Does “make it” mean to \nobtain a record deal, to make a living as a musician or \nsongwriter, or to fi nd a way to share something special \nwith an audience? If it’s the third alternative, the answer \nis probably “Yes.”\nIf someone is working a full-time job and support-\ning a family and has a fully developed career outside of \nmusic, she can probably write songs in her spare time \nand play weekend shows, but will her future be compro-\nmised by her present level of comfort?\nRecording artists tend to be signed at progressively \nyounger ages. Who else could live in a van, tour across \nthe country eating frozen burritos at 7-11 stores, survive \non three hours of sleep on a fan’s fl oor, and dedicate their \nentire existence to living and breathing music? They’re \nout there in America touching audiences. And as a rule \nthey don’t have wives or husbands and kids at home \nneeding to be fed.\nIn my experience, people who are successful in the \nmusic biz don’t have other options. They don’t choose \nmusic; the music chooses them. While it’s certainly not \nmy place to tell people what they can and cannot do, I \ntruly believe the music business will never be a canoe Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n13that we can blithely enter and exit at will. It moves down \na roaring river. When we step out it travels on torrents, \nfar beyond our reach. \nAnd you can never get out of a business that you \nwere never really in. At some point, you’ll have to grab \nthat paddle, face the rapids, and push off.\nNetworking Strategies is about having the fortitude \nand foresight to weather the changes, create a niche only \nyou can fi ll, and establish a real audience for your music \nand a bullet-proof list of close personal contacts.\nThose of us who stay in the business have often made \ntremendous sacrifi ces to do so. Maybe we’ve watched \nwhile members of our peer group have taken lofty cor-\nporate positions, purchased palatial homes, and made \nsix-fi gure incomes. But keep in mind that we can never \ncompare our lives to that of any other person. We’re each \nsingular—and we have only one life to live, our own. If \nthe music chooses us, then it’s up to us not only to fi nd a \nway to survive, but to thrive.\nTime Has Come Today\nThere is the concept of an artist, and the concept of an \nartist in his time. Timing is crucial to wide-scale artis-\ntic acceptance. Look at the famous historical model, \nthe Beatles. The group was introduced in the U.S. at \na critical time—President John F. Kennedy had been \nassassinated, and the country was undergoing severe \ndepression and anxiety. What better to dispel the gloom \nthan four sunny boys from Liverpool brimming with \nhope and melody?Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n14The biggest artists often express values in direct \nopposition to the times in which they live. Elvis rose \nduring the Eisenhower era. During the strait-laced, con-\nservative Wall Street values of the Reagan administration, \nthe omni-sexual antics of Madonna provided a welcome \ncounterpoint. During the optimism of the Clinton \nadministration, dark grunge fl ourished. Political hip-\nhop, of course, and the melding of metal and rap have \nfl owered under the political climate of George W. Bush.\nThis is not to say that you should alter your musical/\nartistic approach to take advantage of the sociologi-\ncal edge, only that you should be well aware of it. I \nwas recently on a panel at the University of Southern \nCalifornia (USC) with Marshall Altman, A&R, \nColumbia Records. “The more you chase the music \nbusiness the further away it becomes,” he shared.\nWhat Marshall meant was this: If there is a current \ntrend, and you reinvent yourself in an attempt to be a \npart of it, by the time you’ve written songs and recorded \nthem and costumed/pierced/tattooed/dyed yourself to \nconform, another new trend will have supplanted what \nyou’re trying to emulate, and you’ll look cheesy and out-\ndated. Worse, you’ll have no credibility, since what you \nwere trying to portray in the fi rst place wasn’t even you.\nThe second you see a bandwagon, it’s too late to jump \non it. Pop music is cyclic—if you do what you believe in, \neventually the cycle will come around to you. Chapter 1 Personal Paths in the Music Business\n15Summary\nIf creativity doesn’t have an outlet, a path, it stagnates \nat a dead-end. True creativity is not defi ned simply by \nthe ability to create art, but in divining outlets for it. \nIt’s through our interactions with others as a part of a \ncommunity that we begin to modify and monitor our \nown success. As our contacts move up, we also rise.16CHAPTER 2\nThe Modern Music \nBusiness \nThe modern music business reinvents itself with blind-\ning speed, and those of us who stay abreast the changes \nand are adaptable to new technologies, new genres of \nmusic, and new artists can always invent new methods \nof using our talents. In this chapter you’ll meet some \nkey industry players who have not only weathered these \nchanges but have turned them to their advantage.\nTransmission Is Secondary\nFrom wax to digital transmission, the music business has \nalways been in drastic technological fl ux. At a lecture \nI attended in Liverpool, Sir George Martin related \nthat when he began his career, weights were dropped \nfrom the ceiling and the resultant motion was what \nmade wax mastering discs go around—machines were \ntoo unreliable. Sir George is now a principal owner of \nAIR Studios, a facility that boasts satellite technology \nenabling music recorded on their sound stage in London 17to be immediately sync’d to picture in Hollywood. It’s a \nlong way from the post-war ropes and pulleys of the past.\nCDs, iPods, BlackBerries, ring-tones, and whatever \ncomes next is not what this book is about. As drastic \nas the changes in technology may seem, what is vital to \nunderstand is the power of the people who make the \nmusic and run the music business. It’s an arena in which \nthe wildcard often comes into play, and something that \nis totally unexpected, and real, breaks through.\nExpanding and Contracting Genres\nIf artists are willing to do the work, the correspond-\ning good news is that it is possible to fi nd an audience \nfor almost any type of music. New genres are con-\nstantly being invented: from emo to children’s music, \nAmericana to electronica, and beyond. Niche markets \nmake it possible for literally any genre to fl ourish, but \nlike any other commodity-based business, you have to \nlocate the audience of buyers for your music. In recent \nyears, hip-hop has moved from underground street \nmusic to dominate the mainstream. Rock in all forms \nwill always have a place, and its convergence with hip-\nhop via creative “mash-ups” and new styles that merge \nthe intensity of metal to the urban verbal expression \nattract fans of both styles. Both rock and hip-hop are \npeople’s music. \nNeither rock nor hip-hop is a conservative form; \ntheir shared roots are in outlaw cultures, but over time \nboth have been appropriated by the mainstream. Both \nforms are decidedly global—you can even hear Japanese Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n18and Korean rappers emulating the gangstas of South \nCentral Los Angeles. \nPop music will always have a place in our pantheon \nof styles. Currently the strongest market for pop is with \n“tweens”—that is, young listeners between the ages of 7\nand 12 who represent a huge buying demographic. This \ninformation is not lost on Disney and the creators of \ntelevision programs who feature music geared to this \nburgeoning demographic. \nCountry music was fl ying in a huge bubble back in \nthe ’90s that subsequently burst, leaving many pala-\ntial offi ces vacant along Music Row. The radio market \nremains huge, however, and the current crop of new \ncountry stars, raised on rock, is capable of generating \nenthusiastic live audiences for their concerts. \nPraise-based music, contemporary Christian and \nChristian rock, are two genres that are experiencing \nenormous growth. Dance music, more popular in the \nurban centers in the U.S., maintains enormous infl uence \nin Europe and the U.K.\nThe New Music Entrepreneurs\nSometimes it seems like everyone has entered the music \nbusiness. You can’t go for a cup of coffee at Starbucks \nwithout seeing the latest CD for sale by this caffeinated \nconglomerate. The success of Ray Charles’ Genius Loves \nCompany was due in no small part to 1.6 million in sales \nat the coffee counter. Putumayo Records was founded \nwhen a clothing store in New York began putting \ntogether world music compilations to play for shoppers. 19Soon, customers were begging to purchase copies of the \nmusic, giving birth to a profi table record label.\nThere are many examples of music creators who have \nturned a handsome profi t by following their passions, \noften far from the beaten track, and I’d like to share \nsome of their experiences with you.\nMusic for Kids\nMusic has always been a part of Mae Robertson’s life. \nAs an educator in New York who holds a masters degree \nin Early Childhood Development and Education, she \noften used music to calm her students. After the birth of \nher fi rst child, Mae left teaching and opened a success-\nful chain of natural-fi ber clothing stores in Westchester \nCounty, New York. One night, her friend Don Jackson \noverheard her singing the traditional folk song “The \nWater is Wide” while rocking her baby to sleep. When he \nsuggested that Mae record an album of traditional songs \ngeared for families, a new career path was revealed.\nHer debut, All Through the Night, struck a resonant \nchord in a public eager for positive, family-oriented \nmusic. Since Mae had never promoted a record before, \nshe wasn’t aware she was breaking any rules when, with \nwinning enthusiasm, she would naïvely call magazine \nand newspaper editors and say, “You’re going to review \nit, aren’t you?” Surprisingly, they did, and the initial CD \nsold over 10,000 copies in its fi rst year. Eventually, Mae \nRobertson sold her clothing stores and dedicated herself \nto her new career, founding a record label called Lyric \nPartners.Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n20At the center of an extensive network of signifi cant \nsongwriters, Mae began championing them with the \nfounding of “The Troubadour Series,” an ongoing \nconcert program now in its fourth season featuring a \nslate of nationally touring acoustic artists. Staged at \nthe WorkPlay Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, these \nperformances are intimate experiences for all fans of the \nsinger/songwriter genre. \nWhether she’s singing sweet lullabies for children or \ncreating sophisticated words for adults, Mae Robertson’s \npersonal vision is the mortar in her artistry. “I want \nlisteners to get lost in the songs with me. Through the \nbeauty of the melodies and the truth in the lyrics, I want \nto give back dreams.”\nSoundtrack to a Fast Track\nAnytime music is played in any environment—a super-\nmarket, a mall, a gym, onboard an aircraft—someone \nhas made a conscious decision to select it. Major record \nlabels are very hip to this: They purchase spots for their \nartists on domestic and international fl ights, in cloth-\ning stores, and in movie theaters. The best part of this \ntrend is that it’s given the consumer more occasions to \nhear music, and it’s given those who program music—\nlike myself and the companies I work for—more gigs. \nCorporations are also well aware of the power of music \nto positively affect buyers, and they use it in a variety of \nmethods far more sophisticated than the simple jingles \nof the past.\nIn 1997, the year of its founding, all of Disc \nMarketing’s employees could have fi t neatly into one 21compact car. Today, the Pasadena, California–based \nmusic and new media marketing company has over \n60 employees housed in a lavishly refurbished Old \nPasadena, California, fi rehouse. The location inspired \nthe name of the adjoining studio, Firehouse Recording, \nthe West Coast’s largest ProTools facility.\nTena Clark, a gold and platinum songwriter and \nrecord producer, founded the company that now domi-\nnates its niche. Through audio, video, new media, print \nmedia, and especially music, Disc Marketing (now DMI \nNetworks) deploys ingenious methods for companies to \nenhance and promote corporate branding and for mar-\nketing products to consumers through customized CDs, \nenhanced CD-ROMs, and CD packages.\nIn her company’s fi rst month of operation, Clark \nlanded a deal with American retail icon Sears, Roebuck \n& Co. It was just the beginning; Disc Marketing has \nsince created strategic music and entertainment partner-\nships with the most recognizable corporate brand names \nin the world, including Coca-Cola, United Airlines, \nToyota, Condé Naste, General Mills, Target, Victoria’s \nSecret, Proctor & Gamble, Princess Cruises, and Mrs. \nField’s Cookies. In 1998, Disc Marketing secured an \nunprecedented contract to produce all in-fl ight audio \nentertainment for United Airlines, now enjoyed by over \n19 million monthly travelers worldwide. The company \nalso provides in-fl ight audio entertainment on the presi-\ndential and vice presidential planes, Air Force 1 and 2, \nUnited’s domestic carrier, Ted, and Regal Cinemedia. \nAs Disc Marketing continues to expand, new \ndivisions (including a record company and a music \nlibrary) enable new campaigns, new clients, and new Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n22technologies. However, music is still the company’s \nmost treasured resource. Tena Clark recently produced \nthe Grammy-nominated album Church: Songs of Soul \nand Inspiration with Patti Labelle, Chaka Kahn, and \nDr. Maya Angelou, plus Dionne Warwick’s fi rst ever \nChristmas album. “First and foremost in my heart I’m \na songwriter,” confi rms Clark. It may have all begun \nwith a song, but eight short years later Tena Clark and \nDisc Marketing are orchestrating a global chorus of \ncommerce, art, and vision. \nInternet Notions\nAs well-noted in all quarters, the rise of technology \nand the digital transmission of music have radically \nchanged the industry as we know it. The Internet now \nmakes it possible to fi nd a worldwide market for music. \nTheoretically, an independent artist can have the same \nonline leverage as a major pop act.\nHard-disc based recording systems, notably the \nindustry standard ProTools, make it possible to record a \nseamless CD in the sonic solace of a spare bedroom and, \nin theory, to make it available via the Internet and send it \nout digitally without ever having to leave the house.\nAccording to platinum producer Glen Ballard (Dave \nMatthews Band, No Doubt, Alanis Morissette, Polar \nExpress ), fi ltering artists is a fi ne art, and he’s not hearing \nfi ne artists on the Net. “There have been no hit acts off \nof the Internet. Not one,” he insists. “That whole myth \nof, ‘Just wait, we’re going to get all of this great music \nfrom out there.’ There’s not one act that has penetrated. \nThere’s no fi lter. People trying to do what we do, 23identifying talent—most people aren’t really going to be \nable to do it. That fi lter is getting removed. You have a lot \nof mediocre stuff.”\nMediocre stuff is right. As a journalist, I receive more \nthan 35 independent CDs and press kits a week—every \nweek. Unless something comes to me qualifi ed, which \nmeans I’m expecting it, or I have previous knowledge \nor a relationship with an artist or his representatives, I \nhave no choice but to ignore them. There’s simply too \nmuch music to absorb, and I have to save my ears for \nwhat I have to listen to. Simply having produced a CD \nis not enough to qualify an artist for media coverage. \nPositioning like that cannot be purchased. There has to \nbe outstanding music, a real audience, and an angle.\nBack in the days, a manager, a producer, a label—\nsomeone had to believe in an artist’s talents before he \nproceeded in his career. No longer.\nFish or Fowl?\nDefi nitions need to be assigned whether an artist is inde-\npendent or simply unsigned. Case in point: The Bellrays \nfrom Riverside, California. With a 14-year international \ncareer that could be the envy of many a major label act \n(let alone an independent one), the Bellrays possess on-\nstage charisma, unwavering conviction, and a profound \nability to impart this belief to their audiences. But the \nBellrays usually don’t send out free promo copies of their \nCDs. Anyone is welcome to attend a show and purchase \ntheir music.Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n24It’s an uncommon stance in a hype-happy town. “We \nhad to do that because we were dealing with a bunch of \nidiots,” says the Bellrays’s Tony Fate. “It was too many \ncondescending phone calls from some A&R guy who \nthought we were going to jump on his dick because he \ncalled us up. This guy read something someone wrote \nbecause it was thrown on his desk, opened to that page, \nand he says, ‘Yeah, send me a tape.’ Well, why? How \nmany tapes do you get a day? Where did you read about \nus? What are you going to do with it? ‘Well, if you don’t \nwant to send me a tape forget it.’ Sure, forget it.”\nBassist Bob Vennum adds, “We only print up a thou-\nsand of these things. If we give away 10 of them it’s giving \naway money.” And singer Lisa Kekaula continues. “The \nalbum is our baby. It’s not some promotional tool for the \nband. It’s a labor of love, hurt, pain. And if I’m giving it \naway you better be worthy of it.” But as Fate reveals, the \nband is certainly open to the right kinds of relationships. \n“The real people are out there. We set up the net, leave \nthe holes for them to trickle in, and then talk to people \nwho have a plan, who really like the music. We will talk \nto anyone with an open mind and a brain—at least an \nintelligent line. But we’re not getting a free ride, so why \nshould anybody else? Why should we let somebody who \nhas never seen us, [who] probably won’t show up, be on \na guest list when he’s got a budget that will pay for his \nass to come? It’s not even coming out of his pocket. Why \nshould we give him a CD when we’ve got people who \ncome to the shows? I’d rather let them in for free and \nhave him sit outside.”\nWhen it’s time to cross America, The Bellrays are \nfour smart professionals in a white Dodge van. “Like a \nchurch van for a small church,” explains Kekaula. They 25have buzzed Austin’s SXSW, toured with Nashville \nPussy, and shared stages with artists like Wayne Kramer, \nRocket From the Crypt, and The Muffs. In addition, \nTony Fate designs promo materials, CD jackets, and \nT-shirts. “I know there are bands who don’t worry \nabout those things,” says Kekaula. “Those are more \nthe dinosaurs now than the norm. The bands who are \ngetting that permanent height have been on the road, \nhave been handling things on their own.” But it comes \nback to the audience connection. “We’ve got to have a lot \nof foot soldiers out there working for us because we don’t \nhave publicity money. The reason people know about us \nis that we’ve been out there working on it.”\nKey Networking Strategy for Artists and Bands\nTouring locally and regionally is still the best way to get the word out about you, \nyour band, and your music. Success stories come from everywhere: Omaha, Akron, \nSacramento. If you can make a strong enough impression in your home market, believe \nme, the record labels will find you—that’s what they’re paid to do.\nA Mosaic of Mediums\nWith the well-publicized downturn in CD sales comes \na rise in visual mediums that devour music: network \nand cable television, video games, and independent \nfi lm. The explosion of fi lm (independent and studio \nreleases), network and cable television, and video games \nhas spawned more outlets for new music than you can \nshake a Stratocaster at. This is a good thing because for \nan independent artist or band, having a song featured \non a network television show or in a high-profi le fi lm Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n26delivers much more than just a sync fee and performance \nincome; it is an indelible sign of media credibility.\nFor emerging artists and bands, having a song in a \nfi lm or on a television show offers crucial exposure to \na key market. The sync fees can help with substantial \nmonies, and back end payments from a performing \nrights organization (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, for exam-\nple) can represent a considerable sum for songwriters.\nWhat about songs for television? “The expectation \nis much lower. It’s only recently that the song aspect has \ncome in and made it a pop product,” states Robert Kraft, \nchief executive of Fox Music. “Everything is such short-\nhand. Television is now a vehicle for delivering songs and \na demographic.”\nMarc Ferrari of the Los Angeles–based MasterSource \ncame into music for picture from the standpoint of a \nmusician/recording artist. “I got into it semi-accidentally,” \nhe admits. “I was a major-label recording artist with \nKeel. We did fi ve albums, and I had another band on \nMCA. When the grunge thing happened, suddenly it \nwasn’t hip to be a guy that had success in the ’ 80s.” \n“I had a song used in a small, straight-to-video fi lm. \nThey ended up using it, giving me a screen credit, and \ngiving me some money, and I was like: ‘Wow! How \nabout that?’ I hadn’t thought about providing music for \nfi lm and TV up to that time. I started representing my \nown material, and when I would be asked for something \nI didn’t know how to write, like reggae, country, or rap, \nI turned to friends of mine. That’s how it started: I rep’d \nmy friends.”27MasterSource has placed over 1,000 songs in over 50\nmovies, including As Good As It Gets, Fight Club, Girl \nInterrupted, and The Sixth Sense . MasterSource TV cred-\nits include Ally McBeal, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, ER,\nand Friends .\nFerrari is very proactive in seeking out new talent. “I \nfound a lot of writers through reviews in [Los Angeles–\nbased magazine] Music Connection ,” he offers. “And I \ntook out ads also. I still read every issue, demo and con-\ncert reviews, and we fi nd so many talented artists right \nhere in our own backyard. Taxi [the independent A&R \ncompany] also. They’ve found some great things for us.”\n“I don’t want to discourage people from following \ntheir dreams and pursing major record deals,” concludes \nFerrari, but with the Internet and everything else, a \nmajor label deal isn’t the end-all it used to be. Film/TV \nis growing; we have more channels, shows, and it’s more \nmusic intensive than ever before.”\nNetworking Strategy for Songwriter/Artists\nIf you want to venture into the world of music for film and television, create two mix es \nof your material, one without vocals. This way, if a scene calls for music under the \ndialogue, you have an option. \nRadio Is Our Salvation\nMajor radio has never been amenable to independent or \nemerging artists. Back in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, \na labyrinthine system of payola was in place to assure Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n28that only select records would be played on radio. The \nlimitations are imposed today by the consolidation of the \nairwaves by one monolithic corporation, Clear Channel. \nThe airwaves are free and belong to the people, but they \nare severely regulated by federal decrees and the FCC.\nFact: Radio is an integral component to expose new \nartists to fans and to uplift local acts to regional and \nnational levels. Accordingly, it is extremely diffi cult \nto obtain signifi cant airplay for independent artists. \nSuccessful radio promotion revolves around making and \nmanaging relationships—who you know and how you \nknow them, making the right contacts, presenting the \nright pitch, and designing the best spin to convince a \nstation that it should be playing your music. Radio pro-\nmotion is, therefore, an art that demands a certain style \nthat most artists neither have nor desire to cultivate.\nTrue, specifi c artists from Fugazi to Phish have \nachieved monumental record sales without radio, but \nthey are the exceptions. And you probably can’t do it \nalone: Radio is an area where you will need to enroll the \nassistance of an expert, someone other than you or your \nmanager who is specifi cally responsible for radio promo-\ntion. Therefore, it may be time to hire an independent \nradio promotion company.\n“The best way to get some interest on an indie release \nis still to have one real success story in one market. \nThere are still a lot of labels, particularly Universal and \nAtlantic, who are always checking BDS and SoundScan, \nlooking for potential pickups,” says Sean Ross, VP of \nmusic and programming, Edison Media Research (and \nformer editor in chief of Billboard’s radio magazine, \nAirplay Monitor . “Even 20 spins for a week or two at one 29chart reporting station will at least get your record lis-\ntened to by somebody in major label A&R. At the outset, \nyou’re better off building your base in one market and \nstaying in touch with the gatekeepers in that market \nyourself.”\n“In the absence of an organic story, what you’re prob-\nably going to get by putting promoters on a record is \nthe airplay that a given promoter can guarantee on any \nrecord at stations where he has a good enough relation-\nship to get anything on the air. That’s enough to put \nsome spins on the board, perhaps [and probably in over-\nnights]; probably not enough to propel a record to any \nsignifi cant activity,” says Ross.\nIt is generally acknowledged that radio promotion \nshould be aligned with other career moves, merchan-\ndising, and touring. Common sense might dictate that \nan artist doesn’t need a promoter if the record is not \ngoing to be distributed in some way; otherwise, the lis-\ntening audience cannot buy the record, defeating the \nentire purpose of generating airplay. But radio promoter \nBryan Farrish believes that having CDs in conventional \nstores is irrelevant. “We advise people to forget brick \nand mortar and only sell during their gigs,” says Farrish. \n“Getting into a physical store is too much work for the \namount you sell. You’ll do more at one good gig than \na year of distribution. Go out, do some shows, sell ten \nCDs, fi ve T-shirts, pocket the cash plus whatever the gig \npays you. People reading this might think, ‘If I do radio \nI need to be in stores.’ They’re trying to emulate how a \nlabel works. There are some things you don’t want to \nemulate.”Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n30Joel Denver, president of All Access Promotions, has \na background as an on-air personality, a music director, \nand an editor at R&R , and he agrees. “It’s terrible to go \nout, garner airplay, and spend all of that time and effort \nand not have distribution. If you don’t have it, you’re not \ngoing to sell anything, especially at the brick and mortar \nlevel. It’s also important to have a good-looking Web \nsite, not a lot of bells and whistles, but something that’s \nclean and operates well. Keep it simple stupid, make sure \naudiences can fi nd the songs. If you’re going to sell them, \nmake them payable through credit card or PayPal. The \nidea is to make it a good experience for the person visit-\ning the site and listening to the music.”\nWith the consolidation of major radio and the advent \nof Clear Channel ownership, it might seem that the \nopportunities for airplay for indie artists are evaporating. \nBryan Farrish doesn’t see it that way. “The consolidation \nis a moot point for everyone reading this. It’s not going \nto affect anyone. These stations were never accessible. It’s \nnot like something just changed. Thirty years ago [indie \nartists] wouldn’t be getting on the station.”\nJoel Denver also sees the glass as half full. “I think \nthere’s an abundant amount of opportunity out there \nbecause the consolidation of major labels provides great \nopportunities for smaller labels to pitch their product \nand send the music out via Internet. Although a lot \nof program directors are playing it safe, there are also \nplenty out there who want to play new things.”\nTest shows are key to marketing new acts to radio, \nexplains Farrish. “Many markets have something like \n‘The Indie Hour’ where they play only independent \nmusic.” Again, these program and music directors have 31to be reached, sent the music, and the communication \nfollowed up on, something in which an indie radio pro-\nmoter excels. “They have to be reached on the phone, \nand it’s more diffi cult than at college. You can maybe \nexpect only one or two spins, but you can get on the big \nstations. And there are charts for those shows.” \nThe relationships that a qualifi ed independent pro-\nmoter can bring with him are ultimately of supreme \nvalue. It’s also up to an artist or band to foster and main-\ntain these alliances. Joel Denver shares this example. \n“I was a music director for a lot of years, so I had deal-\nings with promoters. I remember as a program director \nstaging concerts, needing a band to fi ll, and having a \nrelationship with a band in town, so I got them some \ncartage money, a per diem, and had them open the show. \nIf you can cultivate a relationship with a band and the \nband goes on to be something, that’s the shit. You’ve got \nto feel good about helping the band, and they’ll be good \nto you. The door has to swing both ways; when you work \nwith a local band it should be win-win.”\nSatellite, Public, and Internet Radio\nSatellite radio may change all of this. Instead of adver-\ntising, subscribers pay a fee for unlimited listening to \nchannels that occupy niches and have specialized pro-\ngramming—world music, hard-core punk, Hawaiian \nmusic—every conceivable style.\nArtist Patti Witten has experienced the successful \npower of indie promotion. “ I think the future for AAA \nDIY artists like myself is with public/community radio \nstations whose mainstay is NPR and PRI programming. Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n32It’s the right demographic, and you can reach the lis-\nteners who seek alternatives to McClear Channel and \nthat ilk. We want to be heard on World Cafe and Sounds \nEclectic and Weekend Edition . Sales spikes are huge after \nfeatures on NPR, especially if you have a presence on \nAmazon or the digital download sites. Satellite stations \nare also a good market for us. Indie promoters who spe-\ncialize and succeed in these markets will fi nd themselves \nfl ooded with queries from DIY-ers like myself.”\nIn the major metropolitan center, public radio is \na proven taste maker. Here on the West coast we have \na station, KCRW, that reaches a relatively small radio \naudience. However, the audience it reaches is what test \nmarketers refer to as “multipliers”—listeners who can \nhear a song or an artist and spread the word or take \nthe artist to the next level, such as fi lm directors, music \nsupervisors, and journalists. This tiny station based in \na city college in Santa Monica can infl uence the music \nheard by billions of listeners in movies and television \nshows worldwide. Through streaming Internet radio, \na syndicated show, Sounds Eclectic , a CD compilation \nby the same name, and the station’s sponsorship of \nevents in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, \nKCRW’s image belies its origins in the basement of Santa \nMonica City College. In the City of Angels, eye-popping \nbig screen ads in Laemelle movie theaters advertise to \nthe cinema-going avant-garde. The policy at KCRW is \nproudly open door. Music director Nic Harcourt esti-\nmates that the station receives maybe 400 CDs per week, \nand although only a tiny fraction of them ever make it to \nair, literally everything that comes in is heard.33chris and thomas: Acoustic Essence\nReturning from a weekend in Joshua Tree, singer/song-\nwriter duo chris and thomas were greeted by multiple \nphone messages from excited friends who had heard \none of their songs on-air on KCRW-FM. It was news to \nthe pair, whose EP, The Vista Street Sessions , was passed \non by a mutual friend to the station’s music director, \nNic Harcourt. The infl uential DJ programmed it on his \nshow, eventually included it on NPR’s syndicated Sounds \nEclectic , and introduced a national audience to the rustic \nrealness of chris and thomas.\nChris Anderson from Memphis, Tennessee, and \nThomas Hien from Munich, Germany, are connected \nvia a trans-Atlantic bond. Island hopping in Greece, \nAnderson, soon to be a student at the Liverpool Institute \nfor Performing Arts (LIPA) in England, fi rst met a \nfriend of Hien’s who connected the two long distance. \nEventually, Hien came to visit. Anderson recounts his \ninitial sighting of his future partner in the Liverpool \ntrain station “… with a cowboy hat, a John Lennon \npinstriped beige and blue suit, python skin boots, sun-\nglasses, and a big metal briefcase.” \nIn time, Hien too was enrolled in LIPA, where he \nlived with Anderson and a group of student musicians. \nchris and thomas discovered their shared affi nity for \nthe English folk music of John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, \nand Bert Jansch, but their fi rst major co-venture was \nmultimedia. Teaming up with a local art maven, they \ndevised Cook Au Van , whereby they would tool across \nEurope in a truck converted into a cooking/eating space, \ninvite celebrities like Bill Drummond from KLF and \nJarvis Cocker from Pulp onboard to create dinners and Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n34videotape the proceedings. Anderson, who was behind \nthe camera, stayed in England to edit and shop the \nproject. \nMeanwhile, Hien relocated to Los Angeles, where \nhe knocked around the commercial songwriting scene \nwhile Anderson attended art school in Devon, England. \nEventually the two reconvened, this time in Hollywood. \n“For a year we locked ourselves in the house writing \nand playing—a great year of being creative,” reminisces \nHien. To document their songs and prepare arrange-\nments, they recorded live with guitars, banjo, mandolin, \nand the occasional creaking kitchen chair. When \nsinger/songwriter Alexi Murdoch heard these homespun \nsounds, he invited chris and thomas to open his show at \nthe hip Hollywood venue, the Hotel Cafe. \nHaving never performed live as a duo, chris and \nthomas prepared by playing an open mic at an L.A. \nclub. They actually took their own mic, a single AKG \ncondenser, and gathered around it like some modern-\nday Carter Family, with no additional amplifi cation. \nThe simple presentation underscored the honesty of the \nsongs. Recalls Hien, “We thought the audience would \nhate it because it’s vulnerable music. We got done and it \nwas really quiet, then huge applause. After that we were \n‘Wow, man!’” Naturalness remains the duo’s most the-\nmatic through line. “That’s what it seems to be about,” \nconfers Anderson. “It feels like the music doesn’t belong \nto us—it’s almost automatic.”\nBoosted by the Alexi Murdoch show, and aided by \nHarcourt’s continued airing of their music on KCRW, \nchris and thomas were in demand as they presented \ntheir unadorned art to a growing audience. “For the fi rst 35two months we didn’t book any gigs,” notes Anderson. \n“They called us.” They have since signed with major \nmanagement and are fi elding multiple label offers for a \nfi rst full-length album. They also have placed a song in a \ndocumentary set to screen in 90 European cities. \nIt was the same friend of Hien’s whom Anderson \nmet on the Greek island of Mykonos who passed chris \nand thomas’ CD to Nic Harcourt. Serendipity, perhaps, \nbut the success of the duo is testimony that music illu-\nminated by purity and conviction is the most appealing \nsound of all. The Vista Street Sessions is a rare gem of \nexquisite song craft, intimate, understated performances, \nand the magical blend of two singers breathing together \nas one voice. “The music is like our friendship,” says \nChris. “Effortless,” affi rms Thomas.\nMusic Publishing: The Way In\nSongwriters are no doubt familiar with the term, “No \nunsolicited material.” The best way to make contact with \na publisher, or anyone else in this industry for that mat-\nter, is direct referral by an attorney, another songwriter, \nor a representative of ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Two key \nsongwriting events mentioned elsewhere in this book, \nthe West Coast Songwriters Association Conference and \nthe Durango Songwriters Expo, present unprecedented \nopportunities in comfortable, supportive environments.\nA music publisher’s willingness to connect with \nsongwriters in controlled situations does not mean that \nhe or she may be pitched to at will. Before contacting any \ncompany you should fi rst know what types of music they \npublish, recent credits, where their strengths lie, what Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n36they listen for, and whether they’re accepting material in \norder to determine if you might fi t in.\nIt is important to understand songwriting/publishing \nterminology, to know what a sync license and a mechani-\ncal are, what constitutes a copyright, and the meaning of \na reversion clause. Be aware that if you declare to a pub-\nlisher that you want to “sell your songs,” you’ve just given \nyourself away as an amateur. Songs are never sold, they \nare published, covered, or collected. The days of “selling \nsongs,” thankfully, ended decades ago. (You can educate \nyourself about the business by reading Music, Money and \nSuccess by Jeff and Todd Brabec and The Craft & Business \nof Songwriting by John Braheny.)\nThe bigger publishers generally deal with artists who \nare already signed to major record deals. If they sign \nsongwriters, they are most interested in writer/produc-\ners, especially those who have already attained cuts on \ntheir own. Having a publishing deal will make you more \ndesirable as a collaborator, and publishers often make \nco-writing matches. Even if you’re signed to a major \npublisher, you’ll still be expected to hustle up outlets for \nyour songs through your own contacts. The most viable \noutlets for new songs are fi lm and television.\nNetworking Strategy for Songwriters\nThe days of the unattached writer of a single song are long over. Songwriting is a \npolitical proposition. If you look at the Billboard charts, you’ll observe that virtually all \nof the songs in top positions are co-written. But the right music publisher is an integral \npart of songwriting success—proof that someone believes in you and your songs.37Major and Indie Labels\nEnthusiasm is a wonderful quality, but imagine running \ninto a friend who has a band and hearing him proclaim \nthe following: “Hey man, come and check out our gig. \nCapitol Records is comin’ down!” Interesting notion, \nthat. Is the entire Capitol Tower coming down? If so, \nthere won’t be room for anyone else in the club .The \nreality is this: An individual is coming down to hear the \nband, and he’s currently employed by Capitol Records. \nBut guess what? He may not be there next week.\nSteady employment in the music business is a volatile \nproposition. Therefore it’s imperative to comprehend \nthis credo: Your relationships should never be with \ncompanies, rather your relationships should be with the \nindividuals working in the companies.\nI’ve known many artists who were championed by \nan A&R executive who signed them to his company. Six \nmonths later, when he’d exited the company, the art-\nist was orphaned, with no champion, no advocate. This \ncan lead to a project being “shelved” and never released. \nAt this point, the artist has no choice but to either sit \nout the contract or repay any advances and recording \ncosts—a very expensive proposition.\nBut as I’ve stated before in this book, change is \ngood. For example, the A&R person who is interested in \nyou will probably be moving on to a better position at \nanother company, and now you’ll have a contact there. \nSo it may be better all around.\nThe dominance of major labels is clearly coming to a \nconclusion. Indie labels—freethinking companies often Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n38started on a shoestring and propelled forward by the \nstrength of the music—are at the creative center. These \nfl edgling fi rms’ partnerships with international power-\nhouses complete the circle. Like the great companies of \nthe past—Atlantic, Vanguard, Asylum, Motown—power \nis being returned on the strength of the music.\nMusic Biz Marionettes: Who Pulls the Strings?\nAs infants squalling away in our cribs, mommy comes \nin, picks us up, and makes everything OK. As adults, \nwe learn to solve our own problems, create our own \nrealities, and quell our sobbing (maybe). Some music \nbusiness aspirants never move beyond the infantile phase \nin their thinking, performing in substandard backwater \nvenues, recording endless demos, and imagining that \nsomehow, somewhere, some powerful music industry \nexecutive will sweep down, lift them up, and fl y them \ninto the stratospheres of fame.\nThe mythologies of show business are rich with \nsuch enticing tales, but they’re fi ctional. In this era, any-\none hoping to get a foothold in the multi-billion dollar \nrecord business has to prove themselves—locally, region-\nally, or internationally—with compelling music and an \nundeniable career trajectory.\nThis is equally true for aspiring record company, \nmanagement, or music publishing executives. No one \ncomes from nowhere. There is a direct through line to \nthe energetic college student who books shows for her \nuniversity, the tireless volunteer with a local songwriter \norganization, the band who will drive 12 hours to per-\nform a 20-minute opening slot, the intern who takes 39initiative, and the artist who won’t wait for a venue to \ncall back. They will create their own success.\nI recently helped a college student acquaintance of \nmine land an intern gig at a record company. After the \nsecond week, he called me complaining that he’d not \nyet done anything even remotely musical, but had only \ncarried boxes around. “And what’s in those boxes?” I \nqueried. Hey, no one starts at the top.\nThe late composer Henry Mancini was once quoted \nas advising, “Don’t be in the music business. Be a music \nbusiness.” If you’ve sold only one CD at your gig…\nCongratulations, you’re in.\nValidation\nArt validates its creator. Many times, aspiring and needy \nrecording artists or songwriters will make contact with \nthe industry simply because they need to be heard. \nOften, they are not even pursuing a real music business \ncareer, per se, but they have wrestled some musical cre-\nation out of the depths of their psyche, and they want \nsomeone else to hear it. It’s like a sonic mirror, and they \nneed the gratifi cation of refl ection.\nIf someone wants to spend money to try to get into \nthe music business, believe me, someone will be there to \ntake it. It doesn’t matter how much you spend, however; \nif you don’t have the goods, you won’t progress any fur-\nther. I’ve watched while artists and their supporters have \ngiven immeasurable sums of money to demo submission \nservices, so-called music business insiders, questionable \nlawyers, and over-billing public relations fi rms. None of Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n40these dollars spent did any good—except, of course, for \nthe recipient’s bank account. You cannot buy your way \ninto this business.\nAmerican Idolization\nI was in England a few years back when I took note of \nthe television show Pop Idols , featuring a competition \nbetween singers with the winner determined by the \nvotes of an immense television audience. My students \nat LIPA—hipper than hip musicians—despised the \nconcept, but I was mesmerized by the potential cross-\nmarketing that could be achieved. I was not surprised, \nthen, when a U.S. version, American Idol, became a \nsmash hit. These types of shows are nothing new. Major \nBowles Amateur Hour was the American Idol of its day, \nand Star Search also had its audience in the ’ 80s.\nFrom an entertainment standpoint, these shows are \na hoot and, I confess, a guilty pleasure for me as well. \nThe buffoonery aspect is the fi rst hook. In the prelimi-\nnary round, audiences like to see someone act dumber \nthan they do. In the U.K., it was explained to me, audi-\nences always root for the underdog—the singer with \nthe speech impediment; a vocalist who doesn’t have the \nsame svelte shape as the others. This is true to a degree \nin the U.S. as well. The overweight teddy bear, the single \nmother, and the nerd turned glamour boy have all found \nfame.\nSuch shows have given voice to the screaming school \nof vocal histrionics, where every note sung is divided \ninto interminable syllables and wrung dry. I was in Ohio \nwatching the American Idol show at my parents’ house 41when my mother passed through the room and observed \na shrieking contestant competing in the fi nals. “I don’t \nknow if she’s good,” commented my mother, “but she \nsure is loud.”\nThis show embodies multiple layers of classic enter-\ntainment. It’s funny, with its humor built on cruelty and \nlaughing not with but at those deluded into thinking \nthey have talent at the early auditions. Then there is the \npathos of “rags-to-riches” stories, with Cinderella-like \ntransformations of the winning contestants from geeks \nto gods and goddesses. And not least, the audience par-\nticipation and emotional connections through the voting \nphone-ins.\nTruth is, all of those who have found fame on this \nshow—with the notable exception of one William \nHung—have been working at their craft for most of their \nyoung lives. They are well-seasoned professionals with a \nfanatical devotion to their craft and unerring instincts \ntoward their art.\nAs alluring a fantasy as it may seem, no one comes \nfrom nowhere. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and \nJustin Timberlake were all Mouseketeers as children. \nThey grew up in the business. This is a through line for \nthose who are called to be entertainers, musicians, and \nsongwriters. In my experience, it is not a choice, but a \ncalling—the undeniable need for expression through \nmusic and performance, hard-wired into your very being \nand the dominant thread in the fabric of your existence. \nYour identity, not something that happens between 8:00\nand 9:00 p.m. on your television.Chapter 2 The Modern Music BusinessNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n42Summary\nCD sales are simply one facet of an emerging multi-\nplatform media market. If music were a science, it would \nbe scrutinized, analyzed, and dominated by corporations. \nNothing succeeds like the sound of honest music, and we \nsucceed only when we’re honest with ourselves, others, \nand most of all, our medium.43Personalities PlusCHAPTER 3\nThis chapter examines the importance of personalities. \nI’ll suggest specifi c ways to gauge your strengths and \npossible weaknesses. I’ll begin with 10 shared attributes \nof successful music biz practitioners. \nTen Successful Attributes of Music Biz Professionals\n 1. Talent\nAs I explained in the Introduction to this book, every \npersuasive trick in the book won’t help you if you do not \nhave the goods. We all have talent, and some incredibly \nlucky people are born with it, but for most of us it’s a \nlifelong pursuit to develop it. And not just musical talent \neither—it may be a talent for sales, for convincing oth-\ners, for offering support and clarity.\n 2 Training and Education\nFor singers, songwriters, and band members, this should \nbe fairly self evident. You will always benefi t from lessons Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n44and on-the-job experiences, especially by hanging out \nwith those who are more profi cient than you. If you’re \nmore inclined to the business side of things, the same \ncreed applies. Reading about the business you’re in \nshould be the fi rst fundamental rule. I was on a panel \nrecently at an L.A. college with a senior member of the \nA&R staff of a major record label. “How many of you \nread Billboard every week?” he queried the room. When \na paltry third of those in attendance raised their hands, \nhe noted, “So, you want to be in the music business, but \nyou don’t read the publication every single executive \nreads?”\nBillboard, e-mail journals, and Hits! magazine are all \navailable online. If you don’t have a computer, use the \none at your local library. You can browse your library’s \nmagazines, too, or simply go to your local Borders or \nBarnes & Noble bookstore and stand at the magazine \ncounter and read until they ask you to leave. By educat-\ning yourself over a period of time, you’ll begin to draw a \ncorrelation between executives and events and to demys-\ntify this multi-level, interconnected business.\nUniversities and colleges offer classes in the music \nbusiness, although, as I often tell my students, I didn’t \nhave this advantage during my educational years. We \nformed bands, bought vans, went on the road, and \nmoved to Nashville, New York, and L.A. For me, teach-\ning at a learning environment like The Liverpool \nInstitute for Performing Arts in the U.K. or Cal Poly \nPomona in Southern California is a welcome affi rmation \nthat, yes, this is a real academic pursuit. As always, the \nreal value of any situation is in the human contacts you \nmake.45 3. A Big Personality\nPersonality bears a resemblance to talent in that some \nof us are born with it, and others take longer to develop \nit. The entertainment business is absolutely fi lled with \nindividuals with large personalities—quirky, offbeat, \nor entertaining. What we relegate to the domain of the \npersonal is strongly infl uenced by levels of confi dence. \nA strong personality often mirrors a high degree of self-\nconfi dence. \nIt’s not necessary to enter a room like a bull charging \ninto a ring, to buttonhole everyone in attendance, and to \ndominate the proceedings, but a winning personality is \nthe ability to draw others to you.\n 4. A Positive Outlook\nI’ve believe in the ability of positive people to determine \nthe outcome of their own destinies through the strength \nof their convictions and their winning attitudes. I’ll \nreiterate my belief here: Positive thoughts and energies \nattract positive results.\n 5. Enthusiasm\nThis is not simply bluster and hype, but the honest result \nof having something to share with others that you feel is \nabsolutely essential.\nMuch of my telephone time as a journalist is taken \nup in speaking with publicists who call me with pitches \nfor their clients. I can tell when the enthusiasm is real \nand when it’s simply an hourly billing. It’s not so much \nin their words, but in the intentions and energies behind \nthem. Music people have a sixth sense for this. In some \ninstances a publicist will ask me to listen to their client \nwith the promise that “This music will absolutely affect Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n46you.” Hopefully, that’s true, because if the music doesn’t \naffect me, this ploy won’t work again.\n 6. Entertainment Value\nIf you’re in the entertainment business, doesn’t it make \nsense that you must also provide entertainment for those \nwith whom you speak and interact? I shared this thought \non a panel at a recent songwriter confab and was greeted \nwith some derision by a fellow panelist (somewhat of \na curmudgeon, I might add). I was wearing an irides-\ncent green shirt and multi-colored Mardi Gras beads, \nacquired at a local wine tasting event. But my outfi t \nmade a point, and for the remainder of that day, I was \nhighly identifi able to anyone who wanted to seek me out.\nEntertainment is not limited to the in-person effect. \nIn Chapter 6, “Telephone and E-Mail,” I talk about the \nimportance of “Giving Good Phone.” In our lives and \nbusinesses, as we transmit the power of entertainment, \nwe must have our own intrinsic performance value. \nIt’s called playing the role—it’s what a lawyer does in a \ncourtroom, what determines a dynamic minister in a \npulpit, what makes a police offi cer a fi gure of authority.\n 7. Desire and Determination\nI put desire and determination together because I believe \nthey’re interrelated. Desire is a wish, a craving, and a \nlonging, while determination is a fi rmness of purpose, \nwill, and resolve. My hair-cutter, Armando, is full of \nintriguing insights. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he \nrecently observed, “It takes you guys from these weird \nsmall towns to come out to Hollywood and kick ass.” \nI found this interesting on a number of levels, and he’s \nright. There does seem to be a disproportionate number 47of success stories that emanate from transplants from the \nmiddle of the country.\nWhen I was a kid, I resented the fact that I had been \nborn in the middle of Ohio. But I realize now that it was \nthis very fact that helped provide the determination and \nfocus of my career. Because we didn’t have a music and \nart scene, my friends and I invented one. We created our \nown venues for music and performance. It was these \ninclinations that bonded us to each other. Yes, we were \nviewed as outsiders, but this alienation found an outlet \nthrough art.\nJust getting out of Lima, Ohio, was my beginning, \nwhen I understood that I couldn’t make a living there, \nthat I would have to leave the sanctuary of a loving fam-\nily, to fl y from the nest, to live in poverty in strange cities \nand on the road. Leaving home propelled me and fueled \nme with the energy I have to this day. Rarely is anyone \nlucky enough to stay in a comfort zone, especially at the \nbeginning of a career.\n 8. Commitment and Timing\nPeople sometimes say, “If I don’t make it in a year, I’m \ngoing to do something different.” Oh boy. What do you \nthink will happen to the career of someone who states \nan objective constructed around time constraints? Time \nis relative, fl exible, on a continuum. In our careers, \nalthough we can invent goals and look toward mile-\nstones, attempting to align ourselves to a time grid is a \nself-defeating proposition.\nAs I stated at the onset of this book, we cannot make\nthings happen, we can only put ourselves in the position \nwhere things can happen. This may take years, decades, Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n48or even the time of an entire career. Music, and the life \nwe live creating and working with it, chooses us. If we \ngive ourselves an out, that dreaded “something to fall \nback on,” we’re negating and undermining our deter-\nmination. Sure, we might have to step back, access the \nsituation, open our eyes to new possibilities, and create \nvariations on a theme. But if our commitment is not \ntotal, we can’t expect others’ reactions to our art and \nwork to be 100 percent, either.\n 9. Create Your Own Opportunities\nYou will not be spoon fed in the music business. This \nI can guarantee you: The only person who can elevate \nyou is you. Those who walk a successful career path have \ntrained themselves to do so. Virtually every powerful \nmanager, agent, or promoter in the business began on \nvery humble ground, promoting local shows, handling \nbeginning artists, booking high schools, colleges, or local \nshows.\nDon’t say “I’m thinking about…,” “I’m consider-\ning…,” “I’m wondering….” No. Those of us who succeed \nin the music business have no other options. It’s who we \nare. Do it now, always, forever.\n 10. Understand When to Permit Emotion to Overtake Logic\n“My college professor told me that I have a better chance \nof winning the lottery than getting a record deal,” admit-\nted a dejected music business student. Oh great, just \nwhat we need, another cynical academic defl ating the \ndreams of a student. Shame on the teacher for spouting \nthis drivel. What if he’d said this to Bruce Springsteen, \nMichael Stipe, or Andre 3000 and Big Boi from OutKast? \nWe’re talking apples and oranges; there is simply no \nrelationship between winning a game of chance and 49building a career to the point where a major record label \nwould be interested in an artist.\nAs discussed throughout this book, a major-label \ndeal may not even be the best road for an enterprising \ncreative artist, particularly at this historic time, when \nindependent artists are emerging as new power brokers.\nSpeaking of record deals, a friend of mine recently \nhad two labels regularly coming to his shows, interested \nin signing him. He attempted to play the two compa-\nnies against each other, to up the ante so to speak, and \nended up alienating both labels. He was attempting to \ndetermine which company to sign with based on his \nanalytical mind, breaking down advances, percentages, \nand other contract details, when he should have been \npaying attention to the emotional commitment offered \nby an earnest A&R man who genuinely believed in the \npower of his music.\nLawyers and managers are paid well to be analytical. \nUnderstanding the business is, of course, a prerequisite \nto being in it, but don’t permit logic to derail your heart \nand soul. Because if you were truly logical and normal, \nyou wouldn’t even be in the music business, would you?\nNegative Notions\nWe know them all too well: naysayers, pessimists, \nprophets of doom and gloom. “A&R people wouldn’t \nknow a good song if it bit ‘em on the butt” or, “The record \ncompanies are crooks and gangsters,” or, “Commercial \nmusic is such bullshit.” Negativity is a tellingly potent \nforce. It often manifests itself in character traits including Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n50self-doubt, lack of self-worth, and low self-esteem. It \nis also highly contagious. If we allow them, negative \npeople have the power to defl ate us, to bring us down to \ntheir level—in short, to make us feel bad. As a longtime \nplayer, I bristle when I hear put-downs of the music \nindustry from those who want to enter into it telling \nme that the business to which I’ve devoted the majority \nof my life is a sham, a con, a dark netherworld of shady \ncharacters and disreputable operators. I’m also keenly \naware that this can be a self-defense mechanism used \nby those who doubt their own abilities. After all, why \nbother to succeed in an industry that’s such a shithouse? \nThey’re projecting their own sense of doom on an entire \nbusiness.\nIn music, as in life, optimists are much more suc-\ncessful in reaching career heights. Much of this has to \ndo with the power of self-fulfi lling prophecy—those \nwho expect to succeed will do so. There is an attendant \nhuman factor, too: Positive energy attracts positivity, and \npositive people attract others to them.\nThis is, of course, essential in a business built on \nbuzz, fueled by the energy and the eternal promise of \n“the next big thing.” Savvy business people clamber to \nget on a train that’s already up and rolling. Since music \nand the businesses it supports are interactive, it is our \nquest to attach ourselves to others in the same service of \nsuccess.\nThere is even scientifi c evidence proving that opti-\nmists live longer, have more productive lives, experience \nless illness (mental and physical), and achieve far more \nthan pessimists, because an optimistic frame of mind \nmodulates the nervous system. A study of fi rst-year law 51students at UCLA showed that optimists had higher lev-\nels of disease-fi ghting killer cells in their blood than did \npessimists.\nSo, in planning your course of action, keep in mind \nthat it will always be easier to change the way we think \nabout the world than to change the world itself.\nThe Put Down\nI was asked to critique a self-penned bio for a new \nacoustic duo that included the phrase “In this age of \nnegligible, overproduced music.” I advised them to edit \nthis line out since it was clear they’d superimposed their \nown prejudices and opinions into a piece that should \nhave been uplifting and about their music, making it \nshine in comparison to others. Also, they might be pitch-\ning themselves to the very executives who had signed, \nproduced, or promoted that “negligible, overproduced \nmusic.”\nPassing judgment on music is a dicey proposition. \nWhen my students in music schools make grave pro-\nnouncements based on their prejudices, I gently remind \nthem that musicians aren’t the ones buying records—it’s \nthe general public. Pop music, specifi cally, seems to \nraise their hackles (and of course the more it sells, the \nmore my students detest it). My British students detest \nAmerican country. Sure, certain styles of music speak \nto us and others don’t, but as music people it’s essential \nto be open to all forms of expression. If you hear a form \nof music that’s unfamiliar, begin analyzing it. What are \nits reference points? What do the performers look like? Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n52What is their audience? What are the other connecting \npoints—for example, the fashion, politics, or lifestyles?\nOver roughly two decades, hip-hop music (with \nestimated annual CD sales of $2.8 billion) and its sur-\nrounding culture, have become an indomitable force. On \noccasion, I’ve heard harsh judgments made on rap and \nhip-hop—“That’s not music,” being one of the kinder \npronouncements. Judgments such as these serve only \nto diminish my opinion of the speaker. It also makes \nme wonder if they dislike black music or black people. I \nrecall the “Disco Sucks” craze of the late ’ 70s. Did those \nwho were burning their Donna Summer records hate the \nrelentless beat, or did they dislike those who were danc-\ning to it in the discos? \nWhether it is teen pop or Tuvan throat-singing, I \ncontend that there is something to be learned from every \nform of music. What is often being projected by harsh \nand negative judgments is a closed mind and jealousy. \nIf someone says to me, “I hate rap music,” I am appalled \nthat they can put the words “hate” and “music” into one \nsentence. This is not an individual with whom I would \nchoose to work.\nNegative to Positive\nIn order to break through, it’s essential to eliminate the \nnegative people in your life. (OK, maybe they are mem-\nbers of your family, or even your spouse or partner, in \nwhich case you must acknowledge, and then eliminate, \ntheir negative infl uence over you.) As children we are \nprogrammed in very specifi c, often unintentional, ways \nby our families. To reconfi gure our patterns of thought, 53it is fi rst essential to identify the traits in ourselves that \namplify negativity.\nI was once working in a music industry position that \nrequired interaction with a large staff. One of the key \nemployees would invariably attend planning meetings \nwith a scowl on his face and would begin every sentence \nwith the phrase “The problem with that is….” Whether \nwe were planning a show, a conference, a publication, or \nan event, he was the one dark cloud hovering over the \nconference table, always predicting the dire outcome \nof events that had not yet transpired. I remember him \nrushing backstage after one of our shows and remark-\ning, “Great show; the only complaint I’ve heard so \nfar…” before I stopped him. He was taken aback. “You \ndon’t want to hear criticism?” he asked. “Not while the \napplause is still ringing in the hall,” I insisted.\nYou can probably guess the outcome of his history \nat the company. When cutbacks were made and restruc-\nturing was announced, he was the fi rst one to be let go. \nIn collaborative relationships, there is a value in having \na team member who thinks of potential liabilities, but \nno one wants to exist under the constant onslaught of \nrelentless negativity. No one wants to hear it.\nWhen I was managing artists, I would sometimes \nencounter music business colleagues who were intent on \ntossing their wet blanket over the proceedings. “What’s \nup with the guy you manage?” was often the beginning. \nI would take note if they didn’t call him by name. When \nI would indicate that we were in preliminary meetings \nwith a specifi c record label, I would hear, “Oh, that com-\npany. They’re having a lot of problems over there, aren’t \nthey?” Again, simple negativity.Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n54Find Reasons to Feel Good about Yourself\nI’m an inveterate list-maker with yearly, monthly, weekly, \nand daily plans of action. It’s the proverbial “small stuff” \nthat often fuels the most vital day-to-day operations. \nYou can do something everyday for your music business \ncareer: doing research on the Internet, reading Billboard\nat the library, watching and observing videos, mak-\ning calls, going out to hear music. When your plans are \nintentional and charted you have a much better course \nof action. Check off items that you’ve accomplished. \nIn addition to having made progressive steps forward \nin your career, you have also achieved something for \nyourself, and that’s a reason to pat yourself on the back. \nRemember that your small victories and accomplish-\nments will add up in time.\nUse your time effectively; pick your prime time, then \nprioritize tasks by asking yourself, “Will accomplishing \nthis help me get where I want to be in fi ve or ten years?”\nVisualize Your Success\nAn exercise I once used while teaching at the Liverpool \nInstitute for Performing Arts stands out in my mind. \nIn a room full of students, I asked one young man what \nhe wanted to accomplish in his career. “I’d like to make \nenough money to buy a house,” was his answer. Where \nwould this house be? “On a cottage lane.” What were \nthe dimensions of the house? “An upstairs and a down-\nstairs.” What color is the door? “A red door.” As we went \nfurther down the list, suddenly this ephemeral house he \nwas visualizing began to take shape in his mind. He was 55on his way to moving into it because he’d built it in his \nimagination.\nNetwork with People You Respect and Observe Their Traits\nThroughout this book I’ve emphasized the value in mak-\ning others feel good. When I conducted an on-camera \ninterview with legendary R&B powerhouse vocalist, \nPatti LaBelle, her fi rst words of introduction to me were \na compliment on my sport coat as she reached over and \nfelt the sleeve. A small act, to be sure, but one that spoke \nimmeasurably of her interest, and kindness, to others. \nI was very fortunate to have come up under the guid-\nance of powerful music business mentors. Respect for \nothers and their feelings is a vital trait. I’m reminded \nthat successful people have their own doubts, fears, and \nstruggles, too, so it’s natural that we feel that way as we \nface the daunting odds of taking our music into the mar-\nketplace. The value of aligning yourself with a supportive \nnetwork of caring friends and colleagues cannot be over-\nemphasized. Unless you have a crystal ball, you may not \nknow where your contacts will ultimately arrive, but rest \nassured, if you’re around strong, upbeat, positive people, \nthey are likely already on their way to formidable desti-\nnations. And hopefully, so are you. \nThe Smooth Road\nThis week I moderated a hit songwriter panel in \nHollywood at the DIY (Do It Yourself) Convention. It \nwas a formidable panel, assembled by BMI, with my \nguests including Chad Hugo, one half of the multiple Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n56Grammy Award-winning writing and production duo, \nThe Neptunes.\nAt the conclusion of our allotted time, we opened \nthe room up to questions from the attendees. One young \nman strode to the mic and announced, “I’m here to \ngive my CD to Chad Hugo from The Neptunes.” Chad \nexplained that because of the legal ramifi cations, it was \nnot possible for him to accept material.\nYou’re probably familiar with the scenario where \nan unknown songwriter claims his song was stolen by \na famous artist. Undoubtedly, most of these cases have \nproven to be entirely without merit, but what must \nbe proven in every instance is access. Record labels, \nrecording artists, producers, or songwriters who accept \nmaterial from an unknown source run the risk of open-\ning themselves up to future legal liability. Of course, the \nmore successful the recipient, the greater the probability \nthat this might occur, and only successful, income gen-\nerating songs are ever deemed to be “stolen.” Hence the \nfamous “No unsolicited material” credo.\nBut the legal challenges are secondary. The most \ntelling action by this young man was that in his mind \nhe had deduced that the quickest way to the top was via \nsomeone who was already there. When I pointed out that \nhe needed to fi nd the next Chad Hugo, or Neptunes, or \nMatrix, or Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, he indignantly \ncountered with this proclamation: “It’s like a Cadillac. I \nwant the fastest, smoothest ride. That’s The Neptunes.”\nOh, if it were only that simple. No one can make \nyou famous, sail you in on their considerable coattails, \nand launch your career for you. Of course, having The 57Neptunes craft tracks for you would be amazing. But \nin a mercantile world, The Neptures reportedly earn \nhundreds of thousands of dollars for creating a track, \nand these fees are gladly paid by the record companies. \nThey have their own label, A&R staff, publishers, and \nmanagers and are surrounded by an immense support \nstaff. It’s not only two songwriter/producers pulling \ntalented artists from a pool and making them stars but \nan entire creative mechanism.\nMyths\nIt is a fallacy, a myth, and a misconception to think that \nthe quickest way to success is through others who are \nalready there. Since I’ve interviewed the best-known \nsongwriter/producers in the business, I’ll have aspiring \nsongwriters ask me, “Could you give my CD to (insert \none) The Matrix, Glen Ballard, Jimmy Jam and Terry \nLewis?”\nI have to say “No.” First off, I understand my role \nin the pantheon of the music business. If I’m there as a \njournalist or interviewer, and I suddenly start whipping \nout demos and press kits, I wouldn’t be in this business \nlong, would I? Also, I’d be staking my reputation on the \nmaterials I presented.\nIf you play or present music to anyone of impor-\ntance, nothing can be left to chance: Your talents have \nto be undeniable. I’ve had publicists rave to me about \ntheir clients, but when the music arrives it is sub-par. As \na result, I will never trust that person’s judgment again \nand would certainly be less likely to listen to anything \nhe sent me in the future. This is not a matter of being Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n58cold hearted, but a reality of our business. Time wasted \nlistening to inadequate or badly conceived music is time \nlost, never to be regained. Plus it’s depressing.\nHave I ever played anything for any of these lumi-\nnaries I mentioned? Yes, once. It was a track by a new \nartist, and it ended up being included in a fi lm. Once. In \nall these years. It’s self protection for the reputation and \nassurance that anything I present in the future will be of \nsimilar, sterling quality.\nReinvention\nAs talented people, we are often at a distinct disad-\nvantage in recognizing what sets us apart from the \ncrowd. We wake up in the morning, stare at the dishev-\neled image in the mirror, and go about our daily lives \nof creating magic—literally, conjuring up something \nfrom nothing with music and art. It’s often too easy to \noverlook the incredible abilities with which we’ve been \nbestowed. Sometimes it takes someone from outside of \nour sphere to make us realize how gifted and how lucky \nwe really are.\nEarlier in the book I referenced my career and its \nprogression through cities, decades, and vocations, with \nmusic always at its core. I refer to this evolution as “rein-\nvention,” and learning when and how to reinvent has \nbeen a prime ingredient in my longevity.\nAt every stage in our life, our needs are changing. \nAs children aspiring to be musicians and performers, \nwe were probably motivated by the perceived status and \nglory of the stars we observed in the popular media. 59Having a burning need to communicate drives many \nmusicians to become songwriters. Feeling powerless \nmotivates many songwriters to become producers, dis-\nsatisfaction with the way the music business is run may \ninspire a record producer to become a record executive, \nand so on.\nReinvention works only when there is a natural pro-\ngression between the steps in the business. I was well \naware when it was time for me to move beyond playing \nin bands and writing songs. Not that I couldn’t continue \n(if I wished), but as the venues repeated, the opportuni-\nties dried up, and time ticked away, I knew it was time \nfor a change.\nNothing stays the same—either your career is mov-\ning up or it’s moving down. I know bands who have \nstayed their steady course, waiting for a record deal that \nnever comes, who continue to make exactly the same \nmoves, play the same venues, and ultimately burn out \ntheir audience. No one wants to go to the same place \nand do the same things year after year. Human nature \nrequires stimulation.\nSame Old Same Old\nAllegedly, Albert Einstein said that doing the same thing \nover and over and expecting a different result is the \nmark of insanity. There is certainly truth in this state-\nment. The music industry, too, becomes wary over time. \nOur business is marked by the “newest,” “freshest,” and \n“hippest.” Artists who aren’t perceived to have these \nadjectives attached to them will suffer over time. Chapter 3 Personalities PlusNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n60For example, there was a well-known Los Angeles \nband who had a residency at one of the city’s most infl u-\nential clubs. Even though A&R reps would come and see \nthe group play, after a year the consensus was that if they \nwere so good, why hadn’t they been signed?\nHere is an interesting reality. It is often easier to sign \nan artist to a deal if they’ve already had a deal. In other \nwords, even if they’ve been dropped, because their cred-\nibility has been proven once, an enterprising record label \nmay be more willing to take a change on them than they \nwould on a new, unproven act. Similarly, it is often easier \nto have a song recorded if there is a history of previous \nrecordings.\nWe speak of the “herd mentality” in the music indus-\ntry. If we were creating an invention in the “real world,” \nwe would concoct something that no one had ever seen. \nBut in the music business, when a trend connects, there \nis a rush to duplicate the initial successes, be they shoe-\ngazing emo rock bands, lithesome pop singers, recently \njailed hip-hop felons, or fl ag-waving country acts. If the \npublic has bought something once, they will buy it over \nand over again. And herein lies another paradox: Pop \nmusic is a savvy combination of what is fresh and what is \nfamiliar.\nSummary\nDiscouragement can be a fact of life in all of our endeav-\nors. I’ve witnessed multitudes of people who can no \nlonger navigate the treacherous currents of the music \nbusiness and choose to make their lives elsewhere. This \nis good: It creates more opportunities for the rest of us. 61I’m no Einstein, but here’s another theory: You can’t \nget out of a business that you’re not in. In other words, \nyou’re not really in the business if you don’t give it your \nfull commitment.\nDo you need stability in your life? A steady pay-\ncheck? Odds are, you won’t have it in the entertainment \nindustry, especially in the early stages of your career. \nIt’s a business where not only do you have to walk the \npath, you also have to clear the brush and pave it as well. \nThat’s too much for most normal people.\nBut then again, you’re not “normal,” are you? \nWhat did your family tell you about making a living \nin this crazy business? That you need something to fall \nback on? If you’re energetic and goal oriented and can \ncreate opportunities for yourself, that is your strongest \nresource; that is your fallback position.\nIn his song “Something to Believe In,” singer/song-\nwriter Shawn Mullins says \nDon’t let it pass you by\nSomeday you’ll wake up asking yourself why\nYou sat there at your desk\nSucking on the corporate breast.\nIf the music is in your soul, it will show you the path.Chapter 3 Personalities Plus62CHAPTER 4\nTrue Tales\nThis chapter examines various true-life scenarios. You’ll \nventure behind the velvet rope to view the underpin-\nnings of the music business and its participants.\nThe I’s Don’t Have It\nJust prior to presenting a two-hour “Networking in the \nMusic Business” seminar at a popular California music \nconference, I ran into an old acquaintance in the hall-\nway. Before uttering a single word of greeting, she thrust \na fl yer promoting her upcoming show into my hands. \n“I would come see you speak today,” she informed \nme breathlessly, “but you know I’ve got this network-\ning thing down.” Oh good. This meant I could use her \n(anonymously, of course) as an example in my lecture \nthat afternoon.\nThe combination of an infl ated ego and a sense of \ninsecurity is a volatile combo, one quite common in the \nentertainment business. For our purposes, let’s examine 63the simple dynamics of conversation. Some people seem \nto think of communication only on their own terms: \nWhat they project, how they come across, how others \nperceive them. The exact opposite approach is what \nworks best. \nThose who begin virtually every sentence with the \nword “I” are tiresome in any situation. Try beginning \nany social interaction with a question like, “What new \nprojects have you been working on?” What you’re pro-\njecting with this query is interest. You’ve also served \nthe proverbial ball across the imaginary net; when your \nconversation partner concludes his explanation of recent \nendeavors, he will in all probability ask you what you’ve \ngot going on. Now it’s your turn.\nMaking others feel important is a vital communi-\ncation skill. Honestly listening to what others have to \nsay, asking questions to move the conversation along, \noffering affi rmations like, “It must be wonderful to be \nrealizing this project,” all do wonders to impart a warm \nglow. But you have to be truthful, to honestly care, to \nmake this work.\nThe Power of “You”\nHere’s an interesting note on verbal communication. \nSuppose your friend or romantic partner drops you \noff at home following a fun day of recreation. You say, \n“Thanks, I had a really good time.” Now examine the \nemotional impact of that reply compared to the added \nsignifi cance of this variation: ‘Thanks, I had a really \ngood time with you.”Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n64Note the difference? You’ve connected the emo-\ntions of your pleasure to the presence of another person. \nYou’ve included them in response to you. It’s an easy way \nto give added impact to your declaration, with just the \naddition of the word “you.”\nCould’a, Should’a, Would’a\nWhen I was a beginning songwriter and fi rst experienc-\ning industry interest in my songs, I made a common \nmistake—I talked about something before it happened. \nMy co-writer and I had a song recorded by a major star \nof the day. I was so thrilled that I told everyone within \nhearing range about this coup—friends, family, audi-\nences at gigs where I was performing, complete strangers \nat parties. As time went on, and I encountered these \nfolks again, invariably they would ask me, “So, what’s \nhappening with your song?” Time went by, the artist \nchanged producers, labels, and direction, and the song \nwas never released. Meanwhile, I had credibility issues \nsince my big break that I’d trumpeted so proudly went \nbelly-up.\nHere’s some categorical advice on the subject: \n 1. As my big brother used to caution me back in Ohio, \n“Almost doesn’t count in anything but horseshoes.”\n 2. Recording artists, particularly in Nashville, think noth-\ning of putting a hundred songs presented by songwriters \nand publishing companies “on hold.” Sure, they may be \ninterested in cutting them, but there is also a theory that \nthey’re taking the good songs—those written by other 65writers that may otherwise be recorded by their chart \ncompetitors—out of circulation.\n 3. No song is for certain until it’s released. Artists typically \nrecord more songs than they need for any given project.\n 4. The calendar of popular music has little relationship to \nthe real world.\n 5. Artists, fi lms, and television shows can all be dropped, \nand songs can be replaced up until the last possible \nsecond.\n 6. You’ve got to have more than one thing going on. \nObviously, the more irons you have in the fi re, the \ngreater probability of one of them turning red hot. \n 7. The tired phrase “we’re waiting to see” is a dead giveaway \nthat nothing is happening. People who have it going on \ndon’t ever wait.\n 8. Thanking others for your successes projects a welcome \nsense of humility. For example, “it was an honor to” \nperform at a benefi t, to have a song recorded, to open a \nshow. “We were surrounded by brilliance.”\n 9. Admit when things don’t turn out without conveying \nrancor or bitterness. No one likes a sore loser.\n 10. Keep in mind that it’s not only our successes that endear \nus to others, it’s our willingness to survive the swells of \nadversity, to persevere, to take the hits and get back up.Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n66 12. Always crowing about your the next big thing and \nhaving nothing materialize will greatly damage your \ncredibility.\n 13. Better to be enigmatic and slightly mysterious than to \nbe overblown and pretentious. People who really have it \ngoing on don’t have to tell you about it, and it is better \nto exude quiet confi dence than project the bellow of a \nhuman bullhorn.\nIt’s much better to have someone else speak positively \nabout you than to huff and puff and emit endless clouds \nof self-serving hype on your own behalf. Given my back-\nground in sales and public relations, it is very natural \nfor me to tout the accomplishments and talents of my \nfriends and colleagues. In turn, when I’m out socially, \nmany of my close friends in the business return the favor.\nIf someone tells me “My band is amazing,” I fi le away \nthis information in a little dumpster dubbed “Hype.” \nHaving someone not in a band tell me “I saw the most \namazing band last night!” intrigues me, especially if I \ntrust that person’s judgment. Nothing is more effective \nin marketing than word of mouth. Having someone \nelse speak on your behalf is much more effective than \nblowing your own horn. If you honestly believe it and \npromote your friends, they’ll do the same for you \nprovided you’ve got it going on.\nYou’re It\nTag teams are equally effective in other social situations. \nIn Chapter 5, “Making Contact,” I speak about the value \nof, and the tricks for, remembering names, but of course 67there are instances when we all forget. If I’m out socially \nwith a music industry tag-team partner, we’ll discuss \nthis contingency beforehand. “If I don’t introduce you \nby name in the fi rst 30 seconds, introduce yourself,” I’ll \nexplain. The unnamed party will then offer his name for \nall to know.\nIf you do attend events with others, make sure you \nshare a common agenda. I don’t take romantic part-\nners with me to business events. If given the option, I’d \nrather invite a friend whose social skills I trust and who \nis a devotee to Networking Strategies. One of my close \nbusiness friends is an executive in the music publishing \ndivision at a major Hollywood fi lm studio. His perspec-\ntive on the business is much more market savvy, more \nbottom-line dollars and cents, than my often-Quixotic \noutlook. But between us, we’ve got it covered, and the \ncontrasts are what make us an effective tag team socially. \nHe also possesses an acerbic sense of humor, doesn’t take \nhimself too seriously, and sees the big picture and knows \nwhere he fi ts into it.\nBridges Afl ame\nI mention this friend for another reason. As he was \ncoming up in the world of music publishing, he was \nemployed by a veteran music publisher who had been \nin the business for decades and who represented some \nvery lucrative catalogs. My friend worked endless hours, \nendured the “low man on the totem pole” position, and \nwas not rewarded monetarily for his work since his boss \nwas extraordinarily cheap. He fi nally left that company \non good terms, but he considered writing a letter to the Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n68boss, telling him of the indignities he’d suffered—a \n“kiss-off” letter.\nFortunately, he reconsidered. And a couple of years \ndown the road when the music division of one of the \nworld’s largest fi lm studios was looking for an executive, \nthey called the veteran publisher for a recommendation, \nwho referred them to my friend.\nCelebrity\nAs an interviewer and journalist, I often fi nd myself in \nthe presence of the foremost hit makers in American \nmusic. Meeting these legends is a consummate thrill, but \nI can never lose sight of what I need from them: credible \ninterview material.\nEarlier this year, I was at the Bel Air home of Quincy \nJones for the taping of a video segment commemorating \nthe anniversary of the performing rights organization, \nASCAP. Mr. Jones, of course, is one of the most cele-\nbrated record producers in history. As the video crew set \nup in anticipation of his arrival and a maid served veg-\ngies, fruit, salsa, and chips (a nice touch), I looked over \nmy notes and thought ahead to what I would say when I \nwas introduced to the pop maestro. Although a number \nof possible scenarios ran through my head, I realized the \ninteraction would take its own course.\nThe video producer brought Mr. Jones to the corner \nof the room where we’d arranged the set and introduced \nus. I shook Quincy Jones’ hand, looked him straight in \nthe eye, and said “Hey man.”69“Hey man,” responded Quincy Jones.\nAmazing. Everything I know and have experienced \nin the trenches of the music business was distilled down \ninto those two words. I didn’t prostrate myself at Mr. \nJones’ feet, tell him what an inspiration he was and what \na profound honor it was to meet him. My instincts com-\nmanded me to remain casual and relaxed, mirroring the \nenergy I felt emanating from Mr. Jones.\nLiving in Los Angeles, where it’s not unusual to see \nBrad Pitt at a local eatery, Ben Affl eck in a Porsche on \nthe Santa Monica Freeway, or Beyonce shopping for \nbling, celebrity is serious business. But my business is \nmusic, and I’ve found that when I interview celebrities, \nwhat they enjoy most about my interviews is that I never \nask them typical, celebrity-driven questions. I save that \nfor the supermarket tabloids. My only concern for inter-\nviews is music and its creation. From Clint Eastwood to \nMetallica, Queen Latifah to Brian Wilson, I’m reminded \nof what draws us together as creative people. There is no \n“Us” and “Them.” It’s all us.\nTen Strategies for Interacting with Celebrities\nSometime in your career, you will meet people whom \nyou or the media consider celebrities. As always, your \ninstincts will guide you, and your communication skills \nand level of self-confi dence will determine the outcome \nof this contact. Following are some tips to keep in mind \nwhen the opportunity arises to interact with celebrities.Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n70 1. Always keep in mind that they’re just people, too. \nAcknowledging their music or contributions is fi ne; just \ndon’t overdo it.\n 2. Know where to draw the line at being a fan. Make no \nmistake, celebrities love fans, but they don’t work with \nthem—no autographs or photos, please.\n 3 Respect their physical space and observe their interac-\ntions with handlers, managers, publicists, and so on for \ncues.\n 4. Don’t be presumptuous.\n 5. Be careful not to age them. Telling a diva of certain years \nthat you listened to her “when you were a little boy” will \nnot endear you to her. Trust me!\n 6. If you do need to initiate conversation, ask general life \nquestions as opposed to career questions. For example, \n“Are you in town for the show, or will you have a chance \nto enjoy the city?”\n 7. If you know someone in common, this is can be an \nexcellent ice-breaker. This always works well for me. A \nword of caution, however: Since human relationships are \nvolatile and ever shifting, make sure that the name you \ndrop is of someone with whom the artist still has a good \nrelationship.\n 8. Don’t offer information you haven’t been asked for, \nsuch as your current projects, your political opinions, or \nartistic/musical judgments.71 9. Never put pressure on a musical celebrity to listen to or \nlook at… anything .\n 10. Keep the doors open. Let them know how much you \nenjoyed meeting them and that hopefully you’ll see them \nin the future.\nHow Would I Reach You?\nThis is fresh to me since it happened last night outside \na club in Hollywood. I interviewed a hugely success-\nful songwriter/producer at a monthly event, “The \nSongwriters Studio.” As he left the venue, he was \naccosted in the foyer by an aspiring singer/songwriter \nwho offered, “I don’t want to waste your time, but I’m \ngoing to want to contact you about a year from now. \nHow do I get hold of you?”\nThe hit maker answered, “Dan knows, just ask him,” \nand walked away.\nBy making me responsible, the hit maker gently \ndefl ected the inquiry, but I mention this story for \nanother reason. The aspiring songwriter projected his \ninsecurity with his vague “a year from now” dialogue; \ntherefore, his inquiry served no real purpose other than \nto foist him in the hit writer’s face for a nanosecond. \nKnowing how to contact someone is one of the arts \nthat must be mastered in our business. It’s not the \nresponsibility of the contactee—in this case the hit \nwriter—to offer up his contact information. Finally, it’s \noff-putting and pretentious for a beginning songwriter \nto assume that this multi-platinum, Grammy Award Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n72winning legend would remember him a year from \nnow—let alone want to work with him.\nWho Needs You?\nI recently lectured to a music business class at a well-\nknown California college and the next day received the \nfollowing e-mail.\nDear Dan, \nI attended your class last night. You were talking to stu-\ndents afterward and I didn’t want to disturb you, so I’m \nsending this e-mail instead. \nAll my life I’ve dreamed of being a lyricist. I know I have \nwhat it takes to make my dreams come true. In class \nyou said you’re writing for a Web site and that one of \nthe founders is Kenneth “Babyface” Edwards. Would \nyou please give the attached lyrics to him so he can put \nthe music to them? \nThank you,\nA Talented Lyricist\nFollowing is my reply:\nDear Talented, \nI don’t wish to sound cold, but in my opinion Mr. \nEdwards probably does not need you. Whitney \nHouston does not need you either. Nor does Celine \nDion or Toni Braxton.73Why? First of all, if you are a songwriter who writes lyr-\nics, you need to fi nd collaborators who create music \nso your songs can exist as a complete unit. But I’m far \nmore concerned about other issues.\nDreams are wonderful things. Indeed, most creative \npeople share the ability to see beyond the mundane \nlimitations of everyday life. Goals are dreams with \ndeadlines. In establishing your career in the music \nbusiness, you need to understand the marketplace for \nyour material and the realities of it.\nIt’s only when you seize control of your career that you \nsucceed. Find acts and artists who are coming up, who \nrequire direction and material. Instead of looking up \nand fantasizing about Babyface, look on your own level \nto fi nd the next Babyface, Timbaland, or Diane Warren. \nAttach yourself to people whose success you can pre-\ndict; indeed, be one of them yourself. \nWhen you buy into the “overnight success” mythology \nyou set yourself up for disappointment and exploita-\ntion. The music business is built on relationships. In my \ndecades in this business, every deal I’ve seen go down \nhas been the result of a personal contact. It’s all about \nhard work, dedication, perseverance, and people skills. \nI have never known anyone to start at the top.\nSomething else bothers me. You were too shy to come \nup and talk to me after class. I came there to meet \nyou, to offer any advice that I could, to make contact. \nIf you were not assertive enough to make my humble \nacquaintance, how intimidated would you be in the \npresence of a platinum hit-maker?Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n74I’ve read your lyrics and I agree: They do have potential. \nBut you’re selling yourself short by fantasizing about \na relationship that is virtually unattainable. Babyface \nwill not fl y out of the woodwork, give you a check for \na million dollars, and make you famous. But some-\nwhere—maybe even in your class—is an artist, a writer, \nor a producer who has the talent and determination to \ngo all the way with you. This is exactly who needs you. \nBest Wishes,\nDan Kimpel \nLook Around\nAs I mentioned in my response, as music professionals \nwe need to become clairvoyant, to be able to ascertain \nwhich of those we encounter have the necessary ingredi-\nents to go all the way, and to align ourselves with them \nwhile we have the chance. By the time someone becomes \nsuccessful, they’re far too immersed in their own career \nto have time to think about yours.\nMusic professionals are most comfortable with those \nwho are on the same level they are—major producers \nwork with major talent, and hit songwriters write for \nhit artists. I have been contacted by songwriters who are \nconvinced that they have the next Faith Hill single. “I \njust have to get it to her,” they’ll tell me.\nThere is no rule that determines that only the best \nsongs get recorded, only the most masterful artists get \nsigned to record deals, and only the most deserving \namong us have long and profi table careers. Certainly \nunknown songwriters also have the tools to create 75stunning lyrics and music, but it’s not enough to simply \nhave these skills. Access and a reputation is necessary as \nwell. \nThat’s what this entire book is about. Understand, \nFaith Hill is a huge talent, and most of the songwriters \nand artists in Nashville pitch songs for her projects. So in \norder for unknown songwriters to even have a faint hope \nof getting a song to her, they fi rst have to build a career \nthat puts them on a par with hers. Wouldn’t it make \nsense that an artist of this magnitude would have the \nfi nest song crafters in the music business writing songs \nespecially for her?\nSixth Sense\nMusic people have fi nely tuned abilities to recognize and \nencourage future hit makers. I can recall some intrigu-\ning examples in my own history—of a young man who \nwas living in his car on the street and two years later \nwas sharing a mansion with Lisa Marie Presley; or the \nbag boy who was so friendly to all of the customers at a \nlocal supermarket and was signed with a multi-release \ndeal for Virgin Records; or the earnest young man from \nWashington, D.C., whom I hired to sell $20 ads for a \nmusic trade publication who is now the president of a \nsuccessful record label. This all relates to my primary \ncreed—that we cannot make things happen, we can only \nput ourselves in the position for success. It take tremen-\ndous determination, force, and focus. And before this \nmust exist belief.Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n76Drugs in the Music Biz\nWhen teaching a series of classes, I’ll generally announce \nthe next day’s text. My declaration, “Tomorrow we’ll \nbe doing drugs and alcohol,” is usually met with much \napplause by my young charges. Of course I don’t plan to \nturn the hallowed halls of learning into Willie Nelson’s \ntour bus, but in speaking to the realities of the life of a \nmusician, certain substances bear discussion.\nI’m certainly no Puritan, but regarding the myths \nof the musical life, it is imperative to understand what \ncan loom in the way of success. Historically, nothing has \nrobbed musical creators of their gifts—and their lives—\nlike drugs and alcohol.\nAs a child of the ’ 60s (actually, the ’ 70s, but I was in \nOhio, and we didn’t get the ’ 60suntil the ’70s), I observed \nthe hijinks of the Beatles, Stones, and the various tribes \nof the San Francisco Bay area, all seemingly in the throes \nof psychedelic creation. I was stunned by the losses: \nBrian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison. \nLater, the suicide of Kurt Cobain had the same impact \non his fans.\nDrug use affects everyone around you: Your fam-\nily, your friends, your fellow musicians, and most of all, \nyour music. For many musicians, it’s a rite of passage, \nand not everyone moves through it intact. My judgments \nare based on strict professionalism only; at the level \nwhere I operate, people need to be utterly dependable. \nAny substance or trait that makes them less so will make \nothers less inclined to work with them.77Most music business professionals have operated in \nan arena where drugs and alcohol are accepted social \ningredients. I’ve heard it implied by certain cynics that, \nback in the day, record labels actually preferred a certain \ndegree of drug dependency from artists because it made \nthem easier to control and therefore more predictable. As \nalways, the way a million-selling artist is perceived with \nor without substances will be different than the atten-\ntion given to a new, or aspiring, artist. Times change; \nif you deduce that your career is stalled by substances, \ntake heart. In the music cities, Narcotics and Alcoholics \nAnonymous meetings are terrifi c places to network. \nOn the Road with John Mayer\nReliability and consistency are trademarks of successful \nmusicians. When I interview many rising artists, I’m \naware of what they have to endure. Grammy Award \nwinner John Mayer related these rigors to me. “To wake \nup at six in the morning after doing a show the night \nbefore and sing on a morning TV show, you’ve got to \nrehearse each song three times. If you’re singing two \nsongs, now you’ve got six songs—actually eight songs \nin the morning, including the performance. After that \nyou go and do radio—another fi ve songs. For every song \nyou sing there’s some jackass who didn’t set the levels \nright. You’re into the bridge and you get the international \narms-waving stop sign. ‘Sorry John, the level’s messed \nup. Let me hear it from the beginning.’ It turns your \nvoice to chopped liver.”\nMayer avows that constant travel, interviews, and \nearly morning performances sap him of vocal subtlety, \nleaving him with only his more strident vocal tones Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n78to cut through the mix and the exhaustion. Once this \nwhirlwind is underway, Mayer is also concerned that \nhe’s now cursing what he loves the most—singing his \nsongs. Still, the fi nal time in the day that he sings a song \nis invariably his favorite, because he shares it with a live \naudience. “I can play my songs a million times as long as \nit’s in front of a crowd that wants to hear them,” he pro-\nclaims, “instead of a dented microphone that some guy \ninsists is picking up both the vocals and the guitar.”\nAm I Too Old to Rock?\nI am not in the business of telling people what they can \nand cannot do. If you observe the shambling dinosaurs \nthat make up the major-label contingent of the record \nbusiness, you’ll observe that young teen stars, mostly \nfemale, are signed at increasingly younger ages. Even \ncountry music—long the bastion of grizzled faces and \nhat-wearing journeymen—is not immune to the trends, \nnow featuring strapping young men who wouldn’t be out \nof place on a beefcake calendar. Much of this has to do \nwith the rise of video as a marketing tool. Also, demo-\ngraphics for recorded music purchasing are younger. \nLet’s face it, new pop music has much more infl uence \nover those in their teens than those who have moved into \nsubsequent stages of their lives.\nThis is not to say that older audiences don’t buy \nmusic—they do. They also buy concert tickets (and mer-\nchandise) in record numbers. But older audiences are \nmore resistant to new music. They remain more loyal to \nthe artists they grew up listening to. 79The way we come in is often the way we are per-\nceived, and even though we need to change career \ndirection, others’ perceptions of us keep us pigeon-holed \nand limited. Following is an e-mail communiqué that \naddresses two concerns: one of reinvention and another \nof ageism.\nDear Dan,\nI’ve been a professional in the music industry for over \ntwenty years. As many of us do, I began as a performer \nand a songwriter, then I developed another career, \nwhere I have worked successfully in a behind-the-\nscenes capacity. \nNow, almost two decades later, I’ve decided that \nmaybe I gave up too easily and allowed myself to be \ndiscouraged too early. In this coming year, it’s my inten-\ntion to return to writing songs and performing, but I’m \nworried about being too old. What advice would you \ngive me? \nBehind-the-Scenes Betty\nFollowing is my reply.\nDear Betty,\nAs those of us know, being inside the music business \nis one key to success in it; in other words, in this notori-\nously insular industry it is virtually impossible to come \nfrom outside and make an impact. So, in this light, \nyour two decades of experience are laudable because \nthey have given you valuable access. However, one of \nthe realities of having already established yourself as Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n80a behind-the-scenes functionary is that this has now \nbecome your identity. \nAs such, your desire to branch into another area of the \nbusiness may be confusing to those around you. What \nwould you think about a manager who confessed he \nactually wanted to be a songwriter, or a video stylist \nwho was an aspiring diva? Would they be credible to \nyou? \nAnd yes, there is another harsh reality in our business. \nFor more mature performers, this is a chilly climate. \nOne need only to turn on MTV to understand that in an \nera of surgically enhanced nymphets, maturity is not \nnecessarily an advantage. Unless you consider reincar-\nnation, we are all given only one life. And many of the \nteen stars of today have spent that life in this business.\nThere are, however, many opportunities to fulfi ll your-\nself both artistically and commercially. Songwriting, for \nexample, is an area where all that counts is the power \nof the song. Songwriters are not required to possess \nany defi nable type of visual allure or to be of a certain \nage. In fact, some of the most vibrant pop singles in \nrecent memory have been penned by writers well into \ntheir fourth, and even fi fth, decades. Synergy is power. \nBecoming involved in the careers of emerging artists \nand offering them open windows into the music busi-\nness may be a viable way for you to fulfi ll your artistry.\nIf you need to write and perform to satisfy your creative \nsoul, you should certainly do so, whether it be in a cof-\nfee house, a church, or club. But don’t throw yourself \ninto an arena with kids half your age, and don’t be con-\nsumed by envy of them, either.81Your letter dictates to me that you have the creativity \nto carve out a viable economic niche for yourself in \nthis business. I would recommend that you continue \nto apply this same creativity to expanding, reinventing, \nand enhancing your career while divining new outlets \nfor your creative needs.\nGood Luck,\nDan Kimpel\nCritical Crises and Drama Queens\nI was honored to study artist management at UCLA \nExtension under Ken Kragen. At the time, this venerable \nand well-respected manager was handling his longtime \nclient, Kenny Rogers, who was embarking on a co-\nheadlining tour of Canada with Dolly Parton. One \nnight, Ken came to class having just received a call on \nthe eve of the show informing him that the elaborate \nstage set that would be shared by the two artists was \ntoo large to fi t into the fi rst venue. The production \nmanager had insisted that Ken fl y north immediately \nto assess and rectify the situation, but Ken had no such \nintention. “Crises have a way of resolving themselves,” \nhe commented. Sure enough, when we convened for \nclass the following week, Ken shared that somehow the \nproduction manager had made it work. Again, Kragen \nenunciated his theory that if you ignore a crisis, it will \nprobably work itself out.\nA few years later, I could hear Ken’s words echoing \nthrough my head, even over the thunderous bluster of \nthe manager of Mr. Big Producer who was inches from \nmy face, snarling, “Look, either my client goes on stage Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n82now, or we’re leaving.” The occasion was the award pre-\nsentation to A Hit Songwriter at an historic Hollywood \ntheater. We had invited Mr. Big Producer to present \nthis award, and he’d shown up with an entourage that \nincluded his fashionably hirsute and stereotypically \noverbearing manager. The songwriter’s publicist had \ninstructed Mr. Big Producer to arrive earlier than neces-\nsary, and his manager was adamant: Mr. Big Producer \nwould not wait around. He demanded that I change the \norder of the show so that the award presentation would \nhappen in the middle of the show, not at the fi nale. \nI called the publicist on my walkie-talkie, assessed \nthe situation for her, then disappeared into the lobby of \nthe theater to handle another situation. Sure enough, \nwhen I poked my head backstage a half hour later, A Hit \nSongwriter and Mr. Big Producer were sitting and jam-\nming on acoustic guitars, inventing an impromptu song \nto duet on when the award was presented. Everyone was \nall smiles. \nThis story illustrates a couple of truths. First, the \nmanager is paid to be commanding. His only concern \nwas his client. Often artists and producers require some-\none to wield absolute power. Being heavy-handed works \nfor some managers whose agenda is the well-being of \ntheir clients. Second, when the human element was \nintroduced to the so-called “crisis”—the music—the \ninteraction between Mr. Big Producer and A Hit \nSongwriter smoothed over the situation. The music won.\nThird, the publicist had erred in requesting the early \narrival of Mr. Big Producer, who had left a recording ses-\nsion specifi cally to be at this event. In production, time \nis of the essence, and you don’t want to have important 83people just hanging around and waiting. Fourth, as Ken \nKragen taught, once all of the bluster and drama were \nremoved from the situation, everyone was basically \ndecent.\nTen Networking Strategies for Dispelling a Crisis\nFollowing is a list of strategies for dealing with crises.\n 1. Don’t be forced into making immediate decisions. Take a \ndeep breath and remain calm. \n 2. Remove emotion from the equation; think logically and \npragmatically. \n 3. Do what’s right for everyone. Don’t think only of cover-\ning your ass. \n 4. If you’re not comfortable with high voltage screaming, \nthen don’t be forced into doing it. Take the opposite tact. \nSpeak softly. \n 5. Be aware that some people will scream to get their way. \n 6. Sometimes people need to be heard. Try saying their \nexact words back to them to let them know you’re listen-\ning. If someone is screaming “This stage is too small,” \nyou might reply, “I understand you think the stage is \ntoo small. But if we move the monitors off the front of \nthe stage, reposition the drums, and slide the bass amp \na little to the left, we can make it work.” Make allies, not \nadversaries. Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n84 7. Avoid overstatements and generalizations in agitated \nconversation. “You never…” and “You always…” are \nparticularly off-putting.\n 8. Avoid confrontational poses. Don’t challenge others \nphysically.\n 9. An excellent way of bridging a confl ict with another \nperson is to query, “What would you like to see happen?” \n 10. Remember: None of this drama will make a single iota of \ndifference in another hundred years!\nTreat Everyone with Respect\nI received a breathless telephone pitch this morning from \na high-powered New York publicist who requested that I \ninterview her client, a hit songwriter of some repute, who \nhad penned huge hits back in his day and was now resur-\nrecting his career via a musical. Would I be interested \nin profi ling him for an article? I hesitated not a second. \n“No, I wouldn’t be interested,” I said.\nLet me tell you exactly why I rejected her proposal. \nWhen I fi rst came to Hollywood, I was a musician \nand songwriter eager to gain a foothold in the music \nbusiness. I had much more time than money, so I would \nvolunteer for non-profi t music organizations and work at \nevents where I could gain knowledge and make contacts. \nThis was not particularly glamorous work—driving \nacross vast stretches of a then-unfamiliar Los Angeles, \ndelivering promotional materials to music stores, lugging \nsound equipment, or taking telephone calls. But I did \nevery task asked of me with enthusiasm and energy. 85Later, when these organizations had budgets and a need \nfor additional staff, they hired me. \nBut back to this morning’s telephone call. As the \npublicist droned on about her client’s achievements, all \nI could remember was years ago when he was invited to \nspeak at an event where I was a volunteer. He showed \nup in a surly mood with a huge, unexpected entourage \nin tow. Nothing was right: The mineral water we’d \nprovided was the wrong brand, the temperature in the \nhospitality room was too cold, and the food was too \nsalty. He treated those of us who were working on the \nevent as his personal minions, and with his every pomp-\nous demand, lorded over us with his superiority. One \nfi nal note: We were in an historic meeting hall with “No \nSmoking” signs posted everywhere. When a member \nof his entourage lit up a cigarette and was subsequently \nasked to extinguish it, he did so by grinding the butt \nwith the heel of his boot into the priceless mahogany \nfl oor as he chuckled with amusement.\nAnd now, his representative is on the telephone, \npleading for me to write about him, and it is my distinct \npleasure to say, “No, thank you.” I do not have an \nagenda. I don’t stay up nights thinking of those who have \nwronged me. I think such energy is wasted and negative. \nHowever, I do play a very long game. So take this story \nas a word of caution, dear readers. Never step on toes \nconnected to an ass that you may someday have to kiss.Chapter 4 True TalesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n86Summary\nIn the music business, people don’t disappear, they sim-\nply reinvent themselves and change positions. Trust me, \nyour relationships will last much longer than any job you \nacquire, and you will see the same folks again and again. \nThe way they feel about you will determine your success. \nI’ll conclude this chapter with a quote from one of my \nall-time favorite interview subjects, who says it best.\n“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people \nwill forget what you did, but people will never forget how \nyou made them feel.” —Dr. Maya Angelou87CHAPTER 5\nMaking Contact\nNo other interaction has the intense dynamics of two \npeople together in the same room. Huge corporations \nwith every conceivable piece of technology for video \nconferencing and conference calls still prefer to send \nexecutives halfway around the world to close deals. The \nreason: Nothing has the impact of person-to-person \ninteraction. \nBody Language\nThe way you stand or sit makes an immediate and intui-\ntive impression on others. I can look at a classroom full \nof students and instantly identify which ones are recep-\ntive to my message and any who are resistant. Open \nbody language—standing with arms at the side and \npalms turned outward—refl ects an attitude of receptiv-\nity. Crossed arms or, when sitting, crossed legs, indicates \nresistance.Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n88When meeting others socially, your posture also \nprojects how you feel about yourself. When you’re out at \na club, who do you think people notice fi rst? The person \nwho is standing tall and straight or the one who looks \nlike he wants to crawl into his shell? It’s amazing how \nsomething as simple as good posture can make someone \nlook tall, slim, and most important, confi dent. And the \nconfi dent person is the one who gets noticed for all the \nright reasons.\nWhen we were children, we were told to walk with a \nbook on top of our heads to practice good posture. But \nnow posture starts with three activities we do every day: \nsitting, standing, and sleeping. Look at a mirror while \nstanding up straight. Check out which areas are prevent-\ning you from standing up straight. Are your shoulders \ncrouched; is your head down; is your back bent? \nStraighten out whatever is slouching and observe the \ndifference. Your ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles \nshould make one straight line. Now relax your shoulders \nand slightly bend your knees—you don’t want to look \nlike a robot.\nThe major part of maintaining proper posture is \nreminding yourself to stand and sit straight. And this is \nthe hardest part. Use these little tips to make sure you \ndon’t cheat: \nTell your friends. They can serve as your support \nsystem, and they will be glad to elbow you when you’re \ncaught slouching. \nUse Post-It notes. Put them in areas you see daily—\nyour medicine cabinet mirror, your rearview mirror, and \nyour computer monitor. 89Feel the results. Keep looking at the difference \nbetween a good posture and the one you see in the mir-\nror, to really visualize the work to be done.\nExercising often, especially your back and abs, and \nstaying disciplined will reap great physical rewards. With \ngood posture, you’ll look thinner and more confi dent. \nYou’ll have all the reasons in the world to stand tall and \nbe proud.\nGood Grooming\nWe telegraph the way we feel about ourselves to others \nthrough our physical presence. Good grooming is espe-\ncially critical for anyone in the entertainment business. \nPoor hygiene, bad breath, or dirty clothes all transmit \nlow-self esteem and a “who cares?” attitude.\nFor men, regular haircuts are recommended, but the \nmore subtle areas need not be ignored. If your eyebrows \nare bushy, have your haircutter trim them or have them \nwaxed at the local nail salon. It typically costs less than \n$10 and can make a marked difference in your appear-\nance. Regular teeth cleaning is a must for good dental \nhealth, and if your teeth are stained or dull, you might \nwant to consider the benefi ts of whitening them either \nwith an over-the-counter remedy like White-Strips or \nbetter yet, a custom-made tooth tray and gel provided by \nyour dentist. Beware the overly white, newscaster image, \nthough (we see plenty of that in Los Angeles). Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n90Clothes Horse\nTo be comfortable in any social situation, you fi rst have \nto dress for the occasion. Wear clothes that fi t well and \nare appropriate to the event. You want to feel good and \ncomfortable in them because it’s hard to mingle with \nconfi dence if you’re dressed inappropriately or your \nclothes are ill-fi tting. \nGiven the choice of being overdressed or under-\ndressed for an event, it’s always preferable to be a little \nslicker than the occasion calls for, rather than to be \nperceived as a slob.\nI am honored to attend the annual black-tie dinners \npresented by ASCAP and BMI to honor their top com-\nposers and songwriters. For the fi lm community, black \ntie means old-school tuxes, white shirts, and bow ties. \nFor the pop and R&B communities, the appropriate dress \nis deemed “creative black tie,” which means it’s OK to \naugment the traditional look with any number of creative \noptions, such as ties, hats, jewelry, and so on. I’ve also \nfound that a formal black suit works well instead of a tux.\nDo I ever see guests dressed inappropriately at these \nhigh-end Beverly Hills functions? Yes, I once saw a \nwell-known manager in a T-shirt., but he was accepting \nan award for Song of the Year on behalf of his client, \nso he could wear whatever he wanted. I regularly see \nanother million-selling songwriter, female, wearing a \ntuxedo T-shirt. At a recent dinner, when the rock group \nMetallica and singer/songwriter Jackson Browne were \nbeing honored, I noted that they were dressed to refl ect \nthe pride they felt in their milestone achievements.91Music business people are tribal. Living in \nHollywood, I’ve learned to let my instincts tell me when \nI’m in the presence of kindred spirits. The look is unstud-\nied cool, a lot of black, leather, retro, and vintage clothes. \nJewelry tends toward the severe with metallic chains \nand metal belts. Extreme hair colors come and go; facial \nhair styles for men—goatees, unshaven look, soul patch \n(the spot of hair just under the lower lip), and extended \nsideburns all serve the purpose of establishing cultural \nidentity.\nI always recommend wearing a conversation piece—\nunusual jewelry, a lapel pin, a tie, scarf, or any other \ndistinctive object—to give others the opportunity to \nbegin conversations with you. People are basically shy, \nand that strange little tchotchke on your jacket may be \nthe key to unlocking dialogue. “What an unusual piece. \nIs it vintage?” might be the opening of a conversation \nand the beginning of a profi table relationship. \nYour visual presentation is your trademark. If you’re \na musician, others should be able to tell what type of \nmusic you perform before you ever you play a note.\nUps and Downs in the Capitol Tower\nIt’s an iconic piece of architecture known around the \nworld. Looming over the intersection of Hollywood and \nVine, The Capitol Tower, home to Nat King Cole, Frank \nSinatra, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, is an enduring \nsymbol of Hollywood.\nI recall interviewing Roy Lott, who was then presi-\ndent of the label, in a palatial conference room with a Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n92panoramic view. As engaging as Mr. Lott was, what I \nremember most about the interview was the ride up and \ndown the tower in the elevator. As the elevator arrived at \nsuccessive fl oors, I was instantly signaled what depart-\nment we were in by the way the employees were dressed. \nFull-on suits, ties, and vests? The legal department and \nbusiness affairs. Edgy, L.A. hipster attire: publicity. \nEdgier and more outré still? A&R. Unkempt, casually \ndisheveled, and overly caffeinated? The musicians, of \ncourse, recording in Capitol’s fabled studios. With each \nsuccessive stop, the denizens were revealed to me by their \nattire. \nSimilarly, I was at a dinner party recently with a \ndistinguished, white-haired gentleman in a black wool \nturtleneck. “So you’re a jazz guy” I stated by way of \nintroduction. “You can tell?” was his reply. Yes. My \ninstincts and experience transmitted this to me, plus I \nsubconsciously read his attitude, energy, and creativ-\nity. What this gentleman had was a distinctive “look,” \nemblematic of jazz musicians. \nWhat we wear as music business professionals \nsimilarly transmits information about us to others. For \nexample, the obvious attire: T-shirts with names of \nbands or brands of equipment, events, or venues. When \nI fi rst joined a gym in Los Angeles (a prerequisite to liv-\ning here, I assure you), I would invariably work out with \na music biz T-shirt on, so others in the gym would begin \nconversations with me. It worked. A simple piece of \n“swag” (free merchandise) was an invitation for others to \ninteract.\nI know of a music publisher in Los Angeles, Justin \nWilde, whose company, Christmas and Holiday Music, 93dominates the seasonal market. I can always spot Justin \nat an ASCAP Membership meeting by his red and white \nSanta Claus hat. Not a subtle gesture. Is there any doubt \nwhat type of music he deals with? Alternative, hip-hop, \nand country all have their individual looks. It’s tribal. \nWhen we are introduced to another person, they \nmake an instant, instinctive judgment of us based on \nfactors relating only to looks. Therefore, in a music busi-\nness environment, it’s up to us to transmit the correct \ninformation. \nTen Visual Cues for Your “Look”\nConsider the following tips for achieving the right look.\n 1. Identify yourself with the appropriate tchotchke: a lapel \npin or something suitably subtle yet unique.\n 2. Extreme looks work in certain circles, but again, the goal \nis to attract others, not terrify them.\n 3. Watch out for the sex thing. I regularly attend a music \nbusiness conference in a mountainous western state \nwhere nubile, aspiring young female artists congregate \nto attract the attention of A&R reps from L.A. and \nNashville. If you’re doing music, don’t confuse the issue \nby wearing stage attire in the daytime that would be \nmore suitable for a lady of the night. It may well telegraph \na signal to the over-stimulated males of the species.\n 4. Casual does not mean dirty. \n 5. Ask your gay friends for help. Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n94 6. Watch source material, including entertainment televi-\nsion shows, videos, and magazine layouts in periodicals \nlike GQ, Details, or Vibe.\n 7. Let your look mirror you, not limit you. \n 8. We are not in a conservative, drab business. Don’t be too \ndull or conservative.\n 9. Make your look entertaining.\n 10. Learn what colors work best for you—clothes, like \nmusic, need to be in harmony. \nConversation Instigation\nIn researching the subjects I interview for magazine arti-\ncles, videos, and in-fl ight audio shows, I strive to acquire \na picture of the whole person, not what they project to \nthe record buying public or to an audience full of fans. \nI’ve learned that legendary trumpet player and \nfounder of A&M Records, Herb Alpert, is a noted sculptor \nand painter. Hit songwriter/producer Glen Ballard loves \nto talk about Italy, especially its art and cuisine. Leonard \nCohen is a Zen Buddhist, and heavyweight industry law-\nyer Donald Passman trains dogs. \nThey say in love opposites attract, but what draws us \ntogether as people are our similarities. We all come from \nsomewhere, have families, spouses or partners, children, \npets, homes. Human beings are complete packages, and \ntheir artistry and music is simply one part, which is quite \noften the direct result of a much larger picture. When 95meeting potential music industry contacts, concentrate \non who they are as people, not only how you perceive \nthem as musicians or business entities. Music people \ndon’t talk music all of the time. \nHaving a knack for expressing interest in others \nis what makes a good conversationalist. The ability \nto express thoughts and feelings eloquently is equally \nimportant. Including all people present is common \nsense, and the proportion of people who speak should \nbe in equal division. If three people are present and one \nperson dominates the conversation, he is not having a \nconversation—rather, he is giving a speech. \nTen Conversation Leaders\nBeing a good conversationalist requires being able to ask \nquestions as well as excellent listening skills. Here are \n10 leading questions you can ask without seeming pre-\nsumptuous or nosy.\n 1 . Are you originally from here? \n 2. What do you like best about living in this town?\n 3. Do you have many opportunities to travel? \n 4. Are you a fi lm buff?\n 5. What’s your latest favorite movie? \n 6. What are you listening to that I should know about?\n 7. Are there any great restaurants in this part of town?Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n96 8. What gym do you go to? \n 9. Are you a sports fan?\n 10. Do you have a dog or cat?\nAsk questions to encourage the other person to talk, \nand comment on their answers to continue the conversa-\ntion. Here are four types of comments you can make: \n 1. Expanding: “Tell me more, it sounds as if you had a great \ntime.”\n 2. Comparing: “That sounds as if it is similar to…”\n 3. Self-revealing: “I know what you mean. I was in a similar \nsituation last year.”\n 4. Clarifying: “What exactly did he do?”\nSmall talk, sure, but effective ice-breakers none the \nless. Note that I didn’t include questions about music (I’ll \nget to that soon enough), spouses/partners, or children. \nThere is no reason for anyone to take offense or feel like \nyou’re prying. Conversation is like a tennis ball being \nvolleyed back and forth across a net. Effective conver-\nsationalists know how to keep the conversation fl ying. \nInitiating it is considered a positive trait.\nAsking advice is a surefi re way to extend the conver-\nsation. If this doesn’t work, try asking for an opinion, but \nremember that your proper follow-up response is not to \nheartily agree nor to be argumentative.97Sensitive Areas\nAt a music business conference in Northern California, I \nwitnessed this uneasy interaction. One of the attendees, \nan Asian-American singer/songwriter, took understand-\nable offense when a clueless music publisher quizzed her \nwith, “So, what is your nationality?” The songwriter, of \ncourse, answered with a terse, “I’m an American.”\nAmericans come in many shapes, creeds, and colors, \nso many that the tired old phrase “All-American” needs \nto be expunged from our modern vocabulary for good. \nThis is not the so-denigrated “political correctness”—\nrather, it’s correctness. “Nationality” is not “ethnicity,” \nand besides, why would the above publisher need to \nknow this information? Simply because the songwriter \nhad (in the publisher’s estimation) Asian features? When \nI was managing a recording artist from Hawaii, I recall \nencountering the same rudeness. “What is he?” one \nmagazine editor said, squinting at his press photos. “A \nsinger who writes songs and records,” I answered. “No, \nyou know what I mean. What is he?” persisted the editor.\nIn a listening session at a conference, I was teamed \nup with a major record executive from one of the most \nprominent record labels in the world to evaluate live tal-\nent. One of the artists, a dynamic woman of considerable \npower, had the room shaking with her conviction. At the \nconclusion of her song, the exec asked only, “So, are you \nmarried?” The singer stood in disbelief at the inappro-\npriateness of his query.\nThe entertainment business is one of smoke and \nmirrors, and what is projected is often the image, not \nthe entire artist. That said, we cannot afford to make Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n98assumptions about others in our business based simply \non the way they appear to us. As the old saying goes, “If \nyou ‘assume,’ it makes an ass out of ‘u’ and ‘me.’”\nAssumptions to Avoid About Anyone to Whom You’re Introduced\nComing in contact with a variety of personalities is a \ntrademark of our business. What you see, however, is not \nalways what you get. Avoid making social gaffes based on \nassumptions regarding\n/L50480 Race\n/L50480 Age\n/L50480 Sexual preference\n/L50480 Political affi liation\n/L50480 Musical likes and dislikes\n/L50480 Religion\n/L50480 Marital status\nComplimentary Consideration\nOften when I’m conducting interviews, common names \nwill come up in conversation. During an interview with \nwriter/producer Billy Mann, who has seen phenomenal \nsuccess with artists including Jessica Simpson, Josh \nGroban, and many others, he referenced Pink’s guitar \nplayer, my friend Rafael Moreira. “Raf is amazing,” he \nsaid. As soon as the conversation was over, I called Rafael \nimmediately to let him know that Billy had spoken so \nhighly of him. A compliment once removed is doubly \neffective: It made Rafael feel good and also translated \ninto his feelings about Billy. Meanwhile, I’ll also benefi t \nbecause I passed on a positive message. Speak up; if you 99have a nice thought, by all means share it. You can often \ntell more about a person by what he says about others \nthan what others say about him. \nBut don’t share the negative stuff or pass it on, and \nplease, never say anything negative about any person \npresent. This is one lesson that I almost learned the \nhard way. Invited by the performing rights organiza-\ntion of a major composer, I attended a screening of the \nfi lm that he’d scored. As the end credits rolled, a ghastly \nsong almost obliterated the mood of the picture, a song \nso bad, in fact, that the composer whispered to the \nperforming rights organization’s spokesperson, who sub-\nsequently announced to the room, “The composer wants \nyou to know that he had nothing to do with choosing \nthis song.” Later that same week I was having lunch with \na fi lm agent who asked me, “Have you ever heard a piece \nof music in a fi lm that was so bad you couldn’t imagine \nwhy it was there?” Of course I began gleefully recounting \nthe story of the horrifi c song, but fortunately, as it turned \nout, omitting the crucial details. “Who wrote the song?” \ndemanded the agent. As I opened my mouth to respond \nI suddenly saw the songwriter I was about to malign rise \nup at the next table—just in time to avoid a serious faux \npas on my part.\nSimilarly, conversation shouldn’t be about someone, \neven in a group of close friends. If someone talks bad \nabout another person in public, they’ll probably bad \nmouth you as well. No matter how tempted you may \nbe to pass along a cutting comment or to join a group \ntalking badly about another person, don’t do it. It doesn’t \nrefl ect on anyone other than you, and it will make you \nlook bad. Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n100There are rarely regrets for what has not been said. \nPeople who speak easily often communicate too much, \nbut someone who doesn’t speak at all doesn’t add to the \nparty. In conversation, it’s best to aim for the middle—\nknow when to listen and when to carry. Many stories \nare best told briefl y and once only. More regrets are \nexpressed over what was said than what was not. \nIn ending a conversation, use exit lines because not \nonly do you need to say hello, you need to say good-bye. \nAn exit line will help you say good-bye gracefully and \nleave on a positive note. Don’t strive for cleverness, just \nbe sincere. You can simply say, “It’s been nice talking to \nyou,” “Good to see you,” “I hope to see you again soon,” \nor my personal favorite, “I’m gonna go work the room.” \nIf so inclined, shake hands good-bye or place your hand \nlightly on the other person’s shoulder to convey sincerity. \nRemembering Names\nWhen I ask a room full of participants at a seminar how \nmany of them have problems remembering names, I’m \nnot surprised when the majority raise their hands. One \nreason is that at the moment when someone we meet is \nsaying their name, we’re generally shaking their hand \nand our attention is diverted away from the sound. Here \nare three strategies for remembering names.\n 1. Examine a person’s face discreetely when you are intro-\nduced. Locate an unusual feature—prominent ears, a \nprecarious hairline, a projecting forehead, caterpillar-like \neyebrows, etc.—and create an association between the \ncharacteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. 101 2. Associate the person with someone you know with the \nsame name, or perhaps associate a rhyme or image from \nthe name with the person’s face or defi ning feature. The \nmore infantile the better; you don’t have to share this \nwith anyone else.\n 3. Repeat the individual’s name immediately after you hear \nit, and use it as often as possible without being obvious. \nIf the name is unusual, ask how it is spelled or where \nit comes from and, if appropriate, exchange cards. The \nmore often you hear and see the name, the more likely it \nis to sink in. Also, after you have left that person’s com-\npany, review the name in your mind, and make notes \nsurreptitiously in a notepad if you’re really working it.\nDid You Drop That Name?\nI remember reading review notes from a lecture at a \nmusic school accusing me of dropping names. OK, I \nadmit, it goes with the territory. I’ve programmed music \nheard on-board by the most powerful ruler of the free \nworld, interviewed virtually every major recording artist \nin the history of American pop music, and lectured for \nhalf a decade at a college founded by an ex-Beatle. Still, \nthe criticism hit home. I recall that the class to whom \nI was lecturing was not the most welcoming, and I was \nprobably using recognizable names to prove my credibil-\nity. In retrospect, I didn’t need to, since I’d written their \ntextbook.\nMany name droppers believe that if they are asso-\nciated with important people, you will be impressed. \nThey’re often gravely insecure about their own achieve-\nments, so they use others’ names to add to their esteem. Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n102After my scathing review, I’ve become more sensitive \nabout my own tendencies in this direction. (And I’ll ask \nClive, Alanis, Avril, Aretha, Britney, and Quincy to do \nthe same.)\nBusiness Cards\nIn this high-tech, digital world, there are few more eco-\nnomical ways of networking than passing out business \ncards. It is now possible to design and order business \ncards online, and in some instances you can even have \ncards made free. Whatever the method, your business \ncard can communicate many things about you, and here \nare some tips to presenting the proper picture. \n/L50480 Limit yourself to the business at hand. A card \nthat reads “Joe Jones, songwriter, recording artist, \ndog trainer, fortune teller, high colonic therapist” \nlacks a positive message about your commitment \nto your art and will not impress the recipient.\n/L50480 Simple is good; readability is essential. Check out \nbusiness card design samples online or at your \nlocal library for tips and examples.\n/L50480 If your career requires that you move often, con-\nsider having a blank line on which to hand write \nyour telephone number. \n/L50480 Keep the fonts simple, avoid the really grotesque \nones, and don’t crowd the information.\n/L50480 Do include e-mail and Web site info. \n/L50480 Refrain from crossing out numbers or addresses. \nGet new cards when any of your information \nbecomes obsolete. It’s a few dollars well spent.103The best time to pass out your card, obviously, is \nwhen someone asks you for it. Otherwise, offer it with an \neasy message. “Should you need to reach me for any rea-\nson whatsoever…” is a nice, low-key statement. Similarly, \nwhen you want someone else’s card, be direct but not \ndemanding. “What’s the best way for me to reach you?” \nis an excellent prod.\nWorking the Room\nNow it’s time: You’ve been invited to a music industry \nevent where you’re sure to meet some movers and shak-\ners. As you’re about to descend into a pressure-cooker \nenvironment, it is imperative that you prepare, mentally \nand physically, to present yourself in the best possible \nlight. “Working a room” is a variant of the art of min-\ngling, of blending into any given space containing groups \nof socializing people and becoming part of the action. \nMaking the transition from background to foreground, \nfrom intruder to “one of us” is no easy matter and \nrequires considerable fi nesse, especially in music circles. \nHere are some time-tested tips.\nArrive early and spend moments of solitary time \nin your car relaxing and preparing yourself for the \nmoment. If you’re late you will be in danger of giving off \nnegative, frantic energy, so having extra time to locate \nparking, elevators, entrances, restrooms, and escape \nroutes is advisable.\nI use this extra time to pump myself up. I might \nbegin by affi rmations, such as “I belong here” and “I’m \ngoing to be upbeat and charming.” A huge part of work-\ning any room is getting fear under control.Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n104I also review my objectives for the evening, whether \nit’s seeing old friends or, more likely, making new \ncontacts. Don’t be afraid of talking to yourself in prepa-\nration, of articulating your intentions out loud. \nI check my pockets to make sure the necessary tools \nare at hand. I always have an interesting and classy pen, \nplenty of fresh, non-dog-eared business cards in an \nappropriate holder, and a small notebook to jot down \nnames or details that I may need to refer to after I leave. \nBreath mints are a must. Also, if food is being served, \neither a toothpick or a fl oss stick that can be used surrep-\ntitiously in the restroom over the course of the evening \nis advisable. Nothing can negate a good impression like a \npiece of arugula sprouting through your teeth!\nGive yourself time when you enter the room. It’s fi ne \nto wait a while before striking up a conversation. We are \nsometimes so focused on ourselves that we are our own \nworst enemy, and often what people are most afraid of is \nsticking out like a sore thumb. Be easy on yourself. Learn \nto be alone for a while, and be comfortable. Assess the \ndynamics of the room and move around the perimeter. \nEnjoy the art, the buzz of conversation. Take away the \npressure by imagining that no one can see you. \nAnother advantage of early arrival is having an \nopportunity to meet the host or hostess and to enjoy the \nfood before the buffet gets mobbed and before you need \nto expend your energies on communicating rather than \nscarfi ng the free crab cakes. \nBe very aware of your reaction to alcohol. For some, \na drink or two can be very helpful in assuaging anxiety, 105but nothing can be more detrimental to creating a good \nimpression than being under the infl uence of demon \nliquor. A wine spritzer—wine diluted with soda water—\nmay be a good compromise. Pace yourself. \nPrepare to move on. Finding someone—anyone—to \ntalk to is the only goal of most crowd-phobic people. You \nwill be perceived as needy if you cling to the fi rst person \nwho says hello.\nA great method in working a room is to seek out \npeople who are standing alone. Introduce yourself, fi nd \nout why they are attending the event, and then offer to \nintroduce them to someone they might want to meet. \nRemember, if you walk into a room and you’re only there \nto take, people will pick up on that. But if you’re a person \nwho gives, it’s easy for others to give to you in return. \nFollow the 10-5 rule for meeting and greeting: If you \nmake eye contact with someone within 10 feet of you, \nyou must acknowledge them with a nod or a smile. At \nfi ve feet, you should say something—“Hello” or “Good \nevening.” Don’t pretend you don’t see them.\nI learned this next lesson the hard way. If fi ve people \nare in conversation, feel free to join them; four people, \nsure, walk right up; three, no problem. But beware: If \ntwo people are engrossed in conversation, unless you \nknow them very well, it is never permissible to intrude. \nOdds are, they’re discussing something private (maybe \neven you!).\nHave you ever been in conversation with some-\none who seems to fi nd whatever is over your shoulder \nmore interesting than you? Being a good listener is the Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n106most important part of being a great conversationalist. \nDon’t let your eyes wander. If the person you’re speak-\ning to does this, follow his stare with a wry comment, “I \nwanted to see what was so fascinating.”\nHidden Opportunities\nOne of the famous disadvantages of living in the hills of \nLos Angeles is that they sometimes tumble down. Such \nwas the case this winter, as a mountain of mud surged \nthrough my street on its inevitable, gravity-determined \npath. As I walked through the neighborhood survey-\ning the damage, I came upon my neighbor, who was \nspeaking with a couple who had recently relocated to the \nblock. As I was introduced to them, the male member of \nthe pair commented, “Jean [my neighbor] tells me I can \nhear you on United Airlines.” When I asserted that, yes, \nI did frequently voice shows for the in-fl ight entertain-\nment, he told me, “I’m in animation, and we always need \nvoices. Get me a CD and I’ll see what I can do.” How \ncool is that? From a mountain of mud shone a window of \nopportunity.\nI was reminded of a singer/songwriter friend of \nmine, Beth Thornley, whose songs can be heard on \nthe new DVD releases of Dawson’s Creek: Season 2 and \nRoswell and on episodes of The Chris Isaak Show, The \nNew Ride with Josh and Emily, the CBS fi lm It Must Be \nLove, and Book of Ruth. She tells of a serendipitous day \nwhen UPS delivered a color printer to her door that she \nhadn’t ordered. “I called UPS and said, ‘This isn’t mine,’” \nshe remembers. “‘Could you come back, pick it up, and \ndeliver it to the person whose address is just around the \ncorner and down the street?’” “They said, ‘If we do, we’ll 107charge you for shipping.’ I said, ‘OK, I’ll just take it.’” She \ncalled the rightful recipient, who came over to claim it, \nand he happened to be a music supervisor. “That was my \nRoswell placement,” says Thornley, “but it was a full year \ndown the road.”\nAfter that, Thornley recalls that she would often \nencounter him walking his dog, and he’d tell her what he \nwas working on. “Also, I did a version of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ \nfor another show that got canceled before they used it. I \nburned it to CD and asked him if I could drop it in his \nmailbox.” Thus began a tactic by which Thornley stayed \nin supervisors’ minds. “When I get done with something \nnice, I’ll burn a CD and drop it into the mail for them. \nThat keeps me in their thoughts between albums. I’m \nworking on my second album now, but I can get one \nthing down and send it out as a taste. This music super-\nvisor gave me that idea. I was close enough to hand it \nto him, but I thought, ‘Why not send it to everyone I \nknow?’”\nGranted, Thornley and I live in an entertainment \ncapital, but the point is that many things in our music \nworld happen as the result of simple, chance human \ninteractions. But you have to be ready to receive and \nrecycle the energy. If I was walking down my street angry \nand muttering at the watery fate that had mired my car, \nor if Beth Thornley felt put-upon by her chore, the same \nopportunities would not have happened.\nAny place can become an arena for meeting others. \nNeutral environments—airports, waiting rooms, and so \non—are perfect places to practice “Pop People Power.” \nYou have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Let \nyour instincts guide you, invent a reason to begin a Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n108conversation, and see where it may lead you. You could \nbe surprised.\nI often play a game when I’m waiting to catch fl ights, \nespecially to or from Los Angeles, London, New York, or \nNashville. I will spot the most interesting person in the \nwaiting area and focus my attention on them. Then, if \nand when the time is right, I will initiate a conversation. \nIt’s a fascinating way to pass the time, and I’ve made \ninnumerable contacts in my professional and personal \nlife in airports.\nPractice Makes Perfect\nJust as musicians study and practice musical instru-\nments, you also have to rehearse your networking chops \nand practice being open to others. You may be project-\ning your accessibility when you become aware if it. The \nfollowing communication came to me shortly after I \nconducted a networking seminar as part of an educa-\ntional series at a local music store.\nDear Dan,\nI attended your presentation at West LA Music in the \nvalley about a week and a half ago. I spoke with you \nbriefl y afterwards about being from Ohio. You might \nenjoy some feedback about your presentation.\nOne of the things you said that really stuck with me was \nthe idea of practicing the networking chops. The exam-\nple you used was talking to people on elevators. So, I \nhave been doing that since that night, just to practice \nbreaking the ice.109But here’s the cool thing that has been happening to \nme since I started: About half of the time, before I even \ninitiate the conversation, the other person starts talk-\ning to me. That has never happened before in my life, \nand now it’s happened about fi ve times in the last two \nweeks. The only thing I can fi gure is that my willingness \nto speak to the other person projects as openness, a \nquality that I didn’t used to express. I’m starting to get \na sense of how the process of networking really snow-\nballs.\nThanks again for taking the time out of your schedule to \nshare your experiences that night. I’m excited about this \nnew unexplored skill I’m starting to develop!\nMichael B.\nIt’s true, that your openness and willingness to com-\nmunicate to others can be felt, and you just never know. \nI’ll sometimes refl ect backwards, “If I hadn’t gone to that \nparty, been introduced to that person, had that conver-\nsation, and made that follow-up call, this opportunity \nwould have never existed.”\nSo get yourself out there; nothing happens if you \ndon’t. \nThe Fine Art of the Studio Hang\nIs there any place more intriguing than a recording \nstudio? Having come up in the mega-tracking rooms of \nNashville and New York, it was somewhat disconcerting \nto move to Los Angeles and fi nd myself in recording Chapter 5 Making ContactNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n110sessions taking place in renovated garages in the far \nreaches of the San Fernando Valley.\nThis was only a precursor of what was to come. \nToday, studios can be anywhere—in a home, a base-\nment, an unused bedroom, or even a bus. Hanging out \nin the studio, however, is still a time-honored tradition \nand requires a strict adherence to protocol. Following are \nsome tips for proper studio etiquette.\n 1. Never give your opinion unless you’re asked. There is a \nstrict hierarchy in the studio. The producer is in charge \nbut in service to the artist. If you are there as a guest, it is \nin everyone’s best interests, especially yours, that you not \ndisturb the chemistry. The producer knows exactly what \nhe or she is listening for in a take. Often it’s emotion \nversus technical perfection.\n 2. Stay visually engaged with those recording when they \ncome in for playback. Don’t read, check your e-mail, or \nact bored. Again, the chemistry in a session situation is \nsupercharged and, depending on the artist, can be very \nvolatile. Distractions or negativity can alter the fragile \nemotional parameters. \n 3. Pay attention to everything during tracking—be very \npresent. Look at the session as a learning experience and \ntake in everything. What changes is the engineer mak-\ning? How are the mics placed? What is the producer \ngoing for in the session? \n 4. Don’t set anything on the recording board or any other \nequipment—ever. This should be self-explanatory, \nbut a drink spilled into a console could render a price-\nless piece of gear inoperable. At the Liverpool Institute 111for Performing Arts (LIPA) where I’ve lectured, they \nmaintain a hard and fast rule that no beverages of any \nkind are permitted in the studio. The only exception \nI observed was the popping of a champagne bottle to \nchristen “The Sir George Martin Studio.” The fact that \nSir George himself was sipping the bubbly made it OK. \n 4. If confl icts arise, make yourself invisible. Making your-\nself invisible also comes in handy so you don’t distract \nany of the recording personnel. Don’t announce your \narrival and departure; rather, slip into the room and \nascertain the vibe fi rst. If you have to slip out, do so \nunnoticed. \n 5. Don’t distract the talent with needless chatter. Vocalists \nare notoriously temperamental. Loading them up with \nyour opinions, ideas, or suggestions could blow their \nconcentration. Non-verbal communication may be your \nstrongest option. Again, be very positive and supportive, \nif only through eye contact and a smile. Chapter 5 Making Contact112CHAPTER 6\nTelephone and E-Mail\nCell phones, computers, BlackBerries (portable digital \ndevices that can send and receive digital and telephone \ncommunications), and whatever might be developed \nby the time you’ve fi nished reading this chapter are \nall mechanisms that should be integrated into your \nnetworking strategy of communication.\nDifferent methods of communication work for dif-\nferent individuals, and timing of your communication \ncan be as crucial as access. Below is a common scenario \nthat happens when you try to communicate with busy \npeople. \nDear Dan,\nI recently met a major music industry player who was \nkind enough to give me his card. I’ve been calling his \noffi ce ever since then, and I haven’t been able to get a \nhold of him. His receptionist keeps saying he’s either 113not there or is “in a meeting.” What can I do to get \nthrough to him? Should I keep on calling?\nPuzzled in Pacomia\nOK, this is easy: No, don’t keep calling; change media. \nIf calls don’t work try, e-mail; if e-mail doesn’t work, send \na fax; if a fax doesn’t work, send a card or letter. \nIt’s diffi cult to understand the realities and demands \nof those with whom we communicate. Speaking from \nmy own experience, when I’m on a writing deadline, a \ntelephone call from someone who is not communicating \nabout the matters at hand is usually an unwanted intru-\nsion. At these times an e-mail is preferable because it’s \nsomething I can respond to on my own terms and time.\nSometimes the opposite is true—I’m tired of writing, \ndon’t want to read e-mail, would love to stand up from \nthe computer, and could use a distraction. At these \nmoments I welcome calls. \nBut when something isn’t working for you, don’t \ncontinue to try to bludgeon your contacts. Simply try \nanother avenue.\nThe Telephone\nNext to human contact, the telephone is probably the \nmost intimate method of communication. Think about \nit: You’re right in someone’s ear when you’re speaking. \nThe sound you project on the phone is just one element \nof your communication. Like all other networking \nstrategies, effective telephone communication is Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n114determined by the ability to read the emotions and \nthoughts of the person on the other end of the line, not \nsimply talking at them. \nIn my fi rst year in Los Angeles, as I struggled to gain \na foothold in the music business and needed to fi nd \nother ways to pay the rent, telephone work—surveys, \nsales, soliciting—was a time honored method of mak-\ning money for musicians and struggling actors. Whereas \nmost of my co-workers resented these jobs, I found them \nfascinating because I learned so much about human \nnature by way of the intimate communication. Many of \nthe skills I developed and use to this day were honed by \nmaking thousands of calls to people who initially had no \ndesire to speak to me. It was wonderful training for the \nfuture, and I’ve never hesitated to make an outgoing call \nsince. \nSound\nThe actual sound you make on the telephone should be \nwell modulated and pleasing to the ear. Take cues from \nthe person with whom you’re speaking. Research indi-\ncates that if you talk just a little faster than the person \nwith whom you’re conversing, you’ll be considered more \nintelligent. Certainly this is a challenge if you’re talking \nto someone in New York City, but try listening to, and \nthen matching, the rhythms of the person on the other \nend of the line. \nEating, drinking, lip smacking, or being too close to \nthe phone are all negative signals.115Refl ections of Power\nThe true power brokers who use the telephone use a \ntime-honored trick: They have mirrors within close \nproximity, positioned so that they can see themselves \nspeaking, to remind themselves to smile on the tele-\nphone. Try it: A smile can actually be heard. Also, to \nproject energy and forcefulness into a telephone conver-\nsation, stand up when you make the call.\nThe best times to make calls in the music business \nare Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, preferably \nbefore lunch. It’s most effective to make groups of calls \nall at once, to psyche yourself into a frame of mind where \nall you’re doing is making calls and not diluting your \nenergy by breaking up the fl ow.\nMake business calls during business hours. If I \nreceive a call at my offi ce on weekends (yes, I’m often \nhere but don’t always answer), it telegraphs to me that \nthe person making the call is a “part-timer” and cer-\ntainly not a music business professional. Similarly, if I’m \nconsidering working with a prospective client and they \ncall me at night, on weekends, or on holidays, it makes \nme not want to become involved because it tells me that \nthey won’t respect my privacy or my time.\nBegin by telling your callee the purpose of the con-\ntact. “Let me tell you why I’m calling,” is always helpful. \n“Here’s the situation,” is another effective intro. “I’ll be \nbrief,” prepares your contact with the knowledge that it’s \nnot going to be a lengthy encounter. You need to script \nyour call—not word for word, but outline any main \npoints you need to include. Then get right to the point. \n“I have four things to discuss with you,” will show the Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n116recipient of your call that you’re organized and ready to \ndo business. “How are ya?” is a cliché and should never \nprecede a conversation with someone you don’t know \nwell.\nA time-honored basic business rule is this: If you \nmake the call, it’s your responsibility to end the call \nbecause the person who makes the call is always in the \ndriver’s seat. Many heavy-duty executives make only out-\ngoing calls.\nTelephone Basics\nPeople are enthralled by the sound of their own names. \nYou’ll need to address the person you’re speaking to by \nname approximately once per minute to hold their atten-\ntion. Don’t talk at people, and listen not only to words, \nbut to the emotions behind them. If the person you’ve \ncontacted sounds harried, harassed, or as if on a dead-\nline, be sensitive to this, and ask for a future telephone \nappointment with something like, “When would be a \ngood time for us to speak?”\n“I’m just calling to touch base with you” is a state-\nment that never fails to elicit a response from me, and \nnot a good one. It tells me that the caller has no real \ninformation to impart, that they’re probably trolling me \nfor information, and that they’re playing some arcane \ngame where, for no apparent reason, I have been desig-\nnated the base. Never call someone without something \nspecifi c to say. Let them know clearly the purpose of the \ncommunication, and not simply some vague notion of \n“It’s been a long time since we spoke.” Maybe there’s a \nreason for that. If you’re calling to “touch base” with me, 117then we are playing a game. But I make the rules—and \nyou’re out.\nIf you’re receiving an incoming call of importance, \nmove away from your computer so you won’t be tempted \nto check your e-mail while you’re on the phone. Yes, I \nknow, it’s a multi-tasking world, but transmitting the \ntell-tale clicking of a computer while you are supposedly \nconcentrating on a telephone conversation will project \ninsincerity. Also, kill the background music, relegate \nrambunctious children to another area, and dismiss yip-\nping dogs from the room when making outgoing calls. \nMusic biz execs have key staff members to defl ect \ncalls, and you’ll generally encounter a gate-keeper. This \nis an opportunity for outreach. Introduce and ingrati-\nate yourself to key staff, because often your access to the \nboss will be determined by your persuasive techniques \nwith these subordinates. Don’t try to con or bully them; \nit won’t work. Tell a short version of your story; explain \nbriefl y exactly why you’re calling. When I had a recep-\ntionist working for me, she would often intervene on \nbehalf of a caller who had made repeated attempts to get \nthrough, and I always heeded her advice.\nTelephone Tracking\nHaving lists of people to call has proven to be very \neffective for some savvy networking folks: an “A” list of \ncontacts to be spoken to weekly, a “B” list of bi-weekly \ncontacts, and a “C” list of associates to be contacted on a \nmonthly basis. Although you can invent reasons to call \npeople, this invariably works best if it has some basis in Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n118fact. “I saw an article that made me think of you,” is an \neffective ice-breaker.\nIt’s helpful to take notes on conversations to avoid \nrepeating yourself and to recall details of specifi c inter-\nactions. Mega Hollywood execs often have an assistant \nlistening in on the line to do just this. \nCell Phones: Antennas of Satan?\nHas there ever been a device invented that is so conve-\nnient yet so utterly abused as the ubiquitous cell phone? \nI won’t add to the chatter on this matter other than to \nsay that I’ve had a cell phone for many years, and that \nI was possibly as irritating when I fi rst got it as many \nof the folks I currently witness. Of course, back then it \nwas a novelty. Today, everyone from children to drug \ndealers are plugged in and chattering away, usually clue-\nlessly. Not only is using a cell phone no longer impressive \nin any way (unless it’s some incredibly new modern \none), but when it is used for that reason, the user can \nbe immediately identifi ed as a neophyte and a poseur. \nA new term, “absent/present,” has been coined to iden-\ntify compulsive cell phone users and the phenomenon \nwherein an individual is there physically, but far away in \nconversation. It invariably throws off our sense of com-\nmunication since we are isolated from those wired into \ntheir phones.\nPeople with whom I work may call me whenever \nand however they wish. But when my fi rst telephone \ncontact with someone who calls me is via cell phone, it \nsets off a red fl ag. For instance, if I receive a call from an \nunknown party who uses a cell phone between the hours 119of 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p .m., I assume that they’re work-\ning a “straight” job and are using their lunch hour to \nmake personal—or in this case, allegedly professional—\ncalls. This thought process invariably distracts me, and I \ncan’t take them seriously. Not a good fi rst impression to \ngive. \nIf someone I know in passing calls me from their cell \nphone, I surmise that they’re in circumstances where \nthey need to kill time and are using me to do so. Again, \nnot good. Am I an afterthought? Did a tiny piece of pro-\ntoplasm with the image of my face on it fl oat through \nsomeone’s consciousness? \nI sometimes receive calls where the fi rst thing I hear \nis the roaring of traffi c. Has the 101 freeway called me? If \nI’m getting a call from the driver of a car, it’s an immedi-\nate turn-off and tells me it’s someone who has chosen \nto jeopardize others’ lives for the sake of their own con-\nvenience. (In England and Japan, talking on the phone \nwhile driving is a punishable offense. Not so in L.A.) \nCell phones are not even telephones—they’re radios, \nand they sound crummy. To a sonically oriented person \nsuch as myself, it’s irritating, and as such, calls are lost \nand dropped. Nothing infuriates me so much as when \nsomeone calls me on a nasty, buzzy cell phone, bellows \ninto it, and then drops the call. I generally don’t answer \nwhen they call back and instead let my voicemail pick \nup. Also, unless absolutely imperative, I won’t make out-\ngoing calls to numbers that I recognize as cell phones \nunless absolutely necessary.\nIf you’re forced by circumstances to make an outgo-\ning call and you have no option other than to use your Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n120cell phone, please excuse yourself immediately when the \ncallee answers. “I’m so sorry to have to call you on the \ncell, but you asked me to contact you at noon, and this \nwas the only way.” Then proceed with the call, hopefully \nmaking it brief. Brevity is the key. Elongated conversa-\ntions on the cell are a strain. I can tell if someone is \ncalling me from a cell because of the artifi cial way they \nare talking—the dreaded “cell yell.” If your signal is \nweak, speaking louder won’t help, unless of course the \nperson is actually within earshot.\nHowever, used effectively, the cell phone can be \na marvelous device. I was representing a band and \nattempting, quite unsuccessfully, to book them into a \nlocal hot spot. I’d sent the press kit and CD, of course, \nbut had been unable to contact the booker in person to \ndo the all-important follow-up, so I decided to take more \nimmediate action. \nOne afternoon, I parked in the venue’s parking lot \nand, using my cell phone, made a call to the club and \nasked for the booker. When I received the “He’s not \navailable,” rebuff, I determined that he was actually \nthere. I’d dressed for the occasion in music biz garb: a \nnice sport jacket over an industry T-shirt, well-buffed \nshoes, and I carried a briefcase. I presented myself to \nthe receptionist and announced that I was there for a \nmeeting with the booker. Sure enough, he quizzically \nventured out to greet me, invited me back to the offi ce, \nand we sat down for business. He ended up booking the \nband, and it was the beginning of a lucrative, long-term \nrelationship with a very happening club.\nIn retrospect, I think the booker might have imag-\nined that we’d arranged this meeting and that he’d 121forgotten it. When using these types of tactics to get in \nfront of the individuals you need to get to, it’s important \nthat your motives and mechanisms remain transparent. \nIf I’d begun our meeting by guffawing, “Hah, I fooled \nyou!” it’s doubtful that I would have been able to book \nthe band. Indeed, I may have gotten booted out the door. \nBut selling is selling, whether it’s music or cars, and \ngetting to the buyer is the fundamental fi rst step. In this \ncase, the cell phone confi rmed the booker’s presence for \nme.\nCell Phone Etiquette\nTo avoid unfortunate confrontations with others, you \nmight want to observe a few basic rules of cell phone \netiquette.\n/L50480 Think of your phone as a portable answering \nmachine. When you’re in an appropriate place—a \nparked car, outside of a restaurant, etc.—you can \nreturn calls.\n/L50480 If you simply must be available for a caller, put \nyour phone on “vibrate” mode if you’re in any \nnon-private place. \n/L50480 Practice speaking in a quiet conversational tone. \nIf no one looks your way while you’re speaking \non your cell phone, you’ve got it. This is the only \nacceptable tone of voice.\n/L50480 If you forget both “off” and “vibrate,” and your \nphone rings in any non-private place, turn it off \ninstantly (and as unobtrusively as possible so \nnobody will suspect you are the jerk responsible). \nNo matter what: Don’t answer.Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n122Do you really want to be available all the time? Does \nthat truly make you more productive, or does it just \nspread your productivity thinner over more time? A \ncell phone is a wonderful tool, but it’s also a leash. Cell \nphone conversations interfere with the person-to-person \ncontact that you might otherwise enjoy. The random \nconversation you might have with a person while wait-\ning in a line, a stranger you might encounter and interact \nwith, is instead being supplanted by the impersonal 24/7\naccess everyone has to you.\nE-Mail\nWhat did we do before e-mail? I fi nd that in my world, \nmy phone calls have probably dropped in volume by half \nin the past couple of years, while e-mails have increased \ndramatically. E-mail will never take the place of the tele-\nphone or an in-person contact, but it’s a terrifi c way to \nkeep in touch with both business and personal contacts. \nBy checking my e-mail at an Internet café in Istanbul, \nI was once able to secure a valuable writing gig that \nrequired me to make an immediate response. \nE-mail cannot, however, transmit much emotion or \nenergy. Also, humor may fall fl at, and sarcasm is almost \nimpossible to convey. Here are some brief guidelines for \ncomposing your e-mail messages.\n/L50480 Check that you’re sending e-mail to the correct \ndestination. Horror stories abound about those \nwho have inadvertently sent e-mail communica-\ntions to their bosses, enemies, etc. \n/L50480 Watch out for “funny” jokes or cute stories. You \nmight send these to your friends or family, but 123they have no place in business. Ditto for warn-\nings about “scams” or messages about a virus \nthat is supposed to devour everyone’s hard drives \nor the United States government’s dismantling of \nNational Public Radio. Check www.snopes.com \nfor Urban Folk Tales fi rst. \n/L50480 Avoid attachments if you can—better to cut and \npaste in the body of an e-mail than to include some-\nthing that your recipient may not be able to open. \n/L50480 Messages should be concise and to the point. \nThink of it as a telephone conversation, except \nthat you are typing instead of speaking. Keep in \nmind that some people receive hundreds of e-mail \nmessages per day.\n/L50480 If something is important, it should be refl ected in \nyour text, not in your punctuation. Don’t use !!!!! \nor ALL CAPS. \n/L50480 In the quest to save keystrokes, users have traded \nclarity for confusion: “FYI” and “BTW” are OK, \nbut don’t overuse acronyms—write out every-\nthing else.\n/L50480 Use :-) and similar symbols (a.k.a. “emoticons”) \nsparingly, if at all.\n/L50480 In casual introductions, you can probably bypass \nthe standard formalities, and just use something \nlike “Dear Edward,” or just “Edward.” In the busi-\nness realm, things are much more complicated, so \neach situation will need to be evaluated on its own. \nIf you normally address a person as Miss/Mrs./\nMs./Mr., then address them identically in e-mail. \n/L50480 If your e-mail address is a business address, \ninclude your title and company name in the sig-\nnature, because in the e-mail world letterheads are \nnot used. Always include your telephone number \nsomewhere in your e-mail. Chapter 6 Telephone and E-MailNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n124E-mail is a conversation that does not require an \nimmediate response. If a hundred people send you \ne-mail in one day, so what? You won’t have to talk to \nthem, so just think of all the hellos, good-byes, and \nother unnecessary chit-chat you’ve avoided. With e-mail \nyou deal only with essentials, and you deal with them \non your own time. That’s the blessing; the curse is that \nit’s impersonal and cold, and cannot transmit energy, \nenthusiasm, or warmth. Like any other networking tool, \ne-mail is simply one component of a much larger picture. \nIt will never supplant the power of one-on-one commu-\nnication, but it can support it. 125CHAPTER 7\nComing up through the ranks of popular music, we are \noften so intent on putting ourselves out there, trying to \nmake ourselves known and recognizable, that we leave \nlittle air in the room for breathing. I learned long ago \nthat the most powerful position to come from is not \nwhen you’re pitching, but when someone requests some-\nthing from you.\nWe have much more control over this than we might \nimagine. When I was managing artists, I ascertained \nthat I would encounter immediate resistance if I tried to \npush the artists into people’s faces with a heavy-handed \nagenda. Often the opposite tack—a soft sell—worked \nfar better. Describing the artists I was handling in non-\noff-putting terms or showing a press photo or a logo or \nwearing a merchandise T-shirt with the artists’ image, \nI would be questioned, “Who is that?” When I would \nexplain (with a short pre-engineered “sound bite”), I \nwould invariably be asked, “May I get a press kit and \nCD? I’d love to hear what you’re up to.”Creating Effective Tools \nof the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n126Press Kits\nLike most music biz professionals, I get a sixth sense \nabout artists from their presentation; sometimes, in fact, \nI can tell the quality of the music even before I open the \nenvelope containing their press kit. How? First I look at \nthe envelope it comes in. Is it fi nger-printed, dirty, or \ndog-eared? Odds are, the music is equally a shambles. \nHas it been addressed to “Dear Journalist?” Not a good \nsign. And since the magazines I write for change location \noften, has the sender checked the address before mail-\ning, or is it arriving with a forwarding mail notice on the \nfront?\nAll of these are signs I look for before I open the \npackage. Once I do begin to open it, I note the ease in \ndoing so. Will I need a machete to tear through the lay-\ners of tape holding the envelope closed? As I pull out a \npackage, I inevitably recall the enterprising recording \nartists who packaged a press kit with handfuls of glit-\nter that subsequently embedded themselves in the plush \ncarpeting of my offi ce. I discovered remnants of their \npresentation for months after, and it always reminded \nme of them, but not with love.\nYou need to tailor-make your press kit according to \nwhom you’re sending it. I’ve heard managers and record \ncompany A&R personnel swear up and down that a \nfancy press kit isn’t necessary. As a journalist, I appreci-\nate a well-written bio, succinct press clippings, and a \nprofessional photo—either color or black and white—\nsuitable for scanning and inserting in a magazine. It’s a \nnice touch to have downloadable, high-resolution photos \non your Web site as well.127Keep your presentation envelope size standard. An \ninteresting, eye-catching color is permissible if the music \nis equally colorful. Also, use standard fi rst-class mail. \nNothing predisposes me to not like a band more than \nwaiting in an interminable post offi ce line to pick up \na mystery package that requires my signature. Keep in \nmind that most post offi ce box addresses do not accept \nUPS or FedEx, so check before mailing.\nThe Folder\nAt any given moment, I have an identical stack of black \nglossy folders sitting on my desk. Do you know what’s \nin them? Well, neither do I, since there is nothing on \nthe cover in the way of identifi cation. Without a logo, \na sticker, or something on the front of your folder, the \nrecipient has nary a clue as to what it contains. The \nfolder doesn’t have to be extravagant, although color-\ncoordinating it with other materials in your press kit will \ndisplay a sense of unity. And unity is the most important \nconcept to grasp when putting together a press kit. All \nof the visual elements have to reinforce and refl ect the \nmusic because odds are it will be heard as the recipient is \nreading the enclosed materials.\nThe Cover Letter\nFor cover letters, short, sweet, and to the point is the best \nadvice. Professional-looking letterhead and good-quality \npaper will help you achieve a positive impression. Tell \nthe reader who you are and especially why you’re sending \nthe enclosed materials. If you’re sending to a journalist, \nlet her know that you’re hopeful of a review. If you’re Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n128sending to a club booker, your materials should include \ninformation pursuant to your live show. A generic letter \naddressed to “Dear Sir/Madam” is not suffi cient. Spell \nout the name of the person you’re addressing and be sure \nto render their title correctly.\nBe sure to include all of your contact information on \nevery piece of material you submit: name, address, tele-\nphone number, e-mail, and Web site.\nA CD or DVD\nIf you have a fully produced CD, it will no doubt be \nincluded in your presentation kit, of course. Depending \non to whom you’re submitting, you may want to limit \nyour exposure. For A&R at record labels or a music pub-\nlisher, for example, three songs should be suffi cient. If \nthe listener wants to hear more, he can always request \nadditional material from you, which is a good position \nfor any fl edgling band or artist to be in. \nA video presentation is great for certain artists but \na dicey proposition for others because a tacky, sub-par \nperformance video can diminish the viewer’s opinion \nof the band or artist substantially. However, I’ve seen \nimpressionistic, arty videos that mirror the music, and \nthese can be effective. Just like the CD, it may not be \nnecessary to deluge your contacts with too much infor-\nmation. If you have a video, you may want to reserve it as \nsupport material for further down the line.129The Bio\nI have probably written over 300 artist bios in my career. \nMany times harried journalists have cut corners by \nappropriating the exact words I’ve written in a bio into \nan article. This is totally acceptable, of course; I create \nbios as works-for-hire for a fee, and I don’t maintain \ncontrol over them once they leave my computer. \nI maintain that a bio is the cement that holds a press \nkit together. Your bio should\n/L50480 Create an identity.\n/L50480 Defi ne a musical style.\n/L50480 Lead the reader directly to the music.\nRecording artists, songwriters, performers, and pro-\nducers all benefi t from well-written bios. “Send your \nmusic, bio, and picture” is usually the fi rst request from \nsomeone interested in your talents. If you don’t have \nmajor credits, your bio can spotlight personalities, histo-\nries, and creative processes. The bio must be honest, but \nthe truth should also sound as good as possible. Never \nmistake hype for substance. Such key phrases as “eagerly \nanticipated” and “critically acclaimed” always set off my \nB.S. meter. Beware the hackneyed cliché, the imprecise \nmetaphor, the goofy, strained adjective. “Unique” means \nnothing to me. “Joe Jones is a brilliant artist” doesn’t \nshow, it tells. “Sue Smith is destined for stardom” is lame \nand off-putting. The bio must lead the reader to his own \nconclusions. Telling a reader what to feel or think may \nlead to the exact opposite impression. Double check for \nproper punctuation, grammar, and spelling.Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n130Stating the style of music the artist creates in a bio \nis a necessity. “We don’t like being pigeon-holed” is a \ncomplaint I hear often from young bands and artists. \nGuess what? There is a reason that retail CD stores have \ncategories for music; otherwise buyers would never know \nwhere to look. \nA bio is not a résumé, where specifi c information \nis required and a certain format is followed. There are \nno hard and fast rules, though there are things to be \navoided. Your bio is what the stranger who is listening \nto your demo for the fi rst time is holding in his or her \nhand. Make it refl ective of who you are as an artist. Be \ncreative. A well-written bio can make the listener want to \nhear your music. It can even affect the way someone lis-\ntens, causing them to listen a little more closely or to be \nmore inclined to give you the benefi t of the doubt.\nOne of my pet peeves is reading an artist’s bio that \nincludes something along these lines: “Susie Stiletto \ncombines the sensitivity of Joni Mitchell fused to the \naggressive lyricism of Alanis Morissette, combined with \nthe melodicism of Sheryl Crow.” I know how I feel about \nthese artists, but dropping their names in as a compari-\nson doesn’t really tell me anything about “Susie Stiletto.” \nShe’d certainly need to be a mind-blowing, powerhouse \nartist to rank comparison to this triumvirate. \nDo not include facts that don’t have to do with the \nmusic. For instance, it may be pertinent to say you ride \nhorses if you have songs about horses or have written \nsongs while riding horses or can draw some correlation \nbetween horses and music. Otherwise, leave those horses \nin the pasture. Information about your educational \nbackground, work experience, broken marriage, prison 131term, or dysfunctional childhood should be referenced \nonly as it relates to the music. \nIf you’re an artist, you probably know how diffi cult it \nis to be objective about your music and career. You’d be \nwell advised to ask a local journalist to write your bio for \nyou. The length is usually one page. If you’ve got a fasci-\nnating history and it’s extremely well written, a one and \na half to two-page bio is permissible. $150–$350 is the \nstandard rate in Los Angeles. Be involved in the writing \nprocess—you can ask for drafts and rewrites.\nAs a journalist, I receive an average of 15 to 20 major \nor indie label press kits weekly. There is no singular bio \nstyle that is appropriate for all of these artists. A seeth-\ning, pierced, neo-punk aggregation and a soothing, \ncerebral new-age artist can’t possibly share the same \nmetaphors. Your bio must speak in the same voice as \nyour music.\nFollowing is an example bio.\nLuis Villegas — Bio\nEach of Luis Villegas’ label releases has revealed the \nunfolding artistry of a master guitarist and composer. \nNow, Casa Villegas (Baja/TSR) marks his debut as \na producer. “I had a dual life, not only writing and \narranging the songs, but fi guring out what instru-\nments to use, setting up the sessions, and booking \nthe studio,” says Villegas. He had the bases covered \nuntil the night before his initial session. “I’d forgotten \nto book the musicians,” he laughs. Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n132It’s clear that Villegas and his tight-knit com-\nmunity of world-class players were ready for the \nchallenge that began this two-month recording pro-\ncess. With Villegas’ blistering nylon-string guitar at \nthe forefront, Casa Villegas marks a breathtaking \nmusical odyssey from the gritty streets of the city \nto the sunswept plazas of Spain, across the plains \nof Morocco to the ancient temples of India. Middle \nEastern percussion and Indian tabla provide an aural \nbackdrop as African bata drums mesh with congas \nand timbales in a wealth of musical cultures. \nThe rhythms of East Los Angeles, Villegas’ \nbirthplace, fuel the opening song, “Bienvendos,” \n(Welcome) and the Latin/jazz grooves of “Whittier \nBlvd.” Two songs featuring vocals by lyricist/vocal-\nist José Garcia balance the instrumental mix—”Ojos \nVerdes” was inspired by Luis’s daughter, Krista, while \n“Mujer Enamorada” is dedicated to his wife, Gloria. \n“She’s in love with life and living,” Luis says, “I told \nJosé, ‘Write some lyrics that go with that,’ and he hit \nthe nail on the head.”\nEach song on the album is framed as a distinctive \nvignette. “I didn’t want to be limited to my live instru-\nmentation,” explains Luis, who used violin, a horn \nsection, keyboards, and additional guest vocalists. \nSonic minimalism is illustrated in the austere simplic-\nity of “Recuerdos de Jerz” featuring fl amenco singer \nMaria Benjumeda, and “Jaleo,” a song with only two \nguitars and percussion. Both recall a golden period \nVillegas spent in Spain. “It’s a feeling that you’re \nstanding right in front of the street musicians on the \nbanks of the Guadalquivir River.”133Villegas channels a rhythmic physicality into \n“From the Heart,” and a gentle samba groove informs \n“Brazilian Magic.” Inspired by the transcendent tex-\ntu res of I ndi a n m usic, “ Ka m a S utra ” co n j u res u p a \nfrenetic mystic whirlwind of Villegas’ guitar and \nCharlie Bishart’s violin.\nNew audiences were introduced to Villegas via his \nprevious album, Spanish Kiss (Baja/TSR) as the single \n“La Reyna” landed on Smooth Jazz play lists coast \nto coast. Corresponding appearances at high profi le \nf e s t i v a l s , i n c l u d i n g t h e C a t a l i n a J a z z T r a x F e s t i v a l , \nThe Playboy Jazz Festival, and The Sedona Hot Latin \nJazz Festival, sealed his reputation as a blistering live \nperformer, while tracks from his debut CD, Café Olé\n(Domo), landed in Warner Bros., HBO, Sundance, and \nWarren Miller fi lms. On record, he can be heard on \nGuitar Greats Volumes I and II (Baja/TSR); Music for \nthe Spirit , Volumes I, II, and III (Domo); Tabu Mondo \nFlamenco (Narada); the Lost & Found soundtrack \n(Capitol); and Gypsy Magic (EMI/Virgin).\nA s h i s e v e r - g r o w i n g b o d y o f w o r k r e fl ects his \nmusical maturation as a guitarist, composer, and \nproducer, his themes mirror his real life as a husband \nand father. Although this time out his creative geog-\nraphy is charted with a global compass, the music \nalways comes home to Casa Villegas .\nYour Photo\nPhotos for newspapers and magazines can be transmit-\nted electronically, For most uses, low-resolution shots \nare fi ne, but for magazines you’ll need a high-resolution Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n134photo. Having more than one shot is ideal, and a live pic-\nture of a band can generate more energy and vibe. Also, \nhaving a selection of black-and-white and color shots for \nspecifi c uses is an excellent calling card. For your press \nkit, however, limit yourself to one defi ning shot. Don’t \npose in front of branches and trees that appear to grow \nout of your head, and make sure the shot conveys the \nexact attitude of your music.\nFull-Court Press\nThere are many types of media, and each one is very spe-\ncifi c regarding its needs. Before contacting any member \nof the press, you need to have a focused strategy.\nAre you currently performing? If so, press releases \nand calendar notices to print media should be sent well \nin advance. Monthly publications will need pertinent \ninformation up to two months in advance of the publica-\ntion date, weekly publications need at least two weeks, \nand dailies need at least a week in advance.\nMany major publicists prefer to work press concur-\nrent with a tour. If you’re doing it for yourself, compile \npress lists and contacts for each city you’re visiting, con-\ntact the press well in advance, and always follow up.\nDo you have a story? The press always prefer an \n“angle,” but it can’t be something artifi cial, corny, or \ncontrived.\nNational press is extremely hard to come by and \nwon’t do you any good if the reader can’t immediately 135go to a familiar Web site or a retail outlet and pick up a \ncopy of your CD.\nPress is cumulative: The more you get, the more the \npress will be interested in what you’ve got to offer. \nInclude a cover letter and state exactly why you’re \nsending information. Make sure that the person to \nwhom you’re sending your info is still at the publication \nand is the proper recipient for your info. Don’t assume \nthey’ll pass your materials on down the line, and do not \naddress your cover letter to “Dear Journalist.” As a fea-\nture journalist and columnist for a magazine, I am not \npredisposed to assist anyone who hasn’t bothered to do \ntheir homework and sends me materials for which I have \nno use. A profi le, a review, a calendar listing—all are \ncompletely different functions of a magazine or news-\npaper. Learn who does what and address them correctly. \nAn e-mail query to an editor is a good method.\nJournalists are usually slammed with deadlines and \nsubsequently are quite disorganized. Major record labels \nwill often send me duplicate materials, once by e-mail \nand once by snail mail. Having high-resolution photos on \nyour Web site could make the difference in you being cov-\nered, since journalistic decisions are often made at the last \npossible second and because something else has fallen out. \nThe creation of magazine columns is much less objective \nthan it may appear, and the decision to use your photo \nmay be made by a photo or art director who doesn’t care \nwhat you sound like, but only what you look like.\nBegin with local press and move up accordingly. \nIt’s not necessary—in fact, it’s even considered \nunprofessional—to thank the press unduly for doing Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n136their job. A simple “Thanks, you nailed it,” note is always \nappreciated. Unless there is an embarrassing and glaring \nerror in the piece that requires a retraction, don’t correct \nthem by calling attention to some insignifi cant detail \nthat might be incorrect.\nFollow up accordingly, but don’t harass the press. \nYes, in rare cases you can wear them down, but keep \nyour desperation at bay.\nPersonal contacts and recommendations are still \nyour strongest suit. In my world, a multiplicity of images \nmakes the strongest impact. I’ll read a press item, hear a \nsong on National Public Radio, and have a friend tell me \nabout a new act, often all in the same day.\nCredibility in the Credits\nI have honed a method to streamline my listening pro-\ncess for the volume of packages I receive weekly. First, \nI put aside the obvious clunkers (e.g., polka bands \ninterpreting the music of The Police, 20 of Your Favorite \nPatriotic Songs , etc.). Next, I select the releases from \nthose artists I love (generally a small pile, I assure you). \nThen I look for artists and songwriters who will be of \nthe most interest to the publications and assorted elec-\ntronic media outlets for whom I provide content. After \nI’ve sifted through the major label offerings, I’m left with \nindependent releases of which I have no prior knowledge. \nWhile I listen to the music, I read the one-sheet (a \nslick sheet prepared especially for retail) and bio and scan \nthe liner notes and the inside CD cover looking for the \nnames of people I recognize who are involved with the 137project. Though seeing these names may make me want \nto listen, sometimes names give me other information.\nTo illustrate, I’ve invented an imaginary artist, Harry \nHaze, whose package I’ve just opened. Here’s what he \ntells me on his album:\nAll Songs written by Harry Haze\nProduced by Harry Haze\nPublished by Harry Haze Music \nAll Songs performed by Harry Haze\nGuitar, bass, drums, keyboards by Harry Haze\nCover art by Harry Haze\nLiner notes by Harry Haze\nNow, while Harry thinks he’s projecting to the world \nhow competent, versatile, and creative he is, I’m think-\ning, “Harry Haze must be some god-awful prick—an \ninsufferable control freak who can’t fi nd anyone crazy \nenough to work with him.”\nUh-oh. Harry Haze has also included a full insert \nof tiny-printed text: Thank you’s to various celestial \ndeities, departed family members, a current wife, an \nex-girlfriend, and a deceased pet. Gratitude is a lovely \nquality best saved for a commercial release. On a demo \n(in my opinion) such grandiose sentiments seem self-\nserving and off-putting. \nEverything is a refl ection of the music. Cheesy cover \nart often mirrors what is contained within, but words are \nequally revealing. Vague and self-aggrandizing terms such \nas. “prestigious,” “long-awaited,” “eagerly anticipated,” \nor “acclaimed” never fail to rev up my B.S. meter. Also, Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n138please have a competent proofreader check your printed \nmaterials and your CD covers for glaring errors. \nThe best packages are often the most simple. A clean, \ndistinctive logo, a smart, well-written bio in a readable, \neye-catching font, and a hip, revealing photo say much \nmore than simply seeing the artist’s name repeated ad \ninfi nitum.\nI don’t wish to sound negative or jaded, but as the \npackages pile up in my offi ce, my eyes become ever more \ncritical. I’m reminded that when we project our music \ninto the world, —propelling our artistry out there—we’re \nin essence cramming messages into bottles. When they \nultimately wash up on a journalistic shore, we shouldn’t \nlet an incompetent presentation sink the package.\nThe Man in the Gorilla Suit\nRecall the ’80s—an era of excess, success, and unabashed \nconsumerism? In those pre-DIY days, record conglomer-\nates fl ourished, and the perception was that in order to \nbecome successful as a recording artist, one had to be \nsigned to a major label.\nArtists and their representatives would go to unpar-\nalleled lengths to get the attention of record company \nA&R reps, showering them with gifts, appearing unan-\nnounced in their foyers singing a capella , and devising \nextravagant presentation packages.\nOne of my favorite stories from that time concerns \na band who was so desperate to get attention that one of \nthe band members donned a gorilla suit to deliver their 139package to the record company. Today, I don’t recall \nthe name of the band or their music. All I can remem-\nber—and I’m sure the poor A&R guy does, if this didn’t \ndrive him out of the business—is the gorilla suit. Yes, it’s \nimportant to get people’s attention in entertainment, but \nyou want people to remember you for the right reasons. \nExtreme Strategies\nI told this story to a class of students in England who \nwere amazed at my audacity. I was managing an artist \naffi liated with a performing rights organization. There \nwas one exec in particular who we believed would make \na tremendous ally, and since he was someone I knew, I \nbegan making calls to his offi ce to set up a meeting for \nmy client. I left repeated messages, but I wasn’t getting \na return call. (In his defense, let me interject that the \nemployees of PROs are tremendously challenged by their \nhuge membership rosters—hundreds of thousands of \naffi liates.) Still, I needed this hookup.\nI created a relationship with his sympathetic assis-\ntant. When I called one morning, I didn’t ask for him, \nI spoke only to her. “What’s his day like?” I asked. She \nreplied, “He’s in meetings this morning, he has a lunch \nappointment, and then more meetings this afternoon.” \nI casually asked what restaurant he’d be dining in for \nlunch, and she provided the name of a well-known \nSunset Strip eatery. That was all I needed to hear. That \nafternoon, as he paid his bill at the restaurant cash reg-\nister, guess who just happened to run into him? I had an \nopportunity to reintroduce my client; he apologized for \nnot calling back and promised to meet with us the next \nday. In this case, the “chance encounter” had to appear Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n140natural and accidental, otherwise it may have seemed as \nif I was a stalker—not a good thing.\nI have another secret weapon I utilize when it’s \nappropriate, albeit a very small one—my four-pound \nChihuahua, Shelby Lynne. She has accompanied me to \ndrop off materials, for brief meetings, and on one memo-\nrable occasion, backstage to visit a well-known diva who \nwas considering having me ghostwrite her autobiogra-\nphy. I didn’t get that gig, but not because of the dog. I \nwasn’t fl ying blind—this singer was a well-known pet \nadvocate who traveled worldwide with her own pooch.\nIf you utilize an extreme tactic, you have to be sure \nyou have the goods; otherwise, you’re in danger of burn-\ning a bridge. Above all, don’t be the guy in the gorilla \nsuit.\nRejection\nRejection is a cold, hard fact in the entertainment busi-\nness. For songwriters and artists in particular, it can be \na crushing and demoralizing reality. Indeed, it is often \ncited as a factor that forces people out of the entertain-\nment business. And this is a good thing: It leaves more \nroom for you. In order to be successful on any level, \nyou can’t let rejection derail you. The classic example of \nthe Beatles, who were turned down by scores of record \nlabels, is one of the best-known tales. \nIt’s diffi cult for anyone to turn down anything, \nhowever, if its viability has being proven. An artist who \nis touring, has a solid fan base, and can sell a few thou-\nsand CDs doesn’t have to worry about rejection—it’s 141momentary, because they’re already a viable commodity. \nSongwriters who are collaborating with artists, placing \nsongs in indie fi lms and on cable television shows, will \nbe more likely to be signed by a major publishing com-\npany because they already have it going on.\nHit songwriter Michéle Vice-Maslin notes that while \nwriters can be discouraged by rejection letters, she is \nnot. “I probably have 25,000 . Who cares? I think the key \nto surviving—other than pitching—is respecting other \npeople’s opinions. The A&R people like to deal with me \nbecause I don’t freak out. As long as they keep listening, \nI’m happy. I learned once again: Don’t give up. It’s a les-\nson I’ve been learning the hard way for over 20 years. \nThe more I get rejected, the more I get fueled.”\nTen Thoughts on Overcoming Rejection\nKeep the following in mind when you experience \nrejection.\n 1. If someone rejects your song, they are not negating or \ncondemning your existence on this earth.\n 2. “No” can mean “not at this time,” “not for this artist,” or \n“not in this market.” \n 3. In Los Angeles, especially, industry people don’t like to \nsay “no.” They just won’t call you back.\n 4. You have to develop a career on multiple contacts, \nnumerous outlets, and a catalog of songs. If you have one \nsong you’re shopping and you’re “waiting to hear back,” \nyou’re in a precarious position.Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n142 5. No one is ever really “waiting to hear back.” You have to \nmove forward, regardless.\n 6. Ironically, projects often succeed when we least need or \nexpect them to.\n 7. Holding grudges over rejection is counterproductive. \n 8. It’s understandable that songwriters in particular are \nemotionally connected to their creations. Remember: If \na publisher says “no,” how many times has a label, artist, \nor producer said the same thing to him?\n 9. You are much more likely to be rejected if you’re blindly \npitching to strangers.\n 10. As salesmen know, every rejection is one more step \ntoward someone saying “yes.”\nTen Reasons Your Calls Are Not Returned\nSometimes it’s diffi cult to have perspective on what we’re \ndoing wrong in our communication with others. Often, \nit may have nothing to do with us per se ; it could simply \nbe an issue of timing. Following is an e-mail I received \nthat made me analyze why some calls are returned and \nothers aren’t.\nDear Dan,\nLast year I had the good fortune to meet a major record \nproducer at a music business convention. In a listening \nsession, he evaluated my demo, which he liked enough \nto keep. But he hasn’t returned my calls. I wonder: Am I 143doing something wrong? Does he feel differently about \nmy music? What would you suggest? \nWorried in Winnetka\nFollowing is my response.\nDear Worried,\nA number of possible scenarios come to mind.\n1. First, do you appear to be too needy? If so, you \nmay be scaring him off. He will take you seriously if \nyou appear to be near, or on your way to, his level of \naccomplishment.\n2. Are you pressuring him? He probably has enough \ndemands in his world from artists, record companies, \nand associates. He doesn’t need them from you.\n3. Are you calling at the right time? Professionals call \nduring business hours, not evenings or weekends. Try \nTuesdays–Thursdays, preferably before lunch.\n4. Are your communication skills up to par? People \ndon’t have time to read lengthy communiqués or often \nto return telephone calls. Short e-mails and faxes are \npreferable. Check your spelling and sentence structure.\n5. The moment that someone hears something is not \nnecessarily the moment they can do something with \nit. When he listened to your music, he may have rec-\nognized its potential but did not have an appropriate \noutlet at the time. This can change. I’ve seen songs for \nfi lms used years after they were fi rst submitted.Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n1446. Make sure to update him on your progress. In fact, \nyou should regularly confi gure press releases to inform \nyour contacts on your career. But be wary of over-the-\ntop bragging or shameless self-promotion. Keep it to \nscale, keep it human, keep it true, and make the truth \nsound as good as possible.\n7. In my experience, music business people are always \nlooking for progression; that is, the producer may have \nindeed liked your fi rst demo, and now he needs to hear \nwhat you have next. It will be easier for him to imagine \nyour future career trajectory, and to become involved, if \nhe believes your music will fi nd an audience no matter \nwhat.\n8. In our business, everyone prefers to get on a train \nthat’s up and running, not the one stalled on the tracks. \nYou need to give the impression of growth, of career \nevolution, of really having something new to say. If \nwe are only reactive—and jump on a bandwagon just \nbecause it’s there—we will ultimately wind up chasing \ntrends, not creating them.\n9. Are you delivering ultimatums? Closed-end phrases \nwill close doors. “Do you want to produce me?” can \neasily be answered with a “no.” Asking for input is \nalways preferable to a hard sell.\n10. Finally, are you treating him as a person or as a \nstepping stone? Are you aware of the projects he’s \ndoing now—his successes, career milestones, anything \nin his life? Try communicating with him in a low-key, \npersonal tone with no “payback” expected. You may be \nsurprised at his response.145I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know \nhow it goes.\nDan Kimpel\nWeb-Wise\nIn 1992, when I was the advertising director for the Los \nAngeles Songwriters Showcase (LASS), our co-founder \nand director, John Braheny, author of The Craft and \nBusiness of Songwriting and one of my foremost mentors \nin the music business, told me about this new technology \ncalled the Internet and how he planned to put our orga-\nnization’s magazine, the Songwriters Musepaper , up on \nthe Web. I recall thinking to myself, “But who is going to \never see that?”\nTime has, of course, proven J.B. right. Tracks legally \ndownloaded from the Internet now outsell physical \nsingles. There were a record 312,000 legal downloads in \nthe fi nal week of 2004 , compared with 282,000 singles \nbought over the counter during the same week. The \nInternet is thewatershed for business in music, an \nincredibly empowering medium for an independent art-\nist. Just as with home recording, by which you no longer \nneed a truck full of money and Abbey Road to make a \ncool recording because you can create great sounding, \npersonal work in your bedroom, similarly, you no longer \nneed a middle man to deliver your product direct to your \naudience. You now have the Internet. The barriers to \naccess don’t exist anymore.Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n146Do I Need a Web Site?\nDoesn’t everyone? My personal site (www.dankimpel.\ncom) was designed for me by one of my outstanding \nstudents from the Liverpool Institute for Performing \nArts, Simon Barber. A musician, band leader, and song-\nwriter, Simon is also a savvy Web master with his own \ncompany, Juicing Room (www.juicingroom.com), that \nspecializes in entertainment clients.\nEvery objection I had to instigating my own site was \neasily overcome by Simon in a meeting over coffee in \nEngland, and soon I too had a great way for folks world-\nwide to fi nd me. For this section of Networking Strategies ,\nI decided to tap Simon’s expertise since he now lectures \non the subject.\nDK: Give us a little overview.\nSB: Arming yourself with knowledge of how to operate on \nthe Web can allow you to forge a career without waiting \nfor a benevolent benefactor to approve of your talent. If \nyou’re Web-phobic, you should know that there’s really no \nescape from the Web. You need to embrace it; make that \nyour mantra. For me, a band/artist needs a Web site just \nas soon as they are trying to build a fan base. It’s the ideal, \nlow-cost way to communicate with fans, advertise gigs, \nsell CDs, and generally promote.\nMany bands assume that if they’re good, they’ll get picked \nup by a major label, and that will take care of all the hard \ngraft involved with being an indie. As you know, get-\nting signed does not guarantee getting famous, getting \nyour CD in stores, or getting paid! Over 30,000 CDs are \nreleased each year, mainly from people you’ve never heard 147of, and only 1% ever sells over 1,000 units. It’ s really the \ngrassroots kind of operations that are fi nding and devel-\noping talent effectively, especially on a local level.\nDK: What are the economic ramifi cations for indie artists? \nSB: If you’re an independent using the Internet as your \nmeans of distribution, you can have anything between \n50% and 100% share of the revenue from a product. You \nmay not have access to the large distribution networks or \nthe marketing muscle of major corporations, but you do \nhave a worldwide platform with zero overhead. So, keep \ncosts down and maximize profi t. If you can sell 5,000 CDs \nfor $15, that’s a lot of money! Far more than you would \nget with a 12% royalty rate when you’ re unrecouped and \nwon’t earn a penny until you go double platinum. If that \never happens! Plus, with indie budgets, nobody is going \nto be bankrupt if it doesn’ t work out. It’ s not like you’ re \nMicrosoft and you just rolled out a product all over the \ncountry and then realized it’s defective. You still have \ntime to grow as an artist, a concept that the bottom line \nof major labels can no longer afford.\nDK: How did you get into it yourself? \nSB: I formed an independent label called Digital Wings. \nThe label was founded on the philosophy I had of using \nnew technology as a means of liberating new artists from \nthe traditional shackles of the industry. \nWe released an album called Motion Picture with my band \nSanta Carla, and we built up quite a following on the Web. \nThe year that the record came out, 2003 , we had almost \ntwo million visitors to the Web site. This was down to \na combination of good Web promotion and good search Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n148engine work. If you want to effectively drive traffi c to a \nsite, you need to do three things.\n1. Use good meta tags and make good submissions to the \nlikes of DMOZ. (See the reference list at the end of this \nchapter.)\n2. Siphon traffi c from more popular Web sites (MP3, CD \nBaby) to your personal site by putting up a few free \ntracks, a photo, and a link to you.\n3. Update regularly!\nBy doing this, we were able to keep a percentage of these \nfans on mailing lists for marketing new releases to, and \nof course, some of them visited the site daily to post \nmessages. \nWe got some excellent press from America and did some \ninternational radio sessions. It did well in the end and sold \na couple of thousand copies, too. We made it available in \nall the indie stores, and we did a series of free downloads \nat digital music services across the Web. It’s available \nto buy online at iTunes, CDWOW, Tower Records, and \nother credible retailers who support independent artists. \nSo through using the Net, we were able to do two UK \ntours for the album and actually have these people show \nup at the gigs like a pre-booked audience. It’s about self-\nsuffi ciency. If you’re prepared to sweat for your art, then \nit’s a very effective way to operate.\nDK: Give us some hard facts and numbers regarding setting \nup a site. \nSB: The costs of setting up are not prohibitive at all. You \nmight be looking at $20–$25 for a domain and maybe $75\na year for hosting. 149DK: OK, it sounds easy and inexpensive so far, but your \nperspective is as a Web designer. What can you tell us about \nmaking the site alluring to visitors?\nSB: If you’re not up to it, fi nd someone with a good sense \nof graphics, fonts, and layout. Someone who understands \nfunctionality and the basic commandments of the Web \nso that you don’t end up with a style-over-substance situ-\nation. It is very easy to spot home-made Web sites that \nhave poor functionality, use entry-level gimmicks, have \npoor color schemes, unreadable text, or do not validate on \ndifferent browsers/platforms.\nYour Web site should\n/L50480 Get a user’s e-mail address.\n/L50480 Offer easy ways to listen to the artist.\n/L50480 Make the product attractive to them.\n/L50480 Show who are you, what you look like, and most \nimportant, what you sound like. \n/L50480 Acknowledge and interact with visitors.\nMusic clips should be presented in a cross-platform format \nsuch as MP3. Avoid proprietary formats where possible. \nPeople don’t really buy music for the audio, they buy the \nwhole package. Make it an exciting pic that says some-\nthing about you and who you are. Include a bio. Get an \nangle and tie it in with the photo and tell the visitor what \nyou represent.\nCreate a mailing list, a viable way to harvest data from \nyour visitors. Find out as much as possible about the fans: \nage, location (especially if it’s a town you’re playing in), \netc. What sort of music do they like and what W eb sites \ndo they visit? What lists do they subscribe to at stores they Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n150visit online? See if your CD is stocked there. As an indie, \nyou need to manage your own contact list and get used to \nthe idea of staying in contact with large groups of people \nat any one time.\nYou’ll also need to create an easy and effective way to mer-\nchandise and a way for fans to buy your CDs. Remember, \npeople are infi nitely more interested in themselves than \nthey are in you. Put them on your site with message \nboards. Use it to create a street team. Don’t forget that to \nmost people, the music business is pure magic—put your \nfan base to work.\nDK: Are there key sites that should be utilized?\nSB: CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) is the root of many great \nindie options—a selling point with built-in traffi c, digital \ndistribution services, Tower Records, etc.\nBecome aware of your local network and what’s going on, \nwho the local bands are, what they’re doing, and where \nthey’re playing.\nDK: Any other valuable promo tools we should be aware of? \nSB: An electronic press kit with at least one full-length \nMP3 fi le of a track from your CD encoded at the standard \n128K bit rate. An entertaining bio written four times, in \nfour different lengths, quotes from reviews, plus graphics , \nartist photos, cover art, and your logo.151Additional Resources\nTlcoolhomepages.com Cool Home Pages, an excellent design resource.\nwww.coolhomepages.com/cda/10commandments Ten Commandments of \nDesign; an interesting article on the subject. \nwww.google.com Google; the search engine you need to show up in.\nwww.dmoz.com DMOZ; human-edited search engine.\nwww.phpbb.com PHPBB; message board software.\nwww.hostbaby .com Hostbaby; Web hosting for musicians.\nwww.jetplanelanding.com Jetplane Landing; an excellent independent band with a \npowerful site.\nwww.santacarla.co.uk Santa Carla’s site.\nwww.juicingroom.com Juicing Room; a Web company.\nwww.digitalwings.co.uk Digital Wings; a record label.\nwww.apple.com/itunes/store Apple iTunes.\nwww.napster.co.uk Napster.\nww.listen.com Rhapsody.\nwww.peoplesound.com Peoplesound.\nwww.garageband.com Garageband.Chapter 7 Creating Effective Tools of the TradeNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n152www.towerrecords.com Tower Records.\nwww.cdwow.com CDWOW.\nwww.cdbaby .com CD Baby.\nwww.fopp.co.uk/unsigned_network/intro.htm Fopp Unsigned.\nwww.cafepress.com Café Press; music merchandise.\nwww.gigwise.com Gigwise; local music community.\nwww.glasswerk.co.uk Glasswerk; local music community.\nwww.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/entertainment/music/unsigned_bands/ index.shtml \nBBC Unsigned; valuable promotion tool.\nwww.musicbias.org Musicbias; local music business support.\nwww.marketingyourmusic.com Marketing Your Music (by the genius behind \nCD Baby).\nwww.bob-baker.com Bob Baker; marketing tips.\nwww.getsigned.com Get Signed.153CHAPTER 8\nLive Venues and \nVentures\nThe heart of popular music beats within the live per-\nformance. Even if you are not engaged in a career as a \nperformer, odds are you’re working with those who are. \nIn this chapter, you’ll go backstage with the band.\nGigology 101\nSince I live in Los Angeles, it would be possible for me \nto go out 365 nights a year, hit 10 clubs every night, and \nnever see even a tiny fraction of what’s happening in \ntown. Given these exhaustive possibilities, it is unnerv-\ning when I am invited by some well-meaning band to \ncome by a club at 11:00 p.m. on a Monday night to catch \ntheir set. I’m more apt to be at home in fl annel pajamas, \nwatching the news with a Chihuahua dog on my lap at \nthis hour, resting up for the day ahead. This is not to say \nthat I don’t go out, but I have to measure the importance \nof the shows I attend. I’m more likely to go out if a friend \nis performing, it’s a band I’m passionate about, because Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n154I’m writing something about the act, or because the net-\nworking possibilities are promising. \nThe worst time to showcase in a major music city is \non weekends. This may be when the rank and fi le go out \nto party, but in my experience, music industry profes-\nsionals prefer to reserve their personal weekend time for \ntheir families. For them, hearing bands is hard work; \nit’s what they do for a living. And no one wants to work \nall of the time. For these busy professionals, weeknights \nare preferable, and an early show, where they can come \ndirectly from the offi ce, is ideal. \nAll of us in the industry have clubs where we pre-\nfer to see artists—where the sight lines are favorable, \nthe sound pristine, the staff professional and accom-\nmodating. And of course the opposite is true: I would \nrather chew glass than go to another show at a certain \nHollywood club (formerly owned by a famous actor) \nbecause the staff is invariably rude, offi cious, and makes \nme feel like a criminal when they search me.\nCreative Outlets\nThere is a certain mystique, historical and otherwise, \nattached to places like The Troubadour in Los Angeles, \nthe Bitter End in New York, and The Bluebird in \nNashville. I present this theory: Audiences respond to \nentertainment in direct correlation to the environment \nin which they see it. This is a reason that the mediocre \nentertainment accompanied by laser and light shows \nwows the masses in Las Vegas—the audience has been \nset up by the surroundings. Conversely, seeing the great-\nest band in the world in a sleazy club may not necessarily 155showcase their brilliance, because the seamy circum-\nstances have prepared the audience for something less. \nAt one point in my career in Los Angeles, I was \npromoting a vocal trio with a very original sound—a \nManhattan Transfer meets Carter Family vibe, with an \nintricate, delicate blend, far too subtle for a club envi-\nronment. I met with all three members of the band for \ndinner one night at a modest Japanese restaurant with \n’50s decor, including turquoise and pink walls, and black \nand white checked fl oors. As we devoured our California \nrolls, the trio’s leader began bemoaning the lack of a \nperfect venue. “What about here?” I asked. They looked \nat me as if the wasabi had gone to my brain. We were in \na restaurant, not a club, a venue that didn’t even have \nmusic. “Perfect,” I deduced.\nLater that week I wrote up a proposal and \napproached the restaurant’s owners with a guaranteed \nway for them to bring in people and make money one \nevening at their busy daytime location that had sparse \ndinner business. We would produce a music night, \nbringing in production staff and a sound system, charge \na cover at the door that would go to the band, and the \nrestaurant could serve their regular food, drinks, and \ndesserts and profi t from these sales. When the evening of \nthe performance arrived, the venue was packed—so full, \nin fact, that the restaurant’s wait staff panicked, and our \nfriends had to help serve the food, but the group made \nover $1,000 at the door, and the evening had a huge buzz \nthat carried over to successive shows.\nNext, I booked the trio into small theaters for \nweekend matinee performances. Since the band’s \nsetup was minimal and acoustic, they could work Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n156around a preexistent set and not disturb the physical \nelements of the evening’s performances. In Los Angeles, \nwe have equity-waver houses ( 99 seats or less) that \nwe could sell out on a Saturday afternoon. We also \nprovided concessions and merchandise, upping the take \nconsiderably. \nAlternative Venues\nCreative new venues can work with multiple artists as \nwell. I was managing a performer who had devised a \nworld-infl uenced brand of pop music. When we decided \nit was time to take the music to the stage, we couldn’t \nfi nd an adequate venue, so we decided to invent our own. \nTo complement his global grooves, we invited two other \nacts with whom we were friendly: A Latin band from \nEast Los Angeles and a roots reggae group.\nI located an appropriate venue, an historic women’s \nclub in Los Angeles, and convinced the directors that I \nwas creating an event of cultural signifi cance. I set up \nsponsorships with magazines, a music store, and a sound \ncompany, so I wasn’t paying out of pocket for anything \nother than the venue. Tickets were affordable, and I \nmade each of the three acts (my own included) respon-\nsible for selling a set number so we were assured of a full \nhouse. The bands would make a profi t after their initial \nsale, and they could also move merchandise plus have a \nhigh-profi le showcase concert with media attention.\nI will always recall standing in the parking lot with \na trio of matronly women from the club’s board of \ndirectors when the reggae group arrived for sound check, \nand the looks on their faces as fi ve hugely dreadlocked 157musicians emerged through the clouds of pungent smoke \nthat billowed from their van. Jah! Rastafari! The evening \nwas a huge success.\nInventing Your Own Show\nConsider the following tips if you plan to create your \nown show.\n 1. Give the show a name. Our global music show was titled \n“World Tribe.”\n 2. Create a logo and artwork specifi c to the venue. \n 3. Think way outside the box. I’ve been to art galleries, \nfashion shows, and pet rescue events to hear bands.\n 4. Write up your proposal; business people always respond \nbetter when something is in print.\n 5. Consider a residency, or an ongoing show for one desig-\nnated night per week, but keep in mind there is a natural \nlifespan to such events. Know when it’s time to move on. \nSoft Ticket\nWith one artist, I thought big—of having him perform \nto audiences of more than 10,000 people. The reality \nwas that he was from Hawaii, hadn’t yet made an impact \non the mainland, and had no reputation to speak of, so \nit was up to me to devise a way to present him in front \nof as many people as possible. A “soft ticket” refers to \nan event that people are attending already—a fair, a Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n158festival—where they will see the entertainment as well. It \ncan be a perfect opportunity for a high-visibility show.\nI approached the entertainment committee for an \nannual Asian-Pacifi c celebration in Los Angeles that \ndraws thousands of visitors. I proposed presenting my \nartist and, as an added incentive, offered to provide \npublicity and public relations services for the event free \nof charge. I was able to “piggy-back” my artist’s appear-\nance on top of the event and to make it appear (subtly, of \ncourse) as if he were headlining. Through press, stories, \npublicity, and media saturation, we were able to create a \nsignifi cant splash.\nHow to Make a Soft Ticket Show Work for You\nConsider the following tips for creating your soft ticket \nshow.\n 1. Research the demographics; you don’t want to present a \nnu-metal band at a gathering of senior citizens.\n 2. Write up your proposal, focusing on what you or your \nartist can do for the event, not vice-versa. \n 3. Play for expenses or even for free if necessary. Make your \nmoney in merchandise sales or write-off expenses for the \nvalue of publicity. \n 4. Outdoor shows are not a place for ballads—devise a high \nenergy, visually engaging show that will make those in \nattendance stop to watch you. 159 5. Create a banner with the name of your band on it and \nhang it at outdoor events (or anywhere else you play). \n“Who is that band?” is not a question that your audience \nshould walk away asking. \nYou Sounded Fabulous!\nAccepting compliments seems to be diffi cult for \nmany performers. I attended a wonderful showcase in \nLiverpool, England, with one of my students. After the \nset, I went backstage to congratulate her. “You were \nterrifi c!” I enthused.\n“Nah, the sound was awful, I couldn’t hear the \nmonitors, and I forgot some lyrics,” was her mumbled \nresponse. \nMaybe she was being honest, and of course that’s \ncommendable in most circumstances, but this is show \nbusiness. By denigrating a performance on which I’d \ncomplimented her, she was unconsciously criticizing my \ntaste and therefore undercutting my enjoyment of the \nshow.\nTen Post-Performance Tips\n 1. Be gracious, accept compliments, and thank the person \nwho gives them.\n 2. Remember, non-music people are often less critical, \nenjoying the overall gestalt of a show and often not \nnoticing the mistakes. Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n160 3. Don’t call attention to negative conditions in the club. \n 4 . Always graciously thank those who spent good money \nand came to see you perform. \n 5. If you’re hanging out in a club after the performance, \ndon’t hop from table to table. Stay in one location and let \nthe audience members come to you. \n 6. Sign everything. Often fans will pay more for a CD \nsigned by the artist in person than they would at retail or \nonline. I’ve worked with artists who mark $ 15 CDs up to \n$20 at shows and sell hundreds. Audiences will pay for \nthe opportunity to meet the artist. \n 7. If you’re selling merchandise, don’t handle the money \nyourself, enlist help. \n 8. Have plenty of Sharpies or similar pens on hand. \n 9. Be prudent in handing out promotional materials for \nupcoming performances that are in venues other than \nthe one in which you’ve just appeared. The club owner \nmay frown on your promotion of a competing venue. \n 10. Cover your show clothes with a jacket, or change into \nanother outfi t immediately after the performance.\nPerformance Peeves\nI’m mystifi ed why I see so many musicians swilling \nbottled water onstage. “Is this a show about water?” I \nwonder. I understand a singer taking a swig to combat \ndryness, but why is everyone else draining the Aquafi na?161At an otherwise splendid show, a musical tribute \nto Joni Mitchell, I could predict what was about to be \nperformed because the lead guitarist would play the \nintro lick to check his tone before each song. Surprise \nis good in performance; don’t telegraph what’s coming, \nand don’t use “weedlee, weedlee” licks when the singer \nis introducing the song. Just as music is rehearsed, so \nshould the intros and outros be a part of the overall per-\nformance. Dull, self-conscious stage patter detracts from \na performance. The song intro is a chance to connect on \nanother level.\nTen Commandments of Club Land\n 1. Don’t piss off the soundman; that’s just asking for end-\nless feedback and appalling apathy.\n 2. Respect the club booker; she will eventually be at House \nof Blues.\n 3. Be honest about your draw. If you can only guarantee 10\nclose friends for attendance, don’t proclaim that you can \nfi ll a 500-seat venue.\n 4. “We’re gonna slow it down for ya now” is not a suitable \nsong intro.\n 5. Don’t rail against any member of the press or threaten \nany music journalist.\n 6. Speak well of other bands on the circuit. You’ll be on a \nbill with them sooner or later. \n 7. Be unerringly professional and punctual.Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n162 8. A sound check is not a rehearsal.\n 9. Be conscientious with your guest list. Don’t demand \nfreebies from the club.\n 10. Devise original ways of fi lling the venue. \nClub Clues\nWith the goal of selling as many drinks as possible, \nclubs are businesses, plain and simple. If your goal is to \nbe a club act, that’s fi ne, but at some point you’ll have \nto determine whether you’re in the music business or \nthe bar business and act accordingly. As a musician, I \nmade a decent living playing in clubs in tough markets, \nincluding New York and Los Angeles. In order to do this, \nhowever, I was forced to make many concessions in my \nart. Even though I wrote songs, it was a rare audience \nwho wanted to party to unheard-of material, so covers \nwere the way to go. There is a certain vibe that club \nmusicians acquire. It’s diffi cult to describe, but audiences \ncan feel it. (You can read Bob Malone’s comments about \nhis own experiences in this realm in Chapter 9, “Success \nStories.”) You are in the realm of service. \nThere are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Coming \nup with a band in Ohio, we transformed a club in the \ncollege town of Bowling Green—Howard’s Club H—into \na Mecca for free-thinking individuals of all persuasions. \nIn Los Angeles, a club called Limey’s hosted the hippest \never musician’s Sunday night jam. But these scenes are \nfew and far between. And if you perform in the same \nclubs over and over again, you’re in danger of becoming \npart of the furniture because careers are built on change 163and progression. It doesn’t take audiences very long to \nbegin to take you for granted. If you’re comfortable at \nthe same club, it’s probably time to move on. \nSoundman Scenarios\nIn my list above, I cautioned you about angering the \nsoundman. There are many intricacies in dealing with \ntechnical personnel. Doing their gig is often a thankless \njob accompanied by a howl of feedback, a singer com-\nplaining “I can’t hear myself,” mics that don’t work, and \nmonitors that fail to deliver. If the sound is terrible, it’s \nthe soundman’s fault and, of course, if it’s fl awless no one \nnotices. Consequently, soundmen (and women) tend to \nbe a prickly lot, often either over-sensitive or immune to \ncriticism, since they deal with a new band virtually every \nnight, always with a new raft of complaints. \nIt’s an excellent idea to always have a hard copy \ndepiction of your set-up: mic and monitor placements \nand an input list. E-mailing or faxing this information \nto the club ahead of time if possible, or having this infor-\nmation on your Web site, can save time and energy. Take \nmultiple copies to your sound check in case there is a \nstage manager in addition to the soundman. If the club \nprovides a backline (drums, amps, etc.), all the better. \nIf there are multiple acts for a show, the band who \nis playing last, or headlining, typically sound checks \nfi rst. The group who opens the show sound checks last \nsince their equipment can then be in place when the \ndoors open. Being on time for the sound check is the \nfi rst objective, since sound checks invariably run late. Do \neveryone a favor and have the band arrive together. Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n164Here’s a scenario that works extremely well for me \nwhen I present artists in a club or concert. I stay in \nthe sound booth as the soundman adjusts levels in the \nline check (each instrument heard individually) and as \nthe band runs down a song. At this point I don’t say a \nword to the soundman, I am simply a strong and obvi-\nous presence hovering next to the board. Invariably the \nsoundman will then solicit my opinion. The secret is to \nstay mum and await this moment. It will come, I assure \nyou. Then, and only then, gently correct any miscalcula-\ntions in the mix.\nAlways thank the soundman—either onstage, imme-\ndiately after the performance, or in a note or e-mail the \nnext day. Be sure to let the booker or club owner know \nhow much you’ve appreciated the hard work and expertise \nof the technical staff at the venue. The sound and stage \npersonnel will be glad to see you next time.\nScams\nEnvision this scenario. You see a solicitation in a \nmagazine from a company that is reviewing the type \nof music you create. You send in your package and—\nsurprise!—you receive a call from a company executive \nwho praises your efforts and proclaims that your music \nis in the top percentile of what he has ever received. It is \nso stunning that he would love to have the opportunity \nto represent this wondrous music to the major players: \nthe big markets, radio, record companies, etc. In fact, \nyour music is so magnifi cent that he will even give you a \nhealthy discount on the fees that he usually charges for \nthese services.165At this point, a red light begins fl ashing in your \nbrain. “Money? I have to pay money?” you say. The elo-\nquent one then ups the intensity of his fevered pitch, \n“You have to spend money to make money. I’ve worked \nwith (insert platinum artist here) and (insert another \nplatinum artist here), and I’m respected in this business \nfor hearing the hits. I believe in your music; I can make \nit happen for you.”\nThe music business is fi lled with inventive cottage \nindustries. However, charging naive acts exorbitant fees \nto “shop” their material is a gray area where I’ve seen \nmany an aspiring artist turn into bleeding bait for the \ncircling sharks. \nThere is, for instance, one Hollywood-based “pro-\nmoter” who turns a pretty profi t by luring artists into \nhis gold record-decorated den and then pressuring them \nto pay for his services. His pitch rarely wavers: He is, in \nthe next three days, traveling to New York (a convenient \n3,000 miles away) and has meetings already set up to \nplay material for the heads of major record labels. This \ntakes money. The up-front fee? $ 8,000 .\nWhen I was on the staff of a national non-profi t \norganization for songwriters, I encountered numerous \nvictims of this particular scamster. Many were reticent \nto complain because, like most scam victims, they were \nmortifi ed by their own gullibility. \nIf you’re ever approached by anyone in the business \nwith a sketchy proposition, I would advise the following:\n 1. First and foremost, trust your instincts. Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n166 2. Ask them for the names and contact numbers of clients. \n 3. Request additional industry references. \n 4. Check them out online. There’s a site called The Velvet \nRope (www.thevelvetrope.com) where, if you are a mem-\nber, you can post industry-related queries. If you prefer, \nyou can remain anonymous while asking, “Has anyone \never worked with…?”\n 5. Don’t assume that the operator is legit just because he \nadvertises in a legitimate music business publication. \nSome magazines would accept advertising from Satan \nhimself if he paid up front. It’s up to you to exert your \njudgment.\n 6. The music business is very small. Bottom-feeding sleazes \ndepend upon their victims not to have information or \nresources. Don’t be afraid to ask for references to verify a \ncompany or a person’s legitimacy. \n 7. Keep in mind that there are no shortcuts in the music \nbusiness. Nothing will ever replace the power of creating \nyour own personal contacts and network. \n 8. Educate yourself about how the business really works. \nDon’t allow your ego or a sense of desperation to make \nyour decisions for you. \nCompilation CDs\nOK, emerging bands: You’ve performed, postered, pos-\ntured, and proclaimed to the pinnacle of your powers. So \nnow that you’re starting to kick up some notice, you’ve 167been invited to have a song included on a compilation \nCD. Sure, it may cost a few hundred dollars, but it will \nbe delivered directly into the hands of radio, record com-\npany A&R, promoters, and bookers.\nCompilations are wonderful money-making devices \nfor the ones who can persuade 15 to 20 bands to each give \nthem one song and to pay anywhere from $ 500 to $ 1000\nfor the privilege. In turn, the producers master and man-\nufacture a couple of hundred CDs, give some copies to \nthe bands, mail out to their “contacts,” and voila, they’ve \npocketed a few grand in the process. And the bands? \nThey have copies of a CD with 19 other groups whose \nsole shared merit is coming up with the cash to pay for a \ntrack. \nThere are, of course, worthwhile, legitimate compi-\nlations. The performing rights societies (ASCAP, BMI, \nand SESAC) will often showcase emerging bands and \nwriters via a compilation. The Los Angeles–based orga-\nnization L.A. Women in Music (LAWIM) has a diverse, \nhighly regarded release. But in neither of these scenarios \nis there any cost to the artists. Likewise, there are worth-\nwhile CD compilations that target specifi c local scenes \nor styles of music. These can often refl ect an emerging \nmusic community and offer an effective way for groups \nto share the costs of manufacturing, artwork, etc.\nLikewise, certain record companies will present their \nemerging acts on promotional sampler CDs at no cost to \nthe bands. And of course on late-night television one can \norder everything from heart-wrenching patriotic songs \nto the nearly forgotten hair bands of the ’ 80s. These art-\nists, even at a reduced royalty, will benefi t from the sale \nof the CDs.Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n168But let’s get real. Why should a record label exec lis-\nten to 20 disconnected bands on one release? Would a \njournalist really wade through 19 groups with the hope \nof hearing something interesting if he had no connec-\ntion to the producers? Believe this: Radio programmers \nand record label people, realizing that the criterion for \ninclusion on compilations is simply whether an artist \ncan pay the fee to be included, will generally disdain \nsuch compilations. \nOne of the latest wrinkles in the well-worn scam is \nthe “event” tie-in. It works like this: “We’re going to be \nat (MIDEM/SXSW/EAT’EM/Sundance/Slamdance), \nand we’ll be distributing CDs to everyone there.” Sounds \ngood, but how do you know that the CDs will even be \ndistributed? After all, the point is that you won’t be \nthere anyway, will you? And how much baggage might a \nconvention-goer accumulate over a couple of days? And \nhow much do they actually want to take home?\nIf you’re asked to participate in a compilation CD \nproject, here are some questions you should ask the \nproducers. \n/L50480 What type of track record do they have in the \nindustry? \n/L50480 What acts have been signed from their previous \nreleases?\n/L50480 What criteria do they have for inclusion? \n/L50480 Do they provide group contact info with the \nrelease?\n/L50480 Does the group maintain control of the song’s \ncopyright?169Ask for their previous releases, then give a good, hard \nlisten to determine if these acts are those with whom \nyou’d like to share CD space. In the music business, the \nway you come in is the way that you’re perceived. Often, \nbeing included on a dubious project is almost worse that \nnot being heard at all, especially if you’re sandwiched \nbetween a couple of lousy groups. \nCompilation CDs are wonderfully lucrative endeavors \nfor their producers. But for bands with limited economic \nresources, being included on a compilation project may \nonly land you on a CD that a record company exec, radio \nprogrammer, or journalist reaches for when he needs a \ncoaster for his cocktail.\nPerforming Rights \nIf you write songs for your band, you need to choose a \nperforming rights organization. You’re in luck because \nthere are three: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. All are immi-\nnently accessible, and all are (believe it or not) there to \nhelp you. As a songwriter, you can affi liate with only \none society. On the surface, what these three performing \nrights organizations (PROs) do is not dissimilar: They \ncollect money for songwriters and music publishers from \nbroadcast revenue sources, including television, radio, \nand Internet licenses. They then distribute these funds to \ntheir members. \nSounds good, right? Keep in mind that you will \nnever receive one penny from these sources if you do not \naffi liate, which is reason enough to contact them as soon \nas you have, or anticipate having, a CD that might be \nreceiving any kind of airplay. Chapter 8 Live Venues and VenturesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n170ASCAP, the oldest and largest of the three organi-\nzations, boasts among their membership many of the \nmost venerated songwriters in the history of pop music. \nASCAP Presents showcases unsigned bands in various \ncities around the U.S. Buckcherry, Lit, Gin Blossoms, \nand Save Ferris are all alumni. Also among the exten-\nsive list of workshops for songwriters is “Music Business \n101,” informational and educational sessions with guest \nspeakers, and ASCAP SWAPmeet, held in various cities, \nincluding L.A., where new works are heard by industry \npros. ASCAP, governed by a board of directors elected \nfrom their membership, can be reached at (323) 883-1000 \nor contacted online at www.ascap.com. \nBMI, formed as an alternative to ASCAP, origi-\nnally licensed R&B and country music. Today, they are \nequally strong in rock and pop. BMI co-sponsors and \nproduces live performance opportunities for members \nand is involved in many grass-roots events. New Music \nNights is a quarterly program on the West coast that \nshowcases a wide variety of genres—rock, alternative, \npop, soul and hip-hop— to help expose new talent to \nthe industry—lawyers, managers, A&R, publicists, and \njournalists, as well to the general public at large. Bands \nwho have played and/or been signed from the showcase \ninclude Counting Crows, The Roots, Stroke 9, and Train \nand Creed. Contact BMI at 310-659-9109 or online at \nwww.bmi.com. \nSpeaking of alternatives, SESAC, although not \nas widely known as the other two organizations, is \ndefi nitely making up for lost time with an aggressive \nmarketing campaign and some key signings. Oscar-\nwinning songwriter, the legendary Bob Dylan, is a SESAC \nwriter. SESAC has made strategic alliances with a host 171of technology companies and was the fi rst PRO to offer \ndigital watermarking so you’re paid every time your song \nis aired. They also offer online licensing for affi liates and \nonline registration of works. SESAC is a privately held \ncompany and is selective about its affi liates. You can \nreach them in Los Angeles at (310) 393-9671 or online at \nwww.sesac.com.\nWhich society is right for you? Contact all three \nthen examine the materials they offer concerning pay-\nment schedules and contract length. Above all, trust \nyour instincts and remember that having someone who \nbelieves in you at a performing rights organization is one \nmajor step up the ladder in this business.Chapter 8 Live Venues and Ventures172Success Stories\nIn the mythology of the music business, there is a huge \nfocus on the million-selling stars—the bands we see on \nMTV and VH1—those very few who enjoy their brief \nmoment teetering on the chart-topping pinnacle of \nsuccess. As I’ve reiterated in this book, I believe the true \nsuccess stories are of those individuals who fi gure out \nhow to work and stay in the business they love, who can \nremain relevant over time, and who are able to sustain \nthemselves through an art they love.\nIn this chapter, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to \nsome folks whose accomplishments are varied, wide, and \nenduring. They exemplify networking strategies through \ntheir steadfast commitment and determination to fi nd \na way to keep themselves in the game. There’s a lot to be \nlearned from their career journeys.CHAPTER 9173Jeffrey Steele: Country Craftsman\nWith over 200 songs recorded in the last three years by \nNashville’s most bankable stars, including Tim McGraw, \nFaith Hill, Montgomery Gentry, Rascal Flatts, Leanne \nRimes, and Diamond Rio, Jeffrey Steele is as hot as a \ncountry songwriter could possibly be. But songwrit-\ning success for this driven Californian came only after \ntwo decades of broken dreams, busted-up bands, deals \ngone sour, and experiences with record executives who \nthought they knew more about country music than \nJeffrey Steele. “The most important thing any song-\nwriter needs to have is that drive, an ‘against all odds’ \ninstinct to keep writing through all the rejection and all \nthe hardships,” states Steele. “These are your stories, the \nstuff that turns into your songs. I think a lot of people \nrun from these things, but they need to realize that \nthat’s what you’re gonna be writing about for the next 20\nyears.”\nIndependent releases sold on his Web site and at live \nshows have been, up until now, the only way to procure \nSteele’s solo work. Now, Outlaw, from Lofton Creek, \ndelivers the power of Jeffrey Steele as an artist backed \nby the power of major distribution. “We found out that \none song of mine was being played on one radio station \n120 times a week,” says Steele. “The song is called ‘Good \nYear for the Outlaw.’ It’s an outlaw country station, and \nthis is their theme song. The next thing I know, the song \nis showing up on the Billboard chart completely out of \nthe blue.” Of the new record that takes its title from the \ntrack, Steele notes, “I fi nally got a record in the store \nafter eight years of being signed to major record deals \nand not getting records out. It feels good to have an \nactual piece of product in the Wal-Marts and Targets.” Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n174To promote his record, Steele has been opening \nshows for Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, with just an \nacoustic guitar. “You’ve really got to work,” he avows. “I \ncame out for 8,000 people in Connecticut, with throngs \nof screaming women wanting to see Brad and Keith. I \nsaid, ‘You guys have no idea who I am, but you know \nmy songs.’ The whole place was singing along, then I did \nthe stuff from my new record, and ‘20 Years Ago’ earned \na standing ovation. But the stage manager wouldn’t let \nme go back out for an encore. So I’m getting success \nand shooting myself in the foot at the same time. It’s all \nperfect.”\nBorn in Burbank, the youngest of fi ve children, \nSteele’s powers of perception were honed early on. “I \nobserved my older brothers and sisters and heard all of \ntheir music,” recalls the songwriter. “I was at the bottom \nend of the food chain, just eating that stuff up, watching \nand learning. Later, all of these things were there to write \nabout.” As the little brother, Steele learned how to vie for \nattention. “I remember being fi ve, shaking my hips to \nElvis Presley records in front of the whole family, and my \nbrothers getting pissed and beating me up later.”\nOne familial theme Steele has referenced in both \n“My Town” (Montgomery Gentry) and “20 Years Ago” is \nthe age-old confl ict between father and son. “It was my \nbrother and my father,” he says. “ I’d watch them fi ght \nat the dinner table. They could never get along. Ten or 15\nyears went by and they didn’t talk to each other until my \ndad was on his deathbed in a morphine-induced state. \nThey couldn’t really make amends, but they could look \neach other in the eye one last time. I tell writers, ‘Don’t \nturn the other way from that. It’s OK to write about 175it more than once, if that’s a big issue in your life. It’s \ntherapy for you.’”\nTwenty years ago thought I knew it all\nTrying to talk to me was like taking to a wall\nI thought I was a man for acting like I did\nBut what I want right now is just to be your kid\nJust before my dad gave up the ghost\nhe smiled at me and said \nSon let it go, that was 20 years ago.\nSteele spent the ’ 80s with a dual music career, playing \nin bands on the Sunset Strip and with country groups \nfar from the center of L.A. It was in the country bars that \nhe could make a living, but he decided to concentrate on \nwriting songs. Still, he couldn’t resist an offer of $ 200 to \nplay bass one Sunday afternoon. “I put my amp in the \ncar and drove down to Orange Country and played the \ngig with Larry Parks and his brother Cary, with Hugh \nWright on drums. I said, ‘These guys are unbelievable.’ \nNext thing I know we’re playing every bar in town. I \nstarted bringing my songs in, and the harmonies were \ngreat. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.” Boy Howdy’s \nhuge radio hit, “She’d Give Anything,” took the band to \nthe top of the country charts.\nBut the record company wanted more of the same, \nand the band wasn’t amenable to being squeezed into \nthe polished Nashville mold. Jeffrey Steele tells of the \nharrowing days after Boy Howdy’s demise, when he was \nsubsequently signed to a solo deal. “I got the worst of \nthe worst, but really no worse than anyone else. When \nI signed to Curb Records, I remember the guys there \ntelling me all my songs sucked and I wasn’t really that \ntalented, but the secretary in the offi ce thought I was Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n176cute, so they were going to give me a record deal. All \nof the things they say to make you feel like nothing.” \nMeanwhile, the publishers were equally underwhelmed. \n“They told me my songs were nowhere near the market-\nplace—off by a mile. But I knew that I loved to write. \nIt gets to a point where you either slough it off or think \nmaybe they’re right. But look at the criticism and see if \nit has any weight. These guys are critics, and they’ll say \nthings to discourage you. Over the years, it’s become fi re \nfor me.”\nOn this day in Nashville, Jeffrey is behind the board, \nproducing a record on RCA for Keith Anderson, a \nsinger/songwriter he’s known for six years who penned \n“Beer Run” for George Jones and Garth Brooks. “He’d \noriginally gotten a production deal with Sony, and I \ntalked him out of doing it. He said, ‘You’re going to \nmake it terrible for me. I’m never going to get a deal.’ I \nsaid, ‘No, dude, if you sign a production deal with Sony, \nyou’re stuck there. You won’t have the option to play for \nanybody else. We’ll pay the money for the fi rst couple \nof tracks, get everybody interested, and we’ll get them \nall out to see you.’ He showcased and had every label in \ntown champing at the bit. Six years ago, he was too left \nof center.”\nBetween the promotional tours for his record and \nproduction gigs, Steele tightly structures his songwriting \ntime. “It’s not unusual for me to have three writing \nappointments a day, like I’m in a doctor’s offi ce. People \nsay, ‘How can you do anything artistic when you’re \nwriting that much?’ First of all, I’m a freak. That answers \nthat question,” laughs Steele. If his fi rst appointment \nof the day is productive, it inspires him for the next \ntwo sessions and keeps his adrenaline running until 177the late hours. “I know there’s something wrong with \nme, when I can’t shut my brain down, when I’m getting \nup and writing at three in the morning. I want to keep \npracticing my lyric craft, get as good as I can. I want to \nuse less words to say more things. Instead of having two \nlines, I try to get it down to two words.” \nTo the uninitiated, it may be a mystery why \nJeffrey Steele, BMI’s Songwriter of the Year and one of \nNashville’s most prolifi c talents, chooses to tour the hin-\nterlands instead of luxuriating in town, writing songs, \nand checking the mailbox for what must presumably \nbe formidable checks. He explains that touring stirs his \ncreativity: “Particularly in the small towns, people come \nup and invariably tell you about their lives, about their \ncousins, uncles, or talk about something that happened \nin town. There’s something to be said for playing for \nthree hours and sitting in that autograph line for two. I \nalways give everybody the time of day, let them tell me \nwhat they tell me. I like to say something positive, make \nthe most of the time. They’re happy to see me, and I’m \nhappy to be there. A lot of people get burned out, but I \nget stories and titles.”\nHe gives this example of a song he co-wrote with \nMarv Green, the writer of Lonestar’s hit, “Amazed.” “I \nwas on the autograph line and this guy comes up and he \nintroduces me to his wife, this beautiful lady, and I could \ntell they’re deeply in love. He says, ‘She could have had \nanyone in school.’ I said, ‘What did you do to get her?’ \nand he said, ‘All’s I did was love her.’ My mental memory \nbank went on and we wrote the song a couple of days \nago. It’s about what he talked about—he never had any \nriches, but he promised her a life of his being there and \nbeing good to her.”Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n178Steele reveals that he’s always prepared to write. \n“That’s what anyone will say, even if I’m an hour late to \nthe writing session. It’s because I’m at home working on \nan idea. I want a seed or something to go on. Putting in \n30 to 40 minutes a day playing, trying to think of some-\nthing, keeps you in that mode all of the time, ready to \nwrite something. Even if it’s crappy stuff, you’re letting \nyour thoughts out. But I hope when a new guy comes in \nhe’s also armed and dangerous, is focused, has a bunch \nof stuff, and wants to write hit songs.” Steele shares that \nsometimes co-writers will expect him to, in his words, \n“lay a golden egg.” He explains, “That’s the hardest \npart—when someone’s looking at me going, ‘When is it \ngoing to happen?’ And I’m like, ‘When is what going to \nhappen?’ If I intend to lay a golden egg, I’m going to do it \nin the privacy of my home. I’m not going to do it in front \nof you, pal.”\nLindy Robbins: Late Bloomer\nThese are productive times for Los Angeles songwriter \nLindy Robbins. She’s penned two songs, “Shine” and \n“I Will Carry You,” for Clay Aiken’s platinum debut, \nMeasure of a Man ; she has a cut with Jesse McCartney on \nthe Disney soundtrack and in the fi lm Cinderella Story ;\nshe’s renegotiated a new publishing pact with media \npowerhouse Universal Music Publishing Group; and \nshe’s preparing to move into a home she’s purchased in \nthe San Fernando Valley’s trendy NoHo Arts district.\nMake no mistake, Lindy Robbins is no overnight \nsuccess. A native Angeleno who relocated to New York \nCity in the ’ 80s, Robbins’ tale is one of fate, faith, trust, \nand timing. “It was only two years ago that I had any 179money at all,” she confesses. “I was a late bloomer. I had \na publishing deal in 1994 with Rodgers and Hammerstein \nMusic in New York, but I was writing theatrical, cabaret, \nand art songs and making a living performing. It wasn’t \nuntil 1997 that I quit performing and decided I wanted to \nwrite pop songs. I moved back to L.A. to do that, without \na deal, without any money, without anything.”\nOn a fl uke, she entered a song in the UniSong \nInternational Song Contest and won the grand prize. She \nwas subsequently invited to Ireland for Celtic Harmony, \na week-long songwriter retreat organized by Music \nBridges (USA) in conjunction with Irish rights society \nIMRO, where she was cast in intensive writing sessions \nwith hit makers from around the world. “I had moved \nback to L.A. with not a fork,” laughs Robbins, “and there \nI was, onstage, singing with Lamont Dozier and Brenda \nRussell. It all happened so fast.” \nIn Ireland, Robbins met Rowana Gillespie of \nPolygram Music Publishing, who signed her to a deal. \n(The company has since merged with Universal Music \nPublishing Group.) In addition to a music publisher, \nRobbins retains the services of a manager. Still, she never \nstops hustling up her own opportunities. “No matter \nwhat cuts you have, you can never stop working your \nsongs,” she emphasizes. She makes regular trips to New \nYork to meet personally with A&R executives at various \nlabels. “I’ve found that if I make a connection, they’ll lis-\nten to a song later,” she explains. “We talk about life for a \nsecond. It’s a human thing.”\nRobbins earned serious Music City credentials \nwith a Faith Hill cut, “Back to You,” and international \nrecognition for “I Dreamed of You,” a four and a half Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n180million-seller co-written and recorded by dance diva \nAnastacia. Unless she is co-writing with an artist, she \ndoes not generally write songs with a specifi c performer \nin mind, and she cautions writers about becoming what \nshe terms “genre whores.” She explains, “Sometimes \nthere are certain types of songs on the radio. You try to \ncopy that trend, and by the time you’re shopping those \nsongs, the trend has changed. By the time you’re pitching \nyours, A&R execs have heard a hundred of those songs, \nand they want to hear something different. Sometimes \nyou have to start the trend yourself.” She shares that on \nmany occasions, it’s necessary to turn off the business \nmind in order to create. “It’s like, ‘Can we just write a \ngreat song today?’ Sometimes you have to fl ow and not \nthink about business—just write. And those are the \nsongs that get cut, because they’re fun.”\nA global perspective is vital for pop songwriters, \nsays Robbins. “I’ve had great things in the U.S., like \nClay Aiken and Faith Hill, but I’ve gotten by on stuff in \nEngland, France, and Australia. It’s important to inves-\ntigate other avenues rather than just the U.S. I can go \nto London and write dance or pop, then go to Nashville \nand write country, then to New York to write urban. \nThat’s what keeps it fresh.” Robbins’ ability to work \nquickly makes for a burgeoning catalog. “I can do a song \na day easily,” she avows. “When I’m on a writing trip I’ll \ndo 10 to 15 songs. If 20 percent of them get placed, that \nmakes a huge difference.” She writes both melodies and \nlyrics, and she generally prefers to write with a producer. \n“I don’t work with other writers, except when I’m doing \nstandards or country,” she affi rms. \nRobbins notes that production is key to getting cuts. \n“That’s the biggest lesson I had to learn. As good as some 181of my songs were, the tracks weren’t good enough and \nthe songs wouldn’t get placed. The demos have to sound \nas good as records.” Robbins says that it is common \npractice now for songwriters to create the words and \nmusic and then share a 20-percent writing credit with \na producer to craft the defi nitive track. “It’s worth it. \nWithout a great demo, a song can’t get placed.”\nIn the mercantile world of high-stakes songwriting, \nRobbins testifi es that regular trips to Music City keep her \ncentered. “When I get burnt on writing to tracks, I go \nto Nashville and get in a room with a great collaborator \nwho plays piano or guitar. All my training in theater and \ncabaret comes into play there more than anywhere else. \nWith country songs you can be funny and clever. In pop \nyou can’t be as poetic. I love Nashville. They’ve opened \ntheir arms at the Universal offi ce—and that Faith Hill \ncut didn’t hurt.”\nOne recent trend that Robbins observes is that coun-\ntry is reverting to a rootsier style. “I’m a Valley Girl,” she \nlaughs, “I can’t relate as much to the whole Southern \nexperience. I try to write about what I know. But that’s \nwhat I love about collaboration. If I write with somebody \nwho really understands that, they can help me express \nit. If I’m writing something urban, I’ll only write with \nsomeone who understands that world. That expands \nme. Where I excel is pop rock, so people will bring me \nin because of my expertise. By fi nding collaborators who \ndo something different than what I do, I get a lot more \nversatility in my catalog.”\nOne of her newest collaborators is pop-meister \nDavid Frank, a writer/producer probably best known for \n“Genie in a Bottle,” the song that launched the career of Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n182Christina Aguilera. “David and I have just clicked; we’re \non the same page creatively. The fi rst thing we wrote \ntogether got cut by a new artist, Bree Larson. I’ve found \nthat helps. If you write with someone and get an imme-\ndiate response to your collaboration, that’s encouraging. \nThere might be someone you’ve written seven songs \nwith and none of them have gotten cut. You have to \nthink maybe it’s not the best situation.” Ease and com-\nfort in the creative process is another collaborative plus. \n“Sometimes you have to give it more than one shot, but \nI’m the type of person who likes to go with something \nand not think about it. If someone keeps saying ‘No, \nthat’s not it’ and interrupts the fl ow, then I just want to \ngo home. It should always be fun.”\nRobbins’ writing tools are simple: a spiral notebook, \na pen, a rhyming dictionary, a thesaurus, and a small \ndigital recorder. “I have pages of ideas in a notebook. \nEvery time something comes to me I add to it.” Her \ndigital recorder holds 200 songs, but after a song is \ndemoed, Robbins erases the work track to make more \nroom. She has notebooks dating back to 1986. “The good \nthing about using a notebook is you can go back and \nlook at the work pages,” she explains. She is also adept \nat writing to tracks, especially in pop and dance music. \n“I can close my eyes and just completely sing whatever \ncomes out of my mouth and record 10 ideas, then go \nback and fi nd a verse, pre-chorus, and chorus that I like. \nIt’s not a thinking process.”\nShe is an increasingly rare breed: a successful song-\nwriter who is not a producer, whose strength is her \nuncanny ability to write songs under virtually any cir-\ncumstances in a wide scope of styles. Still, everyday, \nLindy Robbins is on the line. “There are plenty of days 183I’m driving to a writing session and I’m thinking, ‘I want \nto go to the mall, I want to go to the movies, I want to go \nto the beach, I want my mommy,’ but you have to force \nyourself to work hard.”\nLuis Resto: Lost in the Music\nIt was Luis Resto, resplendent in his Detroit Piston jer-\nsey, who stepped up to accept the award when Barbra \nStreisand announced “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile ,\nrecorded by Eminem, as Song of the Year at the 75th \nAnnual Academy Awards. Resto is a Detroit native in his \nforties who has worked with artists from Anita Baker \nto Patti Smith to Was (Not Was). Now, in collaboration \nwith Marshall Mathers (Eminem) and Jeff Bass, he’s an \nimprobable, elated Oscar winner.\n“I started piano at nine,” Resto recalls. “My brother \nMario was my biggest infl uence since he was a guitarist \nand songwriter.” Resto’s parents were always supportive \nof their boys’ musical endeavors; his father even took \nthem to see Jimi Hendrix at Cobo Arena in 1968 when \nLuis was still in elementary school. “I remember leav-\ning the parking lot. This guy came around checking \neveryone’s car horn tones and we all honked the intro to \n“Purple Haze,” he laughs.\nFusion music, John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, and \nHerbie Hancock mesmerized the young Resto, but he \nneeded a synthesizer. “I said to my dad, ‘It’s so expensive, \nbut there’s something in that.’” At 12 and a half years \nof age, he began playing an ARP Odyssey. Then, at a \npolice auction, a Fender Rhodes, bass amp, and Electro-\nVoice mic came into his possession for $ 101. “That’s Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n184what began my stay in my brother Mario’s group,” Resto \nrelates. \nDon Was remembers his fi rst encounter with Resto. \n“When he was 15 he was my friend’s piano student. My \nfriend called me up and said, ‘You’ve to hear this guy and \nuse him on a record.’” Resto refl ects, “I think I appreciate \nWas (Not Was) more now. At the time I was a pain in the \nass. But with Was there were no boundaries.” In the mid-\n’90s, Resto spent seven months in Los Angeles playing \non Was’ productions and pondering a move to the West \ncoast until he received an offer to return home to play \nwith Patti Smith. “Patti was this fi gure for me,” Resto \noffers. “My brother brought home Patti Smith’s Horse s\nwhen I was 12 or 13. I’d listen over and over and stare at \nthat cover. Then, 20 years later, to have this opportunity \nwas a highlight.”\nIt was Resto’s longtime colleague, Joel Martin, who \nconnected Resto with Marshall Mathers. He worked \non both The Eminem Show and 8 Mile , collaborating \non songs and score for the latter. Additionally, he has \nworked with 50 Cent and Shady Records’ signees. Most \nsignifi cantly, Resto is acknowledged as a co-writer, a fact \nthat bears enormous economic implications as Mathers, \nwho could certainly play it any way he chooses, takes \nthe high road. “I know the other side very well,” Resto \nmuses. “I don’t say it in a bad way. That’s what I grew \nup accustomed to. Here’s this grand payoff. Who would \nhave thought? You don’t get these kind of record sales, \nand for Marshall to give it up as such is remarkable.”\nWork with Mathers is full out. “That’s what he does. \nHe’s concerned with (daughter) Halie, and that’s his \nmain occupation, getting the next beat out of his head 185and getting the next project for the artists on his label.” \nSessions begin around 2:00 p .m. “I’ll walk in and he’ll \nbe at the drum machine tapping on something, and \nthen I boot up my keyboards and some melody strikes \nhim, and that’s a good sign. That can evolve to anything \nin the next half hour because he’s busy adding to that \nbeat. Where it started from might be completely differ-\nent from where it ends up. We always have a DAT going, \ncatching everything that’s happening.”\nAnd this is the collaboration that brought Resto to \nthe stage of the Kodak Theater, and to accepting the \naward from Streisand. “I’ve done every gig in the book: \nweddings, solo gigs, Knights of Columbus halls. When I \nsaw her, all I could think of were those daddy/daughter \ndances to ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘Evergreen.’ I thought, \n‘Oh my God, it’s the artist whose music I used to play at \nweddings!’ And that’s pretty classic.”\nBob Malone: Road Warrior\nEverything about Bob Malone—from his stride-\ninfl uenced piano chops to his gravelly Dixie growl—seems \nlike a compass pointing toward the Crescent City. But \nsounds are deceiving; Malone is actually from New \nJersey. He’s spent a number of years in Los Angeles, and \nhe has lived for extended periods in New York and, yes, \nNew Orleans, too. \n“New York and New Orleans are the only cities where \nthey have pianos in every club,” Malone intones. “In New \nYork because no one wants to carry any gear, and in New \nOrleans because there are so many piano players.”Chapter 9 Success StoriesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n186This seasoned road warrior has toured with The \nNeville Brothers, opened for the Rev. Al Green and \nManhattan Transfer, and performed at countless festivals \n,including Kerrville and Falcon Ridge. It shows: Malone \nis an electrifying live performer, having learned how to \ndrop the proverbial hammer by opening shows. “They \ndon’t want to hear the opening act,” he explains. “But \nyou can win them over.”\nMost often he traverses a cross-continental road, \nperforming 150 dates a year as a headlining artist in con-\ncert venues that seat anywhere from 50 to 500 patrons. \n“Doing those rooms is my biggest impetus to tour,” he \nstates. Malone’s two Delta Moon/Chartmaker releases, \nThe Darkest Part of the Night and Bob Malone , combined \nwith his relentless touring schedule, have earned this \ntenacious troubadour a national audience and an envi-\nable sheaf of kudos.\nGiven his impressive sales fi gures and touring \nvisibility, it would seem that signing with a major label \ncould take him up to the next level. “I’ve come very close \na lot of times,” he confesses. “I don’t know if this will \nchange with the new record, but I’ve had a problem with \nclassifi cation. They’re not sure what it is or what to do \nwith it. That’s the reason I’ve been independent; it’s not \nby choice.”\nIndependence is not for the lazy. Malone books his \nshows, handles the promo, sets up the interviews, and \ndrives the van. He even chronicles his road adventures in \nvivid prose on his Web site (www.bobmalone.com), and \nhe’s contributing to a new book, Working Musicians , due \nthis fall from Harper Collins.187Selling CDs on the road accounts for half of Malone’s \nincome. “When I fi rst started touring, a lot of the gigs \ndidn’t pay. I was opening for acts in cool rooms where I \ngot seen, and I’d put on a good enough show that every-\none would buy my record. I’d go into some freebie gig \nand make $300 in sales. I lived off of that. It was the last \nstep of turning me into a strong live act. Desperation is a \nwonderful motivator.”\nPrior to the road gigs, Malone admits he spent time \nsitting around in L.A. awaiting a magic record deal. “I \nwas doing top- 40 gigs, shit I hated. I fi nally said ‘I’m not \ngoing to do this.’ You can’t be taken seriously as an artist \nand then go play cover tunes six nights a week. They can \nsmell it on you. Audiences know ; you have to be that guy, \nthe artist. It all changed for me when I decided not to do \nthat anymore—[then] I was taken seriously.”\nSummary\nThese four artists epitomize one crucial career key: They \nnever got out of the business; instead, they discovered \nviable avenues to project themselves and their music. \nThey also epitomize a sterling networking strategy: Only \nthose who are left standing will succeed. Chapter 9 Success Stories188Go Where You Wanna Go \nLeaving the security of your home and moving to \nanother location can be a daunting reality, but it may \nwell be necessary for the advancement of your career. \nThis chapter evaluates the scenes in the major U.S. music \ncapitals.\nIn one six-year span in my fi rst music business \nincarnation as a songwriter, musician, and performer, \nI lived in, and survived, all three music capitals. Today, \nas an author and a journalist, I make my home in \nLos Angeles, but I am in daily contact with New York \nand Nashville, where I travel for interviews and other \nprojects. Eventually, if you aspire to a professional music \ncareer, you too will need to correspond with, pitch to, \nvisit, write, record, or live in one (if not all three) of these \ndynamic cities. If your aspirations guide you, you too \nmust search for the ideal locale for your talents and be \nwilling to pack up your tent and move to more verdant \npastures, to go where it is, or to make it happen where \nyou are.CHAPTER 10189Nashville\nNashville’s reverence for the song form cannot be \noverstated. These days, it’s not just country in Music City \neither. Christian, pop, rock, gospel, alternative—and \nespecially alt.country and Americana—are also viable \nforms. Nashville is a city of surprises; the rumpled-\nlooking gentleman sitting next to you at a coffee shop \ncould be a major songwriter, executive, or record \nproducer. Certain parts of town near Music Row are \nsimilar to a college campus in which many of the \npatrons in the restaurants are in the music business. \nNashville respects longevity and credibility, and personal \nrelationships are key in this friendly, song-oriented \ntown. Most of the major music publishers have offi ces, \nand many smaller boutique companies exist, too. If you \nplan to visit, you will need to research publishers and \ncontact them regarding their submission policies and the \npossibility of setting up appointments.\nIF YOU VISIT\nThe songwriting business is localized, stretching along \nMusic Row ( 16th and 17th Avenues) in refurbished homes \nand newer offi ce suites. Hotel rooms cost from $50 to \n$200 per night; budget motels tend to be in the outlying \nparts of town. If you’re planning on sightseeing, you’ll \nprobably need a car.\nNashville Songwriters Association International \n(NSAI) is a valuable resource. If you can, schedule your \ntrip in the spring when NSAI produces their annual \nevent, Tin Pan South, with a slate of hit songwriter \nconcerts, showcases, open mics, classes, panels, and \nworkshops. Another new NSAI program, Songwriters \nSymposium, is a two-day fall event that offers pitch Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n190sessions and evaluations from some of Music City’s most \nesteemed publishers and record company executives.\nThe Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) is another \nstrongly supportive organization with a slate of song \ncritiques and ASK-A-PRO sessions to connect and edu-\ncate writers. You have to be a member to take advantage \nof their events. You can reach them at 615-329-1782 or \nonline at www.songwriters.org.\nOther events in town include the Nashville New \nMusic Conference, also held in mid-fall, which is a four-\nday event with major industry participation. Highlights \ninclude a trade show, technology forum, panel \ndiscussions, mentor sessions, keynote speakers, and a \nstudio tour of Nashville. Information is at www.2nmc.\ncom. The Americana Music Association Conference, \nheld in the fall, features over 600 industry professionals \nin an array of panels, discussions, and performances \nall specifi c to the Americana format. Information is at \nwww.americanamusic.org.\nThe Songwriter and Musician’s Guide to Nashville ,\nauthored by Sherry Bond (Allworth Press), is an invalu-\nable resource for the visiting songwriter.\nSHOWCASES AND OPEN MICS\nThere are a variety of places to perform, including the \nvery famous Bluebird Cafe. Nashville Scene, published \nevery Wednesday and free at bookstores and coffee \nshops ,has comprehensive listings of clubs. There are \nWriters’ Nights going on every night of the week, \nincluding open mic events where you can line up and \nsign up to play that evening. Most, however, are planned. \nSome hosts are fl exible, so if you have a persuasive 191personality, or if there has been a cancellation, you might \nget a chance to perform that night. If you’re going to be \nin town for a few days, check out your chosen club early \nin your stay, and see if you can be scheduled to perform \nlater in your visit. Your set may consist of only two to \nfour songs and should be original (not cover) tunes.\nThe BMI Music Connection Showcase series is held \nat various venues in Nashville and features today’s hit \nsongwriters as well as up-and-comers. It’s free and open \nto the public. The BMI Acoustic Roundup, held the sec-\nond Thursday of every month at the Sutler, pairs the top \nnames in songwriting with soon-to-break through tal-\nent. The BMI RoundTable was created in order to arm \nsongwriters with powerful information that will help \nthem navigate today’s highly competitive music indus-\ntry. RoundTable topics include performing rights, BMI’s \nhistory, how the Nashville music industry operates, and \ntips to help you become the songwriter you want to be. \nIt is held the second Monday of each month at the BMI \nNashville offi ces and is open to all songwriters. For more \ninformation, contact the BMI Writer/Publisher Relations \nDepartment at 615-401-2000 . The BMI Songwriters \nWorkshop with Jason Blume is generally held the second \nTuesday of each month from and invites all songwriters \nwho are serious about and committed to successful com-\nmercial songwriting to attend. At each workshop, Jason \nBlume examines the components of hit songs and covers \na variety of topics, including song structure, lyric and \nmelody writing techniques, musical hooks, writing from \nthe heart for the radio, and effective demo recording, \namong others. There is no cost to attend, but seating is \nlimited, so advance registration is required.Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n192IF YOU DECIDE TO MOVE THERE\nNashville has a temperate climate, housing is moderately \npriced, and the countryside is stunning. Keep in mind \nthat although the music industry is free thinking, you \nare in the South—a locale that is historically not as \nprogressive as the Nashville arts and entertainment \ncommunities would indicate.\nNINE STEPS TO NASHVILLE\n 1. Don’t expect to open all of the doors overnight. \nNashville is a town that respects history, longevity, and \ncredibility.\n 2. Take enough money to at least give the illusion of some \nlevel of success. If at all possible, stay with friends. If \nyou’re planning on sightseeing, you’ll probably need a car. \n 3. The business people here are incredibly savvy. Don’t \nassume that you’re dealing with yokels. Nashville doesn’t \ncare what you’ve done elsewhere.\n 4. Use your performing rights organization to help you \nopen doors. Contact them well in advance of your visit, \nbut don’t expect them to perform miracles on your \nbehalf.\n 5. Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) \nis a valuable resource—especially if you’re a member. \nFor membership information, contact them at (800) 321-\n6008 or (615) 256-3354 and check out their Web site at \nwww.Nashvillesongwriters.com. All members receive a \nbooklet when joining that features a variety of informa-\ntion, including hotel listings and other information to \nmaximize a visit to Nashville.193 6. There are people in Nashville who will rip you off by \nasking you to pay them up to $5,000 to get you a deal. \nEven if it’s all in the name of production costs, you can \nbe taken for a ride. Yes, you may wind up with a CD, but \nit won’t be on a major label, and you may have paid four \ntimes too much to record it. Always be wary of name-\ndroppers and people who make promises with price tags \nattached. \n 7. Music Row , a trade publication, is an excellent source for \nan insider’s look at the Nashville music scene. Learn the \nnames and positions of the movers and shakers. \n 8. With demos, the simpler the better. Since Nashville is a \nsong town, your demo doesn’t have to be as highly pol-\nished. A guitar/vocal or piano/vocal is often suffi cient. \n 9. Nashville takes the music industry very seriously, and \nthe caliber of talent is in the stratosphere. There’s a lot of \npride in this quality; don’t ever sell that short. The only \npeople who wear cowboy hats and boots in Nashville are \ntourists.\nNew York\nFrom Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building, from Broadway \nto Greenwich Village, music is the soundtrack to suc-\ncessive eras of history in the Big Apple. Since New York \nis the center of the theater world, there are many outlets \nand opportunities for songwriters and composers who \ncreate for the stage and cabaret. The pop world is well \nrepresented, too, as are hip-hop and R&B, with the cur-\nrent climate heavily favoring songwriter/producers. Most \nmajor music publishers are in midtown Manhattan, but Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n194the center of the songwriting world is Greenwich Village, \nwith its cafés, coffeehouses, and clubs presenting a wide \nspectrum of acoustic and songwriter-oriented shows.\nDOWNTOWN\nThe New York Songwriters’ Circle is a showcase held \ntwice monthly at The Bitter End ( 147 Bleecker Street \nin The Village) that features many of the city’s most \ndistinguished songsmiths alongside up-and-coming \nsinger/songwriters. Artists are selected via word of \nmouth or from tapes heard in listening sessions. They \nnow book up to eight months in advance. You can fi nd \ninformation at www.songwriters-circle.com.\nUMO Music presents a Sunday showcase at the \nBaggot Inn ( 82 W. 3rd Street between Sullivan Street \nand Thompson Street) most Sundays in the winter \nbut only if the weather is bad in the summer. Sign-up \nis at the door. Information is at www.umo.com. The \nCornelia Street Café ( 9 Cornelia Street, 212-989-9319 )\npresents The Songwriters Beat, a monthly showcase of \noriginal songwriters. Booking information is at www.\ncorneliastreetcafe.com or www.songwritersbeat.com. \nSESAC’s Writers on the Storm, currently in residence at \nThe Cutting Room, features four of the organization’s \nwriters in a showcase format. Due to the success of club \nalumni Norah Jones, The Living Room, also in the \nVillage, is home to a major scene.\nASCAP Writers at Night is an intimate showcase \nseries designed to feature the talents of promising new \nsongwriters, while providing them with an opportunity \nto forge new relationships in a laid-back and supportive \natmosphere. It’s currently held every fi rst Tuesday of the \nmonth.195SONGS ABOVE THE FOOTLIGHTS\nASCAP and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets \n(MAC) have instigated a showcase program where \ncabaret and theater songwriters present new material \nbefore an audience of publishers and other songwriters. \nThe ASCAP Foundation also presents a showcase \nseries, Thru The Walls, that spotlights concert-trained \ncomposer/performers who cross genres. Contact the \nSociety at wwwmacnyc.com. \nBMI and the late Lehman Engel joined forces to cre-\nate a setting where new writers for the musical theatre \ncould learn their craft. The BMI Lehman Engel Musical \nTheatre Workshop continues to fl ourish and is consid-\nered to be the foremost training ground for new writing \nvoices, bringing forth musical milestones such as A\nChorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Nine, and Ragtime. \nThe Workshop presents a series of in-house cabarets \nthat attract music and theatrical industry attention. The \nWorkshop participates both formally and informally \nwith various New York and regional theaters in devel-\nopmental programs. Contact BMI at 212-830-2508 or via \ne-mail at theatreworkshop@bmi.com.\nSONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME\nThe Songwriters Hall of Fame and the National Academy \nof Popular Music sponsor meetings where music indus-\ntry professionals enlighten and educate attendees on \nboth the craft and the business aspects of songwriting. \nThese are held eight times per year, followed by open \nmics co-hosted by Bob Leone and April Anderson. For \nmore information, contact Bob Leone at 212-957-9230 or \nvia e-mail at info@songwritershalloffame.org. Current \nmembers of the National Academy of Popular Music \n(NAPM) are also eligible to submit songs for Songwriters Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n196Hall of Fame Songwriter Showcases, which are held four \ntimes annually. You’ll need to submit materials at least \ntwo months in advance of the shows.\nIF YOU VISIT\nManhattan is where you’ll want to be, and it’s not cheap. \nCheck out a Web travel service like Expedia.com or \nTravelocity.com for the best deals. Hotels shouldn’t be \nyour priority, since in this dynamic “city that never \nsleeps” (to paraphrase Kander and Ebb) you’ll fi nd \nmany things to occupy your time entertainment- and \nbusiness-wise. The city itself is a breeze to navigate via \ntaxis or well-designated busses and subways, taking you \nanywhere you need to go. It’s inspiring to walk, too. Just \nremember that numbered streets descend as you head \ndowntown and you can’t get lost. Pick up a copy of the \nvenerable Village Voice for all of the club listings. \nIF YOU DECIDE TO MOVE THERE\nNew York rents are among the most astronomical in \nthe country. Some musicians opt to live in Brooklyn or \nQueens, which are cheaper, or across the river in New \nJersey. The trains can whisk you anywhere quickly. For \nacoustic artists, there is a distinct advantage in living in \nNew York because it is a hub of activity with close prox-\nimity to other Northeast towns (especially Boston) that \nhave strong performing scenes and a multitude of venues \nfor singer/songwriters.\nLos Angeles\nLos Angeles is a package town. Songwriters and art-\nists succeed because they are somehow connected—to \nartists, producers, fi lms, and other media. In this ever 197mutating city of the angels (or perhaps more appropri-\nately, the “city of the angles”), the song is an essential \ncomponent. Writer/producer teams of two or three \nspecialists—e.g., a producer, a groove maestro, and a \nlyricist—are highly valued, while the era of the single, \nunconnected song (if it ever existed) has been supplanted \nby a corporate, high-stakes publishing environment.\nFILM AND TELEVISION\nThe explosion of fi lm, network and cable television, and \nvideo games has spawned innumerable outlets for new \nmusic and songs. Songs that mirror what’s happening on \nthe charts (as of this writing, edgy alternative rock and \nsinger/songwriters) are the most requested and easily \nplaced. Check out www.fi lmmusicworld.com.\nThe Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) pro-\nduces a variety of educational events, including their \nASK-A-PRO series. SGA membership is available to \nall, and the Hollywood offi ce is an unfailingly writer-\nfriendly environment. There are always ongoing classes \nas well. Contact SGA at 323-462-1108 or online at www.\nsongwriters.org.\nAnother local songwriting group produces well-\nregarded activities, including ongoing songwriter \nshowcases and educational events. As their Web site \nsays, “The L.A. Songwriters’ Network (www.songnet.\norg) seeks to establish, develop, promote, and sustain \nfor the songwriting community in Los Angeles, and for \nthe global songwriting virtual ‘cyber-community’, free \nand low-cost access to the tools required to improve \ntheir craft, build successful careers, host and promote \nworkshops and events, and most importantly give back \nto the world better music, better lyrics, greater positive, Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n198wholesome, uplifting, sincere, and genuine musical and \nartistic creation and expression.”\nPERFORMING RIGHTS\nIf you belong to ASCAP, try to plan your songwriting \ntrip around the General Member Meeting, now held \nin L.A. every other year in early February. Year round, \nASCAP hosts educational events, including Music \nBusiness 101 and The Songwriters Studio, plus their \nhighly regarded acoustic showcase, Quiet on the Set. \nThis show has spawned a spin-off, the Cover Me series, \nwhich celebrates writers whose works have been covered \nby prominent artists. Past participants have included \nVonda Shepard, Jill Sobule, Willie Nile, Joseph Arthur, \nSixpence None the Richer, Jonatha Brooke, Ben Harper, \nCatie Curtis, Allen Shamblin, Deana Carter, Rufus \nWainwright, and John Mayer. \nBMI’s contributions to Los Angeles’ night life and \ntheir continued high-octane shows—BMI’s Circle of \nSongs, Songwriters Club, and Pick of the Month among \nthem—are some of the showcase tickets in town. \nInformation is available at BMI’s Web site, www.bmi.\ncom, or www.circleofsongs.com. SESAC now has a West \ncoast offi ce located in Santa Monica and has begun \npresenting highly regarded industry showcases and edu-\ncational events for their members.\nGET CONNECTED\nFor the past 27 years, Music Connection magazine has \nmeasured the pulse of L.A.’s music business. Music \nConnection publishes special editions throughout the \nyear, including a guide to music publishers, music \nsupervisors, open mics, and showcases. The “Song Biz” \ncolumn, my domain, has information about performing 199rights organizations, publishing companies, and show-\ncases. You can read the current issue online at www.\nmusicconnection.com or call 818-955-0101 for subscrip-\ntion information. \nThe distances in Los Angeles are vast. The music \ncommunity is spread from the beach towns of Santa \nMonica and Venice inland to West Hollywood, \nHollywood central, Silverlake, and the San Fernando \nValley, especially Universal City, Studio City, and North \nHollywood. For acoustic performers, Li’l Hal’s Guide\n(www.halsguide.com) is the defi nitive resource for locat-\ning open mic and showcase clubs. Taxi, the independent \nA&R service, holds their annual convention, the Road \nRally, in the fall. It’s a weekend of classes, panels, pitch \nsessions, etc. You have to be a member to attend, but the \nevent itself is free. Check out www.taxi.com. There are \nother events in the early stages of development, includ-\ning a Songsalive! Expo for independent artists (www.\nsongsalive.org), and Loyola Marymount Law School \nand California Lawyers for the Arts present an industry \npanel in the fall that is an excellent networking resource. \nLastly, UCLA Extension’s Music Business programs pres-\nent one free day of songwriter events every September to \npromote their upcoming classes.\nIF YOU DECIDE TO MOVE THERE\nLos Angeles may remind you of the fable of the blind \nmen and the elephant because every part of it you touch \nfeels different. You can live in a roaring city, in the tran-\nquil suburbs, at the beach, in a small town, high in the \nhills in a neighborhood of palatial mansions, or deep \ninside the barrio and still be within the city limits.Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n200Emerging Cities\nWith a population of 425,000 , Atlanta is only the thirty-\nninth largest city in the United States, but there is a \nsupportive network of musicians, clubs, radio, and publi-\ncations in the city that help set it apart. \nFor R&B artists and songwriters, Atlanta, Georgia, \nhas become the musical capital of the New South. \nLudacris, OutKast, and P. Diddy have homes there, and \nit’s not only home to soul music—The Black Crowes, \nCollective Soul, Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, Elton John, \nand John Mayer base their operations there as well.\nOne of the things that has made it easier for bands \nto emerge, and possible for them to survive, is the \nabundance of local clubs that feature live music in East \nAtlanta, Little Five Points, and Midtown.\nWhen it comes to hip-hop, Atlanta is unrivaled. \nRappers and artists who may have started in the Big \nApple or in the City of Angels have migrated to Atlanta. \nAnother extension of the Atlanta music scene is under-\nground dance clubs and DJs, and another supportive \noutlet that helps Atlanta’s music scene thrive is local \nradio. Both Album 88 (WRAS-FM 88.5), GA State \nUniversity’s student-run station, and 99X (WNNX-FM \n99.7), the city’s “alternative” station, have given local \nbands the chance to be heard. Album 88 does it with \nthe Georgia Music show, and 99X gives bands airtime \non “Local Only,” which can be heard via the station’s \nInternet site, 99X.com, and sponsors the Locals-Only \nStage, during Atlanta’s annual Music Midtown Festival.201All Over the Map\nIf you are a visiting musician, songwriter, or aspiring \nexecutive, your success will be determined by your inter-\naction with the people you meet. It is imperative to do \nyour homework before visiting any of these locales, to \nmake a strong, enduring impression once you’re there, \nand to follow up and keep in touch with your contacts \nwhen you leave. ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC members \nshould make a visit to their performing rights organiza-\ntion a fi rst stop, but be realistic: Don’t expect them to \nperform miracles on your behalf. \nMusic Conferences\nMaybe you’re not prepared to make the move yet to a \nmajor recording capital, but when you do, you’ll need \ncontacts. Music conferences proliferate in all genres of \nmusic. A dedicated Web search will display events coast \nto coast. These are invaluable opportunities to make \nlasting contacts, and the information and contacts to be \ngained by attending a songwriting conference cannot be \nover-emphasized. It’s more than just a place to meet—it’s \nempowerment, a sense of community, the joy of belong-\ning. Many participants share that they come away sig-\nnifi cantly inspired by these experiences. \nOf all the annual events, two come to mind quickly. \nThe Durango Song Expo (www.durangosong.com), \nas its name would indicate, was fi rst held in Durango, \nColorado. The locale has now shifted to Telluride, and \nthe same organization is producing a songwriting event \nin the wine country just north of Santa Barbara. Imagine Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n202the combination of hundreds of songwriters and endless \nbottles of great wine!\nThe Durango folks pride themselves on limiting \nthe number of registrants so that everyone will have an \nopportunity to have their songs heard by industry reps \nfrom Nashville and Los Angeles. The pros and the writ-\ners tend to be slanted toward country/roots/Americana, \nso if you create in these fi elds, you’re in luck. Panels \ncover everything from copyright basics to promotion \nand publicity with hit songwriter concerts and long \nnights of guitar pulls in many of the rooms. \nThe second of these events is the West Coast \nSongwriters Conference (www.westcoastsongwriter.org). \nWith 16 seminars, 50 song screening sessions, 1,500 songs \nreviewed, performance showcases, one-on-one sessions, \nand concerts, the conference is a wellspring of opportu-\nnities for over 500 songwriter/musicians who attend the \nevent.\nIt’s just close enough to Los Angeles to draw a strong \ncross-section of Hollywood publishers and record label \nexecs. The vibe of the conference is endlessly supportive; \nthere’s a respect for the songwriter that goes far beyond \nmonetary commercialization, and many types of music \nare represented.\n15 Tips to Maximize Your Conference Experience\n 1. Bigger is not necessarily better. Some of the smaller \nregional conferences can be more valuable than a huge, \nconfusing cattle call. 203 2. Plan, plan, plan. You can generally save big bucks by \nregistering early. \n 3. Minimize lodging costs by sharing rooms or staying \nwith friends. \n 4. Don’t assume that if you’re staying at a hotel where \nthe conference is held you’ll pay less with a group rate. \nCheck out the possibilities online; sometimes you’re \nbetter off booking a room on your own. \n 5. If you stay in a hotel where the event is held, specify \nif you’ll be in a “quiet” area. At the Folk Alliance \nConferences it’s not unusual for musicians to jam all \nnight. Consequently, a quiet wing of the hotel is reserved \nfor those who require some sleeping silence. \n 6. Do research. Anticipate what classes, panels, and work-\nshops you want to attend. Often these are the most \nvaluable events happening. \n 7. Again, the purpose is to open doors and windows. \nPressing press kits and CDs into everyone’s hands can \nbe off-putting. I often leave conventions overwhelmed. \nWhat I appreciate is someone asking for my card and \ncontacting me in the next week when I’m not deluged. \n 8. Mixers and social events are a key component of \nconferences and conventions. Save your energy for late-\nnight schmoozing.\n 9. When you return home, don’t procrastinate: File all of \nthe names and contacts you made. Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n204 10. Write thank you letters to panel participants whose \npresentations you particularly enjoyed. \n 11. Your most valuable contacts will probably be the other \nattendees. \n 12. Dress comfortably but distinctively. Project a vibe. \n 13. If possible, set up meetings in advance of the event. \nProffering an invitation for a meal (you pay!) is a \ngenerous way to interact. \n 14. The booth areas are also valuable places to meet people \nin a natural setting, especially at slow times or lunch \nhours. \n 15. See if you can volunteer to assist at the event. Some \nconferences will comp volunteers. \nWorld Beat\nAs I teach students from the U.K., Norway, Germany, \nJapan, the Philippines, and the U.S., I emphasize that \npop music is a global phenomenon. Sometimes what is \nsuccessful in one part of the world spreads across the \ncontinents; other times, the payoff is more localized. As \nmusic industry professionals, we need to be apprised of \nthe explosive potential of world markets.\nThere are many examples of U.S. artists who fi rst \nbecame successful in the U.K. A struggling sideman for \nLittle Richard, Jimi Hendrix came to prominence in \nthe U.K. before returning to conquer the states at the \nMonterey Pop Festival.205In the following decade, an aspiring rock singer from \nOhio, Chrissy Hynde, moved from Akron to London \nto form The Pretenders, who were similarly successful \nstateside only after their breakthrough in Britain. The \nlowly Ramones, jokes in their hometown, blew away \nEnglish audiences and inspired a whole generation of \npunks before returning in leather-jacketed triumph to \ntheir native New York. \nThe market for songs is worldwide, too. Los Angeles \nsongwriter Michéle Vice-Maslin has made a living for \nyears writing songs for global markets: in the U.K., \nDenmark, Spain, Scandinavia, Belgium, and Holland. \nWhat’s her secret? “I pitch through [the U.K. magazine] \nSongLink ,” she says . “I’ve gone to MIDEM six times. I \nwent to the Music Bridges trip to Ireland and the D’Pop \nwriters week in Denmark. I know all of the A&R people \nall over the world, and I solicit them. When I was signed \nto publishing deals, I would fi nd out who the local pub-\nlishers were in each country, and I’d call them and send \nthem my songs. Also, I’d buy international music trades \nand really research them.”\nThis proactivity leads to contacts. As Vice-Maslin \nsays, it was her personal relationships with music busi-\nness people worldwide that sustained her until her fi rst \nhuge U.S. hit, in a songwriting career that has spanned \n20-plus years.\nFurther Afi eld\nLondon—a pop, dance, and techno music center—is a \nco-writer’s Mecca, since much of the pop recording is \nproject oriented. Liverpool and Manchester also have Chapter 10 Go Where You Wanna GoNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n206vibrant music scenes. Stockholm, Sweden, has emerged \nas a pop capital in the past decade. And don’t rule out \nTokyo, Japan, or Seoul, South Korea. And with China \nbecoming a major world power, it’s only a matter of time \nbefore there’s bling-bling in Beijing.\nBegin your global music education by reading the \ntrades ( Billboard has a listing of world charts) and check \nout Vice-Maslin’s recommended publication, SongLink, \nfor a listing of acts worldwide who need material. You \ncan also search the Internet for many variations on this \ntheme.\nThe business of music is different for each city, \nstate, and country. However, the real tools—contacts, \npeople skills, persistence, and dedication—are absolutely \nidentical, no matter what market you’re in.207CHAPTER 11\nDefi ning Your Direction\nBy now, you’ve hopefully absorbed enough positive \ninformation to help you make real choices in your career. \nBut if you’ve been banging your head against the wall, \ntrying to make things happen, perhaps it’s time for an \ninner dialogue with yourself. \nIt is all too easy to ignore things that don’t exist. \nWriting down your goals, your ambitions, your hopes \nand dreams should be the very fi rst step in planning \nyour year. \nI spend the last week in December devising a list of \nwhat I want to happen in the upcoming year, whether it’s \na new position, a show I’d like to produce, artists I want \nto interview, or a book I want to write. Twelve months \nlater, I’m always amazed to see that although all the \nnew benchmarks I’d set for myself may not have been \nreached, many others have. And it’s because of my efforts \non behalf of my primary goals that the secondary events \noccurred. Motion begets motion.Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n208You can stir up the universe by transmitting and \nexpending your energy correctly. I know this may sound \nlike some California New-Age malarkey, but try focus-\ning and devoting your energy to achieving your goals. \nWeekly, daily, and monthly “to-do” lists are effective \nways to track your progress. Remember, all of those \nsmall things you accomplish will eventually add up.\nThe following questions are for you to answer only to \nyourself.\nQuestions for Artists\n 1. How important is your career to your life?\nSuccessful music business practitioners do not go from \none comfortable situation to another. Would you be will-\ning to move to another city? To go on the road? To leave \nfriends and family behind in the pursuit of your dreams? \n 2. Can you make it happen where you are?\nAs discussed earlier in this book, the music business now \nhas other centers of creativity. Creating a scene in your \nhometown, with similar bands, media, and artists, can \nhelp you attract attention to your music. But it takes a \nwillingness to be proactive and to work tirelessly and a \ncertain personality to convince others that they should \nwork for the good of all. \n 3. Do you have reference points for your music?\nIf so, is it in a style that is viable for new audiences? \nRemember, buyers for music are progressively younger. 209 4. Are you performing regionally?\nIt’s imperative to expand audiences for live music. It may \neven cost you to travel to another area to perform, but in \nthe long run it will be well worth the investment. \n 5. Are you making too much money working a straight job?\nAt some point you’ll need to defi ne yourself strictly as \na music professional—sink or swim time. It’s diffi cult \nto devote eight hours a day to working for someone else \nand then attempt to do music full time. You may need \nto cut your job loose—usually a harrowing, but often \nnecessary, proposition.\n 6. Are you improving your chops?\nClasses, workshops, and lessons are not only essential to \npursuing your art, but also to making new contacts. \n 7. Are your aspirations viable?\nDreams are marvelous, but you have to live in the \nmoment as well. The great thing about outreach, \npersonal contacts, and networking strategies is that you \ncan practice them every single day of your life. \n 8. Do others like working with you?\nEven the most talented musician won’t get work if no \none likes being around him. In Los Angeles, for example, \nwhere the talent pool is phenomenal, it goes far beyond \ntechnique when it comes time to call up players for \nhigh-paying sessions. It’s more about vibe—that the best \nmusicians also bring in enthusiasm, a “can-do” attitude, \nand make everyone feel like they’re on a winning team.\n 9. Do you have a vibe?\nThis is an intangible quality, but it’s an energy, an aura, \nsomething that makes others respond to you—the Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n210elusive “star quality.” I can detect it, but I can’t explain it; \nstill, if you aspire to a career as a major recording artist, \nothers will need to feel it coming off of you. \n 10. Do you fear success? \nThere are many ways to sabotage your own intentions, \neither consciously or unconsciously. Using alcohol or \ndrugs, overeating, or taking health risks are the most \nobvious. But do you alienate others, forget to return tele-\nphone calls, or in general not take care of business? If so, \nyou may not feel you deserve to be successful. \nI am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist (at least \nnot a trained or accredited one!), but I know that it’s \nmuch harder to be successful than to not be. Success will \nlose you many more friends than failure. More will be \nexpected, others will resent and be intimidated by you, \nand it may be diffi cult to decide whether people like you \nor your position. Talent is not its own reward. The perils \nof instant fortune are well known. \nQuestions for Aspiring Moguls\n 1. Do you read the trades every week?\nIf so, do you know the names of the movers and \nshakers in the music business, and can you track their \nmovements? Do you study their pictures to be able to \nrecognize them on sight if necessary? \n 2. Have you relocated to a music center? \nAs discussed many times in this book, you either have to \ncreate it where you are or go to where it is. 211 3. Do you recognize talent in others?\nTry predicting which movies will do well, what singers \nwill be selected on American Idol and shows of this ilk. \nAre you usually correct? \n 4. Can you champion, and sell, artists? \nMake no mistake: it’s all sales. Being able to convince \nothers and to transmit enthusiasm and emotion is a \nmajor attribute of music industry professionals.\n 5. Do you present yourself correctly?\nMusic people can recognize others. It’s a hip, fast-moving \nworld. A strait-laced suit-wearing businessman may \nalienate musicians. Even if you’re on the other side of the \ndesk, you’re expected to have a “look.”\n 6. Do you have a handle on economics?\nPlanning, strategizing, and tracking income and \nexpenses are valuable abilities for anyone hoping to \nhandle and earn large sums of money.\n 7. Can you go with the fl ow?\nVirtually every situation in the music business happens \nat the last possible second. Being overly rigid therefore \ncan be detrimental in an environment where plans are \nalways changing. Musicians typically follow their own \nclocks, and working with them requires an understand-\ning of creative chronology.\n 8. Do you see the big picture?\nArtist managers and other handlers of talent must be \nable to deal with the details at hand but also must be \nable to visualize what will occur much further down the \nroad. This requires a master plan. Are you capable of \nsuch a long-term commitment to others? Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n212 9. Do you have the time to devote to my career?\nIt is virtually impossible to launch viable enterprises if \nyou don’t have the time or energy to do so. You cannot \nbuy your way into this business; it’s insular, and relation-\nships run long and deep.\n 10. Are you enterprising enough to create your own niche \nmarket? \nThe music business utilizes everything from voice and \nperformance coaches to dentists who specialize in trum-\npet players’ teeth. Possibly you have a skill that could be \ntailored to the music business. Remember:There are no \nrules; only your own creativity is devising outlets and \napplications for you talents. \nTeamwork\nOther than the fi lm business, the music business is prob-\nably the most interactive enterprise in the entertainment \nindustry. Artists are the visible tip of the iceberg, sup-\nported by an immense cast of players who may be less \nevident but are none the less equally vital and, in most \ncases, will probably enjoy longer careers than the artist. \nThis section examines some of the principal players from \ntwo sides: one, if you’re an artist needing to engage team \nmembers, and two, necessary qualifi cations if you want \nto work in any of these essential fi elds.\nManagement\n“I need to fi nd an agent or a manager,” you say. But \nwhich do you need? The duties, responsibilities, and \nqualifi cations are totally different. First, there are 213managers. Back in the day, managers were often solo \noperators—savvy visionaries who would attach them-\nselves to artists and guide each and every aspect of the \nartist’s career. Long-term relationships were the norm: \nBrian Epstein with the Beatles, Colonel Tom Parker \nwith Elvis, and Albert Grossman with Bob Dylan. \n(Interestingly enough, Grossman never used the term \n“manager.” He preferred the more general “works with \nthe artist” to describe his duties.) \nA manager is many things: counselor, sounding \nboard, partner, Svengali—depending, of course, on the \nneeds of the artist. Above all, he or she is an employee—\nhired by the artist to oversee all elements.\nWhen Do You Need a Manager?\nThis is easy: when you can no longer run your own busi-\nness affairs because you’ve become too successful. When \nartists tell me they think they need a manager, my fi rst \nquestion is always, “How much income are you currently \ngenerating?” If the answer is none, nil, nada, the correct \nresponse is “Why do you need a manager?”\nI’ve done everything within the management sphere: \nhand holding, brow beating, booking dates, hauling gear, \nand bailing my clients out of jail. The question of what \na manager does is answered by the phrase, “Whatever \nis necessary.” I would always give keys to my house to \nartists I managed in case they needed a safe haven, peace \nand quiet, or a place to do their laundry. \nHandling clients signed to record deals is a taxing \nexistence. I discovered I was spending more time with Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n214the label than with the artists. And I learned that if \nevents, projects, and tours went well, it was always \nbecause of the artist. If things fell fl at or were less than \nsuccessful, it was always because of management. A \nmanager has to take the blows for the artist.\nWhat to Look For in a Manager\nSo if a manager is interested in you or your act, is it best \nto sign with the biggest one? Not necessarily. I’ve known \nnew artists signed to high-profi le managers who have \nfared poorly because the manager’s attention was invari-\nably focused on his bigger, higher-earning clients, not \nthe ones who were still struggling to fi nd an audience. \nTechnically, anyone can call himself a manager with-\nout having any qualifi cations whatsoever, and that’s a \ndicey proposition for most new artists. It is better to have \nno manager than to have the wrong one, because he or \nshe will inevitably alienate those whom you need to cul-\ntivate. \nRecord labels will rarely sign artists without proper \nmanagement in place. Sometimes if an A&R executive is \ninterested in signing an act without management, he will \nrecommend someone he knows. This can be an excel-\nlent way to come in from a position of power. Beware \nthe manager who comes in simply to sign you to a label, \nhowever. It is not unknown for unscrupulous A&R execs \nto be in cahoots with managers to skim and split a per-\ncentage of the signing bonus offered by a record label. \nThat has happened.215A good manager is with you for the long term, is \nsympathetic to the artist, can see the big picture, and \ncan facilitate a wide range of scenarios, from negotiating \nrecord deals and sync licenses to publishing and touring. \nA great manager doesn’t need to know everything, but \nhe has to know how to fi nd out everything. And he \ntakes 15% to 20% of your earnings in exchange for this \nexpertise.\nDo You Want to Be a Manager?\nManagers are a special breed in the business. If you are \norganized, understand how the business works, and are \nwell connected, aggressive, and irrepressible, you have \nsome necessary attributes. Some managers are hard-\ndriving street hustlers, some are smooth Ivy League \nlaw school graduates—but all are capable of multitask-\ning, and not only recognizing talent but knowing how \nto make the most of it. A good manager says “yes” to \nvirtually any situation and then fi gures out how to \nmake the most of it. \nYour Lawyer\nLawyers in the music business are different than law-\nyers in the civilian world. They are paid hourly or on a \nretainer basis. Few reputable lawyers in Los Angeles will \nshop packages to labels. Beware of an up-front fee from \nthose who do so.\nDonald S. Passman, author of All You Need to \nKnow About the Music Business, is a high-profi le \nHollywood music business attorney whose reputation is Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n216irreproachable. Jay Cooper is another high-stakes player, \nas is Peter Paterno. But we’re talking major billings for \ntheir services, probably in excess of $ 600 an hour. Unless \nyou’re negotiating a multi-million dollar agreement, it’s \ndoubtful you need someone on this level.\nOn the other end of the spectrum is a cadre of eager \nyoung lawyers fresh out of law school and eager to earn a \nreputation in the high-stakes music world who charge a \nfraction of these fees. Often these lawyers are out in the \nclubs, discovering talent, the same as any other operative \nin the music business. \nHaving a lawyer with whom the label is familiar may \nbe to your advantage, but keep in mind that some major \nlabels will hire lawyers to work for them simply to keep \nthem in the pocket when it comes time to negotiation \ndeals with artists—a distinct disadvantage and a clear \nconfl ict of interest. But a good lawyer is necessary when \nit’s time to sign contracts. And I’ve seen sympathetic \nlawyers defer billing altogether if they have a relationship \nwith an artist who is having money problems. \nAgents\nAgents work for the buyer, period. Yes, you’ll need an \nagent if you are successful, have a major deal, and are \nready to tour; otherwise, you may be better off booking \nyourself. Agents are extremely selective and generally \nsign only artists who they know they can work in specifi c \nmarkets; rarely will they take a chance on an unknown. \nAs with other elements, it’s all about relationships: in \nthis case, between the agent and the buyer. In the state of 217California, an agent posts a bond with the state in order \nto be licensed and qualifi ed. As a holdover from the dark \ndays of the movie business, it’s not possible for someone \nto be both an agent and a manager—this is considered a \nconfl ict of interest. \nAgents generally earn 10% to 15% of their artists’ \ngross earnings from performances, and they deduct \nexpenses incurred as well. The agent takes his clues from \nthe manager, fi nds out what fees are necessary, how far \nthe artist will travel, audience specifi cs, packaging, plans \nfor recording and touring, special needs, plus sound and \nlighting. \nThe most effective agents are highly specialized, \ndealing in a specifi c genre of music—Latin, jazz, world, \nor rock, for example. If you have the qualifi cations to \nbe an agent, you’re probably already doing it: booking \nbands at shows or parties.\nYour Publicist\nYou need a publicist only if you have a story to tell and a \nproduct to sell. Nothing could be more counterproduc-\ntive than to engage and pay a publicist, garner national \npublicity, and not have anywhere for potential buyers to \ngo to hear your music or buy your CD. \nA good publicist will map out a campaign gener-\nally two or three months in duration (few will work for \na shorter period), concentrating on local, regional, or \nnational press. A publicity campaign generally works \naround the release of a CD and/or a tour. A publicist will \ndevelop press materials, advise you on photos, bios, and Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n218press releases, and often generate all of the above and \nhave relationships with the music press. (See the “Press \nKits” section in Chapter 7 for more on generating these \nmaterials yourself.) \nThe major publicists get major results. As a journal-\nist, I interact daily with a variety of publicists from the \nmajor companies in Hollywood to small indie operators. \nPublicists also specialize; if you’re doing speed metal, for \nexample, you won’t want a publicist who operates in the \ncabaret world. $350 to $500 per week for a three-month \ncampaign would be in the ballpark. \nArtist’s Responsibilities\nIf you are an artist, you will likely take on many, if not \nmost, of these duties yourself at the onset of your career. \nThis is valuable because you’ll have a handle on what \neach of these endeavors entails, so when you do choose \nto hire functionaries to take over these chores, you’ll \nknow what to expect. \nThe day of the uneducated artist is long gone. Today’s \nsuccessful artists—whether independent or signed to \nlabels—ask questions. They’re not snowed under by \nsmooth-talking con operators or bullied by double-talk. \nThe more you learn about the different aspects of your \ncareer, the stronger you will be. And always, if your \nmusic is happening and you’re making headway, meeting \nthese operatives will come quickly and naturally. Trust \nyour instincts; work only with people with whom you \nshare a common philosophy. Ask yourself, “Is this truly a \nperson I trust to represent me?” 219Get a Job\nAs I mentioned in the Introduction to this book, you \nwill rarely see listings posted for record company jobs \nbecause they’re few and far between, especially in this \nage of lay-offs and consolidations. The other reason is \nthat they’re generally fi lled by those within the business \nwhose motion is upward and lateral as executives jump \nfrom position to position with the various companies. \nIn my career, the fi rst position I ever held in the \nbusiness (that is, not as a performer or songwriter) was \nselling advertising to recording and demo services and \nto studios and equipment manufacturers for the Los \nAngeles Songwriters Showcase Songwriters Musepaper .\nWages were lowly: a minimal weekly draw plus com-\nmission on what I sold and collected on. Initially, I was \nearning so little in this position that I had to work a \npart-time job at night to be able to afford to work almost \nfor free during the day. Holding down two jobs was a \nstruggle, but I knew that to build my credibility in the \nindustry I’d have to begin somewhere. \nInternships are the time-tested method for the \nindustry to employ free labor. At Cal Poly Pomona, a \ncollege where I often teach, most of the students hold \ninternships at labels, music publishing, and publicity \ncompanies. It’s important to realize that often in order to \nget a job in the business, you must fi rst have a job in the \nbusiness. To work within this paradoxical conundrum, \nyou’ll have to start somewhere. Keep in mind that most \ncompanies are leery of hiring musicians and songwriters \nwho may have their own agendas.Chapter 11 Defi ning Your DirectionNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n220If you’re located outside of a major music capital, you \ncan still meet regional promotional and sales representa-\ntives from record labels. The turnover rate in publicity \ndepartments tends to be high, so if you can write and \ntalk and are great on the phone, apply in this area. Clips \nor articles you’ve written for your local or school paper \ncan be helpful indications of your interest and ability to \nwrite about music.\nRecord labels and music publishing fi rms are obvious \nplaces to apply, but as music becomes a component of \nmore businesses—e.g., coffee companies like Starbucks, \nretail outlets, fashion designers, and sporting events—a \nforward-thinking aspirant has more opportunities to \nadvance.\nThere is little job security in entertainment posi-\ntions. If this is your priority, you may need to rethink \nyour strategy. Your security will need to come from an \never-increasing list of contacts. If you do land a job in \nthe music business, you’ll need to devote yourself fully to \nthe company that hires you, while at the same time being \nrealistic enough to know that jobs are tenuous at best. \nBelonging to industry organizations, widening your list \nof social and business contacts, observing patterns and \nstart-up companies—all of these create an atmosphere \nof information. If you do your job effectively, you will be \nnoticed, not only by your bosses and superiors, but by \neveryone else with whom you interact. And you’ll be on \nyour way up.221Personal references will always be the strongest calling \ncard. Being in a position to put people together is a spe-\ncial gift and a valuable attribute for any music business \nnetworking pro.\nCreative Confl uence\nI would caution you to always be aware of the balance of \nrelationships between other individuals before you use \none of them as a reference. Let me give you an example. \nWhen I fi rst began managing artists, a musician of \nsomewhat questionable character told me he was “good \nfriends” with a promoter who handled a variety of out-\ndoor festivals. “Call him and use my name,” he urged. \nWhen I called the promoter and dropped this musician’s \nname, there was an absolute silence. It took me the entire \nconversation to recover from this gaffe, and I found \nmyself having to defend myself and my reputation to a \nstranger because I’d dropped the name of someone for \nwhom he had no respect. It’s a WrapCHAPTER 1 2Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n222Five Tips for Personal References\n 1. People prefer to do music business with friends and peo-\nple they enjoy working with. Become a whole person, not \na ladder-climbing opportunist.\n 2. Musicians are curious creatures; they will often lend \ntheir services to people and projects they believe in \nregardless of immediate fi nancial incentives. Give, \ntake, or barter—“I’ll play on your project if you play on \nmine.” All of these factors are advantageous for up-and-\ncoming artists, and friendships and camaraderie among \nmusicians are an enduring force. \n 3. When you ask someone for a reference, you run the risk \nof putting them in an uncomfortable position. Although \nyour suggestions may well lead them to that conclusion, \nit’s better if you let them make their own recommenda-\ntions. Some people like their own ideas best.\n 4. Notice if others use you as a reference and why. \nSometimes it’s just a “brush off” and not really a referral. \nIf someone submits music for a project and it’s clearly \nnot right, rather than rejecting it, often the confounded \nlistener might interject, “This is perfect for a fi lm/TV \nplacement.” This means nothing.\n 5. Be aware that personal relationships can be volatile and \nshifting. I was planning to interview a hit songwriter I’d \nnever met, whose co-writer on a top- 10 hit happened to \nbe an old acquaintance of mine. The night prior to the \ninterview, I happened to run into my friend, who alerted \nme to a potential lawsuit brewing between the two and \na massive chasm in their friendship. Had I gone in the 223next morning and trumpeted my long-term friendship \nwith his co-writer, it would have been an uneasy session.\nBack Home\nAfter my fi rst book on networking was published, I \nreturned for a visit to my hometown, Lima, Ohio, where \nI was interviewed by the entertainment editor of the \nlocal paper. “What you’ve done in your career isn’t realis-\ntic for most people,” he insisted. I disagree: In my world, \ncommitment and resourcefulness, imagination and \ncreativity are shared trademarks of my contemporaries. \nWe work with no safety net, no guarantees, no rules, no \npredestined career paths to follow down the road to our \ngolden years.\nAs a teenager, cloistered in my room with musical \ninstruments, magazines, and records, little did I under-\nstand how I could forge a career with these obsessions. \nMy father used to remark, “You’re living in a dream \nworld,” and he was totally correct. I dreamed of living \nin New York and Hollywood, of a life far beyond the \ncornfi elds and oil refi neries that surrounded me. Staying \nin your hometown and creating outlets for your art and \nmusic locally is a wonderful thing, too. Not everyone \nhas the same needs. If you love music, incorporating \nit into the fabric of your life may fulfi ll you. Teaching \nmusic, performing in your local church choir, singing in \nsenior citizen homes—all these are worthwhile outlets \nfor talented people who allow music to fulfi ll its most \nelemental endeavor: to make others feel good by sharing \nthe sound.Chapter 12 It’s A WrapNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n224Making It Happen Where You Are\nWith the decentralization of the recording industry, \nit may not be necessary to move to a music capital. \nScenes have developed in unlikely places in recent \nyears: Omaha, Nebraska; Akron, Ohio; Austin, Texas; \nChapel Hill, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; \nand Athens, Georgia, being among the most prominent. \nYou can make it happen where you are if there is a \nsizable audience to support your music—a CD-buying, \nconcert-attending audience—particularly if there is a \nlarge college or university nearby. Having local media to \npromote the music scene, visual artists to identify it, and \nan audience hungry for culture and enlightenment are \nall prerequisites to a “scene.”\nChris Stamey, who has produced artists including \nWhiskeytown, Yo Lo Tengo, and Alejandro Escovedo, \nis at the forefront of the roots-driven sound in Chapel \nHill, North Carolina. Stamey lived in New York in the \n’80s, playing with Big Star’s Alex Chilton and forming \nthe dB’s with North Carolina refugees Peter Holsapple, \nWill Rigby, and Gene Holder. But after 13 years in the \nBig Apple, Stamey returned to North Carolina. “For me, \ncoming back to the South is great,” Stamey enthuses. \n“You gain two to three hours out of every day. It’s much \neasier to get things done, whether it’s going to get gar-\nbage bags or meeting someone for lunch. You don’t have \nto wear armor as much. I love New York, but it’s more \nfertile for me here.” Stamey observes that North Carolina \nis not necessarily the next musical Mecca. “A lot of things \nthat seem like movements are one person. It might be \none club owner making a stand. Here, a couple of musi-\ncians bring Wurlitzers and play them in a certain way.” \nBut his life, his songs, and his music comprise a compass 225that has guided Chris Stamey back to North Carolina. \n“When I was playing with Alex Chilton, I asked him why \nhe didn’t live in New York or L.A.,” Stamey recalls. “He \nsaid, ‘Good things come from the provinces.’”\nBarsuk Records began as a venture by Josh Rosenfeld \nand his partner Christopher Possanza to release the \nalbum by their band, This Busy Monster. Taking its \nname from the Russian word for “badger,” the label, \nbased in Seattle, is home to Death Cab for Cutie, Jesse \nSykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Rilo Kiley, Nada Surf, and \nmany others. The future soundtrack for america, a fund-\nraising compilation with R.E.M., Tom Waits, They Might \nBe Giants, and others is one of their newest projects.\nRosenfeld explains that his label fi nds bands through \npersonal references from their signed artists. “We used \nto accept unsolicited demos. We got too much stuff. It’s \nharder now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. It’s so easy \nnow for someone to make music with a home computer. \nThere’s so much, it became overwhelming. We started \nthe label because we were in a band and we couldn’t fi nd \na label who wanted to put out our music. I remember \nthinking at that time, as I looked at the rosters of labels \nI admired, that it seemed cliquish: ‘Oh, of course they \nsigned you because you know the guys in that band.’ I’ve \ncome to realize exactly how that functions over time. \nThe one huge place where we fi nd music we like is when \nbands on the roster are on the road, play shows, bring us \na CD back, and say, ‘This band is really good.’ I share a \ntaste in music with bands on the roster, so there is a lot of \noverlap. It’s not a clique; that’s how I hear music I like.”Chapter 12 It’s A WrapNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n226What Have You Been Given?\nWhatever attributes we have we can choose to use in \neither positive or negative ways. The music business is \nmade up of individuals who don’t fi t other models. As I \nsaid at the beginning of this book, Networking Strategies\nis not about becoming another person, it is about allow-\ning the light within you to shine and illuminate a career \npath. As our lives progress, our needs change, and our \nsuccesses and failures shape our personalities, there are \nmany things that will separate us from music: rejection, \nchanging trends, fi nite abilities, the lure of the straight \njob, and partners and spouses who don’t understand why \nwe spend our spare time in the basement tinkering with \ninstruments and recording equipment.\nWith recording artists being signed at progressively \nyounger ages, you can observe that many of these bud-\nding stars in Hollywood are managed by family members. \n“Mamagers” is the newly coined term for stage mothers \nwho navigate their children’s careers. Jessica and Ashley \nSimpson’s father, Joe, a minister who traded the pulpit \nfor show business, is now a high-powered entrepreneur. \nInterestingly, the reverse is also true: Old-school crooner \nTony Bennett has become newly hip under the watch \nof his manager son, Danny, and Tom Jones’ offspring, \nMark Woodward, has provided the same service for his \nperennially swinging father. \nMaybe your art and love of music will be expressed \nthrough your children or, if you don’t have children, \nthrough those you encourage, nurture, and teach. I \nhope that the books I write and the courses I teach have \nhelped to enlighten students and aspiring artists—a \nresponsibility that I do not take lightly.227In Conclusion\nThat plucky poultry of childhood lore, Chicken Little, ran \nabout proclaiming, “The sky is falling!” I hear this echoed \nby his human counterparts who lament, “The music busi-\nness is falling!” Let me be clear: The music business is just \nfi ne, thank you. Video games, independent fi lms, cable \ntelevision, satellite radio, digital transmissions, ring tones, \nremixing, and the rise of independent artists are all add-\ning to this burgeoning bottom line. \nThere is a tendency to use the terms “record busi-\nness” and “music business” interchangeably. The record \nbusiness—sales of music in hard, tangible form like CDs \nor DVDs—is always in a state of fl ux. Quite famously, \nsales of CDs have been impacted by fi le-sharing of music \nand the division of the entertainment dollar into ever \nsmaller increments. Back in the day, consumers had far \nfewer choices on which to spend their entertainment \ndollars. But the “music business” is much greater than \na single commodity. Whenever or wherever individu-\nals make their living connected to music—performing, \nwriting, teaching, consulting, or advising—there is a \nsolid “music business.”\nAs DJs and remixers reinvent the muse, and as \nsamples reconnect the past and future, the soundtrack \nbecomes increasingly cross-generational. New palettes \nshine from well-burnished hues, and new combinations \nspin together—punk rockers with country queens, \nclassic rockers with hip-hop artists. The possibilities are \ninfi nite. As always, language is being reinvented as the \nrise of hip-hop fuels the art of the spoken word. As the \nworld becomes smaller, the beat becomes bigger, and \nmusic is a potent passport across lines and dimensions. Chapter 12 It’s A WrapNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n228Everyone feels it, from your skateboarding, Misfi ts \nwearing, T-shirted kid down the street to your big-band-\nloving grandmother. Music is generated every single \nday to satisfy an ever-increasing consumerism. At the \ncrossroads of art and technology, even dead rock stars \nare exhumed as classic artists and remixed by today’s \nhottest DJs. Feel the power: Music is the heartbeat. Even \nElvis has a new dance hit.\nAs corporate radio squeezes the playlist ever tighter, \na new generation of musicians hunches over computers \nin suburban bedrooms, roams the hinterlands in packed \nvans, gives back to the muse in classrooms and choir \nlofts. We have video games, computers, advertising, cable \ntelevision, independent artists, digital transmission, sat-\nellite transmission, iPods, and pod casting. In my years \nin the music business, I have never seen as many oppor-\ntunities as exist today. “Music business” is two words. \nMay the music always come fi rst.229Appendix A\nThe Academy of Country Music\n4100 W. Alameda Ave, Suite 208\nBurbank, CA 91505\nT el: (818) 842-8400\nWeb site: www.acmcountry.com \nASCAP—New York (headquarters)\nOne Lincoln Plaza\nNew Y ork, NY 10023\nT el: (212) 621-6000\nFax: (212) 724-9064\nWeb site: www.ascap.com\nASCAP—Los Angeles\n7920 W. Sunset Boulevard, Third Floor\nLos Angeles, CA 90046\nT el: (323) 883-1000\nFax: (323) 883-1049\nASCAP—London\n8 Cork Street\nLondon W1X1PB\nT el: 011-44-207-439-0909\nFax: 011-44-207-434-0073\nASCAP—Nashville\nTwo Music Square West\nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (615) 742-5000\nFax: (615) 742-5020ASCAP—Miami\n420 Lincoln Rd, Suite 385\nMiami Beach, FL 33139\nT el: (305) 673-3446\nFax: (305) 673-2446\nASCAP—Chicago\n1608 N. Milwaukee, Suite 1007\nChicago, IL 60647\nT el: (773) 394-4286\nFax: (773) 394-5639 \nASCAP—Puerto Rico\n654 Ave. Muñoz Rivera\nIBM Plaza, Ste. 1101 B\nHato Rey, PR 00918\nT el: (787) 281-0782\nFax: (787) 767-2805\nASCAP—Atlanta\nPMB 400\n541 T enth Street NW\nAtlanta, GA 30318\nT el: (404) 351-1224\nFax: (404) 351-1252 \nBMI—New York (Broadcast Music, Inc. \nheadquarters)\n320 West 57th Street\nNew Y ork, NY 10019-3790\nT el: (212) 586-2000\nWeb site: www.bmi.comResources\nORGANIZATIONSNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n230BMI—Nashville \n10 Music Square East \nNashville, TN 37203-4399 \nT el: (615) 401-2000 \nBMI—Los Angeles \n8730 Sunset Blvd. \n3rd Floor West\nWest Hollywood, CA 90069-2211 \nT el: (310) 659-9109 \nBMI—Atlanta\n3340 Peachtree Road, NE \nSuite 570\nAtlanta, 30326\nT el: (404) 261-5151 \nBMI—London \n84 Harley House \nMarylebone Rd \nLondon NW1 5HN, ENGLAND \nT el: 011-0044 207486 2036\nBMI—Miami \n5201 Blue Lagoon Drive \nSuite 310 \nMiami, FL 33126 \nT el: (305) 266-3636 \nBMI—Puerto Rico \n255 Poncé de Leon\nEast Wing, Suite A-262\nBankTrust Plaza\nHato Rey, Puerto Rico 00917\nT el: (787) 754-6490 \nArizona Songwriters Association\nP .O. Box 678\nPhoenix, AZ 85001-0678\nT el: (602) 973-1988\nWeb site: www.punkfolker.comAssociation of Independent Music \nPublishers (AIMP)\nLos Angeles Chapter\nP .O. Box 69473\nLos Angeles, CA 90069\n(818) 771-7301\nNew York Chapter\nc/o Burton, Goldstein & Co., LLC\n156 W. 56th St., SUite 1803\nNew Y ork, NY 10019\n(212) 582-7622\nWeb site: www.aimp.org\nAustin Songwriters Group\nP .O. Box 2578\nAustin, TX 78768\nT el: (512) 442-TUNE\nWeb site: www.austinsongwriter.org\nBaltimore Songwriters Association\nP .O. Box 22496\nBaltimore, MD 21203\nT el: (410) 813-4039\nWeb site: www.baltimoresongwriters.com\nThe Black Tock Coalition\nP .O. Box 1054\nCooper Station\nNew Y ork, NY 10276\nT el: (212) 713-5097\nWeb site: www.blackrockcoalition.org\nThe Boston Songwriters Workshop\nT el: (617) 499-6932\nWeb site: www.bostonsongwriters.org\nCalifornia Copyright Conference (CCC) \nPO Box 57962\nSherman Oaks, CA 91413 \nT el: (818) 379-3312\nWeb site: www.theccc.org231California Lawyers for the Arts\nFort Mason Center C-255\nSan Francisco, CA 94123\nT el: (415) 775-1143\n1641 18th St.\nSanta Monica, CA 90404\nT el: (310) 998-5590\n926 J St. Suite 811\nSacramento, CA 95814\nT el: (916) 442-6210\n1212 Broadway St.\nOakland, CA 94612\nT el: (510) 444-6351\nWeb site: www.callawyersforthearts.org\nColorado Music Association\n8 E. First Ave. #107\nDenver, CO 80203\nT el: (720) 570-2280\nWeb site: www.coloradomusic.org\nConnecticut Songwriters Association\nP .O. Box 511\nMystic, CT 06355\nT el: (860) 945-1272\nWeb site: www.ctsongs.com\nDallas Songwriters Association\nSammons Center for the Arts\n3630 Harry Hines\nBox 20\nDallas, TX 75219\nT el: (214) 750-0916\nWeb site: www.dallassongwriters.org\nFilm Music Network\nc/o Film Music Media Group\n13101 Washington Blvd., Suite 466, Los Angeles, \nCA 90066\nT el: (800) 744-3700\nT el: (310) 566-7377\nWeb site: www.fi lmmusicworld.comThe Folk Alliance\n962 Wayne Ave. Suite 902\nSilver Springs, MD 20910-4480\nT el: (301) 588-8185\nWeb site: www.folk.org\nGeorgia Music Industry Association, Inc. \nP .O. Box 550314\nAtlanta, GA 30355\nT el: (404) 633-7772\nWeb site: www.gmia.org\nGospel Music Association\n1205 Division St.\nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (615) 242-0303\nWeb site: www. gospelmusic.org\nInternational Bluegrass Music Association\n2 Music Circle South\nSuite 100\nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (888) GET-IBMA\nWeb site: www.ibma.org\nInternational Songwriters Association Ltd.\n37b New Cavendish St.\nLondon, WI England\nT el: (0171) 486-5353\nWeb site: www.songwriter.co.uk\nJust Plain Folks Music Organization\n1315 N. Butler\nIndianapolis, IN 46219\nT el: (317) 513-6557\nWeb site: www.jpfolks.com\nLos Angeles Music Network\nP .O. Box 2446\nT oluca Lake, CA 91610-2446\nT el: (818) 769-6095\nWeb site: www.lamn.comAppendix A ResourcesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n232Los Angeles WoMen In Music (LAWIM) \n11664 National Blvd., Ste. #280\nLos Angeles, CA 90064\nT el: (213) 243-6440\nWeb site: www.lawim.com\nNashville Songwriters Association \nInternational\n1701 W. End Ave. 3rd Fl. \nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (615) 256-3354\nWeb site: www.nashvillesongwriters.com\nOutmusic\nP .O. Box 376\nOld Chelsea Station\nNew Y ork, NY 10113-0376\nT el: (212) 330-9197\nWeb site: www.outmusic.com\nPacifi c Music Industry Association\n501-425 Carrall St.\nVancouver, BC V6B 6E3\nCanada\nT el: (604) 873-1914\nWeb site: www.pmia.org\nSan Diego Songwriters Guild\n3368 Governor Dr., Suite F-326\nSan Diego, CA 92112\nT el: (619) 615-8874\nWeb site: www.sdsongwriters.org\nSESAC, Inc.\n55 Music Square East\nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (615) 320-0055\nWeb site: www.sesac.com\n152 West 57th St.\n57th Floor\nNew Y ork, NY 10019\nT el: (212) 586-3450501 Santa Monica Blvd.\nSuite 450\nSanta Monica, CA 90401-2430\nT el: (310) 393-9671\nSESAC International\n67 Upper Berkeley Street\nLondon W1H 7QX\nEngland \nT el: 0207-616-9284\nWeb site: www.sesac.com\nSociety of Composers & Lyricists\n400 S. Beverly Dr. Suite 214\nBeverly Hills, CA 90212\nT el: (310) 281-2812\nWeb site: www.thescl.com\nThe Songwriters Guild of America\n1560 Broadway\nSuite 1306\nNew Y ork, NY 1003\nT el: (212) 768-7902\n6430 Sunset Blvd. Suite 705\nHollywood, CA 90028\nT el: (323) 462-1108\n1222 16th Ave. S. \nSuite 25\nNashville, TN 37203\nT el: (615) 329-1782\nWeb site: www.songwritersguild.com\nWest Coast Songwriters\n1724 Laurel St., Suite 120\nSan Carlos, CA 94070\nT el: (650) 654-3966\nT el: (800) FOR-SONG (California and Nashville only)\nWeb site: www.westcoastsongwriters.org233Women in Music\nP .O. Box 441\nRadio City Station\nNew Y ork, NY 10101\nT el: (212) 459-4580\nWeb site: www.womeninmusic.org\nEVENTS\nBreckenridge Educational and Music \nSeminars (BEAMS)\nA series of music and songwriting weekends held \nin Colorado.\nT oll free USA: 1-(888) 31-BRECK \n(or in Colorado and outside USA: (303) 596-\n6056)\n145 Fairfax St., Denver, CO 80220 \nWeb site: www.beamsonline.com\nDurango Songwriters Expo\nCurrently producing two events: a fall Expo in \nT elluride, CO, and a Spring Expo in the Santa \nBarbara wine county\nT el: (970) 259-9747\nWeb site: www.durangosong.com\nCanadian Music Week\nP .O. Box 42232\n128 St. S\nMississauga, ON L5M 4Z0 \nCanada\nWeb site: www.cmv.net\nCutting Edge Music Business Conference\n1524 Clairborne Ave.\nNew Orleans, LA 70116\nT el: (604) 945-1800\nWeb site: www.jass.com/cuttingedgeFilm & TV Music Conference\n5055 Wilshire Blvd. \nLos Angeles, CA 90036-4396\nT el: (323) 525-2000\nWeb site: www.billboardevents.com/\nbillboardevents/fi lmtv\nFolk Alliance Annual Conference\n962 Wayne Ave. \nSuite 902\nSilver Spring, MD 20910\nT el: (301) 588-8185\nWeb site: www.folk.org\nIndependent Music Conference\n304 Main Ave. \nPMB 287\nNorwalk, CT 06851\nT el: (203) 606-4649\nWeb site: www.gomc.com\nKerrville Folk Festival\nP .O. Box 291466\nKerrville, TX 78029\nT el: (830) 257-3600\nWeb site: www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com\nMusic Business Solutions/Career Building \nWorkshops\nP .O. Box 230266\nBoston, MA 02123-0266\nT el: (888) 655-8335\nWeb site: www.mbsolutions.com\nSouth By Southwest Music Conference \n(SXSW)\nP .O. Box 4999\nAustin, TX 78765\nT el: (512) 467-7979\nWeb site: www.sxsw.comAppendix A ResourcesNetworking Strategies for the New Music Business\n234West Coast Songwriters Conference\n1724 Laurel St. \nSuite 120\nSan Carlos, CA 94070\nT el: (650) 654-3966\nT el: (800) FOR-SONG\nWeb site: www.westcoastsongwriters.org\nWinter Music Conference\n3450 NE T errace\nFt. Lauderdale, FL 33334\nT el: (954) 563-4444\nWeb site: www.wintermusicconference.com \nPERIODICALS\nAmerican Songwrit er Magazine\nWeb site: www.americansongwriter.com\nBack Stage West\nWeb site: www.backstagwest.com \nBillboard\nWeb site: www.billboard.com\nCanadian Musician\nWeb site: www.Canadianmusician.com\nCMJ New Music Report\nWeb site: www.cmjmusic.com\nDaily Variety\nWeb site: www.variety.com\nHits Magazine\nWeb site: www.hitsmagazine.com\nJazztimes\nWeb site: www.jazztimes.com\nMusic Connection\nWeb site: www.musicconnection.com\nMusic Row\nWeb site: www.musicrow.comThe Performing Songwriter\nWeb site: www.performingsongwriter.com\nSongLink International\nWeb site: www.songlink.com235Index\nA\nA Chorus Line, 195\nabsent/present phenomenon, 118\nThe Academy of Country Music, 229\naccess, proof of, 56\naccessibility, practicing, 108–109\naccomplishments, discussing, 64–66\nacronyms on e-mail, 123\nadvertisements, 5\nadvice, asking for, 96\naffi rmations, 63\nworking the room and, 103\nage\nassumptions about, 98\neffects of, 78–81\nagents, 216–217\nAguilera, Christina, 41, 182\nAiken, Clay, 178, 180\nAir Force 1 and 2, 21\nAIR Studios, 16–17\nAirplay Monitor, 28\nairports, meeting people in, 107–108\nAlbum 88 (Atlanta), 200\nalcohol use, 76–77\nworking the room and, 104–105\nAlcoholics Anonymous, 77\nAll Through the Night (Robertson), 19–20\nAll You Need to Know About the Music Business\n(Passman), 215\nAlly McBeal, 27\nAlpert, Herb, 94\nalternative venues, 156–157\nAltman, Marshall, 14\nA&M Records, 94\n“Amazed” (Green), 177\nAmazon.com, 32\nAmerican Idol, 40–41\nAmerican Songwriter Magazine, 234\nAmericana, 17\nThe Americana Music Association Conference, 190\nAnastacia, 180\nAnderson, April, 195\nAnderson, Chris, 33–35Anderson, Keith, 176\nAngelou, Maya, 22, 86\nArizona Songwriters Association, 230\nArthur, Joseph, 198\nartist’s responsibilities, 218\nAs Good As It Gets, 27\nASCAP , 26, 35, 68, 169–170\nblack tie dinners, 90\ncompilation CDs from, 167\nGeneral Member Meeting (Los Angeles), 198\nheadquarters, list of, 229\nIn Los Angeles, 198\nSWAPmeet, 170\nThru The Walls series, 195\nWeb site, 170\nWriters at Night (New Y ork), 194\nASK-A-PRO (SGA)\nin Los Angeles, 197\nin Nashville, 190\nAssociation of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), \n230\nassumptions, avoiding, 97–98\nAsylum, 38\nAtlanta, 200\nAtlantic, 28, 38\nattachments to e-mail, 123\nattorneys, 215–216\naudio engineers, 6–7\nAustin Songwriters Group, 230\nB\nBack Stage West, 234\n“Back to Y ou” (Robbins), 179\nBaggot Inn (New Y ork), 194\nBaker, Anita, 183\nBaker, Bob Web site, 152\nBallard, Glen, 22, 94\nBaltimore Songwriters Association, 230\nbandwagons, 14\nbanners, names on, 159\nBarber, Simon, 146–150\nBarsuk Records, 225\nBass, Jeff, 183\nBBC Unsigned Web site, 152\nBDS, 28\nThe Beach Boys, 91\nThe Beatles, 13, 76, 91, 213\nrejection, dealing with, 140236Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\n“Beer Run” (Anderson), 176\nBeijing, 206\nThe Bellrays, 23–25\nBennett, Danny, 226\nBennett, T ony, 226\nbig personality, 45\nBillboard, 3–4, 44, 234\nAirplay Monitor, 28\nworld chart listings, 206\nbios\nexample of, 131–133\nin press kits, 129–133\non Web sites, 149\nbirth order, 7–8\nBitter End (New Y ork), 154, 194\nBlack Crowes, 200\nBlackBerries, 17, 112\nThe Black Rock Coalition, 230\nBluebird Cafe (Nashville), 154, 190\nBlume, Jason, 191\nBMI, 26, 35, 169–170\nAcoustic Roundup (Nashville), 191\nblack tie dinners, 90\ncompilation CDs from, 167\nheadquarters, list of, 229–230\nLehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (New \nY ork), 195\nIn Los Angeles, 198\nMusic Connection Showcase (Nashville), 191\nRoundTable (Nashville), 191\nSongwriters Workshop with Jason Blume \n(Nashville), 191\nWeb site, 170\nWriter/Publisher Relations Department, 191\nBob Malone (Malone), 186\nbody language, 87–89\nBond, Sherry, 190\nBook of Ruth, 106\nBoston, 196\nBoston Songwriters Workshop, 230\nBoy Howdy, 175\nBrabec, Jeff, 36\nBrabec, T odd, 36\nBraheny, John, 36, 145\nbreath mints, 104\nBreckenridge Educational and Music Seminars \n(BEAMS), 233\nBroadway (New Y ork), 193Brooke, Jonatha, 198\nBrooks, Garth, 176\nBrowne, Jackson, 90\nBuckcherry, 170\nBuffy The Vampire Slayer, 27\nburning bridges, 67–68\nBush, George W., 14\nbusiness cards, 102–103\nworking the room and, 104\nC\ncable television, 25\nCafé Press Web site, 152\nCal Poly Pomona, 44, 219\ncalendar notices, 134\nCalifornia Copyright Conference (CCC), 230\nCalifornia Lawyers for the Arts, 199, 231\nCanadian Music Week, 233\nCanadian Musician, 234\nCapitol T ower, 91–93\ncareer changes, 9–10\nCarter, Deana, 198\nCD Baby, 148, 150\nWeb site, 152\nCDs, 17\ncompilation CDs, 166–169\nDMI Networks and, 21\nin press kits, 128\npromotional sampler CDs, 167\nsigning, 160\nunsolicited CDs, 23\nCDWOW, 148, 152\ncelebrity, 68–69\nstrategies for interacting with, 69–71\ncell phones, 112\nconversations on, 118–121\netiquette for, 121–122\nCeltic Harmony (Ireland), 179\nchance opportunities, 106–108, 139–140\nchanging careers, 9–10\ncharacter traits, 2\nCharles, Ray, 18\nchildren’s music, 17, 19–20\nChilton, Alex, 224–225\nchris and thomas, 33–35\nThe Chris Isaak Show, 106\nChristian rock, 18\nChristmas and Holiday Music, 92–93237Index\nChurch: Songs of Soul and Inspiration, 22\nCinderella Story, 178\nCircle of Songs (BMI), 198\nclairvoyance, 74–75\nclarifying comments, 96\nClark, T ena, 21–22\nClear Channel, 28, 30\ncliches in bios, 129\nclothing\ninformation transmitted by, 91–93\nfor live performances, 160\ntips, 90–91\nvisual cues for, 93–94\nclubs. See venues\nCMJ New Music Report, 234\nco-written songs, 36\nCobain, Kurt, 76\nCoca-Cola, 21\nCocker, Jarvis, 33–34\ncoffeehouses, 5\nCohen, Leonard, 94\nCole, Nat King, 91\ncollaborators, 4\nCollective Soul, 200\ncolleges, education at, 44\nColorado Music Association, 231\nColumbia Records, 14\ncommitment, 12–13\npersonality and, 47–48\ncomparing comments, 96\ncompilation CDs, 166–169\ncompliments\naccepting, 159\nin conversations, 98–100\ncomputers, 112\nCondé Naste, 21\nconferences. See music conferences\nconfi dence, posture and, 88\nconfl icts in studio, 111\nConnecticut Songwriters Association, 231\nconsistency, 77\ncontacts, 71–72\nmultiple contacts, developing, 141\nconversations. See also telephones\ncompliments in, 98–100\ndynamics of, 63\ne-mail conversations, 124\nending lines for, 100instigating, 94–95\nleading questions for, 95–96\nnegativity, sharing, 99–100\nsensitive areas for, 97–98\n10-fi ve rule for meeting and greeting, 105\nin working the room, 104\nCook Au Van, 33–34\ncoolhomepages.com, 151\nCooper, Jay, 216\ncopyrights, 36\nCornelia Street Café (New Y ork), 194\nCounting Crows, 170\ncountry music, 4, 18\nput downs of, 51\nSteele, Jeffrey and, 173–178\ncover letters, 127–128\nwith press releases, 135\nCover Me (ASCAP), 198\ncover songs, 162\nThe Craft and Business of Songwriting (Braheny), 36, \n145\ncreative black tie, 90\ncredibility, 14\nadvice on, 64–65\ncrisis resolution, 81–82\nstrategies for, 83–84\ncrossed arms/legs, 87\nCurb Records, 175–176\nCurtis, Catie, 198\nCutting Edge Music Business Conference, 233\nD\nDaily Variety, 234\nDallas Songwriters Association, 231\ndance music, 6, 18\ndankimpel.com, 146\nThe Darkest Part of the Night (Malone), 186\nDave Matthews Band, 22\nDawson’s Creek: Season 2, 106\nDeath Cab for Cutie, 225\ndemographics for music, 78–81\ndemos\nin Nashville, 193\nplacing songs and, 181\nsubmission services, 39\nsuggestions for submitting, 136–138\nDenny, Sandy, 33\nDenver, Joel, 30–31238Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\ndesire, 46–47\nDetails, 94\ndetermination, 46–47\nDiamond Rio, 173\ndigital transmission, 16–17\ndigital watermarking, 171\nDigital Wings, 147, 151\nDisc Marketing, 20–22\ndisco music, 52\nDisney, 18\nCinderella Story, 178\ndistractions in studio, 111\ndistribution\non Internet, 147\nradio promotion and, 30\nDIY, 31–32\nDIY (Do It Y ourself) Convention, 55–56\nDJs, 6, 227\nDMI Networks, 21–22\nDMOZ, 148, 151\nDozier, Lamont, 179\ndraw, honesty about, 161\ndrug use, 76–77\nDrummond, Bill, 33–34\nDurango Songwriters Expo, 35, 201–202, 233\nDVDs in press kits, 128\nDylan, Bob, 170, 213\nE\ne-mail, 113, 122–124\nbusiness cards including, 102\nnon-returned e-mails, 142–145\nset-up, copy of, 163\nEdison Media Research, 28\neducation, 43–44\nEdwards, Kenneth “Babyface,” 72–73\nego infl ation, 62–63\n8 Mile, 183–184\nEinstein, Albert, 59\nEisenhower, Dwight D., 14\n“Eleanor Rigby,” 107\nelectronica, 17\nEminem, 183\nThe Eminem Show, 184\nemo, 17\nemoticons, 123\nemotions\ncrisis resolution and, 83e-mail and, 122–123\nand logic, 48–49\ntelephones, reading on, 114\nverbal communication and, 63–64\nemployment in industry, 219–220\nEngel, Lehman, 195\nentertainment value, 46\nenthusiasm, 45–46\nentrepreneurs, 18–19\nEpstein, Brian, 213\nequity-waver houses, 156\nER, 27\nEscovedo, Alejandro, 224\nethnicity, questions about, 97\netiquette\nfor cell phones, 121–122\nfor studio hang, 110–111\nevents\nlist of, 233–234\ntie-ins, 168\n“Evergreen” (Streisand), 185\nexpanding comments, 96\nExpedia.com, 196\nextreme strategies, 139–140\neyebrows, trimming, 89\nF\nfacial hair styles, 91\nFalcon Ridge festival, 186\nfamily management, 226\nFarrish, Bryan, 29–30\nFate, T ony, 24–25\nfaxing copy of set-up, 163\nFCC (Federal Communications Commission), 28\nfees, scams and, 164–166\nFerrari, Marc, 26–27\n50 Cent, 184\nFight Club, 27\nfi lm, 25–26\nindependent fi lm, 25\nin Los Angeles, 197–198\nFilm and TV Music Conference, 233\nFilm Music Network, 231\nFirehouse Recording, 21\nfi rst-born children, 7\nFolk Alliance Annual Conference, 233\nThe Folk Alliance, 231\nConferences, 203239Index\nFopp Unsigned Web site, 152\nFox Music, 26\nFrank, David, 181–182\nFriends, 27\nFugazi, 28\nfusion music, 183\nthe future soundtrack for america, 225\nG\nGarageband Web site, 151\ngatekeepers, 117\nGeneral Mills, 21\ngeneralizations and crisis resolution, 84\n“Genie in a Bottle” (Frank), 181–182\nGenius Loves Company (Charles), 18\ngenres, 17–18\nGentry, Montgomery, 173\nGeorgia Music Industry Association, Inc., 231\nGeorgia State University, 200\nGet Signed Web site, 152\nGigwise Web site, 152\nGillespie, Rowana, 179\nGin Blossoms, 170\nGirl Interrupted, 27\nGlasswerk Web site, 152\nglobal perspective, need for, 180\ngoals, defi ning, 207–208\n“Good Y ear for the Outlaw” (Steele), 173–174\nGoogle Web site, 151\nGospel Music Association, 231\nGQ, 94\ngratitudes. See thank yous\nGreen, Al, 186\nGreen, Marv, 177\nGreenwich Village (New Y ork), 193\nGroban, Josh, 98\ngrooming tips, 89\nGrossman, Albert, 213\ngrowth, impression of, 144\ngrudges, holding, 142\ngrunge music, 26\nH\nhaircuts, 89\nHammer, Jan, 183\nHancock, Herbie, 183\nHarcourt, Nic, 32, 33, 35\nhard copy of set-up, 163Harper, Ben, 198\nHarper Collins, 186\nHendrix, Jimi, 76, 183, 204\nherd mentality, 60\nhidden opportunities, 106–108, 139–140\nHien, Thomas, 33–35\nHill, Faith, 74–75, 173, 179, 180\nhip-hop, 4, 17\nin Atlanta, 200\nBush, George W. and, 14\nput downs of, 52\nHits Magazine, 44, 234\nHolder, Gene, 224\nHollywood, 199\ndressing in, 91\nHolsapple, Peter, 224\nhometown musicians, 223–225\nHorses (Smith), 184\nHostbaby Web site, 151\nHotel Cafe, 34\nHoward’s Club H (Bowling Green), 162\nHugo, Chad, 55–56\nHung, William, 41\nHynde, Chrissy, 205\nI\n“I Dreamed of Y ou” (Robbins), 179–180\n“I Will Carry Y ou” (Robbins), 178\nice-breakers, 70\nin conversation, 95–96\non telephones, 118\nIMRO (Ireland), 179\nin-fl ight audio entertainment, 21\nindependent artists, 23–25\nindependent fi lm, 25\nindependent labels, 37–38\nIndependent Music Conference, 233\n“The Indie Hour,” 30–31\nIndigo Girls, 200\ninsecurity, 62–63\nname-dropping and, 101–102\ninstrumentals, 27\nInternational Bluegrass Music Association, 231\ninternational markets, 204–205\nInternational Songwriters Association Ltd., 231\nInternet. See also Web sites\ndistribution on, 147\ndownloaded tracks from, 145240Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nradio, 31–32\nworldwide market on, 22–23\ninternships, 39, 219–220\nintroductions, 67\nintros in performances, 161\niPods, 17, 228\nIt Must Be Love, 106\niTunes, 148, 151\nJ\nJackson, Don, 19\nJansch, Bert, 33\nJapan\nrappers in, 17–18\nT okyo, music in, 206\njazz music, 92\nJazztimes, 234\nJesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, 225\nJetplane Landing Web site, 151\njewelry, 91\njobs in industry, 219–220\nJohn, Elton, 200\njokes on e-mail, 122–123\nJones, Brian, 76\nJones, George, 176\nJones, Quincy, 68\nJones, T om, 226\nJoplin, Janis, 76\nJuicing Room, 146, 151\nJust Plain Folks Music Organization, 231\nK\nKahn, Chaka, 22\nKCRW, 32\nchris and thomas on, 34\nKeel, 26\nKekaula, Lisa, 24–25\nKennedy, John F., 13\nKerrville Folk Festival, 186, 233\nKiley, Rilo, 225\nThe King and I, 11\nKLF, 33\nknowledge-based skills, 3\nKodak Theater, 185\nKorea\nrap in, 18\nSeoul, music in, 206\nKraft, Robert, 26Kragen, Ken, 81–82, 83\nKramer, Wayne, 25\nL\nThe L.A. Songwriters’ Network, 197\nLaBelle, Patti, 22, 55\nLaemelle movie theaters, 32\nlapel pins, 91\nLarson, Bree, 182\nLas Vegas shows, 154\nlawyers, 215–216\nLehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (New Y ork), \n195\nLeone, Bob, 195\nLi’l Hal’s Guide, 199\nLimeys (Los Angeles), 162\nlistening\nin conversations, 105–106\nskills, 63\nLittle Richard, 204\nLittle Shop of Horrors, 195\nlive performances, 153–171. See also venues\ncompliments, accepting, 159\ninventing your own show, 157\npeeves about, 160–161\npost-performance tips, 159–160\nsoft tickets, 157–159\nLiverpool, 205–206\nLiverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), 33, 44, \n54, 110–111\nlocal press, releases to, 135–136\nlogic and emotion, 48–49\nlogos for shows, 157\nLondon, 205\nLonestar, 177\nlook, visual cues for, 93–94\nLos Angeles, 188, 196–199\nmoving to, 199\nLos Angeles Music Network, 231\nLos Angeles Songwriters Showcase (LASS), 145\nLos Angeles WoMen In Music (LAWIM), 167, 232\n“Lose Y ourself” (Resto), 183\nLott, Roy, 91–92\nLoyola Marymount Law School, 199\nLudacris, 200\nlullabies, 19–20\nLyric Partners, 19241Index\nM\nMadonna, 14\nmagazines\nclothing tips from, 94\neducation and reading, 44\nresource list, 234\nmailing lists from Web sites, 149–150\nMajor Bowles Amateur Hour, 40\nMalone, Bob, 162, 185–187\nWeb site, 186\nmamagers, 226\nmanagement, 212–213\ndealing with, 81–83\nmamagers, 226\nneed for, 213–214\nqualifi cations of, 214–215\nManchester, 205–206\nMancini, Henry, 39\nManhattan, 193–194\nvisiting, 196\nManhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC), 195\nManhattan Transfer, 186\nMann, Billy, 98\nmarital status, assumptions about, 98\nMarketing Y our Music Web site, 152\nMartin, Joel, 184\nMartin, Sir George, 16–17, 111\nmash-ups, 17\nMasterSource, 26–27\nMathers, Marshall, 183–185\nMayer, John, 77–78, 198, 200\nMCA, 26\nMcCartney, Jesse, 178\nMcGraw, Tim, 173\nMcLaughlin, John, 183\nMeasure of a Man (Aiken), 178\nmechanicals, 36\nmerchandising, radio promotion and, 29\nmeta tags, 148\nMetallica, 90\nmiddle children, 7–8\nmingling, 103\nmoguls, questions for, 210–212\nMonterey Pop Festival, 204\nMoreira, Rafael, 98\nMorissette, Alanis, 22\nMorrison, Jim, 76\nMotion Picture, 147Motown, 38\nMouseketeers, 41\nMP3, 148, 149\nMrs. Field’s Cookies, 21\nThe Muffs, 25\nMullins, Shawn, 61, 200\nmultipliers, 32\nMurdoch, Alexi, 34\nMusic, Money and Success (Brabec & Brabec), 36\nMusic Bridges (USA), 179\nMusic Business 101 (ASCAP), 170, 198\nMusic Business Solutions/Career Building Workshops, \n233\nmusic conferences, 201–202\ntips for, 202–204\nMusic Connection magazine, 27, 198–199, 234\nmusic publishing, 35–36\njobs with fi rms, 219–220\nMusic Row, 189, 193, 234\nmusic stores, 5\nMusicbias Web site, 152\nmusicians, 4–5\ngoals, questions on, 208–210\nin international market, 204–205\nMalone, Bob, 185–187\npersonal references and, 221–223\nin studios, 110\n“My T own” (Steele), 174\nmystery, air of, 66\nmystical beliefs, 4\nmyths about success, 57–58\nN\nNada Surf, 225\nnames\nbanners for band names, 159\non cover letters, 127–128\ndropping names, 101–102\nremembering names, 100–101\nfor shows, 157\nNapster Web site, 151\nNarcotics Anonymous, 77\nNashville, 188–193\nmoving to, 192\nshowcases in, 190–191\nNashville New Music Conference, 190\nNashville Pussy, 25\nNashville Scene, 190242Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nNashville Songwriters Association International \n(NSAI), 189–190, 232\nmembership information, 192\nNational Academy of Popular Music (NAPM), \n195–196\nnationality, questions about, 97\nneediness, appearance of, 143\nnegativity\neliminating, 52–53\nin personality, 49–51\nsharing negative comments, 99\nThe Neptunes, 56–57\nnetwork television. See television\nNeville Brothers, 186\nNew Jersey, 196\nNew Music Nights (BMI), 170\nThe New Ride with Josh and Emily, 106\nNew Y ork, 188, 193–196\ndowntown area, 194\nmoving to, 196\nNew Y ork Songwriters’ Circle, 194\nniche markets, 17\nNile, Willie, 198\nNo Doubt, 22\nnon-returned calls, 142–145\nNorth Hollywood, 199\nNPR (National Public Radio), 31–32\nSounds Eclectic, 32–33\nO\nolder audiences, 78\noldest children, 7\nongoing shows, 157\nonly children, 7\nopen body language, 87\nopenness in communication, 108–109\nopportunities\ncreating, 48\nhidden opportunities, 106–108, 139–140\noptimism, 50–51\noutdoor shows, 158\nOutKast, 200\nOutlaw, 173–174\noutlaw cultures, 17\nOutmusic, 232\noutros in performances, 161\nover-dressing, 90\novernight success mythology, 73P\nP . Diddy, 200\nPacifi c Music Industry Association, 232\nPaisley, Brad, 174\nParker, Colonel T om, 213\nParks, Cary, 175\nParks, Larry, 175\nParton, Dolly, 81\nPassman, Donald S., 94, 215–216\nPaterno, Peter, 216\npayola on radio, 27–28\nPayPal, 30\nPeoplesound Web site, 151\nThe Performing Songwriter, 234\nperforming rights organizations, 169–171. See also\nASCAP; BMI; SESAC\nin Los Angeles, 198\nin Nashville, 192\nperiodicals. See magazines\npersonal references, 221–223\npersonality, 3\nassumptions, avoiding, 97–98\nbig personality, 45\nbirth order and, 7–8\nnegative traits, 49–51\nsuccess, attributes of, 43–49\npessimists, 49–51\nPhish, 28\nphotos in press kits, 133–134\nPHPBB Web site, 151\nPick of the Month (BMI), 198\nPink, 98\nPolar Express, 22\npolitics, assumptions about, 98\nPolygram Music Publishing, 179\nPop Idols, 40\npop music, 4, 18\ncreative black tie dinners, 90\nput downs of, 51\npositive outlook, 45\nPossanza, Christopher, 225\nposture, 88\npower, telephones and, 115–116\npracticing networking, 108–109\npraise-based music, 18\nprejudicial statements, 51–52\nPresley, Elvis, 14, 213\nPresley, Lisa Marie, 75243Index\npress kits, 126–127\nbios in press kits, 129–133\nCDs or DVDs in, 128\ncover letters, 127–128\nelectronic press kits, 150\nfolders for, 127\nat music conferences, 203\nphotos in, 133–134\npress releases, 134–136\nThe Pretenders, 205\nPRI programming, 31–32\nPrincess Cruises, 21\nProctor & Gamble, 21\nproducers in studios, 110\nprogression in career, 144\npromotional appearances, 160\npromotional sampler CDs, 167\nproofreading materials, 137–138\nproposals\nfor shows, 157\nfor soft tickets, 158\nProT ools, 6, 22\npublic radio, 31–32\npublicists, 217–218\npublicity, 217–218\nsoft tickets as, 158\npublishing. See music publishing\nPulp, 33\n“Purple Haze” (Hendrix), 183\nput downs, 51–52\nPutumayo Records, 18–19\nQ\nQuiet on the Set (ASCAP), 198\nR\nrace, assumptions about, 98\nradio, 27–31\nin Atlanta, 200\ncompilation CDs and, 168\nInternet radio, 31–32\nKCRW, 32\npromotion on, 28\npublic radio, 31–32\nsatellite radio, 31–32\ntest shows, 30–31\nRagtime, 195\nRamones, 205rap music\nin Atlanta, 200\nBush, George W. and, 14\nput downs of, 52\nRascal Flatts, 173\nR&B, 4\ncreative black tie dinners, 90\nReagan, Ronald, 14\nrecord deals, 49\nrecord labels, 37–38, 138–139\naccess, proof of, 56\njobs with, 219–220\nrecording studios, 109–111\nreferences, 221–223\nRegal Cinemedia, 21\nreinvention, 9–10, 58–59\nrejection, 140–141\novercoming rejection, 141–142\nreliability, 77\nreligion\nassumptions about, 98\npraise-based music, 18\nR.E.M., 225\nremembering names, 100–101\nremixes, 6, 227–228\nRenbourne, John, 33\nrepeating names, 101\nresources, 229–234\nrespect\nfor celebrities, 70\nnetworking with, 55\nrejection and, 141\ntreating people with, 84–85\nResto, Luis, 183–185\nResto, Mario, 183–184\nreversion clauses, 36\nRhapsody Web site, 151\nRigby, Will, 224\nRimes, Leanne, 173\nring-tones, 17\nRoad Rally, 199\nRobbins, Lindy, 178–183\nRobertson, Mae, 19–20\nrock music, 17\nChristian rock, 18\nRocket From the Crypt, 25\nRodgers and Hammerstein Music, 179\nRogers, Kenny, 81244Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nThe Rolling Stones, 5, 76\nroom, working the, 103–106\nThe Roots, 170\nRosenfeld, Josh, 225\nRoss, Sean, 28–29\nRoswell, 106–107\nR&R, 30\nRussell, Brenda, 179\nS\nsacrifi ces, 13\nsamplers, 6\nSan Diego Songwriters Guild, 232\nSan Fernando Valley, 199\nSanta Carla Web site, 151\nSanta Monica, 198–199\nSanta Monica City College KCRW, 32, 34\nsatellite radio, 31–32\nsatellite technology, 16–17\nSave Ferris, 170\nscams\navoiding, 164–166\ncompilation CDs as, 166–169\nevent tie-ins, 168\nin Nashville, 193\nscarves, 91\nSears Roebuck & Co., 21\nself-doubt, 50\nself-fulfi lling prophecy, 50\nself-revealing comments, 96\nSESAC, 26, 35, 169–171\ncompilation CDs from, 167\nheadquarters, list of, 232\nin Los Angeles, 198\nWeb site, 171\nWriters on the Storm, 194\nset-up, hard copy of, 163\nsexual preference, assumptions about, 98\nsexy clothing, 93\nShady Records, 184\nShamblin, Allen, 198\n“She’d Give Anything” (Boy Howdy), 175\nShepard, Vonda, 198\n“Shine” (Robbins), 178\nsigning CDs, 160\nSilverlake, 199\nSimpson, Ashley, 226\nSimpson, Jessica, 98, 226Simpson, Joe, 226\nSinatra, Frank, 91\nSixpence None The Richer, 198\nsixth sense\ndeveloping, 75\nfrom press kits, 126\nThe Sixth Sense, 27\nslick sheets, 136\nsmiling on telephone, 115\nSmith, Patti, 183, 184\nsnopes.com, 123\nSobule, Jill, 198\nSociety of Composers & Lyricists, 232\nsoft sell, using, 125\nsoft tickets, 157–159\n“Something to Believe In” (Mullins), 61\nSong Biz column, Music Connection magazine, 198–\n199\nSongLink International, 205–206, 234\nSongsalive! Expo, 199\nThe Songwriter and Musician’s Guide to Nashville\n(Bond), 190\nsongwriters, 3–4\nage and, 80\nin international market, 205\nmusic publishers and, 35–36\nResto, Luis, 183–185\nRobbins, Lindy, 178–183\nSteele, Jeffrey, 173–178\nSongwriters Club (BMI), 198\nSongwriters Guild of America (SGA), 232\nin Los Angeles, 197\nin Nashville, 190\nSongwriters Hall of Fame (New Y ork), 195–196\nSongwriters Musepaper, 145, 219\nThe Songwriters Beat (New Y ork), 194\nThe Songwriters Studio (ASCAP), 71, 198\nSongwriters Symposium (NSAI), 189–190\nSony, 176\nsound checks, 163–164\nsoundman, dealing with, 161, 163–164\nSounds Eclectic, 32\nThe Vista Street Sessions on, 33\nSoundScan, 28\nsoundtracks, 20–21\nSouth By Southwest Music Conference (SXSW), 233\nSpears, Britney, 41\nstage patter, 160245Index\nStamey, Chris, 224–225\nStar Search, 40\nStarbucks, 18\nSteele, Jeffrey, 173–178\nStockholm, 206\nstolen songs, 56\nStreisand, Barbra, 183, 185\nstrengths, assessing, 3–4\nStroke 9, 170\nstrong personality, 45\nStudio City, 199\nstudio hang, 109–111\nstudio/technical personnel, 6–7\nSummer, Donna, 52\nsupport positions, 5\nswag, 92\nSXSW, 25\nsync fees, 26\nsync licenses, 36\nsynthesizers, 183\nT\nt-shirts, 5\ntag teams, 66–67\ntalent, 43\nTaxi, 27, 199\nteamwork, 212\ntechnical musicians, 6\nT ed, 21\nteeth cleaning, 89\ntelephones, 113–114. See also cell phones\nbasics of calling, 116–117\nending calls, 116\ngatekeepers, 117\nnon-returned calls, 142–145\npower and use of, 115–116\npurpose of conversation, stating, 115–116\nsounds on, 114\ntiming for calls, 115\ntracking calls, 117–118\ntelevision, 25\nclothing tips from, 94\nin Los Angeles, 197–198\nsongs for, 26\nT en Commandments of Design, 151\n10-fi ve rule for meeting and greeting, 105\ntest shows, 30–31\nthank yous, 65on demos, 137\nto music conference participants, 204\nto performance attendees, 160\nto soundman, 164\n“The Way We Were” (Streisand), 185\nThey Might Be Giants, 225\nThis Busy Monster, 225\nThornley, Beth, 106–107\nThru The Walls series (ASCAP), 195\ntickets, 156\nties, 91\nTimberlake, Justine, 41\ntiming\nand artistry, 13–14\neffective use of time, 54\npersonality and, 47–48\nfor telephone calls, 115\nTin Pan Alley (New Y ork), 193\nTin Pan South (NSAI), 189\ntouching base phone calls, 116–117\ntouring. See also venues\nradio promotion and, 29\nsuccess with, 25\nT ower Records, 148, 152\nT oyota, 21\ntracking phone calls, 117–118\nTrain, 170\ntraining, 43–44\ntransferable skills, 3\nTravelocity.com, 196\ntrends, 60\nThe Troubadour, Los Angeles, 20, 154\n“20 Y ears Ago” (Steele), 174–175\nU\nUCLA Extension classes, 5, 199\nultimatums, 144\nUMO Music, 194\nunder-dressing, 90\nUniSong International Song Contest, 179\nUnited Airlines, 21\nUnited Kingdom\nLondon, music in, 205\nworking in, 204–205\nUniversal City, 199\nUniversal Music Publishing Group, 28, 178–179\nuniversities, education at, 44\nUniversity of Southern California (USC), 14246Networking Strategies for the New Music Business\nunsigned artists, 23–25\nunsolicited CDs, 23\nUrban, Keith, 174\nU2, 5\nV\nVanguard, 38\nThe Velvet Rope Web site, 166\nVenice, California, 199\nVennum, Bob, 24\nvenues, 153–171\nalternative venues, 156–157\nas businesses, 162–163\nequity-waver houses, 156\nfi tting bands with, 155–156\ninventing your own show, 157\nsoft tickets, 157–159\nsound checks, 163–164\nsoundman, dealing with, 161, 163–164\ntips for dealing with, 161–162\nverbal communication, 62–86. See also conversations; \ntelephones\ncrisis resolution and, 83\nviability and rejection, 141–142\nVibe, 94\nVice-Maslin, Michéle, 141, 205\nVictoria’s Secret, 21\nvideo games, 25\nvideo presentations in press-kits, 128\nVillage Voice, 196\nVillegas, Luis, 131–133\nVirgin Records, 75\nThe Vista Street Sessions, 33, 35\nvisual mediums, 25–27\nvisualizing success, 54–55\nvocals, 27\nvolunteering, 6\nat music conferences, 204\nW\nWainwright, Rufus, 198\nwaiting rooms, opportunities in, 107–108\nWaits, T om, 225\nWarwick, Dionne, 22\nWas, Don, 184\nWas (Not Was), 183–184\nThe Water is Wide, 19\nWeb designers, 148Web sites\nbios on, 149\nbusiness cards including, 102\ncosts of, 148\nmailing lists from, 149–150\nmerchandising on, 150\nrequirements for, 146–150\nresources list, 151–152\nsales on, 30\nupdating, 148\nWeekend Edition, 32\nweekends\nperformances on, 154\ntelephone calls on, 115\nWest Coast Songwriters Conference, 35, 202, 232, 233\nWest Hollywood, 199\nWhiskeytown, 224\nWIFM concept, 2\nWilde, Justin, 92–93\nwine spritzers, 105\nWinter Music Conference, 234\nWitten, Patti, 31–32\nWNNX-FM 99.7 (Atlanta), 200\nWomen in Music, 233\nWoodward, Mark, 226\nWoolford, Keo, 11\nWorking Musicians (Malone), 186\nworking the room, 103–106\nWorkPlay Theater, Birmingham, 20\nWorld Cafe, 32\nworld markets, 204–205\nWRAS-FM 88.5 (Atlanta), 200\nWright, Hugh, 175\nWriters at Night (New Y ork), 194\nWriters on the Storm (SESAC), 194\nY\nY o Lo T engo, 224\nyoungest children, 7", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "business", + "new", + "artist", + "song", + "songwriter", + "one", + "strategy", + "make", + "time" + ], + "summary": "Networking Strategies\nfor the\nNew Music Business\nby Dan KimpelNetworking Strategies for the New Musi" + }, + { + "filename": "362815407-194724108-Music-the-Business-Ann-Harrison-pdf.pdf", + "text": "ContentsCoverAbout the BookAbout the AuthorPraiseTitle PagePrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: Getting StartedIntroductionCreating a buzzThe band nameTrade mark searchShowcasing your talentPresenting yourself wellShort cutsThe demo recordingGetting help and putting together your teamConclusionsChapter 2: Management DealsIntroductionHow to find a managerThe principlesWhat to look for in a managerWhat does a manager do for you?What is in a management contract?The manager’s roleConclusionsChapter 3: What Is A Good Record Deal?IntroductionNew business modelsThe hype of the million pound record signingThe legal principlesCreative control versus large advancesTypes of dealOther aspects of recording contractsWhat happens in a production deal when a bigger company comes along?ConclusionsChapter 4: What is A Good Publishing Deal?IntroductionHow to find a music publisherWhat does a publisher do?What are music publishing rights?Where does the money come from?Record deal before publishing?Types of publishing dealRestraint of tradeWhat is in a typical publishing contract?New business modelsConclusionsChapter 5: Getting A Record MadeIntroductionProduction deals versus direct signingsFinding a studioThe recording budgetThe producerMixingMix contractsMasteringDelivery requirementsArtworkConclusionsChapter 6: Manufacture, Distribution And MarketingIntroductionManufacturingP&D dealsCatalogue or single item distribution dealExclusive versus non-exclusiveMarketingEPQsVideogramsLong-form DVDsConclusionsChapter 7: Online Sales And DistributionIntroductionOverviewReproduction and distributionStreaming and online broadcastingSo how has the music industry sought to cope or adapt to these changes?PiracyAnti-piracy measures and digital rights managementGowers ReviewNew business modelsTerritorial issuesPhysical CDsMobiles and mobile music playersMove away from albumsSocial networking sitesMarketing onlineWebsite design rights and copyrightHosting agreementData protectionMarketingThe futureConclusionsChapter 8: BrandingIntroductionBranding of artistsMerchandising dealsHow to apply for a trade markPassing offOther remediesConclusions on protecting your nameUnauthorised, unofficial merchandiseHow do you go about getting a merchandise deal?The merchandising dealWhat is in a typical merchandising deal?ConclusionsChapter 9: SponsorshipIntroductionHow do you find a sponsor?Ethical considerationsScope of the sponsorship dealWhat’s in a typical sponsorship deal?ConclusionsChapter 10: TouringIntroductionMadonna and Live NationMama GroupGetting startedGetting a booking agentPromotersGetting funding for live workOther issuesOther personnelConclusionsChapter 11: Band ArrangementsIntroductionWho owns the band name?Band structuresBand incomeAccounting and taxLeaving member provisionsWhat happens to a band’s assets on a split?ConclusionsChapter 12: Moral Rights And The Privacy Of The IndividualIntroductionWhat are these rights?Privacy of the individualConfidentiality agreementsHarassment actionsConclusionsChapter 13: Sampling And PlagiarismIntroductionHow much is a sample?How do you clear a sample?PlagiarismSound-a-likesSession musicians’ claimsConclusionsChapter 14: PiracyIntroductionWhat is piracy?How do you spot a counterfeit, pirate or bootleg record?How can you stop piracy?EnforcementChapter 15: Collection SocietiesIntroductionWhat are collection societies?Blanket licencesAdministrationRights grantedOther collective bodiesThe societiesChapter 16: AppendixWorking in the music businessHigher educationBecoming a solicitorBecoming a barristerBecoming a legal executiveNon-legal jobsChapter 17: Useful AddressesIndexAcknowledgementsCopyrightAbout the BookFully revised and updated including the latest information on the impact ofdigital technology, Music: The Business remains the essential referenceguide to the business of music.Whether you’re a recording artist, songwriter, music business manager,industry executive, publisher, journalist, media student, accountant, lawyeror are simply fascinated by the music industry, Music: The Business will tellyou what you need to know about how the UK music industry works.Authoritative and indispensable, Ann Harrison’s essential work answers allthe questions, decodes the jargon, gives the facts behind the headlines andreveals the real figures underlying the multi-million pound deals. Citingcase studies of the biggest recording artists and songwriters, Ann uses herextensive expertise as a music lawyer to describe the precedents that haveshaped the law today, to outline what you can expect to find in musicbusiness contracts and, in an age of rapid technological change, to show theoptions for the future.From recording and publishing deals, making a record, manufacture,distribution and marketing, to ways to harness the new media, branding,merchandising, moral rights and working in the music industry, thisfascinating, practical and comprehensive guide could be one of the mostimportant books you ever buy.About the AuthorAnn Harrison runs her own successful legal consultancy and wasformerly head of the music group at a leading media and entertainmentlaw firm.PraiseFully revised and updated including the latest information on the impact ofdigital technology, Music: The Business remains the essential referenceguide to the business of music.FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED 4TH EDITIONANN HARRISON\nPrefaceI QUALIFIED AS a solicitor in 1983 and began working for a firm that didgeneral work but also had a good reputation as entertainment lawyers. Atfirst I just did general commercial litigation but found that I was naturallyattracted to the entertainment cases. Somehow they seemed more ‘sexy’.When I moved to another firm to get more experience of theentertainment business I made a big mistake. The firm I joined was good atentertainment work, but in fact wanted someone to clear people off a largeholiday camp in the North of England. I spent most of the next two yearsrunning 180 separate property cases with no connection to the entertainmentbusiness at all.Luckily for me I’d kept in touch with a former flatmate who had becomea very successful music lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis. He spent some timetrying to persuade me to do the same work that he did. I thought my futurelay in sorting out disputes in court and wasn’t convinced. Then the law firmI was working for closed and that decided it. Luckily, the job at Harbottle &Lewis was still open and I joined the music group in March 1988.At first I was convinced that this had been the second big mistake I hadmade in my career. My litigation training made it almost impossible for meto appear friendly towards lawyers on the other side, signing letters ‘Kindregards’ when often I could cheerfully have strangled them. I did get overthat and stayed for about fifteen years, becoming a partner and head of themusic group.In May 2003 I left that firm to set up my own legal consultancy business,Harrisons Entertainment Law Limited. Yes the acronym does mean that I amtruly a lawyer from HELL. I wanted to have the freedom to continue torepresent artists and songwriters, managers and small record labels andpublishers. I like working for the creative end of the business and now havethe freedom to do so on my own terms. I’ve been lucky over the last 25 yearsto work with some of the leading players in the business. My clients comefrom every part of the music spectrum from hip hop and electronica musicvia classical, rock, indie and chart-topping ‘pop’ acts.In writing this book I hope I will be able to convey some of theexcitement of the music business to you. I have used ‘he’ throughout. This isnot intended as a slur on female artists or on the many excellent womenworking at all levels in the music business. Indeed, how could it be whenthey were so kind as to give me an Accolade award at the Women of theYear awards ceremony a few years ago, something I will always cherish.Recognition by your peers and clients is just the best.Ann Harrison2 January 2008IntroductionWHEN I STARTED work in the music business I had very little idea how itworked. Record and publishing companies were a mystery to me. It felt alittle like trying to do a very hard jigsaw puzzle without the benefit of apicture on the lid of the box. I looked for books that might help me but thereweren’t many around. Those that were, were mostly out of date or applied tothe USA and not to the UK music business. I had to learn from mycolleagues as I went along. I was lucky in that they were very knowledgeableand very generous with their time.Now there are many more sources of information available on the UKmusic business and there are several good full- and part-time media and lawcourses available to give you a head start. But we still lacked an easy-to-readguide to how the business works from a legal viewpoint – one that explainswhat a publisher does and what copyright is. Many of the books on thebusiness are written from the US perspective. I wanted to write one based onthe UK music industry which could be read as a road map through theindustry. Where I’ve used technical expressions I have tried to give a non-technical explanation alongside. For the legally minded among you thedetail is in the footnotes. This book is not, however, intended to be asubstitute for legal textbooks on copyright, other intellectual property rightsor contract. There are many good examples of these sorts of books around.The music business is a dynamic one and each new edition involves a re-working of most of the chapters. In particular anything to do with new mediais difficult to keep up-to-date. The chapter on New Media has beencompletely rewritten under the new title of Online Sales and Distribution ashave the chapters on Touring, Getting a Record Made and Branding andSponsorship. Video is now a dying format and references to it have beenreplaced with DVD as a revenue source.Wherever possible I have tried to illustrate points with practicalexamples. I have to add a health warning that the examples produced and theguidelines given are mine alone and others may not agree or may have haddifferent experiences.We’ve all been fascinated by newspaper reports of this or that artist incourt over disputes with their ex-managers, record companies or even othermembers of the band. Are these reports accurate? Do these cases have anylong-term effect? Do they matter? The facts of some of the more importantcases have been highlighted, what was decided and the effects of thesedecisions on the music business. I’ve included several new cases in thisedition, particularly in the chapters on band agreements, session musicians,piracy, plagiarism and publishing.What I’ve tried to do is to let you in to some of the things I have learnedover the last 24 years in the music business. There is, however, no substitutefor legal advice on the particular facts of your case. Chapter 1 deals withchoosing your advisers. Please read it. Good advisers will help to save youfrom what can be expensive mistakes. Most artists only have one chance of asuccessful career in this business – make sure you don’t lose it through pooradvice. Chapter 1Getting Started INTRODUCTIONHOW DO YOU get into the music business as a performing artist or songwriter?How do you get your foot in the door and how and when do you startgathering your team of advisers around you?Maybe you want to be a manager or set up your own record label orpublishing company. This book is all about understanding the musicbusiness, the deals and how you get yourself started.CREATING A BUZZHow do you get your work noticed? The idea is to create a ‘buzz’ bywhatever means you can. We’ll see later that lawyers and accountants canhelp you to get noticed but you also need to work out your own plan andmake it unique to you.You can play as many gigs as you can and hope to be recognised by ascout on the lookout for a record or music publishing company or you canmake a demo of your performances or songs and send it to an A&R personand hope. However, more and more companies, particularly the bigger ones,the ‘majors’, are refusing to accept unsolicited demos. They are followingtheir US colleagues in this respect and many now only accept demos from atried and tested or well-known source. Others are streamlining theirsubmissions policy and asking for MP3s rather than CDs through the post.There’s no guarantee of success. No one is ‘owed’ a living in thisbusiness. You have to earn it often through sheer hard slog.Many try and improve their chances by coming up with a previouslyuntried marketing ploy. We all remember the famous online concerts givenby Sandi Thom from her basement in Tooting. Sure got her noticed didn’t it?Occasionally you still hear of artists pitching up at record companies withtheir guitar and doing an impromptu audition at which they are ‘discovered’but the chances are very slim. These days you’d be lucky to get past thesecurity guards.You can also shamelessly exploit any and all contacts you have withanyone who has even the remotest connection with the music business. Youcan pester these hapless souls to ‘get their mate to the next gig’ or to listento your demo or visit your MySpace page. This can improve your chances ofat least getting your work listened to, but still isn’t any guarantee it will leadto a record or publishing deal.The live side of the industry is important and increasingly so in the lastfew years as traditional record sales have declined. Record and publishingcompanies send scouts out to find undiscovered talent playing in out-of-the-way pubs. If you happen to be based outside the M25 your chances of beingspotted are slimmer than if you are in London. However, there are otherareas of the country that get the attention of scouts – Sheffield, Liverpool,Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, South Wales and Glasgow among them.Sometimes you get an ambitious scout who goes and checks out what ishappening in a part of the country not on the traditional circuit. When thishappens you can get a rash of signings from that area. Who knows, your areacould be next.A&R people live a precarious existence. They are only as good as theirlast successful signing. So they tend to like to have their hunches about anartist confirmed by someone else whose opinion they respect. This could besomeone in their own company but, somewhat surprisingly, they will oftentalk to A&R people from rival companies. You would think that if theyfound someone they thought was good they would keep it to themselves untilthe deal was done. Some do, but many seem to need to be convinced thatthey have got it right even though this might push up the cost of the deal ifthe rival company also gets in the running to sign the same artist. For theartist this is a dream come true. He can choose the company that works bestfor him, and his lawyer will negotiate between the companies to get a betterdeal. This is what we call using your bargaining power. The more bargainingpower you have the better your overall deal is likely to be. In the last coupleof years the trend has been for several successful artists to make their markelsewhere before becoming big with a major record company. Keane weresigned to BMG Music Publishing for about three years before they got arecord company interested in their brand of music. The Kaiser Chiefs withB-Unique and Domino Records with Franz Ferdinand are other goodexamples of independent labels punching above their weight. More and moreit seems that the A&R people at major record companies want actualevidence of an artist’s ability to complete recording an album and promote itbefore they come on board. This can be a depressing thought for a band juststarting out, but it could also be seen as an opportunity to create and developyour own style on a smaller independent label first. Indeed one of thebiggest growth areas of the business is that of independent labels makingtheir own story and either feeding artists in to the bigger labels or releasingrecords themselves before the acts are picked up by the bigger labels. Anexample of an artist who made it big independently before being picked upby a major is Sounds Under Radio who was the only unsigned artist on theSpider-Man 3 film soundtrack and went on to sign a multi-album deal withEpic Records.THE BAND NAMEThe name a band chooses is a vital part of its identity, its brand. It’s a verydifficult thing to get right and it’s quite common for bands to go throughvarious name changes before they settle on one they’re happy with. It shouldbe memorable, because if you combine a good name with a clever logo thenyou are already halfway to having the basis of a good advertising campaign.However you decide to market yourself, a distinctive name makes it thatmuch easier. If it’s a name that you can do some wordplay with, so much thebetter.Finding a good name is easier said than done. I’m sure you’ve all sataround at some time in the pub after a beer or three and tried to come upwith good band names. Despite all my advice on branding, I suspect thatmost bands choose their name for much more down-to-earth reasons, like itsounds cool, or it is the only one they can think of that is not naff and that noone else has already nabbed. Raiding books, old films and song titles areother good sources, for example, All About Eve, His Latest Flame and JanusStark (from a comic). History is also a fertile source, Franz Ferdinand beinga good example.You might decide on a name not knowing that anyone else has alreadyclaimed it. You may then invest a lot of time and maybe some money instarting to develop a reputation in that name. You’re not going to be veryhappy if you then find out that someone else has the same name. So how doyou check if someone else is already using a band name?There are some easy and cheap means of doing this. First, go to thenearest large record store and ask to borrow their catalogue listing allavailable records. Have a look if the name you want to use appears – the listsare usually alphabetical by artist name so that’s not as horrible a task as itmight seem.If you’ve access to the Internet you can widen your search. Using a goodsearch engine check to see if the name you’ve chosen appears. You couldjust do a UK search but if you plan to sell records overseas (and you do,don’t you?) then you should do a worldwide search. You could apply toregister a domain name and see if anyone has claimed any of the main top-line domain categories for that name. If it is available do register it quickly.There are band registers online, including one called bandname.com,which claims to be the biggest online band names registry. You couldconsider registering with them or searching first for an existing band name.It is not, however, free and so you may want to consider other free onlinesearches first. Bear in mind though that just because a band is listed on aband register database doesn’t mean that they will automatically succeed instopping you from using the same name. You have to also look at whetherthey have an existing name or reputation, whether they have registered atrademark or a domain name, and whether they had a reputation in the samearea of the business as you.If you choose a name and another artist objects to you continuing to useit because it is the same as one they have been using for a while, they maysue you. This could be for a breach of their trademark (see Chapter 8) or, ifthey haven’t registered a trademark, they would have to argue that they had areputation in the same area of music, in the same country as you and thatyou were creating confusion in the mind of the public and trading on theirreputation. This is called ‘passing off’ (see Chapter 8).1 If they can establishthese things (and that is not always easy to do) and they can also show thatthey are losing or are likely to lose out financially as a result, then they canask the court to order you to stop using the name and also to award themdamages against you. They would have to establish a number of things,including an existing reputation. Just because a band has done a gig or twounder the same name as you doesn’t necessarily mean that they have areputation or that they can satisfy the other tests of ‘passing off’. You mayhave the greater reputation or the greater bargaining power or the othergroup may have split up. If you’ve already got a record deal or are about torelease a single or album under that name you may be able to persuade themthat they are in fact trading on your reputation and that they should stopusing the name. A word of warning though, if you have a US label or intendto license recordings for sale in the US it is quite likely that the US companywill be unhappy at the existence of another artist with the same or a verysimilar name. They may well put considerable pressure on you either tochange the name or to do a deal whereby you can definitively get the rightsto use that name from the other artist. US labels tend to be risk adverse and apotential threat to stop their sales will have them running scared.If you do find another band with the same name then you could do a dealwith them to buy the right to use the name from them. You pay them a smallamount (or a big amount if you really want the name) and they stop using it,allowing you to carry on. If you’re going to do these sorts of deals youshould also make sure that you get from them any domain name that theyhave registered in the band name and, if they have a trademark, anagreement to assign the registration to you.The law can be somewhat confusing on this question of band names asshown by two band name cases. The first involves the members of Liberty,the band formed from the runners-up in the television programme Popstarsand the second a Scottish rock group and a pop boy band both called Blue.The decisions in the two cases could not have been more different.The Liberty X Case2V2 Music, the record company, had an exclusive recording contract withthe members of Liberty and was preparing to release and promote theirfirst album. The claimants were a funk band formed in the late 1980swho also went by the name Liberty. This band had had a lot of publicityand played a number of live concerts in the period up to 1996 but nevergot a record contract. Their three independent releases made between1992 and 1995 sold only a few thousand copies. The public interest inthem had become virtually nonexistent by the mid-1990s, although theykept going in the business, where they were known and respected, andappeared as session musicians on other people’s work.The question was whether they had sufficient residual goodwill leftin 2001 to be entitled to be protected against passing off.The pop group Liberty argued that even if there was residualgoodwill their activities could not be seen to interfere with the oldLiberty as they were in different areas of music.The court found that the amount of residual goodwill had to be morethan trivial which was a question of fact. The judge found that while thecase was ‘very close to the borderline’ there was a small residualgoodwill that deserved protection. He granted an injunction against thenew Liberty band’s continued use of the name. The band renamed itselfLiberty X and went on to commercial success.The Blue CaseIn complete contrast, in June 2003 a case brought by the original bandBlue – a Scottish rock group – came before the courts. Their last hit wasin 1977 when a single by them reached number eighteen in the charts.They did have a long career spanning sixteen singles and seven albums.They had a fan base and nowadays sold records mostly be mail order orover the Internet. The new Blue was a boy band formed in 2000 who hadhad 3 number 1 singles. The old Blue sued new Blue and its recordcompany EMI/Virgin for substantial damages for passing off arguingthat there was confusion over the name leading to damage to theirreputation and recording career. The case came before Judge Laddie,who is known for his forthright approach. He made it very clear at thebeginning of the case that he found these claims somewhat dubious. Heis quoted as saying, ‘Are you seriously saying that fans of one groupwould mistake one for the other.’ The judge also commented on thedifference in their appearance saying that ‘one is aged like you and me,the other is a boy band’. These are comments that could just as easilyhave been made in the Liberty case but different times, differentoutcomes. In this case the early indication of the judge’s view led to thetwo sides having discussions outside the court which led to an out-of-court settlement. Both bands were to be permitted to continue to use thesame name. Old Blue was ordered to pay the costs of new Blue whoagreed not to enforce this for so long as old Blue didn’t try to apply toregister a trademark or otherwise try to regularise ownership of thename.TRADE MARK SEARCHYou can run a trade mark search to see if there is someone else with thesame or a very similar name in the classes of goods or services that youwould be interested in (for example, Class 9 for records). In the US therecord company often makes it a condition of the record deal that they run atrade mark search and charge you for it by adding the cost on to youraccount. If the search reveals another band or artist with the same name, therecord company will usually insist on you changing your name before theywill sign the contract.SHOWCASING YOUR TALENTLet’s assume you’ve got a name, can legitimately use it and are getting someinterest from the business. Record companies have had their fingers burnedby signing artists for large sums of money that they haven’t seen performand then discovering that they can’t play or sing at all. This was a particularproblem at the height of the dance music boom when behind the scenesproducers were making the music and using front people to perform them onstage – often not live but mimed to backing tapes. So most record companieswill insist on seeing you play live. If you are already playing the club circuitthey may just turn up to a gig. If you aren’t then they may pay for the hire ofa venue or ask you to arrange one. This is called a showcase. The venue willeither be a club or a rehearsal studio. These showcases may be open to thepublic but more often they will be by invitation only. It might pay for you toget at least some of your mates/fans invited so there are a few friendly facesthere as an industry showcase can be a daunting affair.You could hire a venue yourself and send invitations out to all the recordcompanies. However, just because you’ve invited them doesn’t mean they’llcome. Don’t be at all surprised if they say they’re coming and then don’tshow up. It’s a very fickle business. They probably got a better offer on theday. The more of a ‘buzz’ there is about you the more likely it is that theywill turn up, as they won’t want to miss out on what could be ‘the next bigthing’.I once asked the MD of a major record company why he was paying foran artist to do a showcase which would be open to the public when he knewthat the artist would then be seen by the A&R people from rival recordcompanies. His answer was quite revealing. He said that he knew how far hewas prepared to go on the deal and so was not worried that it would be hypedup. He felt that if this artist really wanted to be with his record company hewouldn’t be influenced by the interest from other companies. Confidenceindeed. In fact the artist did sign to his company and remained on the labelfor a number of albums. In these days of independent labels or productioncompanies working with artists it is likely that they will set up theshowcases and either invite a broad selection of bigger labels along or onlythose with whom they have a special relationship, maybe ones for whomthey already act as a talent out-source.PRESENTING YOURSELF WELLHere are some tips that may help you showcase your talents successfully.First, do your homework. Read the music press. Find out the current‘happening’ venues, the places that regularly get written up in the musicpress. Pester that venue to give you a spot, even if it’s the opening spot, andget all your mates to come along so that it looks like you’ve already got aloyal following. Before you get to that stage you may need to start out in theclubs outside the main circuit and work your way in.You should also find out what nights the venue features your kind ofmusic. If you play radio-friendly, commercial pop you don’t want to get agig on a heavy metal night.Make sure the songs you play (your set) are a good cross-section of whatyou do. What goes down well with your mates in the local may not work fora more urban audience (but you’ll want to play one or two of the firmfavourites to give you a confidence boost).Be professional. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Think about your imageand style. Don’t send mixed messages. Think about your relationship withthe audience. If yours is the ‘say nothing, the music will speak for itself’style, that’s fine – but make sure you’re sending that message clearly to youraudience. We all like a ‘personality’. If your band has got one make sure youuse him or her to their best advantage.Always tell your audience who you are at the beginning and end of yourset. You’d think this was obvious but you’d be surprised how many gigs I’vebeen to where it’s been impossible to tell who the artist is unless you’veseen them before. The line-up of the bands on the night can change and nogig ever starts at the time it’s supposed to, so you can’t even make anintelligent guess. Make life easier for us – tell us clearly who you are, this isnot the time for a shoe-gazing mumble.Try and get your local press behind you. I know of one Nottingham bandthat did this very successfully. They made a fan of the arts reporter on thelocal newspaper and kept him up to date on what they were up to and whenthey were playing. This made sure they got good reviews. A scout read oneof these and went to the next gig, which was on the outer-London circuit.The band took ‘rent-a-crowd’ with them and were spotted by an A&R mantipped off by the scout. A record deal followed. The local reporter was thefirst one they told – after their mum, of course. In an innovative marketingspin of the kind I was advocating earlier, The Other used SMS to let fansknow of their next gig relying on word of mouth and multiple texts to ensurea good turn-out at their ‘secret’ gigs and attention from the press for theirinnovative technique. It’s a wonder that they didn’t go further and sign up asponsorship deal with a telecoms company for a cut of the SMS charges.SHORT CUTSIt’s a long haul and it needs determination and dedication to plug away onthe gig circuit like this. Are there any short cuts? Yes, there are some. Thereare ‘battle of the bands’-type competitions, and if you get through to thefinal three or even win then that will give you valuable exposure and shouldensure a number of follow-up gigs in the local area and some usefulpublicity. They don’t often lead directly to deals although, if you win, youmay get free studio time to make a demo (see below). One band of under 18year olds called The Flaming Monkeys won the Kerrang! unsigned bandsaward at the Vodafone Awards in 2007 and used that as a spring board to aspot at Glastonbury and (hopefully) to a record deal. Glastonbury now has anEmerging Performers Competition for bands to play on its main stage.Indeed the under 18s market is a booming one with venues turning over theirclubs to promoters of special gigs aimed at the younger audience andobviously without the booze.Then of course there are online band competitions – such as thosepromoted by the web-based slicethepie.com. For more on these socialnetworking sites and different use of technology see Chapter 7.There are also ‘open mike’ evenings at clubs, when anyone can turn upand ask to play one or two numbers. Tony Moore’s unsigned acts nights atThe Bedford pub in Balham, South London are a regular stopping off spotfor scouts as is 014 in Baron’s Court, West London and clubs in Soho suchas Punk or pubs like The Betsy Trottwood. Tony Moore also opened anadditional live acoustic venue, The Regal Room in December 2006, based atThe Distillers in Fulham Palace Road, London.Music industry organisations such as the Performing Rights SocietyLimited (PRS) or its US equivalents, The American Society of Composersand Publishers (ASCAP), or Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), occasionallyarrange nights at a Central London venue to showcase two or three acts whoare either unsigned or have signed a record deal but not a publishing deal (orvice versa). ASCAP sends out a CD containing a track by each of the actsit’s promoting. These are popular with A&R people because someone hasalready filtered out a lot of the rubbish for them. See Useful Addresses forcontact details.There is also an annual UK music industry convention called ‘In theCity’. Attached to it is a series of showcases for unsigned acts at venues inthe city where the conference is being held. Its regular home is Manchesterbut it does move around. The death of one of its founders, Tony Wilson, in2007 did not stop his partner Yvette Livesey from continuing the tradition afew months later and it looks to continue for the foreseeable future. It’squite expensive to register for the conference but it’s often possible to getinto the bar of the main conference hotel where the executives meet to relax.You could get lucky and meet one or two A&R people and get your demo tothem. Remember, however, that they get given many CDs, often late at nightand possibly after several pints of beer, and they will probably need to bereminded who you are in a follow-up call a few days later. If you’re chosenfor one of the unsigned showcases, it should guarantee that at least one A&Rperson will be at your gig. In past years Suede, Oasis and The Darkness haveall played ‘In the City Unsigned’ and more recent successes include TheAutomatic and Muse.THE DEMO RECORDINGFor most people making progress in the music business means having ademo recording of your work. This is your calling card, your way ofintroducing a stranger to your work. It should be recorded to the beststandard you can afford.STUDIO DEALSWhat if you haven’t any money? How do you afford to make a recording?One way is to beg ‘down-time’ from your local recording studio. This istime when the studio is not being hired out commercially. It may be at reallyunsociable hours such as 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. But who needs sleep when you’vegot a record deal to get?The studio may give you the time cheaply or even free, but they are morelikely to let you have the time in return for promises of what they will getwhen you get your first deal. The studio owner may want some of theincome (the royalty) you earn from the sale of your records. This issometimes called an override royalty. This is fair if you get a deal usingrecordings made at the studio, but take care that the studio is not asking fortoo much. A 1–1.5% override royalty is usually enough. By that I mean thatif you are offered an 18% royalty you have to give 1–1.5% to the studioowner, leaving you with 16.5–17%. Some studios try to get royalties on yoursecond and third album too. They argue that you wouldn’t have got yourchance to record at all without their generosity. This is true, but there comesa time when your success has nothing to do with that original generosity.One album is plenty in most cases or if it goes beyond that then the royaltypercentage should reduce to say 0.5–0.75%.The studio may also want a guarantee that you use their facilities whenyou make your album. Or the studio owner may want to produce your firstcommercial album. You should be careful about agreeing to these sorts ofconditions. Record companies don’t like package deals on studio andproducer. They like to have some say on these things themselves. If theproducer is a proven talent they may be less concerned but you should tryand build in flexibility.The demo should feature a good cross-section of your work. Most peoplethink that it should contain no more than three or four different pieces, withyour best one first, your second-best one last and contrasting style pieces inthe middle, but be careful of sending a confusing message by mixing toomany different styles on one CD. The opening number should haveimmediate impact in case the listener fast-forwards it before you’ve got intoyour stride. Many A&R people listen to demo CDs in their car or MP3s ontheir MP3 player. If you don’t grab their attention they’ll move on to thenext track or CD. If you are sending a CD then the case and the CD itselfshould both contain details of who you are, the names of the pieces, whowrote them and, most importantly, a contact number, otherwise when,inevitably, the case gets separated from the CD, there is no way of tellingwho the band are and how to get hold of them. This is harder to do with anMP3 so it is important that the file name is distinctive and that the metatagson the recording itself identify the artist and the name of the track. If youcan include an email or webpage contact address so much the better. Makeyourself as easy as possible to find.FINDER’S AGREEMENTThese go in and out of popularity. At the moment they seem to have beenovertaken by the production deal but they are still used where someone justwants to find a deal and not be further involved at any level. A studio owner,producer or an established writer that you may be working with might likewhat they hear but may not have the resources or the inclination to sign youup to a record deal themselves. They may also not wish to become involvedin your career longer-term as a manager but might spot an opportunity to usetheir contacts to further your and their own prospects. Such people mightoffer to find a deal for you and if you agree in principle they may then wantyou to sign a finder’s agreement.This is usually a short document where you appoint them for a period oftime to get you a record or publishing deal. The period varies from sixmonths up to eighteen months and may be non-exclusive, in which case theperiod is of less concern, or exclusive, in which case you might want to keepthe period quite short. On an exclusive deal you pass through any interestyou get to the finder who is in overall charge. If it’s non-exclusive you andothers can go on looking for a deal but you need to have a mechanism forhow to tell who actually made the successful introduction. This is why mostfinders favour an exclusive arrangement.If the finder gets a deal within the agreed time span then that usuallyends the ongoing relationship between you and the finder, unless, assometimes happens, it changes into a different type of deal such as that ofartist/manager/artist/producer or co-writer.The fee that the finder gets varies. It may be a percentage of what youget on signing the deal, a percentage of all monies paid you in the firstcontract period of the deal or a share of these monies and of future royalties.The percentage is usually somewhere between 5% and 10%. Sometimes thefinder argues for a percentage of monies beyond the initial contract period.This is less usual and I would want to see strong grounds to justify that andeven then might well argue for the percentage to be reduced to say 2.5–5%.DEMO DEALIf an A&R man gets to hear of your music through the demo or indeed in alive gig he will undoubtedly want to hear some more.If this is not a situation where there is an existing production companywith access to studio facilities he may pay for some studio time for you torecord more material or to try out different versions of what you’ve alreadyrecorded on your demo. In that case he may offer you a demo deal.The deal will usually guarantee you a certain amount of time in aprofessional or in-house recording studio. Many record and publishingcompanies have their own studio facilities, which they may offer to makeavailable. Perhaps you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but if thestudio doesn’t have the equipment you need to show yourself off to bestadvantage you should say so, and either ask for that equipment to be hired inor ask to go into a commercial studio. Cheeky, yes, but you can do it politely– it’s your chance, so don’t blow it.The record or publishing company will expect to own the copyright inwhat you record (see Chapter 3). The company will want to own the right tocontrol what happens to the recording. A record company will not usuallyexpect to own rights in the song but a music publisher might. Try and takeadvice before you agree to give away rights in the song. At the very leastthey shouldn’t own the song unless they offer you a proper publishing deal(see Chapter 4). The company offering you the deal will also own thephysical recording or ‘master’. This is fine as long as they don’t stop yourecording the same song for someone else if they don’t offer you a deal.They should also agree that they won’t do anything with the master withoutfirst getting your permission. This is important. When you finally sign yourrecord deal you will be asked to confirm that no one else has the right torelease recordings of your performances. The record company will not findit funny if a rival company releases the very track that they had planned asyour first single. The company who paid for the demo will usually agree thatyou can play it to other companies if they decide not to offer you a dealwithin a reasonable period of time.The record or publishing company will normally want some exclusivityin return for the studio time they are giving you. They may want you toagree not to make demos for anyone else or not to negotiate with anothercompany for a period of time.They may be slightly more flexible and want the right of first negotiationor refusal. This means that they will want either to have the first chance totry to negotiate a deal with you or they will want to have the right to say yesor no first before you sign to another company. This is a difficult call. Youwill no doubt be excited and perhaps desperate not to risk losing the dealbut, before agreeing to exclusivity or these negotiating options, you need tobe sure that the exclusive time period is not too long. If they tie you up formonths you may miss your moment. If they have first negotiating orrejection rights then they should tell you as soon as possible where youstand. If they’re not interested then you need to move on as quickly aspossible.Bear in mind, though, that the record company has to go through anumber of stages before they can make a decision. They have to listen to therecording, probably then discuss it at an A&R meeting and then maybe alsowith their immediate bosses or even overseas colleagues. All this takes timeand they may not want to risk losing you to a rival company. So you need toget a balance between the needs of the two sides.Don’t be surprised or depressed if, after you make the demo, thecompany decides not to offer you a deal. I know several artists who gotdemo time from two or three record companies and ended up with anexcellent set of demos that they took to another company who then signedthem up. What you don’t want to happen is that people feel that you’ve beenaround for a while and are sounding a bit stale. This is a difficult balance tostrike.On a more positive note, the first company may love what you’verecorded. The demos may confirm the A&R man’s faith in your abilities andhe may be ready to do a deal with you. You’ve passed go and, once you’veread the rest of this chapter on getting yourself some good advisers, youshould go straight to Chapter 3 (What Is A Good Record Deal?).GETTING HELP AND PUTTING TOGETHER YOURTEAMAll of this may seem a bit daunting. Don’t worry about negotiating orsigning a studio or demo deal. There are people that you can turn to for help.You should be looking to put your team of advisers in place as soon as youstart to get a bit of a ‘buzz’ about you so that you are ready to move quickly.THE LAWYERA good lawyer with experience of the business can be of enormous help toyou. So where do you find one and what can they do for you?Finding a lawyerGeneralYou can ask the Law Society for their suggestions (see the Useful Addressessection for details). They have entertainment firms on their referral lists butmake no judgement on the quality of the advice.Many law firms have their own websites, which will tell you a bit aboutthe firm and its areas of expertise. It will usually contain an email address,so you could try sending them a message asking for further information.Some websites contain details of the last big deals the firm did and,where their clients allow them to, list the names of some of their clients. It isnot necessarily a bad thing if there aren’t many clients mentioned.Professional rules mean we have to keep client information confidential andnot even say that someone is a client without the client’s permission orunless it is public knowledge. If a client is kind enough to give me a crediton their album artwork, I take it that he’s happy for people to know I’m hislawyer, but if in doubt I have to ask.Other sources could be the Musicians’ Union and the Music ManagersForum. The PRS runs a legal referral scheme where firms of music lawyersagree to give preliminary advice free or at a reduced rate. See UsefulAddresses.DirectoriesNot all law firms have websites, so you could also look in the two mainbooks listing UK legal firms – Chambers and Legal 500 (See UsefulAddresses). The general guides can be found in most of the larger publiclibraries and are both available online. Both have a similar approach,breaking down the lists into areas of the country and particularspecialisations. Most UK music lawyers are based in London, but there areone or two in places like Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. Chamberswrites short pieces on those it thinks are the leading players in a particularfield and now also boasts a USA guide. Legal 500 operates on a leagueprinciple. When it interviews lawyers it notes which names are mentionedmost frequently by others in the business and grades the firms accordingly.It also does some checking with individual clients.In addition to these general legal guides the Music Week Directory alsolists UK law firms and is a good first stop for an overview of lawyers whoclaim to have expertise in the music business. Music Week is the leadingtrade journal for the music industry in the UK. You need to take out asubscription to get the directory and online access but you may find it inbigger reference libraries or a contact in the business might lend you a copy.As with the more general guides an entry in the directory is not anyguarantee that they are any good.Managers and AccountantsIf you already have a manager or an accountant they may be able torecommend a lawyer to you. You should check if your manager has the samelawyer. Most managers realise that for some things (for example,negotiating the management contract) you have to have a separate lawyerfrom your manager. There is a conflict in the interests of the two of you thatmeans you must be separately advised. Where there is no conflict of interestthere is usually nothing wrong in you and your manager having the samelawyer. You may, however, still feel more comfortable having your ownlawyer on board.Other bandsOther bands or contacts in the business may be able to recommend someoneto you. This may be their own lawyer or someone they have heard others sayis good. We lawyers love personal recommendations as a source of newwork. It means we must be doing something right.How do you go about choosing and employing a lawyer?Occasionally lawyers are in the public eye because of a particularly high-profile piece of work they have done and everyone wants to have them astheir lawyer. You must, however, try to find out whether the lawyer isexperienced and not a one-hit wonder. How do you do that? Ideally youshould have two or three names on your list, possibly gathered from avariety of sources. You should call them, tell them you are looking for alawyer and ask to meet with them. Be wary of lawyers who promise theearth. We don’t have all the answers. Before you meet up with the lawyershave some questions ready for them. Ask how long they’ve been doing thisand who their main clients are. As we saw, they may be a bit coy about thisbecause of their duty to keep clients and their business confidential. A s kthem how their firm is structured. Will they be doing the work for you orwill it be handed over to a more junior person? Can you call up the lawyeryou are meeting at any time to discuss your case or are you expected to workwith the junior person?You should also ask the lawyers the all-important question of what theycharge, when they expect to send you a bill and when they expect it to bepaid. Will they accept payment in instalments and, if so, do they chargeinterest on the balance like you would on a credit card bill that you werepaying off monthly? Can you pay by credit card? Beware of a lawyer who isreluctant to discuss his costs. If he tells you what he charges by the hour youmay need to sit down. But quoting hourly rates doesn’t really help you tocompare two firms, as one lawyer may work faster than the other. A betterway to do it is to ask them to give you a ballpark figure for what it usuallycosts for them to do a record or publishing deal. If you ask each lawyer thesame question you’ll have a better basis for a comparison. Don’t necessarilygo for the lowest price. It may be that the deal gets done faster but it’s ashort-term view. Where the lawyer really comes into his own is whensomething goes wrong in six months’ or a year’s time. Then thethoroughness with which he has done his job in protecting your interestsreally gets put to the test. Some lawyers will agree to do a piece of work fora fixed price. Since setting up my own business I often work in that way as itgives the client certainty but as with any job of work if it turns out to be farmore complicated than it appeared at first I reserve the right to come backand revisit that fixed fee.The lawyer you finally choose should send you a letter setting out thebasis on which he is going to work for you, including details of what heexpects to charge and who you should complain to if you have a problem.Your lawyer is a fundamental part of your team. Take your time in choosingone and don’t be afraid to say if you’re not happy with a piece of work,including voting with your feet and changing lawyers if it doesn’t work out.Although you may want to give the lawyer the chance to explain his positionbefore you leave. As a last resort you can sue but this is all very negative. Inthe majority of cases there isn’t a problem that can’t be sorted out with aphone call.Conflicts of interestThere are firms of lawyers that work mostly for record and publishingcompanies and others that work for what we call the ‘talent’ (the creativeend of the business). It is important to know this. If the record labelinterested in you uses the same firm for their own legal advice there will bea conflict of interest which will make it difficult for that lawyer to work foryou if you’re ever in a dispute with the record company. Some say it’spossible to build Chinese Walls (artificial barriers where, in theory, onelawyer within a firm knows nothing about what another is doing, so can’t beinfluenced in any negotiation). When things are going well this can work,provided everyone knows it is happening. When things aren’t going so wellwill you feel confident that your lawyer is looking after your interests?Beauty paradesWhen you go to meet lawyers it’s only fair that you tell them that you’reseeing lawyers from other firms. Lawyers call these meetings ‘beautyparades’ when we set out to impress you. There’s nothing worse thanspending an hour giving advice to someone you think has already chosen youas their lawyer only to be told as they walk out of the door, ‘Thanks for that,I’ll get back to you when I have seen the other firms on my list.’If you’re asked what other firms you’ve seen you don’t have to say, butif you do it helps that lawyer, who then knows who he is in competition withand can adjust his ‘sales pitch’ accordingly.When you’ve decided who you want to work with, you should tell theothers who’ve given up an hour or more of their valuable time that they areout of luck. You never know, you may want to change lawyers at some pointand there’s no harm in keeping things civil.What does your lawyer do for you?A trite answer may be to say whatever you instruct him to do (provided it islegal). We do work ‘on instructions’ from you, but that’s really not a truepicture of all that we can do for you. We’re there to advise you, to help youdecide what the best deal is for you. We give you the benefit of ourexperience of similar situations. We know who’s doing what deals and howmuch would be a good deal.If you want, we can help you to target companies that our experiencetells us should be interested in your type of music. This can help you to bemore focused. This doesn���t mean to say that we act as A&R people, althoughI have come across one or two lawyers who do think they are and indeedthere are some law firms that employ young lawyers as quasi scouts lookingfor up and coming artists who might be future clients. The type of musicyou’re into shouldn’t influence your lawyer, who should be able to representyou whatever style of music you make, provided it’s not so far out of hisarea of expertise that he doesn’t have the necessary experience orcommercial knowledge of whether the deal is good, bad or indifferent.There’s also a growing band of lawyers who, following the Americantrend, are acting as quasi-managers, only taking on clients who they thinkthey can get a deal for. Managers seem a little uncomfortable about this, asit blurs the edges between their respective roles. It also means that thelawyer is making a judgement call, and those who really need advice may belosing out. With this breed of lawyer you need to be very clear what they areexpecting to charge you. Is it their normal rate or is there a premium for thisservice? Are they charging a percentage of the deal they get for you? If sodoes that mean that they only focus on getting the most money and to hellwith the small print?Our role can be as wide or as narrow as you want it to be. If you arealready clued-up on the type of deal you want, or have a manager who is,then you won’t need that sort of advice. If you’re quite happy aboutnegotiating a deal direct with the record or publishing company, then youbring your lawyer in later when the commercial terms are agreed and youneed to get the legal contract in place. On the other hand, if you are new tothe business and aren’t confident enough to negotiate commercial terms,you’ll want to involve your lawyer at a much earlier stage.I work differently with different types of clients. If it’s a new artist whoeither doesn’t have a manager or has a manager who isn’t very experienced Irun with things right from the beginning when a record company says itwants to do a deal. I contact the record company, get their deal proposal and,after talking to the client, I go back to the record company with any counter-proposals, continuing this process until the deal is in its final form. I thenget the draft contract, check it, make any necessary changes, and negotiatethose with the company until the contract is ready for me to recommend tothe client for signature.With other clients there may be an experienced manager on board whoknows exactly what his bargaining power is and what sort of deal he wouldideally like to end up with. My role at the beginning is more that of anadviser or sounding board. The manager will usually make sure I get a copyof the proposal and any counter-proposals, but won’t want to involve medirectly in the negotiations. He may telephone from time to time to ask if Ithink company X can do better than what they are offering. I’ll tell him whatI think based on other deals I have done with that company. I keep the namesof the clients confidential, but I can say whether I know they can do betteron a particular point or not. Once this type of client is happy with thecommercial terms I’m then brought in to do the negotiation of the contractitself.You should establish with your lawyer what kind of relationship youwant to have. This may well change from deal to deal as you grow inexperience.I like to take an interest in my clients’ work. I’m delighted to be sent acopy of the new album or single. It helps to cement the relationship betweenus. I also like to go and see my clients play live. I have to admit, though, thatwhen I’m in the middle of a very long week at work and a client rings up andsays, ‘Hi, I’m on stage tonight at the Laughing Cow at 10.30 p.m.’ (whichmeans 11 p.m. at the earliest) then my wish to support the client is tested tothe full.What you don’t want to happen is for your advisers to embarrass you.And yes, it does happen. I can still remember a gig a few years ago whenfour members of a top entertainment accountancy firm were standingproudly in the front row wearing the band’s T-shirt over their work suits.New breed of lawyersThere is a new breed of lawyers in the UK, of which I am now one. These arelawyers, usually qualified solicitors or barristers who, for one businessreason or another, have decided not to practise as solicitors and be regulatedby the Law Society. Instead, they practise as legal or business affairsconsultants. In practice you will probably not notice any difference. Intheory, because they are not bound by the Law Society’s rules they can bemore flexible in how they get paid for their work, for example, working on apercentage of your advances or royalties. Most however, including myself,stick to the rules we have operated for much of our working lives assolicitors even whilst not calling ourselves that. It does mean that we aremore restricted in that we cannot do contentious work involving representingyou in court. However, most legal consultants have arrangements in place torefer such work to lawyers who do contentious work and as it is a specialistfield even if you were using a solicitor they would probably also refer you toa colleague if it became litigious. Of course, because we are not regulated bythe Law Society you couldn’t complain to the Society about us. But we arestill open to being sued by you if we screw up and most of us carryprofessional indemnity insurance like solicitors as we are all human.When should you get a lawyer?There are a number of different views on this. Some say that there’s no needto get a lawyer until you’ve a contract in front of you. I think you should geta lawyer earlier than this. I think that the whole process of getting a deal isso much of a lottery that anything you can do to reduce the odds must beworth doing. Most of us are happy to give initial advice and guidance forfree, or only charge you when your first deal is in place. Just be careful andcheck this before going ahead.Your lawyer can also help you to find a good accountant.ACCOUNTANTSThis leads me neatly on to discuss how you find a good accountant and whatthey can do for you. How do you find one?The InstitutesThe Institutes of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, Scotland orNorthern Ireland and the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountantscan recommend firms to you (see Useful Addresses). It’s important that theaccountant is qualified, preferably a Chartered or Certified accountant.Anyone can set up in business giving financial advice, so you should checkthat they’re properly regulated. You shouldn’t allow them to keep yourmoney in an account to which they can have access without your knowledge.If they are to have signing rights on cheques make sure there are sufficientcontrols in place.DirectoriesThere isn’t any general guide similar to the legal directories. Theaccountancy profession is broken down into the big international firms likeErnst & Young and Deloitte, medium-sized national firms with internationalnetworks like BDO Stoy Hayward, and smaller local firms.The Music Week Directory has a section on accountants. The directory isnot a recommendation that they’re any good, but it is a good starting point.AMIAYou could always try the Association of Music Industry Accountants (seeUseful Addresses). They will be happy to recommend accountants fromwithin their own membership and, as their name suggests, they are allassociated with the music business.Music Managers ForumThe MMF can give you recommendations for accountants as well as forlawyers. They have firms of accountants who are corporate members (seeUseful Addresses) as well as individual accountants who provide business orquasi-management services.LawyersYour lawyer should have had dealings with a number of accountants andshould be able to recommend two or three to you that they know haveexperience in the music business.Other sources of informationYour A&R or other record or publishing company contacts or friends in themusic business may be able to suggest some names. It’s always good to get arecommendation from someone who rates a particular accountant highly.How to choose an accountantAs I suggested when choosing your lawyer, you should see more than oneaccountant. You should ask them the type of work they can do for you. Someare strong on tour accounting or in auditing (inspecting) the books andrecords of companies. They may also do general bookkeeping and taxadvice, but they may not, so ask.If you expect to do a lot of touring, it’s worth having an accountantwho’s experienced in putting together tour accounts and is familiar with tourbudgets and all the necessary arrangements to deal with VAT on overseastours and taxes on overseas income (see Chapter 10).It’s less important that your accountant’s offices are in the same city asthe record and publishing companies. They don’t have to be in London. Themain thing is that they are familiar with the music business and how itworks. They must know the sources of income and how and when it’s paid.They need to know how to read and understand a royalty statement. Thesethings are often, literally, written in code. You need to know what country Ais and what the code for CD sales is. Your local family accountant can, ofcourse, do the basic accounting work as well as the next man, but thisprobably isn’t enough once you start getting deals. Just as you need a lawyerwith specialised music business knowledge, so you need the same expertisefrom your accountant if he’s to be able to look after your interests properly.The basic accountancy and tax rules do, of course, apply to artists andsongwriters, but there are a number of specialised rules and regulationsaimed at them. Your accountant must be up to date on these rules.Some accountants don’t claim to be experts in tax planning or adviceand, if that is an area that you need to have covered, you would be bestadvised to go to an accountant that can provide that and then get a specialistaccountant in to do the tour accounting or auditing.As your accountant will have intimate knowledge of your finances andmay have some control over your bank account, it is vitally important thatyou trust them, that they have a good reputation and that there are suitablechecks and balances in place to protect you and your money.Business ManagersThere is another breed of accountant that could provide the sort of servicesyou are looking for, and that is a business manager. This is a term that hascome across from the US, where they are quite common. In the US theygenerally act as the business and financial adviser alongside a personalmanager who looks after the day-to-day and creative aspects of the artist’scareer (see Chapter 2). In the UK the term means something slightlydifferent. They provide day-to-day business advice and bookkeepingservices. They’ll do your VAT and tax returns for you. They can providebusiness plans and advice and some also do tour accounts. Most don’tprovide international tax planning or audits. Their argument is that thismakes them more cost effective as you are not paying for a full tax planningand audit service when you don’t need it. This means they can charge lessthan the bigger firms of accountants do. When specialist tax or internationaladvice is required, they have relationships with more than one of the biggeraccountancy firms and other financial advisers and can refer you to the rightcompany for you, to get the advice you need when you need it.How do they charge?Accountants usually charge fees rather than commission. They may quoteyou a rate per annum for advising you. Some of the bigger accountancyfirms run special schemes where the first year’s work for you is done at aspecial, discounted rate. You don’t have to stay with them after the firstyear. If you are tempted by these schemes you should ask what exactly iscovered by the discount rate. It’s likely that you won’t get the same serviceas the full-price one. You should also ask what the non-discounted ratewould be after the first year so that you can decide whether you think you’dbe able to stay with them afterwards or will have to start the search for a newaccountant, which could be disruptive.You should ask them what their experience is and who will be doing thework. Often you find that the person who sees you and does the hard sell isthe partner or even the marketing person. Someone quite different andpossibly much less experienced may be doing the work. This sort of thing ismore likely to happen in the bigger firms, particularly those that are offeringa discount rate. You can be reasonably sure that it will not be a partner thatwill be doing the cut-price work.What does an accountant do?Accountants can do a number of things for you. They do the accounts booksfor you, advise and help you to complete your tax return. They register youfor VAT, if necessary, and can do your quarterly VAT returns. Depending onyour accountant, they may also do your tour accounts and help prepare a tourbudget. Your accountant will advise you on whether you should be a soletrader, in partnership or a limited company or limited liability partnership(see Chapter 11). He can prepare partnership or company accounts. Someaccountants can also act as the auditor of your company books; many canalso act as the company secretary and can arrange for the company’sregistered office to be at their offices.Your accountant can act as your financial adviser, telling you where thebest place to invest your money is. Because this area is very closelyregulated, not all accountants are authorised to provide financial servicesadvice. You should ask if your accountant is. If he isn’t you will need aseparate financial adviser.Your accountant can be your tax adviser and help plan with you thingssuch as whether you could consider putting your income in an offshore taxhaven or, indeed, if you could, or should, become a tax exile or non-domiciled. There are signs that the Government is tightening up on the taxbenefits of being non-domiciled so this may not be an attractive option formuch longer. Another reason why it’s important your accountant is up tospeed in this area.Can your accountant help you get a record deal?Yes, he can. You can use accountants in the same way as lawyers. Use theircontacts and pick their brains for information on companies and A&Rpeople. Some accountants also send out selected demo tapes on behalf ofartists and songwriters.If your accountant does find you a deal then he shouldn’t charge you acommission for doing so. He should just charge for any accountancy advicethat he gives you on that deal. If your accountant offers to get you a deal, askhim on what basis he is doing it before you give him the go-ahead.The accountant should be able to work as part of the team with you, yourmanager and your lawyer. It’s important that you keep your accountant inthe loop about the deal so that he can advise how it can be structured as tax-effectively as possible before you sign anything.All accountants should give you a letter of engagement, setting out thebasis on which they will work for you and how they will charge. They shouldgive you the name of someone in their firm that you can complain to ifyou’ve a problem with your accountant. If the complaint is about fees youcan ask for a breakdown of the bill. The professional body that youraccountant belongs to is the first port of call for complaints about youraccountant. If they don’t deal with the complaint to your satisfaction you cantake it to court. This is looking at the negative side and most relationshipsproceed smoothly.An accountant can have conflicts of interest just as your lawyer can. Ifyour accountants act for one of the major record or publishing companies,and you then want to do a deal with that company, the conflict may or maynot arise at that stage. However, if later on you aren’t sure whether thecompany is accounting to you properly and you want to send someone in tolook at (audit) the books, then your accountant will have a conflict ofinterest and you will probably have to take that work elsewhere. There are,in fact, specialist firms of accountants who only do audits. Sometimes it’sbest to use their specialised knowledge even if there isn’t a conflict ofinterest with your own accountant.So now you’ve got your lawyer and your accountant lined up. You havetwo members of your team, getting a manager could be the critical thirdstage. I’ll deal with this in the next chapter.CONCLUSIONSIf you hope to get noticed through doing live work, do your homeworkfirst. Investigate your venues and rehearse thoroughly. Tailor yourmaterial to your audience and tell your audience who you are.Consider short cuts like industry-organised showcases, open mikeevenings or music conventions as well as competitions.Make sure your demo is the best quality that you can afford and that ithas a good cross-section of your work. Put your name and contactnumber on the CD as well as the packaging or make sure they have youremail on any MP3 submission.If you do a deal with a studio for studio time, make sure it’s for nomore than 1–1.5% and don’t agree they can be the producer of your firstalbum unless there are excellent reasons to do so.If you do a demo deal, keep the exclusive period as short as possibleand make sure that no one can do anything with the recordings withoutyour agreement.If you do a finders deal keep the percentages to 5–10% and for as shorta period as you reasonably can get away with.When picking a lawyer or accountant, arrange to see two or threedifferent firms and ask them for estimates of their charges for aparticular piece of work. Find out their expertise and, if possible, whotheir clients are.When you appoint a lawyer or accountant, get written confirmationfrom them of their charges.Your accountant and lawyer are vital members of your team – take yourtime to choose the right ones.1 For a more academic overview of branding, see ‘Copinger and Skone-James on Copyright’, 15th edition. Sweet & Maxwell, 2005.2 Keith Floyd Sutherland v. V2 Music and others Chancery Division (2002). Chapter 2Management Deals INTRODUCTIONIN THIS CHAPTER I’m going to look at how to find a good manager, what toexpect from a manager, and what you have to think about when entering intoa management contract. I’m going to look at it from the artist’s point ofview, but when we get to the part on contracts I’m also going to put themanager’s side of the argument. The section on what to expect from amanager should also be useful to managers. It’ll give them an idea of whatmight be expected from them.It gives me a real buzz to team up the right manager with the right artist;it’s like watching a well-oiled machine going into action. It’s also great towork with a good artist/manager team, as everyone’s pulling in the samedirection. A good example of this in action recently has been the relationshipbetween Danny D and Tim Blackhurst as managers of the writing/productionteam of Norwegian writers ‘Stargate’. They won ‘Song of the Year’ and‘Songwriter of the Year’ awards from ASCAP in 2007 and at the ceremonycredited their managers with having the faith to encourage them to take theirskills to America. That leap of faith and the skill with which they thenexploited the new market place was a direct cause of their subsequentsuccess. What was slightly unusual was that the writers acknowledged thisopenly. Much more common is an artist who once they are successful beginsto resent the monies being paid to the manager and forgets their origins andthe crucial role played by the manager at the beginning.HOW TO FIND A MANAGERDIRECTORIESOne of the main music business directories in the UK is the Music WeekDirectory. It lists managers and the acts they manage. The Music ManagersForum also issues a directory of its managers and who they manage, whichcan be an excellent starting point for finding a manager who looks afterartists who are similar to you or who share a particular musical genre.The drawback with all directories is that they don’t give you any clues asto whether the managers listed are any good. The information you get fromthem needs to be backed up from other sources.MUSIC MANAGERS FORUMOne such source is the Music Managers Forum (MMF).1 The MMF doesn’tact as a dating agency for setting managers up with artists. It does, however,publish a directory of its members and is helpful in putting you in contactwith individual managers.Membership of the MMF is not a recommendation that a manager is anygood but, if a manager is a member, it shows that he is interested in talkingto other managers and in keeping up to date with what is going on in theoutside world that can affect the music business and their or your livelihood.The MMF also runs training courses for wannabe managers, mostly inLondon and Manchester, but occasionally regional courses in conjunctionwith other organisations such as the Welsh Music Foundation and usually atquite reasonable rates.It can be lonely out there so, if you are a manager yourself looking forlike-minded individuals, the MMF has Associate Membership at a reducedrate for new managers of as yet unsigned artists and there is also a categoryfor self-managed artists.RECOMMENDATIONSYou may by now have quite a lot of information about various managers, butyou still may not know if they’re any good or even if they’re looking for newartists to manage. What you need are personal recommendations (references,if you like) from people who have worked with a particular manager or knowhim by reputation. Where do you get these? You can ask around among otherbands to see if they have any good or bad experiences of particularmanagers. Bad reports can be as useful to you as good ones. At the end of theday you’ll have to make up your own mind whether to trust a particularmanager, but if people who know him keep saying bad things about him, youcan’t say you weren’t warned.LAWYERS AND ACCOUNTANTSIf you’ve already found yourself a lawyer or accountant then they should beable to tell you what sort of reputation a particular manager has. They arealso good sources of information and can put you in contact with managersthat you may not have discovered on your own. They may know that aparticular manager is looking for more acts to manage or, conversely, is toobusy to devote the necessary time to a new artist.As with all major decisions you shouldn’t rush into anything. Inparticular, if a lawyer or accountant has recommended someone, you shouldtry and find out what the relationship is between him or her and thatmanager. If, for example, they get most of their work from that manager,how independent are they and is there any conflict of interest? They can’tadvise you independently if the rest of the time they are advising themanager. But just because a lawyer recommends a manager that theyregularly work with doesn’t mean that there is necessarily a conflict ofinterest. You just have to be clear who is looking after your interests.SURGERIESThe Performing Right Society Limited (PRS) and the songwriter’s body, TheAcademy, hold occasional ‘surgeries’. These are meetings where musicbusiness professionals such as lawyers, managers and A&R people discussparticular topics and answer your questions. They are sociable events, oftenheld in a pub or club, and are a good place to meet other songwriters andmusic business people. Details of their meetings are given in the PRSNewsletter or direct from the PRS. ASCAP (one of the equivalent societiesin the US) also holds informal evening sessions when writers get together.A&R CONTACTSRecord or publishing company scouts or A&R people can be an excellentsource of information on managers and whether a particular manager islooking for new artists to manage. They can put you in contact withmanagers. In fact, they may insist on you getting a manager before they areprepared to discuss a possible deal with you, because they’re happier dealingwith a middleman (and preferably someone with a track record).MANAGERSThere is always the possibility that a manager will approach you direct. Theymay have heard about you from an A&R man, a lawyer or accountant, orthey may have seen you play live. It’s not unheard of for a manager to comeup to you after a gig to say that he wants to manage you. A word of warning– just because a manager approaches you doesn’t mean they’re any good, nordoes it mean that you’ve to leap at the chance of being managed by anyoneregardless of who they are. You still have to do your homework and make assure as you can that this is the right manager for you.You should always ask for a trial period to make sure that therelationship is working. It takes time to build up the necessary trust betweenyou. The manager should agree to that, but he will be looking forcommitment from you before he spends any significant amounts of his owntime or money on you. He’ll certainly be looking for you to confirm that youwant him to manage you before he approaches record and publishingcompanies on your behalf. If he’s prepared to commit time and spend moneyon you then it’s reasonable to expect some commitment from you in return.Sometimes managers ask you to sign a short agreement to cover theirexpenses and any deals they may get for you during the short trial period. Aswith any legal agreement, if in doubt – get it checked out by a lawyer.Having discussed how to find managers we should now look at one ortwo of the principles behind the artist/manager relationship. Many of theseprinciples have been developed and applied to management contractsthrough a series of cases involving some of the leading players of the time.THE PRINCIPLESThe first thing you have to understand is that it’s a relationship based ontrust. If the trust is lost then there’s little hope for the relationship. Thecontract won’t hold you together if the trust isn’t there. All that amanagement contract will then do is tell you what your rights are and whathappens if you part company.This loss of trust has led to many disputes between managers and artistsover the years. Some end up in court, many more settle before they get thatfar – even at the doors of the court. Most people don’t want to air their dirtylinen in public. It’s not a pretty sight when you’re sitting in court and thereporters are all lined up on the benches behind you ready to take downevery sordid detail. One time I was in court and found myself sitting next toa journalist from one of the tabloid newspapers. He was obviously boredwith the lack of juicy scandal and kept popping in and out of court. In one ofthe gaps in the proceedings I asked him if he’d been going out for acigarette. ‘Nah, love,’ came the reply, ‘I’m checking with my bookie whowon the last two races at Sandown Park.’ He then asked me if I fancied a beton the outcome of the trial and could I tell him what he’d missed while hewas outside on the phone. British journalism at its finest.Anyway, the cases described below did get to court. The judgements inthese cases helped to establish what lies behind the relationship in legalterms, what duties the manager has towards an artist, and what is acceptablein a management contract.Gilbert O’Sullivan Case2Gilbert O’Sullivan signed a management contract with ManagementAgency and Music Limited (MAM) in 1970. He was young and unknownat the time and had no business experience (this theme comes up timeand time again in music disputes). MAM and the man behind it, GordonMills, already had an international reputation. Mills managed thesuperstars Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. Through MAM Millsalso had interests in a number of other music companies.O’Sullivan trusted his manager completely and, at Mills’ suggestion,he also signed recording and publishing contracts with those relatedmusic companies.O’Sullivan didn’t have any independent legal advice on thesecontracts. He wasn’t told that it would be a good idea for him to get suchadvice. It seems that he trusted Gordon Mills to such an extent that itdidn’t cross his mind to get a second opinion. If his manager told him todo something, then he did it.The agreements tied O’Sullivan to Mills and to his companiescompletely, and the terms were far worse than if O’Sullivan had donethe deals with independent companies and if he had taken independentadvice.O’Sullivan’s debut single on MAM was the very successful ‘NothingRhymed’. Early UK successes were followed by a Top 10 hit in the USwith ‘Alone Again (Naturally)’. In 1972 he had two No. 1 singles in theUK with ‘Clair’ and ‘Get Down’. His second album reached No. 1 in theUK and he had a number of further hits.By 1976 O’Sullivan’s relationship with Mills had broken down; he’dlost his trust in him. This might have been because, for all these hits, hedidn’t seem to be making much money. He sued Mills, arguing that thevarious contracts should be treated as if they’d never happened (that theywere void), because Mills had used his position of trust with O’Sullivanto wrongly influence him to sign them. He also argued that the terms ofthe contracts were so unreasonable that they unfairly restricted hisability to earn a living. These concepts of undue influence andunreasonable restraint of trade come up often in music contract disputes.The court decided that Mills did owe a duty to O’Sullivan. This iscalled a fiduciary duty – a duty to act in good faith. Mills had a duty toput O’Sullivan’s interests first. The court also decided that the contractswere void and could not be enforced. If O’Sullivan chose to ignore them,Mills couldn’t do anything about it. The court tried to put O’Sullivanback in the position he would have been in had the contracts not beensigned. It ordered all copyrights that had been transferred (assigned) byO’Sullivan to be returned to him as well as all master recordings of hisperformances.This was a dramatic decision and it caused uproar in the musicbusiness. Record and publishing companies were afraid that, if thisdecision were allowed to stand, there would be a rush of other artistsmaking the same claims and trying to get their rights back. They knewthat many of the contracts around at the time were no better than thosethat O’Sullivan had signed. They were really worried that all the dealsthey had done for the records or songs would be void and unenforceable.It’s no exaggeration to say that the whole basis of the music business,and the financial security of many companies, was at risk.The AppealUnsurprisingly, Mills and his associated companies wanted to have thisdangerous precedent overturned. They appealed against the decision thatthe companies owed any duty to O’Sullivan. They argued that the recordand publishing companies had not used any influence over O’Sullivan.They also argued that the contracts should be declared void able and notvoid from the outset. If the Court of Appeal agreed with them, thecontracts would be valid but could be set aside later if they were foundto have been signed through undue influence or to be in unreasonablerestraint of trade. Because the companies had already acted as if thecontracts were valid, they argued it would be impossible to returneveryone to the position they would have been in had the contracts notexisted. They said that the copyrights and master recordings shouldn’t bereturned to O’Sullivan, but that he should be compensated by payment ofdamages.In a very important decision for the music business, the Court ofAppeal decided that the associated companies did owe a fiduciary dutyto O’Sullivan, because Mills was effectively in control of thosecompanies and was acting in the course of his employment by thesecompanies when he used his undue influence over O’Sullivan. The courtalso confirmed that it was possible to set these contracts aside, even ifthe parties couldn’t be put in exactly the same position they would havebeen in had the contracts not been signed. The court thought that thiscould be done if it was possible to reach a ‘practically just’ result forO’Sullivan.So far so good for O’Sullivan, you might think. His lawyers musthave thought they were home and dry, but there was a sting in the tail.The Court of Appeal decided that a ‘practically just’ solution would befor the copyright in the songs and master recordings already in existenceto remain with the publishing and record companies, subject to suitablecompensation for O’Sullivan. They also said that the contracts were voidable rather than void, that they were an unreasonable restraint of histrade and that O’Sullivan was freed from them but only for the future.What he’d written and recorded before stayed with the record andpublishing companies.The music business breathed a collective sigh of relief. The refusalof the Court of Appeal to order the return of the copyrights has made itvery difficult, if not impossible, to successfully argue for a return ofcopyrights in cases of undue influence or unreasonable restraint of trade.Joan Armatrading3At about the same time, another important case was reaching the courts.It involved Joan Armatrading.Joan Armatrading is a singer-songwriter who is still recording andperforming today. The case was about an agreement that Armatradingsigned when she was young and relatively inexperienced and before shebecame famous. There’s that theme again.Stone was a partner in the Copeland Sherry Agency, which hadsigned a management agreement with Armatrading in March 1973. Thiswas shortly after she released her debut album Whatever’s For Us,which was produced by Gus Dudgeon, who also worked with Elton John.Copeland is Miles Copeland, who managed The Police and Sting forsome time. Stone advised Armatrading on business matters. She tookcharge of most creative issues herself. It seems she was confidentenough to select the studios and producers she wanted to work withwithout needing advice from her managers, but didn’t have a clue whenit came to the business end of things.In 1975 Armatrading released her second album Back To The Night.It didn’t reach the charts. She then began work on an album that turnedout to be the first to bring her properly to the public’s attention.In February 1976, as the term of the original management contractwas about to run out, she signed a new contract under which Stone wasto manage her on his own. He may have been worried she would go offto another manager when the original contract ran out and just as hercareer was starting to take off. Although he denied that in his evidence,the album that she released in 1976, Joan Armatrading, went into theTop 20 in the UK and one of the singles released off it became her mostfamous and successful song. It was called ‘Love And Affection’ and itreached the Top 10.Things continued to go well for her at first and in 1980 she releasedher most successful album to date, Me Myself I, which also contained thehit single ‘All The Way From America’. Shortly after that she seems tohave become disillusioned with Stone and commenced proceedings forthe management contract to be declared void on the grounds that Stonehad used undue influence to get her to sign the contract and that theterms were unreasonable and a restraint of her trade.It became clear from the evidence given in the case that the lawyerwho drew up the contract had been introduced to Armatrading by Stoneand had done some work for her. Coincidentally, I worked with thatsame firm of lawyers for a couple of years. The contract was done beforemy time there, but the court case was going on when I was there and Iknow it caused a lot of strain on everyone concerned. When preparingthe management contract, it seems the lawyer acted on the instructionsof Stone and not Armatrading. In particular, Stone asked for two specificthings to be added to the draft contract. The lawyer billed Stone for thework and it’s clear from the description on the bill that he thought hewas acting as Stone’s lawyer.At a meeting on 4 February 1976 at the lawyers’ offices,Armatrading received a copy of the draft contract to take away with her.She returned the next day to sign it. She didn’t ask for any changes to bemade to it.Stone claimed that the lawyer acted as lawyer for both of them.When he gave evidence the lawyer said that he thought he was justacting as lawyer to Stone. A very confusing state of affairs. Stone andArmatrading were both present at the meeting with the lawyer on 4February when the contract was discussed. That must have been veryawkward. If a manager turns up at a meeting I’m due to have with anartist to discuss a management contract, I insist on him staying outsidewhile I take the meeting. I can’t be open with the artist about what Ithink about the contract or the manager if the manager is in the sameroom. The same would apply the other way around.The contract was strongly biased in Stone’s favour. It was for fiveyears and during that time Armatrading was exclusively tied to Stone asher manager. The contract didn’t say that Stone had to do very much atall for her. He could manage other artists. He was to be paid amanagement commission of 20% (which, as we will see, is quitecommon) but 25% on any new recording or publishing deals she signed(which is not). He got 20% commission on touring whether or not thetour made a profit. The court thought this was particularly harsh, as wasthe fact that Stone’s right to commission was open-ended. For example,if Armatrading signed a new record deal in year three of the five-yearmanagement term, Stone would be entitled to 25% commission. H emight stop being her manager two years later, but he’d still go onearning at 25%. If Armatrading got herself a new manager and henegotiated some improvements to the recording contract in return for,say, a two-year extension on the record deal, then Stone and not the newmanager would get commission at 25% on the extended term. Not muchof an incentive for the new manager (or expensive for Armatrading ifshe had to pay out two lots of commission to the original and the newmanager).When he gave evidence, Stone agreed that he knew that he had a dutyto act in Armatrading’s best interests and that she had trust andconfidence in him. This fiduciary duty already existed when the 1976management contract was being discussed. Stone knew that his interestsunder this contract were not the same as Armatrading’s and yet he stillseemed to think that the same lawyer could act for both of them.Stone admitted that it was very likely that Armatrading didn’t realiseshe should have separate legal advice. Even though he accepted hisfiduciary duties existed, he didn’t seem to accept the idea of a conflict ofinterest and couldn’t seem to see that if something in the managementcontract was in his interests it would not necessarily be in Armatrading’sbest interests. This doesn’t mean that a manager can’t look out for hisown interests just that it’s up to him to make sure that the artist hasseparate advice and is able to come to an informed decision.The court found Stone’s evidence very contradictory. It decided thatArmatrading relied heavily on Stone in business matters. She trustedhim and he’d told her that he would look after her. The court thought itwas clear that he had influence over her. She didn’t look at the detail ofthe contract. She relied on Stone, who told her that it was a standard andfair contract, even though he had asked for two specific changes to bemade to the draft.The court decided that the contract should be set aside by reason ofundue influence by Stone. The terms of the contract were said to beunreasonable (‘unduly onerous and unconscionable’ in the words of thejudgement). The contract was void able and not void from the outset. Onthis point they came to the same conclusion as in the O’Sullivan case.The fact that Armatrading didn’t have separate legal advice was seenas very important. On its own this wouldn’t have been enough to setaside the contract. For example, if the contract had been a perfectlyreasonable one, so that any lawyer who advised on it would say it was allright to sign it, then the absence of that advice wouldn’t have been fatal.The absence of separate legal advice coupled with the particularly harshterms of the contract was enough to convince the court to set it aside.The court found that, although she had some experience of the musicbusiness, because she concentrated on the creative side it was importantthat she be given a proper understanding of the business side of thecontract. She hadn’t understood the implications of the open-endedcommission clause and hadn’t been able to form an independent viewafter full, free and informed thought. She had signed the contract relyingon her manager’s claim that it was fine. He had failed in his fiduciaryduty to her. She was freed from the contract and went on to recordseveral more successful albums.Although this case wasn’t reported in the Law Reports, it had a verysignificant and practical effect on management contracts. We lawyersstill use it as a yardstick to measure the reasonableness of managementcontract terms. It’s also quoted as an authority for saying that artist andmanager should have separate lawyers when discussing the managementcontract and whenever their interests are not the same.After this case it became usual to add a clause to managementcontracts saying that the artist has been advised to take independentlegal advice. I don’t think this goes far enough. Just advising someonethey should get advice and then not making sure that they do is not goodenough. I think that the manager should insist on the artist havingseparate legal advice from a lawyer who understands the music business,and should make sure he understands what he’s being asked to sign.The Armatrading case also cast doubt on whether a five-year contractterm was reasonable. After the case, some managers decided to go for ashorter term or otherwise tried to make their contracts more reasonable.No manager wants to risk having an artist walk away from amanagement contract at the height of his or her success. However, as weshall see below, the trend these days is back to longer minimummanagement terms.The judge was also quite critical of the 25% commission rate on newrecord and publishing deals (25% rates are now rare, but do stilloccasionally occur). He was even more concerned about the fact thatStone took commission on touring money even if the tour made a loss.Music business lawyers reacted to these criticisms by introducing newprotections for artists in this area.Elton John4Another case on management contracts that was reported in the tabloidsas well as the Law Reports involved Elton John.Elton John signed a series of publishing, management and recordingcontracts starting in 1967, when he was still under age and unknown.Although these themes come up quite often in these cases, each caseplayed its own part in developing how the business operates and howcontracts have to be adapted to deal with criticisms made by the judges.Elton John and his lyricist, Bernie Taupin were originally taken on asin-house writers for James’s new publishing company, DJM. It’s saidthey were on wages of £10 per week. It took quite a while for them to becommercially successful. The first successful album was produced byGus Dudgeon and was called Elton John. The 1972 album contained thenow-classic work ‘Your Song’. Seven consecutive No. 1 albumsfollowed in the next seven years.Although Elton was making a lot of very successful records, hedidn’t seem to be seeing much of the proceeds. For example, thepublishing set-up consisted of a number of interrelated companies, eachtaking its own slice of the income, so that a very small amount was leftfor Elton. What he did get he had to pay management commission on.He sued to try and recover his copyrights and damages for backroyalties. He relied on the tried and true arguments that he had signedthe contracts under undue influence and that they were an unreasonablerestraint of his trade.He hadn’t taken separate legal advice before signing any of thecontracts. He’d placed trust and confidence in James. The contractsweren’t as beneficial for him as they could have been had they been withindependent companies. The publishers could take rights in his songsand not have to do anything with them. They could be shut away in adrawer and never seen again and Elton couldn’t do anything about it. Hewas also signed up exclusively, so he couldn’t take his songs to anothermusic publisher.The court decided that in these circumstances it was to be assumedthat there was undue influence at work and that it was up to the managerto show that he didn’t use his influence in the wrong way. The courtfound that James had failed in his fiduciary duties to Elton. It felt thatJames couldn’t be acting in the best interest of Elton if James’spublishing and recording companies were also entering into contractswith him. How could James be advising Elton as his manager while healso had an interest in making as much money as possible for his recordand publishing companies out of those contracts?Once again, the decision in this case had a knock-on effect on themusic business. It was fully reported in the Law Reports, so hadauthority and it confirmed the existence of the fiduciary duty owed notonly by the manager, but also any companies under his control. It alsobrought home the importance of separate legal advice.The other important thing it changed was what happens where yourmanager also has a record or publishing contract that he wants you tosign up to. If your manager also has an interest in a record or publishingcompany, the management contract will now usually ask the artists toconfirm that he won’t consider it a failure of the manager’s fiduciaryduty to him if he signs up to the record or publishing company on themanager’s advice. I don’t think this would be enough to get the manageroff the hook if he did, in fact, break his duty to the artist especially if theartist hadn’t had separate legal advice. There’s also usually a clause thatsays the manager can’t take a double hit on the income from the recordor publishing deals. For example, if the artist releases a record on themanager’s record label, the manager should get his money from therecord label’s profits on the record sales. He shouldn’t also take amanagement commission on the artist’s record royalties. As we shall seebelow this blurring of the edges between the roles of managers isbecoming a key issue and a potential future problem area.WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A MANAGERThis all depends on what you expect your manager to do for you. You mayonly need a manager to advise you on business matters. You may want thatbut are also looking for creative advice, comment and guidance. Some artistsalready have a clear idea of what they are doing creatively and have a goodbusiness sense and grasp of contracts. They don’t want an all-round managerand may only be looking for a good organiser. We saw in the Armatradingcase (above) that Stone only looked after Armatrading’s business interests.She looked after the creative side herself. This tends to only apply to moreestablished artists. Those who are new to the business tend to look for all thehelp they can get from a manager.You may be looking for a svengali, someone who will come up with thecast-iron plan for world domination in three years. Such managers do exist,for example, people like Tom Watkins, who has successfully managed actslike The Pet Shop Boys and Bros to considerable success and Nigel Martin-Smith who masterminded the early days of Take That and Jonathan Shalit anearly manager of Charlotte Church and now behind several successful R’n’Bacts. Then there are managers like Simon Fuller, whose marketingbackground meant that he could see the worldwide possibilities of an act likeThe Spice Girls and S Club 7 and more recently the first album by AmyWinehouse and the career of Will Young.When you expect a manager to devise an all-encompassing game planand then to implement it, you can’t expect to get away with no effort on yourpart. You and your manager will have to put enormous amounts of time andenergy into making the plan work and both of you must completely buy intothe whole idea behind it. There is, of course, also the type of artist who’sbeen formed for a particular purpose, such as TV-based acts like S Club, orthose who have won reality TV competitions such as The X Factor. Providedthe artist fits in with this game plan then all is well. It’s only when the artist,or one or more members of the group, starts to rebel or baulk at the situationthat problems occur. Bands that have come together for the purpose of a TVshow struggle when it comes to the cut and thrust of the music industry andit is rare for them to have a career beyond the album that comes out quicklywhen they win the competition. Interestingly, most of the successful artistsfrom these shows have been solo stars like Lemar, Kelly Clarkson and morerecently, Leona Lewis.IS IT ESSENTIAL TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCED MANAGER?Someone who hasn’t managed anyone before can make a good manager ifthey have the flair for it. They may have been a musician themselves, a tourmanager, a producer or may have worked in-house at a record or publishingcompany. Those with a marketing background can be very useful indeveloping a strategy to get you noticed. These people will have seen howthe music business works and can bring valuable experience to the job ofmanager. However, their skills are not necessarily those that make a goodmanager, so be careful. On the other hand, a manager may be experiencedand still not right for you because his experience is in a different arena (forinstance, as a tour manager) rather than skilled in managing an artist’scareer. So take your time before making up your mind.QUALITIES TO LOOK FOR IN A MANAGERThe manager has to be a diplomat, motivator, salesman and strategic planner– and has to have the patience of a saint.Record and publishing companies like to have managers around to act asmiddlemen so they don’t have to have unpleasant conversations with you.They’d like you to choose someone who’s already successfully steered anartist through getting a deal, getting a record made and who’s already donethe whole touring and promotion side of things. This doesn’t mean to saythat they won’t work with an inexperienced manager, just that they wouldprefer one who was not. They would also like you to be managed bysomeone they already know, someone they know they can work with. Thisdoesn’t necessarily mean that that manager will be in their pocket. It couldmean that they have a healthy respect for him for being tough but fair,someone that gets the job done, but if you are being pushed by your recordcompany towards a particular manager, take the time to stop and ask whyand to do some research of your own before meekly accepting their choice.There is a growing trend amongst major labels to seek to reduce their risksby only working with artists who have a manager on board that they like orwith whom they have an existing relationship. This can work well but youneed to be sure the manager has the necessary degree of independence.WHAT DOES A MANAGER DO FOR YOU?PERSONAL MANAGERSA personal manager looks after your day-to-day needs. This usually includessome advice on the creative side of things. The personal manager also actsas go-between with the record and publishing companies and the outsideworld. This might involve working with you on creative issues such as thechoice of songs. A personal manager is also usually someone who organisesyour life and tries to make everything run smoothly. They put into actionplans others have come up with. They don’t necessarily get involved in day-to-day business decisions or strategic plans.BUSINESS MANAGERSA business manager doesn’t usually involve himself in the day-to-daybusiness of running your life. It’s the job of the business manager to workout where you should be in terms of business planning and to help you putthe plan into action. He will liaise with the record and publishing company,but usually more at the level of negotiating deals, changes to the contracts,setting video and recording budgets and getting tour support when it’sneeded.It’s much more common in the US to have a separate business andpersonal manager. There the business manager is often an accountant orfinancial adviser. The idea of these roles being filled by different peoplehasn’t yet become popular in the UK. What tends to happen here is that oneperson will do both jobs, sometimes with the assistance of a personalassistant (see below) or you have co-managers with complementary skills.If you do have separate business and personal managers, you need to besure that you’re not paying too much by having two people on board insteadof one.Don’t assume that because you have a business manager you can doaway with the need for an accountant. You will need one to oversee your taxand possibly VAT returns and someone to prepare company or partnershipaccounts. Bear this in mind when you agree what to pay your businessmanager. If you’re paying your business manager 20% of your income, yourpersonal manager another 10% and then paying an accountant, that’s not agreat bargain.The manager is there to advise you, to guide you through your career inthe music business. A successful career as a performer or composer can leadinto other areas such as films, television, writing or modelling. One of themany things you have to consider in choosing your manager is whether themanager can also look after these other areas of your life.The manager should spend a reasonable amount of time on your affairsand your career. He should help you to get a record and/or publishing deal,live appearances, sponsorship and merchandising deals.The manager should advise you whether or not you should take up aparticular offer. It may not fit in with the game plan that you and themanager have worked out. Putting together that game plan is a veryimportant job for your manager. You and he need to be on the samewavelength on it.PERSONAL ASSISTANTSAs you become more successful, so the manager may employ someone to actas your personal assistant (PA). If the PA is working full-time for you, themanager will expect you to pay their wages. If they work some of the timefor you and the rest on general work for the manager or for other acts that hemanages, then the cost is likely to be shared between you. If the PA worksmost of the time for the manager and only occasionally runs errands for you,then you would expect the manager to bear all the cost.FIDUCIARY DUTIES AND PROBLEMS WITH BANDSAs we saw in the section on the cases (above), the manager has to always actin your best interests. He has a fiduciary duty to you, which means that hehas to always act with the utmost good faith towards you.This duty can cause problems when dealing with a band. Something thatmay be good for the band as a whole may not be good for one of the bandmembers. There’s a very narrow line that the manager has to tread.Sometimes you may feel that the manager has stepped the wrong side of thatline.This issue was one of several behind a dispute between Nigel Martin-Smith and Robbie Williams.5The Robbie Williams management caseI have to declare an interest here, as this was a case I inherited when Ibecame Robbie’s lawyer a few years ago. Martin-Smith was the managerof Take That from the early days to the height of their success. TakeThat was made up of five members, including Robbie. He became fed upat the direction his life was taking and was thinking about leaving theband. His version of events is that he was prepared to see hiscommitments to a major tour through to the end before leaving the band.He says that, on advice from Martin-Smith, the band sacked him. Theother members and Martin-Smith say he walked out.When Martin-Smith later sued Robbie for unpaid commission(Robbie had refused to pay him), one of the arguments that Robbie usedwas that Martin-Smith had failed in his fiduciary duty to Robbie and wasnot acting in his best interests in advising the band to sack him.Martin-Smith acknowledged that it was very difficult in suchcircumstances to advise a band when he also had a duty to each of themas individuals. He admitted that he had had discussions with the otherband members about Robbie and how disillusioned he was, but he saidhe also tried to advise Robbie on what was best for him. He said that hehad acted in the best interests of the band as a whole, while trying tobalance this against the interests of the individual members. He deniedthat he’d advised the band to sack Robbie.The judge accepted his evidence that he had acted in good faith andwas not in breach of his fiduciary duty to Robbie. The judgeacknowledged the difficulties that a manager faces in suchcircumstances, but decided that in this case Martin-Smith had stayed theright side of the line.If you’re in any doubts as to the good faith of your manager, you should seekindependent advice, if only to be aware of your legal position.NEW BUSINESS MODELSThere is a growing trend for managers to also take a financial interest andpossibly ownership of rights in some other capacity. For example, a managermay say that he also wishes to act as your record label or your publisher.These are big issues and are driven by the fact that as manager he doesn’thave any ownership of rights and can only take a financial cut on cataloguesales of records or songs for so long as his management contract allows.Some managers now feel that is not enough. They say it is taking longer toget an artist a deal and each album is taking longer to make and thepromotion associated with it is even longer. On a basic three or even fiveyear management term the manager may, at best, only get paid on songs andrecordings on a couple of albums. Some managers want more. They are alsoaware of the personal nature of management contracts and that their artistmay leave so they seek to gain some future security through ownership ofrecordings or of rights in your songs. Whilst the commercial reasoningbehind these actions is easy to see it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a goodthing. The skills that a manager brings to bear may not be the same ones thatare needed to successfully release and sell records or promote uses of songs.If the manager has to bring in others to fill some of his skills gaps or to fillthese roles overseas then the artist./songwriter may lose out financiallyand/or have to wait longer to be paid.There is also the big problem of potential conflicts of interest. As amanager he has to put your interests ahead of his own. What would happen ifhe felt, as your publisher, that it would be best for you to put one of yoursongs in an advert for a particular brand of lager as it would earn a lot ofmoney but you feel that this would jeopardise your image as an artistpopular with the 12–15 year age group. Who would fight your corner?Finally, there is also the issue of the manager having more than one sourceof income i.e. he has his management commission on your earnings but alsohis profits as your record label or publisher. It is very important that themanagement contract doesn’t allow the manager to take commission on anysource of income that he has other interest in e.g. record sales or incomefrom songs.Seal v. Wardlow6A recent case on this point is that of Seal v. Wardlow. John Wardlowbegan working with Seal who was then an unknown artist in 1987. MrWardlow provided studio time, instruments and musicians free ofcharge. Over the next two years he helped Seal to record some demosand in time his role grew into that of a manager. He had very littleexperience of management but that in itself is no bar to being a goodmanager in this industry. The efforts of Mr Wardlow did not at this timeresult in any deal from a record label or publisher and in 1988 MrWardlow went into business as a music publisher himself as part ownerof the company Beethoven Street Music. That company entered into apublishing agreement with Seal to publish his songs. Seal had legaladvice before signing that deal. The following year Seal collaboratedwith Adamski and they had a number one hit single with ‘Killer’. In1990 Seal signed a record deal with ZTT Records and a couple of monthslater finally signed a written management agreement with Mr Wardlow.That deal allowed for Mr Wardlow to receive commission at 20% onSeal’s income including publishing monies. As we will see below as MrWardlow also benefited as publisher it is usually unacceptable for him toalso then take commission on the publishing money paid to the writer. Inthis case this so-called ‘double-dipping’ went on for some time. By 1995Seal felt he had outgrown Wardlow’s capabilities as a manager andended the management agreement. Seal continued with moreexperienced US management and a settlement agreement was enteredinto between him and Wardlow in 1995. He continued to pay MrWardlow in accordance with that settlement through to 2000 when hestopped. Mr Wardlow sued for what he said was properly due to him.Seal was trying to get out of his agreement to pay on the basis amongstother things that Mr Wardlow had used undue influence when in 1988 hehad gone behind Seal’s lawyers back direct to Seal to persuade him toenter into the publishing agreement and accept the double-dipping. Thejudge said that Wardlow had not convinced him that he had not usedundue influence in relation to that agreement. But the judge thought itwas academic as the settlement that they had entered into in 1995 put inplace new arrangements, was not a variation of the original agreementand superseded it. The settlement had not been entered into using undueinfluence; Seal has independent advice and the help of his moreexperienced new manager. It was a settlement by which Mr Wardlowgave up rights to income from future albums and the settlement wasmeant to draw a line under these issues.Seal did not accept the decision and appealed to the Court of Appeal.In February 2007 the Court of Appeal upheld the earlier decision of Mr JGray and went slightly further to say that it did not matter if thesettlement was a variation of the original agreement or a new set ofarrangements; it was intended to replace the earlier agreement and wasnot entered into through undue influence. The Court of Appeal judgesfelt that by 1995 Mr Wardlow could not have been in a position of trustand confidence with Seal to exercise undue influence; by that time hewas no longer the manager.Some commentators have suggested that this case now takes overfrom the Armstrong v. Stone case (above) as the definitive view onundue influence in management cases. In fact the two continue to existside by side as the judge in this later case found that there was a cleardistinction between the two cases on their facts and on what was in thetwo management contracts so a direct comparison could not be made.Some managers are better than others at walking the delicate tight-rope here.For example, the 19 Entertainment Group, (formerly owned by Simon Fullerand sold in March 2005 to a US investor on condition that Fuller remains onboard and which he is apparently now in the process of buying back), hasmanagement contracts with artists but often also acts as record label andmusic publisher and sometimes as a merchandising/sponsorship company.But the management contract is then only for the remaining activities e.g.live work and there is therefore no conflict of interest or double-dip of themoney. In theory the artist can bring in other managers to look afterrecording, songwriting, merchandising activities etc., in practice few artistsdo so.There are other managers who are not so fastidious in keeping the linesclearly drawn as the Seal case shows.It is a fact of the current business that such arrangements exist and youmay well be offered such a deal and may have no alternative than to accept itif you want to work with a particular manager. Many of these arrangementswork very well but before you go into them take legal advice and be awareof potential pitfalls.WHAT IS IN A MANAGEMENT CONTRACT?Once you’ve found yourself a manager you think you can trust and who willdo a good job for you, you need to think about putting a contract togetherbetween you.What you want out of this contract will be different depending onwhether you are an artist or a manager. In what follows I’m going to look atthings from the artist’s viewpoint, but in my time as a music lawyer I’veacted for both artists and managers and so I’ll try to present both sides of theargument.INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICEAs we’ve already seen, when negotiating a management contract the artistmust have separate legal advice. The manager may decide not to take legaladvice at all but this is rare. He may be experienced enough to feelcomfortable with the deal he’s prepared to do and doesn’t need advice. Ifhe’s experienced with management contracts this isn’t really a problem. Ifthe artist decides that he doesn’t want legal advice, then this is a problem forthe manager. The manager should insist on you getting separate advice fromsomeone who is familiar with the music business and with managementcontracts.What if you haven’t got the money to pay for a lawyer? The Musicians’Union (MU) has a limited free legal advice service for its members, but youcan’t expect it to be as detailed as if you were paying proper rates for it andit may take some time for you to get the advice (contact details are in UsefulAddresses). The Music Managers Forum has forms of management contractsthey recommend to their members, and which are drafted from themanager’s perspective and so may need adjusting if you are looking at itfrom the artist’s viewpoint.Some managers will lend you the money to take independent legaladvice, because it’s in the manager’s interests to make sure you’re properlyadvised. If the manager does lend you money to get a lawyer, he will usuallyput a limit on how much he’ll contribute. You’ll either have to get thelawyer to agree to do the work for that much or you’ll have to put some in aswell. The manager will get his contribution back out of your first earnings.Your lawyer may agree to accept payment by instalments if you ask and ifhe thinks he’ll get more work from you in the future.TERRITORYThe first thing you have to decide is what countries the contract will cover.We call this the territory of the deal.The manager will probably want to manage you for the world. This isn’tjust so that he can get as much commission as possible, although that is afactor. He may want to keep overall control of the game plan, which hewon’t be able to do very easily if he only manages you for part of the world.You may be fine about this because you’re confident that he can lookafter your interests around the world. But you must bear in mind that theway the music business operates, in the US in particular, is very differentfrom the UK. Does the manager have an office in the States? Does he havean associate there? Or will he be spending half his time on planes crossingthe Atlantic? If he is, who’s going to end up paying for that? Sometimes it’llbe the record company, sometimes it’ll be part of a tour budget, butsometimes it’ll be you.If you don’t think that the manager can successfully look after yourinterests worldwide, you could insist that he only manage you for part of theworld, for example, the world outside North America.Even if you aren’t sure he’s up to being a worldwide manager you couldinitially give him the benefit of the doubt. You could make it a worldwidedeal to start with and, if he’s not up to it, you could insist that he appoint aco-manager, probably for the US but possibly for other parts of the world,like Japan, to look after your interests there. This is a very personal thingand both you and your manager should agree the identity of this person.The co-manager is usually paid out of the commission you pay to themanager. Apart from the co-manager’s expenses, you shouldn’t end uppaying out more in total commission just because there’s a co-manager onboard.There are several ways that the manager and co-manager can split thecommission between them. They could just take the total worldwidecommission and split it down the middle. They could each just takecommission on the income earned by you in their particular areas of theworld. For example, the co-manager could take commission on the incomeyou earn in North America and your original manager on the rest of theworld income. The manager could decide not to share his commission but toput the co-manager on a retainer or pay him a fee. It’s a complex subject andthe manager should take legal advice on it.ACTIVITIES COVEREDThe next thing to think about is whether the contract will cover everythingyou do in the entertainment business or just your activities in the musicbusiness. You might start out as a songwriter or performer and later moveinto acting or writing books. The manager may be perfectly capable ofmanaging you for all those activities, or he may be an expert at the musicbusiness and know nothing about the business of writing books or acting. Ifyou’re not convinced he can look after your interests across the whole of theentertainment industry you should limit it to the music business only. Themanager may be unhappy about this. He may think that it will be hismanagement skills that will help turn you into a success in the musicbusiness which will in turn open doors to acting or writing books. He mayfeel that he should share in your income from those other activities. On theother hand, you may be concerned that he’s not up to representing yourinterests and may want a specialised acting or literary agent involved.Many managers will agree to compromise and say they have noobjection to you bringing in specialised acting or literary agents if you areacting in roles or writing books that have nothing to do with you being asuccessful musician or songwriter first. If the acting role or book is directlyconnected to the fact that you are an artist, they will want to share thatincome and manage those projects. For example, if you are asked to write abehind-the-scenes look at your time out on the road with the band, themanager will expect to take commission on your income from that book. If,however, you are asked to write a book on climbing in the Himalayas thatclearly has nothing to do with your fame as a successful musician orsongwriter, the manager may agree not to take commission on that income.By the time you get a manager you may already have establishedyourself in another part of the entertainment business. For example, you mayalready be a successful TV actor or model. The manager may agree not tomanage those areas of activity. He may also agree not to manage or takecommission on work that comes from a particular contact or source of work,such as a recording studio, that was in place before he came along. If,however, you ask him to manage projects that come from that source,perhaps by chasing them for payment for you, then it’s only reasonable thatthe manager should be allowed to take commission on that work.EXCLUSIVITYOnce you’ve decided what activities he’s going to manage and in what partsof the world, the manager will expect to be your only manager for thoseactivities and those areas. He will want to be your exclusive manager. Youwill not be able to manage yourself or to ask someone else to manage aparticular project unless he agrees. This is not only reasonable it’s practical.You can’t go around accepting work without referring it to your manager asit might clash with something he is putting together for you.KEY-MAN PROVISIONSWhat happens if your manager manages other acts or is part of amanagement company that manages a number of people? How can you makesure he’ll be there for you when you need advice? How do you make sureyou aren’t fobbed off on to someone else because your manager is busy withthe others he manages? Well, first of all you make sure that yourmanagement contract says that he has to spend a reasonable amount of timeon a regular basis on managing you.You could possibly go further and insist on what we call a ‘key-man’clause being put into the contract. I believe this term comes from insurancepolicies that are taken out on the life of key individuals in an organisation,which pay out if the key-man dies or is unable to work. You name themanager as a key-man and say that if he’s not available to you as and whenyou need him, you can bring the contract to an end.Your manager may be very flattered at being named as a key-man, but heor his bosses may feel that it’s a bit harsh to allow you to end the contract soabruptly. He may want to say that you can only terminate the contract if hehas regularly not been available to you or has been unavailable to you forover, say, six weeks at a time. You have to be sensible about this. If you’reburied in a residential studio in the depths of the country, writing orrehearsing material for your next album, it may not be reasonable to expectyour manager to be there all the time. If you’re in the middle of a majorrenegotiation of your record contract, however, you can reasonably expecthim to be around.These key-man clauses are also sometimes put into record or publishingcontracts, but the companies hate them because they give the artist and thekey-man a huge amount of power. If they sack the key-man you can end thecontract. Unconfirmed rumour has it that the band Oasis had a key-manclause in their record contract with Creation Records. When Sony firstlooked to buy the remaining shares in Creation that they didn’t already own,they are said to have had to rethink things because Oasis could have walkedout of their contracts at the height of their success if the key-man at CreationRecords, Alan McGee, was no longer in control at the label. So it seems theyhad to do a deal with either Oasis at Creation or Alan McGee or with both. Itis becoming increasingly difficult to get such provisions as the industrybecomes more uncertain as to its future profitability and instances like thisdon’t help.HOW LONG SHOULD THE CONTRACT RUN?The contract could be open-ended and carry on until one side or the otherdecides it’s over. This is a very confident position for the manager to take asin theory the artist could dump him just as things are starting to come goodand few are this brave.It could be for a fixed period of, say, one or two years and then, ifeverything is going well, could continue until one party wanted to end therelationship.More usually it’s for a fixed period of three to five years and at the endof that time the contract is renegotiated or it just ends.Until the early 1980s, terms of five years or longer were common, butthe Armatrading case cast some doubt on that. This is not the case in the US,where terms of five years or longer are still common and given that artistsseem to take longer to record and promote each album terms of five yearsare becoming very common In the UK too.I can usually be persuaded to agree to a three-year term with the managerhaving an option to extend it for one or two years. The right to exercise thatoption should be linked to the manager achieving something for the artist –what I call hurdles.HURDLESA hurdle could be that the artist has to have a record or publishing deal orhave earned a minimum amount of money within the first three years,although it’s difficult to say what the right minimum level of income is.It’s also possible to put hurdles in at an earlier stage of the contract. Youcould have a get-out if the manager hasn’t got you a decent record orpublishing deal in the first twelve to eighteen months. Or if he got you a dealin that time and it’s come to an end and he hasn’t got you another onewithin, say, six to nine months.ALBUM CYCLESThis is a US concept, but has gained ground among a number of UK lawyers,where the length of the contract is linked to an album cycle. An album cyclestarts with the writing of the songs to be recorded on an album, and runsthrough the recording of the album and all the promotion that then goes onafter its release. The cycle ends with the last piece of promotional work forthat album.My problem with it is that it’s very difficult to say how long it will last.You don’t know at the beginning how long it will take to write, record andpromote an album. I’m uncomfortable with agreeing to two- or three-album-cycle deals, which could easily run for five years or longer. If you’re offeredthis type of deal, I advise you to put a time backstop on it, for example, twoalbum cycles or three years, whichever comes first.ENDING THE TERM EARLYSometimes an artist or a manager wish to part company whilst the term ofthe contract still has some time to run. If it’s all amicable then that’s onething and an agreement on the manager’s share, if any, of future incomeearned by the artist can be reached and put in writing as you would in say anamicable divorce.If, however, one party wants to go (usually the artist) and the other(usually the manager) doesn’t agree or think there are any grounds for anearly termination, then the matter is more complicated. In such cases if asettlement can’t be reached by negotiation the matter ends up in court. Arecent case on this involved Australian singer, Holly Valance.Holly Valance caseIn November, 2003 the case brought by Holly Valance’s formermanager, Scott Michaelson, came to court. Michaelson was arguing thatValance had wrongly terminated the management contract with him inJanuary 2002 just as her career was taking off. Valance argued that shewas in the right in terminating the contract because Michaelson was ill-equipped to manage her burgeoning music career. Like her, Michaelsonwas a former actor in the Neighbours television soap. The court sidedwith Michaelson and found that the contract was unfairly terminated.Michaelson was claiming £160,000 in lost income plus a 20% cut ofincome from sales of her second album and exemplary damages.Sometimes you get a settlement which one party then becomes discontentedwith as in the Seal case above. That old adage of ‘where there’s a hit there’sa writ’ certainly seems to hold true.THE MANAGER’S ROLEI’ve already explained a little of what you can expect the manager to do foryou. What you can’t do, though, is list every single thing that you expect amanager to do. Murphy’s Law says that it will be the very thing that isn’tlisted that causes the problem. There are still some contracts around that tryto list things the manager is expected to do: for example, the manager willadvise on clothes, image, voice training etc. I think these have an old-fashioned feel about them. I end up imagining what the reaction would be ifthe Scissor Sisters’ or Magic Numbers’ manager tried to advise them ontheir stage image. My management contracts just say that the manager willdo all he reasonably can to further the artist’s career and to do all the thingsexpected of a manager in the entertainment or music business.WHAT IS THE MANAGER PAID?Some would say too much, but if you ever saw a manager working round theclock, seven days a week to make an artist successful, with not even a thankyou from him, you’d say it wasn’t enough. It is a measure of the fact thatmany managers are branching into publishing or setting up as productioncompanies that they are unable to make a good living from an averagelysuccessful artist once they’ve paid the staff, overheads and taxes.The average rate of commission for a manager is 20%. If you’re verysuccessful the 20% could be negotiated down to 10–15%. Some record-producer managers only charge 15% because, arguably, there is lessmanagement of projects or a career than there is with performing artists.Very few managers try for a 25% rate though there are some circumstancesin which it could be justified. The manager may have invested a lot of hisown money in making an artist successful and may want to get that back incommission as soon as possible. He may agree to reduce his commissiondown to 20% when the artist becomes successful and he’s got his investmentback.PERCENTAGE OF WHAT?A percentage of your gross income but net of some expenses is the simpleanswer. For example, if you were paid a £100,000 personal advance onsigning a record deal, the manager on a commission of 20% would take£20,000.What if you have to use some of that money to record your album or paya producer? What happens if you are advanced money by your recordcompany (which they get back or recoup from your royalties) to make avideo or to underwrite losses on a tour? Is it fair that the manager takes 20%off the top? The answer is no, it’s not. There are a number of exceptions. It’snot usual for the manager to take commission on monies advanced to you asrecording costs, video costs, and payments to record producers or mixers,sums used to underwrite tour losses and sometimes monies advanced to youto buy equipment.Example: The record company sets a budget of £200,000 for you to makean album, £50,000 to make a video and £100,000 for you to live on for thenext year. The manager usually won’t take commission on the £200,000 orthe £50,000, but will take commission on the £100,000, i.e. £20,000.Depending on the manager and the contract, he may say that if youdecide to use £20,000 of your £100,000 to buy some equipment, then that’syour choice and he’s still going to take commission on the full £100,000. Orhe might treat the £20,000 spent on equipment as an exception and take hiscommission on the balance of £80,000.Commission on earnings from live work can be a problem. The managerusually has to work very hard putting together and running a successful tour.He may feel that he should take his 20% off the top from the income thatcomes in from that tour. What if the expenses of putting on the tour are sohigh that the tour makes little or no profit? For example, you take £50,000 inticket sales and the expenses are £40,000. If the manager took his 20% offthe £50,000 (i.e. £10,000) there’d be £40,000 profit left, which would bewiped out by the expenses. As an artist performing every night of the touryou may start to resent the manager making £10,000 when you are gettingnothing. As we saw in the Armatrading case, the judge was very critical thatStone took 20% of gross income on touring regardless of whether the tourmade a profit.What tends to happen is that the manager takes his commission on netincome on live work after some or all of the expenses are taken off. Thereare various formulas to arrive at a fair compromise, your lawyer will advise.Trent Reznor Management DisputeIn June 2007 a US court awarded Trent Reznor of ‘Nine Inch Nails’approx. $2.9million in his claim against his former manager John Malm.He brought the case back in 2004 alleging that Malm had mismanagedhis finances and in effect defrauded the band out of money by trickingthem into signing a contract that gave Malm the rights to 20% of theband’s gross income as opposed to the net income. The manager claimedto have not taken advantage of this and that he had not actually collectedthe additional money. He also pointed out (presumably as evidence ofhis bona fides) that he had worked for no money for many years. Thecourt nevertheless found that he had taken funds that he was not entitledto and awarded the damages to Mr Reznor.This case shows the difficulties managers get into when they step outside theestablished norms.POST-TERM COMMISSIONThis means how long after the end of the management contract the managercontinues to get paid commission. It has two sides to it. Firstly, should themanager take commission on albums made or songs written after the end ofthe management term? Secondly, for how long should he earn commissionon albums made or songs written while he was the manager?WHAT IS COMMISSIONABLE?Until the early 1980s it was quite usual to see management contracts thatallowed a manager to go on earning on things the artist did long after he’dstopped being the manager. If he negotiated a five-album record deal whilehe was the manager and he stopped being the manager after two albums,he’d still take commission on the remaining three albums because thatcontract was done while he was the manager. Some contracts also allowedhim to continue to take commission after he stopped being manager ifsomeone else negotiated an extension of or substitution for that originalcontract. Again, because he had done the original work. This led to somevery unfair situations. The new manager had no incentive to improve upondeals because it was the former manager who got the commission. Artistsfound it difficult to get new managers and were forced to stay with theoriginal manager or the artist ended up paying out two lots of commission.This situation was strongly criticised in the Armatrading case and leddirectly to a change in the way UK managers operated and it is this aspectthat the judge distinguished in the Seal case in saying that the facts of thetwo cases were not the same. Managers now accept that they only getcommission on work done, recordings made and songs written while they arethe manager.How long should the manager continue to receive commission?After it was established that managers should only take commission on whatwas recorded or written while they were the manager, the question thencame up of how long they should go on earning commission on thoserecordings and songs.Some managers, notably Sanctuary and other ‘old-school’ managers, stilltake the view that they should go on earning commission as long as the artistgoes on earning income from a particular song or recording. It remains to beseen whether Sanctuary will continue to take this stance now that it is ownedby the Universal Music Group. I can see the logic in this but again it canlead to some unfairness. A manager might have only been around for onealbum’s worth of recordings. It may be a second manager that makes theartist successful. Fans of successful artists want to own all the artists’ backcatalogue of records and so buy the first album, or a track from the firstalbum may go on a Greatest Hits album. The first manager has done nothingto help ongoing sales of that first album. Should he get full commission onit? Most managers accept that after a period of time their influence cannotbe affecting continuing sales of early records, so they agree to a reduction intheir commission rate. Most also agree that it should stop altogether after agiven period. For example, the first manager could agree that hiscommission on the first album drops to 10% after five years after the end ofthe management term and stops altogether after ten years. This means theartist can give the second manager an incentive by giving him 10% of theincome on the first album after five years and 20% after ten years. Or theartist could keep the saving himself and give nothing to the second manager.These periods of time are negotiable. Some music lawyers insist that thecommission stop after two or three years. In my view this is far too short fora manager to be properly compensated for the work he has done. It may,however, be acceptable if the artist is established and successful and hasgreater bargaining power than the manager.WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE’S NO WRITTEN CONTRACT?A few managers prefer to work without any written contract. They saythey’d rather work on a good-faith basis, trusting you to do the right thing bythem. This is a comparatively rare situation but it is also possible for amanager to work for a trial period and then not carry on. Sometimes themanager just can’t get the artist to commit to a contract and carries onreluctantly without one. Even where there is no written deal you still have todeal with what the manager gets paid for the work he did. It is, of course,perfectly possible for there to be a verbal contract in place. The difficultywith verbal contracts is that it’s very hard to prove what exactly was agreed.If it’s not possible to show that there was any sort of agreement, themanager has to rely on what would be a fair price for the work he has done(a quantum merit claim). If you and the manager can’t agree this and there isa court case, the judge will take expert evidence of what’s usual in the musicbusiness and will make an order of what he thinks the manager should bepaid. The court will order payment for the work already done, but it’s rarefor them to order payments going forward. For example, if the manager got arecord deal for you then the court might order that he’s paid a percentage ofthe money payable on signing that deal; but rarely does it order that themanager is paid a share of ongoing royalties. So the manager wouldn’tusually get post-term commission. For these reasons it’s usually moreimportant for the manager to have a written contract to protect hiscommission on future royalty income than it is for the artist. However, bothsides may want the certainty of knowing where they stand and want to reachsome form of agreement.WHO COLLECTS THE MONEY?It’s very important to know who’s looking after the money. The managermay be unhappy at the thought of you looking after the money just becauseyou’re an artist. Artists are notoriously bad at hanging on to money (theysay). ‘They can’t even keep the money back to pay the VAT or the taxman;how can I trust them to keep enough back to pay me?’On the other hand, you may be very responsible with your money. Youmay not want your manager controlling your money, but also may not wantto have the bother of looking after it yourself.A compromise would be for you to appoint an accountant (see Chapter1). The money is paid into a bank account in your name that the accountantlooks after. The manager sends in an invoice for his commission andexpenses. The accountant checks the sums are right and writes out a chequefor you to sign. The accountant may also deal with the VAT and he’ll almostcertainly advise keeping some money back for tax. What happens with therest of the money depends on what you’ve told him to do. He could pay itinto another account for you or leave some in the bank account to meetexpenses.EXPENSESOn top of his commission, the manager is entitled to be repaid his expenses.That doesn’t mean everything he spends. The costs of running his business,his office, staff, computers etc. are all paid for by him. These are calledoffice overheads. If he pays for a taxi to pick you up from the recordingstudio or for a courier to deliver your demo recording to an interested A&Rman, then he will probably reclaim that money from you.He should keep receipts and bills and have them available for you oryour accountant to check. He should also agree that he won’t run upexpensive items in expenses without checking with you first. I wouldn’texpect him to buy a plane ticket to New York without checking that you’reall right with him spending your money in that way. On the other hand, it’snot practical for him to have to come running to you for every small item ofexpenses, in which case you might agree a float account. This is a specialaccount with a fixed sum of money, say £500, in it. The manager isauthorised to draw money out of that account for expenses and the account isthen topped back up to £500 on a regular basis, like a float in a till of a pubor shop.TAXYou are responsible for your own tax and National Insurance and for payingyour VAT. Don’t expect the manager to do it for you. As we saw in Chapter1, your accountant is a very important part of your team. Your accountantmay keep the books, do the VAT returns and prepare the tax return for you.This doesn’t mean you can sit back and do nothing. You have to tell youraccountant what has come in and give him receipts for anything he might beable to reclaim or recharge. Your accountant will also advise what you canexpect to have to pay in tax and ways in which you can, legitimately, pay aslittle tax as possible. But remember, there are, they say, only two certaintiesin this world – death and taxes.SIGNING AGREEMENTSIt’s practical to allow the manager to sign one-off short-term contracts in theartist’s name. For example, when you do an appearance on Later with JoolsHolland or The Jonathan Ross Show, the television company needs the artistto sign a short release or consent form before he can appear and get paid. Ifyou are busy rehearsing, it’s all right for the manager to sign that form foryou.What isn’t acceptable is for the manager to sign a long-term contract, orindeed anything more than a one-off. It’s dangerous for the artist – whowon’t know what’s in it or what’s been agreed. It’s also dangerous for themanager. You may not object at the time, but when you find something inthe contract that’s not to your liking you can be sure you’ll blame themanager for not telling you.CONCLUSIONSDifferent lawyers must advise the artist and the manager on themanagement contract.Treat with caution any management contract capable of running forlonger than five years.20% is the average management commission for artist managers.Commission is on gross income net only of certain exceptions whichshould be set out in the contract.Commission on ‘live’ work should be after deduction of some or all ofthe expenses.The management deal doesn’t need to be for the whole world.Make sure it is clear who is handling the money.Only the artist should be able to sign potentially long-term contracts.1 The MMF was formed in the mid-1990s by a group of like-mindedmanagers who felt that they could achieve more both for their artists andfor themselves if they grouped together. They act as a lobbying group onbehalf of their members in relation to national and international issuesfacing the music industry. The MMF has also established links withmanagers in other parts of the world. For contact details see UsefulAddresses.2 O’Sullivan v. Management Agency and Music Limited [1985] QBD 428.3 Armatrading v. Stone and Another (1985), unreported.4 John v. James (1991) FSR 397.5 Martin-Smith v. Williams (1997), unreported.6 John Wardlow v. Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel [2006] EWHC 1492(QB) 22 June 2006. Chapter 3What Is A Good Record Deal? INTRODUCTIONEVERYBODY’S IDEA OF what’s a good deal is different. For some it’s a questionof how much money is on offer. For others it’s how much commitment thereis from the record company. Some artists are more interested in how muchcontrol they have over what sort of record they make. We call this creativecontrol.I’m going to look at these different ideas of what’s a good deal. I’mgoing to do it from the artists’ point of view because that’s what I know best.But, because I’ve negotiated so many record deals over the years, I’ve heardall the arguments from the record companies, so I’ll try and put their sidetoo.There’s more than one type of record deal. I’m going to look at fourbasic types of deal – the licence, the development deal, the exclusiverecording contract and the production deal. As we will see it’s this last typewhich is gaining ground fast in the music industry at the moment.To understand record deals properly you also need to know some law, soI’m going to look at the basic performer’s rights, at copyright and at whatrights a record company needs in order to exploit recordings.Incidentally, in the music business we use the word ‘exploit’ a lot. Somepeople don’t like this word because they associate it with exploitation in thebad sense – misuse of the weak and that sort of thing. When we use it in thecontext of music business contracts we generally mean ‘to use’, ‘to sell’ or‘to make money from’ recordings or songs. It’s a positive use of the wordnot a negative one.You won’t be surprised to learn that there have been some celebratedcases over the years to do with recording contracts. I’m going to look at fourin this chapter to see what the problem was, what the court decided and whatthe music business learned from them. I will be concentrating on differentmodels for recording deals involving the company that is releasing therecords sharing in the artist’s other income streams. This trend was begun bythe Robbie Williams/EMI deal in 2002 but has been taken further byMadonna’s new deal with Live Nation.NEW BUSINESS MODELSConsolidation and change amongst the major record labels continues. Sonyand BMG merged their record operations at the beginning of 2005 but thatmerger was later challenged by European independent label pressure groupImpala, which resulted in the decision to allow the merger beingreinvestigated by the European Commission. Impala argued that theCommission’s original decision to allow the merger did not look sufficientlyclosely at the effect on the monopoly position in the market place if thecatalogues and power of two major labels were merged. The decision to re-open the review led to considerable uncertainly in the two companiesconcerned and some commentators believe it also led to unwillingness toconsummate the long mooted merger between Warners and EMI on the basisthat this merger would also be closely scrutinised in Europe. In autumn 2007the European Commission completed its reinvestigation and once again gavethe merger the go-ahead, thereby reducing the number of major record labelsto four: Sony/BMG; EMI Group; Warner Group and Universal. As a knock-on effect of these mergers, BMG had to divest itself of its publishingdivision, which was bought by Universal. That also caused complaints of amonopoly position arising in Universal but the Commission has given its go-ahead to that take-over. Universal Music Group has been on a bit of a buyingspree recently buying up the rump of the Sanctuary Group, supposedly toconcentrate on its special projects catalogue and on the managementactivities of the Sanctuary Group. It also acquired independent V2. In themeantime EMI has been bought by a consortium of venture capitalistslargely from outside the industry and headed up by Guy Hands. Mr Handstook over the reins in mid-2007 and most of the old level of seniormanagement has gone, including the Chairman Eric Nicoli. Mr Hands is nowlearning all about the company he has bought and rumours abound that oneway he intends to increase the value for his investors is to securitise (a kindof mortgage) the income earned by the music publishing business or even tosell off that part of the business. And it’s not only the majors who have beendoing deals; Beggars Banquet has bought up the independent label RoughTrade – the home of The White Stripes.All these labels are focusing on fewer acts and even then it is estimatedthat only 5% of their signings are successful, which is a pretty poor strikerate. So they are trying to improve the odds, by taking fewer risks andfocusing on tried and tested teams of people. The upshot of this is a safersigning policy with more focus on the sure-fire bigger sellers. This makes itmore difficult for the more innovative acts to get signed to big deals with thefull-blown international support of a major label. Indeed, even those who doget signed to majors will rarely get a cast-iron guarantee that they will getreleases outside their home market. Job insecurity in a rapidly shiftingmarket place has also led to ‘safe’ signings. No one wants to stick his or herneck out and be associated with a ‘duff’ artist when it comes to the annualjob appraisal.As a direct consequence of this, there has been a growth in the number ofindependent labels such as Beggars Banquet, B-Unique and Domino,although many of these have financial support from bigger companies eitherthrough distribution deals, international licensing deals or actual assistancewith overhead funding and provision of a signing fund. There has also been aproliferation of small studio-based production companies whose aim is todevelop an artist to the stage where he becomes of interest to the biggerlabels who can inject investment to take the artist to the next level whetherthat be moving from recording an EP to a full album or in marketing orreleasing the album overseas. A good example of an artist that came throughfrom the ground level is the 2007 Mercury Prize nominee Fionn Regan.Fionn financed the recording of the Mercury nominated album The End ofHistory himself. He then did a licensing deal with independent label, BellaUnion and with Damien Rice’s label in Ireland. The album was released tocritical acclaim if not huge initial sales. This led to interest in the albumfrom US label, Lost Highway, a sub-label of Universal, and ultimately to aworld deal with that label.The idea behind these smaller labels is to act as a nursery or feeder forbigger labels. These independents find the new talent early, sign them up onmodest deals, make some recordings either to master or demo quality,depending on the game plan and then hope to attract the attention of thebigger labels whether in the UK or in overseas markets. Often theseindependent labels have arrangements of a more or less formal nature withbigger labels to act as scouts for them. For the majors some of the risk hasbeen taken away and for the smaller label they get to retain some ownershipof copyright and to build their companies on the back of support formarketing and distribution from the bigger company. It is also often the casenow that record producers are acting as talent scouts and in the role ofdeveloping an artist, building on song-writing skills, rehearsing the artistand making master recordings with them. Their aim is to use theirconnections to sell the artist on to a label who, they hope, will use them toproduce the first album by the artist. The development role used to be oneundertaken by the record label but the cutbacks and conservatism, which ispervading the industry, has led to producers and studio owners having totake the initiative. There is more on this subject later in this chapter.THE HYPE OF THE MILLION POUND RECORD SIGNINGWe have all read in the press about new, unknown acts being signedsupposedly to million-pound deals. Can you believe what you read? Well, Iguess in one or two cases it could be true, but it’s pretty unlikely if it’s acompletely unknown artist. Also have you noticed how it’s always a millionpound deal not 1.2 million or one and a half million?What is much more likely is that the deal has been hyped up in the pressto make it seem bigger than it is. If you add up all the money that the recordcompany could spend on making an album you could get to a millionpounds. That would include the recording costs, the cost of making one ortwo videos, marketing and touring costs. The artist might only see a fractionof that money himself.When the record company is making up its mind about what to offer you,it will look at a number of things. First, and most importantly, how much itwants to sign you to the company. If they desperately want you, they’ll payover the odds to get the deal done. If you’ve got more than one companyfighting over you then you’ve much greater bargaining power. Your managerand lawyer can play one company off against the other and get you a betterdeal. There is less of that going on at the moment than previously what withthe overall uncertainty in the business, the drop in the profits and sales andthe reduction in the number of major labels from five down to four but youdo still get major companies trying to outbid each other.If the record company is doing it scientifically they’ll use variousformulas to work out what’s a reasonable deal to offer you. There arecomputer models that they can use. They look at the type of act you are, athow much they think it’s going to cost to record the album and to makevideos. They also look at other commitments, possibly to touring. They putthese estimates into the model and it tells them how many records you’dhave to sell before they break even. If they think that’s an unrealistic numberthey may scale down the offer. This is the theory anyway. I suspect thatwhile they do this number crunching they then go with their hunches anywayas to how well they think you’re going to do. There are also other factors atplay such as whether it is a good deal to sign in order to get a good slice ofthe market (so-called ‘market share’) in a forthcoming quarter so as to lookgood for the shareholders. Sometimes a deal is done for strategic reasons inorder for a particular label or label head to set out their stall as being animportant player or wanting to attract a particular type of artist. There aresome who believe that Live Nation did the deal with Madonna in order tosend the message to other artists of a similar stature that this was a potentialnew home for them. For more on the Madonna deal see the chapter onTouring below.We saw in Chapter 1 some of the ways in which you can get a ‘buzz’going for you. The ‘hotter’ you are, the more the record company is likely topay or the better overall deal you’ll be offered. The better your lawyer is, theless likely it is that the record company will get away with paying below theodds – a very good reason to get a good lawyer on your side.Your manager should sit down with you and discuss what’s important toyou. Are you only interested in big-money advances, or would you prefer togo for a smaller advance in return for creative control or more commitmentfrom the record company? Once he knows what you want, your manager canmake his ‘pitch’ to the record company along those lines.It should be a balanced contract, where the record company canreasonably protect its investment, but also one where you get somecommitment from the company and the chance to earn a decent living fromthe deal.THE LEGAL PRINCIPLESBefore I look in more detail at these questions of money, commitment andcreative control, I need to run through with you one of the guiding legalprinciples in deciding what’s a good record deal.RESTRAINT OF TRADEWe have already seen in the cases of O’Sullivan v. MAM, Armatrading v .Stone and John v. James that the courts can be highly critical of clauses incontracts that are unfair on the artist.In deciding whether a contract is fair, the court looks at a number ofthings. It looks at the bargaining power of the artist and the company. It willalso look at whether the artist had independent specialist advice before hesigned the contract, and at how experienced the artist was in the musicbusiness at the time the contract was signed. It does this against thebackground of what was the norm for these contracts at the time.Another guiding principle behind the court’s decisions is that of restraintof trade. The basic principle behind the doctrine is that, where someone hasto provide services or be exclusively employed and the contract containsrestrictions on what someone can and cannot do, that contract isautomatically a restriction on the ability to earn a living, or trade. Becauseit’s an exclusive arrangement, the person concerned can’t earn money in anyother way than through that contract.In the UK it was decided long ago that these contracts were contrary topublic policy. A person should be free to earn his living wherever he can.That said, the courts recognised that there would be circumstances where itwas commercially necessary to have restrictions in contracts. They decidedthat such restrictions would be allowed if they were reasonably necessary toprotect the legitimate business interests of the person imposing therestrictions. If the restrictions were unreasonable they couldn’t be enforced –the contract would be unenforceable.Because it was so important to the music business, the case of Macaulayv. Schroeder1 went all the way to the House of Lords before it was finallyclear that the doctrine did apply to recording and publishing agreements.Macaulay v. SchroederMacaulay was a young and unknown songwriter who entered into amusic publishing agreement with Schroeder Music Publishing Ltd. Itwas an exclusive agreement for his services for five years. The contractwas in a standard form used by the music publisher. Macaulay’scopyrights in the songs he wrote were assigned for the life of copyrightthroughout the world. The contract specifically prevented him fromworking as a songwriter for any other music publishers during this five-year period. There’s nothing wrong in signing someone up to anexclusive deal, but because it restricts that person’s ability to go andwork for anyone else, we have to look at whether as a whole such acontract is fair, at whether the restrictions still allow him to earn areasonable living. The House of Lords looked at the specific terms of theagreement to see if, taken as a whole, they were reasonable. It found, infact, that they were unduly restrictive and an unreasonable restraint oftrade. Macaulay didn’t have a reasonable chance to earn a decent livingfrom his trade of song writing.In contrast, the George Michael case described below is an exampleof an exclusive contract that was found to contain reasonablerestrictions.CREATIVE CONTROL VERSUS LARGE ADVANCESEarlier in this chapter I spoke of getting the right balance in the contractterms. Behind that statement lies this principle that any restrictions in anexclusive services contract should be fair and only go so far as to protect therecord company’s interest and not unreasonably restrict an artist’s ability toearn a living. So let’s look at some of these terms.DO YOU GO FOR THE MONEY OR TRY TO PROTECT THEINTEGRITY OF YOUR ART?Of course it’s important for you to be able to eat, to have somewhere to live,and transport to get you to and from gigs, rehearsals and the recordingstudio, but it may not just be a question of money. For many artists, creativecontrol of their work is at least as important. Being able to make a recordwith minimal interference from the record company is crucial to someartists.If creative control is the most important thing for you, then getting thatcontrol would mean you had a ‘good’ deal, even if there was less money onthe table as a result. Some record companies are more flexible than others onquestions of creative control. If this is an important issue for you, you needto look at this at the point when various record companies are still courtingyou. You should ask each of them what their attitude is to this issue. What istheir track record? If you can, you should talk to other artists signed to therecord company to find out their experiences. You should also ask if therecord company is prepared to guarantee creative control in the recordcontract. Sometimes they’ll say it but won’t put it in the contract so youcan’t rely on it.Your wish to have creative control must be balanced against putting somany restrictions on what the record company can do that they can’t sellyour records properly. They may in such circumstances choose to useanother artist’s recordings – one who isn’t so particular about creativecontrol. For example, a proposal comes in from an advertising company toput one of two tracks into a major new jeans campaign. Artist A has fullcreative control in his contract and is known to be completely against theidea of his work being used in ads. Artist B, on the other hand, has an eye tothe integrity of his work but realises that a campaign like this, if doneproperly, can really help him break into the big-time. Artist B says yes andthe record company puts their track forward not Artist A’s.You may be very interested in getting as much commitment as possiblefrom a record company. If so, then you’ll concentrate on getting acommitment from them to a specific figure in marketing ‘spend’ or tounderwrite tour losses up to a fixed amount. The record company may bereluctant to go this far. They’d be in difficulties under the contract if, forexample, there weren’t enough suitable tour dates or they were unable tofind the money to pay for the full marketing spend. It used to be the case thatartists were concerned that there’d be a commitment to make at least onepromotional video per single release, or to get a commitment to the releaseof a minimum number of singles. Now with the increase in popularity ofsingle track downloads release of singles is rarely the issue. The problem ishow to make sure that you make money from some source whether that’sactual record sales or as a taster to drive the fans to buy the album, a ticketto your live show and a T-shirt at the show. Because of the continuingimportance of radio play in promoting a new release (and to some extent ingetting the artist to perform the single on TV or radio shows like thosehosted by Jonathan Ross, Paul O’Grady or Russell Brand), A&R people arevery interested in hearing tracks that they know will get radio play topromote the artist. There is a strong belief amongst labels that in order to getcommercial success in terms of number of sales you need to get radioexposure, preferably ‘A’ or ‘B’ list at Radio 1 or 2. To some extent,therefore, marketing is driving creativity and artists that are not necessarilyradio friendly have to look for other ways to attract the attention of thepublic.The attitude to videos is also changing. The decline in musicprogrammes on television which are likely to show a promotional video hasled to a down-sizing in the number of and spend on promotional videos. Nowit’s much more likely to be a ‘behind the scenes’ long form DVD on themaking of the album or out on the road with the artist. It’s expensive tomake videos and record companies may not want to commit to making onethat only gets played once or twice. That said there has been a growinginterest in the availability of visual images in recent years to feed thedemand for DVD and online content, so you may find it isn’t necessary toinsist on a commitment to make videos because it will happen in practice.Whatever the issue may be and no matter what big statements andpromises they make when they want you, if it’s not specifically in thecontract you won’t have a chance of making them keep their promises ifthey go back on what they said or if the person who said it is no longer withthe company.Whatever your particular needs (and it may be a mixture of all of thesethings), if you get a reasonable number of them in your record contractyou’ll have what is a good deal for you.This whole issue of creative control versus money has caused a lot ofproblems over the years. It’s one of the reasons why Prince became‘Symbol’ became The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, then The Artist,before finally reverting to Prince for a sell-out 21-date concert series at thenew live venue, O2, in the former Millennium Dome in Docklands. He mayhave believed that by changing his name he could use a loophole to get outof his record contract. He was probably also hoping that it would show hisrecord company, Warner Bros., the strength of his feeling over the type ofrecords he wanted to make. He was in the news again in 2007 when it wasannounced that he had done a ground-breaking deal with newspaperpublishers of the Mail on Sunday to offer the whole album ‘free’ with thenewspaper ahead of traditional retail distribution. It is said he received$500,000 for the deal. Plans for a traditional physical CD release werecancelled. Unsurprisingly, many more copies of the newspaper were boughtthan on a normal Sunday and Prince got exceptional publicity out of thismarketing coup. More people bought tickets to see him live than mightotherwise have done so and he presumably got a good financial return firstlyfrom the price he got off the Mail on Sunday and secondly in his increasedshare of ticket sales and extra merchandising sales. There is a growth in theuse of cover mounts to market artists. The practice was decried by recordcompanies and artists because it seemed to be a way of getting a large one-off payment for the record company in the licence deal with the newspaperwithout having to share that necessarily with the artist (depending on thedeal). It was also felt to be devaluing the artist’s work. Now we are seeingthis practice evolve into one where perhaps ahead of an artist’s new albumrelease they may bring that artist back into the public eye by a cover mountDVD or album of some of their old material or previously unavailable filmfootage of a tour. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. The recordcompany behind Ray Davies’ latest release thought to do this by releasing acover mount album of versions of his old material but it didn’t have thehoped for boost in first week sales of the new album.Disputes as to issues like this or as to how an artist is presentedcreatively, as well of course as to whether the artist is getting paid a fairprice take place on a daily basis between record company and artist ormanager. It is part of the daily cut and thrust between them. I regularly haveto arbitrate or advise on issues like who has final say on choice of single, orthe look of the artwork for the new album because artist and label havedifferent views. Another area of common dispute is what happens when alabel decides after hearing the finished album that they don’t want to releaseit. This is part of my daily working life but most of these disputes don’t getto court. One that did was the acrimonious case between George Michael andhis record company, Sony Records.The George Michael CaseTo understand the case2 and the decision you need to know a bit aboutthe background.As we all know, George Michael was part of the very successful popduo Wham! along with Andrew Ridgeley. The first exclusive record dealthat George and Andrew signed was with the record companyInnervision, owned by Mark Dean, in 1982. As is often the case, theywere young, unknown and inexperienced. The record deal was for up toten albums, which was a lot even in those days. They were exclusivelytied to the company until they’d delivered all the albums thatInnervision wanted from them. Applying the doctrine of restraint oftrade, the restrictions in the contract were immediately contrary topublic policy and were unenforceable unless they were reasonable.Innervision was a small record company. It had a deal with Sonywhereby Sony provided funding and facilities for the manufacture, saleand marketing of Innervision’s records. The Innervision contract withGeorge and Andrew, therefore, also included Sony’s standard businessterms. If the Innervision contract was criticised as being unenforceableand an unreasonable restraint of trade, this could also have been anindirect criticism of Sony’s terms of business.At first things went well, and their second release, ‘Young Guns’,was a UK Top 10 hit in 1982. This was followed by ‘Bad Boys’, ‘ClubTropicana’ and the chart-topping album Fantastic. By 1983, however,the relationship between Wham! and Innervision had broken down. Theysued the company to get out of the contract, arguing that it was anunreasonable restraint of trade. The case was settled before it got tocourt. It was part of the settlement that George and Andrew signed anexclusive recording contract direct with Sony label Epic Records. Again,that contract contained Sony’s business terms, but an experienced musicbusiness lawyer negotiated it on George and Andrew’s behalf.Once again things went well at first. Their first single on Epic –‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ – went to No. 1 in the UK and wasfollowed by four further No. 1s in quick succession.In 1986, George and Andrew parted company. George embarked on asolo career with Sony. And it was a very successful one, although notuntil 1988 with the release of ‘I Want Your Sex’, which was a deliberatemove to break with the playboy Wham! image. His first solo album,Faith, was a huge success, selling over 10 million copies. On the back ofthat success, George renegotiated his contract with Sony again with thehelp of that experienced music business lawyer.In return for a substantial sum of money, George agreed to recordthree solo albums in the first contract period and gave Sony options forup to five more albums. Faith counted as the first of the three albumsand he went on to record and release a second hugely successful album,Listen Without Prejudice (Vol. 2), which also sold millions. His star wasalso rising in the US, where he had a No. 1 with ‘Praying For Time’ offthat album.Not surprisingly, Sony wanted George to continue in the same stylewith his third solo album. By this time, George wanted to move awayfrom the out-and-out commercial pop style of records. He wanted to beregarded as a serious artist.Because the contract ran until he had delivered up to six morealbums, or for a maximum period of fifteen years, George couldn’trecord for anyone else. Sony also had the final say on whether an albumby him met the necessary artistic and commercial criteria. They could goon rejecting more serious material from him, so a deadlock existed.George sued, arguing that the record contract was an unreasonablerestriction on his ability to earn a living, and as such was anunenforceable contract.He refused to record for Sony and instead did a number of projectswith other artists that were within the terms of his contract, just. Forexample, he did guest spots on other people’s albums. He alsoconcentrated on live work.The case finally came to court in 1994. The decision to throw outGeorge’s case was made on somewhat surprising grounds. The judgeruled that, in order to decide if the 1988 renegotiation of the contractwas an unreasonable restraint of trade, he would also have to considerthe earlier 1984 contract. He decided that he could not reopen a reviewof the 1984 contract because it had been entered into as a result of asettlement of a dispute. It’s contrary to public policy to reopensomething that was agreed by the parties as being a final settlement of adispute.It wasn’t difficult to imagine that George would appeal. Perhaps thejudge realised this because, even though he had decided that he could notlook at the 1988 contract, he went on to say what his conclusions wouldhave been if he had done so.The contract was an exclusive worldwide deal. It was for potentiallya very long time and Sony had the absolute right to reject recordings anda limited obligation in the contract to do much with any recordings thatit did accept. Obviously, Sony argued that the contract represented onlythe contractual obligations that it had and that, in fact, it would havedone far more to help sell as many records as possible. In decidingwhether the contract was unfair and unenforceable as being anunreasonable restraint of trade, the judge looked at the relativebargaining power of the two sides. By 1988 George Michael was a verysuccessful and powerful artist and well able to stand up to Sony. He hadhad the benefit of advice from his long-standing lawyer, who was veryexperienced in music business contracts. Finally, the judge looked atwhat George would get out of the contract. Financially, he stood to get agreat deal.Balancing out all these factors, the judge decided that the benefitsGeorge got out of the contract meant that the restrictions in it werereasonable to protect Sony’s investment and its legitimate businessinterests.Sony, of course, was delighted, but it was nevertheless seen by mostof the ‘talent’ in the business as a blow for creative freedom.While the case was going on it was much easier to get improvementsin record contracts, particularly those parts of the contracts that Georgewas specifically attacking. For example, on CD sales, Sony was onlypaying 75–80% of the royalty at the time. While the case was going onSony was much more inclined to agree a 100% royalty rate. As soon asSony won the case it was business as usual. George, as expected,appealed. The thought of prolonged, expensive litigation with an artistwho clearly wasn’t going to record for Sony, and who could see his ownrecording career stalling with all the delays, led to a settlement beforethe appeal was heard. George was released from the contract and signedto Virgin/Dreamworks in return for a payment back to Sony. As part ofthe settlement, he later recorded some new tracks or new versions of oldtracks for a Greatest Hits album that was released on Sony.Aston Barrett v. Universal Island Records and othersIn a dispute over monies due the bass player for ‘Bob Marley and theWailers, Aston Barrett sued Island Records and the Marley family onbehalf of himself and his brother, Carlton (who was the drummer withthe band and was murdered in 1985). Aston argued that he had notreceived the money they were due after Marley’s death in 1981. Astonand Carlton had played on a number of Marley albums. They had hadtheir own successful act The Upsetters and joined Marley after PeterTosh and Bunny Livingstone left. Their claim for royalties arose out of acontract made in 1974. Ashton was also suing separately for his propershare of song-writing royalties on songs he co-wrote with Marley.Originally Marley and the two Barrett brothers had shared royaltiesequally. It was alleged that under a new agreement made in 1976 Marleytook 50% and the Barrett brothers shared the remaining 50% betweenthem. In 1994 Aston took part in a settlement where it was said heagreed to forego any right to future royalties in return for a share of a$500,000 settlement paid by Island Records. At the trial Marley’s widowand the founder of Island Records both played down the role played bythe Barrett brothers and said that the 1994 settlement represented a fairshare to them for what they had done. The judge accepted that andrefused Aston’s claim. He also did not accept his claim that he had co-written several of the songs. Aston was something of a serial litigatorhaving sued three or four times before. The judge ruled that he would notbe allowed to start any more litigation unless allowed to do so by acourt.TYPES OF DEALWhat types of deal may be on offer, what basic rights does a performingartist have, what is copyright and what rights does the record company needin order to release records?Although there are many variations, some of which will be looked atbelow, there are two basic types of record deal – the licence and theexclusive long-term recording contract. Variations include the productiondeal, which contains elements of the latter two types, the partnership or jointventure between record label and artist, and the so-called 360 degree modelwhich embraces not only recordings but also other areas such as publishing,live and endorsements under the one umbrella deal. The latter are currently‘flavour of the month’ with the Madonna deal being the most highlypublicised. More on these below. Let’s look first at the basic types.LICENCE DEALSLegal PrinciplesLicensor is the technical term for a person or company who owns rights,which it is licensing to someone else. Licensee is the person or company towhom the rights are licensed.A licence is an agreement to allow the Licensee to do certain things withthe rights that the Licensor has to a particular product – a recording, a songand so on. A licence can be for as long as the life of copyright (see below)but is usually for a shorter period. The Licensor continues to own the rightsbut gives someone else permission to use some or all of those rights.In contrast an assignment is an outright transfer of ownership of rightsby an owner to someone else. It’s usually for the life of copyright, althoughsometimes the rights are returned (reassigned) to the owner sooner than that.The assignment can be of some or all rights and can have conditionsattached. The assignor is the owner of the rights being assigned. Theassignor no longer owns the rights once they have been assigned. Theassignee is the person or company to whom the rights are assigned.You will often see in agreements a reference to rights being granted forthe life of copyright. This is now the same period throughout the EU. Forliterary and musical works (e.g. songs) it’s seventy years from the end of theyear in which the author dies. For sound recordings and performer’s rightsit’s fifty years from the end of the year in which the recording was releasedor the performance was made.3 The situation is different in the US where inmany cases the sound recording copyright can run for up to 99 years.There was considerable political lobbying going on with the UKGovernment and to some extent in Europe, whereby interested parties triedto further extend the life of copyright. A detailed report was prepared by MrGowers, which was published in 2007. It declined to recommend anyextension and only offered up a small amount of comfort for the musicindustry e.g. an increase in the budget for Trading Standards to assist themin their anti-piracy efforts. The political battle has now moved to Europe.Part of the reason for the fuss is that many recordings including those byartists such as Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard are coming out of copyrightand as such any future uses of those recordings will not be subject to thepayment of record royalties to the artists or to their record label.Representative bodies for the lesser performers were also seeking paritywith their song-writing colleagues by getting an extension to seventy years.For the moment this plan has failed and re-issue labels are already cashingin with early 1950s recordings which are already out of copyright. Therecord company who owned the original recordings will find that its marketis no longer protected. Some argue that this is a good thing as fifty years islong enough to have achieved a reasonable return on the investment inmaking and promoting the records and it is right that they are then madefreely available. However, there are also others who believe that the loss ofrevenue from these recordings will result in yet another nail in the coffin ofthe record industry and mean less investment in new artists. There are somepractical difficulties in the way of companies seeking to take advantage ofthis, for example, in getting hold of original recordings or good qualitycopies of the same. The artwork or sleeve notes and the songs may still be incopyright so use of the artwork or changes to the original songs will not bepossible without consent. But if the re-issue label is willing to invest insome new artwork and will pay the mechanical royalties to the owners ofany songs that are still in copyright (see publishing chapter) then the re-issuelabel is still making a good profit by not having to pay for the recording northe artist for the performances or the record label for the right to licensethose recordings. The record companies are running scared – hence the rushof re-releases of Beatles box sets and wholesale re-releases of the Elvissingles in order to cash in on what may be their last chance before theirmarket is undermined as copyright ends. This is also why they are doing newversions such as remixes or mashups of the Elvis songs so that they canclaim a new copyright in the new version and hang on to rights in that foranother fifty years.The author is the first owner of the copyright.4 The CDPA 1988 saysthat in the case of sound recordings it’s the producer. This could beconfusing, and for a time record producers were claiming they were thecopyright owners. The position is in fact the same as before the 1988 Act.The copyright owner of a sound recording is the person ‘who made thearrangements for the recording to be made’. This is generally taken to meanthe person who paid for the recording to be made. With the changing role ofmanagers and producers in making independent recordings there will beissues about whether the artist, the manager, the producer or even the studioowns the copyright. I am already dealing with situations of multipleownership of copyright with the attendant problems of trying to decidemechanisms for what is to happen to the copyrights when it comes tocommercial exploitation. The artist may need to rely more than ever on theirperformance rights to ensure a measure of control and also through song-writing where they are writers of the songs being recorded.Copyright is the right that an author has to prevent anyone else doingcertain things with his work without his permission. It underlines all creativeaspects of the music industry so it is important to try and get to grips with it.The basic rights of copyright are the right to copy the work; the right to issuecopies of the work to the public; the right to rent or lend out copies of thework to the public; the right to perform, show or play the work in public; theright to broadcast the work or include it in a cable programme; the right tomake an adaptation of the work and the right to do any of these acts inrelation to that adaptation.5 Before anyone can do any of these things with acopyright work, they have to get the permission of the owner of thecopyright. This may be the author as first owner or he may have assigned hisrights to someone else or given someone else an exclusive licence to dealwith the copyright instead of him. There was some doubt until 2001 as towhether the copyright laws of the EU extended to digital, online or Internet-based uses of the copyright. A 2001 European Directive confirmed thatcopyright did indeed extend to such new media. The Directive wasimplemented into UK law late in 2003. The UK Government took the viewthat the existing UK law already covered many of the key aspects of theDirective so the changes to UK law were more to clarify than to extend thelaw. The definition of what constituted communicating and making availablea copyright work to the public was clarified as including Internet, cable andsatellite broadcasts, including on-demand services. The law was confirmedas applying to authors, record labels, film producers, broadcasters andperformers. There was much debate about the exemptions to the basic rulerequiring the copyright owners’ permission to reproduce the whole or part ofa copyright work. These are the so-called fair dealing exemptions where, forexample, an excerpt from a recording or part of a video could be reproducedfor purposes of a critical review or commentary. It was felt that there wasgreater scope for abuse of this exemption in the widespread and fast movingonline world. In the end the exemptions were not extended and quoting of a‘reasonable amount’ will still be permitted. We will see in Chapter 7 a naspect of this debate in connection with social networking sites likeYouTube or MySpace. Are they allowed to rely on these fair-dealingexemptions to put up copyright works on these sites without consent of theowner?As I mentioned above with the growing complexity of record deals andmultiple potential copyright owners the issue of performing rights willbecome more important. Performing rights are the rights performers haveto prevent someone else from doing certain things with their performances,or with recordings of their performances, without their permission. Thebasic performing rights are in some respects similar to the rights ofcopyright. They are the right to prevent someone making a recording of alive performance; the right to prevent the making of a broadcast or itsinclusion live in a cable service programme. It is also a performer’s right toprevent someone from making a recording of his performance directly froma broadcast or cable programme. The performer’s permission has to beobtained to do any of the above. Recordings of performances for personaluse are allowed. The performer also has the right to refuse to let someonemake a copy of a recording; to issue a copy of a recording to the public; torent or lend copies of the recording to the public; to play a recordedperformance in public; or to include it in a broadcast or cable programmeservice. As we’ve seen above the performer’s rights also extend to onlinemethods of making their work available to the public. The performer shouldmake sure he only grants his performing rights when he is reasonably surethat the agreement gives him either control or sufficient financial reward forlosing control.Licence versus assignmentWhen deciding on whether to license or assign rights it is important to makea distinction between a licence and an assignment. When an owner grants alicence, he keeps the underlying copyright. He only gives the licenseepermission to do certain things with the copyright for a period of time (thelicence term). In contrast when rights are assigned then ownership andcontrol of the copyright has passed from the owner to the assignee.It is clear from the Gilbert O’Sullivan case that, even where the courtfinds that a contract is unenforceable, it won’t usually order the return ofcopyrights or other rights that have been assigned. If it’s a licence then theunderlying copyright has not been assigned; there is nothing that needs to bereturned to the original owner because it never left him. If O’Sullivan hadlicensed his rights rather than assigned them he wouldn’t have had such aproblem. The licence would have come to an end because MAM were inbreach of its terms and he would still have had his copyright in his songs andmasters. So from the point of view of an artist, a licence should always bepreferable to an assignment, all other things being equal.There are two problems with this. The first is that the record companywill in many cases be the one who made the arrangements for the recordingto be made (i.e. paid for it) and so will be the first owner of copyright. Theartist may have his performing rights, but will probably not own thecopyright in the sound recording. The second is that record companies don’twant to do licence deals if they can take an assignment of rights instead.They have investments to protect. It can take up to a million pounds or morefor a major record company to launch a new act. They will want to own thecopyright outright. They don’t want to lose their rights when a licence ends,because these rights represent assets of the company and have money valueto the company. The longer they have them and the more secure theownership is the more value they have.The more successful an artist is, the more chance he has of being theowner of the copyright in the sound recording and in a position to license itto the record company. In production or partnership deals or joint ventures itis more likely that the artist and label will jointly own the copyright and maywell be in a position to keep that copyright and license it on rather thanassigning these rights away. The argument would be that the bigger label hadnot taken the commercial risk in investing in the making of the recordings soshould not take ownership either at all or unless the money paid issignificant.Exclusive and non-exclusive dealsYou might licence rights in a recording that you own to a record companyfor inclusion on a particular compilation only and probably on a non-exclusive basis. You might want to put the recording out yourself or licenseit to another company for a different compilation. You couldn’t do that ifyou’d given the first record company an exclusive licence. The sameprinciple applies to the grant of the right to put a recording in a film oradvert.On the other hand, you may be an artist or a small label that has recordeda track or an album yourself and own the copyright in it. You may not havethe financial resources to do anything with that recording. Perhaps you can’tafford to press up copies of it to sell or you can’t promote it properly. Youmight go to another record company for those resources. If they agree, thelicence is likely to be an exclusive one to protect their investment.The licence termHow long should the licence last? If it’s non-exclusive it doesn’t matter asmuch. An exclusive licence could be as long as the life of copyright or asshort as a year. Three- to five-year licence terms are common. The licenseewants to have long enough to get a reasonable return on his investment, butif it is a short licence term the licensor will get the rights back sooner andmay be able to re-license them to someone else (perhaps with a new mix) orrelease them himself. Most licence deals I’m doing at the moment are forfive years or longer with European and US companies often wanting seven toten years. As usual it’s down to knowing and using your bargaining power.TerritoryIt could be a worldwide licence or it could be limited to particular countries.If, for example, you’ve already licensed the rights exclusively to a companyin the US, you can only then grant other licences in the same recordings forthe rest of the world outside the US.A distinction used to be made between the UK and other Europeancounties, but one of the consequences of closer European integration hasmeant that Europe-wide deals, including the UK, are now more commonthan UK-only deals.There are people who specialise in trying to get you licence deals forparticular countries. They usually take a commission (called a finder’s fee)of 2–5% of the advances or royalties. Sometimes they also take a finder’sfee off the licensee for bringing the recording to them and so are rewardedby both sides. Nice work if you can get it.The main problem with individual-country deals is keeping on top of anumber of different licensees. Record releases and marketing campaignshave to be co-ordinated and there isn’t just one company to chase forpayment of royalties. The main advantage is that there is the chance tolicense the recording to the company that most wants it in each country. Youmay also be in the fortunate position of ending up with more in totaladvances from individual-country deals than you’d get from one multi-territory deal, and may also receive more than you need in contributions tomake videos or do remixes.OptionsWhen you’re doing a non-exclusive licence of a single track for acompilation, you don’t usually give the licensee any options to any furtherrecordings you may make. It’s usually a one-off.If it’s an exclusive licence for something other than just on acompilation, the licensee may be keen to get follow-up products. Thelicensee may be encouraged to invest more in promoting the first track oralbum if he knows he’s going to get the follow-up.When doing your exclusive licence deal, you can agree up-front the basison which you are going to give them any follow-up product or you can leaveit to be agreed at the time they exercise the option. This can be to theowner’s advantage if the first track has been successful, as his bargainingpower will be higher. It’s not a very certain state of affairs though and oftenleads to problems, so I don’t generally recommend it.Another possibility would be to give the licensee an option, which giveshim the opportunity to be the first to try and do a deal with you for thefollow-up. For example, you might deliver a demo of the follow-up and givethe licensee the exclusive right for a month to try and negotiate a deal withyou. If no deal is done in that time you can take it into the market place. Thisis called a first negotiating right.You could give the licensee a matching right. This is the right to matchany offer for the follow-up that you get from someone else. You have to tellthe licensee the details of the offer, and if the licensee matches or betters itwithin a given period of time then you must do the deal with him. This hasto be handled very diplomatically if you are not to seriously upset the firstrecord company making the offer that has been ‘matched’.Sometimes you do a combination of the two known as a ‘first and lastmatching right’ i.e. they get the first option to negotiate, if that fails you cango into the market place to seek a deal, if you get one you must first give thefirst company a chance to match it, if they do they get to do the deal. Againdiplomacy is the order of the day.EXCLUSIVE RECORDING CONTRACTThis type of deal may give you the greatest potential investment andcommitment from a record company but in return, of course, the recordcompany will expect to be able to protect its investment and is likely to seekgreater financial and creative controls.Development DealA variation on the exclusive recording deal is a development deal where therecord label signs an artist up exclusively for a period of time during whichthey may record some demos or enough tracks for an EP. The artist is givena recording budget and the means to pay for a producer but not usually muchby way of money to live on. It is not yet time to give up the day job. If thingsgo well with the development stage then the record label usually has theoption to decide to go on to make the rest of the album and probably thenhave options to more albums as in a normal record deal. If you get offeredone of these deals you may be disappointed that it isn’t a commitment to thewhole deal. But it is a foot in the door and if you make the most of it you canuse it as a stepping stone to your end goal. If they don’t proceed with thedeal you can ask for the demos back so you have at least got some wellrecorded material with which to continue your search for fame and fortune.It will be up to your advisers to make sure that whatever contract you areoffered is a fair one. It should also be in the record company’s interest. If thecontract is so unfair that it’s an unreasonable restraint of trade it will beunenforceable and you can walk away from it. Most major record companieshave now moderated their contracts to deal with this issue and, whileindividual cases will still arise of unenforceable contracts, you should neverenter into a contract thinking you can tear it up if it no longer suits you.Quite apart from this being a very negative approach it is likely that you willnot just be allowed to walk away and may get embroiled in a lengthy disputeor court case. Whilst this is going on it will be difficult for you to carry onwith your career and could stall it permanently.It’s likely under an exclusive recording contract that the sound-recordingcopyright will be owned by the record company, and the contract willusually confirm this. The contract will also make sure that the recordcompany will be able to exploit the performances by getting all necessaryperformers’ consents. So it is important that the contract is also balanced bysuitable controls over what the record company can do with the recordingsand performances.One thing you might not want them to do is to put your recording with anadvert for a product that you don’t approve of. I was once involved in a casewhere Sting was furious that a recording of his track ‘Don’t Stand So CloseTo Me’ was used in an advert for deodorant. Tom Waits also took exceptionto a use of one of his songs in a Levi ad. Not everyone wants, or perhapsneeds, to make money at any cost. In fact Tom Waits is something of a serialdefender of his image and creative output. You would have thought by nowthat advertising companies thinking of using his work or that of a sound-alike would have learned that he does not take kindly to this but yet againthis year he has had to take a company to court to protect his position.Term of the contractThe contract will usually run for an initial period of one year. The recordcompany will usually have a number of options to extend the contract term.In each contract period they’ll expect the artist to record a minimum numberof tracks. It could be single tracks or enough tracks to make up an album.The commitment is generally for an album unless it’s a development dealwhen they might call for five or six tracks to start with and then decidewhether to go for the balance of an album. Despite the fact that there hasbeen a growth in downloads of single tracks with over 2 billion dollars ofrevenue generated for record companies in 2006 according to the IFPI theemphasis is still very much on the delivery of enough tracks to make analbum. Indeed some artists/labels are refusing to allow their music to beavailable on the Apple websites because Apple will not commit to sellingtracks as a bundled together album as opposed to unbundling the tracks forsingle track downloads. About forty years ago singles were the norm andalbums consisted mostly of collections of previously successful singles.Whilst there is no sign at present that record labels are returning to thesedays the traditional seventy minute plus CD album consisting ofsingles/album tracks and tracks which quite frankly are ‘fillers’ may evolveinto something new – maybe a hybrid of a singles and an album deal. Eachcontract period is usually extended by up to six months after the artistdelivers the last of the recordings the record company wants. The moreslowly these are recorded and delivered, or the longer it takes to releasethem, the longer each contract period will be. It is however generallyaccepted that there should be a maximum backstop for how long each periodcan be extended. Otherwise the fear is that the contracts will beunenforceable as they are too open-ended and potentially a restraint of tradeThree or four year backstop dates are common.Why is it only the record company that has options?The record company will have invested a lot of money in making therecords. It will probably also have made videos and may have supported theartist while he’s been out touring. These costs are recoupable (i.e. the recordcompany gets some or all of them back from royalty from sales of records)but, if they don’t sell enough records, or the artist were to walk out of thecontract before the record company had the chance to recoup theirinvestment, then all these unrecouped costs would be down to the recordcompany.Then there are the promotional and marketing costs, which for a majorrelease can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, as well as themanufacturing and distribution costs. In most deals these costs are non-recoupable from the artist’s royalties. If the artist could just up and walkaway from the contract whenever he felt like it the record company wouldn’tbe able to protect its investment, its business interests. This is why theoptions are in their favour not the artist’s.Why can’t you get your copyright back?It is easy to understand why a record company justifies its ownership ofcopyright in the recording by the fact that it’s invested a lot of money.What’s less easy to understand is why the company won’t transfer thatcopyright to the artist once they’ve recouped that investment. GeorgeMichael argued this point in his case with Sony, but the way the case wentmeant that there is no definitive decision on the point. Given the reluctanceof the courts in cases like Gilbert O’Sullivan’s to upset the economic order,it seems that the courts would be very unlikely to order a return ofcopyrights.Record companies claim that the vast majority of artists don’t recouptheir investment. Recent statistics suggest that as many as 95% of all artistsfail to achieve profitability. This is a depressing thought, and it is one of thereasons why the record industry is having such a massive rethink about howit makes money from artists who are successful. Falling CD sales because ofthe problems of free downloads means that unless they can either improvethe number of successful artists or get more money for the number who aresuccessful and preferably both then the doom mongers declare the end of therecord industry is nigh. I speculate a little more about this in Chapter 7 but ifanyone did have the magic answer then they would presumably already beapplying it and making themselves a fortune. In the meantime the rest of usstruggle on earning what we can and in my case facilitating the contractsthat provide the financial support for artists to sell records. Those contractsare for the foreseeable future going to insist that the record companies hangon to the copyrights of the small minority of artists who are successful aswithout these assets their companies become almost worthless. Recordcompanies also say that they have to spend a lot of money in researching anddeveloping new talent. If they had to return the copyrights of successfulartists they say they wouldn’t be able to invest as much in new artists in thefuture and that the culture of the nation would suffer as a result. Well, I canthink of a few bands that made barely a dent in the cultural richness of mylife, can’t you? But seriously though that is also not so true as it once was asmore and more record companies are not developing artists but are waitinguntil they are presented to them almost fully formed with a body of songs,many of which will have been recorded and produced to a high standard andwith an artist with professional managers or production companies in place.So this argument too is getting to look quite spurious. The reality is that youjust aren’t going to get those copyrights back unless you are a David Bowieor a Rolling Stone and even they would be less likely to achieve that if theytried it in the current climate.How many options should the record company have for future albums?Most major record companies in the UK want options on four or five furtheralbums.6 Independent record companies may accept less. That said, everynow and again one or two unusual deals occur where record companies havebeen so keen to sign up particular artists that they have done non-exclusive,one-album deals, with no options. In some cases the deals are seen as purelyshort-term deals to improve the record company’s share of the record salesin a particular quarter or before a company’s financial year end. A good orimproved slice of market share can significantly improve the company’sshare price and the A&R or label head’s end-of-year bonus, but in othercases it’s because the artist may not be perceived as having a five albumcareer ahead of them. If this turns out to be wrong and they wish torenegotiate then the boot will be on the other foot.The number of options, and therefore the overall length of the contract,is a key issue when considering if a contract is an unreasonable restraint oftrade.This issue was at the heart of a major court case between Holly Johnsonof Frankie Goes To Hollywood and his record company ZTT.7 (He also had asimilar dispute with the sister publishing company, Perfect Songs, which Iwill deal with in Chapter 4 on publishing deals.)ZTT v. Holly JohnsonHolly Johnson and the other members of Frankie Goes To Hollywoodwere unknown when they attracted the interest of the directors of ZTT,Jill Sinclair and her husband, the highly successful record producer,Trevor Horn. The band was broke and very keen to work with Mr Horn.They were told that ZTT would only do the record deal if they alsosigned an exclusive publishing deal with Perfect Songs. Now you mightdetect a whiff of undue influence here but, in fact, this point was notseriously argued in this case. The band signed up to both deals. Althoughthey were inexperienced and had very little bargaining power, they wererepresented by a lawyer who was experienced in music businesscontracts.Frankie Goes To Hollywood had two very successful singles with‘Relax’ and ‘Two Tribes’, both of which attracted a great deal ofcontroversy because of the subject matter in the case of the first and thevideo for the second. At one stage the tracks were Nos. 1 and 2 in the UKsingles charts. The band’s first album Welcome To The Pleasure Domesold well and produced two more hit singles. They failed to make asuccess in the US and by 1986 the pressure was on them for the secondalbum to be a success.The band had a lot of trouble with the recording of this album, to becalled Liverpool. Trevor Horn controlled the recording costs, he was therecord producer and the recordings were being made in his studios. Thecosts were escalating alarmingly and the band was horrified by howmuch they would have to recoup. After a lot of problems the band splitup but ZTT (and Perfect Songs) wanted to hang on to Holly Johnson.Johnson didn’t want to continue with them and sued on the grounds thatboth the recording and publishing contracts were an unreasonablerestraint of trade.The term of the record contract was for an initial period of sixmonths and was extendable by two option periods and up to five contractperiods, all in favour of the record company. Each contract period was tobe for a minimum of one year and extendable until 120 days after theyfulfilled their minimum obligations to the record company (known asthe Minimum Commitment). There was also no maximum extension ofthe contract period. It was open-ended and depended entirely on whenthe band fulfilled its Minimum Commitment.The Minimum Commitment was one single in each of the initialperiod, first and second option periods and one album in each of thethird through to seventh option contract periods. This is a very odd wayof structuring a contract, but basically it meant that if the recordcompany exercised every option the band had to record three singles andfive albums.The record company was free to bring the contract to an end at anytime. The record company also had the right to reject recordingsdelivered to it by the band. As the term continued until after delivery ofrecordings that were satisfactory to the record company, this meant thatthe record company controlled how long the contract lasted. There areechoes of this in the George Michael case.The court decided that the contract was one-sided and unfair and wasan unreasonable restraint of trade and unenforceable. It thought that thepotential term of the contract was far too long, as it could easily lasteight or nine years. In that time the court felt that the band wouldn’thave had the opportunity to earn a decent living from their work. Therecord company wasn’t obliged to do very much with the recordings.There was no commitment to release them. The court freed Mr Johnsonfrom the contracts and awarded him substantial compensation.As a result of this case, UK record contracts now almost invariably contain aclause committing the record company to releasing records in at least thehome country. If records are not released the contract usually gives the artistthe right to end the contract and sometimes to get the recordings back,possibly in return for an override royalty. This is not always the case outsidethe UK and I recently had to fight for a release commitment in a US deal Iwas doing.TWO-ALBUM FIRM DEALSIf you’ve enough bargaining power, it is possible to get a record company tocommit in advance to a second album. These types of deal are called ‘two-album firm’ deals. They are not currently very common. Record companiesare more likely to agree to these when they’re in competition with anotherrecord company or perhaps where they are licensing in a finished album (soknow what they are getting there) and are then more inclined to take the riskon committing to a second one but most record companies don’t want togive this commitment. They want to see how the first album does beforecommitting to a second. Some artists and managers favour them becausethey believe they provide commitment and certainty, which allows them todo some forward planning. Others feel they only work if things are goingwell. If things aren’t going well, the record company will probably try andget out of it after the first album. If your only alternative is to sue thecompany for failing to honour their side of the bargain, you’ll probablyagree to accept the offer they make to end the contract, so the commitmentmay not mean much in the end. Sometimes the record label will give thecommitment but will insert what is sometimes called a ‘disaster clause’where if the first album does not sell over a given number of units the recordcompany does not have to make the second album. To my mind this type ofclause negates the whole point of seeking the certainty of a ‘two-albumfirm’ deal.TERRITORY AND SPLIT-TERRITORY DEALSLong-term exclusive record deals will usually be offered on a worldwidebasis. This may be perfectly acceptable, particularly if the record companyhas a strong presence in most major markets of the world. However, becausethe US is a very different marketplace from that of the UK, an artistsometimes asks for what is known as a ‘split-territory deal’.This means that you do one deal with a record company for the worldexcluding the US and another deal with a different record company for theUS. To make these types of deal work the artist and his manager have tojuggle the demands of two record companies. Record companies don’t likedoing these sort of deals, because they say they need a worldwide market inwhich to recover their investment. They also say that their own companiesare strong worldwide and should be given the chance.Split-territory deals are therefore usually offered to artists withconsiderable bargaining power. Sometimes these deals are done because therecord company has a strong reputation in one part of the world but not inanother. A US branch of a UK record company may not have a track recordin ‘breaking’ non-US artists in the US. However, it is doubtful that withoutsome strong bargaining power behind you you will succeed in getting a split-territory deal even in this situation.Smaller record companies may not have their own offices in all parts ofthe world. They may have a network of licensees in different countries.Those licensees might take all the records they produce. These are calledcatalogue licence deals. Alternatively, the UK company may look fordifferent licensees for each artist. For example, the UK record companycould do a deal with Atlantic Records in the US for all its acts or it could doa deal with Atlantic for its mainstream acts and with a smaller label for itsindie acts. Whatever the situation, you need to know who the licensees aregoing to be. They need to be well-established, trustworthy companies thatwill do a reasonable job of selling your records in the country concerned. If alicence deal isn’t in place in a particular country when you do your recorddeal, you should have the right to approve that part of the licence deal thataffects you at the time the licence deal is done. I recently successfullyargued for this right of approval when the label my client was signing to wasin the process of renegotiating its international licensing set-up and socouldn’t tell us who would be releasing the album overseas.Smaller companies use overseas licence deals to help to fund theiroperation in the UK. For example, a company in Germany could pay anadvance against the royalty it expects to pay on sales of records in Germany.It may also pay a contribution to the cost of doing a remix in return for theright to use the remix in Germany. If the artist does a promotional or concerttour in Germany, the German licensee may provide some financial back-up.If you have a small low-key deal in the UK with a label that can’t afford topay you very much up-front, you could ask that some of the advances paidby overseas licensees of your recordings should be paid through to you. Forexample, if the German licensee paid an advance against royalties of!100,000 you might get 25% (i.e. !25,000). This will help to make up for thelow advances in the UK. This is something that should be negotiated at thetime the original UK record deal is done.NEW FORMS OF RECORD DEAL360 dealsAt the time of writing these are the ‘flavour of the month’ deals. They arenot new – variations on them have been around for years. The RobbieWilliams deal done in 2002 was a particularly striking example of one ofthese deals but only now, some six years later, are they starting to filterdown into the mainstream. Very few artists have been able to attract dealswith the big numbers involved in the Robbie deal and most of these deals areat a much lower level. The one that is causing considerable discussion at themoment is the deal Madonna has struck with promoters Live Nation. This isdealt with in more detail in Chapter 10 dealing with touring.So what are these deals? They have acquired the name 360 because theyinvolve all important aspects of an artist’s career. A record label may say toan artist – in effect – ‘We cannot make enough money just from selling yourrecords to justify the level of advances, royalties and recording costs youwant us to pay. We cannot invest the kind of marketing budget this recordneeds because we can’t make enough money from record sales alone. So ifwe are going to sign/extend your record deal we can only do so on the basisthat we also get a share of the money you make from other activities.’ Theseactivities might be song-writing but more commonly it means they want ashare of the money the artist makes from selling tickets to their live concertsand selling merchandise at those concerts. Sometimes it also extends to anysponsorship deals the artist may do for that concert tour. The reason therecord labels have latched on to this is because at the moment the liveindustry is doing well in relative terms. Prices of tickets to live eventscontinue to rise and with fans spending another £20 or more a head onmerchandise once they get to the concert this is currently proving a verylucrative business for the artists. The record companies have convincedthemselves on the rightness of their stance by the fact that they feel it istheir work in promoting the album and the artist that is at least in partresponsible for the artist being able to sell so many concert tickets andtherefore they should share in that money.These 360 deals can take a number of forms. The record company mightjust tack on to their already long recording contract clauses which give thema share of income from things like the artist’s website, merchandising,sponsorship and ticket sales. The artist agrees to pay over a percentage ofthis income together with supporting statements which the label can check.The percentages are variable with figures around 10–20% being common but50% not being unheard of. In these types of deals the record label doesn’tinterfere, but just selects a share of the money. In other cases the recordlabel may insist that it controls things like the merchandising andsponsorship deals which the artist does. It is here that many artist advisersstart to get more nervous as this gives the record company a great deal ofcontrol over the artist’s wider career. The Madonna deal outlined in Chapter10 goes still further as she has signed such a deal not with a traditionalrecord label but with her live promoter who will in future be releasing herrecords.One deal that I did in the last year was an innovative variation on this360 model which involved the artist and the label setting up a partnershipwhich would hold assets like recording, trademarks, videos, artwork, butwhich the artist ultimately owned. These assets were licensed to thepartnership for a period of time before going back to the artist. Thepartnership embraced records and all other activities that the artistundertook in the entertainment industry excluding song writing as that dealhad already been done. There was however no other reason why song writingcould not form part of such an arrangement if all agreed. The partnershipwas initially funded by the record label ‘partners’ and it is a net profits deal.So far reasonably similar to other production deals with added income-producing areas. Where it got innovative was after the contract term ended.The artist would then be free to go off and sign to another company if hewished but for a period of time after that the artist would continue to pay apercentage of his profits from live work and other non-song writingactivities back to the record label ‘partners’. This deal is not for everyonebut it has now been picked up by an influential US label and so we may seemore of them in future.Many managers are up in arms at the 360 model because they see it asthe record label taking slices of income that traditionally they are notentitled to and arguably therefore reducing the monies that the artist receivesand which are then commissionable by the managers. However, as I saidabove in relation to production deals, these deals are very common at themoment and it is rare these days for new start-up labels not to at least beadvised to consider whether they should spread their risk by taking a shareof other income. This must not however be confused with deals where theartist is signed exclusively for recording, song writing, merchandise andsponsorship to one or more companies controlled by the same people whomay also manage the artist. These are variations on the production dealsdescribed below and should be very carefully handled as unless conflicts ofinterest are adequately addressed they are deals just waiting for an artistwith a bit of money to challenge in the courts.Production DealsAs I’ve already mentioned a type of recording deal that has grownsignificantly in importance over the last five years is the production deal.This is usually a form of an exclusive recording agreement for the world butwhere the record label is an offshoot business of a record producer orrecording studio owner or a manager who has access to cheap recordingfacilities or a fan or a song writer who has decided to set up his own ‘label’to record an artist he has found who he thinks is talented. These productioncompanies may be partially funded by a bigger company and act as a talentoutsource e.g. their studio rent and other office overheads may be wholly orpartially met by the record label (Heavenly is one of these labels and issupported by EMI) or they may be self-financed. Sometimes the fundingcomes from venture capitalists that set up schemes to invest in artists andlabels and in so doing exploit legitimate tax arrangements to maximise theinvestors’ tax breaks. Companies such as Ingenious are heavily involved inthis and amongst Ingenious’s recent investments have been a label ventureby IE the managers of Robbie Williams and the label appropriately namedIndependiente. Many more are self-financed or use what we call ‘friends andfamily’ funding – which as its name suggests means funding provided not byofficial financial institutions but by people known to the label owner. Theseproduction companies aim to exclusively sign up artists at an early stage intheir careers before there is too much interest in the industry leading to abidding frenzy. So the advances and recording budgets are likely to be low.The production company will expect to own the copyright for life ofcopyright and to have at least a couple of options to extend the contractbeyond an initial period. The aim of these production companies is either torecord up to say five tracks to good demo or master quality and use these totempt a bigger company to come on board or the production companyrecords and releases some tracks themselves in order to hopefully create abuzz and have the bigger company come along and either buy the contractoff them or license the rights off them exclusively in return for aninvestment into marketing and promotion and reimbursement of recordingcosts. The production company will obviously also hope to make a profit onthe dealThere is some debate amongst managers and their legal representativesas to whether these production deals are a good thing. I tend to take thepragmatic view that these structures are here to stay and if this is the onlytype of deal on offer you should think carefully before turning one down.There may seem to be a distinct advantage in signing direct to a bigger label,not through a small production label. On the other hand at least you are veryimportant for the small production company who is likely to give you moreattention and perhaps more creative control than you might expect from abigger label with other artists to also deal with. The big potential downsideis that many of these deals are on the basis that they share net profits withthe production company and usually that will be a 50:50 equal split.Sometimes it is a little more in the artist’s favour but in the early stagesmany are 50:50.In an ordinary royalties deal only the recording, video costs and personaladvances and possibly a percentage of independent promotion and toursupport is recoupable from royalty earnings. With a net profits or netreceipts deal all costs are recoupable.With an ordinary royalties deal the record company recoups therecoupable sums just from sums earned in royalties. With a net profits or netreceipts deal all costs are recouped from all income attributable to therecording i.e. including advances/fees paid by licensees, the recordcompany’s share of earnings etc.So all the income generated by the recordings goes to recoup all theexpenses and any profits or receipts left at the end are divided betweenrecord company and artist in the agreed proportions. The division is usuallya minimum of 50:50 but can go considerably higher in the artist’s favourwith 75:25 splits being not unheard of.At the outset, net profit or net receipts deals can work quite well for therecord company, as that is when costs are high. The record company s t i l lbears the risk on costs initially, but it doesn’t pay out anything to the artistuntil the deal goes into profit. Also, the record company gets to recoup costsit wouldn’t normally be entitled to offset against you, such as manufacturingcosts. You can still receive an advance to live on. Where these deals start tobecome less attractive to a record company and much more attractive to theartist is when the initial costs have been recouped and ongoing costs aregoing down. If the record continues to sell well and you’re on 50% of moreof profits, you’re doing considerably better than you would be if you were ona straight royalty basis.Such deals almost inevitably benefit the label in the early days becausethey do not have to pay the artist anything until the deal goes into profit.This means they have all their costs of recording, manufacturing anddistributing the records repaid first as well as things like press andpromotion costs. Only once all those costs have been recovered and theproject goes into profit do profits start to get shared. If the artist has had anadvance against his share of profits he will have to also repay that before hesees anything more. Once the costs have been recouped and start to tail offthen if the records continue to sell the label in theory should be makinglarger profits. These profits are then shared with the artist who stands to domuch better out of it than he would if he were on a royalty from a biggerlabel. So if costs are kept under control and the record sells both sides standto do very well.Where the scales tend to tip away from the artist is if the productioncompany sells on the contract to a bigger label. The production companymay then recover some or all of the costs it has paid out for recording and sois doing quite well but may not yet be in profit so perhaps the artist may nothave seen any more money at this point. The bigger label is not likely to do anet profits deal. They are much more likely to pay a royalty to theproduction company – let’s say 22% of the dealer price of the records. Thatthen is the ‘net income’ that comes into the production company for sales ofthese records. That 22% is then what the production company shares withthe artist. If it splits it 50:50 the artist is, if you like, on the equivalent of a11% royalty deal. Now that doesn’t sound so good does it? So it is often thecase that the lawyer for the artist will ask for an increase in the sharepayable to the artist to say 70% if a deal like this is put in place to give theartist a better ‘royalty equivalent’ deal. Even though it may seem that theartist has not done as well here as he would have with the bigger label thatbigger label was not showing any interest at the time the artist signed; theproduction company invested in the future of the artist and maybe helpednurture their creativity – so is it wrong to say they shouldn’t get a fairreward for that investment? You decide.OTHER ASPECTS OF RECORDING CONTRACTSNow that I’ve looked at the main types of deal and some of the things thatdistinguish them, I want to look at some aspects of contracts that arecommon to all types.DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS – MINIMUM COMMITMENTEach type of record contract has a minimum that is required from the artist.Licence deals can be for single tracks or albums. Development deals maystart out as being for four or five tracks and then develop into a commitmentto record albums. Exclusive album deals can either be for a single track oran album initially, usually with options to acquire further product.Production deals will be either for four or five tracks with options on furtherrecordings or an album commitment with options. One of the artist’sobligations is to deliver the required minimum number of recordings.This obligation may be simply to deliver the masters of these recordingsto the record company. More often, however, the commitment is notfulfilled until the record company has agreed that the recordings meet therequired standards. As we saw in the George Michael and Holly Johnsoncases, if these standards are not met the company can reject the recordingsand make the artist re-record them until they are satisfied. It’s important thatthese standards are realistic and that they’re set out in the contract. Theycould be technical requirements or commercial ones or a combination ofboth. What you should try and avoid is a subjective standard. This issomeone else’s view of whether the recordings meet the required standard orwhether the recording is commercially satisfactory. What a record companyexecutive thinks is commercially acceptable may not be anything like yourown views on the subject. It’s best if you can try and set an objectivestandard, a standard against which the quality of your recording can bemeasured. For example, measuring it against a recording of the artist’s thatthe record company has previously accepted as being satisfactory.It’s also usual to try and put a time limit on when the record companyhas to give an answer as to whether a recording is satisfactory. It must be arealistic time period, as the company may have to go through various stagesand processes before it can give an answer. The A&R man will have to listento it and probably play it to his colleagues at the weekly A&R meeting. Hemay talk to record producers to get their view of the recording. He’llprobably talk to the artist’s manager for his views. He may have a hunch thatthe record could be improved if one or more tracks are remixed by someoneother than the record producer or original mixer. Depending on the contract,he may have to get the artist’s permission before he does that. The contractwith the record producer may mean that he has to give him the first chanceto remix the track in question. Now obviously it’s unlikely that the A&Rman will be hearing the recordings for the very first time. He is likely tohave been involved in the process to a greater or lesser extent at an earlierstage but nevertheless this approvals process takes time.Once the record company is happy with the standard of the recordings itmay say that the recordings have been accepted and that the MinimumCommitment has been fulfilled, but most companies want more informationfrom you before they do that.Acceptance or fulfilment of Minimum Commitment usually means thatthe record company has to start planning the release and maybe has to pay afurther instalment of the artist advance. The record contract may set a lastdate by which the record must be released. The record company won’t wantthat time to start running until they’re in a position to start the processes fora release. This means that they usually require you to hand over a number ofother things before delivery is said to have taken place and before theyaccept the recordings. This could be artwork for the packaging of therecords, details of who performed on the masters, and confirmation thatthose performers have given their performer’s consents. If there are samplesof anyone else’s recordings or songs in the masters, the record company willwant to know that you have permission from the copyright owners of thoserecordings or songs to use the samples (see Chapter 13). If permission to usethe samples hasn’t been agreed then the record company can’t put therecordings out without being in breach of copyright. With a production dealit is likely that the delivery of the five or more tracks will start the timerunning for when the production company has to get a bigger company onboard, release the records themselves, or release you from the contract. Sothey are going to be pretty sure they have all they need before they officially‘accept’ the recordings.Because it’s important to know when a recording has been accepted, Ioften ask the record company to agree that the recordings are said (deemed)to be accepted if the record company has not said that they aren’t within fourto six weeks of delivery of the masters, artwork etc. to them. Depending onhow long they think it will take for them to go through the acceptanceprocess, they may agree to this or they may not. With a production deal youare more likely to be closely involved in the whole process with the labeland you choosing songs, producer, remixer etc. together. There is less likelyto be a very formal procedure for notification of delivery and acceptance insuch cases but they will still want to know they have all the parts theyrequire to get a release and the artist will still want to know that he has doneall that is required of him for the moment.ADVANCESFor many artists this is one of the most important issues. Remember thatthese monies will have to be recouped out of the royalties earned from salesor other uses of the recordings. Unlike a loan, however, advances aren’tusually repayable if the record company doesn’t sell enough of the records.That’s the record company’s risk. If, however, the artist takes their moneyand then doesn’t deliver any recordings, the record company may try andcome after you to get the advance back. If it’s all gone, they may not botherto sue because it would cost them more in legal fees than they would getback. I wouldn’t like to rely on them not suing though.What’s a good advance on an exclusive recording agreement?A good advance is one that meets your needs. You may only care aboutgetting as much money as possible and aren’t concerned if you never sellenough records to recoup. There are a lot of cynical managers with that viewin the business – take the money and run. In that case you’ll just be lookingfor the most money you can get up-front. It’s a short-term view because thegreater the record company’s investment in advances, the more pressurethere is going to be on you to perform and the more likely it is that therecord company will want to dictate to you. If you go for a more reasonableadvance payable in reasonable instalments, the record company may put youunder less pressure to deliver. You should also recoup the advances soonerout of your royalties. Because so few artists recoup advances and costs, thiswill put you in a strong bargaining position with the record company. I have,however, recently heard a very successful and influential music managertake completely the opposite position. His view is that an artist who hasproved that he can sell records if the record company does its job properlycan get more commitment out of a record company by being unrecouped, asthis will encourage the company to work harder. This could well be the casewith certain labels or individuals, but I’m not convinced that this applies toeveryone, particularly in the current climate when so few artists are gettingbeyond their first album. One of the reasons the contract does not go furtheris because overall it is just too expensive. A prudent manager wouldconsider renegotiating if the label was otherwise a good bet to stay with. Ifhowever the A&R or MD who signed the act is no longer there then you maybe better off cutting your losses, walking away from the debt and trying tostart again.Whatever the position on recoupment, a good advance is going to be onethat allows the artist to live and have a roof over his head for at least a year(preferably eighteen months) while the recordings are being made and thenpromoted. It’s a good idea for the artist or his manager to do an outlinebudget of what he may need.If a manager is only interested in getting as much of the advance aspossible as early as possible as an artist I would be suspicious. Is he onlyconcerned about his commission? Is he only in it for the short term? Doesn’the expect to be around when the record is finished or when it’s time for theoption to be exercised? Whose interests is he looking after – the artist’s orhis own? It may be a perfectly legitimate approach, but don’t accept itwithout question. If he’s pushing for a very short deal with most of themoney up-front, is it an agreed approach of ‘take the money and run’ ordoesn’t he have faith that you can cut it beyond one album? You may accepta lower advance in return for other things such as greater creative control.It’s possible to get both, but usually only when you have a lot of bargainingpower. If you go for a lower advance you should also be able to argue for ahigher royalty and this argument also holds good in production deals but donot expect the production company to necessarily move beyond a 50:50 dealin the early stages.Min-max formulaThe level of advances payable could be calculated according to a formula(called a ‘min-max formula’). Under this formula a minimum advance ispayable to the artist and a limit is also set on the maximum the companywill pay. The actual amount is calculated as a percentage of the royalties theartist earns. The formula usually applies from the second contract period oralbum onwards. This method of calculating option period advances is oftenfavoured by production companies as it allows them to reward sales success.At the beginning of the second contract period, the record company looksat how much the artist has earned from sales of the recordings he made inthe first contract period. It then takes a percentage of that and, if the amountthen arrived at is more than the minimum and less than the maximum, thenthat is the advance payable for that period. For example, in the twelvemonths following the release of the first album the artist may have earned£100,000 in royalties. The formula for calculating the advance for thesecond contract period is linked to 66% of those earnings; 66% of £100,000is £66,666. The minimum advance payable in the next contract period is,say, £50,000. This is above that. The maximum advance payable is, say,£100,000, but it’s not got to that point so the advance payable is £66,666.This formula can work and many record companies favour them becausethey give them a degree of certainty for budgeting purposes and a paymentlinked to success. The artist needs to make sure that the minimums areenough to meet his minimum living requirements. In the example I gaveabove, could he live on £50,000 for a year or longer in the second contractperiod?The maximums are usually double the minimum, but may be more inlater contract periods. Is the maximum a reasonable advance if the artist isdoing very well? To be honest, I don’t worry about the maximums as muchas the minimums. If you’re hitting the maximums it’s because the artist isdoing well and the record company is more likely to want to keep him happyby renegotiating these figures upwards.Payment termsAdvances are normally paid in instalments, usually one on signing the deal,another when the artist starts recording the Minimum Commitment for thatcontract period, and the final instalment either on delivery of the completedrecordings to the record company or on commercial release of therecordings. With a production deal the later instalments may be linked to theproduction company getting a bigger company on board. As the releasecould be some months after delivery, the artist will want the final instalmentto be paid on delivery. The record company may want to protect itself byonly paying the last instalment when the record is released, when there is areasonable prospect of record sales reducing its financial exposure.However, a lot can happen between delivery of the finished masters and theirrelease. A client of mine once delivered finished masters to the recordcompany and they were accepted. A few months later, and before the lastdate on which the record company had to release the recordings, thecompany closed down and the copyright in the client’s recordings wastransferred to another record company. That record company then hesitatedfor a few months more about whether or not they were going to release thealbum. In the end the artist’s manager asked me to send the record companya formal notice under the terms of the record contract requiring the recordcompany to release the album and pay the final instalment due under thedeal. When the record company got the notice it rang me up and said that ithad decided that it didn’t want to release the album. It offered to give myclient the copyright in the album back in return for an override royalty untilsuch time as it had recovered the recording costs that had been spent on thealbum. The client and his manager decided to take this offer, but more thanseven months had passed since the recordings were delivered and the artistdidn’t get the advance due on release of the album. From the artist’sperspective therefore it would have been better to have payment linked todelivery of recordings not their release.Costs-inclusive advancesThe advances I have been describing so far are called personal advances.They go towards the artist’s personal needs. The costs of making therecording are separate recoupable amounts (see Chapter 5). The recordcompany may offer an advance, which includes the costs of making therecordings. These costs-inclusive deals are often called ‘recording-funddeals’. Both artist and the record company have to be quite careful that theamounts advanced under a recording-fund deal are at the right level. Theartist has to be sure that he can make the album he wants to make with theavailable funds and still have something over to live on. Often, costs-inclusive deals work out at less money than one for a personal advance plusrecording costs, unless the artist can record very cheaply. The recordcompany has to know it’s not being too generous but also that the artistwon’t run out of money before the recording is finished. If he does, therecord company inevitably ends up paying out more money if it wants to getthe recording finished. Recording-fund deals can work for establishedartists, for those with their own recording facilities or more mature artistswho can be relied on to make the recording without spending all the moneyon themselves. I have recently successfully negotiated just such a deal with acompany in the EMI Group. The artist had a track record of making recordsand the manager was very experienced and respected by the record company.It’s worked out well for the artist, as much of the recording was done in ahome studio.RECORD BUDGETSIf a record company is not offering a recording-fund deal you’ll need to havesome idea of how much it’s going to cost to make the recordings. You needto know that the record company is committed to spending that amount ofmoney. If you’re doing a licence deal you’ll usually have already finishedmaking recordings, and so the issue is whether they will compensate you forthe costs you’ve incurred. So you need to know what you’ve spent.The budget must take into account how much it will cost to rehearse thematerial, to do any necessary pre-production (preparation for recording andprogramming), to record the material in the studio, to have it produced,mixed and edited. Some record companies include the cost of cutting ordigitally mastering the recording in the budget. This can add thousands tothe deal so, if the budget is tight, try and get them to pay for that separately.You also have to bear in mind the cost of hiring in specialist equipment andengaging the services of additional musicians and vocalists. The budget alsousually includes what are called per diems, an expression meaning a dailyexpenses payment to cover food and drink and sometimes also transport toand from the studio.The record company may commit to a guaranteed minimum spend onrecording costs in the contract, but most are reluctant to do that. This iseither because they’re afraid they may get it wrong, or because setting aminimum figure means you tend to spend that amount of money whether it’snecessary or not. On the other hand, you’ll want to know the record companyis committed to a particular level of spend so that you know that you canmake the kind of record you want. Both sides have to be realistic. It’s nogood a record company thinking you can make an album for five pence, butneither is it any good you thinking the record company will let you have ablank cheque. This is where a decent recording budget is invaluable.Recording costs are usually fully recoupable. There are, however, someelements of the recording cost budget that may be wholly or partially non-recoupable. A classic example is the costs of remixing. Mixing costs arevery expensive. If you’re on a tight budget these costs can take a lot out ofthe total. The record company may want to commission a remix that youdon’t think is necessary. Who is to pay for this and are the costs to berecoupable? Some record companies will agree that the first mix comes outof the recording budget as does any remix that you want to do, but if therecord company wants to do additional remixes they pay that on top of therecording budget. So, you know what to do – make sure it’s the recordcompany that asks for the remix, not you.ROYALTIESThis could be the subject of a whole book in itself. No two companiescalculate royalties in exactly the same way. This is an area where there isreally no escaping the need for experience and legal advice.Record company executives usually have guidelines as to what is or isnot allowed. Certain top artists may have been given ‘favoured nations’terms. This means that they have the best deal that the record company canoffer on that particular point. If any other artist is offered better terms bythat record company, the artist with the ‘favoured nations’ provision mustalso be given these better terms. As this has potentially huge financialimplications for the record company, an executive crosses these boundariesat his peril. It may be impossible to do so and will definitely requireagreement from someone high up the corporate ladder.Retail versus dealer priceYou need to know what price basis the record company is using to account toyou. An 18% royalty on the retail price of a CD would be good, but 18% onthe dealer price of the CD would be just average.Until about ten years ago, the majority of UK record companiescalculated their royalties as a percentage of the retail price of the record inquestion. However, the retail price is not within the record company’scontrol and varies considerably. Most UK companies have, therefore, movedover to using the dealer price of the record as the basis of calculation.Outside the UK and in particular in countries like Japan and the UnitedStates, they have very different methods of arriving at a dealer or‘wholesale’ price basis. In order to make a proper comparison, you shouldask the record company to give you the actual figures they are talking aboutso you can do what is sometimes known as a ‘pennies’ calculation. Thismeans that you can calculate roughly what you’ll get from each record sold.This calculation is essential when you’re trying to compare offers from morethan one record company. It’s also important for a record companyexecutive trying to make a deal to know how much he will have to pay inrecord royalties per record sold. He or his finance officer will need tocalculate how many records will need to be sold before the advance theyoffer will be recouped. It has to make some kind of commercial sense evenif the A&R man is so determined to do the deal that he wants to pay over theodds. At least he’ll know what he has to aim at in terms of record sales.What percentage of sales?Is the royalty calculated on all records sold or a lesser percentage? Manyrecord companies build in a ‘free goods’ allowance of up to 15% of totalsales on which they do not pay a royalty.Packaging and other deductionsThe most common deductions are packaging deductions, sometimes alsoreferred to as container charges. This is a charge supposedly to cover thecost of making the cases or other packaging in which the record is sold. Inreality, the actual cost is usually far less than the average packagingdeduction and is a way by which the record company artificially reduces theroyalty paid to you. These deductions must be taken into account in order tocompare offers from different companies. An average packaging deductionfor CDs is 20%, although many companies charge 25%. More and morecompanies – including EMI and BMG before it was merged with Sony –dispensed with packaging deductions altogether as part of a drive for simplercontracts and greater transparency. Whilst I am all for that the problem isthat, because not all labels have adopted this approach, many are stillmaking a packaging deduction and therefore comparing like with like is verydifficult. A royalty rate offered by a company which does not deduct apackaging allowance may seem low and uncompetitive until you take thisinto account.Other traps for the unwary are the reductions that some recordcompanies apply to certain types of records. For instance, sales by mailorder, through record clubs or at budget prices will be at a lower royalty rate.The principle behind all these deductions is that, where the record companygets less than the full price for a sale, it will reduce the amount payable tothe artist on that sale. A record sold as a budget record will usually attract a50% reduction in the royalty rate. A 50% reduction also applies to recordsadvertised on television, sold by mail order or through record clubs. Thereduction in the royalty for mail-order sales is important when you think thatmany companies will now offer mail-order sales over the Internet. If thisbecomes the established method of selling records then we ought to lookagain at whether or not a 50% reduction is appropriate.A detailed exploration of all the royalty reductions is beyond the scopeof this book. Your lawyer and accountant will be familiar with these. MostUK record companies usually apply the principles behind the reductions in asimilar way, but the details will differ a great deal.What’s a good royalty?As a very general guideline, a basic royalty of more than 18% of the dealerprice calculated on 100% of records sold with no reduction for CDs and apackaging deduction of no more than 20% would be acceptable. It’s unusualto see royalty rates of more than 24% of the dealer price for new signings toexclusive record deals. However, royalties on licence deals could wellexceed 24% on the above basis, because the record company is getting afinished recording and can assess the commercial potential upfront. Therecord company also hasn’t taken any risk on the recording costs. On non-exclusive licence deals between record companies, for example for acompilation, the royalty may well be more than 24% of the dealer price withno packaging deductions, because they recognise the deduction for what it is.RELEASE COMMITMENTSObviously, once the album has been delivered and accepted it would be goodto have some kind of assurance that it’s going to see the light of day and notjust sit on the shelf. You need a commitment from the record company torelease the record in at least the home market and preferably also the mainoverseas markets. The release should usually take place within four to sixmonths of delivery of the masters. If it doesn’t, the usual remedy is to servea notice telling the record company that if it doesn’t release the recordwithin another two to three months then the artist has the right to end thecontract and not have to deliver any more masters. Even better would be acommitment from them to return the unreleased masters to the artist(perhaps in return for an override royalty until the recording costs have beenrecouped).Some record companies don’t want to do this, because they would rathernegotiate such things at the time. They may also want to hold on to themasters in case another company has better luck in making you successful.They then have back catalogue material they try to release to cash in on thissuccess. I think this is pretty daft because, although the tried and true fanswill buy all records, there’s no artist to promote the record so it’s unlikely togo very far. Sometimes they hold on to the unreleased masters in order to tryand sell it to the artist’s new record company at a later date and this strategyis often successful.Overseas, if the record isn’t released within four to six months of the UKrelease (depending on the contract – it might be longer if it’s a small label)you can serve another notice of thirty to sixty days; if there hasn’t been arelease the artist may have the chance to find a licensee and make the recordlabel then license it to that company to release. They’re unlikely toautomatically give the masters back, as they know it’s difficult to make theiroverseas companies or licensees release recordings. It’s mad though if youthink about it – why bother to do a worldwide deal if you can’t evenguarantee that your sister companies overseas will even release the recordsin their territory? It’s all part of that argument, ‘We have to do this becausefor the few that are international artists we would look stupid and get fired ifwe didn’t have world rights.’ACCOUNTINGThe artist should get paid at least twice a year, possibly four times withsmaller companies doing their own distribution. The accounts statementswill be sent out sixty to ninety days after the accounting date. If all advancesare recouped (oh happy day!) the statement will have a cheque with it –yippee! If you aren’t certain what the statement says, check it with youraccountant. If he doesn’t think it’s right you should challenge it, but don’tleave it too long as you probably can’t object after a period of time, say oneto three years. You have the right to audit (inspect) the books at least once ayear. Send accountants in to audit if you’ve had a successful period or at theend of a deal that has gone well.WHAT HAPPENS IN A PRODUCTION DEAL WHEN ABIGGER COMPANY COMES ALONG?Well, first the production company either sells or licenses on the rights ithas in its deal with the artist and the rights it has in any recordings it hasalready made, to the bigger label. This is either an outright sale where theproduction company steps out of the picture on an active level and passivelycontinues to earn its income from future sales or it remains as an activemiddleman. The decision is usually made between the bigger company andthe production company but as we will see below the artist may have anindirect say. If the production company stays in the picture the biggercompany does a contract with the production company and not direct withthe artist. It pays the production company an advance, maybe reimbursementof specific costs such as recording costs already incurred and a percentage offuture royalties. Out of these monies the production company pays what isdue to the artist under its separate contract with the artist.If the production company drops out of the picture the bigger label doesthe deal direct with the artist and a separate deal with the productioncompany for its share of future earnings. In the latter case the artist is free tonegotiate new terms. In the former case where the production company staysin the middle the artist is generally stuck with the original production dealhe did so it is important that that contract anticipates that this is going tohappen and ensures the artist gets a fair share going forward. This mayinvolve a bigger percentage of the profits going forward and/or a slice of theadvances paid by the bigger company.There is also a small window of opportunity for the artist to attempt arenegotiation of his deal. The bigger company will usually want the artist toconfirm that it won’t lose out if the artist and the production company fallout at a later stage; or if the production company goes bust or doesn’t wantto continue with the artist whilst the bigger company does. This document,called an inducement letter, allows the artist a little bargaining power as it isimportant to the bigger company that it is signed. Therefore the artist has anopportunity to try and improve his terms a little bit.CONCLUSIONSThere are four main types of record deal – licences, development deals,production deals and exclusive recording agreements.With each type of contract you need to work out how much exclusivityyou’re going to give and what territory the contract is to cover.Advances against royalties can include recording costs or these can bedealt with separately. Recording and personal advance budgets areuseful in setting the level of the deal.Royalties can be calculated on the retail or the dealer price of therecord. It’s important to establish which, as it makes a great deal ofdifference to the deal.Some record labels no longer deduct the cost of packaging. It isimportant to know this as it can explain what may otherwise seem apoor royalty.Record contracts often contain reductions in royalties on certain typesof sale or method of distribution.Net profits deals work for the record company at the beginning but thescales can tip in favour of the artist after the initial costs have beenrecouped.New types of recording deals based on the artist sharing income fromhis other activities (360 models) are emerging which may work for youeither once you are a successful artist or as alternatives.1 Macaulay v. Schroeder Music Publishing Co. Limited (1974) 1WLR 1308,HL.2 Panayiotou v. Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Limited (1994) EMLR 220.3 Section 16(2) CDPA.4 Sections 17-27 CDPA.5 Directive 2001/29/EC.6 In the US options for six or seven further albums are commonplace.7 Zang Tumb Tum Records Limited and Perfect Songs Limited v. HollyJohnson [1983] EMLR 6. Chapter 4What Is A Good Publishing Deal? INTRODUCTIONIN THIS CHAPTER I’m going to look at what rights a songwriter has and whathe can expect from the various types of publishing deals. I’m going to askwhether you need to do a publishing deal at all. If so, whether, ideally, itshould be before or after you’ve done your record deal. Just as we have seenwith recording deals there have also been changes in how publishing isviewed by the smaller operators and there has been a move amongstmanagers and smaller record labels to also take an interest in publishingrights. I will explore how they do this and whether or not I think this is agood idea.Before I go into any detail about the contract, I need to look at how youfind a music publisher, what a music publisher actually does, and what rightsa songwriter has. You will not be surprised by now to learn that the doctrineof restraint of trade comes up here too. Since the last edition of this bookthere have been a number of significant cases to do with publishing rightspossibly reflecting the greater interest in songwriting as a source of income.As well as looking at some restraint of trade cases these new cases will bedealt with in full below.HOW TO FIND A MUSIC PUBLISHERMusic publishers employ A&R people and scouts in the same way as recordcompanies do. They’re on the lookout for talented songwriters who eitherperform in a band or as a solo artist, or who mostly write songs for otherpeople. Hopeful songwriters send demos to publishing companies in thesame way as record companies.You can find lists of UK music publishers in the Music Week Directory(see Useful Addresses). All the major record companies also have well-established music publishing companies within their group of companies.For example, there is an EMI Records and EMI Music Publishing. There hasbeen a spate of mergers in the major music publishers in the last few yearsand threats of significant changes with others. Universal Music Publishinghas acquired BMG Music Publishing in a move which was initiallyscrutinised by the European Commission but which was subsequentlycleared on the condition that Rondor UK, Zomba UK, 19 Songs and BBCMusic were sold off. When Guy Hands’ private equity group Terra Firmabought EMI for £2.4billion in 2007 there was rampant speculation that thedeal would be funded at least in part by the sale or securitisation(mortgaging) of the EMI publishing catalogue. So far this has not happenedand the focus seems to have moved away from this as a source of revenuebut it must remain a significant possibility. There is also talk that if Warnersand EMI were to ever conclude their long on-off, love-hate courtship thatthis too might result in the sale of certain assets such as the Warner Chappellpublishing catalogue either to raise funds or to reduce the likelihood of themerger being rejected on monopoly grounds. So we are now down to fourmajor music publishers: Warner Chappell, Universal, Sony and EMI. Thereare also independent music publishers that aren’t associated with recordcompanies, for example PeerMusic or Bucks Music Group, as w e l l a sadministrators such as Kobalt and Bug Music amongst others. Your lawyer,accountant and manager can all refer you to publishers they think will besuitable for your style of songwriting.WHAT DOES A PUBLISHER DO?Have you ever wondered why we call them publishers? As far as I can workout, it comes from the early days of the music business when music waspublished in the form of sheet music in the same way as a book is published.Nowadays, of course, sheet music forms only a small part of the income thata songwriter and a publisher can make. These days the largest share ofincome comes from the use of songs on sound recordings (mechanicals) orwith TV, film or other moving images (synchronisation). As digitaldistribution of music develops, the rights in a song may well be far morevaluable than a physical sound recording like a CD as we will see in Chapter7 on digital media.Publishers have traditionally had three main roles. Firstly, they issuelicences to people who want to use music. Secondly, they actively look forways to use music – for example, putting it in an advert or on a filmsoundtrack. Thirdly, they collect the income from those licences and uses.The first of these roles is often done in conjunction with the collectionsocieties (see Chapter 15), including now the area of online uses where, afterinitially feeling their way, the societies have now begun to establish linkswith international societies and to have mandates from their members togrant commercial licences for online uses. Their position has beenstrengthened legally by the bringing into UK law late in 2003 of the EUDirective which confirmed the extension of rights of copyright owners andperformers to online, digital uses which has removed the previousuncertainty.Some publishers are better than others in finding uses for music andcollecting the money earned. Obviously, a songwriter has to be satisfied thatthey can do a reasonable job of collecting in the money. Whether he alsoneeds them to be good at finding uses for his songs will depend on the typeof songwriter he is (although most songwriters probably wouldn’t turn downadditional ways of making money).So that people know who to approach when they want to ask to use asong, and in order to track the money and collect it properly, the publisherhas to register the songs with all the main collection societies around theworld. Sometimes this just requires that the songwriter fills in a form andfiles it with the society. Sometimes they also have to send in a recording anda written copy of the words and music, called a lead sheet.If the music publisher is one of the bigger publishers, it will have its owncompanies in each of the major countries in the world. One or two of theindependent publishers, most notably PeerMusic, also have their owncompanies worldwide too. Most of the independent and smaller publishersdon’t have the resources to set up overseas companies. They appoint localpublishers in the country concerned to look after their interests there. This iscalled sub-publishing.The traditional roles of the publisher are however changing as they toolook for different ways of making money in a difficult market place. If oneof their traditional main sources of income has been mechanical royalties onrecord sales and if, as is the case, CD sales are declining then their income isalso dropping so they have to supplement it in other ways as well asbecoming better at collecting it and more efficient in running theircompanies. Publishers will also now do some of the things that wereoriginally only done by record companies. They will provide studio time foran artist or songwriter to record demos. In order to get interest from recordcompanies to sign singer–songwriters, some publishers act almost likerecord companies, putting records out in limited editions as a way to attractrecord company interest. There are even some that will provide financialsupport for you when you’re out on the road promoting your records, orextra funds for promotion or press coverage. These costs and payments areusually recoupable from your publishing income as and when it comesthrough. The main reason they do these things is in order to give you a bit ofa boost, a head start, or to top up funding that may or may not be providedby your record company. EMI was one of the first publishers to look atlicensing song lyrics for inclusion on merchandise like mugs and T-shirts.EMI has also developed an arm of its UK company which is involved in themanagement of songwriters – many of whom are producers and notnecessarily performers. These artists do not have to be signed to EMI forpublishing. With the decline in mechanical income licensing songs for use inads and films has become more important and many publishers arestrengthening their synchronisation departments.WHAT ARE MUSIC PUBLISHING RIGHTS?Before you can have any rights in a literary or musical work1 (i.e. in lyricsor music) you have to establish that the words and music are original andthat they have been recorded in some way. This could be sheet music, withthe words and music written down, or a demo of someone singing the wordsand music.2HOW DO YOU PROVE THAT YOU HAVE COPYRIGHT IN AWORK?There are a number of recognised ways of doing this.You could put the sheet music or demo recording in a safe deposit boxmarked with your name and the date on which you wrote it and get a receipt.You could send it to your lawyer and ask him to write back to confirmwhen he received it from you. Some lawyers aren’t happy about doing this.They don’t want trouble later if they lose the CD in among the one hundredand one others in their office. Also, they can’t really confirm something thatthey have no direct knowledge of. They don’t know who wrote it or when.They can only say that you sent a tape to them on a particular day.The most popular way is to put the lyric sheet and recording in anenvelope addressed to yourself that you then post to yourself by recordedmail (so you have a receipt). When it arrives you keep it unopened in a safeplace. The postmark and the fact that it’s still sealed means that you haveproof that that recording/lyric/sheet must have existed some time before thepostmark date. So, if someone later copies the song illegally, there isevidence that your version was written before theirs.WHO OWNS THESE RIGHTS?The first owner of the copyright in a musical or literary work is the personwho is the ‘author’ or creator of an original work and records it in a tangibleform.3There can be more than one writer or composer.4 These are called co-writers. One person might write the words and the other the music, or the co-writers might all work on both elements.Famous examples of successful co-writing partnerships are Elton Johnand Bernie Taupin, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and, more recently,Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. It’s perfectly possible for two separatepublishers to control parts of the same song.Where there are co-writers the song is jointly owned, and it’s veryimportant to record who owns what part of the music or lyrics. When youfinish a new song and give it to your publisher, they fill in a form on yourbehalf called a Joint Registration Form. This is the form needed to recordthe details about the song, which is then sent to the collecting societies,MCPS and PRS (the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Limited/thePerforming Rights Society Limited). The form contains the title of the song,who wrote it, what shares of it they wrote and if there are any restrictions onwhat can be done with it. If you don’t have a publisher and you’re a memberof PRS or MCPS or both, you should complete and file that form yourself.Most publishing agreements will say that all songs are assumed to bewritten in equal shares by all co-writers unless the publisher is toldsomething different when the work is completed and details given to themfor registration. The whole question of who wrote what can be the cause ofmajor arguments between co-writers, who are often members of the sameband or the producer of the album. This can be the case even where not allmembers of a band contribute to the writing. Those members that do writeresent those that don’t. These issues ought to be sorted out at an early stagebefore it becomes a real issue (see Chapter 11).You won’t be surprised to learn that disputes over ownership arecommonplace. A well-publicised 1999 case over songwriting sharesinvolved members of Spandau Ballet.5Spandau Ballet caseSpandau Ballet’ was formed in 1979 and made up of the two K e m pbrothers, Martin and Gary, together with Tony Hadley, John Keeble andSteve Norman. They were part of the New Romantic movement and,after turning down a record deal with Island Records, they set up theirown label that they eventually licensed to Chrysalis Records. Their firstsingle, ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’, went Top 5 in the UK. Theyreleased a couple more singles before having a Top 3 hit with ‘ChantNumber’. They released six albums plus a Greatest Hits compilation.The last album, Heart Like A Sky, was released in 1989. Ten years laterthey were in court arguing over song royalties. Martin Kemp was notinvolved in this case.Everyone agreed that Gary Kemp had written the lyrics to all thesongs. The dispute was over who composed the music. Gary Kemp’scompany received all the publishing income from the songs. Hevolunteered to give half of this money to the other band members, butstopped this arrangement in 1987. The other band members sued, sayingthat there was a legally binding agreement to continue to pay thismoney. They also argued that, if there was not a binding agreement, theywere entitled to the money anyway because they were co-writers of thesongs and therefore co-owners of the copyright. They said they’dcontributed enough to the music to make them co-writers. The judgedecided that there was no binding legal agreement. Gary Kemp was solewriter of all the music save for a song called ‘Glow’. The judge alsoconfirmed that to be a co-owner you have to have contributed to thesong’s creation, not just to its interpretation. So if a drummer just adds ashort drum loop that doesn’t make any material difference to the song,that won’t qualify for a claim that he has co-written that song. A bassistwho takes the melody line and just converts it into a part that is suitablefor his instrument will also probably not have claim to being a co-writer.More recently there are threats of a court case against James Blunt by recordproducer Lukas Barton who claims to have co-written a number of songs byBlunt which feature on his album Back to Bedlam, which has so far sold over14 million copies worldwide. Blunt denies Barton was a co-writer and saysthat he wrote all the songs in dispute himself, either whilst he was serving inKosovo or before that at his parents’ home. It is not certain that this casewill come to court; it is possible it will settle beforehand.Mark Taylor v. Rive Droit Music LimitedOne case that did make it to court was a claim by Mark Taylor, co-writerof Cher’s hit record ‘Believe’ against music publishers Rive Droit MusicLimited (RDM).6 Many of the problems that surround this case turn onbad drafting of a publishing agreement and a dispute as to who ownedtwo songs which Mark Taylor co-wrote and which were recorded by theartist Enrique Iglesias.In 1995 Mark Taylor entered into two agreements with RDM, thesecond of which was a written publishing agreement which was renewedtwice, the second time in 1998. At the end of November 2000 Mr Taylorstopped working for RDM and joined a rival set-up Brian RawlingProductions Limited (BRP). Brian Rawling had originally been recruitedby RDM to bring together a stable of songwriters. Songs written by thesesongwriters would be pitched to other record labels and artists. The ideawas that RDM would produce the subsequent recordings of those songsand receive both a production fee and royalties from sales of the recordsand a share of the songwriting royalties.Mr Taylor collaborated with Paul Barry (another songwriter signedto RDM) and together they wrote a number of songs including ‘Believe’which made their name. Mr Taylor entered into the third publishingagreement with RDM in about December 1998.Two years later in early December 2000 Mr Taylor and Mr Barrywent to America and worked on songs which were to be recorded byEnrique Iglesias. On 6 December Mr Taylor decided to end theproduction arrangements with RDM with effect from 1 December 2000and sent the owner of the company a fax to that effect. Over the courseof December 2000 all of the producers and most of the administrativestaff left RDM for BRP.In April 2000 Mr Taylor sought a declaration from the court that his1998 publishing agreement had expired on 30 November 2000 and thathe was due royalties. RDM disputed this interpretation of the contractand said that the term of it was three years not two. Presumably on thebasis that they may have been found to be wrong on this they tried toargue that they had the rights in the two Iglesias songs which Mr Taylorwas arguing were written after the end of the 1998 publishing agreementbecause he had in fact not created new works but adapted parts of songswritten by Mr Barry (who was presumably still under contract). RDMalleged this amounted to an infringement of their copyrights and askedthe court to award them damages.At the first hearing the judge found that it had been a two yearcontract and that Mr Taylor was under no obligation to deliver to RDMany song written in whole or in part after 1 December 2000. However,Mr Taylor did not have it all his own way because the judge also foundthat some of the two Iglesias songs had in fact been in existence on 1December 2000 and the copyright in those parts belonged to RDM.Taylor felt that RDM didn’t acquire the copyright until he had delivereda completed song. So both parties appealed to the Court of Appeal whichfinally gave judgment on the case in November 2005. Well you do knowthat saying ‘Where there’s a hit there’s a writ’. It might have beencoined for just such a case as this.There were considerable difficulties in deciding what the publishingcontract on 1998 actually meant. The Term appeared to be for two yearsbut then in another clause this was contradicted by a reference to threetwelve-month periods not two. Eventually the judges agreed that it wastwo years not three and that the earlier clause which defined the Termwas stronger than the later, contradictory one. The court also decidedthat the relevant point for determining the ownership of the copyrightwas when copyright subsisted and when it was intended that thatcopyright could transfer to another. The judges accepted this was notalways easy to determine but in this case decided that copyright vestedin RDM at the moment there was a complete work. Now this could haveimplications for drafting of publishing agreements in future as manypublishers take the view that even if a song is a work in progress theystill own rights in it. There were also echoes of our old friend thedoctrine of restraint of trade in that if they were to decide that thismeaning of composition included ALL of the writer’s output then thatcould be seen as a restraint of his trade.As a post script to this case, in late 2007 Rive Droit Music Limited went intoadministration. Whilst the arguments surrounding these cases may suggestthey turn on their own facts there are clearly lessons to be learned: be clearin your drafting, and make sure all rights of session musicians and bandmembers are clearly set out. This point will emerge again in a later chapterwhen we look at the rights of session musicians but before we leave this arealet’s look at a recent case (currently under appeal) which seems to throwsome doubt on what rights the original composer of a song has when part ofthat song is then replayed by a member of the band.Matthew Fisher v. Gary Brooker – The ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ Case7This was a case decided some forty years after the song was originallywritten and recorded and turned into a massive hit by the band ProculHarum. Mr Fisher was the band’s ex-organist and he argued that he wasentitled to a share in the musical copyright (not the lyrics). The band’spianist Gary Brooker argued that Mr Fisher’s organ solo was essentiallythe same as the original piano composition. The judge preferred MrFisher’s version of events and ordered that Mr Fisher was entitled toclaim a 40% share in the music. It is sometimes difficult to follow ajudge’s logic as in this case, having decided that Mr Fisher had made asignificant contribution to the original musical work so as to make him aco-author with Mr Brooker he decided that that contribution was not as‘substantial’ as Mr Brooker’s contribution so awarded him a 40% not50% share. The judge also ordered that Mr Fisher was not entitled to anyroyalties for the time before he brought the case. The song wasoriginally released as a single on 12 May 1967 and was a huge hit, goingon to sell over 6 million copies worldwide. Around the time of therelease the two authors Mr Brooker and a Mr Reid assigned theircopyright in the words and music to Essex Music Limited, those rightsare now owned by the successor to Essex Music Limited, Onward MusicLimited. When the song was being written the two were forming a bandwhich Mr Fisher joined as Hammond organist. In rehearsals Mr Brookerand Mr Fisher improvised their respective piano and organ parts over theoriginal chord sequence that Mr Brooker had composed. It is thisimprovised organ accompaniment that formed the basis of Mr Fisher’sclaim for a declaration that he owned 50% of the copyright in the music.In a further twist in law the furthest back Mr Fisher could go in hisclaim for back royalties would be six years from the date of his claim.However, the judge decided that ignorance of his rights to claim was nodefence to the fact that Mr Fisher had sat back for over forty years andallowed the collection societies and publishers to collect the money anddistribute it on the basis of a 50:50 split between Mr Brooker and MrReid. The judge therefore only allowed Mr Fisher damages in unpaidroyalties from the date of his claim saying that if he allowed thecollection societies to collect and pay out despite his view that he wasentitled to a share then he must have in effect granted a free licence forall this time to use his share of the song. As it was a licence he wasentitled to end it and is deemed to have done so by bringing this claim.The music publishers who stand to lose their publisher’s share of the40% interest in the music now attributed to Mr Fisher are appealing thedecision.The lesson to be learned from this case is to make it quite clear at the timewhat claims any interested parties may have in the work. If at the time it wasfirst written Mr Fisher had signed an acknowledgement that he had no rightsin the composition then this claim would never have arisen.DURATION OF COPYRIGHTThe copyright in a musical or literary work lasts for seventy years from theend of the calendar year in which the author dies.8 If a song has been co-written, the rights last until seventy years from the end of the calendar yearin which the last surviving co-writer dies.9 This was not always so and thisextension to seventy years is a relatively recent one. When dealing witholder compositions it is essential to also look at the laws which pertained atthe time and what effect subsequent laws have had on the position.Solomon Linda’s caseThe family of South African composer Solomon Linda brought a casealleging infringement of copyright on the basis that copyright in a songhad reverted to Mr Linda under British Commonwealth laws ofcopyright 25 years after the death of the author. The song in question isbest known to us at ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ but which was originallywritten by Linda with the title ‘Mbube’ (meaning ‘Lion’ in Zulu) in1939. It was a hit but as Linda and his wife had sold their rights in thesong to a local company they never properly benefited from the song’ssuccess. Mr Linda died in poverty in 1962. The song ‘Mbube’ wasadapted and covered by American folk legend Pete Seeger whotranslated the lyrics and renamed the song ‘Wimoweh’. It sold over 4million records in different versions and was covered over 150 times. Inthe 1960s another writer, George Davis Weiss, added new lyrics andcalled the new version ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and it is this versionthat was subsequently licensed to Disney for inclusion in the box officesmash film The Lion King. Linda’s widow received only 3/24ths of theincome. Lawyers for the family argued that the rights in the originalsong, on which these later versions were based, had reverted to MrSolomon Linda and thence to his family and were able to bring thecompany who had licensed the song to Disney, Abilene Music, to thenegotiating table and agreed a settlement which remains secret but atleast part of which now allowed Mrs Linda to receive 100% of thecomposer’s share of the performance income. The settlement is alsothought to include a back payment of royalties and future royalties as an‘equitable share’ of the version ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.As more works come out of copyright and into the public domain (andtherefore can be freely used without payment of royalties) questions willinevitably arise as to whether a work is out of copyright. It has long beenthought in the classical recording world that an editor of a work to beperformed by musicians which was out of copyright didn’t acquire any newcopyright in what he edited.Hyperion Records v. Dr Lionel Sawkins10This view was challenged by Dr Sawkins. He has spent time and effortediting three performing editions of works by the court composer toLouis XIV and Louis XV, Richard de Lalande. Clearly de Lalande’soriginal works were out of copyright but was the effort, skill and timewhich Dr Sawkins spent in making three modern performing editions ofhis work give him any new rights as ‘original musical works’. DrSawkins thought it did but classical label, Hyperion Records, disagreedand made sound recordings of Dr Sawkins’ editions in 2002 withoutacknowledging him as having any rights of authorship and withoutpaying him any royalties. Dr Sawkins sued. He was successful in thefirst instance. The judge agreed that the Hyperion’s recordings infringedhis rights in the performing editions originated by Dr Sawkins and alsofound that his moral rights had been infringed because he was notidentified as the author of those editions. The court ordered an inquiryinto the amount of damages which should be paid to Dr Sawkins.Hyperion appealed on the basis that these editions were neither originalnor musical with the meaning of the 1988 Copyright Act. In this case theAppeal Court judges also considered that just because Dr Sawkinssought to get as close to the original as possible and had no intention ofadding any new music he could still claim to have created an neworiginal copyright in edition. He did edit, transcribe them into modernnotation, make them playable, correct errors and omissions and include afigured base. Hyperion also tried to argue that creating an edition to beplayed did not amount in itself to the creation of a new musical work.They also said that to allow Dr Sawkins to claim a new copyright wouldhave the effect of greatly extending copyright and that this was contraryto public policy in making ancient music available to modern listeners.It is this latter point which seems to have been the basis for theopprobrium that was heaped on Dr Sawkins from many quarters of theclassical music world, who clearly thought his action was ‘not on’. Thereis however also the fact that Hyperion had a vested commercial interestin arguing against Dr Sawkins claim as it may open the flood gates toother editors doing the same thing resulting in Hyperion having to paycomposer royalties that they had not budgeted for. The classical worldfeared that a consequence of this action might be that fewer classicalrecordings might get made. The Appeal Court judges rejectedHyperion’s argument that what Dr Sawkins had done could not be a newmusical work as he had added no new music just corrected errors andomissions. The judges thought this the wrong approach as a musicalwork was not just notes but the overall structure of the musicalcompositions, including how the notes were to be played. Theydismissed Hyperion’s appeal. Overall this is a case which turns on whatis mere copying and what is the application of sufficient original skilland labour to create a new copyright. It is both a qualitative and aquantitative test.WHAT RIGHTS COME WITH OWNERSHIP OF COPYRIGHT?The copyright owner of a literary or musical work (i.e. a song) has rightsvery similar to the recording copyright rights we looked at in the lastchapter. The main ones are the right to authorise the reproduction of amusical or literary work with or without visual images (mechanical andsynchronisation rights);11 the right to authorise distribution of the work;12the right to rent or lend the work to members of the public;13 the right toauthorise public performance of the work or its making available to thepublic14 and the right to make an adaptation of the work or to do any of theabove in relation to an adaptation.15 As the copyright owner, you can allowor prevent someone from doing all or any of these things either throughoutthe world or in a particular country. When you do a publishing deal you aregiving someone else the right to deal with some or all of these matters onyour behalf. The publisher might do this itself throughout the world or maysubcontract the rights to a sub-publisher.WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?MECHANICAL LICENCES AND ROYALTIESOriginally, when a recording was reproduced it was literally donemechanically, using mechanical piano-rolls. So the licence to reproduce thesong on a sound recording is called a mechanical licence. It remains thebiggest source of income for most songwriters. For example, if a recordcompany wants to record a performance of a song, it has to ask permissionfrom the author or the publisher or the person who administers the song.This may seem a bit strange where you’ve written a song that your bandwants to record. It seems odd to have to ask permission from someone elseto record your band performing it. But remember that different people aregoing to control the rights in the sound recording and the rights in the song.They are separate copyrights and the same people will probably not controlboth. The record company has to pay a licence fee to the owner of the rightsin the song. The fee for this, the mechanical royalty, is either fixed bynegotiation between representatives of the record and publishing companiesin the country concerned or set by law or legal tribunal.The present licensing system in the UK was the result of a referral to theCopyright Tribunal in 1992. The record and publishing companies couldn’tagree on what was a proper licence fee. The 1988 Copyright Designs andPatents Act states that the solution in such situations is to refer the dispute tothe Copyright Tribunal. The scheme approved by the Copyright Tribunal isoperated by the MCPS on behalf of most of the music publishers in the UK.The current licence fee is 8.5% of the dealer price of the record. The MCPScan only licence the mechanical reproduction of a song if it’s a straight‘cover’, i.e. a faithful reproduction of the original by someone other than theoriginal performers. If it’s not a faithful reproduction then the MCPS doesnot have the authority to issue a licence and permission has to be asked fromthe writers or their publishers.Until recently, mechanical reproduction took the form of physicalproduct such as a vinyl record, a cassette tape or a CD, with new formatssuch as DAT, DCC and Mini-disc added from time to time. With the comingof the digital era of music being delivered by means other than physicalreproduction the law has had to adapt to deal with this new means ofdistribution. The download of a computer file containing music on to anMP3 or similar player or a computer hard disc is treated as a reproductionakin to a physical reproduction such as a CD and this is now accepted in theEU and confirmed in UK legislation by the 2003 amendment to the Act.16Since 2002 MCPS/PRS have issued blanket licences to use music onlineand to download music off the Internet and, through its reciprocalarrangements, offered these worldwide. There is now a whole range oflicences available for other uses such as CDROMs, music in toys and incomputer games and most recently for DVDs and digital radio stations.However, they failed to reach a negotiated settlement with some recordcompanies and significantly with some Internet service providers like Yahooand the matter had to be referred to the Copyright Tribunal in a long andvery expensive hearing. The outcome is discussed in more detail in thechapter on Collection Societies but suffice it to say that it was not that farremoved from the rate applicable to physical reproduction which makessome of us at least wonder what all the fuss was about. The Tribunal’sdecision did at least end the uncertainty over whether or not you could get ablanket licence for downloads of music.CONTROLLED COMPOSITIONSAlthough in this book I’m mostly dealing with UK copyright and licensingschemes, the situation in North America is important as it can have a hugeimpact on publishing income coming from the United States (and to a lesserextent, Canada, as it is a much smaller marketplace).In the UK we have a licensing scheme and a fixed rate that has to be paidfor a licence. In the US the law also sets a fixed rate (currently 9.1 cents atrack) for the right to reproduce a song on a record, but in the US the recordindustry has more bargaining power than the music publishers. It lobbied thelegislators and got a clause included in the law that allows a different rate tobe set by agreement. Well, surprise, surprise, the record companies haveinsisted on a different rate. And is it higher? What do you think? The almostuniversal position in the US is that the record companies will only pay 75%of the fixed rate. This is referred to as a ‘controlled compositions’ or‘reduced mechanical royalty’ clause. They are called ‘controlledcompositions’ because the compositions and what happens to them are underthe control of the writer or his publishers. Obviously, you can only agree to areduced rate if you’re the owner or controller of the song. Most US recorddeals start from the standpoint that you will agree to this 75% rate. Thismeans that you’re losing a quarter of your US publishing income from thereproduction of your songs on records. The pressure will be on to accept thisand if you really want to do the US deal then there may be little you or youradvisers can do about it. However, if you already have a publishing deal, youprobably won’t be allowed to accept this reduction without your publisher’sagreement. You can use this to get your publisher to fight on your and itsbehalf to get improvements on this rate. If you’ve a lot of bargaining poweryou can get a 100% rate. If you’ve medium bargaining power you can getthem to agree to increase the 75% rate to 85% and then to 100% based onsales of a given number of records. Sometimes they will not budge at all andin most cases you have to give in or not do the deal.Most US record companies try to further reduce their liability to pay fullmechanical royalties by limiting the number of tracks on a record that theywill pay royalties on. This is usually no more than ten or eleven. If you havetwelve tracks on your album you won’t get a mechanical royalty in the USon at least one or two of those tracks with such a limitation in place. Perhapsyet another reason for aiming to keep the number of tracks on your recordwithin the ten or eleven track limit.These controlled compositions clauses cause problems in every recorddeal negotiation. There are some improvements that your lawyer can try toget for you, but this is usually one of the most keenly fought clauses in thewhole recording contract. A lot of money is potentially at stake for bothsides.SYNCHRONISATION LICENCES AND ROYALTIESIf you’re a songwriter who writes mostly music for films, adverts orcomputer games, then your main source of income may not be mechanicalroyalties but fees from the issue of licences to use your music with visualimages. This licence is called a synchronisation licence, because it gives theright to synchronise music with visual images. The publisher also licensesand collects income from these licences. The fee for this use is called thesynchronisation fee. The growth in DVD sales (now tailing off again) a l s osaw a big growth in this as a source of income. MCPS has authorised a DVDrate on a sliding scale up to 8.5% ppd depending on the amount of music inthe DVD. There is some evidence that synchronisation income is becomingmore important as a source of revenue with the decline in mechanicalroyalties on declining album and single sales but at the moment mechanicalroyalties remains the main source of income for most songwriters.We can all think of artists who have broken into the big time via anadvert or indeed where a flagging career has been boosted by a track used ina particularly good ad campaign or in a film. The Fine Young Cannibalstrack ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ regularly appears in car adverts. Devo re-recorded their biggest hit ‘Whip It Up Good’ as ‘Swiff It Up Good’ for a TVad for the floor cleaner Swiffer and seminal punk band Violent Femmestrack ‘Blister In The Sun’ was used in an ad campaign for Wendy’shamburgers. Now you might argue that some of these uses did the originalartists no favours at all in the credibility stakes but for the right music anadvertising company will pay a lot of money – £70–100,000 or more as asynchronisation fee for the right work isn’t unheard of. I should just say,though, before you all rush to get your music into adverts or films, thatmany advertising companies pay a lot less than this. Many also commissionwriters to write songs that sound like, but aren’t, famous songs or which arein the then current music style. Some songwriters make a career of writingjingles for adverts or in composing sound-alike songs. For some this is theirmain source of income. Others do it as a way to fund them writing theirmasterwork – that film soundtrack or concerto they otherwise wouldn’t havethe money to do.In some countries there’s a fixed rate for synchronisation licences. Inmost cases, though, it has to be fixed on a case-by-case basis. So this againis an area where your publisher or lawyer can get a good deal for you.If you want to put one of your songs in a promotional video for one ofyour singles your publisher will probably give you a free synchronisationlicence. If there is any chance that it will earn income commercially thenthey will want a separate fee for the commercial use. They will definitelywant a separate licence fee for a DVD.If there is a synchronisation fee payable, it is usual that the writer’s shareof the income goes towards recouping any advances which have already beenpaid to the writer. The publishers will keep their publisher’s share of theincome. For example, if the writer is on a 75:25 split of royalties in hisfavour, the publisher would keep 25% of the fee for itself and use theremaining 75% to help recoup the advances. Different scenarios to this arealso possible in individual circumstances where some of the publisher’sshare also goes to recoupment of advances or some of the writer’s share ispaid through to the writer, but in the current fairly difficult economicclimate it does not happen often.A situation may arise where a writer is commissioned to write somemusic or a song for a specific project like a film soundtrack. Publishingcontracts will often say that, even though they may have an exclusivearrangement with the writer, he can do these deals and keep the commissionfee, provided the synchronisation fee (which is also required) is paid throughto them. Now, it doesn’t take much intelligence to work out that, as asongwriter, you may want to increase the commission fee and decrease thesynchronisation fee. Publishers are obviously wise to this and may try anddirect some of this money to recoupment.PERFORMING RIGHTSWe have looked so far at two main sources of publishing income – themechanical licence and the synchronisation licence. The third significantsource of income is the right to publicly perform a song. Public performancedoesn’t just mean live concerts – it includes the playing of music in shops,restaurants and clubs, in fact anywhere that music is played in public.Most songwriters who have had some success become members of thePRS or one of its overseas affiliates. The PRS is the only UK performingright society for the administration of the right to perform a work in public,and it is responsible for the collection of income generated by the publicperformance of the music. The income comes largely from licences takenout by broadcasters, shops, pubs and so on. When you become a member ofthe PRS the rules say that you have to assign your performing rights in yoursongs to the PRS. If you send your membership the performing rights arereturned to you or as you direct. The performing rights controlled by thePRS are the right to publicly perform a work, the right to broadcast it and tomake it available to the public, and the right to authorise others to do any orall of the above. The PRS monitors use of music on TV and radioprogrammes by means of cue sheets. These are lists of music played on eachprogramme, which the station producers complete after each show. The PRShas a random sampling policy for live shows. They couldn’t possibly coverall live gigs, but do monitor the main venues and a selection of the smallerones and they keep the type of venues monitored under review.So that there doesn’t have to be a separate licence every time a song isplayed in public, the PRS has entered into licences with most of thebroadcasters. They have done the same with major places of entertainmentlike clubs and restaurant chains. These are called ‘blanket licences’ becausethey cover all songs controlled by the PRS. If you’ve a blanket licence youdon’t have to worry about whether you can play a particular song providedyou’ve paid the annual licence fee negotiated with the PRS. So every timeyour song is played on television, radio, cable or satellite you’ll receive(eventually) some income from that use of your song. Gradually blanketlicences are also becoming available for a variety of uses of music onwebsites where the PRS now licences use of extracts, Internet radio,podcasts and a variety of other online uses. Their website is very useful ingiving you to the right licence for what you want to do and in many cases theapplication form can be downloaded. It is however still too early to say howeffective they are going to be in collecting in this new source of revenuewhich explains why in many cases the licences require an upfront advancepayment. If you plan to use music in a way which is not covered by one ofthe current licences you can apply to their commercial committee withdetails of your proposal and ask them to propose an appropriate rate whichin many cases is open to some negotiation particularly whilst you areestablishing the commercial violability of your scheme.Through the cue sheets and samplings and the data they collect fromonline uses the PRS gets a good idea of what music has been performed andcalculates the amount due under the various blanket licences. The share dueto the songwriter members of PRS is paid out at regular intervals (four timesa year) after the PRS has deducted its fee for doing the administration. ThePRS rules require that at least six-twelfths (i.e. 50%) of the performingincome is paid to the songwriter direct. This money does not therefore gothrough the publisher’s hands to be used to recoup any advances but comesdirect to the writer. This can be a valuable source of income for animpoverished songwriter who is unrecouped and can’t expect any royaltiesor further advances from his publisher for some time. The other 50% can bepaid to a publisher nominated by the writer as having the right to publish hissongs. This ‘publisher’s share’ can be divided between the songwriter andthe publisher. If they do share any of it with the songwriter, that shareusually goes first towards recouping any outstanding advances. If there isn’ta publisher the songwriter can collect 100% of the income himself but mayhave difficulties in collecting or administering it and may need to get anadministrator on board to help. The PRS’s role is not a proactive one. It doesnot actively seek ways in which to exploit the performing rights in yoursongs but is there to make sure that public places playing records do sounder a proper licence scheme so that there is a chance of earning somemoney from this use of music. The PRS acts as a sort of clearing housecollecting in this money and paying it out to its members, both songwritersand publishers. The publishers are happy to allow the PRS to do this job forthem, provided, that is, that they don’t charge too much – there areperiodical renegotiations of the collection fee.PRINTAlthough not as relevant these days, the publisher also has the right to issuelicences for a song to be reproduced in printed form as sheet music. Inrelatively few cases do they do this themselves now; usually it’s third partyspecialist print companies who do it under licence. The exceptions tend to beclassical music publishers. Whilst print income from sales of sheet musicisn’t a large source of income for a popular-music songwriter, for classicalcomposers it can be a very lucrative source of income. Included in this printcategory is the hire-out charge the publisher makes to orchestras wishing tohave access to the ‘parts’ of the work, i.e. the sections written for thedifferent instruments in the orchestra – £30–40,000 fees for the hire out ofparts for a large orchestral or operatic piece aren’t unheard of. This of coursehelps to shed a little more light on the Hyperion case above as if thepublisher had to pay royalties to the editors of the scores that generate thisincome then that would significantly eat into their profit.As publishers look for new ways to make money from the songs theycontrol we may find that this print music royalty or other miscellaneousroyalties payable to the songwriters increase importance. I am thinking hereof plans to license lyrics for merchandise. The publisher would presumablycharge the merchandiser either a flat fee or a royalty per unit sold and thesongwriter ought to be entitled to a share of such income.RECORD DEAL BEFORE PUBLISHING?It used to be invariably the case that you did your record deal first and got apublishing deal later. Nowadays the publisher fills many of the same roles asa record company in finding the right co-writers and producers, and evenrecording and releasing limited edition single records. The decisiontherefore becomes much more of a personal one. For some, it’s importantthat they have got a deal, any deal. So if the publishers come courting firstthey will do the publishing deal first. Others stick to the tried and truemethod of getting a record deal first and then hoping that that deal and thesuccess of their first release will push the bidding up for their publishingrights. This can be a dangerous game as, if the first release doesn’t prove tobe a success, the publishing offers may dry up. You may be a songwriterwho wants to hang on to your publishing rights for as long as you can, inwhich case you’re going to be concerned to get a record deal that will giveyou enough by way of personal advances to live on for a reasonable periodof time without having to go looking for money from a publisher.If a songwriter doesn’t need to do a publishing deal in order to get somemoney or other form of ‘leg-up’ he can become self-published. This way hefully controls the copyright in his songs and how they are used. How do youdo this? Usually by becoming a member of the various collecting societieslike MCPS and PRS. The collection societies fulfil a lot of theadministrative functions of a publisher, but a self-published songwriter stillhas to do a lot of work himself. The collection societies don’t always notifyall foreign societies of their interest in a particular song or chase upindividual payments. The songwriter will have to track down where themusic is being used and check if the song is registered locally and if theright amount of money has been paid.Most creative people aren’t known for being organised enough orinclined to do this, nor will they necessarily have the resources. This is oneof the reasons that most new songwriters look for some form of supportfrom a publishing company. If you’re a more established songwriter, youmay be more comfortable with this kind of arrangement or will appointsomeone to administer it for you.TYPES OF PUBLISHING DEALIf being self-published isn’t an option then there are three basic types ofmusic publishing agreement that can provide outside support: theadministration deal, the sub-publishing deal and the fully exclusivesongwriting deal. Within the category of exclusive songwriting deals there isa sub-category where rights are just assigned in a single song. This is calledthe single song assignment.THE ADMINISTRATION DEALAdministration deals are popular with songwriters who have a small butpotentially lucrative catalogue or collection of songs. It may not beworthwhile for them to join the collection societies and be self-published.They may not have the necessary time, energy or organisational abilities togo tracking down the income. They may prefer to employ someone to do itfor them.These types of deal also appeal to established songwriters. They may notneed a publisher to try to exploit their songs. They may be disillusioned withexclusive publishing deals or want to own their copyrights. They may notneed up-front advances against income and may relish the increased controlthat they would have if there were no publisher breathing down their neck.The same comments I made in Chapter 3 still apply to these assignments asthey do with sound recordings.The administrator doesn’t usually take an assignment of any interest inthe copyright, but is granted a licence for a period of time. If anadministrator asks to take an assignment of rights outright, I would need tobe convinced that there was a very good business reason to do it. If youassign your rights you aren’t in a position of control and there isn’t verymuch of a difference between this and exclusive publishing deals, exceptyou’re likely to see only small or no up-front advances. So what’s theadvantage? At least if it’s for a licence term then you retain control of theunderlying copyright. A licence term can vary greatly from one yearupwards but with a three- to five-year licence term common. Many are formuch longer. I have concluded ones that were for the life of copyright. Evenwith such a long term the client was still comfortable to do it, because thedeal overall worked for him and at least if it was a licence and things wentwrong he wouldn’t have to worry about getting his copyrights back, as he’dheld on to ownership of them.As the name suggests, the administrator administers the songs for theowner of the copyright. The administrator registers the songs with thevarious collection societies and licences others to use the songs. They alsodeal with the collection of the income from these licences and prepareaccounts showing how much has been earned. The terms of the contractdictate whether the administrator has complete freedom to issue whateverlicences he thinks right for the songs, or whether he must first consult withthe songwriter. It may say that commonplace licences, such as the right forthe writer to record his own songs, can be issued without asking him first,but if someone wants to use a song in an advert or a film the songwriter hasto first give permission. Don’t put too many restrictions on what licences theadministrator can grant if you want to maximise what can be earned fromthe songs. By all means put a stop to something that is a real issue, forexample if the songwriter is a vegan he may quite rightly not want his workused in adverts for beefburgers, but think carefully before you block all usesof the songs in adverts, because you are cutting off a potentially veryvaluable source of income.The administrator could be an individual, perhaps an ex-musician orsongwriter himself, or it could be a company that specialises just inadministration. Most but not all music publishers who sign up songwriters toexclusive deals will also do administration deals in the right circumstances.The administrator will usually charge 10–15% of the gross income as hisfee. You wouldn’t usually expect an administrator to pay any advances.Payment will only be made when the administrator has collected in somemoney. It’s therefore very important to know how often the administratorwill account. They should pay at least every three months. It’s alsoimportant to check out their reputation for efficient collection of money,particularly outside the UK. The administrator may be very good in the UK,but overseas he may not have the necessary resources or contacts. In whichcase, it’s likely that all he will do is to collect what comes through collectionsocieties overseas that are affiliated to the MCPS and PRS. If this is the casethen you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it, because you can get thisincome yourself through direct membership of MCPS and PRS. You oughtto be getting some kind of added value by having the administrator on board.It may be as little as taking the load off you, but it wouldn’t be unreasonableto ask the administrator to try and track down unpaid licence fees orroyalties on your behalf, and if he has a worldwide deal with you heshouldn’t just limit his activities to the UK.A songwriter will often do an administration deal when he isn’t tooconcerned about getting other uses for his songs. If you know people willeither not want to put your songs in a film or advert, or if they do you’re sowell known you don’t have to sell yourself and they will come to you, thenyou won’t worry about someone going out and actively looking for theseextra uses. Administrators will look after the administration side but won’tnormally be out there pitching your songs to advertising agencies or filmcompanies. However, even those who have old catalogues of songs which aremore or less dormant can still be tempted by promises of a bit of an extrapush on their songs and a bit of extra cash.THE SUB-PUBLISHING DEALThe sub-publishing deal is a mixture of an administration deal and anexclusive publishing agreement. The owner of the copyrights sub-licensessome or all of these rights to a publisher. The original owner usually keepsthe copyright, so it’s normally a licence rather than an assignment of rights.These types of deal come up in two very different circumstances.Established songwriters or songwriters who want to own or control theircopyrights may want something more than a pure administration deal. If so,a sub-publishing deal may suit. They may not need an advance or may beprepared to do without an advance in return for keeping control of thecopyrights. That isn’t to say that a sub-publisher won’t pay any advance atall. They may pay modest sums in advances, but they may not be as big asyou’d get under an exclusive publishing deal. Why? Because the sub-publisher doesn’t get as much ownership or control from a sub-publishingdeal as he would from an exclusive songwriting deal.If a songwriter needs someone to go and search out deals for him then hewon’t get that from an administrator, so a sub-publishing deal may work forhim. Under a sub-publishing deal the songwriter gets someone activelylooking for other ways of earning money from his songs.In some cases the publisher will want an assignment of the copyright.17As you know, my advice is to avoid this if you can but, if you don’t havemuch choice, then try and get them to agree that this is only for a limitedperiod of time. This period is called ‘the Rights Period’ or ‘the RetentionPeriod’. The shorter you can make it, the better in terms of control of thecopyrights. Bear in mind, though, that the shorter the period of time that thesub-publisher controls the copyrights, the fewer opportunities he has tomake money from the songs and this may be reflected in the type of deal heoffers. If you do get a publisher to agree a licence term then this could be asshort as a year, but is more likely to be for at least three years and in somecases much longer.The sub-publishing deal also appeals to smaller publishers, ones thatdon’t have their own established systems overseas. Instead of the cost ofsetting up their own companies in each of the main overseas countries, suchpublishers do sub-publishing deals in those countries. They keep the rightsthey have, but grant the overseas publisher the right to use some or all ofthose rights in their country for a period of time.Whichever type of deal we are talking about, the sub-publisher needs tohave the right to register the songs, to license some or all of the mainpublishing rights such as mechanical and synchronisation rights, and tocollect in the income.The sub-publishing contract will set out the extent to which thesongwriter or small publisher has the right to grant licences to exploit thepublishing rights. Don’t be surprised if the sub-publisher presses for overallcontrol and only wants to have to get approval on certain very specificmatters. You may have approval over alterations to the songs or over thegrant of licences to include them in adverts for products that you maydisapprove of. If you tie the sub-publisher’s hands too much then they can’teasily get further uses for the songs. You’re employing a sub-publisher andpaying them a large fee to be pro-active on your behalf, so you need tobalance the need for creative control against commercial realities.How much you have to pay a sub-publisher will depend on a number offactors such as your bargaining power, how much the sub-publisher wants tocontrol your catalogue of songs (whether for market share or income or tohave the kudos of having you on their books), and how much you areexpecting them to do. I recently had a bidding war going on for an oldcatalogue of songs because they were very iconic and ‘of their period’ and ithappened that this was a period that is popular at the moment for films andads and so the publishers involved in the bidding war could easily see howthere was a lot of money to be earned from licensing these songs. The fee islikely to be more than you would pay under an administration deal butprobably a little less than under a fully exclusive songwriting agreement. Asub-publishing fee of 15% of the gross income received is common. If youexpect a big advance then that may increase to 20% to compensate for theadditional risk the sub-publisher is taking. The sub-publisher has paid outsome money to you on the strength of what it knows about you and yourpotential. If you don’t live up to that then that’s the sub-publisher’s risk. Thecontract very rarely allows the sub-publisher to demand that money back.What does a sub-publisher do?A sub-publisher should provide the same basic services as under anadministration deal, including registering the songs, granting licences,collecting income and accounting on a regular basis.Some larger publishers can account and pay you what you’re due in thesame accounting period that they receive the monies from overseas. Forexample, the sub-publisher grants a mechanical licence to reproduce yoursong on a record in the US. The record sales take place in the period betweenMarch and June 2007. The US record company will probably pay themechanical royalty in the next three months, so it will be in the sub-publishers account by the end of September 2007. The deal with the sub-publisher says that it accounts in September for income received in theperiod up to the end of June. On the scenario I have given, the income won’thave come in until after the end of June. If the deal were that you got paid inthe same accounting period, you would get it in September. If it’s not thenyou’ll get it at the next accounting date, which would normally be March2008. This is a six-month delay which, when you’re first expecting yourmoney from overseas, can seem a very long time to wait. If prompt paymentand cash flow are important to you, and let’s face it, they are to most of us,then you need to check this out carefully. Needless to say, the sub-publisheris usually the one earning interest on the money sitting in their bank accountfor six months and not you.In addition to the basic administration services, the sub-publisher shouldgive you more for the extra money it’s getting. This could just be paymentof an advance, but the sub-publisher should also be more proactive, goingout and looking for other uses for the songs, suggesting co-writers, findingfilm projects or adverts and so on.A smaller publishing company appointing a sub-publisher overseaswould expect them to act as if they were a branch of their company overseas.If you are a songwriter with your own publishing company you may notnotice any difference between what a sub-publisher does and what you’dexpect from an exclusive publishing agreement. The sub-publisher willusually expect exclusive rights to sub-publish your songs and will charge asimilar fee to an exclusive publisher. The crucial difference is that youretain the copyright in your songs and have more control.THE SINGLE SONG ASSIGNMENTThe single song assignment is a bit of a halfway house. It’s not an exclusivepublishing agreement. The songwriter is free to publish individual songshimself or through a variety of different publishers. Unlike under a sub-publishing agreement, he assigns the rights in a song to a publisher; hedoesn’t license them. The assignment could be for the life of copyright or itcould be for a shorter Rights or Retention Period. There may be an advance,but it’s likely to be small. The publisher is likely to get a fee of about 20–25% of the gross income received.Deals such as these would be attractive to a songwriter who only writes asmall number of songs on an irregular basis, or who wants to keep hisoptions open. The publisher still gets the rights it needs in the particularsong and market share in that song. Because the publisher controls thecopyright in the song, it’s in its interests to get as many other uses for thework as possible. The publisher will also carry out all the usualadministrative functions and should account regularly. The same commentsthat I made above about accounting delays apply here. The song assignmentwill decide how much control the songwriter has over how the song is used.Because it’s a one-off, he may not have as much control as with an exclusivedeal for all his songs, but if he has enough bargaining power he shouldcertainly be able to prevent major changes to the words or music and somecontrol over the use of the song in films or adverts.EXCLUSIVE PUBLISHING AGREEMENTIf none of the above options appeal or are on offer then there is the exclusivepublishing agreement. For most songwriters this is important at some stagein their careers. Getting an established publisher behind them means thatthey’ve arrived, that someone else has faith in their work and is prepared toput money and commitment behind that conviction. In many cases apublisher is instrumental in getting record company interest. There arestories of music publishers of songwriters who are now household nameswho spent months knocking on record company doors trying to convincethem of the strength of the songs. Sometimes it’s just a case of waiting untilyour time has come whilst honing your craft in the meantime. It can be goodto have a music publisher supporting you during this time in the wilderness.RESTRAINT OF TRADEAs we saw in Chapter 3, whenever there is an exclusive arrangementcontaining restrictions on what you can and can’t do, there is an assumptionthat it is in restraint of trade. We also saw that the leading case in this area,Schroeder v. Macaulay,18 had decided that this doctrine also applied t oexclusive record and publishing contracts. We know that the contract wasfound to be an unreasonable restraint of trade and, as such, unenforceable,but so far I have not gone into any details as to what in the contract wasfound to be unreasonable. It was a publishing contract so it is better dealtwith here.Maucalay v. SchroederThe particular parts of the contract that led the court to decide that it wasunenforceable were that it was an exclusive arrangement – it requiredabsolute commitment from Macaulay, but there was no correspondingcommitment on the part of the publishers to do anything with the songs.They could accept them and tuck the copies away in a drawer or putthem on a shelf and forget about them. The term was for five years, butSchroeder could extend it for a further five years if more than £5,000worth of royalties had been earned in the first five years. This was not alot of money even then. Macaulay had had to assign the copyright for thelife of copyright. Even though in those days this was fifty years after theend of the year in which he died not seventy years, it was still a longperiod of time to have a publisher controlling the copyright in his songsexclusively without having any obligation to do anything with them. Theadvance that he received was very low. It was £50 with further paymentsof £50 as each earlier advance was recouped. This was almost likeputting him on a wage, but with no guarantee of when he would receivehis next pay cheque. The court felt that, taken as a whole, the contractwas an unreasonable restraint of trade.As a result of this and later cases there was a change in UK music publishingcontracts. The length of the term is now limited and there is a maximumbackstop – usually no more than three years per contract period. There isalso usually a requirement that the publisher has to do something with thesongs. For example, the contract will often say that if the publisher has notgranted a mechanical or synchronisation licence for a song, or no sheetmusic has been printed of it or it has not been performed in public within,say, a year or two of the song being delivered or the end of the contract term,then the songwriter has the right to ask the publisher to do something with it.If nothing happens within another three to six months then the songwritercan usually get the copyright in the song back. I have recently completed adeal where a songwriter got rights back after a wait of two years from hisfirst publisher and used that as the basis of a catalogue of material to offer tohis new publisher.WHAT IS IN A TYPICAL PUBLISHING CONTRACT?ExclusivityIf you sign an exclusive publishing deal, you are usually agreeing that thepublisher will own and control all your output as a songwriter during theterm of that contract. In return for that exclusivity you can expect acommitment from the publishing company to do something with your songs.You can also usually expect that your publisher will be reasonably proactiveon your behalf.Even though it’s an exclusive deal, you can sometimes have exceptionsto this. As I explained above, the exclusivity may not apply where you’recommissioned to write a song or some music specifically for a film. Thefilm company will usually want to own the copyright in that piece of musicor song. Your exclusive publisher may agree that these commissioned worksare excluded from your publishing deal. This could be agreed at the time thecontract is done as a blanket exception or your publisher could agree toconsider specific requests on a case-by-case basis.If you are regularly commissioned to write music for films, yourpublisher isn’t going to want to automatically exclude all these from youragreement. By not automatically agreeing that the film company can ownthe copyright, your publisher may gain some bargaining power with the filmcompany to get a better deal. As the terms of the contract should say thatyou benefit one way or another from income from these deals, it should be inyour interests for the publisher to argue on your behalf.Occasionally a publisher will agree that the songs you write for aparticular project are excluded from the deal. For example, you might writesome songs for a largely uncommercial project that the publisher isn’tinterested in. In a recent deal I did the songwriter did a bit of ‘bread andbutter’ work writing for a library music company and it was agreed thatthese songs, which earned very little money, could be excluded. If you’ve alot of bargaining power, you could insist that songs you write for a particularcommercial project are excluded from the deal but this is pretty rare. Justbear in mind that the more songs you keep back from your publisher, themore it is likely to reduce the size of the deal on offer.Rights grantedThe publisher will expect to have assigned to it the copyright in all yoursongs already in existence that no one else has the right to publish. Theassignment is usually of all rights in those works, subject to the performingrights that you may have already assigned to the PRS.If you have done a publishing deal before then another company maystill have the right to act as publisher of those songs. If the Rights orRetention Period of that earlier deal runs out while your new publishing dealis still running, the new publisher will expect to get the right to publish thosesongs too. If you don’t think they should then you need to argue for this atthe time the new publishing deal is done.It’s possible to grant a publisher some but not all of the rights of acopyright owner. I have tried in the past to hold back rights to exploit musiconline from a few publishers, but it’s true to say that they felt veryuncomfortable about it and, now that there’s a licence scheme for downloadsin place and an emerging online marketplace as a legitimate source ofincome, publishers are now unlikely to agree to exclude online rights. Inother deals I’ve done I’ve given a publisher the right to issue mechanicallicences but not synchronisation licences. Obviously you can do this ifyou’ve the necessary bargaining power, but there’s no point in doing itunless you can do something with the rights you’ve kept back. Rememberalso that the more rights you hold back the more likely it is that you’ll get aless attractive deal from the publishing company.TerritoryThe rights that you assign could be for a particular country or worldwide.We saw in Chapter 3 that it was reasonably common to have one deal for theUS and another deal for the rest of the world. Split-territory deals aren’t atall common in exclusive publishing contracts. Depending on who thepublisher is and what its overseas set-up is like it may have sub-publishingdeals in some countries. As a songwriter you should find out what thesituation is overseas. You need to know that the sub-publishers are good,efficient companies and that there won’t be any accounting delays.Rights PeriodYou could assign rights for the life of copyright or for a shorter Rights orRetention Period, which runs from the end of the term of the publishingcontract. This period can vary considerably from anything as short as two tothree years to more than twenty years. For the last three or four years theaverage deal on offer from the major publishers has been twelve to fifteenyears.The Rights Period often gets shorter when there is a more positiveeconomic climate and if there is a lot of competition to sign goodsongwriters. Ten years ago I could get Retention Periods from some of themajor music publishers as short as five years. This was when there were lotsof good songwriters and a lot of money around. Publishers were going forshort-term market share and weren’t as concerned about hanging on tocopyrights for any length of time. Many of the copyrights were for dancemusic songs and I guess they gambled that most of these would have a shortlifespan. Now there’s less money around, songwriters are expected to provetheir worth over a longer period of time and it’s difficult to get RightsPeriods of less than ten years unless you’ve got a lot of bargaining power.There are, however, always the one-off crazy deals for one album or song atludicrously high levels, but these are usually for short-term market share toboost a publisher’s standing in a particular quarter, possibly to impress theirshareholders or other investors.TermThe term of a UK music-publishing contract is usually shorter than that of arecord contract. It’s quite common to find a music-publishing contract withan initial period of one year and then options in the music publisher’s favourfor a further two or three option periods. Each contract period is usually fora minimum of twelve months, but can be longer depending on how long ittakes you to fulfil the minimum requirements that a publisher has for eachcontract period. For similar reasons to those given for record contracts, theoptions are in the publisher’s favour not the songwriter. The publisher hastoo much invested to allow the songwriter to just walk out the door when hewants to.Rolling contractsSome publishers use a different basis for the term of the publishing contract.Instead of a term made up of a number of optional contract periods, thepublisher fixes the term upfront and says it will run for, say, three or fiveyears with no options. That fixed period may be extended until you havefulfilled a minimum requirement. Sometimes, but not often, there is nominimum requirement; the publisher just publishes anything you do in thefixed term. This is a big risk for the publisher to take. You could take theadvance payable on signing the deal and then not write another thing. Tooffer this kind of deal, the publisher has to know you well and be convincedthat you are going to continue to write good songs. For a songwriter thisisn’t only a great show of faith from the publisher, it’s also a relief. Youdon’t have to worry about fulfilling a minimum requirement or deliveringsongs to order.With a rolling term you get an advance when you sign the deal and this isrecouped from your earnings. When the initial advance has been wholly orpartly recouped you are paid a further advance. This is called a rollingadvance. The publisher won’t usually pay you an advance in the last twelveto eighteen months of the fixed term because it won’t have enough time torecoup it before the deal runs out. When working out how recouped you are,to see if you should get a further advance, you should try to get the publisherto take into account income that’s been earned from your songs but hasn’tyet come through to its or your account in the UK. This is called ‘pipelineincome’.Minimum CommitmentThere are a number of different types of Minimum Commitment. Thesimplest is where you’re just required to write a minimum number of songs.If you co-write, your share of all the co-written works must add up to anequivalent number of whole songs. For example, if the MinimumCommitment is to write five new songs and you always only write the lyrics,so only control at best 50% of each song, then you’ll have to write ten half-songs to add up to the five whole ones. This type of commitment works bestfor a pure songwriter who writes for others and doesn’t perform and recordhis own material.There may be an additional requirement that, in order to count towardsthe Minimum Commitment, the song must be exploited in some way, forinstance commercially released as an A-side of a single or as an album track.This puts a greater burden on you if you’re a pure songwriter who can’teasily control whether anyone else will want to record your songs. Thepublisher usually insists on this when it wants to be certain there will besome form of exploitation (and hopefully some income) before it commitsto any more advances or decides whether to exercise an option to extend theterm.There may be a requirement that you have to write a minimum numberof the songs on an album. That percentage varies depending on thesongwriter and the style of music. For a band, the requirement is usually thatyou have to write at least 80% of the songs on your own album. There is alsousually a requirement that that album has to be commercially released. Thissort of arrangement works better for a songwriter who also performs andrecords his own material.A much less common commitment is one that you get when you have asongwriter who records some of his own material, writes to commissionsfrom others, or writes for a number of different styles of music, for example,film, TV, classical and popular. The Minimum Commitment could be anumber of ‘points’, with a different value being given to each type of usage,genre, format and so on. For example, two points for a ballet commission,five for a track on a popular-music album, with, say, thirty points in totalrequired per contract period. The publisher is only likely to agree to this sortof commitment where you’re already established in a number of these areasand they are not common.AdvancesIt’s usual under an exclusive publishing agreement for the publisher to payadvances. As we saw with record contracts, this is a pre-payment of yourshare of the gross income from the use of your songs. It’s not a loan andisn’t repayable to the publishing company if you never earn enough from thesongs it controls to cover the amount of the advance then you usually don’thave to pay it back, but if you take the money and run, never delivering asingle song, your publisher may get a bit upset and may sue for return oftheir money on the basis that you’ve failed to fulfil your side of the bargain.What size of advance can you expect? This will change withcircumstances. Your bargaining power, the number of co-writers there are,how much is your own material and how much is sampled from others willall help to determine the figure. It will also depend on how much thepublisher thinks it’s likely to earn from your songs on average. If the recorddeal has already been done, the publisher may take its lead from what itknows of the level of that deal. If that was a particularly ‘hot’ deal thepublisher will know that it probably has to increase the overall terms of itsoffer. There are also financial models that help a publisher to decide howmuch they can realistically risk. Some publishers rely on these models,while others work on more of a gut instinct or a combination of the two. Youalso have to factor in market forces. If the publisher really wants to sign youup, whether to increase the profile of the company, for market share or justbecause the A&R man wants it, then that publisher will pay whatever ittakes.The higher the advance, the more the publisher will expect from you inreturn and the larger percentage of the income that the publisher will keep astheir fee. The publisher will be more reluctant to give you a higher thanaverage royalty if they’ve had to pay out a high advance – £75,000 for awriter for 80% or more of the songs on an album isn’t unreasonable from amajor publisher. Much higher figures can be expected if there is ‘hype’ or ifyou have a proven track record. If the publisher knows that there is alreadysome income out there from your catalogue waiting to be collected, or thatyou have a song on the next album to be released by a chart-topping act,they’re more likely to risk paying higher advances. A recent deal doubled invalue when in the course of the negotiation it was confirmed that one of thesongs was to be covered by a top artist and included on her next albumwhich was expected to sell in the millions. A smaller publishing companycannot usually hope to compete just on money and if you are considering adeal with a smaller publisher you have to weigh up things like the greaterdegree of control versus advances.The publishing deal is likely to recoup a lot faster than the record dealbecause, with a publishing deal, you only have to recoup the personaladvances and maybe some money in demo costs – there aren’t the additionalrecoupable expenses like recording costs, video costs and tour support. Also,the publisher pays through to you a much larger percentage of the incomeearned for the use of your songs than most record companies do with theincome from sales of your records.RoyaltiesThe publishing advance is recouped from your royalty earnings after firstdeducting the publisher’s fee. For an exclusive publishing deal this willusually be about 20–25% of the gross income.Royalties can be calculated in one of two ways, either ‘at source’ or on‘receipts’. ‘At source’ means that there have been no deductions made byanyone (after the collection societies, the VAT man and payments to anyarranger or translator) from the gross income earned from your songs. Thisis an ‘at source’ means of calculation. In a ‘receipts’ deal in addition tothese deductions the publisher’s sub-publisher’s overseas have to be paidand these fees are deducted from the gross before the income is paid throughto you.Let me give you an example. Ten thousand euros are earned in France inmechanical income from use of your songs on a record after paying thecollection society and the tax. If you are on a ‘source’ deal then, as far asyou’re concerned, nothing else gets deducted from that 10,000 by the sub-publisher in France before it’s paid through to your publisher in the UK. TheUK publisher would then deduct this fee of say 2,500 euros from the 10,000euros and pay through 7,500 euros (or the sterling equivalent) to you. If youare on a ‘receipts’ deal then the sub-publisher in France would first taketheir ‘cut’ of, say, 15% (1,500 euros) leaving 8,500 euros to be sent throughto your publisher in the UK. They then take their 25% of that 8,500 euros,leaving you with just 6,300 euros.As a songwriter you should try and get an ‘at source’ deal, but yourpublisher may not have any choice. The deals done with their sub-publishersmay mean they have to do deals on a ‘receipts’ basis in order to make anymoney out of use of your songs overseas. If you’re offered a ‘receipts’ deal,the very least you should do is to try and limit the amount the sub-publisherscan take off the ‘gross’ income. For example, you might want to say in thecontract that the sub-publishers can’t deduct any more than 15–20%. Wesaw in the Elton John v. Dick James case that the sub-publishers were spreadall over the world and many were associated with Dick James and his UKcompanies. There was no limit on what these sub-publishers could take offthe top as their cut. As Elton was on a ‘receipts’ deal he could have, and didin some cases, find himself in a situation where the sub-publisher took 50%or more, leaving small amounts to come into the UK, where a furtherpercentage fee was deducted by Dick James – leaving very little over forElton. Putting a ‘cap’ on the deductions would have gone some way toreduce these problems.Synchronisation and Cover RoyaltiesSometimes the publisher justifies taking a larger piece of the pie by sayingthat, in order to do certain work for you, it needs the incentive of gettingmore of a fee. Part of me says that getting 20–25% of your income should beenough for most purposes. The reality is that the business has accepted thatpublishers will get a larger fee for these types of work and it’s hard to buckagainst the trend unless you have a great deal of bargaining power. Whatareas am I talking about? The two usual areas where the publisher takes alarger fee are synchronisation licences and covers.They usually look to get about another 5–10% for obtainingsynchronisation licences for your songs, so if you were paying yourpublisher a fee on mechanical royalties of 25%, you would see that increaseto 30–35% for synchronisation royalties.If you find that the publisher won’t move on this point, the best thing isto make sure that they don’t get this increased percentage on projects thatyou or someone other than the publisher introduces. For example, if one ofyour mates from drama school brings a film project to you, you wouldn’texpect the publisher to take a bigger fee because it didn’t go out and findthat work.The same sort of rules should apply to a cover. A cover is a recording ofa song done by someone other than the songwriter. So, for example, if atrack were first recorded by U2 and is later recorded by Sinead O’Connor,Sinead’s version would be the cover. Once again, the publisher will probablywant an increased fee for finding other artists keen to cover your works. Theanswer is to make sure that something doesn’t count as a cover unless thepublisher has actually done something positive to get it. For example, if youbumped into an artist at an awards show and he was raving about what hethought he could do with your song, if he then goes on to cover that song, ithasn’t happened because of anything the publisher has done. The publishershould not get an increased fee for that cover.You have to be particularly careful where you’re a songwriter whodoesn’t perform his own songs. Otherwise, you’ll find that you’re paying thehigher fee for most of what you’re doing, because the recording will alwaysbe by someone other than the person who wrote it, i.e. you, and everythingwill be a cover. In these cases I always push for all recordings to be treatedin the same way and not as covers. The publishers are sometimes reluctant todo this, saying that getting anyone to record a song requires effort and thatit’s harder if the songwriter isn’t the performing artist. You have to standyour ground on this. If you’re a songwriter you’ll be paying a publisher tofind ways to use your songs. You shouldn’t expect them to increase their feejust because you aren’t going to record your own songs.Performing incomeThe PRS rules require that at least six-twelfths (50%) of the performingincome has to go to the writer/composer. This is called ‘the writer’s share’.The other six-twelfths is called ‘the publisher’s share’. Depending on thedeal you have, the publisher will either say that they intend to keep thewhole of the publisher’s share or they will agree to share some of it withyou. You get to keep the writer’s share and don’t have to put it towardsrecoupment of your advances. Your share of the publisher’s share will gotowards recoupment of any unrecouped advance.When you’re dealing with contracts for the use of music in a film or TVprogramme, it’s still common for the publisher to insist on keeping theentire ‘publisher’s share’ and not putting any of it towards recoupment. TVand film publishing deals have lagged behind popular-music deals, whereit’s usual for the publisher to share up to 50% of the publisher’s share withthe songwriter.AccountingThe publishing company will usually account to you every six months.You’ll be sent a statement of what use has been made of your songs in theprevious six months and how much income has been received. It shouldshow the percentage that your publisher has kept as their fee and the amountthat has been credited to your account. Your share of income will go first torecoup advances. After that your publisher should send a cheque with thestatement for the royalties due to you. Even if the account isn’t recouped,you or your representatives should check these accounting statements to seeif they seem right and that the correct fee has been deducted. If, for example,you know that your music was used in an advert in the last six months butthere is no mention of income from this in the statement, you should askyour publisher to explain. It also pays for you to audit the books of thepublishing company from time to time. You don’t want to be doing thisevery five minutes, but you may want to run a check after you’ve had aparticularly successful time. You’ll probably also want to think about doingan audit when the deal comes to an end, as that is going to be your lastpractical chance to check up on your publisher. Because it can be veryexpensive to carry out an audit (£10,000 plus isn’t unusual), you only wantto do it when you think there is a reasonable chance of getting somethingback from it. If the audit shows up serious errors in your favour, you shouldexpect them to reimburse you the main costs of doing the audit as well aspaying you whatever sums the audit has shown are due to you.You shouldn’t delay in raising any concerns you might have about anaccounting statement, as the publishing contract will probably put a timelimit on you doing so. Usually, if a statement hasn’t been challenged forthree years, sometimes less, then it’s said to have been accepted and noobjection can be raised to it after that time.WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A PUBLISHER UNDER ANEXCLUSIVE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT?We’ve already seen that there is a presumption that an exclusive songwritingagreement is in restraint of trade and it’s up to the publisher to show that thecontract, taken as a whole, is reasonable to protect its interests and fair to thesongwriter. As we saw in the Macaulay v. Schroeder case, a publishingcontract should require the publisher to do something with your songs that itcontrols, and if the publisher doesn’t manage to do so within a reasonableperiod of time you should be able to get those songs back. The publisher hasto ensure that it does what it can to get the songs used, to maximise theincome from all uses and to make sure the songs are properly registered, andincome properly collected and accounted through to the writer.Your publisher should also take steps to protect your songs fromunauthorised uses. Sampling of songs is rife and it’s up to the publishereither to prevent such uses by court action or, if you and your publisher areprepared to allow the sample use, to ensure a proper amount is paid incompensation (see Chapter 13).Open-ended contracts are likely to be seen as unfairly restrictive, as wesee in the case of Holly Johnson and Perfect Songs.19Frankie Goes To HollywoodThis case came to court at the same time as the related case involvingJohnson’s record contract. Both the record and publishing companieswere trying to get an injunction to bind Holly Johnson to the contracts,even though the band he was a member of, Frankie Goes To Hollywood,had disbanded. Holly Johnson argued that both agreements wereunenforceable as being an unreasonable restraint of his trade.When the court looked at the publishing contract, it found that it waspotentially a very long contract and that it was exclusive but there hadnot been equal bargaining power when it was entered into. It found thatthe restrictions in the contract were not reasonable and declared that thepublishing agreement was unenforceable. The judge was concerned thatHolly Johnson and his fellow band members had not had any choice inwhether they did the publishing deal. It was offered as a package withthe record deal. There was also no obligation on the publisher to doanything with the songs. There was no re-assignment of the rights in thesongs if the publisher failed to exploit them in any way. The judge alsothought that it was unfair that Perfect Songs had full control over whathappened to the songs once they were delivered. The songwriters hadlittle or no creative control. The judge considered what financial benefitsthe songwriters got out of the deal and found that the 35% fee retainedby the publisher was too much.Stone Roses publishing disputeAnother case that has had an effect on the form of publishing contracts isthe Stone Roses publishing dispute.20The Stone Roses were a Manchester band that had a hit with analbum called The Stone Roses, released in 1989. They were signed to theSilvertone label, part of the Zomba Group. The members of the StoneRoses were also offered a package deal. They couldn’t do the record dealwithout also signing the publishing deal. As we saw in the case ofArmatrading v. Stone, it’s very important that the songwriter getsindependent advice from his own lawyer, someone who is familiar withthe music business and its contracts. In this case, the songwriters hadtheir own lawyer but he was not experienced in music contracts andmade hardly any changes to the terms of the contract from the initialdraft that the publishing company’s lawyer gave to him. There was noequality of bargaining power. The agreement was an exclusive one andthe rights were assigned for the life of copyright. There was a limitedobligation on the publisher to do something with the songs under itscontrol. After five years the Stone Roses could ask for the rights back inany of their songs that hadn’t been exploited. The first contract periodwas linked to that of the record deal. The court found that the firstcontract period of the record deal was capable of being extendedindefinitely. As the two were linked, this meant that the publishingagreement was similarly open-ended and, as such, unreasonable. Thecourt also found that the advances were not reasonable and objected tothe lack of artistic or creative control by the songwriters. BecauseZomba had obtained an injunction preventing the band from recordingfor anyone else, they couldn’t bring out any more records until this casehad been decided. When it was they signed a big deal with US labelGeffen. The band went on to release another album called, appropriatelyenough, The Second Coming, but split up shortly afterwards.As a result of this and similar cases it’s now common to have clauses in UKpublishing agreements making it clear that the publisher has to do somethingwith the rights it has. Also that the songwriter should have some say on whathappens to the songs once they’re delivered. It’s usual to say that no majorchanges to the music or any change to the lyrics can be made without thesongwriter’s approval. The criticism of the 65:35 split has led to the averagepublishing royalty rising to at least 70% in the songwriter’s favour and inmany cases to 75% with the publisher keeping no more than 25–30% but thisis by no means universal and 65:35 deals are still being done with 50:50deals in the TV and film industry still being common.MORAL RIGHTS AND CREATIVE CONTROLA songwriter may have strong views on what he wants or doesn’t want t ohappen to his songs. For example, a songwriter may believe passionatelythat no one should be allowed to alter the words or music without hisapproval. This doesn’t usually extend to straight translations. Those aretaken to be a logical part of the exploitation process. But if, in thetranslation, the translator wanted to give the lyrics a different meaning andthe songwriter objected to this, he should be entitled to prevent thishappening. Obviously, I’m not talking about minor changes, but major onesthat change the meaning significantly. This contractual control overlaps witha songwriter’s moral rights. Moral rights are described in more detail inChapter 12. Where you’re able to retain your moral rights then you shoulddo so. The reality is that, because our copyright laws acknowledge theserights but allow you to waive them, all publishers have put clauses in theircontracts requiring you to waive these rights. What lawyers now do is to putcontract clauses in to give you the same or similar rights to what you wouldhave got from using your moral rights. So you might ask why we bother withthis farce. Why don’t we acknowledge that the songwriter has certain rightsto object to what is morally being done to his songs? Well, the essentialdifference is that the moral rights usually go a bit wider than what you getunder your contract and a moral right is capable of being enforced by youeven if your publishing company doesn’t want to take any action.Other creative controls may involve the songwriter reserving a song forhimself or his band to record and stopping another artist applying for andgetting a mechanical licence to record that song first. The publisher willusually agree not to issue a first mechanical licence to another artist wherethe songwriter wants to reserve it, but will usually require that there is atime limit of, say, six months on this. If it hasn’t been recorded in that timethen the restriction can be lifted.Finally, of course, the songwriter will want to ensure he is properlycredited.WHAT TYPE OF DEAL SHOULD YOU DO?How do you decide which deal is best for you? To some extent this may beout of your control. You may not be offered anything other than an exclusivepublishing agreement. You may not be able to afford to keep control of yourcopyrights. You may be able to afford to do so but haven’t got theorganisational talents necessary to make sure that your works are properlyprotected and the income collected. In these cases the exclusive songwriteragreement is for you. But if you aren’t bothered about getting an advanceand you do want to control your copyrights, you may want to go for either asub-publishing or an administration deal, depending on how much activityyou require from your publisher.NEW BUSINESS MODELSAs we saw in relation to management deals in Chapter 2, some managersnow insist on taking an interest in your publishing as well. There are alsomany more package deals involving a production company acquiring rightsin your recordings as well as your songs. You also have to consider the issueof a potential conflict of interest between his role as your manager and asyour publisher. Try to make sure that the set-up is a proper, arm’s lengthone; that the manager/publisher/production company has thought about howhe is going to administer the rights he is getting, and make sure that themanager does not take management commission on your publishingroyalties for so long as he is also acting as your publisher of those songs.And of course there are the 360 deals where not only publishing and recordrights are involved but also live and merchandising rights. Look back at thelast chapter for the reservations I have expressed about these deals.CONCLUSIONSDecide what type of deal would ideally suit you.Decide if you need an advance and, if so, how big an advance – this willhelp you decide whether to go for a sub-publishing or an administrationdeal.You should try and do deals where your share of the income iscalculated ‘at source’ – but if you have to have a ‘receipts’ deal thenmake sure you put a limit on what the overseas sub-publishers candeduct in their fees.If you’re receiving 75% or more of the gross fees you’re doing well.Look at the Minimum Commitment. Is it realistic? Can you achieve itwithin a reasonable period of time?If you’re a songwriter who doesn’t also record his own works, try not toagree to a contractual commitment that means your songs have to beexploited in some way, as this will be outside your control.If you’re a songwriter who doesn’t record his own songs, hold out forno reduction in the amount of royalty you receive on ‘covers’.Make sure there’s no delay in you receiving your money from overseas.1 Section 3(1) CDPA.2 Section 3(2) CDPA.3 Section 9(1) CDPA.4 Section 10(1) CDPA.5 Hadley and Others v. Kemp and Another (1999) Chancery Division.6 Mark Taylor v. Rive Droite Music Limited November 2005 (unreported).7 Matthew Fisher v. Gary Brooker [2006] EWHC 3239 (Ch) 20 December2006.8 Section 12(2) CDPA.9 Section 12(8) CDPA.10 Hyperion Records Limited v. Dr L Sawkins 19 May 2005 (unreported).11 Section 16(1) (a) and section 17 CDPA.12 Section 16(1) (b) and section 18 CDPA as amended.13 Section 16(1) (c) and (d) and sections 19 and 20 CDPA as amended.14 Section 16(1) (e) and section 21 CDPA as amended.15 Section 21 CDPA as amended.16 The Copyright and Related Rights Regulation 2003.17 Often this is in order to get ‘market share’, which is the measure of howmany copyrights a publisher controls either in terms of numbers or, moreoften, in terms of how much income they generate. Market share iswatched by the money markets and the analysts and is also keenlycontested by the publishers themselves as a measure of how well they aredoing.18 Macaulay v. A. Schroeder Music Publishing Co. Limited [1974] 1 WLR1308.19 Perfect Songs Limited v. Johnson and Others [1993] E.M.L.R 61.20 Zomba v. Mountfield and Others [1993] E.M.L.R 152. Chapter 5Getting A Record Made INTRODUCTIONJUST TO MAKE things a little clearer in this chapter I’m going to assume thatyou’ve signed a record deal and that the money for making your record willcome from the record company, either as a separate recording budget fund oras an all-inclusive advance. At the end of the chapter I’m going to look atother ways of making a record, for example, where you’re funding themaking of the record yourself.PRODUCTION DEALS VERSUS DIRECT SIGNINGSBefore I go into the process of getting a record made, I need to look at twodifferent ways of structuring a record deal. This has an impact on how therecording process is organised. We covered both types of signings inChapter 3 – the direct signing or a signing to a bigger company through aproduction company. Now we’re going to take a closer look at theproduction deal and compare the pros and cons of this versus a straightsigning.PRODUCTION DEALSDon’t confuse production with the process of producing a record by a recordproducer which I’ll deal with below. As we’ve seen a production deal is onewhere someone (whether it’s an individual, a partnership or a company) actsas a middleman between the record company and the artist. This middlemanis the production company.Sometimes a smaller label or someone who doesn’t want a full-time roleas a manager finds a talented artist. They may not have the necessary fundsto make the record or, even if they can afford to make it, may not have thenecessary clout to get decent manufacturing, distribution, marketing orpromotion. The label or individual could sign up the artist and then look fora company with more resources to fund the recording and all aspects ofputting out the record. In effect, they are selling on the rights they have tothe artist’s services, either by a licence of rights or an assignment of them.The contract between the production company and the artist is called aproduction deal.WHAT IS A PRODUCTION DEAL?The contract may look very similar to a record deal, more details of whichare in Chapter 3. The production company could sign the artist up to recordan album with options to make further albums. The number of options maybe less than in a straight record deal, perhaps two or three options instead offour or five. The money available will often be less than with an exclusiverecord deal with an established larger record company and, in some ways,may resemble a development deal. The deal may be a ‘net receipts’ deal asopposed to one where the artist is paid a royalty on record sales. It will alsoprobably say somewhere in the contract that the intention is to try to getanother company involved with greater resources.It’s a little difficult to agree up-front what sort of deal will be done withthe bigger company. If I’m acting for the artist I usually try to ensure he getsthe chance to be involved in the negotiations with the third party wheneverthat arises. After all, the bigger company needs to know the artist is on side,so should want to co-operate. If the bigger record company is going to payadvances to the production company, the artist will want to know that he’llget a decent share of them. Also, if the artist is on a ‘net receipts’ deal, hewill need to know that the royalty being paid is high enough when it’s splitbetween him and the production company. For example, if the artist is on a50:50 net receipts deal and the royalty is 18% then he’ll be on a 9% royalty,as will the production company. Maybe the artist’s percentage should behigher – 65% or 75% instead of 50:50. If you’re the production companyyou should work out what’s a good deal for you and should be looking atgetting a clear profit equal to a 3–4% royalty. Obviously each negotiation isdifferent so these percentages are guidelines only.WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE OTHER RECORD COMPANY?The bigger company has the advantage of having someone else find anddevelop a new artist. By the time the project is brought to them they can hearwhat it’s going to sound like. Some of the risk has been taken away. Ifthey’re licensing a finished record from a production company, they knowexactly what they are getting. There’s also a middleman to deal with theartist – who becomes someone else’s problem. One downside for the biggercompany is lack of control. They need to be confident that the productioncompany can deliver the goods, so they are more likely to trust someonewho already has a track record.WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE PRODUCTION COMPANY?The production company has a much closer involvement with the artist. Ithas the thrill of discovering an artist early and of developing them. It getsanother company to take the risk on manufacture, distribution and marketingcosts, but at that stage it loses control. If the bigger company then fails inwhat it has to do, all the production company’s work will have been wasted.For the production company it’s essential they choose a bigger companywith a good marketing department and that they try and get a clause in thecontract with the bigger company which allows them to insist on outsidepress and marketing people being brought in if necessary. If it works, theproduction company get their costs and expenses repaid, the financial risk onthe manufacture, distribution and marketing taken off their hands, and adecent royalty into the bargain.WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE ARTIST?If a production company is interested in an artist then it’s a step up theladder. If they know what they’re doing, there will be a second chance laterof getting a bigger company involved. There should also be greater artisticand creative freedom, unless the production team are control freaks. Thedownside for the artist is that, if he doesn’t get the deal right, he could endup sharing a larger than necessary piece of the pie with the productioncompany. He is also a further stage removed from the record company that’spromoting the record, so it’s that much harder to get his views heard andtherefore it’s important that there are plenty of creative controls in thecontract which flow through to the bigger deal.FINDING A STUDIOWhether you’re signed direct or via a production company, one thing you’llhave to do is to find a suitable recording studio. It could be as simple as thestudio in your back bedroom or as complex as a full-blown commercialstudio. Before you decide on a studio you should look at several – at theambience as well as whether it has the necessary equipment. If equipmenthas to be hired in, it will add to the recording costs. You should listen tomaterial produced in the studios and, if you can, talk to other artists whohave used them. You should also talk to any in-house engineer or producer.How enthusiastic are they about the place and how it’s run? If you have arecord producer in mind or a favourite engineer, ask them what they think ofthe various studios on your shortlist.You also need to think about where it is. Is it easy to get equipment in orout? Is it secure? You’ll have seen stories in the press of recordings being‘leaked’ from the studio and appearing on the Internet. Record companiesare doing what they can to tighten security but do check if the studio keepsrecordings safe and secure, and who is responsible for this. Can leaks betraced? Also, provided you can keep it safe yourself consider making abackup copy of the final versions of the recordings and keeping itsomewhere safe away from the studio. This might prove invaluable if thereare problems of security or if the studio proves difficult in releasing the finalrecordings. I have known studios hold artists to ransom asking for a biggerfee in return for release of the master recordings. Most do not descend tothis level but disputes can arise over what is properly due and the studio maylegitimately have a lien or hold over the recordings until this is resolved.A studio can either be one that you go to day to day or a residential onewhere you stay in accommodation at or near the studio. Your own personalarrangements might decide which is better for you. Some bands respond bestwhen they’re immersed in the project in a residential studio. For others, theidea of spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the other band membersis their idea of hell.STUDIO PACKAGE DEALSThe recording studio may block out a period of time and the studio is yoursfor the whole of that time. These arrangements are sometimes called‘lockout’ deals. Other deals are for a fixed eight- or ten-hour day. If youoverrun, you may either find that the studio has been hired out to someoneelse or that there are heavy financial penalties. Some studios will give youdiscounts on their usual rate if you record at times when the studio wouldn’tnormally be in use, for example, in the early hours of the morning. This iscalled ‘down time’. It’s fine if you’re on a very tight budget or if you justwant to record some demo tracks. But if you’re planning to use down time torecord your whole album, you’re putting very great limitations on yourself.It’s mentally and physically tough recording an album without adding to thisby having to record it all at two in the morning.Some studios will offer a package deal that includes mixing andmastering of the finished recordings. There are two things to bear in mindhere. First, the studio must have the technical capabilities to do a good joband secondly, the price offered should represent good value.Your A&R man or production company representative is going to be animportant source of information on where you choose to record. Thesepeople also have a vital role to play in giving you feedback on how therecording is going. It’s far too easy to lock yourself away in a studio andbecome isolated from reality. You’ll need feedback and constructivecriticism. The A&R man won’t be sitting at your shoulder all the waythrough the recordings, but he will want to visit the studio regularly duringthe recording process. Don’t surround yourself with yes men – you’ll needpeople who can be objective and whose opinion and judgement you respect.Once you’ve chosen your studio you need to haggle on a price – or yourmanager, production company or A&R man will do it for you. Before youbook the time, make sure that any people you want to help with therecording, like a producer, engineer or session musicians, are available. Ifyou really want to work with a particular person then you may have to adjustyour recording schedule to work around their availability. If they liveoutside the UK they may need a permit to work in this country. This can taketime and has to be factored into the recording timetable. If you want torecord overseas you may need visas or work permits so allow time for thoseto be put in place too.Another key factor in the choice of the studio is whether you can affordit. Studio costs and fees to a producer usually make up most of the recordingcosts. You’ll have to recoup these, so it’s important that you keep an eye onthem.It is becoming quite common for a record producer to offer an all-in ratefor his services which includes studio costs. This of course assumes theproducer either has his own studio or open access to one. With these deals inparticular you need to be sure that the studio is up to the job in hand.THE RECORDING BUDGETWhen you or your manager were pitching for your record deal you may wellhave done a ‘back of an envelope’ calculation of how much it would costyou to record. Now you’re going to have to do a much more detailed budget.You and your manager are going to have to work out how long you thinkyou’re going to take to record the album, how many days of studio time andwhat that will cost at the studio of your choice. You need to know how muchyour producer of choice will charge, how long a mixer will take to mix it andwhat he’s likely to charge. If there are session vocalists or musicians whowill need to be there for all or part of the time, you need to know how muchthey will charge per day or session. There are minimum rates set by bodieslike the Musicians’ Union and Equity (see Chapter 17), but good people willwant more than the minimum rate. If special equipment is required, youneed to work out how much this will cost to hire and whether it’s more cost-effective to buy it. It may be a piece of equipment that you’ll need to havelater when you’re out on the road promoting the album. You may have anequipment budget as part of your deal or the cost may be built into therecording budget. Another possibility is that you’ll have to buy theequipment out of your personal advance.Don’t forget rehearsal time. You don’t want to spend expensive studiotime rehearsing the songs until you’re ready to record them. Do this beforeyou set foot in the studio. Whether you do this in a professional rehearsalroom or in a room over the local chip shop will depend on your budget.Once you’ve thought of everything you should add at least 10% to it.This is called a contingency. It’s to cover extra costs when you spendanother day in the studio or on mixing or when you have to hire inequipment because yours or the studios isn’t up to the job.If you have a recording fund deal, your total budget should not exceedabout 60% of the total advance to give you enough to live on. If you have adeal where you have an advance plus a recording budget, you’ll have to keepwithin the maximum set by the record company and you’ll have to take yourfinished outline budget to them for approval. Bear in mind that most recordcontracts say that if you overrun the agreed budget without first gettingclearance from the record company, you’ll be liable for the extra expense. Itwill be deducted from your royalties and possibly also from any furtheradvances due to you under the deal.MASTERING AND DIGITISATION COSTSThese are a grey area. Mastering costs are the costs that are involved ingetting the final mixed recordings into a state ready to be made into records.Where those records are to be made available as digital downloads then themasters have to be digitised. I’ll deal with the process in a little more detailbelow. The record contract will say whether these costs are to be included inthe recording budget or not. Mastering can cost several thousand pounds, soit’s important to know this when setting your financial budget. The situationwith recharge of digitisation costs is in a state of flux. Some companies treatthese as part of the costs of online distribution akin to the transport coststhey incur for physical distribution. Others pass on the costs as a recoupableamount.THE PRODUCERThe role of the producer has been described as getting the dynamics andemotion of the music on tape. The producer makes your material come alive.It’s possible for you to produce yourself and many successful artists do. Bythe same token most artists, particularly when they are starting out, mightfind it difficult to get the necessary distance in order to hear how the musicwill sound to an outsider. The producer can be your external critic. You’regoing to be working closely together, so it’s helpful if you have similarmusical tastes and influences. You have to like working with them, respectthem and have a common vision of how the music should sound.Your A&R man can be very helpful in pointing you in the direction ofpossible producers. They can do a lot of the filtering process. They may playyour demo to a series of different producers to see who’s interested. Theymay invite producers to come to your gigs to get a feel for how you sound.Some vocalists need a little help in the studio in keeping in tune. A goodproducer will realise that when he hears you play live. Increasingly theproducer is through necessity taking on the role of a finder and developer oftalent, sometimes as a formal production company but sometimes just bydefault as part of his role as record producer.WHAT DOES A PRODUCER GET PAID?Fee or advanceA producer will usually expect to be paid a fee per track that they produce.This could be a pure fee, which isn’t recouped. It could be an advanceagainst the producer’s royalty, or it could be part non-recoupable fees andpart advances. Good producers can charge £5,000 plus per track and many ofthose will expect some of it to be a non-recoupable fee. Whether they getthat will depend on the negotiation. If it’s being recorded in the producer’sstudio he may include recording costs in the fee so the total may be nearer£10,000 than £5,000.RoyaltyThe producers may just work for a fee, but they will often expect to receive aroyalty calculated in the same way as the artist’s record royalty iscalculated. A good producer may insist on a royalty of 4% of the dealer priceor 3% of the retail price. They may ask for increases in the royalty if salesexceed a given amount. Producers who work with very commercial acts seethemselves very much as key parts of the team and charge royaltiesaccordingly. Some producers charge over 5–6% of the dealer price and therates will definitely be higher if the advance is low.RECOUPMENT OF COSTSAnother big bone of contention is whether the producer receives the royaltyas soon as he has recouped any advance he has received, or if he has to alsowait until his royalty, together with the artist’s royalty, has also recouped therecording costs on the tracks he has produced. If he agrees to the latter, theproducer may say that once that’s achieved, his royalty is calculated as if hehad been paid from record one after recouping his advance. Let me give youan example:A producer is to be paid a 3% royalty and has received a £30,000advance. The recording costs on the tracks he worked on came to £200,000.The artist’s royalty together with the producer’s 3% is 12%. Say each recordsold makes the artist £1.25. He’d have to sell £230,000 ÷ £1.25 = 184,000copies of the record in order to recoup the advances. Say the producer’s 3%royalty earns him 31p. To recoup his £30,000 advance he’d have to sell£30,000 ÷ £0.31 = 96,774 copies. If he’s on a deal where he’s paidretrospectively he would then get paid on the number of copies sold between184,000 and 96,774 copies, i.e. 87,226 \" £0.31 = another £27,040. If theartist sells 96,775 copies, the producer recoups his advance and receives theextra £27,040 but if the artist doesn’t sell more than 184,000 copies hedoesn’t recoup the recording costs and the producer gets no more royalties.So the producer is taking a risk, but if it pays off he gets a windfall.The producer is almost invariably expected to have to wait until allrecording costs have been recouped and often it’s only with great reluctancethat record companies accept that this should then be retroactive. Where theproducer doesn’t have to wait until any recording costs have been recoupedand is paid his royalty as soon as he has recouped his advance, this can be aproblem for the artist. He can only really do it if his record company agreesto advance him the money to pay the producer. The artist is unlikely to berecouped as he will have all the recording costs, video costs and so on torecoup first. This pushes the artist further into debt, but he will often agreeto this if it’s the only way he’s going to be able to do the deal and get thatparticular producer.WHO DOES THE CONTRACT?In the UK it’s usually the record or production company that will do the dealwith the producer, will issue the contract and negotiate its terms. In therecord contract it should say whether or not the record company has to getthe artist’s approval of the commercial terms. At the very least the artistshould have approval of the royalty, because it will usually come out of hisroyalty, and of the advance, which will usually be a recoupable recordingcost.In the US the artist issues the contract and negotiates the deal with theproducer – or his lawyer does. The contract isn’t with the record company,but between artist and producer. If the artist doesn’t pay, the producer canonly sue the artist, who may not have the money. In the UK the contract isbetween the record company and the producer, so if anything goes wrong therecord producer can sue the record company not the artist. This puts theproducer in a more secure position. The US record company will usually dothe royalty calculation and, if asked, will pay royalties direct to the produceras a favour not as a legal obligation.REMIX ROYALTY REDUCTIONThe royalty to the producer almost invariably comes out of the artist’sroyalty, so it’s in the artist’s interests to keep the royalty at a reasonablelevel. If the record is to be mixed or remixed then a good record mixer willalso want to be paid a royalty. You could try and get the record producer toagree that, if the mixer is paid a royalty, the producer’s royalty is reduced bythe same amount. Some producers will agree to this. Others are adamant thatif they’ve done a good job of production there shouldn’t be any reduction intheir royalty just because the record company or artist decides to bring inanother person to mix the records. If this becomes a real sticking point, it’ssometimes possible to get the record company to contribute to the royaltyfor the mixer, perhaps by paying another 0.5%. Producers who do agree to areduction will usually limit it to no more than half the total producer royaltyor 1%.CREDITSThe producer will usually want to receive a credit on the packaging of therecord and in marketing material.Sometimes a ‘name’ producer will insist on having the right to removehis name from the packaging if his work is remixed and he doesn’t like orwish to be associated with the end result.There isn’t any one way that I have come across to credit the producer inonline uses. It is of course possible to embed information in the data for therecording when it is digitised. You see this when you download music toyour MP3 player (totally legally of course) and the software you use to dothis ‘reads’ the metadata to identify artist and track. However, it still hasn’tbecome commonplace to demand this or any other form of credit fordownloadsSTANDARD OF WORKWhether it’s the artist or his record company that’s doing the contract,they’ll want to know that the producer’s work will be of a high standard.There will probably be instalment payments to the producer so that he isn’tpaid in full until recordings of the required standard have been delivered. Sowhat is that standard? Well, just as we saw with record contracts, it’s usuallya question of whether the producer has to deliver technically satisfactoryrecordings or whether they have to be commercially acceptable. The latteris, of course, a very subjective test and the producer may well argue that hehas no say in what the artist chooses to record, so it’s not his fault if thefinished recording isn’t commercial. A common compromise is to say that itmust be a first-class technical production and of at least the same highstandards as the producer’s previous productions.RIGHTSThe producer usually assigns any and all copyright he has in the soundrecordings he produces to the artist (US deals) or to the record or productioncompany (UK deals). The recordings may have been made in a studio ownedby the producer. In that case there is a possibility that the producer made thearrangements for the recording to be made. If so, the producer could claim tobe the first owner of copyright.1 The record company will therefore want tomake sure that it takes an assignment of any copyright the producer mayhave.In the US they deal with it slightly differently. There the contracts willsay that, for the purposes of copyright, the producer is employed by theartist. Under US copyright laws the artist owns the copyright in anything aproducer creates where he is employed by the artist. This is called a ‘workfor hire’. US record companies often adopt the same approach which youhave to watch out for if you are in fact doing a licence not an assignment ofcopyright. You will want to get rid of these ‘for hire’ clauses in a licencedeal.The producer may perform on the recordings. He may play an instrumentor programme a keyboard. He may therefore have the same rights as anyother performer.2 The record company will therefore want to know that hehas given all the necessary consents to his performances being used. The feeor advances that the producer is paid will usually include any fees for hisperformances.If the producer has made any original creative contribution to the writingor composing of the music or the words then he may have rights as a co-author of that song.3 If the artist and producer agree on what each hascontributed this isn’t usually a problem. The artist will want to know that amechanical licence will be available on standard industry terms so that theproducer’s share of that song can be included on the recording. If the artisthas agreed to reduced mechanical royalties in the US and Canada (the so-called Controlled Compositions clauses as explained in Chapter 4) then theartist should make sure the producer accepts the same reductions. He may,however, refuse to do this and there is no requirement that he do so. If theproducer co-writes a number of the songs on the album, this could affect theartist’s ability to fulfil the Minimum Commitment requirements that he mayhave in his publishing deal. This must also be taken into account whenagreeing what share is allocated to the producer. If a producer co-writes thesongs, he will have moral rights in his work. He may also have moral rightsas a performer. The contract will usually require him to waive those moralrights (for more on moral rights, see Chapter 12). If he hasn’t co-written anyof the songs or isn’t claiming any publishing rights, the contract will usuallyrequire him to confirm this on a warranty.PRODUCER’S DUTIESIn addition to making sure that the production is of the required standard,it’s also the job of the producer to try to keep the recording costs within thebudget and to let the artist/record company know if it’s likely to run overbudget. The contract may make the producer responsible for any overrun onthe budget that is his fault.The producer is responsible for getting all session musicians to completethe necessary forms, buying out their rights and getting all the necessaryperformers’ consents. He has to deliver these signed forms to the recordcompany with details of who did what on each recording. He also has to keepall recordings safe and deliver them up to the record company when asked todo so. It is usual to make one or more backups. The delivery up includes allouttakes, i.e. recordings that didn’t end up in the final mix on the record.One case in which these ‘outtakes’ then found their way onto acommercially released record involved Bruce Springsteen.4The Springsteen CaseBruce Springsteen had had agreements early in his career with a recordcompany called Flute. Those agreements had been declared to be voidfrom the outset in a previous court case. As we saw in other cases suchas Elton John v. Reed, this was unusual. Most courts won’t declareagreements to be void (i.e. as if they’d never been entered into) butvoidable (i.e. could be set aside as to future rights). Because therecording and publishing agreements were said to be void, Springsteenargued that he was the owner of the copyright in all previous recordings,including any outtakes or other unreleased material. He couldn’t produceany evidence in court to back up his claim that all copyrights had beenreassigned to him, but the court accepted that he was the owner of thesound recording copyright and therefore could control what happenedwith them. The court decided he was within his rights to claim that CDscontaining outtakes of his recordings released by Flute were aninfringement of his rights.While a record company is unlikely to risk upsetting an artist by releasingrecords containing outtakes while he is still under contract to them, theymay not have any such qualms after the end of the contract. The producerwill have handed those outtakes over to the record company, so the artist’sagreement with the record company should cover what can or can’t be donewith those outtakes.MIXINGThis is the stage between production (i.e. the recording and capturing of theessence of the song) and mastering (when the recording is made ready forduplication).The mixer selects from all the various recordings he has of a song thosethat will be mixed together to make up the final version. He also chooseswhich aspects to emphasise, for example a guitar part or a vocal might bebrought into more prominence.The producer might do the mix and, as he’s been close to the recordingprocess throughout, you’d think he would be best placed for the job. He maybe, but very particular talents are required for mixing and sometimes a fresh‘ear’ can hear things that the producer and the artist can’t.There are also mixers who take the finished, fully mixed recording andplay around with it – maybe changing the rhythm or bringing in elementseither sampled from the recordings themselves or from elsewhere. These arecalled remixers and the resulting recordings are called remixes. Whensamples are being introduced, the artist (in the US) or the record company(in the UK) has to make sure that all necessary rights have been cleared andthat the mixer has permission to include them (see Chapter 13). Remixes areoften done to create a different sound for radio or to play in the clubs.MIX CONTRACTSThe contracts for mixers and remixers are very similar to (and follow thesame format as) producer contracts.Fees and advancesA mixer or remixer may only receive a non-recoupable, one-off fee for hiswork. This can be as much as £10,000-plus for one track to be remixed by abig name.Increasingly mixers demand an advance, which as with producer deals issometimes partly non-recoupable, and partly on account of royalties. Thesame comments apply here as with producer deals above.RoyaltiesIf a mixer has enough bargaining power, he can ask for and get a royalty of1% or more. This is usually calculated in the same way as the artist’sroyalty. As we saw with producer deals, the artist has to work out if there isenough left for him after producers and mixers have received royalties,whether the producer will take a reduced royalty, and whether a royalty hasto be paid to a mixer or if he will take a fee instead.The same issues apply to mixer deals: who does the contract, whether themixer gets his royalty only after all mix costs have been recouped, and whatstandard of work is expected of him.RightsAs with producer deals, the record company will usually require the mixer toassign any sound recording copyright to the record company. When danceremixes were at their peak remixers argued for the right to retain a separatesound recording copyright in their mix. It’s possible, if they have addedenough original elements or have re-recorded the track as part of the remixprocess, to create a separate sound recording copyright. I think if I was theartist I would be nervous about some mixers owning a version of my track,and I’d want to have restrictions on what they could do with it. If theywanted to just put it on one of their own record compilations that might beall right. If I were the record company who had paid for the remixes, I’dwant to own them and perhaps license rights back to the mixers for thatcompilation.Mixers don’t usually contribute to the creative writing of the song. Someremixers may claim that they have added enough original elements to createa new work. This may be true, depending on what they have done, but morelikely they will be said to have made a new arrangement of it and canreceive performance income on that version. This eats into the writer’sperforming income and most publishers will expect it to come out of thewriter’s share. The remix contract could ask the mixer to confirm he has nointerest in the underlying song at all or, as we saw with producer contracts, ifhe is a co-author that licences to use the remixer’s part of the song will begranted without difficulties on usual industry terms.MASTERINGThis is part of the post-production process when the recordings have beenproduced and mixed to everyone’s satisfaction.The next stage before the recording goes to be manufactured into recordsis mastering. It straddles recording and manufacturing. It’s not just amechanical process of ensuring all the right digital notes are in the rightplaces. It’s the means to give it a final ‘tweaking’ before the record isreleased. A person skilled in mastering can make the sound punchier,warmer, deeper or louder. He can bring out details not already obvious.Mastering is a separate process from the mix and needs a different set ofears. Some bands swear by a particular person mastering their records i nmuch the same way as film directors have their favourite editors.The mastering process helps the recording sound great no matter whatmedium it’s manufactured in and whatever hardware it’s played on. I’m sureyou can think of albums that sound fantastic played over headphones on yourCD Walkman but awful on the car CD player. This could be a problem of themix, but it’s just as likely that someone didn’t get the mastering processright.When mastering a recording, equalising and compression of the soundsgives a consistency from track to track. Have you ever found yourselfconstantly having to adjust the volume between tracks on a compilation? It’seither earth-shatteringly loud or so quiet you’re straining to hear the words.That’s an example of bad mastering. Radio really brings out the difference,as the radio process itself compresses the material. If a recording hasn’tbeen properly mastered it can sound thin and weak.Purists also believe that the compression involved in creating an MP3loses a great deal of the original, in particular the top and/or bottomregisters. The average listener will not know what he is missing and mostpeople’s home hi-fi equipment is not of studio quality so no one is any thewiser.When you’ve spent a small fortune on making a recording, you shouldn’tspoil it for a few thousand pounds in mastering costs.The person doing the mastering is engaged to do the job by the record orproduction company. He either provides the mastering suite and equipmentor the company hires or pays for one. He is paid a fee for his work. Therecord company usually pays it and, depending on the contract, will eithertreat it as a recoupable recording cost or as a non-recoupable manufacturingcost. Some, but not all, artists credit the person who did the mastering,although the actual studios used are often referred to on the packaging.DELIVERY REQUIREMENTSThere are a number of things that have to be delivered to the record companybefore the artist can be said to have completed his side of the recordingprocess.As well as the finished, fully mixed and edited recordings, he will alsohave to deliver up all outtakes and all copies of the recordings. He may alsohave to deliver finished recordings of additional tracks to act as B-sides orsecond tracks on singles, and will definitely have to deliver up all signedsession forms and clearances for any samples that have been used in therecording.The artist will have to deliver a list of all the tracks on the record in theorder in which they appear (called a track-listing). He’ll probably also haveto provide ‘label copy’, that is all the information that has to appear on thelabel and packaging of the record. This includes things like who performedon each track, who wrote each track and who publishes those writers. If thereis an agreement to give credits to producers and mixers or a name check tothe studio, then those details will have to be given to the record company.This is also when the artist gets to say thanks to particular people who havebeen helpful or supportive.The contract will be very specific about what has to be delivered and towhom. It will also be quite technical about the form in which the recordingsare to be delivered. It’s very important that the artist does deliver all that isrequired of him. If he doesn’t, then he’ll find that all sorts of things don’thappen. He won’t get the instalment of advances due on delivery, themanufacturing process won’t start nor will time start running for when therecord company has to release the record.The artist should try to get written confirmation from the recordcompany confirming that everything has been delivered from the personidentified in the contract as the person to whom delivery has to be made, forinstance, the senior vice-president of A&R.ARTWORKOne key item that usually has to be delivered is the artwork for the cover ofthe album. Without the artwork the record can’t be released in its physicalform and rather naff generic ‘covers’ have to be used for digital downloads,so it may be reasonable to assume (depending on the contract and individualcircumstances) that delivery has not taken place until the record companyhas the finished artwork. The record company usually wants the artworkdelivered in a specific format, which these days is usually online, probablywith a hard copy to follow up.Some talented bands do the artwork themselves. Some leave it to therecord company’s art department. Most hire someone else to do a design totheir brief or specification.If the record company is doing it, the artist should try and make sure hehas final approval. If someone else is being brought in, make sure they havea good, professional reputation for their work. The artist should look atcovers he admires and who designed them. It’s wise to interview a fewdesigners and ask to see examples of their work. Remember that if apotential customer doesn’t know who you are, they may be attracted to pickup your CD over all the others by the striking artwork on the cover. Youcould use art students or friends to do it on the cheap, but then you could endup spending a lot of time supervising the work and would have been betteroff using a professional in the first place.The artist’s logo should be on the artwork as well as the label orproduction company logo and name. This is all part of making the packagelook inviting and identifiably part of your image. Striking artwork and logosrepeated on the website and in any other marketing and promotional materialnot only make the association easier but also help to brand the artist and tomake his work stand out from the crowd. Sometimes artwork is used as amarketing tool in itself either by design or by accident. Take the artwork forthe last Beck album. It was released with a variety of different stickers thatthe buyer could use to customise his own copy. The company in charge ofthe Charts decided that there were too many versions to count for the albumcharts and debarred the release. This potential disaster was turned into aclassic example of ‘marketing’ spin to raise awareness of the album in thepress and amongst the public. Brilliant.Once the artist has decided on a designer who he thinks can do a goodjob in the required time, terms need to be agreed. You need a contract settingout what they are going to do, by when and for how much. You may want tomake payment in two instalments, one when they start work and the otherwhen they deliver finished work that is satisfactory.If photographs are to be used, the artist needs to agree who is going to beresponsible for supplying those and at whose expense. The record companywill usually organise and pay for a photo-shoot, but it may not necessarily bewith the top-name photographer the artist would like to use.Whether or not there are to be photographs, there needs to be anagreement with the designer or photographer that confirms that thecommissioner is the owner of the copyright in the photographs and thecopyright and any design rights in the artwork and graphics. There should bean assignment of any copyright or design rights they might have acquired.Ideally, there should be no restrictions on what the commissioner can dowith those designs and photographs. However, designers and photographersare now wise to the fact that they can earn more money if you have to goback to them for permission to reuse their work. For example, they may nowagree to license the artwork or photo for the album cover only. If the artistwants to use it on a poster, T-shirt or other merchandise, or as a backdrop onlive stage shows, then he’ll have to come back to the photographer ordesigner for further permission. If they give it – and they don’t have to –then they will probably want another fee for it.The cost of commissioning someone to create original artwork dependson who you use, but record companies don’t usually want to pay more thanabout £2–3,000 for the basic design. They will go higher if it’s a topdesigner or ‘name’. The record company doesn’t usually have any rights touse the artwork in any form of merchandise other than sales of the album, sothey will only be interested in getting album cover rights. If the artist thinkshe’ll want it for other purposes, he’ll probably have to pay for those himself.The cost of originating the artwork is usually non-recoupable and the recordcompany will usually give the artist the right to use the artwork for otherpurposes, for example, for merchandising, if he pays to them 50% of theorigination costs.The value that attaches to a distinctive artwork design was highlightedby the application for an injunction made by Creation Records (Oasis’record label at the time) against the publishers of various newspapers,including the Sun.5The Oasis CaseOasis was going to release another album in the autumn of 1997 anddecided that the photograph of it should be taken at a country hotel. NoelGallagher, the lead guitarist and deviser of the band’s artwork, had aparticular idea in mind, a kind of homage to The Beatles and their coverof the Sergeant Pepper album. The hotel swimming pool was drainedand a number of different objects were delivered to the hotel, including awhite Rolls-Royce. This was lowered into the pool at an angle and NoelGallagher supervised how the other objects were to be placed. Aprofessional photographer took a number of photos from various anglesso that the band had a choice of different images in different lights.Oasis thought it was essential that the plans for the photography werekept secret, and only a few people were allowed in on it.Inevitably, perhaps, word leaked out and a couple of newspaperphotographers turned up including one freelancer attached to the Sun.One of the photos he took was published a few days later in the Sun. Itwas very similar to the one chosen for the album cover, but had beenshot from a different angle. The Sun offered copies of the photo for saleto readers in a poster form. Although other newspapers also publishedphotos it seems none were very clear and none were offering posters ofthem for sale.Creation got an immediate injunction restraining the Sun frompublishing any more photos or from offering copies for sale. The judgethen had to decide if that injunction should continue.Creation Records were arguing that the freelance photographer hadinfringed their copyright or had breached confidence.The judge rejected the argument that the way the scene was puttogether attracted a copyright as a dramatic work. He also rejected theargument that the scene was a work of artistic craftsmanship, a sculptureor a collage (those lawyers were trying hard, weren’t they!). A film setcan sometimes be said to be a work of artistic craftsmanship, but thejudge decided that this was just an assembly of disparate objects withoutthe necessary element of craftsmanship.Creation Records and Oasis might have been thought to be onstronger ground in arguing that there was copyright in it as an artisticwork of collage – being a collection of unrelated items. Their barristerargued that it should be put in the same category as the infamous CarlAndré bricks displayed at the Tate Gallery or Gilbert and George’sliving sculptures. The judge declined to follow that line of argument, asthe assembly of objects didn’t have the same degree of permanence – itwas going to be dismantled after a few hours. This is a very restrictedview of what would be entitled to copyright protection.The judge did find that there was copyright in the photograph, but theSun didn’t copy that original – the freelancer took his own photograph ofthe same scene. Which was why Creation Records was trying to establishsome kind of copyright in the scene.So, having failed on all their ingenious copyright arguments, thelawyers then argued that the freelance photographer had breachedconfidentiality. Here they had more luck. The judge decided that anyreasonable person would have assumed that, in viewing the scene, theywere getting confidential information and so the freelance photographerwas obliged not to photograph the scene. The Sun had admitted theirphotographer had to get around a security cordon to get the film out, sothey must have known it was intended to be confidential.On balance, the judge decided Oasis/Creation Records had more tolose if the Sun were to continue to be allowed to sell posters andcontinued the injunction on the basis of breach of confidence. If he hadnot then potentially huge sales of posters and other merchandise by theband and their record label would have been lost.Once the artwork is delivered the artist should then be in a position to pressfor a release date for the album. This will depend on a huge number offactors, some of which I’ll deal with in the next chapter, but once aprovisional date has been set then the manufacturing process can begin andthe whole marketing department should start to swing into action.If the artist or production company intends to release a recordthemselves then they will also attend to all the other formalities such assample and session work clearances, obtaining barcodes, getting amechanical licence and paying the licence fees. These are dealt with in moredetail in Chapter 6.CONCLUSIONSChoose your studios well. Decide if they’ll be residential or not.Set a reasonable recording budget and stick to it.Get the best producer and mixer you can afford.Don’t skimp on mastering costs, but keep an eye on remix costs, asthese can get very high.Check you’ve complied with the delivery requirements in your contract.Try to get copyright ownership of the artwork.1 Section 9(2) (aa) CDPA and Chapter 3.2 See section 191A ff CDPA for performers’ rights and Chapter 3 for moredetails on what these rights are.3 See section 9(2) (3) CDPA on authorship of words and music and section10 on co-authorship.4 Springsteen v. Flute International Limited and Others [1998] ChanceryDivision.5 Creation Records Limited v. News Group Limited EMLR 444 1997 16. Chapter 6Manufacture, Distribution and Marketing INTRODUCTIONUNTIL ABOUT TEN years ago there was no serious viable alternative to the triedand tested method of distribution. You finished your record, it was masteredand ‘cut’ – literally cut into the vinyl or digitally mastered, (i.e. put indigital form in a computer program from which digital records such as CDsand DATS could be made). The only discussion or change here was digitalversus analogue manufacturing methods. Once you had your physical CD,tape, vinyl record or whatever, you packaged it up and it was distributed outto the record stores on the back of a van.Over the last five years there has been a dramatic increase in the numberof tracks that are being sold online as digital downloads, although illegaldownloads remain a major problem and challenge (see Chapters 7 and 14).In 2004 the industry began to turn a corner commercially with the arrival ofservices such as iTunes and the iPod and new carriers such as mobile phonesalso helped to drive the legitimate side of use of music online. Most singlesare now being offered as downloads, many off aggregator sites like iTunesor off individual artists’ pages on social networking websites like MySpace.Indeed in 2007 I was involved in several releases that were digital only.Clients didn’t want to go to the expense of pressing up physical copies of thesingle; they waited first to see how well the release went in publicity terms.Major record companies are either pulling out of distribution (EMI) or arecombining their manufacturing operations either in one place in Europe orthrough deals with other companies. By pulling out of these two traditionalmeans of earning profits the record companies may be saving millions ofpounds but they are also focusing their money-making activities on the morerisky aspects of the business, the marketing and promotion of artists andtheir records. So the stakes will be higher in future to get those expensiveaspects right more often than they do at the moment. This of course feedsinto the more cautious outlook referred to in Chapter 3 on record contractsand on the greater use of middleman production companies to filter outsome of the artists less likely to succeed commercially.MANUFACTURINGThe compact disc is however still a significant carrier, even though year onyear sales are declining by as much as 20%. The cassette tape has prettymuch disappeared as a format just as the VHS tape has ceased to be a videoformat for new releases, and retailers like Curry’s have announced they willno longer sell VHS tape players. The prediction of the death of vinyl was,however, premature. It survives (albeit in a niche market), beloved by DJsand specialist collectors. Sterling efforts were made to establish theMinidisc format. It was first launched in the early 1990s but singularlyfailed to impress. A potentially much more serious threat to the musicbusiness was thought to be the phenomenal increase in sales of recordableCDs (CDR). Originally intended as an alternative to the floppy disc, theCDR became the format of choice for ‘burning’ copies of whole albums orfavourite compilations. But it was also a boon for the small producer, newartist or production company because with a little effort they were able toreproduce their own CD albums for sale at their gigs or for sending out torecord companies, publishers and managers. Then just as we were gettingused to this came the MP3 player and mobile phones which could store andplay music. It then became so easy to copy and send copies over the Internetthat the idea of an ordinary member of the public becoming a pirate becamea reality. This ability was manipulated to the full by peer-to-peer websitessuch as Napster, MP3.com, Grokster, Kazaa etc. These issues are discussedin more detail in Chapters 7 and 14.Most mainstream releases are made available in physical format as wellas downloads and so let’s have a look at the sort of legal agreements youwill come across. If you’ve paid for the recording yourself or via aproduction company then you won’t have a record company to organise themanufacturing for you. You’re going to have to go to specialist CDmanufacturers and shop around for a deal. Lists of manufacturers can befound in the Music Week Directory. Before you decide on a manufacturer,you’d be well advised to gather together as much information on what isavailable as you can. You also need to make your arrangements withmanufacturers at least four months before you intend to release physicalcopies of your record, and even longer at popular times such as Christmas.This is to try and ensure that the manufacturing/pressing plant has capacityand won’t squeeze your record out because a release by a big star is slottedin. Bear in mind in setting your timetable that it is usual to release records toradio stations (via pluggers if necessary – see below) at least a month beforethey are available in the shops.You also need to ask what service each company provides. Is it a full-service company that will produce a production master from which toreproduce the CDs, or will you have to find a company to make a productionmaster for you and deliver that together with film or discs for the artwork tothe manufacturer? If so, would it be cheaper, easier and quicker if youlooked for a full-service company? You’ll need to check the small print verycarefully. What hidden costs are there? Do they charge you to deliver thefinished records to you?What other services can they provide? Can they offer a distributionservice or any marketing services like sales teams? If they do, is it better touse them for these services or to look for separate companies to do them?Look at the quality of their work. Ask to see samples. Do they doeverything in-house or is it farmed out? Who else do they work for?Once you’ve narrowed down your choice you have to look at howquickly they can turn things around. They may have a minimum productionrun (say 5,000 copies). Is that all right for you or were you looking for amore modest 500 copies? To be honest, if you’re going for a very shortproduction run, possibly for promotional purposes, you might be better offburning the CDs and putting the finished product together yourself.Once you’ve decided on your manufacturer you’ll need to agree a price,the number of units to be produced and a time for delivery. You ought to tryto keep some of their fee back until you see things are running according toplan, but if you’re a small unknown company they’re likely to want cash up-front. Even so, keep an eye on things. Check the quality of the sound and ofthe artwork. Is the running order correct without any gaps in the songs? Haveall the names been spelled correctly and correct credits given? If anything iswrong pull them up on it immediately. Always check a sample of thefinished product.You also have to be sure that they can continue to manufacture repeatorders as your first batch, hopefully, sells out. You need to keep closecontact between your distributor and your manufacturer so that you can putyour repeat order in as soon as your distributor sees stocks are dwindling.This need for close co-operation is one of the reasons why some peopleprefer to keep production and distribution with the same company.P&D DEALSAs you can probably guess, ‘P’ stands for production (i.e. manufacture) and‘D’ for distribution. A P&D deal is one that combines both of these servicesin one contract with one company. Companies that offer P&D deals canoften also offer marketing services like a telephone sales team (telesales), astrike force (a specialised team targeting record stores to take your records)or pluggers, who try to persuade radio stations to play your record. Whetheryou want these additional services will depend on your overall marketingplan and on the price and reliability of the service.You should ask the same questions of P&D companies as you would of amanufacturer, but you’ll also have to ask another series of questions abouttheir distribution operation. Who do they supply records to? Is it just thesmall specialist stores or can they get into the major retail chain stores andvice versa?MAJORS VERSUS INDIESUntil recently, all the major record companies had their own distributionfacilities. Mergers in recent years have resulted in some of those facilitiesbeing combined to save costs by pooling operations. The independent sectoris now dominated by Pinnacle and PIAS (formerly Vital). Clearly, the risksare outweighing the possible profits from this activity. Without an efficientdistribution system, all your talents and efforts in making the record and themarketing people’s work in getting you noticed will mean nothing if thedistribution company doesn’t have the records in the stores for the public tobuy. In the last couple of years there has been a growth in the activities ofaggregators like Nova, Pebble Beach and Remote Control amongst others.These companies have arrangements with a larger distributor to put throughthat distributor all of the aggregators output under all the labels it looksafter. The aggregator then does individual deals with independent labels orartists to distribute their product and combines all of this with the one dealwith the larger distributor. The trick with this type of deal is to ensure thatthe labels’ accounts are kept separate and that profits from one label aren’tused to subsidise another label’s losses. Whatever the company you areusing try and check their financial viability – if it’s at all suspicious do notrisk your stock and your income from sales. Even the bigger distributors arenot immune from this but there are some things you can do in your contractsto protect against this – see below on retention of title.All distributors have to also balance efficiency with a speedy response. Ifthey can’t meet demand quickly, your records won’t be available, thecustomers won’t be able to buy them and you won’t get your chart position.The major record companies tend to manufacture their records locallyand then shop them to a centralised depot, usually somewhere in Europe, andfrom there to local distribution centres in different countries. It doesn’t takemuch thought to see how savings could be made by pooling the localdistribution centres.As well as dealing with their own artists’ records, some of the majors actas separate distribution companies for other companies’ records.If you aren’t signed to a major or can’t get a deal with a majordistribution company, you may not have any alternative but to go to anindependent distributor. The BPI has a useful guide to setting up your ownrecord label and distribution on its website www.bpi.co.uk.You also need to be aware that some smaller distributors are a bit likeproduction companies and pass on the job of actual distribution to anothercompany. You should ask if that’s what your chosen distributor does; if itdoes you should try to find out how reliable and financially stable that othercompany is. As we’ll see below, there are some things you can do to protectyourself by retaining ownership of the records until you’ve been paid.CATALOGUE OR SINGLE ITEM DISTRIBUTION DEALMost of what follows in this section is geared towards physical distributionbut for the last six months or so all new deals with Pinnacle have requiredthat you also give them exclusive online distribution rights alongside thephysical distribution. Existing clients are being sent variation agreements toextend their physical deals to online distribution as well. It is likely that alldistribution deals will offer both physical and online distribution in future.This can be a problem if you have an existing arrangement with an onlineaggregator like The Orchard or online retail sales outlets like 7Digital oriTunes. If that arrangement is already in place then you will have to excludethe online rights from the deal. If it’s non-exclusive there may be room forboth. Even if you haven’t already done a deal you should not just slavishlysign up to it without first thinking if the distributor has enough specialistknowledge to do a good job and get it out to all the decent online etailers.There are some signs that companies who have had a presence in physicaldistribution have a few teething problems with online releases and may needcloser supervision than you would imagine. I have also had an examplerecently of a client who only wanted the distributor to release online andwanted to reserve all the physical releases because they did not want tojeopardise a possible future record deal for that record. These are allpossibilities you have to consider.So are you doing a deal for all the records you’re likely to produce in thenext year or so? These are called ‘catalogue deals’ and would be suitable fora small record label or production company. They would also work for acompany that was going to license in rights to records by other artists, andalso for an artist who has decided that he doesn’t want or need the facilitiesof a record company and wants to distribute his own recordings. In recentmonths, some very successful artists have seriously considered bypassingrecord labels altogether and doing it all in-house. Simply Red announcedthey were doing so and more recently Radiohead looked like they were goingdown that road when they announced online sales of their new album atprices to be set by the customer. However, they have now also decided to usea traditional record label for first international and then physical distributionof this new albumIf you aren’t doing a catalogue deal, you could just give distributionrights to a single track to a distribution company. You might choose thisroute if you were just seeing this release as a stepping stone to getting arecord company interested in you. Just bear in mind, though, that if thedistributor is only dealing with one track for you, you’ll not have muchbargaining power and will have to push hard to ensure that you get any kindof priority.EXCLUSIVE VERSUS NON-EXCLUSIVECatalogue distribution deals are likely to be exclusive, but there may be oneor two exceptions to the exclusivity. For example, you could have the rightto put tracks on compilations to be distributed by another distributor or amajor record company. Or you could have the right to distribute smallquantities of the records yourself to one or two specialist outlets or onlinealthough mainly distributors or physical records are concerned to ensure thatthe record is not made available online before physical copies are in theshops.TermThis is really only relevant for exclusive catalogue deals.The distributor deals with your entire product over a period of time. Thiscould be open-ended, continuing until one or other of you gives notice,usually three months at least. Other possibilities are a fixed period of oneyear with the distributor having the option to extend the term for anotheryear, or the term could be for one year with further one-year extensionsunless you give notice before the end of that time that you don’t want it tocarry on. You have to be careful with this one because, unless you’re good atremembering when to give notice or have an efficient reminder system, youmight miss the relevant ‘window’ and find yourself locked in to anothertwelve months. Some distributors are now insisting on two years initially butthat is negotiable.If you think you might want to move your label and catalogue at somepoint to a bigger distributor or major, the more flexible the term is and theeasier it is for you to get out of it will be important. It could also be veryimportant if you aren’t sure how good the distributor is. On the other hand,the distributor might have greater commitment to you and be more inclinedto give you priority if they know you’re going to be with them for a pre-determined minimum period of time.TerritoryThe distribution deal could be a worldwide one, but is more likely to be for alimited number of countries, for example just for the UK or the UK andEurope. If you’re a UK artist or label looking to distribute your recordsbeyond Europe (for example to the US) then you’re much more likely to doit through licensing the rights to another record company with its owndistribution set-up (see Chapter 3). It is possible to have deals where youship finished records to them and they distribute them, but this is lesscommon. They are sometimes referred to as ‘consignment’ or ‘sale andreturn’ deals and Japanese labels are quite keen on them, as are someCanadian and US labels where it isn’t worth them manufacturing copieslocally and it is cheaper for them to do it on a sale or return basis.There is a problem, though, with distribution deals for just one country,for example the UK, its imports or, more particularly, what is often referredto as parallel imports. What are these? Let’s take an example. You have therights to distribute a particular track in the UK. Another record company hasthe rights to distribute the same record in France. If the record is released inFrance first, the French record company could export the records into theUK, where they might take some of your market from under you. You maythink that wouldn’t be allowed as they only have French distribution rights.Ah yes, that’s right, but there is the principle of a common marketplacethroughout the European Union (EU), which is meant to encourage the freemovement of goods. So, within the EU, it’s illegal for you to outlaw theseimports. You can tell the UK distributor that he isn’t to actively try and getorders from outside the UK, but it’s very difficult to police it. How do youknow who approached who?It’s easier, in theory, to prevent parallel imports coming in from outsidethe EU. For example, if you were giving one UK distributor Europeandistribution rights and licensed the rights to a record company in the US forNorth America, your contract with the US record company could specify thatthey aren’t allowed to ship records outside North America. The problem isthat there are specialised exporting companies who also act as genuinedomestic distributors. The US record label could legitimately sell records tosuch a company and then deny any knowledge or responsibility if thatcompany then exports the records to the UK.This is why there is a lot of pressure to ensure that a record is releasedsimultaneously in as many countries as possible, or to ensure that there issomething special about the release. For example, Japan, which has sufferedbadly from cheap imports, often insists that releases in Japan have extra‘bonus’ tracks to make the records more attractive to the domestic marketthan the imports.There is also pressure on price levels within the EU. The idea is that ifthe dealer prices are the same throughout the EU, there is less demand forimports brought in cheaper than the domestic product.There are, of course, new issues to be addressed by distributors as aresult of the possibility of buying records online. The Internet is a globalmarketplace and one challenge is to try to find new ways of dealing with thefact that it’s one big territory. Suppose you had a distribution deal with onecompany in the UK and another with a company in the US. Your licence dealwith each would have to say either that it was open house on export sales andboth could offer records for sale on their websites, for purchase anywhere inthe world, or you could limit the territory to the UK/US and put it in eachlicence that they aren’t to solicit offers or to fulfil orders from the other’scountry. For example, your email address is UK registered and you go onlineto try to buy a CD of an album that you know has been released in the US butisn’t yet on sale in the UK. If you went to a US website to try to buy the CDthey should refuse to accept orders for distribution outside the US. Thissolution is potentially off-putting for the consumer, which is the last thinganyone wants. Obviously, if you’d done a worldwide distribution deal withone company then that wouldn’t be necessary. It may be that any solution tothis territorial issue will have to be addressed by one-stop deals or reciprocalagreements between distributors in different countries. They could, forexample, agree to pay each other a percentage commission for salesgenerated in the other company’s territory. So far we’re seeing someattempts at reciprocal agreements for licensing via MCPS and PRS, butinternational co-operation between record companies or distributors istaking longer. The solutions being adopted seem to be practical – in the caseof physical sales you have to provide a delivery address in the countryconcerned. Although of course in the spirit of true enterprise there are nowcompanies who, for a fee, will give you a PO Box address in the country andforward the goods to you. Other solutions are technical in that you have tohave an email address in the country concerned to purchase goods online inthat country.Record companies and music publishers are now investing large amountsinto systems called rights management systems that will police where a fileis being downloaded to ensure that payment is being made, and which wouldalso enable them to track whether a distributor was breaking the terms of hisdistribution licence but, as we’ll see in Chapter 7, these systems are takingtime to deliver a fully workable solution.Rights grantedIf you’re doing a P&D deal you’ll be required to give the distributor theright to reproduce the sound recording and the right to distribute and sellthose copies whether that is as physical copies or in the form of onlinedownloads.PriceThe distributor will take a fee off the top of the price they get paid. So, forexample, if the distributor gets paid £7.49 for each record sold, they take apercentage of that as their fee.The percentage can vary a great deal depending on how many additionalservices they provide, for example, a telesales service or a strike forcededicated to pushing your records. It can be as high as 28–30% of the dealerprice if you’re unknown or only have one track to distribute. Deals of 15–18% or less are available to successful independent companies with a highturnover of successful product. Major record companies will usually paydistribution fees in single figures. Sometimes the percentage the distributorgets as a fee goes down as the turnover increases. An average amount for adistributor to charge would be 23–25% to independent record labels or artistproduction companies. For online distribution the opening price is around20% but all things are usually negotiable with the right level of bargainingpower.The distributor will also usually have a discount policy. This is a slidingscale of discounts on the dealer price that have to be given to the variousretail outlets. For example, major national chains like Woolworths or VirginMegastores would be able to command a discount on the price because theyorder in bulk and are such important outlets for the music. Supermarketchains such as Tesco and Asda are also now in this category and, indeed,often undercut the high-street chains. You’ll have little or no say on thesediscount rates, nor have a chance to change them. However, you shouldknow what they are in order to check you’re being paid properly. Discountshaven’t really established themselves in the online world but as volumeincreases then they may well follow. What does appear online is thededuction of whatever charges are laid against the distributor. For example,a distributor may first offer the tracks to an aggregator who acts as a kind ofclearing house and does a variety of deals with different etailers. Theseaggregators deduct a percentage from the gross revenue after the deductionof the etailer’s mark-up. So it is starting to mirror the physical world – evendown to ‘packaging deductions’ (see below).Payment termsThe distributor will often pay half of what is due within 30–45 days ofreceiving the payment from the retailers and the balance within 60–80 days.So if they get paid for a record sold on 28 February, the label might get halfof their money by the end of March and the rest by the middle of April.Make sure that for online sales all the necessary technical requirements ofthe online distributor are in place to ensure that you can track the number ofsales and check whether you are getting paid correctly, not just for onlinesales but also the payment of mechanical royalties for reproduction of yoursongs in the online copy downloaded. As we will see in the chapter onCollection Societies, there are now licensing systems and rates set for mostuses. The challenge now is to ensure that these rates are paid. So check whois responsible for ensuring mechanicals are paid – you or the distributor, orthe etailer.The distributor will probably keep back some of the money as a reserveagainst records that are returned. This of course only applies to physicalsales as in theory at least the customer should not pay for a download whichfails. Distributors usually have a fixed policy on this, but will sometimesnegotiate the level of reserves. The reserve on singles is generally higherthan for albums unless the album has been advertised on television. Retailstores may take copies of your record on a sale-or-return basis. So althoughthe distributors have sent out, say, 1,000 copies, they don’t know how manyhave actually been sold and won’t include these copies as sales until they’vebeen paid. They keep back a reserve against these returns and any otherreturns that appear to be sales (i.e. they’ve been shipped out but may bereturned to the distributor for some legitimate reason such as being damagedor faulty). The distributor has to hold back money against such aneventuality.The distributor won’t usually take responsibility for bad debts. I t a l s owon’t usually pay out before it gets paid, because that can lead to bigproblems. For example, you do a P&D deal with a local distributor whoagrees to pay out on the number of records it actually sends out, less areserve against returns. It ships out 1,000 copies of a record to the retailstores and pays you on 750 copies, keeping back a 25% reserve, before it hasreceived payment of the 1,000 sales. Months later, the stores return not 250but 500 copies; the distributor is then out of pocket by 250 copies and willlook to you to pay it back. Even worse for you is the case where you do adeal with a local distributor who pays you on what they get paid. They do adeal with a bigger distribution company and ship records to that biggercompany. The bigger company sells those records but, for whatever reason,fails to pay the smaller distributor, who can’t then pay you (even thoughrecords have been sold) because they haven’t been paid for them. Againthough this problem should not arise with online sales because once thecustomer has paid and received his download there is a very limitedopportunity for returns.Retention of titleA way of protecting yourself when you’re in a chain of deals like the onedescribed above is to retain your title (your ownership) of the records untilyou’ve been paid. These sections of the contract have to be very carefullydrafted in order to have a chance of working. Assuming the biggerdistribution company has gone bust, the liquidator of that company will wantto hold on to whatever stocks, i.e. records, that he can. He’ll want to sellthem to raise money for the creditors of the company, so he’ll want to getaround the retention of title if he can legitimately do so. Specialised legaladvice is needed on this and again it should not be necessary with onlinesales. There the issue should be making sure that once the deal has endedthey take down the copies off the Internet and do not continue to sell them.AdvancesBefore I leave this section, I just want to touch on the question of advances.Will a distributor give you an advance? Well they might if you’ve got agood track record for finding hit records or have a catalogue that has aregular turnover. The advances for small independent labels or individualartists aren’t likely to be high – possibly only a few thousand pounds. Aswith most advances, these sums aren’t usually returnable if you don’t sellenough records, but they are recoupable from monies you would otherwisereceive from sales.MARKETINGOnce you’ve got a record mastered, copies manufactured and you’ve found acompany to distribute it, another crucial step in the process is to let thepublic know about you and your record. The marketing process has manyelements to it and it’s an ongoing process. As soon as you’ve got somethingto sell – a record, live performance, merchandise – you need to let peopleknow about it.ARTWORKGetting the right artwork for the record is crucial – it should form part of thewhole campaign. It could be used as the backdrop to a stage show and on aposter campaign. It could appear on T-shirts and other merchandise. Makesure you own the copyright in the artwork and that there are no restrictionson what can be done with it. This still applies even though the artwork ismuch smaller being only for a CD booklet as opposed to 12” vinyl record.These days, however, the challenge for artists and graphic designers is adesign that works well online and uses the interactive technology of thedigital era and the global possibilities of the Internet to the fullest extent.There are also now ways to make simple versions of the artwork available asa download when you buy the record online so it is essential that you get theright from the designer of the artwork to use it in all these ways. Focus onstandard packaging that contains the correct copyright notices and the allimportant barcode. PPL has a leaflet explaining the copyright notices andBPI produces a leaflet explaining how to get a barcode. For online salesmake sure you have the correct metadata embedded in the digital copy andthat all necessary technical requirements of the online distributor are inplace to ensure sales are correctly tracked and fed back to you.PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIOGRAPHIESYou’re going to need to have some decent photographs. They’ll be neededfor information packs, for the press, for letting overseas licensees orassociated companies abroad know what you look like. You’ll also need topost photos or graphics up on your website or page on MySpace, Facebooketc. The costs the record company pays are not usually recoupable orrepayable by you unless you want to use the photographs for merchandising,for example on a T-shirt or poster, when they may expect you to repay halfthe costs.If there’s an exclusive record contract in place it will usually, but notalways, give the artist approval over which photographs are used. It will alsousually give the artist approval of the official biography. This is a bit like alife history. It also ensures that a consistent message or image is presentedof the artist, which forms part of the brand, as we’ll see in Chapter 8 onbranding. Some record contracts now also require the artist to contribute toonline diaries or blogs.If you give the record company photographs or biographical details theywill assume they are approved, so make sure you’re happy with them.IN-HOUSE OR EXTERNAL MARKETINGMost big record companies will have in-house marketing and pressdepartments. These are staffed by dedicated marketing and press people, oneor more of whom will be allocated to marketing your product. You need tobe sure that these people understand the game plan and, preferably, that theylove your music. At the very least they should like it, because otherwise theywon’t sound convincing when they try to sell you to the press, radio, TV andso on.If the marketing is to be done in-house it will normally be paid for by therecord company on a non-recoupable basis.The position changes if it’s a smaller company without its own in-housemarketing departments or outside specialists have been brought in forparticular aspects. The costs are then usually partly or wholly recoupablefrom the record income.Whether it’s being done in-house or with a number of outside specialists,the whole campaign has to be co-ordinated.The sales force and any special strike force have to be primed withartwork, photographs, biographies and campaign details. Promotion packshave to be sent out to any exporters, to clubs, DJs and to some retail outlets.For bigger releases the record company may arrange for a private ‘playthrough’ of the new album to selected key retailers.The fact that the record is being released has to be notified to the musicpress, to the chart compilers and to MCPS/PRS to get the relevantmechanical licence and details registered for when the record is performedpublicly. Each release has to have its own catalogue number. I once acted fora label called Produce Records and their catalogue identity was MILK 1, 2,3, etc. It is usual to prepare a summary of all the information known as‘presenters’ or ‘sales sheets’ of about a page long consisting of the name ofthe artist, the title of the record and a picture of it, its catalogue number,barcode, dealer price and release date. You should then add details of how toorder it and contact details plus some brief points on what the marketingcampaign is.The adverts for a co-ordinated advertising campaign will have to bedesigned and approved well in advance so that they’re ready for distributionat the same time as the promotional packs, posters, promotional items and soon.The strike or sales force goes into action several weeks before the releasedate, trying to get orders from the retail shops. These are called the ‘pre-sales’. Everyone is interested in getting these figures, as they’re a goodindicator of how well a particular record is being received. It will helpdetermine the chart position, it tells the marketing people how much morework they have to do, and pre-sales can give you some information to passon to your manufacturer and distributor to help them assess how manycopies of the record will be needed. The figures may also tell you in whatareas of the country the record is selling best, so the distributor can know tomake more copies available in those areas. There is also now a reason tocollect ‘pre-sales’ for online sales as these help to determine a chart positionin digital charts and greater exposure for the artist. A theme that I will returnto in the next chapter is how you come up with a marketing plan whichraises your music above the ‘noise’ of all the other competing releases thatweek. Why should a potential customer listen to and possibly buy yourrecord over anyone else’s? How do they even know you have a recordreleased? You need to come up with a marketing plan or idea that makesyour release stand out. This takes talent and you may need to bring inspecialist marketing people. As with all experts that you engage, make sureit is clear in writing what you want them to do, how they will be paid andwhat constitutes a successful outcome.TV ADVERTISINGIf you are on a major record label (or perhaps an independent one owned bya millionaire!) then part of the marketing campaign might be to advertise therecords on television. This is an expensive business. A basic televisioncampaign in four ITV regions can easily cost £75,000. The record companyis only going to want to spend this money if they think they will earn it backin extra record sales. To keep their risk to a minimum, the record companywill try and recoup some or all of these costs, either as a further advance orby reducing the royalty payable to the artist. How this works is that therecord company reduces by 50% the royalty they would otherwise have hadto pay on sales of the records until they have recouped (from that reducedroyalty) 50% or more of the costs of the TV ad campaign.We lawyers try and get artists the right of approval over whether anadvert is made but have to fight for this, as record companies know if youget the right of approval you’ll only give your approval if you get a betterdeal on recoupment. Then they don’t recoup so much of the cost. Otherwisewe try to limit the ways in which your income is affected, either byrestricting the reduction to sales in the country where the campaign is run, orlimiting the time over which they can recoup the costs from reducedroyalties, or both. Currently the trend is to just treat the cost of the campaignas a further recoupable advance which makes some of these restrictionsredundant and the arguments then tend to centre on how much is recoupable.Don’t rule out the idea of a television campaign without carefullylooking at the proposals. A good, targeted campaign could be what it takes tolift your record into the Top 20 albums chart, which could make all thedifference. However, be aware of the cynical attempt to reduce royalties toyou when your record has been particularly successful by rushing out acheap TV campaign in the same accounting period as your album wasreleased and achieved most of its sales. By doing this the record companycan add a further advance to the bottom line or halve royalties on all sales inthat accounting period even if they were before the ad campaign. Don’t thinkthis is fanciful. One of my colleagues found that a major record companywas trying to do this with an artist who had had a very successful debutalbum. A TV campaign wasn’t needed and the lawyer and manager had tofight hard to get a deal whereby the royalties were not artificially reduced. Itis also true that record company executives might panic into doing a TVcampaign when they fear that the sales are not at the level they expect. It isthe job of a good manager to try and decide whether the fear is real andwould be helped by a campaign. I know of one very experienced managerwho had to persuade their artist’s record label not to rush out a TV advert foran album at Christmas. They were afraid that they had over-supplied thestores and would get masses of returns in the New Year. The managers hadto fight long and hard to stop this happening but they did have an ace uptheir sleeve – they ‘knew’ that the next single was a winner, stood theirground, were found right and the artist went on to have a very successfulalbum. Guy Hands – of venture capitalist Terra Firma – has recentlyannounced that he wants to ship fewer records so there are fewer returns andlower overheads. This is a fine principle – the problem is that it is not anexact science which can determine in advance precisely how many peoplewill decide to go into their local record store one weekend and buy aparticular record. If the demand is higher than anticipated then the storeswill run out and the prospective purchaser – maybe an impulse buyer – willmove on to his next purchase.TV AND RADIO PLUGGERSEven in these days of the Internet it’s still important to the success of arecord that it gets exposure on radio. Unless the record gets a decent numberof radio plays, it’s unlikely to enter the charts. Although it is becoming alittle easier now that downloads count towards chart positions.The people who decide what is played on Radio 1 or 2, XfM, Heart andother pivotal regional radio stations are very powerful, and some feel thatthe records chosen for the playlists are towards the commercial pop end ofthe market. There was a big problem a couple of years ago when 27-year-oldartists were being thought of as too old! Now, however, Radio 2 has steppedinto the gap, picked up many of the ex-Radio 1 DJs who had been influentialopinion-formers and given them shows. Those who had grown up with thesepeople gravitated to Radio 2, which has become much more the station ofmainstream commercial releases by older artists as well as middle-of-the-road tracks by younger artists. Now, ironically, for many releases failure toget on the Radio 2 playlist is a kiss of death.The TV and radio pluggers who have the tough job of trying to getrecords playlisted are either employed in-house by the record company orare from outside agencies that specialise in this work. Their costs are dealtwith in similar ways to press agents (see below).WHAT DO YOU PAY EXTERNAL MARKETING AND PRESSPEOPLE?There are many different ways of paying for external marketing and presswork.RetainersPress people and pluggers could be on retainers. These are regular, monthlypayments that are made to keep them on board as the press agent, constantlyhaving an eye on press opportunities. When you aren’t actively doing anypromotion, for instance when you’re in the studio recording the next album,the level of retainer could be quite small. It would then increase whenpress/promotion activities rise around the time of the release of the record.However, as the economy slows down and competition among thesecompanies hots up, the number of people on retainers has declined and nowmany are only paid when they do some work.BonusesIf someone is on a retainer or a fixed fee they may be paid a bonus forachieving certain targets. For example, a press officer could get paid a bonusfor every front page/cover he gets that features you.A plugger might get a bonus if a record goes into the Top 10 or whatever.Fixed feesMarketing and press people could be on a fixed fee, possibly with bonuseslinked to success.RoyaltiesPress and pluggers could be on a retainer or a fixed fee with bonuses. Goodpluggers and those in great demand (usually the same ones) can insist on‘points’, i.e. a royalty (usually 0.5–1%) on each record sold. If you want thebest you may have to pay this. It will either come out of the artist royalty orbe paid by the record company, or a combination of the two.Where do you find them?The usual ways – word of mouth, those companies already on a retainerarrangement with your record company, those companies known to yourmanager as doing a good job in this area of music. The Music WeekDirectory carries a list of press and promotions companies, but it would be agood idea to get a recommendation from someone in the business before youchoose one.Do they want a contract?If they’re on a fixed fee they will probably just invoice you for the fee whenthe work is done. If you’ve agreed they’ll undertake something out of theordinary, or you’re putting them on a retainer, you’ll probably want a simplecontract. If they’re being paid a royalty you’ll definitely need a contractsetting out how that royalty will be calculated and when it will be paid. Thesimplest thing is to do this on the same basis as you get your royalties underyour record deal.EPQSThis is the name given to electronic press packages. That is pre-recordedinterviews, photos and biographies, together with promotional clips of yourlatest single release, that are put together by your in-house or external pressofficer. These usually take the form of a DVD and they’re sent out toreviewers, press reporters, DJs, radio station controllers and so on as anadditional means of promotion. Some companies are now sending them outas file attachments to emails. Most new record contracts contain a clausethat says that the record company can put one of these together and that theartist will co-operate with them. There seems to be no reason why youwouldn’t want to agree to the compiling of an EPQ, but you might wantsome creative control and you’ll need to agree whether some or all of thecosts can be recouped.VIDEOGRAMSPromotional videos were a key part of the marketing process for most artistswho were aiming for a commercial chart position. They are still importantfor the pop market and can be useful for putting something interesting onyour MySpace page and on YouTube; however there are limited outlets forpromotional videos other than music stations like MTV as well as all thecable and satellite channels.However, they can be very expensive to make and there’s no point inmaking one if your record doesn’t get radio plays or TV airtime. It will be awaste of money and you’ll end up paying for it in one way or another. It hasto fit in with the overall marketing plan so don’t overspend or make a videounnecessarily. If you can pull in some favours and get your mates who’vestudied film-making to make a cheap video for you – good enough forYouTube and maybe as a video mobile phone clip – then that may be worthdoing but again only if it is part of a well thought out campaign.The creative elements such as what the story is going to be (thestoryboard), who’s going to produce and direct it, and when and where it isto be shot will probably be agreed between artist and record company.Depending on the contract, the artist may have a final say on some of thesethings and the record company on others.LONG-FORM DVDSUnlike promo videos which are generally there to accompany a singlerelease, a DVD may well be a full-length 60–90 minute production. RobbieWilliams’s Live at Knebworth was an early example of how to use themedium as a marketing tool for the artist but also as a commercial productin its own right. Yet when it was first issued the record label didn’t get it andhad to be persuaded that it would sell enough to recoup. It went on to sellover half a million copies and recoupment was not an issue. Kylie Minoguehas released a DVD of her comeback ‘Diamond’ tour alongside her latestalbum X, and such releases can also help to keep the artist in the public eyein between album releases. For example, if no new album is expected for ayear then it might be worth putting out a DVD of the last tour to keep fansinterested. There is a separate DVD chart just like the Albums and Singlescharts. The VHS video format has been killed off and you should not makevideos in that format – DVD is now the format of choice. According to themajor record companies trade body BPI, commercial videos had a retailvalue of £93.5 million in 2006 outstripping the retail value of digitaldownloads which stood at £70million. But like the CD market 2007 provedto be a difficult market for DVDs too, with prices of DVDs fallingsignificantly but without the hoped for increase in sales. In the third quarterof 2007 the sector showed a 31% drop in sales over the corresponding periodin 2006 according to the Official Chart Company statistics. Part of theproblem seems to lie in customers being prepared to watch poorer qualityvideo films online than good quality DVDs in their living rooms. Again, asbandwidth increases and download times for films reduces there are alsogoing to be increasing pressures from piracy and illegal downloads. So in anattempt to capture some of this illegal market record companies are nowoffering video clips as downloads alongside or possible slightly ahead of anartist’s album release. The idea is that if they can see a clip of the video orcan download the video to go with the single then the customer may go outand buy the full-length DVD. Streaming of long-form DVDs on online TVstations is also being explored as a new outlet or revenue stream. Some alsosee a synergy between the fact that the new owners of EMI, Terra Firma,also have a stake in the chain of Odeon cinemas and speculate on DVDs incinemas as another possible outlet.RIGHTSThe record company will usually expect to own all rights in any audio-visualrecordings of the artist’s performances they have paid for.If you have a lot of bargaining power, you can limit the rights you givethem to audio-visual rights on recordings you make for them under therecord deal. Most major record companies won’t agree to this, as they wantto know that if someone else makes a recording of your live set they can’tthen put it out as a competing record or DVD. You might have to agree thatyou won’t do that with any recordings of your performances without theirapproval.Some artists or DJs have people who film them going about theirprofessional business, doing public appearances, backstage at gigs etc. anduse some of that footage in a DVD. The trick here is to ensure they have theright to use the footage of other people who may get on the film likebackstage crew or audience members but lawyers can advise how to do that.The record company may have the exclusive right to make long-formDVDs, or they may have the first option to bid for the right to make one, orthe right to match an offer that someone else may have made to make one.The cost of making a long-form DVD is usually mutually agreedbetween the artist and the record company and a separate account is set up.You usually get to dictate, or at least approve, all the creative aspects of thelong-form DVD.ROYALTYThe royalty rate will be the same or slightly lower than that for records.There may be an advance payable for the long-form or the record companymay have had to match any offer made by a third party. The advance and thecosts should only be recoupable from the royalties on this long-form DVD.Income from records or any commercial use of promotional videos shouldnot be used to recoup these costs.CONCLUSIONSDecide on whether you need separate manufacturing and distributiondeals.Check the returns and discounts policy of your distributor and for anyhidden costs.Try to retain ownership of the records until you’ve been paid.Get the marketing campaign organised well in advance.Agree whether the press and plugging is to be done in-house or byoutside agencies. If outsiders are doing press or promotion, try to get the recordcompany to agree that only 50% of the cost is recoupable.Get approval of any photos and biographies.Gets approval, if you can, of any television advertising campaigns forthe records – particularly if your royalty will be reduced. Chapter 7Online Sales and Distribution INTRODUCTIONDigital technology is changing the face of the music industry on every level.This is not of course the first time that it has done so. The development ofthe CD 25 years ago used digital technology to create a whole new mediumof music distribution free from the constraints of analogue media such asvinyl, which had severe limitations on the amount of music each recordcould store. CD sound quality was also ‘cleaner’ although not all agree thatthat was necessarily a good thing. So the current developments could be seenas the latest in a long line of changes wrought by technological advances.However, this time the changes are more fundamental. Improvements indigital reproduction mean music is now available via an almost bewilderingarray of carriers – mobile phones, PDAs, memory sticks, MP3 players and ofcourse streaming and downloading via the Internet. The availability ofbroadband in most homes and certainly all places of further education hasmade the distribution of music via the Internet fast and almostuncontrollable. I will review in this chapter and in the later one on piracysome of the issues that this has created.OVERVIEWThe vastly expanded digital market has highlighted the flaws in the majorrecord companies, whose monolithic structures were built around thedistribution of physical copies of music, over which the record companieshad a measure of control, and for which they could demand a high price. TheCD did not render this model redundant, it just meant there was a whole newset of hardware they could develop and sell and the marketing men had afield day persuading us to buy again in CD form records we already ownedon vinyl. Even the introduction of players which made music portable likethe Sony Walkman did not alter the model fundamentally as it still requiredthe distribution and sale of physical products.It is a different story with digital distribution which takes the form ofstreamed digital radio or podcasts and downloads where there is no physicalproduct at all and where the hardware development is not in the hands of thetraditional developers like Sony and Phillips but with outsiders like Appleand distribution in the hands of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and otherproviders of online services, like Google and Yahoo and mobile phonecompanies and it is marketed by third parties like MySpace and YouTube.The major record companies may also have lost the battle to try and controlillegal copying through digital rights management (DRM) systems. Pricingtoo is no longer in the control of the record companies. Several monopolyenquires into the supposed high price of CDs may not have shown there wasan abuse of a dominant market position by the major record labels, but thewhole issue is redundant as the battle has moved to a different ground. Theissue now is how you get people to pay for music at all when they can get itso easily for free. This battle is one that the record companies are losinghand over fist. They are rapidly coming to the conclusion that they mustchange their business model or die. Let us hope they have not left it too late.The winners in this new digital world are not the traditional players.Outsiders, telecoms companies and technology whizz kids, have spotted anopportunity. Being new to this industry they are not hampered by the oldways of the record labels, but can approach matters with a fresh perspective.I am thinking here of the social networking and gambling websites or themultiplicity of services which use music as added value to drive customersand advertisers/investors to their services. Music is just another commodity,it is not the reason for the existence of these services in the first place. Theinroads that these new players are making into the music industry bring withthem new challenges of how to make music pay and how to find the musicyou want to listen to, particularly that of new artists where the breadth ofavailable music has never been greater.Piracy or free availability of music is a major problem. As we will see inmore detail in the later chapter on piracy, the organisations representingmajor record labels such as RIAA and the BPI continue to tackle Internetpiracy head on as opposed to embracing the technology as opening up amassive potential market. I have always taken the view that criminalisingordinary people who download music for free is counter-productive. Tacklethe large-scale pirates by all means, but otherwise I think it is far better toeducate people as to the law on copyright, which to be fair lately the BPI hasbeen doing, but also to use the new technology in a positive way to reachmore fans. For example, older users of the Internet, the so-called ‘silversurfers’, have proved to be a lucrative source of online purchasers of musicvia websites like Amazon. Until recently they have been buying physicalcopies for mail order but with Amazon expanding into the download marketwho is to say that they won’t also purchase downloads if the process is madestraightforward enough? These buyers may not have gone into a high streetrecord store as they can be quite intimidating places for the uninitiated andso could be seen as a potential whole new market.The changes in how we receive music via the Internet and on mobilephones have also given the lawyers and legislators a number of knotty legalproblems to resolve. As we will see below the law has finally caught up withthe online world and recognised that copyright is capable of protection andshould be given protection for online uses. The issue of piracy and illegalfile sharing remains problematic, as does the whole question of the licensingof rights across countries given the global nature of the Internet. Muchremains to be done to ensure cross border co-operation but the collectionsocieties at least are taking steps in the right direction across Europe as wewill see in the later chapter on collection societies.A key indicator of the reality and the growing importance of the digitalmusic business was the launch of the official UK Download Chart inSeptember 2004 when, for the first time, download formats wereacknowledged as a viable commercial format. This was followed by theincorporation of downloaded tracks into the Official Singles Chart on 17April 2005. Mobile phone plays will also count for chart positions as soon asthe technical difficulties are resolved. From 22 October 2007 sales of DigitalMemory Devices (DMDs) count towards both the singles and albums charts.They have been eligible for the singles chart since September 2007. DMDformats include SD memory cards for mobile phones, USB flash devices aswell as memory sticks, so greater marketing experimentation may follow.USB releases in 2007 included a single by Keane and limited releases byKanye West and Amy Winehouse. USBs can take many forms and designsso the possibility of creative artwork, design and marketing is there for all toseize. EMI has announced it plans to release the entire Radiohead backcatalogue on a limited edition USB stick in the shape of the band’s ‘FangedBear’ logo. Artists like Arctic Monkeys, Leona Lewis and Koopa have allused Internet chart positions to boost their own profile.Many new artists now only release singles online initially, moving to aphysical release only if online sales warrant it. Distributors like Pinnaclehave added online distribution to their standard distribution deals.There has been considerable progress in the penetration of newtechnology with greater uptake of broadband; portable players such as iPodsare now available at affordable prices; and mobile phones, including the newiPhone which can download both sound and video clips are within the pricerange of many more people. The growth of these new types of players anduses, in particular mobile ringtones, has led the major record companies toalter their contracts to give them rights to distribute music on these newplatforms and they are establishing business models for being paid on thesenew uses as well as a royalties system for paying the artists and songwriters.Dominic Pride writing in Impact magazine in 2007 claimed that therewas a potential market of 3 billion mobile phone owners compared to 1billion Internet users. He was advocating the growing importance of the songand claimed that as the song was no longer restricted by formats used by therecord industry, this opened the way for new partnerships with songwritersand publishers working together to monetise the use of music. He mentionedone use in particular: mobile caller ring-back tones and the potential to tailorthese to the market place or to personalise them to the individual customer.He emphasised the delivery of a service to the customer over mobile phones,Internet TV and broadband with music as a key constituent of the service. Ifhe is right then in the future artists and songwriters might get paid for musicnot as an element on its own but as part of the fee charged for access to aservice. This makes sense to me as a new business model and the basis ofnew partnerships with service providers, but accepting this view meansacceptance of the fact that the record company is no longer in full control.This will come hard to those who make their money from that business orperhaps more importantly those who are answerable to the shareholders ofthose companies.If the future is paying for access to a service rather than access toindividual artist downloads then we need to consider if giving away musicfor free is a way of tempting consumers into this new world? Many artistsbelieve strongly that their music should not be given away. Cover mountCDs are detested by many artists. Why would a consumer pay for a classicsong when, if they wait, they will be able to get it for nothing with theirSunday newspaper? And yet, for every artist that takes this stance you willfind others who embrace the idea of music for free. Artists like The Beeshave been making acoustic podcasts of material available and Ocean ColourScene gave away downloads of their last single free. There have beenattempts like the Spiral Frog website to get consumers to accept that theycan access music for free but have to first listen to a bunch of ads, but as aservice it may be struggling.At the opposite end of the spectrum from the music for free idea arethose deals which make the most of the idea of added value by offering fanspremium products like the CD with extra tracks, a free ticket to a show nearthe fan’s home, lyrics and additional background to the songs and so on butall at a premium price. There is more on this in the marketing section below.Of course, even if you accept the view of the growing importance of thesong and partnerships between publishers and service providers such asmobile phone companies, there is still the fact that in many cases the songhas to be recorded to a reasonable quality. Polyphonic ringtones and realtones are improving but not to the standard of a properly produced andmixed studio recording. It is possible that the mobile phone companies willcommission their own recordings of music or expect the publishers to stepup to the mark and pay for good quality recordings but that is not thetraditional role of the publisher and it is unlikely that the owners of thepublishing companies will sanction large expenditure on acquiring soundrecording facilities. The more obvious route would be to use the systemsalready in place at the record companies or perhaps the newer, leanerproduction companies.If the business model is to change to shares of revenue from access toservices then the publishers will suffer a drop in mechanical royalties, butthey hope that this will be balanced out by an increase in flat fee usages,performance and synchronisation royalties, and shares of income with newpartners like the telecoms companies. It is also important that the industry isable to move fast and a one-stop shop across territories and betweenrecordings and songs will be needed, and accurate payment tracking systemswill need to be put in place.The IFPI estimates that there are twenty illegal downloads for everylegitimate one. John Kennedy, chair of the IFPI, called for a united approachacross the industry to tackling the issue of greater co-operation from theISPs over piracy and illegal downloading. He described the ISPs as the‘gatekeepers’ and that their co-operation could make ‘the single biggestdifference’ to the music industry. What the industry wants is for the ISPs toaccept they have some responsibility for the content that is on the websitesthat they host. If the ISPs were to agree to share the data from websitesbelieved to be involved in illegal downloading then stopping those pirateswould become infinitely easier. Kennedy says a precedent has already beenset when the ISPs responded to a call from the Government to put in filteringsoftware to block access to child pornography websites. We will see more ofthis in the section on social network sites below.There are some pundits who claim that the growth in the number of newpotential partners means that the power has shifted towards the artist andaway from the traditional record company. The example is quoted of SirPaul McCartney leaving EMI after forty years and releasing his new albumthrough Starbucks’ label Hear Music. Other examples might be Madonna’sdeal with her promoters Live Nation or Radiohead going ahead with its owndigital release of its latest album. However, things are never quite so simple.What all these artists have in common is that they are well established andhave a large fan base. It would not be anything like as easy for a new,unknown artist to do the same thing. It is also true that whilst many of thesewell-known artists are using new and unusual partners they haven’tcompletely abandoned the traditional routes either. McCartney’s album wasmade available to traditional outlets through a distribution deal withUniversal. Radiohead signed to XL for physical release of their album andThe Eagles, who are quoted as one of the success stories of 2007, may beunsigned but they also used a major label (Universal again) to act as theirdistributor. There is a place for newer artists to do their own thing, but theyneed the means to attract attention to their music, which means a greaterthan ever emphasis on marketing.This brings me neatly on to the last significant development I want tohighlight in this overview and that is the phenomenal growth of socialnetworking sites in particular MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook and Bebo.Alongside these pure networking sites are those which use music as the‘hook’ to attract the consumer to some other aspect of their website such asthe website slicethepie which uses the discovery and finding of unsignedartists and the purchase of contracts in the future success of these artists as acommodity to be traded online. Once again these are examples of how musicis just one aspect of a bigger service. The challenge for the music industrywith these sites is to see how the artists, songwriters and rights owners canbenefit financially from this ‘free’ use of their music.REPRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTIONThere have been some positive developments in the area or reproduction anddistribution. Record companies have entered into licensing agreements withonline music services, and are trying to establish systems which shouldfacilitate tracking of uses, collection and accounting to the artists. Manyrecord labels are now putting their entire catalogue online with WarnerMusic the latest to announce it is doing this in the US via the Amazon.comwebsite. If record companies can make enough money from these newsources then in theory at least they should be able to continue to invest innew music.Of course, online distribution threatens the bricks and mortar retailers asillustrated by number of artists issuing tracks only as downloads. Gorillaz’release of ‘Feel Good Inc.’ only as an Internet download was one of the firstto get the high street retailers claiming foul as did more recently the releaseof Prince’s new album as a cover mount on the Sunday Mail newspaper, forwhich he was said to have been paid £500,000. This particular marketing‘first’ attracted a great deal of interest. It undoubtedly led to increased salesof the newspaper that week and also helped to market the fact that Princewas about to embark on a record breaking 21 day residency at the new O2venue in East London (housed in the Millennium Dome). You might say thatwas his main aim, not record royalties or chart positions.The retail music stores have suffered, not only because of the difficultiescaused by illegal downloads, but also from enhanced competition on thehigh street and a slowdown in the economy. Some retailers, such as HMV,have experimented with in-store kiosks for burning custom-CDs and othershave sought to improve the retail experience as well as providing musicsubscription and legal downloads through their own branded websites.However, flexibility was not enough for chains like Fopp, which went intoadministration in 2007. Virgin Retail also sold its music stores in 2007,which have been rebranded with the name Zavvi. This sale, together w i t hVirgin effectively selling up its stake in the record label V2, now a labelwithin the Universal Group, means that Richard Branson has ended his longlove affair with the music business, at least for now. Interestingly theretailers association ERA is amongst those clamouring for DRM free musicdownloads as the retailers realise they have to compete with the illegalmusic download sites and adapt their own business practices to survive.In an attempt at winning back some of their lost business the traditionaldistributors of physical product are now expanding their operations toencompass online download distribution, with Pinnacle being the latest to doso. The new Pinnacle contracts include online rights and Pinnacle, like mostdistributors, tries to get these exclusively where it can. If you already havedeals with companies like The Orchard or iTunes then it will not be possibleto do an exclusive deal with your distributor so you will have to negotiatechanges. You may also want to maintain flexibility because if, for example,you do an online only distribution deal exclusively with one distributor andthe tracks are then included on an album that you do an exclusive licencedeal for or which forms the basis of the commitment under an exclusiverecording contract for your band then you are going to be in trouble as youwill have granted away the all important digital rights. So again you have tonegotiate exclusions or compromises.These new distribution deals seem to be taking the same form as fortraditional physical distribution, with the distributor putting the record outthrough aggregators or direct to retailers online, collecting the incomegenerated, and paying the rights owner after deducting its cut. Thepercentage the distributor keeps is open to negotiation and will often start ataround 20%. Do remember that the traditional physical product distributorsare relatively new to the world of online distribution. There may be teethingproblems. You may need to be more ‘hands on’ than you might expect.Make sure the tracks are correctly digitised and that the correct metadata isincluded with the online file to enable the downloads to be tracked andpayment made. If at all possible do a trial run or a ‘soft’ release, where youlet the track out a few days before the official release date or just throughone or two key outlets to test all is well. I had one client who was releasinghis latest track online in early November 2007. He had all his promotionlined up: a live date; some radio and some press ads and articles all directingthe fans to buy the release through certain websites and services. The releasedate came and with it a host of complaints from the fans that they could notget the record or that the download had failed but the company had stilltaken their money. The release was a disaster and the artist had to make up agreat deal of lost goodwill with his fans. The response of the distributor wasa very nonchalant: ‘Oh yes, we sometimes get teething problems but theysort themselves out in time. Complaints from fans help us find what’swrong.’ Well needless to say we were not impressed with this line and theclient will think twice about using that distributor again.STREAMING AND ONLINE BROADCASTINGAbout ten years ago webcasting was seen as the future of pay-per-viewtelevision to enable all fans to access an artist’s live concerts. But thismeans of distribution seems to have run out of steam due largely toproblems of poor reception and instability in the technology: if too manypeople tried to watch at once it often crashed the system. However,streaming of music has been given a new boost by the idea of podcastingmusic i.e. making it available to your iPod or other similar portable musicdevice at a time suitable to you. Radio led the way on this. There is alsodefinitely a move towards you being able to view your favourite televisionprogrammes or listen to a radio show you’ve missed or want to listen toagain at a time of your choice and some television programmes have startedto make highlights programmes available again as a listen again service.Evidence of the fact that this is becoming an established form of broadcast isthe establishment of a Podcasting Association and the granting of blanketlicences for use of some music in podcasts (see the chapter on collectionsocieties). At the moment most of these podcasts are free, so are essentiallyused as marketing tools, but I am sure that soon it will develop into a servicethat will try and generate revenue for the broadcaster concerned.But it is not all doom and gloom as the Internet has opened the way formore specialist or obscure genres of music to find a worldwide market.There was an initial bounce back effect on music sales as consumersdiscovered new artists and went searching for more tracks by the same artistor others in the same genre. This was, of course, the original intention of theP2P services. I know I am back on my soap box again but if the musicindustry had tried to understand these new services and embrace the thinkingbehind them rather than attacking them as a threat then possibly the saleslosses could have been minimised or changes to the record industry structureintroduced sooner. They might also have saved themselves millions ofpounds in legal fees. Instead they drove the problem underground, mademartyrs of schoolgirls and the average Joe consumer and created an ‘us andthem’ feeling with the music industry as the enemy. Bands like ArcticMonkeys might not have had the success they did (or perhaps had it later) ifthey hadn’t fully embraced the positive aspects of the Internet from theoutset.SO HOW HAS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SOUGHT TOCOPE OR ADAPT TO THESE CHANGES?CONSOLIDATIONThere has been consolidation in the retail and distribution sectors. Many ofthe major record companies have pulled out of distribution with UniversalMusic being the latest to do so in 2005. The majors have struck deals eitherwith other majors or with distribution specialists like PIAS, (formerly Vital)and have centralised their operations in one European country.There has also been consolidation amongst the majors themselves withSony acquiring BMG’s record division and Universal snapping up V2 andSanctuary Group. On the publishing side Universal has merged with BMG.The on-off merger talks between Warner Music and EMI Group seem tohave gone on the back burner since the venture capitalists Terra Firma underGuy Hands took control of EMI Group but no one is betting against itcoming back on to the agenda at some point.COST-CUTTINGThe record and publishing companies have also become leaner. They havetried to offload non-essential personnel through a mixture of voluntary andcompulsory redundancies. Accounting and legal/business affairs functionshave been cut right back, sometimes on the back of supposed greatertransparency in their contracts. They argue that with easier to followaccounts and simplified legal contracts their costs will reduce as will thecontributions they often make to the fees of the lawyers advising artists theywish to sign. But there is only so far you can go and still function.Guy Hands made the newspapers in 2007 with a flurry of stories abouthow he intended to cut back on what he saw as waste in the record companyhe was now overseeing. He announced his intention to sell off a Mayfairproperty worth £6million which had been used infrequently by the companychairman. He challenged the amount of money paid by the major recordlabels to organisations such as RIAA, BPI and IFPI asking if there wasn’t anoverlap in their functions, particularly on piracy issues. On this issue therehas been some movement in a reduction in the subscriptions paid by themajors, but not, they say, as a result of Hands’ intervention. He alsoquestioned the ‘flowers and candles’ budget and the expensive Christmasgifts sent to the artists. All made for good headlines, but it feels to me liketinkering round the edges when the main problem remains how to monetisemusic in the digital age. More serious were his plans announced in January2008 to cut 2,000 staff and reorganise the company to separate the A&R andbusiness functions.The major record labels remain monolithic structures with physicaloffices in all major capitals with big corner offices and highly, some mightsay obscenely, paid executives many of whom are on bonuses linked to shareprice or sales or both. This remuneration system might militate againstpushing the niche artist with low levels of sales, but in reality the majorshave really only been there for the commercial artist for some time. Nicheartists do still occasionally have a place, but it is rare that an artist with lessthan 100,000 sales gets to make a second album for a major record company.The executives are fighting for their very existence and there is probably alot more pain to come before it gets better. They are up against leanoperations in the telecoms business that are financially superior and they canchoose not to work with record companies who decline to work with themand this threatens to leave them isolated and redundant. The new players canoperate at a low level of overhead and from almost anywhere in the world.They can remunerate and motivate their employees differently. They do nothave to carry the enormous overheads associated with physical distributionand can, therefore, in theory, move faster and react more swiftly to change.Their challenge remains how to monetise their activities at a level whichmakes sense for their investors. I think it is fairly certain that advertisingwill play an ever more important role.Of course major labels do still have a role to play, and the CD formatstill constitutes a significant percentage of global legitimate sales of music,but more partnerships and joint ventures are needed. Technology has to bethe driver. The record companies seem to some extent to have abdicatedtheir A&R function to production companies and trusted producers andmanagers, but in so doing their role is changing to just being finders ofradio-friendly commercial hits. Where are the mavericks, the Alan McGee’swho gave Welsh-speaking Super Furry Animals a start and supported KevinRowland in his wish to wear a dress on his album cover? Without risk thereis a danger of stagnation. Yes, you can try and expand your income bysigning all your artists up to the 360 models that we read about in thechapter on record deals, but they only work for so long as the live sectorremains buoyant. If there is a downturn in the economy on the back of thecredit crunch that began in the USA and which Britain started to experienceat the end of 2007, then will people have the money to pay for expensiveconcert tickets, and if they pay for the tickets will they still buy themerchandise when they get there? Come to that unless record companies aredeveloping acts who have a chance of a long-term career in the business andaren’t just one album wonders, where are the stadium-filling live acts of thefuture coming from to sustain these 360 models?LOWER VALUE DEALSSo far, in addition to the cost savings referred to above, and their focus at themoment on the holy grail of the 360 model, the major record companieshave tried to minimise their exposure by signing fewer acts and paying lessfor those they do sign. But despite these good intentions they do still allowthemselves to be carried away by hype and bidding wars and lawyers andmanagers must take some responsibility there too. We are trained to talk updeals and to seek the best deals for our clients and that often means thebiggest financial commitment and therefore playing one party off againstanother. Often these mega signings are done out of a wish by the recordcompanies for a short-term boost to sales to keep the shareholders or theCity investors happy. Sometimes it’s in order to convince the other labelsthat here is a label with money and power so they had better watch out: themetaphorical gauntlet is thrown down to rival labels. I do wonder thoughhow many of these deals are done dispassionately with a clear notion ofexactly how many records would have to be sold to recoup and how realisticthat is.NEW FORMS OF MARKETINGThe record labels are also looking at innovative marketing ideas to drivecustomers to their product as opposed to that of a rival. These include anumber of ‘firsts’ like Universal’s first digital only record signing, followedwithin the year by signing them up for all physical rights too but they got theinitial publicity. Then there were events like the artist Sandi Thom beingsigned to Sony/BMG on the back of webcasts from her basement flat inTooting, South London, or the first download-only number one etc.If I were a gambling woman then my money would not be going intorecord companies; it would be in technology looking at ways of filtering thevast array of information available online and in companies focusing onmarketing to consumers using new technology. One example of attemptswhich are already being made to filter stuff on the Internet is the servicelaunched by MySpace in December 2007 called Earwig. It is an Internetvideo channel. The idea is that it will feature short video clips on selectedartists in which they will talk about themselves, their musical influences andmusic. These videos are meant to be self-produced interviews by the artists.It is aimed at unsigned or newly signed artists. MySpace says it will selectan artist of the week who will feature on the front page of the website. Iknow I’m a cynic but what’s the betting on that space being available tolabels/advertisers for a fee in due course?PIRACYBut enough of the predictions for now – they have a nasty habit of comingback and biting you. Let’s look in more detail at some of these issues. Thebiggest area of concern remains that of piracy. As I have consistently saidthe music industry is probably fighting a lost cause with illegal downloadingwhich is after all an invidious form of piracy. Individuals are now pirates aswell as the large-scale commercial operations. The genie is already out ofthe bottle and isn’t going to go back in. Whilst there remains a hardcore oflaw-abiding members of the public who will pay for music, they are joinedby a younger generation who are used to free availability and exchange ofmusic. Even those who will pay for it are unwilling to pay at the levels theywere in the days of physical only carriers, and they may only be interested inpaying for single tracks rather than ‘bundled’ albums. Making legaldownloads easy to get and of a superior quality to the illegal versions maygo some way to help but not for those who do not care overmuch aboutquality and who just want the latest stuff for free. Educating these peoplemay help a bit, but probably not a great deal, so one way to get them may beto get them to pay for something else that they do value, such as a mobilephone service or a favourite website, and include in the price they pay anelement for the music content on that phone or website.Piracy has in fact always been a problem for the music business with CD,tape and video copying a huge business in the Far East and former easternbloc countries (see Chapter 14). The problem also manifests itself in theleaking of albums via the Internet ahead of their commercial release –albums by artists such as Oasis, Eminem, U2, Beck and PJ Harvey havesuffered from this. It is extremely difficult to track how or where the leakoccurs: it’s not as if someone were smuggling a large tape reel out of thestudio. That said, I do have one artist who is so against his music beingavailable online that all pre-release copies of his works were made availablein cassette tape versions only on the basis that these are more difficult tocopy and put up on the Internet. I suppose with the demise of cassette tapesthis will be replaced with lower grade digital copies, but here I wonder ifthis isn’t in fact damaging the artist if the reviewers listen to an inferiorcopy of the new album and write unflattering reviews as a consequence.There are also examples of almost ‘Mission Impossible’ style scenes wherereviewers are searched before entering dedicated rooms where they listen ona special machine to one numbered copy of the album. The intention beingthat if the reviewer makes an illegal copy it will be tracked back to him. Buteven such measures don’t stop the determined pirate. The long-awaitedColdplay album was available in full on the Internet days before the officiallaunch. This was despite strenuous efforts by their record company, EMI, toprevent this. EMI made the best of a bad job by bringing forward releaseplans. Record companies also try and get the websites offering the albumsshut down but they do not always get the co-operation of the ISPs and wherethey do it may already be too late.SABAM v. ScarletThere are, however, signs that European courts may be prepared to makeISPs responsible for what they carry. The first landmark case to take thisline was brought by Belgian collection society SABAM against Scarlet,formerly a branch of the Italian ISP Tiscali in 2007. A court of firstinstance in Belgium confirmed that an ISP must take responsibility forstopping illegal file-sharing on its network by using file filteringsystems. The ruling is the first of its kind in Europe and, as you mightimagine, was welcomed by the international record industry, which hasbeen pressing for action by ISPs to curb piracy on their networks. Thecase seems to have turned on a determination of which of two pieces ofEuropean legislation should have precedence. The first to beimplemented was the E-Commerce Directive which declared that ISPs asintermediaries were not liable for the content on the websites that theyhost. However, the later Copyright Directive amending the copyrightlaws to cover online uses said that in some circumstances copyrightowners could get court orders against ISPs if websites using theirservices were being used for piracy or infringed the rights of copyrightowners. In practice up to now once an ISP is notified that a particularwebsite contains illegal material it orders the owner of the website toremove the offending material. This was the first case to decide which ofthe two conflicting laws should have precedence. The ISPs are reluctantto accept unrestricted responsibility as they feel that this is shiftingresponsibility for control of piracy to them. However, it is undoubtedlythe case that it is much easier for an ISP to take action against users ofits websites than it is for rights owners to try and track down and takeaction against individual illegal file sharers.The case was decided at the lowest level of the Belgian court system and istherefore likely to be appealed to a higher court. It is also not known at thisstage if it will apply to other ISPs within Belgium or if it might have abroader European dimension. That must be a possibility as these twoconflicting Directives were to be implemented into the laws of all EuropeanUnion countries. Belgium does not follow a strict case-law precedent systemlike we do in the UK so it does not set a binding precedent for similaractions against other ISPs in Belgium. Naturally therefore the telecomscompanies and ISPs in Belgium are playing down its significance. However,the existence of such a judgement must be influential on judges tryingsimilar cases there. They certainly cannot be ignored and it is likely thatSABAM will try and press home its advantage and try and get the other mainBelgian ISPs to come into line without the need for them to bring separatelegal actions.The case also considered various methods of filtering and came down infavour of one particular piece of software called Audible Magic, but the ISPsare doubtful about the effectiveness of this software. The court’s expert saidthat it could identify material on P2P systems which infringed copyright.The ISP was given six months in which to implement the order, with apenalty of !2,500 for every day of delay beyond that date. The ISPs havereservations about the ability of Audible Magic to operate on the necessaryscale. They also say that it should not be forced to pay the bill for protectingthe assets of other private companies. They feel that they will have to passon this cost in some way to their users and that this also indirectly penalisesthose who are entirely law abiding users of their websites. However againthat argument could be used in many areas of life: we pay higher insurancepremiums because of other dangerous drivers or because our homes happento be in areas with a high crime rate.This all feels like the ISPs throwing all their arguments at what isundoubtedly a worrying decision for them.ANTI-PIRACY MEASURES AND DIGITAL RIGHTSMANAGEMENTAs their well-publicised actions against MP3.com and Napster showed,RIAA and the music industry generally took the view that attack was thebetter form of defence. Others, including me, believe that in doing so theyalienated consumers. Headlines highlighting legal actions againstschoolgirls downloading and sharing music with their school friends did thecause no favours. So alongside the legal actions various steps were taken totry and control the making of multiple copies or to track those who did so.There has been a three-pronged approach. Digital rights management i.e.technological protection measures (e.g. encryption), backed up by end-useragreements spelling out the restrictions on use, education, and legislation,such as the EU Copyright Directive prohibiting circumvention of suchprotection measures and devices/making illegal devices, including software,whose primary purpose is to enable or facilitate circumvention. There is,however, a growing sense that these digital rights management systems gobeyond what is necessary to protect copyright owners or indeed are holdingback the development of a legitimate download market. For example, someof the protection measures had the unforeseen side effect of preventinglegitimate owners of CDs from playing the CD on their PCs or making acopy for use in their cars.TECHNOLOGICAL METHODSConsiderable resources were put into anti-piracy devices such aswatermarking and ways to track the copying of music to control it or ensureproper payment. In the 1990s, the Secure Digital Media Initiative (SDMI)was hailed as an industry-backed secure system to control illegal copying. Infact, the creators of the SDMI system offered a reward to anyone who couldcrack it. Predictably, such is the power of the Internet to harness resourcesand minds, some computer programmers did so within 48 hours. Other ideasincluded a system of permanent and temporary ‘passwords’ on computerfiles, which only allow one copy of a file to be made and played on alegitimate player. Making one copy destroys one of the passwords and if youthen try to copy it again, the copy won’t play because the player can onlyfind one of the required two passwords.Considerable resources have also been put into developing systems totrack usage of music and to ensure that the legitimate rights owners get paidfor the use of their work. These content management systems included oneswhere there is a kind of pyramid selling at work where a legitimate user whointroduces a friend to a piece of music which the friend then pays todownload receives points which the first person can use to purchase moremusic downloads.Others were just interested in tracking when a piece of music wasdownloaded and feeding the information back to the rights owner. Effortswere made to make these systems as transparent as possible so that therights owner and the artist or his advisers could get comfortable with thewhole idea that if they grant these rights they will get paid, but there werealso privacy concerns as a result of personal information that is embedded inthese DRM systems and issues such as devices which monitor what a userdoes on his computer. The SonyBMG so-called ‘Root-kit’ fiasco outlined inthe chapter on piracy below may have done much to damage the efforts toget the public to accept these tracking systems.EDUCATIONAs a second string to their bow the BPI launched a series of leaflets aimed ateducating people, particularly the young, to the illegal nature of much of thecopying music off the Internet. There is some evidence that this is helpingpeople to understand that what they are doing is illegal, but less evidencethat it is stopping them doing it anyway. One of the recommendations of theGowers Review, which is considered in more detail below, is that themaking of a copy for your own use should not be illegal – yet at the momentit is. The music industry’s initial reaction was again one of protectionism.The feeling was that if this were allowed it would be the thin end of thewedge. A Government paper on the topic is expected early in 2008.LEGISLATIONNew laws now confirm beyond doubt that the rights of a copyright ownerextend to duplication or broadcast online. In Europe this was confirmed bythe European Copyright Directive, which was implemented into UK law inNovember 2003. After all the fuss that had preceded it the Governmentfinally elected to only do the bare minimum required to incorporate theDirective into UK law. The Government argued that in most cases the UKCopyright Act of 1988 already encompassed online uses. It did make achange to include the somewhat clumsy ‘making available right’ to extendthe right of a copyright owner to control broadcasts of his work to includeonline usage. The Government did not take up the option to extend thenumber of exceptions to what is known as ‘fair-dealing’ i.e. legitimate usesof copyright works for which no permission of the copyright owner isrequired. In the US the equivalent legislation is the Digital MillenniumCopyright Act 1998. Both pieces of legislation were the subject of intenselobbying. ISPs sought, and largely got, protection from liability for illegalmaterial not within their control. In most cases the ISP is only obliged to dosomething once it is brought to their attention but court orders can bebrought against an ISP if it is hosting sites used for illegal file sharing orother pirate activities.Concern was also voiced as to how you treat ‘transient’ copying i.e.technical copies or reproductions made as a side effect of, say, sending anemail from computer to computer around the world. The EU Directive andthe regulations incorporating it into the UK Copyright Act made it clear thattransient copying which had no commercial value was not a ‘reproduction’and therefore not an infringement of copyright.In order to support the efforts of the anti-piracy brigade, the legislationmade it an offence to circumvent, or make available the means tocircumvent, devices intended to protect copyright, but as yet there have beenno reported cases of legal actions under this provision.Finally there were the attempts to bring legislation in granting rightsholders greater control over illegal use of their copyrights. In particular theyare keen to ensure that the ISPs share data with them which will enable themto target Internet pirates more effectively. The ISPs did not come up with avoluntary code by the end of 2007 and a paper is expected from thegovernment to address this and other cultural issues in February 2008.DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENTThe debate over whether or not to place digital rights managementprotections into music formats rumbled on for most of 2007. Steve Jobs ofApple kicked off the debate in April 2007 by calling for all music to bemade available for licensing for services such as Apple iTunes free of DRM.The major label bosses then lined up for or against the idea. Eric Nicoli, thenchairman of EMI Group, announced in April 2007 that EMI Music would belicensing DRM-free superior quality downloads across its entire digitalrepertoire and Apple’s online music store iTunes would be the first to makeavailable these new downloads. EMI hoped that by providing superiorquality DRM free tracks they would tempt consumers towards legitimatedownloads as opposed to the often inferior quality illegal downloads. Therewas a slight catch in that the audio compression format they use is AAC, notthe more widely available MP3 format which is compatible with mostportable players. Software ‘fixes’ are available to decode the AAC formatfor those whose players don’t support it but this may put off the lesstechnically minded music fans.In contrast, Warner Music initially came out in favour of continued useof DRM. In April 2007 it demanded that the Anywhere CD service fordownloading of albums stopped offering DRM free albums from the WarnerMusic catalogue. In July 2007 Warners tried to get one up on Apple byputting much of its back catalogue online on the Lala.com website for freestreamed previews, but not download, with Lala paying a royalty fee toWarners each time a user listened to a track.The deal with the EMI DRM-free tracks unravelled a little when thetracks went on sale on 30 May 2007 under the iTunes Plus banner and apremium rate of 99p. It was discovered that the tracks downloaded byconsumers contained the name, account information and email address ofthe person who bought the download. This in itself was not new. Apparentlysuch information can be found on all tracks purchased from iTunes. Did youknow that? I didn’t although I imagine it is contained in the terms andconditions of the website. The objection was that if this was genuinelyintended as a DRM-free download then this information should not bepresent as it enabled Apple to track the subsequent use of that musicdownload. The privacy lobby was also concerned. What else may beembedded in these files and if it were that easily uncovered how mightunscrupulous users make use of the information?Universal Music seems to be playing a waiting game. It hasexperimented with DRM-free trials and has deals with companies likeAmazon and has not as yet committed full scale to iTunes.In November 2007 the retailers association ERA announced it would belobbying the record industry to press for the abolition of DRM in downloadreleases and for the use of the MP3 compression format as the universalstandard, thereby simplifying the whole process for the consumer buyinglegal downloads.Finally, on 27 December 2007 Warners announced that it had dropped itsopposition to making available music without DRM systems in place. Itconfirmed that its entire catalogue was going to be made available DRM-free in the United States off the download website of Amazon.com. It seemsthat Warners had bowed to the pressure in order to keep pace with itscompetitors. In contrast to the less common AAC format used by EMI andiTunes, Warners’ catalogue will be available through Amazon in the morepopular MP3 format. Although at the moment these arrangements apply onlyto the United States, it is expected that they will extend internationally soon.The Times reported on 28 December that Warners was also in talks withApple to release DRM-free tracks via iTunes. SonyBMG now remains theonly major decidedly in favour of DRM.It is too early to tell if the move to DRM-free music downloads will helpto stem the drop in album sales and record company revenues. It does seemas though the battleground has moved from DRM to persuading the ISPs totake more responsibility although that particular debate has, I fear, a longway to run as the ISPs will not give up their non-liable state as anintermediary without a fight.GOWERS REVIEWThe Andrew Gowers Review of Intellectual Property was published on 6December 2006. It contained little that was of comfort to the music industry,which had lobbied hard in particular for an extension in the duration of thesound recording copyright and performers’ rights beyond fifty years.Performers were looking for parity with songwriters with a copyrightprotection period of their lives plus seventy years. The recording industrywas looking for parity with the period of copyright protection in othercountries, in particular the United States at 95 years. Gowers recommendedthat the period stay as it is, asserting that it represented a fair balancebetween the right to protection of the intellectual property and the benefitsof having work come into the public domain after a period of time. Heremained unmoved by the fact that recordings by well-known artists such asSir Cliff Richard were coming out of copyright. In January 2008 re-issueslabel Delta Leisure will follow on from its re-releases of 1954, 1955 and1956 hits with a compilation of 1957 hits including Paul Anka’s ‘Diana’ andAndy Williams’ ‘Butterfly’.Despite a brief glimmer of hope when the House of Common’s SelectCommittee for Culture, Media and Sport urged the Government to lobby foran extension across the European Union the Government has acceptedGowers’ recommendation that the status quo be maintained.Other only slightly less controversial recommendations included one thatthere be a limited ‘format-shifting’ private copying right without any levysuch as the oft touted ‘blank tape’ levy on the hardware used. Contrary towhat many people think, it is illegal to copy a CD to your iPod, even whenyou own the CD in question. The Government accepted the recommendationthat this was confusing and should be rectified. The music industry view thisas the thin end of the wedge arguing that if making one copy for a differentformat is legal it will suggest copying for one’s mates is also allright.The other issue which I have already mentioned and which arises out ofthis Review is the extent to which the Government will use the law toenforce greater co-operation from ISPs. I await with interest the proposalsfor this expected in 2008.NEW BUSINESS MODELSBut I don’t want to suggest that the music industry is doing nothing in thisarea. As new means of delivery of music have begun to establish themselves,so record companies are moving with new business models for payment toartists for these new uses.It has been difficult to find business models that work financially forboth the consumer and the copyright owner. Models that were trialled butwhich did not survive include micro-billing, where download costs are addedto your phone bill. Per-download, pay-per-listen charges, and subscriptionsystems, where a regular payment secures delivery of music to thesubscriber online seem to be the ones that are emerging as workable models.HOW IS THE CONSUMER CHARGED?Track downloadsFirst there is the sale of single track downloads such as the system adoptedby iTunes, sometimes with a refinement that the customer can buy the rightto listen to a piece of music for a limited period of time before he has to buyit in order to keep it permanently. With these systems the customer ‘owns’the tracks downloaded and pays about 79p per track or 99p for the premiumversion. The tracks paid for are then transferable to portable devices and canbe burned to disk. 7Digital, an online store which offers to provide shop-fronts for smaller labels, as well as the facility for a label or artist to createits own online store using the 7Digital back room services and its deals withonline retailers, also offers tracks at 79p a download. Neither iTunes nor7Digital offers a subscription service.Napster offers 79p downloads but also has a subscription service (seebelow).MP3.com has a limited selection of music but offers it free for downloadand streaming.3 Mobile offers a per-track download rate of £1.29 and T-Mobile one at£1.00 per download. Neither offers a subscription service.Subscription servicesThen there is the subscription model. Subscription services (e.g. Napster)allow subscribers access to all the music they want for a monthly fee,sometimes with an option to purchase selected tracks (from 79p per track).Napster’s service has what it calls ‘tethered downloads’ where the track istransferable to portable players for as long as the consumer remains asubscriber. Once the subscription ends the music is no longer available. Willsuch a service appeal to the long-term collector? The Napster subscriptionrate is £9.95 per month to listen to music on a computer; £14.95 per monthfor Napster To Go membership which allows you to download unlimitedmusic to an MP3 player.Emusic offers a Basic package of £8.99 per month for up to 30downloads i.e 30p per song; the Plus package at £11.99 a month allows up to50 downloads i.e 24p per song and the Premium package at £14,99 permonth allows up to 75 downloads i.e. only 20p per song. It is difficult to seehow at these low levels a viable percentage can be paid back to the rightsowners after all other participants have taken their cut. However, if the takeup were high enough that would help to compensate for the low per trackaverage.Vodafone says it has 1.2 million tracks available and charges £1.99 perweek through its MusicStation service.But the jury is still out on the viability of subscription services. BothHMV and Virgin Retail (as it was known) withdrew their subscription dealsin 2007. Napster scaled back its offering and Yahoo and Real decidedagainst launching them in the UK. This may in part have been to do withdifficulties in blanket licensing of music as the Copyright Tribunal case wasstill ongoing in the first part of 2007. Now that that is settled we may seemore services venturing into the subscription market. The fact remainsthough that there is a long way to go in educating music fans to take up thesesubscription services and the price level has to be right. The £1.99 a weekthat Vodafone is looking for may prove too rich for the average music fan.In the US subscription models have been around for longer and the model isstronger but it is still in its early days here. It is perhaps significant that thefar out market leader Apple with its iTunes service has not embraced thesubscription model and none of the subscription model services currently inthe market work with Apple technology.If the pundits are correct that the consumer will pay for access to aservice which includes music amongst other content, then the subscriptionmodel may be the way forward, but there will be a challenge in getting thepercentage share for the music companies and publishers right.PAYING THE ARTISTOn the other side of the coin the debate continues as to how the copyrightowner – usually the record company – will account to the artist for these newtypes of usage.Net receiptsWhen online revenue first became a reality the royalties were generallytreated as similar to a flat fee per use charge that you might get fromlicensing a piece of music for a one-off use e.g. on a compilation. The shareof receipts from online was also generally the same as for flat fee uses ataround 50%. This way of calculating shares of income still tends to applywith income that is linked to subscriptions but I have yet to see anyonereceive a full and complete royalty accounting from such uses and I wouldlove to see someone carry out an audit as I fear that only a fraction of thisincome may be being picked up.Royalty basisThis was the model used in the early days of downloads, before the recordlabels began to realise that they should think again about how they accountto their artist if they weren’t going to end up paying out more than theywanted to to their artists. In other words, greed kicked in and the modelshifted to a royalty basis. The royalty rate was about the same as applied to aphysical CD sale and the price was that which the record label received fromthe online etailers or aggregators or from the mobile phone companies. Thismethod of calculating shares of income works for downloads or per usepayments but is not so effective for subscription revenue.DeductionsThen the record labels went a little further and decided that if they weregoing to apply the royalty method then why not calculate the royalties withsome of the same sorts of reductions that apply to physical sales, such as apackaging deduction. Don’t be ridiculous I here you say. How can therepossibly be a packaging deduction when there is no packaging in an onlinedownload? You are right, but try telling the record companies that. Ofcourse, it’s called something different like ‘back end fulfilment charges’ i.e.the cost of setting up an online payment system by credit card, or an‘administration’ charge, but curiously the percentage charged was almostalways the same as that which they used to deduct for packaging on aphysical CD sale.TERRITORIAL ISSUESI have a feeling that another battleground will be territorial restrictions. Atthe moment there are deals in place between Apple and individual recordcompanies restricting consumers to only buying music from the iTunesonline store in their country of residence. In this way prices can differ fromone country to the next. The first chink in this armour came in April 2007when the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections that sucharrangements violated a section of the EU treaty on the free movement ofgoods. It looks like more pressure will follow on the heels of the launch ofthe iPhone in November 2007. Apple has struck exclusive deals with onemobile phone operator in each country restricting access to the phone byusers of other networks. The German courts initially granted Vodafone atemporary injunction forcing T-Mobile to sell iPhones that were not tied to asingle network, despite Apple’s exclusive deal with T-Mobile. However, thetemporary injunction was subsequently overturned and the exclusivearrangements were reinstated.Vodafone objected to the exclusivity agreement and said customersshould be able to choose between networks. Apple has similar licensingagreements with O2 in the UK and AT&T in the US. In the two weeks sincethe temporary injunction was granted, the BBC reported that T-Mobile hadcomplied with the injunction and sold the handsets without a networkcontract for 999 euros (£719). Although strictly complying that price was ahefty premium to the 399 euro cost for a phone with a two year T-Mobilecontract. In response to complaints from customers, T-Mobile has nowpromised that at the end of the two year contracts it will unlock the phonesat no charge. However, as always with the Internet and technology, wherethere is a will there is a way and despite the best efforts of Apple and thephone companies to tie consumers to one provider, programmes have beencirculating online that allow users to unlock their iPhone so that it can beused on any network. In an attempt to dissuade people from using theseprogrammes Apple has warned that their use could render the phones‘permanently inoperable’ when it releases software updatesThis issue is unlikely to go away as in the US alone Apple still faces twolawsuits from people alleging that preventing users unlocking their iPhonesis an unreasonable restriction of consumer choice. It would also seem topotentially fall foul of European legislation encouraging free movement ofgoods but that would have to be balanced against the rights of individuals tomake contracts on commercial terms which are acceptable to them.PHYSICAL CDSWith the proliferation of online download services there is a parallel debateon how to prolong the appeal of physical CDs. The Enhanced CD format wasseen by some to be the answer as well as special edition releases, value-added content where extra or bonus tracks are added and fancier packagingor artwork. All major artists now tend to film additional material, whetherthat be a live concert or backstage interviews to be synchronised with audiomaterial to make a new package. This may be broadcast on television or soldas a package with a DVD being sold bundled together with the audio CD. Butthe hoped for boost of DVD sales was not sustained. After an initial burst,DVD sales are again falling away as consumers view more material onlineon their PCs or portable DVD players and new format mobile phones. At theend of December 2007, Apple seemed to be close to a deal with News Corpto offer Fox films through iTunes. At the moment the only films availableon the service are from the Disney Company, but if Fox comes on board thatmight help to open the doors to other film companies.There remains a feeling in the industry that if you have a good product itwill sell and it will sell in physical CD format. The 3 million CD sales ofThe Eagles’ new album in 2007 is often cited as an example. However,whilst I would agree that good music should always find its market, there isI think a case here of physical CDs appealing still to certain sectors of themarket. We know that CD singles by pop artists buck the trend and sell alarger percentage in CD form than the usual download sales. It may well alsobe the case that the fans who are likely to buy The Eagles product somethirty years after they last released an album are likely to be of an older agegroup more comfortable with the CD format than with the online versions.MOBILES AND MOBILE MUSIC PLAYERSAlongside the online download, the other major new carrier format has beenthe mobile phone. The consumption of music on mobile phones has evolvedfrom ringtones to full audio recordings in ringtones, ring-back tunes, full-track downloads and other media applications. There is still a big issue overhow to ensure that everyone gets a fair slice of the cake. The basic issue withthe ringtone model is that there are too many people sharing in that cake.Out of a £3.00 download, after the tax man has taken his share a largeproportion goes to the mobile phone service provider who gets to charge forthe time the call takes to download the material plus a bit extra for thecrucial element they provide to the story: without them the whole thingdoesn’t work. Then there is the middleman aggregator: usually a companythat does the deals with the individual rights owners employs the technologythat allows the conversion into a form that can be downloaded andadministers the collection and payment of the proceeds. These people takethe lion’s share. Then there are the rights owners: the publishers who own orcontrol the song and in the case of real audio ringtones where the soundrecording is also copied, the owners of the sound recording. Out of theamounts that these companies receive the songwriter and artist/performerget their share. That share is usually based on the net receipts that thepublisher or record company receives depending on the contract with theartists. In some cases this is a 50:50 split and in the case of the songwritersthe share could be even higher, but it still remains that out of every £3.00download the songwriter may receive less than 30p. Then there are the issuesof ensuring proper payment. The whole question of how e-commerce is to betaxed is also fraught with difficulties, which are, thankfully, outside thescope of this book. If you intend to venture into online distribution youshould take specialist tax advice.The challenge for lawyers is to see how we can ensure a fair balancebetween what the record company or the website company gets to keep andhow much is paid through to the artist.New developments include not only the much promoted iPhone but alsoservices such as Vodafone’s MusicStation subscription service whereby themobile phone owner gets unlimited music for £1.99 per week. All the majorrecord labels and many independents signed up to this service from theoutset. Nokia also has a music download store. More profile raising for thesemobile services is likely to come with the promise to include music playedvia the Napster and MusicStation services towards chart placings once theOfficial Chart Company has resolved the tracking issues. Vodafone claims itis aiming at 10 million subscribers by the end of 2008.MOVE AWAY FROM ALBUMSAre we seeing a potential switch away from traditional albums? The CD wasliberating in that it permitted over sixty minutes’ worth of material far morethan the traditional vinyl or tape formats. This was hard on artists who hadto maintain consistent quality across twelve or more tracks but not fillingthe CD felt like the consumer was being short-changed.Radio and TV and highlights on MySpace-type pages emphasiseindividual tracks. Traditionally this was as a precursor to persuading you tobuy the album but now a consumer is just as likely to be a single trackdownload as he is a bundled album. There is no sign at the moment that thetraditional album-based model is being abandoned and certainly allexclusive artist contracts still function round the album model, but lateralthinking may see the rise of commitments based on numbers of individualtracks.Single sales have risen to their highest yearly level since records begangrowing by nearly 40% in 2005/6 according to the BPI. Ninety per cent of allsingle sales are downloads (Source: Music Week article by Ben Larder10/11/07). However, pop artists like Leona Lewis, McFly and Take Thatcontinue to score significantly higher on physical CD sales at around 40–50%. In contrast sales of physical album CDs in October 2007 were down22% on the same month in 2006. But this may have been a particularly badmonth as by 17 December 2007, Music Week was reporting that sales ofalbums had bounced back to reach a new high for 2007 but it was still over amillion sales down over the same period in 2006 so the trend is still down.We should also bear in mind that although single sales may have increasedin volume by 40% that does not mean that the income generated hasincreased by the same percentage. The average download price is around79p, not the £1.99 plus the consumer may have paid for a physical CDsingle.SOCIAL NETWORKING SITESOne of the interesting effects of the growing influence on the music industryof the Internet is the extent to which the consumer is starting to drive thesort of music he wishes to listen to and purchase. Recommendations fromonline ‘friends’ are as influential as hearing a track on the radio. One of theside effects of this is that the majority of single tracks downloaded off theInternet are not, according to a Music Week survey, current releases but backcatalogue both recent and decades old. Interest in old tracks can be boostedby an appearance in a Hollywood film or on an influential television showlike Gray’ s Anatomy or Ugly Betty. The latest in the series of back to thefuture television series Life on Mars should see a similar rise in interest in80s music to that which the original series generated in the music of the 70s.The phenomenon of the social networking site is a key part of this spreadof knowledge of obscure or old releases as well as music by unsigned or newartists.Market analysts Jupiter Research reports that 40% of users of MySpaceand Facebook go on to buy music from artists they discover on these sites.This is a sitting target in marketing terms and so it should come as nosurprise that the big boys are investing in these sites as a potentially hugesource of advertising revenue.It is a measure of the popularity of these sites that as part of thecampaign surrounding the release of her album X, Kylie Minogue’s recordlabel, Parlophone, part of the EMI Group, announced she was setting up herown social networking site.Slightly more controversially, Facebook’s owners announced the launchof an advertising model which would enable advertisers to precisely target aparticular audience. This is not new, of course – loyalty card schemes suchas the Tesco Clubcard have for many years analysed the customers’purchases with the card in order to target special offers at them. Why it isslightly different is that it would appear to use information supplied by usersof the sites when they register. On sites like Facebook that can be verypersonal data indeed. So questions are being asked as to whether Facebookhas the right to use this information in this way under privacy and dataprotection legislation.On the positive side these sites do act as a new launch pad for artists andas an A&R resource for record label execs. It is invariably the case now thatA&R people want you to direct them to a MySpace page as opposed tosending them a CD of a new artist. The problem I come back to is that thesheer popularity of these sites means that it is increasingly difficult to findnew music and to sort the good from the bad. Some might argue that havinga method to target you with the music you like may not be a bad thing evenif it did bring with it some annoying banner ads.Of course, the next logical step for a site like MySpace would be tofacilitate the purchase of music direct from the website when you areviewing an artist’s profile online. At the moment it is only possible if youlink through to another site like iTunes. This seems to be missing a trick andwill, I am sure, be rectified soon. Much smaller site, Bebo, with only 34million users compared to MySpace’s 200 million users and rising, hasstruck a deal with iTunes to do just that. It also introduced the prospect of anartist or label customising their own page with advertising of their choice.Somewhat surprisingly it does not seem to be taking any share of theadvertising revenue. Will that last though, and if so how else is it going tomake money?Advertising revenue is the Holy Grail for most of these sites. In October2007, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook. This sum was said torepresent a 1.6% stake in the company which therefore values it at $15billion. But as yet the company has not broken even and its predictedrevenues for 2007 are put at only $150million. So Microsoft and otherpotential purchasers like Yahoo are clearly betting on an upswing inadvertising revenue. Microsoft wishes to become a major player in webadvertising to challenge the dominance of Google. Facebook has 50 millionplus active users worldwide according to Elizabeth Judge writing in TheTimes on 26 October 2007. Part of the deal is that Microsoft becomes theexclusive third party advertiser for the site. Once again suspicions have beenvoiced that Microsoft will get access to the personal data of the Facebookusers as another part of this deal. Facebook’s owners need to take care asthere are many who might be turned off by a closer association withMicrosoft.A slightly different variation on this theme is the networking siteslicethepie, launched in the first half of 2007. It is aimed at unsigned acts,whether new acts or more established ones without a current deal. The ideais that artists enter genre specific competitions online to generate sufficientvotes for them and their music to win a guaranteed £15,000 to use to makeand promote their own album. These who don’t win can still generateenough offers of support to raise the magic £15,000. The fans or users of thesite can speculate on the success of the bands by buying and selling contractsin their chosen artists. It has been described as a ‘stock exchange forunsigned acts’ by Dan Sabbagh in The Times on 17 October 2007. The fanswho have invested in bands get special access to the bands and the right to afree download copy of the album when it is finished.It’s meant as a source of funding albums without a traditional label andas a talent source for other labels. The artists have no exclusive tie-in to thewebsite, own the copyright in what they create but pay a distribution fee of£2 per album back to slicethepie. If an artist goes on to be signed by a biggerlabel the label has the option to buy out the distribution contract. Extrashares contracts are awarded to those who engage in reviewing artists on thesite.COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTSBut not all is sweetness and light in the world of social networking. Onseveral occasions music and video rights owners have cried foul withallegations of unlawful use of copyrights on these sites. YouTube andMySpace have faced several lawsuits from aggrieved copyright owners.YouTube is owned by Google who paid £837million for it in October2006. As you probably know YouTube’s USP is allowing users to upload anddownload content produced by the user – usually funny videos or still photosand occasionally disturbing images of the ‘happy slapping’ kind frommobile phones. There have also been examples of online bullying of bothpupils and teachers. Not of course to suggest that YouTube condones this butit is all part of the debate over how much control ISPs have or shouldexercise over the content on their sites.At the time that it was in talks with Google, YouTube faced a massivelawsuit from Universal Music which alleged the site engaged in copyrightinfringement on a large scale by making Universal Music videos and musicavailable on the site without the consent of the copyright owners.The lawsuit did not materialise at that time because for once the majorrecord labels decided not to spend their money on legal cases as they did inthe early days of P2P services with Napster, but instead to cut licence dealswith the site allowing their videos to be shown.There are of course potentially huge marketing advantages for the labelsand artists – particularly if they can engineer a viral marketing hype on anartist’s video. But its acquisition by Google meant it was also potentiallyworthwhile taking legal action against if infringements continued.Universal began a legal action against MySpace in 2006 claiming largescale piracy of music and videos on the site, seeking damages of $9million.MySpace, perhaps predictably, argued that they were merely the conduit forthe users of the site and did not induce, encourage or condone copyrightviolation. Universal’s response was that music and video formed the keybuilding blocks of the online pages and communities of users and, therefore,added considerably to the value of the MySpace business overall. MySpacesays it does remove illegal downloads but it seems to do so only after theinfringement has been brought to its attention. It does not act proactively tomonitor content which is consistent with the line that ISPs are not liable forcontent. They also point to their users agreements which protect users fromposting offensive, obscene, abusive, defamatory or otherwise illegalmaterials but again their response is reactive not proactive and criticsremain unconvinced as to how effective these agreements are. Many userswho click on the relevant box to accept the terms have little or no knowledgeof what they are agreeing to and may not be worth suing even if they aretracked down.MySpace does appear to be willing to use filtering software to checkuploaded music against a database of copyright materials and block any thatdo not have the necessary content to avoid setting any kind of precedent.YouTube also seems to favour the take down after notice approach whichplaces the onus on the rights holders to monitor the site and notify them ofany infringements. Copyright owners argue that the search and privacyfacilities of the site make it difficult if not impossible to track down allillegal uses and that it is a simple matter for a user to repost offendingmaterial under a different ‘tag’. YouTube has taken some steps to legitimisethe use of copyright materials on its site as witnessed by a blanket licensingagreement it has reached with the MCPS-PRS Alliance of collectionsocieties. The deal relates to the use of material represented by thesesocieties in the UK. The details of the licence deal have not been revealedother than that it includes a one-stop synchronisation and mechanical licenceand that it requires YouTube to report every time a video or music is used orplayed. There is a sum of money paid by YouTube to the Alliance but theyhave not revealed how much and the Alliance has played down the sumslikely to be generated for individual rights owners. There must, however, bemerit in the information gathered and the precedent of the one-stop shop is agood one.Individuals and big corporations such as Viacom have continued to snipeaway at YouTube throughout 2007 alleging varying degrees of copyrightinfringements. Cases were brought by the football Premier League alleginginfringement of copyright. Viacom alleges 100,000 illegal videos were onthe site and claims $1billion plus in damages. Opponents of YouTube allegethat its business plan from the outset was to build its business on the back ofmassive copyright infringement. The YouTube business model depends onadvertising revenue and the popularity of its pages generating users who aredrawn to the pages by attractive content. YouTube features banner ads onvideo clips and on a featured video of the day. The argument goes that thesesites cannot be interested in clearing out the unlawful videos as it is thepresence of this material which makes the site attractive to both users andadvertisers. In an attempt to address the argument that the law says the USPis not liable where it is acting purely as a host for content, the PremierLeague litigation alleges that YouTube made and shared unauthorised copieson its servers for further dissemination and was not therefore just a passivehost. That this was more than pure transient copying which is permitted bythe copyright directive. It is clear to me that we need a high level courtdecision on the alleged conflicts between the E-Commerce Directive and theCopyright Directive. It is possible that one of these cases or even the morerecent one of SABAM v. Scarlet that we referred to above will prove that testcase.Google announced in June 2007 that it would test new ‘fingerprinting’technology to help trace illegal content by indentifying unique attributeswhich, if missing, would tend to suggest the copy was illegal. But somecommentators see this not as Google taking responsibility for content butrather using it as an after the event technology to make it easier to take downcontent after an infringement has been notified by identifying otherexamples of illegal content of the same kind. The debate continues.MARKETING ONLINEOFFICIAL WEBSITESThe Internet has proved to be an excellent means of marketing the ‘brand’.Brands that are Internet-savvy can link their online marketing efforts withthose of their record company and their own efforts in terms of live work.We’ve seen artists successfully sell out a concert in minutes when tickets areoffered for sale on their website and some are saying that they will stopusing ticket agents and make all their tickets available in that way therebycutting out the fees to the middleman. By selling tickets online the artist orhis advisers also have the opportunity, with the right permissions, to create adatabase of committed fans keen to learn more about what the artist hasplanned. This gives the artist a ready-made mailing list and, in some cases,new customers for the inner sanctum on his website where selectedinformation and exclusive tracks or visuals are made available for a smallfee. Many artists now use websites to communicate directly with their fansin the form of online diaries or ‘blogs’, but of course there is then always theissue of ensuring that the website is regularly updated. Many exclusive artistcontracts now insist that the artist commits to writing a blog or giving‘copy’ regularly to a staff writer at the record company to write one up forthem. Others require the artists to record snippets for sale as mobile phoneringtones and to take part in online chats with fans.A couple of years ago we were very concerned to ensure that artistsretained ownership of their domain names and official websites. Most recordcompanies now don’t insist on ownership of all variations of the artist’sdomain name and, even where they do, they provide links to the artists orfan-club sites. Most will now agree that their ownership and control onlylasts during the term of the record deal and will make arrangements fortransfer of names at the end of the deal. In some cases they only requireownership of one domain name with the artist’s name in it, for example a.net or .org domain name, and are happy for the artist to retain all the othernames. There is then usually a requirement for the artist to provide linksfrom his website to that domain name which is used for the ‘official’ recordcompany website page for that artist. There are however still some recordlabels who would like to control all aspects of the artist’s online presence.Sometimes I have artists as clients who really aren’t bothered about this andwho are unlikely to ever do a good website themselves so in these cases Iusually do not resist the record company having these rights exclusivelyduring the term of the contract. But at the end of the contract the rightsshould transfer to the artist.Record companies have in some, but not all, cases shown that they havethe resources and skills to create interesting, even dynamic websites. Mostof the major record labels now focus heavily on the artist website as a meansof cross-selling their product – CDs, DVDs – with whatever other activitiesthat the artist may be doing – such as gigs or personal appearances. Recordcompanies who are insisting on 360 models are keen to ensure they controlthe websites so that any revenues generated online e.g. from ticket sales orsales of T-shirts also come to them. As with all things that make up anartist’s brand, the artist should have creative control of the ‘look and feel’ ofany website dedicated to them and maybe also of the designers/artworkproviders or other creative elements.A well-linked campaign can be very effective. If all promotionalmaterial contains a website address and that website is vibrant andinformative, you create a receptive audience for the marketing material youwant to get to potential consumers.WEBSITE DESIGN RIGHTS AND COPYRIGHTIf an artist does create his own website he may decide to employ someone todesign it. The website is likely to be made up of many different elements, allof which could be the subject of copyright or other legal protection.The website will have words that, if original, could be a literary workwith its own literary copyright. The website will no doubt have visualimages or graphics. These could be still photographs, moving images orfilm. Each of these could have its own copyright. It will be made up of anumber of computer programs which are also protected by copyright. Thedesigner will have copyright in the original design drawings; he may alsohave a design right.When commissioning someone else to design a website, the artist has tomake sure that all rights have been cleared for use in the website design, sothat he has all the rights he needs to do what he wants with the website. Youalso need to find out whether these rights have been ‘bought-out’ for a one-off payment or if there is an ongoing obligation to pay for the use. It’spossible that in order to use the music or a sound recording you’ll have topay a royalty or further fee.If the person commissioned to design the website is your employee thenyou’ll own the copyright in their original work, but the other rights may stillhave to be cleared.If you ask someone who isn’t employed by you to design the website,you must make sure that you take an assignment from them of all rights inthe work they have done. You could make this a condition of thecommission fee, or it could be the subject of a separate fee, or occasionally aroyalty. The designer may grant the right to use the work only on the websiteand not, for example, to print design elements from the website and sellthem separately as posters or otherwise as part of a merchandising campaign(see Chapter 8 on branding). These additional uses could be the subject of aseparate fee.Assignments of copyright should be confirmed in writing. A writtenagreement also establishes what rights you have and on what terms. It shouldcontain a confirmation from the designer that he has all the necessary rightsfrom third parties for the use of any or all elements of the design.HOSTING AGREEMENTOnce you have the website, you need to find a way to make it available toothers via the Internet. You could become your own ISP, set yourself up withthe necessary Internet capacity to launch your own site and provide thatservice to others. This isn’t, however, the way that most artists get theirwebsite on the Internet. More usually, they arrange to have the website site‘hosted’ by another ISP or possibly by their record company. Anyone goingdown this route should have an agreement with the host ISP setting out thekind of service that will be provided and at what cost. These agreements arecalled ‘hosting’ agreements.If you’re trying to establish yourself as having a website to which yourfans and potential customers return over and over again, you need to knowthat the host will supply a reliable service. Reliability is improving but weall know of websites where the hardware on the server ‘goes down’ on aregular basis. These sites get a reputation as being unreliable and people areless likely to go back to them. Fans, or potential fans, won’t bother to go to awebsite that’s never available or which is difficult to use. The first is thefault of the server, the second that of the designer – both are your problem.The hosting agreement should insist that the server will be functioningproperly for at least 97–98% of the time. It should provide compensation ifthe server is ‘down’ for more than an agreed percentage of the time or formore than a maximum agreed number of hours a day.If the website is to be used to sell merchandise online, you’ll need toknow that any credit card payment facility is 100% secure. The ISP shouldguarantee this in the hosting agreement.The ISP should also be able to supply a reasonable amount of ‘backoffice’ support. These are the support staff that are there to process orders,keep the databases up to date and provide technical support. These are alsosometimes referred to as the ‘fulfilment centres’.The ISP should agree in the hosting agreement to provide regular,detailed information on the number of ‘hits’, i.e. visits that are being madeto the website. This is the information you need to establish who your fansare and who’s likely to want to buy records, merchandise, concert tickets andso on.The website becomes your one-stop shop window on the world. Itsdesign and reliability will say a lot about you. A good website will enableyou to target your likely market with greater precision.If you are considering selling records off your website then you will needto have secure payments systems in place and some form of online ‘store’ orpage dedicated to sales. There are companies like 7Digital who will eithercustom design an online store for you or will provide a ‘skin’ or a seamlesslink between your website and a page on the 7Digital website off which theywill sell your records. If you use services like this then don’t forget yourcontract for what they will supply and a hosting agreement specifying thereliability of the service. It is absolutely no good having an online shop if itis never ‘open’.DATA PROTECTIONIf you’re putting together data on people electronically, you have to registerwith the Information Commissioner (details are in Useful Addresses). Youcan’t do what you want with the data you collect. You have to get permissionto use it for a purpose other than that for which it was collected. You’ll haveseen this in magazine adverts or on websites for a particular product. If yousend off for that product or for details about it you’ll invariably be asked toregister and to fill in a form with your details. The product owner may wantto try to sell you other products that he has in his range, or to sell his list ofcustomers and their product preferences to another company. He can’t dothis without your permission. There is often a box on the form that you haveto tick if you don’t want your information to be used in this way. This‘negative’ consent technique is lawful, and is being adapted for online use,although the Information Commissioner is in favour of you having to tick abox if you do want more information rather than the other way around.You’ll often find a box that has to be checked or unchecked to block yourinformation being used in other ways. If you’re compiling a database andyou don’t comply with the rules on passing on information you can befined.1If, however, these data protection hurdles are overcome, a database ofconsumer profiles and information is a valuable asset. If you own yourdomain name then, subject to anything to the contrary in the hostingagreement, you’ll own the data collected in relation to that website.MARKETINGOne of the big challenges of marketing online is to make sure that fans cometo a particular website and, once they have found it, come back to it over andover again. Phrases are bandied about as to how you get more ‘eyeballs’(visitors) and whether the website is ‘sticky’. The design of the website is, ofcourse, crucial. It should be eye-catching and user-friendly. The text used init should be designed so that it features prominently in the first twentywebsites that come up when key phrases are used to search for informationusing one of the search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN. This is an artform in itself and specialist web designers should be used.The website should be regularly updated. The ISP host should be able toprovide regular access to a webmaster who can help to put the latest newsonline.The website should be easy to view. The key information should beavailable without having to go through several ‘click through’ layers. Itshould all be on the home page – the first page a visitor to the website sees.The website should be different – it should have something that willraise it above the general ‘noise’ online. It’s all very well if you’re DavidBowie or Prince making your records available online. Just by saying you’redoing it, your name (or brand) is well known enough to guarantee you pressinterest. If you’re Joe Bloggs trying to get noticed, you have to be moreinnovative.RISING ABOVE THE NOISEOne of the biggest challenges in the online world is how you make potentialfans and purchasers of your music know that you exist. Of course, to someextent this is just an extension of traditional marketing which you shouldalso not ignore. Getting an A, B or even C listing on Radio 1 or 2 is stillessential for an artist looking for a commercial hit through single salesdriving album sales. Adverts, press interviews, personal appearances are allstill relevant, but it is now also necessary to consider your online fans andtarget them as part of your campaign. We looked at your website above andthat is an essential element of your online presence, but you must also nowthink about your pages on the social networking sites like MySpace,Facebook and Bebo. Just like you have to concern yourself about who ownsyour domain names you also have to consider who owns the name you areregistered under on these networking websites. These web pages have to beregularly updated. Someone has to monitor the sites; accept ‘friends’ whereappropriate; update the music available; decide if you are going to maketracks available for download or just streaming and keep your blog and giglist up to date. Will that be the artist or someone else? If it is to be someoneat the record company make sure they have the necessary ‘copy’ to do theirjob, otherwise they will be tempted to make things up or might present youin an inappropriate way.When MySpace first started it was a secret known only to a few and itwas exciting to customise your own website and share it with friends. Nowanyone who is anyone has a MySpace page. It remains the site of choice forthose looking for music but almost everyone on there is an unsigned artist orhas just released his or her latest single or album. You have to think abouthow you raise yourself above the noise.There has of course been a spate of firsts: the first artist to make numberone without a record deal; the first download only number one single oralbum. Then there were new stories such as the artist who sold a limitededition of his album at £100 a go. He didn’t sell that many but he gotpublicity he might not otherwise get. The band The Crimea gave awaydownload copies of their second album Secrets of the Witching Hour. Theytold the Guardian that they had done this in the hope that it would help buildtheir fan base and therefore increase their income from live work,merchandising sales and music publishing royalties.There has also been some good lateral thinking. The classical cross-overartist Katherine Jenkins’ new studio album Rejoice was promoted by shortvideos shown in over 1,000 UK doctors’ surgeries three times per hour,aimed at the older consumer who is a captive audience whilst waiting theirturn for their flu jab or whatever. To cover all bases, the album was alsoadvertised online and was backed by an online single release and some high-profile TV performances.Believe it or not, wherever there is a new service very soon afterwardsyou will find people setting up in business to help you make the most of thatnew service. There are now specialist marketing people who employ whatare called viral marketing techniques – a bit like an old-fashionedwhispering campaign where individuals are employed to ‘hit’ certainwebsites, to tell their mates about tracks they’ve heard or videos they’vewatched on YouTube, to spread the word about ‘secret’ gigs through SMStext messages. These people can be employed under a contract just like anyother marketing person either on a flat fee (with or without a retainer) or byresults.There is also a growing number of services dedicated to filteringmaterial to get you what you have said you want. This has been around forsome time for online newspapers where you specify what areas of news areof interest to you. That is now being extended to music services. Similarlythe social networking sites themselves realise that they are in danger ofcollapsing if they do not help users find what they are looking for or whatthey might like. Hence the launch by MySpace’s owners of the online videointerview service called Earwig.What might be seen as a kind of master class in what can be done inmarketing in the digital era is the campaign around the 2007 release ofRadiohead’s new album.It was the first digital only release where purchasers set the price theywould pay. This was an excellent move in raising the profile of the band andthe forthcoming release. The story reached far beyond the music press toleading articles in the media and financial sections of the broadsheets. Thiswas only for a limited period of time ending on 10 December 2007. MusicWeek reported on 7 November 2007 that the average price paid was £2.88.Thirty-eight per cent paid no more that the minimum handling fee of 45p butthis is still a much better strike rate than the estimated 80% of illegaldownloads. Music Week reported that the website attracted 1.2 millionvisitors in the first 29 days following release. In an interview with ThomYorke of Radiohead on Radio 4 on 2 January 2008, he suggested that thesefigures were not correct but declined to give his own figures merely sayingthat the band was pleasantly surprised with the results of this campaign.The online release was followed by a physical release through XL from31 December 2007. The packaging for this release contains stickers to allowthe purchaser to create his own artwork – which is an idea already used togood effect by Beck and which was designed by graphic designers BigActive. The band is very ecologically aware and therefore the packaging isall recyclable. This release was supported by an innovative televisioncampaign which nevertheless is still the use of a traditional marketingmedium.Alongside the main physical release, a special limited-edition box setwas made available containing the CD and vinyl versions of the album aswell as extras and sold at £40 through the band’s own merchandisingoperation. Another classic piece of brand marketing.They supported the physical release with traditional methods such as liveradio plays of single releases and plan a two-month tour to support thealbum beginning in May 2008.Finally there was an international digital release through their publishersWarner Chappell which combined for the first time recorded music masterand publishing rights in the same place.THE FUTUREIt is always difficult to predict where the music industry is going but I willjust suggest a few possibilities. Major record companies will survive, buttheir role will change to become a worldwide distribution and marketingresource with less emphasis on finding and developing talentThe Government in the UK and the legislators in the EU will pay lipservice to the need to protect IP and counteract piracy, but their measureswill be under resourced and superficial with the view being in truth that thisis a problem a united music industry should solve as part of its commercialsurvival mechanism. The Government does not believe the industry needssubsidy or tax breaks, such as those offered to the film industry, and has notsupported a request from the industry to extend the sound recording andperforming copyright.Music will become just another product to be traded on the Internet orincluded as part of a service. In an ever more crowded world with an overabundance of choice it will be more important than ever to be ‘heard’ abovethe noise. How you do that will result in initiatives that appear novel whenfirst encountered – viral marketing peer sites such as MySpace, guerrillagigs notified by SMS etc. – but are all just new forms of the age old conceptof marketing: find a new angle and work it. The players will not necessarilybe traditional music companies; they might be venture capitalists orcommunications companies.Major record company A&R people will continue to have a role and partof that role will be the identification of music that can be commercialised.This does not mean that they will be involved necessarily in developingtalent. Instead they will utilise a network of connections: producers,managers, studios and lawyers who will bring them projects that are alreadydeveloped, where the hard work has been done in putting together somethingwhich works creatively. The A&R person will then acknowledge this projectand assess if it can be made to sell in the kinds of numbers that make itworth a punt on signing up the artist.The need for a quick return on advances means that the first album has tohave been written and recorded, often to almost final mix stage. The idea ofan artist being successful on his third album will not survive in the majorcompany world. Longer term careers will come when the artist licencesrecords he has paid for himself or does a much lower key record deal wherethe initial financial rewards are lower but there is a possibility of earning aliving through hard work.Publishers will to an extent step in to the development of artists, but forboth major record and publishing companies advances will drop overall andthey will be looking for a greater range of rights including live andmerchandising rights.The album will become less important, individual tracks will be whatpowers the industry commercially. Online people buy tracks they like whichthey have heard on the radio or through recommendations or social networksites. Internet links to other artists with similar music will lead to anincrease in cross-selling like Amazon’s and eBay’s ‘customerrecommendations’. We will have to get used to having our music packagedwith other services and with advertsCONCLUSIONSArtists can use the Internet to partner up with investors from outside themusic industry, or to distribute their own records.Piracy remains a major problem, but one way to make money frommusic will be to ally yourself to another service like that of a mobilephone company.Marketing will become increasingly important in raising your musicabove the noise.Artists should try to own their own domain name.If you commission someone to design your website, make sure theygive you ownership of all the various elements of it and make goodhosting and maintenance arrangements.1 The Data Protection legislation extends to information held in hard-copyform as well as electronically. The Data Protection Act 1998, which cameinto force on 1 March 2000, also implemented the Database Directive. Chapter 8Branding INTRODUCTIONIN THIS AND the following chapter I’m going to look at the whole area ofbranding: first by looking at merchandising deals, at how you get a trademark and at the benefits of building up a reputation in your name and how toprotect it; and then, in the next chapter, by looking at sponsorship deals.Branding is the way in which you use your name, logo and reputation tobuild up a particular image in the public mind. You may think that this isn’trelevant for an artist just starting out in the business. It’s true that newartists are going to be more concerned at getting that first record deal than inworrying about their ‘brand’. However, you only have to look at many of theboy and girl bands, and at the image-making that surrounds TV artists suchas Il Divo, All Angels, Girls Aloud, the revival of Take That or The SpiceGirls and some of the more successful US artists like Beyonce, to be able tosee that putting a bit of thought into branding even at its simplest level canpay big dividends. Not everyone can be or wants to be The X Factor winner,but all artists should think about getting some of the basics of branding rightfrom the beginning. It can be as simple as getting a good, memorable nameand registering it as a domain name. With those two small and cheap stepsyou’ve already started to establish a brand.Branding is big business and the growth of online activities on theInternet has added to the commercial outlets for the brand. At its moststraightforward it’s the building up of an artist’s name and reputation inorder to help to sell more records and concert tickets. At its moresophisticated, a name, reputation and public image can help to sell otherthings, not necessarily ones that involve music. Artists like The Spice Girlsused their names, likenesses and the ‘girl power’ image originally to selleverything from crisps to soft drinks and sweets and are reviving that withtheir 2007/08 reunion tour when once again they are being used to sellproducts and supermarkets in TV advertising. Also bear in mind manysuccessful ‘live’ artists make as much money from sales of merchandise atthe venues or online off artist websites than they do from the ticket sales.This idea of branding isn’t anything new. All successful companies haveinvested a lot of money in the company name and logo and in establishingname recognition for their products. Think of Heinz, Sainsbury’s, Coca-Colaor McDonald’s. Companies such as Virgin turned branding into an art form.Sir Richard Branson realised the value in the Virgin name, in the fact thatthe consumer immediately recognises it and the familiar red and whitecolours. By putting that recognition together with a reputation for beingslightly anti-establishment, he got consumers to buy into almost everythingthat the name was linked with. A healthy dose of self-publicity from SirRichard himself kept the name and the brand in the public eye.With nine out of ten new artists failing to make a significant mark on therecord-buying public, the strike rate of the record business is appalling. Aswe saw in Chapter 6 it is increasingly the case that the record companies relyon excellent marketing to achieve one or more big hits, and some moremoderate successes to keep them going. Getting the marketing campaignright is therefore crucial if you’re to have a chance.In the last seven or eight years there has been an explosion in the numberof acts that seek fame and fortune not through the traditional route of hardslog on the gig circuit but on a fast track through appearances on realitytelevision shows. These are, if you like, the twenty-first century equivalentof the talent show. This started with Popstars, which spawned Hear’Say. Therunners-up on that programme were Liberty, who, as a result of anunsuccessful court case, had to change their name to Liberty X butnevertheless went on to international success. Then there was the Pop Idolphenomenon, where telephone voting by members of the public spawned alucrative new source of revenue for the TV broadcaster and maker of theprogrammes. The final of the first Pop Idol contest had an audience of about8 million voting for Will Young and Gareth Gates. Both achieved No. 1chart success but only Will Young continues to feature largely both as arecording artist but also as a live performer and a stalwart of events such asthe Queen’s Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace and the VE 60thcelebration concert in Trafalgar Square.Pop Idol was followed by Fame Academy, which was a cross between thereality TV programme Big Brother and a Pop Idol-type talent contest whichdid not live long before the phenomenon which was Simon Cowell and XFactor hit our screens, initially as a traditional competition for lateteen/early twenties artists but then cleverly widened to appeal to a muchwider audience through having categories for older wannabes. In most casesthe contestants, or at least the finalists, are required as a condition of theirparticipation to sign up to recording contracts and often also to sponsorshipand merchandising contracts. The TV production company takes a piece ofall this income. In some cases the TV company is in business with amanager who has an option to manage some or all of the successful artists.The artist is offered these contracts at a time when they have relatively littlebargaining power and, although there can be some tinkering around theedges, the basic deal is usually already set and non-negotiable. Of course,once the artist is successful renegotiation becomes a possibility but not aguarantee.This type of programme also took off in the US with the American Idolseries being a huge success and making a TV celebrity out of judges such asSimon Cowell.There are few signs that the British public has lost its appetite for theseshows even though record sales of winners have generally been much lowerthan those achieved by Will Young’s first single, and apart from him it isdifficult to think of any UK winners or finalists who have gone on to sustaina pop career beyond the first single or in some cases album. The albums areoften rush released to capitalise on the winner’s fame before the ficklepublic moves on. These albums rarely do much more than present coverrecordings of other people’s songs and it is difficult for the artist to reallyshow what he is capable of or to build a longer term career. One UK artistwho may buck the trend on this is Leona Lewis who for various reasonswaited quite a long time before her album was released after she won XFactor in 2006. It went to the top of the download and physical album andsingles sales charts and managed to stay the course running up the secondhighest weekly sales figures of 2007 behind Arctic Monkeys.One of the main drawbacks for me to these shows is that they create anexpectation amongst many people that it’s easy to get a break, get ontelevision, get a million pound record deal and be set for life. Theexpectation is rarely met in reality and yet even the evidence of all the onehit wonder winners or finalists who disappear without trace does not dampenthis belief. Many people now fail to realise that there is a huge amount ofwork, effort and time that goes into making a true career in this business. KTTunstall worked for about six years around the clubs before she got her bigbreak on Later With Jools Holland as a last minute stand-in. Many so-calledovernight successes have in fact laboured away for years honing their craftuntil they are finally spotted. Reality television shows lead many youngpeople to believe that they are somehow entitled to their fifteen minutes offame, that everyone has a record in them and that it’s really rather easy.Why else is almost everyone on MySpace plugging their own records? Thereisn’t that much quality around – most is rubbish – and there is a danger thattrue talent will get lost in the noise. Hence the need is greater than ever foran angle that will bring you to the foreground.BRANDING OF ARTISTSMany artists are now recognising the value in the name, the ‘brand’, and areactively trying to put themselves into a position where they can make somemoney out of that brand. They may not have followed exactly in thefootsteps of The Spice Girls, but do pick and choose the products they wishto be involved with, for example, clothing shops or ranges.To a greater or lesser extent, a successful artist is always going to be abrand, in the sense of being a name that people recognise. The moresuccessful the artist is, the more likely it is that the name, likeness andimage will be recognised by members of the public. If they like or admirethat artist’s reputation, they’ll want to know more about him and will buythings that tell them more about him like books, magazines and records.They’ll buy products that have his name or likeness on it such as calendars,posters, screensavers, T-shirts or other items of clothing. If an artist isassociated with a computer game, new phone or fast car then those itemsbecome desirable and the manufacturers of those goods pay for theassociation with a ‘cool’ brand. Witness also the number of perfumes beingendorsed by celebrities – there are his and hers Beckham perfumes, forexample. Part of this branding process involves doing merchandising dealsfor these products. If you have taken steps as early as you could afford toprotect your brand then you will have an easy means of stopping others fromcashing in on your name without your approval.Cross-media branding is becoming increasingly important. It has beenshown that consumers are spending more time online, reading andresearching as well as being entertained. No branding strategy should ignoreonline uses. At the very least the artist’s official website should be dynamicand regularly updated. Some labels are using linkage of a well-known artistbrand with a website hosted by the label to cement their relationship with theartist and share revenues from products bought on the website such asmobile ringtones or video clips.It’s usually a good idea to use the same name, tag-line/slogan – whichcould be the title of the new album or the name of the tour – and imageryand logo across all forms of marketing. This ensures a consistent messageand enhances the brand. Make sure that all media carry your name andcontact details. Check that any online links between sites work well and linkto a website that carries a consistent message.If you’re considering linking up with other sites with a view to drawingtraffic to your site and theirs, then you may agree to share revenue with thatsite. For example, if you link to a site which supplies mobile ringtones andcustomers come from that site to yours and buy your latest record, youmight agree with the mobile ringtone supplier to pay them a percentage ofthe value of the sale as a kind of referral fee of 3–5% and vice versa.If the name, likeness or logo is one that can be trademarked, you canapply to register a trade mark or marks. Not all names are registrable. If it’stoo common a name or it’s descriptive of something, the Trade MarkRegistry won’t let you register it.Even if you haven’t got a trade mark registered, if someone tries to passthemselves off as you in order to cash in on your reputation and this resultsin loss or damage to you, you have the means to try and stop them. This iscalled an action for ‘passing off’.If a company wants to use your name to promote their product they willdo a sponsorship deal. You lend them the use of your name and may agree toprovide some other services, such as recording a single or performing in anadvert or turning up at a trade show or event, and they give you money andsometimes goods or services such as airline tickets or cars in return (seeChapter 9).If your fans are looking for information about you or where to buy yourrecords they will look under your name. They aren’t usually going to startlooking under the record company name. In fact, many fans may not know orcare what label your records come out on as long as they can find copies ofthem in their record shop or online which is partly why record companies areconcerned to own, or at least control, artists’ websites and domain names. Afan is going to search for the artist’s name. If you wanted to find informationon Tim Westwood on the Internet you would search under ‘Westwood’rather than under his record company, Mercury/Def Jam. There are recordcompany websites and they are getting better. At first they tended to becorporate affairs where the services and information provided was intendedfor other companies or businesses; now they’re generally more of amagazine format where news on all the major artists on the label is broughttogether in one place. Some have links to specialised websites, many ofwhich are owned and put together by the artist or his management team.These links open up many new possibilities for marketing an artist. Manynow also require the artist to submit regular updates to a blog or diary ofwhat the artist has been up to/is listening to/what films they like etc.Is branding a good idea? There are some that thought the ubiquity of TheSpice Girls was taking the idea too far. While I believe we can neverunderestimate the public’s interest in the inside story and behind-the-scenesglimpses of artists, you do have to be careful to avoid overkill. To someartists the whole idea is anathema. Most artists know that they have to workon building up a name and a reputation in order to sell their records. Some,though, think that they’re somehow selling out if they put their name toother products – selling their soul as it were. It’s obviously a personal thing.Some artists, particularly those boy or girl bands with a relatively shortshelf life before a new favourite comes along, do embrace branding in orderto make as much money as they can as quickly as they can. Others arecontent to limit their branding activities to tour merchandise or sponsorshipdeals to help support a tour that would otherwise make a loss. It all comesback to the game plan (see Chapter 2).I’ve also worked with artists who take the sponsor’s or merchandiser’smoney and put it into charitable funds rather than spending it on themselves.Some make a point of telling the public they have done this, others keep itquiet.Is it a sell out? I don’t think it is. If it’s not right for you, don’t do it.However, before you come over all credible and refuse to entertain any formof branding, just remember that you’re already doing it to some extent whenyou use your name to promote sales of your records or tickets to your gigs.There are many artists and bands whose image doesn’t easily lend itselfto selling loads of posters, T-shirts and so on or whose image is not going tobe user friendly for family-focused adverts – I’m thinking here of some ofthe Death Metal bands. If that is you then fine, don’t waste time or money onit. You also don’t have to have your name associated with every product thatcomes along. Indeed, it’s probably not wise to do so, as the public willquickly tire of you. The products you choose to associate with should beselected with the overall game plan in mind.If you do decide to do merchandising deals for your name, logo orlikeness, you also need to decide how far you’re prepared to go in protectingthat merchandise from the pirates who will inevitably come along and try tosteal your market, often with inferior products. Even if you don’t domerchandising deals, you may find that the pirates do. I know of artists thathave decided, for example, not to do a merchandising deal for calendars,only to find that unofficial versions appear in the shops anyway. As aninteresting side note on this there is at least one enterprising charity whichteams up with artists to use illegal pirate merchandise that has been seized atthe artist’s concerts to supply to disadvantaged children in Africa. It doesn’tcost the artist anything and may do a little bit of good along the way.MERCHANDISING DEALSIn its simplest form a band is involved in merchandising when they selltickets to their gigs. The band name attracts the fans that have bought therecords and now want to see them perform live. The ticket to the gig isbought on the back of the band name. If the band’s core business isperforming live then the band name is being used to sell records or othergoods like T-shirts and posters. At this time it is live concerts which aremaking the money, not sales of records – see the chapter on touring. If theconcert is well attended then the artist may also sell plenty of merchandise.Even the most credible of artists usually has a T-shirt or poster available forsale at the gigs. If they don’t offer something it is likely some of the fanswill get them from the pirates outside.In the entertainment business, merchandising has been big business foryears. People can buy the T-shirt, the football strip, the video game and theduvet cover bearing the name and image of their favourite cartoon character,football team or pop group. Disney and Manchester United Football Club aregood examples. They know that there’s a lot of money to be made frommaximising the use of the name and likeness.HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT GETTING A TRADE MARK?Before you can begin to use your name to sell merchandise outside your corebusiness of selling records, it’s essential that you have a name or logo that’seasily marketable and that you have or are starting to get a reputation thatpeople can relate to. If your game plan is to do a fair amount ofmerchandising, you should think of a distinctive name and logo from thebeginning. We all know how difficult it is to find a name that no one else hasthought of and we saw in Chapter 1 how to check this out. The same thoughtmust go into making your logo as distinctive as possible.If you’re going to have any chance of holding off the pirates, you need toprotect your rights in your name and logo as far as possible. If you want toprevent others jumping on the bandwagon and manufacturing unauthorisedmerchandise to satisfy market demand, you’ll need to have your own housein order.If you are going to go for trade mark protection you should do so earlyonce your career has started to take off as if you wait too long then it may betoo late. It’s important to get trade mark protection as early as possible.Elvis Presley’s estate was not able to protect the use of the Elvis name formerchandising as a registered trade mark in the UK because it waited untilten years after his death.1The Elvis Presley CaseIn 1989, Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc, the successors to the Estate ofElvis Presley, filed UK trade mark applications for ‘Elvis’, ‘ElvisPresley’ and the signature ‘Elvis A Presley’.The UK trade mark applications were accepted by the Trade MarksRegistry but were then opposed by Sid Shaw, a trader who’d beenmarketing Elvis memorabilia in the UK since the late 1970s under thename ‘Elvisly Yours’. He opposed the registration of the marks by theElvis Estate on the grounds, among others, that they conflicted with SidShaw’s own prior trade mark registrations for Elvisly Yours. TheRegistry upheld the Estate’s applications; Mr Shaw appealed to the HighCourt, which allowed the appeal. In a judgement which was quite criticalof character and personality merchandising in general, the court decidedthat the public didn’t care whether Elvis Presley memorabilia wasapproved by the Estate of Elvis Presley or not. The Estate took the caseto the Court of Appeal.The Court of Appeal refused the Estate’s appeal and refusedregistration of all three trade marks. The court concluded that the trademarks were not in themselves distinctive and, as there was no evidenceproduced by the Estate of any use of the marks in the UK which mighthave indicated that the marks had become distinctive of the Estate ofElvis Presley in the minds of the public, there was therefore no reason atall why the marks should be registered.The Wet Wet Wet CaseThe courts have shown that they aren’t prepared to interpret the TradeMarks Act too narrowly in favour of someone who has registered a trademark in a band name. One example is a case involving the band Wet WetWet: the Bravado and Mainstream case.2 Bravado had rights in a trademark in the name Wet Wet Wet. Bravado asked for the Scottish lawequivalent of an injunction to be ordered against Mainstream to preventit from infringing that trade mark. Mainstream was publishing andmarketing a book entitled A Sweet Little Mystery – Wet Wet Wet – theInside Story. Mainstream argued that they were not using ‘Wet WetWet’ in a trade mark sense, but rather that it was used to describe thesubject matter of the book. They also said that they weren’t suggestingin any way that it was published by Bravado and, as such, somehow‘official’. Bravado argued that if they couldn’t prevent this use then itwould be meaningless having the trade mark, because they couldn’t thenstop it being used on other merchandise relating to the band.The court decided that the words were being used in the course oftrade but refused to grant the injunction, because it said that would beinterpreting the meaning of the Trade Mark Act too narrowly. If it wereso interpreted then any mention of the group name could be aninfringement of the trade mark.The Saxon CaseThe area of trade marks and band names was also recently reviewed bythe High Court in the case of Byford v. Oliver and Dawson (2003). Thiscase involved the use of the name ‘Saxon’ by Biff Byford, the originalsinger with the British heavy metal band. Byford had been a bandmember since its formation in the late 1970s. Steven Dawson andGraham Oliver left in 1995. Biff Byford continued as a member of theband through numerous new line-ups – always called Saxon. Oliver andGraham continued to perform but used a variety of names, oftenincluding their own names with a reference to Saxon. Oliver and Dawsonnever challenged Byford’s right to use the name Saxon but in 1999 theyregistered ‘Saxon’ as a trade mark and attempted to prevent Byfordusing the name.Byford applied to the Trade Mark Registry to have the trade markdeclared invalid on the basis that the registration had been obtained inbad faith (under the Trade Mark Act 1994) and that Dawson and Oliverwere guilty of ‘passing off’ and misrepresenting themselves and theirtrade mark as ‘Saxon’ when Byford was the ‘real’ ‘Saxon’. Byford failedto have the trade mark declared invalid with the Registrar deciding thatwith band members (all of whom may have some claim on a band’sname) it was a ‘first come first served’ rule with regard to registration.Byford then applied to the High Court who overturned the Registrar’sdecision and declared the Oliver/Dawson registration invalid.There was no formal agreement between the original band membersgoverning use of the band name. Mr Justice Laddie held that, in thecircumstances, the band name must be owned by all of the original bandmembers as ‘partners’. What this means is that if a band ‘partnership’was split up NO member would own the name unless there was a formalagreement governing its use. However, the judge held that, in thecircumstances, both Dawson and Oliver abandoned their rights to thegoodwill and ownership of the ‘Saxon’ name which was now owned byByford and the new members of the band.This suggests that bands must have a written agreement governingownership of the band name – because otherwise, if the band splits, nomember of the group or members could use the band name withoutagreement of any one, or more, original members who may not wish tocontinue.HOW TO APPLY FOR A TRADE MARKYou don’t have to be already rich and famous to register a trade mark inyour name or logo. In fact, as we saw in the Elvis case, there are dangers inwaiting too long to apply for a trade mark. As soon as you can afford to, youshould think about doing it. You can apply to protect your name or that ofyour brand worldwide, but this would be expensive. To start with, I usuallyadvise that you apply to register the name in your home market, for examplethe UK for a British-based band, and then in other places where you have, orhope to gain, a market for your records and other merchandise, for examplethe US, Europe or Japan.Each country has its own special rules for registration of a trade markand, in many cases, an application to register a trade mark in one countrycan help you with applications in other parts of the world. For example, therules at present allow you to backdate an application for a trade mark in theUS to the date of your UK application provided you apply within six monthsof the UK application. So, if you apply for a UK trade mark registration on 1July, you have until 31 December to apply in the US and still backdate it to 1July. Just making the application itself can trigger trade mark protection.Even if it takes a year or more to get a registration, the trade mark, when andif it’s granted, will be backdated to the date of the application. It also givesyou priority over anyone else who applies after you to register a trade markin the same or a similar name or logo. This is, however, a specialised areaand you should take advice from a trade mark lawyer or a specialist trademark agent. Your lawyer can put you in touch with a trade mark agent and agood music lawyer should have a working knowledge of trade mark law.While you may be happy to leave all this to your manager to sort out foryou, do remember that the name should be registered in your name and notthat of your manager or record company.3Once you’ve decided the countries where you’d like to apply for a trademark – finances permitting – you have to decide what types of product orparticular goods you want to sell under the trade mark. In most countries,goods and services are split for trade mark registration purposes into classesand it’s important to make sure that you cover all relevant classes of goodsand as soon as possible. You can add other classes later, but then you run therisk of someone selling goods with your name in a class that you haven’tprotected. For example, you may have applied to register a trade mark forthe class that covers records, but not the class that covers printed materialsuch as posters. In theory, someone else could apply for a trade mark in thatarea, but then you get into the whole area of passing off. It’s also not usuallyas cost-effective. You get a costs saving by applying for several classes at atime.4A registered trade mark has distinct advantages over an unregisteredmark. Actions to stop infringements of registered trade marks are generallyquicker and more cost-effective than when you’re relying on unregisteredrights. A registered trade mark puts the world on notice of your rights. Aregistered trade mark is attractive to merchandising companies, as it givesthem a monopoly over the goods for which the mark is registered and givesthe merchandising company more of an incentive to do a deal with you.PASSING OFFIf you haven’t registered a trade mark then, in the UK, you can try and relyon the common law right of ‘passing off’ in order to protect your name andreputation. Before you can do this you’ll have to prove there is goodwill inthe name. This may not be the case if you’re unknown and haven’t yet got areputation or any goodwill in the name. You have to show that someone elseis trading on your reputation by passing themselves off as you, using yourreputation to confuse the public that they are you or are authorised by you.As well as having this goodwill or reputation, you also have to show that thishas actually caused confusion in the mind of the public resulting in damageor loss to you. For example, a band using the same name as yours, or oneconfusingly similar, might advertise tickets to a gig in the same town asyour planned gigs. Fans might buy those tickets thinking they’re coming tosee you. This loses you ticket sales and might possibly damage yourreputation if the other band isn’t as good as you. You have to haveestablished a reputation in the name in the particular area in question. Ifyour name is associated with records and someone trades under the same ora very similar name in the area of clothing, where you don’t have any areputation, there is less likely to be confusion in the mind of the public.One famous passing-off case involved the pop group Abba.5The Abba CaseA company called Annabas was selling a range of T-shirts, pillowcases,badges and other goods bearing the name and photographs of the bandAbba. The band didn’t own the copyright in any of the photographs andAnnabas had obtained permission from the copyright owners of thephotographs to use them. The band had to rely on a claim for passing off.Abba lost their application for an injunction preventing the sale becausethey were unable to show they had an existing trade in these goods orany immediate likelihood of one being started. The judge also went on tosay that he thought that no one reading adverts for the goods or receivingthose goods would reasonably imagine that the band had given theirapproval to the goods offered. He felt Annabas was only catering for apopular demand among teenagers for effigies of their idols. These wordshave been often repeated in later cases.It’s clear from this case that you have to establish that you already have atrade in the area in question that could be prejudiced, or that there was areasonable likelihood of you starting such a trade. If you’re seriouslythinking about doing merchandising you should do so sooner rather thanlater, and should be setting yourself up ready for starting such a trade (forexample, by commissioning designs, talking to merchandise companies ormanufacturers, applying to register your trade mark) well in advance ofwhen you want to start business to get around some of the pitfallshighlighted in the Abba case.The P Diddy CaseIn September 2005 a DJ called Richard Dearlove reached a settlement inhis case against Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy, aka P Diddy, to preventhim from changing his name to just ‘Diddy’. Dearlove (a successfulrecord producer) claimed he had been using the name Diddy in the UKfor his DJ activities since 1992. His High Court action settled on thebasis that Sean Combs agreed not to shorten his name, agreed to payDearlove £10,001 in lieu of damages and his legal costs estimated at£100,000. Mr Combs agreed not to advertise, offer or provide orcause/procure others to advertise, offer or provide any goods or servicesunder or with reference to the word ‘Diddy’. He also undertook toremove from the UK all materials or articles that were in his custody,power or control, the use of which would contravene this undertaking.Unfortunately that was not the end of the matter. In 2007 the casecame back before the court because Mr Dearlove claimed Sean Combshad breached that settlement agreement. This time he was not successfulas the judge rejected his claim for an early judgement and ordered thematter to be tried at a full trial.Material relating to Sean Combs’ album Press Play had appeared onMySpace and YouTube and on a website www.badboyonline.com, whichfeatured the name ‘Diddy’. Six tracks on the album contained referencesto Sean Combs as ‘Diddy’. Dearlove claimed this was promotion underthe Diddy name in the UK in contravention of the settlement. Whilst thejudge made the important observation that placing a trade mark on theInternet from a location outside the UK could constitute use of that markin the UK. He also recognised that the fact that the lyric to one of thesongs on the album contained the word ‘Diddy’ could also be anadvertisement for goods and services in the UK (which could havebreached the settlement), particularly as many artists now use lyrics toassociate themselves with various goods and services. This didn’t meanthat every reference to a product or service in a lyric was a potentialbreach of someone’s trade mark; it would depend on how the lyric wasused and whether it was intended to promote a product or service. Thereason the judge thought this was a matter for full trial was because hecould not tell without hearing all the evidence whether this material/useof lyrics was something that was within Sean Combs’ control. If it wasthen he could well be found in breach of the settlement.The importance of this case is to emphasise the global nature of the Internetand how care has to be used not to infringe a person’s trade mark in anothercountry by making something available on the Internet in one country whereit wouldn’t be a breach, but where it could be viewed in another countrywhere it is a problem. The test would be if the consumer in the infringingcountry thought the advertisement or reference to the trade mark wasdirected at him. It also recognised that lyrics could be used to sell otherproducts as well as help promote the artist and his new recordings and sowhen deciding if someone is advertising themselves under a particular namewe need to think laterally and outside what might normally be thought of aspromotion e.g. an ad or poster or celebrity interview.There have been a run of cases where personalities have taken legalaction over adverts that they believe play on their voice/singing style orimage.Tom Waits caseTom has a very distinctive gravelly voice and he felt that a televisionadvert for Opel cars featured a singing voice and style that was too closeto his own to be a coincidence. He claimed that the car company haddeliberately used a sound-alike on one of their TV ads to imply that hehad participated in the marketing campaign. He sought an injunction tostop the ads and asked for an award of at least $300,000 in damages.Early in 2007 it was reported he had reached an out-of-court settlement,the details of which are not known but Mr Waits has indicated he willdonate the money he receives to charity. This settlement came almostexactly a year after Waits won a similar court case in Spain whereVolkswagen had used a sound-alike in a TV ad. He has also won a $2million court judgement in the past against a US company, Frito-Lay,who had used an impersonator to mimic his voice. You’d think theseadvertisers would learn that he means business. He is famously criticalof artists who take sponsorship money off big business and so isparticularly galled when his voice is used in these very same types ofads.David Bedford – 118118 CaseLate in 2003 Dave Bedford brought an action for an injunction againstthe company which was targeting the UK directory enquiries marketwith the number 118118 using two runners with 70s style hair andmoustaches, singlet and shorts. David Bedford, a successful runner in the1970s and now race director of the London Marathon claimed this wasbased on his image. The company behind the campaign initially rejectedthe claims but agreed to settle the matter by making slight changes to thelook of the character.OTHER REMEDIESIf you can’t rely on either a trade mark or the remedy of passing off thenyou’ll have to see if there’s been any infringement of copyright, for examplein a design, or possibly if there’s been a false description of goods thatmight be unlawful under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.CONCLUSIONS ON PROTECTING YOUR NAMEClearly, getting registered trade mark protection is the best way to go aboutprotecting your brand, but when you’re just getting started you probablywon’t have the money to spend on protecting the band name. A balance hasto be struck. If you’re ultimately successful and haven’t applied for a trademark you may end up kicking yourself if others cash in on your name andmarket unauthorised products. If you apply late you may be too late, as inthe case of Elvis. On the other hand, it’s often not at all certain whether anartist is ultimately going to be successful enough to justify the expense. Asensible thing to do would be to register a trade mark in just one or twoclasses, including records, of course, and perhaps only in one or twocountries at first and then add more countries or classes as things develop.It’s also worth bearing in mind that a record company may advance youthe money to make the trade mark applications. If you don’t want yourrecord company to own your trade mark, make sure the application for theregistration is in your name not theirs, even if they offer to register it onyour behalf.As we’ve already seen in the area of e-commerce, there’s also a greatdeal of mileage to be had from registering your domain name. Among otherthings, it gives you control of the doorway to official information on you andwhat you have to offer. Registration is cheap and quick, but please don’tforget that it will need reviewing every couple of years. One recordcompany, who shall remain nameless, arranged for all the reminders fordomain-name registrations to go to one email address. The owner of thataddress left the company and no one seems to have thought to check themailbox or redirect the mail. At least one domain name registration lapsed ata crucial marketing moment and had to be bought back on the open market.UNAUTHORISED, UNOFFICIAL MERCHANDISEThe line of arguments that we saw being developed in the Abba case wasexpanded on in a case involving The Spice Girls.The Spice GirlsThe Spice Girls applied for an injunction against an Italian publisher,Panini, of an unauthorised sticker book and stickers entitled ‘The FabFive’. At this time The Spice Girls had no trade mark registrations and,in fact, it probably wouldn’t have helped them if they had, becausePanini had been careful not to use the name ‘Spice Girls’ anywhere inthe book or on the stickers. So The Spice Girls were trying to use the lawof passing off to protect the band’s image. They argued that even thoughthe words ‘Spice Girls’ were not used, the book was clearly about them.The book didn’t carry a sticker that it was unauthorised so, they argued,this amounted to a misrepresentation that The Spice Girls had authorisedor endorsed the book.The judge was not swayed by arguments that it made a differencewhether the book was marked ‘authorised’ or ‘official’. He refused togrant an injunction. As a consequence of this decision, if a company putsout an unauthorised calendar featuring pictures of an artist or band then,provided it is made clear that it’s not a calendar that has the officialblessing of the band and it doesn’t reproduce copyright words/lyrics orphotographs without permission, then that wouldn’t be a passing off nora breach of copyright rights. The judge decided that even the use of thewords ‘official’ wouldn’t have made this a case of passing off, becausethe product clearly indicated it was not approved by the artist. In thisparticular case, The Spice Girls had a trade mark application pending,but it hadn’t been registered so they couldn’t rely on arguing that therehad been an infringement of their trade mark. This is a good example ofwhy it’s important to have a registered trade mark if you’re going to tryto put a stop to the sale of unauthorised goods.You might be forgiven for thinking that all these cases involve millions ofpounds and are only of interest to the megastars that can employ people todo all this for them. Well, it’s true that it’s usually only the big names thathave the inclination or the money to bring cases to court, but protecting yourname can start at a very low level – like preventing the pirate merchandisersfrom selling dodgy T-shirts or posters outside your gigs, or stopping anotherlocal band from cashing in on the hard work you’ve put into starting to makea name for yourself.HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT GETTING A MERCHANDISEDEAL?You may start off by producing a small range of T-shirts that you sell atyour gigs. You can get these printed up locally, put up a temporary stall inthe foyer of the venue and sell them from there. You may also sell some offyour website. If it’s clear that you can sell enough to make money then youmight approach a merchandising company about doing it for you on a largerscale. The merchandising company could be a big multinational company ora small independent company. You can get names of merchandisingcompanies out of directories such as Music Week. You can also getrecommendations from your mates in other bands, your lawyer, accountantor manager.If you’re starting to sell out the larger venues and are a regular on the gigcircuit, merchandising companies may approach you or your booking agent.If they do, you could try them out with your concert or tour merchandisebefore deciding if they’re right to do your retail or mail-order merchandisingas well.THE MERCHANDISING DEALIf you have a registered trade mark, this will increase your appeal to amerchandiser. However, merchandise companies will still be interested inyou even if you haven’t got a registered trade mark if you’re sufficientlywell known for them to run the commercial risk of producing merchandisefor sale. The merchandise company will take a view as to whether yours isthe sort of image that will sell particular types of merchandise. They willknow if your image will sell T-shirts or posters at gigs and if it will also selleither the same merchandise or a different range of products through retailstores.Even quite small acts can often shift reasonable numbers of T-shirts tofans at the gigs or through mail order off their website. If there’s a steadyturnover, a merchandiser will be interested in doing a deal. Obviously, if youonly sell two T-shirts a month, and then only to your close family, thengetting a merchandise deal is going to be a non-starter. In that case youshould be looking to do it yourself. Why would you want to do this? Well,obviously, the more that you keep to yourself the more of the profit you getto keep. There is, however, an awful lot of work involved in mailing out themerchandise to fulfil orders and in ensuring that you’ve enough products tosell at your gigs.If things start to go only moderately well you’ll probably need to employsomeone to look after that side of things for you. You’ll also need to do adeal with a company to make the clothing or other products for you to yourdesign. You’ll have to be responsible for selling it either by mail orderonline, through selected retail outlets such as local record stores, and at yourgigs. You’ll need to be able to keep a check on the quality of the productbeing produced, to be something of a salesman, to be able to market thegoods and to distribute them. You’ll need to make sure that the orders arefulfilled promptly and that the accounts are properly kept. This is quite a tallorder, even if you do get to keep the lion’s share of the profits. No wonder,then, that many bands find a specialist merchandising company to do this forthem.WHAT IS IN A TYPICAL MERCHANDISING DEAL?Obviously, each merchandise deal will be different and, once again, it’simportant for you to use a lawyer who is used to doing these sorts of deals.There are, however, some points that are an issue in every merchandisingdeal.TerritoryYou can do a one-stop, worldwide deal with one company for all yourmerchandise needs, or a series of deals with different companies fordifferent types of goods. For example, you could do a deal with onecompany for merchandise to sell at your gigs like T-shirts, sweatshirts, capsand so on. This deal could be limited to the UK or Europe or if the companywas big enough in all the major markets you could do a worldwide deal. Ifthey weren’t then you could then do another deal for the US, probably with acompany who specialises in the US marketplace. If we are talking aboutmerchandise in the wider sense of marketing your name or likeness on sweetpackages, computer games or crisp packets, then you’ll do your deal with thecompany that manufactures those goods. That deal could again be aworldwide one or one for specific countries. If you’re going to do aworldwide or multi-territory deal, make sure that your merchandisecompany has the resources to look after your interests properly in eachcountry. Find out if they subcontract the work and, if so, who to. Is the sub-contractor reliable?TermIf you’re doing a series of concerts, you could do a merchandise deal thatwas just linked to those dates. If you were doing a world tour with variouslegs, it’s likely you would do a deal with one merchandise company thatcovered the whole tour. However, you could do a deal with one company tocover the period of the UK or European legs, and with another company orcompanies in other parts of the world. This isn’t as common, as it’s difficultto administer and police. The term of the contract would be the duration ofthe tour or of that particular leg of it.If you’re doing merchandise deals to sell goods in shops or by mail orderthen the term is more likely to be for a fixed period of time, probably aminimum of one year and up to three years or more.The more money the merchandising company is investing inmanufacturing costs and/or up-front advances, the longer the term they’relikely to want in return. The longer the term, the better their chances will beof recouping their investment.Some merchandising deals are linked to recoupment of all or aproportion of the advance. The term of the deal runs until that happens. Thiscan be dangerous if sales don’t live up to expectations or if themerchandising company isn’t as good as you would like them to be. The bestthing to do with these types of deals is to have the right to get out of the dealafter, say, a year by paying back the amount of money that is unrecouped.This will give you the flexibility to get out of a deal that isn’t working andinto one that might.Rights grantedThe deal will usually be a licence of rights in your name and likeness for aparticular period, not an assignment of rights. The rights granted will be theright to manufacture, reproduce and sell certain products featuring yourname and/or logo. If you have a registered trade mark you’ll be required togrant a trade mark licence to the merchandising company to use the trademark on specific goods.The rights granted could be for particular products or for all types ofmerchandise. These days the trend is towards limiting the granting of rightsto particular products. You could grant the right to use your name or likenessor your registered logo on T-shirts and keep back rights to all other productssuch as calendars, posters, caps and so on.You might grant the right to use your band name and/or logo for someparticular types of a particular product and keep rights back to other formsof the same product. For example, you could grant a licence for ordinarytoys and keep back the rights to use your name on musical toys. You couldthen do merchandising deals for all or any of those types of toys with one ormore other companies. If your music is going to be used in the musical toysthen you or your publisher will license the right to include the music foreither a one-off ‘buy-out’ fee or for a fee and an ongoing royalty (seeChapter 4).Record companies may do a variation on a merchandising deal with anartist to use his voice/catchphrase for downloads of sounds for mobiles. Thismay be included in the record deal but if that deal is an older type then itmay not be covered and there may need to be a separate deal done. Now thatthe first flush of enthusiasm for quirky mobile ozone downloads has dieddown there isn’t the clamour there was a few years back. Now it is muchmore likely in an exclusive licence or recording deal that the recordcompany will require that the artist record specific clips for such uses andwill be paid usually a percentage of what the record company earns fromselling those clips on to the middleman aggregator, who offers thedownloads to the public via a communications company. Because there areseveral parties who take a ‘cut’ before the record company, let alone theartist, sees a share these deals are not the lucrative earner everyone hopedthey were going to be but they do provide an additional revenue source forthe record companies. If instead of your voice an extract from one of yoursongs is used then the aggregator should also clear the right to use the musicand lyrics from the publisher, creating an additional income stream for thepublisher too. This is not always done and it is not always easy to track whatincome has been earned from these new revenue sources. There are,however, companies such as RoyaltyShare who are developing software totrack usage down to the last penny so in time it is to be hoped that properaccounting will take place across this new sector.Quality controlOnce you’ve decided what goods are going to feature your name, likeness orlogo, you have to make sure that the goods are of the highest possiblequality. If you don’t keep a tight hold on quality control, you could dopotentially serious and possibly irreversible damage to the reputation ofyour brand. If a T-shirt featuring your name and logo falls apart, or thecolours run on the first wash, then that is going to reflect very badly on you.The fan that bought the T-shirt won’t care that it was another company thatmade it – they’ll blame you and give you a reputation for selling shoddygoods.The contract will usually say that the merchandising company mustsubmit samples of designs for you to approve. If they’re making the goods toa design you’ve given them then they should make up samples to thatdesign. Only once you’re satisfied with the quality of the sample should youauthorise full production to go ahead. Even then, you should have the rightto inspect the product at short notice and to insist upon improvements if thequality has dropped to an unacceptable level. The contract should contain aguarantee that the product will be of at least the same quality as the sampleyou’ve approved.It’s also important that the merchandising company makes sure that whatit manufactures complies with all local laws. Toys and other children’sproducts in particular have very stringent safety standards. You may want toinsist that the manufacturer takes out product liability insurance. Be carefulalso if the company sub-contracts any of the processes. The sub-contractormust also stick to rigid quality controls and ensure product safety, carryinginsurance against any damage caused by the product.If the design is one created for you, either by the merchandisingcompany or a third party, make sure they assign the rights in that design toyou. If you don’t, you may find that the designer comes knocking on yourdoor for more money. You may want to use the same design as the artworkfor the album sleeve. As we saw in Chapter 6 you should have made sureunder your record deal that you can acquire the merchandising rights in thatartwork.Methods of distributionThe rights you grant can not only be limited to certain types of products, butalso to certain methods of distribution.You might grant mail-order rights only or limit the rights to sellingmerchandise to retail shops or at your gigs. There are specialist companieswho are good at doing tour merchandising but aren’t as good at selling goodsto retail shops, and vice versa. There are also specialist e-tailers who areexpert at selling online. It is important that you find the right company forthe right method of distribution.Depending on the means of distribution the basis on which you’re paidmay also change varying from a straight royalty to a flat fee or a percentageof the net receipts. If in doubt, ask for a breakdown of how the end figure isarrived at. Ask for details of who is taking what cut off the top before yousee your share. If it seems high or wrong challenge it or ask for furtherexplanations. This is a developing area and at the moment there is noabsolute right or wrong way to account – it’s a business decision and can bechallenged or negotiated.Advances and Guaranteed Minimum paymentsYou may get an advance against what you’re going to earn from sales of thegoods. This advance is recoupable from those earnings but, as we’ve alreadyseen with other types of music business deals, the advance isn’t usuallyreturnable if you don’t sell enough to recoup the advance. One exception isif you’re doing a merchandising deal for a live tour and you don’t do someor all of the concerts. Then you can expect to be asked to repay some or allof the advance. Some tour agreements also say that advances are repayablein whole or in part if ticket sales at the concerts don’t reach a particularlevel. For example, you may get a fixed sum, sometimes called theGuaranteed Minimum, that isn’t repayable unless you cancel the whole tour.Then there are other payments that are made which are dependent either onyou doing a particular number of big, stadium-type concerts or on youselling a minimum number of tickets over the whole concert tour. If youdon’t do those gigs or don’t sell enough tickets then you don’t get thosefurther payments.There’s also another catch with tour merchandise agreements, which isthe one that I touched on above. The contract may say that the termcontinues until you’ve earned enough from sales of the tour merchandise torecoup either the whole advance or the Guaranteed Minimum. If you aren’tcertain that you’ll be able to do this within a reasonable time, then you’llwant to have the option to get out of this by paying back the unrecoupedamount. If you don’t have this option and your tour isn’t a big success thenyou could be stuck with the same tour merchandising company for the nexttour, without the prospect of any more advances. If you can get out of it, youcan try to find someone else to do a deal for the tour merchandise for thenext year’s tour, and may even get them to pay you another advance.The advances could be payable in full when you sign the deal, or in anumber of instalments linked to concert appearances or sales of productwith, say, 25–33% of the total being payable on signature.Royalties and licence feesYou’ll usually receive a percentage of the sale price of the goods as aroyalty, which will go first to recoup any advances you’ve already had. Thispercentage will either be calculated on the gross income or, more usually, onthe net income after certain expenses are deducted. Deductions can includeVAT or similar sale taxes, the cost of manufacture and printing of the goods,and all or some costs of their distribution and sale. With online sales theremay also be a charge for things like secure credit card systems.When you’re doing a tour merchandising deal, commissions or fees areoften payable to the owners of the concert venues for the right to sellmerchandise on their premises. It’s usual for the merchandise company t odeduct this payment from the gross income. Some companies will also try todeduct other expenses, including travel and accommodation costs for theirsalesmen and other unspecified expenses. I’m not convinced that theseshould be deducted and it’s a good rule with all these deductions to look atthem very carefully, and to ask for a justification for the deduction ifnecessary.Obviously, if you’re being paid a percentage of the gross income it willbe a much smaller percentage than if it were a percentage of the net. A fee of20–30% of gross would be equal to about 60–70% of the net income,depending on what is deducted from the gross. For example, if you had agross income from sales of T-shirts featuring your name of £10 per T-shirt, a20% royalty would be £2.00. If you had a net income of £2.00, then a 60%royalty based on the net income would be £1.20.AccountingAccounts are usually delivered for retail or mail-order deals every three orsix months. Obviously, from your point of view you’ll want to be accountedto as quickly and as often as possible. You should have the right to go in andinspect the books of account regularly – at least once a year. You should alsobe able to go in and do a stock check from time to time.Merchandising deals for tours are different. There is usually a touraccountant who will check the stock and the sales sheet on a daily basis. Hewill expect to be paid within a very short period of time, preferably within24 hours of each gig or, at the very latest, within seven days.Trade mark and copyright noticesIf you have a trade mark registered, the contract should confirm that theywill include a trade mark notice on each product and a copyright notice foreach design.Termination rightsAs with all contracts, the merchandising contract should say in whatcircumstances the deal can be brought to an end. These should include apersistent failure of quality standards, failure to put the product into themarketplace by the agreed date, and other material breaches of contract, forexample, if they don’t account to you when they should. If the company goesbust or just stops acting as a merchandise company, you should also have theright to end the deal.EnforcementThis could be the subject of a chapter in its own right. The contract shouldsay who’s responsible for tracking infringements of your rights. There’susually a requirement that the merchandising company reports to you anyinfringements of your trade mark or copyright that they come across on eachproduct. It’s as much in their interest as yours to keep pirate activities to aminimum.There are civil and criminal remedies to stopping infringements. Youcan also enlist the help of Trading Standards Authorities and HM Revenueand Customs. Often, these authorities are prepared to seize unauthorisedproducts bearing a name that is a registered trade mark. Even without aregistered trade mark, Trading Standards Authorities are sometimesprepared to rely on the Trade Descriptions Act in order to make seizures andbring prosecutions. In my own experience, the Trading Standards Authoritiesare an invaluable help in clearing the streets of counterfeit products. It’spossible to provide HM Revenue & Customs with trade mark registrationdetails to assist them in identifying and seizing unauthorised productsentering the country at ports and airports.New modelsMerchandising (and indeed sponsorship income as covered by the nextchapter) now often forms part of the new deals being offered by recordlabels: the so-called 360 models. These have been dealt with fully in thechapter on recording deals above, but just to recap, a record company orproduction company may only offer you a deal if they can get access toadditional sources of income. These might be shares of publishing, shares ofconcert ticket revenue or often shares of merchandising or sponsorshipincome. For a new artist sponsorship income is likely to be quite small butmerchandising income may be significant if the artist has a growing loyalfan base and plans to tour regularly. The record company may only want tobe paid a share of the income from these other sources of money. If they dothen the percentage they want will vary from somewhere around 10% to asmuch as 50% – this is all negotiable. The percentage could be of the grossincome but this would be dangerous for an artist if after deducting the recordcompany’s share and the cost of making and distributing the merchandisethere is little or no profit left. Much better would be to base the percentageon the net receipts or profit after these expenses have been repaid. Somecompanies are insisting that this income is shared for the life of the deal butyou may want to try limiting it just until the advances have been recouped orto say the end of the first contract period. In some cases the record companywill actually want to take the merchandising rights exclusively and exploitthem themselves. This is to be avoided unless there is a significant financialincentive to do this. The record company then controls all the income fromthis source and the artist will not receive any money until all his advances –including the record advances – have been recouped. Issues like creativecontrols also have to be dealt with. In some cases these other income sourcescontinue on after the end of the term of the record deal as a reducingpercentage over a period of time. Again these deals can work if the financialupside is there, but take care that you do not tie yourself for too long and fortoo high a percentage or you will come to really resent this years down theline.CONCLUSIONSMerchandising is the use of your name and reputation to sell goods.Not everyone will want to do lots of merchandise deals and noteveryone will be in a position to. You have to build up a name andreputation.Consider registering a trade mark in your name and logo.If you haven’t got a registered trade mark but you do have a reputation,you may be able to stop people trading on your name through the lawsagainst passing off.Make sure you own the copyright in any designs you commission.Make sure you have the right to use the design featured in your albumartwork.Think about limiting the territory and the rights you grant.1 Elvis Presley Trade Marks [1997] RPC 543.2 Bravado Merchandising Services Ltd v. Mainstream Publishing(Edinburgh) Ltd [1996] F.S.R. 205.3 Some details of the process involved are outlined on the governmentwebsite www.webdb4.patent.gov.uk.4 In the UK there are 42 classes for goods and services. Some common onesused in the music business are Class 9 for records, Class 16 for printedmaterial such as programmes and posters and Class 25 for clothing.5 Lyngstad v. Annabas Productions Limited [1977] FSR 62 Chapter 9Sponsorship INTRODUCTIONWE SAW IN the previous chapter how an artist protects his name by registeringtrade marks or through taking advantage of the laws of passing off and ofcopyright. Having protected the name, your brand, you can choose how far toexploit that brand. You can decide to only use it to sell your records andvideos and to promote your live performances. Many artists choose to dojust that and don’t really go outside their core area of activity at all. This isfine. No one is saying that you have to, but you may need to look at somekind of merchandising deal to bolster your income from live work. Manytours would make a loss if they weren’t underwritten by merchandising dealsand often by sponsorship.Sponsorship is a kind of extension to a merchandising deal. The sponsoruses the association between you and their product to increase awareness ofthe product and to encourage more people to buy it. The sponsor providessponsorship money in return for the right to trade on your importance to aparticular sector of the market. For example, a sponsor of a soft drink mightlook for a sponsorship deal with a pop artist who would appeal to teenagers.An alcoholic drinks manufacturer, on the other hand, would want to sponsoran artist that had an appeal to over-eighteens and, in particular, those in theirearly twenties.Pepsi has been a keen sponsor of artists in recent years. The Spice Girlsreleased a track as a Pepsi single and featured that track in a Pepsi ad ontelevision. Robbie Williams has done sponsorship deals with Lloyds Bank,for his Royal Albert Hall concert, and several deals with Smart cars,including the premiere of his film, where a fleet of Smart cars was availableto ferry celebrities to the premiere. The Corrs have also been associated withLloyds Bank in television ads and more recently Destiny’s Child withMcDonald’s. McDonald’s also launched Big Mac Meal Tracks where thecustomer who purchases a Big Mac gets an access code worth one freedownload at the Connect music store. There is also the whole area where acompany features a previously unreleased track which is then released as asingle. Car companies are favourites for this, with Ministry of Soundreleasing the track ‘Jacques Your Body’ which featured in the animatedrobotic Peugeot car advert. Gut Records released the Diet Coke soundtrackas a single in 2007 and Positiva is releasing a vocal version of the LloydsBank ad featuring Sarah Cracknell in early 2008. Pepsi Max has featuredmusic written exclusively by The Black Eyed Peas.Sponsorship deals are often done for concert tours. You’ll often see thename of a sponsor on the ticket. For example, ‘Band X sponsored byCarling’. When you arrive at the gig, you’ll find that there are banners andposters from the sponsors. There may be more than one sponsor. You couldhave a main sponsor (the title sponsor) for the tour, another for theprogramme and the tickets, another for the soft drinks on sale at the venueand yet another for the alcoholic drinks. Venues often restrict the extent towhich they will allow outside sponsors to plaster their brands all over thevenue (see Chapter 10). Interestingly, at a time when the live scene seems tobe so vibrant, Carling has recently confirmed the ending of its nine-yearsponsorship of the Reading and Leeds Rock Festivals as the ‘CarlingWeekend’. Carling will also no longer be the official lager at the festivals.The managing director of the company with rights to the two festivals,Festival Republic, said that this was by mutual agreement with both partiesfeeling it was time to pursue new opportunities. So we may see a newsponsor on board or the southern half of the event may well revert to itsoriginal name of the Reading Festival.Clothing companies often loan clothes for photo-shoots or liveappearances in return for a suitably prominent name-check. If you’re lucky,you sometimes get to keep the clothes. Diesel and other similar ‘youth’brands have looked at sponsorship in the past, and up-and-coming newdesigners or those trying to break in to the UK market may be keen to do adeal. These kinds of deal are closer to what I would call endorsements thanpure sponsorship. You let it be known that you support or endorse aparticular product. For example, you might mention in an interview that youdo all your shopping at a particular shop in fashionable Notting Hill.Suddenly all the wannabes are queuing at the door of that shop, partly in theoff-chance that you’ll be in there, but also to try to copy your look. Retailersor designers may pay in goods or hard cash for these kinds of endorsements.HOW DO YOU FIND A SPONSOR?There are a number of ways to get a sponsor. It’s possible for a band toapproach a designer or company to ask for sponsorship. The shoe companywho makes Doc Marten boots has, on at least one occasion that I know of,sponsored an artist following a direct approach from the manager.Companies want to promote themselves as supporting and encouragingyouth culture of which, of course, music plays a huge part. Suchsponsorships by clothing companies are not common.SPONSORSHIP AGENTSApart from the direct approach, another means of getting a sponsorship dealis to approach a specialist agent who both represents one or two bigcompanies looking for suitable projects to sponsor, or who will act for youand go to potential sponsors on your behalf. There are lists of these agenciesin the Music Week Directory and magazines like Audience. There is also thetried and trusted word-of-mouth recommendation from friends or othercontacts in the business. If you’re sufficiently successful to have a brand thata sponsor might be interested in, they or their agents are likely to approachyou or your manager direct. As with all these things, don’t feel you have tograb the first thing that comes along. If you’re desperate for some funding tounderwrite a shortfall on a tour then by all means do a deal, but keep it shortand see how things work out before you get in too deep.WHAT DO THEY CHARGE?If you employ an agent to find a sponsorship deal for you then they willusually take a percentage of the deal they do for you. This percentage canvary between 5% and 15% of the gross sponsorship income. For example, ifthe agent brokers a deal for a drinks company to sponsor your next UK tourand the drinks company is prepared to offer £100,000 for the privilege, theagent would take between £5,000 and £15,000 of that as their fee. If thesponsorship is made up partly or wholly of goods rather than cash, the agentwill expect to get their percentage in the cash equivalent of the value ofthose goods. So if the drinks company were to offer £80,000 in cash and£20,000 worth of free lager to give away to your fans, then your agent on acommission of 15% would still want their £15,000 in cash.The money is usually paid to the agent at the same time as you’re paid. Ifyou’re paid in two instalments, half at the beginning of the deal and the restwhen you finish the tour, then your agent would get 50% of their fee upfrontand 50% when you get the balance of the money.The agent may want to be exclusively employed as your agent for aperiod of time. This is usually for a year but could be longer. During thattime you wouldn’t be able to use any other sponsorship agents, so you haveto make sure that they are good enough first. The advantage you get from anexclusive arrangement is the incentive that the agent has to bring deals toyou as opposed to anyone else. The disadvantage is that you can’t go toanyone else if they don’t get you particularly good deals. If you can get anagent on a non-exclusive basis, that will give you more flexibility.If the agent gets you a deal for some tour sponsorship and that sponsorcomes back to you to sponsor your next tour, then some agents insist thatthey should also get commission on that repeat work, even if they are nolonger your exclusive agent by the time of the second tour. The logic is thatthey made the initial introduction and so should benefit from any follow-up.I can see this logic, but obviously other factors also play a part in yougetting the follow-up offer for the next tour, such as the professional wayyou dealt with the first deal, the benefits that the sponsor saw that camefrom your efforts and your increased fame in the meantime. So while itmight be acceptable to agree to pay the agent for a short while after the endof your relationship with them, I would try and draw the line at, say, six totwelve months. This is all subject to negotiation when you take them on.The agent could be your only agent worldwide and be solely responsiblefor getting you sponsorship deals around the world. As many sponsors aremultinational companies, this may not be such a bad thing, but if you thinkyour agent doesn’t have the necessary overseas connections you might justagree that they can act for you in the UK and decide to use other agentsoverseas.If the agent is representing a company that comes to you with an offer ofsponsorship, you wouldn’t expect to have to pay him a fee for brokering thedeal. In those circumstances he should be paid by the company concerned. Ifhe also looks to you for payment you would be right to resist unless therewere good reasons.ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONSNo, don’t worry, I’m not going to go all serious on you and talk about yourmoral values – well actually, I suppose I am a bit. What I want you to thinkabout is whether you’ll accept sponsorship from any company that offers itand the more the merrier, or are you going to select who sponsors you onmoral or ethical grounds?When you decide on your game plan to look for sponsorship deals, youhave to think about what effect that will have on your brand and yourreputation. There is a narrow line to be drawn between using sponsorship byselected companies to enhance the brand and of being accused by fans of‘selling out’. The products you choose to be associated with mustcomplement the image you’ve established for yourself. For example, ifyou’re aiming at the teenage market you may alienate them (or perhaps theparents who supply the pocket-money) by being associated with alcohol ortobacco. On the other hand, if you cultivate a bad-boy image you won’t wantto be associated with cuddly toys. The exception to this would be if yourplan is to reposition yourself in the marketplace. For example, if you wantedto move out of the teen or pre-teen market, you might choose sponsors ofadult products to show you’re growing up. You should also consider themoral sensibilities of your fans. You could alienate a large proportion ofthem if you had manufacturers of GM foods or a fur company as yoursponsor. There was a mixed reaction to the news that U2 were sponsoring aspecial customised black iPod. Some thought it was an astute ‘cool’ movewhilst others thought it odd that a band which was so averse to sponsorshipdeals was doing one at this stage of their career.Don’t forget that the companies that you’re being sponsored by will alsoexpect things from you. They won’t want you to do anything that will bringtheir brand into disrepute or show them up in a bad way. Bear this in mindwhen negotiating your sponsorship deal. You need to be careful that youkeep an even balance between your and their expectations. If you feel at alluncomfortable about what you’re being asked to do then that should giveyou a signal either to try and change it a little or to pull out of the deal.Your public is a very fickle thing. It’s very difficult to know whetherthey will accept what you’re doing as par for the course and what theyexpect from you. If your fans think you’re selling out then you and yourpress people are going to have quite a bit to do to redress the balance.The other issues you need to think about are whether you want to beassociated with companies that are involved either directly or indirectly inactivities or causes that you disagree with. For example, if you’re acommitted vegetarian you may not want to be involved with a company thathas a subsidiary that is in the business of raising battery hens. If you have astrong aversion to anything to do with cruelty to animals or animal testing,you won’t want to do a sponsorship deal with a company that had a Frenchsister company that ran laboratories that used animals to test their products.If these things matter to you then you need to have an ethical check made onthe company to make sure that they aren’t in any way involved with thingsthat would be unacceptable to you. Remember that, although they are usingtheir association with you to benefit their business, you’re being associatedwith them too, and with the sort of things that they stand for.SCOPE OF THE SPONSORSHIP DEALThe sponsorship deal could be for a particular tour or for a series of tours.For example, it could be just for the UK or European leg of your tour orcould be for the whole world tour. It could also just be for a particularproject. A company could sponsor you for a particular event, for example, aone-off concert, or they could expect some personal endorsements of theirproduct. They may want you to do personal appearances or to give privateperformances at their company sales conferences to rally the troops. Theymay want you to write and record a song especially for them that they maywant to release as a promotion or as a proper commercial release. I’m sureyou’ll have seen special offers where you get a single or album by yourfavourite artist if you collect a given number of ring-pulls, packet tops orspecial coupons. If you have an exclusive record deal, you can’t do thesedeals unless you first get the record company’s agreement to waive theirexclusivity. They may agree to this if they think that the publicity will helpsell lots more records, or if the sponsoring company has access to markets inparts of the world that your record company can’t break into withoutspending a lot of money. For example, some of the soft drinks companieshave a huge market in parts of South East Asia or in South America. Bybeing associated with them in those countries, you’re getting a huge amountof exposure that should help to sell lots of your records. This exposure couldbe much more valuable than any amount of marketing money that yourrecord company may be prepared to put into launching you in those areas.Obviously, it makes sense in these cases for there to be a considerabledegree of co-operation between what your record company is planning, whatyou’re doing in terms of live appearances and what the sponsor intends todo. If you can dovetail these plans then your chances of world-dominationcome a lot closer.Whether it’s a tour sponsorship or an individual event sponsorship, it’s areasonable rule of thumb that the more a sponsor expects from you the moreyou can expect to be paid.EXCLUSIVITYYou could only have one sponsor at any given time or you could have aseries of sponsors for different products. If you’re only going to have onesponsor then, in return for that exclusivity, you should get a lot more money.If you’re going to look for a number of different sponsors for differentproducts then take care that you don’t narrow down your options too much.If you’re going to have a drinks sponsor, then limit the extent of theirsponsorship to alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, depending on what you’relooking for from another sponsor. For example, if Pepsi or Coca-Cola waslooking to sponsor you, you might limit their sponsorship to soft drinks. Youcouldn’t have another soft drinks sponsor, but you could have a sponsor foralcoholic drinks. If you have a food sponsor, try and limit it to theirparticular product, for example biscuits or crisps or whatever. This wouldleave you with lots more food products to find sponsors for. Be careful whatyou agree to do in return for the sponsorship money or you could findyourself in trouble.The Spice Girls v. AprilaAn example of this is a case brought by The Spice Girls against anItalian scooter company.1 The Spice Girls were suing the company forpayment of the balance of the monies they said they were due under asponsorship deal that they’d done with the scooter manufacturer. Thescooter manufacturer had produced a series of scooters, each in thecolours that were associated with each member of The Spice Girls. Forexample, they’d produced a bright orange version as the Geri SpiceScooter, Geri Halliwell being otherwise known as Ginger Spice. GeriHalliwell had, however, left the group shortly after the deal was done.The scooter company refused to pay and counter-claimed that The SpiceGirls had misled them, because at the time they did the deal they knewthat Geri Halliwell intended to leave the group. In February 2000 thecourt decided against The Spice Girls and found that they had misled thescooter company, who didn’t have to pay them the balance of theirsponsorship money. Furthermore, The Spice Girls were ordered to paydamages to the scooter company for the losses they’d suffered.WHAT’S IN A TYPICAL SPONSORSHIP DEAL?The ServicesThe first thing you have to establish is what they want you to do or whatevent they expect to be sponsoring. Remember to keep the scope of theirsponsorship as narrow as you can, without them reducing the money onoffer, to allow you the possibility of getting other sponsors.If the sponsor expects you to do a series of things, for example, writing anew song, doing a live concert tour, making a television ad or a TV special,then make sure that you aren’t over-committing yourself. By taking toomuch on you may not be able to do it all properly and professionally. If youagree to do too much, you’ll end up either not doing it or doing it badly. Thiswill reflect back on you and could do you more harm than good. If you failto deliver the goods the sponsor could decide to sue you.ExclusivityOnce you’ve agreed what they are going to sponsor and what the product isthat will be associated with you, you have to decide if you’re going to haveone exclusive sponsor or whether you are going to give them exclusiverights for a particular product or type of product, and still have the option totake on other sponsors for other products.TerritoryNext you have to decide whether the deal is a worldwide one or if it’s to belimited to particular countries. You could do a deal for just the US or the FarEast, depending on the type of sponsorship. For example, one company thatis ‘big’ in that area of the world but not so well known in other parts of theworld could sponsor the Far Eastern section of your tour. You could thenswitch to another sponsor for the US or European leg.Creative controlIf the sponsor intends to feature your name and likeness in any way in thecampaign, whether on packaging, adverts or otherwise, you’ll want to haveprior approval of those uses. You may want to insist on or ask for a specialphoto-shoot with a photographer of your choosing. You could then submit tothem a number of examples of photos that you like and agree that they canhave final choice.If you’re writing a special song then you ought to have some say in whatit sounds like, even if the sponsor does give you a brief to work to. If you arerecording a song for them that has been specifically commissioned, you’llwant to know whether any particular lyric or theme is to be featured andwhether you’re comfortable with that. If you’re being asked to record a newor special version of an existing song, or to allow a particular track to beused in the campaign, you’ll need to know whether they intend to change thelyrics or music. If they do, you’ll probably want some control over that andto have final approval. Bear in mind, also, that that approval should extendto any co-writers or composers of the original work, and that your publishersand record company may have to give their permission to you making therecording of the new version. You may also want to check the context inwhich the song is being used in case you find that offensive.TermYou have to agree how long the deal is to last. If it’s for a specific event or atour then the sponsorship deal will run from the lead-up to the event, whichcould be weeks or days before the tour and end shortly after the event or tourhas been completed. The sponsor may occasionally have the right to use upprinted materials or products they have already manufactured, but thiswouldn’t normally be for more than three to six months and they shouldn’tmanufacture more of the product in anticipation that the deal is about tocome to an end. Obviously, during the time that they’re allowed to sell offthe product, any exclusivity they have ends so that you can go off and lookfor a new sponsor. If it’s a general sponsorship deal for a particular productthen you might agree that it runs for a year, perhaps with an option to extendit by mutual agreement. You would normally only agree to an extension ifyou got paid a further sum of money. You’ll want to make sure that anyremaining stocks are sold off as soon as possible at the end of the deal, as itcould interfere with either the sponsorship deal for the next part of the touror a new sponsorship deal for the same type of product.You should also bear in mind that the longer your name becomesassociated with one company for a particular product, the more difficult itwill be to get a deal with another company. For example, if the public hascome to associate your name with Pepsi for soft drinks, Coca-Cola is lesslikely to want to sponsor you. Some of you might be saying, ‘I wish I hadthis problem,’ at this point.Banner advertising at venuesIf the sponsorship is for a tour or part of a tour, the sponsors will usuallywant to have their name on banners in each concert arena. They may agreethat these only go up in the foyer or they may want them in the concert hallitself. Most artists insist on no banners over the stage and, if the sponsor’sname is being projected on to the stage backdrop, that this stops severalminutes before they go on stage. Whether you want to insist on these kindsof restriction will depend on your own views as to how closely you want tobe associated with the sponsor, as well as your bargaining power. I don’tthink it’s unreasonable, though, to ask that the banners aren’t so intrusivethat they detract from your own performance.If your sponsorship deal involves publicity for the sponsor at the concertvenue, you have to be careful that you don’t run up against any restrictionswithin the venue itself. The venue owner may already have given the drinksconcession to another company. For example, Coca-Cola may already havethe right to have their soft drinks on sale at the venue to the exclusion of allother competing brands. If that is the case, the venue won’t take it too well ifyour sponsor, Pepsi, then drapes their banners and logos about the place.That doesn’t mean that you definitely won’t be able to do the sponsorshipdeal, just that you’ll have to be aware of any restrictions and make sure youdon’t agree to do anything in the contract that you can’t put into effect onthe ground. Any sponsor will want to have the opportunity to put a stand inthe foyer. You shouldn’t guarantee that they can do this, as there may bevenue or local authority restrictions. Any permissions required and feespayable should be the sponsor’s responsibility.Meet and greetsWhatever the type of sponsorship deal you do, it’s likely that the sponsorwill require you to be involved in some kind of ‘meet and greet’ sessions.These are where the sponsors, their key customers and possibly competitionwinners get to meet you. This may be before or after a concert or at speciallyorganised events. Bear in mind that a live performance can be very draining.You may not want to meet a lot of people beforehand, and afterwards youmay need time to come down from the adrenaline rush of performing. Don’tovercommit yourself. I know of some bands that share the meet and greetsessions out between them. It’s the job of your manager to make sure thatyour sponsors don’t get overeager and expect or even demand too much ofyou.Freebies and promotional activitiesBy this I mean things that the sponsor will expect to get for nothing as partof the sponsorship fee. They will usually want a guaranteed number of freetickets to your concerts. They will always want more than you’ll want togive. There will need to be a compromise. You may offer more tickets atbigger venues and less or none at all at smaller ones.The sponsor may want you to attend press conferences for productlaunches or to make personal appearances. These should always be subject toyour availability and to the other professional commitments that you have. Ifyou’re on a concert tour in Europe, you don’t want to find yourselfcommitted to having to return to London for a press conference. You shouldalso try and limit these appearances to a maximum number of days over theterm of the deal.Take care before you guarantee that you’ll do a concert tour in aparticular region. You may not be able to deliver this or, if you do, you maylose a lot of money. However, the sponsor may agree to underwrite all orpart of such a tour if it’s important to them that you perform in those partsof the world.If the sponsor wants to feature you in adverts, they need to specify howmany, whether TV or radio, and the extent to which you have to be involved.You should have rights of approval. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to limitthe number of times they can repeat the adverts unless you’ve considerablebargaining power. If you do then you should aim to allow them a reasonableamount of repeats without it getting to the stage that every time you turn onthe television there you are. There’s nothing more off-putting than that. Thesponsor shouldn’t want that either, but sometimes they need to have thebrakes applied for them.Trade mark licences and goodwillI discussed in the last chapter the advantages of registering a trade mark. Ifyou have a trade mark either pending or registered in your name, or a logo,then in your sponsorship deal you’ll be expected to grant a licence to yoursponsor to use that trade mark. You should limit the licence to the usescovered by the sponsorship deal and the licence should end when thesponsorship deal does.PaymentI bet you were wondering when I was going to get to this. What are yougoing to get paid for all of this work? The amounts can vary widelydepending on what you’re expected to do, the size of the company, yourfame and the length of the deal and how exclusive it is. Each will have to benegotiated on a case-by-case basis. The sponsor or the agent will usuallycome to you with a figure for what the sponsor thinks it’s worth and, afterdue consideration, you may want to accept that or try to push it higher.Figures of a million pounds plus for sponsorship of big name artists are notunusual.The sponsorship contract won’t only spell out how much you’ll get paid– it will also say when you will get the money. The sponsorship fee could bemoney alone, or cash and goods, or occasionally just goods (although in thatcase it’s more of an endorsement deal). It’s not usually recoupable orreturnable. There are exceptions, though. If you break your side of thebargain, for example by not doing the tour, or if it’s a case ofmisrepresentation as in The Spice Girls scooter case above, then the contractmay say that you are required to repay some or all of the money. Or you mayget sued for its return. You may also be required to return some of themoney or to pay compensation if you bring the sponsor’s brand intodisrepute.When you’ll be paid will also usually be some kind of compromise. Thesponsor will want to hold back as much of the fee as they can until they’resure you’re delivering your side of the bargain. On the other hand, you’ll beactively promoting the sponsor’s product and you’ll want to be getting some,if not all, of the sponsorship fee in the bank. At the very least you’ll want tobe paid as soon as specific things have been achieved, for example some ofthe money should be paid when you sign the deal, some when you start theconcert tour and the balance at the end of the tour.You should also be clear what is included in the fee. If you’re doing arecording of a song, remember that there will be mechanical royalties to bepaid to your publisher and any co-writer (see Chapter 4). If you have anexclusive recording deal, your record company may want payment in returnfor releasing you from that exclusivity. If an advert is going to be puttogether with visual images for television, for example, a synchronisationfee will be payable to your publisher and to the publisher of any co-writer.These can be significant amounts of money. Who’s going to be responsiblefor these fees? Are they included in the sponsorship fee so that you have tosort it out with the publishers? Or is it the sponsor’s responsibility? Theanswer can make a considerable difference to what you end up with inpayment.You should have the right to end the deal if the sponsor breaches thepayment terms or otherwise doesn’t fulfil their side of the bargain.CONCLUSIONSDecide on the types of product you want to be associated with.Either target those companies that produce those products yourself, orthrough an agent, or decide that you’ll wait until they come to you.Decide if you’re looking for one exclusive sponsor or a series of dealsfor particular products.Decide if you want to do a worldwide or limited-country deal.Make sure that the services you have to provide are manageable andthat you have any necessary permissions from your record andpublishing companies.When setting the level of the fees, agree what is to be included.Try to get as much of the fee paid up-front as possible.1 The Spice Girls Limited v. Aprila World Service BV Chancery Division24/2/2000. Chapter 10Touring INTRODUCTIONTHE LAST FIVE years have seen a change in the fortunes of the record andpublishing business as opposed to that of the promoters and concert venues.Mintel estimates that the live music market will be worth £836 million by2009. Whether it is because people can get recorded music so easily andcheaply that they devalue it or whether it’s because we are rediscovering thatwe are social animals at heart and being stuck in front of a computer forhours is really rather sad. Whatever the cause we are spending large sums ofmoney on going to see artists perform live. Look at the record-breaking 21night run that Prince had at the O2 in 2007 and at the enormous amounts ofmoney people will pay for tickets to big name artists. This is all at a timewhen the record companies are struggling with issues of piracy, illegal freedownloads and challenges at the very heart of their business models. So it isprobably not surprising that some of the more innovative deals emerging inthe last few years have centred on the live sector which is one of the fewpresently making money. Hence the growth in the ubiquitous 360 modelswhere the record company takes a share of the artist’s live earnings. Themost talked about deal of 2007 however was that between Madonna and LiveNation.MADONNA AND LIVE NATIONMadonna has always been brilliant at reinventing herself. She has alsoalways been a very canny business woman. The two traits are combined inthis deal.It seems she had one more album to record under her deal with Warners.They also probably have the right to bring out at least one ‘Greatest Hits’ or‘Best of’ album but after the next studio album, which Madonna is currentlyfinishing recording, she will be free of that contract.She was apparently in discussions with Warners about a new deal orextension of her existing deal but then in a move which surprised theindustry it was announced that her new deal would not be with a traditionalrecord company at all but with her live touring promoters Live Nation. Whatis more it was to be a 360 model deal.As details began to emerge, Warners put out a statement wishing herwell and confirming plans to release the new studio album (the last undertheir deal) in spring 2008. This ends a twenty-year relationship between thelabel and the artist. Speculation was rife over whether there had been afalling out or some other upset. But it may be that Warners did not want topay the kind of sums that Madonna was looking for. Perhaps also theycouldn’t offer the full advantages of the 360 model for the artist.Live Nation is the biggest concert promotion company in the world but itlost $161 million in 2005 and 2006 and made a small $10 million profitfrom revenues in excess of $1 billion in the first quarter of 2007. So why dothis deal? Well, they received considerable publicity for the deal and mayhope that this will attract other stadium size artists to look to them for theirnew deals. They get a chance to earn more from Madonna’s touring,endorsement/sponsorship deals and merchandise over the next ten years andthe recording income from up to three studio albums. Madonna’s live toursattract huge audiences so for her it seems a clever move to receive a reputed£120 million in return for giving these rights to Live Nation. It is however abit of a gamble because Madonna is now 49 (admittedly a supremely fit 49)and may not want to be still touring at the same pace for the next 10 years.Will her ‘brand’ remain important enough to command large endorsementsand sponsorship deals and if she tours less will the merchandise sales bethere?The Wall Street Journal reported on 11 October 2007 that she will bepaid $17.5million as a sign on advance, between $50 million and $60 millionfor the next three albums plus a $50 million payment in cash and shares forthe concert promotion rights. When she does tour she will still reportedlyreceive 90% of the gross touring revenues. Not a bad day’s work.But do bear in mind that the full financial package is nearly alwayslinked to delivery of product and achievement of certain targets. If those arenot met then the deal could well be a lot less attractive financially.MAMA GROUPAnother company, amongst many, which is aiming to capitalise on thecurrent success of the live music scene is UK AIM listed company, MamaGroup. Through a thorough analysis of the live industry – observed at thevarious, mostly small, Barfly venues managed by the group – the founders,Adam Driscoll and Dean James, set about seeing how they could get a pieceof not just the profit from promoting concerts but also the ancillary incomelike the T-shirts and other merchandising, management and development ofupcoming artists. They now manage eighteen UK live venues, includingrecent acquisition Hammersmith Apollo in West London. Their associatedmanagement company Supervision signs up talented acts, including someperforming at the Mama Group-managed starter Barfly venues, tomanagement deals. They control big money-spinning brands like G-A-Y andown a collection of media and marketing agencies targeting the studentmarket called Campus Group. They are presently working on digitalordering and delivery of the live concert ticket alongside the music track andthe T-shirt. The all-round one-stop shop.Of course, all of this activity rests on the continuing success of the livesector. This has always been cyclical in nature – just like most areas of theeconomy – and there are some commentators that say it may have peakedwith the Madonna deal. As we don’t have a crystal ball we will just have towait and see but ride the opportunities whilst they are here.GETTING STARTEDWhen you are starting out you’ll probably get gigs in a very hand-to-mouthway. You or your manager will chase them up, probably starting in yourhome town with local pub dates. If you live in a town with a large studentpopulation, you might get on to the university/college circuit. Local bandsare often very popular for ‘rag’ or summer balls, possibly as support to otherbetter-known acts. Getting to know the local social secretary at theuniversity/college can help but remember, all local bands with a bit ofambition will be doing the same thing.If you can get the local press and radio behind you this can open up morelocal gigs. Don’t forget college radio. If you make a fan of the stationmanager or a particular DJ, they’ll plug not only your local dates but alsothose further afield. Take copies of your demo to the station and use yourbest selling skills to convince them they could be in at the start of a futureColdplay, Killers, KT Tunstall or whoever.Once you have a local following you can look to venture outside the areato bigger and (hopefully) better-paid gigs. A word of warning – don’t eventhink of inviting A&R people to your gigs unless you’re well rehearsed and‘tight’ in your playing and command an enthusiastic local following. I’vebeen to many gigs where the band makes the fatal error of treating it as justanother session in front of their mates. They act far too casually and areunder-rehearsed. If the local record company scout happens to be at that gighe could be put off you for life, or it could set back your campaign for arecord deal by several months while the damage is repaired. The samedisastrous situation could happen if there’s a reporter for the localnewspaper at the gig who gives you a bad write-up. Don’t get me wrong. Iknow that every act has its off day when, for whatever reason, it just doesn’tcome off. Scouts and newspaper reviewers will take an off day into account.What they won’t forgive is if you aren’t acting in a professional way. Youshould treat every gig as a professional job and the potential one when you’llbe discovered. Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse are the exceptions thatprove the rule.Try to find out who the local scouts are for the major record companies.It may be someone at the local college or radio station. Local bands thathave been around for longer may be able to tell you, otherwise ask thereporter on music events at the local newspaper. It may even be them.Whoever the scout is, they may be looking to move into the businessthemselves using the discovery of a great local band as a stepping-stone.Some managers now also act as a kind of A&R outpost so don’t ignore localmanagers either.Doing all this is very hard work and mostly unrewarding. Some bandsget to play in venues in larger towns by doing a deal with the venue owner orpromoter where, in return for booking the band, they guarantee there will bea minimum number of tickets sold. If you don’t sell enough tickets you haveto make up the shortfall. It pays to drum up ‘rent-a-crowd’ from among yourlocal fans, friends and family. I know of bands that sell package tours – theyhire a coach and sell tickets to the gig and a coach to get you there and back.This proves especially popular where the band manages to get a gig in alarger town or city. Then the trip to the gig is combined with the chance of aday out in the city at a reasonable price.As I mentioned in Chapter 1, you might also consider entering one of themany competitions run around the country. These might be billed as ‘Battleof the Bands’ Vodafone Live. Look out for adverts in the local press or themusic papers like NME or Kerrang!. These contests are often viewed asslightly cheesy, not quite a credible way to break into the business. If it getsyou noticed, what’s the problem? If nothing happens, then you don’t have tomention you were ever involved in it.There are also some venues that have special showcase evenings forunsigned artists or writers. The ones I know about are in London, but theremay well be others in a town near you – ask around. Club promoter TonyMoore has an unsigned acts night at a pub called The Bedford in Balhamwhich, although ‘south of the river’, still attracts the A&R crowd. The Barflyin Camden and other Barfly operations around the country have similarevents and are a recognised source of new band talent so are regularlychecked out by the A&R scouts. The PRS occasionally supports events forartists who are either completely unsigned or have only signed a record deal.The American collection society ASCAP also holds unsigned artist eventsfrom time to time. Contact details for these venues and organisations are tobe found in Useful Addresses at the end of the book.You can try and get in on the unsigned acts part of the annual UK musicconference called In the City. It is usually held in September and its regularhome is Manchester. It has for some years been a place for UK musicbusiness people to gather and have a drink or five, as well as the venue for awhole series of music events – mostly for unsigned acts. The unsigned gigsare held in local music venues and pubs and are a magnet for A&R scoutsand record label honchos. This is because in the past this event has been afruitful source of new talent, including Suede, Oasis and Muse. The 2008ones to watch included Elle s’Appelle, The Moths and Sky Larkin. To bepart of the unsigned section you have to submit your demo and a briefbiography to the unsigned organisers, who then have the unenviable task ofwading through a vast pile of material to come up with a shortlist of about30–40 bands over the 4–5 nights of the event. The best bands from each yearusually end up doing a gig in London either immediately after the event or awhile later. In 2007 they did a showcase at the Camden Barfly on 20December which was broadcast live on Xfm, so a great piece of promotionfor the acts involved.Most artists who are already signed see live concerts as an essentialmarketing tool. People that haven’t yet bought one of your records may go toone of your gigs and love what you do so much that the next day they go andbuy up your entire recording output. A good review of a live gig can giveyour latest release very valuable publicity. Also, the current emphasis beingplaced on radio-friendly artists means that if your records aren’t the sort thatRadio 1 or 2 or other powerful radio stations are going to play, you havelittle alternative than to build a fan base through live concerts (see Chapter6). For some non-mainstream genres such as folk, blues or jazz, sales of theartist’s recordings at gigs forms the main part of their sales incomealongside mail order or sales off their websites.GETTING A BOOKING AGENTThe next stage on from you or your manager doing all the legworkyourselves is to get a booking agent. This will probably happen after yousign a record deal (see Chapter 3). It may, however, happen before if you’veestablished a reputation as a good live act and have attracted the attention oflocal agents because they can see you’re a safe bet for venues they regularlybook acts for.Do you need a booking agent? Possibly not. If your horizons are set atonly playing local pub venues and you don’t mind doing the work yourself,you probably won’t need one. It’s someone else that you’re going to have topay commission to, so you want to make sure it’s going to be worthwhilebefore you get one. Also, they aren’t likely to be interested in you unlessyou’ve already established a reputation for live work so you’ll probably haveto be passed the pure beginners stage.What you may find is that certain venues are closed to you, because thevenue owner only books acts brought to him by selected booking agents.Having a booking agent can also give you credibility to get into moreprestigious or bigger venues, and open up the possibility of supportingbigger ‘name’ acts. As the booking agent is on a percentage of what you get,it’s in his interests to drive a hard bargain. If the agent is any good youshould end up with a better deal than if you had negotiated it yourself.You might think that your manager could do the job of a booking agent.Yes, they could and in the early days they probably will, but specialisedbooking agents are the experts in putting together larger events such as a UKor European tour of the medium to large venues and stadiums. They know allthe promoters, they can get the best deals and have a better chance of gettingthe prime dates than you or your manager, who don’t do this on a day-by-daybasis. The agents also know about all the main venues you’re likely to wantto play, and one or two that you’ll not have thought of. If the venue isoutside the main concert circuit, they have the specialised expertise tonegotiate a good deal for you. With everything else that’s going on around atour, you or your manager may not have the time to do this properly. It maypay to find someone who can. 2006/07 saw a consolidation of some of theUK agencies but also the invasion of US-based agents such as WilliamMorris and CAA. This has given agents not only a bit of a shake up but alsoconsolidation has increased their bargaining power, so getting a strong agenton board can greatly increase your chances of getting good gigs at goodmoney.HOW DO YOU FIND A BOOKING AGENT?You can ask your mates in the music business. Which agents do they use,which ones do they rate and which have they found to be trustworthy? Wordof mouth is often a very reliable method of finding a good booking agent. Besure that the booking agent works in the same area of music as you;otherwise he won’t have the contacts in the right places to be of use to you.Booking agents are also listed in directories such as the Music WeekDirectory. You could call local ones and try to find out which sort of actsthey regularly work with and what venues they book. Another good source ofinformation on agents and who does what is the monthly magazineAudience. It also gives you music business news, including details of up-coming festivals and other music industry events.If you have a record deal it’s likely that your A&R man will direct youor your manager to a good booking agent. While obviously you should takeon board their suggestions, you shouldn’t blindly follow their advice. Aswith finding a manager, you should also ask around and arrange to meetmore than one agent. You should get them to come and see you perform live.This should show you who seems the most enthusiastic. You should also askaround as to which booking agents are seen as having the most ‘clout’. Yourrecord company, accountant and lawyer should all have had experience ofdealing with booking agents and can give you some guidance. It’s alsoimportant that your agent has a reputation as being honest. You don’t want abooking agent who’s going to run off with the ticket takings. If the agentwho is interested in you works for a big organisation, find out if you’ll bedealing with him in person or if he’ll be passing you on to someone else inthe organisation.Booking agents will probably approach you or your manager, eitherdirect or via the record company, if there’s a good buzz or hype about youand you’re signed to a record deal. If this happens, the same tips apply. Askwho else is on their books. Ask around about their reputation, honesty andreliability. Get them to meet the band and see you perform live. Make surethe agent ‘gets the picture’ as to what you’re trying to achieve.One thing that you should also be aware of is that some booking agentsmay also be getting a financial kick-back from the record label to come onboard as your agent. I know of record labels that are keen to see their artistsperform live and encourage agents to get involved by paying them either aretainer or a small percentage of record sales (usually 0.5–1%). This shouldbe at the record company’s expense and not recoupable against you ordeducted from your royalty or other record income. It’s not necessarily a badthing, but there could be a conflict of interest between what you want andwhat your record company thinks is best for you. Also, when you work outyour deal with an agent who’s being paid in this way, you need to bear inmind what they’re also getting from the record company.WHAT’S IN A BOOKING AGENCY CONTRACT?Some agents don’t have written contracts with the artists they represent.They prefer to work on trust. They tell the artists what commission rate theytake; they leave it to the artist’s tour manager to sort out things such as theriders (see here), security requirements and so on. The risk for an agent innot having a written contract isn’t as great as for a manager, because theagent is probably only booking one tour at a time and will have sorted out inadvance his commission on that tour. He has no interest in ongoing record orpublishing royalties, or in merchandising or sponsorship income. That said,even though some agents don’t bother with written contracts, most bookingagents like to have a contract to keep things clear and to give them somecertainty so that they can plan what’s to happen in the future. Indeed sincethe introduction of new employment agency regulations they may have noalternative in future than to put their terms in writingEMPLOYMENT AGENCY REGULATIONSThese regulations came into force a couple of years ago1 and apply to allkinds of employment agencies who charge a fee to the people they get workfor and the work seekers include actors, musicians, singers, dancers andother performers as well as songwriters, authors, directors, those involved inthe creative aspects of film and theatre productions, models and professionalsports people. The rationale behind the regulations is to ensure that the clientknows the terms on which he is doing business with the agent and what thefees will be. The regulations seek to ensure that the client cannot be made tosuffer a penalty if he terminates the agency contract, nor require the client totake other services provided by the agency. The terms of business have to begiven to clients in writing and can’t afterwards be changed without theclients’ agreement. A separate client account must now be kept and regularstatements provided. Most decent agencies will already have adopted theseaspects of the regulations as best practice but it may help to weed out someof the charlatans.Also, in a nod in the direction of health and safety issues, the regulationsrequire the agents to consider the suitability of the client for the job inquestion, e.g. not putting forward someone as a trapeze artist who sufferedfrom vertigo. On the other hand they also require the client to inform theagent if he becomes aware of any reasons why he is not suitable for the job.The terms on which the agent is employed by the hirer – the circus ownerlooking for the trapeze artist – must also be clearly stated and written downin one document. The regulations do place more of an obligation on theagent too, to ensure that the client has all the necessary permits/unionmembership etc. necessary for the job in question.If the agent wants the right to deduct his fee from the fees for the job hehas to have specifically agreed that with the client in the engagementagreement. So this may prompt a review of agents’ terms of business. Theagents can be sued in a civil court if they breach the regulations.WHAT IS IN A BOOKING AGENCY CONTRACT?In many ways the booking agency contract is similar to a managementcontract (see Chapter 2). There are several parts of the contract that arecommon to all booking agency contracts.ExclusivityThe booking agent will be looking for an exclusive arrangement. He won’twant to be competing for your work with other agents. The arrangement withthe booking agent sits alongside the management agreement. Indeed, themanager may be very involved in the appointment of the booking agent. Themanagement contract will usually give the artist the right to approve theidentity of any booking agent. The manager looks after all other aspects oftouring other than the actual booking of the concerts. There is danger of anoverlap in the commission arrangements. The artist doesn’t want to bepaying a booking agent and the manager out of his gross income. Themanagement contract will usually say that the manager takes hiscommission after any commission to a booking agent has been deducted.The management contract will usually give the artist approval over the termson which the agent is appointed, particularly if he wants to charge more thanthe industry norm of 10–15%. The booking agent’s fee should be deductedfrom the gross income first, and the manager’s commission should becalculated on the net amount that’s left after the agency commission and anyother deductions agreed in the management contract have been taken off.TerritoryThe contract could be a worldwide one or it could be for a specific territory,for example North America. If it’s a worldwide deal then it’s possible thatthe booking agent will want to use local sub-agents in some territories. Forexample, the booking agent may have his own offices in the UK and Europe,but be linked with another company or individual in the US. Until the recentinflux of US agencies into the UK market there was a kind of gentleman’sagreement that they did not try to poach acts in their respective territories,but the gloves are now off.The artist may want to have the right to approve the identity of any sub-agents. Any subagent’s fees should come out of the booking agent’s fee andnot be payable by the artist.If it’s a worldwide deal, the artist will want to be satisfied that thebooking agent has the necessary contacts himself or through established sub-agents to do a good job in all countries where the artist is likely to want toperform live. It’s no good appointing a UK booking agent worldwide whenhe can do a great job in the UK but hasn’t a clue how to deal with promotersor venues in other parts of the world.TermThe length of the term can vary considerably. It could be for a particulartour, for example the 2008 UK Arena tour. In that case the contract will endafter the last date of that tour. The artist is free to do a deal for the next touror for the US leg of the same tour with another agent, as long as it doesn’tinterfere with the UK booking agent’s rights.The term could be open-ended, continuing until one party gives the othernotice to end the arrangement. The usual notice period is a minimum ofthree months. There may also be an agreement that notice can’t take effectduring a tour, or that the agent gets commission on the whole of a tour theyhave set up, even if the arrangements with them are terminated before thetour is finished. This is only fair, because tour arrangements often have to beset up many months in advance.Many booking agents are looking for the certainty of a fixed-termcontract. This could be as short as a year, but terms of three to five yearsaren’t unusual. Obviously, from your viewpoint, the longer you’recommitted to one booking agent, the more need there is for a contract thatputs definite obligations on the booking agent to try and get work for you.The contract should also contain a get-out if it’s not working out, becausethe booking agent can’t get any work or is otherwise falling down on the job.The booking agent’s dutiesAs we saw with management contracts, the agency contract doesn’t often setout in any great detail what the booking agent will do. The agent’s duties areusually expressed in very general terms. There should at least be some kindof obligation on the agent to try to get work for you. After all, that’s his job.If there’s a fixed-term contract and if you’re ready to do gigs and your agentcan’t or won’t get you any work, then you should have the option to go toanother agent.On the other hand, if the agent does get you work, you should have theright to decide whether you actually want to do the work. The contract willprobably give you the right to turn down offers of work if you do so onreasonable grounds. For example, if the booking agent gets you three datesin the North of England and a fourth a day later in Torquay, it might bereasonable to say that you can’t reasonably get yourself and your gear fromone end of the country to the other in that time. Or, if you did, it wouldn’t becost-effective once you take into account the travel costs in getting there. If,however, your booking agent has got you work which you turn down for nogood reason, you can’t then turn around and say that the agent hasn’t donehis job.Your dutiesYou will usually have to agree to refer all offers for live work that come toyou to your booking agent. Because of the exclusive arrangements, youmustn’t act as your own booking agent. You will also usually agree to keepyour booking agent aware of your plans. For example, if the plan is torelease the new album in September, you’ll be expecting to do live dates tohelp promote that release. You’ll need to tell the agent at the beginning ofthe year so that they can begin to outline a tour in consultation with you andyour manager. Many of the bigger venues are booked up months, if not ayear, in advance for key dates, and the earlier the agent is told of the plansthe sooner they can start to take options on the key venues and dates. Theseprovisional bookings are confirmed when the details of the tour are firmedup. If you’re tying a tour in with the release of your album, the dates won’tprobably be finally confirmed until the approximate delivery date for thealbum is known. That said, it doesn’t always work to plan. If the recordingoverruns then the delivery date will shift and could have an impact on thetour dates. However, gigs at big venues are usually set up for a few monthsafter the album release and as an integral part of the promotion surroundingthat release. Tours also have to try and tie in with any plans to release thealbum overseas.You’ll usually agree to use your best efforts to do the dates that thebooking agent has booked and which you have agreed to do. Obviouslyillnesses do occur, and sometimes tours or particular concert dates arecancelled at short notice due to this. It’s usual to take out insurance againsthaving to cancel a tour, or one or more dates, if illness or accident affectsone or more band members. These insurance policies aren’t cheap, but if theartist gets laryngitis halfway through a world tour or, as happened withOasis, three band members were involved in a car crash causing thecancellation or postponement of some US dates, it is comforting to knowthat insurance will cover any losses. Meatloaf had to cancel and reschedulesome of the dates in his 2007 tour because of health problems, and VelvetRevolver had to cancel dates because of visa problems. Insurance policiescan also be taken out to cover dates that have to be cancelled because notenough tickets have been sold. These are, of course, very expensive and areprobably only worth it for big stadium dates. If you’ve got yourself a decentmanager, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether the necessary insuranceis in place as he, or the tour manager, will do this for you.Insurance policies can also be taken out to cover things like bad weatheron open-air gigs. The owner of the site that hosts the Glastonbury Festivaldescribed in the press how he’d been offered insurance cover against badweather, but hadn’t taken it up because the premium was too high. Given thenumber of years that the site turns into a giant mud bath it probably is toohigh a cost especially as the mud has now almost become a part of theexperience for the stoic British concert-going public.You can get insurance cover for most things at a price. I remember asituation when a member of a band was spending a year living outside theUK for tax reasons. The rules at the time allowed you to return to the UK fora given number of days in that year. The band was doing a world tour, whichincluded some dates in the UK. The last of these dates fell on the last daythat he would have been entitled to be in the UK and not lose the taxadvantages. The concert was due to finish at 10.30 p.m., which meant thatwith a helicopter standing by he should have been out of the country in time.If he wasn’t he would lose significant amounts of tax savings, so aninsurance policy was taken out to cover him against that happening.Everything was going very well until the band got a little too enthusiastic inthe number of encores, and it was getting nearer to 11 p.m. when the bandfinally left the stage. A very swift dash to the helicopter followed and,luckily, our man was just away in time.Van Morrison (Exile) v. MarlowBut don’t think you can always be protected against cancellation or no-show. Van Morrison’s service company, Exile, got into trouble in 2003when it was ordered by a court to pay Gary Marlow, the owner of theCrown Hotel in Marlborough £40,000 in damages. Mr Marlow hadbooked Van Morrison to appear at his hotel and was also the promoter ofthe gig. There was a written contract which, according to Exile, gavethem a prior right of approval of all advertising and promotionalmaterials i.e. it would seem Van Morrison wanted to keep it relativelylow profile. But, the contract also said Mr Marlow should do his best topromote the show. Mr Marlow mentioned the intended appearance ofVan Morrison in answer to some enquiries from the press. As a resultExile decided Van Morrison would not perform, arguing that thisinterview breached its right of approval over publicity. However, thejudge decided that it was the nature of a promoter’s contract to promoteand if the artist wants to place restrictions on that promotion these haveto be clear, unambiguous and not contradictory. This contract was notdrafted in this way so Exile was found to have wrongfully prevented VanMorrison from performing and had to pay up.I have heard of some odd grounds for cancelling tours but the one advancedby opera singer Dame Kiri te Kanawa that she feared being bombarded withunderwear certainly takes some beating.Kiri te Kanawa CaseIn an Australian case reported here in April 2007, Dame Kiri te Kanawawas booked to appear as co-headliner on a 2005 tour with Aussie veteranJohn Farnham. She cancelled after watching DVDs of his shows wherehe was thrown underwear by fans. The promoter, Leading Edge, sued herfor A$ 2 million for the money it says it had lost on publicity costs andticket sales. The Supreme Court judge rejected the claim ruling thatalthough emails had been sent with details of venues and fees for theproposed concerts there had been no firm commitment by her to do theconcerts and no contract had been finalised. So it’s a question of themost basis aspect of English contract law – was a contract formed?The feeWhat is the agent paid? His fee is usually a percentage of the gross incomefrom your live appearances. It will include the appearance fee and also anybenefits that you receive in kind as opposed to in cash. For example, thepayment you get for a particular contract could be made up of a £10,000appearance fee plus a car provided by the tour or venue promoter, or freetravel or hotel accommodation. The agent will usually want to add the valueof the car, the travel, the accommodation and so on to the gross income inworking out his fee. It’s here, of course, that you can see the value of a touraccountant. One of his many jobs will be to see that a proper value has beenplaced on these non-monetary items.The fee is usually between 10% and 15% of the gross income. If you’repaid £10,000 in appearance fees and a car worth £10,000, then your bookingagent will receive 10–15% of £20,000 (i.e. £2–3,000). The agent willnegotiate with the promoter or with the venue direct, and will usually agreethat the promoter or venue pays them their fee direct, with the balance beingpaid through to you. There may be a deposit paid which the agent may wellhold as security for their fee. Once it’s clear that there are sufficient ticketsales to mean that date won’t make a loss, the booking agent may well agreeto release that deposit to you, less their agency fee. Although as we sawabove the new regulations mean that he will have to get your writtenapproval in order to deduct his fee from these monies and he has to keep thefees in a separate client account. Or, the agent may negotiate guaranteedminimum payments from the venue or promoter, which aren’t returnable,even if insufficient tickets are sold to make the date viable. The bookingagent will usually insist on being paid for any work that has been contractedfor or substantially negotiated during the term of the agency contract. Forexample, you may contract to a forty-date tour through a particular agentand then move on to another agent for the rest of the dates or for the nexttour. While you may be free to do this, you will still have to pay the firstbooking agent for the work they did in putting the original forty-date tourtogether. Sometimes the agent will limit their commission to concert datesthat you do within six months of the end of the term of their contract. Thiscould be a little hard on the agent. If the artist is doing a world tour, it’slikely that that could run well beyond six months. If the agent has done thework in setting up the tour, there are strong arguments for saying that theyshould be paid for that work. As it’s unlikely that you will have to pay anyother booking agent for that same tour, you aren’t going to get a double-hitfor fees. If the booking agent has done an all-right job and the contract isn’tbeing disputed, or hasn’t been brought to an end because the booking agentis in breach of contract, this position is a reasonable one to take. Sometimes,if your agent leaves one company to go to another one and you move withhim he agrees to pay some of his fees to the old agency in return for takingyou with him.AccountingThe booking agent will usually want to collect the money and deduct theircommission before paying the balance through to you.You’ll want to make sure that the money is paid into a separate clientbank account. You’ll need to see detailed statements of what has beenreceived, from where and how the commission is calculated. You’ll want thebalance to be paid through quickly and will need to have the right to carryout an audit of the booking agent’s books and records to make sure you’vereceived amounts properly due.This is particularly important where some payments may be receivedupfront in the form of deposits from the venues, or as guaranteed sumsregardless of the number of tickets sold. The deposit may be returnable insome circumstances. One of the jobs of the tour accountant is to keep a trackof all these arrangements as well as keeping a close eye on any sums paid incash on the night. These deposits do not automatically have to sit in theseparate account under the new agency regulations so you might want tospecify in your agreement that they should.The balance due to you should be paid through at the end of each gig, butthat may not be possible, in which case it should be at least weekly.Sometimes payment may come at monthly intervals if the arrangements areparticularly complex or involve overseas tax issues. If you aren’t going to bepaid on the night and payment is to be delayed then a rough outline – calleda settlement sheet – should be prepared at the end of each gig and given tothe artist or the tour accountant within three days to check.Assignment and key-man provisionsYou need to establish who is going to be your agent – your key contact at thebooking agency. The larger the booking agency, the more important it is toget this sorted out. There’s nothing worse than signing up to an agencythinking that you’re going to be dealt with by one of the hot-shots, only todiscover that he has passed it to a junior with no experience or clout.If you can, you should get a right in the contract to terminate it if thatkey-man isn’t available to you as your agent. Obviously, a good agent isgoing to be working for more than one artist and is going to be in greatdemand. You can’t therefore expect him to be there for you every minute ofthe day. But when it comes to putting together a big tour, whether you’re theheadline or support act, you need to know that the agent is there for you tolend their experience and bargaining skills to sorting out the details. Theagency isn’t going to be very happy about agreeing to key-man clauses in thecontract. If a particularly good agent wants to go off to another agency, orwants to set up on their own account, that puts them in a very goodbargaining position. You can terminate the contract if the agent leaves andthen move to their new agency if you want to. The agent can use the fact thatyou could terminate to negotiate better terms for them if they’re to stay withthe agency or better settlement terms if they still want to leave. If the agencydoes agree to a key-man clause then it will probably say that the right toterminate only arises when the agent is consistently not around for thirtydays or more. They will also usually exclude periods when the agent isgenuinely ill or on holiday.If the agency plans to sell up or sell on the contract to another company,or it wants to buy into a bigger company, you should have the right to refuseto be tied to these arrangements unless the agency first gets your approval.Finally, the contract should give you the right to terminate the term ofthe contract if the agent is insolvent or breaches his obligations, forexample, if he doesn’t pay the balance of the ticket money when he shouldand he fails to put this right within a reasonable time of you putting him onnotice that they should.PROMOTERSA promoter is responsible for booking artists to perform live at particularvenues. This could be one man promoting a single venue or a multi-million-pound multinational corporation owning the right to promote a whole raft oflarge and small venues such as Live Nation.WHAT DO PROMOTERS DO?Promoters are responsible for securing the venue and for selling the tickets.The promoter may be the venue owner himself, or they may be a separatecompany who have an arrangement with a particular venue. Thisarrangement may be exclusive or non-exclusive. The promoter may dealdirect with the artist or his manager or he may negotiate through a bookingagent. Promoters make their money on their margins. If they own the venuethen they want to cover their costs and make a profit. If they just deal with avenue they make their money on the difference between what they have topay through to the venue and what they have to pay to the artist/bookingagent after allowing for their own expenses. The promoter may also controlthe sales concessions at the venues, for example for selling food, drink ormerchandise. The promoter may charge for the rental of these concessionsand/or take a percentage of the takings.A promoter may promote just one venue or perhaps a festival or a seriesof venues. There are promoters who operate nationwide, but also those whooperate only in particular parts of the UK.2Once the dates are pencilled in, the promoter will want an agreementcommitting the artist to do these dates and laying out the terms on whichthey will perform.Naturally, these sorts of arrangements are only likely to affect the mainartists on the bill – the top billing or headline acts. A supporting artist willhave little or no say on the terms of the deal with the promoter. Thepromoter will usually agree a fee with the headline act and it’s up to that actto agree a deal with the supporting act as to the terms on which they willappear on the bill.As discussed above, some promoters like Mama Group and Live Nationare also branching out into controlling other ancillary income streams notgenerally within a promoter’s remit, such as merchandising.WHAT’S IN A PROMOTERS CONTRACT?Your obligationsThe contract will set out what concerts you will do, when and where. Thecontract could spell out the length of time you are required to perform. Forexample, it may say that you’re expected to do one ‘set’ (performance) of atleast forty minutes duration. For smaller venues it may say that you’reexpected to do two forty-minute sets with a break in between.Promoter’s obligationsThe promoter will agree to provide at least the venue, ticket sales facilitiesand basic door, stage and backstage security arrangements. Thereafter it’sdown to the individual arrangements agreed in each contract. The promotermay agree to supply certain equipment and personnel, for example, aparticular sound desk or sound engineer. If the dates include any overseasgigs, then any personnel they supply should be provided with all necessarypermits, including work permits for overseas dates or for overseas personnelworking in the UK.The promoter will also usually be required to provide an agreed level ofbackstage amenities for you in the form of dressing rooms, toilets andmeeting or VIP areas.It’s also usually the responsibility of the promoter to provide insurancecover against injury or death caused to members of the public. This is calledpublic liability insurance. It’s vital to ensure that this cover is in place.Obviously, this will be the manager’s job once there is a manager on board,but a member of the public can get injured in the early days as well, so youshould think about this. Unfortunately accidents do happen at live gigs;people do fall or get caught up in the crush at the front of the stage. If thereisn’t insurance in place, the person injured could look to you direct forcompensation. If anyone is employed to do any construction work, forexample for the stage or lighting rig, then those sub-contractors should alsocarry insurance or, once again, responsibility could fall back on you. Therewas an unfortunate spate of concert related deaths and serious injuries inrecent years, beginning with the deaths of 9 music fans at the RoskildeFestival in Denmark in 2000, followed by the deaths of 21 clubbers inChicago and hundreds of deaths at the Rhode Island Club where a fireworksdisplay as part of the band Great White’s set led to disaster. An accidentinvolving one of the trucks carrying concert equipment for George Michaelforced the singer to cancel a show in Prague. In Atlanta opening artist RayLavender and Akon band members had completed their sound checks andleft the stage when the canopy suddenly caved in. In the UK incidents likethese have led to greater insistence on health and safety issues and to thesetting up of the Safety Focus Group as an offshoot of the International LiveMusic Conference in 2001.3The Licensing ActThe Licensing Act which became law in 2003 and began to have an impactin 2005 brought about major changes to how venues are licensed. The focusis on health and safety and public order issues and is a radical overhaul ofthe UK licensing system. One major change is that venues that put on livemusic regularly will need a premises licence from the local authoritywhereas before it did not need an entertainment licence for one or twomusicians performing together. The exceptions for occasional events andpurely acoustic sets have been maintained but there was initially concern forthe impact of the changes on the live music scene and this led to the launchof the government supported Live Music Forum, whose remit includes theevaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act and the promotion of theperformance of live music generally. Its report in mid-2007 found that theeffect of the Act on live music was broadly ‘neutral’ but that there had beenan impact at grassroots level with increased bureaucracy and regulations. Inan attempt to minimise some of these side effects of the legislation, whichwas after all meant to ease restrictions on live music, the Forum hasrecommended making exceptions from the need for licensing for acousticsets or for venues where live music was incidental to the main event. Theyare also lobbying for an exemption for small venues holding fewer than ahundred people. The report is now being studied by the Licensing Ministerwho promises to respond fully in due course.There have been casualties. The Brecon Jazz Festival which relies to alarge extent for its special atmosphere on the open air live sessions had tocancel about ten events in 2007 because it was apparently impossible tolicense the whole of the town centre as a premises.In a related matter George Michael was fined £130,000 for overrunningthe licensing curfew at Wembley Stadium on 9 June 2007. He was fined£10,000 for every minute he overran.The Private Security Industry (Licences) Regulations 2004As if this weren’t enough additional red tape, new regulations intended toprotect against unscrupulous bouncers or doormen were also introduced i n2004. The Private Security Industry (Licences) Regulations 2004 areeffective from 1 March 2004 and require all door supervisors and securitystaff to be licensed and to display an identifying licence at all times. Theapplication requires them to declare any criminal convictions or cautions.There are separate regulations and licences required by those supervisingthese activities. Private security firms who provide security for pubs, clubsand the like must also be licensed.Artist ridersAnyone who’s seen the spoof film about the music business Spinal Tap willknow about the occasionally ridiculous artist riders. These are the lists ofspecific requirements that the artists have for their comfort andentertainment backstage. Only black jellybeans and sandwiches cut in circleswill do! I’ve seen some very strange riders in my time. One was twelvepages of very detailed menu requirements, including very specific types ofcereal and drinks that can only be bought in the US. As this was a Europeantour that was pretty unreasonable and changes had to be negotiated andsubstitutes found. Other riders specify only a crate of good whisky and fivecrates of beer. Well, this is rock ’n’ roll. Some artists take their own catererswith them or will only use a caterer that they know is familiar with theirparticular requirements. Some riders are there for a very good reason. Forexample, an artist may be a vegan or vegetarian, or allergic to particularfood. I’ve also seen riders that insist that all hotel rooms have hypo-allergenic bedding and pillows.It’s usual to leave the negotiation of the details between the manager orthe tour manager and the promoter. It’s not usually cost-effective to get yourlawyer involved in this. The riders do form part of the contract, so thepromoter has to make sure that the requirements are reasonable, affordableand obtainable. If they don’t and the omissions are sufficiently serious, thiscould be a breach of contract. Even if the omissions are more minor innature, it can cause major grief with the artist, which is the last thing apromoter wants just before the artist goes out on stage.FeesYou and your booking agent are dependent on the promoter for ticket salesand income. You’ll want to be sure that you’re guaranteed a certain level ofincome. If you’re already an established artist, you may be able to get aGuaranteed Minimum included in the contract. This guarantees you will bepaid this amount, regardless of whether the promoter sells enough tickets.This is where the promoter takes the risk. They have to get the level of theGuaranteed Minimum right, because they’ll have to pay it even if they don’tsell a single ticket.Over and above any Guaranteed Minimum sum, you might receive afixed percentage of the promoter’s net receipts. For example, if theGuaranteed Minimum is £10,000 and, after the promoter has paid out certainagreed expenses, you are entitled to 10% of the net receipts, then if the netticket sales are £100,000 you will only get the Guaranteed Minimum. If thenet receipts are £250,000, then 10% is worth £25,000. After deducting theGuaranteed Minimum of £10,000, you are now due another £15,000. Thetour accountant will have to check very carefully that the expenses that thepromoter can deduct are reasonable and that the percentage you receive ofthe net monies represents a reasonable return. The alternative is that youreceive a further fixed payment dependent on levels of ticket sales. Forexample, it could be agreed that you get a Guaranteed Minimum of £10,000plus, if ticket sales exceed £250,000, you receive another £15,000. With thistype of payment arrangement, you must assess how realistic it is that ticketsales will be high enough so that you have a reasonable chance of receivingfurther payments.Payment and accountingThe contract should set out when any Guaranteed Minimum payment is to bemade. Usually at least half of it should be paid up-front and the rest on thenight of the first of the concerts.The balance of any payments should be made on the night of each gig orpossibly at the end of a particular leg of a tour or end of each week of a tour.It’s important that the tour accountant has access to the box-office tillsand receipts on the night of the concert and that all ticket stubs should bekept for at least three months afterwards in case they need to be checked bythe accountant. Further payments under the merchandising deal may bedependent on a given number of people being at each concert (see Chapter8). The ticket stubs and any head count on the night will prove the number ofpeople at a particular date, so access to this information and proof is veryimportant. Receipts for any expense that the promoter is allowed to deductshould also be scrutinised and kept for later checking. Only those expensesallowed by the tour accountant should be deducted.Other incomeThe promoter or the venue owner may have done deals with cateringcompanies or drink suppliers. The contract should set out whether or not youshould get any share of the profits from such sources. For example, thevenue may have a deal with Coca-Cola that they are the official suppliers ofsoft drinks to the venue. An artist that commands a very loyal following offans who will ensure that his concerts are a sell-out can only be of benefit toCoca-Cola in the considerable number of soft drinks it will sell at thoseconcerts. If you have sufficient bargaining power, you can insist on sharingsome of the money that Coca-Cola pays to the promoter or venue for theright to be the exclusive supplier.The sale of merchandise can be an important source of income for you.The promoter/venue may make a charge for the right to set upmerchandising stalls at the venue. The merchandising deal will coverwhether the merchandising company is allowed to deduct some or all of thischarge from the gross income before you receive your percentage.If you have sufficient bargaining power, you could insist that you alonehave the right to sell food or drink and that the promoter gets no incomefrom these or from merchandise sales. You can then do sponsorship dealswith food and drink companies as well as merchandising deals. These kindsof arrangements tend only to apply to established, successful artists with ateam of people able to give effect to these arrangements.RestrictionsThe contract should insist that the promoter stops anyone from recording theperformances, unless of course a live recording or film of the concert isbeing made. Your record contract will probably say something about you notallowing anyone to make a recording of your performance. While it’s verydifficult to prevent a bootlegger unofficially and unlawfully recording theperformance, you can show the right spirit by putting this requirement in thecontract with the promoter. This will demonstrate that you don’t condonethis sort of activity. If you do intend to make a film of the performance,perhaps to make a video or for a live webcast or television broadcast, thecontract should make sure that the promoter will allow access to the venuefor the recording at no extra charge. You also need to be sure that theaudience knows they will be filmed and for what purpose. Signs at allentrances usually spell this out.Each venue has its own restrictions on parking and when the stage crewcan gain access to load equipment in or out. Any particular stipulations orrestrictions should be set out in a rider or schedule to the contract. Inresidential areas, there may be severe restrictions on how late the artist canplay and there may be an early curfew on when the crew can load theequipment back out. They may have to come back the next morning. If so,you need to ensure the equipment is kept securely and that it’s insuredagainst loss or damage. If it’s a nationwide tour, the tour manager will needto know these restrictions well in advance. It wouldn’t be funny if you had adate in Scarborough on the Friday night and your equipment was still inTorquay because the crew couldn’t get in to load out the equipment afterThursday’s Torquay gig until seven o’clock the next morning.An important part of protecting your brand is to ensure that there are nosales of unauthorised merchandise inside or outside the venue. It’s easier fora promoter to control illegal merchandise inside the venue, but he may sayhe has no control over what happens outside. In that case you should try tomake sure that the venue and the promoter co-operates with TradingStandards Officers or other personnel who are trying to stop unauthorised orpirate merchandise.GETTING FUNDING FOR LIVE WORKFunding for a tour can come from a number of different places. At thelowest level, where you’re just starting out and doing local gigs, you canexpect to be paid little or nothing over and above some petrol money and afew free pints of beer. As you progress, you may get a small percentage ofthe ticket sales and may make some money from sales of T-shirts orrecordings of your performances that you sell at the gigs. There probablywon’t be much in the way of profits after the cost of hiring a PA, paying fortransport and maybe an agent or manager.It is possible for an unsigned act to get sponsorship for live work. Asmentioned in Chapter 9, companies such as Doc Martin or lager companieshave sponsored live tours by unsigned acts. More recently Sony Ericsson andOrange have sponsored an interactive talent show called ‘MobileActunsigned’. It is possible to make a decent living from live gigs if you cankeep your costs down, play decent-sized venues and have a loyal followingof fans, but it’s very hard work.Once you’re signed to a record deal, bigger venues may open up to you.A booking agent may come on the scene and get you slots as support bandsor lower-down-the-order gigs at summer open-air festivals. Money can bemade from merchandise sales or from tour sponsorship. However, it’s likelythat you won’t make a big profit on live work until you’ve achieved quite adegree of success and fame as a recording artist. Even then you may barelybreak even if you have an expensive live set with lots of special effects and acast of thousands. If your live set is kept very simple, without loads ofbacking singers or a live orchestra, then you stand a better chance of makingmoney. But it’s important to balance cutting expenses back to a minimumagainst the risk that the show is a disappointment to the fans, which wouldbe counter-productive.TOUR SUPPORTMost artists need the support of their record company to get them out on theroad. The record company will rarely agree to put this in the record contractunless you have a lot of bargaining power, or you’re prepared to hold out forthis support at the expense of perhaps a lower advance or royalty. Even ifit’s not specifically in the contract, it’s usually in the record company’sinterests for you to be out touring and promoting your new album. If you canonly do this by making a loss (the shortfall) then the record company has tocome to your rescue and underwrite this shortfall. This is usually called toursupport.Tour support is usually 100% recoupable from royalties from recordsales. This is, however, negotiable and could be reduced to 50% recoupable,with the remainder being treated as a non-recoupable marketing expense ofthe record company. Sometimes, if the tour support is for a tour in aparticular part of the world, for example Japan, then you could agree that thetour support is only recouped from Japanese record sales.In addition to making up any shortfall, the record company may pay a‘buy-on’ fee. This is the fee payable to the headline artist on a tour or to hisrecord company for the privilege of being allowed to support them. Forsome new artists, the association with a more established name gives theman opening to a much wider potential audience, as well as the chance toperform in bigger venues. For the headline act this is an additional source ofincome, reducing the amount of tour support they’ll need from their recordcompany. Buy-on fees for large venues and for concerts by big-name artistscan run to tens of thousands of pounds. It’s one of the reasons why you’lloften see a big-name artist being supported by another smaller act who’s onthe same label. That way the costs are kept in the family.How much tour support will you need?Before you can go to your record company to ask for tour support, you needto have an idea how much you’ll need.First, you’ll need to get someone to prepare a tour budget. This could beyour manager or your regular accountant or bookkeeper. However, whendoing a bigger tour, either as headline or support, consider getting aspecialist tour accountant on board. The tour accountant could be someone atthe regular accountancy firm, or one recommended by them, or by friends.Your A&R contact or manager can suggest people, as can your lawyer. Mostimportantly, the tour accountant must be honest, must understand how tourpromoting works, and be brave enough to tackle unscrupulous promotersabout to run off with the cash midway through the gig.The tour accountant, or any other person doing that job, will put togetheran outline budget that will make guesstimates of income and expenditure. Asdetails such as any Guaranteed Minimum, any buy-on fees, merchandiseadvances and so on become known they are factored in. The accountant willwork very closely with you or your manager to work out what type of showsyou intend to put on. The number of musicians and how elaborate the stageset or lighting effects will be will all affect the tour budget.Once your tour accountant has a good idea of the likely profit (or perhapsloss) he prepares an outline draft budget which your manager then takes toyour record company to negotiate the level of tour support. It’s important,therefore, that he doesn’t make wild guesses and is as accurate as he can beas to what you’re likely to need.The record company will usually set a maximum amount that they willpay to underwrite the shortfall. For example, the tour accountant may haveestimated a tour loss of £18,000. The record company checks his figures andmakes its own assessment of how valuable it will be to them in record salesif the tour goes ahead. It may decide that one or two dates should bedropped, or that some of the costs could be saved. It will set a limit on howmuch it will pay. In this case, after some adjustments it may say that it willpay up to £16,000 in tour support. You and your manager have to then sitdown with the tour accountant, and any production manager working on thetour, to see if savings can be made. If the tour then goes ahead and it doesbetter than expected and only loses £15,000, then the record companyunderwrites a £15,000 shortfall not a £16,000 one. The actual amount theywill pay (up to that maximum) is determined by the actual costs supplied bythe tour accountant after the end of the tour with supporting invoices. If thetour does worse than expected and makes a £17,000 loss then the recordcompany is only obliged to pay £16,000, and may insist that you pick up therest of the bill yourself. So it’s important to get the figure for the anticipatedshortfall as realistic as possible.The record company will usually agree to pay part of the tour support up-front. This means that the essential personnel can be paid some of what isdue to them and essential equipment can be hired. The tour accountant thenhas to juggle who gets paid along the way, and who has to wait until the finalinstalment comes in from the record company. Needless to say, the touraccountant is rarely the most popular man on the tour.Even if there is something in your record contract about tour support, it’sunlikely that all the details will be included and it is usual to set out thesedetailed arrangements in a side agreement to the main record contract.Copies of all side agreements should be kept together with the recordcontract. If you’re reviewing the accounting statements or are consideringdoing an audit, you need to have details of all the arrangements you’vereached about what amounts are or aren’t recoupable and from what sales.Unless the side agreement is very simple, a lawyer should review it before itis signed.OTHER ISSUESThere are some other things that have to be taken into account whenplanning a tour.TAX PLANNINGYour accountant should advise whether there are any tax advantages to youin putting your touring services through a limited company and, if so, shouldthat be a UK-based or offshore company (see Chapter 11).If your accountant does advise use of a limited company, a serviceagreement should be put in place between you and that company. Thecontract with any promoter will then be with the limited company.In some countries, there is an obligation to pay tax in that country onearnings from live work undertaken there. The promoter may have to deductthe tax before he hands the money over. In that case the contract with thepromoter must make sure that the promoter has to hand over the sums he haswithheld to the relevant tax authorities. In countries where there arereciprocal tax treaties in place, it’s possible to claim exemption from someof these taxes or, if they have a tax treaty in place, you may be able toreclaim some or all of the amounts withheld. The promoter should beobliged to do all the necessary paperwork and to supply you with any formsyou may need to complete to show the country in which you or your servicecompany is based and pays tax and the local tax authorities should eitherconfirm exemption from tax on the income or provide a certificate of howmuch tax has been withheld so this can be offset against UK income for taxpurposes.Obviously, everyone’s tax circumstances are different and these are onlyvery general comments. Nothing will substitute for proper, professional taxplanning and advice. Such planning should be done as far ahead as possible.PUBLICISING THE TOURThis is the joint responsibility of you and the promoter. Your recordcompany also has a vested interest and will want to co-ordinate its ownmarketing efforts with the tour dates. For example, if the label had planned aposter campaign in particular towns in the UK, it may decide to target thosetowns where you’re doing live dates. The tour posters may also giveinformation on when your latest record is to be released. The promoter or thevenue will publish adverts in the music and local press listing forthcomingtours. Your press officer and the internal press office at your recordcompany will get to work placing the information in the press, gettinginterviews and personal appearances for you to promote the tour. You’ll beexpected to mention it in interviews with the press or on radio or TV.Your record company has to be careful not to overstep the mark. In 2004,there was a spate of legal actions brought by Camden Council against thesenior executives of Sony and BMG in an attempt to curb illegal fly-posting.Camden Council took the unusual step of using anti-social behaviour orders(ASBOs) on the executives after accusing the companies they led of savingmoney on legitimate poster sites by putting up posters for albums and gigson any available space, including shop hoardings and pillar boxes. Service ofthe orders meant that the court had the power to order jail sentences of up tofive years (in extreme cases) if the executives did not stop the practice. TheASBOS were seen as a last resort when prosecutions and requests to stop fly-posting had failed. They seem to have had some measure of success as theexecutives reached compromises with the council to avoid a continuance ofthe orders and promised not to commission any more illegal fly-posting.Increasingly the Internet is being used to advertise tours and cult band,The Other, were the first to use SMS text messages to fans to alert them asto the whereabouts of the next ‘secret’ gig. This is part of the generic formof marketing called viral marketing which uses Internet or other databases totarget information at fans. This could be on the record company’s website,but more usually it will be on the artist’s website, possibly with a link to thepromoter’s site or that of the venue. Websites are being used to offer thepossibility of ordering tickets online and are offering competitions to wintickets or to meet the artist. Artist and record company websites can fulfil animportant role in promoting the tour or selling tickets online.The fan club can also be invaluable in publicising a tour. The regularnewsletter sent out to fans can give details of forthcoming live events andwhere tickets can be bought. Sometimes the fan club does a deal with thepromoter and/or a travel company to offer special travel, accommodationand ticket packages at a reduced rate to fan club members. The fan club hasto be careful not to offer things that it can’t deliver. For example, membersof the Boyzone fan club were apparently offered special top-of-the-rangeseats at Boyzone concerts as part of a special package. It seems that thepromoters didn’t deliver the expected good seats, leading (apparently) to ademand for the return of monies. Such bad experiences can have a verynegative effect on the fan base and their support for the artist. The samethings seem to have happened to teen TV star Hannah Montana in 2007. Fanswere encouraged to join her fan club not apparently on the promise of ticketsbut on the promise to help them get tickets on what was expected to be asell-out tour. The fan club failed to deliver and disgruntled fans began a USclass action.OTHER PERSONNELTOUR MANAGERDepending on the size of the tour and your degree of success, you mayappoint a tour manager to work alongside your manager in organising theday-to-day details of the tour. Tour managers go out on the tour and handleall crises as they come up. They are generally paid a weekly fixed fee andreceive free travel and accommodation and probably a fixed daily sum forexpenses.SOUND AND LIGHTING ENGINEERSHow your music sounds and how you look on stage is crucial to the successof your live performances. Most bands learn at an early stage the importanceof having their own sound engineer and not relying on some stranger in astrange venue. As soon as they can afford it, most bands also like to bringalong their own lighting engineer. Both of these will be on a daily or weeklyrate with free accommodation and travel and daily expenses.BACKING BAND AND SESSION MUSICIANSIf you’re a solo artist, or only one member of your group is signed to therecord label, then any backing musicians and singers have to be engaged forthe tour. There are many different types of arrangements that can be reachedwith regular band members. They can be on an annual retainer or on a small,daily-based retainer for when they aren’t needed and a higher fee when theyhave work to do at rehearsals, at personal appearances, interviews and duringthe tour. When they aren’t needed they could be on a first-call basis, whichmeans they have to drop everything to make themselves available for you.Or, they may be completely free to do other work but on the understandingthat if you call for them and they aren’t available you’ll get someone else.You can only afford to do that if they are replaceable. If they are crucial toyour ‘sound’ then you would be better advised to put them on a retainer on afirst-call basis.Other non-regular members of the band will generally be engaged on adaily or weekly rate plus free accommodation and travel and daily expenses.Additional fees may be payable to regular or non-regular members for otherpromotional work such as appearing in a video, for a live TV or radioperformance or a webcast to promote the tour. The fee that they are paidcould include any of these extra activities and fees. It’s important that youagree a ‘buy-out’ of all rights on the musicians’ or vocalists’ performances,whether they are your regular band members or not. If they are Musicians’Union or Equity members, there will be minimum rates for the work youwant them to do and rules on what can be bought out in the way of rights andwhat will be the subject of further repeat fees (details are in UsefulAddresses). If you don’t buy out the rights you may get into difficulties ifyou then go ahead and do a TV or video deal for performances includingthose of the session musicians or singers. You may believe you’ve clearedall rights and say as much in the contract. If you haven’t then the musicianor vocalist or their union can come out of the woodwork at the mostunhelpful moment. In the light of the recent successful claims by sessionmusicians years after the event (see chapters on publishing and bandarrangements) it would also be advisable to get a written confirmation thatthey have no interest in the songs they are performing.All these personnel should be given written agreements specifying theirfee, when it will be paid and what you expect to get by way of services andrights in return.Personnel who aren’t regular members of the team should enter intoconfidentiality agreements. These make it clear that they have to keepconfidential anything that they find out about you from being on the roadwith you. They are intended to head off people selling salacious stories andpictures. If, however, they are regular band members then it could becounter-productive, because they could get upset at what they might see asyou not trusting them. For more on the issue of privacy see Chapter 12.The importance of getting things clear in contracts with musicians isborne out by a case involving Elvis Costello.4The Elvis Costello CaseElvis Costello employed Mr Thomas as a musician to perform on theEuropean tour with him as part of his band. He was also going to do theUS tour, but as a part of a separate contract. Costello employed MrThomas through his service company, Elvis Costello Limited. The tourhad breaks in it between countries in Europe when Mr Thomas’s serviceswere not required. Mr Thomas took a seven-day break between the UKand US tours and put in a claim for payment. When he didn’t get paid, heapplied to the court to wind up/liquidate Costello’s company forinsolvency, i.e. being unable to pay its debts when they fell due. Thecourt declined to do that, but did order that Mr Thomas be paid on thebasis that the court did think it was part of the European tour.CONCLUSIONSIf you are already a successful live and recording artist, consider newpartners like promoters for your music industry deals.Evaluate so-called 360 degree models carefully – they can work if youdo your sums right.Get yourself a good agent.Get adequate insurance.Tie touring in with your record company’s marketing plans.Use the Internet to advertise forthcoming tours.1 The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment BusinessesRegulations 2003.2 The Regional Promoter’s Association (UK) is an informal grouping ofpromoters. Contact Josh Dean, Concorde2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, BN21EU. Tel. 01273 207241.3 Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (now Bucks NewUniversity), the International Live Music Conference Safety Focus Groupand the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (OSHA) created awebsite in 2004 dedicated to safety issues called Safety Rockswww.safetyrocks.org. It contains a risk assessment tool for those operatingin the live music scene.4 Elvis Costello Limited v. Thomas, Chancery Division June 1997. Chapter 11Band Arrangements INTRODUCTIONTHE SOLO ARTISTS and songwriters among you may want to skip this chapter,but if you co-write or plan any kind of recording collaboration it would beworth you reading it to see some of the potential problems.It may seem very negative to talk about problems before you’ve releaseda record or even got a deal. But that’s exactly when you should be looking atthe things that cause friction within bands. If you address these things at thebeginning when everything is going well, it will be much easier and causeless tension. If you wait to raise these issues until you’ve been on the roadnon-stop for six months and can’t stand the sight of each other then, believeme, it will seriously strain, if not destroy, the relationship.WHO OWNS THE BAND NAME?OWNERSHIPAs we saw in Chapter 1, choosing the right name is vital, but once you’vedecided on a band name and have done what you can to check that you havethe right to use it, you have to decide who owns that name.The record company won’t normally expect to own the band name. Thereare exceptions, particularly in the field of manufactured bands or ones wherethe record company thinks up the name and concept and hires in people toperform. In such cases they might have a very good reason to say that theyshould own the name, but this then forms part of the deal. Some productioncompanies are also insisting on having the right to hire and fire members ofa band. Maybe if it is an entirely manufactured band this is acceptable butnot, I think, if the band comes to the label already formed. What the recordcompany will expect you to do is to confirm that you have the right to usethe name and that they have the exclusive right to use it in connection withthe recordings you make under the record contract and a non-exclusive rightafter the contract ends. Music publishers will also want the exclusive right touse the name in connection with exploitation of your songs during the termof the publishing contract and a non-exclusive right after the end of the term.You don’t want to give exclusive rights for all uses of the name to any onecompany, for example your record company, as that would mean that youcouldn’t then use your name to sell merchandise or do a sponsorship deal.WHO WITHIN THE BAND OWNS THE NAME?It is essential that you sort this out at the beginning. I also firmly believethat you should put what you’ve agreed in writing. But I realise that I’mprobably whistling in the wind. I tell every band about to sign a deal thatthey should have a band agreement. They usually nod and say that theyunderstand why they should have one, but most of them never do anythingabout it. But, bear in mind the case we looked at in Chapter 1 that decidedthat if it isn’t spelled out in an agreement no band member can use the namewithout the agreement of the others. It doesn’t have to be a terribly formaldocument – although I would advise that a proper band agreement drawn upby a lawyer would be best. Even if you don’t go for that it would be betterthan nothing to write down what you’ve all agreed and sign it and then keepit in a safe place. You may think that this is over the top and a bitunnecessary, but if you can’t prove who owns the band name you can get thevery unedifying spectacle of two or more band members arguing over whohas the right to use the name and possibly ending up with none of thembeing able to do so.An example of this in practice is the ongoing legal suit in the US whereMike Love is claiming to have the sole right to use the Beach Boys name. Heis suing ex-bandmate Al Jardine for, he claims, illegally using the name.Holly Johnson, former lead singer with the band Frankie Goes ToHollywood, is another who was trying to claim sole right to use the name.For such a relatively short-lived band this one sure does seem to havegenerated quite a bit of litigation.Frankie Goes To Hollywood Trade Mark CaseHolly Johnson tried to register a trade mark in FRANKIE GOES TOHOLLYWOOD for goods and services including music, video andrecording goods, entertainment, clothing and other merchandise. He wasopposed by the other members of the band, Peter Gill, Mark O’Toole,Paul Rutherford and Brian Nash. The Registrar decided that the goodwillin the name was owned by the band as a whole which had accrued fromthe point that recording and performance started and no agreementregarding ownership of that goodwill had been made at the outset. If MrJohnson were allowed to use it alone then this would be amisrepresentation and result in damage to the other members. This wasthe case even though he was the better known of the former bandmembers. Mr Johnson had acknowledged there was a partnership and itwas a fact that he had not established any goodwill in that name beforehe was a member of that partnership. So as soon as they startedrecording together as members of the partnership goodwill began toaccrue to that partnership. In an echo back to the cases of Liberty X andBlue, the Registrar found that even after sixteen years of inactivity therewas still residual goodwill to protect. They still sold records and therewas other evidence that they still have goodwill – one example was thefact that an episode of the TV series Friends featured a characterwearing a ‘Frankie Says Relax’ T-shirt. It can happen that just one ortwo members of the band own the band name, for example where theyform the core of the band and the others aren’t permanent members. Aband may be made up of a core of the vocalist and the lead guitarist whodo most of the writing, and a rhythm section of bassist and drummer ona wage and not signed to the record contract. The core members may notwant to share ownership of the band name with the other two unless anduntil they become full-time permanent band members. But as theFrankie case highlights it is essential that this fact is recorded at theoutset.It’s more common to agree that all members of the band own the band name.More sophisticated band agreements could set out who gets to use the nameif the band splits up. You may decide that, in that case, none of you couldcarry on using the name or that those who carry on performing together as aband can continue to use the band name and that the one who leaves can’t.Then you get problems if two or more members leave and set up anotherband. There is no simple solution and it’s something that you should talkover with your lawyer, as they will have some suggestions that you maywant to adopt.That said, you may not in fact get any say in what happens to the bandname if the band splits up, because the record contract may well decide theissue for you. The contract might say that the record company has final sayover who can continue to use the band name. This may seem unfair but, ifyou think about it, the record company has invested a lot of time and moneyin building up your name and the reputation in your name through theirmarketing efforts. They won’t want to risk losing control of that if one ormore members of the band were to leave and, as a result, no one couldcontinue to use the name. You may get a chance to say no to this if youalready have a band agreement in place or, as usual, if you have a lot ofbargaining power. If the record company does decide who gets to use theband name then you have to think about whether the other band membersshould be paid some kind of compensation for the loss of the right to use thename. As made clear by the Frankie Goes To Hollywood case above it’spossible that, either under the terms of the partnership/band agreement or bythe operation of the Partnership Act 1890, the band name will be treated asan asset of the partnership that forms part of its ‘goodwill’. There areformulas that accountants can use to work out how much that goodwill isworth. If, for example, the partnership is dissolved because the band splitsup and the vocalist continues as a solo artist, then the others could have thevalue of their share of the goodwill in the name calculated and paid to themas part of the settlement between the band members. It’s quite a difficult anddelicate question and needs to be treated carefully. This is another goodreason why you should sort it out at the beginning before any tensions (orpretensions) get in the way.BAND STRUCTURESYou can decide on the ownership of the name and other things, such as howthe income is to be divided between you, but before your lawyer can putwhat you’ve agreed into a legal document you also need to decide what legalform the arrangements between you are going to take. There is no simpleanswer as to which is best. Each band’s needs are going to be different andyou have to look at each on its own merits. It’s important that you involveboth your lawyer and your accountant on this question, as your lawyer willbe looking to protect you from a legal viewpoint and your accountant will belooking at the financial and tax implications for you of the different types ofagreement. Your accountant will know your personal circumstances and willbe able to advise whether one type of structure works better than another foryou.The two main types of arrangement are a limited company and apartnership. There is also a subspecies called the limited liability partnershipwhich is a kind of hybrid of the two with features of a partnership, such asjoint liability for debts, but with an element of limitation on the extent of anindividual partner’s liability to third parties. This structure has been adoptedby at least one label I know of and is common amongst professionalpartnerships such as larger law firms. Ask your accountant if it could workfor your band.If you decide that the band should be a partnership then the bandagreement will usually take the form of a partnership deed. This is like alegal contract that sets out how the partnership is going to operate on a day-by-day basis and puts in writing what has been agreed about the band name,the split of earnings and so on. If you decide to become a limited companythen you’ll probably be advised to have a shareholders’ agreement, whichdoes the same thing essentially as a partnership deed but also deals withwhat happens to your shares in the company if the band splits up or one ormore members leave. At the risk of confusing things even more, it’s alsopossible for the band to take the form of a partnership or a limited company,and for the individual members to decide to set up their own company toprovide their services to the band through a company. I’ll go into this inmore detail below.LIMITED COMPANYA few years ago accountants regularly advised bands to set up a limitedcompany for some or all of the band’s services in the entertainmentbusiness. There were good tax reasons for doing so, especially the tax yearout, which was only available to employees and not to self-employedindividuals or partners in a partnership. This particular tax loophole has nowbeen closed and so the tax advantages have been considerably reduced. Thereasons now for setting up a limited company are more complex and you’regoing to have to take specialist advice from your accountant and lawyer.The main advantages are:You can spread your income (for example, a large advance) over anumber of years and therefore not have it all taxed in the year in whichyou get it.It may be a more tax-efficient way of distributing income to bandmembers.It might protect you from legal actions because anyone bringing suchan action would have to sue the company in the first instance.Also, if a lot of the band’s income is going to be earned overseas, anoffshore company may be used to avoid paying UK tax until you decide youneed to have access to the money in the UK.Among the main disadvantages are that there are more rules governingwhat companies can and can’t do, accounts have to be published so membersof the public could find out how much you earn (although there areexemptions that allow small companies to file abbreviated accounts) andthere are also higher administration charges with a limited company.Obviously, the sooner you get advice and decide on the band structurethe better. If you leave it too late and try and put the structure in place afteryou’ve already entered into contracts, things get much more complicated. Ifyou’ve already done a record deal as individuals and you then decide you’regoing to have a limited company, the record deals would have to be‘novated’ (i.e. renewed) in the name of the company. Also, if you’ve alreadyreceived some money as an individual, this might jeopardise a scheme totake money out of the country or may result in the Inland Revenue decidingyou should be taxed as individuals, regardless of the existence of the limitedcompany.On a more basic level, if you decide halfway through the negotiation of arecord or publishing deal to change the structure, the business affairs personat the record or publishing company isn’t going to find this very funny, asthey’ll have to redraft the contract to deal with the new structure. I wasrecently told an hour before a record contract was about to be signed with amajor record company that the deal was to be done through a limitedcompany. The record contract was with the individual. When I rang therecord company’s lawyer to let him know, he was in despair. Ten peoplewere meeting in an hour to get this contract signed – we had no time tochange it. So they had to go through a fiction that the deal was signed, drinkthe champagne and have the photos taken. Then we lawyers went away toturn it into a deal with the limited company so that it could actually besigned and the company paid the money.If you do decide on a limited company, bear in mind that you’ll have topay to get the company set up, to have the name that you want (assumingthat name is available) and you’ll have to pay the annual running costs.The band members will be the shareholders and you’ll have to agree howmany shares each member is going to have. This will probably be an equalnumber but need not be. Day-to-day decisions on the running of a limitedcompany generally require a 50%-plus majority. If it’s a two-member bandand each has 50% of the shares then each can block a decision by the other.Major decisions of the company generally require a 75%-plus majority. So,if you have a four-member band with equal shareholdings, one membercould block major changes but three could gang up on the fourth to pushthrough day-to-day decisions. To get around the problems that this couldbring, the band is usually advised to put a shareholders’ agreement in placewhich will govern how day-to-day matters are to be dealt with. Majordecisions could require unanimous agreement, otherwise three out of fourband members could vote through a major change against the wishes of thefourth. The shareholders’ agreement will also deal with what is to happen ifa member wants to leave. It will usually require that they resign as an officerof the company and that they first offer their shares to the other bandmembers. If a value for the shares can’t be agreed, an accountant is usuallybrought in as an arbitrator to decide the matter.PARTNERSHIPThis is the main alternative structure for bands at present without the limitedliability option but that may change if limited liability partnerships gainfurther ground. The band members are in partnership together for theparticular venture of being a band. All partners are treated equally andprofits and losses are shared by all. You’ll usually be advised to put apartnership agreement in writing. That agreement will decide how theventure is going to be run on a day-to-day basis, whether all partners areequal (or whether some are more equal than others) and what is to happen tothe band name if the partnership is dissolved. It will record whether anyonehas put any money (or goods, such as equipment) into the partnership and, ifso, whether the money is intended to be working capital of the business or aloan, and whether the equipment has been gifted to the partnership or is stillowned by one member and is on loan to the band. Does each band memberown the equipment he uses, for example a drum kit or a guitar? What if itwas bought with band advances – does that make it joint property? Whatabout the vocalist who has no equipment other than a microphone or two?Does he share ownership of other equipment with other band members? Thepartnership deed should also deal with these things.A partnership agreement can also deal with the question of who isentitled to what shares of the songs, the publishing advances and income.This is a very tricky subject and a very emotive one, which is why I say thatit should be dealt with at the beginning of the relationship before moneystarts to be earned from the songs (see Chapter 4).Even if you don’t have a written agreement, there can still be apartnership. The taxman will look at the reality of how you work togetherand how things like the band income are dealt with.SERVICE AGREEMENTSRegardless of the structure in place for the band, it’s possible for anindividual band member to have his own company, which we call a servicecompany. This service company is exclusively entitled to some or all of theindividual’s services in the entertainment business. The service companycan then enter into the record or publishing deal, hold shares in the band’scompany or an interest in the partnership. Record and publishing companiesare used to these arrangements and are usually happy to incorporate theminto their contractual arrangements, especially if they are told at an earlystage. They will usually want the individual to sign an agreement, called aninducement letter, to confirm that the service company is entitled to hisservices and agreeing that if the service company drops out of the picture forany reason he will abide by the contract personally.A service company is usually set up for tax reasons but the InlandRevenue looks closely at service companies, as they are often used as adevice to add weight to an individual claiming that he is self-employed andnot an employee. For example, if a record producer was engaged as an in-house producer/engineer at a recording studio, and he had a service companyand claimed he was not an employee of the recording studio, the InlandRevenue have said that they will look behind the service company at whatthe real relationship is between the producer and the studio. If all theindicators are that the relationship is actually one of an employee, then hewill be taxed as if he were an employee.1This issue often comes up when an artist engages musicians for aparticular tour or to record an album. The musicians may want to be treatedas self-employed. The musicians’ contracts have to be very carefully drawnup to establish the existence of a self-employed relationship. This isdefinitely one for the lawyers.BAND INCOMEWhatever structure you put in place, you have to decide what is to happen tothe income.Record, video, touring, merchandise and sponsorship income is usuallyshared between all band members. As we’ve seen, there are exceptionswhere a band consists of one or two core members who are signed up to therecord or publishing deal and the other members are employed to workalongside these. In such cases these ‘employed’ members are usually eitherput on a retainer or a weekly wage, or they’re employed as sessionmusicians. Session musicians are only paid when they work but, as theyaren’t usually signed up exclusively; they are free to work for others ( s e eChapter 5).While most disputes usually arise in the area of songwriting income, thisdoesn’t mean that arguments never arise in relation to recording income orindeed sometimes both.The Cure CaseLaurence Tolhurst, the former drummer and co-founder of the band TheCure, who was asked to leave the band in 1989, sued the lead singer ofthe band and their record company for damages arising out of deals donein 1986.2 Tolhurst argued that the record deal done with Fiction RecordsLimited in 1986 gave Robert Smith the lion’s share of the recordingincome and left him with ‘the crumbs’. He asked the court to agree thatthere was a partnership in place and to order Smith to account to him for50% of all profits receivable under the 1986 agreement. He also arguedthat he had been forced to enter into the 1986 agreement by undueinfluence exerted by the record company and its owner, Chris Parry. Hesaid that Mr Parry and Fiction Records should account to him for alltheir profit under the 1986 deal after an allowance for their skill andlabour.The case turned into a character attack on Tolhurst as allegationswere made that his contribution to the band’s success had declined as aresult of his drinking problems. Part of Tolhurst’s case was that hehadn’t been given enough information about the 1986 deal before hesigned it and that he hadn’t had independent legal advice. Once again wesee the familiar theme emerging – Tolhurst argued that the deal shouldbe set aside and that the court should order an account of all recordincome to determine how much he was actually entitled to.The court dismissed his claim and said that the question of undueinfluence didn’t arise because, although the record company would havebeen in a position to exercise undue influence, the terms offered werenot obviously bad. In fact, the judge thought that Tolhurst was lucky tohave been offered these arrangements at all in the circumstances, andfound that he hadn’t signed the 1986 agreement under undue influence.The fact that he hadn’t had independent legal advice didn’t affect thecourt’s decision, because the deal was not a bad one. The judge alsodecided that there was no partnership in place in respect of the 1986agreement, as Smith and Tolhurst had, in fact, come to a differentarrangement on what was to happen to the income.Disputes often arise in relation to songwriting income. There’s no problem ifall members of the band contribute equally to the songwriting process. Thenthe income from songwriting should be split equally. This is, however, rare.Much more common is the situation where only one or two members of theband write all the songs. This can give rise to two possible sources ofresentment. Those who write the songs could come to resent sharingadvances or royalties with the non-writing members of the band. Or, if thewriters don’t share the income, this then gives rise to resentment from thenon-writers, who miss out on a potentially lucrative form of income.Of course, leaving aside these tensions, there may also be argumentsabout who actually wrote what. As we saw in the Kemp case, the othermembers of Spandau Ballet brought a case against Gary Kemp arguing thatthey were entitled to a share in the publishing income as co-writers of themusic on the songs they recorded. They were unsuccessful, but there will beother arguments as to how much band members actually contribute to thecreative process by the way in which they interpret or perform the song. Ifthe contribution is a genuine one then they should be credited as a co-writer,but is their contribution the same as that of the main writers? If not, what isthe value of their contribution?What do you do if not all members of the band write and a publishingadvance comes in and the band is broke? Just imagine the tensions that couldthen occur if the main songwriter takes the publishing advance and doesn’tshare it with the others. Even if he agrees to share the advance equally withthe others, what will happen when the advances are recouped and publishingroyalties start to come through? Should the royalties then go to the mainsongwriters or continue to be divided equally? There isn’t one answer tothis, as it’s so personal to the individuals concerned. You only have to lookat the above cases to realise how important it is to try to sort this out.Here are three examples of ways in which I have seen bands deal withthis issue. There are many more possibilities.One band I know had an arrangement where one member controlled allthe songwriting and took all the publishing income. When this began tocause tensions, he volunteered to share percentages of his publishing incomefrom some songs with the other band members.I’ve also heard the story, which may be a myth, that the members of rockband Queen had an agreement where they got to be credited as writer of thesongs on the singles in turn. If true, this is very democratic, but doesn’treally deal with the problem if some of the band members are weakersongwriters and don’t write such successful songs as others in the band.A third way of dealing with it that I’ve come across is to share theadvances and royalties equally until the advances have been recouped. Afterthat, each band member would have his own account with the publisher andthe income from each writer’s contribution to the songs would then be paidinto his own account.Three very different solutions to a very ticklish issue. Whatever worksfor you should be written down as soon as possible. If circumstances change,review the arrangements and see if it would be fair to change them.ACCOUNTING AND TAXOne of the main things that cause problems with a band is tax and VAT. Inboth cases, bands often don’t keep enough money back to pay the bills. HMRevenue & Customs (the VAT man) have very heavy powers to imposepenalties on you. They are often one of the main creditors forcing a windingup of a limited company and they can and will make you bankrupt. Even ifthey give you time to pay, there will be financial penalties and interest topay. Believe me you won’t get away with it.Your accountant will advise you how much should be kept to one side fortax, and if he’s doing your books for you he’ll be able to tell you what toexpect to have to pay the VAT man. He’ll also probably advise you to keepall your receipts. You can then sort out which ones you can legitimatelyrecharge as business expenses against tax. If you haven’t kept them there isno proof. So do yourself a favour – get a cardboard box and get into the habitof throwing all your receipts into it. If you were more organised you couldhave a file divided into the months of the year and put the receipts in therelevant month. This makes life a lot easier for you or yourbookkeeper/accountant when it comes to doing the books.You’ll need a band account and, unless your accountant is doing all thebooks for you, you’ll need a basic accounting system. This could be a simplecomputer spreadsheet. In it you’d keep a record of the income you received,where it was from and what your expenses were for doing that work. So ifyou did a gig in March you’d record how much you received and how muchit cost you to do the gig (and don’t forget to keep receipts for all yourexpenses).LEAVING MEMBER PROVISIONSThese are the clauses in recording or publishing agreements with bands thatdeal with what happens if one or more members of a band leave or the banddisbands totally before the contract is over. The record or publishingcompany naturally wants to try to prevent this happening. They’ve investeda lot of money in supporting the band, making records or videos and inpromoting them around the world. The last thing they want is a band fallingapart on them. But, of course, no words in a contract are going to keep aband together if one or more of them have decided to call it a day.Individuals develop personally and creatively, and not necessarily in thesame direction as other band members. One member of the band may getmarried and have children and not want to spend as much time on the road.Or they may change their artistic style, which might be more suited to a solocareer than as a member of a band. Of course, there are also the possibilitiesthat the band members will grow to hate the sight of each other after yearson the road, or that the band just comes to the end of what it can docreatively. It used to be the case that when this happened the deal ended andthe companies moved on to the next potential big thing. Nowadays, with somuch money resting on building the reputation of an artist, when a splithappens the record or publishing company wants to be able to try andsalvage what it can of its investment. It will want to have the option to pickup the rights in any new projects that the writers or artists go into withouthaving to compete in the open market.The record company will also want to try to have the right to continue touse the name of the band that they’ve invested a lot of money in building upas a brand.Record and publishing companies will also want to have the option topick and choose whom they continue the deal with (sometimes called theRemaining Members) and whom they drop.For example, if the drummer leaves the band the record company willwant the right to continue with the remaining members of the band on thebasis that they continue to perform and record as a band. They will also wantto have a contract with any replacement drummer, who may be put on thesame terms as the remaining members or may be on a retainer basis.If the whole band splits up, the company will want the option to do newcontracts with each individual member. A publisher might only do newcontracts with those they know are writers who will probably go on to doother things. A record company may decide only to continue their deal withthe lead vocalist or other main focus of the band, guessing that they willteam up with other artists to form another band or will have a solo career.There’s usually a system built into the contract that gives the record orpublishing company a breathing space while they try to work out whatthey’re going to do. The record contract will usually give the company theoption to call for a leaving member to deliver to them demo tapes of what hewould do as a solo artist or with his new band. They will usually providestudio time for him to make these demos. The contract may also require theremaining members of the band to demo new tracks, with or without areplacement member, to see if the company think there is a future for theband or if they should drop them now. The record or publishing companymay know immediately whether they want to continue with a leavingmember or any or all of the remaining members and may come to a quickdecision. Don’t hold your breath, though – they will probably take themaximum time they have under the contract in order to look at their options.Once demo tapes have been delivered to the record company, theyusually have a month or two to decide what to do. In that time, both theleaving member and the remaining members of the band are in limbo. Theterm of the contract is usually suspended in the meantime.The record company may decide to take up an option on the leavingmember’s new project but not that of the remaining members, or vice versa.They may also decide to take up their option on the remaining members.They may decide to abandon both to their fate.For the leaving member or remaining members who are dropped fromthe contract, that is the end of their obligations to the record or publishingcompany. They don’t have to repay to the company their share of anyunrecouped balance on the account. However, their share of royalties fromrecordings made or songs written by them up to the time of the decision todrop them will continue to be applied to recoup the unrecouped balance. Thedropped artist or songwriter won’t see royalties from those recordings orsongs until that advance has been fully repaid.For example, let’s assume that there was an unrecouped balance on therecord account of £100,000 and that the record company continues withthree remaining members and drops a fourth (leaving) member. Let’s alsoassume that the band shared advances and royalties equally. The leavingmember’s share of the debt and of the royalties will be 25%. The leavingmember’s 25% share of royalties from recordings made while he was amember of the band will go to recoup £25,000 of the unrecouped £100,000debt. After that’s happened, 25% of any further royalties from thoserecordings will be paid through to the leaving member.If the record company continues with the remaining members and paysthem further advances, the leaving member’s share of royalties doesn’t getused to recoup those additional advances as he won’t have received anyshare of them. His debt is fixed at the time he is dropped from the contractby the record company, or at least it should be. This is something yourlawyer has to deal with when he negotiates the contract.The situation with the remaining members whose contracts continue isslightly more complicated. Their 75% of the royalties from those oldrecordings goes to recoup their 75% share of the unrecouped balance(£75,000 in our example). Their share of anything else that’s earned fromthe old recordings first goes to recoup any new advances they have receivedand only when both the old account and the new account is recouped willthey be paid any royalties. It also works the other way around. The royaltiesfrom their new recordings go first to recoup the new advances. Any surplusgoes to recoup their 75% share of the old debt. Only when both accounts arerecouped will they see royalties from the new recordings.If the contract continues with any remaining members, or if a newcontract is issued to the leaving member, the record or publishing companywill want to continue to have the same rights to the leaving member and/orremaining members as it had under the original recording or publishingcontracts. There are, however, one or two parts of the contract that they liketo try to change. The record company will often try to change the minimumrecording commitment from an album to singles, the rationale being thatuntil the record company knows how the new line-up will perform in themarketplace they don’t want to risk committing to make an album. Withsingles being seen as largely a promotional tool for album-based artists, ifyour music isn’t directed to the singles market you should hold out for analbum commitment.The record label will also usually want options to future albums. Thiscould either be for the number of albums left under the original deal, or forthat number plus one or two more. This should be agreed at the time therecord deal is originally negotiated, when you’ll have more bargainingpower. There’s no guarantee that the record company will want to negotiatethis with you in the middle of a leaving member/band split situation.The record royalties are usually the same as under the old agreement, butmay go back to the rate that applied in the first contract period so, if you’vereceived an increase in your royalty based either on record sales or becauseit’s later in the contract, it might go back to the rate before the increase tookeffect.The advances are usually a fraction of the advance that you would havegot for that contract period. For example, if you were a four-piece band andone of you left and you would have been entitled to £100,000 for the nextalbum, then the remaining three members will expect to be entitled to£75,000. This isn’t, however, a foregone conclusion. Your lawyer will haveto fight for it on your behalf.Because an artist walks away from the unrecouped debt and has a chanceto start again, many are actually crossing their fingers and hoping they’ll bedropped. This is a fairly short-term response though, because it will alldepend on whether they can get into a new deal. It’s certainly no reason tosplit up a band in the hope that you’ll get dropped.There are leaving member clauses that have special arrangements. Theremay be different rules on recoupment, or different levels of new advances,depending on which member of the band leaves and how ‘key’ he is seen tobe to the proceedings. They may feel that the lead vocalist/front man shouldcommand a larger advance and more preferential terms if he leaves than, saythe bassist. They may even say that they’re only interested in leavingmember rights for the key people.As you can imagine, these sorts of provisions can be very disruptive and,if it’s the band’s first deal, such arrangements ought really to be avoidedboth from the record company’s viewpoint and the band’s. At this earlystage, no one knows who is going to turn out to be the star. Who’d havethought the Genesis drummer, Phil Collins, would turn out to be an excellentlead vocalist and very successful solo artist?Different arrangements can also occur with publishing deals. Forexample, one of the four writer-performers in the band may be a prolificwriter for adverts or jingles in addition to his work for the band. In thesecircumstances, it’s possible for all four members to have separate accountsand to initially receive an equal share of the advances. It only really works ifeach writer earns an equal share of the income, as that goes first to recoupthe total band advances. After that, if this writer earns significantly morefrom his work as a jingles writer, his income from that source is onlycredited to his account. At the next accounting date he will then receive acorrespondingly larger royalty cheque.One area that will probably have to change in publishing deals aftersomeone leaves is the Minimum Commitment. If one songwriter previouslywrote 25% of an album and the others 75% and after a split both areexpected to deliver 100% of an album each then there is going to be aproblem. So in leaving member clauses in publishing deals, your lawyer willusually try to reduce the commitment to an achievable level.WHAT HAPPENS TO A BAND’S ASSETS ON A SPLIT?If there is a partnership or band agreement then that will say what happens tothe band’s assets if the band splits up or one or more members leave.If there’s no written or verbal agreement that you can prove between theband members and if they’re in a partnership, then the rather antiquatedPartnership Act 1890 will govern what happens. Essentially the partnershipis dissolved unless all partners elect that it can continue. If agreement can’tbe reached on a fair way of dealing with the assets then the partnership isdissolved and the assets have to be realised (i.e. sold) and the proceedsdivided equally between the partners. If agreement can’t be reached onwhether something such as the goodwill and reputation in the band nameshould be given a value and, if so, what value, the matter is usually referredto an accountant acting as an arbitrator. The way, if at all, that the recordcompany deals with the name in the recording agreement may helpdetermine if it has a value.If the band were not a partnership but had shares in a limited companythen the shareholders’ agreement and/or the Memorandum and Articles ofAssociation will say what is to happen. Usually, the remaining memberswould want to have the right to require the leaving member to resign fromany office as director or company secretary and also to sell his shares. Thearrangements would normally give the remaining members the right to buythose shares back at a certain price or in accordance with a fixed formula. Orit may require the shares to be valued by an independent accountant. Taxquestions could arise here, so everyone should take advice from anaccountant or a tax lawyer if a split occurs. In the absence of writtenarrangements, there is a danger that the company could become unworkable.If the leaving member is a director or a company secretary and he hasn’tbeen guilty of any wrongdoing, then without a written agreement it won’t beeasy to remove him from office. If he has service contracts, employmentadvice should be sought before terminating those arrangements. Without anagreement you can’t easily get shareholders to sell their shares and,depending on the size of their shareholding, they could block votes requiringa 75%-plus majority or, indeed, those requiring a simple 50%-plus majorityif it’s a two-man band or two or more members out of a four-piece bandhave left.Once agreement has been reached as to what to do with the band’s assets,this should be recorded in a settlement agreement, which should be drawn upby a lawyer. This is particularly important for matters such as rights to bandnames or copyrights.If no agreement can be reached, the parties are headed almost inevitablytowards litigation and the courts. Even though the reform of the legal systemin England and Wales now places considerable emphasis on conciliation andalternative dispute resolution (ADR) we still see the largely unedifyingspectacle of bands fighting it out in court.The partnership or band agreement should be very clear as to who ownswhat and who has brought what into the deal. For example, if one of the bandmembers has a Transit van that he allows the band to use then that should benoted. A band member could also have put money into the band to keep itgoing. This is either a loan to the band, with or without interest, or, morepractically, it’s a gift for the use of the partnership that they may or may notbe allowed to get back an equivalent sum if they leave. It’s also usual for theleaving band member to take with him any band equipment that heparticularly uses. This is fair, unless one person has the use of a lot ofexpensive equipment, which was paid for out of band advances. In that caseyou would expect the equipment to be valued and for each remaining bandmember to either get equipment to that value, or be paid his share of itsvalue by the leaving member who is going to take the equipment away.If a band name is genuinely closely associated with one individual thenit’s fair to say that that individual should be allowed to continue to use thename after the band splits. But as it will have been all the band members thatwill have helped to make the name successful, the person using the nameafter a band splits up should compensate the others. If a figure can’t beagreed it can be referred to an accountant to value it. In many cases,however, the name dies with the end of the band.Each band member should continue to be responsible for his share of therecord or publishing company unrecouped balance. This will usually becovered by the record or publishing deal. Once the old accounts arerecouped, the individual band members should be entitled to their agreedshare of any royalties.It’s also wise to decide whether the band members have to unanimouslyagree before something can be done with the material that they createdtogether, or if it’s going to be a majority decision. For example, a few yearsafter a band splits the record company wants to put out a G r e a t e s t H i t salbum. The record contract may give the band approval over whether therecord company can do this. The band agreement should say whether all theband members have to agree or not. The democratic thing would be to sayyes, they should. The practical thing would be to say that it has to be amajority decision, so that one person couldn’t hold a gun to the heads of theothers or their record company. The same situation arises with approvals ofthe use of material in adverts or films. My own view is that it should be adecision of all band members where this is practically possible but that, ifthe band has split up and one or more have gone out of the business andaren’t easily contactable, then the decision of the remaining members whoare in contact should prevail.Recently there has been a spate of cases and claims involving the boyband, Busted.James Bourne v. Brandon DavisBetween December 2000 and October 2001 James Bourne, MatthewSergeant, Kiley Fitzgerald and Owen Doyle composed and performedsongs together as an early line-up of the band Busted. There was nowritten agreement but the judge accepted that there was a partnership atwill just as we saw in the Frankie Goes To Hollywood case above. Thisline-up split in 2001 and James Bourne and Matthew Sergeant joined upwith Charlie Simpson to form the new Busted line-up and in March 2002this line-up signed a record deal with Universal-Island Records. As partof that deal James Bourne assigned all his performing rights in theearlier recordings to Universal-Island. This is quite common. This line-up was very successful and continued until January 2005 when it againsplit up and James Bourne went on to form a new group called Son ofDork. In August 2005 he did a new record deal with Mercury Recordsand again assigned his performing rights in performances of his beforethe date of the contract.In 2005 Brandon Davis issued a nine-track CD featuringperformances of the original line-up made in a hotel in 2001.Immediately James Bourne, Mercury Records and Universal-Islandissued proceedings for an immediate injunction alleging infringement ofMr Bourne’s performance rights and passing off by using the nameBusted in relation to these recordings. The court ordered an immediateinjunction in September 2005. In October 2005 Mr Doyle, from theoriginal line-up, purported to sell to Mr Davis all the consents necessaryin respect of his performances and assigning to him the copyright andperformer’s property rights and other rights in connection with thoserecordings. Mr Davis argued that this agreement had the effect ofassigning all the performer’s property rights of all four – on the basisthat it was partnership property and he as a partner could deal with it andbind all his partners. The judge accepted that all performers’ propertyrights could become partnership property. It would not be necessary forthere to be a formal agreement to give effect to this. Where Mr Davis’sclaim failed was because he had waited too long after they split to doanything. Four years was too long a gap to claim that Mr Doyle wasacting in the ordinary course of their partnership to sell the propertyrights of the partnership. Nor could it be seen as part of the winding upof the partnership. But even if they were partnership property they werestill held by the individuals who retained a beneficial interest so thepartnership did not have exclusive rights to dispose of the rights. At bestthey could argue that the rights should be applied for the benefit of thepartnership not of the individuals. So James Bourne was within his rightsto grant his individual performer’s rights to the record companies, MrDavis did not have the right to the rights because he knew Mr Doyledidn’t have Mr Bourne’s authority for the assignment and in any eventfor something like this the consent of all four members would have beenrequired under the Copyright Act (s 191 A(4).The main lesson to be learned from this somewhat complex legal case is thatto avoid any doubt it is best to deal, in writing, with partnershiparrangements and rights such as performer’s rights as well as copyright.But that is not the end of the disputes involving members of Busted. Twoof that original line-up – Kiley Fitzgerald and Owen Doyle – have broughtan action arguing that Universal-Island released recordings featuring theirvocal performances in the 2002 eponymous album Busted. They also claimthat they were integral in the creation of Busted including coming up withthe name and co-writing some of the band’s early hits. They claim that therewere unfairly cut out of the equation by the manager, Richard Rashman, andthat Rashman failed to fulfil his contractual commitments as a manager toprotect their interests by making them sign agreements on their departurethat greatly favoured Rashman and the remaining band members. They areclaiming a share of the royalties from the bands’ early songs and trade markuse. Unless it settles the trial is set for February 2008.CONCLUSIONSDecide on a good name for the band and protect it as far as you can.Decide on a band structure and put a written agreement in place.Decide who is going to be allowed to use the name if you split up.Make sure any leaving member clauses in your contracts are fair.Decide these things while you’re still friends.1 The Inland Revenue has issued guidelines with some quite useful examplesof what are the main indicators to someone being either employed or self-employed. It is called IR35 and can be obtained from your local InlandRevenue office.2 Tolhurst v. Smith and Others [1994] EMLR 508. Chapter 12Moral Rights and the Privacy of the Individual INTRODUCTIONMORAL RIGHTS HAVE their origins in well-established European principles oflaw aimed at protecting creative types and ensuring their works are treatedwith respect. These are also called droit moral. In this chapter I’m onlygoing to give an overview of these rights and of where they can be used.There are many books on the subject if you want to read into this further.1Moral rights are separate from copyright. In some circumstances you cankeep your moral rights when you’ve had to assign your copyright tosomeone else.In Europe it has long been felt that an artist’s rights to receive economic(i.e. financial) reward for the use of his work can be adequately protected bythe copyright laws. However, the integrity of the work itself deservesseparate protection. Hence the development of a separate droit moral. TheUK legal tradition makes economic rights more important than those ofartistic integrity. Why doesn’t the UK value the integrity of creative works,you may well ask? It’s not that we don’t give them a value. It’s a question ofemphasis and the answer lies in the cultural differences between the UK andthe rest of Europe and in the different legal histories they have.The European principles of moral rights were included in the majorinternational legal convention on intellectual property, the BerneConvention2 and, in particular, the 1948 Brussels Revision of the BerneConvention.3The UK lagged a long way behind and, indeed, the fact that we didn’tincorporate the two basic moral rights into UK law meant that for manyyears the UK was unable to fully comply with the Berne Convention.As the UK became more integrated into Europe it became clear that wewere out of step not only in not fully complying with the Berne Conventionbut also in not giving sufficient weight to these rights. The generalprinciples of harmonisation, which govern the operation of the EuropeanUnion, meant that the UK had to come in line on these moral rights. As wewill see, it did so, but in a peculiarly British fashion.The 1988 Copyright Designs & Patents Act was the first UK statute thateffectively incorporated all the principal moral rights. There had beenlimited moral rights in the 1956 Copyright Act but the 1988 Act was the onethat brought the UK in line with Europe and enabled us to comply with theprovisions of the Berne Convention.4 Since 1 February 2006 performers alsohave the legal right to be identified as the performer and to object toderogatory treatment of their recorded or broadcast performances.5The moral rights aren’t linked to who owns the copyright in the work inquestion. They may be the same person, but not necessarily. For example,you could assign your rights to the copyright in a musical work to a musicpublisher, but as the author of the work in question you could retain yourmoral rights. In fact, in law you can’t assign moral rights, they remain withyou or your beneficiaries on your death. This is intended to protect you fromunscrupulous people who may want you to assign your moral rightsalongside your copyright. However, there is more than one means to an end.If you and your fellow band members write a musical work together thenyou each have these moral rights independent of each other. Just because oneof you has decided to abandon his moral rights doesn’t mean that the rest ofyou have to.In reality, the 1988 Act merely put into law what had previously beendealt with in contracts. The crucial difference was that in a contract you canonly bind your contracting partner, whereas with moral rights you canenforce them against third parties who were not party to the contract. Forexample, you may have a clause in your contract that says you have to becredited as the composer of the music. If your publishing company forgets todo this, it’s a breach of contract and you can sue them. If, however, theworks are licensed for inclusion on a compilation album and the compilationcompany doesn’t credit you, then unless you have your moral rights youcan’t take action because the contract is between the compilation companyand your record company and not with you. If you have your moral rights,you can take action against the compilation company for breach of yourmoral right to be identified as the author, whether or not your publishingcompany wants to take any action.WHAT ARE THESE RIGHTS?There are four moral rights, but only three of them are likely to affect you.These three rights only exist in respect of copyright works.6 If a work is outof copyright then you don’t have moral rights in relation to it.THE RIGHT OF PATERNITYThe first moral right is the right to be properly identified as the author of thework or the performer when the performer’s performance is broadcast orwhen a recording of his performance is communicated to the public.7 This isalso known as the paternity right.The right is owned by the author of a copyright literary, dramatic,musical or artistic work, and the performer in relation to his performances.So, as a composer or lyricist of original songs, you would have the right tobe identified as having written the words or composed the music and as aperformer your name or stage name or the name of your group should alsobe identified in a manner likely to be noticed by the audience for yourperformance.It’s also possible that you’ll have moral rights in the artwork used for thepackaging of your records if you were the person who created that work (seeChapter 5 on artwork). You’ll notice, though, that the owners of the soundrecording copyright don’t have moral rights in that sound recording.The right exists in relation to a musical work and lyrics when that workis exploited in one of five ways:1. When the work is commercially published; this includes not only sheetmusic but also in sound recordings or as soundtracks to films.2. The issue to the public of copies of the work in the form of sound recordings.3. The showing in public of a film, the soundtrack of which includes the work.4. The issue to the public of copies of a film, the soundtrack of which includesthe work. Remember that the definition of ‘film’ will include videos andDVD.5. If a work has been adapted and the adaptation is exploited in one of theabove ways then you have the right to be identified as the author of the workthat has been adapted. If the arrangement itself is capable of copyrightprotection then the author of the adaptation may also have a right to beidentified as its author.There is now a moral right to be identified as the performer when that workis broadcast, or a recording of it is communicated to the public but there areexceptions. The requirement that the performer must be identified does notapply when it’s not reasonably practicable and it also doesn’t apply when theperformance is given for reasons relating to advertising or news reporting.What about the poor DJs who’d be in danger of breaching your moral rightsevery time they irritatingly didn’t give you a name check after playing yourrecord on the radio? There is no guidance at present as to whether it wouldbe taken as being ‘not reasonably practicable’ to name all the performers ona recording. Common sense suggests that a failure to give the group orperformers name or stage name would be a breach unless it was inadvertentbut it would not be practicable to name every performer, including sessionplayers. It may now be necessary in session musicians’ agreements tospecifically waive the moral rights to be identified.If you have moral rights in the artistic work (the artwork), that rightcomes into effect when that work is exploited in one of the following ways:1. If the work is published commercially.2. If it is exhibited in public.3. If a visual image of it is broadcast or otherwise made available to the public.4. If a film including a visual image of the work is shown in public or copies ofthe film (which will include videos and DVDs) are issued to the public.Section 77(7) of the 1988 Act sets out details of how the author is to beidentified. One example is that the author of the musical or artistic workmust be identified on each copy. This is logical: you wouldn’t want a recordcompany to be able to get around the right by identifying you on the first,say, one hundred copies issued and not on any of the rest.Assertion of the rightThere is, however, one very big ‘but’ here. In order to be able to rely on thepaternity right, you have to first have asserted that right. You may havenoticed on the inside cover of books published since 1988 that there is astatement along the lines of ‘the right of [author’s name] to be identified asthe author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988’. This is the bookpublishing world’s way of asserting the author’s right of paternity. If youwrite a song and don’t want to have the right to be identified as the authorthen you just don’t assert your moral right of paternity and you don’t insistof having a credit clause in your contracts. But why wouldn’t you want to beidentified?If you do want to be identified then you can assert your right generally –as in the statement above – or in respect of any particular act. For example,you could assert your right to be identified as the author of the musical workin the sound recording but not if that sound recording is then included in afilm. Again, you may wonder why anyone would make the distinction. Youcan choose to assert your rights in the document in which you assign anycopyright in the work, for example in an exclusive music publishing dealwhere you have to assign your rights for a period of time (see Chapter 4), oryou can do it by some other written means that brings your assertion to theattention of someone. They are then responsible if they breach your right.The problem with this is that it’s only binding on those people to whoseattention the assertion of rights is brought. For example, you could put in awritten document that you asserted your right of paternity, but if thatdocument was then put away in a drawer you wouldn’t have brought it toanyone’s attention and so couldn’t rely on your moral right later if someonefailed to identify you as the author of the work. Putting it in the assignmentdocument is the best way of ensuring that anyone who later takes anyinterest in the work assigned will have notice of your assertion of yourpaternity rights.If the musical work has been jointly written, for example by all membersof a band, then each is responsible for asserting his own right of paternity.One band member can’t take it upon himself to assert it on behalf of theothers.There are a number of exceptions.8 The most important one for you islikely to be the fact that, if the copyright is one that you created as anemployee, your employer and anyone acquiring rights from him doesn’thave to identify you as the author of that work. So, for example, if you wrotea jingle as part of your job as an employee of a jingle company then unlessthere was anything in your contract that said your employer had to give youa credit, he wouldn’t have to do so and you wouldn’t be able to rely on anyright of paternity.The integrity rightThe second moral right is the right of an author of a work or a performer in abroadcast on a recording which is then communicated to the public not tohave that work subjected to derogatory treatment (i.e. to have someone treatyour work in a way that reflects badly on the work and, indirectly, on you).9This is sometimes called the integrity right. The right is owned by the authorof a copyright literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, by the director ofa copyright film (which includes a video and DVD) and by a performer inrelation to a broadcast of his performance or where a recording of hisperformance is communicated to the public. Once again, the right onlyapplies in relation to a work that is in copyright and it doesn’t apply to soundrecordings.The right has several hurdles to it. First, you have to establish that thework has been subjected to some form of treatment, i.e. that it has beenadded to, or parts have been deleted, or the work has been altered or adaptedin some way. Something has to have been done to it. This can be as little aschanging one note or one word of the lyrics. It isn’t a treatment of a work ifall you do is put it in an unchanged form in a context that reflects badly onits author. For example, if someone uses your song as part of a soundtrackfor a porn video, that of itself isn’t a treatment of the work for the purpose ofyour moral rights. Nor is it a treatment if someone just changes the key orthe register of the music.In a case involving George Michael, the court was asked to consider thequestion of what was a treatment.10Someone had put together a megamix of George Michael’s tracks using‘snatches’ from five songs. They had also slightly altered the lyrics. Thecourt decided that this was definitely a treatment.Once you’ve established that there has been some form of treatment, youthen have to show that that treatment was derogatory. For these purposesthat means a distortion or mutilation or something that is prejudicial to yourhonour or reputation.When you’ve established both these points, you then have to look atwhether the treatment has been subjected to a particular type of use. In thecase of a literary or musical work the integrity right is infringed by:1. Publishing it commercially.2. Performing it in public, broadcasting it or otherwise making it available tothe public.3. Issuing copies to the public of a film or sound recording of, or including, aderogatory treatment of the work.In the case of an artistic work the treatment has to have been used in one ofthe following ways:1. By publishing it commercially.2. By exhibiting it publicly.3. By broadcasting or including in a service which makes available to thepublic a visual image of a derogatory treatment of the work.4. By showing in public a film including a visual image of a derogatorytreatment of a work or issuing to the public copies of such a film.In the case of a film (which includes a video or DVD) the integrity right isinfringed by a person who shows in public or includes in a cable programmeservice a derogatory treatment of a film or who issues to the public copies ofa derogatory treatment of the film.11 In the case of a performance it’s thebroadcast of the work or where a recording of a performance iscommunicated to the public. These rights also apply to online or digitalreproduction via the Internet.FALSE ATTRIBUTIONThe third right is an extension of a right that existed under the previousCopyright Act of 1956. It is the right not to have a work falsely attributed toyou. This would happen if someone says that a piece of music is written byyou or that you directed a particular film and that isn’t in fact the case. Thisfalse attribution needn’t be in writing – it can be verbal. It also needn’t beexpress – it can be implied. So someone could suggest on a televisionprogramme that you were the author of a particular piece of music when youweren’t, or could imply that you were without coming straight out andsaying so. In many ways, it is the mirror image of the right of paternity.If there has been a false attribution then it has to be applied to a workthat has been used in one of the following ways before it can be said to be aninfringement of this moral right:1. If a person issues to the public copies of a literary, dramatic or artistic workor a film in which there is a false attribution. So, for example, if the creditswrongly identify you as the author of the music, this could be aninfringement of your moral right.2. If a person exhibits in public an artistic work, or a copy of an artistic work,in or on which there is a false attribution.3. If in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, a person performs thework in public, broadcasts it or otherwise makes it available to the public,saying wrongly that it is the work of a particular person or, in the case of afilm, shows it in public, broadcasts it or makes it available to the public asbeing directed by someone who had not in fact directed it.4. Material issued to the public or displayed in public, which contains a falseattribution in relation to any of the above acts, is also an infringement. Thiscould catch publicity posters for films, or adverts in magazines for a book,or the false credit on the packaging for a recording of a piece of music.There are also rights against those who indirectly infringe this right.12 Therights extend to making available over the Internet or making digital onlinecopes of the works.PRIVACY OF PHOTOGRAPHSThe final moral right is the right to privacy in any photographs that youcommission.13 This is intended to protect against unauthorised use bynewspapers and such like of private photographs that you havecommissioned. When you’re starting out in the business this right may notbe of immediate practical interest to you. There’s always the motto thatthere’s no such thing as bad publicity. However, later in life, when you’re amegastar seeking to protect your privacy at all costs, you may remember thisright and use it against unscrupulous photographers keen to sell their souland your life to the tabloids. This right can be used alongside the privacy andconfidentiality rights that are being developed by the courts implementingthe Human Rights Act as we will see later in this chapter.OWNERSHIP OF RIGHTSAs we’ve already seen, the moral rights belong to authors – to composers ofmusical works and writers of lyrics intended to be spoken or sung withmusic and to performers on sound recordings or broadcasts of theirperformances. A record producer may have moral rights but not as theproducer but because he may have also performed on the record orcontributed to the writing of the words or music (see Chapter 5).The real beauty of these rights is that they are rights of the author orperformer, who can’t be made to assign them. A songwriter may have beenrequired to assign the copyright in his words and music to a publisher as partof a publishing deal (see Chapter 4), but he can’t be made to assign hismoral rights. If he retains his moral rights then he is in a position to takelegal action against someone infringing those rights, even if the publishingcompany wants to take no action.There are, of course, difficulties with the moral right of paternity, as youwould have to show that you had the right, that it had been infringed and thatyou had asserted the right in such a way that the person infringing it hadnotice of the assertion. If your assertion was in an assignment document andwas general in nature, you could take action against the assignee of therights and against anyone else taking an interest in the rights subsequently.This could help you take action for infringement of your paternity rightagainst your publisher or one of his sub-publishers, but not so easily againstsomeone who was acting unlawfully.The other moral rights do not have to first be asserted.DURATION OF RIGHTSThe paternity and integrity rights last for as long as copyright exists in thework in question. The same applies to the right of privacy in commissionedphotographs and films.14 After a person’s death, the right to take action forinfringement passes to whomever he specifically directs. This can be morethan one person. The right against false attribution lasts until twenty yearsafter the person’s death. If there is an infringement after his death then hispersonal representatives can take action. It’s not a criminal offence toinfringe your moral rights but, if proven, you have the right to seekinjunctions and/or damages. Most importantly, you can exercise a degree ofcontrol over what’s being done with your work.THE CATCHThere is, though, one other big problem with these rights and it has beendealt with in a peculiarly British way. You’ll recall that the two main moralrights were first introduced into UK law in 1988 in order to enable the UK tofully comply with the requirements of the Berne Convention. TheConvention said that the laws of signatory countries ought to contain theauthor’s moral rights. There was, however, nothing in the Convention thatprevented a country incorporating the rights into its laws but then makingconcessions to other economic interests. This is exactly what happened inthe UK. It arose largely as a result of intensive lobbying by the powerfulrecord and publishing interests in this country. It is also a result of the long-standing laissez-faire tradition that we spoke of earlier. In the UK we stillfavour economic interests over author’s rights. So what happened was that,having included the rights in the 1988 Act, the law then went on to say thatthe author could then elect to waive his rights, to agree not to assert the rightof paternity or to enforce any of the other rights. The waiver must be inwriting and signed by the person giving up the right. The waiver can be for aspecific work, for works within a specific description or works generally. Itcan apply to existing and future works, can be conditional or unconditionaland can be revocable. The same points would now also apply to the moralrights of performers.What was the consequence of this waiver provision? I’m sure you canguess. As soon as the industry realised these rights could be waived, allcontracts were changed to include as standard a waiver of these rights in thewidest possible terms. Clauses were included which provided for anabsolute, unconditional and irrevocable waiver of any and all moral rights ofwhatever kind in relation to all existing or future works. They even put themin record contracts where there was little or no chance of the right existing inthe first place.CONCLUSIONSo why bother discussing these rights if you’re going to have to waive themanyway? Once again, it comes down to bargaining power. If creativecontrols are important to you then you could try and insist on not having towaive them. If you’re forced to waive your moral rights then try and onlywaive them against uses of your works by properly authorised people. Tryand retain the right to enforce your moral rights against unlawful users ofyour works and infringers of your rights.If you’re made to waive your rights, your lawyer will then usually usethat as a lever to try and get some of the benefits of the rights through theback door. It helps us to negotiate more favourable credit clauses for youand to cover what happens if you aren’t properly credited. We rely on theintegrity right to get you contractual consents as to what can or can’t be donewith your work. For example, that your words and music can’t be changedwithout your consent.PRIVACY OF THE INDIVIDUALI’ve been talking in this book (in Chapters 8 and 9 in particular) about howyou capitalise on your fame and fortune – but there is another side to thecoin. What rights does a famous person have to prevent others from cashingin on his fame and intruding into his private life? Can celebrities protecttheir privacy? What happens if the press gets too intrusive?There are two opposing schools of thought at work here. On the onehand, you could argue that personalities have worked hard to create theirfame; why shouldn’t they be able to benefit from the results of this hardwork and control what others do with that celebrity? On the other hand,some consider that the fame of a personality is created by the public – it issociety at large that decides whether or not an individual is famous or not, sotheir name and image should belong to the public.The courts of different countries adopt different approaches. In the USit’s much easier to protect your personality and the publicity associated withit. In the UK the courts have, for over half a century, adopted the approachthat if you choose to go into an arena where you get fame and maybefortune, then your name and reputation is a matter of public interest andpublic property.The cases on the laws of passing off that we discussed earlier clearlyshow that the courts are not keen on assisting famous personalities to clearthe market of ‘unofficial’ merchandise (see Chapter 8). So, if there is notrade mark or copyright infringement and no breach of the TradeDescriptions Act, what can you do? Well, in most western Europeancountries you’ll find that the law gives you a much broader protection,indeed a right of privacy.The Petula Clark CaseOne of the first French cases involved Petula Clark, who had authorisedan agency to interview and photograph her for a particular publication.The agency concerned, however, sold the photographs to another agencythat used them in a weekly publication. Petula Clark was successfullyawarded damages by a French court proportional to the loss of theopportunity to earn revenue from the publication of the photographs.This line of approach has been consistently followed in France but not inthe UK.The Eddie Irvine CaseA very different case, involving the racing driver Eddie Irvine, has givensome hope that the courts are starting to acknowledge that there is acommercial value in the named image of a well-known individual, whichthe individual is entitled to protect.15Talksport produced a limited run advert with a doctored picture ofEddie Irvine showing him seeming to hold a radio, not a mobile phone,in his ear with a ‘tag’ line that suggested he supported a particular sportradio station.Irvine brought an action for damages for passing off and argued thathe had a substantial reputation and goodwill and that the defendant hadcreated a false message that a not insignificant section of the publicwould take to mean that Irvine had endorsed the radio station. The radiostation argued that there was no freestanding right to characterexploitation enjoyable exclusively by a celebrity, and a passing off claimcouldn’t be based on an allegation of false endorsement.The court agreed with Irvine and held that an action for passing offcould be based on false product endorsement. The judge recognised thefact that it was common for famous people to exploit their names andimages by way of endorsement in today’s brand-conscious age, not onlyin their own field of expertise, but a wider field also. It was right,therefore, for valuable reputation to be protected from unauthorised useby other parties. The fact that the brochure had only had a limiteddistribution was not relevant. Even if the damage done may be negligiblein direct money terms, the court accepted that potential long-termdamage could be considerable.The 118 case referred to in the chapter on branding also suggests theregulators are beginning to accept in some circumstances that there is valuein a person’s image which they are entitled to protect.The implementation of the Human Rights Act into UK law in 2000attracted much interest among personalities and those advising them as theythought it might afford them more protection.The Human Rights Act gives an individual the right to respect for hisprivate and family life, home and correspondence. This must, however,according to the Human Rights Act, be balanced against the importance offreedom of expression and of the press. The courts are required to performthis balancing act.The introduction of the law saw a flood of cases, some juicy onesinvolving stories of sex and drugs. Others were less tabloid in nature, butboth sorts centred on the very serious question of the right to privacy. Hereis a selection of some of those cases:The Michael Douglas Case16This involved a claim by actor Michael Douglas and the publishers ofOK! magazine that Hello! breached his privacy by secretlyphotographing his wedding to Catherine Zeta-Jones and publishing thephotographs ahead of the exclusive that had been given to OK!Three judges reviewed the history of the developing law ofconfidence, not privacy, and the effect, if any, of the introduction of theHuman Rights Act 1998. They considered the acceptance of a right toappropriate protection of one’s personal privacy as an extension of thelaw of confidence – placing a fundamental value on personal autonomy.The court declined to expand on a new right of privacy saying that MrDouglas and OK! had sufficient protection under existing laws ofconfidence.The earlier CA case of Kaye v. Robertson was not followed on thebasis that the law had moved on to develop a law of privacy without theneed for first establishing the relationship of confidentiality, whichsometimes had to be done very artificially.On balance, they decided Mr Douglas had a right to privacy, eventhough he had waived that right by agreeing a deal for publication ofphotographs of the event in question, his wedding.The legal saga continued with £14,500 damages being later awardedto Mr Douglas and Ms Zeta-Jones and just over £1million to OK! for thecommercial damage.Hello! then announced it would appeal the amount of damagesawarded and the decision of the House of Lords in May 2005 was thatwhilst Douglas and Zeta-Jones were entitled to damages for breach oftheir right of privacy OK! was not also entitled to damages. This wasboth a significant blow to OK! which had anticipated £1m in damagesand the bulk of its legal costs and one which has created a huge hole inthe case law which was thought to protect a magazine from a ‘spoiler’story run by a rival. It would seem that protection is not available underthe privacy or confidentiality laws in those circumstances. Unless thereis an appeal to the European Court this would seem to be the end of thisparticular saga but we can expect more cases in this area as magazinesseek to establish the extent of what they can or cannot protect in terms ofexclusives.Ms Dynamite CaseIn 2003 Ms Dynamite sought to rely on her right to privacy under Article8 of the Human Rights Act and complained to the Press ComplaintsCommission that the Islington Gazette had published information whichmade it possible to identify the location of her home, against the PCCCode of Conduct. The PCC upheld her complaint and found that theCode had been breached. But whilst this may have acted as a sharp slapon the wrist to The Islington Gazette without stiff financial penalties inthe form of compensation it lacks bite.The courts have shown more of a tendency to grant injunctions in the area ofprivacy than, for example, libel. This fact, together with the hope ofcelebrities for an improvement in their right to privacy from intrusivepaparazzi and tabloid reporters, has led to several new cases in this area.The Footballer Case17A footballer wanted to prevent the publication of kiss-and-tell stories bygetting an injunction against a newspaper. The court had to balance theinterests of the individual against freedom of speech and decide whetherthere was a public interest to be served in allowing publication. Theydecided that, on balance, they wouldn’t prevent publication.This case made it clear that nearly all intrusions on privacy will be dealtwith in the area of breach of confidence. This seems to be a move away fromthe Douglas case, which clearly wished to establish a separate law ofprivacy. By returning to this law of confidence, it will be necessary forcelebrities to show that the information was obtained in confidentialcircumstances. The case also seems to show the court’s sympathies tippingin favour of freedom of the press, while stressing the need for a balancingact between privacy of the individual and the public interest. By that, I don’tmean that just because it’s a piece of juicy news that it’s in the publicinterest, but that public figures have to accept that their activities do, insome circumstances, make it in the public’s interest that they be writtenabout, whether they like it or not.This approach seems to have been followed in other cases brought bycelebrities.The Jamie Theakston CaseAnother celebrity caught, as it were, with his trousers down, was the TVpresenter and actor Jamie Theakston, who visited a brothel and wasphotographed by one of the women there, who then threatened to sell herstory to the press, apparently because he failed to pay for servicesrendered.18 Theakston sought an injunction to stop her. The courtapplied the rules on confidence and decided that the woman owed himno duty to keep the matter secret and that the public interest was servedby a story that he had visited this place. They also ruled, though, thatthat interest didn’t go so far as photographs, and made an orderpreventing the publication of the photographs.The Naomi Campbell Case19The first of the privacy cases to come to trial after the implementation ofthe Human Rights Act was one brought by the supermodel NaomiCampbell against the Daily Mirror. The Mirror intended to publishdetails of Ms Campbell’s drug addiction. She sought an injunction t oprevent them. The court decided that, while there was a public interest inknowing of her addiction (she had, apparently, previously proclaimed ananti-drugs stance), this didn’t extend to details of her therapy withNarcotics Anonymous. It granted her an injunction for breach ofconfidentiality, but awarded the very low sum of £3,500 in damages – asignal that the court didn’t think much of her behaviour. The judge wentso far as to say, ‘I’m satisfied that she lied on oath.’ This was a clearcase where the damage caused by the publicity surrounding the case andher evidence in court outweighed that caused by the original article.Appeals took the case right to the House of Lords where in May 2004 theoriginal decision stated above was upheld by the Law Courts on a 3 to 2majority decision.There is clearly still a legal tightrope to walk between what it is legitimateto publish and what oversteps the mark. The law is still developing andoccasional inconsistencies remain.Sebastian Coe Case20Shortly after the House of Lords decision in the Naomi Campbell case,Sebastian Coe brought a High Court action seeking an injunction againsta newspaper publishing details of his mistress’s abortion. As this wasprivate medical information which the courts had declared suitable forprotection in Ms Campbell’s case he might have expected to succeed buthe did not.Sara Cox v. The People newspaper21DJ Sara Cox sued The People newspaper after it published nude shots ofher and her boyfriend, John Carter, on their honeymoon whilst relaxingon a private beach. The action was settled with an award of £50,000 indamages.The Elizabeth Jagger Case22In March 2005 Elizabeth Jagger brought a claim for an injunction in theHigh Court to prevent further publication of CCTV footage of her ‘heavypetting’ near the doorway of a nightclub with her then boyfriend CallumBest. The judge agreed she had a right to privacy and that when balancedagainst public interest he thought it came down firmly on the side ofprivacy in this case.As in many other areas of English law, much can depend on the individualjudge who hears your case. In this country the press is self-regulated by thePress Complaints Commission.A 2006 case involving a Canadian musician helped to put to rest some ofthe inconsistencies and set some guidelines for where to draw the linebetween the need for privacy and the desirability of a free press.Niema Ash v. Loreena McKennitt23Although perhaps not a household name here Ms McKennitt was a verysuccessful Canadian folk singer who toured internationally. In 2005 afriend (or perhaps more correctly former friend) of hers, Niema Ash,published a book she had written entitled Travels with LoreenaMcKennitt: My Life as a Friend. Ms McKennitt claimed that the bookcontained a great deal of personal and private information about her lifewhich she was entitled to keep private. Ms McKennitt was someone whotook pains to protect her reputation and privacy. She was relying on theduty of confidence to keep private and business affairs private. Shesucceeded in this claim first time round but Ms Ash appealed.The Court of Appeal decision is useful to lawyers because itsummarises the present state of the law of privacy and confidence.English law does not have a right to sue for invasion of privacy so thecases have to be brought as breaches of confidence. That area of law alsoencompasses the provisions of the Human Rights Act but in ways thatare not always comfortable. A balance has to be drawn between the rightof an individual not to have his private information misused as againstthe right of freedom of expression. In addition the court has to considerwhether the individual complaining of misuse of private information hada reasonable expectation of privacy. This latter requirement is behindsome of the inconsistent decisions above. The judges sometimes findthat the claimant’s own behaviour has led to them foregoing thisexpectation of privacy. An example might be if a film star used hisfamily to promote an image of a happy family man he might then havegiven up his right to expect to prevent others from publishing pictures ofhim with his family.Ms McKennitt passed the first hurdle in that the Court of Appealjudges found that the information was of a personal nature that did fallwithin the category of private information. Ms Ash had, ratheringeniously, argued that it could not be private to Ms McKennitt becauseshe had shared the same experiences. But the judges rejected this line ofargument. They thought that the book wasn’t about Ms Ash’sexperiences but those of Ms McKennitt and so was not being used as anexpression of her personal experiences.The judges also decided that in this case merely because MsMcKennitt sought publicity for herself she hadn’t lost all right to protectherself against publicity that she didn’t like.So having decided this was private information that she was entitledto protect the court then had to decide if that right was outweighed bythe right of freedom of expression.The judges found here that the freedom of expression didn’tautomatically outweigh the right of privacy. Each case had to be lookedat in detail. In this case they found that Ms Ash did not have her ownstory to tell, only that of Ms Mckennitt and just because it had as it werecome into the public domain by being told to Ms Ash by Ms McKennittdid not mean Ms McKennitt had lost her expectation that thatinformation would be kept private. It might I think have been different ifMs McKennitt had already given a ‘warts and all’ interview to anewspaper.Ms Ash thought that she had the right to expose what she saw as MsMcKennitt’s hypocrisy in the difference between her public and privatelife. The judges disagreed that there were any special circumstances thatwould justify the revealing of that private information. A charge ofhypocrisy alone was not enough of a reason. And in any event they foundon the facts that Ms McMennitt was not in fact a hypocrite.On the other hand the court also made clear that there was noautomatic right to a private life by a person in the public eye but that insome circumstances there were areas of their lives that they wereentitled to keep private. Special circumstances would need in future tobe shown if for example the private life of a football player were to bemade public without his consent. Special circumstances would bematters that fell within the area of political or public debate and wouldnot therefore normally apply to the private lives of individuals, evenpoliticians and those in the public eye.Exactly a week later the Court of Appeal handed down its judgement in theappeal by Associated Newspapers to be permitted to publish extracts fromthe Prince of Wales’ private journals.Associated Newspapers Ltd v. HRH Prince of Wales24In some respects this case looks to be obvious but it nevertheless endedup in the Court of Appeal. This is probably a reflection of the amount ofmoney newspapers can make from stories of a revealing nature as wellas the fact that this is a still developing area of law where the pressperhaps senses a chance to gain some ground in the privacy versus pressfreedom battle.Prince Charles kept handwritten journals (eight in total) containinghis impressions and views in the course of his overseas visits in theperiod between 1993 and 1999. An employee of the Prince’s providedcopies of the journals to the Mail on Sunday who published substantialextracts relating to a visit to Hong Kong in 1993, including commentswhich were disparaging of certain Chinese dignitaries he had met. Heractions were a breach of her employment contract. Prince Charles suedher on two grounds, breach of copyright and breach of confidence. Onthe breach of confidence case the issues were essentially the same as inMs McKennitt’s case outlined above. Was the press freedom ofexpression enough justification to override the Prince’s right of privacyin his private life?The court which first heard the case thought it did not and gavejudgement to the Prince. The newspaper appealed.Once again the Court of Appeal judges outlined the state of thecurrent laws of confidence and in this case also discussed the extent towhich the employee was in a position of confidence such as to fairly andreasonably recognise that the information was private.Once again there was the question of the balance of interests to beweighed but also in addition the Court of Appeal felt they had toconsider how this weighed up when you also took into account that theinformation had been obtained as a result of a breach of a confidentialrelationship based on a contract – here an employment contractIn this case both the fact that the employee had a contract whichcontained a clause obliging the employee to keep the contents of thejournal confidential and the balance in favour of even the heir to thethrone having a right to keep his thoughts private fell in the Prince’sfavour. No one is so famous that they have lost all right to a private life.CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTSWhat this last case in particular highlights is if a confidential relationshipdoes exist (for example, between a celebrity and his housekeeper, driver orbodyguard), then it’s important that there is a confidentiality agreement putin place. This will make the extent of the confidentiality clear and confirmthat such matters will remain confidential. This will add a claim for breachof contract to that of confidence.However, it doesn’t always go the way of the celebrity.The Beckhams v. Gibson25In April 2005 David and Victoria Beckham brought an action in the HighCourt to prevent further disclosures by a former nanny, Abbie Gibson,about their marriage and private life. There was a confidentialityagreement in place which the Beckhams claimed had been breached. Thejudge refused to grant the injunction but when the matter came beforethe courts the former nanny voluntarily undertook not to release anyfurther information pending a full hearing. In many cases this is usuallythe end of the matter.HARASSMENT ACTIONSApart from seeking court orders in the civil courts for injunctions,celebrities can, and do, seek the involvement of the police to prevent theactivities of paparazzi and reporters whose activities border on that ofstalking. They rely on legislation introduced in the 1990s to prevent privateindividuals from being hounded or stalked. If the police can be persuaded toget involved, they can be very effective in ‘moving on’ recalcitrant membersof the press. If they won’t, then private criminal actions are possible,although such cases rarely come to trial as the celebrity would have to giveevidence and many are reluctant to do so. Whether it’s a police or privatecriminal case, the court is going to want to see detailed evidence of theextent of the harassment, so private detectives are often hired to producephotographs of the paparazzi hounding the celebrity, and his private securitystaff are often called upon to produce detailed statements of the extent of theharassment. Many of these paparazzi are freelance and make their moneyfrom selling stories and photos to the highest bidder. ‘Exclusives’ can netthem tens of thousands of pounds in syndication rights worldwide. N owonder they are keen, and no wonder that many celebrities are forced eitherinto almost total isolation in the UK or to move overseas, France and the USbeing particular favourites, where the privacy laws are stronger.CONCLUSIONSTry to retain your moral rights if you can.Assert your right to be identified as an author of a work early and aswidely as you can.If you have to waive your moral rights, use this to get improvedcreative controls in the contract.Put confidentiality agreements in place with those who work closestwith you.Consider harassment actions if intrusion becomes too much.Before embarking on privacy/breach of confidence actions, considerwhether the potential bad publicity of a trial could outweigh anyadvantages gained.1 See Copinger & Skone-James on Copyright, (15th edition Sweet &Maxwell, 2005) for a more detailed legal description of UK moral rights.2 It first appeared in the 1925 Rome Treaty.3 Article 6 bis of the 1948 Brussels Revision to the Berne Conventioncontains two basic moral rights: the right to be identified as an author of awork and the right not to have that work distorted, mutilated or otherwisealtered in a manner which would be prejudicial to the author’s honour orreputation.4 The moral rights are found in Chapter 4 of the Act in sections 77–89. Theremedies are found in section 103ff.5 The Performances (Moral Rights,etc.) Regulations 2006.6 Sections 178 and 1(2) CDPA.7 Section 77 CDPA.8 Section 79 CDPA.9 Section 80 CDPA.10 Morrison Leahy Music v. Lightbond, 1993 EMLR 144.11 See section 83 CDPA for details of other persons who could be liable forinfringement of this right and section 81 CDPA for exceptions.12 Section 84(3) CDPA.13 Section 85 CDPA.14 Section 86(1) CDPA.15 Irvine and Anr v. Talksport Limited Chancery Division 13/03/02.16 Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Northern & Shell Limited v.Hello! Ltd. [2001] EMLR 199.17 A v. B & C [2002] EMLR 21.18 Theakston v. MGN Ltd [2002 QBD] EMLR 22.19 Campbell v. MGN Ltd [ 2004] UKHL 22.20 The Guardian 7 June 2004.21 The Guardian 9 June 2003.22 The Times 10 March 2005.23 Niema Ash v. Loreena McKennitt [2006] EWCA Civ 1714 (14 December2006).24 Asoociated Newspapers Limited v. His Royal highness, the Prince ofWales [2006] EWCA Civ 1776 (21 December 2006).25 The Times, 17 May 2005. Chapter 13Sampling And Plagiarism INTRODUCTIONSAMPLING AND PLAGIARISM are two sides of the same problem. Plagiarism isthe taking of someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own.Sampling is essentially the same thing but the subtle difference betweenthem is that to be guilty of plagiarism you need to show that someone hadaccess to your material and that it was not just coincidence that it soundsvery similar to your work. Sampling is always only a deliberate act. Theperson doing the sampling deliberately takes parts of someone’s work andthen, possibly after manipulating it, includes it in their own work.1 Bothsampling and plagiarism are infringements of copyright. 2 If you sample theactual sound itself by copying the digital recording, this is an infringementof the sound recording copyright. 3 If you don’t actually make a copy of thesound recording copyright, you could take the piece of music that you’reinterested in using and get someone to replay it, to re-perform it in anidentical way. This is still sampling, but it would then only be aninfringement of the musical copyright in the music and the literary copyrightin the words.4Is sampling theft? Many people argue that all cultural evolution is basedon taking bits of existing popular culture and adapting and changing them.They argue that all new musical genres ‘borrow’ or are influenced by earlierones. R&B from gospel, and rock ’n’ roll from R&B and so on. Those thatbelieve this think that clamping down on sampling stifles this growth. Theywould be in favour of the removal of all restrictions on using parts ofsomeone else’s copyright.This is all very well, but if you were to take this to its logical conclusionthen no one would be able to protect their work, music would be devaluedand people wouldn’t be able to make a living from their work. Surely that’slikely to lead to less creativity rather than more? I believe that it’s wrong todeliberately take someone else’s work without their permission, withoutpaying them anything for it and without giving them proper credit.HOW MUCH IS A SAMPLE?Although sampling has been around since the 1960s, there’s still an awful lotof confusion about what is a sample. A lot of people think that just becausethey’ve only sampled a couple of notes or a few seconds of someone else’swork they haven’t sampled it at all. That simply isn’t true. What the 1988Copyright Act says is that there has to have been copying of a ‘substantialpart’.5 It’s a question of the quality of the part sampled and not the quantity.There are a number of cases where the courts have considered what is a‘substantial part’.Colonel Bogey CaseIn the case of Hawkes & Son,6 Paramount had included the sound of the‘Colonel Bogey’ military march in a newsreel. They used 28 bars ofmusic lasting about 20 seconds. The question was whether twentyseconds out of a four-minute piece was a substantial part. The musicperformed by the band made up the main theme of the march. The courtclearly looked at the quality of what had been copied as well as thequantity and found that an infringement of copyright had taken place.Judge Slesser said, ‘Though it may be that it was not very prolonged inits reproduction, it is clearly, in my view, a substantial, a vital, and anessential part which is there reproduced.’The Beloved Case7So, could something shorter than twenty seconds constitute a sample?The band The Beloved sampled eight seconds of a recording of apiece called ‘O Euchari’. The sample was repeated several times in TheBeloved’s track, ‘The Sun Rising’. The sound recording of aperformance by Emily Van Evera of the work had been sampled.Hyperion owned the rights in that sound recording and sued. At apreliminary hearing, the judge gave his opinion that an eight-secondsample was not too brief to constitute a substantial part. He wanted thematter to go to a full hearing. However, as happens with so manysampling cases, Hyperion settled out of court and permission to use thesound recording sample was given retrospectively.The ‘Macarena’ CaseA claim was brought by Produce Records Limited, that the dance hit‘Macarena’, which had been released by BMG Records, infringed thecopyright in a sound recording by The Farm called ‘Higher and Higher’.The sample consisted of a short sound made by the vocalist Paula David,which Produce alleged had been used or ‘looped’ throughout‘Macarena’.Because so few sampling cases get to court, a lot rested on this case.If it went to a full court hearing and the court confirmed that such a shortsample could constitute a substantial part, this would be a firm rulingthat could be relied on in later disputes. After such a judgement it wouldbe very difficult to rely on the widely held view that three seconds is theminimum amount necessary to constitute a substantial part. It was moreimportant as a potential guideline for samplers than it was for BMG towin this particular case. A decision that the part sampled didn’tconstitute a substantial part would mean success for the record company,but it wouldn’t necessarily have given any guidance on what is asubstantial part. Each subsequent sampling case would continue to bedecided on a case-by-case basis. On the other hand, if the case had goneagainst BMG and such a short sample had been said to be a substantialpart then BMG would have lost this particular case, but all recordcompanies would also have lost the argument that such a small samplecouldn’t constitute an infringement of copyright. BMG settled out ofcourt on terms that remain confidential. Possibly the potential downsidewas too great.The question also comes up from time to time as to whether you can samplea rhythm or a drumbeat. I would argue that you can if it can be shown to beoriginal and distinctive and if a substantial part has been copied. There are,of course, only so many rhythms in popular music and many drum and basslines used currently are, in fact, the same as have been used in earlier works.This is particularly true in the area of reggae music. Inevitably there is goingto be duplication. I tend, however, to agree with Aaron Fuchs. He’s the manbehind an eight-beat drumbeat used in the classic hip-hop track by TheHoneytrippers, ‘Impeach the President’. In 1992 he brought legal actionsagainst Sony and Def Jam alleging that this particularly drum sound is oneof the more distinctive in the hip-hop genre and worthy of the protection ofcopyright. I can find no report of that case coming to court, so I presume itwas settled out of court like so many of these cases.In the United States the courts are handing down decisions that suggestthey are leaning towards giving protection to a distinctive or unique ‘sound’.The rap artist Dr Dré has been both successful and on the receiving endin court proceedings, perhaps reflecting the nature of the rap/hip-hop genreof music.In 2003 Indian composer Bappi Lahiri won a court injunction halting thesale of the debut album by Truth Hurts – a protégé of Dr Dré and signedto his label, Aftermath Records. Lahiri argued that the hit song‘Addictive’ contained a four minute sample of one of Lahiri’s songs,‘Thoda Restiam Lagta Hui’, which Lahiri had composed for a film in1987. Lahiri sought proper credit for the use of his work andcompensatory damages.In 2005 a songwriter, Michael Lowe, brought a copyrightinfringement action arguing that the track ‘X’ on rap star Xzibit’ssuccessful album Restless used a beat created by Lowe. Dr Dré wasnamed as a co-defendant because he was one of the co-authors of ‘X’.Lowe argued unsuccessfully that he had created and recorded the beatand gave it to a record producer, Scott Storch, in the hope that he wouldpass it on to Dr Dré. Storch denied this. However, Lowe admitted that hedid not expect to be paid anything in return for the beat. The judgedecided that on that basis he couldn’t then sue for payment and didn’trule on the facts of the use of the beat itself.8HOW DO YOU CLEAR A SAMPLE?If it’s clear that you’ve sampled someone else’s work then this is aninfringement of their copyright – unless you get their permission to copy andreproduce their work. If you don’t, they could sue you for damages for thecopyright infringement and also for an injunction stopping you fromcontinuing to use that sample. As you can imagine, record companies aren’tvery happy about having an artist who samples material from others anddoesn’t get their permission. It’s very expensive for the record company ifthere’s an injunction and they have to recall all the copies of the single oralbum and remove the offending sample before re-cutting, re-mastering andre-issuing the record. In fact, if it’s too expensive they may not botherredoing it and just kill the single or album. That isn’t a very good solutionfor you, so it’s best to get permission to use any samples. This is called‘clearing’ samples.Most record contracts, whether they’re exclusive recording agreementsor licences, will have a clause in them that says you are guaranteeing that allsamples are cleared before the recording is delivered to them. This makes itclear that it is your responsibility. This is only fair if you’re the one who putthe sample in there in the first place. But bear in mind that producers andremixers also have the opportunity to introduce samples into the recording atvarious stages in the process. Their contract should make them responsiblefor clearing any samples that they introduce. Sometimes it’s the recordcompany that has the idea that including a particular sample will turn a goodsong into a great monster hit. If the record company is encouraging you toinclude a sample then they have to take responsibility for clearing it,possibly as an additional recording cost. That cost may or may not berecoupable, depending on the deal.In a case on this point, the judge (Terence Etherton QC) had sympathyfor the defendant.9The Walmsley CaseWalmsley had recorded a track that contained two sound-recordingsamples. The track was licensed to Acid Jazz and the contract requiredAcid Jazz to pay royalties to Walmsley. Walmsley gave a warranty thatthe copyright in the track was free from any third-party claims. Why hesigned such an agreement is unknown, but part of the explanation maybe that he didn’t pay much attention to it, as we will see. Acid Jazzrefused to pay any royalties, even though the track was a chart success.Acid Jazz said the track had given rise to a number of disputes and that ithad had to pay out monies in settlement. It said that it was relying on itswarranty, which it said Walmsley had breached. Walmsley’s evidencewas that he’d told Acid Jazz at the time of the agreement andsubsequently of the samples, and had been told by Acid Jazz that nolicences were required and, if any were to be sought, Acid Jazz would doit.The judge found that Acid Jazz owed the royalties to Walmsley and,although Walmsley was in breach of contract, Acid Jazz was notpermitted under equitable principles to rely on it because it had had fullknowledge of the true position from the outset.With some types of music, particularly in the dance, electronic, hip-hoparenas, the record company is fully aware that there will be samples and willoften help to clear them. This can be an advantage, as they can use theirgreater resources and clout to pull favours and get things cleared quickly.This clout can have its downsides. If you’re a small, struggling dance labelthat asks to clear a sample, the person whose work is sampled is less likelyto ask for large amounts of money than if you were EMI or a Sony BMG forexample.WHEN SHOULD YOU SEEK PERMISSION?Ideally, you should try and get clearance before you’ve recorded the sample.Then if you don’t get permission you haven’t wasted recording costs andtime. In reality, this won’t usually be possible. It can take time to track downthe owners of the work sampled to find out who you have to ask forpermission. Even once you find them they may take their time in gettingback to you. You may then have to negotiate terms for the clearance. In themeantime you can’t get on with finishing the recording of that track. Thiscould hold up delivery of the record and its eventual release. Also, you’regoing to need a recording of what the sampled work is going to sound like inyour version of it, even if it’s only a demo. In practice therefore, theclearance process takes place after the recording has been made or duringthe recording process. Sometimes it’s left until the record has beendelivered. I think this is too late to start the clearance process. Some feelersshould have been put out beforehand, at least to find out who owns it and toget an idea of whether they’re likely to give you a problem.Most record contracts and licences will say that delivery of a recordinghasn’t taken place until evidence has been produced (usually in the form ofclearance letters or agreements) that all samples have been cleared. If youhaven’t used any samples they will want you to give a warranty (a sort ofguarantee) to that effect. Until delivery has taken place, it’s unlikely thatyou’ll get any advances due to be paid on delivery (see Chapter 3). Nor willtime start to run for your record to be released and the marketing plan won’tbe put into action. Therefore, the sooner samples are cleared the better.Some people say that they’re willing to take a risk that the use of asample won’t be spotted. They think that if it’s sufficiently obscure orhidden in the track, the sample won’t be discovered. Well, it’s just possiblethat you could get away with it if it was a limited edition low-key release.For example, if you were only going to press up 1,000–5,000 copies of therecord for release on your own small dance label then you might be lucky.Even if it were spotted, the copyright owner of the sample may not bother totake any legal action because the amounts involved and the legal costs andhassle of suing you wouldn’t warrant it. But what happens if a bigger recordcompany licenses your track in and gives it a big marketing push? Or if youmake it a big success in your own right and find you’re licensing it to loadsof different compilations? If you haven’t cleared it and you’re found outyou’ll end up with a big problem on your hands, because now the copyrightowner of the sampled work has an incentive for taking you to court. Thebigger record company that has licensed the track from you may get sued bythe sample owner. The record company will in turn usually have anindemnity from you. This means that, if they are sued, they can make youresponsible for the damages and costs involved because you’ve breachedyour warranty that there were no uncleared samples in the recording. Bylying to them you may also have irretrievably damaged your relationshipwith that label for the future. Is it worth the risk? That is for you to judge. Itis also much easier with the Internet to find tracks which might once havebeen obscure, low-key releases. Whilst this has its advantages if you arelooking to launch your career online it has significant disadvantages if youwere hoping to keep your track low key. Personally I really don’t think it’sworth the risk and I have seen many deals come unstuck through issuesarising from uncleared samples. At the very least tell the record company asearly as possible and enlist their help to clear it.WHERE DO YOU GO TO CLEAR SAMPLES?If you decide to clear samples, who do you go to for clearance? If you’vesampled the actual sound recording, you need to seek permission from theowner of the original sound, although they may have passed it on to someoneelse by licence or assignment of rights (see Chapter 3). You can start bylooking at the recording that you sampled it from. It should have a copyrightnotice on it that will say who was the copyright owner at that time, forexample ‘© EMI Music 2008’. So your first point of call would be EMI.They should be able to tell you if they still own the rights. If you don’t wantto show your hand too soon, you might want to do this through your lawyeron a ‘no names’ basis.You must allow yourself plenty of time. The first thing you should betrying to achieve is an agreement from them in principle to the use of thesample. Some artists won’t allow their works to be sampled under anycircumstances, so it’s best to know this as early as possible. Once you’ve gotthe agreement in principle then you can negotiate the terms. This can alsotake time, but you should know fairly early on whether they are going to askfor a ludicrous amount for the clearance, which will make it uneconomicalfor the sample to be used. Remember that, as well as clearing the use of thesound recording sample, you have to clear the use of the underlying musicand, if appropriate, words.The owner of the copyright in the words and music may be the writercredited on the sampled recording.10 It’s quite possible, though, that thewriter may have assigned or licensed his rights to a music publisher (seeChapter 4). So you’ll have to look at whether a publisher is credited and goto them to see if they still own or control the rights. They may only do so forpart of the world or they may have passed the rights on or back to theoriginal writer. The MCPS/PRS database should contain details of whoclaims to own or control the publishing rights (see Chapter 15). They wouldbe a good starting point if you’re a member of either MCPS or PRS. If thetitle or the writer’s name is a common one, for example John Smith, then thedatabase is going to throw up a lot of names. Try and narrow down thesearch by giving them as much detail as you can.The importance of clearing samples with the correct party is highlightedin the following case.11The Ludlow CaseLudlow published the song ‘I’m The Way’. Robbie Williams and GuyChambers co-wrote ‘Jesus in A Camper Van’, which was published byEMI and BMG.Because two lines of ‘Jesus’ resembled ‘I’m The Way’, Mr Williamsapproached Ludlow to acknowledge the resemblance and to agree thatLudlow would be a co-publisher. Ludlow wanted 50% – Williams andChambers offered 10%. Ludlow refused and, just as the albumcontaining the track was to be released, repeated their demand. EMIregistered Ludlow as having a 50% share in the lyrics i.e. 25% of thewhole song. Ludlow then brought a claim for 100% of the copyright andof the income and sought an injunction.The judge found there had been an infringement of copyright, butthought it was borderline. He gave his opinion that what the defendantshad offered was generous, but left it to another court to determine theamount of damages. He also decided that, on balance, Ludlow’s conducthad been oppressive, governed by money and that they had gone alongwith things and had seemed to have been agreeing to things up to the lastminute before release. He refused an injunction at summary judgement.An injunction was granted at the final hearing, so future copies of thatWilliams album will have to be minus this track.This is another example of how one party’s conduct can prejudice their casewhen relying on another’s bad conduct.What sometimes happens is that it’s possible to clear the underlyingwords and music but not the sound recording. If you’re adamant that youhave to use that sample then you can try and get it reproduced almostidentically by having it replayed or recreated. Then you haven’t sampled thesound recording, so you only have to clear the underlying music/words. Ofcourse, if you do a very good job of it and it sounds identical to the original,they may not believe you’ve replayed it and still sue you. Then you mayneed independent evidence from, for example, the studio engineer, that youdidn’t use the sample sound recording.I have been involved in a case where this happened. The client sampledpart of a sound recording, asked for permission, which was denied, so setabout replaying the sample to recreate the sound. He even went to thetrouble of getting a specialist report from a musicologist to confirm that hehadn’t used the original sound recording but had replayed it. Nevertheless,the owner of the original sound recording wasn’t convinced and threatenedto sue my client’s record company, who had released the track. Using a rightthey had under their record contract with my client, they ‘froze’ the royaltiesthat would otherwise have been payable to my client on the track in questionuntil there was an outcome to the dispute. The money stayed ‘frozen’ forover a year and, as it was a substantial amount, my client wasunderstandably very frustrated. Ah, but I hear you say, it serves him right forcopying someone else’s work. Well, before you get all high and mighty, justmake sure that no one can ever accuse you of sampling or plagiarism.HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?This is always a question of negotiation. It will depend on how important thetrack is that you’ve sampled and how crucial it is to you that you use it.Record companies will usually clear sound recording copyrights for anup-front sum, with a further sum when you sell a certain number of records.For example, £1,500 upfront and another £1,500 when you’ve sold 10,000copies of the record that includes the sample. This usually comes out of theartist’s royalty, but may be shared with the record company if it really wantsto keep the sample in.Publishers of sampled works may clear rights for a one-off fee or a feeand a further sum based on numbers of records sold. More likely, however,is that it will want a percentage of the publishing income on the track. Ineffect, the publisher of the sampled work is saying that their writer should betreated as a co-writer on the work and receive a co-writer’s share of theincome. That share could be as much as 100% if a substantial use has beenmade of their work. For example, in a track by All Seeing I called ‘The BeatGoes On’, substantial use was made of a Sonny and Cher song of the samename, although the band had altered the track and given it a more up-to-datesound. Warner Chappell, who publish the Sonny and Cher song, insisted thatthe All Seeing I version be treated as a cover version and they retained 100%of the publishing. If the use is less substantial then a lower percentage maybe agreed.As we saw with the Ludlow case above, claims for 50% or more of asong may be claimed even if a relatively small percentage is sampled – it’s acopyright infringement that the owner of the sampled works is entitled to becompensated for. If it’s a blatant offence, the court will be asked to awardadditional damages.If you’re going to do a lot of sampling in your work and are going to endup having to give away some or all of your publishing on certain tracks, dobear in mind that this may make it very difficult for you to fulfil yourMinimum Commitment to your publisher – make sure you take this intoaccount when setting the original level of that commitment.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T CLEAR SOMETHING?If a sample isn’t cleared and a dispute arises, your record company maysuspend payment to you until the dispute is resolved. There may be a limiton how long it can suspend payment, but this could be a year or more. MCPSalso has the right to suspend any payments of publishing income and has adisputes procedure that has to be followed. MCPS won’t directly interveneto resolve a dispute, but can sometimes be used as an arbitrator.The Shut Up And Dance CaseIn 1992 the MCPS brought an action against dance label Shut Up andDance (SUAD) on behalf of ten of their publisher members, claimingtwelve separate infringements of copyright of works by writers such asPrince and Suzanne Vega. Legal action was taken after the owners ofSUAD, PJ and Smiley, told the music press that their policy was never toclear samples. At the time a very macho culture prevailed over the use ofsamples, with some one-upmanship going on over who could get awaywith the most in terms of uncleared samples. It’s thought their commentreflected this cultural approach to sampling. SUAD didn’t defend thecase and damages were awarded against the label.Failure to clear samples in good time could result in an injunctionpreventing distribution of copies of your record, or an order that they bebrought back from the distributors and destroyed. You could also be sued fordamages for the copyright infringement.12However, it’s not all bad. Not all copyright owners sue or want paymentwhen their work is sampled. The track ‘Ride On Time’ by Black Box mayhave attracted a fair amount of litigation in its time, but there was no claimfrom Don Hartman, whose work ‘Love Sensation’ was sampled. ApparentlyMr Hartman loved the new work so much he wanted neither payment nor awriter credit.PLAGIARISMFor the purposes of this chapter, when I’m talking about plagiarism asopposed to sampling I’m talking about a situation where someone takesanother’s work and copies it, passing it off as his own work. There are, ofcourse, overlaps with the situation where you replay a sound sampled fromanother’s work. But what I’m describing here are cases where a writer hasclaimed that another writer has stolen or copied his work; where thesimilarities between two pieces of work are so striking that you would haveto believe the one was copied from the other. As we will see from the casesbelow, once you’ve established similarities between two pieces of work thecrucial test is whether the person being accused of plagiarising the work hashad access to the other work. It’s possible to unconsciously copy somethingor indeed to arrive at a very similar-sounding piece of work purely bychance.The John Brett CaseThe composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber is no stranger to claims ofplagiarism. In the late 1980s a songwriter, John Brett, accused him ofcopying two songs written by him in Lloyd Webber’s musical PhantomOf The Opera. Although there were similarities between the pieces,Lloyd Webber was able to show that he had written the song first. Heproduced evidence that it had been performed in mid-1985, whereas MrBrett’s evidence suggested that he had not sent demo recordings of hissongs to his solicitor until a month later. His claim failed.The Ray Repp CaseIn another case involving Lord Lloyd Webber, a songwriter called RayRepp brought a legal action in New York accusing Lloyd Webber ofplagiarism. Mr Repp claimed that Lloyd Webber had stolen a passagefrom his song ‘Till You’ and had used it, again, in Phantom Of TheOpera. Once again Lloyd Webber was cleared, and afterwards made apassionate statement condemning the increase in cases allegingplagiarism. He blamed the lawyers (oh dear, us again) and people withan eye to the main chance. He said there were too many people aroundwho thought it was worth a chance, because record companies wouldrather settle than fight potentially damaging court cases. I understandthat he returns unopened all unsolicited demo tapes sent to him or to hisoffice. The same policy is, I believe, adopted by other well-knownsongwriters who wish to avoid any such claims.The Francis Day and Hunter CaseAn early case in this area that set out a number of guidelines for whatconstitutes plagiarism is the case of Francis Day and Hunter.13In this case it was argued that eight bars of the chorus of a songentitled ‘In A Little Spanish Town’ had been copied in the song ‘Why’.The judge found a number of similarities between the two works butdecided that copying (i.e. plagiarism) had not been proved. It went to theCourt of Appeal. That court also agreed that copying had not beenproved, but took the opportunity to consider the subject of copyinggenerally. The Appeal Court judges said that you had to establish thatthere was a definite connection between the two works, or at the veryleast to show that the writer accused of copying had had access to thework of the other.The ‘Chariots of Fire’ Case14The film Chariots Of Fire and the music written for it has also been thesubject of a number of court cases.The writer Logarides had written a piece for television called City OfViolets. He claimed that the writer Vangelis had copied four crucialnotes from City Of Violets when writing his theme tune for the filmChariots Of Fire. Logarides said that, consciously or unconsciously,Vangelis had infringed his copyright. The court decided that there wasinsufficient similarity between the works for there to have been aninfringement. This ruled out the argument that Vangelis hadunconsciously copied it, because it wasn’t similar enough. The evidencethat was produced to show that Vangelis had had access to the work wasalso not very strong, although the court thought that it was possible thatVangelis had heard the song ‘City Of Angels’. Logarides was not able toprove that Vangelis had actually had access to his work.The Beyonce CaseIn 2005 a singer-songwriter Jennifer Armour brought a lawsuit againstBeyonce Knowles claiming that Beyonce’s 2003 hit ‘Baby Boy’ includedlyrics from Armour’s song ‘Got A Bit Of Love For You’. Armourbrought evidence to show that Beyonce’s record label had had access toher song as it had been sent to them by her former manager. She alsosaid that representatives of Beyonce’s collaborator on the song, SeanPaul, had also been sent a copy. Whether or not Beyonce had ever heardArmour’s song did not have to be decided in the end because the casefailed at the first hurdle. When the two songs were compared side byside the court came to the conclusion the two songs were ‘substantiallydissimilar’ and therefore there was no copyright infringement tocomplain about.But it isn’t always deliberate. It seems that it is perfectly possible for anartist to copy another’s work unconsciously. I have a client who wasunaware that he had copied a snippet from the Don McLean song ‘Vincent’until it was pointed out to him and the same thing happened in 2004 toScottish band, Belle and Sebastian. Apparently a track on a single by theband to be released in June 2004 entitled ‘Wrapped Up In Books’ was verysimilar to a hit single by Sir Cliff Richard entitled ‘In The Country’ writtenby his backing band, The Shadows. Belle and Sebastian were seeminglyoblivious to the similarity until it was pointed out to them by friends. Theydecided the best thing to do was to come clean before the single was releasedand approached the publishers of The Shadows’ song Carlin Music with anoffer of 20% of the publishing on the ‘Wrapped Up In Books’ song. Luckilyfor them this was accepted by Carlin.15 Contrast this with the RobbieWilliams Ludlow case above and take care that you approach the correctpeople for permission.SOUND-A-LIKESThis is where someone deliberately sets out to imitate a successful piece ofmusic. It’s often used by advertising agencies when they don’t want to paythe price for the right to use the original of a piece of work. Instead theycommission songwriters to write a piece that is a close imitation of theoriginal. This is an art form in itself. We have already seen in Chapter 8 onbranding the cases where Tom Waits has successfully sued advertisingagencies or their clients for use of sound-a-likes of his distinctive voice.Here are some further cases in this area:The ‘Chariots of Fire’ Case (No. 2)16In another Chariots of Fire case, Clarks Shoes deliberately set out togain a financial advantage from using a piece of music that had a veryclose similarity with the Chariots Of Fire theme. This was found to beblatant plagiarism, but because it was so obvious the case didn’t reallyset any guidelines.The Williamson Music CaseAnother case, involving the advertising company Pearson, used a parodyof the song ‘There Is Nothing Like A Dame’ in an advert for a coachservice.17 The lyrics were changed but the layout of the verse and choruswas similar. The manager of the licensing division of the MCPS heardthe advert and thought it sounded very like the original song ‘There IsNothing Like A Dame’. He told the publishers of the song, ChappellMusic Library. Williamson Music Limited was the exclusive licensee ofthe song in the UK. They and the other plaintiffs complained ofinfringement of copyright. Williamson Music Limited retained the rightof approval to all requests for a synchronisation licence in relation tothat song. No such consent had been given. The judge applied the test ofwhether an ordinary, reasonably experienced listener would think onhearing the track that it had been copied from the other work. He grantedan interim injunction on the basis that the plaintiffs had established thatthere was a case to answer, but it seems he was of the opinion that therehad been infringement of the music but not of the words.It seems that the test for whether something is a parody that is allowable andone that infringes copyright is that, in the case of the former, the parody hasto only conjure up the idea of the original – it becomes an infringement if ituses a substantial part of the original.SESSION MUSICIANS’ CLAIMSThe last few years have seen a spate of claims by session musicians,sometimes twenty or thirty years after the original session took place, thatthey were not properly paid for the work they had done. These cases pointout the importance of ensuring that the agreement with the session musiciancovers not only their performances as musician or vocalist but also theirinterest, if any, in the underlying song.It was thought that the Kemp case that we looked at in Chapter 4represented the legal position in the UK that band or session members didnot have any interest in a song if they merely interpreted or played what thesongwriter directed them to.However, this position was challenged in the Bluebells case in 2002.Valentino v. HodgensSession player Bobby Valentino was hired to perform a violin part in asong written by Bluebells member, Robert Hodgens and alreadyrecorded by the band. The judge accepted Valentino’s claim that he hadbeen given a free hand to create the violin part, whereas Hodgens hadclaimed that he had told him what to play and had even played it to himon the guitar. Now clearly one could argue that this case just turned onthe facts that the judge just preferred Valentino’s version of events. Thisalone therefore would not have opened the floodgates and the 50%interest in the song that the judge awarded to Valentino would have beenseen as a one-off.What made this case stand out was the manner in which the judgeside-stepped the issue of why it had taken Valentino so long to make hisclaim – a delay of over fifteen years. Usually that would have beenenough to successfully argue that the claim was time barred. In whatappears to have been an attempt by the judge to find in favour ofValentino the judge decided that the correct interpretation of thesituation was that Valentino had originally granted a licence to use hiscontribution to the song for free; that he was entitled to revoke thislicence at will, and that he had done so when the song was re-releasedfifteen years later and went on to be a big hit. Valentino was awarded hisshare of royalties from 1993 when he could be said to have revoked hislicence. 18Now this is quite an extraordinary interpretation of the situation and reallystresses the need for clarity in your session agreements but it also gave manyothers the idea that they could bring claims many years after the event –some more serious than others – including claims to record royalties fromthe school choir who performed free of charge in the original recording ofPink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In the Wall’ to a threatened claim against RodStewart by Ray Jackson, the mandolin player on Rod’s recording of ‘MaggieMay’. It culminated in an April 2005 decision in a case brought by sessionsinger Clare Terry against the writers and publishers of Pink Floyd of hitsong ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ off the Dark Side of the Moon album.The Pink Floyd Case19Ms Terry was a session vocalist paid £30 to perform on the track, ‘TheGreat Gig in the Sky’ and was given a credit for her performance. Somethirty years later she brought a claim, in a similar fashion to the BobbyValentino case (above), for a 50% interest in the song. In an out-of-courtsettlement she received a cash payment which must have beensubstantial as the album has sold over 36 million copies since itsoriginal release. The catalyst for the publisher, EMI and the writers inPink Floyd to reach a settlement may have been because the judge hadindicated that he was convinced by Ms Terry’s claim that she hademployed a special wailing technique, recorded in a series of sessionsand effectively helped to compose the song. The parallels with theBluebells case are obvious.Finally, of course there is the recent case concerning the song ‘Whiter ShadeOf Pale’ which we looked at in detail in Chapter 4 which is under appeal.CONCLUSIONSIf you sample someone’s work, you’ll have to get permission to useboth the sound recording copyright and the copyright in the underlyingmusic and/or lyrics.Put the process of clearing samples in hand as early as possible.If there is any chance of an uncleared sample being found and legalaction taken, don’t take the risk, clear it or remove it.If you can’t clear the sound recording copyright then see if you canreplay the sounds to sound like the original and clear the rights in theunderlying music/lyrics instead.If you copy another’s work and pass it off as your own then you’reguilty of plagiarism, unless you can show that the similarity wascompletely coincidental and that there was no way that you could haveheard the work you’re accused of copying.There is a very fine line to be drawn between sound-a-likes, parody andplagiarism.1 For an overview on the state of sampling see also ‘Plagiarism andoriginality in music: a precarious balance’ by Reuben Stone published inMedia Law & Practice, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1993.2 Sections 16–21 CDPA.3 Section 5A CDPA.4 Sections 3 and 4 CDPA.5 Section 16(3) (a) CDPA.6 Hawkes & Son Ltd v. Paramount Film Service Limited [1934] 1 Ch 593.7 Hyperion Records Limited v. Warner Music (UK) Limited 1991.8 www.musicjournal.org/lawupdates.9 Richard Walmsley v. Acid Jazz Records Limited Chancery Division 2000.10 See section 9 (1) CDPA and Chapter 4 for a description of who is the firstowner of copyright in a musical or literary work.11 Ludlow Music Inc. v. (1) Robert P. Williams; (2) Guy Chambers; (3) EMIMusic Publishing Limited; (4) BMG Music Publishing Limited ChanceryDivision (2000).12 As to remedies for infringement of copyright see sections 96–100 CDPAfor civil remedies and sections 107–110 CDPA for criminal sanctions.13 Francis Day & Hunter v. Bron [1963] Ch 587.14 [1993] EMLR 306.15 www.eveningnews.co.uk/print/news.16 Warner Brothers Music Limited and Others v. De Wilde [1987].17 Williamson Music Limited v. The Pearson Partnership and Another[1987] FSR 97.18 www.leeandthompson.com/articles/the_bluebells.19 www.freelanceuk.com/news. Chapter 14Piracy INTRODUCTIONPIRACY IS A huge, worldwide problem. The worst offenders in the area ofphysical pirate copies are Eastern European and Far Eastern countries,including Taiwan, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and Pakistan, with weak copyrightlaws and little or no means of enforcement, although Taiwan is beginning torecognise it has to do something and declared 2005 the Anti-Internet PiracyYear. Countries in which piracy is rife also export these illegal records intothe UK. According to the IFPI Anti-Piracy Report for 2006 it is estimatedthat one in three CDs sold is a pirate copy. DVD piracy is a growing problemas bandwidth and fast Internet access makes reproduction quick and easy.Taiwan remains the biggest producer of blank CDRs which can be acquiredvery cheaply by small commercial operations to push out pirate copies.The online world is even worse. The IFPI 2006 Anti-piracy Reportestimates that there were 20 billion illegal songs downloaded in 2005. Thisis a frightening amount but putting a positive spin on it the IFPI reckons thatthis shows just how large the potential market is for legitimate use of musiconline. They point to the fact that record company revenues from legaldigital sales tripled in 2005 to $1.3 billion. The record companies claim thatthis does not balance out the revenues that they are losing from traditionalphysical sales. As we saw in Chapter 7 they are trying more drastic measuresto deal with the problem. Record company trade bodies, like the UK’s BPI,the IFPI and the US body RIAA, continue to tackle both physical andinternet piracy by legal actions against pirates and illegal file-sharerswinning the support of the High Court for orders to force ISPs to disclose theidentities of individuals distributing multiple music files illegally on peer-to-peer networks. The individuals face claims for compensation forcopyright infringement and legal costs. Here are just some extracts from theAnti-piracy Report highlighting key decisions which are helping them in thebattle to control online piracy:In June 2005 the US Supreme Court ruled (in MGM v. Grokster) thatfile-sharing services that distribute software with the object ofpromoting its use to infringe copyright can be held liable for theresulting infringements.In August 2005 Seoul District Court ordered Soribada, a Korean P2Pservice, to prevent its users to swap copyrighted songs or shut down.In September 2005 the Federal Court of Australia held that Kazaa wasguilty of copyright infringement and ordered it to shut down orimplement copyright filters.Also in September 2005, a Taiwanese court issued a criminal convictionto the directors of the Kuro P2P service which was in breach ofintellectual property rules.November 2005 saw the Grokster P2P network agree to shut downoperations in light of the US Supreme Court’s ruling.In February 2006 the Danish Supreme Court ruled that under EU law,ISPs can be obliged to terminate the connections of customers whoillegally upload material.May 2006 saw the American operators of BearShare agree to cease tooperate any music or film download services and sell its assets to thelegal file-sharing service iMesh.In June 2006 the Dutch Court of Appeals ruled against zoekmp3.com,effectively declaring that deep linking to infringing mp3 files is illegal inthe Netherlands.The decision of the Australian court against Kazaa was the start of sustainedpressure on Kazaa to come in line internationally. Under the terms of an out-of-court settlement, which applies to Kazaa’s operations worldwide andconcludes the ongoing legal proceedings brought by the record companiesagainst the service’s operators in Australia and the United States, Kazaaagreed to pay a substantial sum in compensation to the record companiesthat took the legal action to stop copyright infringement on the Kazaanetwork. Kazaa also agreed to introduce filtering technologies ensuring thatits users could no longer distribute copyright-infringing files.There are also signs that some political pressure may be brought to bearon the ISPs to join forces with the anti-piracy organisations such as the BPIto battle illegal downloads of music. Whilst the Gowers Review may nothave given the industry its hoped for extension of the sound recordingcopyright it did recommend that ISPs adhere to the industry practice for datasharing to allow illegal downloaders or indeed uploaders to be identified andtargeted. This was not done voluntarily by the end of December 2007 and theGovernment has announced the intention to release a paper on this and othercultural issues in 2008.And it’s not just online that steps have been taken – legal actionscontinue against pirates of physical copies too.R v. MaloneIn March 2007 it was reported that the airdrie Sheriff Court in Scotlandhad jailed George Malone who had built up a black market operationselling thousands of fake DVDs and CDs. He admitted producing theillegal copies and selling them at industrial estates across west centralScotland. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and his assets wereseized.In 2007 a partnership was set up between a new police unit dedicated tocombating movie piracy and the Federation Against Copyright Theft(FACT), and music videos will fall within its remit. Steps taken to introducecopy protection systems on new CDs to prevent multiple copies being madeand improved tracking systems to trace online usage of music illegally havemet with mixed success. As soon as a digital rights management system(DRM) is developed and rolled out commercially the computer hackers setout to break it and usually succeed in a matter of days, if not quicker. Whilewe are not all so gifted, you can rest assured that as soon as a way is found toget around a DRM then some enterprising soul will make that available toall users. The whole area of DRM was, perhaps, irreversibly tainted by thescandal that surrounded Sony’s attempts to roll out a new DRM system inearly November 2005. This is the so-called ‘rootkit’ debacle.In an attempt to limit the number of copies that could be made of a CDSonyBMG introduced copy restriction software which was embedded incopies of some new CDs released by the label. This in itself was not a badthing but it was the type of software used that caused the problem. TheElectronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) said that the software consisted of aprogramme called a ‘rootkit’, more commonly used by spyware companiesto track what you do online. The EFF feared that if a CD with this rootkitsystem were played on a computer it would bury a new program within theoperating system of the computer enabling SonyBMG to monitor thecomputer user’s computer activity in order, for example, to prevent the usermaking additional copies of the CD. Online reports about this system causedsuch an outrage that SonyBMG issued a new program on its website whichenabled the computer user to see if his computer had been infected, but toadd insult to injury did not enable the user to uninstall it. There were alsoclaims that it slowed down the user’s computer, made it more vulnerable toattack and had the indirect effect of stopping users from listening to legalmusic on their MP3 players online. Because it was designed to be hidden itwas not easy to see what was causing the problem. It was argued that itmight also be used to mask other more malicious spyware or computerviruses. Legal class actions were begun in the US and within days SonyBMGannounced it was not going to produce any more CDs with this protectionsystem and published an uninstall program on its website. As things wentfrom bad to worse for them SonyBMG eventually recalled millions of CDsand exchanged them whilst publishing an apology to its customers.This publicity disaster increased the innate distrust amongst many in allDRM systems and led to the system being abandoned altogether in late 2007.The battle against illegal downloads will need to be fought in another way.WHAT IS PIRACY?Piracy is theft. It is the reproduction of someone’s copyright without theirapproval and generally on a commercial scale.There are three different types of pirate records.COUNTERFEIT RECORDINGSThese are copies of CDs, cassettes or vinyl records that also copy thepackaging, artwork and graphics. For example, someone gets hold of amaster recording; they use it to make copies of it, which they then pass offas the original. They don’t usually care what the sound quality is like, oreven if the tape or CD will play at all. They just want to make them look asmuch like the original as possible so that they take your money and youdon’t find out until you get home that it’s a pirated copy. The trade marksand logos of the original copyright owners are also copied to make themlook as much as possible like the originals. This is an infringement of thetrade mark, which could give rise to a legal action in its own right (seeChapter 8). Of course, if you’re buying these CDs or tapes from a marketstall at half the usual retail price, you’ve only yourself to blame if they turnout to be dodgy copies.PIRATE RECORDINGSThis is the unauthorised duplication of an original sound recording. Thepirate takes a master recording and copies it without the permission of theoriginal copyright owner. The sound quality is usually as good as theoriginal on physical copies but not always on online copies. Piraterecordings are usually put out on a different label from the original and indifferent packaging. The trade marks and logos of the original copyrightowners aren’t usually on the record or packaging. The aim is to undermineyour market for the original by putting out a pirate copy first, or in adifferent form from the way you were going to present it. For example, yourelease so-called ‘white label’ copies of your next single release to the pressand to DJs for review in advance of its commercial release. They are calledwhite labels because, in their vinyl form, they have a white label, which saysthey aren’t for commercial use. Unscrupulous characters then copy thatrecording and put it on their own compilation record without gettingpermission and without paying anything for it.Pirate recordings are generally made in countries with little or nocopyright protection and then exported to other countries. The practice is,however, spreading to other countries where the agencies in charge of anti-piracy are less effective. Sometimes publishing rights have been cleared andauthorisation obtained from a collective body like the MCPS, but nopermission has been obtained to reproduce the master sound recording. Forexample, if you were putting a pirate copy of a master recording on yourown dance compilation, you might apply for a mechanical licence fromsomeone like MCPS to get the right to reproduce the song on that master.This lends an air of respectability to the release and means you have one lesscollective body to worry about. You don’t bother to get permission from theowner of the sound recording. You hope that he either doesn’t get to hearabout the release, or hasn’t the money or the inclination to sue you forcopyright infringement.You could, in some cases, take advantage of different laws on copyright.For example, you might get permission to use the song, and the originalsound recording might now be out of copyright in your country. You makecopies of it without going back to the original copyright owner and you canimport it into other countries where the recording is still in copyright,undercutting the legitimate market in that country. This was more of aproblem when the sound recording copyright in the EU was different indifferent countries. For example, the sound recording copyright in Denmarkwas twenty years after the end of the year in which it was first released,while in the UK it was fifty years. This meant that after twenty years Danishcompanies could legitimately say that the sound recording was out ofcopyright, so no permission was required to reproduce it in Denmark. Theythen used the principles of freedom of movement of goods within the EU toexport these recordings into other EU countries. This began to be a real issuewhen early Beatles and Stones albums started to come out of copyright inDenmark. It has become less of a problem since the Directive on theHarmonisation of Copyright and Related Rights made the duration of thesound recording copyright fifty years throughout the EU.1Sometimes pirates argue that they have a valid licence to release a soundrecording because of a chain of contracts going back many years. Often, inthe 1960s and 70s, ownership of copyright was not properly recorded andthere have been many changes of ownership down the years.2 In those days itwasn’t unusual for deals to be single-page, sketchy outlines, that didn’tmake it completely clear who owned what and who could do what with therecordings. This confusion has been successfully exploited by later recordcompanies claiming to have the right to put out recordings under somedodgy deal struck twenty years earlier. It’s sometimes very difficult to provethem wrong.BOOTLEGSA bootleg is a recording of a live performance, whether it’s at an actual gigor off a television, satellite, radio or Internet broadcast, which is madewithout permission of the performers.You used to see shifty-looking people at gigs with tape recorders undertheir macs making terribly bad recordings of the performance. With theimprovements in technology and the miniaturisation of the devices, it’s noweasier than ever to make reasonable digital recordings.The Phil Collins CaseIn the early 1990s, Phil Collins, ex-Genesis drummer turned successfulsolo artist, brought an action against Imrat, a record distributor, inrespect of royalties for sales in Germany of a CD recording of one of hisUS concerts, which was made without his consent. Under German law,German nationals are entitled to stop distribution of performances madewithout their consent, regardless of where the performance takes place.Foreign nationals couldn’t rely on this law where the performance hadtaken place outside Germany.3The court decided that all European Union countries should providenationals of other European Union countries with the same degree ofprotection as they would have had in their own country. This has been akey decision in the tightening up of performers’ rights across the EU.R v. LangleyA man who was described as ‘one of Europe’s most notorious musicpirates’ who was also known as ‘Mr Toad’ pleaded guilty to sellingbootlegged recordings of Led Zeppelin gigs. Led Zeppelin guitaristJimmy Page gave evidence before the Glasgow court that he had notauthorised the recordings, which he said were of poor quality. He alsodrew a distinction between fans who swapped recording and professionalbootleggers. Langley pleaded guilty to two copyright and three trademark infringements. He sold illegal recordings he had made at live gigson his Silver Rarities and Langley Masters labels. His arrest came afterthe BPI organised a raid on his stall at a Scottish record fair.HOW DO YOU SPOT A COUNTERFEIT, PIRATE ORBOOTLEG RECORD?4CounterfeitsThese are often on sale in markets, at car-boot sales and are often obtainablefrom street traders selling goods out of suitcases on street corners. Theprices are usually 50% or less than a full-price record in the shops.The packaging will often be of poor quality, possibly blurred print,especially when it gets to the small print. Sometimes there is a white borderon the edges of the inlay card for the cassette or CDs where it’s been copied.These inlay cards may look genuine on the outside; it’s only when you openit that you see it’s a poor representation on the inside. The trade marks maybe removed, smudged or partly obscured as the pirates try to get around anallegation of infringement of trade mark. The name and logo of the originalrecord company may also be missing, blurred or obscured. There may not bea Source Identification Code. This was something introduced a few yearsago to show the place of manufacture. The sound quality will often be verypoor, particularly on cassettes. Copy protection devices will definitely beabsent.BootlegsThese are often found on sale at music festivals, second-hand or‘underground’ record stores and collectors’ fairs. They are aiming at the die-hard fans who want to own every available recording by their favouriteartist. The price is often the same or higher than the legitimate product toreflect how desirable they are to collectors and fans.The packaging may leave off company information; there could be nocatalogue numbers or proper credits. Bootleg CDs can be very good soundquality, particularly when compared to the very bad quality of bootlegcassettes. The inlay cards will often be simple colour photocopies.HOW CAN YOU STOP PIRACY?It is probably not possible to completely prevent illegal uses of music on theInternet. Whilst BPI/RIAA and IFPI actions may deter the casual oropportunist illegal file-sharer they will not deter the hard-line pirates. Copy-protection devices can be circumvented by reasonably competent hackersand can in any event sometimes prove counter-productive if they prevent alegitimate user from transferring music from his CD or PC to the car orworse as SonyBMG found out in 2005 (see above). It is also accepted thatregardless of what might happen with DRM systems in future CDs whichhave been in the market for some time – so-called legacy CDs – will not becopy protected, and that rights owners should accept this and concentrate onputting systems in place to make sure the copyright owners and creators arepaid whenever their music is used. There is certainly the view that not muchcan be done to prevent pirate recordings of sound recordings that are alreadyin the marketplace. What the music industry and the hardware manufacturersare now putting their efforts into is making legitimate downloads easily andcheaply available using desirable music hardware like the iPod (see more inChapter 7).However, this doesn’t mean that control of illegal manufacturing plantsand seizure of illegal copies has been abandoned. The underlying rightsbeing infringed are the same whether the infringement is online orreproduction of physical tapes or CDs.CopyrightPirate recordings may infringe the sound recording copyright and the rightsin the music and lyrics as well as the artwork. It’s an infringement ofcopyright to reproduce, issue copies to the public, perform in public orinclude it in a cable programme (including online). These are what we calldirect infringements of copyright.Indirect infringements of copyright include importing, possessing in thecourse of trade, selling or exhibiting infringing copies in public and/ordistributing them in the course of business.5 These are obviously aimed atthe distributor or retailer. They have to know or have reason to believe thatthey are dealing with an infringing copy.Moral RightsIf the writer or composer of the lyrics and music isn’t identified, or the workhas been subjected to derogatory treatment, this may well be aninfringement of moral rights if these have not been waived (see Chapter 12).Trade marksIf the artist’s or record company’s trade mark name or logo is reproducedwithout permission of the trade mark owner, this is an infringement of theTrade Marks Act 1994.Trade DescriptionsIf the record has been misdescribed or represented as something that it isnot, this may be a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.ENFORCEMENTFirst, decide who you’re going to go after. Who have you got evidenceagainst? You could try to take action against the pirate manufacturer, butthis may be difficult if they’re based overseas. You could decide to try tostop distributors from starting or continuing to distribute pirate records.You’ll have to move fast. If nothing has been distributed you could try to getan injunction to stop distribution taking place. If it’s already beendistributed you may need court orders against the person retailing theproduct.So, when you’ve decided whom you want to target, what can you do?Civil ActionYou can apply for an injunction, although you have to move quickly. Youcan ask the court to make an order preventing infringement of your rights.The court can make orders preventing further sale, distribution and/orimport of pirated products. You’ll probably also make a claim for financialdamages and reimbursement of your legal costs.Criminal ActionYou have to show that the defendant had reason to believe he was dealingwith an infringing copy of a copyright work. The penalties are imprisonmentand/or a fine. For this kind of action you need to involve the police, who willneed to have explained to them how copyright exists in the product and howit is being breached. You also have to convince them that it’s sufficientlyserious for them to put resources into the case. In April 2005 the US Senatepassed a bill to make it a criminal offence capable of a sentence of up to tenyears’ imprisonment for those found to be illegally copying and distributingpre-release music and films in the US. The obvious targets are those whoillegally acquire films or albums by important artists before the officialrelease date. It is hoped that this law will help to deter all but the hard-corepirates. There is no indication that the UK government has plans to followsuit.Private Criminal ProsecutionsThe CDPA gives you the right to bring a private criminal prosecution.6 Thiswas first used successfully in a case run by my firm in 1994 to prosecutesomeone who was using computer bulletin boards to copy computer gamesillegally.The CDPA also makes it possible for an officer of a company to be liableto prosecution for an offence committed by the company.7 This is to avoidcompanies slipping through the net.If someone is found guilty of infringement, the court can order that allthe offending articles are handed over8 and can order their destruction. I’msure you’ve all have seen pictures of companies like Rolex using asteamroller to crush fake copies of their watches.Trading Standards OfficersThese are local government officials and they can be very helpful if you getthem on side. A good friend of mine is an ex-Trading Standards officer andhe tells me they like nothing better than a good raid on a pirate. They usuallyact to enforce breaches of trade mark using powers given to them under theTrade Descriptions Act among others. They can enter premises and seizegoods. Their rights also now extend to infringements of copyright. They canprosecute for offences such as fraudulently applying a trade mark9 and theapplication of a false description to goods.10 As part of the implementationof the recommendations of the Gowers Review on Intellectual Property,Trading Standards received an additional £5million to assist in the fightagainst piracy. This was to help the officers with their new role as alsoenforcers of copyright infringement. Changes to the CDPA 1988 wereimplemented in 2007 to give them the right and authority to enter premises,seize goods and documents relating to copyright infringement as well astrade mark infringements. Because these offences are criminal ones there isthe possibility of an unlimited fine and up to ten years’ imprisonment so it ishoped this may act as a deterrent to some pirates.Some further piracy casesIn March 2003 following police and Trading Standards raids YogeshRaizada was sentenced to three years imprisonment and record fines of£160,000 on eleven counts under the Trade Marks Act 1994 followingseizure of thousands of pirated CDs, DVDs and video cassettes.In 2004 the Glasgow Sheriff Court jailed Stephen Reid for fivemonths for selling pirate CDs and computer games. Mr Reid had beenfilmed in an interview broadcast on the GMTV breakfast show in whichhe boasted about his illegal business. He had had previous convictionsfor selling counterfeit videos. Before raiding his premises TradingStandards officers made test purchases from him and the police andTrading Standards put him under surveillance. The raid led to the seizureof over 6,300 CDs believed to contain pirate material.11Also in 2004 Mark Purseglove was jailed by a UK court for three anda half years.12 It is alleged that Mr Purseglove was one of the biggestbootleggers in the world and had amassed a fortune estimated to beabout £6.6 million in the 11 years he had operated as a pirate. He soldhis bootlegs around the world including off the Internet and on Internetauction sites. He was arrested after a protracted investigation by the anti-piracy teams from the IFPI and the BPI and charged with conspiracy todefraud the UK recorded music industry. Under the Proceeds of Crimelegislation his homes in Chelsea and Brighton were seized after all hisassets were ordered to be forfeit. The judge made clear that the severityof the sentence was intended to act as a deterrent to others and to sendout a strong message that the courts will provide effective protection forthe rights of copyright owners. Purseglove had collected bootlegrecordings from household names in the music business, paying people,including the band’s sound engineers, to make illegal recordings.Broadcasts were copied and he made counterfeit copies of legitimaterecordings. He had previously been arrested and deported from the USand had shown a contempt for previous court proceedings.Anti-Piracy Unit (APU)The APU was set up by the BPI and also receives financial support from theMusicians’ Union and the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD).The APU investigates complaints about piracy. They take informationfrom record companies, musicians and members of the public. They a l s omonitor new technology and how that might affect the record industry. TheAPU runs training courses and seminars for the police and TradingStandards officers.The APU can assist in both civil and criminal actions and work with anumber of other industry bodies. In 2001 they attended or gave evidence inmore than 500 criminal cases. They closed down some 400 websitestrafficking unauthorised MP3 files and others who threatened to dealillegally with unreleased tracks. They also closed down 2,315 auctionwebsites offering illegal MP3 compilations and bootleg recordings.13The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)This represents the international recording industry. If you’re a member ofthe BPI you automatically become a member of the IFPI. It has about ahundred members in over seventy countries. It is involved in theinternational fight against piracy. It lobbies governments for appropriatecopyright protection and helps to ensure the laws are enforced.Other BodiesOther bodies involved in the fight against piracy include the FederationAgainst Software Theft (FAST), which was set up in 1984 to represent thesoftware industry (both publishers and end users);14 the Federation AgainstCopyright Theft (FACT), which represents film and video producers,manufacturers and distributors as well as TV and the satellite industries,15and the European Leisure Software Publishers’ Association (ELSPA), whichrepresents publishers of interactive software such as computer games andhas an anti-piracy hotline.FACT, FAST and the Music Publishers Association (MPA), which looksafter the interests of music publishers, also set up a hotline in the autumn of1999 for people to report suspected cases of film, music or software piracy.You can also get legal advice on copyright and trade mark issues and theywill tell you about their education and training initiatives.16Implementation of the Gowers ReviewOne of the recommendations of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Propertywas that the ISPs adhere to their protocols for sharing data with rightsowners to identify and disbar from their services those who infringecopyright. The report says that if the ISPs cannot demonstrate that theseprotocols had proved ‘operationally successful’ by the end of 2007 theGovernment should consider legislating. The ISPs do not wish to havelegislation imposed upon them and it is to be hoped therefore that this willput pressure on them to reach agreements with record companies andpublishers which would assist in the battle against illegal use of copyright.The ISPs are in a potentially very strong position as if they agreed to shareinformation with rights owners which enabled those rights owners to showthat the use was illegal then the ISPs would be in a position to quickly barthe illegal user from their service. Now obviously it is possible that theillegal users would then just move their activities to another ISP but if allthe ISPs in turn also shared information on users who have been banned thatmight drive the illegal users off the Internet altogether. The ISPs couldcertainly do more than they are at present where their position almostuniversally has been – we do not monitor the content, we just provide themeans, the pipeline. But there is still a lot of work to do. The governmentpaper expected in February 2008 should help to move the debate forward.Leaked highlights do not seem to suggest there will be a requirement toshare data between ISPs but do seem to propose a three strikes and you’rebarred rule for illegal file sharers.1 This was implemented into UK law as section 13A CDPA. The term isfifty years from the end of the year in which the sound recording was firstmade or, if it is released in that time, fifty years from the end of the yearin which it was first released.2 See Springsteen v. Flute as discussed on See here.3 Collins v. Imrat Handelsgesellschaft mbH [1994] W.M.L.R 108.4 Source: ‘Protecting the Value of British Music’ published by the BPI Anti-Piracy Unit (see below).5 Sections 22–26 CDPA.6 Section 107 CDPA.7 Section 110 CDPA.8 Section 108 CDPA.9 Section 300 CDPA.10 Section 1 Trade Descriptions Act.11 R v. Reid (2004).12 R v. Purseglove (2004).13 Source: BPI Market Information June 2002.14 For more details of their activities see www.fast.org.uk.15 For more details of their activities see www.fact-uk.org.uk.16 The hotline number is 0845 603 4567. Chapter 15Collection Societies INTRODUCTIONAS YOU KNOW by now, copyright is the right of an individual and, in mostcases, that right should be exercised as the individual decides and on his ownbehalf.However, there comes a time when it makes more sense for these rightsto be exercised collectively by an organisation set up to represent theinterests of its members. To make doing business as easy as possiblerequires a one-stop service. For example, it wouldn’t be commercially viablefor the owners of a radio station to have to go to the copyright owners of thesound recording copyright and of the rights in the songs on each of therecords that the station bosses want to play on their programmes. It would befar too time-consuming and costly. Hence the rise of the collection societieswhich represent the interests of publishers, record companies, authors andperformers. There are several of them, brief details of which are outlinedbelow. They all have useful and informative websites which it would payyou to look at.WHAT ARE COLLECTION SOCIETIES?1They are, in effect, organisations set up by the various categories of rightsowners to administer their rights collectively as their sole, or one of theirmain, purposes.2On the whole, collection societies are private as opposed to state-ownedbodies, but they are subject to some form of government or statesupervision. In the UK, that supervision is provided for partly by the 1988Copyright Act, which established a form of compulsory arbitration in theshape of the Copyright Tribunal,3 and in part by the CompetitionCommission (formerly the Monopolies and Mergers Commission).Overseeing the whole thing is of course the EU which does intervene orintroduce pan-EU legislation when it thinks that national solutions are out-of-step or require updating, review or harmonisation.The purpose of most collection societies is to provide a practical andeconomical service to enable its members to enforce and administer certainof their copyrights. These bodies make it easier for others to get licences touse copyright works. There is also certainty in that the payment for theseuses will usually be at a fixed rate or one individually negotiated withincertain guidelines. The idea is also that, by acting collectively,administration costs are reduced.There are, of course, possible dangers inherent in that these collectionsocieties are, by their nature, monopolies. It’s the job of the CompetitionCommission to police whether that monopoly position is being abused.4BLANKET LICENCESOne of the features of collection societies is that they grant so-called blanketlicences for the right to use certain rights in all the works controlled by thesociety for a particular purpose, for a particular period of time and at aparticular rate. Anyone wishing to take advantage of these blanket licenceshas to take a licence for the whole catalogue. For example, the PerformingRight Society Limited (PRS) can negotiate a blanket licence with radiobroadcasters for the right to broadcast to the public all the works controlledby PRS. The licence would be for a given period of time, say a year, andwould then be subject to review. PRS would negotiate with individual radiostations or, more likely, with their representative bodies, the rate that wouldbe applied to these licences. It could be a flat fee per annum or it could belinked to the revenue that the radio station earns, for example, a percentageof the advertising revenue earned by commercial radio stations, or it couldbe a combination of both.Whilst the collection societies became adept at negotiating andadministrating collective licensing schemes in their own countries and fornon-digital means of distribution, things became more difficult for themwhen it came to digital uses and when they came under pressure from theEuropean Commission to make it easier for new commercial ventures toflourish across the European Economic Area (EEA). Whilst this is a laudableaim it takes time to get all members to agree on a course of action and on therate to be set for centralised licensing particularly when that involves newmedia and means of distribution where the people setting and negotiating therate had little knowledge of which of these formats would have stayingpower and what an appropriate means of setting a rate was. For some timethey felt their way forward. The European Union thought they were beingtoo slow in establishing cross-Europe licensing schemes and issued a Reportin October 2005 which urged the societies to review and reform theirpractices and in particular to ‘provide for multi territorial licensing in orderto create greater legal certainty for commercial uses . . . and to foster thedevelopment of legitimate online services’. Perhaps fearing that solutionswould be imposed on them from above there have in the two years since thepublication of this report been committed attempts to reform their practicesparticularly in the area of digital music online and on mobile phones. Thecollection societies are trying to put in place schemes which will facilitateone-stop licensing across Europe. This is an attractive proposition forcommercial users of music in new applications or services.As hard evidence of these efforts two major initiatives were announcedat the European Trade Conference MIDEM in France in January 2007. TheMusic Publishers Association announced a one-stop pan-European digitallicensing solution in conjunction with the MCPS-PRS Alliance. MCPS is theMechanical Copyright Protection Society Limited. The scheme allows musicpublishers to appoint the Alliance as their agent for management of onlineand mobile rights across Europe. Costs are to be minimised by the use of atemplate agreement.The second announcement was also one by MCPS-PRS Alliance (whohave seized the chance to become a strong player across Europe). TheAlliance announced a plan to act with the German society GEMA as anexclusive one-stop shop for Anglo-American repertoire for digital rightsbelonging to EMI Music Publishing through a new organisation owned bythe Alliance and GEMA jointly and called the Centralised EuropeanLicensing and Administration service (CELAS). The idea is that in timeCELAS may be used by other commercial users looking to avoid having tonegotiate individual licensing agreements with all national collectingsocieties.Still on the international front PPL announced in November 2007 newinternational deals with collection societies in Russia, Italy and Switzerland,bringing the total number of reciprocal agreements to 41.Closer to home too there have been rapid advances in the availability ofblanket licences for online and digital uses of music. A glance at the MCPS-PRS Alliance website will reveal schemes for everything from DVDs tomemory cardsA recent development has been the introduction of blanket licenceschemes to use music in podcasts. Whilst commercial radio has had such ascheme in place for some months the BBC did not finally agree a deal for itspodcasts until autumn 2007. This was because the BBC Trust had onlyfinally authorised the full roll out of podcasts in April 2007, thus allowingthe BBC to start negotiating with Public Performance Limited whichcontrols master rights to sound recordings for the major labels. Thebroadcasters had to convince the record companies that these podcasts werenot a back door means to download music and to some extent the majorlabels remain somewhat sceptical as they have only granted licences to usethirty-second clips of music in podcasts. In contrast AIM, which representsmany independent record labels, has agreed a deal with PPL for whole trackdownloads.On the flip side MCPS-PRS agreed a licence for use of music in podcastsin March 2006. Podcasts have really come into their own in the last coupleof years as a means of customising your own personal radio station, but alsoas a new revenue source. Initially podcasts were made available free of TheRicky Gervais Show. This was an immediate smash hit with over 2 milliondownloads worldwide. This opened up the possibility of a commercialmarket for these things and the episodes of the show were later madeavailable at 99p a time on online etail sites like iTunes. But many of thepodcasts remain free and for promotion only or to add value to anotherservice.MSPs-PRS also recognised that there was a need for a two-tier licensingscheme as there were going to be non-commercial or small commercial set-ups who could not justify or afford the payment of the minimum £400 peryear royalty payable under the scheme. If you are podcasting to a lownumber of people or are unlikely to generate much revenue then you can optto licence under the Limited Online Exploitation Licence which sets anannual minimum as low as £200.The biggest challenge that has faced the music publishers and theircollection society MCPS-PRS in the last couple of years has to be thearguments over the appropriate rate to apply to online uses of music. MCPS-PRS reached an agreement with the major record companies and with someof the ISPs in 2006 but some ISPs including Yahoo refused to sign up to thedeal and all ISPs and some of the major labels had issues over how to definethe revenue on which they would pay the agreed rate. So the matter ended upbeing referred to the Copyright Tribunal which is the arbitrator set up by the1988 Copyright Act to oversee disputes over collective licensing schemes.After a very expensive and drawn-out hearing, the Tribunal ratified theterms of the settlement on rate, proposed some but not definitive guidelinesfor the definition of revenue and provided for an arbitrator to be called in iffinal agreement on that subject could not be reached in individual cases. Theagreed rate for on-demand music downloads and subscription streamingservices is set at 8% of gross revenues. The rate set for interactivewebcasting services is 6.6% of revenues and for non-interactive webcastingit is 5.75% of revenues. A minimum royalty ‘safety net’ has also been set.ADMINISTRATIONA main role for the collection societies is the administration of the rights,making sure that a member’s interests have been properly registered, thatpeople using the rights have the necessary licences and have paid thenegotiated rate. They have to collect in the monies, allocate and distributethem. Most societies charge their members a fee of some kind for theadministration of the rights, usually a percentage of the gross income theycollect.There is usually one society for each category of rights. A majorexception is the US, where three societies doing identical things compete forthe right to administer publishing rights, namely ASCAP, BMI and SISAC.Sometimes a society will administer more than one right. For example,in Europe a number of the collection societies administer not only theperforming rights but also the right to copy or reproduce works. In fact, inthe UK, the PRS and MCPS have now combined many of their managerialand administration functions and go under the joint name of The Alliance.RIGHTS GRANTEDThe societies either take an assignment of certain rights from their membersor they have a licence from their members or act as agents for them. Theterms of membership of a collection society will usually dictate what formthe rights granted will take. The idea is to establish through thesemembership rules a clear mandate to grant licences to use certain rights. Aswe will see in the section on new issues below, there has been less certaintythan is desirable in the mandate of some of the collection societies to dealwith new technologies.The collection societies usually have reciprocal arrangements with othersocieties so that they can protect their members worldwide. These reciprocalarrangements mean that the UK societies can represent the interests of theirUK members and of foreign artists, writers and composers within the UK,with both categories of writers receiving the same treatment.One of the main advantages of collective licensing is, of course, thegreater bargaining power that you can get by being part of a big collectiveeffort. The rates and rewards for uses of your works that the collectionsocieties can get for you should be better than what you could get on a one-to-one basis.OTHER COLLECTIVE BODIESThere are a number of other music business bodies that represent theinterests of various parts of the business. These could be collectivebargaining or interest groupings such as the Music Managers Forum (MMF)and AIM (The Association of Independent Music). They also include unionslike the Musicians’ Union (MU) and Equity. British Music Rights5 is thecollective voice for the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters(BASCA), the Music Publishers Association (MPA) the MCPS and the PRS(see below). What all these groupings have in common is that they act as aforum for debate and, to a greater or lesser extent, as a means of usingcollective bargaining power to get things for their members that asindividuals they could find it very hard to achieve. A brief description of theaims of each is set out in the section on useful addresses at the end of thebook.THE SOCIETIESIn the following section I’m going to briefly describe the structure andfunction of some of the main bodies that exist in the UK at the moment.More details can be obtained from the individual societies, most of whomalso publish brochures describing what they do for their members and theirwebsites are, on the whole, very informative.THE BRITISH PHONOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE (BPI)Strictly speaking, this isn’t a collection society as such, but an organisationthat represents the interests of UK record companies. It’s a non-profit-making trade association that was set up in 1973.The BPI is based in central London (see Useful Addresses) and itsmembers are UK record companies. There are currently about 400 members.There is a fee to become a member and these fees mainly fund its activities.The subscriptions for full members are a minimum fee of £75 plus an annualpayment of 5% of the member’s performance income collected by PPL. Thischange to the subscription base is intended to open up membership to morecompanies. However, in December 2007 in the wake of a public statementfrom Guy Hands of Terra Firma (new owners of the EMI Group) questioningthe level of payments to associations like the BPI, RIAA and the IFPI, theBPI announced substantial reductions in the subscriptions to be paid for thefour major record companies. The formula will remain as before forindependent record labels. The chairman of the BPI insisted that thedecision-making process to reduce the subscriptions had begun well beforeHands made his statement. BPI members have to be approved and agree tobe bound by the membership rules and the Code of Conduct that the BPImaintains. If you’re a member of the BPI you automatically also become amember of the IFPI.The BPI Code of Conduct deals with how the music charts are drawn upand involves the BPI investigating alleged irregularities, for example if thereis an attempt to buy up unusually large numbers of copies of a particularrecord in order to artificially gain a higher chart position. If the BPI findsthat a member has been guilty of infringing the Code it can employsanctions against that member, including expelling them as a member and/orimposing a fine. It is a part owner of the Official Charts Company.Because it’s a trade association rather than a rights body, it doesn’t takeany rights from its members nor does it grant licences or otherwiseadminister or collect money from exploitation of rights.The BPI provides a forum for discussion and acts for its membersgenerally on matters in which they have a common interest. It has a lobbyingfunction at Westminster and in Brussels, and also negotiates agreementswith other groups such as music publishers, the Musicians’ Union or Equity.It also has an important function in protecting members’ rights through anti-piracy initiatives and in promoting British music overseas. Its Anti-PiracyUnit is active in trying to reduce the amount of piracy in the UK. Its roleincludes taking high-profile litigation cases against pirates and givingpublicity to successful seizures of pirate goods.PHONOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE LIMITED (PPL)This is the record industry’s licensing body. It licences records forbroadcasting and public performance, collects the revenue generated anddistributes it.It represents a large number of record companies (about 3,500), some ofwhich, but not all, are members of the BPI and over 40,000 performers.The PPL is based in London and was incorporated as a company limitedby guarantee in 1934. (See Useful Addresses for contact details.)The PPL negotiates collective agreements with broadcasters. I t a l s oprotects the rights of its members and takes legal action to protect thoserights. It doesn’t, however, have its own anti-piracy unit or staff, but relieson its members to bring infringements to its attention.PPL has a number of different tariffs that apply to the various uses of themusic in its repertoire. These are usually payable annually. There areminimum charges and how much is paid out to the members depends on theuse. It does take assignments or exclusive agency rights of various rightsfrom its members. These include broadcasting, public performance, dubbingof background music (a role it took over in 1985), multi-media uses anddigital diffusion rights.6PPL distributes the income it collects to the owners of the soundrecordings and to the performers on the tracks who have registered theirperformance with PPL. It is a not for profit organisation so there is no fee tojoin. They cover their costs by charging a fee to administer the rights.VIDEO PERFORMANCE LIMITED (VPL)This is a company associated with PPL. It is the record industry’s licensingbody for music videos.Its members are the owners of public performance rights in music videosbeing publicly broadcast or made available to the public in the UK.VPL licenses music videos for broadcasting and public performance. Itapplies a number of different tariffs to the different uses of the musicvideos.VPL takes an assignment of its members’ public performance anddubbing rights in music videos and a non-exclusive licence of thebroadcasting rights.VPL collects performing income from use of music videos but, unlikePPL, it’s not obliged by law to share this income with performers, only withits record company members. There is no fee for joining as like PPL itcovers its running costs by charging a fee to administer these rights.ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC LIMITED (AIM)This is a relatively new association, set up in 1999. Its members are drawnfrom the independent sector of the music business, mostly the recordcompany side but including publishers, production companies andmanufacturers. It’s a non-profit-making trade organisation for independentrecord companies and distributors in the UKIt acts as a forum for debate and also has a lobbying function. Itsfunction as a trade association means that it also has a collective bargainingrole.AIM is based in London, and provides a legal advisory service to itsmembers with a number of checklists of points to look out for in negotiatingvarious types of deals. It has been forward-looking in the licensing deals ithas struck with online distributors on behalf of its largely independentmembership.THE PERFORMING RIGHT SOCIETY LIMITED (PRS)PRS is the UK collection society for composers, songwriters and musicpublishers and is charged with administering the public performance andbroadcasting rights in music and lyrics. It also administers the filmsynchronisation right.Both music publishers and songwriters are members. It was set up in1914 as a company limited by guarantee. It also represents almost a millionforeign music copyright owners through its affiliations with overseascollecting societies.PRS is based in central London. When you become a member of PRSyou have to assign your performing right and the film synchronisation rightto PRS. Although members assign rights, they can reserve some categoriesof rights or types of use of rights in all their works and the rules do allowmembers to request that PRS doesn’t license the performing right in aparticular work, for example, if it is unlawfully sampled.The criteria for membership by a composer is that at least one piece ofmusic has had a public performance or broadcast which has beendocumented (e.g. set list, programme or playlist from a broadcaster’swebsite).A letter from a broadcaster, promoter or venue owner confirmingbroadcast or performance of your music will be needed. There is a one-offfee currently £100 including VAT.THE MECHANICAL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION SOCIETYLIMITED (MCPS)This company was set up in 1911 in order to collectively license mechanicalreproduction of music, i.e. the copying of music and the synchronisation ofmusic with visual images (see Chapter 4). MCPS and PRS jointly shareback-end and administration resources under the name The Alliance and arenow supporting online, electronic means for record companies to send datafor mechanical licensing which will in due course replace the existing paperregistration form.7MCPS has both publishers and songwriters as members. Its main area ofactivity is the negotiating and administering of collective licence schemes.MCPS is a subsidiary of the Music Publishers’ Association Limited, acompany limited by guarantee.MCPS doesn’t take assignments of rights, but its membership agreementprovides that the member appoints MCPS as his agent to manage andadminister the mechanical copyright in the UK. It has the mandate to grantlicences and collect royalties but there are exceptions which you can retainto yourself and not grant to MCPS. There are full details on their website –see Membership section. It’s also obliged to use its best efforts to preventinfringement of its members’ rights. It can take legal action in their nameand often does so.The types of licence agreements are listed on their website in some detailas are the exclusions.MCPS charges its members a commission for administering the rightsand collecting the royalties. Its website contains details of its rates8.1 For a more detailed description of collection societies and their history,see Copinger and Skone-James on Copyright.2 Section 116(2) CDPA defines a licensing body as ‘a society or otherorganisation which has as its main object, or one of its main objects, thenegotiation or granting, either as owner or prospective owner of copyrightor as agent for him, of copyright licences, and whose objects include thegranting of licences covering works of more than one author’.3 Sections 116–123 CDPA.4 In the past there have been two major reviews of individual collectionsocieties. The first, published in 1988 (HMSO Cm. 530), dealt specificallywith Public Performance Limited. The second, published in 1996 (HMSOCm. 3147), dealt with the Performing Right Society Limited. That reportcontained several criticisms of the Society, which has since altered itsrules to try to deal with these concerns.5 www.bmr.org.6 Dubbing is the right to ‘copy, produce, reproduce or make recordsembodying a sound recording’. An example would be a television sportsprogramme that has music in the background. The sound recording of thatmusic is dubbed into the television programme.7 For more information on Cateo see www.bpi.co.uk/bisinfo orwww.cateouk.com.8 www.mcps.co.uk. Chapter 16Appendix WORKING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESSHERE IS A brief overview of some of the information available on the musicbusiness. It’s not meant to be a complete list; it’s information and sourcesI’ve come across when researching this book. All the contact details are inthe next section, Useful Addresses, or in the body of the text.If you’re interested in more formal training in the music business thenthere are a number of courses now available. If you have access to theInternet this is an excellent resource for finding out about courses. TheUniversity and College Clearing site at www.ucas.co.uk is a good start point.Or do a general search, using any good search engine, for education/music.For short or evening courses, check Floodlight and local authoritypublications for courses outside London. Also check out the BPI website as agood general resource for information on careers in the industry(www.bpi.co.uk).My own researches have turned up the following universities andcolleges who run courses either in the media or the music business.Qualifications vary from NVQs, through HNDs, to degrees. Some don’t offera nationally recognised qualification but more of an overview with acertificate when you complete the course. Check the course details to makesure they meet your requirements. The list isn’t a complete one by anymeans, and neither is it a recommendation of any particular course.HIGHER EDUCATIONLEGAL AND BUSINESS COURSESBath Spa University College is running a full-time two-year CommercialMusic course leading to an HND/Foundation degree with the option of athird year leading to the BA (Hons). The full three-year BA is also available.It also offers a Creative Music Technology course.The University of Westminster offers a BA (Hons) degree inCommercial Music involving music production and music business practiceat its Harrow campus as well as a one-year diploma in Music Business andan MA in Music Business Management.Bucks New University offers HND and BA (Hons) full-time courses inMusic Industry Management, as well as Audio & Music Technology, DigitalMedia, Live Production, Studio Production and Marketing.The Continuing Education Department of City University, London runs anumber of part-time introductory courses such as ‘Making Music Work: AnIntroduction to the Music Industry’. They also offer distance learning andweekend courses in Cultural Industries and the Law and An Introduction tothe Music Industry as well as Marketing and Event Management.Greenwich Community College, south London, also offers part-timecourses in The Music Business and Musicianship, which covers copyrightlaw and marketing.Dartington College of Arts in Devon runs a BA (Hons) degree course inMusic, which can be performance, professional practice or composition-based with arts and cultural management.De Montfort University, Leicester, offers BSc (Hons) courses in Musicand Media Studies, Technology and Innovation as well as BA (Hons) in ArtsManagement and Media Studies.Kingston University offers a full-time or part-time course leading to aHigher Diploma or BA degree in Audio Technology and Music IndustryStudies.Oxford Brookes University offers a number of combined modulesinvolving music, including Law/Music and Business Administration andManagement leading to a BA, BSc or LLB (Hons) degree. They may suitthose more interested in a general as opposed to a specific legal course.The University of Paisley also runs a BA course in Commercial Musicand it stresses the involvement of industry professionals.Roehampton Institute, London Southlands College, has a module inBusiness Studies and Music within its Business Studies Combined Honourscourses. These are either full-or part-time courses leading to either a BA(Hons) or BMus (Hons).The University of Sunderland offers a number of combined BAs,including Business and Music and Business Law and Music. Intriguingly, italso offers a course entitled Gender Studies and Music.The University of Wales Institute Cardiff has an HNC HND/BSc (Hon)in Music Production and Technology and in Music and Audio ElectronicSystems.The University of Glamorgan runs degree in Music Technology and adegree course in Popular Music.For those looking for a more technical emphasis, there is a highlyregarded Tonmeister course at my old university, the University of Surrey.This is a BMus (Tonmeister) degree course in Music and Sound Recording.It’s a four-year sandwich course with time spent out in work placements.The intention is to prepare you for a career in the professional audioindustry.Canterbury Christ Church University College runs a full- or part-timeHND course in Popular Music and Technology at its Thanet campus.Canterbury Christ Church University also runs a BA (Hon) in MusicIndustry Management, Commercial Music and Music: Sonic Arts.Thames Valley University also offers various two- and three-year full-time courses covering Music Recording and aspects of the music business,for example Advertising with Sound and Music Recording.University of Salford also offers a BA (Hons) course in Popular Musicand Recording. The emphasis is on popular music and music technology, butit also aims to prepare you for a career in the music business or in therecording industry. They say you’ll be directed towards modules as a studioperformer or producer depending on your aptitude and interests shown inentrance tests, interviews and by your profile. The course is accredited bythe Association of Professional Recording Services.The Nottingham Foundation for Music and Media is offering further andhigher education courses, as well as commercial training courses for themusic and multi-media industries. Their courses are validated by NewCollege, Nottingham. They offer BND and HND Certificates in MusicTechnology as well as Music Industry.The Academy of Contemporary Music, based in Guildford, has link-upswith many industry bodies. Part of each course is a module in businessstudies.City College Manchester offers courses in FDA in Popular Music &Production and in FDSc Music & New Media Management. For continuingstudies, the courses are validated by the University of Salford.BIMM offers Certificate in Modern Music, Diploma in Modern Music,Diploma in Songwriting, Diploma in Sound Engineering and TourManagement, BIMM Professional Diploma (Level 5) in Modern Music,BIMM Professional Diploma (Level 5) in Songwriting, Foundation Degreein Professional Musicianship and BA Hons in Professional Musicianship.BIMM also run annual summer schools.The University of Aberdeen has a new law degree with an option inmusic. Courses in performance studies are taken in the first and second yearof this degree.COMMERCIAL COURSESThere are also courses run by commercial organisations that aim to givepractical overviews of aspects of the music business. One of the moreestablished organisations is the Global Entertainment Group. They areoffering a two-day core programme called the Music Industry Overview.Then they have a one- and two-day specialised modules such as A&R, ArtistManagement, PR, Marketing & Promotions and Running a Record Label. Allcourses are delivered in central London.The Music Managers Forum (MMF) offers short courses called MasterClasses to its members and AIM members on aspects of music managementand the industry. These are either short evening courses or week-longintensive ones.The British Phonographic Institute (BPI) occasionally offers one-daytraining workshops.The Music Publishers Association (MPA) holds induction courses andspecialist seminars and also runs courses in conjunction with the MMF(www.mpaonline.org.uk).BECOMING A SOLICITORIf you want to become a solicitor, the Law Society can give you information.If you already have a first degree in law, you need to complete a one-yearLegal Practice Course and a two-year training contract. A discretionary fasttrack to qualifying may be available for those who already have relevantbusiness experience.The Law Society now includes Media Studies or Intellectual Property asoptional courses as part of the Legal Practice Course. The Law Society alsorequires practising lawyers to keep up to date on the law by undertakingfurther training during their working life.If your first degree isn’t in law, you’ll need to do an additional one-yearconversion course.IN-HOUSE OR PRIVATE PRACTICE?Once you’ve qualified as a solicitor, you can choose whether to work in aprivate law firm or in-house as a lawyer in a record or music publishingcompany. Managers don’t usually employ an in-house lawyer, nor do smalllabels or publishing companies. They usually use lawyers in private lawfirms.The competition between specialist music business lawyers is intense. Ittakes considerable effort, both in and out of normal working hours, to buildup a ‘practice’ – a body of clients who use you regularly for legal advice.Without a practice you are unlikely to be promoted to associate, salaried orfull partner sharing in the profits (or losses) of the business. The financialrewards and job satisfaction can, however, be considerable.Those of you who think you would find it difficult to build up a practice,or who aren’t interested in becoming a full profit-sharing partner or owningtheir own business, may decide to work in-house instead. That isn’t to saythat this is an easy option. The work in-house can be very intense. There’s nojob security and you have to follow company policy, the ‘corporate line’.The up-side is that the working atmosphere can be more relaxed, you don’thave the stresses of building a practice or running your own business and itcan be a very good way to move into management positions.It is possible to move between the two. A partner in a West End musiclaw firm left to go in-house at one of the big music publishing companiesand ended up running the whole of their European operation.BECOMING A BARRISTERInstead of being a solicitor you could choose to do a law degree, a follow-upcourse at a recognised Bar School and a minimum of one year’s training tobecome a barrister. Barristers can’t be partners in law firms without re-qualifying as a solicitor, but they can, and often do, work as in-houselawyers. For further information on becoming a barrister, contact the BarCouncil.BECOMING A LEGAL EXECUTIVEYou can also get a qualification as a legal executive. For information onlegal executive qualifications, contact the Institute of Legal Executives. Itdoesn’t entitle you to become a partner in a law firm but it does give you alegal qualification. It can be done in evening and day-release classes whileyou’re working and it can be a stepping stone to becoming a fully qualifiedsolicitor although this would take many years. You find legal executives inimportant support roles in media law firms. In the smaller firms, their roleisn’t that different from that of fully qualified solicitors. Legal executivesalso work in-house and, to all intents and purposes, they do the same work asqualified solicitors. However, there is often the view in music companiesthat, unless you’re a fully qualified lawyer or have an additional businessqualification such as an MBA (a masters degree in business administration),you’re unlikely to get promoted to a management role. On the other hand,you may not have any desire to go into management and may be happy witha non-management role.NON-LEGAL JOBSFor a general overview of types of careers available in the music business, agood place to start would be Sian Pattenden’s book How to Make i t in theMusic Business.You could also refer to your careers advisory service and government-backed enterprise and job advisory centres. Chapter 17Useful Addresses ACADEMY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSICRodboro Buildings, Bridge Street, Guildford GU1 4SBTel: 01483 500800Fax: 01483 500801Website: www.acm.ac.ukACCA – Association of Chartered and Certified Accounts29 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3EETel: 020 7059 5000Fax: 020 7059 5050Email: info@accaglobal.comWebsite: www.uk.accaglobal.comAIM – Association of Independent MusicLamb House, Church Street, London W4 2PDTel: 020 8994 5599Fax: 020 8994 5222Email: info@musicindie.org.ukWebsite: www.musicindie.orgAMIA – Association of Music Industry AccountantsUnity House, 205 Euston Road, London NW1 2AYTel: 020 7535 1400Fax: 020 7535 1401ASCAP – American Society of Composers and Performers8 Cork Street, London W1S 3LJTel: 020 7439 0909Fax: 020 7434 0073Email: info@ascap.comWebsite: www.ascap.comBAR COUNCIL, THE289–293 High Holborn, London WC1V 7HZTel: 020 7242 0082Fax: 020 7831 9217Website: www.barcouncil.org.ukBATH SPA UNIVERSITY COLLEGENewton Park Campus, Newton St Loe, Bath BA2 9BNTel: 01225 875875Fax: 01225 875444Email: enquiries@bathspa.ac.ukWebsite: www.bathspa.ac.ukBMI – Broadcast Media Inc.84 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HNTel: 020 7486 2036Website: www.bmi.comBOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITYFern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BBTel: 01202 524111Fax: 01202 962736Email: enquiries@bournemouth.ac.ukWebsite: www.bournemouth.ac.ukBPI – British Phonographic InstituteThe Riverside Building, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, LondonSE1 7JATel: 020 7803 1300Fax: 020 7803 1310Email: general@bpi.co.ukWebsite: www.bpi.co.ukBUCKS NEW UNIVERSITYQueen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 2JZTel: 01494 522141Fax: 01494 524392Email: advice@bucks.ac.ukWebsite: www.bcuc.ac.ukCANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGENorth Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QUTel: 01227 767700Fax: 01227 479442Email: admissions@canterbury.ac.ukWebsite: www.canterbury.ac.ukCHAMBERS & PARTNERS PUBLISHINGSaville House, 23 Long Lane, London EC1A 9HLTel: 020 7606 8844Fax: 020 7606 0906Website: www.chambersandpartners.comCITY UNIVERSITYNorthampton Square, London EC1V 0HBTel: 020 7040 8268Fax: 020 7040 8995Email: ell@city.ac.ukWebsite: www.city.ac.ukCONCERT PROMOTERS’ ASSOCIATION6 St Mark’s Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 1LJTel: 01491 575060Email: cpn@makingmusic.org.ukDARTINGTON COLLEGE OF ARTSTotnes, Devon TQ9 6EJTel: 01803 862224Fax: 01803 861666Email: enquiries@dartington.ac.ukWebsite: www.dartington.ac.ukDE MONTFORT UNIVERSITYThe Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BHTel: 0116 255 1551Fax: 0116 2577533Email: enquiry@dmu.ac.ukWebsite: www.dmu.ac.ukEQUITY (British Actors’ Equity Association)Guild House, Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EGTel: 020 7379 6000Fax: 020 7379 7001E-mail: info@equity.org.ukWebsite: www.equity.org.ukEquity is an independent trade union representing not only actors but alsoother performers including singers and dancers. Equity negotiates industryagreements with TV and radio broadcasters, theatres and record companies(through the BPI).GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, THEAdmin. Office: Design Works, William Street, Felling, Gateshead, NE100JPTel: 020 7583 7900Email: info@globalmusicbiz.co.ukWebsite: www.globalmusicbiz.co.ukIAEL – International Association of Entertainment LawyersDuncan Calow – General SecretaryDLA Piper UK LLP, 3 Noble Street, London EC2V 7EETel: 08700 111 111Website: www.iael.orgIFPI – International Federation Phonographic Ltd10 Piccadilly, London W1J 0DDTel: 020 7878 7900Fax: 020 7878 7950Email: info@ifpi.orgWebsite: www.ifpi.orgILEX – Institute of Legal ExecutivesKempston Manor, Kempston, Bedford MK42 7ABTel: 01234 841000Fax: 01234 840373Email: info@ilex.org.ukWebsite: www.ilex.org.ukINFORMATION COMMISSIONER’S OFFICEWycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AFTel: 01625 545745Fax: 01625 524510Email: notification@ico.gov.ukWebsite: www.ico.gov.ukINSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS IN ENGLAND &WALES, THEChartered Accountants’ Hall, PO Box 433, London, EC2P 2BJTel: 020 7920 8100Fax: 020 7920 0547Email: psogen@icaew.comWebsite: www.icaew.co.ukKINGSTON UNIVERSITYRiver House, 53–7 High Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 1LQTel: 020 8547 2000Email: admissions-info@kingston.ac.ukWebsite: www.kingston.ac.ukLAW SOCIETY, THE113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PLTel: 020 7242 1222Fax: 020 7831 0344Email: contact@lawsociety.org.ukWebsite: www.lawsociety.org.ukMCPS – Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Limited29–33 Berners Street, London W1T 3ABTel: 020 7580 5544Fax: 020 7306 4455Email: writerquery@mcps-prs-alliance.co.ukWebsite: www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.ukMIRACLE PUBLISHING LIMITED1 York Street, London W1U 6PATel: 020 7486 7007Fax: 020 7486 2002Email: info@audience.uk.comMMF – Music Managers ForumBritish Music House, 26 Berners Street, London W1T 3LRTel: 0870 8507800Fax: 0870 8507801Email: website@ukmmf.netWebsite: www.musicmanagersforum.co.ukMMF – Training14b Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZTel: 0161 839 7007Fax: 0161 839 6970Email: info@mmf-training.comThis is the UK trade association for artist managers. It was set upapproximately twelve years ago as the International Managers Forum to actas a representative body for managers, as a forum for debate on matters ofinterest to its members and as a lobbying body.MUSIC WEEKLudgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UYTel: 020 7921 8353Email: feedbackmusicweek@musicweek.comWebsite: www.musicweek.comMUSICIAN’S ATLAS, THEMusic Resource Group. 38 Porter Place, Montclair NJ 07042Tel: +(973) 509 9898Fax: +(973) 655 1238Email: info@musiciansAtlas.comWebsite: www.MusiciansAtlas.comMUSICIANS’ UNION33 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PETel: 020 7840 5504Fax: 020 7840 5399Email: London@musiciansunion.org.ukWebsite: www.musiciansunion.org.ukThe MU is the only UK trade union solely representing musicians. It wasformed in 1893. It has over 30,000 members and has a regional structure thatincludes offices in London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.It acts as a collective body by seeking to improve the status of musicians andthe money they earn. The MU makes national agreements with variousorganisations, including with the BPI (for recording sessions andpromotional videos) and with television companies (for broadcasts).NEW MUSICAL EXPRESSIPC Music Magazines, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street,London SE1 0SUTel: 020 7261 5813Fax: 020 7261 5185Email: ipcsales@qqs-uk.comWebsite: www.nme.comOXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITYGypsy Lane Campus, Headington Campus, Gypsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BPTel: 01865 741111Email: query@brookes.ac.ukWebsite: www.brookes.ac.ukPINNACLE ENTERTAINMENTHeather Court, 6 Maidstone Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 5KKTel: 020 8309 3600Website: www.pinnacle-entertainment.co.ukPPL – Phonographic Performance Limited1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DETel: 020 7534 1000Fax: 020 7534 1111Email: member.info@ppluk.comWebsite: www.ppluk.comPRS – Performing Right Society Limited29–33 Berners Street, London W1T 3ABTel: 020 7580 5544Fax: 020 7306 4455Email: info@prs.co.ukWebsite: www.prs.co.ukROEHAMPTON INSTITUTE LONDONRoehampton Lane, London SW15 5PUTel: 020 8392 3000Email: enquiries@roehampton.ac.ukWebsite: www.roehampton.ac.ukTHAMES VALLEY UNIVERSITYSt Mary’s Road, Ealing, London W5 5RFTel: 020 8579 5000Email: info@tvu.ac.ukWebsite: www.tvu.ac.ukUCAS – University Clearing Advisory ServiceUCAS PO Box 28, Cheltenham GL52 3LZTel: 0870 112 2211Email: enquiries@ucas.ac.ukWebsite: www.ucas.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF GREENWICHOld Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich SE10 9LSTel: 020 8331 8000Email: courseinfo@greenwich.ac.ukWebsite: www.gre.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNENewcastle NE1 7RUTel: 0191 222 6000Website: www.newcastle.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTONPark Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7ALTel: 01604 735500Email: study@northampton.ac.ukWebsite: www.nene.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF PAISLEYPaisley PA1 2BE, ScotlandTel: 0141 843 3000Email: info@paisley.ac.ukWebsite: www.paisley.ac.ukThe University is seeking approval to change the name to University of theWest of Scotland.UNIVERSITY OF SALFORDSalford, Greater Manchester M5 4WTTel: 0161 295 5000Fax: 0161 295 5999Email: course-enquiries@salford.ac.ukWebsite: www.salford.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLANDSt Mary’s Building, City Campus, Chester Road, Sunderland SR1 3SDTel: 0191 515 2000Email: student-helpline@sunderland.ac.ukWebsite: www.sunderland.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF SURREYThe Registry, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XHTel: 01483 300800Fax: 01483 300803Email: info@surrey.ac.ukWebsite: www.surrey.ac.ukUNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UWTel: 020 7911 5000Email: admission@wmin.ac.ukWebsite: www.wmin.ac.ukVITAL338a Ladbroke Grove, London W10 5AHTel: 020 8324 2400Fax: 020 8324 0001Email: webmaster@vitaluk.comWebsite: www.pias.com/vitalWELSH MUSIC FOUNDATION33–5 West Bute Street, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff CF10 5LHTel: 02920 494 110Fax: 02920 494 210Email: enquiries@welshmusicfoundation.comWebsite: www.welshmusicfoundation.comINDEXThe page references in this index correspond to the printed edition fromwhich this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from theindex, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.A&R (Artist and Repertoire):accountant, help with choosing a 17album, involvement with 71booking agent, help with choosing a 216future of 176manager, help with choosing a 24precarious life of 3producer, help with choosing a 118radio play, importance of 53recording studio, help with choosing a 116–17relationship with 3scouting 214, 215sending demos to 2, 8, 9social networking sites and 167–8Abba 188, 190Abilene Music 89accountants:booking agents and 222, 226–7business managers and 17–18directories 16finding 16–17how do they charge? 18how to choose 17institutes 16lawyer, help with finding a 12publishing 107record deal, help with getting a 19tax and see taxtouring and 230–1VAT and see VATwhat do they do? 18–19, 43, 44advances 72cost-inclusive 75min-max formula 73–4payment terms 74publishing 104–5size of 51, 52–7, 72what is a good? 72–5advertising:banner adverts at venues 206–7flyposting 231local press 7marketing campaigns 140–1, 180music for 60, 63, 92–3social networking sites 168, 170TV 60, 63, 92–3, 140–1, 180see also marketingAftermath Records 272Akon 224album, recording and distributing see record, making aalbum cycles 39albums, move away from 166–7All Seeing I 276alternative dispute resolution (ADR) 247Amazon 149, 152, 161, 176American Idol 181American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) 8, 22, 23, 215,299, 312Anti-Piracy Unit (APU) 292, 301Apple 63, 148, 160, 161, 164, 165Aprilla 204–5Arctic Monkeys 150, 154, 181Armatrading, Joan 26–9, 30, 39, 41, 42, 51, 108Armour, Jennifer 279artwork, cover 72, 125–8, 131, 138Ash, Niema 264Associated Newspapers 265–6Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA) 16Association of Independent Music (AIM) 298, 300, 302, 308, 312Association of Music Industry Accountants (AMIA) 16, 312AT&T 164Audible Magic 158Automatic, The 8backing band and session musicians 97–9, 106, 122, 125, 232–3band:income 241–3leaving member provisions 244–7as a limited company 238–9name 3–6, 236–8partnership 240–1registers 4–6service agreements 241split 247–9structures 238–41Barfly 213, 214, 215Barrett, Aston 56–7Barrett, Carlton 56, 57barrister, becoming a 309Barry, Paul 86Barton, Lukas 86‘battle of the bands’ 7–8, 214BBC Music 82BDO Stoy Hayward 16Beach Boys 237Bebo 152, 168, 174Beck 126, 157, 175Beckham, David 266Beckham, Victoria 266Bedford, David 190–1Bedford, The 8, 214Bees, The 150Beethoven Street Music 34Beggars Banquet 49Bella Union 49Belle and Sebastian 279Beloved 271Berne Convention 252, 259Best, Callum 263Betsy Trottwood, The 8Beyonce 180Big Active 175Big Brother 181Black Box 277Black Eyed Peas, The 200Blackhurst, Tim 22Blue 5–6, 237Bluebells 280, 281Blunt, James 86BMG 3, 48, 49, 77, 82, 154, 156, 159, 161, 231, 271, 275Bob Marley and the Wailers 56–7booking agents 215–17, 218–23bootleg recordings 288, 289Bourne, James 248–9Boyzone 231BPI (British Phonographic Institute) 133, 143, 149, 155, 159, 284, 285,288, 289, 292, 300, 301, 308, 313branding:artist 182–4merchandising deals 184, 191–7protecting your name 180trade marks 6, 183, 184–90unauthorised, unofficial merchandise 180–1see also merchandiseBranson, Sir Richard 152, 180Brecon Jazz Festival, The 225Brett, John 277–8Brian Rawling Productions Limited (BRP) 86British Academy of Composers and Songwriters (BASCA) 300British Association of Record Dealers (BARD) 292British Music Rights 300Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) 8, 299, 313Brooker, Gary 87–8Bucks Music Group 83Bug Music 83B-Unique 3, 49business managers 17–18, 32Busted 248, 249buzz, creating a 2–3, 6, 51CAA 216Camden Council 231Campbell, Naomi 263Campus Group 213Carlin Music 279cases, legal:Abba 188Associated Newspapers v HRH Prince of Wales 265–6Aston Barrett v Universal Island Records 56–7Beckham v Gibson 266Beloved 271Beyonce 279Blue 5–6, 237‘Chariots of Fire’ 278, 279Colonel Bogey 271Cure 242Eddie Irvine 260Elizabeth Jagger 263Elton John v Dick James 27, 29–30, 106Elton John v Reed 122Elvis Costello 233Elvis Presley 185, 186Francis Day & Hunter 278George Michael 54–6, 71, 256Gilbert O’Sullivan 25–6, 60, 64Grokster 284Holly Valance 39–40Hyperion Records v Dr Lionel Sawkins 89–90James Bourne v Brandon Davis 248–9Jamie Theakston 262Joan Armatrading 26–9, 30, 39, 41, 42, 51, 108John Brett 277–8Kemp 85–6, 242, 280Kuro 284Liberty X 5–6, 237Ludlow 275, 279Macarena 271Macaulay v Schroeder 52, 100–1, 107–8Mark Taylor v Rive Droit Music Limited 86–7Matthew Fisher v Gary Brooker 87–8Michael Douglas 261Ms Dynamite 262Naomi Campbell 263Niema Ash v Loreena McKennitt 263–4Oasis 127–8P Diddy 188–9Petula Clark 260Phil Collins 288Pink Floyd 281R v Langley 288Ray Repp 278SABAM v Scarlet 157–8, 170Sara Cox v The People 263Saxon 186Seal v Wardlow 34–5Sebastian Coe 263Shut Up and Dance 277Soribada 284Spice Girls 190–1, 204–5Tom Waits 188Trent Reznor 41Valentino v Hodgens 280Van Morrison (Exile) v Marlow 220–1Walmsley 272Wet Wet Wet 185Williamson Music 279–80ZTT v Holly Johnson 65–6, 71, 108CD (compact disc):compilations 77cover mount 54, 150, 152dealer price 76distribution see distributionlegacy 176manufacturing 130–3, 165record companies lose control of pricing 148retail price 76sales, falling 64, 83sound quality 148CDR 130–1, 284Centralised European Licensing and Administration service (CELAS) 298Chambers, Guy 85, 275Chrysalis Records 85Church, Charlotte 30Clark, Petula 260Clarkson, Kelly 31Coe, Sebastian 263Coldplay 157, 214collection societies 91, 137administration 97, 299becoming a member of 95–6blanket licenses 297–9rights granted 299the societies 300–3what are? 296–7see also under individual societyCollins, Phil 288Colonel Bogey 271Combs, Sean 188, 189Competition Commission 296, 297concerts:‘battle of the bands’ 7–8, 214commission 41online 2, 153open mike 8, 19presentation of 7prices of tickets 68secret 7showcases 6–7venues 7see also touringconfidentiality agreements 266Copeland Sherry Agency 26Copeland, Miles 27copyright:demo 10–11duration of 88–9exclusive recording contract 62, 64fair dealing exemptions 59getting it back 64licence deals and 57, 58, 59moral rights and 252, 253, 256, 258online 59, 171–2piracy and 289–90publishing and 84–8, 90, 98what rights come with ownership of? 90Copyright Act 1956 257Copyright and Patents Act 1988 57, 58, 91, 160, 252, 253, 255, 259, 270,296, 299Copyright Directive 2003, European 157, 159–60, 170Copyright Tribunal 91Costello, Elvis 233counterfeit recordings 286Cowell, Simon 181Cox, Sarah 263Cracknell, Sarah 200Creation Records 38, 126, 127, 128Crimea, The 174Daily Mirror 263Danny D 22Darkness, The 8David, Paula 271Davies, Ray 54Davis, Brandon 248–9de Lalande, Richard 89Dean, Mark 54Dearlove, Richard 188, 189Def Jam 183, 272delivery requirements 71–2, 124Deloitte 16Delta Leisure 162demos 245composition of 9, 19demo deals 10–11, 20finder’s agreements 9–10, 20MP3 2, 9recording 8–11sending to an A&R person 2, 9studio deals 8–9Destiny’s Child 200Devo 93Digital Memory Devices (DMD) 149Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 160digital rights management (DRM) 136, 148, 152, 158–61, 176, 285–6, 289Disney 89, 165distribution 49catalogue or single item deals 133–4consolidation of sector 154exclusive versus non-exclusive deals 134–8major versus indies 132–3merchandise 194–5traditional distributors encompass online distribution 152–3DJM 29Doc Martin 228Domino Records 3, 49Douglas, Michael 261, 262downloads 63charts 143, 149free 64, 130illegal 149, 151, 156–62, 175royalties 163–4subscription services 163see also digital rights management and online music salesDoyle, Owen 248, 249Dre, Dr 272Driscoll, Adam 213Dudgeon, Gus 27, 29DVDs 165, 221artist website sales 171copyright 256, 257cover mount 54demand for 53licence fees 93, 298marketing 142–4piracy 284royalties 92Eagles, The 165Earwig 156, 175Ebay 176Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) 286Elle s’Appelle 215Elton John 29EMI 5, 48, 49, 69, 75, 77, 82, 84, 130, 141, 144, 150, 154–5, 157, 160,161, 167, 273, 274, 275, 281, 298, 300Eminem 157End of History, The (Regan) 49Epic Records 3, 55Equity 117, 300, 301, 314Ernst & Young 16Essex Music Limited 88European Commission 48, 164, 297European Economic Area (EEA) 297European Leisure Software Publishers’ Association (ELSPA) 293European Union (EU) 48, 58, 59, 82, 91, 135, 158, 162, 285, 288, 296Copyright Directive 2003 83, 157, 159–60, 170, 287Evera, Emily Van 271Facebook 138, 152, 167, 168, 174Fame Academy 181fan clubs 171, 231–2Farm, The 271Farnham, John 221Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) 285, 292–3Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) 292, 293Fiction Records 242fiduciary duty 25, 26, 28, 30, 33film soundtracks 3, 60, 83, 92, 93‘fingerprinting’ technology 170Fisher, Matthew 87–8Fitzgerald, Kiley 248, 249Flaming Monkeys, The 8Flute 122Fopp 152Fox 165Frankie Goes To Hollywood 65, 108, 237, 238, 248Franz Ferdinand 3Friends 237Fuchs, Aaron 272Fuller, Simon 30, 35Gallagher, Noel 127Gates, Gareth 181G-A-Y 213Geffen 109GEMA 298getting started 2–20Gibson, Abbie 266gigs see concertsGilbert O’Sullivan 25–6, 60, 64Gill, Peter 237Girls Aloud 180Glastonbury Festival 8, 220GMTV 291Google 148, 168, 169, 170, 174Gorillaz 152Gower’s Review 58, 159, 160, 161–2, 285, 291, 293Great White 224Grokster 131, 284groups see bandsGuardian 174Gut Records 200Hadley, Tony 85Halliwell, Geri 204–5Hammersmith Apollo 213Hands, Guy 49, 82, 141, 154–5, 300harassment actions 266Hartman, Don 277Hawkes & Son 271Hear Music 151Hear’Say 181Heart 141higher education 306–8HMV 152Hodgens, Robert 280Holly Johnson 65–6, 71, 108Honeytrippers 272Horn, Trevor 65House of Lords 52, 263Human Rights Act 259, 261, 262, 264Hyperion Records 89–9, 271IE 69IFPI (International Federation Phonographic Ltd) 63, 151, 155, 284, 292,300, 315Iglesias, Enrique 86–7Il Divo 180image, band 7Impala 48In the City 8, 215independent legal advice 36Inland Revenue 239, 241, 243Innervision 55integrity right 255–7internet 2 see also downloads, Internet Service Providers and onlinemusic salesInternet Service Providers (ISP) 148, 151, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 169,172, 284, 285, 293, 298–9iPhone 150, 164, 165iPod 130, 150, 153, 162, 203, 289Irvine, Eddie 260Island Records 56, 57, 85, 248, 249Islington Gazette 262iTunes 130, 133, 153, 160, 164, 165, 168Jackson, Ray 281Jagger, Elizabeth 263James, Dean 213Japan 135Jardine, Al 237Jenkins, Katherine 174–5Jobs, Steve 160John, Elton 27, 29–30, 122Johnson, Holly 237Jupiter Research 167Kaiser Chiefs, The 3Kazaa 131, 285Keane 3Keeble, John 85Kemp, Gary 85, 86, 242Kemp, Martin 85Kennedy, John 151Kerrang 8, 214key-man provisions 38, 222–3Killers 214Kobalt 83Koopa 150Kuro 284Lahiri, Bappi 272Lala 160Langley Masters 288Later with Jools Holland 44, 182Lavender, Ray 224lawyer:beauty parades 14choosing and employing a 13–14conflicts of interest 13–14directories 12finding a 11–14legal consultants 15–16new breed of 14, 15–16relationship with 15what do they do for you? 14–15when should you get a? 16Law Reports 28, 29, 30Law Society 11, 15, 16, 308, 315Leading Edge 221leaving member provisions 244–7Leeds Festival 201legal executive, becoming a 309Lemar 31Lewis, Leona 31, 150, 167, 181libel 262Liberty 5, 6Liberty X 5, 181, 237licensing 49collection society blanket licenses 297–9deals 57–62mechanical licenses 90–1, 92, 109, 151performance 93–5publishing 90–1synchronisation licenses 83, 92–3, 106, 151territory 61Limited Online Exploitation Licence 298Linda, Solomon 88–9Lion King, The 89Live Music Forum 225Live Nation 48, 49, 68, 151, 212–13, 224Livesey, Yvette 8Livingstone, Bunny 56Lloyds Bank 200Logarides 278Lost Highway 49Love, Mike 237Lowe, Michael 272Macarena 271Madonna 48, 49, 57, 68, 151, 212–13Magic Numbers 40Mail on Sunday, The 54, 265–6Malm, John 41Malone, George 285Mama Group 213–15, 224Management Agency and Music Limited (MAM) 25, 60managers:A&R contacts 24business managers 32contracts 35–40, 43, 44directories 22expenses 43–4fiduciary duties and problems with bands 25, 26, 28, 33help with finding a lawyer 12how to find a 22–4independent legal advice 36is it essential to have an experienced? 31legal cases involving 25–30, 33, 34–5, 39–40new business models 33–4pay 40–2personal assistants 32personal managers 17, 31–2post-term commission 41–2qualities to look for in 31recommendations 23relationship with 24–9, 34–5role 40short-term contracts 44surgeries 23tax and 44territory 36–7trial period 24trust and 24–30what to look for in a 30–1see also Music Manager’s Forum (MMF)marketing:artwork 138DVDs 143–4EPQs 142fan clubs and 171, 231–2flyposting 231in-house or external 139–40local press 7online 156, 170–1, 173–6paying for 141–2photographs and biographies 138–9pluggers 141radio play 53, 141, 215SMS 7, 175, 176, 231telesales 136tours 231–2TV advertising 140–1, 180videograms 143Marlow, Gary 220–1Martin-Smith, Nigel 30master recordings 26, 72McCartney, Paul 151McDonald’s 200McFly 167McGee, Alan 38, 155McKennitt, Loreena 264McLean, Don 279MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Limited) 85, 91, 92, 95,97, 135, 139, 169, 277, 280, 287, 297–8, 300, 302–3, 316 see alsolicensingMCPS-PRS Alliance 169, 170, 275, 297, 298–9, 302Meatloaf 220mechanical licenses 90–1, 92, 109, 151memory sticks 148–9merchandising 180–1, 183, 184, 191–7, 260Mercury Prize 49Mercury Records 183, 248, 249MGM 284Michael, George 52, 54, 71, 224, 225, 256Michaelson, Scott 39–40Microsoft 168MIDEM 297Mills, Gordon 25, 26Minidisc 130Minimum Commitment 65–6, 72, 74, 121, 229, 246, 276Ministry of Sound 200Minogue, Kylie 143, 167Mintel 212mixing 76, 117, 122–4 see also remixingmobile music players 165–6mobile phones 148, 149, 151, 165–6Montana, Hannah 232Moore, Tony 8, 214moral rights 109–10, 121, 122, 252–66, 290Morrison, Van 220–1Moths, The 215MP3s 124, 131, 148, 160, 161MP3.com 131, 158, 162Ms Dynamite 262MSN 174MTV 143Muse 8, 215Music Managers Forum (MMF) 12, 16–17, 22–3, 36, 300, 308, 316Music Publishers Association (MPA) 293, 297, 300, 30l, 308Music Station 166Music Week 16, 22, 82, 131, 142, 167, 175, 190, 201, 216, 316Musicians Union (MU) 12, 36, 117, 292, 300, 301, 317MySpace 2, 59, 130, 138, 143, 148, 152, 156, 166, 167, 168, 169, 174,175, 176, 182, 188name, band 3–6Napster 131, 158, 162, 166, 169Nash, Brian 237National Insurance 44News Corp 165Nicoli, Eric 49, 160Nine Inch Nails 4119 Entertainment 35NME 214, 317Norman, Steve 85Nova 132Oasis 8, 38, 126, 127–8, 157, 215Ocean Colour Scene 150OK! 26Oliver, Graham 186online music sales 148–52charts 143, 149–50data protection and 173distribution 135–6, 148, 149–51, 152–3free 64, 130future of 176–7hosting agreements 172–3illegal 148–9, 151, 156–62, 175marketing 156, 170–1, 173–6new business models 162–4official websites 170–1piracy 148–9, 151, 156–62, 175pricing 148record industry attitude towards 148–9, 150, 151–2, 154–6reproduction of 135–6, 148, 149–51, 152–3royalties 136, 148, 152, 158–61, 163–4, 176, 285–6, 289social networking sites and see social networking sitessound quality 148streaming and online broadcasting 153–4subscription services 163territorial issues 164–5website design rights and copyrights 171–2see also downloads; mobile music players; mobile phones; podcastsand ringtonesOnward Music Limited 88‘open mike’ evenings 8, 19Orange 228Orchard, The 133, 153Other, The 7O’Toole, Mark 237O2 54, 164, 212override royalty 9, 74Page, Jimmy 288P&D deals 132, 136Paramount 271Parlophone 167Parry, Chris 242partnership, artist and label 68–9Partnership Act 1890 238, 247‘passing off’ 4, 187–8paternity, right of 253–5Paul, Sean 279PDAs 148P Diddy 188–9Pebble Beach 132Peer Music 83peer-to-peer (P2P) websites 131, 154, 158, 169, 284Performing Rights 59People, The 263Pepsi 200Perfect Songs 65, 108personal assistants 32personal managers see managersPet Shop Boys, The 30photographs, privacy of 257–8PIAS 132, 154, 319Pink Floyd 281Pinnacle 132, 133, 150, 153, 317piracy 58, 149, 151, 156–62, 176, 284–6Anti-Piracy Unit (APU) 292, 301bootlegs 288, 289copyright and 289–90 see also copyrightcounterfeit recordings 286enforcement 290–3how can you stop? 289–9how do you spot a counterfeit, pirate or bootleg record? 288–9moral rights 290pirate recordings 287–8‘Rootkit’ 159, 286trade descriptions 290, 291trade marks 290what is? 286PJ Harvey 157plagarism 277–9pluggers, TV and radio 141Podcasting Association 153–4podcasts 150, 153–4, 298Police, The 27Pop Idol 181Popstars 5, 181Positiva 200PPL 138, 298, 300, 301, 302, 317Premier League 170‘pre-sales’ 139–40presenting yourself 7Presley, Elvis 58, 185, 186, 190Press Complaints Commission 262, 263Pride, Dominic 150Prince 54, 152, 212, 277Prince of Wales, Charles 265–6privacy of the individual 259–66Private Security Industry (Licences) Regulations 2004, The 225Procol Harum 87–8Produce Records 139, 271producers:as co-authors 121copy and moral rights 121, 122, 258credits 120demo 9duties 122mixing 122–4pay 40, 117, 118–19, 120, 122royalties 120standard of work 120–1promoters 223–8PRS (The Performing Rights Society Limited) 8, 12, 23, 85, 91, 93–5, 97,102, 107, 135, 139, 169, 214, 297, 300, 302, 317publishing:accounting and 107administration deals 96–7advances 104–5controlled compositions 91–2copyright and 85–90, 98exclusive agreement 100–9how to find a music publisher 82–3independent publishers 82–3mechanical licenses 83, 90–1, 109, 151Minimum Commitment 103–4moral rights and creative control 109–10ownership, disputes over 85–8performing rights 93–5, 107print 95record deal before 95–6restraint of trade 100–1rights granted 102rights period 102–3rolling contracts 103royalties 90–1, 105–7single song assignment 99–100sub-publishing deals 97–9, 102, 105, 106synchronisation licenses and royalties 83, 92–3, 106, 151territory 102, 151360 degree deals and 110tracking systems 151what are music publishing rights? 84–9what do publishers do? 83–4what type of deal should you do? 110what’s in a typical publishing deal? 101–7Punk 8Radiohead 150, 151, 175Radio 1 53, 141, 174, 215radio play 53, 141, 174, 215Radio 2 53, 141, 174, 215Raizada, Yogesh 291Rashman, Richard 249Reading Festival 201record, making aartwork 72, 125–8, 131, 138budget 117–18credits 120delivery requirements 124mastering and digitisation 118, 124mixing 76, 117, 122–4producer 118–19, 122production deals 114–15record company refusal to release 54–6recoupment of costs 63–4, 70, 118, 119remix royalty reduction 120rights 121standard of work 120–1studio package deals 116–17studio, finding a 118who does the contract? 119–20record companies: consolidation of 48–50, 154 cost-cutting 48–50, 154–5future of 176independent 3, 6, 49–50, 132–3, 136major 49, 50, 132–3, 136, 176refusal to release albums 54–6see also under individual company namerecord deals:accounting and 78advances 52–7, 72–5copyright and 62, 64creative control versus large advances 52–7delivery requirements 71–2development deals 62–3exclusive 60–6future album options 64–6hype of the multi-million pound 50–1legal principles 51–2licence deals 48, 57–60new business models 48–50new kinds of deal 57, 67–9, 110, 155–6non-inclusive 60–1production deals 69–71record budgets 75–6royalties 76–7territory and split-territory deals 66–7 360degree deal 57, 67–9, 110, 155, 171, 197, 212–13two-album firm deals 66what happens in a production deal when a bigger company comesalong? 78–9 record sales, decline in 2 see also CDsrecoupable and non-recoupable costs 63–4, 70, 73, 75–6, 78, 94, 107, 118,119, 123, 229, 245, 248Regal Room, The 8Regan, Fionn 49rehearsing 7remixing 67, 76, 120, 123Remote Control 132restraint of trade 26, 29, 51–2, 55–6, 100–1Reznor, Trent 41Rhode Island Club 224RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) 149, 155, 158, 284, 300Rice, Damien 49Rice, Tim 85Richard, Cliff 58, 162, 279Ridgeley, Andrew 54, 55ringtones 150, 151, 182Rive Droit Music Limited (RDM) 86, 87Roland, Kevin 155Rondor UK 82‘Rootkit’ 159, 286Roskilde Festival 224Rough Trade 49royalties:DVD 144leaving member 245, 246, 248mechanical 90–1, 92, 109, 151 see also MCPSmerchandise 195–6override 9, 74performing 107 see also PRSproducer 120publishing 90–1, 105–7record deal 70, 75–7synchronisation 92–3Rutherford, Paul 237SABAM 157–8, 170Safety Focus Group 225sampling:how do you clear a sample? 272–3how much is a sample? 270–2, 276what happens if you don’t clear a sample? 277when should you seek permission? 273–4where do you go to clear samples? 274–6Sanctuary Records 42, 49, 154Sawkins, Dr Lionel 89–90Saxon 186Schroeder Music Publishing Ltd 52Scissor Sisters 40S Club 7 30, 31scouts 2–3see also A&R Seal 34–5, 40Secure Digital Media Initiative (SDMI) 159Sergeant, Matthew 248session musicians 117, 122, 125, 232–3, 241, 280–17Digital 133, 162, 173Shadows, The 279Shalit, Jonathan 30Shaw, Sid 185short cuts 5–8showcases 6–7, 19Shut Up and Dance (SUAD) 277Silver Rarities 288Silvertone 108Simpson, Charlie 248Sinclair, Jill 65singles:downloads 53 see also downloadsminimum number of 53rise in sales 167SISAC 299Sky Larkin 215slicethepie.com 8Smith, Robert 242social networking sites 8, 152, 167–70see also under individual site namesolicitor, becoming a 308–9songwriters:co-authors 85, 121moral rights 109, 258publishing deals and 94, 96, 98, 101, 102, 103, 106see also copyright and publishingSon of Dork 248Sonny and Cher 276SonyBMG 159, 161, 273, 289Sony Records 38, 48, 49, 54–6, 64, 82, 154, 156, 159, 161, 231, 272, 274,286Sony Ericsson 228Sony Walkman 148Soribada 284sound-a-likes 279–80sound and lighting engineers 232Sounds Under Radio 3Spandau Ballet 85–6, 242Spice Girls, The 30, 180, 182, 183, 190–1, 200, 204–5, 208Spiral Frog 150sponsorship 7, 200–1agents 201–2ethical considerations 202–3exclusivity 204–5how to find 201scope of the deal 203–4tour 183what’s in a typical deal? 205–8Springsteen, Bruce 122Starbucks 151Stewart, Rod 281Sting 27, 63Stone Roses 108–9sub-publishing deals 97–9, 102, 105, 106Suede 8, 215Sun 126, 127, 128Sunday Mail 152Super Furry Animals 155Supervision 213synchronisation licenses and royalties 83, 92–3, 106, 151Taiwan 284Take That 30, 167, 180Talksport 260Taupin, Bernie 29, 85tax:accounting 243–4and a band split 247exiles 18, 220, 239managers and 44offshore companies and 239production deals and 69returns 18touring and 230–1Taylor, Mark 86–7te Kanawa, Dame Kiri 221Terra Firma 82, 144, 154, 300territory:distribution within 134–6licensing and 61managers and 36–7merchandising deals and 192sponsorship and 205online sales and 164–5publishing and 102Terry, Clare 281Theakston, Jamie 262360 degree deals 57, 67–9, 110, 155, 171, 197, 212–13Thom, Sandi 2, 156 33 Mobile 163Tiscali 157T-Mobile 164–5Tolhurst, Laurence 242Tosh, Peter 56touring:accounting 17, 18, 53artist riders 225–6backing band and session engineers 232–3booking agents 215–17, 218–23budget 18cancellations 220–1employment agency regulations 217–18funding for 228–30insurance 224losses 53Madonna and Live Nation 212–13Mama Group 213–15manager’s commission 28, 29, 41merchandise 183, 227 see also merchandisepayment and accounting 226–7personnel 232–3promoters 223–8publicising 231–2regulations 225–6sound and lighting engineers 232sponsorship 183, 201–2support 228–30tax planning 230–1360 degree deals and 212–13tour manager 232Trade Descriptions 190, 260, 290, 291Trade Marks 4, 6, 180, 183, 184–90, 207, 290Trading Standards 58, 291–2Truth Hurts 272Tunstall, KT 181–2, 214TV appearances 44, 53United States:copyright laws 121distribution and licensing within 135online music sales within 135personal managers in see managers: personal managersproduction deals 120, 121record labels 2, 4, 17territory 66–7Universal Music Group 42, 49, 82, 151, 152, 154, 156, 161, 169, 248, 249Upsetters, The 56USB flash devices 149, 150useful addresses 312–19U2 157, 203Valentino, Bobby 280Valance, Holly 39–40Vangelis 278VAT 17, 18, 43, 44, 195Vega, Suzanne 277Velvet Revolver 220venues:‘happening’ 7sponsorship deals 200–1see also concerts, touring and under individual venue nameViacom 170videos 53, 63, 143, 301–2Video Performance Limited (VPL) 301–2Violent Femmes 93Virgin Records 56, 152, 180Virgin Megastores 136Vodafone 8, 164, 166, 214V2 5, 49, 152, 154Waits, Tom 63, 190, 279Walmsley 272Wardlow, John 34, 35Warner Brothers Music 49, 54, 152, 154, 160, 161, 212Warner Chappell 82, 175, 276, 280Watkins, Tom 30Webber, Andrew Lloyd 85, 277–8webcasts 156Weiss, George Davis 89Wembley Stadium 225West, Kayne 150Westwood, Tim 183Wet Wet Wet 185Wham! 54, 55‘Whiter Shade of Pale, A’ (Procol Harum) 87–8William Morris 216Williams, Robbie 48, 67, 69, 85, 143, 200, 275, 279Wilson, Tony 8Winehouse, Amy 30, 150X Factor, The 31, 180, 181XFm 141, 215XL 151, 175Xzibit 272Yahoo 148, 174Yorke, Thom 175YouTube 59, 143, 148, 152, 168, 169–70, 188Young, Will 30, 181Zavvi 152Zeta-Jones, Catherine 261Zomba Group 82, 108, 109ZTT 34, 65–6AcknowledgementsTHANKS TO RICO CALLEJO and ‘The Reporter’ for the majority of myinformation on the law and cases; to Ben Challis for the general music lawupdates and to Rachel Ryding for her invaluable assistance in researchingbackground material and updating the names and addresses section. Finally,to my husband, David Hitchcock, and my mother, Sarah Mary Harrison, fortheir continuing support.This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced,transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used inany way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, asallowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or asstrictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distributionor use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s andpublisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.Version 1.0Epub ISBN 9780753518656www.randomhouse.co.ukThe law in this book is correct to the best of my knowledge as of 31December 2007, but the views I expound are mine alone. Although I havetried to give practical examples throughout the book, everyone’scircumstances are different, as are the facts of every case. The book is not asubstitute for independent legal advice given to you personally. No liabilitycan be accepted by me or by Virgin Books Ltd for anything done in relianceon the matters referred to in this book.Ann HarrisonThis edition first published in Great Britain in 2008 byVirgin Books LtdThames Wharf StudiosRainville RoadLondonW6 9HAFirst Virgin paperback edition published in Great Britain in 2000 by VirginPublishing LtdCopyright © Ann Harrison, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008The right of Ann Harrison to be identified as the author of this work hasbeen asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and PatentsAct, 1988.This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade orotherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without thepublisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other thanthat in which it is published and without a similar condition including thiscondition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.ISBN 9781905264278", + "keywords": [ + "record", + "company", + "deal", + "right", + "may", + "artist", + "also", + "music", + "get", + "contract" + ], + "summary": "ContentsCoverAbout the BookAbout the AuthorPraiseTitle PagePrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: Getting Sta" + }, + { + "filename": "525545172-Music-Promotion-Secrets-Download.pdf", + "text": "1\nMUSIC PROMOTION SECRETSJOHN GOLDMUSICPROMOTIONSECRETS\nHOW TO PICK THE BEST MUSIC PROMOTION FOR YOUR TRACKTO GETGUARANTEEDBUZZFOR YOUR MUSIC21\nAbou t JOHN GOLD\n20yearsago,mymusiccareertookofflikearocket.AfewyearsintomakingmusicIhadsignedrecordlabeldealsrangingfrommajorslikeWarnerMusictoundergroundcultlabelslikeDosOrDie.Mymusicwassellinglikehotcakes!ButwhenNapster'srise'broke'theoldmusicbusinessmodel,itcallcametumblingdown...Mymusiccareerdiedasuddendeath.Ifeltcompletelylostandabandoned.Iwas100%musician-and0%musicmarketerormusicentrepreneur.Ididn'tevenknowhowtogetfansmyself.Andthatjustdidn'tworkanymoreintheNEWmusicindustry.\nHi, I am John Gold. I am the CEO and founder of Hypeddit.com, a leading global music promotion and fan acquisition platform for independent music artists.But this is not where things started for me...2ButIdidn'tletthatstopme.Idecidedtodoitallover-andbecomeabetterandsmartermusicartistthistimearound.Itaughtmyselfhowtopromotemusiconline,howtoreachandgetrealfanslikearockstar,andhowtomakealivingasamusicartistonline.Ievenbuilttechnologytohelpwithit.AllofthishaschangedmylifeandthelivesoftheartistsIgottoworkwith.Withfamilyandkidsathome,Ihadtostoptouring.Butwithmycoachingandtools,Ihavehelpedhundredsofthousandsofindependentmusicartistsreachandgetmillionsoffansfortheirmusic.Someofthemwentontosignmajorrecordlabeldeals,otherssteppedontothestagesofthetrendiestclubsorbiggestconcertsandfestivalsaroundtheworld.IamsuperpassionateaboutwhatIdo:helpingindependentartistslikeyougrowabiggerandbetterfanbasearoundtheirmusicandsucceedintheNEWonlinemusicindustry.Ihopeyouenjoythisbookandlookforwardtomaybeseeingyouinsomeofmyothertrainprogramsthatwillhelpyoubecomeasmarterandmoresuccessfulmusician.3\nINTROYouworkedsohardfordaysorweeks:composing,editing,mixingandmasteringyournewtrack.Nowyourreleasedateisfinallyhere!Yourtrackisgoingpublicandyourpromocampaignisrunningfullsteam…butouch!Plays,streams,downloadsorpurchasesofyourtrackdon’tseemtogoanywherenearwhereyouwantthemtobe.“Whatisgoingon?”isthequestionyou’reaskingyourself.“Whyismypromonotworking?”Ifrequentlygetthisquestionfromfellowmusicartistslookingforsomehelp.So,Idecidedtowritethisguideforallartistslookingtoturnaroundtheirpromocampaignsandtogetthemostoutofthem.Herearethemostcommonmistakesyoumayrunintoifyourpromocampaigndoesn’tdeliveronitsexpectations:You didn’t define a goal or objective for your promo campaign01You didn’t set up a clear call-to-action for fans on your track02You picked promotion channels that don’t actually support your goal (if you had one)03You didn’t set realistic expectations04Whatdoesallofthismean?Letmeexplainsothatyournextpromocampaigncanbeabiggersuccessforyourmusicandyourprofileasanartist.\n4Thisisnotasstraightforwardasitsounds.Yourinitialreactionmightbethatyourgoalistogetyourmusicheardofcourse.Thatsoundsgreatatfirst.Butwhatdoesthatactuallymean?Doyouwanttomaximizethenumberofearsthatlistentoyourtrack–evenifmostofthemwouldneverengagewithyourmusic?OrdoyouwanttomaximizetheplayorviewcountonyourSoundCloudtrack,YouTubevideo,etc.togivetheimpressionofhugepopularity–nomatterifyouactuallygetanydownloadsorpurchases?Ordoyouwanttomaximizedownloadsorpurchases–evenifyourplayandviewcountshardlymove?Ordoyouwantyournameandlogotoshowupeverywhereacrosstheweb–evenifyourmusicisnotactuallygettingplayed?Thepointis:Therearemanydifferenttypesofobjectivesandgoalsforapromocampaign.Hereareafewexamples:Maximize listenership01Maximize play or view stats02\nDefine Goals and Objectives for Your CampaignStep#15Maximize download or purchase conversions (if you using a download gate, this could also mean you maximize follower growth, reposts, comments and likes)03Maximize visual impressions or brand awareness04Maximize ticket sales for a show or gig05Maximize merchandise sales06Alloftheseareperfectlygoodgoals.Whichgoal(orgoals)yougoforistotallyuptoyouandmaydependonyourpersonalpreferenceorwhereyouareinyourmusiccareer.Hereareafewexamples:Ifyouareanup-and-comingartistyoumightbemostfocusedonbuildingabiggerandbetterfanbasearoundyourmusic.Yourcampaigngoalcouldthenbetomaximizedownloadsthroughadownloadgatetomaximizefollowergrowth.Ifyoualreadyhaveahugefanaudienceandevencultivatedsuperfans,youmightbemostfocusedonmusic,merchandiseorticketsales.Ifyouparticipatedinaremixcontestandthewinningremixispartiallydeterminedbyplaysorviewstats,thenyoumightpickthoseasyourmaincampaigngoal.Bottomline:Definingyourcampaigngoalisaninvaluablestepinpickingtherightpromochannelsandtoolsthatcanactuallydeliveronyourexpectations(moreonthatbelow).Youcanofcoursesetmultiplegoalsforyourcampaign.Thiscanhelpyoudecidewhichpromotionchannelstocombineforyourcampaign.6\nWhenyousetyourgoalsandobjectivesforthepromotionofyourlatestrelease,writeitdown.It’seasytothinkofgoalsinyourheadandconfirmthatyouhavethemthere.Butwhenyouforceyourselftowritethemdown,thenyou’recommitting.Andthat’sagreatstartingpoint.Usethispagebelowfornotestowritedownthetrackyou’replanningtopromote,andpickyourmaingoal(s)foryourpromotioncampaign.Igaveyousixexamplesofperfectlyvalidgoalsabove.Feelfreetocomeupwithadditionalgoalsiftheyareimportanttoyou.Don’toverthinkit.It’snotabouthavinglotsofgoals.It’sreallyabouthavingjustoneortwothatreallymattertoyou,andthengoingforthem.Tip\nNotes:7Thisstepisincrediblyimportantifyourcampaigngoalistomaximizedownloadorpurchaseconversions.Properly set up Your Call-to-ActionStep#2\nTheconceptisreallysimple:Ifyouwantyourlistenersorfanstotakeaspecificaction–suchasdownloadingorpurchasingyourtrack–makeitasquickandeasyaspossibleforthemtodoso.Agoodcall-to-actionisashortandobviouslinkorbuttonthattakesafandirectlytothedesiredaction.Thebuy-linkonaSoundCloudtrack–ifsetupcorrectly–isagreatexampleofacall-to-action.Itcantakeafantoadownloadgateormusicstorewithoneclicktogetyourtrack.OnYouTube,endscreens,annotationsorcardoverlaysonyourvideoaregreatforacall-to-action.IfyouarenotinYouTube’spartnerprogram(requiredtoputanexternallinkoveryourvideowithoutrunninganad),thenyoucouldputthecalltoactionintothefirstlineofyourvideo’sdescriptionsoitshowsupabovethefold.Whicheverwayyoudoit,youwantthecall-to-actiontobeimmediatelyvisible,obvioustounderstand(e.g.,“Downloadhere:”),andclickable.8Youcan’texpectfanstospendtheirvaluabletimeGoogle-searchingorlookingaroundforadownloadorpurchaseoradditionalstreamingoptionsforyourtrack.Ifyoudon’ttellthemrightonyourtrackorvideo,thenyouaremostlikelygoingtolosethem.Somakesureyousetupyourcall-to-actionandlinkscorrectly.Obviousandwell-performingsetupsincludelinkingfromthebuy-linkonyourSoundCloudtracktoyourdownloadgateoramusicstore.OrifyouarepromotingapreviewofthetrackonSoundCloudtogrowyourSpotifylistenership,thenlinkthebuy-linkonyourSoundCloudtracktothefull-lengthstreamofyourtrackonSpotify.Therearelotsofoptions.It’sjustimportantthatthecall-to-actiondirectlysupportsthecampaigngoalyoudefinedbefore.Ifyouaren’tsurethatyoulinkedallinstancesofyourtrackonlinetothedesiredactionyouwantfanstotake-forexamplebuythetrack,ordownloaditthroughadownloadgatetogrowyourfanbase-thenyoucanusethischecklistforaquickoverviewofthemostcommonlinkplacements.Checklist\nBuy-link on your SoundCloud trackSoundCloud profile pageYouTube video descriptionYouTube end screenYouTube annotationInstagram profile page linkRecent Facebook postsRecent Twitter postsYour home page (on your artist website)Your email footerYouTube card overlay9Pick the best promo channels and toolsStep#3\nYoudefinedyourcampaigngoalandyourcalltoactionissetup.Nowit’stimetopickthebestpromochannelsandtoolstodeliveronyourgoal.Buthow?Therearesomanyoptions!YoucouldrunadsonFacebook,YouTubeorGoogleAdWords...Youcouldgetradiopromotion(forAM/FMoronlineradio)...orfocusonSoundCloudreposts...Youcouldpromoteyourtrackonmusicblogs...orplaceslikeHypeddit’sTop100Charts(shamelessplug!;)...Howcanyoupossiblydecidewhathelpsyouthemostwithaccomplishingyourgoalsandobjectives?Thisiswhereitgetsexcitingandwherewe’redivingintohowtopickthebestmusicpromotionforyourtrack.HereishowIapproachit.It’samixofcommonsenseandexperimentationthatleadstothebestpromotionresults.Atafundamentallevel,musicpromotionisaboutgettingyourmusicinfrontofmusicfans.Musicisallaboutlisteningofcourse.Thatmeansataminimum,yourpromotionchannelneedstodeliverpeoplethat(a)wanttolistentomusicand(b)canlistentoyourmusic–thatmeanstheyneedtohaveahighprobabilityofactivespeakersorheadphonesonwithvolumeturnedup.10Itsoundsprettysimplebutit’sactuallynotthecaseforeverypromochannel.JustconsidermostadformatsonGoogle,FacebookorInstagram.It’smostlyaboutvisuals,notaudio.Butevenifyoufocusonchannelsthatcandeliveraudiopromotion,notallmusiclisteningisequal!Considerwhen,whereandhowpeoplelistentomusic.Youmightbelisteningtomusicrightnowasyoureadthissentence.Youmightbelisteningtomusicwhenyoudriveyourcar.Youmightbelisteningtomusicatwork–orwhenyouworkoutatthegym.AndyouaredefinitelylisteningtomusicwhenyoucheckoutthelatestBeatportreleases,HypedditchartbreakersorSpotify’sReleaseRadar.Althoughlotsofpeoplelistentomusicnearlyallday,thereareimportantdifferencesrelatedtowhenandwheretheylistentomusic:It’stheirfocusonthemusicandtheirlevelofengagement.Thisiskeywhenyouconsiderwhatmusicchannelsbestsupportyourcampaigngoalsandobjectives:How likely are music fans in this channel to actually listen to your music?01How likely are music fans in this channel to engage with your music (e.g., buy, download or stream your song)?02Letmegiveyouafewexamples:Radiopromotionisgreattoreachahuuuugenumberoflisteners.Thatsoundsprettyexciting.Withinminutes,yourtrackcouldbeheardbythousands,tensofthousands,orevenhundredsofthousandsofpeople!11Butmostradiolisteningtakesplaceasasecondary,backgroundactivity.Peoplelistentotheradiowhiledrivingtheircar,whilebeingatwork,whileatthegym,orwhiledoingsomeotherprimaryactivity.Ifyouradio-promoteyournewtrackasarelativelyunknownartistandyourgoalistogetasmanydownloadsaspossible,howlikelydoyouthinkitisthatsomeonelisteningtoyourtrackwhiledrivingtheircarwillpullovertothesideoftheroad,pickuptheirphone,findawaytolookupyourtrackonlineandthendownloadit?It’snotgoingtohappen!Butmostradiolisteningtakesplaceasasecondary,backgroundactivity.Radioisgreattorepeatedlyreachalargeaudienceoflistenerstobuildawarenessforanartist,songorsound-butnottoexpectimmediateconversion.Thelistenerengagementlevelisverylow.Nowviewthisincontrasttoaplacementofapromotedtrackonatransaction-focusedwebsite(i.e.,focusedonbuying/sellingmusic)suchasHypeddit’sTop100Chartsorsomeotherchartsorstoresthatofferplacementofpromotedtracks.Usingthischannel,youreachlistenersthatarealreadyinfrontoftheircomputerorattheirmobiledevice,activelylookingfornewdownloads.Theselistenersaregenre-targeted,highlyengaged,guaranteedtohaveaudioon,andwillmostlikelydownloadanytracktheylike.Soeventhoughyoumaynotreachasmanyactuallistenersasyouwouldthroughabroadradiocampaign,yourconversionratetodownloadswillbealothigher.Youaredealingwithasmallerbutextremelyengaged,genre-targetedaudience.\n12ThenyouhavehugeglobaladplatformssuchasGoogleAdWords,FacebookorYouTube.Whenpromotingyourmusicontheseplatforms,Ialwaysrecommendthatyoufirstconsiderwhichadformatsaremostlikelytoreachactuallistenerswitheitherheadphonesonorvolumeuponadecentsetofspeakers(afterall,yournewtechnobangermightnotsoundatallimpressivewhenpreviewedonthetinyspeakersofaniPhone).YouTubeisalwaysagreatoption.Forthemostpart,youcanassumethatanadservedonYouTubereachesactuallistenerssincemostviewersconsumeYouTubevideoswithsoundon.ThatmaynotbethesamecaseforadsthatshowupinaFacebookstream.Facebookvisitorsmayeithernothavetheirvolumeupatallortheymaybelisteningtomusicfromanotherapplication.SojustbecauseyoucanreachmillionsofpeopleviaFacebookwhowouldhaveaneasytimeclickingthroughtoyourtracktodownloadit,doesnotmeanthatyouautomaticallygetafairshotatreachingactuallisteners.Luckily,therearetricksinsideFacebook’sadmanagerthatletyoutargetuserswiththehighestprobabilityofhavingthetimeandfocustocheckoutyourpromotedmusicvideo.OneofthosetrickscommonlyusedistotargetdevicesconnectedtoWifionlyasthisoftentimesmeanthatsomeoneisathomeratherthanrunningaroundatworkforexample.Mostofthisisprettyobviousifyoujustanalyzeyourownlisteninghabits.Askyourselfwhenandwhereyouengagewithmusic.Buttofurtherrealizehowfragmentedmediaconsumptionis,checkoutsomerecentUS-based.YoucanfinditifyougotoGoogleandsearch:HowDo‘AverageAmericans’ActuallyConsumeMedia?Asgeneralguidance,herearesomemusicpromotiongoalsandobjectiveswithmediachannelsthatmaylineupprettywell:\n13GoalPromotion ChannelsMaximize listenership§Radio promotionMaximize play or view stats§SoundCloud reposts§Spotify playlists§YoutubeadsMaximize download or purchase conversions§Promote on transactional sites where listeners are already looking for new music to buy and download§Your own email list§Facebook ads optimized for conversion -requires support for Facebook pixelsMaximize fanbase growth§Combine download gate with promotion channels that maximize download or purchase conversions (see above)Maximize brand awareness§Facebook ads§Instagram ads§Google AdWordsMaximize ticket sales for a show or gig§Facebook ads (good for geo-targeting)§Instagram ads (good for geo-targeting)§Your own email listMaximize merchandize sales§Facebook ads§Instagram ads§Your own email listOnceyouhavedecidedononeormorechannels,it’stimetotakeactionandstartexperimenting.Channelsmayofferdifferentadformats(e.g.,Facebookdisplayadsvs.videos)andyoumaytestdifferentversionsofads/promotions.14Pickingamediachannelsthatismostlikelytosupportthepromotionalgoalsforyourmusicisnotanautomatickeytosuccess,butitisanimportantfirststeptohelpyoumakethemostoutofyourtimeandpromobudget.Andthat’simportant.Youdon’twanttobeamusicianwhojustpromotersharder.Youwanttobeamusicianwhopromotessmarter.Next:Usethispagebelowfornotestowritedownthetrackyou’replanningtopromoteaswellasthemaingoal(s)foryourpromotioncampaign.Nowaddtothiswhichpromotionchannelbestmatchesyourpromotioncampaigngoal.Igaveyouexamplesofgoalsandpromotionchannelsthatmightworkwellwiththosegoalsabove.Feelfreetocomeupwithadditionalchannelsthatcometoyourmind.Addthemtothepropergoalcategories.Whenthisnotespageiscomplete,youcanbeconfidentthatyousetagoalforyourselfandthatyouronyourwaytopickthebestmusicpromotionchanneltoreachyourgoal.Notes:15\nSet realistic expectationsStep#4\nIt’salwaysgreattodreambigasamusicartist!Andyoushould!Well,that’saslongasyoudon’texpecttoautomaticallybookUltraMusicFestival,TomorrowlandorCoachellafroma$5musicpromoserviceonFiverr:)OK,that’sabitoverthetop.Dreamsareveryimportantandwillmakeyougofasterandfurther.Butit’salwaysgoodtoeducateyourselfonaparticularpromotionchannelbeforeinvestingyourhardearnedmoney.Thatwayyoucansupportyourinvestmentdecisionwithsomeindicationofwhattoexpect.Hereareafewtipsonsettingyourexpectationssothatyoucanmakesmartdecisionsaboutyourpromotionbudget.PlatformssuchasFacebookorGoogleAdWordsshowyouestimatedresultsasyousetupyourads.Otherplatformsdon’tdisplaythisinformationbutyoumaygetitifyoucontacttheircustomersupport.Letthemtellyouwhattypicalresultslooklike.Itneverhurtstoask.IfyougoforSoundCloudrepostsonaparticularchannel,justcheckoutthatchannel’stracksrepostedmorethanfivedaysago.Scrollthrough20to30oftheserecentlyrepostedtracksandlookfortheonesrepostedbythischannelthathavethelowestnumberofplays.Thosearelikelytracksthatgotonlypromotedthroughthischannelanddidn’tgetanyotherpromotion.16Thiscanbeagoodindicationofthereachtofansavailablethroughthischannel.Thisisimportantsinceexperiencehasshownthatthefollowercountofachannelaloneisnotagoodindicatoroftheactualreach,whichismoreofafunctionofthenumberofengagedfollowers.Ifyouwouldbehappygettingthesamenumberofplaysasthetrackswiththelowestplaycountyoufoundonthischannel,thengoahead.Ifnot,thenjustconsideralternatives.Andwithanychannelyoudecidetoinvestyourhard-earnedmoneyin,it’salwaysgoodtostartwiththeirsmallestpossiblecampaignsize.Iftheyofferpromotionfordifferentbudgets,pickthecheapestone.Dipyourtoes,seehowitgoes.Ifyouliketheresultsyoucanalwaysscaleup.Thiswayyoulimittheriskofblowingyourbudgetonsomethingthatdoesnotgiveyoutheresultsyouwant.Important:Asyouresearchoraskfortheresultsyoucanexpectfromdifferentchannels,bewareofpromoterswhopromiseyoupreciseresults(e.g.,youwillget5,000playsand100repostsin24hours).Thisisawarningsignthatthischannelmaybeusingbotsorotherfaketechniquestodeliverpromisedresults.Hereiswhy:Musicisveryobjective.Fewpeoplecanreliablypredicttheactualresultsofapromotionalcampaign.Andthat’sOK.Afterall,mostofitdependsonhowmuchfansloveyourtrack.It’saboutthemusic.17\nAhitsongthateveryonewhohearsitwantstohaverightawayisobviouslygoingtogetbetterresultsfromapromotioncampaignthanatrackfansarenotthatexcitedabout.Trytobeopenmindedandacceptdifferentresults.Iknowthisishardforusmusicians.Weknowthesweatandbloodwepouredintoourmusic,andwewanteachandeverytrackfromustoheahitButrealpromotiontorealhumanbeingsalwaysdeliversorganicresultsthatvary.Thatsaid,agoodpromotershouldalwaysbeabletopromiseyouaspecifiedcampaignscope(e.g.,“you’regoingtogetonerepost”,or“athousandadimpressions”,or”ahundredradioplays”,etc.).It’sjustnearimpossibletopredicthowthispromotionscopeconvertstodownloads,purchasesorothergoalsyou’retracking.Acceptthis.Thekeyassetinanymusicpromocampaignisart:yourmusic.18Summary\nTimetosumitalluptohelpyoumakeyournextpromocampaignabiggersuccessforyourmusicandartistprofile.Let’srecap:Startyournextpromocampaignbydefiningyourgoalsandobjectivesupfront.Thishelpssetyourexpectationsandpickthebestpossiblepromotionchannels.Beforeyoukickoffyourpromotion,makesureyourcall-to-actionissetupcorrectlytohelpyoumaximizeconversions.Thisisespeciallyimportantifyourcampaigngoalsincludeanydownloads,purchasesorfollowergrowth(anythingtransactional).Don’tjustblindlypickpromotionchannelsandtoolsforyourcampaignandhopeforthebest.Instead,besmart.Applycommonsense.Findwaystoreachactuallistenersthataremostlikelytoperformyourdesiredactions(e.g.,download,purchase,follow,share,etc.).Ifyouarestartingoutandareunsureaboutwhattoexpectfromaparticularchannelortool,startwithasmallbudget.Thislimitsyourriskandgivesyoumorebudgettoexperimentwithvariationsofyourpromotactics.\n19Analyzeresultsandidentifywhatworksbest.Theninvestmoreintothosewinningchannelsandtools.Andnowit’stimetogetstarted.Ifyouhaven’tdonesoyet,gothroughthenotespagesandchecklistsinthisbook.Andthenpickthebestmusicpromotionforyourtracktogetyourmusicheard!Ican’twaittoseeyoubreakthroughwithyourmusic!Pleaseshareyourstoryandfeedback.Wouldlovetohearhowyougotyourmusicheardwithtipsandtricksinthisbook.Justemailmeathello@hypeddit.comCheers,\n20Notes:24\nJOHN GOLD\nYou worked so hard for days or weeks: composing, editing, mixing and mastering your new track. Now your release date is finally here!Your track is going public and your promo campaign is running full steam… but ouch! Plays, streams, downloads or purchases of your track don’t seem to go anywhere near where you want them to be.“What is going on?” is the question you’re asking yourself. “Why is my promo not working?”JohnGold frequently gets this question from music artists looking for help. He is an accomplished music artist and the founder of Hypeddit.com, one of the largest music promotion and fan acquisition platforms for musicians in the world. So, John decided to write this guide for all music artists looking to turn around their promo campaigns and get the most out of thembyworkingsmarterandnotharder.Have You Experienced this?\nMusic Promo Secrets helps independent music artists identify more effective ways to promote their music for more exposure to real fans.© Hypeddit LLC", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "promotion", + "fan", + "promo", + "download", + "channel", + "artist", + "john", + "set", + "purchase" + ], + "summary": "1\nMUSIC PROMOTION SECRETSJOHN GOLDMUSICPROMOTIONSECRETS\nHOW TO PICK THE BEST MUSIC PROMOTION FOR YOU" + }, + { + "filename": "374980787-Music-Business-Degree-Major-Handbook-pdf.pdf", + "text": "2Prepare for your dream job in the ever-changing music industry. The following lesson material \nis taken from Berklee Online’s Bachelor of Professional Studies degree program in Music Business. Want to learn more about earning a degree online? Contact us at 1-866-BERKLEE (USA) / +1-617-747-2146 (INT’L) or advisors@online.berklee.edu.\nThe Three P’s\nfrom Music Business 101 by John Kellogg\nWorking with PR, Radio, and Digital Media\nfrom International Music Marketing: Developing Your Career Abroad \nby Shain Shapiro\nDemand Generation\nfrom Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, \nand Digital Distribution by Mike King\nMeet Instructor John Kellogg\nHow Berklee Online WorksGet in Touch3.\n5.\n7.\n19.\n20.\n21.3By John Kellogg\nIs there any one thing that ensures an individual’s success in this dynamic music business? Every profession has \nits guiding principles. The medical field has adopted the Hippocratic oath from the ancients. Successful conduct in sports is guided by ideas of sportsmanship, including fair play and losing with grace.\nBeing an amalgamation of art and commerce, the music business has no officially sanctioned guiding principles, \nbut I offer the “Three Big P’s” as a roadmap which I believe can help guide your success in this industry. The Three P’s \nFrom Music Business 101\n1. Powerful Product\nA song, audio or video recording, live performance, or technological advancement (e.g., app, site, etc.) that has the ability to build and retain long-term value and relevance.\nAn Example of a Powerful Product\nIn 1973, Atlantic Records producer Joel Dorn recorded the Grammy Award-winning, number-one hit single “Killing Me Softly with His Song” with artist Roberta Flack. The Charles Fox/Norman Gimbel-penned tune had a unique theme and a strong hook. The final recording sounded great -- Flack’s emotive vocal delivery, a choir-like background vocal chorus, and an infectious groove created with a displaced kick drum added to the pulse of the backbeat. By all measures this was a truly powerful product. To underscore this fact, consider that the Flack record was covered in 1995 by the Fugees and went to number two in America on the Hot Airplay chart. It also became a number-one single in the UK, selling over one million copies.2. Proper Perspective\nCreators of music must develop both an external and internal perspective of the music business. Externally, they must recognize that one of the primary jobs of their record company is to maximize the company’s value for the record company owners. Even if the artist owns the company, one of the company’s goals should be to generate a profit so that the company can stay in business and be of benefit to the artist. Internally, an artist must recognize that any sustained success can only be achieved through long-term investment of time and money to build valuable assets -- the powerful product.\nAn Example of Proper Perspective\nThe Grateful Dead are the most successful touring band in history. Their creative improvisational flights, top-shelf songwriting, and high-fidelity sound reinforcement were heralded by legions of devoted fans. Recently, several books have been published that expound upon the Dead’s innovative attitude toward the business of music and the cultivation of their fanbase. As Brian Halligan, co-4author of the book Marketing Lessons from the \nGrateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History*, puts it: \nThe fundamental assumption in almost every \nband’s business model was that they were going to make their money on album sales. The Grateful Dead rejected that assumption. Their fundamental business model was based on making money from the concerts. Because of that change, there was a cascade of decisions that fell from that. For instance, each concert was completely unique night-after-night, so there was a strong incentive to see them for several nights in a row—this ultimately led to fans following them around the country. In addition, they allowed their fans to make tapes of the concerts and freely spread them to their fans—the more concerts they played, the more tapes there were, the more people were exposed to the \nmusic, the more people paid for concert tickets.\nToday, the Grateful Dead release official versions \nof their historic concert recordings to fans. This has become a profitable enterprise because of the thoughtful curation and superior sound quality of the recordings (compared to many of the recordings made by fans). Their constant focus on the fan’s experience has paid off in ways that the band couldn’t even have anticipated when they were in their prime. 3. Professional Attitude\nParticipants in the music business must understand that their everyday dealings with others must be conducted in a professional manner that respects all people with which they come in contact. Whether the communication is a correspondence with a president of a major label, his or her receptionist, or a tweet to a loyal fanbase, it should reflect proper knowledge of the subject and deference to the recipient.\n*Meerman, Scott; Halligan, Brian. Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: \nWhat Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History. Wiley Publishing, 2010.The Three P’s\n“5Working with PR, Radio, & Digital Media \nFrom International Music Marketing: Developing Your Career Abroad\nby Shain Shapiro\nWhat comes to mind when you refer to one of \nyour favorite artists? Even if it’s their music, which is the primary point of reference, there is always a visual element that complements that—Björk’s extravagant outfits, Slash’s long hair, hat, and sunglasses, and Daft Punk’s futuristic costumes are but a few examples.\nIt is a fact that, when trying to build a successful \ncareer as a popular artist, your public image—your brand—plays a major role and ultimately defines how you are going to be perceived by the public.\nAny public performer has a public image associated \nwith their art and it’s very difficult to separate them from each other. So, every time that art gets exposed, the public image gets exposed too. Therefore, the public image becomes an inseparable part of the artist and, in some cases, becomes art itself.\nThe Golden Rules for Drafting an Artist Bio\n• Write a captivating press story that grabs \nreaders from the start.\n• Talk about the music. Describe it. Make it sound exciting.\n• Avoid too many artist references/influences.\n• Adjectives: don’t over-do it.\n• Nobody cares about the band’s background, such as how they met, etc.• Keep it real: include quotes.\n• Keep it concise!\n• Be original.\nAssets, Assets, Assets\nSo what are the assets your media pack needs to \ncontain? Here are the most common ones, \nand remember, refer back to your checklist!\n• Bio\n• Press release\n• Sales sheet (for the distributor)\n• Promo photos (max five)\n• Single cover\n• Album cover\n• Music videos (on average, three for every \nalbum release)\n• Video teaser\n• SoundCloud links\n• YouTube links\n• Promo CDs\n6All assets need to be the highest possible quality.\nGolden Rules of Contacting a Journalist\nYou only get one chance to pitch something, so \nyou need to be able to impress quickly. Be very careful with what you choose to include in your communication. Here are a few things to consider:\n• Include the music link first.\n• Don’t forget to mention release and tour dates.\n• Embed a spectacular artist photo.\n• Use an intuitive email subject.\n• Use a few press quotes.\n• Always be polite.\n• Don’t demand coverage.\n• Ask for their opinion (they love that).\n• Give them time and pitch well in advance.\n• Understand the editor’s point of view.\n• Develop the relationship over time.Understand that this is a two-way relationship. Editors want page hits and visitors, so that their website becomes popular and is able to generate more advertising money. The content you are offering needs to satisfy that need. Promo CDs need to be sent to long-lead press (for example, monthly music magazines) at least three months prior to an album release.Working with PR, Radio, & Digital Media\n• Artist Manager\n•\n Booking Agent\n•\n Concert Pr\nomoter\n•\n T\nour Accountant \n•\n Entertainment Attor\nney• Music Supervisor\n•\n Publicist\n•\n Music Publisher\n•\n T\nour Manager\n•\n Entr\nepreneur• Public Relations Dir ector \n•\n Independent Radio\n \nPromoter\n•\n and mor\ne...Make Your Mark: Careers in Music Business7Demand Generation\nFrom Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, \nand Digital Distribution\nby Mike King\nGenerating Demand and Building \nYour Community\nThe first step in creating an effective online \npresence is to “get your own house in order” by creating an optimized website, which acts as a main focal point for your online promotions. Your own site gives you full control of the visitor experience and provides you with the ability to optimize any conversion opportunities.\nOnce you have your site together, the next logical \nstep in online music marketing is to engage in an external marketing campaign designed to create demand (i.e., web traffic, awareness, and attention) for your band and your products. While the majority of traffic you get to your site will likely come from direct traffic, links from email blasts, and organic search (which is why search engine optimization is so important!), the traffic generated from a combination of other third-party sources to your website is also significant. Taken together, outlets like Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, and other online third party outlets can also drive significant traffic to your site, if you are optimizing these outlets effectively. Let’s start by looking at some general techniques to draw fans to your band from these external sites.\nDemand Generation: The Four Major \nSegments of Online Marketing\nA“marketing funnel” is the concept of converting the uninitiated into fans and consumers of your \nproducts. As fans move through the funnel, they are provided with additional incentives and higher rewards to increase their brand loyalty. But before consumers even enter the marketing funnel, marketers have to create a reason for potential fans to enter the funnel in the first place. As Chris Stone, accomplished marketer and cofounder of legendary NYC- and LA-based recording studio The Record Plant has said: “[without marketing] if you build it, they will not come, because they will not know you exist!” Simply put, the Internet and home recording technologies like Pro Tools have made supply abundant and demand scarce. Building up demand for your product is more important than ever.\nDemand Generation \nDemand Generation is a marketing concept used to describe the act of creating a focused and targeted campaign that drives awareness and interest in a company’s products and/or services. As Chris Stone says, it is a crucial step in “letting people know you exist.” Based on this concept, but adjusted to work specifically for online music marketing, it \n8Demand Generation\nis recommended that artists organize their online \nmarketing campaigns across the following four marketing channels:\n• Permission Marketing\n• Viral/Social Marketing\n• Discovery\n• Paid Placements\nPermission Marketing\nPermission marketing refers to the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. This form of marketing accomplishes several positive things: 1) it reduces clutter and unwanted messages for consumers; 2) the messages received by the consumer contain higher quality, more specific information; 3) it improves targeting precision for marketers. In other words, permission marketing can be considered the Artist-to-Fan channel. Examples of permission marketing outlets include:\n• Email Lists\n• Twitter Followers\n• Facebook Fans\n• Instagram Followers\n• Snapchat Friends\n• YouTube Subscribers\n• Fan Clubs or Street TeamsViral/Social Marketing\nViral or social marketing is the utilization of a marketing tool that gets people to pass a message along to each other. Viral marketing is considered an earned channel, where the fan considers content worthy of sharing, on its own merits. Viral marketing may require very little effort on the part of the propagandist (that’s you), as the recipients of the message become the primary agents who spread it to other people. If it works, viral marketing can be rapid and explosive. Viral marketing can also be characterized as the Fan-to-Fan channel.Many of the same tools that a band can use for permission marketing can also be used by your friends, fans, and followers to help spread a viral campaign online, such as:\n• Forwarded Emails\n• Retweets\n• Facebook Posts / Shares / Likes\n• YouTube Posts\n• Pinterest Pins\nDiscovery Marketing\nDiscovery marketing takes place when your music is introduced to a completely new group of fans through efforts that are not permission or viral-based. Examples of discovery marketing outlets could include:\n• Search Engine Results\n• Blog\n• Online Radio\n• Interactive Streaming Services (like Spotify)9Demand Generation\n• Music Identification Apps (like Shazam)\n• Film and TV\n• Terrestrial Radio\n• Live Events\n• Print Publications\nPaid Placement\nThe last channel of demand generation occurs \nwhen an artist pays for access to potentially qualified fans. Examples of paid advertising include search engine marketing (purchasing keywords), buying visibility on ad networks (such as those on Google, Twitter, and Facebook), and banner ads on blogs/music/lifestyle sites. It’s also possible (though not advisable for all but a few artists) to purchase ads on both online and terrestrial radio stations.\nA Framework for Marketing Across \nDifferent Channels\nLet’s take an in-depth look at some of the more \npopular third party sites for band marketing and the specific techniques we can use to increase visibility and overall demand generation. While the concepts we’ll discuss are particular to these specific online outlets, these overall marketing ideas can be applied to a variety of other existing (and not yet existing!) sites as well.\nHow Social Media Works: \na Conversation with Ian Rogers\nIan Rogers has been a key player in the \ndevelopment of the Internet for musicians since founding the Beastie Boys website in 1993. Ian has worked as the GM of Yahoo Music, the CEO of Topspin Media (a direct to fan marketing and sales technology company), the CEO of Beats Music, and as a Senior Director at Apple Music.\n I try to break social media down into what the \nactual physics of attention are. I think about attention as this flow. We’re sort of naturally…we click on stuff right? And we move around the Internet in this way, and that to me is the overall attention flow of the Internet. I try to put that against what you are really trying to accomplish as an artist.The first thing that you are trying to do is build awareness, because no matter who you are, even if you are Linkin Park, no one knows about your new record until you tell them about it. So you are trying to build awareness on some level. The blessing and curse of the Internet is that anyone can build a website but it’s not a ‘build it and they will come’ world; just because you built it, doesn’t mean anyone is going to know it’s there. So the first thing that you are always trying to do is build awareness. If you are lucky enough to build awareness, then you are trying to build fan connections. If you can build fan connections, then you are trying to build a fan relationship and fan trust and to do that, you need to communicate in some authentic way. Only when you’ve done all that, can you sell anyone anything. \nSo if that’s the model, let’s look at how social media \nplays into that model. The interesting thing about “social media” is that s kind of a catchall phrase \n“10Demand Generation\nthat doesn’t really talk about what’s happening, \nand what’s happening is that flow of attention. The interesting thing about Facebook and Twitter is that they are not sort of inherently viral. They are really two different forms of marketing. One is direct marketing, and that’s a relationship between an artist and fan, and the other is what most people call viral marketing, or fan-to-fan marketing. So I would break it apart into those two things: so you’ve got the artist to fan channel and then you’ve got the fan-to-fan channel. If you are vending something valuable, people want to share it with other people. It’s the nature of human interaction and sort of reciprocity among human beings.\nSo that’s kind of the physics of the space, and then \nyou ask, “Well, what is it for? What is social media for?” I think that what you really want do with social media, more than anything else, is be a part of the conversation. The most highly leveraged thing that you can do is to put good content out there, have people care about you, have people actually follow and pay attention to what you have to say, because then you have a way to talk directly to them.\nI think it’s hard, having lived through it, to not look \nat the example of MySpace and not want a little more sovereignty beyond what Facebook offers. You know, if you spent a lot time building up hundreds of thousands of followers on MySpace, those people are unreachable to you at this point and that’s really dangerous.\nWhen I was at Topspin, we worked with Linkin \nPark. Linkin Park has tens of millions of fans on Facebook and hundreds of thousands of people on an email list. We still sell more products by sending a message out on an email list than we do by putting a message on Facebook, even at that scale. So there is no question that email remains a really efficient channel of direct marketing. There is a not a gigantic value to the direct marketing on Facebook. It’s good but not great. There is a little bit of a fear of lock in, I would say. Do you really want to hand all of your fan connections over to one company who will go through its changes over the coming years?\nOverall, with social media you want to be a part of \nthe conversation, you want people to share what it is you are up to on Facebook and Twitter; that’s the most important thing. So using those channels to build fan connections, to put your own content out there, and to share your own content. You might just be sharing a thought that you had but that kind of authentic communication is what builds trust and can add to your artist persona and brand. So I think it’s most important to be a part of that conversation. Second to that is the homesteading part, where I am going to have a really nice page on Facebook and make sure people can hear my music. I’m going to make sure people know where they can buy my music and all that. You definitely want to have all of that in place, but I think the most valuable thing is being a part of that conversation. I certainly would, as much as possible, grab email addresses, grab mobile numbers, have my own website and be a sovereign entity, which is going to live through \n11Demand Generation\nwhatever the Facebook of tomorrow is. There will \nbe one.\nRemember that once upon a time, Netscape was \ninfallible, Microsoft was infallible, Apple was a joke that was for 5% of the population, the general consensus on Facebook was, “why would anyone use Facebook when we’ve got MySpace?” It always changes; it is the one thing that is consistent, so you want to own your fan outside of those entities first \nand foremost.\nJohn Mayer on Social Media and \nFocusing on Your Craft\nJohn Mayer, former Berklee College of Music \nstudent, has come back to Berklee several times over the years to give informative clinics to current Berklee students. In his clinics, John provides clear and concise advice on a variety of other topics, including his experience in the music business, the craft of songwriting and guitar playing, and general best practices that he has learned from his years in the industry.\nIn one of his recent clinics, Manage the Temptation \nto Publish Yourself, John focused on social media and the potential pitfalls associated with it. In John’s words:\n This time is a really important time for you guys \nbecause nobody knows who you are, and nobody should. This is not a time to promote yourself. It doesn’t matter. This is the time to get your stuff together. Promotion can be like that. You can have promotion in 30 seconds if your stuff is good. Good music is its own promotion.\nJohn went on to say that in his own experience, he found himself asking questions like, “Is this a \ngood blog?” or “Is this a good tweet?” When those questions used to be, “Is this a good song title?” and “Is this a good bridge?”\nJohn Mayer has a great point. Similar to other \nmarketing verticals like press, radio, and retail visibility, social media at its core is simply a set of tools that are useful in amplifying existing efforts. Of course the level of connection between artist and fan can be much closer with social media, but without having great music, all the social media visibility in the world is not going to get potential fans of your music to become hardcore fans of your music if the music itself isn’t amazing.\n“12Demand Generation\nFacebook\nOverview\nAs Ian Rogers mentioned, one has to \nlook no further than MySpace to see how quickly \nfolks can lose interest in an online social networking site, but at the present moment, Facebook holds the crown as the largest social networking site in the world, by far. \nThe winds of change can move quickly, but \nFacebook is definitely the premier social networking site of the moment. 80% of all online social activity happens on Facebook, and the average American spends 40 minutes a day checking their Facebook feed. It’s also a popular destination outside of the U.S., with more than 80% of daily active users living outside the U.S. and Canada. For all the reasons above, it’s important for artists to understand how Facebook works from a marketing standpoint. The first step in developing a Facebook music marketing campaign is to create your “Facebook Artist Page” as opposed to a standard “Facebook Profile.” A Facebook Artist Page provides bands with more communication and interactivity options than a standard profile page, as well as the opportunity to introduce third-party marketing and visibility tools.\nFacebook Artist Page accounts are relatively simple \nto create. A quick how to:\n1. Go to the Create a Page area on Facebook: facebook.com/pages/create\n2. Choose “Artist Band or Public Figure,” then select “Musician / Band” from the drop down menu.3. Choose Your Band Name.\n4. Click on “Get Started”\n5. Upload an Image and Provide Descriptive Copy and Link.\n6. That’s It!\nOnline Marketing Opportunities on Facebook\nFacebook is a good example of a permission \nmarketing channel, as well as viral/social marketing \nchannel. The single highest converting Facebook mechanism is the “send update” feature. Sharing an update (particularly if this update is interesting content, like a photo, audio file, or video) can be an effective way to reach fans that want to hear from you. It’s also a good way to get the valuable fan-to-fan channel happening. Through the permission marketing channel, research shows that Facebook generally accounts for low to mid single-digit percentages of revenue for an artist’s campaign.\nBest Practices for Marketing on Facebook\nSimilar to the rest of the Internet, Facebook is working hard on curation – finding ways to deliver the best possible content to its users. Because it would be completely overwhelming for most Facebook users to see all comments from all of their friends all of the time, the Facebook “news feed” is curated by Facebook in a very data driven way, not unlike the way that Google returns search results. On average, 1,500 stories float through the news feed of each user. Each user is seeing an average of about 100 of those stories per day, which are controlled by Facebook’s engagement algorithms.\nFor several years, Facebook’s algorithm for 13Demand Generation\ndetermining what content you see in your news \nfeed when you log into your account was called EdgeRank, which looked at three main things when analyzing a post:\n1. Affinity: the relationship between the creator of the post, and the recipient. If there is a two-way communication street between the creator and the recipient, meaning that these two folks routinely comment on each other’s posts, share content from one another, and are generally more involved with each other online, EdgeRank looked at this relationship, and would more likely place content from one of these parties into the stream of the other party.\n2. Weight: determined by the type of content \nthat is being produced. Posts that contain video, photo, and audio were more likely to be delivered into a recipient’s stream than a simple comment or “like.” Facebook rewarded meatier content postings.\n3. Time Decay: simply a measure of how long a post has been out there. Recent postings appeared in a feed more often than older postings.\nAlthough EdgeRank is no longer the term used to describe Facebook’s engagement algorithm, the above criteria (excepting time decay, which Facebook has de-emphasized) still provide a great point of reference for marketers when determining what content to post to their community. Best practices still include: \n• Creating posts rich in photo, audio, and \nvideo content. Not only because of the algorithm advantages, but because content is a better way to engage your fanbase. On average, content-rich posts see 200% more engagement than non-visual posts. \n• Encourage fans to post photos of you. Being tagged increases visibility.\n• Stay Aware! Hardly a week goes by without Facebook making changes to their service. There are a number of online services that are good resources for Facebook updates, \nincluding Adweek’s blog, Forbes, Mashable, \nand many more. For information from the horse’s mouth, check out facebook.com/press\nAdditional Best Practices on Facebook\n• Wherever possible, embed a click-through link to a marketing campaign’s primary landing page.\n• Use a static call to action in the “about” area of your profile to drive traffic to your primary campaign landing page.\n• Utilize your cover photo to help promote your tour dates or music release information.\n• Use link tracking services like Bitly to see how your links are shared – making social media a more measurable marketing channel. \n14Demand Generation\n• You can monitor your fan activity through the \nFacebook Insights analytics. Reviewing your insights can let you know when you should spike the activity or increase engagement with more content (songs, videos, remixes, etc.). Additional third party analytics services like Quintly can help you to measure what is working for other similar bands, in terms of types of posts, time of posting, and more.\nOF NOTE: Facebook is constantly changing their \nalgorithms, which has recently resulted in less organic reach for marketers. What this means is that Facebook is incentivizing their paid options, to reach fans that you have acquired organically! Not the best situation for creators and marketers, but perhaps another cautionary tale against utilizing properties you don’t control as your sole online visibility.\nHelpful Third Party Services for \nFacebook Marketing\nFacebook itself currently does not provide a great \nnative homesteading option for bands that want to highlight their music, tour dates, videos and more in a really user friendly way. A number of third party options have popped up to fill the gap. Again, technology is advancing on a near daily basis, but there are several helpful third party services that bands can use to help increase visibility and engagement (as well as sell direct from your Facebook profile, if you want) on Facebook. The most widely used option is BandPage, which allows artists to share their music, bio, photos, videos, tour dates, and more, as well as collect email addresses from potential fans. Twitter\nOverview\nTwitter (a tool for microblogging—\ncreating online updates using less than 140 characters) can be highly misunderstood. To many, Twitter can simply seem like a time-wasting tool that the self-absorbed use to discuss what they had for lunch. And while there are certainly folks that use Twitter in that fashion, enlightened marketers have found Twitter to be a very useful and effective tool. While not at the scale of Facebook, Twitter currently has over 300 million monthly active users, with 100 million of these users using the service daily.\nTwitter has also been found to be a tool that music \nconsumers tend to use. An NPD Group study found that active Twitter users buy 77% more digital music downloads on average than non-users. 12% of those who have bought music in the last three months also report having used Twitter, versus 8% of overall Web users. They are far more comfortable spending time online, buying online, and communicating online. As we will discuss, when best practices are followed, Twitter has a lot of potential to cheaply and effectively increase sales.\nTwitter is an example of a marketing tool that \nfalls into three of our defined marketing channels: Permission, Viral/Social, and Discovery.\nPerhaps the most interesting facet of Twitter is how \nquickly messages can be spun into the viral realm via the “retweet” function. A retweet (usually noted by starting your tweet with “RT”) is when one fan resends a message (a “tweet” in Twitter-speak) from someone in their network and shares it with their 15Demand Generation\nentire network. It’s perhaps the highest degree of \ncontent approval and means that the content was so valuable and important that they were willing to share it with their network – causing it to spread from one community to the next. Retweets of good content are not unusual—all the more reason to focus on writing something of substance.\nTwitter Best Practices\nSome tips to consider when getting started with Twitter:\n• Build Up Your Base. Like any other \ncommunication method, the more engaged people you have to communicate with, the better your results will be. Certainly communicating with your fan base via site visibility and emails to let them know you are on Twitter is a good first step. But the most effective way to build up your Twitter following at the moment is to simply follow individuals that have mentioned your band, or are fans of similar bands. If you have great content, more often than not, folks you follow will follow you back. Additionally, Twitter users can view, and often follow, the folks that their friends follow. Twitter also makes suggestions of other, similar, Twitter users that fans should follow. There may not be a mathematical equation that explains it all perfectly, but the bottom line is that following key folks in your particular niche in the Twitter community will very likely result in an increase in the number of followers you have, which will provide you with a larger base to communicate with.\n• Quality Posts. While it’s incredibly easy to \nfollow folks on Twitter, it is just as easy to UN-follow too. Providing your community with interesting content will not only keep folks happy and involved, it is also the basis of any viral Twitter campaign. Give folks a reason to talk about you!\n• Consistency in Posting. Breaks in posting could cause a drop in followers. Consider using a service that can schedule future tweets. HootSuite, Sprout Social, and many other third party services can be used to schedule tweets.\n• Engage your Fans. Consider asking more questions of followers to connect more personally and get everyone engaged (e.g., ask followers what they think of a recently posted demo).\n• Connect Your Blog to Your Twitter Account. WordPress makes it easy to send \nannouncements to your Twitter feed from your blog. Of course the 140-character limit will not allow the entire blog post to appear, but followers will be directed back to your blog/site from the tweet.\n• Connect Twitter to Your Facebook Account. The Selective Tweets app lets you selectively update your Facebook status from Twitter simply by ending a tweet with #fb.\n• Use Hashtags for Trending. Hashtags are a way of adding additional context to your tweets. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol, like this: #hashtag, in any of your tweets. Services like Hashtracking can help to provide analysis on trending Hashtags.\nHashtags were developed as a means to create “groupings” (otherwise known as “trending topics”) 16Demand Generation\non Twitter, without having to change the basic \nservice. For example, folks at the SXSW music festival has used the hashtag #sxsw to categorize any SXSW posts under this heading, which makes for easy review by folks interested in news on SXSW. Effective use of hashtags by bands might include tweets on upcoming festival dates (such as #glastonbury, for example).\nCollaborative Marketing Outlet\nWikipedia\nAccording to Alexa.com, Wikipedia is currently \nthe sixth most visited site on the entire Web. With hundreds of thousands of other sites currently linking to it, Wikipedia is also one of the most optimized sites on the Web. As such, a band entry on Wikipedia often appears higher in search results than a band’s official site.\nWikipedia is a collaboratively edited site, with tens \nof thousands of editors responsible for adding and maintaining the content. While a potentially excellent traffic generator for bands, it is also somewhat tricky to set up a Wikipedia page for developing bands. Wikipedia frowns on self-promotion (its goal is to be an impartial community-developed encyclopedia of sorts, not a promotion vehicle), and one has to take certain steps in setting up a Wikipedia page as to not have the page deleted by the site’s editors. Making your entries and edits as notable, relevant, and non-promotional as possible will help avoid this, as anything added that remotely resembles a sales tool will surely get deleted by Wikipedia’s editors post-haste.\nAnother key to marketing and generating \nconversions on community-edited sites like Wikipedia is to add specific targeted links back to your site in a way that fits the context of the page. Taking the time to blend the content and the link to your site in such a way that it naturally fits and enhances the content on the page will ensure that your link does not get deleted. Research shows that proper implementation of links on these pages can account for low to mid single-digit increases to the overall revenue in a campaign.\nBest Practices for Marketing on Community-\nGenerated Content Sites:\n1. Add the link in the top third of the page for \nvisibility.\n2. Ensure that your link fits in naturally with the \npage content.\nPaid Marketing Opportunities on Third Party \nSocial Networking Sites\nOf the four defined marketing channels we’ve \nidentified, our previous examples have focused on organic (i.e., free) opportunities: Permission, Viral/Social, and Discovery. The fourth defined marketing channel is Paid placement. While it’s certainly advisable to exploit all organic opportunities first, online paid placements allow artists to target specific psychographic and demographic criteria of potential fans, which can provide additional \n17Demand Generation\nvisibility to support your organic efforts.\nThere are a number of paid visibility opportunities available online. Let’s take an in-depth look at one particular option: Facebook. \nFacebook Advertising Options\nOne of the problems with traditional advertising is that it is impossible to pinpoint a message specifically for someone who actually wants to hear it. While print (and some online) publications can provide general demographic information on their subscribers and readers (such as annual income, how much money they spend on music per year, age, etc.), most advertising models do not allow you to target your fan with laser-like precision.\nFacebook is an example of an online outlet that \ndoes provide this sort of highly targeted advertising opportunity, one in which you can pinpoint the exact characteristics of your target fan, and deliver them a specific message for a specified period of time. If done properly, this sort of online targeting is an evolution from ads being annoying intrusions, into helpful, meaningful recommendations. As mentioned earlier, Facebook generates billions of dollars a year from their advertising efforts, and they are currently the second largest web advertising vehicle in the world, behind Google. \nFacebook advertising traditionally relied on the \ninformation that users had uploaded into their profiles, from age, geography, favorite music, books—basically any personal information that folks have added to their profile page. But in recent years, Facebook has partnered with some third party data giants including Epsilon, Acxiom, and Datalogix to allow brands to match data gathered through shopper loyalty programs to individual Facebook profiles. What this means is that as an advertiser, you can target folks on Facebook not only based on what they say in their profiles, and what they say in their posts, you can target them based on past activity on a variety of other online and offline activities and interests. To put it another way: Facebook knows A LOT about you, and is using that information to help advertisers target their products more effectively. Based on the psychographic and demographic information you are looking for in your campaign, Facebook trawls its user base for members who meet this criteria, provides you, as an advertiser, with an estimate of the number of folks you will reach with your ad, and provides you with pricing options based on an ever growing palate of advertising options including clicks to your site, promoting your page, boosting your post, and much more. The ad creation process is simple:\n1. Get Started: Assuming you have an account set up in Facebook, go to facebook.com/advertising and log in.\n2. Create and Target your Ad: Say you are interested in placing an ad with the goal of driving potential fans to your site to experience your music, or learn about your tour dates. After choosing the “send people to your website” option, you will be asked for specific targeting information on who you want to reach, how much you want to spend, and what you want your ad to look like. You will also be asked for specific text and an image or video to accompany your ad. 18Demand Generation\n3.\n Target Your Ad: Set up your target \ndemographic and psychographic \ninformation. Let’s assume you are targeting a local demographic for a record release show taking place in Cambridge, MA. If your band sounds similar to the iconic Cambridge-based low-rock trio Morphine, you might want to consider targeting Morphine fans in this ad. Facebook will provide you with additional potential targets as well. In this example, Facebook is suggesting targeting Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire fans (not a bad suggestion), as well as Nirvana (not quite right). Facebook ads could just as easily be used to announce new releases, free singles, etc., with your personal website being the destination for the click-through on the ad. Facebook ads are also flexible; it makes sense to experiment with different campaigns to see what kind of traffic volume you might get from your alternate settings.\n4. Determine Your Pricing: Set up a daily budget and choose your pricing model (CPM, CPC, Clicks to Website, or Daily Unique Reach).\n5. Place your order and enter your payment information.\nAdditional Advertising Options\nFacebook advertising is just one option available to marketers. Depending on your psychographic and the tools that your fans are more predisposed to using, your advertising campaigns can be expanded to focus on other outlets, including Twitter. Twitter’s advertising options are currently less robust than Facebook, but one relatively easy way to implement Twitter advertising is their “promoted tweets” option. With promoted tweets, you can select specific tweets to promote to your fans. Similar to Facebook you can target your audience (your fans and/or fans of other bands you’ve toured with, perhaps?), and set budget restraints in much the same way as you can with Facebook.\nA final note of caution with regards to paid \nadvertising for musicians: paid advertising can get expensive, and is not the best place to start when you’re a developing band. There are a variety of free or inexpensive options that musicians should start with first that often tend to have better results. Paid ads should be considered only for more established bands that want to expand their reach and who understand that music marketing is a comprehensive system that needs to be continually monitored, assessed for success, and fine-tuned.19\nJohn Kellogg\n• Assistant Chair of the Music Business \n& Management Department at Berklee College of Music\n��� Music Business 101 Online Course Author and Instructor\n• Licensed Entertainment Attorney\nLicensed to practice in the states of New \nYork and Ohio, John P . Kellogg, Esq. has represented recording artists The O’Jays, Eddie Levert, Sr., LSG, Stat Quo of Shady/Aftermath Records, and G-Dep of Bad Boy Records. He also serves as a member of the management team for the late R&B recording star Gerald Levert, whom he represented throughout his career. \nKellogg is President-Elect and a member \nof the Board of Directors of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA), in addition to being a former board member of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyer’s Association (BESLA) and a 2005 inductee into the BESLA Hall of Fame. He is the author of the book Take Care of Your Music Business: The Legal and Business Aspects You Need to Know to Grow In the Music Business, as well as numerous legal articles and editorials. A former vocalist with the group Cameo, Kellogg has been profiled in Billboard, Ebony, Black Issues, and In the \nBlack magazines.A music business degree puts you in the \nposition to be a leader in the music industry. You’re going to study with other students who have experience in the business as well as instructors that are skilled at incorporating music with the business principles you need to know in order to be successful.\n”- John Kellogg, \nMusic Business Online Course instructor“20Renowned Faculty\nBerklee Online instructors have managed, produced, and engineered hundreds of artists \nand records and have received numerous industry awards and accolades. Each week you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a live chat with your instructor and receive one-on-one instruction and feedback on assignments.\nAward-Winning Courses\nInstantly access assignments, connect with your instructor, or reach out to your classmates in our award-winning online classroom. Study from anywhere in the world at a time that fits into your schedule.\nSpecialized Degree Program\nNo other accredited institution offers the acclaimed degree curriculum provided by Berklee Online. Earn your degree at a cost that’s 60% less than campus tuition and graduate with a professional portfolio that will prepare you for a career in the music industry.\nLike-Minded Classmates\nOffering courses for beginners and accomplished musicians alike, our student body comes from over 140 countries and includes high school students getting a jump-start on college, working professionals, executives at industry-leading technology and business firms, and members of internationally known acts like Nine Inch Nails and the Dave Matthews Band.\nExperienced Support\nEvery online student is assigned a Berklee-trained Academic Advisor. Each Advisor is passionate and knowledgeable about music and here to support you throughout your online learning experience.\nTry a sample lesson for free: \nonline.berklee.edu/sample-a-courseHow Berklee Online WorksQuestions about \nEarning Your Degree Online? \nContact Us.\nonline.berklee.edu\nadvisors@online.berklee.edu\n1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1-617-747-2146 (INT’L)\n", + "keywords": [ + "facebook", + "marketing", + "music", + "fan", + "online", + "twitter", + "band", + "artist", + "site", + "content" + ], + "summary": "2Prepare for your dream job in the ever-changing music industry. The following lesson material \nis t" + }, + { + "filename": "412558067-Music-Business-Degree-Major-Handbook.pdf", + "text": "Digital HandbookMusic BusinessTable of Contents\nBerklee Online’s Music Business Offerings 5\nBuilding Your Brand with PR, Radio, and Digital Media 6\nHow Convergence Has Changed the Supply of Media Content 9\nThe Development of Modern Music Industry Revenue Streams 13\nShow, Don’t Tell: Data Visualization and Infographics 27\nEssential Framework to Creating a Successful Marketing Campaign 40\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n2Begin a new musical journey .\nBerklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary \nprinciple that the best way to prepare students for careers \nin music is through the study and practice of contemporary \nmusic. Berklee Online extends that tradition to serve an even \nwider audience, for a fraction of the cost. Alumni of Berklee \nCollege of Music and Berklee Online have collectively won \nmore than 250 Grammys and Latin Grammys. This free \nhandbook features educational content from inside some \nof the required and elective courses within Berklee Online’s \nundergraduate Music Business major as well as from Berklee \nOnline’s Master of Arts in Music Business degree. The material \nfrom these degrees highlight what you need for success in the \nmusic industry of tomorrow: versatility.\nStudy from anywhere, on \nyour schedule.\nBerklee Online offers you the opportunity to obtain a degree \nin your own rhythm. With access to Berklee’s acclaimed \ncurriculum from anywhere in the world, you’ll be able to \nparticipate in award-winning online courses, multi-course \ncertificate programs, and earn a Bachelor of Professional \nStudies degree. All of Berklee Online’s courses are accredited \nand taught by the college’s world-renowned faculty, providing \nlifelong learning opportunities to people interested in music \nand working in the music industry.Earn your bachelor’s and your \nmaster’s degrees online.\nBerklee Online’s degree programs are the most affordable \nand flexible option for earning your music degree from \nBerklee College of Music. Apply today and receive an \nadmissions decision within two weeks.\nDegree Highlights\n ÎLess than half the cost of campus tuition\n ÎFinancial aid available\n ÎPart-time and full-time study\n ÎTransfer credit from other institutions\n ÎCredit issued for prior learning\n ÎBerklee degree completion opportunitiesUndergraduate Degree: \nBachelor of Professional Studies \nin Music Business\nSharpen your knowledge of the concepts, \nskills, and methodologies needed to succeed \nin today’s evolving music business. You will \nstudy how the music business currently \noperates and where the business is headed in \nthe key areas of music publishing, licensing, \nlaw, management, touring, marketing, and \nentrepreneurship. Through hands-on instruction \nfrom Berklee College of Music’s award-\nwinning music business faculty and industry \nprofessionals, this degree will prepare you for \na variety of music business-focused careers, \nincluding artist manager, booking agent, music \npublisher, business manager, concert promoter, \nmusic supervisor, label operations manager, \nentrepreneur, and more.Graduate Degree: \nMaster of Arts in Music Business\nInnovation is shaping many areas of the music \nbusiness, including management, marketing, \nlicensing, distribution, touring, and more. The \nMaster of Arts in Music Business program \nprepares you to be a leader in the growth \nand success of the evolving music business \nby connecting your passion with advanced \nknowledge and skills in the key sectors of \nthe industry.\nThroughout the program, you’ll learn from \nindustry professionals and undertake in-depth \nanalyses of factors, both internal and external, \nthat influence the industry—from technology \nand data to policy, law, and finance. Coursework \nprepares you to complete a culminating \nexperience that allows you to define your unique \ncontribution to the music industry and advance \nbusiness opportunities that present innovative, \nviable solutions in the marketplace.\nThe program is designed to be completed \nin one year. You will complete 12 courses at \na recommended pace of three courses per \nsemester over four 12-week semesters. But you \nare welcome to study at your own pace as well. \nThroughout the program, you will participate in \na community of highly engaged and motivated \npeers and faculty committed to high-level \nlearning and collaboration.Berklee Online’s Music \nBusiness Offerings\nBerklee Online’s Music \nBusiness Offerings\nLearn More & ApplyMusic Business Degree Handbook6\nBuilding Your Brand \nwith PR, Radio, and \nDigital Media\nBy Shain Shapiro\nWhat comes to mind when you refer to one of your favorite \nartists? Even if it’s their music, which is the primary point of \nreference, there is always a visual element that complements \nthat—Björk’s extravagant outfits, Slash’s long hair, hat, and \nsunglasses, and Daft Punk’s futuristic costumes are but a few \nexamples.\nWhen trying to build a successful career as a popular artist, your \npublic image—your brand—plays a major role and ultimately \ndefines how you are going to be perceived by the public. Excerpted from the undergraduate course\nInternational Music Marketing: Developing Your Career Abroad\nASSETS, ASSETS, ASSETS\nSo what are the assets your media pack needs to contain? Here are the most common ones, \nand remember, refer back to your checklist! It goes without saying—though I will say it—that all \nassets need to be the highest quality possible.\n ÎBio\n ÎPress release\n ÎSales sheet (for the distributor)\n ÎPromo photos (max five)\n ÎSingle cover\n ÎAlbum cover ÎMusic videos (on average, three for \nevery album release) \n ÎVideo teaser\n ÎSoundCloud links\n ÎYouTube links\n ÎPromo CDs ÎWrite a captivating press story \nthat grabs readers from the start.\n ÎTalk about the music. Describe it. \nMake it sound exciting.\n ÎAvoid too many artist references/\ninfluences.\n ÎNobody cares about the band’s \nbackground, such as how they met, etc. ÎKeep it real: include quotes. \n ÎKeep it concise!\n ÎAdjectives: don’t over-do it.\n ÎBe original.\n ÎCheck out the Why I Deleted Your Band’s \nPromo Email Tumblr and cross-check your \nlanguage! THE GOLDEN RULES FOR DRAFTING AN ARTIST BIO Any public performer has a public image associated with \ntheir art and it’s very difficult to separate them from each \nother. So every time that art gets exposed, the public image \ngets exposed too. Therefore, the public image becomes an \ninseparable part of the artist and, in some cases, becomes \nart itself.\nHere are some of the steps you'll take when building \nyour brand:\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n7WORKING WITH PR, RADIO, AND DIGITAL MEDIADr. Shain Shapiro is the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy. He has worked in the music \nindustry for nearly 20 years, including roles as the European Representative of the Canadian \nIndependent Music Association, and as UK Press Manager for One Little Indian and FatCat \nRecords. He is also an internationally published music journalist, writing for Timeout, VICE, and \nothers. He holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London.Understand that this is a two-way relationship. Editors want \npage hits and visitors, so that their website becomes (or \nremains) popular and is able to generate more advertising \nmoney. The content you are offering needs to satisfy that need. \nPromo CDs need to be sent to long-lead press (for example, \nmonthly music magazines) at least three months prior to an \nalbum release. If a publication runs the story, link back to them \nin a social media post. Feel free to thank them, talk about your \nexperience doing the interview, or pull out a phrase that you \nliked that they wrote about you. ÎInclude the music link first.\n ÎDon’t forget to mention release and \ntour dates.\n ÎInclude a link to a spectacular artist photo. \n(Do NOT send the 1 million GB pic in the \nemail itself!)\n ÎUse an intuitive email subject.\n ÎUse a few press quotes. ÎAlways be polite.\n ÎDon’t demand coverage.\n ÎAsk for their opinion (they love that).\n ÎGive them time and pitch well \nin advance.\n ÎUnderstand the editor’s point of view.\n ÎDevelop the relationship over time.GOLDEN RULES OF CONTACTING A JOURNALIST\nYou only get one chance to pitch something, so you need to be able to impress quickly. \nBe very careful with what you choose to include in your communication. Here are a few \nthings to consider:\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n8WORKING WITH PR, RADIO, AND DIGITAL MEDIAMusic Business Degree Handbook9\nHow Convergence Has \nChanged the Supply of \nMedia Content\nBy Jeanine Cowen\nCreative individuals have long partnered with business \nentities, financial firms, publishers, and distributors at a \nmultitude of stages within the content creation process. It \nis only in the past few decades that it has become easier \nfor artists to create an independent path through the maze \nof crafting a fiscally sustainable career. But easier does not \nalways mean better, for every artist. Understanding the ebb \nand flow of market strategies and alternative finance models \nis requisite knowledge for creative individuals working in the \nnew media economy.\nNo longer do the firms producing and distributing media \ncontent have the sole voice in how that content is supplied to \naudiences. Narrow or misguided distribution plans can too \neasily miss intended audiences and potentially doom that \nparticular content to obscurity.Excerpted from the undergraduate course \nNew Media Economics: Music, Mobile, Gaming, and Online Markets\nConvergence\nThrough convergence, potential content consumers now \nhave more than one way to access the same content and \nexperience it, whether it be in a large media room or on a \nsmall, personal mobile device.\nChallenges\nThe array of devices and online platforms mean that content \nsuppliers must take these modes of distribution into account \nduring the production phase. Media firms need to proactively \nproduce content with those end experiences in mind. Missteps \nin this area can turn away a loyal audience, pushing them to \nseek other alternatives.\nOpportunities\nConvergence now enables firms to reach potential audiences \nthat they may not have had access to through traditional \nmediums. Convergence also allows potential audiences to \nexperience more than one content option, where traditional \nmedia distribution methods required audiences to make \nchoices based on programming schedules.\nBut traditional firms have also realized the flexibility of \nnew media platforms as avenues to reintroduce or revive \nolder content. The digital remastering, reformatting, and \nrepurposing of pre-existing content has allowed media firms \nto re-introduce material to the marketplace.\nSuch activities greatly extend a media material’s longevity and \nits potential for generating additional revenues. For example, \nwith on-demand firms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime \nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n10HOW CONVERGENCE HAS CHANGED THE SUPPLY OF MEDIA CONTENTproviding 24-hour access to many types of movie and series \ngenres including classics, younger audiences can easily binge \non iconic television series from past decades such as Friends, \nThe X-Files, and Battlestar Galactica (both the original and \nremake series).\nPartnerships vs. Independence\nWhile digital convergence has, in many cases, made the actual \nproduction of content easier, there are no guarantees of \nsuccess with consumers. Depending on target audiences and \nintended markets, the production and distribution of media \ncontent can be financially risky. Depending on the size and \nscope of the project, accessing the value of potential partners \nis one way to reduce and spread some of this exposure.\nEasier Is Not Always Better\nAs emerging technologies have lowered entry barriers for \nmost media and entertainment sectors, the balance between \ncost and quality has become more apparent. Lower cost \nequipment and tools may provide that initial entry and \nintroduction of creative intent, but the varying levels of digital \nquality available often affect the consumer experience. For \nexample, costs for broadcast news collection and reporting \nhave been greatly reduced as mobile reporters have begun \nusing cellular technology for live transmissions. However, \nthe quality and reliability of these cellular feeds is contingent \non network availability and strength at the point of origin. \nConsumers often experience buffered, choppy, or low-\nresolution reports as well as dropped transmissions during live \nnews broadcasts.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n11HOW CONVERGENCE HAS CHANGED THE SUPPLY OF MEDIA CONTENTJeanine Cowen is Vice President for Curriculum and Program Innovation at Berklee College of \nMusic. She is a frequent lecturer on the topic of music technology and new media industries. She \nis an active composer, music producer, and technologist, working primarily with sound and music \nfor visual media.Expertise vs. DIY\nHaving access to cheaper equipment and easy-to-use software \ndoesn’t ensure the success of a media project. Expertise in the \ncreation, design, and development of a media form will greatly \nenhance its potential to reach the appropriate audience.\nFinancially stronger firms may be able to leverage greater \ntechnological assets such as labor expertise, special effects, \nand sound design to produce richer media content.\nDIY can be easy and inexpensive but generally involves an \nincreased amount of trial and error. The learning curve is high \nbut the end result can be successful in its own right. Partnering \nwith firms and individuals with expertise can increase the \nchance for successful outcomes.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n12HOW CONVERGENCE HAS CHANGED THE SUPPLY OF MEDIA CONTENTMusic Business Degree Handbook13\nThe Development of \nModern Music Industry \nRevenue Streams\nBy John Kellogg\nThe generation of revenue from music has taken many \nforms since the royal class patronage of classical musicians \nduring the Age of Enlightenment, when musicians and \ncomposers were paid servants, composing and performing \nmusic specifically for powerful noblemen. But the invention \nof the printing press allowed music to be duplicated and \nwidely distributed, setting off a chain of events that, over the \ncenturies, has significantly expanded the capability of music \nto derive revenue from innumerable sources. From sales of \nsheet music in the 1800s through the challenges brought on \nby the growth of the piano-roll trade; various configurations \nof recordings (vinyl singles, albums, cassettes, CDs, and \ndigital downloads); development of radio, TV, videos, Internet \nstreaming services, and mobile applications (APPS), and Excerpted from the graduate course \nMusic Business Revenue Streams\nmusic products to the ageless allure of live performances, this \ndurable industry, as a whole, has taken each turn in stride and \nadapted to change in a triumphant manner.\nWhile the history of the music business is marked with \ntremendous successes and devastating setbacks over the \nyears, the power of music to speak to the masses worldwide \nand create economic opportunity for those who create and \nprovide products or services for its dissemination has endured. \nThe technological innovations of the twenty-first century may \npresent unique challenges for those dependent on traditional \nmusic industry revenue streams such as the sales of CDs, but \nfor those with an entrepreneurial spirit, keen knowledge of \ncurrent trends, and an abiding faith in the power of music, the \nfuture is bright.\nPrimary Revenue Streams\nAn examination of the development of various revenue \nstreams in the music business requires a review of the \nhistory of the intersection of musical art with commerce. \nFrom the days of patronage through the present day, \none thing has remained constant: the ability of talented \nperforming musicians and composers to receive some form of \ncompensation for their work.\nOver the centuries, technological advancement, changes in \nlaws and policy, and advancement of business interests have \nall had a hand in forming the various revenue streams at play \nin today’s music industry. The compensation and provisions \nprovided for musicians during the Renaissance pales in \ncomparison to the current touring business that exceeds \n$25 billion in annual revenue. Musical instruments such as \ndrums, whistles, and flutes date back to the beginning of \nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n14THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMShuman culture. During the Age of Enlightenment, the use of \ninstruments for solo—instead of just accompanying—purposes \ncaused craftsmen to give instruments their classical shape and \nexpand their offerings. Since that time, the musical instrument \nindustry has evolved into one which not only encompasses \ninstruments, but one that also consists of many other products \nassociated with creating music. With live performance and \nmusical instruments and products as a constant, other areas of \ncommerce tied to music began to evolve.\nThe enactment of the United States Copyright law in 1790 \nand printing presses capable of mass production during \nthe Industrial Revolution spawned a sheet music publishing \nbusiness in the nineteenth century that changed the revenue \nprospects for both publishing companies and songwriters.\nCopyright Act of 1790. Source: United States Copyright Office/Library of Congress\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n15THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSThomas Edison’s invention of the mechanical phonograph \ncylinder in 1877 was the genesis of what would become \nthe burgeoning business of the sale of music recordings \nin the twentieth century, starting with the first mechanical \nreproduction product: the piano-roll, a mechanism used to \ncontrol a player piano. Throughout the twentieth century, the \nevolution of various configurations of recorded music, from \nthe hard lacquer 78 RPM singles played on the Gramophone, \nto the turntable record player and later the compact cassette, \nexpanded the popularity and revenue-generation potential \nof music. But it was the advent of the Sony Walkman, the \nfirst personal portable music player, which changed the \ncommercial appeal of music and caused the music industry \nto focus on providing music when and where you want it, a \nmanner of delivery that is even more popular today.\nPrimary sources of revenue for musical talent in the music \nindustry include:\n ÎEarnings that flow directly from their live musical \nperformances\n ÎRoyalties from recording and composition copyrights\nAt one time, musical artists generated earnings primarily from \nthose sources. However, with the technological advances and \nexpanded reach of film, TV, the Internet, and other media \noutlets, skilled musicians have experienced a growth in the \npotential of generating significant proceeds from activities \nancillary to—or indirectly associated with—their success as a \nrecording or performing artist. Many of those recording artists \nthrough the 1950s didn’t know the value of copyrights and the \nprimary source of revenue that could be derived from royalties \nassociated with owning compositions and recordings, so they \nmissed out on this valuable source of proceeds.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n16THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSIn 1955, four male New York City teenagers \nincluding Jimmy Merchant (pictured, far left) and \nHerman Santiago (second from left) performed \nas the vocal group the Premiers. After auditioning \nfor George Goldner, the owner of Gee Records, \nperforming a composition written by Merchant \nand Santiago called, “Birds Sing So Gay,” Goldner \nrecorded the song. However, shortly thereafter, \n13-year-old Frankie Lymon (pictured, center) \njoined the group and replaced Santiago as the \nlead singer on the recording. Goldner changed \nthe name of the group to Frankie Lymon & the \nTeenagers and the title of the song to “Why Do \nFools Fall in Love,” which topped the Pop charts \nin 1956, ushering in a new era of R&B and rock ‘n’ \nroll music. Goldner credited himself and Lymon \nas the copyright authors of the song instead of \nMerchant and Santiago who, therefore, received \nno songwriter royalties. Each member of the \nTeenagers received only $1,000 total for the \nsubsequent 18-month concert tour.\nFor years, Merchant and Santiago complained \nabout not being paid, but were intimidated by \nthreats of physical harm from Morris Levy, who at \nthe time was an important music promoter and music company owner with reported ties to the \nmob. They were further infuriated when it was \nrevealed Lymon was receiving royalties for the \nsong, even though he had made no contribution \nto its creation. They also discovered that Goldner \nonly put Lymon’s name on the song in order to \nmarket it as a song about a teenage boy’s ode to \na teacher. Although Lymon was credited as one \nof the song’s writers, most of the royalties were \ngoing to Goldner and Levy.\nIn 1964 Goldner signed over his interests in the \nsong to Levy, claiming that he had mistakenly \ntaken songwriting credit for the song actually \ndue to Levy. Subsequently, Goldner, Levy, and \nall members of the group, except Merchant and \nSantiago died. Merchant and Santiago eventually \nfiled a lawsuit against the estate of Levy and \ncompanies he owned. They won their case for \nrightful credit as the sole songwriters of the song \nand were awarded $4 million in damages.\nSince that time, many music creators have made \nefforts to become aware of their rights and insist \non their fair share of these important earnings \ndirectly related to copyright ownership and other \nprimary income-generating activities.A CASE OF MISDIRECTED PRIMARY REVENUE\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n17\nAncillary Revenue and \nthe 360-Degree Deal\nThe 1990s were a boom era for music creators, \nrecord companies, and publishing companies. Direct \nrevenue generated from the sale and licensed use \nof copyrights in sound recordings and compositions \nwas at an all-time high, primarily from the market \ndomination of CDs. Self-produced artists were capable \nof extracting sizeable—sometimes seven-figure—\nadvances from any of the six major labels, while artist \nrosters and employment at a number of record labels \nskyrocketed. During that same period, recording \nagreements provided labels the right to participate in \nrevenue solely generated from the sale and use of an \nartist’s recordings while other income streams artists \nenjoyed—such as touring, publishing, merchandise, \nacting, sponsorships and endorsements—were off-\nlimits to the labels. What wasn’t expected, however, \nwas the impending decimation of the value of music \nprimarily resulting from illegal peer-to-peer file-\nsharing programs like Napster, Kazaa, and other sites \nat the dawn of the new Millennium.\nRecord companies quickly discovered that in order \nto stay in business, they would have to fashion a \nnew relationship with their artists and they did so \nby instituting the 360-degree deal. This new type of \narrangement, also referred to as an All-Rights deal, \nenabled the labels to start participating in receiving \nproceeds being generated not just from the sale and \nuse of their artists’ recordings, but also other income-\ngenerating artist activities that were deemed indirect \nor ancillary.Case Study: \nRobbie Williams’ \n360-Degree Deal\nBritish rocker Robbie Williams \nreached stardom in the 1990s as a \nmember of the group Take That, but \nhe experienced his greatest success \nas a solo artist after leaving the group, \nbecoming the best-selling British \nartist in the UK and best-selling non-\nLatino artist in Latin America. In other \nwords, Williams was one of the world’s \nmost famous artists outside the US. \nBased on this success and dwindling \noverall record label earnings as \nInternet piracy continued to rapidly \nshrink the pre-iTunes market for the \nsale of recordings, Williams’ label, \nEMI, entered into a groundbreaking \nnew deal with him.\nIn 2002, EMI paid Williams a $100 \nmillion advance in exchange for six \nalbums and an unprecedented cut \nof his lucrative ancillary revenue \n(continued on the next page)Drew de F Fawkes [CC BY 2.0 (https://\ncreativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], \nvia Wikimedia Commons\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n18THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSThe labels’ rationalization for this change was based \non the rapid demise of their once profitable market \nleader—the sale of CD albums—and the resulting \nlosses, which could not even be offset by an eventual \nrise in digital singles and album sales. Between 2000 \nand 2015, record label revenue was halved. Labels \nbegan to realize their significant financial investment \nin building the career of a successful new artist often \nled to the artist having several ancillary earning \nopportunities such as lucrative tours, TV and acting \nroles, commercials, sponsorships, merchandise, and \npublishing activities, all areas that the labels had \npreviously not participated in. So, based on that \nreasoning, labels not only wanted, but believed they \ndeserved, to participate in the fruits of the budding \nartists’ careers, which their initial investment helped \ncreate and having artists enter into 360-degree deals \nwith them was the way to make that happen.Acting Licensing\nPublishingSponsorship &\nEndorsements\nRecord Sales\n& StreamingMerchandise\nTouringstreams from publishing, touring, \nand merchandise. The deal set a new \npath for label/artist relationships in \nthe post-Napster, pre-iTunes and \nstreaming music economy and was \ntouted as a way for artists of Williams’ \nstature to gain more control, while \nproviding more financial security for \nlabels. When Williams was signed, \nEMI president Tony Wadsworth said, \n“It means record companies and \nartists are much more clearly on the \nsame agenda. It may signal a change \nin the business, as investments we \nmake in artists are realized in a greater \nrange of potential income streams \ninstead of solely recorded music \nsales.”\nIn spite of Wadsworth’s optimism, \nthe deal failed miserably. Williams’ \nalbums, Intensive Care and Rude Box \nexperienced dismal sales. However, \nthat did not discourage most major \nlabels from adopting the principal of \nthe 360-degree deal, a model most \nlabels still insist upon today. However, \nsome question whether labels still \nneed the extra revenue, especially \nin light of the drastic increase in \nearnings from streaming activities \nand the difficulty they experience \nin tracking and monitoring many of \nthe artists’ ancillary income streams.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n19THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSCategories of Primary and \nAncillary Revenue Streams \nand Related Benefits\nWhile generating revenue is essential to establishing and \nmaintaining a career or business, there can sometimes be \nother residual benefits we can accrue in addition to revenue. \nCategorizing revenue and benefit streams requires you \nto investigate the position of the individual party to which \nthese streams are associated. A party may have a number of \ncategories of primary and ancillary income depending on \nseveral factors.\nTo put this into concrete terms: a live performer may derive \nmore income from the sale of CDs at a live performance than \ntheir performance fee. In that case, is the performance fee or \nmoney made from CD sales the primary source of revenue for \nthe artist? If a live promoter, like Live Nation, makes most of its \nmoney from parking fees and concession sales at the venues \nthey own, is it the revenue they earn from ticket sales or the \nsponsorships which are deemed primary or ancillary? What \nabout an independent live promoter, who rents a venue they \ndon’t own, makes most of his or her money from ticket sales \nbut additional substantial amounts from sponsors who support \nthe show? Is the sponsorship revenue deemed ancillary, when \nwithout it, the show may not go on?\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n20THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMS ÎLive Performance\n ÎLive Promoters\n ÎBranding\n ÎCopyright\n ÎSocial Media ÎNon-Featured Session \nMusician/Vocalist\n ÎActing\n ÎMerchandise\n ÎCrowdfundingAs seen by these examples, the categorization of a party’s \nprimary or ancillary revenue may vary widely. Let’s look at \nsome categorizations of various types of revenue/benefits \none can obtain from several sources:\n ÎMusic Product Sales \nand Endorsements\n ÎGrants\nThe Importance of The Three \nBig Ps in the Development \nof Revenue in the Music \nIndustry \nThe Three Big Ps or principles for success in today’s and \ntomorrow’s music industry are Powerful Product, Proper \nPerspective, and Professional Attitude. Adherence to these \nprinciples isn’t a guarantee of favorable outcomes, but \ncollectively, they do increase the likelihood of an eventual \nbreakthrough and success of your venture.\nPowerful Product\nFor purposes of this discussion, powerful product may be song, \nrecording, live performance, app, software program, brand, or \nother creative work that has a telling impact on an audience or \nmarket. Most musical artists receive their first exposure from \nthe exploitation of an audio or video recording. While audio \nrecordings are no longer the primary revenue-generating source \nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n21THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSfor most artists, they are still usually the first opportunity for artists \nto build an audience and, as they say, the first impression is \nalways the most important. The key to success in this business is \nto make your first impression an impactful one. Powerful product \nnot only moves an audience, it may create long-term asset value \nthat is a key to continued revenue-generation from the product \nand, in some cases, one powerful product can lead to the \ndevelopment of other powerful products.\nProper Perspective\nCreating powerful product is essential, but it’s not the only \ncomponent of continuing success in the music industry. \nHaving powerful product without knowledge of the past or \nthe necessary skills to critically analyze the future of the music \nbusiness is analogous to putting the cart before the horse. Famed \nastronomer and author, Dr. Carl Sagan once said, “In order to \nunderstand your future, you’ve got to know your past.” The music \nindustry has unlimited opportunities for innovative growth and \ndevelopment in the future that will only be exploited by those \nthat have a grasp on the significance of the past.\nCurrently, three major labels maintain a stranglehold on the \ndistribution of physical copies of music. But were you aware \nthat at one time in the 1990s there were six major labels that \nshared in what has been deemed the Golden Age of recorded \nmusic? Since then, several factors have contributed to the \nrapid consolidation of the business through mergers and \nacquisitions. A paradigm shift from the physical configurations \nof music to the digital space has caused the demise of the \nsale of CDs and ushered in an era of digital service providers \nselling subscriptions and/or ads, which only provide access \nto the music through specific devices. Knowing how these \nchanges alter the business of music creators and facilitators is \ncrucial to creating a viable future for all interested parties.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n22THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSNew and interesting revenue streams emerging from the \ngathering and use of important data tracking trends in music \nand social media activity are becoming the key to innovative \nideas, products, and services. Those with the proper perspective \nwill be the pioneers of the new digital music industry.\nProfessional Attitude\nThe final Big P is professional attitude. To achieve longevity \nin the music business as an artist or business leader, it is \nimportant to not only respect yourself, but the people \nyou come in contact with in all your business dealings. It \nis becoming increasingly important for artists to respect \nthemselves by putting a priority on their physical health and \nmental wellbeing.\nChester Bennington was an American songwriter and lead \nsinger of the group Linkin Park. Linkin Park’s first album, \nHybrid Theory, became an immense commercial success in \n2000 and in 2005 was recognized with Diamond certification \nby the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for \nselling 10 million copies. In 2004, the band collaborated with \nJAY-Z, as one of the first real creative projects to materialize \nafter both artists’ work were incorporated into a mash-up. The \nband’s subsequent albums continued the group’s success. In \n2017 Linkin Park was about to embark on the North American \nleg of a world tour when Bennington was discovered dead \nby his housekeeper. The hanging death, ruled a suicide, \nrocked a music world that had only two months earlier been \nshocked at the suicide of Bennington’s close friend and star \nperformer, Chris Cornell. Both of these deaths forced the \nindustry to pay attention to the drastic increase in suicides \nwithin the music industry.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n23THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSPrior to Prince’s death from an overdose of Fentanyl on April \n21, 2016, there were signs of distress in the health of the \npop music icon. Earlier in the month, he had cancelled two \nappearances and, while flying back to his home in Minneapolis \nafter performing a rescheduled show, his plane was forced to \nland in Illinois where he was hospitalized and received Narcan. \nIn the case of both Bennington and Prince, there was obviously \ngreat physical and/or emotional pain, and for whatever the \nreason, they did not receive the proper care that may have \nsaved their lives.\nOver the past 20 years, several artists, including Michael \nJackson, and this course author’s client and friend, Gerald \nLevert, have died as a result of what I call “the celebrity’s \ncocktail”—a lethal mix of over-the-counter and prescribed \nsubstances, which, when combined, most often result in \ndeath. What does this have to do with professional attitude \nand revenue streams? Plenty! Without the proper respect \nand care for your own life, you cannot function at the job of \ncreating and performing for your fans. This isn’t an indictment \nof the individuals named above, many of whom relied on \ntaking a celebrity cocktail to enable them to work through \nboth the physical and emotional pain they experienced as a \nresult of a hectic schedule of performance dates and other \ncareer commitments that kept revenue streams flowing for \nthem and their associates. It is rather, a recognition that \ntheir deaths robbed the world of their creative genius and \nrevenue channels that supported other people, including \ntheir families, in spite of the fact that consumption of their \nmusic experienced an increase immediately following \ntheir deaths.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n24THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSWhen Pat Corcoran, Chance the Rapper’s manager, was asked \nwhat is the most common mistake young managers make, he \nresponded: “There are times you have to grind and hit the \nroad for months at a time, but you have to remember that your \nlife matters too. Focus on improving the quality of your life \nand the quality of your work will improve, too.” So, if you are \nan artist or represent an artist, keep a professional attitude by \nrespecting yourself and your audience.\nNot only do artists need to respect themselves, but those \nwho are responsible for managing their business must do the \nsame. Building relationships with people you do business with \nis the key to a long and prosperous career. Someone once \nsaid that in the music business, “you can’t make a living, but \nonly a killing. The key is to put as many killings together as \nyou can.” Basically, this means that you need to accumulate as \nmany hit records in a row as you can. This dire warning may \nbe true to an extent, but for music industry businesspeople, \nanother fundamental is treating everyone you meet with \nrespect and dignity. The recent #MeToo movement is a great \nexample. Women and men should always be treated with \nrespect, but the actions of some industry power players has \nshown that isn’t the case in all too many instances.\nAnother well known saying is, “chances go around: you meet \nthe same people going up as you do going down.” I have \nfound it to be true that artists and businesspeople who have \nlet success go to their heads and disrespect their colleagues \nhave short-lived careers. However, those with a professional \nattitude develop and nurture courteous and respectful \nrelationships that can lead to long successful careers which \nfoster steady, profitable revenue streams for themselves and \ntheir artists.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n25THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSThe definition of primary and ancillary revenue streams in \nthe music business continues to evolve as new technology \nemerges. While the recording artists’ primary source of \nearnings for years emanated from recordings and live \nperformances, as technological advances led to the \ndevelopment of movies, TV, and the Internet, additional \nearning opportunities opened the way for new related \nrevenue streams.\nJohn P . Kellogg Esq. is the Program Director for Berklee Online’s Master of Arts in Music \nBusiness program, and the author and instructor of that program’s Music Business Revenue \nStreams course. He is an entertainment attorney and the former Chair of the Music Business/\nManagement department at Berklee College of Music. Once a vocalist and songwriter with the \ngroup Cameo, he is now known for writing best-selling books and academic articles relating to \nthe music business.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n26THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE STREAMSMusic Business Degree Handbook27\nShow , Don’t Tell: \nData Visualization \nand Infographics\nBy Liv Bulli\nData visualizations have become an increasingly important \nmedium and even the simplest graphic can serve to elevate \nand enhance your analysis and the story you are attempting to \ntell with data. Some data visualizations even drive the story \nfor you. \nIt’s not the Pie Chart, It’s You \nEmploying data visualization isn’t technically a new \nphenomenon. The first example of a graphical representation \nof data was presented by William Playfair in the early \nnineteenth century. However, with the rise of big data across \nindustries, it has become an increasingly important visual \nmedium for storytelling. In fact, here is a very basic “data viz” \non “data viz” to help illustrate the rise of “data viz” in recent \nyears, courtesy of Google’s Ngram Viewer:Excerpted from the graduate course \nData Analytics in the Music Business\nA decade ago, few had even heard of the niche “data \nvisualization as art,” nor did graphics serve as a foundation for \nentire publications such as Nate Silver’s Fivethirtyeight, “The \nUpshot” from the New York Times, or the Pudding. Nor was it \ntaught as a separate subject within schools and universities, \neven those that focus on design or computer science. \nToday a large data visualization community exists, \ncommunicates, and collaborates on platforms like Twitter and \nReddit. Books and resources are published at a rate that can \nbarely keep up with the thirst for knowledge on the topic. You \nare likely to come across infographics and data viz in your \ndaily consumption of broadcast news and journals. Charts \nand graphs have become the purview of journalists, business \nanalysts, and marketers alike. \nAnyone who is trying to make sense of data, which is most of \nus these days, is likely to have dabbled in the art of designing \na graph. Keep in mind that reading and creating charts is not \nnecessarily intuitive, and that our general introduction to them is \npretty basic unless we study in a relevant field. In addition, there \nare countless examples of terrible—not to mention, inaccurate—\ndata visualizations that enter the mainstream and exacerbate the \nissue. Also note from our graph that the term “data visualization” \nstill remains an extremely small fraction of the English corpus. \nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n28SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSWe Are Not Yet Data Literate \nThe pie chart gets a bad rap, especially after data visualization \ngrand master Edward Tufte denounced its efficacy as a chart \nand claimed that the only design worse than a pie chart was \nseveral. Research indicates that humans do have a hard time \ninterpreting the proportions of a pie chart, yet we are drawn \nto them as a medium. Others have argued the pie chart does \nindeed have an appropriate time and place; we use pie charts \nto illustrate parts of a whole. \nSimply put, data visualization is the presentation of data and \ninformation in the form of a chart or diagram. It is a particularly \nvaluable medium for sharing insights. Research shows that \nthe human brain is able to interpret information and patterns \npresented in visual form, far faster than if it is shared as written \ntext or communicated verbally. We are also likely to retain that \ninformation for longer. \nReally this debate is a can of worms we don’t need to open \njust now. What we can (or should) all agree on, is that a pie \nchart should never add up to anything other than 100 percent \nor a meaningful whole. Yet . . .\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n29SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSAnd a pie chart that makes up more than a whole is not the only \nway to skew data graphically. You might cherry-pick your data \npoints to suit the story you are trying to tell . . .\nOr exaggerate a trend by starting your Y-axis at an arbitrary (or \nnot so arbitrary, depending on your motive) number, rather \nthan at zero. Or otherwise manipulating the intervals of data \nrepresented without explicitly stating so and having a legitimate \nreason to do so.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n30SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSAnd while the above are real examples of presenting data in a \ncertain way with the intention to mislead, an inaccurate chart \nisn’t necessarily made with underhanded motives. A flawed \nchart or interpretation of a chart can simply be the result of an \nerror in calculation. These are just a few examples of how this \ncan all go wrong. \nThere are countless ways to skew and manipulate data either \nto suit your needs, or that can be chalked up to human error. \nLooking at a particular subset of data can obscure the big \npicture and trend. \nAnd in addition to this, keep in mind that data literacy is \nstill in its infancy. It will likely take at least a generation \nwhere this exists as a mainstream medium before reading \ncharts becomes second nature, if not longer. The idea that \ncomputational thinking as a skill needs to be taught at the \nsame level as reading, writing, and math is becoming more \nand more common. \nThis is why it is essential to adhere to the fundamental \nprinciples of data visualization and graphics when using \nthis medium. Even as we begin to experiment and stretch \nthe limits of conventional chart types and data visualization, \nthis requires thoughtful consideration of how a chart will be \ninterpreted, both at first glance, and following some level \nof scrutiny. \nSo what are some of these fundamental rules and definitions? \nRead on!\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n31SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSFrom Bar Charts to Box Plots: \nThe Fundamentals of Data \nVisualization\nThe advantages to data visualization and information graphics \nare many. Presenting data in visual manner can reveal \npatterns and trends in large amounts of data. As opposed to \nspreadsheets containing potentially millions (if not billions) \nof rows of data that are pretty much impossible to digest \nwith the human eye, our data can be condensed into a \nrelatively small space: bitesize graphics that are easy to share. \nWhat’s more, data visualization, when done well, can be an \nextremely powerful and persuasive medium that can help \ntell a compelling story or share ideas, whether that is as a \nstandalone graphic, or accompanying text. \nFor these reasons and more, we want to learn more about how \nto employ data visualization as a tool. That doesn’t necessarily \nmean that we need to be able to build complex interactive \ngraphics using terabytes of data to get our point across (though \nsome of the tools we will explore that have been developed in \nrecent years do make that an easier task than it once was).\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n32SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSThe previous graphic from the data visualization blog \nInformation Is Beautiful aims to explore the financials of \nstreaming services as this relates to artists and compares this \ndata across major platforms. \nThe amount of data used in this graphic is fairly limited. Yet, \nthe graphic tells a powerful story about which services provide \nthe most value back to artists, how much activity an artist will \nneed to see on a specific platform in order to make a living \nwage, and how these platforms net out in terms of audience \nand reach. \nFor instance, while YouTube comes out as paying the least \namount of money per play to artists, their user base and \naudience reach far exceeds that of every other service. Sure, it \ncan take more than 2 million plays to make a living wage from \nyour YouTube account alone, but then again there are more \nthan one billion users on the platform you could potentially \nreach, most of whom are using it for free. And this is just \none of many tidbits we can decipher. This fairly simple, but \nwell-designed graphic tells us an awful lot about how royalty \npayments shake down across platforms and why that is. \nIn fact, the founder of Information Is Beautiful, data journalist \nDavid McCandless, has shared some insights on what \nmakes for good information design. He sees a successful \ndata visualization as a combination of four elements – \nInterestingness, Integrity, Form, and Function.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n33SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSSimple diagrams will more than suffice as long as they are:\n ÎMeaningful and relevant to an audience\n ÎFactual, honest, and accurate\n ÎPleasing to look at (in other words beautiful)\n ÎUseful and easy to interpret\nOr, put in visual form:\ninterestingness\nintegrityproof of\nconceptexperiment\neye-candyuselesssuccessful\ninformation\ndesignugly\nboringrubbish\nsketchfunction\nformeasiness\nusefulness\nuseability\nfit\nbeauty\nstructure\nappearancetruth\nconsistency\nhonesty\naccuracyrelevant\nmeaningful\nnew\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n34SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSNow that we have established how to think about information \ndesign, we can walk through the process of designing a data \nvisualization and cover some of the basic rules. \nIt might behoove us to start by thinking about our audience \nand objective. What story are we looking to tell? What ideas \ndo we want to communicate, and who are we trying to reach? \nFor what it’s worth, this is the first question we need to ask \nourselves regardless of what medium we are using to tell \na story, whether it be writing an article, shooting a film, or \nchoreographing a ballet.\nOnce we have defined our argument and our audience, we \ncan start to look for the right data. We’ll need to explore the \ndata we have available not only to determine what might be \nrelevant to our story, but also to see what patterns and trends \nwe might be able to spot. Does the data corroborate our story, \nor do we need to reevaluate? What are some of the outliers, \nand what do they tell us about the overall data set? What do \nyou want your audience to get from this data? \nThe next step is to choose the right chart type for your data \nand story. There is a bunch of research done on the matter, \nand plenty of guides and cheat sheets that experts have \ndeveloped to help you make the right choices, but according \nto Stephen Few, the author of Show Me the Numbers and Big \nData, Big Dupe, there are a few fundamental principles we can \nkeep in mind.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n35SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSTIPS FOR PRESENTING DATA VISUALIZATION\nAlways scale to zero. Otherwise we risk exaggerating the \ndifference between values and this can be misleading to \nour audience.The right chart will:\n ÎClearly indicate how values relate to one another\n ÎRepresent quantities accurately\n ÎMake it easy to see the ranked order of values\n ÎMake it clear and intuitive how to interpret the information\n80828486\n020406080\nWhen scaled to zero we can see there is \nonly a small difference between values.Not scaled to zero, these differences \nappear staggering.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n36SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSKeep it simple and reduce clutter. The more we can focus on \njust the information we are trying to relay, the easier it is for an \naudience to interpret the chart how it is intended.Never use 3D charts. The effect distorts the perception of \nvalues, serves no purpose, and is distracting. \n33%33% 33%33%\n33%\n33%\n05101520253040\n35\nGroup A Group B Group C Group D\n Group A Group B Group C Group D10203040\n/remove /ok\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n37SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSLabel well. Titles, annotations, or legends that help explain \nyour chart should be integrated as part of the chart as much \nas possible. If the audience’s eye needs to travel far to \nunderstand what data they are looking at, you will quickly lose \nyour audience and risk misinterpretation.Provide ample and accurate context. We’ve seen examples \nof how cherry-picking data points can severely distort the \ninterpretation of data.\n/remove /ok\n20406080Series 1\nSeries 2\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n38SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSPractice austerity with your color choices. Color is a \npowerful tool in data visualization. Your color choices should \nbe analogous so as not to distract. Different colors can be used \nto contrast values, to highlight and emphasize your point, but \nnever to “decorate.” \nIn addition, note that there are intrinsic interpretations associated \nwith color choices: red means loss; green means profit; pink is \nfemale; blue is male. To make it even more complicated, these \nassociations are culture dependent and can vary. In other words, \nyou will need to think carefully about your color choices.\nAnd last but not least, as Edward Tufte famously put it: \n“Above all else show the data.”\nLiv Buli is a data journalist and author, known for her work with Pandora Media and Next Big \nSound. She has spent most of her career working at the intersection of storytelling, data science, \nand visualization, thinking about how best to tell stories with data and speaking at conferences \naround the world. She is also the author of Penelope Pie’s Pizza Party, the first book in the Vizkidz \nseries: a collection of books that teach the fundamental concepts of data visualization and \nanalysis to children.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n39SHOW, DON’T TELL: DATA VISUALIZATION AND INFOGRAPHICSMusic Business Degree Handbook40\nEssential Framework to \nCreating a Successful \nMarketing Campaign\nBy Mike King\nWhen discussing the most important facets of marketing, we \nusually talk about goals, strategy, tactics, identifying who you \nwant to talk with, and creating a funnel to measure success. \nHowever, a more complete framework, starting from the top, \nwould need to include the following: \n1. The BIG Idea \nWhat is it you want to do and what are your goals? Are you \nworking to launch a new artist’s career, or are you interested \nin starting a new music management company? What are \nyou working to do, and how will you measure success?\n2. Market Research \nOnce you know what you want to accomplish, determining \nthe opportunities in the market are critical. First-mover \nadvantage (being the first to create something in a \nparticular market) means there is less competition, but it Excerpted from the graduate course \nThe Business of Music Marketing\nalso means you could have a more difficult time gaining \ntraction for something consumers might be unfamiliar with. \nGaining an understanding of potential market size for your \nidea, trends in the market, and buying habits of potential \nconsumers will all work towards validating your idea, as \nwell as set the stage for creating the strategy for your \nmarketing plan. For example, if your idea is to launch and \nmarket a physical vinyl-only store in Keene, NH, you would \nbe well-served to understand the consumption habits of \nthe local community, the number of potential consumers in \nthe area, trends in vinyl, etc.\n3. Competitive Analysis \nComplementing the market research idea above, it’s \nhelpful to understand your competition as deeply as \npossible. Who else is doing what you want to do? How are \nthey doing it? What opportunities are there for you to do it \nbetter? Understanding how your competition prices their \noffering, how they market, who they partner with, and how \nthey brand what they are doing provides you with solid \ninsight into how you can differentiate yourself. There are \na wide array of tools and services available to help with \ndetermining what your competition is doing, and where \nthey are spending their advertising dollars (which is the \nbest indicator of what they are truly focused on).\n4. Target Market \nKnowing who your potential fans are, and targeting your \nmarketing appropriately to reach those who are most \npredisposed to being open to your product is definitely \na best practice. Segmenting your market and identifying \nappropriate outlets and techniques to reach the right \nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n41FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGNfolks allows you to be more efficient with your marketing \neffort and associated spend, and have the added layer of \npotentially delighting prospective consumers, as opposed \nto annoying those who have no interest, and will likely \nnever have an interest, in what you are doing.\n5. Positioning \nOnce you have a handle on the market and on any \ncompetition, you can work on positioning your product \nor service. Creating a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) \nbased on opportunities you have discovered through \nyour research, or through surveying existing consumers \nof your product or service helps to guide your marketing \nmessages, images utilized, and overall strategy. Your \nmarketing positioning and associated outreach should \nalso include best practices with behavioral marketing \ntechniques. Consumers are motivated by any number of \nbiases (confirmation bias, outcome bias, zero-risk bias, \nand more). \nStrategy and Tactics \nAll of the above flows into creating your strategic and \ntactical marketing plan. Your strategy and tactics will \ninclude everything from the operational aspects (pricing, \necommerce and bundling options, website creation \nand visibility, etc.) to the platforms and methods you \nuse to communicate, your social media plan, your \nacquisition techniques, your image and copy choices, \ncontent marketing, partnerships, paid and organic search \ntechniques, and much more.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n42FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGNMike King is the author of several Berklee Online courses, including the Business of Music \nMarketing, part of Berklee Online’s Master of Arts in Music Business program. Before coming to \nBerklee, he served as the Marketing/Product Manager at Rykodisc and the Director of Marketing \nand Managing Editor of Herb Alpert’s online musician’s resource, ArtistsHouseMusic. He is also \nthe Vice President of Enrollment at Berklee College of Music and Chief Marketing Officer at \nBerklee Online.6. Budget \nHow much do you have, and what is the most appropriate \nway to spend? Online advertising provides marketers \nwith the ability to adjust campaigns midstream based on \nresults, and while it is important to align your marketing \nspend against specific goals, a marketing budget should \nbe flexible to support changes in the market, testing, and \noptimization of efforts.\nData and Analysis \nOne of the most critical aspects of marketing is to \neffectively measure your efforts. A proper approach to \ndata and associated analysis includes measuring the \neffectiveness of as many of your campaign ideas as \npossible, including the results of A/B testing taglines, \nimages, overall advertising campaigns; traffic to your \nwebsite, lead and registration activity, and tracking costs \nto your marketing efforts—cost per acquisition (CPA), cost \nper click (CPC), cost per lead (CPL), etc. Again, online \nendeavors provide marketers with a variety of tools to \nmeasure their effectiveness, and the cycle of marketing \nexecution  testing variables  measuring results is a \ngreat way to ensure that you are on track with reaching the \nright people and validating your marketing assumptions.\nMusic Business Degree Handbook\n43FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGNHow Berklee Online Works\nRenowned Faculty \nBerklee Online instructors have managed, \nproduced, and engineered hundreds \nof artists and records and have received \nnumerous industry awards and accolades. \nEach week you’ll have the opportunity \nto participate in a live chat with your \ninstructor and receive one-on-one \ninstruction and feedback on assignments.\nAward-Winning Courses\nInstantly access assignments, connect \nwith your instructor, or reach out to your \nclassmates in our award-winning online \nclassroom. Study from anywhere in the \nworld at a time that fits into your schedule.\nSpecialized Degree Program\nNo other accredited institution offers the \nacclaimed degree curriculum provided \nby Berklee Online. Earn your degree \nat less than half the cost of campus \ntuition and graduate with a professional \nportfolio that will prepare you for a \ncareer in the music industry.Like-Minded Classmates\nOffering courses for beginners and \naccomplished musicians alike, our \nstudent body comes from more than \n140 countries and includes high school \nstudents getting a jump-start on college, \nworking professionals, executives \nat industry-leading technology and \nbusiness firms, and members of \ninternationally known acts like Nine Inch \nNails and the Dave Matthews Band.\nExperienced Support\nEvery online student is assigned a \nBerklee-trained Academic Advisor. \nEach Advisor is passionate and \nknowledgeable about music and here \nto support you throughout your online \nlearning experience.\nTry a sample lesson for free at online.berklee.edu/sample-a-lessonQuestions abou t earning \nyour degree online?\nContact Us.\n \nMon- Thu, 9AM–8PM ET\nFri, 9AM–5P M ET\n \nCall or Text Us at\nUS: 1-866-BERKLEE \nInt’l: +1-617-747-2146\nadvisors@onli ne.berkl ee.edu\nonline.berkl ee.edu\n \n", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "business", + "data", + "degree", + "artist", + "revenue", + "handbook", + "industry", + "medium", + "visualization" + ], + "summary": "Digital HandbookMusic BusinessTable of Contents\nBerklee Online’s Music Business Offerings 5\nBuilding" + }, + { + "filename": "624984671-The-Innovative-Business-Model-of-Music-Industry.pdf", + "text": "3 \n The Innovative Business \nModel of Daft Punk \n3.1. Introduction \nMusic, much like other activities in the creative industries, has undergone \nprofound changes since the late 1990s with the transformation of physical \nmedia (such as compact discs or CDs) into digital media (in a specific format \nsuch as MP3) and the massive adoption of peer-to-peer download software \nsuch as Napster. Some actors have benefited from these developments, such \nas computer and MP3 player manufacturers (Apple with iPod and iTunes) or \nstreaming services (such as Spotify or YouTube), while others have \nexperienced an inexorable decline (physical media distributors such as \nVirgin Megastore in Europe or Tower Records in the USA) (Tellier 2017). \nThese technological innovations have made it possible to implement new \n“ways of doing business” in the music industry by promoting new offers and \ninnovative services through young companies (Moyon 2011). In \nmanagement terms, what a company offers, the customers it targets and the \nway it is organized and remunerated co nstitute its business model. While the \neffects of these technological innovations on business models have been \nwidely studied in management science research at the level of companies in \nthe sector such as music labels, little work has focused on those who create \nmusic: the artists. \nThe first electronic music group to win a Grammy Award in 2015 for best \nalbum, the French duo Daft Punk, composed of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-\n \nChapter written by Alexandre PERRIN . \nInnovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries ,\nFirst Edition . Edited by Estelle Pellegrin -Boucher Pierre Roy .\n© ISTE Ltd 2019. Published by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.56 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \nManuel de Homem Christo, is an innovative business player in the music \nindustry. However, the general public does not know much about these \nmusicians. Cultivating secrecy and medi a scarcity, since 2000, Daft Punk have \neffectively chosen to hide their faces and appear as robots, a decision that goes \nagainst the promotion strategies in forc e in this sector. This idea, borrowed \nfrom the main character of the film Phantom of the Paradise , is not new in the \nelectronic music scene, however, as Kraftwerk were pioneers in this field. The \ngroup’s innovative character is ther efore to be found elsewhere. \nIn this chapter, we show how since the beginning of their careers in 1993, \nthese creators have been in opposition to the dominant business model of the \nmusic industry. In section 3.2, we define more precisely the components of a \nbusiness model and then describe the model used in music (section 3.3). \nSubsequently, in section 3.4, we will de scribe the first attempts by artists to \nbreak the dominant model. Finally, we will focus on the specific case of Daft \nPunk and the electronic music segment to address the innovative nature of \nthe French group’s business model (section 3.6). The methodology, as well \nas the main lessons to be learned from th is dive into the “Daft Punk system”, \nwill be described in section 3.5. \n3.2. The definition of a business model \nA business model can be defined in diffe rent ways, which is why we have \nincluded in this article the summa ry proposed by the authors of Strategor \n(2016). They propose a business model composed of three elements: \n– a relevant and attractive value proposition for customers (a); \n– a valuable architecture (b); \n– a business value equation (c). \nThe first component of the business model focuses on the value \nproposition: what do I offer and for whom (a)? This offer may take the form of \na good, a service or both. It corresponds to a set of ch aracteristics that will be \noffered to customers in the hope that th ey will value them. This is why these \ncharacteristics (price, features, relate d services, brand image) are called the \n“value proposition”. Proposal s are made according to the buyers interested in \nthe offer: it can be free on one hand (e.g. Google and its sea rch engine can be \nfreely accessed by users) and profitable on the other hand (the massive number \nof free users allows Google to sell ad vertising space on th is free service). The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 57 \nThe second component focuses on the ability of companies to mobilize \nresources and skills (b). The value architecture corresponds to the \norganizational framework necessary to achieve this proposal. Some activities \nare carried out internally while others are carried out by service providers. \nDesigning such an architecture is like asking oneself the question “how”. \nOf course, the choices made by the company about what it proposes and \nhow this is organized are only judicious if they allow it to be profitable (c). \nThe cost structure and revenues generated are determined by the value \narchitecture and the value proposition. T hus, a model is coherent if all the \nelements that compose it create business value. Building this equation \nrequires answering the question “how much”. \nTable 3.1 summarizes the various issues related to the definition of a \nbusiness model. \nProposal Architecture Business equation \nCharacteristics of the \nservice or product offered Resources and skills \nmobilized Revenues generated and costs \ngenerated \nWhat do I offer? \nWho do I offer it to? What do I need to do \ninternally or to commission? How much and how are my \nprofits generated? \nTable 3.1. The dimensions of a business model \nMajor technological changes can lead to the development of new \nbusiness models and make old ones obsolete. Innovation can then focus on \nthe model itself. In order to understand the innovative nature of Daft Punk’s \nmodel, it is therefore necessary to explain the predominant/principal/ \ndominant model in the music industry. \n3.3. The business model of the music industry \nThe business model of the music industry constantly oscillates between \ntwo main activities: recorded music and live music. The revenues generated \nby one usually influence the other, since musicians usually produce a \nrecording to encourage listeners to come and see them in concert and vice \nversa. \nThe size of the global music market has been estimated at €56 billion for \n2016–2017 (Page 2018). The recorded musi c sector is estimated at around 58 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \n€26 billion overall (section 3.3.1). The co st of live music (concerts, festivals) \nis estimated at €30 billion (section 3.3. 2). We will then detail the current \nbusiness models (section 3.3.3) and present some examples of innovations \n(section 3.4). \n3.3.1. Recorded music \nTo understand the business model of musi c, it is essential to describe the \ndifferent rights holders involved in the creation of a recorded work. This \nincludes two types of intellectual property: one about the composition (score \nand lyrics) and one about the interpretation. Figure 3.1 provides a summary \nof this complex operation. \n \nFigure 3.1. How the music industry works \nAt the beginning, as with any artistic creation (a book, a painting, etc.), \nmusic is an idea. The composer will tr ansform this idea, this melody that \nruns through his or her head, into a c oncrete, real creation, either by writing \nnotes on a score, or by composing directly on an instrument or on a \ncomputer. The author is the person who will write lyrics for this musical \ncomposition, provided that it is a song. \nThe composer and the author are creators : they give birth in a concrete \nway to what was, before them, only an idea, they give it a precise and \npersonal form, and they must ensure its original character (under penalty of Public performance Funds Disseminate\nPromote Autho r \nCompose rPublishe r\nProduce rFunds\nHelp\nRecorded workReproduction on a mediumCollective management \nsocieties Collect rights\nSinge rThe Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 59 \nbeing accused of plagiarism). From a legal point of view, they are the \n“parents” of the musical work and that is why they have “rights” over their \ncreation: copyright. These authors also have a proprietary right to authorize \nthe exploitation of their works throug h their public performance (e.g. at a \npublic concert, in radio broadcasts, or when they are used in film music or \nadvertising) or their reproduction (on a medium such as CD, or on a \nstreaming platform). In return for th e use of their work, authors receive \nremuneration. The author may decide to entrust the management of their \nbusiness rights to a collective manageme nt society such as Sacem in France \nor Ascap in the USA. \nFrom a business point of view, music composition is therefore an activity \nlinked to music publishing and its economic impact is assessed nationally \nby performance royalty organizations, as their data is aggregated at the \nglobal level by CISAC ( Confédération internationale des sociétés d’auteurs \net compositeurs ). Composers or authors may receive payment of their \nroyalties directly from these organizations for an annual subscription. They \ncan also receive payments of their rights from their publisher. These \ncompanies, such as Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music or \nUniversal Music Publishing, finance (in advance) author/composer creation \nprojects and assist them in the administrative procedures for protecting their \nrights. Very often, the contract with the creator stipulates a 50/50 sharing of \nthe income generated by the intellect ual creation. In the long term, the \nobjective of these companies is to build a broad catalog of songs and lyrics \nthat can be used on as much media as possible or in public performances. In \nFrance, the number of employees in a music publishing house is mainly \nbetween one and ten (EY 2013). \nTo be broadcast, a musical work must be recorded. It is then said to be \n“fixed on a medium”. Recording the work is an important step because then \nthe music can be played – on the Internet, on the radio, sold in stores, etc. \nPerformers are required to record a musical work. They are the individuals \nwho play music (musicians, orchestras) and sing it. It is of course possible \nthat a performer may also be a songwri ter. Performing rights are additionally \nmanaged by producers (commonly known as music labels). Labels finance, \ndistribute and promote recorded music. A work is usually recorded either in \na “personal” studio (or home studio) or in a professi onal studio. In the latter \ncase, specialists such as sound engineer s are involved in the recording. Given \nthe costs and risks involved, record co mpanies obtain a subs tantial share of \nthe revenue generated by the use of this recording. For a music label, this 60 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \ninvolves signing an exclusive contract with artists. By financing the \nproduction of the music album through a lump sum advance, the company in \nturn ensures control over the paymen t of royalties and revenues generated \nduring concerts, the sale of merchandising products, etc. When this system \nworks, the biggest sales of a company finance more intimate or less popular \nrecordings, because the latter may beco me the cult records of the future. \nMusic labels are therefore responsible for promoting artists to radio \nstations, streaming platforms and social networks. In return, they create a \ncatalog of recordings (called masters or master tapes) that trigger the \npayment of reproduction rights for each use. In France, the three main labels \ncollect the rights to their recordings through the SCPP ( Société civile des \nproducteurs phonographiques ) while the independent labels collect them \nthrough the SPPF ( Société civile des producteurs de phonogrammes en \nFrance ). With the emergence of streaming, these labels have signed \nagreements with streaming companies (such as Spotify) to monetize their \ncatalog. Platforms pay advances to reco rd companies in order to use their \ncatalog. This process is revised upwar ds or downwards depending on the \ntitles the listeners of these platforms actually listen to. \nIn practice – and depending on the country–music publishing and sound \nrecording activities are grouped under the same legal entity. A simple search \nof the NAF code of companies regi stered with the code “5920Z Sound \nrecording and music publishing” includes Universal Music Publishing \n(publisher), Universal Music France (label) and Universal Production Music \nFrance (producer). Although these activities are separate due to the reasons \npreviously mentioned, these different entities are often subsidiaries or have \ncross-shareholdings in share capital. \nIn terms of economic weight in the sec tor, the activity of publishers and \ncreators represents 43% of recorded music, estimated at €26 billion \nworldwide. Music producers and labels therefore represent the majority \n(57%) of the revenues generated in the re corded music sector (see Table 3.2). \n 2016 2017 \nPublishing activity 2 billion (publishers) \n€8.3 billion (rights) 2 billion (publishers) \n€8.9 billion (rights) \nProduction activity €14 billion €14.8 billion \nTable 3.2. World market for recorded music (source: adapted from Page 2018) The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 61 \n3.3.2. Live music \nLive music encompasses all activities that allow a musician to play music \nin front of an audience in a specific location (a concert hall, bar/restaurant, \nfestival, etc.). This is called a public performance or show. For example, \nsix out of ten French people attend a concert or festival at least once a year. \nDespite a growing concentration within global companies such as Live \nNation, this sector remains very fragmented and very local. The usual \nprocess for a young musician is therefore to start by performing concerts in \ntheir neighborhood, city, or region and fi nally to be recognized at a national \nlevel. Each venue holding public concerts (or live music) must pay a license \nfee to the collecting societ ies. These charge around 10% of a festival’s total \nbudget or an annual sum depending on th e size of the venue. Recent audio \nsignature technologies allow these venues, if they wish, to identify in real \ntime the different tracks that are played by a group or a DJ. The \nremuneration system here is quite similar to that of recorded music, since \nfestivals or concert halls often pay musicians an advance. The most \nrenowned artists can also negotiate a pe rcentage of the income generated by \nthe tickets sold or on merchandising. Gi ven the high structural costs and low \noccupancy rate of some concert halls, it is in the interest of the business \nactors involved in the organization of a c oncert or festival (the promoter or \nowner of the concert hall) to build pa rtnerships with other business actors \nsuch as local authorities (city, region) or companies wishing to be associated \nwith the event in question (banks, textil e companies, media, technology, etc.). \n3.3.3. Current business models \nWe tend to forget that the original business model of music is indeed that \nof public representation: a musician, whether a composer or not, will give a \n“performance” in front of people who have gained entrance, for a fee, to live \nthis temporary experience. The first source of income for musicians, \ntherefore, is still the concert. Whether it is at a wedding, or a private or \npublic concert, musicians and performers derive most of their income from \nthe practice of music. Since songwr iters are not necessarily performers, \nrecorded music allows them to receive income from the use of their music. \nTherefore, for all the players in the sector, there is an essential link between \nthe revenues generated by concerts a nd those generated by listening to \nrecorded music. A group of musician s can use streaming platforms to \npromote a national or international t our, etc., and conversely a listener can \ndiscover a music group during a festival and listen to it on a private copy. 62 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \nIn detail, each player in the music industry (creator, publisher and \nproducer) is trying to build a business model that will allow them to solve \ntheir own equation between their costs and revenues. \n– Creators (composers and performers) produce music on scores or \nmusic composition software based on their own musical knowledge. Their \nmain difficulty lies in the need to fi nance this creative and complex activity \nbecause the income is, as the work is being created, to be received in the \nfuture. They, therefore, need a financia l advance that is most often paid by \npublishers or producers. \n– The publishers’ objective is to build a catal og of works that is broad \nenough and rich enough to be of interest to users such as advertisers, \ntelevision or film studios, etc. Their equation is based on a type of risk taking \n(investment in an artistic creation) whose future revenues will be generated \nby repeated use on media as diverse as video games or television series. \n– Producers develop content that requires distribution on a medium that \nis adopted by the majority of the public. The latter can then use an MP3 \nplayer, mobile phone or CD player. Producers must therefore work with the \nmost widespread distributors in a specific area. The producer’s risk taking is \nthus based on the investment, support and promotion of a performer. It is \nthen said that the producer “signs” an artist to receive future income. As \nrisk-taking is becoming increasingly unpredictable, producers have made it \nmandatory to sign so-called “360 degree” contracts including recorded music \nrevenues and concert, merchandising or neighboring rights revenues. Table 3.3 \nsummarizes the business models in use in the music industry. \n Proposal Architecture Economic equation \nCreator Artistic creation \nprojects on a score or \non software. – Ability to create \nintellectually. \n– Lack of financial \nresources. Receives income but \nshares rights if there is \na financial advance. \nPublisher Obtaining a catalog \nand disseminating an \nartistic creation on any \nmedium. – Collects the income \nfrom the catalog. \n– Needs to have a \nquality catalog. Collects revenue if the \ncatalog is used on any \nmedium. \nProducer Recording and \npromoting an artistic \ncreation on a medium. – Invests in recorded \nmedia. \n– Need to diversify \ninvestments. Funds and promotes \nrecorded music by \ncollecting artists’ \nrights. \nTable 3.3. Business model of the music industry The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 63 \n3.4. First historical attempts to break the model \nNoting the abuses and inadequacies of so me actors in the sector to adapt \nto technological changes or, more simply, responding to the evolution of \ntheir own audience, musicians have been the first actors of innovations on \nthe business model. \n3.4.1. Attempts concerning value propositions \nThe first attempt of an author to modify the offer most certainly dates \nback to James Brown and his album Live at the Apollo (1963). As Albéric \nTellier (2017, p. 25) reminds us: “At th at time, live records were still very \nrare, but James Brown wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ray Charles, who \nhad become a huge star thanks to such a recording published in 1959.” Faced \nwith the reluctance of his record co mpany, King Records, for which the \nbusiness model was based on the creation of singles recorded in the studio, a \nlive album was unlikely to be as successful as expected. Moreover, this type \nof recording went against the classical model: if the public bought such a \nrecord, why would they continue to co me to concerts? Unlike Ray Charles, \nwho was supported by his record company, James Brown financed his \nrecording himself: \nHe personally invested $5,700 (about $70,000 today) to rent the \nequipment and the concert hall he had chosen, the Apollo \nTheatre in New York. Once the recording was finished, James \nBrown tried to convince Syd Nathan, the boss of King Records, \nto buy the tapes from him and publish the album. (Tellier 2017, \np. 25) \nThe success was colossal since the album remained 66 weeks in the \nAmerican charts. Live at the Apollo is now ranked 25th in the Rolling \nStone ’s ranking of the “500 Best Albums of All Time” In this example, the \ncreator (James Brown) ran the risk of financing the recording project of his \nconcert. Usually, this risk is assume d by the producer, in return for a \nmajority share of the income in their favor. \nAnother interesting attempt in history concerns the group Radiohead. In \n2007, the English group distributed its new album, In Rainbows , only for \ndownload and offered Internet users the possibility of setting their own price. \nThe context here is different from th e one experienced by James Brown, 64 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \nsince the innovative proposal here concerns the dissemination of the \nrecorded work (and not the cost of its recording). In 2007, recorded music \nwas still mainly consumed on a physi cal medium. Customers with personal \nmusic players then mainly used illegal download sites (such as Napster or \nKazaa) or legal sites (such as iTunes). In the latter case, the industry price \nwas $0.99 for a title (or single) and $9.99 for an album. Therefore, offering \nan album for free was revolutionary (Elberse 2008). In fact, downloading the \nalbum was not totally free of charge since a price of $0.90 had to be paid as \na technical fee. But at the same time, the band distributed a deluxe $80 box \nset including two CDs (with exclusive songs), a vinyl record, an art book and \na download code for the album. Like James Brown, it was Radiohead that \nshouldered the risk by financing the cr eation of this deluxe box set. Having \nended their relationship with the label EMI in 2003, the group indeed \nachieved total financial and creative independence. With this original \nproposal, creators can therefore capture the total value produced by the sales \nof their recorded music. \n3.4.2. Attempts concerning value architectures \nThe decision to sign with a record company or to remain an independent \nplayer is certainly the most strategic issue for a creator. To the rhetorical \nquestion “what is in my best interest to do?”, many artists answered \n“everything” since they prefer to focu s on composition or interpretation. But \nby receiving a financial advance or simply by outsourcing certain \ninvestments, artists will reduce the share of their future revenues and, more \noften than not, transfer the intell ectual property of their works to the \nproducer of the container. As musician Moby sums it up: “It’s as if you go to \na bank, they give you a loan to buy a house and at the end of the loan that \nyou have repaid, with interest , the bank owns your house!” \nThe financial and legal independence of artists is therefore essential for \nthem to maintain control over their creation and income. This is why a \ngrowing number of artists have chosen to create a legal entity such as a \nsingle-person company or a limited liability company. Examples include \nMadonna, Michael Jackson or more recently Jay-Z, who have respectively \nbecome producers (Maverick Records fo r Madonna), investors in publishing \n(the Beatles catalog in the case of Michael Jackson) or investors in music \ndistribution platforms (Tidal in the case of Jay-Z). The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 65 \n3.4.3. Attempts concerning business equations \nTurning fans into subscribers is certa inly the most interesting proposal for \nan artist in search of financial resources. In 2000, the singer Prince offered \nhis fans exclusive information, con cert tickets, invitations to sessions and \nunpublished songs to download in exchange for a monthly subscription. \nMore recently, and shockingly, in the history of music, the band Vulfpeck \nasked their fans to stream an album with no sound on Spotify to collect \nrights to finance a tour. They therefore used their own music catalog to \nfinance their tour, without the financial support of a promoter. \nCrowdfunding platforms (or participatory funding) have also been a \nresponse to the problem of the artists’ financial independence. By allowing \nfans to make monthly financial contri butions (as is the case on the Patreon \nplatform) or investments in a catalog (MyMajorCompany), or simply to \nreceive a future signed album or a private concert (PledgeMusic), these \nplatforms allow artists to receive financial advances without sacrificing their \nfuture revenues. They remain masters of their artistic creation. \nThis section aimed to define the business models in place in the music \nindustry and to identify the various i ssues and innovation attempts by artists \nwho have acted as entrepreneurs in the industry’s eyes. Let’s now look at the \nspecific case of the French group Daft Punk. \n3.5. Methodology \nThe methodology used involved a case study. Data collection was based \non financial documents (balance sheets available on the Internet) and a \nliterature review on the group Daft Punk. Given the difficulty of assembling \nprimary data, we have opted for this method, which allowed us to access not \nonly financial information accessible from the beginning of their careers, but \nalso to “reconstruct” all the decisions taken by the group, bearing in mind \nthat these decisions are recorded in the accounting documents. \nWe have therefore downloaded the accounting documents of the business \nentities attached to the Daft Punk group, namely: \n– Daft Trax S.A.R.L. (France). Created on August 21, 1996 under the \nFrench sectoral code “Enregistrement sonore et édition musicale (5920Z)”, it \n 66 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \naims to finance the group’s activities, collect their rights and carry out \nfinancial transactions with the English en tity described below. It is the music \nlabel and publishing house of Daft Punk. Its shareholder base consists of two \nrepresentatives: Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Homem de Manuel Christo. The \nfinancial documents of this company ar e available on the Infogreffe website \nfor a fee. However, the announcements published on the Bodacc (Official \nBulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements) make it possible to \nretrieve some partial data; \n– Daft Life Ltd (England). Created on June 20, 1997 under the sector \ncode “Artistic creation (SIC 90030)”, this company aims to collect the \ngroup’s revenues from recorded music. It was created on the same date on \nwhich the license agreement for the group’s first album, Homework , was \nsigned with Virgin Music. The financial documents of this company can be \nfreely accessed on the website of the Companies House Financial Authority \nin Great Britain from 1997 until the present day. Table 3.6 in the Appendices \n(section 3.8), presents the result of this reconstruction; \n– Daft Arts Inc. (United States). This audiovisual production company \nwas created on January 18, 2005 by Cédric Hervet and Paul Hahn. Hervet \nhas been editor and creative director of Daft Punk for 15 years and co-\nproducer of Interstella 5555 and Electroma . Hahn is a producer and manager \nof the group in the United States. This entity made it possible to finance \nvideo clips and the feature film, Daft Punk’s Electroma , a visual and musical \nodyssey that follows the story of two r obots in their quest to become human. \nThe company was dissolved on June 27, 2018. Daft Arts was based at the \nJim Henson Production Studios in Los Angeles, a company known for its \nfamily audiovisual productions, and more specifically for the Muppet Show . \nThe reconstitution of the group’s financial situation between 1997 and \n2017 therefore allows us to “follow” the financial flows between the \ndifferent entities. For the year 2017, the financial results of each entity have \nbeen simplified in Table 3.4. \nYear 2017 Daft Trax SARL Daft Life Ltd Daft Arts Inc \nRevenues from operations €1, 918,342 £1,066,884 NC \nNet income (loss) €383,147 £16,005 NC \nTable 3.4. Daft Punk Group's financial results for 2017 The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 67 \n3.6. Daft Punk: an innovative model in electronic music \nIn the following table you can view the impact the innovations made by \nDaft Punk in the context of electronic music have influenced other artists. \nEach of the dimensions will be detailed. \n Proposal Architecture Business \nequation \nDescription Offer a finished \nproduct from a home \nstudio. \nUse record companies \nonly for promotion \nand distribution. Control of financial \nresources and \nintellectual property. \nTax optimization \nbetween legal entities \nbased in different \ncountries. Share revenues \nunder a temporary \nlicense \nagreement. \nReinvest the \nprofits in \nspectacular \nconcerts. \nInfluenced \nartists DJ Hip-hop artists EDM (Skrillex) \nTable 3.5. Innovations in the business mode l and influence on other artists \n3.6.1. Innovation concerning the value proposition \nElectronic music has offered a new opportunity for artists. For Violaine \nSchütz, its birth in France (and more generally the French Touch ) resulted \nfrom importing English warehouse parties in the early 1990s: \nThe hits of the time were created at home, in the bedroom, in \nthe home studio, with brand new machines such as sequencers, \nsamplers, turntables... and were produced by small independent \nlabels like Solid, the record company launched by Étienne De \nCrécy. The songs were then often tested in the evenings by the \nartists themselves who were also DJs. The traditional pattern of \nmusic production was then short-circuited. Many young people \nsold their guitars and discovered the joys of electronic \nequipment and the freedom it implied. (Schütz 2014, p. 34) \nThis is exactly what three young musicians, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-\nManuel de Homem-Christo, and Lauren t Brancowitz (who left the group to \nfound Phoenix), did in 1992. They launched the rock band Darlin’ by 68 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \ncovering Beach Boys songs and some co mpositions. But they soon realized \nthat this style of music was no longer in fashion and they turned to techno at \nan evening organized at the Beaubour g Museum in Paris: “During this \nevening we discovered an underground music that made people dance... \nwhen they didn't know the songs played by the DJ. We played rock and \nnobody danced!” says Thomas Bangalter in the documentary Daft Punk \nUnchained (2015). \nBut making electronic music is expensive, even if at the time it seemed \neasier for trainee producers to write electronic music songs instead of pop or \njazz. In the early 1990s, it was nece ssary to spend about 500,000 F (about \n€80,000, about €120,000, excluding inflation) to build a little French touch \nstudio, including all the necessary mu sic software (like Cubase) (Schütz \n2014). Thanks to their savings and th e support of their families (Thomas \nBangalter’s father was a former disco music producer), Daft Punk equipped \nthemselves with the best computers and synthesizers of the time and set up \ntheir home studio to start writing their first album, entitled Homework (in \nreference to their home studio). \nInnovation here involved integrating the production costs of music \nrecorded by artists. However, these co sts were reduced by the absence of \nrental fees for a professional recording studio. These two young musicians \nthen learned their trade from a sound e ngineer. They mixed, sampled, cut, \nand modulated sounds. They started performing live as DJs at a very early \nage and showed a certain talent in handling mixing boards. All the record \ncompanies of the time then wanted to sign the band exclusively. \n3.6.2. Innovation concerning value architecture \nOn October 16, 1997, Daft Punk signed a deal that is a landmark in the \nhistory of music. In agreement with the English label Virgin Music, they \nkept all the intellectual property rights of their catalog but granted the record \ncompany an exclusive distribution of the Homework album for a period of \n10 years. By offering record companies an (excellent) finished product, the \nFrench duo reversed the balance of power. Without the need for a financial \nadvance, they used the record compa ny to promote their record and not to \nfinance it. In fact, they signed with the company that gave them the most \nartistic flexibility (Schütz 2014). This a pproach was later taken up by many \nartists, DJs and rappers, as s hown by the editor-in-chief of Les Inrockuptibles , \nJean-Daniel Beauvallet, in the documentary Daft Punk Unchained : The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 69 \nFor me, this is the biggest hold-up in the history of the music \nindustry! Their business model has been very clear from the \nbeginning: Daft Punk want total control over their artistic \nproduction but also over their brand and communication. They \nmanaged to impose this on record companies because they didn’t \nneed an advance. Most of the American hip-hop stars of that time \nreferred to Daft Punk when they signed with the big labels. \nThe French duo had perfectly prepared this agreement by creating two \nlegal entities: one in France (Daft Trax SARL) and one in England (Daft \nLife Limited). The two members of the group are equal shareholders. The \ninnovation operated by Daft Punk is found here in a global vision of the \nmanagement of their contracts and in an “optimized” use (in the legal and \ntax sense) of these entities. For exampl e, 2001 shows funding of £1,476,358 \n(see Table 3.6). It can be hypothesized (because we do not have access to the \ndetails of each account line) that these ar e the costs charged for the recording \nof the Discovery album. Figures 3.2 and 3.3 show the amount of cash \navailable for the English entity. We can quantify the success of their latest \nalbum Random Access Memory here, since the level of available cash \nincreases from £700,209 to £7,152,272. \nCash flows in the form of inter-company loans (between Daft Trax SARL \nand Daft Life Limited) can also be observed in the financial documents. \nFigure 3.4 illustrates these movements: the French entity “lends” £197,606 \nto the English entity. The latter paid in the same year a salary of £1,200,229 \nto Guy and of £1,512,578 to Thomas. By creating their own label and \npublishing house between France and England (the American entity being \ndissolved to date), the group has been able to optimize their tax situation. \nIndeed, interbank loans between subsid iaries are a technique well known to \ntax practitioners to increase revenues (a nd conversely to lower expenses) in \ncountries where the tax on commercial prof its is lower. This tax architecture \nwas relatively sophisticated in the music industry at that time. \n3.6.3. Innovation concerning the business equation \nOptimizing the group’s financ ial sustainability has b een Daft Punk’s real \nobsession. Without this financial au tonomy, the duo knows that the music \nindustry does not allow for artistic auto nomy. Labels or investors want to \nhave a right of control over creators in order to limit risks. On the contrary, \neach Daft Punk project (see Box 3.1 fo r the complete list) – the documentary 70 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \nD.A.F.T , the film Electroma or the cartoon Interstella 555 – is self-financed \nby one of the three legal entities owned by the group. This risk-taking led \nthem to a critical financial situation in 2006 (see Figure 3.4) due to the \nrelative failure of their third album ( Human After All ) and the high cost of \nElectroma and Interstella 555 . That same year, they launched their major \nworld tour and played a poker game w ith the organizers of the biggest \nAmerican music f estival: Coachella. The group asked for a $300,000 advance \nto finance a pharaonic project: a giant LED pyramid that would surround the \ntwo members of the group on stage. Th e result was extrem ely spectacular, \nand this concert left a lasting impression, so much so that the American \nmagazine L.A. Weekly ranked it as the best concert of all time at the festival. \nUnlike the general patterns on the electronic scene, Daft Punk chose to \nreduce the number of concerts on their tour. The innovation here involved \nbuilding the group’s business equation by self-financing each project and \nbetting significant sums on a few key con certs. This strategy was later taken \nup by the American DJ and composer Skrillex (he even admitted to having \nbeen present in the audience at Coache lla in 2006). By handling rare public \nappearances and record releases produced with the greatest care, the Daft \nPunk duo has built an innovative and sustainable business model. Each of \ntheir public appearances makes the performance unique. Each of these \nmoments makes their collaboration with other artists (Pharell Williams, \nChilly Gonzales, etc.) even more precious. Daft Punk has become a French \nluxury product. \n3.7. Conclusion \nDaft Punk’s success has been built arou nd four key principles that break \nthe rules of the music industry: a) do things your own way; b) present \nfinished products; c) finance your own work; d) keep it under control. \nYoung singer-songwriters like Jacob Whitesides have scrupulously \nfollowed these four aspects. Whitesides owns his own publishing and \nrecording house, Double U Records, retains all future rights to his music \nrevenues and uses the BMG label to disseminate his music on all possible \nchannels worldwide. Unlike Daft Punk, he built his success by involving his \nfans on social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram. The latter \nnow appears as an external validator of an artist’s talent in the eyes of record \ncompanies. On the contrary, Daft Pu nk have cultivated media scarcity and \nhave no account on social networks. We \nexercis e\nmanag e\ndissemi\nprovide\ncopyrig\nbodies. \nthe fin a\nstakeho\n2018, i s\nthe pa y\ncompa n\nPunk o r\nthe hea r\n3.8. A p\nFigure \ncan conclu d\ne control ov e\nement of t h\nnated. Com p\nr for song w\nht outside t h\nWe conside r\nancial indepe\nlders. The n e\ns in line wit h\nyment of th e\nnies will re m\nr Jacob Whi t\nrt of the mus\nppendices \n3.2. An exam p\nas a\nde this chap t\ner works if \nhe process \npanies suc h\nwriters, that \nhe national t\nr that this ty p\nndence of c r\new Europea n\nh this. Howe v\ne economic \nmain in cont r\ntesides to re v\nic industry. H\nple of the acc o\nat June 30, 2 0\nThe Inno v\nter with thi s\nthis is acco m\nby which \nh as Kobalt \nis, to col l\nterritory an d\npe of offer m\nreators and a\nn copyright l\nver, without \nrights of c\nrol of the g a\nverse the pr o\nHuman, afte r\n \nounts analyz e\n017 (source: C\nvative Busines s\ns observatio n\nmpanied by \ntheir wor k\noffer to a c\nlect neighb o\nd outside co l\nmakes it poss i\na fair remun e\nlegislation, a\ntechnologic a\ncreators an d\name. It is u p\nocess and p u\nr all.... \ned: Daft Life L i\nCompanies H o\ns Model of Daft \nn: creators c\na rigorous f\nks are crea\nct only as a\noring rights,\nllective ma n\nible to main t\neration of th e\ndopted in S e\nal tools that \nd performer s\np to the fut u\nut the creato r\nimited’s balan\nouse) \nPunk 71 \ncan only \nfinancial \nated and \na service \n that is \nnagement \ntain both \ne various \neptember \nsimplify \ns, record \nure Daft \nr back at \n \nce sheet \n72 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \nYear (account as 30th of June) 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017\nTurnover 897,952 £ 828,995 £ 514,662 £ 1,270,170£ 2,898,413£ 2,638,039£ 1,637,235£ 953,101 £ 899,953 £ 3,706,662£ \nCost of Sales 704,335 -£ 471,544 -£ 143,066 -£ 1,476,358 -£ 43,435 -£ 12,153 -£ 66,040 -£ \nGross Profit 193,617 £ 357,451 £ 371,596 £ 206,188 -£ 909,666 £ 887,800 £ 3,640,622£ \nAdministrative Expense 22,523 -£ 4,153 -£ 10,030 -£ 67,561 -£ 2,951,941 -£ 2,990,249 -£ 1,647,304 -£ 1,012,677 -£ 968,212 -£ 3,198,918 -£ \nOperating Profit 171,094 £ 353,298 £ 361,566 £ 273,749 -£ 53,528 -£ 352,210 -£ 10,069 -£ 103,011 -£ 80,412 -£ 441,704 £ \nInterest Receivable 1,477 £ 15,959 £ 36,565 £ 15,598 £ 24,739 £ 53,015 £ 78,131 £ 108,575 £ 105,596 £ 51,568 £ \nInterest Payable - £ - £ - £ 24 -£ - 104 -£ -\nProfit before Tax 172,571 £ 369,257 £ 398,131 £ 258,151 -£ 28,789 -£ 299,195 -£ 68,062 £ 5,564 £ 25,184 £ 493,272 £ \nTax on Ordinary Activity 51,318 -£ 113,096 -£ 118,731 -£ 91,123 £ - - £ 11,881 -£ 1,467 -£ 1,584 -£ 150,707 -£ \nRetained Profit for the Period 121,253 £ 256,161 £ 279,400 £ 167,028 -£ 28,789 -£ 299,195 -£ 56,181 £ 4,097 £ 23,600 £ 342,565 £ \nRetained Profit Brought Forward 121,253 £ 377,414 £ \nRetained Profit Carried Forward 377,414 £ 656,814 £ \nASSETS\nTangible 914 £ 10,239 £ 25,718 £ 195,857 £ 171,481 £ 144,030 £ 120,128 £ 106,168 £ 114,139 £ 136,997 £ 112,741 £ 93,426 £ 73,113 £ 85,904 £ 64,410 £ 57,837 £ 43,535 £ 91,008 £ 78,300 £ 58,881 £ \nCURRENT ASSETS\nStocks 81,724 £ 89,139 £ 89,144 £ 63,069 £ 50,591 £ 47,720 £ 47,720 £ - £ \nDebtors 122,617 £ 137,558 £ 233,759 £ 525,299 £ 415,263 £ 542,259 £ 343,325 £ 290,022 £ 583,112 £ 469,275 £ 177,873 £ 302,287 £ 61,219 £ 217,640 £ 220,837 £ 543,831 £ 410,872 £ 820,623 £ 519,525 £ 1,383,230£ \nCash at bank and in-hand 151,388 £ 670,426 £ 506,325 £ 5,343 £ 634,287 £ 2,464,243£ 3,243,450£ 3,155,127£ 1,968,875£ 1,245,802£ 2,327,510£ 2,115,759£ 1,639,887£ 965,074 £ 905,599 £ 700,209 £ 7,152,272£ 5,268,388£ 4,053,753£ 3,860,799£ \nTotal Current Assets 274,005 £ 807,984 £ 740,084 £ 530,642 £ 1,049,550£ 3,006,502£ 3,586,775£ 3,526,873£ 2,641,126£ 1,804,221£ 2,568,452£ 2,468,637£ 1,748,826£ 1,230,434£ 1,126,436£ 1,244,040£ 7,563,144£ 6,089,011£ 4,573,278£ 5,244,029£ \nCURRENT LIABILITIES\nBank loans and overdrafts 29,367 £ - 5,265 £ \nTaxation and social security 23,144 £ 111,240 £ 79,721 £ 9,089 £ 3,452 £ 14,678 £ 71,736 £ 107,868 £ \nOther Creditors 60,137 £ 5,935 £ 11,487 £ 737,539 £ 2,940,060£ 523,445 £ 343,318 £ 1,366,561£ \nTrade Creditors 70,285 £ 323,534 £ 17,680 £ 13,331 £ 45,247 £ 123,042 £ 135,124 £ 193,310 £ \nProvisions for liabilities and charges 1,959,438£ \nTotal Creditors 153,566 -£ 440,709 -£ 108,888 -£ 236,637 -£ 759,959 -£ 2,988,759 -£ 204,068 -£ 690,532 -£ 2,509,616 -£ 1,673,004 -£ 2,342,198 -£ 2,202,156 -£ 1,418,797 -£ 880,968 -£ 756,724 -£ 833,539 -£ 6,681,946 -£ 5,152,363 -£ 3,600,699 -£ 4,236,026-£ \nNet Current Assets 120,439 £ 367,275 £ 631,196 £ 294,005 £ 289,591 £ 17,743 £ 3,382,707£ 2,836,341£ 131,510 £ 131,217 £ 226,254 £ 266,481 £ 330,029 £ 349,466 £ 369,712 £ 410,501 £ 881,198 £ 936,648 £ 972,579 £ 1,008,003£ \nTOTAL NET ASSETS 121,353 £ 377,514 £ 656,914 £ 489,862 £ 461,072 £ 161,773 £ 3,502,835£ 2,942,509£ 245,649 £ 268,214 £ 338,995 £ 359,907 £ 403,142 £ 435,370 £ 434,122 £ 468,338 £ 924,733 £ 1,027,656£ 1,050,879£ 1,066,884£ \nPROVISIONS FOR LIABILITES AND CHARGES 3,284,882 -£ 2,720,460 -£ \nFINANCED BY\nCalled-up share capital 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ 100 £ \nProfit and Loss Account 121,253 £ 377,414 £ 656,814 £ 489,762 £ 461,072 £ 161,673 £ 217,853 £ 221,949 £ 245,549 £ 268,114 £ 338,895 £ 359,807 £ 403,042 £ 435,270 £ 434,022 £ 468,238 £ 924,633 £ 1,027,556£ 1,050,779£ 1,066,784£ \nShareholder Funds 121,353 £ 377,514 £ 656,914 £ 489,862 £ 461,172 £ 161,773 £ 217,953 £ 222,049 £ 245,649 £ 268,214 £ 338,995 £ 359,907 £ 403,142 £ 435,370 £ 434,122 £ 468,338 £ 924,733 £ 1,027,656£ 1,050,879£ 1,066,884£ \nTable 3.6. Reconstruction of Daft Life Limited’s balance sheets (1998–2017) in Excel (source: author) The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 73 \n \nFigure 3.3. Cash flow of Daft Life Limited (1998–2017) (source: author) \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n £-£1,000,000 £2,000,000 £3,000,000 £4,000,000 £5,000,000 £6,000,000 £7,000,000 £8,000,000 \n1998\n1999\n2000\n2001\n2002\n2003\n2004\n2005\n2006\n2007\n2008\n2009\n2010\n2011\n2012\n2013\n2014\n2015\n2016\n2017\n 9. Transactions with directors \nIncluded in other creditors is an amount of £1,200,229 (2002 £64,935) owed to Guy Manuel \nde Homen Christo, a director of the company. The transactions during th e year in the sum of \n£1,135,294 are related to monies paid to the artist. \nIncluded in other creditors is an amount of £1,512,678 (2002 £69,960) owed to Thomas \nBangalter, a director of the company. The tr ansactions during the year in the sum of \n£1,442,718 are related to monies paid to the artist. \n 10. Related party transactions \nIncluded in other debtors is the sum of £197,606 (2002 £244,839) owed by Daft Trax \nS.A.R.L., a company registered in France. This co mpany is related by virtue of the fact that \nthe directors of Daft Trax S.A.R.L. are also di rectors of Daft Life Limited. The transactions \nduring the year in the sum of £47,233 are relate d to third party costs incurred by Daft Life \nLimited, and funded by Daft Trax S.A.R.L. \nIncluded in other debtors is the sum of £Nil (2002 £11,384) owed to Daft Inc, a company \nincorporated in the United States of America. Th is company is related by virtue of the fact \nthat the directors of Daft Inc. are also director s of Daft Life Limited. The transactions during \nthe year in the sum of £1,347 are related to third party costs incurred by Daft Life Limited, \nand funded by Daft Inc. \nFigure 3.4. An example of the financial flows between Daft Trax SARL and Daft \nLife Limited for the year 2003 (source: adapted from Companies House) 74 Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries \n1992 : creation of the rock band Darlin’ in Paris. \nApril 11, 1994 : first single The New Wave under the name The Two Darlin. \n1995 : meeting with the manager, Pedro Winter. \nMay 25, 1996 : first single Da Funk under the name Daft Punk band. \nAugust 21, 1996 : Daft Trax SARL is founded in Paris. \nJanuary 17, 1997 : launch of the first album, Homework (Virgin Records). \nJune 20, 1997 : Daft Life Limited is created in London. \n1999 : creation of Daft, Inc. in Los Angeles (later Daft Arts, Inc.). \nNovember 1, 2000 : launch of the documentary D.A.F.T.: A Story About \nDogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes . \nMarch 12, 2001 : second album, Discovery (Virgin Records). \nOctober 1, 2001 : first live album, Alive 1997 (Virgin Records). \nMay 28, 2003 : Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem . \n2004 : the duo moves to Los Angeles. \nJanuary 18, 2005 : Daft Arts, Inc. is created in Los Angeles. \nMarch 14, 2005 : third album, Human After All (Virgin Records). \nApril 4, 2006 : first compilation, Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005 (Virgin Records). \nApril 29, 2006 : first concert at the Coachella Festival in California. \nNovember 16, 2007 : second live album, Alive 2007 (Virgin Records). \n2008 : Pedro Winter leaves his position as group manager. \nFebruary 8, 2009 : Daft Punk wins a Grammy Award for Alive 2007 and for \nits single Harder, Better... \nDecember 7, 2010 : soundtrack of the film Tron: Legacy (Walt Disney). \nMay 17, 2013 : fourth album, Random Access Memory (Colombia Records). \nJanuary 26, 2014 : Daft Punk wins five Grammy Awards including the \nalbum of the year. \nSeptember 22, 2016 : launch of the singles Starboy and I Feel It Coming \ncomposed for rapper The Weekend. \nBox 3.1. Chronology of the Daft Punk group (source: author) The Innovative Business Model of Daft Punk 75 \n3.9. References \nEY (2013). Panorama des industries culturelles et créatives . Ernst & Young, Paris. \nMartin-Delpierre, H. (2015). Daft Punk Unchained . BBC Worldwide. \nMoyon, É. (2011). Le changement du business model de l’entreprise : une étude des \nmajors de l’industrie phonographique (1998–2008). PhD thesis, IAE Lille. \nPage, W. (2018). How the global music copyright business grew by 1.5 Bn in 2016, \nMusic Business Worldwide [Online]. Available at: https://www.music business \nworldwide.com/how-the-global-music-copyright-business-grew-by-1-5bn-in-2016/. \n[Accessed September 2018]. \nSchütz, V. (2014). Daft Punk : Humains après tout . Camion Blanc, Rosières-en-\nHaye. \nTellier, A. (2017). Bonnes Vibrations . Éditions EMS, Caen. ", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "daft", + "business", + "model", + "punk", + "company", + "record", + "industry", + "group", + "artist" + ], + "summary": "3 \n The Innovative Business \nModel of Daft Punk \n3.1. Introduction \nMusic, much like other activiti" + }, + { + "filename": "140046243-BMI-Royalty-Information.pdf", + "text": "BMI ROYALTY INFORMATION\nEditor's Note: The following document was taken from the BMI\nWeb Site in March 2000. This information is updated periodically,\nand to be sure you have the latest updates, consult the online\nversion at: www.bmi.com/iama/songwriter/royalty/index.asp.\nAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved.\nUsed with permission.\nTable of Contents:\nGeneral Information\nU.S. Radio Royalties\nU.S. Television Royalties\nForeign Royalties\nCompulsory License Fees\nPay-per-view Services\nInternetCommercial Music Services\nLive Concert Royalties\nMiscellaneous Royalty Rules\nAffiliate Services\nContact InformationAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.General Information\nRegistering Your Works\nBMI enters work registrations into its databases from one of two sources, (1) a\nBMI song registration form (formerly known as a clearance form) provided\neither electronically or on paper, or (2) a cue sheet which details all music\nwritten specifically for a film or television show, or other audio-visual work,\ntypically prepared by the production company.\nAll songs must be submitted to BMI via a BMI registration form in order to\nreceive credit for certain types of performances (e.g., all radio, commercial\nmusic services, commercial jingles and promotional announcements, live pop\nand classical concerts and Internet). Separate registrations need not be supplied\nto BMI for individual music cues (dramatic underscore) used in audio-visual\nprograms. These will be automatically registered when the cue sheet is received\nand processed by BMI. You agree to notify BMI promptly if there are any errors\nor omissions contained in the registration information for your works or if the\ninformation, as it is set forth on the bmi.com website , is in any way inaccurate.\nA registration received from any songwriter, composer or publisher of a work\nwill suffice to credit all participants. If the publisher submits a registration, the\nwriter does not have to submit one as well, and vice-versa. However, we\nstrongly encourage each co-publisher of a work to submit its own song\nregistration form in order to assure that the work is entered into the publisher's\ncorrect BMI account. BMI will enter the work into its database for the shares\nand participants indicated on the first registration received. If a later registration\nis received for the same work which conflicts with the earlier registration, we\nwill notify the party submitting the later registration and request documentation\nor written confirmation from all affected participants before changing our\nrecords to reflect the different information indicated on the later registration.\nIn order for BMI to make payment on time for the public performance of your\nmusic, it is imperative that all registrations (both songs and cue sheets) be\nreceived as close to the performance date as possible. It is essential that you\nregister all of your works in order that BMI can provide information about your\nentire catalogue to foreign performing rights organizations, and so that BMI may\nquickly and easily identify foreign royalties received on your behalf. Late\nregistrations and cue sheets may cause royalties to be delayed and/or lost . It\nis your ultimate responsibility to make sure that works registrations and cue\nsheets are delivered to BMI in a timely fashion, even though you may rely upon\nothers to provide them to BMI in the normal course of business. Also, you must\naffiliate with BMI prior to the time of the performance of your music in order to\nreceive royalties. Late affiliations will cause royalties not to be paid.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Samples and Medleys\nBMI accepts for registration works which \"sample\" other works, provided all\nparties have agreed to the share percentages on the new work. These shares\ncannot exceed 200%. (See How Royalties are Divided .) The percentages must\nbe noted on the BMI registration form for the work and a copy of the sample\nlicense agreement must be provided to BMI upon request.\nStandard rates for a popular song will be paid. The same rules apply when two\nor more works are utilized in a single recording as a medley.\nAssignment of Works\nA BMI publisher may assign a work to another BMI publisher as of the calendar\nquarter in which BMI receives notice of the assignment. However, BMI will not\naccept such assignment until all outstanding financial obligations or liabilities to\nBMI of the assigning publisher are adjusted appropriately. An assignment or\ntransfer of control of an entire catalogue of works from one BMI publisher to\nanother in connection with a sale, merger or otherwise will be subject to all of\nthe terms and conditions of the agreement between BMI and the publisher\nwhose works are sought to be assigned or transferred.\nWithdrawal of Works\nA publisher who seeks to withdraw any of its works from its BMI catalogue\nother than on account of an assignment to another BMI publisher (see\nAssignment of Works ) may do so only as of the end of the current term of its\nagreement with BMI, upon notice to BMI by registered or certified mail not\nmore than six months or less than three months prior to the end of the current\nterm. However, no such withdrawal will be accepted until all outstanding\nfinancial obligations or liabilities to BMI of the publisher are adjusted\nappropriately. In addition, the withdrawal of any such work by the publisher will\nnot affect the right of BMI to continue to license the interest of any other\nparticipants in the work.\nInstrumental and Lyric Versions of the Same Work\nBMI cannot undertake to distinguish between lyric and instrumental\nperformances of a work unless the two versions bear different titles. If the lyric\nand instrumental versions are known by different titles, performances of the\ninstrumental version will be credited solely to the songwriter or composer and to\nthe publisher of the instrumental version unless BMI is notified by all parties\ninvolved of an agreement between them that the lyricist and the publisher of the\nlyric version are entitled to share in performance royalties of the instrumental\nversion. Where the lyric and instrumental versions are known by the same title,\nthe lyricist and the publisher of the lyric version will each be credited\nrespectively with 100% of the applicable writer and publisher shares for all\nperformances, unless BMI is notified by all participants of an agreementAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.between them that the lyricist and the publisher of the lyric version are to be\ncredited for a stated percentage of all performances.\nHow Royalities are Divided\nBMI considers payments to songwriters or composers and to publishers as a\nsingle unit equal to 200%. Where there is the usual division of performance\nroyalties between songwriters or composers and publishers, the total writers'\nshares will be 100% (half of the available 200%), and the total publishers' shares\nwill be the remaining 100%.\nPlease note the following rules with respect to the division of the 200% royalty:\n• The total publishers' shares may not exceed 100%.\n• If the agreement between the publishers and songwriters or composers\nprovides for the songwriters or composers to receive more than 100%,\nthe work should be registered with BMI indicating the percentages\nallocable to all songwriters or composers and all publishers so that the\ntotal is not more than 200%.\n• Where no performing rights (or only partial performing rights) have\nbeen assigned to a publisher, the songwriters or composers will receive\nthe entire 200% (or the balance of the entire 200%) in the same ratio as\ntheir respective writer shares. However, a songwriter or composer who\nhas assigned to a publisher all or part of his or her proportionate rights\nin the publisher's share shall not be entitled to receive any portion of\nthe remainder of the publisher's share allocable to his or her co-\nwriter(s).\nIf BMI is notified subsequent to the initial registration that rights have been\nassigned to a publisher, BMI will credit the publisher with the appropriate share\nfor performances beginning with the quarter in which such notice is received.\nNo Retroactive Adjustments Will Be Made.\n(Example: John and Mary wrote \"Their Song\" together. John signed a\nsongwriter agreement with Music Publisher. Mary did not. When the work is\nregistered with BMI, John will list his writer share as 50%, Mary will list her\nwriter share as 100% (50% for her co-writer interest and 50% for her\nunassigned publisher interest) and Music Publisher will list its publisher share\nas 50% (for the publisher's interest it obtained from John). If Mary later assigns\nher publisher interest to the same Music Publisher, Mary will notify BMI, her\nwriter share will be reduced to 50% and Music Publisher will be paid 100%\neffective in the quarter that BMI received Mary's notice.)\nWherever royalty rates are indicated in this booklet, the amount shown is\nthe 200% royalty. In the typical case where all songwriters or composersAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.have assigned their copyright in a work to publishers, half of the amount\nlisted is paid to the songwriters or composers and half to the publishers.\nBMI operates on a non-profit basis. All available income is distributed, except\nfor a modest reserve. BMI may, from time to time, voluntarily increase royalty\nrates.\nArrangements of Public Domain Works\nCopyrighted arrangements of works in the public domain (classical and popular)\nwill be credited at 20% of the otherwise applicable rate of payment for popular\nsongs for all performances, with the exception of the Live Classical Concert\ndistribution, where no payment is made for performances of arrangements of\npublic domain works.\nPayment for Uses in Unmonitored Areas\nBMI collects license fees from thousands of music users in addition to those\nlisted in this booklet. These \"general licensing\" music users include, but are not\nlimited to, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, sports arenas, theme parks, airlines,\njukeboxes and retail stores. If the administrative cost involved in collecting the\nperformance data for music used by these licensees is not economically feasible,\nBMI may choose an appropriate surrogate, such as radio or television\nperformances, for the distribution of the fees. In such a case, general licensing\nrevenue serves to increase the rates payable for other performance types which\nwe determine are representative of the universe of performances of music used\nin general licensing categories.\nBMI also reserves the right to use surrogates when accurate distribution data is\nunavailable. However, we strive to distribute license fees derived from specific\nusers of music to the songwriters, composers and publishers whose music is\nperformed by those users. At any time, we may add a distribution source that\nwas previously unmonitored, if accurate distribution data subsequently becomes\npractically available.\nNon-payment Sources\nNo payment is currently made for the following types of performances in\nelectronic media:\n• Cue, bridge or background music on radio\n• Partial performances of popular songs on radio\n• Station IDs in any medium\n• Promotional announcements on radio or local broadcast, cable or\nsatellite TV\nHowever, BMI may voluntarily introduce payments for these categories at any\ntime, at rates to be determined by BMI. Also note that, due to the cost ofAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.distributing negligible royalties, if the total amount of royalties earned from all\nsources in any distribution is less than $1.00, no payment will be made and no\nroyalty statement will be rendered for that distribution.\nFrequency of Royalty Payments\nBMI makes royalty distributions quarterly in January, April, July and October\nfor all sources discussed in this booklet, with the exception of Live Concerts, for\nwhich royalties are distributed semi-annually in April and October for Pop\nconcerts and annually in July for Classical concerts. We also may from time to\ntime make special distributions should circumstances warrant. The distribution\nschedule is subject to change at BMI's discretion.\nU.S. Radio Royalties\nU.S. Radio Feature Performances\nBMI considers a radio feature performance of a popular song to be one which\nlasts 90 seconds or more and which is the sole sound broadcast at the time of the\nperformance.\nBMI makes separate payment for four categories of radio feature performances,\nbased upon a sampling of stations licensed by BMI.\n• COMMERCIAL RADIO\n• CLASSICAL RADIO\n• COLLEGE RADIO\n• NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO\nCommercial Radio\nPayment is made for a local commercial radio performance based upon the\nlicense fee paid to BMI by the station broadcasting the performance. If the\nstation's BMI license fee is among the top 25% of license fees paid by radio\nstations in the previous year, each performance of a popular song on that station\nwill be paid no less than 12 cents total for all participants. For example, if there\nare two songwriters or composers and one publisher, each songwriter or\ncomposer will be paid at least 3 cents per performance, and the publisher will be\npaid a minimum of 6 cents per performance. If the station's BMI license fee is\namong the bottom 75% of license fees paid by radio stations in the previous\nyear, each performance of a popular song on that station will be paid at the rate\nof at least 6 cents total for all participants.\nExtended Works\nA work (other than a classical work) which exceeds 6 minutes as commercially\nrecorded will receive double credit for a full radio broadcast performance. TheAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.registration form submitted to BMI for such work should be accompanied by a\nletter noting the length of the recording and requesting the higher rate of\npayment.\nClassical Radio\nIf a local commercial radio feature performance is of a classical work, each\nperformance will be paid at the minimum rate of 32 cents per minute total for\nall participants on those stations in the top 25% of license fees, and no less than\n14 cents per minute total for all participants on those stations whose fees are in\nthe bottom 75%. A classical work is defined as a symphonic, chamber music,\nsolo or other work originally written for classical concert or opera performance.\nCollege Radio\nPayment is made for feature performances of a song on radio stations which are\naffiliated with colleges and universities at a minimum rate of 6 cents total for all\nparticipants.\nNational Public Radio\nThe royalty rate paid for performances on National Public Radio (NPR) is based\nupon the amount of license fees received by BMI from the Corporation for\nPublic Broadcasting (CPB), as compared to the total number of monitored\nperformances of BMI works on NPR stations. As a result, the royalty rate\nchanges each quarter, as a different number of performances is paid from the\namount of fees received.\nRadio Feature Performance Bonus Payment Rates\nA work which, as reflected by BMI's records, has had more than 25,000 logged\nU.S. feature broadcast radio performances and U.S. feature television\nperformances on broadcast and cable networks, PBS and certain distant-signal\nlocal television stations carried by cable systems ( superstations ) will be paid at\nthe bonus payment rates described below for subsequent U.S. feature broadcast\nperformances on radio, except college radio. These bonus payment rates are\nused instead of and not in addition to the minimum (base) payment rates\npreviously indicated.\nBonus payment rates are available to each songwriter or composer and to each\npublisher whose interest in a work is licensed by BMI during the period for\nwhich the bonus rate is applicable. A bonus payment rate for a work will be\ndetermined each quarter by analyzing both the historical cumulative feature\nperformances of that work (\"cumulative history\") and the feature performances\nof all works which were performed in that quarter. All feature performances of a\nwork monitored by BMI since January 1, 1960 are included in its cumulative\nhistory and include performances in the quarter for which the bonus payment\nrate is used.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.There are four levels at which a work will be paid at bonus rates:\nSuper (S) Bonus Payment Rates:\n4 times the base rate\nThose works with the highest cumulative history whose current quarter's\nperformances together constitute approximately 10% of the current quarter's\nradio feature performances of all BMI works.\nUpper Level (U) Bonus Payment Rate:\n2-1/2 times the base rate\nThose works with the next lower cumulative history whose current quarter's\nperformances together constitute approximately 15% of the current quarter's\nradio feature performances of all BMI works.\nMid-Level (M) Bonus Payment Rate :\n2 times the base rate\nThose works with the next lower cumulative history whose current quarter's\nperformances together constitute approximately 25% of the current quarter's\nradio feature performances of all BMI works.\nEntry-Level (E) Bonus Payment Rate:\n1-1/2 times the base rate\nAll other works with a cumulative history of 25,000 or more performances.\nU.S. Television Royalties\nTypes of Performances\nBMI categorizes broadcast television and cable television performances as listed\nbelow and derives the usage information from music cue sheets and\nperformance information provided to BMI by BMI television licensees, the TV\nData Corporation, and other qualified sources.\nFeature Performance\nA performance of a work which is the focus of audience attention at the time of\nthe broadcast. These works properly are noted on the music cue sheet with one\nof the following codes:\n• Visual Vocal (VV) - to be used when the vocalist is on camera singing\nthe song\n• Visual Instrumental (VI) - to be used when the instrumentalist is on\ncamera performing the songAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.• Background Vocal (BV) - when the song is audible to the listening\naudience, even though there may be some dialogue in the foreground of\nthe scene\nBackground Performance\nA performance of a work (or works) used as dramatic underscore to a scene\nwhere the music is not the focus of audience attention yet nonetheless is used to\nset the mood of the scene. These usually are works commissioned especially for\na TV program or motion picture, or are library works selected by a program\nproducer in lieu of specially commissioned music. These works generally are of\na background instrumental nature and properly are noted on cue sheets with a\nuse code of \" BI.\"\nTheme Performance\nA performance of a work which is regularly associated with a television\nprogram and identifies that program to the viewer when used as the opening\nand/or closing music. Theme credit is given only when a work is used in\nmultiple episodes of a television program. Works, other than the theme as\ndescribed above, used at the opening and/or closing of an individual episode of a\nseries will be credited in accordance with their actual use (feature or\nbackground).\nLogo Performance\nA performance of music regularly accompanying the visual identification of a\nproduction company or program distributor.\nInfomercial Performance\nMusic performed in a short-form or long-form advertisement, the content of\nwhich often includes a product demonstration and invites direct consumer\nresponse.\nThe rates for feature, background, theme and logo performances are indicated on\nthe Network Television and Local Television rate tables below. Music\nperformed within infomercials will be paid at one-third of the otherwise\napplicable rate listed.\nPromotional Announcement and Commercial Jingle Performance\nA promotional announcement (promo) is an announcement that advertises an\nupcoming program on television or radio. The programming being promoted\nmust be aired on the same network or station as the promo itself.\nBMI pays for music used in promotional announcements aired on the ABC,\nCBS, Fox and NBC television networks. Payments are calculated based upon\nthe time of day of the performance, and the rate of payment varies from quarter\nto quarter depending upon the number of promotional announcements aired in aAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.given quarter. At this time, no payment is made for promotional announcements\non any other medium. A commercial jingle is a work (either pre-existing or\nspecifically written for an advertiser) used to advertise products and/or services\nfor sale on television and radio.\nPayment is made for feature performances of commercial jingles on broadcast\nand cable networks, local television and radio. Royalties are paid for\nbackground performances only on the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC television\nnetworks. In both cases, rates vary from quarter to quarter depending on the\nnumber of commercials aired in a given quarter.\nFor more information about rates and the documentation required to become\neligible for payment of Promo and Commercial Jingle royalties, please contact\nBMI's Commercial Jingle and Promo Department in New York by mail, or by\ntelephone at 212-830-2551 (Promos) or 212-830-8387 (Jingles), or by facsimile\nto 212-830-3865.\nNetwork Television\nBMI currently licenses the ABC, CBS, and NBC television networks under\nagreements where the fee to cover music used in network originating\nprogramming is paid for by the network instead of by the local TV station\ncarrying the program. Performances of music on these networks is listed\nseparately on your royalty statements.\nOther television \"networks,\" such as Fox, United Paramount Network (UPN)\nand Warner Brothers (The WB), are not currently licensed by BMI as networks.\nThe license fees associated with performances of music in the programming\ncarried by these networks are paid by the individual local stations broadcasting\nthe programs. For purposes of distinguishing these programs from other local\nand syndicated programs, BMI indicates the \"network\" origination on your\nroyalty statements, but the rates paid are lower than the rates paid for ABC, CBS\nand NBC performances.\nThe following page gives applicable rates for performances on licensed\nnetworks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and on Fox, UPN and The WB. When BMI\ncomputes royalties earned by a single performance, we multiply the indicated\nrates by the number of local stations carrying the network broadcast.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.ABC, CBS AND NBC NETWORK TELEVISION RATES\nPERFORM-\nANCE TYPEPRIME-\nTIME\n(7:00 PM-\n10:59 PM)LATE-\nNIGHT\n(11:00 PM-\n1:59 AM)OVER-\nNIGHT\n(2:00 AM-\n5:59 AM)MORNING/\nDAYTIME\n(6:00 AM-\n6:59 PM)\nFULL\nFEATURE\n(45 SECONDS\nOR MORE)*$11.50 $9.00 $5.00 $6.00\nTHEME\n(PER SHOW)$5.00 $2.00 $0.58 $1.00\nBACKGROUND\n(PER MINUTE)$1.10 $0.72 $0.52 $0.60\nLOGO\n(PER SHOW)$0.30 $0.24 $0.22 $0.28\n* Performances of less than 45 seconds are paid on a prorata basis.\nPAYMENTS FOR PERFORMANCES ON FOX, UPN AND THE WB ARE\nPAID AT 75% OF THE ABOVE APPLICABLE RATE.\nLocal Television\nCurrently BMI licenses over 1100 local television stations on a \"blanket\" or\n\"per-program\" basis. A blanket licensee pays a single fee that covers the\nperformance of any BMI-licensed work in the licensee's syndicated and locally-\noriginated programs (including those carrying Fox, UPN and The WB\nprogramming). A per-program licensee pays a fee to BMI only when there is\nBMI music used in films or other audio-visual works or on a syndicated or\nlocally originating program broadcast on the station, as well as for certain\nincidental and ambient uses of music.\nFor distribution purposes, BMI separates fees derived from blanket licensees\nand per-program licensees. Performances occurring on stations choosing a\nblanket license are paid in accordance with the Local Television rate table\nbelow. Performances of music on stations opting for a per-program license are\ncredited by calculating the fee associated with the individual program and\napplying the relationships between the various use types, i.e. feature, theme,\nbackground, etc. Fees collected from per-program stations are distributed only to\nthose songwriters, composers and publishers whose music is used on the\nprograms for which the fees are paid, less an administrative charge.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Local Television Rates\nPERFORMANCE TYPEDAYPART A\n(4:00 PM-10:59\nPM)DAYPART B\n(ALL OTHER\nTIMES)\nFULL FEATURE\n(45 SECONDS OR\nMORE)*$3.00 $1.50\nTHEME\n(PER SHOW)$1.60 $1.00\nBACKGROUND\n(PER MINUTE)$0.76 $0.42\nLOGO\n(PER SHOW)$0.18 $0.16\n* Performances of less than 45 seconds are paid on a prorata basis.\nPublic Television (PBS)\nBMI receives compulsory license fees for performances of music on public\nbroadcasting stations and distributes the fees derived from this source to those\nsongwriters, composers and publishers whose music is broadcast on public TV\nstations. Rates vary from quarter to quarter depending on the amount of the\nlicense fee collected and the base value of BMI performances tabulated during a\nquarter. The value of a performance on a PBS station could be higher or lower\nthan the Local Television Daypart A rates, depending on the factors noted\nabove. The methodology and relative weightings of the Local Television rates\nare used to begin the calculation.\nCable Television\nBMI collects license fees from both pay cable networks (e.g., HBO, Cinemax,\nShowtime, etc.) and basic cable networks ( e.g., MTV, USA Network, Lifetime,\nDiscovery Network, VH-1, TNN, etc.). Because the list of cable licensees\nchanges from quarter to quarter, they are not included in this booklet. Please\ncontact your local Writer/Publisher Relations office if you have a question about\nthe licensing status of a particular cable network.\nA census of programming information for cable TV is provided to BMI by\noutside sources such as the TV Data Corporation, and cue sheets for the\nprograms are collected from many sources, including, but not limited to, cable\nnetworks and program producers and distributors. Royalty rates are determined\neach quarter by applying the amount of license fees collected from each cable\nnetwork (less an administrative fee) against the payable performances occurring\non that network, using the methodology and relative weightings of the Local\nTelevision Daypart A rates as a starting point.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Foreign Royalties\nBMI has reciprocal agreements with performing rights organizations ( PROs)\nthroughout the world, which allow those PROs to license your works and collect\nfees on your behalf when your music is performed outside of the United States.\nThe foreign PROs calculate payments to BMI composers, songwriters and\npublishers in accordance with their own distribution rules and remit royalty\npayments to BMI for those songwriters, composers and publishers listed in an\ninternational index as being affiliated with BMI or whose works have been\nreported by BMI to these PROs. Foreign royalties are distributed quarterly by\nBMI after the deduction of an administrative handling fee, which, as of October,\n1998, is 3.6%, but which is subject to change at any time.\nWhen a royalty payment from a foreign PRO is designated for a specific BMI\nsongwriter, composer or publisher, BMI pays that affiliate directly if BMI's\nrecords confirm entitlement to that payment. There are, however, instances\nwhere, instead of an affiliate's name, only a song title, film title or TV show\nname is provided by the foreign PRO in conjunction with a lump sum royalty\npayment to BMI. In those instances, we must do more extensive research to\ndetermine the entitled parties and their percentage splits and make an allocation\nin accordance with the data contained in BMI's records. Sometimes, this causes\na minor delay in distributing the royalties.\nAlthough BMI has an extensive foreign royalty tracking system, we always\nwelcome information from you regarding foreign translations of song titles , film\nand TV show titles, and details regarding foreign sub-publishing agreements.\nYou should send this information to BMI International Administration in New\nYork, and the information will be noted in our database for tracking purposes.\nCompulsory License Fees\nApproximately once a year, BMI receives royalties from the U.S. Copyright\nOffice for BMI music performed on distant signal broadcast television stations\ncarried by cable television systems (e.g., superstation WGN-Chicago) and for\nmusic performed in broadcast television signals retransmitted by satellite\ncarriers. BMI distributes this money to those songwriters, composers and\npublishers whose music is contained in these broadcast signals.\nBMI additionally receives a modest amount of royalties from the compulsory\ncopyright royalty paid by manufacturers and distributors of audio home\nrecording devices and media. BMI distributes these royalties using a\ncombination of performance information and recorded music sales data.\nFor information on compulsory license fees received from National Public\nRadio and Public Television , please refer to those sections of this booklet.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Pay-Per-View Services\nAt any given time, BMI may have a license agreement with one or more pay-\nper-view services. When a license agreement is in effect and BMI receives\npayment from a pay-per-view licensee, royalty payments are distributed to those\nsongwriters, composers and music publishers whose music is aired on any\nindividual service, using a formula as described in the Cable Television section\nof this booklet.\nInternet\nBMI licenses certain Internet sites and is seeking to license many more. As this\nis a very new medium for licensing and distribution, policies still are being\nestablished as to how performances are to be tabulated and royalties are to be\ndistributed. To the extent that music usage information has been submitted to us,\nwe have distributed and will continue to distribute royalties for performances of\nyour music over the Internet on sites licensed by BMI. For further developments\nin this area, please contact your local Writer/Publisher Relations office.\nCommercial Music Services\nBMI distributes license fees collected from digital/cable music suppliers and\nbackground music suppliers (e.g., AEI, Muzak) when your musical works are\nused by these services. BMI uses performance information provided by the\naudio services to create a database of BMI-licensed works that are eligible to\nreceive a royalty payment. Since the number of BMI-licensed works, as well as\nthe amount of the license fees collected by BMI, changes from one distribution\nto another, the royalty rate for works performed on these services likewise varies\nwith each distribution.\nLive Concert Royalties\nPop Concerts\nBMI uses an independent source of pop concert information to create a database\nwhich is used to solicit concert set lists. We compile these responses and\ndetermine semi-annually which musical acts were among the 200 top-grossing\ntours. A royalty payment is calculated for each BMI-licensed work used in the\nheadliner's act in each of these top musical tour set lists. Since the number of\nBMI-licensed works changes from one semi-annual period to the next, as do the\nlicense fees collected by BMI from concert promoters and venues, the royalty\nrate for your works performed in live pop concerts also changes each period.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Classical Concerts\nBMI pays royalties for original classical works performed at live classical\nconcerts in the U.S. which are presented by entities licensed by BMI under\nclassical and symphonic licenses. Payment is based upon a census of all eligible\nconcert programs received from these licensees. The rates are determined\nannually based upon the fees received from classical licensing and the total\nnumber of BMI works performed.\nMiscellaneous Royalty Rules\nDirect Licensing of Works\nIf a songwriter, composer or publisher directly licenses to a user or source\nlicenses to a production company the right to perform one or more works, BMI\nmust be notified in writing within ten days of the issuance of the license or\nwithin three months of the performance, whichever comes first. In the event\nthat such notice is not timely given to BMI, the direct license shall be deemed\nnull and void.\nA copy of the license should be attached to the notification (with the amount\npaid for the license deleted, if desired). As license fees for direct or source\nlicensed performances cannot be collected by BMI, no royalties will be paid by\nBMI for these performances. If the direct or source license includes\nperformances for periods for which BMI has already paid royalties because we\nwere unaware that such a license had been issued, a debit will be made to the\nsongwriters' or composers' and the publishers' accounts with respect to such\nperformances.\nRoyalty Adjustments\nAll claims for adjustments to royalty distributions must be made in writing to\nyour local Writer/Publisher Relations office within nine months of the date of\nthe distribution seeking to be adjusted. Adjustments to royalties which were or\nshould have been paid more than nine months before notice of the claim is\nreceived by BMI will not be considered.\nBMI will prepare timely-requested adjustments to U.S. royalty distributions in\nthose situations where royalties were paid incorrectly, as long as the total\namount of the adjustment likely will exceed $25. If no payment was made\nbecause of missing/late cue sheets or work registrations, royalties will be paid\nbeginning with the first possible distribution after all documents are received\nand processed, provided that they are received within nine months after the\ndistribution in which royalties otherwise would have been paid had the\nnecessary documents been submitted to BMI in a timely fashion.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Because many foreign PROs have strict cutoff dates beyond which they will not\nconsider adjustment requests, all claims for foreign adjustments should be\nsubmitted in writing within nine months of the date of the foreign distribution in\nwhich royalties were incorrectly paid or expected royalties were missing, along\nwith detailed information about the incorrect or missing payments. BMI will\nresearch the matter and request an adjustment, where appropriate, from the\nforeign PRO, provided that the amount expected to be received from the foreign\nPRO will exceed $25. Any additional royalties received from the foreign PRO\nas a result of BMI's adjustment request will be remitted to you as part of the next\npossible distribution following receipt of the royalties by BMI.\nPayment From Another Organization\nIn the event that BMI has reason to believe that you will receive or are receiving\npayment from a performing rights organization other than BMI for or based\nupon United States performances of one or more works for a period when those\nworks were licensed by BMI for you, BMI shall have the right to withhold\npayment from you for such performances until BMI receives satisfactory\nevidence that you have not been paid or will not be paid by the other\norganization. In the event that you were or will be paid or do not supply such\nevidence within 18 months from the date of BMI's request, BMI shall be under\nno obligation to make any payment to you for performances of such works for\nthat period.\nAssignments of Royalties to Repay Loans\nBMI will recognize an assignment of your royalties to a lending institution or\nother person or entity who makes a bona fide loan of a specific sum of money to\nyou which is intended to be repaid, in whole or in part, from your BMI royalties.\nYou must be affiliated with BMI at the time that the assignment is made. In\naddition, a special loan assignment form, executed by both you and the lender,\nand acknowledged by BMI, must be completed and signed before BMI will pay\nyour royalties to the lender. Please contact your local Writer/Publisher Relations\noffice for the loan assignment form.\nRoyalties Withheld Due to Litigation\nIt is BMI's policy to withhold royalties earned by any works which are the\nsubject of litigation. Upon the written request of any affiliate whose royalties are\nbeing withheld, when accumulated royalties exceed $1,000, the royalties will be\ntransferred to an interest-bearing bank account, at money-market rates. All such\nprincipal and interest is remitted to the writer(s) and/or publisher(s) who are\ndetermined by final, unappealable decision, or by settlement between the\nlitigants, to be entitled to the funds, upon submission to BMI of a copy of the\nfinal court order or settlement documents.All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.In lieu of the withholding of royalties during litigation, BMI will accept a letter\nof direction, signed by all parties to the lawsuit, to pay the royalties to a third\nparty escrow agent as they become payable. In such case, the royalties will not\ngenerate interest through BMI.\nLegal Process Administration Charge\nDue to BMI's increased costs in handling legal process that is received against\ncertain affiliates, it has become necessary to institute an administration fee for\nsuch matters. Effective January 1, 1999, if BMI is served with a state or federal\ntax levy, restraining notice, order to withhold, judgment, child support order,\ndivorce decree, subpoena or the like against you which requires BMI to hold or\npay your royalties to another party who has a legal entitlement to them, or to\nprovide information or documents regarding your account, you will be assessed\na handling fee of $50 (or such lesser amount as may be required by the authority\nissuing the process). The $50 fee will be deducted from the next royalty\ndistribution of each affected account following adjustment of BMI's records to\nreflect the process, or following the transmittal of the information or documents.\nThe handling fee will be assessed for each new process received, except that you\nwill not be charged an additional fee if BMI receives updated process while\nprevious process for the same obligation is still in force according to BMI's\nrecords.\nStop Payments And Re-Issuance Of Royalty Checks\nAn oral request to BMI to stop payment of and reissue a royalty check will be\naccepted, but the request must be confirmed in writing and received by BMI\nwithin two days of the oral request. An administrative charge of $30 will be\ndeducted from the amount of the reissued check. Stop payment orders cannot be\naccepted, however, for royalties which have been directly deposited into the\npayee's bank account.\nAffiliate Services\nDirect Deposit of Royalties\nYour royalty payments can be deposited directly to your checking or savings\naccount. Contact your local Writer/Publisher Relations office for the necessary\nauthorization form, or download the form from BMI's web site, http://bmi.com .\nBank of America / BMI Loan Program\nFor many years, BMI has accepted loan assignments to the bank of your choice,\nso that you are able to borrow money against your future BMI royalties. We will\ncontinue to accept loan assignments to your chosen lender. (See Assignments\nof Royalties to Repay Loans .) However, for those affiliates who do not\nhave an established banking relationship that they wish to continue, BMI has\narranged with Bank of America, one of the country's leading financial\ninstitutions, to make loans against their BMI royalties. All loans are made at aAll content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.favorable rate of one percent above the prime rate, with only a $100 application\nfee. Also, processing of these loans is given priority by both Bank of America\nand BMI.\nIn order for you to be able to participate in this program, you must be an\naffliliated songwriter or composer, or sole proprietorship or sole stockholder\npublisher. Also, your average annual BMI royalty earnings for the past three\nyears must be more than $1,800 and your current royalties must be clear of any\nliens. If you qualify, Bank of America will lend you up to 70% of the amount\nthat BMI projects you will earn over the following two years, with a minimum\nloan amount of $2,500. To find out if you qualify for this program, contact your\nlocal Writer/Publisher Relations office. For details about loan procedures and\nrequirements or to obtain a loan application, contact Bank of America at 1-888-\n777-7354. Loan applications also can be downloaded from bmi.com.\nElectronic Transfer of Information\nBMI encourages the use of electronic transfer of information related to work\nregistrations, cue sheets, and affiliate receipt of royalty statements. The\nexchange of electronic information is based on established industry and specific\nBMI standards. Please contact your local Writer/Publisher Relations office for\nmore information to participate in any of these services, or check bmi.com for\nfuture developments.\nBMI.com\nBMI's website, bmi.com , contains many features that keep you posted on\nhappenings in the music business, new BMI services, legislation that affects\nyour royalties and copyrights, and other useful information. You can also review\nyour song registrations with BMI in the website's hyper-repertoire section. Visit\nthe site and bookmark it for future use. You'll be glad you did!All content ©2000 Broadcast Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.Contact Information\nIf you have any questions about any of the information in this booklet, please contact\nthe BMI office listed below which covers your state or location of residence or\nbusiness. A Writer/Publisher Relations executive will be happy to assist you.\nBMI London\n84 Harley House\nMarylebone Rd.\nLondon NW1 5HN England\n44-171-486-2036\nFax: 44-171-224-1046\nBMI Miami\n5201 Blue Lagoon Dr.\nSuite 310\nMiami, FL 33126\n305-266-3636\nFax: 305-266-2442\nBMI Miami will gladly assist\nour Spanish-speaking affiliates,\nwherever resident\nBMI New York\n320 W. 57th Street\nNew York, NY 10019\n212-586-2000\nFax: 212-245-8986\nAlaska\nAmerican Samoa\nConnecticut\nDelaware District of Columbia\nGuam Hawaii\nIllinois Indiana\nIowa Kansas\nMaine Maryland\nMassachusetts Michigan\nMinnesota Nebraska\nNew Hampshire New Jersey\nNew York North Dakota\nOhio Pennsylvania\nPuerto Rico Rhode Island\nSouth Dakota Vermont\nVirgin Islands WisconsinBMI Los Angeles\n8730 Sunset Blvd.\n3rd Floor West\nLos Angeles, CA 90069\n310-659-9109\nFax: 310-657-6947\nArizona\nCalifornia\nColorado\nIdaho\nMontana\nNevada\nNew Mexico\nOregon\nUtah\nWashington\nWyoming\nBMI Nashville\n10 Music Square E.\nNashville, TN 37203\n615-401-2000\nFax: 615-401-2707\nAlabama\nArkansas\nFlorida\nGeorgia\nKentucky\nLouisiana\nMississippi\nMissouri\nNorth Carolina\nOklahoma\nSouth Carolina\nTennessee\nTexas\nVirginia\nWest Virginia", + "keywords": [ + "bmi", + "performance", + "royalty", + "work", + "music", + "publisher", + "rate", + "payment", + "fee", + "license" + ], + "summary": "BMI ROYALTY INFORMATION\nEditor's Note: The following document was taken from the BMI\nWeb Site in Mar" + }, + { + "filename": "470815995-Business-model-types-associated-with-network-structure-changes-in-the-music-industry-pdf.pdf", + "text": "See discussions, st ats, and author pr ofiles f or this public ation at : https://www .researchgate.ne t/public ation/308265950\nBusiness model types associated with network structu re changes in the music\nindustry\nArticle    in  International Journal of Business Inno vation and R esearch · Dec ember 2016\nDOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2017.10003878\nCITATIONS\n0READS\n1,369\n1 author:\nDina Delly ana\nBandung Instit ute of T echnolog y\n10 PUBLICA TIONS    21 CITATIONS    \nSEE PROFILE\nAll c ontent f ollo wing this p age was uplo aded b y Dina Delly ana on 19 Sept ember 2016.\nThe user has r equest ed enhanc ement of the do wnlo aded file. \n \n \n \n \n \n Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. X, No. Y, xxxx 1 \n \n Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types as sociated with network \nstructure changes in the music industry \nDina Dellyana*, Togar M. Simatupang and \nWawan Dhewanto \nSchool of Business and Management, \nBandung Institute of Technology, \n10 Ganesha St., Bandung 40132, Indonesia Fax: +62-22-2504249 \nEmail: dina.dellyana@sbm-itb.ac.id \nEmail: togar@sbm-itb.ac.id Email: w_dhewanto@sbm-itb.ac.id *Corresponding author \nAbstract: The music industry is developing and starting to catch up after its \ndownturn in previous years. The number of actors is growing and coming up \nwith different new business models to creatively enter the new market and beat \ncompetitors. Unique offerings require new partnerships which change the \nnetwork structure in the business model. Many companies revise their business \nmodels as they deal with various actors with specific terms in constant change. \nPrevious research often captures a single actor’s business model and tends not \nto focus on providing the changing network structures in regards to the \ndifferent types of business models emerging in the industry. The research \nreported here was carried out to identify the relationship between the available \ntypes of business models and the changing relationship structures in the music \nindustry. The results show that changes in network structures correspond to different business model types in the case of Indonesian music industry. Further research is suggested to gain a better understanding of the implementation and evaluation of the business model types due to the changing network structures. \nKeywords: business model; network struct ure; music industry; creative \nindustry. \nReference to this paper should be made as follows: Dellyana, D., \nSimatupang, T.M. and Dhewanto, W. (xxxx) ‘Business model types associated \nwith network structure changes in the music industry’, Int. J. Business \nInnovation and Research , Vol. X, No. Y, pp.000–000. \nBiographical notes: Dina Dellyana is a Lecturer in entrepreneurship, business \nmodelling and creative business. Her cu rrent research focuses on business \nmodel innovation, SME development, business incubator, social media, \ne-commerce for SME’s, and music industry. \nTogar M. Simatupang is a Professor of Operations and Supply Chain \nManagement. He has extensively published in logistics, supply chain management, and entrepreneurship journals. He has been attributed Highly Commended Award by Emerald Literati Network for his research in supply chain management. His current research and teaching interests focus primarily on supply chain collaboration, operations management, logistics management, service science, and creative economy. \n \n \n \n \n \n 2 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Wawan Dhewanto is a Lecturer in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation \nmanagement, and family business. His research interests include technology \ncommercialisation, innovation cluster, and SME internationalisation. \n \n1 Introduction \nThe music industry is slowly gaining progress after the rough downturn in previous years. \nDigital sales grew by 4.3% in 2013 to US $5.9 billion. Notwithstanding the shift to digital products, physical music sales still dominate industry sales in many major markets, \naccounting for 51.4% of all global revenues compared to 56.1% in 2012. Current popular \nphysical formats include gifting and deluxe boxes, while at the same time vinyl continues to grow as a niche product (Smirke, 2014). \nThe music business keeps generating new business models and venturing into new \nmarkets, which brings artists to a broader global audience and draws in more users to advanced music services (Smirke, 2014). Most of the models are creating new channels, \nbroadening consumption tools, monetising prom otional tools, and providing a different \nmodel for music purchasing (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2014). Implementing these attempts are ol d players in the music industry who are \nrenewing their models or offerings, and actors that are new to the music business and \nwant to differentiate their offerings (Dobusch and Schüßler, 2014). Besides that, many actors are also varying the option digital music offering. One of the models consists of \noffering music streaming by applying subscription fees or letting consumers hear music \nfor free in exchange of allowing commercials between songs (Nguyen et al., 2014). \nAs a consequence of the expected broader music market, many new, more dynamic \nactors are emerging (Graham et al., 2004). They have different concerns and interests, \nwhich leads to different business model types and relationship structures for their business models. Although most research concerns business models in the music \nindustry, none of them covers available business model types in association with changes \nin relationship structures. Thus, this paper aims to provide an empirical study that shows the emergence of different business model types in responding to the changing network \nstructures. \nThis paper is structured as follows. First, the literature review is provided. Second, \nthe conceptual model of the business model and network of actors is described to guide \nthis research. Third, the research methodology is outlined. Fourth, the results of this \npaper comprising the network of actors, the available business model types and the changing relationship structures are delivered. Fifth, a discussion of the results is \nelaborated. Finally, the conclusion section summarises the main research findings. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 3 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 2 Literature review \nNumerous papers have investigated the emerging new business model types in the music \nindustry. To strengthen the value of new business models, a trustworthy partnership for certain evolving competences is needed (Pekkarinen et al., 2012; Palo and Tähtinen, \n2011). The new competence leads to new offerings and requires changes in previous \nactivity systems. Although the changes seem incremental, it could affect the whole business model and transform the old business model to a new one (Pekuri et al., 2014). \nSeveral new business models are emerging due to the rise of the digital music industry, \nvarious complementary products, and partnerships. \nResearch focusing in business models for digital music is on the rise. In his research, \nVaccaro and Cohn (2004) found that the peer-to-peer music file trading boom suggested \nthat legitimate online downloading services could be a better opportunity. Another online business models that are suggested are subscription systems model, music service \nprovider model, and super-distribution model, which usually embedded in online \ndownloading service (Buhse and Wetzel, 2003). The digital products offered in online business model include polyphonic ringtones, ring-back songs, true tone ringtones, \nfull-track music downloads and ubiquitous music (U-Music) (Lee, 2012; Levy and \nBosteels, 2010; Baym and Burnett, 2009; Lantos and Craton, 2012). The digital products offered in online business models could also expand to provide additional services in \naccessing mobile music (Buhse and Wetzel, 2003) such as offering the audience to make \nmix tapes with available sound samples (Muxtape) (Choi et al., 2009). Attempts in selling digital products could also extend to physical products, such as enhancing a CD’s content \nby adding lyrics, photos, protected links to online bonuses and releasing music DVDs \n(Curien and Moreau, 2005). \nGaining new revenue streams from various complementary music products and \nservices has become another option of the new business model. Examples of new revenue \nstreams include advertising, merchandise, producing and promoting collaborated works, movie scoring, newsletters, commercials and cell phone jingles, ancillary products and \npublication royalties in performers’ income (Koster, 2011; Connolly and Krueger, 2006; \nChoi et al., 2009; Bourreau et al., 2007). Executing vertical integration by providing services to distribute and selling music from external actors could also offer opportunities \nto add new streams of revenue (Kretschmer et al., 2001; Swatman et al., 2006). \nFurthermore, changing pricing models has become one of the prominent focuses in \nseveral new business models. Several occurring types adopt the creative commons \nconcept by offering music for free and gaining revenue from selling merchandise, \nconcerts and music tipping (Choi et al., 2009). These attempts are sometimes in line with the utilisation of net labels, where artists can promote and sell their digital music products \nby themselves (Bourreau et al., 2007). The price of products or services in online \nbusiness models can also vary based on usage rules, frequency of access, expiration dates and restriction of transfer to other devices (Liu et al., 2003). In addition, different prices \nfor users can be applied for each download, platform, and advertiser (Kretschmer et al., \n2001; Swatman et al., 2006). \nNew types of business models also emerge as a result from partnerships. A partner \nmust be trustworthy and two-way contracts should be provided (Pekkarinen et al., 2012). \nExamples of business model types include gaining license fees through partnerships with third parties that act as brokers for copyrights to the media (Kretschmer et al., 2001), \nselling digital music by e-commerce web stations established by internet in brick \n \n \n \n \n \n 4 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n and mortar physical stores (Koung and Wen, 2003; Choi et al., 2009), conducting direct \ndistribution and relationships between artists and consumers (Choi et al., 2009), and \nconducting intense relationships with radio or television stations to emphasise repeat \nvisits (Buhse and Wetzel, 2003). \nAlthough previous research already provided different types of business models \nresulting from partnership, few papers discussed the changing network structures in each \nbusiness model. For example, the network structure of internet and brick and mortar stores (Koung and Wen, 2003) and direct distribution (Choi et al., 2009), are two models \nwith different network structures that differ from traditional models. Understanding \nchanging network structures that would lead to emerging business models can help researchers predict upcoming network structure changes that can possibly result in new \nbusiness models. \n3 Conceptual model \nA conceptual model is provided to guide data collection and analysis. The main factors analysed in this research are network stru cture and business model. Network structure \ndetermines and utilises emerging business models. According to Bourreau et al. (2007), network structure consists of participating actors engaged with particular roles that can \nexchange ideas for creating different business model types. Network structure can be \ndefined as a set of actors (such as individuals, collectives, communities, enterprises, industries and governmental bodies) who perform interaction to co-create and apply \ncertain business models. A business model is defined as a rationale of how the \norganisation creates, delivers and captures value (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). \nIn line with the network theory, the main reasons for actors to participate in a network \nare to innovate new activity and acquire access to complementary assets and/or form a \ngovernance structure that reduces the costs or risks of innovative activity (Rasmussen, 2007). This acknowledges that the more a network performs, the more likely innovative \nideas will occur. In order to tap opportunities of collaboration and share fundamental \nadvantages, the benefits for the whole network must be examined when designing a business model (Zott and Amit, 2010). Since the relationship among participants often \nchanges, discovering the complicated relationships and positions of each participant must \nbe carried out and the innovation capability within the internal and external actors needs to be measured (Fu et al., 2006; Saunila et al., 2014). \n4 Research methodology \n4.1 Methods \nSince this research is focused on investigating phenomena within a real life context, a \nqualitative research approach was chosen (Yin, 2009). In order to obtain a dynamic \nperspective for the networks of actors and different business model types in the music industry, semi-structured interview techniques are utilised, which is usually chosen \nbecause it can encourage two-way communication, can confirm what is already known \nand provides an opportunity for learning. Besides, it also encourages the interviewee to \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 5 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n relate experiences and perspectives that are relevant to their problems of interest \n(Wahyuni, 2012). \nThis research selects Indonesia’s music industry as its case. Indonesia’s music \nindustry losses due to piracy have reached 4.5 trillion Rupiah per year (Purwanto, 2013). Music stores have also begun to close due to drastic decreases in album sales (Sinjal, \n2013). Besides record stores, ASIRI (Recording Industry Association of Indonesia) \nreports that the music labels that still remain consist of only 65 from the 240 companies listed. In his interviews with Rolling Stone Indonesia Magazine (2009), Rahayu \nKertawiguna, managing director of Nagaswara record company, argued that eventually \nrecording an album in a physical format is only valid as an accessory or for display, since selling albums in music stores now is very difficult. While they could previously sell as \nmany as 50,000 copies of each album through stores, at present the number has dropped \ndramatically to 2,000 or 3,000 units (Asmoro, 2014). The physical sales total for CDs in Indonesia only reached 7 million copies, which represents an almost 50% decline from \nthe previous year (Amal and Alla, 2014). However, the growth of the digital music \nindustry is slowly rising in Indonesia. The number of internet users in Indonesia is now approaching 72 million, which accounts for 29% of the total population (Arifiani, 2014). \nTable 1 Sample of the research \nNo. Name Position Length of interview \n1 Widi Asmoro Entertainment manager Southeast Asia in \nMixradio 1h 41 min \n2 Iwan Hadibroto HR consultant of \nTrinity Optima Production 32 min \n3 Harun Nurasyid Managing director of \nMusic Factory, KFC Music 53 min \n4 Marin Ramdani Founder of FFWD Records Indonesia 1h 14 min \n5 Robin Malau Digital entrepreneur, \nfounder of Musikator 2h 15 min \n6 Wendi Putranto Author of Music Biz, editor at Rolling \nStone Indonesia Magazine 1h 10 min \n7 Aldo Sianturi Believe Digital Indonesia 45.10 min \n8 Hang Dimas Langit Data Indonesia 50.12 min \n9 Andre Sumual Editor-in-chief of Trax Magazine , \nmanager of The Titans \n10 Ari Juliano Creative commons specialist 35.11 min \n11 Ventha Lesmana Managing director, ASIRI 41.21 min \n12 Eki Puradiredja Program Director, \nPT. Java Festival Production 26.15 min \n13 David Karto Demajors Independent Music Indonesia \n(DIMI) 1h 23 min \n14 Marin Ramdhani Fast Forward Records 1 \nAccording to the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy \n(2014), the Indonesian music’s creative chain is comprised of four chains: creation, \nreproduction, distribution and consumption. This research focuses on the four creative \nchains in the Indonesian music industry for several reasons. First, in order to identify the \n \n \n \n \n \n 6 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n structures of network changes, available busi ness models in the four creative chains of \nthe music industry need to be analysed. Second, the music industry is one of the \nindustries from 18 subsectors of the Indonesian creative industry, which has the largest \nmultiplier number. That means that increasing investment or final demand in this subsector will also increase the final output of the total national economy. Third, 80% of \nsales from Indonesian music market shares consist of Indonesian music. This indicates \nthat the domestic music market is very appreciative of Indonesian music and could provide opportunities for the continuously evolving Indonesian music industry. The study \nrespondents are affiliated with companies actively involved in Indonesian music \ndevelopment. They also represent the most involved and accessible music experts in Indonesia. Interview participants were mostly owners, directors, or people in managerial \npositions as seen in Table 1. In order to achieve the aims of this study, the research \nquestions were as follows: \n• (RQ 1): What are the available networks of actors in the music industry? \n• (RQ 2): What are the available types of business models within the four creative \nchains of the music industry? \n• (RQ 3): What are the available changing network structures in the music industry? \n4.2 Data collection and analysis \nInterviews were mostly held in the respondent’s office, commercial environments and \nalso by telephone. An interview protocol was created and applied to guide each activity in this research and ensured the gathering of necessary information regarding the \nproposed theoretical model and related research questions. The variables of the interview \nprotocol include a network of actors and business model types. For the networks of actors variable, respondents were asked exploratory questions about the actors that are actually \nengaged with their company, and also the emerging actors that have potential but are not \nyet engaged with their company. For the business model types variable, respondents were asked about business models currently and will be applied by their company. They were \nalso asked about potential business models available in the industry. Interview lengths \nvaried, the shortest being around 32 min while the longest was over 2 hours and 15 min. The total interview time was 12.42 hours and conducted in May–November, 2014. \nThroughout the interview process, the interviewer always wrote fields note to avoid \nmisinterpretation of the transcribed interviews. Although interview protocol was provided, questions were sometimes enhanced to deepen the interview results. For \ninstance, when respondents were asked about potential business model types available in \nthe industry, their answ ers were usually unclear. However, when we provided leads, for \nexample about collaboration, the answers became more elaborate and needed to be \ncategorised further to get the expected answers. After interviews were finished, they were \nthen transcribed and analysed. The complete written results were then sent to each respondent for double-checking to increase the validity. When data was completely \ngathered, a data analysis was conducted. This analysis process was conducted by \nmanaging the focus of data, reading and annotating the data, and categorising similar data, then the data output of the previous process was categorised, linked and connected \nusing maps and matrices. Finally, the data was then corroborated as evidence for an \nauthor to produce an account. \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 7 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 5 Results \n5.1 Network of actors \nFigure 1 shows the network of actors in the Indonesian music industry based on the four \ncreative chains: creation, reproduction, distribution and consumption. It includes the main \nindustry players’ relations in music sub-sectors with the industry players that provide \nsupply to the major industry players (backward linkage) and the industry players that \nprovide requests (demand) to the main industry player (forward linkage). \nFigure 1 Generic network of actors in Indonesian music industry (see online version for colours) \n \n \nThe process of creation is a process where activities are based on the creativity of the \npeople involved in it. The main actors in the process of creation are the most creative \npeople and businesses engaged in the creative and artistic segments, such as producers, \ncomposers, lyricists, song writers, sound engineers and music directors. In addition, there are also players from the industry segments, including recording studio providers. The \nactivities in this chain require music education to provide qualified musicians and other \ncreative people. \nOther than those described above, there is also a new phenomenon of the movement \npromoted by independent, or indie, musicians in Indonesia that frees usage of songs \nunder the auspices of the Creative Commons license. The Creative Commons license, commonly referred to as the CC license, is a license that contains a provision that allows \na creation to be shared and reused under flexible terms and in accordance with applicable \nlaw. \n“In general, musicians who use CC licenses distribute their work under net \nlabels.” (Arie Juliano, Creative Commons Indonesia) \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 8 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n A net label is a platform for online distribution and promotion in which a piece of music \nis released for free under a CC or similar license. They are part of the free music scene, \nwhich has grown dynamically since the advent of the internet and the digitisation of the \nculture. \nThe reproductive process is the process of placing music on certain media that is \nphysical or digital (Leyshon, 2001). The processes of reproduction for digital media \ninclude ‘packaging’ a song with metadata in accordance with Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) standards. The main actors of the pr ocess of reproduction are music labels and \nmusic publishers (publisher). When viewed fr om the perspective of the size and structure \nof the business, there are three types of music label companies operating in Indonesia: \na A major label is a major music label that has a larger parent company abroad. \nExample: Warner Music Indonesia, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Indonesia. \nb A major-independent label/local music label is one that is native to Indonesia and \nhas its own sources of financing, although the operating scale cannot compete with international labels. Examples include Musica Studios, Nagaswara, Trinity Optima \nProduction and Aquarius. \nc Independent labels, which include several subtypes: \n• A vanity label is a music label that gets funding from one of the major record \nlabels, to find talent and new work. \n“It usually is the result of an independent production deal with musicians \nwho are already established and have experience in the recording world. \nExamples include Pops, Independent, and Forte.” (Wendy Putranto, Rolling \nStone Indonesia Magazine ) \n• Do it yourself (DIY) or ‘self-release’ is an effort by musicians to act as a record \nlabel to produce, distribute and sell their own piece of music. Examples of DIY \ninclude High Octane Records and Revolt Music. \n“However, during the process of distributing these musicians occasionally \ncollaborate with independent distributors.” (Marin Ramdhani, FFWD Records) \n• A true independent label is a small organisation that distributes the products \nthemselves or through independent distributors. They have very few employees \nand are not affiliated with a major music company. This label is often operated \nwith a minimal budget and often financed by the owner and/or their investors. Examples: DeMajors, Organic Records and FFWD Records. \nDistribution of products such as digital media products is aimed at spreading music in \nvarious forms into a wide variety of digital stores. The final form of digital products includes PDD (permanent digital download), limited download, webcasting, interactive \nstreaming, tones (ring tones), peer to peer and ring back tones. Distribution of media \nproducts in physical form continues to provide the reproduction process output to physical stores. For physical products, most of the distribution process is still run in \nconventional manners by the music labels and/or physical product distribution services. \nThe rise of communication technology development in Indonesia in 2003 expanded \nthe telecommunications industry not only in the form of telephone and short message text \nservices, but also involved music, marked by the appearance of more familiar content \nproviders (CPs). \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 9 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n “In Indonesia, the number of CPs was only 50 in 2002 and in the year 2011 the \nnumber reached 400 CP partners.” (Widi Asmoro, Mixradio) \nThey each formed their own association and there are still three active associations, \nnamely Indonesian Mobile and Online Content Provider Association (IMOCA), \nIndonesian Mobile Multimedia Association (IMMA) and Association of Indonesian \nDigital Content (AKDI). Meanwhile, the recent deployment of physical music products is now aided by the presence of unconventional distributors in addition to specialty stores \nthat sell CDs such as Ambassador Sound and Disc Tarra. Unconventional distribution or \nan umbrella is usually associated with unconventional stores. \nIn the consumption process, purchase of physical products is usually at conventional \nstores where the primary function is to sell products such as music and music \nmerchandise derivatives. Conventional stores are commonly found in shopping malls or self-contained locations, such as Voice Ambassador, Disc Tarra, Music+, Society and \nHarika. In addition, there is now the emergence of unconventional music stores. The \nmain function of these stores is not to sell music, but Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) products such as food and so on. Examples of unconventional music stores \ninclude Kentucky Friend Chicken (KFC), Texas Fried Chicken, Carrefour, Alfamart, \ncafes, clothing distributors, gas stations and other specialty outlets. There is even distribution via USBs, as was implemented by the band Naif through the Cosmic Clothes \ncompany. In addition, music is also sold through partnerships with other products, such \nas Kotak selling their new album as a bundle with Harmonic Rock Cloth products. \n“This approach (combining the conventional and unconventional stores) is \nconsidered effective in delivering the product as close as possible to the consumer.” (Iwan Hadibroto, Trinity Optima Production) \nStructures of music consumption in Indonesia are also experiencing a transition to digital \nformats. For music in the form of digital products, digital product providers store types \ncan vary depending on the platform or base, such as web-based digital shops, store-based mobile digital, web-based digital shops and mobiles. In addition, through digital stores, \nmusic consumption can also be in the form of New Media. New Media is a way to \nconsume music by purchasing certain goods or services that offer value-added music for free or at a very low price. \n“Some of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) examples that offer \nmusic as a value-added product purchase are Nokia, Nexian and Cross.” \n(Aldo Sianturi, Believe Digital) \nAlthough derived from the same chain and even engaged in the same type of business, it \nturns out that actors have different interests. The difference in interest is also driven from \nthe different strengths of each actor, both in terms of capital and scope of operation. Not \ninfrequently, the source of their revenue comes from consumers who do not normally become direct consumers, such as OEMs, brands or companies. In addition, cooperation \nconducted by actors has also begun to widen and form cooperative relationships that \ninvolve more than two actors. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 10 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 5.2 Available business model types \nThe music industry is one of 18 subsectors in the Indonesian creative industry, with \ninnovation in business models. In general, there are three types of products derived from the music industry, namely digital products, physical products and performance products. \nThe expected output of digital products is the format variety that can meet the standards \nof some available digital music platforms. \n“The expected output of physical products is some product formats such as \nCDs, LPs, cassette tapes and DVDs, while the expected output of performance \nproducts is a live show with music as the main component and other \ncomponents such as choreography, stage design and lighting as secondary components.” (Eki Puradiredja, Java Production) \nIn order to reach the consumption chain, a product must pass through some processes in \nthe music creative chain, in which the creation chain becomes the first chain to be \naccomplished. In this chain, the creative people are in need of funds to carry out the \nproduction of a creative work. These funds can be obtained in a variety of ways; one of them is by using the crowd-sourcing business model. \n“By using a crowd-sourcing model, the creative people obtain voluntary \nfunding from the community or their fa ns through the fund aggregator platform \nor other means.” (Robin Malau, Musikator) \nThere are three types of crowd-funding models available. They include equity \ncrowdfunding with Symbin and Crowncube as examples. A second technique is donation \ncrowd-funding with Kickstarter, Rockethub, Indiegogo, Wujudkan (Indonesia), Kita Bisa \n(Indonesia), Bursa Ide (Indonesia), and Patung an (Indonesia) as examples. A third model \nis debt crowd-funding, with Prosper, Crunchbase and Lending Club as examples. \nHowever, donation crowd-funding is one of the types commonly used by Indonesian \nmusicians not by the available platforms but by their own websites. Some of the Indonesian indie bands using this model include Efek Rumah Kaca and BIP. \nAdvertising business models are another option for funding the recording or business \noperations of the company or other creative efforts. This model works by using the brand to endorse the creative work, for instance by putting their logo or advertisement before or \nafter music videos, putting their logo on the artist’s website or CD cover, and brand \ncampaign by the artist at their live shows. One model that is slightly different from the others is to use an open business model in the creative work. With this model, musicians \nusually provide opportunities for fans or other creative people to download the raw \nmaterials of their work to be used and pr ocessed as a new creative work, which can be \nfurther monetised by the musicians who published the initial content. Two Indonesian \nmusical artists who use this technique include Andezz and Homogenic. Finally, for artists \nthat prefer to self-release albums, the self-fu nded model is an option. This model has now \nbecome feasible to the artist through the availability of digital technology for music \nproduction which lowers the cost of music production. \n“There is a rising artist named Tulus who is now experiencing huge success by \nusing this (self-funded) model. This su ccess has inspired other new artists to \nfollow his path.” (Andre Sumual, Trax Magazine ) \nAfter the completion of the creative work, the next process is the license registration and \nreproduction. The efforts in this chain are usually done by a record label and publisher. In \nthis chain, the record label typically implements a 360-degree business model. In this \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 11 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n model, the record label agrees to provide substantial financial support for creative people, \nincluding direct advances as well as funds for marketing, promotion and touring. In \nreturn, the musicians agree to give record labels a percentage of all their income, \nincluding the sale of digital products, physical, performances and other income. This model is usually used by bigger record labels, including Trinity Optima Production in \nIndonesia. Another model is the tailor-made model, which differs from the 360-degree \nmodel in that the artist and record label discuss the capabilities of each party and how they can complement each other. \n“The dual output result is based on discussions that are contextual to each artist. \nOne of the record labels who implement this model is DIMI Records.” \n(David Karto, DIMI) \nTo increase revenue, Indonesian music companies usually perform one of the two types \nof these models: the partnership business model or the vertical integration model. The \nvertical integration model is often used by record labels that have sufficient capital and \nresources. For digital product processing in pa rticular, there are some record labels that \nwork together with content aggregators to perform the digitisation of music products. In \naddition to performing the digitisation of music products, the distribution of the digital \nmusic products to digital stores can be conducted at the same time. \n“This effort (vertical integration) is considered effective and cost-saving.” \n(Ventha Lesmana, ASIRI) \nFor record labels that have sufficient capital, they use the vertical integration model by \nproviding management services to the production of creative work from upstream to \ndownstream. Another unique model, which has provided opportunities for record labels, is by gaining income from user generated content (UGC) monetisation. In YouTube or \nother licensed platforms, the revenues usually come from advertising in official videos \nand from non-official user-generated content, which the label allows to be licensed and monetised. \nTable 2 Business model types in Indonesian music industry \nProduct Creative chain \nCreation Reproduction Distribution Consumption \nDigital \nproduct • Crowd \nsourcing \n• Advertising \n• Open \n• Sponsorship \n(investor) \n• Self-funded \n• Traditional \n(funded by \nrecords \nlabel) • 360-degree \n• Tailor made \n• Partnership \n• Vertical \nintegration \n• Self-funded \n• UGC \nmonetisation • Super \ndistribution \n• Long tail \n• Cross \nplatform • Free \n• Tipping \n• Subscription \n• Pay per \ndownload \n• Ad funded \n• New media \nPhysical \nproduct • Super \ndistribution \n• Direct \ndistribution • Bundle \n• Merchandise \n• Value added \nPerformance \nproduct • Not available • Sponsorship \n• Do it yourself \n \n \n \n \n \n 12 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n In the distribution chain for digital products, there are three types of business models that \nare found in Indonesia, namely ‘super distribution’, ‘long tail’, and ‘cross platform’. The \nlong tail business model is conducted by a co ntent aggregator that looks for artists or \nlabels with the highest song availability at digital stores. In addition to song availability, consumers now expect that songs can be played on any kind of device, anytime and \nanywhere. This is where the cross-platform business model is needed. \n“Users (music consumers) are now demanding. When a song is not available \nfor their phone because the application is not available in their OS (Operating \nSystem), they can easily go to another application. The co mpetition is tough.” \n(Hang Dimas, Langit Data) \nIn addition to digital products, there are also physical products that are still demanded by \nthe popular market. To provide many markets and the widest range of consumers in getting music products with ease, the super distribution model is needed. In this model, \nphysical products are distributed through as many channels as possible. The distribution \nprocess is conducted conventionally at conventional stores and unconventionally at the unconventional stores such as fast food restaurant and supermarket. Another distribution \nmethod, usually used by smaller record labels or even self-release artists, is the direct \ndistribution model. In this model, physical music products are delivered directly from the record label distributors or even artist management for the music consumers. The order \nprocess is usually conducted using the artist or label website and social media. The \npayment method varies, including bank transfers, PayPal and credit cards. \nThe free business model in the music industry is conducted by providing free \nproducts with expectations that consumer will pay for the next purchase. \n“In digital music, this free model is usually conducted by offering free \nstreaming in expectation that the consumer will later on subscribe or buy the album or song.” (Widi Asmoro, Mixradio) \nThe tipping business model sometimes becomes an extension of the free business model, \nin which musicians get money as tips from listeners after hearing the music for free. \nSubscription, pay-per-downloads and advertisement-funded business models are usually \nfound with digital music products where the method can vary depending on the quantity, quality or duration of use or membership. The bundled business model is conducted by \ncombining some creative work with products that are similar or dissimilar at a lower \nprice. Sometimes a bundle model is called a new media product. In Indonesia’s case, there are some hardware manufacturers who embed the music in their product as a value-\nadded feature. \nAnother merchandising model is the creative effort to gain income through means \nother than selling physical products, digital products, and performance products. \nMerchandise is also used as one of the major added values to the product of music to \nattract customers. The merchandise sometimes becomes the main income for artists who apply the free business model. For product pe rformance, financial resources are usually \nobtained from the sponsor. However, for creative people and creative businesses and \nsmaller performances, too little funding is obtained from the performance itself. The impact resulting from this small scale is also not as big as that obtained from the product \nperformances that are funded by sponsors. \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 13 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 5.3 Changing network structures and business model types \nBased on the data analysis, there are several types of business models that require fewer \nactors (reduction on actors) and several models that need more actors (addition on actors). In Figure 2, items 1 to 5 indicate that most of the reduction of the actors is \nthrough the reduction of partnerships with record labels. Here, the actors in the creation \nchain, mostly musicians, feel they can release their own products without the help of a record label. Sources of capital for existing artists can be from their own funds \n(numbers 2 and 5), from companies or sponso rs (number 3) and from consumers by using \nthe crowd-funding method and pre-order system (number 4). In Structure Number 1, it \ncan be seen that the record label at the end of the chain has also begun vertical integration \nto become a record label and distributor to entice self-release artists to continue using \ntheir services as a distributor, considering the advantages and experience in deploying the music label products. Most of all, the Reduction of Actors is chosen to lower costs and \nincrease margins, while also reaping other potential benefits from having direct contact \nwith the consumers. \nFigure 2 Changing network structure caused by reduction on actors (see online version \nfor colours) \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 14 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Figure 3 Changing network structure caused by addition on actors (see online version \nfor colours) \n \n \nOn the other hand, there are also actors who need to add more partners to their business \nmodel. In Figure 3, structure number 6 depicts new actors engaged in digital products. This structure is now becoming common in the music industry as new channels for \ndistributing digital products are increasing and record labels cannot provide those \nservices independently. Structures 7 and 8 indicate companies that start to go directly to record labels or distributors. A company is used as another source of income for record \nlabels and distributors. This Addition on Actors is usually done to cover the shortage of \nresources as they need to provide new offerings to the consumer. Moreover, new partnerships are conducted to reduce the risk of operating new businesses by themselves, \nand also to gain potential benefits from the cooperation. \n6 Discussion \nBased on the changing network of actors caused by addition on actors, it can be found \nthat business models have moved from serial to parallel activities. The major and local \nrecord labels mostly conduct this activity. This attempt is conducted in order to gain more \nrevenue streams from different types of business models. Second, the network of actors has moved from static to dynamic, since actors now have more choices of partnership to \nconduct their unique business models. The development of digital technology is also one \nof the factors that allow the dynamic network of actors. The two findings are in line with Graham et al. (2004). However, it differs with the findings of Graham et al. (2004) that \nstated that the current governing mechanism is the less-dominant position of records \ncompanies because the internet allows artists to conduct direct distribution. In Indonesia, the conditions are much differ ent. Although the number of independent or self-released \nartists is increasing, and the internet enables them to distribute their products anywhere, \n \n \n \n \n \n Business model types associated with network structure changes 15 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n the distribution of their products still cannot beat major label artist distribution. Since \nIndonesia is an archipelago country, and the number of internet users are only 72 million \nout of 200 million Indonesian citizens (Arifiani, 2014), the internet and direct distribution \nare not yet sufficient to ensure equitable distribution. \nThere has also been research which analyses emerging business models. In their \npaper, Bourreau et al. (2007) analysed the emerging business model based on digitisation, \nwhere content becomes easy to share and distribute and the modes of promotion become different. More intensively, Choi et al. (2009) discussed the changing business model of \nindependent record labels based on changes in the recording industry and the trend of \ndigitisation. However, this research provides a wider landscape of emerging business models based on the changing network structures of the music industry, not only from the \ndigitisation point of view but also from actors in the four chains in the music industry. \nAs indicated by the findings, it is apparent that most business models types are \ngrowing towards the digital market. Although approaches to enter new business models \ncome from traditional to nearly-new models, the resources which are utilised are not \nalways new. Thus, the investments made by each actor to utilise the business models are not that extensive. Even if they need specific resources to utilise the models, partnerships \nwith companies which have the resources usually become a solution. For instance, to sell \ndigital music, partnerships with established online music providers or telecommunication companies are more preferable than creating new platforms. \n7 Conclusions \nThis paper provides a number of business model types available in the four music creative chains, namely creation, reproduction, distribution and consumption. Based on \ninterviews with a number of experts, it was discovered that many different types of \nbusiness models have emerged because of new partnerships. This research also discovered the available network of actors in the Indonesian music industry that are \ncategorised using the model of interconnecting networks in the music industry. This \nhas guided the change in form of the network from the horizontal chain to the scattered-spider-web-like network of actors. After looking at the network of actors and \ndifferent business model types, it is found that the network structure of actors can trigger \nthe emerging of new business models. The changes depend on reduction of actors or addition of actors. Both changes are conducted to gain more opportunities from the \nreduction or addition of actors. \nWith this paper, the interesting research avenues for business models are derived. \nFirst, by providing a map of network of actors for the music industry, it can help the \nresearcher to further develop an area or subject for further research. Second, by providing \nvarious types of business models, it can inspire the researcher to examine each of the business model types and gain an understanding of each performance. Furthermore, the \nbusiness model types based on the changing network structure provided in this research \ncan uncover important issues that might occur and may not be depicted in this research. \nBusiness model innovation requires great effort, and there are many things that must \nbe considered by a company in order to design a potential business model. One of the \nways is to know the actors involved in the industry. By knowing who the players in the industry are, be it through direct, backward or forward linkage, the company can \ndetermine the potential of the existing actors in cooperation. In addition, the network of \n \n \n \n \n \n 16 D. Dellyana et al. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n actors can also help companies to understand the extent of the industry’s development, to \nensure that the strategy developed by the company will not be misleading and outdated. \nIn addition to knowing the network of actors, knowing the types of business models is \nalso important, as a company can identify trends and strategies available in the industry. In addition, companies can also learn from the successes and failures in application of the \nexisting business models, so that in the future they can try to adapt and conduct the \nbusiness combinations over existing business model types. \nSome limitations of this study include the fact that the sources for the interviews of \nthis paper are mostly in the higher positions of their respective companies, so it is feared \nthat the picture of the companies is too broad. Second, the companies included in this study only represent one actor in the chain. For example, Trinity represents major labels, \nDIMI represents indie labels and Mixradio represents digital platforms, whereas many \nother types of business models may emerge and be more creative outside of these companies. \nFor future research direction, the researcher could continue finding new business \nmodel types based on the changing network structure modelling. 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(2010) ‘Business mode l design: an activity system perspective’, Long Range \nPlanning , Vol. 43, No. 2, pp.216–226. \nView publication statsView publication stats", + "keywords": [ + "model", + "music", + "business", + "product", + "industry", + "network", + "actor", + "digital", + "type", + "label" + ], + "summary": "See discussions, st ats, and author pr ofiles f or this public ation at : https://www .researchgate." + }, + { + "filename": "653174043-Top-5-Music-Revenue-Trends-2022.pdf", + "text": "Chris\tCook\tfounder\tCMU.\t\twww.completemusicupdate.com\t\tTop\t5\tmusic\trevenue\ttrends\t\tIt\tis\tabout\tthe\tfront-line\tartists\trevenues.\tWhere\tdo\tthey\tfit\tin?\t\tThe\tmain\tinterest\tis\tthe\tfrontline\tartist\trevenue\tstreams\tand\tthe\tkey\ttrends\tin\teach\tof\ttheir\tareas\tof\tthe\tbusiness.\tThe\tartists\tthat\tare\ton\tstage\tand\tthose\twho\tare\tbuilding\ta\tbrand\taround\ttheir\tmusic/business.\t\n\t\tWe\tare\tcoming\tfrom\tthe\tpoint\ton\tview\tof\tthe\tfront\tlike\tartists\tand\tall\tof\ttheir\tbusiness\tpartners.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nWe\tcan\tgeneralize\trevenue\tstreams\tinto\tthree\tcategories:\t1.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRights\trevenue\tstreams\t(IP)\t\tGenerally\tCopyright.\t(Song\trights,\tRecording\trights,\tVisual\tRights,\tTrademarks,\tOthers\tlike\timage\trights\tand\tpublicity\trights)\t2. Live\trevenue,\trevenues\taround\tlive\tperformance.\t3. Fan\tbase\trevenue\tstreams.\tDirect\tto\tfan\trelationship\trevenue\tstream.\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\nMost\tmusic\tindustry\tcompanies\tare\tspecialized.\tWe\tcan\torganize\tthem\tby\tthe\ttype\tof\trevenue\tstream:\t\t1.\tRights\t\t2.\tLive\t\t3.\tFans\t\t\n\tAs\twe\tgo\tthrough,\twe\twill\tlook\tat\tthe\ttop\tbusiness\ttrends\t:\tCopyright\tRevenues\tLive\tRevenues\tFan\tRelationship\tRevenue\tstreams\tAnd\tthe\tImportance\tof\tdata\tacross\tall\tthese\trevenue\tstreams.\tTrends\tin\tartist\tbusinesses\t+\trights\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n1.\tMusic\tRight\tRevenues\tMusic\tcopyright\thas\tnever\thad\tit\tso\tgood.\t(Will\tPage)\t\t\n\tThe\tpandemic\thas\thit\tthe\tLive\tand\tsync.\tHowever,\tthe\trecord\tindustry\thas\tnot\tfelt\tit.\t\tWhat\tkind\tof\tgrowth\twe\tare\ttalking\tabout?\t\n\tAll\tof\tthis\tgrowth\twas\tdown\tto\tdigital/streaming.\t\t\nRECORD\tINDUSTRY\tDigital\thas\tbeen\tthe\tkey\tto\tthe\trevenue\tstream.\tIt\tis\twhat\tis\tallowing\tthe\tmusic\tindustry\tto\tsee\tthe\ttop\tlevel\tgrowth.\tAccording\tto\tIFPI\tthe\tglobal\tmusic\trevenues\tfor\t2021\tare\tthe\tfollowing:\t\t\n\tAll\tof\tthis\tgrowth\twas\tdown\tto\tdigital.\tOther\tmusic\tbranches\tare\tgrowing\tas\twell\tbut\tmost\tmoney\tis\tcoming\tfrom\tstreaming.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nThe\tsong\tside\tof\tthe\tbusiness\tThe\tdata\tpresented\tbelow\tis\tfrom\tCISAC\tand\tthe\tCollective\tLicensing\tSystem.\tHowever,\tit\tdoes\tnot\tcapture\tall\tthe\trevenue,\thowever\tit\tcan\tgive\tus\tan\toverview\tof\twhat\tis\thappening\tin\tthe\tmusic\tindustry\tfrom\tthe\tsong\tside\t(For\texample,\tsome\tpublishers\t(Anglo-American\trepertoire)\tdo\tdirect\tlicensing\tand\twe\tcannot\tsee\tthe\tentire\tpicture).\t\t\n\tThe\tkey\tmessage\there\tis:\t\tThe\tmusic\tcopyright\tside\tof\tthe\tbusiness\tis\tin\tgrowth\tand\tit\tis\tpredominantly\tdown\tto\tdigital.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nWhat\tare\tthe\tkinds\tof\tdigital\tservices\tthat\tare\tresponsible\tfor\tthe\tgrowth?\t\t- Download\tstores\t-\tgives\tus\ta\tminority\tof\tthe\tmoney.\tWhat\twe\ttalk\tabout\tis\tstreaming:\t\t- Premium\tStreaming\tservices:\t1. Global\tstreaming:\tSpotify\tApple,\tAmazon…\t\t\t2. Regional\tstreaming:\tGaana,\tResso,\tNetEase,\tJio\tSaavn…\t\t\t- Free\tStreaming\tservices:\tYoutube,\tSpotify,\tSoundcloud\t,\tDeezer…\t- User\tGenerated\tContent\tPlatforms\t(UGC):\tFacebook,\tInstagram,\tTikTok,\tYoutube.\t(where\tpeople\tinsert\tmusic\tto\tthe\tvideos\tthat\tthey\tupload)\t- Other\tdigital\tservices\tlike:\tOnline\tRadio,\tMusic\tPodcasts,\tNon-Music\tApps,\tLive\tStreaming,\tDigital\tCollectibles,\tMeta\tVerse.\t- Direct\tto\tfan\tincome\tstreams\tthat\tare\tdigitally\tbased:\tBandcamp,\tPatreon,\tfancircles,\tSerenade…\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\nWhich\tplatforms\tconsumers\tare\tinteracting\tmore\tprolifically?\tIFPI\tis\tanswering\tthis\ttoo,\tand\tin\tthe\trecent\treport\tthey\tidentify\tthat\tabout\t32%\tof\tthe\tmusic\tconsumption\tis\thappening\tin\tthe\tstreaming\tservices,\tand\tthat\tsimilar\tamount\tis\thappening\ton\tUGC\tPlatforms.\t\t\t\n\t\n\tAs\tper\tnumbers\tabove,\twe\tcan\tsee\tthat\teven\tthough\tconsumption\tis\tpretty\tsimilar\tbetween\tthese\ttwo,\tstreaming\tand\tUGC,\tthe\tstreaming\tfrom\tpremium\tsubscription\tis\tbringing\tmore\tmoney.\t\t\t\nThe\tdominant\tplayers\tin\tpremium\tstreaming\tare:\t\t\n\tThe\tkey\tidea\there\tis\tthat\tit\tis\tthe\tpremium\tstreaming\tthat\tis\tpowering\tthe\tgrowth\tof\tthe\tmusic\tmarket.\tThe\tsuspicion\tis\tthat\tin\t2022\tYoutube\tMusic\twill\tbe\thigher\tup,\tbecause\twe\tare\tseeing\tan\tincreasing\tnumber\tof\tpeople\tpaying\tto\tstream\tand\taccess\tmusic\tthrough\tYoutube\tplatform.\tSpotify\tis\tthe\tdominant\tplayer\tnow,\tbut\tit\tis\tslowly\tloosing\tthe\tmarket\tshare\tto\tYoutube\tand\tApple\tMusic.\tKey\tis:\tThe\tPremium\tstreaming\tis\tbringing\tthe\tgrowth\tin\tthe\tmarket.\tThis\tis\twhy\tthe\tpriority\tof\tthe\trecord\tindustry,\tmusic\tdistributors\tand\tstreaming\tservices,\tand\talso\tfor\tPublishers\tand\tCollecting\tsocieties\thas\tbeen\tto\tgrow\tthe\tpremium\tmarket\tbecause\tthis\tis\twhere\twe\tare\tmaking\tthe\tmost\tof\tthe\tmoney.\tHow\tto\tdo\tthat?\t\t1.\tBring\tnew\tpeople\tto\tsign\tfor\tsubscription.\t\t\t2.\tConvert\tmore\tfree\tto\tpremium.\tScandinavian\tmarkets\tand\tall\twho\twas\tgoing\tto\tpay\talready\ttook\tpremium.\tEmerging\tmarkets\tcan\tbe\ta\tsolution.\t3.\tPut\tthe\tprice\tup.\tSpotify\tnever\tincreased\ttheir\tfee\t(it\tis\tstill\t£9.99).\tHowever,\tApple\tMusic\tdid\tincrease\ttheir\tsubscription\tfee,\ttherefore\twe\tare\texpecting\tthat\tother\tstreaming\tservices\twould\tincrease\ttheir\tfee\ttoo.\t\t\t\n4.\tFind\tcomplementary\tdigital\trevenues\tthrough\tUGC.\t\n\tThe\tUGC\tdoes\tnot\tcompete\twith\tstreaming\tservices.\tThe\tservices\tare\tcomplementary.\t\tUGCs\tare\tpowering\tthe\tgrowth\tnot\tcompeting\tat\tthe\tmoment.\tWhat\tis\tcoming\tnext?\t\t\n\tWill\tthese\thelp?\t\t\t\nReality\tCheck:\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n2.\tLive\tSector\tRevenue\tStreams\tPandemic\thad\ta\tnegative\timpact\ton\tthe\tlive\tsector.\tHowever,\twe\tstarted\tto\tsee\tsome\trecovery.\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\nStatistics\tfor\t2020:\t\n\tLive\tsector\treturned\tin\t2022:\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nThere\tis\ta\tmixed\tpicture.\tGood\tnews\tthere\tis\ta\tpretty\tsteep\treturn.\tSee\tchart\tbelow:\t\t\n\t\tAnalised\tGoldman\tSachs\tpublished\tin\t2022:\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\nLive\tNation\treported\tpositive\tfigures\ttoo:\t\t\t\n\tThe\tupper\ttier\tof\tthe\tmusic\tindustry\tare\tnow\tthriving.\t\tHowever,\tlower\tdown\tin\tthe\tsector\tartists\thave\tchallenges.\t\tThe\tartists\tcannot\tafford\tgoing\ton\ttours.\t\tExamples:\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nWhy\tis\tthis\thappening?\tFirst\treason:\tis\tthat\tonce\tthe\tpandemic\twas\tover\tand\tall\tartists\tstarted\ttouring,\tthe\tmarket\thad\tan\texcess\tof\tshows\tand\tpeople\tpreferred\tgoing\tto\tbig\tshows\tand\tbig\tvenues,\tand\thaving\tless\tmoney\tand\ttime\tto\tgo\tto\tlower\tlevel\tshows.\tSecond\treason:\tShortage\tof\tskilled\tpeople\tto\thelp\tthis\tshows\twork.\tThirdly:\tSome\tpeople\tare\tstill\tnervous\tto\tgo\tto\tshows.\t\tFourth\treason:\tThe\tcost\tof\tputting\ta\tlive\tshow\tis\tincreasing.\t\t\n\tThere’s\ta\tlive\tmusic\tladder.\tIn\tthe\tUK,\tLive\tonly\tbecomes\tlucrative\tonly\taround\tbig\tclub\tvenue\tand\tsmall\ttheatre\tvenues,\tonce\tyou\tstart\tgetting\tto\tthe\tarena\tvenues\tthat’s\twhen\tyou\tstart\tmaking\tserious\tmoney.\t\n\t\t\n\tLive\tIndustry\thas\talways\tbeen\ttop\theavy.\t\tChallenges!\tGrass\troots\thave\talways\tstruggle.\t\tMid-tier\thas\tgenerally\tmade\tmoney\tfrom\tlive,\tbut\toperating\tfrom\tpretty\ttight\tprofit\tmargins.\tHowever,\tnow\tthe\tsurging\tcosts\tare\teating\tup\tthose\tmargins.\tWhich\tmeans\tthat\t-\tTicket\tprices\tneed\tto\tgo\tup!\tBut…it’s\ta\tsuper\tcompetitive\tpost\tCOVID\tmarket\tplace;\tticket\tsales\tare\tslower;\twider\tcosts\tof\tliving\tcrisis.\tWhat\tdo\twe\tdo?\tSome\tchallenges\tare\tshort\tterm.\t\tPandemic\tissues\tare\tgoing\taway.\t\tCan\tthe\tindustry\taddress\tthese\tproblems\tto\tensure\tthat\ttouring\tworks\ton\tthe\tlower,\tmid-\ttiers?\tWe\tdon’t\tknow\tthat\tfor\tnow.\tOn\tthe\tgood\tside:\t\n\t\t\t\t\nOther\tchallenges:\tOther\tnon-music\tbased\tentertainment\tcompetition\t\n\t\t\tConclusion:\tOn\tone\tlevel\tthe\tlive\tsector\thas\tgone\tup\tin\t2022\t-\tupper\tlevel\tis\tdoing\tvery\twell\ton\tthe\tLive\tmusic\tside.\tThere’s\tstill\ta\tlot\tof\tchallenges\tin\tthe\tlive\tside\tof\tthe\tbusiness\tand\t2023\tis\tgoing\tto\tbe\tvery\tinteresting.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n3. Direct\tto\tfan.\tIt\tis\tabout\tdigital\tcontent\tand\tdigital\texperience.\t\n\tAny\tfrontline\tartist\tneeds\tto\tbuild\ta\tfan\tbase\tto\tunlock\tthe\trights\tand\tlive\trevenue\tstreams\twe\ttalked\tabout\tbefore.\tBut\tsince\tthe\tfan\trelationship\tbecame\tonline,\tother\topportunities\thave\temerged\tto\tmonetized\tthat\tfan\trelationship.\tFan\tartist\trelationship\tused\tto\tlook\tlike\tthis:\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\nWe\tare\tstarting\tto\tsee\tother\tways\tto\tmonetize\tthis\tfan\trelationship:\t\n\t\tMore\tand\tmore\tartists\tare\toffering\tpremium\tor\texclusive\tdigital\texperiences\tto\ttheir\tfans.\tTransaction\tand\tthe\tproduct\tor\tservice\tare\tdigital\tlike\tthe\tabove.\tIncome\t=\tPREMIUM\tDIGITAL\tEXPERIENCE\t\tWhich\tone\tof\tthe\tabove\tworks\tdepends\ton\tthe\tartist\tand\tfan\tbase.\tThe\tquestions\tthat\tthe\tmanagers\tand\tartists\tneed\tto\task\tis\twhat\tare\tthe\tways\tto\tpersuade\tthe\tcore\tfan\tbase\tto\tspend\tmore\tmoney\tevery\tmonth\twith\tthe\tartist.\tWhat\tdigital\tcontent\tand\texperience\twill\texcite\tthe\tfans\tand\tmake\tthem\twant\tto\tspend\ta\tlittle\tbit\tof\tmoney.\tMusic\tcommunity\tand\tother\tonline\tcreators\t\t-\tneed\tto\thave\tan\texperience\texchange.\tWe\tare\tselling\tsomething\temotional\t\t\n\t\nOpportunities:\t\tIt’s\tall\tabout\tthe\tDirect\tto\tFan\tTechnology!\t\t\tData\tTo\tcapitalize\ton\topportunities\twe\tneed\tto\tget\tbetter\twith\tthe\tdata.\t\t\n\t\tThe\tMusic\tIndustry\tis\ta\tdata\tdriven\tbusiness.\t\tTo\tcapitalize\ton\topportunities\tand\tto\tmeet\tthe\tchallenges\twe\ttalked\tabout\tearlier\twe\tneed\tto\tget\tbetter\tat\tdealing\twith\tdata,\tlike\tthe\tfollowing:\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\tThese\tdata\tensures\tthat\tpeople\tknow\twhere\tto\tgo\twhen\tthey\twant\tto\tuse\tmusic.\tWho\tdo\tthey\tdo\ta\tdeal\twith.\t\n\t\nNot\thaving\tthe\tright\tdata\tcan\tcause\tloss\tof\tdeals\tand\tmoney\tfor\tartists\tand\tsongwriters,\tand\twe\tare\tnot\table\tto\tmaximize\tthe\tuser\texperience.\tImportant\tconsumption\tdata:\t\n\t\t\tThe\tabove\tdata\tallows\tthe\tbusiness\tpartners\tto\tcapitalize\ton\tthe\tfan\tbase.\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nChallenge:\tHow\tto\tensure\tthe\tdata\tis\tspread?\tEnsure\tthe\tdata\tis\tflowing\tas\tbelow:\t\n\t\t\tFrontline\tArtist\tbusiness\tis\tabout:\t\n\t\n\t\nIt\tall\tcomes\tdown\tto\tidentifying\tthe\tright\topportunities:\t\n\tAs\tthe\tdigital\tevolves\tthe\tartists\twill\tbe\texploiting\tmore\trights\tthan\tever:\t\n\tTo\tsum\tup:\t\t1.\tMusic\tCopyright\t“has\tnever\thad\tit\tso\tgood”.\tStreaming\tboom\tcontinues\ton\trecording\tand\tsong\tside.\tThe\tquestion\tremains\tif\twe\tcan\tmaintain\tthat\tgrowth,\tand\twhy\tsome\tsongwriters\tand\tartists\tare\tnot\tseeing\tthe\tbenefit\tof\tthat\tgrowth.\t2.\tThe\tLive\tsector\tis\tin\tpost-COVID\trecovery\tmode\t-\thowever\ttouring\tremains\ta\tchallenge\teven\tin\tmid\ttear.\t\t\t\t\t\n3.\tDirect\tto\tfans\tis\tincreasingly\tabout\tdigital\tcontent\tand\texperiences.\t\t4.\tGood\tdata\tmanagement\tremains\tkey\tfor\tmaximising\tand\tefficiently\tprecessing\trevenues.\t\t5.\tArtist\tbusinesses\tare\tmore\tdiverse\tthan\tever.\t\tThe\tchallenge\tis\tto\tidentify\twhat\tare\tthe\topportunities\tfor\tthe\tindividual\tartists\tand\ttheir\tfan\tbase,\tand\twhat\trights\tthey\tneed\tto\tsecure\tto\tcapitalize\ton\tthose\topportunities.\t\t", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "revenue", + "artist", + "live", + "fan", + "streaming", + "digital", + "right", + "stream", + "data" + ], + "summary": "Chris\tCook\tfounder\tCMU.\t\twww.completemusicupdate.com\t\tTop\t5\tmusic\trevenue\ttrends\t\tIt\tis\tabout\tthe\tfr" + }, + { + "filename": "489775649-MIDiA-Research-Amuse-Independent-Artists-September-2020.pdf", + "text": "Independent Artists | \nPathfinding Through a \nPandemic\nSeptember 2020Mark Mulligan • Keith Jopling About MIDiA Research\nMIDiA Research is a market intelligence and consulting firm with \nlongstanding expertise in the business of entertainment and digital media.\nWe help businesses formulate commercially actionable strategy to \nnavigate the evolving digital landscape. Our clients leverage our expertise, \nproprietary multi-country consumer data and market forecasts to enable \nsmarter and faster decisions. \nWe work with record labels, TV networks, streaming services, \ntech firms, financial organisations, gaming and sports companies, \nproviding unparalleled insights into trends and innovations shaping the \nentertainment market and audience behaviours.\nFor more details visit our website: \nwww.midiaresearch.com or email us at info@midiaresearch.com\nAbout Amuse\nChanging the game since 2017, the music company Amuse gives free \nmusic distribution and empowering tools to artists and their teams across \nthe globe. By using music consumption data Amuse finds, licenses and \nbuilds cutting-edge services for tomorrow’s platinum-selling independent \ntalent. Based out of Stockholm, Sweden, Amuse was founded by music \nindustry executives with a collective vision to redefine artist discovery and \nlabel deals. \nRead more at amuse.io.\nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 2CONTENTS\n04 Key insights\n06 Introduction - artists are no longer just creators\n07 About the survey and sample\n08 Artists direct is the fastest growing sector in the music \n industry\n09 Where labels come into the picture\n10 COVID-19 and lockdown - what impact has been felt among \n artists?\n14 Money, money, money - artists and the challenge of funding \n and earning\n14 Artists need to work multiple revenue streams to build career \n momentum\n16 Funding options\n18 Conclusions\n19 Appendix\nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 3MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 4\n2019 was yet another stand-out year for \nindependent artists, with revenues, streams and \nmarket shares all growing strongly. Then, along \ncame COVID-19 and the world turned upside \ndown. However, in lockdown many independent \nartists found new opportunities and the ability to \ninnovate and create. Leveraging new, not-seen-\nbefore data, this report presents a unique view of \nthe state of the independent artist sector in 2020 \nand how it has navigated the challenges posed \nby COVID-19.\nKEY INSIGHTS\n•\tA\tsector\twith\treal\tscale. Artists direct (i.e. those without \nrecord labels) generated $873 million in 2019, up 32% from \n2018. These independent artists represent the fastest-\ngrowing segment of the global recorded music business, \na segment of global scale with real impact and influence. \nThey are also more streaming native than label artists.\n•\tSuccess\ton\tartists’ \town\tterms. Some 44% of artists want \nto build online and streaming success ‘on their own terms’ , \nwith less than one in five artists considering it important to \nbe signed to a record label. So, how much do labels matter? \nFor just under one in five, getting signed remains the \ngoal while a further quarter of artists want to get signed. \nHowever, 14% of artists feel they can do fine without a label \nand 13% have no interest in signing. \n•\tLockdown\twas\tseen\tas\ta\tunique\tcreative\twindow\tby\t\nartists. \tNearly 70% of artists took the opportunity in \nlockdown to spend more time writing or making music, and \na further 57% created more content for social media. \n•\tArtists\thave\treacted\tto\tlockdown\tdifferently. \tIn terms of \nreleasing music, artists were split – with 46% releasing \nmore music, but 40% putting projects on hold. While nearly \n30% of artists are now more worried about finances than \nbefore, a similar proportion are not too concerned and feel \nthat life will be back to normal soon. \n \nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 5\n•\tLockdown\tplaced\tthe\tspotlight\ton\tstreaming\teconomics. Half of \nartists are becoming concerned that streaming services are not \npaying enough for artists to make a living. One in five artists got \ninvolved with doing live-streamed performances. \n•\tMoney, \tmoney, \tmoney\tstill\telusive. The majority of independent \nartists earn less than $10,000 a year from music, yet income can \ngrow to over $100,000. This is in part due to the sheer scale of artists \nmaking (and distributing) music, but also illustrates how tough it is \nto make a living from being an artist in today’s industry. The use of \ncrowdfunding platforms remains low and artists still have too few \nfunding options for the direct sector to truly blossom.\n•\tArtists\tneed\tto\twork\tmultiple\trevenue\tstreams\tto\tbuild\tcareer\t\nmomentum. \tFor independent artists, streaming is their primary \nsource of income at 28%. Live revenue is second at 18% (which \nmeans they are less exposed to lockdown’s impact than established \nlabel artists). The key for today’s artists is to make revenues from \nmultiple sources such as publishing, teaching, session work, \nsponsorship and merchandise. Artists are small entrepreneur \nbusinesses. They need four or five income streams to get off the \nground. \n•\tMarketing\tis\ta\tDIY \taffair. Half of all direct artists do their own \nmarketing, with one third managing their own marketing budget, \nbut 40% of direct artists spending nothing on marketing. Less than \none in five direct marketers are working with a distributor or label on \nmarketing activities.\n•\tArtists\tare\tself-reliant\tbut\tstill\tinexperienced\twith\tmarketing. \tAt \nleast when it comes to getting their careers started, artists are doing \ntheir own DIY marketing, but they are not making the most of the \ntools available. While almost two-thirds of artists are using Spotify \nFor Artists, few of them are using any other marketing-related tools. MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 6\nIntroduction - artists are no longer just creators \nThe author Nancy Baym (now a principle researcher at Microsoft) \nrecently said: “it’s amazing to me to see how so many careers, in music \nand beyond, have shifted such that it’s no longer enough to do the work. \nNow you have to do the work of making sure everyone is seeing that \nyou’ve done the work.”\nBaym’s point is that the ‘create and they will come’ principle of simply \nmaking great art, no longer gets that art to its deserved audience. A field \nof dreams the music industry is not, but the barriers to entry have been \nremoved at the ground level. With a reported 40,000 songs uploaded \nonto Spotify every day (as mentioned by Daniel Ek in April 2019) there \nhas never been a more vibrant time to get music out there, nor a more \ncompetitive time. In album equivalents (admittedly less relevant to \nstreaming, but still many artists’ primary unit of output) that is roughly \n23,000 albums per week. This is adding to the 50+ million songs already \navailable on Spotify. \nIt comes as no surprise that in the current music environment, the up-\nand-coming artist is rapidly learning the skills of the marketer/promoter \n(and often manager) as well as creator. MIDiA’s latest independent artist \nsurvey finds that half of all artists do their own marketing. That is DIY \nmarketing, since the vast majority of direct artists cannot allocate any \nof the precious income as ‘marketing budget’ . Indeed, two in five artists \nspend no money on marketing at all. \nAs ‘competition’ has intensified, 2020 has been no ordinary year. The \nCOVID-19 pandemic hit the entire music ecosystem hard, yet little work \nhas been done so far to understand artists’ strategies in response to \nit. Perhaps as expected, artists have reacted creatively. Artists turned \nlockdown to their advantage, but mostly to create more. Nearly 70% of \nartists took the opportunity in lockdown to spend more time writing or \nmaking music, and a further 57% created more content for social media. \nAlthough some chose to release less and put projects on hold, direct \nartists were more likely to press on and keep releasing music – with \nnearly half of them doing this. \nIn order to provide a unique and unprecedented view of the artist \ncommunity and how all of these issues and more are shaping artist \ncareers, MIDiA Research fielded a survey to 376 artists across the \nglobe. This report highlights some of the key findings from the study \nto reveal what it means to be an artist in these streaming boom years; \nhow they make money, what career paths they are taking and what \ntheir aspirations are. Welcome to the next chapter of the era of the \nindependent artist.\n MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 7\nAbout the survey and sample\nOur sample of artists for this survey was 376, with respondents from \naround the world including sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, Asia, Europe, \nLatin America and North America. The survey responses were collected \nthroughout June and July 2020, when most of the world was in some \nform of government-imposed ‘lockdown’ , providing a unique window \ninto how artists were choosing to cope and emerge from the situation. \nThe large majority of our sample are artists direct – releasing music \nindependently without a label. The average length of time our artists \nhave been making music approached five years, and our artists varied \nwidely by age, with an average age of nearly 30 years. For more details, \nsee the infographic in the Appendix of this report. \nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 8\nArtists direct is the fastest growing sector in the \nmusic industry\nArtists direct (i.e. artists that release music without a record label) are \nthe fastest growing part of the global recorded music business. The \nsector is increasing its share on streaming platforms like Spotify, and \nthere are more and more artists able to get their music to audiences via \nthe direct route. \nFigure 1: Global artist direct revenue and its share of all recorded \nmusic revenue, 2015–2019, global\nArtists direct generated $873 million in 2019, up 32.1% from 2018. \nOver the same period the total market grew by 111.4%, with the majors \ngrowing by 10.5% and independents by 11.1%. These independent \nartists now represent the fastest growing segment of the global \nrecorded music business, affecting a market of global scale with real \nimpact and influence. In 2019 they represented 4.1% of global recorded \nmusic revenues, up from 3.4% in 2018. Crucially, artists direct added \nmore revenue in 2019 ($212 million) than in 2018 ($183 million). This \nmeans that their role in the market is not just bigger than ever, it is \ngrowing faster than ever. \nStreaming is the main way artists direct make their money from \nrecorded music, with 78% of all their recorded music revenue coming \nfrom it. This compares to 72% for record labels. In terms of their \nrecorded music income, independent artists are streaming native, more \nso than their label artist peers.MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 9\nIndependent artists take the holistic view: contribute to the culture, gain \nrespect, earn a loyal following and use streaming and label services \nto work towards becoming a successful touring act. The job is to build, \nbuild, build, become known in their scene and to stand out from the \npack. In the current intertwined industry, the role of manager is more \ncritical than ever before: to be able to work these separate strands into a \ncoherent whole on behalf of their artists. Managers are there to join the \ndots in an ever more complex music business landscape.\nWhere labels come into the picture\nSo, how much do labels matter to artists as they set out to build a career \nin 2020? For just under one in five, getting signed remains the goal, and \na further quarter of artists want to get signed. However, 14% of artists \nfeel they can do fine without a label and 13% have no interest in signing. \n \nFigure 2: Importance of getting signed to a record label\nAmong our sample, one in 10 considered themselves to be ‘signed’ to a \nlabel (with 3% under contracts with indies and the remainder releasing \nunder their own labels). This puts labels firmly into the category of \nbeing a choice for these artists, but not a condition, of becoming a \nprofessional. Record labels play a central role in the recorded music \nbusiness, but that role is evolving and becoming more defined. One of \nthe key shifts in attitude here is timing, with artists no longer rushing to \nsign the first deal presented to them, or seeing the label deal as the fait \naccompli. \n MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 10\nInstead, it’s a question of where a label fits into the picture of building \ntheir career. Indeed, of those under label contracts, their views on the \nvalue of labels did not differ greatly from those unsigned. Whether a \nmajor label, indie label or distributor, the ‘label’ sector that serves artists \nto make and release records, find audiences and shape careers needs to \nkeep on proving its value to every new artist around the block. \nCOVID-19 and lockdown - what impact has been \nfelt among artists?\nLittle more needs to be said about the impact of COVID-19 on the music \nindustry. However, until now, little has been understood about the range \nof different responses to the pandemic from artists around the globe. \nThe responses to our artist survey show that COVID-19’s impact has \nbeen far from all negative. Indeed, the time has been productive for \ncreatives, with many established artists continuing to release music, \nor even make new records, during the height of the pandemic and the \nvarious national lockdown periods.\nFigure 3: Artist activities during lockdown\nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 11\nFor our sample of artists around the world, lockdown was \nseen as a unique creative window. Nearly 70% of artists took \nthe opportunity in lockdown to spend more time writing or \nmaking music, and a further 57% created more content for \nsocial media. With more time spent making music at home, \nmore artists have been learning the production side of music \ncreativity, accentuating a trend that was already picking up \nspeed before COVID-19. Online creator platforms and tools \nhave been well placed to harness this increased demand, \nwhich will help ensure the post-pandemic music business \nlooks a lot different for artists than the one that existed before.\nArtists have reacted to lockdown differently in some respects. \nIn terms of releasing music, artists were split – with 46% \nreleasing more music, but 40% putting projects on hold. Most \nartists have carried through on releasing music and 46% say \nthey have released more music, with a further 36% working on \ncollaborations. \nLockdown placed the spotlight on streaming economics. Half \nof artists are becoming concerned that streaming services are \nnot paying enough for artists to make a living. The flip side to \nthis is the rise of direct selling platforms, or those that focus \non alternative formats to streaming (vinyl and downloads) such \nas Bandcamp. \nAnother income source just emerging in 2020 is live streaming. \nAs the pandemic lingers and new outbreaks continue to be \nspiky reminders of the danger zone we are still in, real concerts \nseem further off, with the live industry likely to remain reduced \nin scale in 2021. This means that the live streaming sector is \nlikely to become a permanent sector, not a stop-gap. One in five \nartists have been doing live streaming performances since the \nsector took off and this figure will grow as the sector develops \nand new platforms drive more live stream content, including \nthe likes of StageIt, Driift, Maestro, Noon Chorus, Side Door and \nof course, the lockdown success story, Zoom.\nWhile it is still early days for live streaming, and revenues \nstill need to catch up with viewer figures, it is developing into \na significant channel for many established artists, with the \nmajor social platforms all hosting live events, as well as a new \ncrop of independent platforms. However, there remains an \nimportant opportunity to scale live streaming activity for the \ncommunity of lesser-known independent artists who would \nalso be learning their trade as well as earning some much \nneeded revenues. \nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 12\nAlthough the impact of COVID-19 has been negative overall, and for \nsome artists close to devastating, not all artists have lost out. In the \nlive category incomes are down for the majority of artists (though many \nindependent artists made little money from live in the first place). \nHowever, recordings and publishing are a mixed picture with some \nartists making more money than before from releases. \nThe cessation of live was the key cause of disruption for established \nand more traditional artists. However, for the emerging generation of \nindependent artists, live is not anywhere as big a part of their revenue \nmix. Across our sample of artists, live music represented just 18% of \ntotal income. Of course, part of this is related to the fact that many of \nthese artists are earlier on in their careers, and live careers typically \npeak after recording careers have peaked. Yet there is also an industry \nshift taking place. More artists are spending more time focusing on the \nproduction of their music, and making music designed to flourish in \nstreaming environments. It is not that they are actively deprioritising live, \nbut they are spending more time producing than performing and making \nsoundscapes that suit recorded formats better than live. \nThe added change catalyst is that the combined effect of lockdown and \nthe coming recession will likely see many smaller live music venues \nclose. This makes it harder for smaller artists to find places to play, \nthus encouraging them further towards placing even more focus on \nproduction than performance. Clearly this differs a lot by genre, but the \nparadigm shift is here. Figure 4: COVID-19 impact on artists’ incomes\nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 13\nFigure 5: COVID-19 impact on artists’ outlooks\nArtists continue to believe that they will have more time to write and \nproduce new music – perhaps the future offers more breathing room to \ncreate without distractions. Outlook over financial issues is split. While \nnearly 30% of artists are now more worried about finances than before, \na similar proportion are not too concerned and feel that life will be back \nto normal soon. A similar proportion of artists also feel that they have \nnot had enough financial support from their governments, though most \nare not relying on handouts, working whatever revenue streams they \ncan. The great financial struggle for up-and-coming artists continues. \nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 14\nMoney, money, money - artists and the challenge \nof funding and earning\n \nThe majority of independent artists earn less than $10,000 a year \nfrom music, yet income can grow to over $100,000. With the recent \nannouncement by AWAL that ‘hundreds’ of artists are earning over \n$100,000 from streaming, the message is clear that the ‘middle class’ \nof artists does exist. However, the proportion of artists that make it to \nthis level is literally the ‘top 2%’ . This is in part due to the sheer scale of \nartists making (and distributing) music, but also illustrates how tough it \nis to make a living from being an artist in today’s industry. \nFigure 6: Average amount earned by artists each year\nArtists need to work multiple revenue streams to \nbuild career momentum\nFor independent artists, streaming is their primary source of income \nat 28%. Live revenue is second at 18%. The key for today’s artists is to \nmake revenues from multiple sources, including publishing, teaching, \nsession work, sponsorship and merchandise. MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 15\nFigure 7: Distribution of artist income by source\nWhen it comes to artist income, the clear picture is that there is no clear \npicture. Instead, modern day artists manage a mix of income streams, \nwith each individual item often being small but collectively contributing \nto a more meaningful total revenue base. Independent artists are small \nentrepreneur businesses. They need four or five income streams to get \noff the ground.\nStreaming remains the primary income source for independent artists, \nmany of whom are not yet well established enough to earn significant \nrevenue from performing live. Not only that, but live earnings have been \nall but destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic – and indeed this survey \nsuggests that live revenues made up 18% of earnings in 2020 compared \nwith over a quarter last year. \nAs a result, streaming (which has historically come under some heavy \ncriticism over low per-stream rates) has come under an even harsher \nspotlight. For established artists, the loss of live earnings has meant a \n60% or more drop in earnings, making streaming income essential. For \nour sample of independent artists, the key is to have a range of revenue \nstreams contributing to earnings, including publishing, teaching and \nsession work. \nOne trend to emerge in recent years is that many independent artists \nare more likely to earn income by writing and producing for others. This \nis a valid path to both becoming a known artist (i.e. cutting your teeth by \nworking with other musicians as a writer, producer or feature artist) as \nwell as a route to earning a living from music. MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 16\nAnother emerging income stream is participation in online collaboration \nplatforms such as Soundbetter, melboss and LANDR Network. These \nplatforms have gained increased importance for many artists during \nlockdown as they seek out new side hustles to offset the decline in live \nincome.\nFunding options\nWhen it comes to funding options, the use of crowd funding platforms \nremains low and artists still have too few funding options for the direct \nsector to truly blossom.\nFigure 8: Use of crowdfunding services by independent/ \nunsigned artists\nThe vast majority of independent artists – 85% – are not using any of \nthe major creator funding platforms, with just 8% using Patreon. More \nsolutions are needed to the problem of artist funding and remuneration. \nIf more artists can crack funding and remuneration earlier in their \ncareers, the direct artist sector would grow exponentially. The case here \nis clear for increasing the ways that artists of all kinds can close the \nfunding gap as they build their music careers. \n \n \n \n \n MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 17\nAs an artist’s career grows their choices grow with them, \nbut for those first few years the artist’s career is about hard \ngraft first, and choices second. Artists now have more tools, \nservices and choices than at any previous time in the history \nof recorded music. The entire industry has evolved to enable \nartists to plot their own unique career paths through its rapidly \nchanging landscape.\nThe question for emerging artists is, do they have the time to \nbe their own marketer/manager/distributor as well as creator? \nOur survey indicates that with even more time made available \n(with reluctance thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic) most \nartists invested this time in music creation, and are still not \nusing the marketing, data capture or creator dashboards being \nmade available to them. \nFor independent artists, and those on non-exclusive label \ndeals, the outlook is changing with the emergence of new \nways to raise finance, whether that be borrowing against prior \nincome, e.g. 23 Capital, or being paid for anticipated future \nearnings, e.g. Amuse’s Fast Forward and also the Music Fund.\n \nMIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 18\nConclusions\nWith low barriers to entry, multiple distribution platforms, multiple \nrevenue streams and an endless choice of tools to work with, artists are \nequivalent to small businesses. Over decades, a series of large industry \nverticals have been thrown up around the central creative output of \nartists: recording, live, publishing and merch. These sectors are largely \nsiloed from each other. Looking at how artists create and get started in \ntheir careers in 2020, however, those vertical structures are no longer \nalways the most effective way for artists to start out on the journey of a \nmusic career. \nArtists need to experiment – with release strategies, collaborations, live \nperformances and by responding and adapting to audience reactions \nto their early work. Often the artists’ vision of how they see themselves \n– their brand and contribution to their scene, needs to be flexible \nand nimble. There is no greater example of this than how artists have \nresponded to the coronavirus pandemic that has swept across the world \nin 2020 – a year in which live shows were cancelled wholesale, physical \nretail was slammed and as a result – the already competitive online \nworld became even more competitive. In this environment, artists need \nto be their own marketers, but are not using the tools available to them: \nfunding, collaboration, marketing. \nArtists’ response to COVID-19 has been more positive than negative: \nartists have taken advantage of having more time to create, collaborate \nand communicate with fans on social media. However, with half of all \nartists managing their own marketing – and many of them without \nbudgets – it will be an even more crowded market than ever before as \ncontent pours onto the social and streaming platforms. How will the \nwork of independent and direct artists stand out and cut through? There \nis a greater need than ever for artists to access light touch, low-cost but \nhigh-value marketing services and collaboration tools. \nThe challenge goes out to labels, distributors, artist service businesses \nand the creator tools sector to serve the growing community of \ndirect artists better – to take the burden off them when it comes to \nadministrative tasks but to help them find their first audiences. The \nelephant for artists still looms large in the room: money. Most artists \nsimply do not make a living from music, and with live income taking a \nhit, streaming and the collection of money through multiple revenue \nstreams becomes even more critical. MIDIARESEARCH.COM • AMUSE • 19\nAppendix: More about our sample\nmidiaresearch.com\n", + "keywords": [ + "artist", + "music", + "label", + "independent", + "streaming", + "live", + "revenue", + "amuse", + "income", + "direct" + ], + "summary": "Independent Artists | \nPathfinding Through a \nPandemic\nSeptember 2020Mark Mulligan • Keith Jopling A" + }, + { + "filename": "358841206-The-New-Music-Industries.pdf", + "text": "THE NEW MUSIC\nINDUSTRIES\nDisruption and Discovery\nDiane Hughes,\nMark Evans,\nGuy Morrow and\nSarah Keith\n The New Music Industries Diane   Hughes • Mark   Evans • Guy   Morrow • Sarah   Keith \n The New Music \nIndustries \n Disruption and Discovery ISBN 978-3-319-40363-2 ISBN 978-3-319-40364-9 (eBook) \n DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9 \n Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944989 \n © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 \n This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the \nPublisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of \ntranslation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, \nelectronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this \npublication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are \nexempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information \nin this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. \n Cover illustration: © John Rawsterne / patternhead.com \n Printed on acid-free paper \n This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature \nThe registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Diane   Hughes \n Macquarie University \n Sydney , New South Wales , Australia \n Guy   Morrow \n Macquarie University \n Sydney , New South Wales , Australia Mark   Evans \n University of Technology \n Sydney , New South Wales , Australia \n Sarah   Keith \n Macquarie University \n Sydney , New South Wales , Australia v According to Charles Darwin’s well-known theory, evolution is driven \nby ‘survival of the fi ttest’ (Darwin, 1859 , p. 54). This does not neces-\nsarily mean the ‘strongest’ or the ‘smartest’; ‘the fi ttest’ are those who \ncan adapt successfully to an ever-changing world. Over the last 20 years \ndigital technologies have been an ‘extinction event’ for many businesses that failed to adapt (for example, Polaroid, Blockbuster, Encyclopedia Britannica) while they have facilitated the rapid dominance of other new ‘species’ (for example, Instagram, Youtube, and Wikipedia). Schumpeter called this quasi-Darwinian process ‘creative destruction’ (Schumpeter, 1939 ), although the more specifi c and common term these days is ‘digital \ndisruption’ (for example, Kusek & Leonhard, 2005 ;  Collins & Young, \n 2014 , p. 46; Homan, Cloonan, & Cattermole, 2016 , p. 195). \n Whatever name we choose, it is undeniable that the music industry \nhas been disrupted severely by the last two decades of digital innova-tion. Some players have gone the way of the dinosaurs while others have adapted brilliantly. \n This book considers these seismic shifts from multiple perspectives. \nAfter examining how and why things have changed it focuses primarily on the challenges and opportunities for musicians and music profession-als seeking to build careers in the new digital world. What does it take not just to survive , but to thrive ? Some consideration is also given to the \nconsequences for educators seeking to prepare musicians and others for a future of continued fl ux. \n The conclusions reached are of importance not just to those within the \nworld of music but also arguably for those in other fi elds seeking to adapt FOREWORD vi FOREWORD\nto rapidly changing business environments. Music consumers tend to skew \ntoward younger, tech-savvy ‘early adopters’ and a song requires relatively little bandwidth which means it can be distributed online more easily than a movie, television series or book. So in some respects the music industry has actually been a ‘canary down the mine’ for many other fi elds. Its vari-\nous adaptation attempts over recent years may provide broader lessons in how—and how not— to operate in a post-industrial economy. \n To some extent change has always been a constant for the music indus-\ntry. Around a century ago wax cylinders and pianola rolls began to give way to shellac 78’s as the dominant sound carriers of their day. From the 1950s jukeboxes loaded with 7\" singles were supplanted by LPs and cas-settes until, by 1995, over $25 billion worth of CDs were being sold glob-ally each year. Nonetheless, the pace , extent and direction of change has \nincreased markedly since that fi nancial high water mark. Rampant online \npiracy and fl awed supplier-centered MP3 solutions ushered in a period \nof track download dominance that is already being supplanted in most markets by streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. After growing constantly for most of the twentieth century, real worldwide recording revenues are now roughly half what they were two decades ago. \n Not only has music consumption changed, so have the means of music \n discovery. For most of the last century radio and television exposure were \ntypically the key drivers of hit songs and while traditional media remains important, that discovery process is now vastly more fragmented. In some instances stars can emerge from just one online channel (namely, Shawn Mendes via Vine or Troye Sivan through YouTube), with Facebook and other forms of social media typically playing pivotal roles in exposing all new music. This space has even seen its own recent Darwinian struggles with services such as Napster, Friendster and Myspace roaring from obscu-rity to ubiquity and back again. In summary, change has become even more constant since the Internet began to take hold in the mid-1990s. \n Of course all of this change has impacted hugely on the artists who \nmake music. For the fi rst half of the last century it was enough ‘just’ to \nhave an evocative singing voice and to look compelling, although once the Beatles came along, ‘real’ artists were usually expected to write their own songs too. From the 1980s onwards the rise of MTV meant ‘wannabe popstars’ also typically had to be able to perform well in music videos, while over the last 20 years the list of ‘job pre-requisites’ has expanded sig-nifi cantly. New artists are now expected to be pithy linguists on Twitter, to \nhave a knack for fascinating still photography (Instagram), and for writing, FOREWORD vii\ndirecting and performing in attention-grabbing short fi lms for platforms \nincluding VEVO and Snapchat. \n The bad news is that artists now need to do much more. The good \nnews is that artists can do much more for themselves. \n This is hugely liberating for motivated, diligent and highly creative peo-\nple. In a bygone era of fi nite radio playlists and limited slots on TV variety \nshows most artists never even got a chance to be heard. A few ‘middle of the road’ performers usually enjoyed the most success precisely because they suited the handful of available channels that all sought to attract mass audiences. In the current era of virtually infi nite bandwidth the opposite \nis often true—the middle of the road is now typically where artists get run over. Performers and/or their songs now often need to be toward the edges somehow in order to stand out. The work needs to be ‘remarkable’ in the sense of having some highly unusual qualities that move people to \nshare it with friends. \n As most artists are now ‘broadcasting’ (or narrowcasting) themselves \nconstantly through their various online channels the main challenge is to break through the consequent clutter. This has been exacerbated by the democratization of recording and video production technology and the reduced need for physical distribution. In the twentieth century there were high barriers to entry for any artist seeking to be heard by a mass audience. Signifi cant investment capital was needed to fund six-fi gure \nalbum and video budgets, and distribution infrastructure was required to keep LPs or CDs stocked in retailers around the world. Strong relation-ship networks with powerful media gatekeepers were also pivotal. All of these barriers to entry allowed record companies to assume a dominant role in most musical careers and meant that relatively few artists ever had their music heard by the general public. \n These days, however, virtually every digital device contains recording \nand video editing software so almost anyone can create sound and vision for a tiny fraction of what it would have cost their parents at the same age. Today’s artists can also immediately share and monetize their creativity with the world through any number of online outlets including Soundcloud, Beatport and YouTube so they often don’t need access to a physical dis-tribution network or to substantial seed capital (and even if they do need funding they may have the option of crowdsourcing it). The contemporary challenge for music makers and those who work with them is thus to create something so striking that it can make itself heard with, or without, early support from mainstream media. It’s as simple, and as diffi cult, as that. viii FOREWORD\n In short, most artists used to be trees falling in a forest with nobody \nto hear them. Now there are millions of ‘trees’ falling at once and so they need to create ‘remarkable’ things that allow them to be heard above a forest of digital din. Throw in increased competition from other emerging forms of entertainment—apps, games, video streaming etc—and the best possible advice for any beginner hoping to stand out from their virtually infi nite musical peers is this: ‘Don’t. Be. Boring.’ \n As the above outline implies, digital disruption has transformed the rela-\ntionship between artist, industry and consumer. Until quite recently music makers needed to somehow navigate their way past a series of industry gatekeepers—managers, talent scouts, promotion departments, radio pro-grammers etc.—in order to eventually get a chance to be heard by most consumers. Along the way each of these gatekeepers relied largely on per-sonal intuition and/or experience in deciding which artists to ‘let past’. Career building was thus typically a linear process of charming and cajoling \nthese gatekeepers. Consumers were only introduced at the fi nal step when \nthey were invited to choose from the small menu of songs funded by labels, programmed by radio or television stations and stocked by local retailers. \n These days though the process is typically circular . The artist initially \nshares their music online with potential consumers. If that fi rst exposure \nstrikes a suffi ciently strong chord then fans will start to share it widely. A \nblogger might notice that reaction and draw the song to the attention of more people. As a result of the consequent uptick in organic plays, the tune might be included on a widely heard Spotify playlist or receive its fi rst \nspins on tastemaker radio stations. This upward spiral of artist-consumer- industry interactions can continue to unfold in many ways and at a diz-zying pace where a ‘remarkable’ new song explodes from its fi rst play to \nmillions of plays within days. The key point is that the fi rst steps are usually \ndirectly from artist-to-fan; most gatekeepers now typically follow the fans \nwhen it used to be the other way around. \n We thus live in a world of ‘build it and they will come \n1 ’, with the still- \ncoveted high rotation radio spins and magazine covers increasingly going to artists who have already proved online that their creations are made of the right stuff. This is bad news for anyone sitting around hoping some Svengali will swoop out of the clouds and make them a star, but it is fan-tastic news for hard-working artists who are keen to engage directly with their audience. It’s also good news for music consumers who have more access to more music, more affordably than ever, but it’s mixed news for the people who used to be gatekeepers. FOREWORD ix\n This iterative discovery process obviously means that industry interme-\ndiaries no longer have to just back their instincts—instead they can sup-port whatever is already generating an exponential adoption curve within their audience. As a result, garnering the support of such powerful people now typically depends on pointing to proof of early reactivity rather than on appeals to gut feel or longstanding relationships. The gatekeeper role has largely shifted from a seemingly omniscient picking of ‘winners’ to a role of enabling and amplifying audience ‘likes’. Disintermediation has forced adaption. You are either genuinely adding value for artists and/or consumers or you are unfi t to survive. \n Incidentally this iterative discovery process is having profound impacts \non the global spread of music. There are very few borders on the Internet and consequently Australian artists can now compete internationally on a more level playing fi eld—largely free of the serious budgetary, geographi-\ncal and institutional handicaps that confronted previous generations. Conversely this ‘fl atter’ world presents serious issues for governments \nseeking to preserve local content quotas and for the nature of nineteenth century copyright laws in the twenty-fi rst century. These are just a few of \nthe many related issues you may wish to contemplate upon reading this book. \n As this cursory consideration of the contemporary music industry land-\nscape hopefully suggests, digital change has done lots of good but it has unavoidably created both winners and losers. Per Darwin’s theory, the key in each case has been the willingness and ability to adapt by way of \na series of ‘variations’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 54). Those who adapted best embraced the reality that musical careers hinge on the ability to strike a chord directly with an audience and to sustain that connection over time. When viewed in this way it is clear that while the means may have changed \nover recent decades, the ends really have not. The careers of successful \nartists, and those who work with them, have always depended on build-ing large fanbases and that remains the ‘main game’. However, artists no longer need to rely solely on powerful intermediaries to reach their audi-ence. They can, and must, also speak authentically to fans directly through online channels. \n Business school graduates might say that this is all simply about hav-\ning a ‘customer oriented mindset’ (Lado, Paulraj, & Chen, 2011) and while that is probably true such a framing is unlikely to appeal to an artis-tic temperament. Thankfully the new ways of building connections with audiences can also be framed as creative opportunities. In fact most young x FOREWORD\nmusicians already do this intuitively for precisely that reason. The ability \nto express oneself in new ways online—as well as via songs—is now all just part of the appeal of a music career. Older readers seeking to understand these exciting artistic possibilities may like to consider what a young John, Paul, George and Ringo might have concocted with all these new digital tools at their fi ngertips. \n Finally it’s important to note that ‘the music industry’ is actually a vari-\nety of interconnected but largely separate types of businesses including recording, publishing, touring and merchandising. Digital disruption has altered all of them in various ways but it has had much greater impact on copyright-based enterprises (for example, record companies) than it has had on concert promoters, booking agents and suchlike because the live performance experience obviously cannot (yet?) be digitized. \n Touring therefore actually remains the bedrock of most twenty-fi rst- \ncentury musical careers. In a world of declining copyright revenues, live performances increasingly constitute the primary source of income for most artists, and global touring grosses continue to rise nearly every year. Gigging also remains one of the best ways of demonstrating audience reactivity and in this respect too, the more things change, the more things stay the same. \n In the 1970s and 1980s heyday of Oz Rock one legendary record com-\npany mogul liked to say that his job was actually very easy: ‘You just walk into a pub, you look to the left, you look to the right and if you can’t see any walls because of all the sweaty punters then you sign the band’. In that respect, at least, little has changed, although this process is acceler-ated vastly online. Regardless of the means, an artist’s ability to fascinate a sizable audience one way or another is still ultimately all that matters. The ‘fi ttest’ in the digital age will simply be those who adapt best to the new \nmethods of creative self-expression and continue to fi nd remarkable ways \nto strike a chord with fans. Despite all the digital disruptions, surviving in this new environment is clearly still more about evolution than revolution. \n John Watson \n President \n John Watson Management/Eleven: A Music Company\nhttp://elevenmusic.com \n NOTES \n 1. A catchphrase from the popular fi lm Field of Dreams (Phil Robinson, 1989). FOREWORD xi\n REFERENCES \n Collins, S., & Young, S. (2014). Beyond 2.0: The future of music . Sheffi eld, UK: \nEquinox Publishing. \n Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species . London: John Murray. \n Homan, S., Cloonan, M., & Cattermole, J. (2016). Popular music and the state: \nPolicy notes . London/New York: Routledge. \n Kusek, D., & Leonhard, G. (2005). The future of music: Manifesto for the digital \nmusic revolution . Boston, MA: Berklee Press. \n Lado, A. A., Paulraj, A., & Chen, I. J. (2011). Customer focus, supply‐chain rela-\ntional capabilities and performance: Evidence from US manufacturing indus-tries. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 22 (2), 202–221. \n Schumpeter, J. (1939). Business cycles: A theoretical, historical, and statistical anal-\nysis of the capitalist process . New York: McGraw Hill. xiii We sincerely thank all our participants for their generosity and contribu-\ntions to our project, and Dr Denis Crowdy for his contribution to the research. \n We gratefully thank John Watson for his support in writing the \nForeword to this volume. \n We are also appreciative of the research assistance provided during the \nvarious stages of our research. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xv 1 The State of Play 1 \n 2 The New Business of Music 17 \n 3 Standing Out in the Crowd 37 \n 4 Creativities, Production Technologies and Song \nAuthorship 63 \n 5 The Realities of Practice 81 \n 6 Popular Music Education 97 \n 7 Conclusion: The ‘New’ Artist 117 \n Index 133 CONTENTS xvii NOTES ON AUTHORS \n Mark   Evans is Head of the School of Communication at the University of \nTechnology, Sydney, Australia. Professor Evans is Series Editor for Genre, Music \nand Sound (Equinox Publishing) and is currently Editor for The International \nEncyclopedia of Film Music and Sound . He holds an Australian Research Council \n(ARC) grant to design an artistic and environmental map of the Shoalhaven basin in New South Wales, Australia. \n Diane   Hughes is Associate Professor in Vocal Studies and Music at Macquarie \nUniversity, Australia. Her research areas include the singing voice, popular music pedagogy, fi lm and sound, recording practices, the music industries, song-\nwriting and the popular song. Associate Professor Hughes  is currently the National President of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing Ltd. \n Sarah   Keith is a lecturer in Music and Media at Macquarie University, Australia. \nDr Keith’s research areas include popular music studies, Korean and Japanese pop-ular music, other East Asian popular musics, the music industries, music and cul-tural policy, music and screen media, music and performance technologies, and computer-mediated composition. \n Guy   Morrow is a lecturer in Arts Industries and Management at Macquarie \nUniversity, Australia. Dr Morrow focuses on understanding how artists are man-aged, both in terms of direct artist management and also through cultural policies. By examining the relationship between artists and managers, Dr Morrow gener-ates core-related insights in the creative industries. He is currently the Secretary of the International Music Business Research Association. xix Fig. 1.1 The creative continuum (Adapted from Madden & \nBloom, 2001, pp. 413) 10 \n Fig. 2.1 360 model showing label intermediation between artists and \naudiences/fans 22 \n Fig. 2.2 Entrepreneur model showing the network of potential \npersonnel and roles across the new music industries 24\n Fig. 2.3 DIY model, showing that the artist bears the sole responsibility 25\n Fig. 2.4 Linear model showing traditional intermediation between \nartist and fans 29\n Fig. 2.5 Circular model encompassing artists, fans and industry 30\n Fig. 6.1 An integrated music education model 107\n Fig. 6.2 Artistry component 109\n Fig. 6.3 Individualisation component 110 \n Fig. 6.4 Artist-entrepreneur component 112\n Fig. 7.1 The new artist and engagement reciprocity 119 LIST OF FIGURES 1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_1 CHAPTER 1 \n Abstract The democratisation of music technologies and the digitisation \nof music practices have resulted in the development and fragmentation \nof related industries. No longer a label-centric industry, these new music \nindustries facilitate increased opportunities for twenty-fi rst century musi-\ncians to collaborate, to communicate and to interact with others inter-\nested in their music. This chapter introduces and identifi es the new music \nindustries, offers related defi nitions and outlines our research design and \nmethod. \n Keywords Disruption • Discovery • Popular music • Creativities • \n Streaming \n INTRODUCTION \n There is no denying that massive disruption has come to the traditional \nmusic industry. From the chaos, and sometimes ashes, we have seen the \nbirth of the new music industries (Williamson & Cloonan, 2007 ). The \nplurality is important here, for the democratisation of music technologies \nand the digitisation of music practices have resulted in the development \nand fragmentation of related industries. These industries offer possibilities \nfor employment, ‘success’ and, most importantly, creativity to fl ourish. \nNo longer a recording-dominated, label-centric industry, these new music \nindustries facilitate increased opportunities for twenty-fi rst century artists \nto collaborate, to communicate and to interact with others interested in The State of Play their music. This brings with it many challenges for musicians and new ter-\nrains they must learn to navigate. This volume identifi es aspects of the new \nmusic industries (for example, digital aggregators, social media consultants, online streaming sites), and considers how musicians, industry practitioners and audiences are locating themselves in this new landscape. Even traditional notions within the former music industry—performance, liveness, produc-tion, artist, training, success, creativity—have been altered through digital disruption. This book considers these fundamental changes, and seeks to equip participants of the new music industries with ideological and opera-tional models of knowledge that will help them interact with the industries and their component parts. The strength of this volume lies in the ethnogra-phy that underpins it. Throughout the volume we document real narratives, from real people working in various corners of the new music industries. These voices tell the story of what is actually happening for musicians and industry professionals working in the disrupted environment. To highlight this, the volume is prefaced with the thoughts of John Watson. Watson, President of Eleven: A Music Company, is one of the leading industry voices in Australia and someone who has seen hundreds of narratives unfold (and change) before him. Watson provides real-world perspectives that effectively initiate the conversations that unfold throughout the rest of the volume. It is not the purpose of this volume to provide hypothetical theoretical positions, rather we focus on real-world stories from those at the coalface. \n WHAT IS THE STATE OF PLAY? \n As Watson notes in the Foreword to this volume, change has been a \nconstant feature of the popular music industry, and that change has almost always been technologically driven. Indeed newness has been at the heart of musical development for centuries. Sometimes that newness has merely revolved around rejection of previous traditions: the roman-tic period’s rejection of the perceived formulaic nature of classical music; bebop’s rejection of the stable swing jazz that preceded it; or punk’s rejec-tion of the aesthetics of rock and pop. Other times newness has come through innovation, through avant-garde expressions of musicality: serial-ism’s mathematical devotion to musical construction; musique concrète ’s \nembrace of found sounds; or electronic dance music’s commitment to entirely synthetic music composition. Newness and constant evolution are vital parts of music’s history and future. What is different at this point in history is the pace of the change, and the extent of the change (see Watson, Foreword this volume). Change has come to the way music 2 D. HUGHES ET AL.is produced (for example, studio, home, venue), distributed (for example, \nphysical sales, online platforms) and consumed (for example, digital). And \nfundamental change has come to the business of music, so much so that \nit is now impossible to speak of a music industry in the singular. And ways \ninto that business, even the manner of what success is (Hughes, Keith, \nMorrow, Evans, & Crowdy, 2013a ), have changed forever. This has had \nhuge effects on those who made, or sought to make a living through \nmusic. It also concerns regulators, advisory groups, government and \nmusic educators. The extent of the change is all-encompassing. \n ‘Music piracy on a global level grew by 16.5% in the second half of 2015’ \n(Reid, 2016 ). Such headlines have become commonplace in the last few \nyears, as digital distribution creates digital consumption and allows complete \ncircumvention of traditional business models. Reid’s article reports on an \nanti-piracy study that surveyed 576 websites ‘dedicated to music piracy, or \ncontain[ing] signifi cant music content’ (Reid, 2016 ). The report found these \nsites had been visited over two billion times, with the top national offenders \nnamed (the USA coming in at number one). The extent of musical disrup-\ntion can be seen in the globalized nature of it. Reid goes on to report that:\n It’s already been proven in Norway and Sweden that better and more acces-\nsible streaming options help fi ght against piracy. A survey in December \n2014 showed that just 4% of Norwegians under 30 still used illegal plat-\nforms to download music. Sweden’s anti-piracy law, titled IPRED, resulted \nin increased music sales by 36% during the fi rst six months of the law’s \nimplementation. (Reid, 2016 ) \n Such tactics may well work for the developed world, but do nothing to \ncombat the global piracy problem—if indeed one views piracy as a prob-\nlem to be dealt with. What this shows us, however, is the speed of change \nand development. As the distribution avenues change and evolve, govern-\nments and regulators are forced to scramble for new solutions. \n Part of that scramble has undoubtedly revolved around online streaming \ndistribution and consumption patterns. While the Swedish and Norwegian \nexamples cited above appear to be working to undermine piracy, how art-\nists and their industry partners are remunerated and benefi ted through \nstreaming services continues to be debated. A well- publicised exam-\nple was when the band Atoms for Peace removed their music from the \nstreaming site Spotify. The removal was pushed for by band member and \nlong time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, who felt that Spotify and \nstreaming sites in general were not going to help the development of new \nmusic (Bychawski,  2013 ). He was dubious that smaller producers and art-THE STATE OF PLAY 3ists would receive any signifi cant payments from streaming, but that major \nlabels would still prosper:\n The way that Spotify works is that the money is divided up by percentage \nof total streams. Big labels have massive back catalogues so their 40 year old \nrecord by a dead artist earns them the same slice of the pie as a brand new \ntrack by a new artist. The big labels did secret deals with Spotify and the like \nin return for favourable royalty rates. The massive amount of catalogue being \nstreamed guarantees that they get the big massive slice of the pie (that $500 \nmillion) and the smaller producers and labels get pittance for their compara-\ntively few streams. This is what’s wrong. (Godrich, cited in Bychawski, 2013 ) \n Similarly, Taylor Swift pulled her catalogue from Spotify very publicly in \n2014. Given her net worth—according to Forbes she made US$80 mil-\nlion in 2015—it would have been nonsensical to complain about how \nlittle money she was receiving from the service. Rather she tied her argu-\nment to issues of artistic value.\n With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in \norder to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I’ve \ncreated. On Spotify, they don’t have any settings, or any kind of qualifi cations \nfor who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value \nto what musicians have created, and that’s that. (Swift cited in Engel, 2014 ) \n Audiences and fans will increasingly be drawn into this debate of what \nart, in this case musical product, should cost. And the lines of division \nare beginning to be demarcated, with huge levels of illegal downloading \nstill occurring, alongside increasing numbers of successful crowdsourcing \ncampaigns, where fans are giving directly to the artist. The business of \nstreaming services will continue to be an added complication within this \nlandscape, but in pure distribution terms they offer artists another avenue \nto be heard, and heard widely at that. Increasingly, there is no illusion \nabout the take-up from the public:\n Subscription services, part of an increasingly diverse mix of industry rev-\nenue streams, are going from strength to strength. Revenues from music \n subscription services—including free-to-consumer and paid-for tiers—grew \nby 51.3 per cent in 2013, exceeding US$1 billion for the fi rst time and \ngrowing consistently across all major markets. (IFPI, 2014 , p. 7) \n Record companies and chart compilers are increasingly adapting charts \nto reliably refl ect the popularity of an artist’s music in the streaming world. 4 D. HUGHES ET AL.It has also become more common to use streaming data to calculate Gold \nand Platinum awards certifi cations around the world. (IFPI, 2015 , p. 13) \n Another aspect of the distribution problem is the more basic one of \ngetting your music heard (see also Watson, Foreword this volume). As we \nwill document later, it is not enough to record your song and put it online; \nmore needs to happen to get it ‘heard’ by people. One industrial change \nthat has become a prominent part of solving this is the rise of synchroni-\nsation (the combination of an audio text with an image text, most nota-\nbly in fi lm, television or video games). Television synchronisation, while \nnot a new phenomenon, is probably the most notable here. Long the \nmost denigrated media form for audio, the impact of a high-profi le sync \n(synchronisation) can now break an artist, or resurrect a fl ailing career. \nEvidence of this can be seen in articles such as ‘Billboard’s First-Ever TV’s \nTop Music Power Players List Revealed’ (Billboard, 2015 ), which high-\nlights the audience numbers and earning potential for artists with high- \nimpact syncs. \n Performance outlets have always been important for musicians, and with \nthe diminishing returns from recorded output, performance is becom-\ning the dominant revenue stream for artists. But performance venues are \nsubject to seasonal variances in government policy and other regulatory \naspects that can impinge on artist opportunities to perform. In February \n2014, the New South Wales government introduced ‘lockout’ laws into \nsome areas of the Sydney CBD. The new laws include a 1.30am lockout \n(effectively stopping patrons entering venues after this time) and 3am last \ndrinks. The laws were part of the state government’s crackdown on drug \nand alcohol-fuelled violence. While social benefi ts are evident, there have \nbeen some severe side-effects for the city’s performance culture. Between \n31 January 2013 and 1 February 2015, collection agency APRA-AMCOS \nreported a 40% drop in ticket sales to live performance venues, along with \na ‘19 per cent decline in attendances across all live venues over the same \nperiod and a 15 per cent fall in the amount venues spent on live per-\nformers’ (Vincent, 2016 ). Live Music Offi ce policy director John Wardle \nstated: ‘These fi gures demonstrate the actual impacts for musicians, \n venues, businesses. People are looking at this closely to try and fi nd a way \nthrough because they are going out of business’ (cited in Vincent, 2016 ). \nWhile this is a localised example, 1 the point here is the sudden change \nto an established culture. Artists may have prepared their performance \nstrategy around late-night gigs, only to have it wrecked by forces beyond \ntheir control. As Wardle pointed out, ‘The music industry had no time to THE STATE OF PLAY 5prepare so the impacts were greater than they might have been’ (cited in \nVincent, 2016 ). Such events are hard for artists to plan for—though, as \nwill be seen, the ability to adapt and be fl exible is a key competency in the \nnew music industries. \n DISRUPTION AND DISCOVERY \n As noted in the subtitle, this book is concerned with notions of disruption \nand discovery in the new music industries. There is much written about the \ndisruption side of things (for example, Kusek & Leonhard,  2005 ; Collins \n& Young,  2014 , p. 46; Homan, Cloonan, & Cattermole,  2016 , p. 195) \nand it was a key issue for our research participants, but there is plenty \nof discovery going on as well. Artists are learning how to adapt into the \nnew territories, how to create new roles for themselves and their teams, \nand most importantly, how to develop new models for creative practices \nand business management. Thus for all the disruption thrust on the sec-\ntor, surviving and/or prospering in the new world is more about evolu-\ntion than revolution (Watson, Foreword this volume). Artists are being \nrequired to adapt their involvement with all facets of the music industries, \nto evolve alongside technological development. As digital access broadens \nfor all participants, so artists must discover new ways of interacting with \naudiences, producing content, and engaging with industry fi gures. It is \nan evolution that remains full of promise despite the move away from of \nrecord label-centric models. The move to a do-it-yourself (DIY) model \nnecessitates the evolution of new skills. Previously some of these skills had \nbeen in the possession of professionals in other industries, but in other \ncases they are brand-new capabilities evolving alongside the technology \nthat makes them possible. For some, this is still a utopian view of the \nage of artist-entrepreneurship. They argue that traditional music indus-\ntry intermediaries remain essential for artist survival (Hesmondhalgh & \nMeier, 2015 ). Our research throughout this volume shines a light on \nthose evolving their creativities for the digital age, and turning their back \non traditional models of success and associated revenue. \n Owing to our focus on discovery and disruption, this is not a book \nabout policy. Our book is grounded in the practice of artists, industry \npractitioners and, of course, fans. There have been several recent studies \nproviding useful insights into the changing nature, or the need of change, \nin policy directions within the new musical industries. Most pertinently, \nHoman, Cloonan and Cattermole’s ( 2015 ) recent volume has broad con-\ncerns about policy across three nation states:6 D. HUGHES ET AL. We are interested in the effect of policies—their impacts upon musicians, \nfans, managers, corporations, built environments—and in their histories, \nrationales and formations… Public funding for pop music has historically \nstood in the shadow of funding for art music. We will consider here how this \nis changing and address the shifting nature of state intervention, examining \nin particular forms of policy other than funding models. (pp. 2–3) \n Such a volume sits alongside our practice-grounded study, highlighting \nthe external forces that are coming to bear on everyday practitioners and \ncreativities. \n Certainly there are issues aplenty for governments and regulators as a \nresult of digital disruption. While the economic ramifi cations of the new \nbusiness fl ows (the loss of sales tax or import tax, for instance) are readily \nidentifi able, other, less tangible implications are becoming more appar-\nent. The fl atter world created through digital production and distribu-\ntion complicates attempts to enforce local content quotas and protect \nlocal industries and artists. The whole enforcement of copyright, a largely \nhistorical concept and set of laws, is immeasurably more diffi cult in the \ntwenty-fi rst century. Homan et al. ( 2015 ) feel that the broader agenda \nof copyright reform has been clouded by the jockeying to keep up with \ncontemporary (read digital) infringements:\n The enormous effort in drafting new laws on copyright infringement has \ncertainly overshadowed other important aspects of copyright law and, more \nimportantly, how it operates more broadly within national contexts. (p. 117) \n But, as Watson notes in the Foreword to this volume, there are vast oppor-\ntunities and areas of discovery in all of this. There are no absolute borders \non the Internet. Governments might be scrambling to appropriately regulate \nand get recompensed for artistic endeavor, but there is nothing (in practical \nterms) to stop a rapper from a small regional area becoming a global phe-\nnomenon. There is little to stop the music of one region reaching another \ncorner of the Earth. However, as we will detail later in the volume, the power \nstructures behind the new music industries still yield considerable power. \nThe opportunities are there but the battle remains to have your music heard. \n DEFINITIONS \n Many of the terms and concepts in this volume are familiar to a wide audi-\nence. However, great differences exist in the way terminology is employed. \nOften in the new music industries terms have been reappropriated and are THE STATE OF PLAY 7used in contexts very different from their original formation. One recurring \nnotion that features throughout the volume is that of the artist. For our pur-\nposes we have restricted its use to musical artists only, including bands, solo \nmusicians, producers and so forth. We acknowledge that there are many \npersonnel involved in crafting a musical career (for example, stylists, manag-\ners, social media strategists), however our defi nition of an artist is restricted \nto those involved in musical creation. In line with the new musical industries \nour use recognises the diversity of musical creativities and roles now present. \nWe delineate the other industry practitioner roles, and normally stipulate \nexactly the participant role/s involved (in brackets) throughout the volume. \n One longstanding issue with the term artist revolves around profession-\nalism. At what point is an artist considered a professional? With the new \nimpetus on DIY creation and dissemination in the new music industries, \nthis question is even further clouded. In their 2010 study into the econom-\nics of professional artists, Throsby and Zednik (2010) usefully note that:\n In some fi elds, the defi nition of a professional is straightforward… For art-\nists, any single test is inadequate as a comprehensive defi nition of profes-\nsional standing. Criteria that are used in other occupations may or may not \napply; for example, an income test is unsatisfactory since in a given year a \nprofessional artist may earn little or no income, while a test based on for-\nmal qualifi cations will overlook professional artists who are self-taught… a \nprimary concern for our defi nition of professionalism relates to the manner \nand standards of an artist’s work—is he or she working at a level of work and \ndegree of commitment appropriate to the norms for professional recogni-\ntion in their particular artform? (p. 14) \n While useful, where this explanation struggles is in relation to the \n‘norms for professionalism’ in the current environment. As will be shown, \nit could now be normal for an artist to operate outside of any formal \nindustrial apparatus and construct their own career entirely on their own. \nYet within Throsby and Zednik’s ( 2010 ) schema this still involves a degree \nof commitment that is often extraordinary. Other artists may seek to reach \na wide audience with their music, but this might occur through traditional \nperformance, or synchronization, or online distribution. To that end, even \nthe concept of success has changed (Hughes et al., 2013a ). Measures of \nsuccess have broadened from traditional ideas of record sales, peer awards \nand performance venue sizes to include reach, personal contentment and \nartistic integrity (see, for example, Letts, 2013 ). Global pop phenomenon \nSia (Furler) is an example. Having crafted a solo career since 1997, fi nally 8 D. HUGHES ET AL.achieving global success with hits such as ‘Clap Your Hands’ (written by \nFurler and Dixon, released  2010) and ‘Chandelier’ (written by Furler \nand Shatkin, from the chart-topping 1000 Forms of Fear album released \nthrough Inertia/Monkey Puzzle/RCA, 2014), her well-publicized \nattempts at performance anonymity have coupled with a desire to write \nsongs for others, rather than be the focal point herself: ‘I don’t care about \ncommercial success,’ she says. ‘I get to do what I love and communicate \nwhatever I want’ (Sia cited in Gallo, 2013 ). \n Popular music success has long been concerned with the idea of reach-\ning an audience, and preferably having them buy recorded music (Shuker, \n 1994 ; Longhurst, 1995 ). Yet notions of fandom, or active audiences, have \nalso been developed for many years (Negus, 1996 ). In the current climate \nwe see an even more overt separation between the two descriptors. An \naudience for your music is viewed as a broad collective, a faceless, num-\nberless group that will engage with your music at some minor level (per-\nhaps merely by hearing it on a Pandora playlist). Fans in the new music \nindustries are extremely active. They might undertake ‘work’ for you on \nsocial media, reposting announcements of new products or video clips, \nthey could circulate information about upcoming gigs, and of course, they \nprovide direct feedback to artists. Fans more than ever are active agents. \nThey are, however, potentially coming from all directions and, in this \nsense, are unpredictable. They are invested in the work of the artist, and in \nterms of crowdsourcing, might even be contributing funds to help support \nthe work of the artist. There is no doubt that, in the context of the new \nmusic industries, the question of who decides what is novel and creative \nis dependent on a social system that has been broadened by social media: \nfans decide at the outset of the artist’s career whether they deem the music \nto be novel/creative. Moreover, they make judgments about the ethos of \nthe artist, their musical integrity, and their capacity for self- identifi cation. \nThroughout this volume, the terms audience and fans are used carefully \nand contextually, referencing the different levels of engagement present. \n CREATIVITIES \n We make mention of the (new) creativities unpinning the music industries. \nAgain, we prefer the term creativities (after Burnard, 2012 ) to denote a \nrange of creative options (both musical and business) and refer to creativ-\nity in the singular in relation to the creative process. In the new music \nindustries, understanding a continuum of creativities is particularly help-\nful in delineating artist endeavour. Madden and Bloom ( 2001 ) posited THE STATE OF PLAY 9‘hard’ and ‘weak’ creativity in order to aid clarity around the way creativity \nwas being deployed (p. 412). For them:\n ‘Hard’ creativity represents the creation of something that is ‘brand new’ \nin the sense that it is unprecedented (creation as invention). ‘Weak’ cre-\nativity represents something merely being ‘brought into being’ (creation \nsimply as production). Hard and weak creativity are clearly not opposite \nends of a spectrum, but have a subset/superset relationship. It is useful, \ntherefore, to introduce a third form to contrast directly with hard creativity. \nThis form will be called ‘soft’ creativity, and taken to represent reproduc-\ntion, i.e. completely non-inventive production… In practice, creative acts \nwill inevitably involve some mix of hardness and softness, and will there-\nfore be positioned somewhere inside the limits of the hard–soft continuum. \n(Madden & Bloom, 2001, pp. 412–413) \n In terms of our discussion of the new music industries, we address this \ncontinuum of creativities by discussing soft creativity, reproduction, stan-\ndardisation and uniformity in Chapter 2 , and hard creativity, innovation \nand novelty in Chapter 3 . Undeniably, being able to view the continuum of \ncreativities is essential to artists. At different times they might employ dif-\nferent strategies to build audience engagement or creative exposure in dif-\nferent continuum contexts. The diagram shows the continuum, and how it \npertains to material covered in different chapters of the volume (Fig. 1.1 ).\n It might appear that the words used in this continuum have a pejorative \nelement; they do not. Standardisation and uniformity might be entirely \nfi tting for a covers band (see Homan, 2006 ) that is minimising their own \nhard creative input in order to faithfully replicate a sound or experience for \nan audience. They might even use this vehicle to help develop some hard \nSoft\ncreativityHard\ncreativityStandardisation \nand uniformity, \nadherence to \nestablished forms'Standing out in \nthe crowd', \ninnovation and \nnoveltyCreativity\nAll production\n Fig. 1.1 The creative continuum (Adapted from Madden & Bloom, 2001 , pp. 413) 10 D. HUGHES ET AL.creativity (see Chapter 4 ). Hence the continuum is quite fl uid. What is \nimportant is artists positioning themselves within it, understanding which \ndirection they are taking their craft and for what purpose. Interestingly, \nboth ends of the continuum can yield substantial fi nancial success, so nei-\nther should be considered inferior to the other. In terms of success, espe-\ncially in light of the changing defi nitions of artist success (see  Hughes \net al., 2013a ), both can produce rewarding levels of success. In light of \nthese observations we have adapted the model to include soft creativity \n(rather than weak, which has other connotations). As will be shown, this \nbecomes a useful frame for the research presented throughout this volume. \n RESEARCH RATIONALE AND DESIGN \n Disruption in industrial practices, changes in accessibility and distribution, \nand the democratisation of technologies, challenge the traditional career \ndevelopment model associated with the label-centric music industry. While \nthe literature identifi es aspects of the resultant industries afforded by and \n through digital disruption, there is a paucity of detailed accounts of the \nimpact of resultant changes on career development and lived experiences. \nOur research is signifi cant, as it addresses this gap and extrapolates new \nand emerging career pathways in ways that have implications and consid-\nerations for best practice, career models, the health and wellbeing of sec-\ntor workers, music education, and the interaction of music industries with \ngovernment policies and procedures. \n The research underpinning this volume investigated the contributory \nfactors and infl uences (including technological ones) on career develop-\nment in new music industries. With the aim of identifying new and evolv-\ning career trajectories, models and strategies, our research targeted music \npractices and practitioners. We addressed the primary research questions: \n(1) What are the new music industries? (2) What constitutes career devel-\nopment within these industries? (3) How do artists manage career devel-\nopment and/or a sustainable trajectory within the new industries? \n The research team brought together investigators with a range of exper-\ntise. Our team was comprised of experienced practitioners in several areas \nof music including music production, artist development, music education \nand artist management. At the outset, we had a choice of a broad-based \nsurvey design or a more in-depth approach. We choose the latter in order \nto engage with participants in ways that allowed for meaningful and, at \ntimes, lengthy discussion. Our resultant ethnographic design involved THE STATE OF PLAY 11qualitative data collection (focus groups and semi-structured interviews) \ntogether with attendance at peak Australian industry conferences including \nBIGSOUND (Brisbane), 2 Face the Music (Melbourne) and the Electronic \nMusic Conference (Sydney) that added ethnographic context to our \nresearch. Our project was funded by a Macquarie University Research \nDevelopment Grant (2012–2014) and approved as being compliant with \nthe National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. 3 \n The research for this volume was necessarily conducted in Australia, \nhowever, what we are dealing with are the new global musical industries. \nThe simultaneous individualisation and interconnectedness of the digital \nindustries means that commonalities exist across countries and regions. \nThe following methodological structure outlines Australian-based activi-\nties, yet the narratives and examples collected are being replicated around \nthe world. The disruption and discovery documented throughout this \nvolume are not exclusive to Australian markets.\nThe research design was comprised of four stages. Stage 1 4 involved a \ncomprehensive review of the literature covering aspects of industry that \nincluded digital disruption, traditional music industry roles and expecta-\ntions, contemporary music education, and music technologies. Drawing \non our analysis of the literature and previous research studies, we devel-\noped questions for Stages 2 and 3. \n Seven focus groups, of approximately 2 hours duration each, were \nundertaken in Sydney (×3), Melbourne (×2), and Brisbane (×2). These \nspecifi c cities were selected as primary locations of employment within the \nnew music industries in Australia; they respectively represented the three \neastern states of New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and Queensland where \na substantial amount of work in the music industries is typically negotiated \nthat may be undertaken elsewhere in the country. Furthermore, many \nartists living and working in other Australian jurisdictions have associated \nagents, managers, labels and publishers located in these three states. These \nstates are identifi ed areas of musical employment (Australian Bureau of \nStatistics, 2008 ), with more people employed in the categories of ‘Music \nPublishing’ and ‘Music and other sound recording activities’ than else-\nwhere in Australia. Each focus group represented a diverse range of sector \nworkers from artists through to digital strategists and music publishers. \nThe topics covered in each group included: (1) the new music industries \nand the ways in which these industries have changed/evolved, (2) career \ndevelopment within these industries, (3) technological developments \nincluding production aesthetics and associated skill sets, and (4) con-12 D. HUGHES ET AL.siderations and implications for navigating the new industries. A total of \ntwenty-one participants and fi ve researchers took part in the focus groups. \n Stage 3 in-depth interviews were undertaken with participants who were \npurposively sampled to target specifi c areas of investigation that emerged \nthrough our analysis of Stage 1 data. Again, interviews were undertaken in \nSydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, although interviewees themselves were \ndrawn from across the country. During this stage we engaged primarily \nwith artists, and with industry practitioners associated with artist develop-\nment and/or the realities of practice. The areas for investigation included: \n(1) determining roles and strategies in the new music industries, (2) new \nand emerging industry practices and/or technologies, (3) developments \nand changes, (4) considerations and implications, (5) future directions, \nand (6) real-world advice. A constant comparative method of analysis was \nused to identify similarities and differences in the participant perspectives. \nA total of nineteen participants and four researchers took part in these in- \ndepth interviews. \n Our participant voices (from Stages 2 and 3) are heard and quoted \nthroughout this volume. These participant voices provide rich empiri-\ncal data refl ective of real-world events and experiences. Participants are \ndenoted by their names and role (in brackets), and are distinguished from \nother cited quotations as, being previously unpublished, they are not \nincluded in our reference list. \n During the fi nal stage of our project, we consolidated and reported our \nfi ndings in various formats. We presented our initial fi ndings at an indus-\ntry symposium hosted at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 5 Here, \nwe discussed a detailed framework of the new music industries for stake-\nholders and our research participants. Further reporting on our fi ndings \nhas included national and international presentations, and peer-reviewed \npublications (Hughes et al., 2013a ; Hughes, Keith, Morrow, Evans, & \nCrowdy, 2013b ; Hughes, Evans, Keith, & Morrow, 2014 ). Our cumula-\ntive fi ndings are presented in this volume. The primary aim of the research \nthat informs our fi ndings was to explore how disruption and discovery \nhave combined to create new opportunities for artists. The next chapter \nof this volume starts by considering how the relationships between artists, \nmanagers and labels have changed in the post-digital music industries. \nWatson’s observation (see Foreword this volume) that artist careers have \nshifted from being linear to circular draws attention to the shifting gate-\nkeepers, milestones, and goals in artists’ careers today. Whereas known \nentities such as labels and broadcasters once constituted the foundation of THE STATE OF PLAY 13music industry, today’s environment is much more opaque and revenue \nstreams are much less certain. The following chapter examines various \napproaches artists can take to negotiate this terrain, proposing three career \nmodels of operation for artists in the new musical industries. These models \ngo on to provide the foundation for subsequent chapters, and their analy-\nses of prizes and pitfalls of the new conditions for artists. \n NOTES \n 1. Although it is soon to be replicated in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, a \nhub of musical performance venues in the city. \n 2. BIGSOUND, for example, is a QMusic Project. It is an annual con-\nference that hosts keynotes, panels and showcases (BIGSOUND, \n 2014 ). QMusic is an association in the state of Queensland Australia \nthat focuses on music industry development (QMusic, 2014 ). \n 3. Ethics approval to conduct the research was secured from Macquarie \nUniversity Human Research Ethics on 15 October, 2012. \n 4. Our investigation began in November 2012 and concludes with this \nvolume. \n 5. The research symposium Trajectories in the New Music Industries \nfeatured a range of presentations by each member of the research \nteam, and included invited speakers and performers. The sympo-\nsium was held on 27 June 2014. \n REFERENCES \n Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Employment in culture – Australia – 2006 . \nRetrieved April 4, 2012, from http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/\nsubscriber.nsf/0/6A0842636FC03C4CCA2573FB000BCD2D/$F\nile/62730_2006.pdf \n Billboard. (2015). Billboard’s fi rst-ever TV’s top music power players list revealed . \nRetrieved March 2, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/articles/busi-\nness/6699790/tv-music-power-players-list-2015 \n BIGSOUND. (2014). 10–12 Sept 2014/Brisbane Australia. Retrieved on \nDecember 10, 2014, from http://www.qmusic.com.au/bigsound/2014/ \n Burnard, P. (2012). Musical creativities in practice . Oxford: Oxford University \nPress. \n Bychawski, A. (2013). Atoms for Peace’s Nigel Godrich: ‘I’m not bitching about not \ngetting paid’. Retrieved March 2, 2016, from http://www.nme.com/news/\natoms-for-peace/71462 14 D. HUGHES ET AL. Collins, S., & Young, S. (2014). Beyond 2.0: The future of music . Sheffi eld, UK: \nEquinox Publishing. \n Engel, P. (2014). Taylor Swift explains why she left Spotify . Retrieved March 2, \n2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com.au/taylor-swift-explains-why-\nshe-left-spotify-2014-11 \n Gallo, P. (2013). Sia: The Billboard cover story . Retrieved February 5, 2016, from \n http://musicinaustralia.org.au/index.php/Survey_of_Successful_\nContemporary_Musicians \n Hesmondhalgh, D., & Meier, L. (2015). Popular music, independence and the \nconcept of the alternative in contemporary capitalism. In J.  Bennett & \nN.  Strange (Eds.), Media independence (pp.  94–116). Abingdon, UK/New \nYork: Routledge. \n Homan, S. (Ed.). (2006). Access all eras: Tribute bands and global pop culture . \nMaidenhead, UK: Open University Press. \n Homan, S., Cloonan, M., & Cattermole, J. (2015). Popular music and cultural \npolicy . Abingdon, UK/New York: Routledge. \n Homan, S., Cloonan, M., & Cattermole, J. (2016). Popular music and the state: \nPolicy notes . London/New York: Routledge. \n Hughes, D., Evans, M., Keith, S., & Morrow, G. (2014). A ‘duty of care’ and the \nprofessional musician/artist. In G. Carruthers (Ed.), Proceedings of the commis-\nsion for the education of the professional musician (CEPROM) (pp.  31–41). \nBrazil: Belo Horizonte. \n Hughes, D., Keith, S., Morrow, G., Evans, M., & Crowdy, D. (2013a). What \nconstitutes artist success in the Australian music industries? International \nJournal of Music Business Research (IJMBR), 2 (2), 60–80. \n Hughes, D., Keith, S., Morrow, G., Evans, M., & Crowdy, D. (2013b). Music \neducation and the contemporary, multi-industry landscape. In Redefi ning the \nmusical landscape: Inspired learning and innovation in music education XIX \nASME National Conference Proceedings (pp. 94–100). Brisbane, Australia. \n IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2014). Digital music \nreport 2014 . Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://www.ifpi.org/down-\nloads/Digital-Music-Report-2014.pdf \n IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2015). Digital music \nreport 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015, http://www.ifpi.org/downloads/\nDigital-Music-Report-2015.pdf \n Kusek, D., & Leonhard, G. (2005). The future of music: Manifesto for the digital \nmusic revolution . Boston, MA: Berklee Press. \n Letts, R. (2013). Survey of successful contemporary musicians, music in Australia \nknowledge base . Retrieved March 1, 2016, from http://musicinaustralia.org.\nau/index.php/Survey_of_Successful_Contemporary_Musicians \n Longhurst, B. (1995). Popular music and society . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. \n Madden, C., & Bloom, T. (2001). Advocating creativity. International Journal of \nCultural Policy, 7 (3), 409–436. THE STATE OF PLAY 15 Negus, K. (1996). Popular music in theory: An introduction . Cambridge, UK: \nPolity Press. \n QMusic. (2014). About us . Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.\nqmusic.com.au/?contentID=620 \n Reid, P. (2016). Music piracy up 16% worldwide. The Music Network. Accessed 4 \nMarch, 2016, from https://www.themusicnetwork.com/news/music-piracy-\nup-16-worldwide \n Shuker, R. (1994). Understanding popular music . London: Routledge. \n Throsby, D., & Zednik, A. (2010). Do you really expect to get paid? An economic \nstudy of professional artists in Australia . Melbourne: Australia Council for the \nArts. \n Vincent, P. (2016). Sydney lockout laws bite as live music ticket sales crash. \n Brisbane Times. Retrieved February 29, 2016, from http://www.brisbane-\ntimes.com.au/entertainment/music/sydney-lockout-laws-bite-as-live-music-\nticket- sales-crash-20160218-gmxgot.html \n Williamson, J., & Cloonan, M. (2007). Rethinking the music industry. Popular \nMusic, 26 (2), 305–322. 16 D. HUGHES ET AL.17 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_2 CHAPTER 2 \n Abstract This chapter outlines three career models—360, Entrepreneur \nand DIY—identifi ed as being signifi cant and viable models within the \nnew industries. The functions and variations of each model are discussed, \ntogether with associated revenue streams and risk factors. The chapter \ndiscusses traditional linear career development and introduces the con-\ncept of new circular career development identifi ed within the new music \nindustries. The differences between traditional and non-traditional career \nmodels conclude the chapter. \n Keywords New music industries • 360 • Entrepreneur • DIY • Circular \n This chapter expands upon the notion that career development has \nevolved from being linear to circular (see Watson, Foreword this vol-\nume). By describing this new circular process, the chapter addresses con-\ntemporary strategies for the business practices of the new music industries, \nand identifi es pragmatic issues for the new musician. It outlines a vari-\nety of career trajectories, and suggests that, through a circular process, \nmajor record labels are devolving risk through neoliberal 1 restructuring. \nIn addition, it argues that there is still ‘standardisation and uniformity’ \n(McGuigan, 2010 , p. 329) in many sectors of the industries 2 . This is \nbecause soft artistic creativity is evident within the new business of music The New Business of Music (see Fig. 1.1 ), and in the context of these industries, major record labels \nhave become more reactive. Our argument is that artists are responding \nto this reactivity with multiple creativities (both soft and hard and various \ncombinations of the two). While the next chapter will focus on hard cre-\nativity and innovation, the models we introduce in this chapter inevitably \ninvolve a mix of hardness and softness. In terms of soft artistic creativity, \nour argument in this chapter is that many artists (and their management \nteams if they have them) are embracing standardisation and uniformity in \norder to directly attract audiences, to demonstrate exponential growth to \npotential investors (i.e. major record labels) and to manage the fi nancial \nrisk they themselves must take in order to get their career started. \n This chapter highlights different models for navigating the new music \nindustries, such as the 360 (label) model, the entrepreneur model, and \nthe do-it-yourself (DIY) model. In particular, our research identifi es that \nthe DIY model is a signifi cant, viable, and even fundamentally necessary \nmodel within the new music industries, particularly for emerging artists. \nHowever, no one model is offered as an either/or option. For example, an \nartist may start out by managing their own career (the DIY model), but will \nthen operate in a way that is in line with the entrepreneur model as more \nservice providers become involved. In order to further grow an audience/\nfanbase, the artist may then work with a record label under a 360 deal (the \n360 model). The artist may also navigate back through these models if a \nlabel relationship ceases. While the combination of models and trajectories \nwould evolve and devolve over time, artists may also simultaneously work \nunder a combination of models across different geographic territories. \n REVENUE STREAM GROUPS \n There are fi ve main revenue stream groups that allow income to be gener-\nated from popular music: live performance, merchandise, song publishing, \nrecorded music and sponsorship deals (Morrow, 2006 ). Other more mar-\nginal streams include grants and funding, as well as miscellaneous income \nstreams such as workshops and teaching. The term ‘revenue stream \ngroups’ is used throughout this volume as it enables the alignment of \nassociated income streams. This alignment is highlighted, for example, in \nrelation to song publishing:\n The music publishing industry earns its money by exploiting the copyright \nin music and lyrics. There are a number of signifi cant income streams within 18 D. HUGHES ET AL.this revenue stream group that include royalties received from pressing \nrecords and CDs (‘mechanical royalties’), public performance, broadcast \nand cablecast (‘performance royalties’), sale of printed music (‘print royal-\nties’), use of music with visual images, e.g. fi lm, TV programs and adverts, \n‘synchronisation royalties’), use of music in theatre and ballet (‘grand rights \nroyalties’), ringtones and downloads. (Morrow, 2006 , pp. 93–94) \n While revenue stream groups are not new concepts, emergent trends in \nthe new industries (for example, the growth in revenue generated through \nonline digital strategies) are seen to shift the relevance of streams within the \ngroups. Globally, the digital revenue stream, for example, now accounts \nfor approximately 39% of recorded music revenues (IFPI, 2014 , p. 6). In \nAustralia, digital revenues overtook the physical sales revenue stream for \nthe fi rst time in 2013 and represented 54.7% of the total revenue in this \ngroup (Australian Recording Industry Association, 2014 ). Other markets \nhave shown an even greater shift towards digital formats—for example, \nNordgård ( 2016 ) noted that:\n The market share of on-demand music streaming services in Norway \nexceeded 75 per cent in 2014, hence placing it together with a handful of \ncountries that can be considered pioneers in this space. (p. 175) \n Interestingly, in terms of recent developments in the recorded music rev-\nenue group, countries such as Sweden have embraced the digital transition \nto online streaming with subscription streaming services accounting for \n84% of Swedish digital revenues during the fi rst 10 months of 2011 (IFPI, \n 2011 ). This level of adaptation is testimony to the evolutionary nature of \nthis particular revenue stream group. As new music consumption habits \ncontinue to be adopted in greater numbers, a commercially viable future \nfor this revenue stream group may lie ahead:\n Music subscription services were a major driver of digital growth, sustaining \na sharp upward trend of recent years. Revenues rose 39.0 per cent in 2014 \nto US$1.57 billion. Revenues from music subscription services now make \nup 23 per cent of digital revenues globally, up from only 18 per cent in \n2013. (IFPI, 2015 , p. 6) \n Music subscription services have seen the number of users who pay \nfor the service grow steadily in recent years, with an estimation that \n‘41 million people worldwide now pay for a music subscription service’ THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 19(IFPI, 2015 , p. 6). Rather than solely focusing on the recorded music \nrevenue stream, it is important to consider career sustainability and to \nrecognise the different and possible revenue stream groups. In this way, a \nholistic view of the music business that accounts for the new industries is \npossible. Although the data relating to increasing revenue from music sub-\nscription services is promising, the recognition of the fi ve main revenue \nstream groups has been brought into sharper focus in recent times. This is \nparticularly relevant given that the recording industry lost approximately \nhalf of its exchange value 3 over the fi fteen-year period between 1996 and \n2011 (IFPI, 2011 ). Therefore, rather than simply focusing on the role of \nrecord companies, this chapter outlines the need for a more inclusive view \nof the music industries incorporating all fi ve key revenue stream groups. \n The multiplicity of, and developments in, key revenue stream groups \nhas direct relevance to the proliferation of the new music industries as no \none singular industry or practice underpins all revenue stream groups. The \nresearch of Williamson and Cloonan ( 2007 ) highlights two main prob-\nlems with the term ‘music industry’ 4 :\n First, it suggests a homogenous industry, whereas the reality is of disparate \nindustries with some common interests. Secondly, the term is frequently \nused synonymously with the recording industry. Thus the term ‘the music \nindustry’ is often used in ways that lead to misrepresentation and confusion. \nIt suggests simplicity where there is complexity and homogeneity where \nthere is diversity. (p. 305) \n Williamson and Cloonan also note that the use of the singular ‘music \nindustry’ term serves vested interests, such as those pertaining to record-\ning industry associations (p. 306). Thus, we use the term ‘music indus-\ntries’. In particular, we consider the different industries that stem from the \nfi ve key revenue stream groups. \n CAREER MODELS \n The three models identifi ed in our research—the 360 model, the \nEntrepreneur model, and the DIY model—are not offered here as either/\nor options as none were identifi ed as being immutably fi xed in any one \ncareer trajectory. We provide a series of models for navigating the new \nmusic industries that may be representative of different career stages and \ntrajectories. Each model carries a different level of potential risk (fi nancial \nand artistic) that is discussed below. 20 D. HUGHES ET AL. The 360 Model (Model 1) \n This model arose as labels sought to gain larger returns drawn from a \nbroader range of potential revenue streams. Its implementation is signif-\nicant because since the arrival of the Internet and the development of \ndigital music strategies, international recorded music revenues had fallen \nfrom over USD $40 billion in 2000 (Leyshon, Webb, French, Thrift, & \nCrewe, 2005 ) to USD $15 billion in 2013 (IFPI, 2014 ). In response to \nrevenue decline and disruption more broadly, record labels began employ-\ning a more holistic view of the artist’s career and the potential product/s \nassociated with it. The 360-degree (or ‘360’) deal emerged and involves a \nrecord label participating in all fi ve revenue stream groups.\n According to Goodman ( 2010 ), in 2007 Warner Music Group (WMG) \nmade 360-degree participation in its artists’ income streams company pol-\nicy. The 360 deals meant that ‘20 percent of Atlantic and Warner Bros. \nRecords A&R budgets would be spent on 360 deals’ (Goodman, 2010 , \np.  257). Under what became known as their Collateral Entertainment \nAgreement (CEA), Goodman noted:\n … they were arguing that even as sales fell, records drove a career and made \nall other opportunities possible, and that in order to continue to underwrite \ncareer development, the company would have to participate in nonrecord-\ning income. (Goodman, 2010 , p. 257) \n With revenue from the sale of recorded music shrinking, major labels there-\nfore sought a return on their investment from other revenue streams. 5 The \nposition of major labels—that it was their risk capital that built the plat-\nform upon which income could be generated from the other streams—\nwas a convincing one. While many artists and their representatives initially \nresisted what they termed a ‘rights grab’ (see Morrow, 2006 , p. 136), they \nclearly saw their best chance of building a sustainable career in signing a \n360 deal ‘if you want to sell a million “things”… the probabilities are in \nbeing with a global record company’ (Goodman, 2010 , p. 258). Around \nthis time, the major labels’ rosters became younger as established artists \nhad less incentive to sign over additional rights. \n Our research fi ndings identifi ed that a direct signing to a major label \nwill now, most likely, involve a 360 deal. As Dean Ormston (Head of \nMember Services Group for collecting society APRA AMCOS) noted, \n‘I think that the opportunity for career artists is in understanding their \nrights and the potential for deriving income from each of their channels THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 21or revenue streams. Increasingly artists will need to be more sophisti-\ncated about how they manage or exploit each channel.’ Likewise, Robert \nScott (Founder of Source Music Publishing and Licensing and Creative \nManager, Embassy Music Publishing and Music Sales) posited:\n I think that what’s happening is the 360 is [sic] more of a swing to management, \nI think managers have never been as important as they are now. What are man-\nagers? They basically manage 360, so sometimes that management is in a label, \nor a publishing company or wherever it needs to be… I think that 360 deals are \njust par for the course and they have always existed and if anything they’re not \nnearly as nasty as they once were back in the day. If you look at Elvis or even The \nBeatles, their early catalogue, their publishing rights were abandoned. \n Scott is arguing here that 360 deals are not a new phenomenon. Instead \nhe noted that they are, in some ways, reminiscent of the origins of the \nrecording industry. This is because at the outset of this industry artists \ntended to assign all of their rights to one entity. Nevertheless, whether the \n360 model (see Fig. 2.1 ) is considered to be old or new, it is clearly the \ndominant model within the new recording business of music. \n The Entrepreneur Model (Model 2) \n In contrast to the 360 model, the issue of risk capital is fundamental to \nunderstanding the recording industry’s additional response to disrup-\ntion. This response involved the externalisation of risk onto the artists \nthemselves. Indeed, major labels are faced with a choice between 360 LabelArtistAudienceFans\n360 model\n Fig. 2.1 360 model showing label intermediation between artists and audi-\nences/fans 22 D. HUGHES ET AL.deals or a more streamlined approach. Australian artist manager Todd \nWagstaff outlined this choice:\n Labels have a choice now—they can make up for that decline [in physical \nsales] with either reactionary 360 deals… or they can take the cost out of the \npart they do really well and then get out there and do that part with some \n‘risk free gusto’. (Wagstaff cited in Brandle, 2012 ) \n The part(s) that major record labels arguably do well are marketing and \ndistribution. A streamlined approach essentially involves labels becoming \nservice providers to artists’ businesses, meaning that artists pay for, create, \nand own all of their assets. This approach complicates arguments that art-\nists can cut out intermediaries by working as self-managed entrepreneurs \n(see Collins & Young,  2010 ; Scott,  2012 ), because this model (see Fig. \n 2.2 ) enables artists to stay independent while working with, and through, \nmajor label marketing and distribution services. In the new music business \nenvironment, several of our participants noted that intermediaries were \nvital to artist viability and sustainability, particularly as careers developed.\n As Fig. 2.2 shows, there are many different patterns of relationships \nbetween artists and intermediaries in the music industries. These patterns \nManage-\nment\nPublisherStylist PublicistAccoun-\ntantLabel \nservices\nDigital \nStrategistRadio \nPluggerArtistAudienceFans\nEntrepreneur modelNB: The roles \nnamed in this \nmodel are \nindicative only, \nand may be \nselectively \nappointed by \nthe artist.\n Fig. 2.2 Entrepreneur model showing the network of potential personnel and \nroles across the new music industries THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 23can evolve and devolve across an artist’s career; they may also be different \nin various geographic territories. The complexity of the new music busi-\nness therefore necessitates new ways of conceptualising career develop-\nment. We do, however, acknowledge that an artist can release a minimum \nviable product 6 (MVP) (Robinson, 2001 ; Ries, 2011 , p. 93) directly to \nfans (see also the DIY model). Nonetheless, for a sustainable career, artists \noften need to engage a number of intermediaries and the pattern of inter-\nmediary relationships formed should be subject to the developing needs \nof the artist’s startup partnership or company. \n The DIY Model (Model 3) \n Prior to the digitisation of music, DIY self-management was most com-\nmonly associated with the 1980s punk phenomenon. Anderson ( 2012 ) \nnoted that punk bands challenged the status quo within the music \nbusiness, circumventing the recording, manufacturing, and market-\ning services of major record labels (p. 11). Such business practices were \nconnected to an ideology of liberalism, which cast the artist as authentic \n(Wiseman- Trowse, 2008 ) and free from the demands of the mainstream \nmarketplace. By seizing the means of production, punk musicians were \ntherefore placed at the centre of meanings and values associated with the \nnotion of authenticity. Gracyk noted:\n The unifying thread… is an assumption that the unique individual is basic \nto authenticity. In a word, liberalism: there is no essential, common good \nbeyond whatever autonomous individuals seek and choose as most worthy \nfor themselves. (Gracyk cited in Wiseman-Trowse, 2008 , p. 42) \n The perception that record labels and the industry used to restrict the \nartist’s true self through an adherence to market fundamentalism is \n challenged by contemporary DIY artists. DIY artists, themselves operat-\ning within the new business of music, have assumed positions within the \nnew music industries where they are directly concerned about the market \n(see Fig. 2.3 ). Anderson ( 2012 ) noted:\n In the Web Age, the DIY punk movement’s co-opting of the means of pro-\nduction turned into regular people using desktop publishing, then websites, \nthen blogs, and now social media. Indie-pressed vinyl became YouTube \nmusic videos. Four-track tape recorders became ProTools and iPad music \napps. Garage bands became Apple’s GarageBand. (p. 13) 24 D. HUGHES ET AL. The ubiquity of personal media devices, such as the mobile phone, allows \nartists with suffi cient creative self-effi cacy (see Jaussi and Randel, 2014 ) to \nwrite and record their own music, and to release it through digital outlets. \nGoodman ( 2010 ) explained that ‘the web had decimated CD sales, but it \nhad also made it possible for anyone to post music online—and the result \nhad been a fl ood of new and undifferentiated releases’ (p. 258). This ‘fl ood’ \nof artist releases means that the DIY artist now needs to take responsibility \nfor not only the creation of new creative material, but also for strategising \nhow to stand out in a crowded marketplace (discussed further in Chapter 3).\n Our research has shown that DIY approaches have become a neces-\nsary stage in all career development models, as research participant Dean \nOrmston noted:\n Without doubt YouTube provides a massive promotional platform for art-\nists—but the economic return for the vast majority of artists is very small. \nThe endless YouTube appetite for both commercial and User Generated \nContent has meant there’s now a huge onus on the artist and content own-\ners generally to monitor how and where their work is exploited. \n Ormston continued, noting:\n While a DIY business model for artists sounds sexy on fi rst glance, artists \noften comment on being inundated in managing the promotion and distri-\nbution of their work—‘I am drowning in it. I am not actually doing what \nI wanted to do which is write songs and perform.’ There’s been a mas-\nsive workload shift to the artist—in the past someone else would have been \ndoing it for the artist. ArtistAudienceFans\nDIY modelSelf-\nmanagement\n Fig. 2.3 DIY model, showing that the artist bears the sole responsibility THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 25 A massive workload therefore lies with DIY artists because they have to \nmanage their own presence through social media. One solution is for the \nartist to engage with the entrepreneur model and work with intermedi-\naries. Vanessa Picken (Director of digital marketing agency Comes with \nFries), posited that ‘there is strength in the market, where independent \nartists are empowered via companies like Comes With Fries to deliver on \ntheir releases through a multitude of label services.’ DIY artists can there-\nfore transition to being entrepreneurs and appoint intermediaries to assist \nin career development. Before transitioning to entrepreneur, however, art-\nists typically need to demonstrate some traction with an audience before \nthey can attract the intermediaries. \n A Q UESTION OF RISK \n A core question that emerged through our research was around risk, and \nhow it is devolved in the new career models. While artists can now drive \ntheir own careers and/or build their own team, the fi nancial risk essen-\ntially lies with the artists. The signifi cance of the team in this approach was \nhighlighted by Vanessa Picken:\n You really need to fi nd the best team that enhances your work because if \nyou’re an independent artist you have all of the control to fi nd that group. \nSo, a lot of the work I do is helping people fi nd their own independent team \nthat replicates or replaces the old traditional label model. \n Major labels can thus become more reactive by waiting to see which artists \ndemonstrate signs of effective strategies and exponential growth before \nassisting in subsequent career development. \n Major record labels devolving risk relates primarily to our Entrepreneur \nand DIY models, although in the digital economy, all three models may be \nrelevant particularly if labels function as service providers. This may occur in \ninstances whereby labels devolve the risks pertaining to record production to \nartists and, in some instances, to their managers. In this context, the label’s \ntraditional 7 power relationship to artists has changed as the artists take on \nmore fi nancial risk. With larger entities in the music business externalising \nfi nancial risk by making asset generation and marketing spend the artist’s \nresponsibility, artists need to be educated regarding how to manage such risk. \n As there is now ‘an abundance of distribution outlets, and, as a result, \na scarcity of audience attention’ (Morrow, 2011 , p. 106), smaller industry 26 D. HUGHES ET AL.players are able to establish sustainable businesses in the new music indus-\ntries. Participants discussed the ways in which ‘the music industry’ has \nchanged with the emergence of smaller entities. However, our research \nalso identifi ed that there are now a number of large entities that generate \nrevenue from the aggregate of the many smaller entities or artists. This \nemerged as an interesting juxtaposition of business types in the new indus-\ntries. Noting the growth of some organisations, Robert Scott explained:\n Majors have never been bigger, look at Universal just taking over EMI… \nthere’s a major concentration happening with the labels as well as every-\nwhere else. IMPALA have been arguing in Europe that this is really danger-\nous, because obviously they’ve got too much market share now. The last \nthing anyone would want is if they were to walk into iTunes and say, ‘We \nwon’t give you our 65% of the market unless you give us this’, a greater \nrate or a bigger percentage. Of course, this rivalry between indie and major \nis very quickly being overtaken by the power of the tech companies now. \nThe music industry is fast becoming an Apple versus Amazon versus Spotify \nworld. \n The reciprocity between small and large business entities can also be exam-\nined through the example of artist management company, Parker + Mr \nFrench. According to its founder, Wagstaff (cited in Brandle, 2012 ), the \ncompany engineered a deal with Universal Music Australia (UMA) that \nenabled the artists it manages to stay independent while working with \nUMA. The concept was that the artists take on the risk of their own career \ndevelopment by investing in themselves. If successful, the artists then \nreceive a greater return than they would if the label had advanced them \nmoney in a more traditional way under a 360 deal. A new entity alignment \nsuch as this falls within the Entrepreneur model (Fig. 2.2 ). Rather than \nthe artist-entrepreneur being a force of disruptive ‘creative destruction’ \n(Schumpeter, 1939 ), there is potential for reciprocal revenue generation \nto emerge through this form of entrepreneurship. This business alignment \nsuits entities that derive economic benefi t from the aggregate of the many \nartists who are now able to access an audience, as Anderson ( 2006 ) noted:\n The democratized tools of production are leading to a huge increase in \nthe numbers of producers. Hypereffi cient digital economics are leading to \nnew markets and marketplaces. And fi nally, the ability to tap the distributed \nintelligence of millions of consumers to match people with the stuff that \nsuits them best is leading to the rise of all sorts of new recommendation \nand marketing methods, essentially serving as the new tastemakers. (p. 57) THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 27 By becoming more reactive aggregators, record labels potentially benefi t \nfrom distributed intelligence amongst consumers within the marketplace(s) \nin which they operate. \n LINEAR TO CIRCULAR CAREER DEVELOPMENT \n Career development in the new music industries is a complex mix of cre-\native practices, business acumen and maximising opportunities; it is a \nprocess centred on discovery of the artist by an audience/fans that has \nthe potential to stimulate interest from and through a range of indus-\ntries. 8 This represents a paradigm shift in career development and industry \nengagement and is represented below in the transition from the tradi-\ntional linear model (see Fig. 2.4 ) to a circular model (see Fig. 2.5 ). Watson \n( 2013 ) 9 described the traditional linear process as:\n The artist would fi nd a manager, and the manager would have relationships \nwith the record company and the booking agent… And those people would \nget you exposed through the venues, and through the media outlets and the \naudience would then shop from that menu. \n Indeed, our research confi rmed that career development is no longer \ndependent upon fi nding the right gatekeeper. With the notion of artists \nfi nding someone who will ‘do it all for them’ being passé, a contemporary \nway to conceptualise the process of career development involves a circular \nmodel, as Watson described:\n The artist is able to communicate directly with the fan, and then when the \nartist engages enough fans, all these other people go ‘hey, there’s something \ngoing on there, I think I can help grow that’ and the journalist thinks that, \nthe TV show thinks that, the promoter thinks that, and everybody starts to \ncome on board. But instead of it going—artist—industry person—industry \nperson—industry person—fan. It now actually goes—artist—fan—indus-\ntry—artist. It’s a circle that begins with that artist-fan communication. \n As depicted in the circular model (see Fig. 2.5 ), artists can now have \na direct relationship with fans in a range of contexts (such as via social \nmedia, blogs and through personalised artist generated fan emails). \n The circular model sheds light on the paradox of the ‘liberal artist’ \n(Wiseman-Trowse, 2008 , p.  42) in the digital age, and represents the 28 D. HUGHES ET AL.relationships that many artists have with the larger entities such as major \nrecord labels. As noted above, a consequence of this is that record labels \nare able to become more reactive , effectively testing the market before \nchoosing which product to support. In this context, ‘bottom up’ and \n‘top down’ are not opposing concepts, but instead work together within \nthe new business of music. As a consequence, both traditional and non-\ntraditional elements function as new gatekeeping components of the \nindustries. \n The ‘bottom up’ paradigm refers to a certain type of web utopianism \nthat stemmed from the Internet’s (only partly realised) promise to con-\nnect artists directly to fans, a form of utopianism that has been previously \ndiscussed in terms of ‘cutting out the intermediaries’ (Collins & Young, \n 2010 ; Scott, 2012 ). Prior to this, the record label system dominated \nbecause the major companies had unrivalled control over, and access to, \ndistribution, sales and marketing resources. In the new business of music, \nwhile access to the more typical methods of distribution, sales and market-\ning resources may still be contested, the controlling entities have morphed \ninto new, yet familiar, versions of themselves. In some ways, though, this \nhas seen a levelling of gatekeeping roles in the new music industries that \nlead to a ‘fl attened structure’ (Hesmondhalgh & Meier, 2015 ) that is facil-Artist\nManagement\nLabel\nPublisher\nAgent\nFans\n Fig. 2.4 Linear model showing traditional intermediation between artist and \nfans THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 29itated by the new digital platforms and accessibility to a range of technolo-\ngies. It complements the circular model outlined above by highlighting \nthe changes in roles and associated functions. McGuigan ( 2010 ) argued, \nhowever, that the complex changes to the digital environment have not \nled to greater variety in terms of the content being produced because soft \ncreativity is more often the end product which leads to ‘a great deal of \nstandardisation and uniformity’ (p. 239). \n With major labels being more reactive and many artists and their teams \nembracing standardisation, uniformity across products may be viewed \nas attempts to emulate other successful product/s and strategies. This \nconcept was discussed by Marc Marot and Keith Harris during a panel \ndiscussion at the Vienna Music Business Research Days conference in \nVienna in October 2014 10 (see also Morrow & Li, 2016 ). Our research \nfi ndings suggested that there is a signifi cant degree of soft creativity at \nthe starting point of the circular system of the new music industries, as \nDamian Cunningham (Director  of  Audience and Sector Development, \nNational Live Music Offi ce) noted:\n In theory an artist can now produce a track at home in 30 minutes and in \na further 15 minutes can effectively be selling the track on a global facing \nplatform… The ability to do it more quickly means that there are a lot more \npeople producing music, and when a lot more people are doing it, it can all \nlook the same. Artists Fans\nIndustry\n Fig. 2.5 Circular model encompassing artists, fans, and industry 30 D. HUGHES ET AL. Cunningham noted that the speed at which artists can release material \nsometimes means that they do not allow themselves time to step back \nand think about how they can produce content that is more unique. \nTherefore, the speed of releases does not always enable artistic output \nto exemplify hard creativity. While Madden and Bloom ( 2001 ) note \nthat ‘soft creativity is perhaps the predominant form of artistic creativ-\nity’ (p. 414), in the new music industries this softer form of creativ-\nity infers that there will be less chance of standing out in a crowded \nmarketplace. \n CONCLUSION \n Each of the three career development models (360, Entrepreneur, and \nDIY) outlined in this chapter require artists to demonstrate exponential \ngrowth at the outset (that is, the circular process of career development). \nThis is despite the issue that early growth does not always enable art-\nists to establish sustainable careers in either the short or longer term. \nWithin the new business of music, each of these career models features \n(or potentially features) more risk and responsibility being located with \nthe artist. For this reason, our research identifi ed the DIY artist as a sig-\nnifi cant, viable and fundamentally necessary model within the new music \nindustries. It is relevant because it potentially leads to subsequent career \nmodels. \n One way to conceptualise the patterns of relationships that art-\nists may  form with intermediaries in  subsequent career mod-\nels  involves a bicycle wheel analogy (Watson, 2002 ). This analogy \nis relevant in describing the potential career-building process. It is impor-\ntant to note that we have chosen not to include the manager in the ‘hub’ \nor centre of the career-building process in either the 360 model or the \nEntrepreneur model even though we acknowledge that an artist manager \nis often typical and warranted. We do so for the following reasons: (1) the \nartist is free to undertake management responsibilities, (2) the artist in \nthe new career models is likely to assume risk, and (3) a label may assume \nmanagerial roles and functions. \n In each of our models, the career-building process (in whatever form \nor combination of roles is determined) remains pivotal, with more respon-\nsibility residing with the artist to coordinate and/or decide upon these \nroles. There are many different patterns of relationships between artists \nand intermediaries in the music industries, and the pattern of relationships THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 31formed is subject to the developing needs of the artist’s startup partner-\nship or company. \n NOTES \n 1. In this context, the word ‘neoliberal’ refers to the atomization of the \nmusic industries caused by the increased individualisation of the art-\nist (particularly with regard to risk-taking). The argument here is \nthat the record business has been subject to a shift from organised \ncapitalism to neoliberal capitalism, and as a result more fi nancial risk \nhas been externalised onto the artist. \n 2. This chapter examines the extent to which there is still a great deal \nof standardisation and uniformity in terms of artistic content (see \nalso McGuigan, 2010 ) in the new music industries. Artists them-\nselves are now able to control the processes leading to such stan-\ndardisation in many instances, rather than major record labels. \n 3. Exchange value refers to the quantitative aspect of value (for exam-\nple, in this context, how much money is exchanged for recorded \nmusic); use value is the qualitative aspect of value (for example, in \nthis context, the level of enjoyment someone gets from listening to \nmusic). \n 4. Such a critical engagement with the term ‘music industry’ has fea-\ntured in numerous studies of the music business, such as in Morrow \n( 2006 ) and more recently Tschmuck ( 2016 ). \n 5. According to Goodman ( 2010 ), the band Paramore was the fi rst \nyoung band to sign an all-encompassing 360 deal with WMA, while \nhe cites EMI’s landmark 360 deal with Robbie Williams as the fi rst \nto be agreed with an established artist (p. 255). \n 6. A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is defi ned by Robinson ( 2001 ) \nand Ries ( 2011 ) as being a new product which is literally minimally \nviable. Rather than waiting to release a product to market when it is \ndeemed to be more viable than minimally so, an MVP allows the \nperson, or group of people, developing it ‘to collect the maximum \namount of validated learning about customers with the least effort’. \n(Ries, 2011 , p. 93). \n 7. Our use of the term ‘traditional’ refl ects the conventional, popular \nmusic industry. Participants typically noted this context as \ntraditional. 32 D. HUGHES ET AL. 8. While we focus on the new music industries, we also discuss some \nindustries in this chapter that are not specifi cally related to music. \nWe therefore acknowledge that some of the new industries are not \ndedicated music industries but encompass music practices such as \ncrowdfunding sites. \n 9. All comments attributed to John Watson in this chapter are taken \nfrom a keynote question-and-answer session he delivered at the \nBIGSOUND conference in Brisbane on 12 September, 2013. \nBIGSOUND is an industry conference that includes presentations, \npanels and performance showcases (BIGSOUND, 2016 ). \n 10. This was the Fifth Vienna Music Business Research Days on the \n Monetization of Music in the Digital Age , held on 3 October, 2014, \nat the Institute for Cultural Management and Cultural Studies, \nVienna, Austria. \n REFERENCES \n Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail . 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Popular music, independence and the \nconcept of the alternative in contemporary capitalism. In J.  Bennett & \nN.  Strange (Eds.), Media independence (pp.  94–116). Abingdon, UK/New \nYork: Routledge. \n IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2011). Recording \nindustry in numbers 2011 . Retrieved June 5, 2011, from http://www.ifpi.org/\nrecording-industry-in-numbers.php THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 33 IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2014). Digital music \nreport 2014 . Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://www.ifpi.org/down-\nloads/Digital-Music-Report-2014.pdf \n IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2015). Digital music \nreport 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015, from http://www.ifpi.org/down-\nloads/Digital-Music-Report-2015.pdf \n Jaussi, K., & Randel, A. (2014). Where to look? Creative self-effi cacy, knowledge \nretrieval, and incremental and radical creativity. 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In P. Wikström & R. Defi llippi (Eds.), Business innovation and disrup-\ntion in the music industry . Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. \n Nordgård, D. (2016). Lessons from the world’s most advanced market for stream-\ning services. In P. Wikstrom & R. Defi llippi (Eds.), Business innovation and \ndisruption in the music industry (pp.  175–190). Cheltenham, UK: Edward \nElgar Publishing. \n Ries, E. (2011). The lean startup . New York: Crown Business. \n Robinson, F. (2001). A proven methodology to maximize return on risk . Retrieved \nFebruary 24, 2016, from http://www.syncdev.com/\nminimum-viable-product/ \n Schumpeter, J. (1939). Business cycles: A theoretical, historical and statistical analy-\nsis of the capitalist process . New York: McGraw Hill. \n Scott, M. (2012). Cultural entrepreneurs, cultural entrepreneurship: Music pro-\nducers mobilising and converting Bourdieu’s alternative capitals. Poetics, 40 , \n237–255. \n Tschmuck, P. (2016). From record selling to cultural entrepreneurship: The music \neconomy in the digital paradigm. In P. Wikstrom & R. Defi llippi (Eds.), \n Business innovation and disruption in the music industry (pp. 13–32). \nCheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 34 D. HUGHES ET AL. Watson, J. (2002). What is a manager? In M. McMartin, S. Eliezer, & S. Quintrell \n(Eds.), The music manager’s manual . Sydney, Australia: The Music Manager’s \nForum. \n Watson, J. (2013). Keynote Q & A with John Watson. Interviewed by N. Megel \non 12 September 2013, BigSound , The Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane, \nAustralia. \n Williamson, J., & Cloonan, M. (2007). Rethinking the music industry. Popular \nMusic, 26 (2), 305–322. \n Wiseman-Trowse, N. (2008). Performing class in British popular music . \nBasingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. THE NEW BUSINESS OF MUSIC 3537 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_3 CHAPTER 3 \n Standing Out in the Crowd \n Abstract While the opportunities for accessing and sharing music are \nnow extensive, this chapter addresses the ability to be noticed or heard.  \nThis can pose signifi cant challenges for artists. An analysis of career devel-\nopment within the new music industries suggests that tension between \ncreativity and management roles dissipates when the artist becomes an \nartist-entrepreneur or is DIY. These options, however, require artists to be \nstrategic in their individuality and branding. The branding options extend \nto online presentation and access, as well as merchandising and image. \nThis chapter discusses various artist strategies including startups, online \ndirect-to-fan services, and intermediaries, focusing on hard creativities in \nthese areas. \n Keywords Startups • Direct-to-fan services • Intermediaries • Online \n This chapter focuses on musical creativity by exploring the innovation, \nnovelty and groundbreaking creativities present within the new music \nindustries. It features artist strategies and online direct artist-to-fan ser-\nvices as examples of business creativity as invention, and, arguably, inno-\nvation. 1 Standing out in the new music industries necessitates artistic and \nbusiness creativities. Within this context, this chapter examines whether \nan artist’s career can be considered a startup. We argue that due to the \nambi guity surrounding the term ‘novel’ in defi nitions of hard artistic cre-\nativity, some artists are operating in circumstances of extreme uncertainty. \nThis is evident in attempts to create art and to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Uncertainty stems from the question of whether an audience \nwill favourably receive a creative work, deem it to be novel and innovative, \nand help business models to succeed. \n Our analysis of career development within the new music industries \nsuggests that tension between creativity and management (Bilton, 2007 ) \ndissipates when the artist becomes self-managed (DIY model) or operates \nas an artist-entrepreneur (Entrepreneur model). This ironically simplifi es \nthe notion of the ‘liberal artist’ (Wiseman-Trowse, 2008 ) and the dis-\ncourses of authenticity associated with it. It also raises interesting questions \nregarding the suitable application of the lean startup methodology (Ries, \n 2011 ) to career development in the new music industries. The uncertainty \nand ambiguity surrounding the novelty of hard artistic creativities, and the \nquestion of who decides what is creative in the digital ecology, means that \nstartup methodologies for addressing uncertainty in relation to both hard \nartistic creativity, and the business/es around it, are applicable. \n This chapter also addresses questions of whether artists can ‘pivot’ 2 \n(Ries, 2011 , p. 24) in similar ways to other startups. The new music busi-\nness brings with it much countercultural baggage (see Goodman, 1997 , \np. 10), adding complications that do not apply to non-music startups; dis-\ncourses of authenticity, nuanced branding signifi cation, subcultural capital \n(Thornton, 2006 ) and coolness are at play in complex and rapidly evolv-\ning ways. How an artist is branded needs to be refl ective of the music and \nof the individual/s involved, and is often genre-specifi c. This branding \nextends to online presentation and access, as well as traditional and non- \ntraditional merchandising. \n ARTIST STARTUPS \n We propose conceptualising artists’ careers as startups, with particular \nattention to defi nitions and understandings of artistic creativity in the \ndigital ecology. The circular model of career development means that, \nto varying degrees, artists are exposed to more fi nancial risk in the new \nmusic industries and thus need to know how to manage this risk. We argue \ntherefore that the notion of a minimum viable product (MVP) (Robinson, \n 2001 ; Ries, 2011 , p. 93) is useful here for managing such risk. This notion \ncan assist artists to discern market exploitation and market-building as two \ndifferent stages of the processes of marketisation. Our research suggests 38 D. HUGHES ET AL.that many artists spend large amounts of risk capital in their attempts to \nproduce a fully developed product that they can release into the market \nin order to kick-start their career. For example, in considering attempts \nby Australian bands to gain an audience by attending and disseminating \ntheir product at leading international music festival and conference South \nby South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, USA, Tom Harris (Founder of \nWhite Sky Music, a specialist music business management and bookkeep-\ning company) warned that Australian artists potentially ‘waste’ signifi cant \namounts of money because it is diffi cult to stand out in such a competitive \nenvironment. Such mismanagement of funds also happens because some \nartists wait until they have a fully developed product before they release it, \nand therefore confuse market exploitation with market-building. In this \ncontext, there is often no pre-existing market to exploit because it has \nnot, as yet, been built. The risk capital required to prepare for potential \nmarkets is extensive and may incur little initial return. \n Many defi nitions of startups exist in the literature (Jolly,  2003 ;  Ries,  2011 ; \nDamodaran,  2011 ;  Blank & Dorf,  2012 ; Graham,  2012 ; Eisenmann, \nRies, & Dillard, 2012 ). Blank and Dorf ( 2012 ) argued that a startup is ‘a \ntemporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profi table busi-\nness model’ (p. xvii). The word ‘search’ implies that a startup organisation \nis breaking new ground in an emerging/immature market, while the word \n‘temporary’ alludes to the fact that startups either evolve into established \nbusinesses or cease to exist. These words are also used here to differenti-\nate startups from new small businesses that are engaging in soft business \ncreativities because they are using pre-existing business models and are not \nin a temporary phase that involves searching for a business model. Graham \n( 2012 ) and Damodaran ( 2011 ) associate startups with growth, while Jolly \n( 2003 ) discusses failure as being a necessary pre-condition of success in \nthis area by noting that restarting is often part of the process. \n Blank ( 2013 ) noted that because ‘75% of all startups fail’ ( p. 1), the lean \nstartup methodology identifi ed by Ries ( 2011 ) has become dominant in \nthe startup fi eld because it theoretically reduces risk. Blank ( 2013 ) stated \nthat this method favours ‘experimentation over elaborate planning, cus-\ntomer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional ‘big \ndesign up front’ development’ (p. 1). We focus on this approach because \nit potentially  enables artists to test assumptions about their music, the \norganisational structures around their music, and their overall brand in \nways that avoid the pitfalls of market-building/market exploitation STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 39confusion. It therefore limits their exposure to risk. The notion of an MVP \n(Robinson, 2001 ; Ries, 2011 , p. 93) is key to this process. Compared with \nother startups, artists can easily release an MVP through social media in \norder to start the process of market building. Artists’ careers can therefore \nbe considered as startups because they meet Ries’s defi nition of ‘a human \ninstitution designed to create a new product or service under conditions \nof extreme uncertainty’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 27). Ries also argued that ‘suc-\ncessful startups are full of activities associated with building an institu-\ntion’ (p. 28). According to Ries, institution-building activities include the \nsecuring and coordination of creative employees to facilitate a company \nculture that ‘delivers results’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 28). Thus, a startup involves \nbuilding a somewhat bureaucratic enterprise. \n An artist’s career in the new music industries is an enterprise. The DIY \nand Entrepreneur models (see Chapter 2 ) detail how the ‘artist’ extends \nbeyond purely artistic endeavours. However, it is important to note that \nnot all artists create a genuinely ‘ new product or service under conditions of \n extreme uncertainty’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 27, author’s emphasis). ‘Innovation’ \nis interesting here and is interchangeable with ‘novelty’ in the context \nof defi ning hard artistic creativity. Ries noted that the exact cloning of \nanother business venture is not considered a startup because ‘its success \ndepends only on execution—so much so that this success can be modelled \nwith high accuracy’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 29). Our argument therefore is that \nartists attempting to achieve novelty through their work by incorporating \nhard artistic creativity cannot model their success with high accuracy and \nmay therefore be viewed as startups. \n ARTISTIC CREATIVITY \n Defi nitions of artistic creativity 3 are fundamental for conceptualising art-\nists’ careers as startups. Creativity is most often defi ned as the process of \nmaking useful, novel products (Csikszentmihalyi,  1996 ; Mumford,  2003 ; \nKilgour,  2006 ; Weisberg,  2006 ,  2010 ). In addition to this, Madden and \nBloom ( 2001 ) outline the issues involved in the process of valuing artisti-\ncally ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ creative outcomes  (see Chapter 1 ). They expand \non this notion by questioning the direct application of invention–cogni-\ntion defi nitions of creativity in the arts sphere because such an applica-\ntion implies that ‘artistic creativity is about generating new artistic ideas’ \n(Madden & Bloom, 2004 , p. 135) whereas it also typically involves aspects \nof tradition and affect. 40 D. HUGHES ET AL. The ideas here highlight the ambiguity surrounding novelty within the \nnew music industries. In addition, the concept of creativity within social \nsystems (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ) fuels this ambiguity. Negus and Pickering \n( 2000 ) also argued that ‘creativity is a socio-culturally constructed concept \nthat requires value judgements by others in order to acknowledge cre-\native outcomes’ (p. 264). In the context of the new music industries, the \nquestion of who decides what is novel and creative is now dependent on \na social system that has been broadened from music critics and the artist \nand repertoire (A&R) staff who work at record labels. Primarily through \nsocial media and online strategies, fans largely now determine at the outset \nof an artist’s startup whether the music is novel and/or creative. The cir-\ncular process of career development in the new music industries accentu-\nates this, with social media, for example, crowdsourcing value judgements \nconcerning creativity. The social media economy of shares and likes sub-\nsequently expands the size of the ‘fi eld’ (Becker,  1982 ; Bourdieu,  1986 ; \nCsikszentmihalyi,  1996 ) of experts who decide the novelty of an artist’s music \nand overall brand identity. Traditional intermediaries who constitute the \nfi eld of popular music (such as artist managers and record label A&R rep-\nresentatives) are also reliant on the broader ‘crowd’ to provide quantita-\ntive metrics and data. This data can then be used to assess the potential \nexponential growth of an artist’s career, and to determine whether to sign \nor not sign an artist. \n Hard creativity in the digital environment is a socio-culturally con-\nstructed and located complex concept. Creating valued products increas-\ningly hinges on the involvement of fans, which itself is dependent on \ncreating novelty according to defi nitions of hard artistic creativity. As Le, \nMasse and Paris ( 2013 ) noted:\n Compared to traditional industries, where objectives are set and pre-\ndefi ned by rationale targets or other activities such as fundamental scientifi c \nresearch, the cultural and creative industries present a more open-ended \nsetting. (p. 57) \n This open-ended setting, where value judgements are crowdsourced via \nsocial media, results in continuous uncertainty for artists attempting to \ngenerate the novelty required to achieve hard creativities. Furthermore, \ndefi nitions of career success are likewise more open-ended in the new \nmusic industries (Hughes, Keith, Morrow, Evans, & Crowdy, 2013 ; \nSmith, 2013 ). STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 41 For original-music-producing artists, there is ambiguity surrounding \nthe novelty they can generate through their hard artistic creativity. How \nor whether these trajectories can be defi ned as being successful attest to \nconditions of extreme uncertainty. In defi ning success for an artist’s career, \nJoel Connolly (artist manager) noted:\n It depends on what [the band] want to achieve so we sit down with the band \nat the beginning and ask them what they want to achieve… We manage art-\nists who want it to be their career and want to make money and have a career \nand who want it to be their job. Otherwise there is no point. We can’t make \nmoney if they can’t make money. For us, all of our artists are interested in \nearning a living from [music]. \n Artists’ career development can meet the latter part of Ries’s ( 2011 ) \ndefi nition of a startup in two ways. First, the ambiguity surrounding \nthe novelty they generate through their hard artistic creativity subjects \nthem to extreme uncertainty. Second, the state of fl ux in the new music \nindustries subjects startups to uncertainty in terms of career development \nopportunities. In this context, career development increasingly requires an \ninnovative approach to be noticed in a crowded marketplace. \n DEVELOPING A BRAND \n Standing out in the new music industries involves novel creative devel-\nopments in both artistic and business endeavours. It involves the organ-\nisational structure surrounding the artist, and also the various forms of \nmusical and visual media they produce (for example, music videos, gig \nposters, album art, set designs, merchandise designs and social media). \nArtists may be able to ‘pivot’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 24) their product in ways \nsimilar to those used in non-music startups. The need to generate novelty \nis constant, and to create novelty artists must carefully position and con-\nstruct their identity and branding. Watson noted:\n [Artists] have to plan to be constantly remarkable. Not just on day one, but \non day ten, twenty, one hundred, and all the way through the life cycle of the \nproject. And the life cycle of the product will be shorter. (Watson, 2013 ) 4 \n This constant necessity for innovation needs to be balanced with a \nconsistent artist identity or brand. The brand of an artist is essential in \nstrategizing their career and in developing capital among audiences and 42 D. HUGHES ET AL.other stakeholders. The theory concerning cultural, social and economic \ncapital (Bourdieu, 1986 ) is useful here in highlighting the various forms \nof capital at play. Morrow ( 2006 ) links cultural capital with the notion \nof a brand in a discussion of artist management practices in the music \nindustries, noting that a brand ‘is the qualitative or cultural experience of \nthe product’ (p. 54); effective branding builds social and cultural capital \n(Morrow,  2006 ,  p. 57).  The notion of subcultural capital (Thornton, \n 2006 ) is crucial to the concept of standing out, as it directly relates to con-\nstructs of  authenticity 5 and  coolness , which form a core element of the mar-\nketing process within the new music industries. Other kinds of capital are \nalso relevant; for example, social capital today is quantifi ed through social \nmedia data, in terms of fan numbers and interaction.  \n Artists therefore need to decide to link their music, their identity, their \nsocial structure and the lifestyle that their brand represents. Liz Tripodi \n(vocal teacher, entrepreneur, and performer)  summarised this by noting \nthat ‘the artist needs to think of themselves as a brand’. Joel Connolly (art-\nist manager) likewise noted that artists can be reluctant to brand themselves:\n Artists rarely think about [the brand]. They think about their ‘image’ as they \ncall it—‘We don’t want people to see us this way.’ I think it has always been \nimportant. It’s just easier to see now. \n These considerations raise questions as to the overall development of \nbrands. Leanne de Souza (artist manager)  commented that an artist’s \nbranding process begins ‘when they get their fi rst Facebook page at 12’. \nThis suggests that in the age of social media, some artists are, or need to \nbe, cognisant of their personal brand from a very early stage in their artis-\ntic development. This has implications for parents who may be overseeing \nthe artistic development of their children and the dissemination of prod-\nuct including YouTube clips. Visual design and strategies within the new \nmusic industries are therefore vital, especially given the visually focused \nnature of social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and \nFacebook. Long before the advent of social media, Negus ( 1992 ) astutely \nnoted the relevance of visual marketing that ‘involves an attempt to articu-\nlate the authenticity and uniqueness of an artist and to communicate this \nthrough a concise image which operates as a metonym for an act’s entire \nidentity and music’ (p. 72). \n Cumulatively, an artist’s brand is amorphous, temporal and subject to \ndevelopment and change; it has symbolic value through its inherent mean ing STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 43and how it is communicated (Ots & Hartmann, 2015 , pp. 217–218). It \nis important for an artist’s brand to be, at times, rejuvenated because what \nit means and communicates may change over time. An artist’s brand may \nalso be generated by its association with a patchwork of other brands that \nare fused together as part of an overall identity. This typically occurs when \nthe artist works with a song publisher or synchronisation (sync) agent(s) in \norder to realise further opportunities (see Morrow, 2011 ). Interestingly, \nMatt Amery (artist) noted that for him the process of brand generation or \nregeneration occurred through the process of generating income:\n For us, a lot of our income comes from syncs and proportionately to what \npeople have bought… it’s so much more weighed to publishing and getting \nsync and ads and branding. That’s where more of the money comes from so \nthat’s what we’re looking for… Not so much focusing on people buying the \nmusic and the merch[andise]. \n Artists’ brands are also created through written text. Artists, therefore, \nmay also need to consider how publishing and/or a publicist may aid \nthe construction/reconstruction of their  brand. Stephen Green (publi-\ncist) noted that experienced publicists ‘have spent 10, 15, whatever years \nabsolutely nailing the idea of the psychology of media’. Publicists play \na role in communicating understandings of music and the creative, and \noften youth-oriented, subculture/scenes surrounding it. This youth focus \ndoes, however, pose a challenge for career support and longevity, as Green \nfurther noted:\n triple j 6 is a network aimed at 18–24 year olds, how does a 35 year old song-\nwriter, how are their songs, that they’re writing today when they’re 35, how \ndo they relate to a 19 year old? \n THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ORIGINALITY AND PRODUCT \n Despite the perception that many sectors of the music industries are \nyouth-focused, the complexity of and opportunities afforded by the new \nmusic industries are such that artistic novelty may be recognised at any \ncareer stage. For example, Gotye (Wouter ‘Wally’ De Backer)—a Belgian-\nAustralian, multi-instrumental musician and singer-songwriter—has \ndeveloped his brand under the name ‘Gotye’. This alias was derived from \n‘Gauthier’, the French equivalent of ‘Walter’ or ‘Wouter’ (Pareles, 2011 ). 44 D. HUGHES ET AL.Initially, Gotye fronted a rock band (Downstares) and after it disbanded, he \nco-formed (in 2002 with Kris Schroeder) the Melbourne- based indie-pop \ntrio The Basics (Alberts, 2016 ). He also released the fi rst Gotye electronic \nmusic album, Boardface (Creative Vibes, 2003; Ankeny, 2016 ). After the \nsuccess of his independently released second album Like Drawing Blood \n(Independent/Creative Vibes, 2006), Gotye was able to establish a per-\nmanent home in Melbourne’s Southeast (Gotye.com, 2016 ). In 2010, \nhe set up a recording studio in a barn at his parents’ farm and set about \nrecording tracks for his third album Making Mirrors (Gotye.com, 2016 ) \nwhich was released through Eleven and Universal Republic Records, and \nso traversed a combination of record labels. \n In 2011, Gotye released the song ‘Somebody That I Used to \nKnow’ (written by De Backer) featuring the New Zealand artist Kimbra. It \nwas released as a single on 6 July 2011 and debuted at number 27 on the \nAustralian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Top 50 Singles Chart \n(Top40-Charts.com, n.d. ). The song was boosted by endorsements from \nAshton Kutcher and Lily Allen via Twitter (Twitter.com, 2011 ), expos-\ning Gotye’s music to their millions of followers (Jolly, 2011a , 2011b ). \n‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ peaked at number one in 18 countries \nand has been the number one single on iTunes in 46 countries (ABC, \n 2013 ). In 2012, it was a breakthrough song and reached number one \non the Billboard Hot 100 (Billboard.com, 2012 ). This made Gotye the \nfi fth Australian-based artist to do so and the second Belgian (after The \nSinging Nun in 1963) (Billboard.com, 2012 ). Gotye won fi ve Australian \nRecording Industry Association (ARIA) Awar ds and received a nomina tion \nfor an MTV EMA for Best Asia and Pacifi c Act (ABC, 2013 ). In 2013, \nGotye won three Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Best Pop Duo/\nGroup Performance and Best Alternative Music Album (ABC, 2013 ). \n ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ is an example of hard creativity \nbecause it is novel in its composition and production (see also Adams, \n 2014 ); hard creativity is also evident in the related fi lm clip released in \n2011 on YouTube and Vimeo. Directed by Natasha Pincus, the video has \nnow been viewed over 758 million times (as of April, 2016). The video \nwas listed at number 15 of the most-viewed videos on YouTube (as at \nApril, 2013) (YouTube, 2013a ) and the number 4 most-liked video of all \ntime (YouTube, 2013b ). \n The Gotye example shows that an artist startup needs to feature a holistic \nMVP that involves music video, visual design, live performance and set \ndesigns, merchandise designs and online strategies. This multi- dimensional STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 45presence is the primary reason why artist startups typically require more \ninput from intermediaries, not less; time, effort and skill are required to \ngenerate novelty in all of these areas. Additionally, artists now need to con-\nnect with many more distribution channels in order to make a number of \nimpressions comparable to what would have occurred during the broad-\ncast era (had the artist been fortunate enough to access a mainstream \ndistribution outlet). As Watson ( 2013 ) noted:\n When I worked at Sony our boss had this great line: ‘I loved the 70s, it \nwas Countdown, then 2SM, then lunch.’ He was half joking but he was \nalso making a serious point. In those days if you covered that TV show and \nthat radio station then that basically reached everybody. To reach the same \npercentage of the population nowadays you would probably have to do 100 \ndifferent things because the audience is fragmented across all sorts of media. \nThat’s not a bad thing because instead of there being one or two powerful \ngatekeepers, there are now 100 different people who can make a difference \nand they’re usually watching their audience and reacting to what they like \nrather than imposing their tastes on everyone else. Even so, it’s now a lot \nmore work to simultaneously get something into 100 channels—it would \nhave been much easier to visit Countdown and 2SM and then go to lunch. \n In order to better understand this new reality, a reconceptualization of the \nrelationship between artist startups and various intermediaries is needed. \n STARTUPS , ONLINE SERVICES AND VALIDATION \n Many artist startups are faced with income insecurity (Throsby & Zednik, \n 2011 ) which appears to be exacerbated when artists experience diffi culties \nin operating their business. The tension between creativity and business \nacumen endures even in education (see Bridgstock, 2012 , p. 123), as the \narts are arguably associated with a certain bohemian idealism. In this con-\ntext, business acumen and artistic management are often framed as dull \nand bureaucratic concerns. Conversely, the more appealing term ‘artist- \nentrepreneurship’, as opposed to ‘self-management’, connotes something \nthat is ‘cool, innovative, and exciting’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 3). \n Ries’s ( 2011 ) lean startup methodology is useful as it helps to guide \nartist management strategies (whether through the process of self- \nmanagement or through the service provision provided by a separate \nmanager). Describing his methodology for ‘hypothesis-driven entrepre-\nneurship’ (Eisenmann et  al., 2012 ), Ries notes that ‘the business and 46 D. HUGHES ET AL.marketing functions of a startup should be considered as important as \nengineering and product development and therefore deserve an equally \nrigorous methodology to guide them’ (p. 5). The methodology developed \nby Ries involves the process of validated learning. Validated learning (or \nvalidation) is a process that relies on the Build–Measure–Learn feedback \nloop (Ries, 2011 , p. 228) afforded by launching an initiative/product, \nmeasuring its resultant effi cacy and then using the data to inform subse-\nquent development. Social media is one way through which the process \nof validation can occur. Its effectiveness can be substantiated by empiri-\ncal data collected from fans and is ‘a rigorous method for demonstrating \nprogress’ (Ries, 2011 , p. 38). The direct artist-to-fan relationship enabled \nby social media can help artists address ‘the extreme uncertainty’ (Ries, \n 2011 , p. 38) caused by the ambiguity surrounding the novelty they gener-\nate through hard creative endeavours. Discussing the complexity behind \ndirect artist-to-fan communication, Matt Amery (artist) noted the level of \nintegrity involved:\n It is more about what you stand for, which doesn’t always come through \nyour music, it might come through what you say online. People are more \ninterested in, they might hear about your music, but then what hooks them \nis fi nding out about who you are. \n This process of direct artist-to-fan communication is relevant not only for \n‘hooking’ fans into being interested in the artist’s work, but also ‘hook-\ning’ intermediaries into being involved. Damian Cunningham 7 (Director \nof Audience and Sector Development, National Live Music Offi ce) noted \nthat for both emerging and high-profi le artists developing an online pres-\nence is key:\n I think that is led by visual and easy online presences where people from a \ndigital point of view are spreading the word rather than just going ‘I really \nlove that track, did you hear it on the radio?’ It’s like, ‘Here’s a 30 second \ngrab on social media.’ \n Watson ( 2013 ) also discussed a growth in Facebook friends as a ‘constant \nprocess of regular rewards’. This is another example of validation via social \nmedia. The iterative process of validated learning can encompass music, \ndesign, branding and other para-musical areas in a broad sense. As pre-\nviously discussed, the circular communication cycle between artist–fan–\nindustries–artist–fan–industries is only partly musical. STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 47 A number of online services have arisen to assist artists in direct-to- \nfan sales and marketing, in areas including ticketing, physical merchan-\ndise, web presence and digital merchandise (i.e. song downloads), as \nwell as more specialised areas such as crowdfunding, gig booking, and \nemail marketing. One of the earliest services, CDBaby, was founded in \n1998 as a service enabling independent musicians to sell CDs of their \nwork (Thompson, 1998 ). The service later expanded into digital distribu-\ntion, offering artists the option of selling music digitally via services such \nas Apple iTunes (Thompson, 1998 ). CDBaby still exists today, but has \nadapted by diversifying into a number of other areas, including ‘YouTube \nmonetization, sync licensing, publishing royalty collection, and direct-to- \nfan tools for your website and Facebook’ (CDBaby.com, 2016 ), as well \nas website creation (via its subsidiary company HostBaby), vinyl produc-\ntion, distribution of physical CDs to bricks-and-mortar stores (through \npartnership with Alliance Entertainment), merchandise production (via \nsubsidiary company Merch.ly) and audio mastering (through partner-\nship with Landr.com) (CDBaby.com, 2016 ). The proliferation of distinct \nservices, from which artists can pick and choose according to their own \nunique requirements, shows the fragmentation of audiences across dif-\nferent media, and the need to engage in validated learning in order to \ndevelop a viable and sustainable career. \n Other notable entities include Bandcamp, PledgeMusic, Topspin, \nSongkick, SonicBids, and Music Glue. Like CDBaby, many of these \nentities offer several services but are often associated with a primary ser-\nvice. For example, Bandcamp offers free downloads in exchange for the \nuser’s e-mail address, allowing the artist to build a database of fan e-mail \naddresses; it also allows artists to sell music downloads at any price point, \nincluding ‘pay what you want’ or minimum price. This approach empow-\ners artists to manage their own fanbase data and also to decide how to \nmonetise their work. Meanwhile, although Topspin offers a range of ser-\nvices including physical merchandise, downloads and ticketing, it is pri-\nmarily associated with physical merchandise. In a New York Times profi le \nof Topspin, Sisario ( 2011 ) noted that:\n it has developed a specialty of bundling physical goods with downloads. \nThe company encourages bands to give songs away, wagering that curious \nfans will come back to buy more lucrative products like T-shirts or deluxe \neditions that can be combined at various price levels. The company’s sales \ndata seem to support that philosophy. Even with plenty of $2 videos and 48 D. HUGHES ET AL.$10 posters for sale, the average transaction on Topspin brings in $26; when \ntickets are involved, the average is $88. (Sisario, 2011 ) \n The diversity of services available to artists in today’s marketplace can be \nconfusing for artists or managers who need to choose which ones best suit \nindividual needs. However, as Brenden Mulligan (former strategic devel-\nopment vice-president at Sonicbids, an online booking service) noted, the \nproliferation of these services allows artists to employ those that best suit \ntheir fans, brand and engagement style, rather than ‘one service that tries \nto be everything for everyone’ (Mulligan, 2010 ). \n With offi ces in London, New York and Sydney (Music Glue, 2016 ), \nMusic Glue is an example of a digital marketing ‘solution’ that offers \ne-commerce tools for ‘artists [and managers], venues, promoters and \nlabels’ (Music Glue, 2016 ). It provides the tools to ‘empower… users \nto take control, own their data and sell anything, to anyone, anywhere, \nin any currency, in any language and via any device’ (Music Glue, 2015 ). \nMusic Glue’s business model involves enabling artists, managers, promot-\ners, venues, festivals and other participants in the music industries to set \nup a free online profi le (Music Glue, n.d. ). Each artist profi le has ‘a unique \nURL’, is ‘customisable’ (with options for individualised branding) and is \nmedia/device-compatible (Music Glue, n.d. ). In return for its services, \nMusic Glue takes a 10% commission on sales (Music Glue, 2015 ). This \nincludes ticketing, merchandise and digital sales (Music Glue, n.d. ). In \nthis way, Music Glue generates revenue only when the users of their ser-\nvice do (Music Glue, n.d. ):\n Originally founded in 2007 by artists for artists, Music Glue is the only \nDIY platform that facilitates ticketing, chart eligible record sales, merchan-\ndise, fulfi lment, crowdfunding, bundles and even more, in one simple to use \npackage. Ultimately, we have created an artist-centric solution for the new \nglobal music industry that ensures more money goes back into the pockets \nof the music creators. (Music Glue, n.d. ) \n Through Music Glue’s services, artists retain ownership of their fan data \n(Music Glue, 2015 ) which can be used to inform live performance and \ntouring. Music Glue’s service uses ‘Google analytics to track visits’ (Music \nGlue, n.d. ) to the artists’ profi les, thereby recording the geographical \nlocation of fans, which provides insight to potential touring destinations \nbecause artists can ‘know where your fans are; what they buy’ (Music Glue, STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 49 n.d. ). The founder of Music Glue, Mark Meharry (cited in Robinson, \n 2009 ) described the benefi ts of determining the location(s) of an artist \nfanbase:\n Enter Shikari are a great example. We have a global map set up where you \ncan see all of your fans, you can drill down into particular towns. And for \ntheir booking agent, that’s absolutely bang on for what they need to put \ntheir tours on around the world. And this year they’ll be out on the road \nacross the globe—based on where their fans are. \n Once tour destinations are fi nalised, the artist (and/or manager/pro-\nmoter) is able to approach venues/ticketing companies for an allocation \nof tickets, which is then sold directly to all fans. This cuts out second-\nary ticketing (and sales), a concern expressed by Mumford & Sons (see \nLindvall, 2012 ; Mumford & Sons, 2015a ) who are now a Music Glue \nuser. Meharry (cited in West, 2015 ) explained the concept behind Music \nGlue’s direct to fan ticketing and sales:\n By using Music Glue, artists have the greatest reach into the market and \nare now able to leverage that reach with retail. Yes, we eliminate secondary \nticketing, however the biggest reasons to insist on large ticket allocations \nfrom promoters are data capture and upselling of products that the artist will \nmake money from. (Meharry cited in West, 2015 ) \n Using Music Glue’s ticketing option, the artist (rather than the venue/\nticketing company) is able to collect consumers’ data. Music Glue there-\nfore addresses the potential confl ict of interests between the artist and the \nvenue and/or ticketing company: an artist typically wants to retain the \nfan data to sell tickets to their future shows and to advertise the release of \nfuture recordings and other products, whereas the venue and/or ticketing \ncompany want to retain this data to upsell tickets to other artists’ shows \nor other types of events. Meharry (cited in LeBlanc, 2015 ) noted the rel-\nevance of this function to the artist:\n [Artists] have enormous reach in the market now through all of the social \nmedia channels. They can reach a global marketplace, and what that mar-\nketplace is interested in is connecting with the artist directly. Our very origi-\nnal model was using an artist’s music to locate its fans, and building up a \ndatabase by exchanging music for data, for email addresses and locations. \n(Meharry cited in LeBlanc, 2015 ) 50 D. HUGHES ET AL. Music Glue users include high-profi le artists such as Public Service \nBroadcasting, Mumford & Sons, Brian Ferry, Billy Bragg, Enter Shikari, \nand Boy & Bear (West, 2015 ). \n A provider such as Music Glue affords an opportunity to validate learn-\ning through investigating options and testing those options. Such experi-\nmentation of business practices may be regarded as hypothesis-driven \nentrepreneurship. Ries ( 2011 ) explained that this concept ‘begins with a \nclear hypothesis that makes predictions about what is supposed to happen. \nIt then tests those predictions empirically’ (Ries, 2011 , pp. 56–57). Rather \nthan thinking in reductionist ways that involve either an artist signing to \na major label (potentially the 360 model) as the ultimate goal, or cutting \nout all intermediaries (as per the DIY model), artist and band startups \nneed to develop more-nuanced hypotheses that can be tested through \nvarious experiments. Damian Cunningham articulated how services such \nas Music Glue, Bandcamp and Topspin Media can facilitate hypothesis- \ndriven entrepreneurship. Cunningham posited that the processes and ser-\nvices offered by Music Glue do not ‘seem to have boundaries’ allowing \nartists to be ‘as creative as what you want… you want to do a creative \nevent, you want to do a merch sale, whatever you decide, those tools are \nfl exible enough to work around it’. Therefore, the services provided by \nMusic Glue have added a degree of fl exibility when it comes to career- \nrelated hypothesis generation and experimentation. \n In terms of the fl exibility of entrepreneurial processes, Joe Vesayaporn \n(global sales director of Music Glue) provided the example of Enter Shikari \nas a band that has completed successful experiments in relation to ticket \nand merchandise sales. Enter Shikari control their own website (enter-\nshikari.com) and drive all traffi c to this website (rather than to a ticket-\ning service per se). In order to manage this process, Vesayaporn noted \nthat Enter Shikari ‘sent someone on the road with [their] shows to man-\nage fans and scan tickets. They really took ownership and managed their \nticket allocations at the venues they were playing’. Having educated their \nfans to purchase concert tickets directly from their website, Enter Shikari \nset up their own merchandise fulfi lment company with their merchandise \nbeing sold directly via their website. In terms of this merchandising ser-\nvice, Vesayaporn noted that Music Glue ‘are now offering that [option] \nout to other acts because they have done it right for themselves.’ Through \nthis process of learning how to do ‘do it right for themselves’, artists \ncan gather reliable data that can be used to substantiate claims regard-\ning current commercial success and the potential of future commercial STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 51 success, as Cunningham noted: ‘At any point you can give the equivalent \nof your fan profi t and loss sheet and it is reliable hard data. I think that has \nchanged things dramatically’. However, in terms of such experimentation, \nCunningham also argued that ‘sometimes “wrong” business decisions are \nthe right things to do because of the creative outlet’. Vesayaporn cited \nother examples of bands such as Ben Howard and Mumford & Sons that \nbegan experimenting with direct artist-to-fan relations by using Music \nGlue’s services. He noted that these bands have since been able to scale up \ntheir experiments as they have passed through the startup phase to become \nfi nancially successful businesses. For instance, although the British band \nMumford & Sons are signed to a mixture of independent and major labels \nsuch as Universal Music Group’s Island imprint for the UK and Europe, \nto the large independent label Glassnote Records in North America and \nto Universal Music Australia’s Dew Process imprint for Australia and New \nZealand (Mumford & Sons, 2016 ), Vesayaporn recalled that:\n [Before they signed] record deals they were selling direct on the ticketing \nside of things… and from the very early days they were just putting stuff out \nvia their Myspace or their website or via Music Glue, selling direct to fans, \nand they have continued to do that as they have grown. \n Vesayaporn argued that this strategy provided them leverage to agree split \nterritories deals across labels (as opposed to signing for the world with a \nmajor label out of a home territory). \n CONCEPTUALISING BRAND AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT \n Mumford & Sons have long graduated the startup phase of their devel-\nopment and now offer direct-to-fan solutions. They sell tickets and mer-\nchandise directly to their fans (Mumford & Sons, 2016 ) and are noted for \nother entrepreneurial strategies. Vesayaporn, for example, noted that even \nthough Mumford & Sons can draw the audience needed to play arena ven-\nues, they have conceptually elaborated on this by converting their arena \nshows into their own festival, which they headline (Mumford & Sons, \n 2015b ). Mumford & Sons now sell tickets for their own Gentlemen of \nthe Road and Stopover festivals directly to fans, as Vesayaporn explained:\n [This] is what they have done in the US and Canada and did in the UK in \nJuly where they promoted their own festival and sold 100 % of the tickets \nthemselves. Again, they were doing that 4 years ago on a smaller scale. I 52 D. HUGHES ET AL.would say what they learned via direct-to-fan, and from management and \nthemselves on ticketing, gave them confi dence as they got bigger to do what \nthey do. \n Mumford & Sons’ close control of their brand is to a large extent made \npossible through their touring and ticketing strategies. Fans have been \n‘educated’ to purchase tickets via www.mumfordandsons.com , enabling \nthe band to pursue some innovative live performance strategies. By using \nMusic Glue as one of the primary ticketing outlets for their one-day fes-\ntival in London in July 2013—which they claim 60,000 people attended \n(NME, 2013 )—according to Vesayaporn, Mumford & Sons retained much \nof their fan data for future use. This meant that, in addition to controlling \ntheir own brand of Mumford & Sons, they also own the brand name of \nthe festivals they headline around the world including the Gentlemen of \nthe Road Stopover sub-brand. 8 \n The examples above suggest that a useful way to conceptualise career \ndevelopment in the new music industries is to acknowledge that bands can \nrelease an MVP (Ries, 2011 , p. 93) directly to fans, although to build a \nsustainable business they often need to engage a number of intermediaries. \nDetermining which intermediaries they employ should be subject to the \nresults of experiments that test various assumptions about the developing \nneeds of their startup. In the specifi c case of Mumford & Sons, it is evident \nthat Entrepreneur and DIY career models are traversed. However, these \nmodels are not used by Mumford & Sons as either/or options. Rather, \nthey are used in unique combinations in a longitudinal sense and in terms \nof geographic territory. \n The Melbourne artist Matt Walters ( 2015 ) has traversed career mod-\nels and has launched an online platform for facilitating house concerts \n(parlour gigs) that is set to ‘transform the live music economy’ (Walters, \n 2015 ). Walters explained:\n From being signed to a major label, to touring with some incredible inter-\nnational artists, I’ve certainly experienced all the ups and downs the music \nbusiness has to offer… Of course, with the traditional music model well and \ntruly behind us, there is more emphasis than ever on playing live… This is \nwhat Parlour is all about. We are building a platform that will fi nally connect \nartists and hosts. (Walters, 2015 ) \n The examples above illustrate how career development within the new \nindustries has shifted from being linear to circular, and also demonstrate STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 53how the different career models outlined in Chapter 2 are mobilised in a \nway that is unique to each artist. \n Central to career development in the new industries is the way artists \nengage with fans. Direct-to-fan strategies enable artists and artist startups \nto collect and retain fan data, instead of the data being collected by the \nvenue(s) or third-party ticketing outlets. This data plays a crucial role in \nthe validated learning that is important for an artist or an artist startup’s \nultimate success. As Vesayaporn argued, fan data is a means through which \nartists and artist startups can test their hypotheses by asking themselves \nsuch questions as:\n Do we have a range of T-shirts when it is actually signed vinyl and cool post-\ners that sell? Or do we have a range of $40 posters that no one gives a shit \nabout because they just want to get a nice T-shirt? \n Through the use of fan data, artist startups can become adaptive organ-\nisations that automatically adjust their processes and performance to \nsuit current conditions (Ries, 2011 , p.  227). By collecting fan data at \nthe outset, the artist startup’s validated learning process that involves the \nBuild–Measure–Learn feedback loop (Ries, 2011 , p. 228) can become a \ncontinuous process. Through a service such as Music Glue, artists can work \nthrough a process of continuous iteration to develop their product(s). In \nthis context, for an artist to be ‘dropped’ 9 by a label need not be a career \nsetback. \n DISRUPTION AND RESISTANCE \n The music industries are constituted by a complex web of intermediaries \n(Williamson & Cloonan, 2007 , p. 305) and some benefi t from the entre-\npreneurial efforts of artist startups, while others do not. In the live music \nindustry, promoters and booking agents typically generate income on \naggregate by working with a large number of artists. Conversely, artist and \nband startups (and artist managers) are more reliant on the revenue their \nstartup and subsequent ongoing concerns generate. By enabling artists \nand artist startups to sell tickets directly to consumers, online direct-to-\nfan services may exacerbate tensions between artists who are attempting \nto stand out in the crowded marketplace and the artist managers, live \n promoters, and booking agents who would traditionally undertake or over-\nsee the implementation of strategies to engage with audiences. Vesayaporn \nalluded to this when he stated that there is ‘potential push back from all 54 D. HUGHES ET AL.of the traditional players in their respective bits of the industry’. This dis-\nruptive nature is also highlighted in the following quote from company \nfounder Mark Meharry regarding the silent backers behind Music Glue:\n We have high net worth shareholders. They would prefer not to be men-\ntioned. They have nothing to do with the music industry, and are silent \nin the day-to-day operation. They love the idea of extreme disruption. \n(Meharry cited in LeBlanc, 2015 ) \n The disruption afforded by direct-to-fan strategies may also be of ben-\nefi t to a major or independent record label if it has a 360 deal with an art-\nist. This is because these entities may benefi t from the artist selling tickets \ndirectly because their respective commission of the band’s live income does \nnot fi rst have the promoter’s fee deducted from it. The tension caused by \nsuch disruption may not be attributed solely to the disintermediation that \nthe Internet affords; the tension between artists (who are sometimes in \npartnership with record labels) and live music promoters and agents may \nalso be fed by historical ‘injustice’. Australian promoter Michael Chugg \n( 2010 ), claimed that some artists were treated unfairly by agents:\n In the days before Dirty Pool came along and changed the system, you \ncould do a deal with the club owner or the promoter to sell your act to them \nfor $1500 and then tell your act they were getting $1200. (206) \n Online ticketing services, such as those provided through Music Glue, \ntherefore enable artists (and managers) to control (at least some of) the \nticketing process and avoid the above scenario. Similarly, there are no \nopportunities for third-party kickbacks as artists are paid commensurate \nto their drawing power. \n CONCLUSION \n The growing complexity of the ‘new’  business of music (see Chapter \n 2 ) has led to an increased portfolio of responsibilities for artists. The shift \nfrom a scarcity of distribution outlets for music to an abundance of out-\nlets in the digital music economy has made it vital to attract and retain an \naudience’s attention by standing out in a crowded marketplace. Adding to \nthe complexity of standing out is the evolution of social media which has \nexpanded the fi eld of experts who ultimately decide whether a particular STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 55artist’s music and overall brand image is novel/creative: fans are there-\nfore now a much more integral part of the fi eld of music. In this context, \nartistic music products do not fi t traditional product development models. \nThey are subject to extreme uncertainty, and can be considered within \nthe startup framework. However, artist startups are subject to additional \nlayers of complexity when compared with other startups. These complexi-\nties include various discourses of artistic integrity, nuanced branding sig-\nnifi cation and the politics of subcultural capital/coolness, as well as the \nnotion that artistic creativity involves invention and cognition as well as \ntradition and affect. Our research suggests that artists can ‘pivot’ (Ries, \n 2011 , p. 24) like other startups, using entrepreneurial skill to lessen the \ntension between creativity and management that is sometimes associated \nwith ‘selling out’. This simplifi es the notion of the liberal artist, and the \ndiscourses of authenticity associated with it. The lean startup methodol-\nogy is applicable for managing the risk associated with career development \nin the new music industries; risk that is increasingly being placed on the \nshoulders of artists as they attempt to stand out in a crowded marketplace \nand attract various intermediaries through the circular career development \nprocess. \n NOTES \n 1. Madden and Bloom ( 2001 ) note that ‘In the Schumpeterian dis-\ntinction an invention is new, an innovation is both new and useful’ \n(p. 419). \n 2. A ‘pivot’ involves a startup institution changing strategic direction, \nusually because a particular approach is not working. Ries ( 2011 ) \nnotes that while products change constantly through the process of \noptimisation, a pivot is comparatively rare and even after a pivot the \noverarching vision rarely changes (149). \n 3. The term ‘creativity’ (in the singular) is deliberate in this section. Its \nuse does not negate the existence of multiple artistic ‘creativities’ \n(Burnard, 2012 ). It is used here to broadly denote the concept \nrather than the more specifi c types of creative processes or musical \ncreativities that are discussed in the opening paragraphs of this chap-\nter and in Chapter 6 . 56 D. HUGHES ET AL. 4. All comments attributed to John Watson are taken from a keynote \nquestion and answer session he gave at BIGSOUND conference in \nBrisbane on 12 September 2013. \n 5. For more on authenticity see Chapter 4 . \n 6. triple j is a taxpayer-funded, youth-oriented radio station on the FM \nband in Australia that broadcasts nationally. It forms part of the \nAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and it is one of the \nmost important taste-making outlets for popular music in the coun-\ntry, with its infl uence extending to the sponsorship of festivals, \nonline music outlets and competitions such as ‘triple j unearthed’, \nand the infl uential annual ‘triple j Hottest 100’ listener poll. \n 7. At the time of our interview in 2013, Cunningham was helping to \nlaunch Music Glue (an online direct artist-to-fan facilitator) in \nAustralia. \n 8. Stopovers are festivals headlined by Mumford & Sons that focus on \nlocal communities. \n 9. The term ‘dropped by a record label’ can be somewhat misleading. \nIt usually means that contractually the record label has committed \nto funding, releasing and promoting one album ‘fi rm’, and then \nthey have a number of options for subsequent albums that they can \ndecide to pick up or not. Therefore being ‘dropped’ just means that \nthe label has decided not to trigger the next option in the contrac-\ntual agreement between them and the artist, which they are legally \nentitled to do (even if they have triggered more than one of their \nprevious options) because an option is not a fi rm commitment in the \nfi rst place. \n REFERENCES \n ABC. (2013, February 12). Gotye picks up three Grammys . Retrieved February 24, \n2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-11/gotye-picks-up-\nthree-grammys/4511814 \n Adams, C. (2014, October 20). Producer Styalz Fuego talks about the stories \nbehind his hits with 360 and gives tips to songwriters. News.com.au. Retrieved \nFebruary 24, 2016, from http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/\nproducer-styalz-fuego-talks-about-the-stories-behind-his-hits-with-360-and-\ngives- tips-to-songwriters/news-story/268739fe9f1bc1663d922cf55149dd40 \n Alberts. (2016). The basics. 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Artist features . Retrieved February 20, 2016, from https://\nwww.musicglue.com/services/ \n Negus, K. (1992). Producing pop . London, UK: Edward Arnold. \n Negus, K., & Pickering, M. (2000). Creativity and cultural production. International \nJournal of Cultural Policy, 6 (2), 259–282. \n NME. (2013). Mumford & Sons call Olympic Park gig ‘shitloads better than \nGlastonbury’. Retrieved August 2, 2016, from, http://www.nme.com/news/\nmumford-and-sons/71287 \n Ots, M., & Hartmann, B. J. (2015). Media brand cultures: Researching and theo-\nrizing how consumers engage in the social construction of media brands. In \nG. Siegert, K. Förster, S. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media \nbranding . Cham, Switzerland: Springer. \n Pareles, J. (2011, October 22). Gotye fans turn out to sing along. The New York \nTimes . Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.\ncom/2011/10/22/gotye-fans-turn-out-to-sing-along/?_r=0 \n Ries, E. (2011). The lean startup . New York: Crown Business. \n Robinson, F. (2001). A proven methodology to maximize return on risk . Retrieved \nFebruary 24, 2016, from http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-\nproduct/ \n Robinson, T. (2009). Mark Meharry from Music Glue [Interview]. BBC \nIntroducing: Fresh On The Net . Retrieved February 20, 2016, from http://\nfreshonthenet.co.uk/2009/04/mark-meharry-from-music-glue/ \n Sisario, B. (2011, October 2). Online tools help bands do business. The New York \nTimes . Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.\ncom/2011/10/03/business/media/high-tech-tools-help-bands-market-\ndirectly-to-fans.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&sq=topspin%20media&st=\ncse&scp=1 \n Smith, G. (2013). Seeking ‘success’ in popular music. Music Education Research \nInternational, 6 , 26–37. \n Thompson, K. (1998). It’s the future, baby: How CD baby helps indie musicians \nwith digital distribution. Future of Music Coalition . Retrieved February 18, \n2016, from https://futureofmusic.org/article/its-future-baby \n Thornton, S. (2006). Understanding hipness: ‘Subcultural Capital’ as feminist \ntool. In A. Bennett, B. Shank, & J. Toynbee (Eds.), The popular music studies \nreader (pp. 99–105). New York: Routledge. \n Throsby, D., & Zednik, A. (2011). Multiple job-holding and artistic careers: Some \nempirical evidence. Cultural Trends, 20 (1), 9–24. 60 D. HUGHES ET AL. Top40-Charts.com. (n.d.). Gotye & Kimbra . Retrieved February 20, 2016, from \n http://top40-charts.com/artist.php?aid=12912 \n Twitter.com. (2011). Twitter / MrsLRCooper : Love this video…. Lily Allen . \nRetrieved February 9, 2012, from https://twitter.com/lilyrosecooper/\nstatus/94463921272004608 . \n Walters, M. (2015). How I got here. Retrieved February 6, 2016, from http://\nwww.parlourgigs.com/blog/2015/2/23/how-i-got-here \n Watson, J. (2013). Keynote Q & A with John Watson. Interviewed by N. Megel on \n12 September 2013, BigSound , The Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane, Australia. \n Weisberg, R. (2006). Creativity: Understanding innovation in problem solving, sci-\nence, invention, and the arts . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. \n Weisberg, R. (2010). The study of creativity: From genius to cognitive science. \n International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16 (3), 235–253. \n West, A. (2015). Music Glue: Founder Mark Meharry discusses the online service that \naims to shake up music industry . Retrieved February 20, 2016, from http://\nwww.ibtimes.co.uk/music-glue-founder-mark-meharry-discusses-online-\nservice-that-aims-shake- music-industry-1500683 \n Williamson, J., & Cloonan, M. (2007). Rethinking the music industry. Popular \nMusic, 26 (2), 305–322. \n Wiseman-Trowse, N. (2008). Performing class in British popular music . \nBasingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. \n Youtube. (2013a). Top 100 most viewed YouTube videos [Apr. 2013]. Retrieved April 7, \n2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_YZ_Of6xng&nohtml5=False \n Youtube. (2013b). Top 25 most liked YouTube videos (Jul. 2013). Retrieved April 7, \n2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txtu_1Doevk&nohtml5=\nFalse STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD 6163 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_4 CHAPTER 4 \n Abstract This chapter addresses new concepts of musical creativities, col-\nlaborations and contemporary forms of musical authorship. It therefore focuses on diverse creativities and challenges the traditional notion of ‘cre-ativity’. In this context, the crafting of songs, the authorship of songs and the use of technologies that assist in the crafting process are outlined. The ways in which the democratisation of technologies (such as recording software) has resulted in a range of artistic options and practices in music production is also discussed, and new options in networked creativity, co- writing and collaborations are considered. The chapter concludes with discussion of the fusion of narratives. \n Keywords Song • Songwriting • Musical authorship • Music produc-\ntion • Collaboration \n In popular music, the creative process involving the authorship of a song is \nusually thought of as following one of two possible approaches: top-tier or grass-roots. In top-tier pop music, songwriting teams—consisting of lyri-cists, vocalists, instrumentalists, composers, producers, and so on—create rough demos of a song. A publisher then offers these demos to various art-ists, their labels, or their management teams, and the artists then perform and record the song themselves. A top-tier artist may also be co-opted to co-write songs by labels and/or publishers. The second approach is more commonly found in rock, singer-songwriter and acoustic genres; the Creativities, Production Technologies \nand Song Authorship artists themselves, often alongside their bandmates, will write the song \nand lyrics and will perform and/or record it at home, in a studio or some \nother location and in a variety of formats for multiple platforms. \n In each of these scenarios the division of labour is fairly well under-\nstood. There are those who write music, those who play or perform it and \nthose who record it, and the process usually happens in that order. One \nperson may fulfi l multiple roles, but these areas are typically understood to \nbe distinct from each other. These various functions are refl ected in music \nindustries’ and copyright terminology; songwriter, lyricist, arranger, per-\nformer and studio producer, each with its own (partial) claim to author-\nship of a song. These roles, however, were developed not because they \naccurately defi ne the process of artistic creativity, but because they assist \nin determining intellectual ownership of the song and in dispensing song-\nwriting royalties. The actual artistic creativities are more complex, and \ninvolve many factors external to the studio. For example, authors them-\nselves draw infl uence (consciously or subconsciously) from a wide variety \nof sources, particularly via the Internet, and might draw on others’ creativ-\nity by creating works that are covers of existing works or by incorporating \naudio samples of existing works. \n Other areas are also vague, such as the distinction between performers \nand authors. Performer rights are separate from author rights; in Australia, \nauthors retain copyright over the song itself, while performers retain rights \nover specifi c recordings (Australian Copyright Council, 2014 ). A person \nin the role of performer may, however, contribute signifi cantly to the song \nitself by way of unplanned extemporisations, or by working alongside the \nsongwriter and producer during recording, which may not be recognised \nin the writing credits. Moreover, the studio producer, and even the mix-\ning or mastering engineer, occupies a broad role and may or may not be \nactively involved in songwriting; simultaneously, songwriters themselves \nare increasingly using production technology during the writing process. \nRemixes, covers, versions and sampling, enabled and legitimised through \nweb technologies and social media, further challenge ‘traditional’ notions \nof authorship and artistic creativity. These scenarios show the limitations \nof considering artistic creativity, including musical authorship, as a clinical \npractice where neat boundaries can be drawn around its constituent parts. \n This chapter addresses contemporary forms of authorship and creativi-\nties in popular music, with attention to some of the changes to the music \nindustries and music production in recent years. It focuses on the careers \nof contemporary musical artists, and will draw on interviews with several 64 D. HUGHES ET AL.artists and those in related sectors of the industries (management, copy-\nright collection, publishing, and so on) to relate artistic creativity to cur-\nrent practices. In particular, it outlines some of the complexities of creative \npractice for musicians in the Internet era. \n THE CRAFTING OF SONGS \n Popular music and creativity in general have historically been understood \nin the Western world as an undertaking that involves the creator artistically \nexpressing a unique persona or perspective through song or other creative \nmedia. In popular culture, this results in a tendency to position creative \nfi gures as individual artists, who produce their works following some kind \nof ‘mystical’ inspiration, as Sternberg terms it ( 1999 , p. 5). This is despite \nthe concept that many popular singers are the public face of top-tier song-\nwriting processes. \n The prevailing individualistic view of creativity has been criticised, \nmost notably by Csikzentmihalyi ( 2014 ). Reminiscent of elements of \nBourdieu’s cultural theory (Bourdieu, 1993 ), in a collection of his works \nCsikzentmihalyi ( 2014 ) proposes that creativity arises from the interac-\ntion of three forces ( domain , fi eld and the individual ), an interaction that \nrecognises that multiple factors are needed in order for creativity to take \nplace (p. 47). The domain consists of skills or knowledge relevant to an \narea (Csikzenmihalyi, 2014 , p. 47); for popular music songwriting, this \nmay include instrumental ability, musical theory, awareness of genre and \nstyle, and various technical skills. Field describes the actors that consume \nand assess creative works, including other artists, audiences, and institu-\ntional fi gures (Csikzenmihalyi, 2014 , p. 47). The individual negotiates \nand responds to the fi eld and domain in order to produce creative works \n(Csikzenmihalyi, 2014 , p. 47). Similarly, Hennessey and Amabile ( 2010 ) \nnoted that creativity is defi ned on a variety of levels, from the microscopic \nneurological level, to the individual level, to the holistic systems level pro-\nposed by Csikzentmihalyi ( 2014 ). However, this more nuanced depiction \nof creativity does not negate the existence of musical creativity as pro-\ncess and songwriting as a typically highly personal pursuit. The following \nquote by Jenny Biddle (singer-songwriter) highlights the interpersonal and \naudience- focused elements of performance and artistic creative practice:\n I don’t want to write a song for the sake of a hit song; I want to feel and \nconnect with people, I want to entertain. I really love those gigs where there CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 65might be 60 people in a room and you can look at each and every one of \nthem and pull faces and they laugh, and they cry, and they tell stories. I love \nthose gigs. \n The individual-focused defi nition of the ‘liberal artist’ (Wiseman- \nTrowse, 2008 , p. 42) endures, particularly in discussions of authenticity. \n‘Authentic’ songwriters are driven by self-expression and by the pursuit \nof music itself as an artform, rather than approaching songwriting as a \nmechanical process that takes into account the demands or desires of \nthe fi eld, or commercial concerns. As discussed previously, this notion is \nfundamentally undermined when the artist is income driven or an artist- \nentrepreneur, and yet this viewpoint is often expressed by musicians them-\nselves, as shown in Jenny Biddle’s words above. The idea of not ‘writing \na song for the sake of a hit song’ points to anxieties around the relation-\nship between individual creativity and the domain/fi eld, particularly that \nbetween music and commerce, as explored by Negus ( 1999 ). \n As early as the mid twentieth century, Adorno’s ( 1941 ) zealous criti-\ncism of popular music focused on the detrimental ‘standardisation’ of \nmusic wrought by the industrial nature of pop music production. Yet, as \nMcIntyre ( 2012 , p. 168) pointed out, the valorisation of the individual \nsongwriter-performer is a comparatively recent phenomenon, arising in \nthe 1950s. It occurred largely in response to the growing phenomenon of \nteen and youth culture, as teenagers were more likely to accept perform-\ners who they perceived as being like themselves (McIntyre, 2012 , p. 168). \nArtists and songwriters, whether consciously or subconsciously, began to \nembody the required authenticity in their creative work; this occurs to \na lesser extent in some pop music, but is a cornerstone of many genres \nincluding singer-songwriter, rock, and indie. \n AUTHORSHIP \n The concept of authorship is tied to both creativity and authenticity. It \ndefi nes a creator’s ownership of an artefact, and describes the creative pro-\ncess with regard to larger social systems. Burnard ( 2012 ), drawing on the \nwork of Csikzentmihalyi ( 1999 ) and Bourdieu ( 1993 ), situates authorship \nas a social process which articulates the creator’s position socially, stating \nthat composers ‘can only exist or be known as such through the social \ndiscourses and practices in which they are constituted,’ (Burnard,  2012 , \np. 226). She goes on to discern ‘self-social’ and ‘sociocultural’ forms of \nauthorship; the fi rst describes creativity as a personal or interpersonal 66 D. HUGHES ET AL.undertaking, and the second describes creativity in relation to established \nscenes or traditions (2012, p. 226). \n As discussed in the previous chapter, ‘branding’ a band or an artist is an \nidea that has become more prominent in recent years as artists are increas-\ningly able (or obliged) to manage their own marketing and promotions \nthrough social media. As one digital music specialist (name withheld) \nexplained, ‘From day one, bands are creating their brand without realising \nit. Their image creates their brand, their music creates their brand, their \nlogo creates their brand.’ Likewise, Joel Connolly (artist manager) stated: \n‘As soon as you decide to try and make a living off your music or take it \noutside of your bedroom and share it with an audience then it becomes a \nproduct and a product is a brand.’ \n By creating a distinct brand, artists clarify their authorship, situating \nthemselves in relation to a particular genre and practice (self-social author-\nship), while declaring their position with respect to existing institutions \nand broader social infl uences such as fans, labels, and promoters (socio- \ncultural authorship). While many other forms of authorship (see Burnard, \n 2012 ) exist, branding provides a useful lens to explore artists’ authorial \nprocess. Additionally, the currency of social media as a unifi ed platform for \npromoting, marketing, disseminating and selling music, video and images, \nreinforces the link between music and product, connecting artistic and \ncommercial aspects of creativity. \n These brief and broad discussions show the complex creativities that \nneed to be negotiated by current musical artists. Leaving aside the cre-\native process underpinning the actual musical work, artists need to balance \nbroader cultural expectations with commercial concerns, and need to defi ne \ntheir identities in order to reach a global and fragmented consumer base. \n TECHNOLOGIES THAT HAVE CHANGED CREATIVITY /\nAUTHORSHIP \n Contemporary music artists negotiate a complex landscape of commer-\ncial and cultural concerns in their creative practice. Aside from the long-\nstanding tensions surrounding authenticity (see Barker & Taylor,  2007 ; \nWeisethaunet & Lindberg,  2010 ;  McIntyre,  2012 ), technological \nchanges have also signifi cantly changed the fi eld and domain of creativity. \nExpanding on Burnard’s ( 2012 ) exploration of musical creativities’ \ntechnological mediations, a host of technologies for recording, produc-\ning, communicating, performing, collaborating and selling music have \nreshaped contemporary musicians’ practices. CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 67 The fracturing of the music industries and development of web tech-\nnologies that foster DIY musicians has meant that, alongside musical skills, \nartists are increasingly required to be profi cient in (or, at least, aware of) \na range of other areas. One such area is music production technology; \ndigital audio workstations, audio recording, MIDI sequencing, synthesis-\ners, and sampling are often used in songwriting, and are becoming more \nand more accessible and affordable. These are not simply tools required \nfor recording; they can also alter the creative process itself, leading to new \nworkfl ows and creative results. \n Non-musical technical skills are also important, including use of social \nmedia and broader computer skills. A general awareness of trends, the fi eld \nof popular music and management skills are also necessary, as these allow \nthe musician to effectively interact with an audience. Communicating with \nthe fi eld (after Csikzentmihalyi, 2014 ) has likewise been affected by tech-\nnology. Musicians are more connected globally, rather than locally, and are \n(in principle) able to reach signifi cant international audiences with mini-\nmal outlay. Similarly, musicians are able to draw infl uence from, and con-\nnect with, a wider variety of other artists. This fundamental shift to online \nis addressed by Liz Tripodi (vocal teacher, entrepreneur, and performer) \nwho stated: ‘There was no social media 20 years ago. These days if you’re \nnot trying to put your hands in as many different pies as possible, you have \nno chance of making any sort of career in the industry’. \n The online space has also radically reconfi gured the music industries; \ninstead of record labels, services such as YouTube, Facebook and Spotify \nare key curators of content. Moreover, fans and audiences now have con-\ntrol over artists’ online presences. Whereas in the pre-Internet era record \nlabels were held responsible for breaching artists’ moral rights by inter-\nvening in the work’s integrity, fans today may breach the artist’s moral \nrights or affect their online presence by uploading videos to sites such as \nYouTube. \n As sales revenues from recordings continue to diminish (IFPI, 2015 , \np. 7), other revenue streams have become more important, such as those \nrelating to synchronisation, live performance, sponsorship, crowdsourcing \nand merchandising. Technology has also changed the way music is listened \nto, with album sales declining in favour of individual songs and user- compiled \nplaylists (Paxson, 2010 , p. 84). Artist marketing strategies have also shifted \ntowards social media and other means; in addition to maintaining a con-\nstant online presence, artists pursue collaborations (often internationally) \nand synchronisations in order to sustain their careers. These changes have 68 D. HUGHES ET AL.impacted artists at all levels, from the beginning independent musician to \nwell-established, top-level artists such as Ed Sheeran. For instance, Sheeran \nis ambivalent about the fi nancial reward of recorded music and streaming \nservices such as Spotify, stating, ‘I’m in the music industry to play live… \nThis album [ x ] (Asylum/Atlantic, 2014 ) was streamed 26 million times \nin the fi rst week on Spotify… That means a tenth of them might consider \nbuying a ticket or going to a festival, and that’s enough for me to tour very \ncomfortably’ (cited in Dredge, 2014 ); he also distributes a free EP to fans \nvia his website in exchange for their email address (Asylum Records, 2014 ). \nSheeran has also partnered with Pepsi and Clear Channel (Hampp, 2014 ) \nto promote his album x , and Nokia (Hampp, 2013 ) to fi lm a music video \nusing the Nokia Lumia 928 mobile phone. The 2012 video for ‘Give Me \nLove’ (written by Sheeran, Gosling, and Leonard, 2012) partnered with \nthe social video app Vyclone, combining fans’ video footage of Sheeran \nin concert into a single offi cial video using hundreds of fans’ perspectives \n(Asylum Records, 2014 ). Collaboration and synchronisation has also been \nimportant throughout Sheeran’s career, including co-writes for UK-based \npop group One Direction and solo artist Olly Murs (Lindner, 2015 ), col-\nlaboration with other artists including Taylor Swift, Rudimental and The \nWeeknd (as well as a 2011 EP titled ‘No. 5 Collaborations’ featuring col-\nlaborations with a number of UK-based grime artists), and synchronization \non television shows including The Vampire Diaries and Grey’s Anatomy \n(IMDB.com, 2016 ). Artists like Sheeran are less likely to be personally \ninvolved in activities such as day-to-day management of social media (in \nfact, Sheeran is taking a year-long personal hiatus from social media in \n2016 (Instagram, 2015 )) and to a large extent still rely on the album-\ntour cycle. However, artists or their management participate in continual \nengagement with audiences (via traditional or online media); for example, \nTaylor Swift’s former manager Rick Barker suggested that artists should \npost on Twitter between fi ve to ten times per day and YouTube once a \nweek (Social Media for Music, 2015 ). \n The effect of these developments on artists’ creativity is far-reaching. \nMore than ever before, musicians are able to connect with distant audi-\nences and peers, listen to a wide variety of music and produce high-qual-\nity musical works without needing to fi rst secure substantial funding to \nhire a studio or additional personnel. Using social media, artists can also \nbe actively involved in their own marketing, management and develop-\nment. At the same time, these musicians must maintain, or portray, their \nown authenticity in line with the expectations of genre and audience. CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 69Musical cr eativities (songwriting, producing and recording) and non-\nmusical creativities (branding, audience engagement and image-making) \nare increasingly overlapping areas. \n Such a coming together of artistic creativities and managerial or eco-\nnomic concerns resonates with McGuigan’s ( 2009 ) notion of ‘cool capi-\ntalism’ and the way in which individualist bourgeois values are reinforced \nby capitalist cultural aspects. The perception that record labels and ‘the \nindustry’ restrict the artist’s ‘true self’ through market fundamentalism is \nchallenged by contemporary DIY artists, who are now directly concerned \nabout the market themselves. This has changed the way in which artists \nconstruct their authenticity in relation to, and against, the market. The fol-\nlowing section explores three areas of note in considering changing musi-\ncal creativities; production technology, networked creativity and covers. \n PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND CREATIVITIES \n The availability of consumer-oriented music production equipment and \ncomputer applications has patently made music more affordable to record \nand produce. The growth of ‘prosumer’ (Toffl er 1984 ) music producers \nhas been acknowledged for many years, and now is well embedded in \neveryday practice, with prominent ‘bedroom producers’ such as Flume 1 \nreceiving widespread critical acclaim. As one digital music strategist (name \nwithheld) put it, ‘Anyone with a laptop and the right software can feasi-\nbly create their own music, and quality music, if they know what they’re \ndoing and they know how to use the software.’ The pre-digital career pro-\ngression of a band recording a rough demo, approaching a label, record-\ning an album, and debuting to a wider audience has to an extent been \nreversed; today, artists need to distribute and/or perform high-quality \nmusic to reach a following, then demonstrate this following (via numerous \nFacebook ‘likes’, for example) in order to approach a label. This circular \nmodel has had several effects on artists’ creative practices. \n One of these effects is the changing role of the song. As artists are \nincreasingly able to self-produce both audio and video material, and \n audiences’ consumption habits are becoming more oriented towards indi-\nvidual songs rather than albums, there is a tendency toward a continuous \nrelease of material in order to engage with audiences. Moreover, the song, \nas a standalone audio recording, is no longer suffi cient, as Matt Amery \n(artist) noted: ‘If we wanted to get played on [national radio station] triple \nj now, what we’d need to do is make sure you’re on blogs and on taste- \nmaker sites and to do that you need to have a video clip to show who you 70 D. HUGHES ET AL.are and what you’re all about. Rather than just a song it needs to be a whole \npackage.’ This strategy involves signifi cant fi nancial outlay by the artist as \nwell as commitment to a brand, meaning visual aspects and overall creative \ndirection. Dean Ormston (Head of Member Services Group for collecting \nsociety APRA AMCOS) likewise underlines the need for artists to have a \nhigh degree of self-awareness early on in their careers, and to consider their \noverall creative position and career trajectory when songwriting. \n Production practices have also changed owing to the revenue streams \navailable to artists today. Whereas (physical) album sales were once a \nsignifi cant source of revenue for artists, the digital model of continual \nengagement  favours singles. The single-based  digital economy, further-\nmore, uses music as a free tool for engagement and data collection rather \nthan a source of revenue, and this operating model enables fans to stream \nmusic in exchange for personal information such as their email address. \nLikewise, the shift towards video rather than audio-only releases refl ects \nplatforms such as YouTube as potential revenue sources. \n Another revenue stream from recorded media is commercial music \nstreaming where revenue returns to artists can be viewed as being ‘ridicu-\nlously low’, as one interviewee described it. Synchronisation, particularly \nin advertising, is a growing revenue stream and, to an extent, is replacing \nthe role of recorded music; as Matt Amery noted, syncs for his music \nhave ‘outweighed anything that we have sold’. This has led to the writ-\ning of songs particularly for synchronisation, a practice that is sometimes \ncriticised when alluding to the confl ict between authenticity and potential \nprofi t-seeking in songwriting. \n The examples above show the far-reaching effects of technology on musi-\ncal creativity. Aside from more noticeable technological mediations such as \nrecording music on mobile phones, swapping samples online or using por-\ntable mp3 players, as discussed by Burnard ( 2012 ), technological changes \naffecting the music industries also have a profound impact on the creative \npractices of artists. This can be seen in the shift towards video as an impor-\ntant creative output, the need to claim authorship by actively branding early \nin one’s career, and orientation towards more diverse revenue streams. \n NETWORKED CREATIVITY : CO-WRITING \nAND COLLABORATION \n Technology has also affected creative practices related to songwriting. \nArtists themselves can discover new music (and be discovered themselves) \nthrough websites and streaming services such as iTunes and Apple Music, CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 71Spotify, Facebook, YouTube and so on. This facility, as well as the ability to \neasily and quickly communicate online, has led to new possibilities for col-\nlaboration between artists; as Dean Ormston noted: ‘There isn’t any sense \nat all of just thinking about making something just here in Australia—it’s \nteaming up with the best in the world to do whatever it is that you are \ndoing today.’ This was echoed by statements noting the relevance of inter-\nnational audiences in building sustainable careers. Another way that artists \ncan actively target international audiences is through co-writing songs, as \nraised by Dean Ormston, who stated: ‘The way to break into a new market \nmight be to collaborate with a local artist, because you’re already in a cer-\ntain part of Asia or wherever, rather than relying solely on the traditional \nmodel of trying to ‘break’ the band.’ \n The practice of co-writing and collaboration is particularly pronounced \nin electronic music and DJ releases, where producers will typically for-\nmulate the underlying beat and arrangement, then pass it on to a top \nline writer who devises the main melody, vocal line, and lyrics. As Martin \nNovosel (label manager) explains, ‘Most of the time with publishing, it \nis shared with co-writers, because in my experience DJ producers rarely \nwrite top lines.’ Collaborations are increasingly popular and this approach \nis particularly important for songwriters and music publishing. Robert \nScott (Founder of Source Music Publishing and Licensing and Creative \nManager, Embassy Music Publishing Music Sales) used the number of \nSwedish songwriters in the US music market to illustrate the growing \ninternationalisation of songwriting. He further stated, ‘I have tried to talk \nto my songwriters and get them to reach out and talk to other songwriters \nin other territories, because it is all about opening up all the possibilities.’ \n The Internet has contributed to artists’ practices in several ways, as noted \nby Burnard ( 2012 , p. 226), including sample-swapping and crowdsourced \nprojects. The sharing and liking economy of social media sites is another \nInternet-based technological change affecting songwriting and collabora-\ntion. Social media is most commonly used by artists as a means for commu-\nnicating with their fans, but also allows artists to fi nd and work with others. \nPenny Pettigrew (artist) noted the potential of social media for fostering col-\nlaboration and has had other musicians encourage collaborations between \nherself and other artists, recounting, ‘I have had amazing musicians share \nmy Facebook page… [saying] please, if you need a singer, go to her.’ \n The above scenarios show how the Internet has changed not only music \ndistribution and consumption practices, but even songwriting itself. As \nartists increasingly compete in a global marketplace, regularly produce and 72 D. HUGHES ET AL.distribute music online, and have access to other artists via social media, \nco-writing and collaborating are becoming valuable tools for reaching new \naudiences and building a sustainable career. \n MEMETIC CREATIVITY : THE NEW COVERS \n A further effect of Internet technology on musical creativity is the grow-\ning practice of musical cover videos. Like co-writing and collaboration, \ncovering others’ musical works is a way to expand an audience and to \nparticipate in current trends and memes. Musical covers, cover bands and \ntribute artists (who endeavour to exactly replicate other artists’ appearance \nand mannerisms) are well established in popular music (see Homan,  2006 ; \nCusic,  2005 ; Beebe, Fulbrook & Saunders,  2002 ). Homan ( 2006 ) dis-\ncussed the phenomenon of the cover musician as ‘a single musician, or \ngroup of musicians, that perform a range of others’ material, in many \ninstances singling out a particular era or genre for display’ (p.  4), but \nonline and social media have added further dimensions to the practice of \ncovering. In recent years, the phenomenon of YouTube cover videos has \nbeen widely acknowledged (Burgess, 2008 ; Vernallis, 2013 , p. 190), and \nmany online music videos have experienced an additional wave of popu-\nlarity through user-created covers. Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To \nKnow’ (written by De Backer, 2011) and Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ (writ-\nten by Stewart, Nash, Harrell, and Knowles, 2008) are two prime cases; \nthe 2013  Harlem Shake meme offers a different example, being a user- \ngenerated comedy video rather than an original music video for the song \n‘Harlem Shake’ (written by Baauer, 2012). The potential of music videos \nto ‘snowball’ into viral phenomena was remarked on by Robert Scott:\n‘The best thing to do is launch something that is so visually striking and so \naurally strong that then other people want to cover it. Then it just feeds on \nitself and goes ballistic.’ In this environment, covering an existing work is \nno longer solely an artist practice; it is a creative practice that can be par-\nticipated in by fans, which has the effect of contributing further to the art-\nist’s currency online in terms of views, clicks, or likes. Covers, as a form of \ncreative production, are placed towards the ‘soft’ side of the creativity con-\ntinuum (see Chapter 1 ), as artists are building on and replicating established \nsuccesses by other artists. Nonetheless they are a valid creative and business \ntool that many artists use in various contexts, as discussed below. CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 73 Online, artists can use covers strategically to attract new audiences. As \nCusic ( 2005 , p. 174) writes, ‘from an artist’s perspective, covers are impor-\ntant because they (1) provide a song proven to be a hit to the repertoire, \n(2) show an important infl uence on the artist, and (3) give the audience \nsomething familiar when introducing a new act’. An element of novelty is \nalso required to attract viewers; where novelty is substantial or engaging, the \nact of covering moves further towards the ‘hard’ side of the creativity contin-\nuum. The covers of musical works online that draw the most views are thus \noften those which resituate the original work in a different genre. One exam-\nple of a viral cover crossover is singer-songwriter and electronica artist Chet \nFaker’s cover of ‘No Diggity’, originally by R’n’B group Blackstreet (writ-\nten by Hannibal, Riley, Stewart, Walters, Young, Vick, and Withers, 1996). \nThe track was later used in a 2013 Superbowl commercial in the USA in a \nlucrative synchronisation deal (AAP, 2013 ). Similarly, electronica producer \nFlume’s reversioning of Yolanda Be Cool’s ‘A Baru In New York’ (written \nby Handley, Stanley, and Yunupingu, 2013), featuring indigenous singer-\nsongwriter Gurrumul, was signifi cantly more popular than the original. \nSeveral artists have risen to prominence through the medium of YouTube \ncovers, such as US-based group Boyce Avenue, who specialise in acoustic \ncovers of popular songs, and UK-based singer Birdy, whose cover of Bon \nIver’s ‘Skinny Love’ (written by Vernon, 2008) has so far received close to \n100 million views on YouTube. Both Boyce Avenue and Birdy now produce \noriginal material, but maintain releases of covers on YouTube. \n By releasing cover versions of existing tracks, artists can ensure a fl ow of \nlisteners who are already familiar with the original track; once a consistent \nlistenership is established, the artist can then release their own original work. \nThis lessens the distinction between original musicians and cover musicians, \nas outlined by Homan ( 2006 , p.  4), and situates covering as a practice \nwhich can be engaged in strategically and sporadically, rather than as a dis-\ntinct genre in and of itself. YouTube’s revenue model is also worth consid-\nering; since content uploaders are paid per view, capitalising on the success \nof an existing song is a useful way to ensure some views, and therefore \nincome. Additionally, YouTube’s Content ID recognition system identifi es \nwhen a song is used in a video, providing artists with performance royal-\nties (provided they are registered with a collection agency) and mechanical \nroyalties each time a song is used. This provides another means for generat-\ning income for artists whose recordings or songs are used in others’ videos. \n It is worth noting that offl ine the role of covers is markedly different. \nDr Daniel Robinson (artist and educator) has expressed concern about the 74 D. HUGHES ET AL.proliferation of covers on YouTube, where ‘you stand in front of the micro-\nphone with headphones on and you sing a pop cover’, noting that this does \nnot necessarily equate to live performance ability or a sustainable music \ncareer. Performing covers live is done for reasons markedly different from \nthose for videorecording covers to distribute cover performances online \n(see Homan, 2006 ; Morrow, 2006 ). In the research interviews conducted \nby the authors, the diffi culty of performing original material live was often \nnoted, and artists reported often performing covers to satisfy risk-averse \nvenues. It was also identifi ed that live performance opportunities have \ndiminished in recent years, particularly for original bands. There appear to \nbe several causes for this, including legislative changes, alternate revenue \nmodels (such as poker machines), and changes in leisure culture (Johnson \n& Homan, 2002 , p. 1). Jenny Biddle (singer- songwriter) explained that \ncovers form a cornerstone of her live performance: ‘I do a lot of cover gigs \nto pay the bread and butter, but there are original pieces in there as well.’ \n In regional areas particularly, Leanne de Souza (artist manager) noted, \n‘it’s basically covers bands or nothing. [We’re having diffi culty] fi nding a \nplace that will put on an original band and an original emerging band.’ \nStill, Jenny Biddle noted that she uses cover shows ‘to get my chops up \nin terms of musicianship and performing skills and interacting with audi-\nences’, and also that she intersperses covers with her own original music. \n Online, covers provide a means for artists to connect with new audi-\nences and with other artists. In particular, well-considered cross-genre col-\nlaborations can result in innovative musical works that appeal to a wide \nlistener base. Meanwhile, covers in live performance are often played out \nof necessity owing to the growing preference for covers by venues that was \nidentifi ed by Leanne de Souza above, yet still offer musicians an oppor-\ntunity to practice their skills in front of a live audience. Both of these cir-\ncumstances show how musical creativity is a networked process, as artists \nneed awareness of the current musical landscape in order to successfully \nproduce work that resonates with audiences. \n A F USION OF NARRATIVES \n Singer-songwriters typically relate personal narrative (self-social) or they \ncraft a song around the narrative of others (sociocultural). The creative \npractice of singer-songwriter Passenger 2 (Mike Rosenberg) does both. \nPassenger traverses continents, incorporates street-to-stage performances \nand highlights a grass-roots approach to crafting and sharing his songs. CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 75His creative practice, banter and audience engagement are grounded in \nbusking traditions. An analysis of Passenger’s body of work including \nlarge 3 and small 4 venue performances, interviews and recordings, identifi es \nthat was in and through busking locations and encounters with audiences \nthat Passenger, the artist, emerged along with many of his songs. \n Within the tradition afforded by socio-spatial interconnectivity, busk-\ning provided Passenger with the place in which to develop and perform his \nmusic. As a result, he often conveys site-specifi c narratives (for example, ‘All \nthe Little Lights’, written by Rosenberg, 2012), sociocultural experiences \n(for example, ‘I Hate’, written by Rosenberg, 2012) and audience interac-\ntions (for example, ‘Holes’, written by Rosenberg, 2012). He also retells \nthe stories of other people whom he met through chance encounters (for \nexample, ‘Riding to New York’, written by Rosenberg, 2014). Passenger \ncreates networks across communities through an integrative narrative that \nincludes online platforms, social media and fundraising efforts that high-\nlight the plight of some communities. In relation to the sale of Whispers \nTwo (Nettwerk/Black Crow, 2015 ), for example, Passenger noted on the \naccompanying booklet/sleeve (the following excerpt is as written):\n so i have decided to give all profi ts from every sale of ‘whispers two’ to \nunicef  – more specifi cally their campaign to help and eventually prevent \nchildren suffering from chronic malnutrition in liberia. one of the poorest \ncountries on the planet… money raised from these sales will go directly \ntowards food and supplements to help bring severely malnourished kids \nback to health, facility upgrades and maintenance, education and training \nfor health workers in the region. (Rosenberg, 2015 ) \n While sociocultural authorship fuses narratives in song, so do fundrais-\ning efforts related to a particular song, as the example above highlights. \nAnother recent example is Tim Minchin’s song ‘Come Home (Cardinal \nPell)’ (Minchin, 2016a ), which is a satirical response to Cardinal Pell’s \ninability to return to Australia to give evidence at the Australian Royal \nCommission on Child Abuse (Minchin, 2016b ). Proceeds from the sale of \nthe single assist victims to fl y to Rome and attend Pell’s otherwise relayed \nevidence statement:\n Proceeds from its sale will go into this fund: GoFundMe—Send Ballarat \nSurvivors to Rome. You can buy it worldwide now from iTunes or Google \nPlay and you can stream it on Apple Music or Spotify. GoFundMe—Send \nBallarat Survivors To Rome. (Minchin, 2016b ) 76 D. HUGHES ET AL. CONCLUSION \n The above explorations question the entrenched divide between musical \ncreativity (namely songwriting, including instrumental profi ciency, musi-\ncianship, lyrical expertise and so on) and what might be termed para-\nmusical creativity (after Tagg, 1986 ). Paramusical creativity involves the \nmusical artist responding to his or her wider circumstances, and is affected \nby technological developments, economic factors, and broader cultural \ntrends. For example, the development of consumer-level production tech-\nnology has made it easier for artists to self-produce music, as both audio \nand music video. But the deeper effect of this development is that artists \nnow release music more frequently, accompanied by video, in order to \ncontinuously engage with their audience. The type of music being released \nto audiences has also changed; instead of a professionally produced album, \nartists now focus at the song-level and below; they may release impromptu \nacoustic recordings, covers of other artists’ songs, videos of live perfor-\nmances or demo versions of songs. Similarly, the economic changes to the \nmusic industries (namely, the decline in revenues from recorded work) \nhave compelled artists to focus more on the other income streams that \nwere outlined in Chapter 2 , and to adjust their creative practices accord-\ningly, through actively seeking collaboration with other artists, or by pur-\nsuing synchronisation as a revenue stream. Among these wider forces, \nartists need to actively differentiate themselves and assert their authorship, \nself-brand, and engage across multiple media types and platforms, produc-\ning videos, images and audio to maintain a constant level of communica-\ntion with their audience. \n NOTES \n 1. Flume (Harley Streten) is an Australian producer who in 2013 was \nnominated for a record eight ARIAs (Australian Recording Industry \nAwards) for his debut album Flume , which reached #1 on Apple’s \niTunes charts. He began producing using free software (FL Studio) \nand produces in a laptop-based studio (Future Music, 2014 ). \n 2. See http://passengermusic.com . \n 3. An example is Passenger’s performance on 23 January 2015, at the \nQantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney, Australia. The Qantas Credit \nUnion Arena closed in December 2015, but was capable of accom-\nmodating 12,000 people. See http://www.austadiums.com/stadi-\nums/stadiums.php?id=114 . CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 77 4. An example is Passenger’s performance on 24 February 2015, at the \nEnmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia. The theatre is art deco in con-\nstruction. See http://www.enmoretheatre.com.au . \n REFERENCES \n AAP. (2013, February 1). Hot Diggity! 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(2014), Ed Sheeran talks Spotify royalties: ‘I’m in the music industry \nto play live…’. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from \n http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/30/ed-sheeran-\nspotify-streaming \n Future Music. (2014). Flume with a view. MusicRadar.com . Retrieved February \n18, 2016, from http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/in-pictures-fl umes-\nsydney-studio-597256 78 D. HUGHES ET AL. Hampp, A. (2013). Nokia music expands artist partnerships with Cher Lloyd, Ed \nSheeran promotions. Billboard.com . Retrieved February 19, 2016, from \n http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/branding/1564979/\nnokia-music-expands-artist-partnerships-with-cher-lloyd-ed \n Hampp, A. (2014). Ed Sheeran teams with Clear Channel, Pepsi for “x” album \nrelease party, set to play IHeartRadio Fest (Exclusive). Billboard.com . 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Sydney, Australia: Australia \nCouncil for the Arts. \n Lindner, E. (2015). 19 songs you didn’t know Ed Sheeran wrote. MTV.com . \nRetrieved February 19, 2016, from http://www.mtv.com/news/2084071/\ned-sheeran-songs/ \n McGuigan, J. (2009). Cool capitalism . London, UK: Pluto. \n McIntyre, P. (2012). Creativity and cultural production: Issues for media practice . \nLondon, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. \n Minchin, T. (2016a). Come Home (Cardinal Pell)  – Tim Minchin [Video]. \nRetrieved February 20, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/\nwatch?v=EtHOmforqxk \n Minchin, T. (2016b). Come Home – A charity single. Tim Minchin.com . Retrieved \nFebruary 20, 2016, from http://www.timminchin.com/2016/02/16/\ncome-home-a-charity-single-2/#more-17691 \n Morrow, G. (2006). Selling out or buying in? In S. Homan (Ed.), Access all eras: \nTribute bands and global pop culture (pp. 182–197). Maidenhead, UK: Open \nUniversity Press. \n Negus, K. (1999). Music genres and corporate cultures . New York: Routledge. \n Paxson, P. (2010). Mass communications and media studies: An introduction . \nNew York: Continuum. \n Rosenberg, M. (2015). Whispers II [Book accompanying CD]. Black Crow \nRecords. CREATIVITIES, PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND SONG AUTHORSHIP 79 Social Media for Music. (2015). Social Media for Music . Retrieved February 19, \n2016, from http://socialmediaformusic.com/video/ \n Sternberg, R. (1999). Handbook of creativity . Cambridge: Cambridge University \nPress. \n Tagg, P. (1986). Musicology and the semiotics of popular music. Semiotica, \n66 (1–3), 279–298. \n Toffl er, A. (1984). The third wave . New York: Bantam. \n Vernallis, C. (2013). Unruly media: YouTube, music video, and the new digital \ncinema . New York: Oxford University Press. \n Weisethaunet, H., & Lindberg, U. (2010). Authenticity revisited: The Rock Critic \nand the Changing Real. Popular Music and Society, 22 (4), 465–485. \n Wiseman-Trowse, N. (2008). Performing class in British popular music . \nBasingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 80 D. HUGHES ET AL.81 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_5 CHAPTER 5 \n Abstract The realities of practice can prove extremely challenging for \nsome artists and can lead to issues of health, safety and wellbeing. The \nrealities discussed in this chapter include the relevance of image and \nbranding, the signifi cance of a support network, contractual obligations \nand fi duciary aspects of associated individuals or organisations. It is essen-\ntial to identify and discuss the realities of practice so that consideration \nmay be given as to how these issues might be addressed in both practice \nand in education. The chapter concludes with considerations for career \nsustainability. \n Keywords Image • Time poor • Wellbeing • Networking • Career \nsustainability \n This chapter details the realities of practice identifi ed in our research, spe-\ncifi cally in relation to their impact on career trajectories, expectations (art-\nist and industries), professional practice and lived experiences. As such, \nthis chapter explores the day-to-day practices and concerns of participants \n(the realities) actively engaged within the industries. While many extant \ndiscussions of the music industries focus on issues such as legal aspects and \ncopyright, management and policy (for example, Cloonan, 2011 ; Simpson \n& Munro, 2012 ; Homan, Cloonan, & Cattermole, 2015 , 2016 ), there is \na growing body of literature concerning the realities of practice for cre-\native labourers to which this chapter contributes (for example, McGuigan, The Realities of Practice 2010 ; Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011 ; Stahl, 2013 ; Cloonan, 2014 ). In \naddition to this body of literature, there are organisations such as Support \nAct 1 in Australia that was ‘established by the music industry to provide a \nsafety net for music professionals facing hardship’ (Support Act, 2016 ). \nThis chapter builds on, and seeks to contribute to, such initiatives. \n Through the range of industry roles encompassed in our research, we \nwere able to detail a variety of experiences and highlight a number of \nindustry factors for consideration. While there is much to celebrate in \nthe new industries, some of the practices our participants outlined are \nconcerning. For younger artists/musicians, the realities of (often DIY) \npractices can be challenging; for those more established, such realities may \nhave been negotiated through a series of compromises and/or accepted as \nbeing standard practices. These realities include career sustainability, the \nsignifi cance of networking, live performance challenges, recordings, image \nand branding, managing expectations, and workplace health and safety \nissues. Some issues and concerns have fi duciary implications for associ-\nated individuals or organisations, and can prove extremely challenging for \nsome music sector workers leading to issues of health, safety and wellbeing \n(Hughes, Evans, Keith, & Morrow, 2014 ). \n While there are most certainly positive elements ofworking in the \nmusic industries, such as the enjoyable psychological state of (creative) \nfl ow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ), the question of ‘positive emotion’ (for \nexample, Seligman, 2011 ) for the creative artist is an interesting one in \nconsidering its fl ipside (see Drus, Kozbelt, & Hughes, 2014 ). There is an \nundeniably powerful relationship between artistic creativity and emotion \nor ‘affect’ (see Madden & Bloom, 2004 , p. 135). Therefore, our discus-\nsion of participants’ affective experiences sits alongside our discussion of \nthe pragmatic realities identifi ed by our participants. \n CONTEXT \n The contemporary music industries are constantly evolving, and the high \nrate of digital disruption (creating possible situations of fi nancial vulner-\nability, exploitation and risk) means that wellness considerations for music \nindustries practitioners have immediate relevance. Until recently, much \nof the research into sector wellbeing has tended to focus on fi nancial or \nbusiness matters rather than on the physical or mental wellbeing of sec-\ntor workers. Recent research fi ndings (for example Hughes et al.,  2014 ; van \nden Eynde, Fisher, & Sonn,  2015 ), however, highlight the signifi cance of 82 D. HUGHES ET AL.wellness issues and health concerns in the sector. Hughes et  al. ( 2014 ) \nidentifi ed the urgent realities of contemporary music practices, which are \ncompounded by two signifi cant factors. The fi rst is the compensatory mea-\nsures instigated by sector workers, which may be self-administered and/or \ninformally modelled (such as alcohol and/or drug related use/ abuse). The \nsecond is the striking absence of wellbeing and related policies in the new \nmusic industries. The latter is signifi cant and does not appear to be limited \nto an Australian context. In a comparative analysis of health and safety regu-\nlations at live music events in Finland and the UK, for example, Grönberg \n( 2010 ) noted a general absence of related health and safety legislation in the \nEuropean Union for ‘public events’ (p. 33). \n Despite the fact that media reports often focus on musicians’ compro-\nmised health and wellbeing issues, particularly in relation to substance \nabuse (for example, Bobby Brown cited by Oh, 2002 ), addiction (for \nexample, Amy Winehouse cited by Dunn, 2015 ), and exploitation and \nfi nancial hardship (for example, the impact of streaming services cited by \nResnikoff, 2013 ), the health and wellbeing of sector workers appears to \nbe afforded little emphasis in the reality of the workplace. Hence, there \nis the growing body of literature concerning creative labour referenced \nabove. In literature specifi cally related to the music industries, Kenny \n( 2014a , 2014b , 2015 ) explores health and wellbeing issues in the music \nindustries. Describing the rock scene as ‘a volatile mix of glamour, instant \nwealth, risk-taking, rebellion and psychological distress’ (Kenny, 2014a ), \nKenny identifi ed that over six decades (1950–2010) the lifespan of a pop-\nular musician was up to 25 years shorter when compared to the general \npopulace ( 2014a ). She attributes this alarming sector statistic and others, \nincluding a two to seven times greater suicide rate, to the music ‘scene’ \nfailing in its provision of models of ‘acceptable behaviour’ and boundaries:\n It actually does the reverse—it valorises outrageous behaviour and the act-\ning out of aggressive, sexual and destructive impulses that most of us dare \nonly live out in fantasy… The music industry needs to consider these fi nd-\nings to discover ways of recognising and assisting young musicians in dis-\ntress. (Kenny, 2014a ) \n Substance use/abuse and the music industries are inextricably linked in a live \nperformance context. While the World Drug Report 2014 produced by the \nUnited Nations ( 2014 ) identifi ed Australians as being amongst the highest \nusers in several categories of recreational drug use per capita , alcohol and THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 83drug use more broadly in the popular music industries in Australia remains \nlargely undocumented. McMillen ( 2014 ), however, provided a detailed \nseries of interviews with several well-known contemporary Australian musi-\ncians who candidly discussed prescriptive and illegal drug use. McMillen \nhighlighted perceived relationships between creativity and drug use, which \nspeak to the powerful relationship that artistic creativity has with positive \nemotion or ‘affect’ (see Madden & Bloom,  2004 , p. 135), and discussed the \nways in which professional musicians navigated their way through and out \nof substance abuse (McMillen, 2014 ). Similarly, Dobson ( 2011 ) conducted \na study on the workplace pressures and challenges faced by young musicians \nin the UK and identifi ed a link between alcohol consumption and sector \ndemands. Undeniably, substance abuse remains a signifi cant issue in the new \nmusic industries. Substance use may range from musicians who feel tense on \nstage and use alcohol beforehand to relax, to high-energy performers who \nuse amphetamines on the days they may be ‘fl at’ or tired. There are also \nissues of performance anxiety to consider (for example, Papageorgi, Creech, \n& Welch, 2013 ), the potential isolation of ‘being on the road’, possible \nself-medication, and the consumption of alcohol provided by venues in rela-\ntion to contractual riders. 2 A prominent example of substance abuse came \nto light in early 2016 when rapper 360 disclosed his addiction to over-\nthe-counter codeine medication Nurofen Plus, consuming up to 90 tablets \na day before overdosing in early 2015 (Carter, 2016 ). 360 subsequently \nreleased a song detailing his drug use explicitly in the song’s lyrics, revealing \nthat the overdose occurred immediately before a scheduled performance \n(Carter, 2016 ). \n Additional environmental factors, particularly in relation to hearing loss \nand musicians (for example, Barlow, 2010 ), form another area of wellbe-\ning that warrants further attention. For example, Schink, Kreutz, Busch, \nPigeot and Ahrens ( 2014 ) compared the incidence of hearing loss in pro-\nfessional musicians with the general population in Germany and deter-\nmined that professional musicians have a high risk of contracting hearing \ndisorders. Clearly, the implementation of preventive measures aimed spe-\ncifi cally to reduce the likelihood of hearing loss in the new music indus-\ntries need to be further supported and expanded. Other signifi cant factors, \ndetailed below, have received little attention. \n The ongoing realities of practice we identifi ed related to contractual \nobligations, issues relating to health and wellbeing, fi duciary aspects of \nassociated individuals or organisations, and the legalities of copyright and 84 D. HUGHES ET AL.royalty collection. Of primary signifi cance is a perceived lack, from the \nperspective of some of our participants, of Workplace Health and Safety \n(WHS) concerns in a range of musical contexts. This perception expressed \nby some of our participants is signifi cant, particularly when compared to \nother industries, and may partly account for the physical and mental stresses \ndocumented by sector workers (van den Eynde et  al., 2015 ). Burrows \n( 2016 ) details the ongoing psychological and social toll on musicians \ncaused by precarious employment and fi nancial circumstances, illustrating \nthe lack of correlation between industry success (measured in terms of live \nperformances, critical acclaim, and sales) and actual revenue or career sta-\nbility. The concept of musical success (see Hughes, Keith, Morrow, Evans, \n& Crowdy, 2013 ) may also relate to notions of ‘the celebrity performer’ \n(Smith, 2013 , p. 27). Jenny Biddle (singer-songwriter) summarised sev-\neral concerning issues that are, for some artists, also unfortunate realities:\n The constant rejection, or the body problems, the strain on your body or \nthe instability of money, not having mentorship, not knowing who to turn \nto and the management crisis, there is just so much… it is really trial and \nerror and you don’t have a place to turn to. \n The most prominent realities brought out in our study are discussed below \nunder the following six categories: career sustainability, networking, the \nchanging roles of live performance and recorded music, image, managing \nexpectations and WH&S. \n CAREER SUSTAINABILITY IN AN AUSTRALIAN CONTEXT \n The music industries in Australia are signifi cant in economic terms. The \nInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI, 2014 ) \nreports that Australia ranks sixth in the world in its total music consump-\ntion (90), while in terms of digital consumption alone, Australia ranks fi fth. \nOf all Australian musicians, 67% are freelance or self-employed (Throsby \n& Zednick, 2010 , p. 53) and of the remaining 33 % who work for salary \nor wages, it is classical musicians who are more commonly protected as \nemployees within institutional employment structures such as symphony \norchestras. The contemporary music industries, meanwhile, include many \nindependent, casual and DIY solo artists/musicians and bands without such \ninstitutional protection (Morrow, 2006 , p. 12). There also appear to be THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 85gendered constraints within the music industries (see Hesmondhalgh & \nBaker, 2011 ). \n Hughes et al. ( 2014 ) identifi ed that while the opportunities for those \ninvolved in the sector to perform, share and/or distribute their music \nhave never been as great, the challenges to be heard and/or to sustain \na consistent revenue stream from music have never been greater. As a \nconsequence, contemporary musicians operating within the new music \nindustries can face signifi cant pressures in relation to both fi nancial and \nemotional sustainability. Not surprisingly, career longevity and fi nancial \nhardship were both identifi ed as sector issues. The commodifi cation of \nartistry and the construct of instant celebrity in relation to television tal-\nent competitions were also identifi ed as concerns that were expressed by \nseveral participants. Our fi ndings within an Australian context provide a \nparallel to Stahl’s ( 2013 ) discussion of American Idol. \n The dedicated work ethic required for career development and sustain-\nability was highlighted by Tim Hart (singer-songwriter and member of \nband Boy & Bear):\n I think there are more opportunities now than there have ever been. Because \nit is not a matter of record companies investing into the certain few, it is \nabout who wants it the most and are you prepared to work hard enough to \ntake it on. \n Artists put themselves on the line, in both a fi duciary and an emotional \nsense, in their attempts to ‘have a go’. Robert Scott (Founder of Source \nMusic Publishing and licensing and creative manager of Embassy Music \nPublishing and Music Sales), noted:\n I think that initially it is about survival. It is really stressing to people that if \nthey want to do music, they have to be, not only 100%, but 110% commit-\nted [to it]. It needs to be in every fi bre of their being because it is hard, it \nis really hard. \n Little or intermittent remuneration, industry obstacles and long hours \nwere other factors identifi ed that impacted on career sustainability. \nDescribed by Tom Harris (Founder of White Sky Music, a specialist music \nbusiness management and bookkeeping company) as ‘the 30 hours or the \n50 hours a week [required] to make [a music career] work’, lengthy work-\ning hours were identifi ed as the industry standard for both artist managers \nand related stakeholders. 86 D. HUGHES ET AL. NETWORKING \n The signifi cance of networking among friends and fans was stressed by \nparticipants as being benefi cial for both career development and sustain-\nability. The link between this theme and the issue of alcoholism and drug \nuse/abuse, however, also became evident in a way that parallels with \nHesmondalgh and Baker’s fi ndings (see 2011 , p. 153). They identifi ed \nthat in a UK context, networking regularly occurs in pubs and clubs in \nwhich there is a ready supply of substances. However, in terms of the \ndesired outcome from such networking, Robert Scott noted:\n You can tell the people that are really going to be successful, you can tell \nbecause they are determined and they have the right people around them. \nThey attract the right people because their sense of determination galvanises \npeople into action. \n Another participant, Fernando J.  Moguel  (singer-songwriter and pro-\nducer) noted that networking was ‘even more valuable than money’ in its \npotential for sharing music and workload relief. Participants stressed the \nimportance of building networks to reduce the risk of burnout due to the \ncreative and administrative work required as a DIY artist. This was empha-\nsised by Dr Daniel Robinson (artist and educator) who noted that some-\ntimes career development is ‘all too hard and [artists/bands] burn out \nbecause they don’t have the infrastructure around them to be sustainable \nin their art’. In addition to helping artists avoid burnout, benefi ts of the \npositive relationships that can be built through networking were identi-\nfi ed as being key to our participants’ wellbeing. While ‘building resilience’ \n(Seligman, 2011 , p. 16) is the key to wellbeing within these industries, the \nissue of how to build positive networking relationships was also stressed by \none of our participants. Leanne de Souza (artist manager) highlighted the \nneed to fi nd an appropriate network for the individual:\n It’s about seeking out the right people, the right culture, the right com-\npanies that are all actually buying into that artist for whatever reason that \nmight be, to release singles and EPs, or recording, or touring or whatever is \nthe right thing for them. \n Participants also noted examples of emerging artists/bands making poor \nnetworking/collaborative choices. These included signing agreements too THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 87early, without appropriate advice, with inequitable percentage rights and/\nor that proved not to be in the best interests of an emerging career or \nrelated image. \n LIVE VERSUS RECORDED \n Live performances and/or recordings were identifi ed by participants as \nboth opportunities and challenges, and were context dependent. The \nimpact and scarcity of live performance venues, for example, was noted \nas a challenge by several participants and is often cited in the literature \nas being an issue confronting musicians (see Johnson & Homan, 2002 ; \nHoman et al., 2015 , 2016 ). Traditionally, live performance has been vital \nto career sustainability. Currently, the necessity to perform live is often \naligned to album releases. However, it can also be aligned to the type of \nmusic being performed, as Tim Hart explained:\n It has to be about connection with the people that enjoy our music… Gone \nare the days of the artists shrouded in mystery. For bands like us, you have \ngot to be down to earth, stay connected, and you have got to play a lot of \nlive shows. You know what it’s like, if you go and see a great live show, you \nbuy the record. You know you can stream it for free, but it’s more than that, \nyou want to get on board with what that artist is doing. \n Less acknowledged, in relation to live music, is the impact of ‘oversup-\nply’ of good musicians, which was a factor reported in relation to the \nlive music scene in Melbourne, Australia. Helen Marcou (Co-founder of \nBakehouse Studios) explained: ‘There are so many musicians in this town \nthat they are constantly under-cutting each other for gigs. Working musi-\ncians lose out when people are prepared to play for free all the time.’ \n Digital and online music technology offers another opportunity and \nchallenge for recorded outputs. On the one hand, the digitisation of music \nenables access to DIY recording technologies and online distribution. \nConversely, potential production costs are now incurred by the artist- \nproducer, and online streaming potentially impacts the revenue stream \nfor independent artists. Yet, despite the controversy surrounding online \nstreaming (such as Taylor Swift removing her catalogue from Spotify), \nJenny Biddle surmised its use in general:\n Digital, that could be a good thing and a bad thing. Bad for CD sales, \ngood for fusion. I feel like there is more power to the indie musicians  now. 88 D. HUGHES ET AL.I would have, 10 years ago, just found it really impossible, living as a muso, \nit’s good to be able to do it. \n While the digitisation of music may impact on practice realities in relation \nto physical sales, the signifi cance of recording as product is highly relevant \nin gaining exposure for the independent artist. Robert Scott explained:\n You just don’t know when that success may come. If you’re really good at \nyour art then it is going to come and you need to believe that it is going to come but it is not necessarily around the corner… You need to go and manufacture [a recording] so that you can go and sell it at all of your shows because that is revenue… it’s your business card. \n Tim Hart agreed with the signifi cance of recording as product, viewing \nrecording as an essential career investment:\n You need to be prepared to put your money where your mouth is and invest \nin your career. In that sense, a good sound engineer, and maybe a good producer. Every artist will have a vision of what they want themselves to sound like, so go in and pay the money and record the songs with a great engineer who can hopefully recreate the songs the way you are hearing them in your head. \n IMAGE \n The diffi culties surrounding the construction and portrayal of image \n(visual, artistic, musical) was a theme that emerged in our fi ndings. Liz \nTripodi  (vocal teacher, entrepreneur and performer) discussed the con-fronting nature of image-related comments such as, ‘Your image does not fi t where the industry is at the moment.’ Several participants viewed a \nrelevant image, together with image-related issues, as being vital to career viability. While managed artists may have the support of an extended net-work in the creation and maintenance of their individual image, the self-managed artist is largely left to his/her own perceptions. This allows artists to maintain artistic control while being able to call on appropriate expertise when and if required, as Jenny Biddle explained. Noting that her stylist did not try ‘to create me into something that I am not’, Biddle commented:\n I just hired a stylist actually, because image is a very unique point… [I felt that \nI was] not presenting what [my image] needs to be. I don’t want to get lost in that though, fi reworks and glamour. I don’t think that’s what I am about. THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 89 While several participants talked about the relevance of appropriate image \nor the integrity of an image, perhaps most telling in relation to the percep-\ntion of image is Sinead O’Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus. O’Connor \nwarned:\n I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to \nbelieve, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ \nto be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case \nthat you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether \nit’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping. (O’Connor cited in \nStrang, 2013 ) \n The public nature of artists’ creative work exacerbates issues relating to \nimage, particularly with regard to perceived appropriateness or self-esteem. \n MANAGING EXPECTATIONS \n The realities of practice are often aligned to the realization of expectations \nand the concept of success (Smith,  2013 ; Hughes et al.,  2013 ; Hall,  2014 ).  \nManaging expectations was identifi ed as a recurring theme in participant \nperspectives. One of the reassuring aspects of artist expectations in relation \nto success was the notion of self-satisfaction, as Tim Hart explained:\n If it was fi nancial then it would be a tiny, tiny percentage of musicians that \nwere successful. But if it was aesthetic… then that conjures up images of \nperception. I think it has to be success that leads to self-satisfaction. That’s \nthe only thing that matters. \n Versatility and adaptability were two emergent themes that resonated \nstrongly with sustainability and correlate to our discussion in Chapter 3 . \nConsistent with the evolutionary nature of the new industries, Talia \nRaso (a music business student at the time of interview and an emerging \nartist manager) explained that the most important skill for music industry \npractitioners is:\n Adaptability, because if we put our head into one scenario and think that \nis how it is going to be then as soon as something changes we are lost. We \nmight be learning now and trying to get into the industry with all guns \nblazing on what is happening, but it won’t be like this in a few years time. 90 D. HUGHES ET AL. Building resilience at the coalface was deemed essential for career develop-\nment and longevity. Tim Hart advised that emerging artists should have:\n a thick skin. People are going to tell you that you are no good. People are \ngoing to tell you that they have heard what you are doing before. People are \ngoing to say they are not hearing a hit. You need vision. You need an idea \nof where you want to end up otherwise you will be aimless. And you need \ndetermination, when you feel like no one is believing in you, then you have \nto believe in yourself. \n WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY \n In the Western world, health and wellbeing of workers is a concept that \nunderpins government legislation and policies. In Australia, ‘promoting \npopulation health and wellbeing’ (Australian Government, 2013 , p. 1) is \nalso a national strategic research priority. Given this emphasis, it was alarm-\ning that our research uncovered situations where the health and wellbeing \nof sector workers was either overlooked or compromised. Reported situ-\nations where issues relating to the health and wellbeing of sector workers \nincluded a band that continued to play at an outdoor event in torrential \nrain with puddles of water accumulating under instrument leads, an artist \nbeing bitten by an audience member during a performance, children play-\ning on stage during a performance through and around what could have \nbeen heavy electrical equipment and leads, musicians consuming excess \nalcohol because of access to free alcohol through contractual riders, gen-\neral safety in various contexts including particular venues and in some \nbusiness practices, and the stress of dealing with perceived unprofessional \nbehaviour by sector workers. For some artists, issues relating to fi nan-\ncial viability or promoting music were paramount to health and wellbeing \nconsiderations. Jenny Biddle explained:\n There’s no sick leave. I’ve had to weigh up whether it is worth missing a gig for \nfear of ruining the voice or ruining my arms. I have had to weigh it up in terms \nof missing a gig and my reputation… often, I put my safety and my health \nsecond so I can put on [my] music. At times, I have put it second where it gets \nto a point where it’s either really dangerous or [diffi cult to] physically play. \n The irregular hours of sector workers was also cited in relation to health \nand wellbeing. Compared with regular working hours those of music \nsector workers are more varied and often transient and erratic. Biddle THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 91continued: ‘I have really had to learn to just accept that it’s an irregular job \nand I don’t have to fi t into the mould like everyone else thinks it should \nbe.’ Such irregular hours can have an impact on such an artist’s men-\ntal health when considering creative energy and the notion of the body’s \nclock. Crabtree and Crabtree ( 2011 ) noted that: ‘Creative people, partic-\nularly performers, live and work to a different rhythm than other people. \nThis has huge implications for their body clock and how they manage their \ninternal world’ (p. 47). This issue is especially nuanced when the artist \nis touring internationally, particularly if they are alternating between the \nsouthern and northern hemispheres, Sydney and London for example, to \nperform and play tours. Crabtree and Crabtree ( 2011 ) continued:\n Stress on the body clock, or circadian rhythm, has been associated with trig-\ngering bipolar disorder… [for] performers, who have a different sleep/wake \ncycle, deregulation or diffi culties in the internal body clock, may contribute \nto mood disorders—particularly depression and bipolar disorder. (p. 47) \n The literature also documents other pragmatic health and safety con-\ncerns and issues in relation to sector workers. The necessity for adequate \nsafety checks, for example, has been an ongoing concern for perform-\ning musicians. This is evident in the safety concerns underpinning the \nlegendary Van Halen covert technical rider 3 clause (Article 126) used in \nthe 1980s (Littlewood, 2013 ). A more recent example is in relation to \nthe electrocution of Emmure singer Frankie Palmeri, who was on stage \nwith his band in Russia in 2013 when he was electrocuted while holding \nhis microphone (Childers, 2013 ). Similarly, guitarist Dominic Zyntek had \nboth hands severely burned when he was electrocuted during a routine \nsound-check on the P&O Pride of Hull ferry in 2012 (Edmonds, 2014 ). \nZyntek was unable to play for several months, and described the inci-\ndent as ‘like I was being burnt alive for a few minutes’ (Zyntek cited in \nEdmonds, 2014 ). The sound-check was carried out despite the manager \nof Zyntek’s band also being electrocuted the previous day. Compensation \nwas awarded to Zyntek, at which time his solicitor, Sally Rissbrook, called \nfor more diligence in relation to sector health and safety:\n Dominic was informed that it was safe to use the equipment even though \na separate incident happened the previous night where Dominic’s manager \nwas taken to hospital as precaution after being electrocuted on the same \nstage… If the correct health and safety checks are not adhered to then inci-\ndents like this will continue to happen. (Rissbrook cited in Edmonds, 2014 ) 92 D. HUGHES ET AL. CONCLUSION \n Of prime signifi cance was our fi nding that some participants noted that there \nwas no exercise of or adherence to the duty of care required under such \nlegislation as the New South Wales WHS Act 2011 in a range of industry \ncontexts. In the new music industries, there is no apprenticeship system and \nartists are now largely without formal support and learning networks. As \nsuch, and as our fi ndings identify, artists may be susceptible to exploitation, \nmanipulation and/or to being in situations in which they are taken advan-\ntage. There were real concerns raised regarding artist safety. Issues includ-\ning misogyny, sexism and gender-based abuse, along with isolation, fear of \nthe unknown and varying levels of security (personal and fi nancial) were \nidentifi ed in participant experiences. Psychological issues included stress, the \npressure to succeed, depression and performance anxiety; self-medication \nand substance abuse often followed. Physical injuries were also noted includ-\ning repetitive strain injury, vocal tiredness and hearing-related concerns. \nFinancial hardship was frequently reported, as were the limitations posed by \nan erratic revenue stream (for example, the preclusive cost of in-ear moni-\ntors). Although some realities encountered have always existed in popular \nmusic practices, in the twenty-fi rst century many of the challenges may be \ncircumvented through established preventative measures and mechanisms:\n At the very least, those who make their livings from these young people \nneed to learn to recognise early signs of emotional distress, crisis, depres-\nsion and suicidality and to put some support systems in place to provide the \nnecessary assistance and care. (Kenny, 2014a ) \n The work of Support Act ( 2016 ) should be commended in this regard and \nawareness of such initiatives needs to increase. \n NOTES \n 1. Support Act’s website stated: ‘The power of music is something we \nall feel. So many events in life need a soundtrack: a long road trip, a \nfi rst dance at a wedding, a carefully chosen piece to mark a loved \none’s passing. Music makes memories. And yet, as a professional, a \ncareer in music can be uncertain and risky. Even the most talented \nfi nd themselves unable to work when illness, injury or some other \nproblem strikes. Without an income, a setback can quickly become \na crisis’ (Support Act, 2016 ). THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 93 2. In this context, a rider is defi ned as involving the alcohol, food and \nother items that are provided to musicians by venues as part of their \nhospitality, sometimes in lieu of monetary payment. \n 3. The Van Halen rider is notorious for including specifi c and often \nbizarre requests for refreshments in the band’s backstage area. \nHowever according to Littlewood ( 2013 ) this was a test designed to \ncheck whether the venue’s management and technicians had prop-\nerly read and implemented all the band’s technical requirements; if \ntheir trifl ing rider requests were not met, this indicated that impor-\ntant and potentially dangerous oversights had been made regarding \npreparations for their stage performance. \n REFERENCES \n Australian Government. (2013). Strategic research priorities. Canberra: Common-\nwealth of Australia. \n Barlow, C. (2010). Potential hazard of hearing damage to students in undergradu-\nate popular music courses. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 25 (4), 175. \n Burrows, M. (2016). The long, hard road to rock’n’roll success: ‘We’re essentially \nskint’. Guardian News and Media Limited [Online]. Retrieved February 2, \n2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/30/rocknroll-\nstardom-live-music-struggling-bands-slow-club-brawlers \n Carter, L. (2016). Rapper 360’s codeine addiction admission prompts calls for \nstricter regulations on over-the-counter medications. ABC News [Online]. \nRetrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01- 11/360-\nrapper-becomes-face-of-codeine-addiction-calls-regulation/7080192 \n Childers, C. (2013). Emmure frontman Frankie Palmeri electrocuted during per-\nformance in Moscow . Loudwire. Retrieved March 1, 2016, from http://loud-\nwire.com/emmure-frankie-palmeri-electrocuted/ \n Cloonan, M. (2011). Researching live music: Some thoughts on policy implica-\ntions. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 17 (4), 405–442. \n Cloonan, M. (2014). Musicians as workers: Putting the UK musicians’ union in to \ncontext. MusiCultures, 41 (1), 10–29. \n Crabtree, J., & Crabtree, J. (2011). Living with a creative mind . Sydney: Zebra \nCollective. \n Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and \ninvention . New York: Harper Perennial. \n Dobson, M.  C. (2011). Insecurity, professional sociability, and alcohol: Young \nfreelance musicians. Psychology of Music, 39 (2), 240–260. \n Drus, M., Kozbelt, A., & Hughes, R. (2014). Creativity, psychopathology, and emo-\ntion processing: A liberal response bias for remembering negative information is \nassociated with higher creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 26 (3), 251–262. 94 D. HUGHES ET AL. Dunn, J. (2015). ‘I didn’t ruin Amy’: Blake Fielder claims he wasn’t responsible \nfor early death of tragic singer Amy Winehouse. Daily Mail [Online]. Retrieved \nJanuary 11, 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 3132487/\nI-didn-t-ruin-Amy-Drug-addict-former-husband-tragic-singer-Amy-\nWinehouse-claims-wasn-t-responsible-early-death.html \n Edmonds, L. (2014). Guitarist who suffered horrifi c burns after he was \nELECTROCUTED for two minutes as he sound-checked for ferry gig wins \n£6,400 compensation. Daily Mail. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://\nwww.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2557721/Guitarist-suffered…-two-\nminutes- sound-checked-ferry-gig-wins-6-400-compensation.html \n Grönberg, R., (2010). Comparing Finnish and British live music event health and safety \nculture: A perspective to the legislations and prevailing practices. Thesis for degree \nprogramme in Music and Media Management, Jamk University of Applied Sciences. \n Hall, R. (2014). The future of popular music education: What voice can education \nhave? [Paper Presentation]. Association for Popular Music Education [APME] \nConference, presentation, 20 June, 2014, University of Southern California, \nLos Angeles, US. \n Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2011). Creative labour: Media work in three cul-\ntural industries . London: Routledge. \n Homan, S., Cloonan, M., & Cattermole, J. (2015). Popular music and cultural \npolicy . Abingdon, UK/New York: Routledge. \n Homan, S., Cloonan, M., & Cattermole, J. (2016). Popular music and the state: Policy \nnotes . London, UK/New York: Routledge. \n Hughes, D., Keith, S., Morrow, G., Evans, M., & Crowdy, D. (2013). What con-\nstitutes artist success in the Australian music industries? International Journal \nof Music Business Research, 2 (2), 61–80. \n Hughes, D., Evans, M., Keith, S., & Morrow, G. (2014). A ‘duty of care’ and the \nprofessional musician/artist. In G. Carruthers (Ed.), Proceedings of the commis-\nsion for the education of the professional musician (CEPROM) (pp.  31–41). \nBrazil: Belo Horizonte. \n IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). (2014). Recording \nindustry numbers: The recorded music market in 2013 . London, UK: Deloitte. \n Johnson, B., & Homan, S. (2002). Vanishing acts: An inquiry into the state of live \npopular music opportunities in New South Wales . Sydney: Australia Council and \nthe NSW Ministry for the Arts. \n Kenny, D. T. (2014a). The 27 club is a myth: 56 is the bum note for musicians. \n The Conversation. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from https://theconversation.\ncom/the-27-club-is-a-myth-56-is-the-bum-note-for-musicians-33586 \n Kenny, D. T. (2014b). Stairway to hell: Life and death in the pop music industry. \n The Conversation. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from http://theconversation.\ncom/stairway-to-hell-life-and-death-in-the-pop-music-industry-32735 \n Kenny, D. T. (2015). Music to die for: How genre affects popular musicians’ life \nexpectancy. The Conversation. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from http://thecon-\nversation.com/music-to-die-for-how-genre-affects-popular-musicians-\nlife-expectancy- 36660 THE REALITIES OF PRACTICE 95 Littlewood, M. (2013). The truth about Van Halen’s M&M rider – Just good opera-\ntions [uploaded August 7, 2013]. Retrieved October 14, 2013, at http://busi-\nnessofsoftware.org/2013/08/the-truth-about-van-halens-mm-rider-just-\ngood-operations/ \n Madden, C., & Bloom, T. (2004). Creativity, health and arts advocacy. \n International Journal of Cultural Policy, 10 (2), 133–156. \n McGuigan, J. (2010). Creative labour, cultural work and individualisation. \n International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16 (3), 323–335. \n McMillen, A. (2014). Talking Smack: Honest Conversations about Drugs . \nQueensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press. \n Morrow, G. (2006). Managerial creativity: A study of artist management practices \nin the Australian popular music industry. Unpublished PhD thesis, Macquarie \nUniversity, Sydney, Australia. \n Oh, M. (2002). Bobby Brown arrested For drug possession, speeding. MTV.com. \nRetrieved January 10, 2016, from http://www.mtv.com/news/1458561/\nbobby-brown-arrested-for-drug-possession-speeding/ \n Papageorgi, I., Creech, A., & Welch, G. (2013). Perceived performance anxiety in \nadvanced musicians specializing in different musical genres. Psychology of Music, \n41 , 18–41. \n Resnikoff, P. (2013). 16 artists that are now speaking out against streaming…\n Digital Music News. Retrieved January 11, 2016, from http://www.digitalmu-\nsicnews.com/2013/12/02/artistspiracy/ \n Schink, T., Kreutz, G., Busch, V., Pigeot, I., & Ahrens, W. (2014). Incidence and \nrelative risk of hearing disorders in professional musicians. Occupational and \nEnvironmental Medicine, 71 , 472–476. \n Seligman, M. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and \nwell-being . New York: Free Press. \n Simpson, S., & Munro, J. (2012). Music business . London, UK: Omnibus Press. \n Smith, G. (2013). Seeking ‘success’ in popular music. Music Education Research \nInternational, 6 , 26–37. \n Stahl, M. (2013). Unfree masters: Recording artists and the politics of work . \nDurham, NC/London, UK: Duke University Press. \n Strang, F. (2013). ‘Don’t let the music business make a prostitute of you’: Sinead \nO’Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus after she’s inspired by her Nothing \nCompares 2 U video. Daily Mail [Online]. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from \n http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2442321/Sinead-OConnor- \nMiley-Cyrus-Dont-let-music-business-make-prostitute-you.html \n Support Act. (2016). Retrieved February 26, 2016 from http://supportact.org.au/ \n Throsby, D., & Zednik, A. (2010). Do you really expect to get paid? An economic study \nof professional artists in Australia . Melbourne: Australia Council for the Arts. \n United Nations. (2014). World Drug Report 2014 . Vienna, Austria: United \nNations Offi ce on Drugs and Crime. \n van den Eynde, J., Fisher, A., & Sonn, C. (2015). Working in the Australian enter-\ntainment industry. Phase 2: Executive summary . Melbourne, Victoria: Victoria \nUniversity. 96 D. HUGHES ET AL.97 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_6 CHAPTER 6 \n Abstract Teaching popular music in higher education is multidimen-\nsional. This chapter considers how best to train students for sustainable \ncareer trajectories within the new music industries. To date, business edu-\ncation, particularly in tertiary settings, has tended to be treated in isolation \nfrom the ‘music’ component. This chapter will show how contemporary \nmusic education needs to refl ect the convergence between the artist and \n‘business’, and address the management of expectations. Multiple creativi-\nties underpin the integrated model for popular music education presented \nin this chapter. The relevance of artistry, individuality and entrepreneur-\nship to music education is discussed. The chapter concludes with the ways \nin which education can address and prepare popular music students for the \nrealities of practice that they may encounter. \n Keywords Popular music education • Creativities • Student • Tertiary • \n Artistry • Individuality \n Teaching popular music in higher education is multidimensional. While \ncurriculum foci are typically centred on musical development in a range \nof theoretical and practical contexts, it is debatable whether curricular \ncontent and delivery also comprehensively cater to students wanting to \npursue careers as popular musicians or performers (see Lebler,  2007 , \n 2008 ; Feichas,  2010 ; Burnard,  2012 ,  2014 ; Gaunt & Westerlund,  2013 ; Popular Music Education Smith,  2013 ; Smith & Shafi ghian,  2014 ; Parkinson & Smith,  2015 ; Smith \n& Gillet,  2015 ). While we acknowledge that much can be learned and \nmodelled informally in popular music (see Green, 2002 ), we discuss below \npopular music education specifi cally in the context of tertiary studies and \npreparing students for the new music industries. \n The primary aim of the research that informs this chapter was to identify \ncareer trajectories within the real-world practices of the new music indus-\ntries. The research identifi ed that multiple creativities form a core com-\nponent in this multi-industry landscape. We also identifi ed health, safety \nand wellbeing concerns within these industries. This chapter now addresses \nthese concerns within the scope of our research themes—the concept of \nindividualisation in artistry and branding, and aspects of and preparation \nfor working in the new music industries. We offer an integrated model for \nmusic education that encompasses the new music businesses and places \nmultiple creativities at its core. This acknowledges that creativities are now \nkey in all areas of popular music and business practices. Typically, business \neducation has tended to be treated in isolation from the ‘music’ compo-\nnent (see Beckman,  2007 ; Daniel,  2010 ;  Brindle,  2011 ; Bridgstock,  2012 ) \nin popular music studies and, as such, music business subjects have tended \nto be discrete units of study that separate the creative from the managerial. \n This chapter will show how contemporary music programs need to \nrefl ect the convergence between the artist and business models/opera-\ntions. It examines the changing relationship between artists and various \nmusic business intermediaries and argues that popular music education \nshould comprehensively address notions of multiple creativities. Bilton \n( 2010 , p. 255) notes that creativity and management have been histori-\ncally positioned as opposing concepts, but that they are increasingly con-\nverging in new models of cultural policy and business management. Our \nfi ndings identify that the design of music curricula for the new industries \nalso needs to refl ect this convergence; our model of integrated music edu-\ncation encompasses this convergence. \n NOTIONS OF MULTIPLE CREATIVITIES \n Traditional music education models, such as those typically offered in the \nmusic conservatoire, often focus on instrumental and/or performance \nprowess, written notation, and score replication or interpretation. This \nfocus is indeed different in new twenty-fi rst century popular music practices, \nhowever, where the process of creativity is at the forefront (for example, 98 D. HUGHES ET AL.songwriting, improvisation, looping technologies). Notions of creativity \nare not only evident in improvisatory traits and songwriting/composition, \nbut they are central in levels of business acumen underpinning marketing \nstrategies, networking, collaboration, and branding. More broadly, notions \nof creativity are evident in online and offl ine strategies (Keith, Hughes, \nCrowdy, Morrow, & Evans, 2014 ), in artistic attributes and intent, and \nin contemporary performance and production technologies. An integrated \nmusic education model that places creativity at its core fi nds its basis within \na broader creative industries discourse. When discussing the creative indus-\ntries and tertiary education, Bridgstock ( 2012 ) noted:\n While the majority of creative, performing and literary artists are self- \nemployed, relatively few tertiary arts schools attempt to develop capabilities \nfor venture creation and management (and entrepreneurship more broadly) \nand still fewer do so effectively. (p. 122) \n Bridgstock addresses the underlying conceptual and philosophical issues \nencountered by arts educators and argues that while entrepreneurship is \nessential to career success in the arts, the practice of arts-related entrepre-\nneurship is signifi cantly different from the practice of entrepreneurship in \nother businesses. With this in mind, this chapter outlines artistry and what \nis unique about the practice of entrepreneurship in arts practices (particu-\nlarly in the new music businesses), and suggests strategies for nurturing \nmusic business entrepreneurship within tertiary popular music programs. \n ARTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP \n Bridgstock ( 2012 ) highlights that entrepreneurship in tertiary arts educa-\ntion should focus on ‘the application, sharing or distribution of art, as \nwell as [on] its creation or making’ (p. 123). Others, such as Hausmann \n( 2010 ), argue that many freelancers in the arts ‘are faced with work and \nincome insecurity while also experiencing diffi culties with their self-image \nand self-perception as entrepreneurs’ (p. 17) (see also Chapter 3 ). These \narguments imply that career sustainability, or even initial startup develop-\nment, may be impacted by lack of effective arts entrepreneurship educa-\ntion. Such arguments can be located within a body of literature that links \ncreative work with economic growth in advanced economies (for example, \nFlorida, 2011 ; Mellander, Florida, & Rentfrow, 2012 ; Gabe, Florida, & \nMellander, 2013 ). POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 99 However, in contrast to this body of work, there is literature that sug-\ngests artists have a role to play in challenging social norms (for example, \nCarey, 2005 ) and that culture and commerce have entered an awkward \nalliance (for example, McGuigan, 2009a , 2009b , 2010 ). Following these \narguments, therefore, arts entrepreneurship education may be making \nuniversities (even more) subservient to the market fundamentalism of the \nneoliberal agenda. As McGuigan ( 2010 ) argues:\n [I]ndividualisation addresses the paradoxical character of work and every-\nday life today, freer in some sense yet also harsh and isolating. It is espe-\ncially pronounced in the ‘creative industries’ enabling a tantalizing sense of \nexpressivity at the cost of exceptional diffi culties in working life—including \ninsecurity, poor pay and conditions. (p. 334) \n Within the context of potential and ‘exceptional diffi culties in work-\ning life’ (McGuigan, 2010 , p. 334), and in light of our fi ndings on the \nrealities of practice, the ability of tertiary students to be ‘employable’ 1 and \nto maintain sustainable income stream/s while being adaptable and/or \nversatile is more complex than preparing for a specifi c vocation. The \nargument informing this chapter is that knowledge about how to facilitate \ngroup creativity/creativities, and how to locate oneself within a context \nfrom which distributed, and collaboratively emergent ideas can arise, is \nkey to career longevity. Furthermore, educators have a moral imperative \n(Beckman, 2007 , p. 93) to use their own creativities to design programs \nof study that are suited to the nature of the industries into which our stu-\ndents graduate, as highly networked improvisational groups are the norm \nwithin the new music industries (Sawyer & DeZutter, 2009 ). \n A primary issue for the fi eld of the new music industries in Australia \nrelates to the statistic that four in fi ve professional artists maintain their \nown businesses (Throsby & Zednik, 2011 ). 2 In an international con-\ntext, the incidence of artists self-employed is also high, as was noted in \nBridgstock ( 2012 , p. 122). Given this incidence, accountable education \nmust involve teaching arts entrepreneurship for those students undertak-\ning tertiary music education. There is also an implication here for students \nto work towards setting up their own businesses before they graduate. In \na case study of similar issues in the United Kingdom, Smith ( 2013 ) noted \nthat, ‘a pedagogy for employability should aim to instil in students the skills \nfor, and a sense of, collaborative entrepreneurialism, because it is widely \nagreed that a key to achievement in the professional music environment of 100 D. HUGHES ET AL.the future is likely to be an ability to work successfully in teams’ (p. 193). \nThis reality of practice for students within the new music industries exists \nwhether or not popular music educators put a determinate commitment \ntowards employability at the core of their learning and teaching strategies; \nhowever, it would be an expectation that student graduate capabilities \nrefl ect the industries in which they aim to work. \n The career models and realities of practice identifi ed in our research are \nparticularly pertinent given that the democratisation of technologies has \nfacilitated individualisation in the DIY music economy and that the realities \nof practice are complex. Overwhelmingly, our analysis of career develop-\nment within the new music industries identifi ed that the artist is increas-\ningly becoming either DIY or an entrepreneur. In both scenarios, artists \nare free to explore business opportunities or to establish their music as a \nbusiness. Perhaps musicians have traditionally been ‘artist- entrepreneurs’, \ntreating their music as a business in that companies were often established \n(albeit by third parties) to manage all of the income streams stemming \nfrom their work. As was discussed in Chapter 2 , however, labels may now \ndevolve the risks pertaining to record production onto artists and their \nmanagers, leading artists to take on more risks themselves. Under the \nEntrepreneur model, record labels may increasingly proceed with ‘risk- \nfree gusto’ by focusing their efforts on the marketing and distribution of \nrecordings. In this scenario, all of the fi nancial risk involved with produc-\ning the recordings is externalized by the record label and becomes the \nresponsibility of the artist. This in itself suggests that the artists need to be \ngrounded in business acumen and strategies, while being creative in their \nability to produce output and image that enables them to stand out in the \ncrowd and receive due artistic and fi nancial rewards. \n Team Creativity \n In the DIY economy, the onus is on the artist to initiate, coordinate and \nmanage more aspects of their ‘craft’. Because the artist has to build and \ncoordinate their own team, an understanding of team creativity theory is \nuseful. In this context, it is problematic to separate music education from \nmusic business education. By positioning management and artistic creativ-\nity as opposing forces, creativity may be hindered. Both musical creativ-\nity and managerial creativity/entrepreneurship involve manipulating and \nexploiting ideas, and intrinsic motivation is key in both (Bilton, 2010 ). POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 101However, while it is easy to posit the argument that artists are intrinsically \nmotivated to create music, it is harder to argue that artist managers (and in \nthe new industries, DIY artist management) are also intrinsically motivated \n(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 , p. 110). This is because ‘management’ is more \ncommonly associated with extrinsic motivators such as fi nancial reward. \nHowever, when the artist and the manager are the same entity, this divide \nis subsumed. Even if an artist is self-managed or engages a manager, a \nteam typically builds around the artist. An understanding of the role of \ninterpersonal interaction and teams is therefore crucial. \n Reality Checks \n In addition to education in the fi elds of musical creativities and manage-\nrial creativity/entrepreneurship, students also need to be educated as to \nthe realities of practice they may face. The previous chapter detailed the \nrealities of practice often encountered in the new music industries. Such \npractice realities may impede the wellbeing (physical and/or mental) and \ncareer sustainability of artists. In addition to identifying contributing fac-\ntors that may negatively impact on the wellbeing of artists, an integrated \nmusic education model needs to prepare students in ways that ensure that:\n every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal \nstresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a \ncontribution to her or his community. (World Health Organisation, 2014 ) \n As outlined in our integrated model below, an understanding of the reali-\nties of practice is integral to the mental and physical wellbeing of artists. \n EMERGENT THEMES \n The following themes were identifi ed in the analyses of our focus group \nand interview data. 3 They are signifi cant; each informs the development \non the integrated music education model. Participant quotes are included \nwhere relevant to the themes. \n Theme 1: Artist-Entrepreneur \n Rather than the artist-entrepreneur being a force of disruptive ‘creative \ndestruction’ (Schumpeter, 1939 ), the value placed on this form of entre-\npreneurship refl ects the increased workload that has been placed on art-102 D. HUGHES ET AL.ists themselves, as was detailed in Chapters 2 , 3 and 5 . Participants spoke \nof the creative strategies that come into play through self-management. \nThis was particularly evident in the ways they used social media. They \nalso talked about fi nancial management, merchandise, image and brand-\ning, and music dissemination. They discussed being time-poor and the \nneed for time management strategies. Within the new music industries, \nthe functions of artist management/self-management/artist-entrepre-\nneur are being reconceptualised. As Robert Scott  (Founder of Source \nMusic Publishing and Licensing and Creative Manager, Embassy Music \nPublishing Music Sales)  surmised with regard to pursuing a career in \nmusic: ‘It’s about looking for opportunity, I don’t know how you encour-\nage that but I think that music is a degree in entrepreneurialism.’ Tom \nHarris (Founder of White Sky Music, a specialist music business manage-\nment and bookkeeping company) noted the changing emphasis in desired \nrevenue stream options: ‘Once upon a time, giving your song to a TV \ncommercial was a bad thing and there was a backlash. Now, you get high-\nfi ved, everyone wants to do it, it is gold to have your music in an ad.’ \n In addition, in a keynote presentation at leading Australian music indus-\ntry conference BIGSOUND, artist manager John Watson ( 2013 ) noted:\n [T]he majority of artists now are having to bring a lot more innovation into \ntheir career, and that’s a good thing. And the pace of change is huge… [it’s] \nmoving really fast and so you have to be mindful of that. \n In relation to the notion of change and the DIY economy, Joe \nVesayaporn (global sales director of Music Glue) noted:\n What people are expecting has changed. I meet far less people who are ideal-\nistic and think that they just want to get a record deal and that will solve all \nof their problems and let someone else take care of everything else for me. \nThat has been happening less and less. \n Theme 2: Shared Creativity \n The increased use of the term ‘artist-entrepreneur(ship)’ has in part been \ncaused by the breakdown of the conceptual divide between management \nand creativity. In terms of research, this shift is accompanied by an exami-\nnation of team-level creative synergy, in which creative ideas, instead of \nbeing generated by one mind, are generated by groups (Kurtzberg & \nAmabile, 2000 ). A common theme emerging from the focus groups was POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 103that artists themselves need to increase their knowledge of management \nand that if they aim to be professional musicians, they will need, at some \nstage, to build a broader ‘creative’ team around them. \n In discussing a business entitled ‘I Manage My Own Music’ (Cloher, \n 2013 ), which involves running workshops for self-managed artists, Tom \nHarris explained artist-entrepreneurship in the following way:\n I think that is great, preparing artists and helping them with where they \nwant to go is really important. I do think that ultimately for long-term \ncareer success, that kind of thing is good for the early days, but to be an \nactual career musician or artist, you need to have the team in place. If we’re \ntalking about artist development then I don’t think that the best thing is for \nthem to be spending 20 hours a week mucking around on social media or \nspending hours dealing with booking agents. \n Shared creativity was also seen in the mentoring role of industry repre-\nsentatives by Clare Cottone (artist):\n Even though I am self-managed, I have a couple of successful music manag-\ners giving me some really good advice. So with their guidance I am doing \nthis album release differently to how I did the last one. \n Involving industry representatives in an educative and informative way \nwas seen by Lauren Porter (artist) as aiding creative practice:\n I did the ‘I Manage My Own Music’ [IMMM] course last year… It's dif-\nfi cult sometimes as an independent musician to even know where to start \nwhen you are putting out your fi rst records, but IMMM really helped! They \nbring different speakers in and you can ask them anything in a really sup-\nportive environment. You leave feeling so much more knowledgeable and \nconfi dent! \n While discussing the team-building process in which a self-managed \nartist engages, Helen Marcou (Co-founder of Bakehouse Studios) noted:\n By the same token, there’s a point to it, like anything, it is a micro business, \nthere’s a point where you take on a bookkeeper, you take on an accountant \nand often from Jen Cloher’s advice you surround yourself with the people \nyou need at that point in your business. 104 D. HUGHES ET AL. Discussing multiple creativities, Watson ( 2013 ) also noted:\n The big opportunity and challenge for artists and those around them, is that \nartists now have to redefi ne, more broadly, what it means to be a creative \nhuman being, and so do all the people around them. \n Theme 3: Securing Additional Funding \n Self-managed artist-entrepreneurs still need fi nancial resources, and \nwithin the context of a discussion of the rise of the culture of participation \n(Collins & Young, 2010 ), participants raised the issue of when best to \nsecure government funding to support a self-managed artist-entrepreneur. \nParticipants identifi ed that government funding (and support) is highly \ncompetitive alongside the suggestion there will never be enough funding \nopportunities to service the demand. An up-to-date knowledge of avail-\nable funding from state, federal, and even philanthropic sources, together \nwith grant application writing skills, are therefore important in ensuring a \nstable career for the contemporary musician. Kevin Weaver (artist) stated \nthat being more informed about grant opportunities would help in career \ndevelopment and other opportunities:\n [G]overnment grants, that has been spoken about more, knowing more \nabout how they work and what we can get from that and how we can pro-\nvide a benefi t for them to see why they would give us a grant, what’s the \ncriteria around that. That could help in going overseas as well. \n There are initiatives and funding opportunities to assist artists in showcas-\ning overseas; Sounds Australia was designed as a specifi c initiative estab-\nlished ‘to provide a cohesive and strategic platform to assist the Australian \nmusic industry to access international business opportunities’ (Sounds \nAustralia, 2016 ). \n Theme 4: Externalising Financial Risk \n Larger entities in the music business are externalising fi nancial risk by \nmaking asset generation and accounting for marketing spend the artist’s \nresponsibility. Artists therefore need to be educated regarding how to POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 105manage such risk. An interesting juxtaposition emerged from our focus \ngroups, with some participants explaining that they believed the industry \nto be constituted by many more ‘small and nimble’ entities than in the \npast, while others noted that there has been increased monopolisation. \nWe interpret this contradiction as we expressed in Chapter 2 , in that while \nmany smaller players can establish sustainable businesses in the music \nindustries, there are also a number of very large entities that generate \nrevenue from the aggregate of the many smaller entities or artists and \nconvergent music education needs to refl ect this. Whether artists are deal-\ning with small or large entities, they need to develop a range of business \nand communication skills so as to successfully navigate their own pathway. \nThis has implications for music education to include a range of career \nmodels, business strategies and practices in course content. \n Theme 5: Openness and Divergent Thinking \n Due to the diffi culties involved in building and sustaining a musical career \n(Hughes, Keith, Morrow, Evans, & Crowdy, 2013a , 2013b ), it is impor-\ntant that students are educated to embrace openness and creative think-\ning. Openness and creative or divergent thinking are needed because, as \nHughes et al. ( 2013a , 2013b ) noted, there is no single model for career \ndevelopment in the music industries. As Joe Vesayaporn also noted:\n I would say that there is no set right or wrong, you can pick and choose \nwhat you need. Whether you’re successful or not is a side issue… I think \nyou can defi nitely choose to go different ways and I would even say that is \non a global scale. You could be doing something incredibly traditional in \nAustralia, but as new markets open up elsewhere you could choose to try \nand do things differently because they are new markets and you are going \nin separately. \n In addition, there is a strong connection between openness and divergent \nthinking and the continuous innovation that is needed:\n The challenge now is… to keep fi nding new ways to fascinate, new ways to \nbe remarkable; not just that song, but the next song, and the next song and \nthe one after it, and the next album after that and the next tour after that \n(Watson, 2013 ). 106 D. HUGHES ET AL. AN INTEGRATED MUSIC EDUCATION MODEL \n The emergent themes identify that the demand for research-led integrated \nmusic education is timely. This is because accessibility in and to the music \nindustries has never been so great. The contemporary music industries \nnow present a range of opportunities for emerging artists to share, show-\ncase and develop their music. Alongside the myriad of opportunities are \nthe complex challenges which artists and musicians must face. Undeniably, \nit is the role of education to address the challenges posed by the increased \nresponsibilities and opportunities. Music education therefore needs to facil-\nitate comprehensive understanding of the new industries. Furthermore, \nit needs to encompass the creative core evident in the emergent themes \nof artist-entrepreneurship, shared creativity (for example, team-building), \nsecuring additional funding (for example, procuring funding), externalis-\ning fi nancial risk (for example, risk factors) and openness and divergent \nthinking (for example, refl exivity; offl ine/online strategies). \n The integrated model we propose (see Fig. 6.1 ) converges the three \nmain components of artistry, individuality and entrepreneurship.\nArtistry\nArtist-\nentrepreneurIndividualityMultiple\ncreativities\n Fig. 6.1 An integrated music education model POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 107 Artistry \n Contemporary artistry involves more than the traditional concepts of \ninstrumental capability and performance (see Hughes, 2010 , 2014 ). It \nnow encompasses the use of technologies and innovative music produc-\ntion techniques. Our fi ndings identify that it is no longer suffi cient to \nconfi ne music education to the development of a specifi c ability. Rather, \ncontemporary music education needs to address the complexities of art-\nistry and the creativity that underpins contemporary musicality in the ways \noutlined in Chapter 4 . Creative interpretation, creative outputs and cre-\native production aesthetics are prized artistic traits. While popular music \nhas a tradition of continuous evolution, production technologies are also \nconstantly evolving. This has implications for all artists in relation to their \nresultant aesthetic. Preventative strategies in relation to injuries in instru-\nmental or context specifi c situations (for example, hearing loss; vocal dam-\nage), as were outlined in Chapter 5 , should also be included. Education \nneeds to facilitate a comprehensive view of artistry that accounts for these \ntraits in ways that effectively focus on and communicate artistry. In Fig. \n 6.2 , artistry in education is situated within an awareness of career oppor-\ntunities and the fi eld. The multifaceted components that underpin artistry \nare also identifi ed.\n Individuality \n Participants were unanimous in the view that while the opportunities for \ninvolvement in the new music industries have never been so great, as was \noutlined in Chapter 3 , the challenge of the ability to be seen or heard in \nthe new digital economy is often diffi cult. More competition (both offl ine \nand online), engagement in social media and the signifi cance of the ‘song’ \nwere all cited as challenges that impacted on the realised level of artistic \nexposure. The emphasis on the ‘song’, rather than on an album per se, was \nviewed as crucial for artist exposure and subsequent interest; as Tim Hart \nnoted, ‘It has to be about the song. We have nothing else. What are you \ngoing to look forward to? I need to have that song, I wonder what else \nthey have?’ The need for individuality (used here to encompass both the \nsolo artist and the collective such as a ‘distinctive’ band) was also evident in \nthe participant focus on the development of individualisation, clear artistic \nintent and the facility for artists to be identifi able. This included the devel-\nopment of distinctive musical/vocal sound; more signifi cantly though, it \nwas apparent in the context of developing a specifi c individual image and 108 D. HUGHES ET AL.brand that was consistent through various artistic components such as the \nmusical, the visual and the technological. This facility for individualisation \nwas clearly underpinned by multiple creativities and also encompassed the \ninterpersonal or collaborative skills required to realise those creativities. \n Refl ection was also viewed as being a critical skill that aided individuali-\nsation. Participants noted that analysis of or refl ection on career approaches \nincluding strategies (business and artistic), performances and recordings \nprovided learning opportunities. Opportunities for individual refl ection \nand refl exivity should therefore be facilitated in music education. \n As this component focuses on individuality and is also situated within \ncareer opportunities and the fi eld (see Fig. 6.3 ), it should also focus on Career awareness\nField awarenessAesthetics\nArtistryProductionInjury\nprevention\nTechno-\nlogiesExpression\nPerfor-\nmanceInter-\npretation\n Fig. 6.2 Artistry component POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 109aspects of health and wellbeing. For example, it would seem imperative \nto have a focus on vocal demands and singing in popular music given the \nhigh incidence of singers who have suffered either vocal injuries or vocal \nhealth issues (see Hughes, 2013 ). It should include the development of \nstrategies to deal with the potential impact on lifestyle (for example, sub-\nstance abuse; anxiety). This includes securing adequate insurance cover-\nage; Christopher Chow (industry lawyer) noted:\n Many artists now have all sorts of insurance. They are cottoning on to the \nfact that there is a risk they might not be able to perform and travel forever, Career awareness\nField awarenessArtistic \nintent\nIndividualityReflexivity\nHealth \nand SafetyBrand\nWellbeingImage\n Fig. 6.3 Individualisation component 110 D. HUGHES ET AL.as they may get nodules in their throat, or arthritis in their hands, or perhaps \njust slip over and injure themselves one day. With greater understanding and \neducation regarding these risks, comes the realisation of the requirement to \nprotect against them. \n Artist-entrepreneur \n Our research clearly identifi es that notions of creativity are rapidly chang-\ning. While artists now have to be artistically creative, they also need to \nbe managerially creative. There are now signifi cant challenges to creative \noutputs in relation to copyright, copyright regulation and associated artist \nrevenue streams; there are also challenges in fi nancial management. The \nfacility to manage both online and offl ine artistic components are also for-\nmidable. In addition, workplace health and safety issues (WH & S) should \nbe addressed. \n Through an engagement with team-creativity theory, a number of strat-\negies for nurturing music business entrepreneurship within an integrated \nmusic education model can be developed. First, because the personality \ntraits that can be best used to predict managerial creativity are openness (or \nbeing open-minded) and the ability to think in a divergent way (Scratchley \n& Hakstian, 2001 , p. 380), the mindset that involves positioning man-\nagement and creativity as opposing concepts needs to be abandoned; a \nconvergent approach allows for open-mindedness and divergent thinking. \nUnderpinning this approach is a convergent transfer of information. An \nexample of this could be to teach songwriting and production in conjunc-\ntion with music business entrepreneurship. This would enable students to \nengage beyond the musical output and explore how their outputs could \nreach their target audiences. As our research fi ndings identify, such a con-\nvergent strategy is more refl ective of contemporary practices, whereby the \nartist-entrepreneur works across multiple areas and in multiple roles. It \nwould also enable the management role, the artistically creative role and \nother required roles to coexist within units of education with the aim of \nfacilitating the heterogeneity that is required for team creativity. These \nelements are illustrated in Fig. 6.4 . They are also situated within career \nopportunities and the fi eld. In addition to the personal insurance noted in \nthe section above, it is relevant for the artist-entrepreneur to investigate a \nrange of business-related insurance options (for example, securing public \nliability insurance in relation to the hiring of specifi c venues).POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 111 CONCLUSION \n This chapter has examined the research question, ‘How does music educa-\ntion have relevancy in the contemporary multi-industry musical landscape?’ \nSubsidiary to this primary question is whether the music business is suited \nto musicians, business people or both. Our analysis of career development \nwithin the contemporary music industries provided earlier in this volume \nsuggests that a perception of tension between creativity and management \ndissipates when the artist becomes a self-managed artist-entrepreneur. \n The call for an integrated model in music education is also indicated in \nother recent research fi ndings. For example, in the Victorian Live Music \nCensus 2012 (Music Victoria and the City of Melbourne, 2012 ), of the Career awareness\nField awarenessFan\noutreach\nArtist-\nentrepreneurRisk \nfactorsProcuring \nfunding\nInsuranceTeam \nbuilding\nRevenue \nstreamWorkplace\nhealth and\nsafety\n Fig. 6.4 Artist-entrepreneur component 112 D. HUGHES ET AL.258 participants, 92% were self-managed and 48% of those ‘rate their \nmusic industry knowledge as “Below Average” or “Poor”’ (p. 55). This \nclearly identifi es a need for education to include the multi-industry land-\nscape or contexts (Hughes et  al., 2013b ) in which contemporary per-\nformances occur or through which music is now accessed and heard. As \nRobert Scott summarised:\n [A]rtists can take control of their career more than ever in this era, they can \nself-release, they can do individual deals with certain territories, they just \nneed to have the wherewithal and the time and the education and the skills \nto be able to do that. \n An integrated education model must also address the realities of real- \nworld practices that can be both confronting and challenging. These \nrealities include contractual obligations, issues relating to health and well-\nbeing, insurances (for example, public liability; accident cover for specifi c \nimpairment), potential exploitation, fi duciary aspects of associated indi-\nviduals or organisations and the legalities of copyright and royalty col-\nlection (for example, live performance royalty returns). Such realities can \nprove extremely challenging for some and, for others, can lead to issues of \nhealth, safety and wellbeing. Contemporary music education can address \nthese realities in ways that best prepare students for the multiple, disrupted \nindustries they will encounter. \n NOTES \n 1. We are using this term in the context of sustainable income, not in \nrelation to an ‘employer’ per se . \n 2. We have included this statistic here although we acknowledge that it \nwould possibly fl uctuate (higher and lower) over time. \n 3. The primary aim of the research that informs this chapter was to \nidentify career trajectories within the new ‘music industries’ \n(Williamson & Cloonan, 2007 ). This was contextualised earlier in \nthis volume. The research design specifi cally aimed at documenting \nthe individual voice and the realities of practice through focus \ngroups and interviews. The fi ndings in this chapter were identifi ed \nfrom a range of music professionals (for example, artists, artist man-\nagers, government agency representatives). A constant comparative \nanalysis (Merriam, 1998 ) was utilised in the formulation of this \nchapter’s emergent themes. POPULAR MUSIC EDUCATION 113 REFERENCES \n Beckman, G. (2007). “Adventuring” arts entrepreneurship curricula in higher \neducation: An examination of present efforts, obstacles, and best practices. The \nJournal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 37 (2), 87–112. doi: 10.3200/\njaml.37.2.87-112 . \n Bilton, C. (2010). Manageable creativity. 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How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education . \nAldershot, UK/Burlington, USA: Ashgate Publishing Limited. \n Hausmann, A. (2010). German artists between Bohemian idealism and entrepre-\nneurial dynamics: Refl ections on cultural entrepreneurship and the need for \nstart-up management. International Journal of Arts Management, 12 (2), \n17–29. 114 D. HUGHES ET AL. Hughes, D. (2010). Developing vocal artistry in popular culture musics. In \nS. Harrison (Ed.), Perspectives on teaching singing (pp. 244–258). Queensland, \nAustralia: Australian Academic Press. \n Hughes, D. (2013). ‘OK, great sound, what are you experiencing as you’re sing-\ning that?’ Facilitating or interrupting the fl ow of vocal artistry. In O. Wilson & \nS. Attfi eld (Eds.), Shifting sounds: musical fl ow. A collection of papers from the \n2012 IASPM Australia/New Zealand conference , December 5–7, Hobart, \nAustralia, 80–87. \n Hughes, D. (2014). Contemporary vocal artistry in popular culture musics: \nPerceptions, observations and lived experiences. In S. Harrison & O’Bryan J. \n(Eds.), Teaching singing in the 21st century (pp.  287–302). Dordrecht/\nHeidelberg/New York/London: Springer. \n Hughes, D., Keith, S., Morrow, G., Evans, M., & Crowdy, D. (2013a). What \nconstitutes artist success in the Australian music industries? International \nJournal of Music Business Research (IJMBR), 2 (2), 60–80. \n Hughes, D., Keith, S., Morrow, G., Evans, M., & Crowdy, D. (2013b). Music \neducation and the contemporary, multi-industry landscape. In Redefi ning the \nmusical landscape: Inspired learning and innovation in music education XIX \nASME National Conference Proceedings (pp. 94–100). Brisbane, Australia. \n Keith, S., Hughes, D., Crowdy, D., Morrow, G., & Evans, M. (2014). Offl ine and \nonline: liveness in the Australian music industries. In V. Sarafi an and R. Findlay \n(Eds.). Civilisations: The State of the Music Industries, 13 , 221–241. \n Kurtzberg, T., & Amabile, T. (2000). From Guilford to creative synergy: Opening \nthe black box of team-level creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 13 (3–4), \n285–294. \n Lebler, D. (2007). Student as master? Refl ections on a learning innovation in \npopular music pedagogy. International Journal of Music Education, 25 (30), \n205–221. \n Lebler, D. (2008). Popular music pedagogy: Peer learning in practice. Music \nEducation Research, 10 (2), 193–213. \n McGuigan, J. (2009a). Doing a Florida thing: The creative class thesis and cultural \npolicy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15 (3), 291–300. \n McGuigan, J. (2009b). Cool capitalism . London, UK: Pluto. \n McGuigan, J. (2010). Creative labour, cultural work and individualisation. \n International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16 (3), 323–335. \n Mellandera, C., Florida, R., & Rentfrow, J. (2012). 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New York: McGraw Hill. \n Scratchley, L., & Hakstian, R. (2001). The measurement and prediction of mana-\ngerial creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 13 (3–4), 367–384. \n Smith, G. (2013). Pedagogy for employability in a Foundation Degree (Fd.A.) in \ncreative musicianship: Introducing peer collaboration. In H.  Gaunt & \nH.  Westerlund (Eds.), Collaborative learning in higher music education . \nFarnham, UK: Ashgate. \n Smith, G., & Gillet, A. (2015). Creativities, innovation, and networks in garage \npunk rock: A case study of the eruptörs. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship \nin the Arts, 4 (1), 9–24. \n Smith, G., & Shafi ghian, A. (2014). Creative space and the ‘silent power of tradi-\ntions’ in popular music performance education. In P. Burnard (Ed.), Developing \ncreativities in higher music education: International perspectives and practices \n(pp. 256–267). London, UK: Routledge. \n Sounds Australia. (2016). About. Sounds Australia . Retrieved December 16, \n2015, from http://soundsaustralia.com.au/index.php/about/ \n Throsby, D., & Zednik, A. (2011). Multiple job-holding and artistic careers: Some \nempirical evidence. Cultural Trends, 20 (1), 9–24. \n Watson, J. (2013). Keynote Q & A with John Watson. Interviewed by N. Megel on \n12 September 2013, BigSound , The Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane, Australia. \n Williamson, J., & Cloonan, M. (2007). Rethinking the music industry. Popular \nMusic, 26 (2), 305–322. \n World Health Organisation. (2014). Mental health: A state of well-being . Retrieved \nDecember 7, 2014, from http://www.who.int/features/factfi les/mental_\nhealth/en/ 116 D. HUGHES ET AL.117 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9_7 CHAPTER 7 \n Abstract This chapter outlines possible futures for the music industries \nin light of what is determined as the ‘new’ artist. Cumulative research fi ndings, the implications of those fi ndings, and a ‘new’ artist defi nition \nand model are presented which raise considerations for future musical cre-ativities and directions. The cumulative fi ndings also raise considerations \nfor policy-makers, education and advocacy. The chapter concludes with consideration for musical and artistic engagement that leads well beyond disruption. \n Keywords Technology • Education • Discovery • Advocacy \n This concluding chapter brings together the essential elements required \nfor the ‘new artist’. Based on our ethnographic research, we highlight those skills and profi ciencies that will be necessary for artists to thrive \nin the digital industries. While some aspects will be the responsibility of the artist themselves, we also consider the broader infrastructure required to develop artists in the new musical industries. This chapter considers the educational, technological and fi nancial imperatives for \nnew artists, and ultimately highlights the exciting discoveries that can be made. Conclusion: The ‘New’ Artist DEFINING THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST \n In order to outline what we determine as the ‘new’ artist, it is useful to \nengage with the artist-versus-business debate, and to link this debate to an \nargument concerning the multiple creative self-effi cacies (Bandura, 1997 ) \nor creative confi dence(s) (Kelley & Kelley, 2013 ). We have outlined, in \nthe preceding chapters, the models, creativities and learning that the ‘new’ \nartist engages in when navigating their chosen pathway within the new \nmusic industries. Regarding the role of the artist manager within the tra-\nditional record-label-centric music industry, Welch ( 2003 ) noted:\n Being a manager is probably the worst job, because you are the bridge \nbetween the art and the commerce and you’re never going to get into a situ-\nation where you are keeping both sides happy. That’s impossible. (p. 236) \n Embedded here is the assumption that the artistically creative side and the \nbusiness side of the music industries are not easily reconciled. In relation \nto the career models showcased in this book, however, it is necessary that \nthe new artist be defi ned as someone who possesses precisely the multiple \ncreativities necessary for straddling the two sides. This is because the cir-\ncular model for career development and sustainability typically begins with \nthe direct artist-to-fan relationship. In order to further understand the \nways the new artist differs from the artist as previously understood, the \nfollowing quote is useful:\n The idea of a confl ict between creativity and commerce has also been used \nto illustrate the power of the music industry and has also informed numer-\nous everyday claims about how musicians ‘sell out’ to the system. On one \nside are the heroes—the musicians, producers and performers (the creative \nartists); opposing them are the villains—record companies and entertain-\nment corporations (the commercial corruptors and manipulators). (Negus, \n 1996 , p. 46) \n This rigid binary illustrated here was more appropriate when artists had \nto follow the linear career development process (see Fig. 2.5, Chapter 2 ). \nHowever, in the new music business environment, artists themselves need \nto develop the confi dence to not only address any tensions between the \nartistic and the money-making aspects of music, but to fi nd ways in which \n‘the generation of economic and cultural value might be harmonized \nsuch that they become complementary rather than competitive’ (Throsby, 118 D. HUGHES ET AL. 2002 , p. 1). Our argument here is that for the ‘new artist’ to be able to \ndo this involves multiple creative self-effi cacies. As outlined in Chapter  5 , \nself-effi cacy (Bandura, 1997 ) is the confi dence one has in their ability \nto achieve a certain goal, or in terms of the realities of practice, the belief \nand commitment to task/s that one has to get through a diffi cult time. \nBuilding such self-effi cacy and resilience is necessary for the new artist’s \nattempts to manage the various stresses to which they may be subject in \nthe new music industries. Similarly, creative self-effi cacy, or creative con-\nfi dence (Kelley & Kelley, 2013 ), is required and takes a number of forms \nincluding soft to hard forms of artistic creativity as well as business-related \ncreativities. \n The model below (Fig. 7.1 ) represents our fi ndings on the ‘new’ artist, \nincluding artist capabilities and methods of engagement. In this model, \nwe expand on the circular model (see Fig. 2.5, Chapter 2 ) and orientate \nthe methods of engagement identifi ed in our research. For example, while \nevidence of a fan-to-artist relationship may be the catalyst for support, \ninterest and reward from the music industries, artists are also free to draw \non industries in and for their creative endeavours. The arrows therefore \nArtist\nFansNew \nindustriesInformal and\nformal learning\nChoice of\ncareer model\n Fig. 7.1 The new artist and engagement reciprocity CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 119represent possible engagement from multiple directions/stimuli and, as \nsuch, highlight engagement reciprocity. We also highlight that the new \nartist is free to choose one or more career models (360, Entrepreneur, \nDIY), including the potential artist-management-label ‘hub’ variations \noutlined at the end of Chapter 2. These ‘hub’ variations are underpinned \nby individual informal and formal learning as outlined in the previous \nchapter. The evolution of the new artist is crucial to the new industries, \nand while fans are not a new phenomenon, their potential impact on artist \nexposure and success is now immediately visible and verifi able.\n SKILLS AND APTITUDES FOR THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST \n The new artist in today’s music climate possesses a variety of skills. Of \ncourse, artists have always tended to possess skills beyond musical abil-\nity, including basic business acumen, self-promotion and so on. However, \nthe signifi cant disruptions of recent years—namely, the diminishing role \nof major labels, the changing live performance climate, and the advent \nof digitisation and the Internet—have meant that artists have needed to \ndevelop new skills in response to these changes. Of course a skill base may \nnot be commensurate with an artist’s aptitude or timeframe to fulfi l a par-\nticular task or role. Skill development therefore also needs to address the \nprioritising of roles and functions, together with strategies for devolving \nthese to others as appropriate. \n One notable characteristic of the skills required by new artists is that \nthey are more transferable beyond creative practices to other fi elds and \nrelated activities. This is partly due to the characteristics of new media, \nas discussed by Manovich ( 2001 ): because today’s media are increas-\ningly digital, artists can create, edit and distribute audio, video and image \nwith equal facility. Prior to the digital era, these fi elds would have been \nlargely separate pursuits with specialised equipment and training required \nfor each. The increasing accessibility and affordability of technologies for \nmedia production has meant that artists are able to engage with multiple \nforms of media production. \n Furthermore, the online space has led to a ‘fl attening out’ of outlets for \nmusicians, as discussed in the Foreword of this volume. Whereas promo-\ntion and distribution may previously have relied on many geographically \ndistinct local networks of television, radio and print, as well as a distinct \nmusic press, a smaller number of globalised outlets—YouTube, Twitter, \nFacebook, Instagram, and others—are now a signifi cant part of the land-120 D. HUGHES ET AL.scape. Crucially, these outlets are not music-specifi c, but are generalised \nplatforms for reaching consumers. Artists in today’s music environment develop skills for engaging through these particular platforms—engaging audiences and communicating, producing high-quality audiovisual con-tent, analysing metrics, leveraging advertising and so on. These skills are not unique to the domain of music; they are highly transferable and valu-able in other fi elds. \n The industry disruption wrought by the Internet has affected not \njust the technical skills of today’s artist, but also the economic aspect of music careers. Recorded music revenues are steadily decreasing, and streaming has yet to be proven as a suffi cient income stream for most art-\nists. Live performance remains viable, but touring can involve signifi cant \nenergy, risk and cost to the artist. Artists need to develop initiative in looking elsewhere for revenue, such as selling merchandise or applying for grants from organisations. Alternative funding models such as crowd-funding (via Kickstarter, GoFundMe or similar services) and patronage/subscription services (through Patreon, Bandcamp or others) are also increasingly used. Even direct artist-to-fan engagement provides a space in which to develop ideas and to potentially remove some of the artist ‘risk’ as some of the fi nancial risk is devolved. Devolving risk through \ncrowdfunding therefore offers the potential for ‘testing’ creativity both in verifi cation as to the level of funding generated and in the ‘success’ of \nthe resultant artefact/performance. There are the added benefi ts of not \nrecouping production costs or advances as well. Each of these funding strategies, however, requires the artist to possess small business skills such as project management and planning, developing a budget, sustainability and innovation; skills that deserve a place in music education and other career development programs. \n The new artist is therefore in possession of a wide range of skills beyond \nmusical ability alone. In this context, artists are no longer just music pro-ducers or performers; they are independent media producers, with a diverse set of abilities that can be applied to and beyond the music indus-tries. It would, however, be futile to describe the exact skills that a new artist requires; new profi ciencies will arise in response to the constantly \nevolving industries. Above all, new artists need to be agile and resilient enough to adapt to ongoing disruptions caused by technological innova-tions or changes. While the organisations and services named above are currently widely used, new competitors and changes to these existing ser-vices will continue to destabilise the landscape into the future. CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 121 TECHNOLOGIES \n The role of technology in shaping the new music industries is far-reaching. \nBefore considering what the future may hold for technology, however, it \nis worth recognising that the ‘old’ music industry was likewise formed \non a particular combination of technologies and economic conditions. \nMusic publishing and copyright developed alongside mass-produced sheet \nmusic, itself the result of mass ownership of household pianos. Recorded \nmusic led to the rise of labels, which controlled the capital and subse-\nquently manufacturing and distribution processes required for profi t gen-\neration. The labels’ longstanding infl uence on the industry (and on artists) \nwas contingent on their ownership of capital and the nature of recording \ntechnology at the time. Today, technology has refi gured the popular music \nlandscape once again. \n There are several points about technology and its future impact on the \nmusic industries worth making here. First, the accessibility of fans to art-\nists (and vice versa) within the new circular model of artist careers is made \npossible through the new entities—Internet service providers and web ser-\nvices—which mediate this interaction. Thus, although disintermediation is \noccurring to an extent, there is always a mediating presence with the poten-\ntial to affect the fan–artist relationship. Although services such as Facebook \noffer the impression of a direct connection, it is worth remembering that \nboth artists and fans are subject to Facebook’s terms of service, user inter-\nface and program algorithms. When using a third-party service, a level of \ncontrol is ceded; this can be detrimental, as demonstrated when Facebook \nadjusted its algorithm in 2012, serving up more paid posts to end users \n(Ogilvy and Mather, 2012 ). Likewise, use of these services entails agreeing \nto set terms, including remuneration; this issue was behind Taylor Swift’s \nwell-publicised catalogue withdrawal from Spotify in 2014 (Linshi, 2014 ). \nWhile the increased closeness between artist and fan permitted by these \nservices has led to new opportunities for artists (such as one-on-one interac-\ntions, crowdfunding and the like), it is worth recognising that this relation-\nship is mediated by third-party entities, and that it is well to be circumspect \nabout the long-term benefi ts of these services. \n Live performance is another area that has been greatly changed by \ntechnology. Prior to the Internet, live performance would correspond \nto a (usually) paid gig in a live music venue to an audience. Such per-\nformances are frequently used as an opportunity to sell merchandise, a \ncomparatively profi table area for performing musicians. Today however, 122 D. HUGHES ET AL.live performance—and the defi nition of ‘live’—has changed dramatically \n(Keith, Hughes, Crowdy, Morrow, & Evans, 2014 ). New performance \ntechnologies are becoming more established, and can make certain per-\nformers stand out (see Hughes, 2014 , 2015a , 2015b ); Ed Sheeran’s use \nof looping technologies is one example (see also Hughes, 2015a ), while \nother performers use more complex set-ups involving Ableton Live or \nother software, merging performance with pre-recorded material. Artists \nare also able to ‘perform’ to audiences in various non-musical ways \nthrough social media, using video, text or image. Music performances can \nalso be recorded and uploaded to a video or music-sharing service, such as \nSpotify’s Spotify Sessions . In addition, musicians can take advantage of live- \nstreaming technology such as Twitter’s Periscope, UStream or Livestream \nto broadcast a performance in real time. In the latest development, fans \nwill soon be able to buy merchandise while streaming music via Spotify, in \nan online simulacrum of the concert experience (Spotify Artists Services, \n 2016 ). Each of these approaches shows how technology has advanced and \nchanged ‘live performance’ as a concept. \n A third observation revolves around the way music production technol-\nogy has shifted the role of musical skill. Whereas, in the earliest days of \nrecorded music, the recorded artefact consisted of a fairly straightforward \nrecording of a live performance, the recording studio has long been used \nto create effects and results that are not possible in a live setting—double- \ntracking, editing, comping and, most recently, pitch and rhythm correc-\ntion, to name several. A recurring theme in our research was the divide \nbetween artists who can perform live, and those who lack performance \nability. As technologies for music production and for altering recorded \naudio become increasingly widespread and accessible for artists, it is worth \nquestioning whether musical ‘skill’ in the traditional sense—that is, tech-\nnical profi ciency with an instrument or voice—is still relevant in popular \nmusic. Certainly, in some instances sample libraries and software plug- \nins (such as Antares’ Auto-Tune) allow artists with varying degrees of \ninstrumental skill to produce music (see also Hughes, 2015b ). To achieve \nseemingly credible results, however, a level of musical profi ciency, per-\nformativity, carefully applied technology and creative ability would still \nbe necessary. Furthermore, as mentioned above, production technology \n(such as triggering samples) is now commonly used in live performance. \nToday’s artists are increasingly able to frame performance in a way that \nsuits their own level of ability, assisted by technology. CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 123 It should also be said that any discussion of the future of technology \nin regard to artist careers needs to recognise the diversity of genres, sub-\ncultures and niches across artistry and related industries. Each musical \nniche will have its own audience, and a particular set of technologies suited \nto it. Some artists may be able to eschew many online technologies and \nbuild an audience primarily through live performances, while others may \nnot perform ‘live’ at all. Nonetheless, by recognising the ever-changing \n entities and technologies present within the music industries, artists can \nform educated career pathways. \n THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS \n This volume has proposed several models of career development for artists \nin the music industries. As we have seen, types of artistry can be illustrated \non a continuum of creativity (Madden & Bloom, 2001) (see Fig.  1.1, \nChapter 1 ) and are free to choose their artistic endeavour. Artists also \nexist, to some extent, on a continuum of business skills. We have therefore \nhighlighted that for all career models, grounding in business principles \n(including fi nancial, accounting tax and so on) is benefi cial. Featured \nalong the continuum are ‘advanced’ marketing, audience outreach and \ndigital strategies to varying degrees. What is certain in the digital economy \nis that artists will be affected by the future of business in the digital age. \n Even the DIY model, and the way in which it is facilitated by new tech-\nnologies, has a place within the corporate businesses of the future. While it \nmay be seen to rely on soft business skills (career dependent) that lie out-\nside the scope and interests of traditional music business entities, the DIY \nmodel is attractive to numerous online platforms that are commercialising \nmore and more content. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WhatsApp, Google, \nSoundcloud, Bandcamp, Music Glue and many others are all entities that \nderive economic benefi t from the aggregate of the artists and many other \npeople who use new technologies to pursue artistic creativities through \nthe DIY model. \n While the DIY model may or may not be used by people who desire \nto pursue professional careers as artists, it is reasonable to assume the 360 \nmodel and the Entrepreneur model will be used in the future by artists \nwho desire to build professional careers in music that involve both soft \nand hard creativities. However, the fragility of such careers means that art-\nists may well cycle through the DIY model, the Entrepreneur model and \nthe 360 model and then go back to operating via the DIY model. While 124 D. HUGHES ET AL.this may cause issues relating to self-esteem for artists who ‘over-identify’ \n(Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011 , p. 141) with their professional work, it \nis important to note that there are many benefi ts that can be derived from \nparticipating in music which have signifi cant implications for the wellbe-\ning and development of future artists. \n For those who desire to pursue careers as professional, or semi- \nprofessional artists, and who seek to break new ground through the \n innovation and invention stemming from their creative endeavours, many \nof the old binaries that informed music business discourse (such as inde-\npendent versus major labels, creativity versus commerce, selling out or \nbuying in) will arguably continue to lose their rigidity in the future busi-\nness of music. This is because we anticipate an increasing fl uidity in terms \nof artists’ use of the career development Models 1 through 3. An artist \nmay be signed to a record label under the 360 model in one geographic \nterritory, while operating through the Entrepreneur model in another. \nAnd while longitudinally an artist may start out by operating under a DIY \nmodel, then develop their creative practice and investment opportunities \nthrough the Entrepreneur model, they may be able to demonstrate to \npotential investors that they are achieving exponential growth in some \nform or fashion. They may then begin working with a record label (major \nor independent) through the 360 model in order to further build their \ncareer. We envisage that startup methodologies and approaches will evolve \nwith alarming speed. The new artist will need to be aware of trends within \nbusiness cycles, as new formations take root and others are ruled out. \nMoving to a more extreme position, creative businesses might be further \nautomated if artifi cial intelligence (AI) (see Halal, 2015 , p. 57) is engaged \nto assist artists in their career development efforts. Therefore the question \nof the automation of—at least some of—the components of artist manage-\nment service provision and music business development through the use \nof AI may well in future become an area for development and research. \n EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY \n In the previous chapter, we posited that multiple creativities (musical and \nbusiness related) are core to the new artist. We also posited a multidimen-\nsional approach to popular music education so as to best cater to multi- \nplatform creativities, and the multi-distribution and production channels \nnow proliferating the industries. We have identifi ed that popular music \neducation needs to refl ect the convergence between business operations CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 125and the artist. In light of our research fi ndings, we have carefully con-\nsidered how best to train students for their individual 1 career trajectories \nwithin the new music industries. In research that investigated the ways in \nwhich popular musicians learn, Green ( 2002 ) identifi ed that the musi-\ncians in her study supported popular music education. There was, how-\never, some concern expressed in relation to the potential restriction in \nformal education of musical ‘spontaneity’ (Green, 2002 , p. 176). Much \n spontaneity stems from adaptability, a skill that may be explored through \nthe creativities that underpin our discussion in the previous chapter. \n We have not simply argued that the popular music landscape has \nchanged and is constantly evolving; we have also offered considerations \nand strategies for navigating through the landscape that is relevant to the \nartist, to the related practitioner/strategist, to the music educator and/\nor to the music manager. We have offered a theoretical and practical dis-\ncussion of what is new from an education perspective (such as the art-\nist–business convergence), highlighted areas for concern (such as duty \nof care) and have of course identifi ed areas for opportunity (such as the \nsignifi cance of the direct artist-to-fan relationship). We posit that as the \npopular music landscape continues to change, strategies such as the ‘agile- \nlean startup’ methodology will be adapted to quickly test market and/or \nbusiness assumptions. In this way, we have tapped into the ‘agile’ trend in \norder to further differentiate our research and this volume, and to make \nthe argument that it is this agility (together with multiple creativities and \nversatility) that ultimately leads to discovery and sustainability within the \nindustries. \n If the role of tertiary music education is to prepare students for the \nmusic industries, then what specifi cally prepares students for entry into \ntertiary popular music programs? While it was beyond the original scope \nof our project, it is relevant to discuss music education in Australia more \nbroadly in an attempt to address this question. At the 2015 national con-\nferences of both the Australian Society for Music Education 2 and the \nAustralian National Association of Teachers of Singing Limited, 3 advo-\ncacy for music education in Australian schools was a recurrent theme and \nconcern as music (and singing) have been marginalised to being one of \nfi ve artforms in school curriculum – Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music \nand Visual Arts (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting \nAuthority, n.d. ). This is despite the fact that neuroscience identifi es that \nmusical learning has the potential to positively affect brain development 126 D. HUGHES ET AL.(see Herholz & Zatorre, 2012 ) and a range of associated skills as Wan and \nShlaug ( 2010 ) highlighted:\n Music training in children, when commenced at a young age, results in \nimproved cognitive performance and possibly the development of excep-\ntional musical abilities such as absolute pitch. (Wan & Shlaug, 2010 , p. 574) \n Engagement in the new industries (such as through a range of technolo-\ngies) has much to offer school curriculum content in terms of accessi-\nbility, participation and socio-cultural relevance. Over twenty years ago, \nNegroponte ( 1995 ) was also espousing the potential merits of digital \ntechnologies:\n The use of computers to learn music at a very young age is a perfect exam-\nple of the benefi t computers provide by offering a complete range of entry \npoints. The computer does not limit musical access to the gifted child. \nMusical games, sound data tapes, and the intrinsic manipulability of digital \naudio are just a few of the many means through which a child can experi-\nence music. The visually inclined child may even wish to invent ways to see \nit. (Negroponte, 1995, pp. 222–223) \n While we endorse the inclusion of, and access to, music studies \nthroughout school education and are concerned over its marginalisation, \nit is highly advantageous to also include contemporary content and tech-\nnologies when teaching music in schools. From a young age, aspects of \nthe new industries (such as looping technologies, 4 Ableton Push 5 ) can be \nused to foster musical creativities, exploration of, and interest in, musical \nendeavours as Barr ( 2014 ) noted:\n Looping is one of the easiest, yet most powerful ways to leverage technology \nin the music classroom and is a great way to improvise and compose in real \ntime, and share and collaborate in your classroom… There are a number of \nforms of looping—in this case I am talking about recording some audio, \nhaving it play and repeat over and over, allowing you to record additional \nlayers of sound on top. \n Such strategies can redress the potential hierarchy associated with much \ntraditional musical learning and its potential isolation (such as in lengthy \npractice hours). We by no means intend to negate the relevance of for-\nmal instrumental learning and its resultant skill development and prowess. CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 127Rather, we advocate for traditional musical concepts (such as melody, \nharmony, structure) and skill development (such as aural, compositional, \nimprovisational) to also be explored in collective and less traditional ways. \n One of the primary challenges facing popular music education is the \nspeed at which the fi eld changes and adapts to meet technological develop-\nments, artistic and creative opportunities, business and market demands. \nThroughout this volume, we have provided an overview of the opportunities \nand challenges facing artists in the early twenty-fi rst century. While there is \nrelevance to the Australian market, we are also discussing global phenom-\nena that transverse geographical boundaries. At the outset, our premise was \nthat digital disruption has changed the music industries and related prac-\ntices globally, and in correlation with this we have identifi ed new means of \nmusical learning that need to be developed and adopted. The detailed ‘on-\nthe-ground’ analysis, models, considerations and strategies that we provide \nthrough this volume are therefore relevant everywhere. \n THE ‘NEW’ INDUSTRIES \n This volume has attempted to provide some concrete directions for art-\nists in the new music industries to follow. It has developed models that \noutline the changed landscape within the sector. It has been grounded \nin practice, in the everyday situation of artists and industry practitioners. \nAnd it has shown, that, despite the disruption, there is tremendous discov-\nery occurring. Artists have a power now they never knew before, and the \nindustry is scrambling to take stock of the changes. There are numerous \nindustry professionals—with job titles and descriptors that are totally alien \nto the traditional music industry—ready to assist in the development of \npromising artistic creativity. Likewise, there are artists willing to take on \ntheir own business-related risks and strategies. In relation to the sale of \n Whispers Two (Rosenberg, 2015 ), for example, Passenger commented on \nthe accompanying booklet/sleeve (the following excerpt is as written):\n i have no idea if we will raise a lot of money but i have learnt that success \ncomes from making an effort and taking risks and the only way of ensuring \nfailure is not to try \n Yet all of these opportunities have occurred in response to technology, \nand future artists need to be aware of this. In 1995 Nicholas Negroponte \nprophesised that ‘everything that can be digitised, will be digitised’. But 128 D. HUGHES ET AL.what he did not predict was that everything that could be connected would \nbe connected. 6 As we head deeper into the ‘Internet of Things’, where \nbetween 50 and 100 billion machines will be connected, huge changes to \nthe fabric of artistic endeavour will no doubt continue to evolve. Artists \nneed to be technologically adept, to be agile and to embrace the possibility \nthat these changes constantly pose. At the same time, as traditional media \nmove online, as video games (both serious and recreational) subsume fi lm \nand popular music for total value creation, opportunities for musical art-\nists continue to arise and develop. The new artist needs to be adept at \ndiscovering these opportunities. There will be much to read about disrup-\ntion and future (as yet unseen) disruptive technologies, but as we have \nseen, with all such developments there are untold discoveries to be made. \nWearable technology is beginning to gain a foothold in consumer con-\nsciousness; what happens when artists manage to distribute their product \nvia such technologies? At the heart of all such postulations is a strong cre-\native product—music that people would want to wear, for instance—and \nacute business acumen. The new musical industries present no shortcuts, \nand no substitute for hard work. Yet there are models of operation, and \nlevels of understanding, that will provide advantage to artists willing to \ndiscovery the new territories. \n Throughout this book, we have highlighted the versatility required of \nartists in the digital music economy as they navigate their way through \nthe multi-industry landscape. After fi rst outlining the primary reasons why \nmany twentieth-century popular music practices and assumptions are now \noutdated, the abilities and skills of the new artist are addressed through \nciting and analysing specifi c practice examples. As such, our research fi nd-\nings and the models presented in this volume are crucial to understanding, \nnavigating and succeeding in the new musical industries. We hope that this \nvolume, among others, may help readers understand the current state of \nthe play, as well as prepare for future eventualities as they occur. \n We have posited our book as a research volume with detailed fi ndings \nand exciting provocations to expand our understanding of music industries \nfrom a confi ned, traditional base to a digitally networked hybrid. Many of \nour participants were digital content creators and curators, not simply art-\nists. This represents an industry-wide study, far broader than music prac-\ntices. It is, therefore, highly relevant internationally. This is not a ‘how-to’ \nbook, but rather a ‘what’s happening’ account of explorations of the new \nspaces and practices, both positive and negative, that exist within the popu-\nlar music industries. It is time to look beyond the disruption; to discover. CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 129 NOTES \n 1. The use of ‘individual’ in this context relates to the particular trajec-\ntory undertaken rather than referring to the individual artist per se. \n 2. ‘Music: Educating for Life’, Australian Society for Music Education \n(ASME) XXth National Conference, 30 September–2 October, \n2015, Adelaide, Australia. \n 3. ‘Singing Futures: Pedagogies Practices and the Digital Age ’, \nNational Conference of the Australian National Association of \nTeachers of Singing Limited (ANATS), 24–27 September 2015, \nHobart, Australia. \n 4. Looping technologies include software and/or hardware that enable \nsimultaneous playback and recording. \n 5. See Push: Music at your fi ngertips , Accessed on 29 January 2016 at \n https://www.ableton.com/en/push/?gclid=COTrp_\nO3nMsCFRYIvAodFmkNYQ . \n 6. For more see the blogsite inma, http://www.inma.org/blogs/\nmobile- tablets/post.cfm/6-quotes-from-digital-leaders-that-point-\nto-the- digital-revolution-s-future , accessed 29 February 2016. \n REFERENCES \n Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Introduction. \n The Arts. Retrieved February 29, 2016 from http://www.australiancurricu-\nlum.edu.au/the-arts/introduction \n Bandura, A. (1997). Self-effi cacy: The exercise of control . New  York: Worth \nPublishers. \n Barr, A. (2014). Introduce technology into your music classroom. Education \nTechnology Solutions. Retrieved February 29, 2016, from http://education-\ntechnologysolutions.com.au/2014/10/31/introduce-technology-into-\nyour-music-classroom/ \n Green, L. (2002). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education . \nAldershot, UK/Burlington, USA: Ashgate Publishing Limited. \n Halal, B. (2015). Forecasting future disruptions – Strategic change is inevitable. In \nR. Talwar (Ed.), The future of business: Critical insights into a rapidly changing \nworld from 60 future thinkers . London, UK: Fast Future Publishing. \n Herholz, S. C., & Zatorre, R. J. (2012). Musical training as a framework for brain \nplasticity: Behavior, function, and structure. Neuron, 76 (2), 486–502. \n Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2011). Creative labour: Media work in three cul-\ntural industries . London: Routledge. 130 D. HUGHES ET AL. Hughes, D. (2014). ‘Truthful’ representation in the technological processing of \nthe singing voice. In M.  Angelucci & C.  Caines (Eds.), Voice / Presence / \nAbsence – Media object 2. Sydney: UTS ePress. Available online: http://epress.\nlib.uts.edu.au/books/voicepresenceabsence \n Hughes, D. (2015a). Technological pitch correction: controversy, contexts and \nconsiderations. Journal of Singing, 71 (5), 587–594. \n Hughes, D. (2015b). Technologized and autonomized vocals in cotemporary \npopular musics. Journal of Music Technology and Education, 8 (2), 163–182. \n Keith, S., Hughes, D., Crowdy, D., Morrow, G., & Evans, M. (2014). Offl ine and \nonline: Liveness in the Australian music industries. In V. Sarafi an and R. Findlay \n(Eds.). Civilisations: The State of the Music Industries, 13 , 221–241. \n Kelley, D., & Kelley, T. (2013). Creative confi dence: Unleashing the creative poten-\ntial in us all . London, UK: HarperCollins Publishers. \n Linshi, J. (2014, November 3). Here’s why Taylor Swift pulled her music from \nspotify. Time.com . Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://time.\ncom/3554468/why-taylor-swift-spotify/ \n Madden, C., & Bloom, T. (2001). Advocating creativity. International Journal of \nCultural Policy, 7 (3), 409–436. \n Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. \n Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital . New York: Alfred A. Knoph. \n Negus, K. (1996). Popular music in theory: An introduction . Cambridge, UK: \nPolity Press. \n Ogilvy and Mather. (2012, September 25). Facebook algorithmic change to decrease \nreach on brand page posts . Retrieved February 11, 2016, from https://social.\nogilvy.com/facebook-algorithmic-change-to-decrease-reach-on-\nbrand-page-posts/ \n Rosenberg, M. (2015). Whispers II [Book accompanying CD]. Black Crow \nRecords. \n Spotify Artist Services. (2016). Welcome to spotify for artists! Retrieved February \n11, 2016, from http://www.spotifyartists.com/welcome-to-spotify-for-artists/ \n Throsby, D. (2002). The music industry in the new millennium: Global and local \nperspectives . Unpublished paper prepared for the Division of Arts and Cultural \nEnterprise, UNESCO, Paris. \n Wan, C., & Shlaug, G. (2010). Music making as a tool for promoting brain plastic-\nity across the life span. The Neuroscientist, 16 (5), 566–577. \n Welch, C. (2003). Peter Grant: The man who Led Zeppelin . London, UK: Omnibus \nPress. CONCLUSION: THE ‘NEW’ ARTIST 131133 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016\nD. Hughes et al., The New Music Industries , \nDOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40364-9 INDEX \n A \n Apple Music , vi, 71, 76 \n artist entrepreneurship. See \n entrepreneurship \n artistry , 86, 98, 99, 108, 109, 124 \n artist safety , 82, 83, 91–3, 111, 113 \n artistic creativity. See creativity \n artist success. See success \n See also WHS \n audience , vii, ix–x, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, \n18, 22, 26–7, 28, 38, 48, 65, 68, 69–70, 72, 73, 75–6, 77, 91, 121, 124 \n authenticity , 24, 38, 43, 56, 66, 67, \n69–70, 71 \n authorship , 63, 64, 66–70, 71, 77 \n self-social , 66, 67, 75 \n sociocultural , 66, 75, 76 \n B \n Bandcamp , 48, 51, 121, 124 \n bicycle wheel analogy , 31–2 booking , x, 28, 48, 49, 50, 54, 104 \n bottom up and top down paradigms , 29 \n brand, branding , 38, 39, 41, 42–4, 47, \n49, 52–3, 56, 67, 70, 71, 82, 98, 99, 103, 109 \n busking , 75–6 \n C \n career models , 14, 20–6, 31–2, 53–4 . \nSee also 360-degree (360) career \nmodel, DIY career model, entrepreneur career model \n career sustainability , 20, 21, 23, 31, \n48, 85–6, 88, 99, 102 \n \n career trajectories , 11, 17, 20, 71, 81, \n98, 113n3, 126 \n CDBaby , 48 \n circular career model , 17, 28–30, 31, \n38, 41, 70, 118, 119, 122 \n collaboration , 1, 68, 69, 71–3, 75, 77, \n87, 99, 100 \n competition , viii, 57, 86, 108 \n Note: Page numbers with ‘n’ denote notes. 134 INDEX\n copyright , ix, x, 7, 18, 64, 65, 81, \n84–5, 111, 113, 122 \n copyright collection , 65, 84–5, 113 \n Countdown (TV show) , 46 \n covers , 10, 64, 73–5, 77 \n live ,75 \n online , 73–4, 75 \n co-writing, co-writes , 63, 69, 71–3 \n creativities , 9–11, 64, 98–9, 100, 105, \n118, 124, 125–6 \n musical , 8, 37–56n3, 65, 67, 70, \n71, 73, 75, 76–7, 101–2, 117, 127 \n non-musical , 70 \n creativity \n hard creativity , 10–11, 18, 31, 37, \n38, 40, 41–2, 45, 124 \n hard versus soft creativity , 10–11 \n paramusical ,77 \n in songwriting , 65, 71, 99, 111 \n in strategies for self-managed artists , \n89, 102, 104 \n strong versus weak creativity , \n10–11 \n Cyrus, Miley , 90 \n D \n Darwin, Charles , v, vi, ix \n digital disruption , iv, viii, x, 2, 7, 11, \n12, 82, 128 \n direct-to-fan , 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55 \n discovery , vi, ix, 6–7, 13, 28, 71, 126, \n128, 129 \n disruption , iv, 1, 3, 6–7, 11, 13, 21, \n22, 27, 54–5, 120, 121, 128, 129 \n . See also digital disruption \n DIY (Do-It-Yourself) , 8, 49, 68, 70, \n82, 85, 87, 88, 101–2, 103 \n DIY career model , 6, 18, 20, 23–6, \n31, 38, 40, 51, 53, 120, 124–5 . \nSee also DIY E \n employability , 100–1 \n Enter Shikari , 50, 51 \n entrepreneur career model , 18, 20, \n22–3, 24, 26, 27, 31, 38, 40, 53, 101, 120, 124–5 \n entrepreneurship , 6, 27, 99–102, 104, \n107, 111 \n hypothesis-driven , 46, 51 \n F \n Facebook , vi, 43, 47, 48, 68, 70, 72, \n120, 122, 124 . See also social \nmedia \n fanbase , ix, 18, 48, 50 \n fan data , 49, 50, 53, 54 \n fans/fandom , viii, ix, 4, 6, 9, 22, 23, \n28–30, 41, 47–8, 49–50, 51–3, 54, 56, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 87, 120, 122, 123 \n fi nancial risk. See risk \n G \n gatekeepers , vii, viii, ix, 28, 29, 46 \n Gentlemen of the Road , 52, 53 \n gig. See live performance \n Gotye (Wouter “Wally” de Backer) , \n44–5, 73 \n government funding , 105 \n grants. See government funding \n \ngroup creativity. See shared \ncreativity \n H \n health and wellbeing , 11, 84, 91, \n110, 113 \n legislation , 83 \n house concerts/parlour \ngigs , 53 INDEX 135\n I \n image , 43, 56, 67, 82, 88, 89–90, \n101, 108 . See also brand \n I Manage My Own Music , 104 \n innovation in career development , 37, \n40, 56n1, 106, 121, 125 \n insecurity \n income , 46, 99 \n work , 99 \n insurance , 110, 111, 113 \n Internet , vi, ix, 7, 21, 29, 55, 64, 65, \n72–3, 120, 121, 122 \n label career model. See 360-degree \n(360) career model \n L \n lean startup , 38, 39, 46, 56, 126 \n liberalism , 23–4 \n linear career model , 17, 28–31, \n53, 118 \n live performance , x, 5, 49, 53, 75, 83, \n85, 121, 122–3, 124 \n and career sustainability , \n82, 88 \n and covers. See covers, live \n and oversupply of musicians , \n88 \n lockout laws , 5 \n M \n management/managers , 11, 12, 22, \n23, 26, 27, 28, 31, 38, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 81, 86, 87, 89, 90, 92, 98, 101–2, 103–6, 111–13, 118, 120 \n media production \ntechnologies , 120 \n methodology. See \n research \nmethodology merchandise, merch , x, 18, 38, 42, 44, \n45, 48, 49, 51, 52, 68, 103, 121, 122–3 \n Minchin, Tim , 76 \n Mumford and Sons , 50, 52–3, 57n8 \n music business in education. \nSee music education, and music \nbusiness \n music education \n and brain development , 126 \n and music business , 98, 99, 101, \n111, 112 \n in traditional music education , \n98, 127 \n Music Glue , 49–52, 53, 54, 55, 57n7, \n103, 124 \n music production technologies , 68, \n108, 123 \n music subscription services , 4, \n19–20 \n musical creativities. See creativities \n MVP (minimum viable product) , 23, \n32n6, 38, 40, 45, 53 \n N \n neo-Fordism and post-Fordism , 17 \n neoliberalism , 17 \n in tertiary education , 100 \n networking , 82, 85, 87–8 \n new artist, the , 117–30 \n new media skills , 120 \n non-musical creativities. \nSee creativities \n novelty , 10, 37, 38, 40, 41–2, 44, 46, \n47, 74 \n \n P \n Passenger , 75–6, 77n3, 78n4 \n performance. See live performance \n physical distribution , vii 136 INDEX\n physical injury , 93 . See also WHS \n physical media , 48, 71 \n piracy , vi, 3 \n pivot , 38, 42, 56, 56n2 \n popular music education , 97–113, \n125–6, 128 \n professional, professionalism , 6, 8, 82, \n84, 100, 104, 113n3, 125, 128 \n promotion/promoters , x, 25, 28, 49, \n50, 52, 54–5, 67, 91, 120 \n prosumer , 70 \n publishing , 12, 18–19, 22, 24, 44, \n72, 122 \n R \n radio , vi, vii, 46, 47, 57n6, 70 \n recording industry , 20, 22 \n and reactive business practices , 18, \n26, 28, 29, 30 \n record labels , 6, 17–18, 21, 23, 24, \n26, 28, 29, 32n2, 41, 55, 57n9, 68, 70, 101, 118, 125 \n research methodology , 11–13 \n revenue streams , 4, 5, 18–20, 21–2, \n68, 71, 77, 86, 88, 93, 103, 111 \n risk \n devolving/externalising risk , \n17, 22, 26, 101, 105–6, 107, 121 \n fi nancial risk , 18, 26, 32n1, 38, 101, \n105–6, 107, 121 \n royalty collection. See copyright \ncollection \n S \n self-employment , 85, 99, 100 \n self-social authorship. \nSee \n authorship \n shared creativity , 103–5 \n Sia Furler , 8 \n small and large business entities , 27 social media , vi, 9, 24, 26, 40, 41, 43, \n47, 50, 55, 64, 67, 68, 69, 72–3, 76, 103, 108, 123 \n sharing , 72 \n sociocultural authorship. \nSee authorship \n soft creativity. See creativity \n song , vi, vii, viii, x, 18–19, 45, 63–6, \n70–1, 74, 75–6, 77, 108 \n Spotify , vi, viii, 3–4, 27, 68–9, 72, 76, \n88, 122, 123 . See also music \nsubscription services \n startups , 45–7, 51, 125, 126 \n and artist careers , 23, 32, 38–40, \n41, 42, 52, 53, 54, 56 \n the lean startup , 38, 39, 46, 56 \n streaming , vi, 3–4, 5, 18–20, 21, 23, \n68–9, 71–2, 77, 83, 86, 88, 93, 103, 111, 121, 123 . See also \n music subscription services \n subcultural capital , 38, 43, 56 \n subscription services. See music \nsubscription services \n substance use/abuse , 83–4, 93 \n success , 1, 2, 8–9, 11, 27, 39, 40, \n41–2, 51–2, 85, 90, 99, 120, 121 \n suicide , 83 \n synchronisation/sync , 5, 8, 19, 44, \n68–9, 71, 74, 77 \n \n T \n technology , 1, 6, 11, 64, 67–71, 77, \n88, 101, 108, 120, 122–4, 127, 128–9 \n in artist careers , 122, 124 \n and live performance , 122–3, 124 \n and musical skill , 68, 123 \n 360 (rapper) , 84 \n 360-degree (360) career model , 18, \n20, 21–3, 27, 31, 32n5, 51, 55, 120, 124–5 \n ticketing , 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55 INDEX 137\n Topspin , 48–9 \n touring , x, 49–50, 53, 87, 92, 121 \n traditional music education. \nSee music education \n triple j , 44, 57n6, 70 \n V \n validated learning , 32n6, 47, 48, 54 \n visual design/visual marketing , 43, 45 W \n weak creativity . See creativity \n WHS (Workplace Health and Safety) , \n85, 91–2 \n and irregular hours , 91–2 \n and safety checks , 92 \n Y \n YouTube , v, vi, vii, 24, 25, 43, 45, 48, \n68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 120, 124 ", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "artist", + "industry", + "new", + "creativity", + "career", + "fi", + "model", + "business", + "also" + ], + "summary": "THE NEW MUSIC\nINDUSTRIES\nDisruption and Discovery\nDiane Hughes,\nMark Evans,\nGuy Morrow and\nSarah Kei" + }, + { + "filename": "470816735-1-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Record-Labels.pdf", + "text": "Claremont Colle ges\nScholarship @ C laremont\nCMC S enior The ses CMC S tude nt Scholarship\n2013\nThe R ise a nd F all of R ecor d Labels\nIlan Bielas\nClaremont McKen na Co llege\nThis Open Ac cess Senior The sis is brought to you b y Scholarship@C laremon t. It has be en accepted for inclusion in thi s collection b y an author ized\nadmini strator. For mor e infor mation, p lease contactscholarship@c uc.claremon t.edu.Recomme nded Citation\nBielas, Il an, \"The R ise and F all of R ecord Labels\" (2013). CMC Sen ior Th eses.Paper 703.\nhttp://s cholarship .claremon t.edu/cmc_the ses/7031 \n \n \n \nCLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE \nTHE RISE AND FALL OF RECORD LABELS \n \n \n \n \n \nSUBMITTED TO \nPROFESSOR GEORGE BATTA \n \nAND \nDEAN GREGORY HESS \nBY \nILAN BIELAS \n \n \nFOR \nSENIOR THESIS \nSPRING 2012 \n4/29/13 2 \n \nTable of Contents \nAbstract .................................................. ................................................... ...................................... 3 \n \nChapter 1: Introduction to the Music Industry .................................................. ............................ 4 \n \nChapter 2: Record Labels: Their Role and Failure to Adapt to Changing Environments ............ 14 \n \nChapter 3: The Internet and Adoption of MP3 Technol ogy ................................................... ...... 2 4 \n \nChapter 4: Piracy and P2P Software Destroy the Reco rd Label Industry .................................... 33 \n \nExhibit 1 .................................................. ................................................... .................................... 50 \n \nChapter 5: Solving the Problem of Record Labels .................................................. ...................... 53 \n \nWorks Cited .................................................. ................................................... .............................. 62 \n \n \n 3 \n \nAbstract \n \n This thesis studies the music industry as a whole, and delves more specifical ly \ninto how new technologies have disrupted the old business model. Advances in \ntechnology such as the Internet, MP3s, and file-sharing software have made it possible to \nbypass the traditional role of record labels, thus creating a closer link betwe en artists and \nconsumers. As the music industry transformed over time, the role of record labels \nbecame less defined. This has left once behemoth labels struggling to find a compet itive \nadvantage in a rapidly devolving industry. Record labels are no longer the most releva nt \nsegment of the music industry, and this work provides an in-depth analysis of the \nprocesses that destroyed their relevance. \nThis thesis begins by examining the music industry at a macro level, before \ntracking record labels from their prominence to their current marginaliz ed role. \nAdvancements in MP3, P2P networks, and other consumer-enabling technologies have \ntransformed the music industry. The lack of a significant response to this shi fting \nlandscape within the industry has left record labels on a slippery slope towards ex tinction. \nAs record labels failed to adapt to shifting demand and changing methods of \nconsumption, private entrepreneurs have intervened to solve inefficiencies in the market. \nThis thesis will leave the reader with an expansive knowledge of how the music industr y \nhas transformed, as well as its future trajectory without record labels. \n 4 \n \nChapter 1 \nIntroduction to the Music Industry \n \nIn June of 2006, famous rock band Radiohead, announced that they had \ncompleted all of their contractual obligations to its record label EMI . In its \nannouncement, the band announced that it was receiving most of its profit from \nmerchandise and concert tickets, and due to this they would be seeking to release t heir \nnext album independent of any record label 1. This would be the first time that any band \nbypasses record labels in the creative process, and the beginning of the end for re cord \nlabels. \nArtists had for a long time complained about the pricing and payout schemes that \nrecord labels offered to them. Radiohead was about to test their theory that with t he \nadoption of new technologies, the need to work with a record label had been minimized. \nIn October of 2007, Radiohead released their new album, In Rainbows , directly to \nconsumers online 2. While releasing albums online was not a new distribution channel, it \nwas the pricing scheme that caught the attention of the entire music world. \nOn Radiohead’s website, when purchasing the new album, after proceeding to \ncheckout, the price of the album had a blank space with a question mark next to it. \n \n1 Welsh, Jared S. \"Pay What You Like- No Really: Why Copyright Law Should Make \nDigital Music Free for Noncommercial Uses.\" Emory Law Journal 58 (2009) 1495 \n2Keesan, Joshua. \"Let It Be? The Challenge of Using Old Definitions for Online Mus ic \nPractices.\" Berkeley Technology Law Journal 23.353 (2008). 5 \n \nAnyone who clicked on the question mark would receive a pop up message stating, “It’s \nUp to You! 3” Most people found themselves questioning whether or not this was \npossible. Can I really choose the price for this album? Can I really pay whatever I want? \nCan I get it for free? The answer to all these questions was Yes. Radiohead wa s not \ncreating a controversy but rather responding to the cultural change over the las t few years \nwhich was making record labels irrelevant in the music industry. \n For the last few years, record labels were struggling to catch up to the technol ogy \navailable to consumers in order to prevent “copyright infringement” from downloadi ng \nfree music. Many consumers were downloading their music for free and record la bels \nwere having a difficult time finding a solution to this “problem.” Radiohead’s decis ion to \nlet consumers decide their own price to pay for their album was radical, but from the \nband’s perspective it was merely accepting what the market had dictated. M ost \nconsumers were no longer willing to pay $10-15 for an album when it was readily \navailable for free online. Radiohead provided a legal option for consumers that woul d be \nfree (if one chose to) or allow consumers to pay a reasonable amount by their sta ndards to \nsupport the band. \nThe recording industry responded negatively to Radiohead’s actions. Most \nprofessionals did not think that Radiohead’s album would be successful for being \nindependent, and for allowing consumers to pick their price. Initially, it was unclea r if \nRadiohead’s decision would pay off. Little information was known in the first few days \nafter the online release of the album on the amount of downloads and revenues. The \n \n3 Welsh, Jared, p. 1495 6 \n \nrelease was successful enough for Radiohead to announce that they would also be \nreleasing a physical copy of the album in 2008. The reports finally came out and show ed \nthat downloads numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and had made about $3 million \nin revenues 4. When the album was finally released in a physical form, it immediately \nmade it to the top of billboards. \nRadiohead��s In Rainbows album was a huge success but even more importantly it \nwas a huge loss for Record Labels and their position within the music industry. \nRadiohead proved several things with their new album. First, Record Labels were no \nlonger a necessity for artists. The Internet had become a huge resource and distribution \nchannel for artists that allowed them to individually fulfill the role of recor d labels. Also, \nthe decision to allow people to choose their price was proof that most consumers were \nwilling to pay much less for music than Record Labels were demanding. Regardl ess, \nRadiohead’s success was the ultimate proof that the music industry had thanks to s ome of \nthe technology advances that had been made. These advances, such as that of the \nInternet, were changing the music industry and redefining the roles of many of the \nplayers in the industry. Record labels are becoming irrelevant, and pretty s oon record \nlabels will no longer exist as a major part of the music industry. \nFor nearly 60 years the recorded music industry has thrived. Since the invention \nof record players that allowed individuals to consume music on their own instead of \ngoing to live performances, the popularity of owning music has risen. Since the 1940’s \nthere have been many advances made to increase the quality and portability of the music \n \n4 Welsh, Jared, p. 1496 7 \n \nthat is consumed at home. The music industry is a thriving industry that peaked in the \n1990s when it was making $40 billion a year. 5 People are consuming more and more \nmusic every day and new genres and artists are appearing every day to me et the \nconsumer’s everlasting demand for new and better music. \nThe music industry is highly dependent on the United States for its success. The \nUnited States of America consumes about 30% of globally recorded music and the music \nindustry tends to move cyclically with that of the US economy 6. The music industry has \ngrown exponentially over the last 20 years. According to a recent report done by the US \nCensus, the average American spends $50.17 on music annually and listens to three hours \nof music daily 7. Consumption of music has increased over time, yet the amount that \nindividuals are paying for music has been declining. Technological advances have \npermitted people to increase their consumption of music at a cheaper price. This has also \ncaused the price to acquire music to decrease. While most people take for grante d their \nability to open up their iTunes, pick any song and listen to it, there were many advanc es \nthat were made that lead to the ability of consumers to listen to music on their c omputer \nwithout a physical source for the music. \nThe music industry began to take off in the 1940s. With the invention of the \ncommercial phonograph, consumers were able to consume music differently than \npreviously possible. Before the 1940s people would either go see live performances or \n \n5 Vogel, Harold L. \"Music.\" Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial \nAnalysis , p. 192 \n6 Vogel, Harold, p. 196 \n7 Bender, Mark T., and Yongsheng Wang. \"The Impact of Digital Piracy on Music Sa les\" \nInternational Social Science Review. pp. 157-158 8 \n \nwould purchase sheet paper in order to recreate music themselves. People would buy t he \nsheet music for a famous Mozart piece and would then be able to play it themselves on \nthe piano as long as they knew how to read sheet music and could also play an instrument \nwith some expertise. With phonographs gaining popularity in the 1940s, the history of \nrecorded music really begins at this time. In 1948, Columbia Records released t welve \ndifferent vinyl records that were made available to the public 8. The technology to mass \nproduce records was still very new and therefore few records were being made. \nThe 1950s brought on the next era of innovations. Several different \nadvancements were made in this decade that helped drive down the costs associated w ith \nproducing vinyl records. The decrease in price allowed for a competitive mar ket to be \ncreated. The major players in the recording industry today all entered the mar ket in the \n1950s when it became cost effective to do so. The 1950s saw Decca Records, RCA, and \nColumbia all become major players in the recorded music industry 9. Many more record \nlabels entered the scene in the 1950s but eventually the record labels began to merge a nd \nconsolidate to form a few corporate giants. \nThe 1960s were a decade of consolidation in the recorded music industry. Due to \neconomies of scale and the large-scale distribution needed to truly commercial ize the \nmusic industry many of the smaller players from the 1950s joined together to crea te some \nof the media moguls that we still see today. The 1960s witnessed the emergence of \ncompanies like RCA, CBS, Warner Communications (soon to be Warner Brothers), and \n \n8 Vogel, Harold, p. 193 \n9 Vogel, Harold, p. 194 9 \n \nPolygram 10 . In order to unite the distribution methods and create the most cost efficient \nmethod to mass produce music, these labels bought out and merged with many of the \nsmaller record labels that specialized in one area of the distribution proces s for music. \nBy becoming giant recording corporations, these few labels were able to vert ically \nintegrate the entire recording and distribution process in order to take advantage of the \neconomies of scale. \nThe 1970s were a decade where little technological advancements were made for \nthe music industry. The consolidation of the major record labels in the previous decade \nwere a major advantage and music demand was on the rise during this time. The \neconomic downturn of the 1980s initially hurt the music industry. As the music industry \nis highly dependent on the US market and therefore the US economy, the financial \nstruggles of the 1980s hurt the music industry as consumption of music initially wav ered. \nHowever, several big technological advancements in this decade helped the music \nindustry recover and thrive. The recording and disking process was digitalized in the \n1980s, which allowed for cheaper production of recorded music. This in turn lowered the \nprice of music which allowed consumers to demand and purchase more music. The other \nmajor innovation of the 1980s was the creation of the Music Television Network in 1981. \nMTV, as it would go on to be known, became a source for most Americans to consume, \nlisten, and experience new music. By 1984, MTV had gained massive popularity and \nwas able to reach and influence a large audience 11 . MTV’s mass appeal made the \nnetwork a popular distribution channel for record labels. Record labels would release \n \n10 Vogel, Harold, p. 194 \n11 Vogel, Harold, p. 199 10 \n \nnew music through MTV in order to test the popular response to new up and coming \nartists. \nBy the late 1980s, the music industry was closing in on its peak. Music was being \nconsumed by most Americans, and MTV had become a major source for finding the new \nand popular music in America. The 1990s were the decade when the most influential \nadvances to the music industry were made. In the early 1990s, vinyl went extinct as \nCompact Disc technology emerged. CDs became instantly popular due to the quality of \nthe music, portability and size of CDs, and the amount of music that a single CD could \nhold. CD technology soared as industry sales in the US skyrocketed to $7 billion 12 . By \nthe late 1990s CDs would become obsolete and the music industry would enter an even \nbigger market. With the Internet growing and becoming more popular, it was only a \nmatter of time before music moved on to a digital space. Due to the incredible suc cess of \nCDs only a few years earlier, record labels were reluctant to change the technology. It \ndid not take long for consumers to make the shift. \nBy the late 1990s and early 21 st century music had moved to the Internet. File \nsharing became a very popular method of acquiring music almost instantly. Through file \nsharing, one person could buy a CD, upload it to the internet and share the files with \nfriends. This permitted friends and eventually anyone to obtain their music for fr ee. The \nrecord labels were initially in “denial” over this occurrence claiming that this was a \ntemporary problem and that most people would continue to buy their music in the \nextremely popular format of CDs. In the four years between 1999 and 2003, US music \n \n12 Vogel, Harold, p. 194 11 \n \nsales had already plunged by 1/3 13 . Technology was changing fast and neither the music \nindustry nor record labels could keep up to the changing environment in the world of \nmusic. \nBy the beginning of the 21 st century everything that record labels knew about \npeople and their music interests had changed. Consumer preferences in the musi c \nindustry were shifting in a very significant way that would soon inhibit the control and \npower of record labels. The art of assembling an album or playlist shifted to the hands of \nthe consumer with the adoption of newer technology 14 . Consumers were now able to \ncompile their entire music library on one computer program and choose how to organize \ntheir music. The era of having record labels compile a CD and tell consumers how and i n \nwhat order to listen to their music was over. \nWhether or not the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry hurt record \nlabels, it cannot be denied that the music industry as a whole began to decline in the late \n90’s. There are several reasons for the decline of the music industry. The economy as a \nwhole began to slow down in the 90s. The economic decline hurt the music industry as \ndiscretionary income for consumers decreased which hurt music sales. Another r eason \nfor the music industry decline was the record label practices. The Big 5 in the m usic \nindustry were price fixing their albums and CDs and have countless times been ac cused \nfor overcharging for albums. The price fixing by the Big 5 caused many consume rs to \n \n13 Vogel, Harold, p. 194 \n14 Hajdu, David. “The iPod Blues.” The New Republic 12 \n \nfind alternate solutions for acquiring music 15 . Another cause for the decline was the \nevolution of the Internet and its effect on music distribution. The emergence of the \nInternet as a distribution channel for music hurt physical sales of CDs. \nTechnology was advancing in many different fields besides the music industry. \nThis growth in technology across the board helped create many other forms of \nentertainment that began to also hurt the music industry. As technological advances \ncontinued to be made, American consumers were introduced to products such as the \nDVD, the BluRay, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 which all competed with music for \nconsumers discretionary spending. As DVDs and video games began growing in \npopularity, the increased competition to the music industry also hurt CD sales. \nConsumers were now given many more options and therefore consumers began to spend \nless on music hurting the record labels’ ability to increase or even maintain the ir revenue \nlevels. Record Labels began to suffer large decreases to their revenues, w hich has lead to \nthe problem the music industry faces today. 2012 was a great year for the musi c industry. \nGlobal Digital Revenues in 2012 increased for the first time since 1998 to $5.6 Billi on \nwhich is a 9% increase from the previous year 16 . While this increase is great, it does not \nmean that record labels have recovered from the changing landscape that is the mus ic \nindustry. \nThe major problem the music industry has supposedly faced is a decrease in \nrevenues due to many different factors. While file sharing has eroded digital music sales, \n \n15 Janssens, Jelle, Vandaele, Stijn, and Tom Vander Beken. “The Music Industry on (th e) \nLine? Surviving Music Piracy in a Digital Era” \n16 IFPI Digital Music Report 2013 13 \n \nartists have seen their revenues increase drastically in recent yea rs from live \nperformances and merchandise 17 . If artists, who are the ones making the music we listen \nto, are making more money now than they did in the 90’s, or any decade before that, can \none really argue that the music industry is suffering? It seems as if the onl y party hurting \nfrom the changing landscape in the music industry are the record labels. Artis ts are \nmaking more money and consumers are spending less on money. If it weren’t for the \ncries and complaints from the record labels that the music industry is sufferi ng, one \nwould seem to think that the music industry is as vibrant as ever. It therefore seem s as if \nthe issue is not the music industry, or even the ability for artists to make money, but \nrather the problem is that record labels are going extinct and are fighting to remain \nprevalent in a world that no longer has a need for them. \n \n \n17 Warr, Richard. “Is the Music Industry Stuck Between Rock and a Hard Place? The \nRole of the Internet and 3 Possible Scenarios”. Journal of Retailing and Consumer \nServices. p. 127 14 \n \nChapter 2 \nRecord Labels: Their Role and Failure to Adapt to \nChanging Environments \n \n For as long as the music industry has been around, major record labels have been \naround to control the entire recording, distribution, and promotion system. Record labels \nhave long been considered to go hand in hand with the music industry. For most people \nthe music industry and the recording industry are one as for a large period of ti me the \nonly music available to the public was that which was released by the major rec ord \nlabels. However, as the gap between record labels and the rest of the music indust ry \ncontinued to widen it is important to study record labels and their role within the musi c \nindustry. Over time record labels have become obsolete, and it would seem as if ther e is \nno longer a place for record labels in the music industry. \n The Recording Industry has for a long time been a major part of the US Economy. \nMusic records and sales account for a significant portion of the US GDP. In 1920, the \nrecording industry sold 150 million records in the United States. By 1978 that number \nhad skyrocketed to 762 million records 18 . The music industry has grown exponentially as \nthe technology available to the industry has contributed to the rapid development it has \nexperienced. \n The music industry has many different sources of revenue. As of 2003, the major \nmusic industry revenues by level of importance where: recordings, publishing ac tivities, \n \n18 Welsh, Jared. p. 1502 15 \n \nand live performances 19 . Recordings are the actual songs that are sold to consumers, \nwhile publishing activities correspond to the promotion of music by radio stations both \nphysical and online as well as other major distribution channels such as movies or \ntelevision. These users pay royalties to the artists and record labels f or the right to play \ntheir music. Since 2003, as recordings have started to fail, live performances have \nbecome the most prevalent revenue source for artists. \n The major record labels have been responsible for collecting the majority of the \nrevenues for the music industry until the 21 st century. Therefore record labels have a \nvery significant impact on the US Economy. When looking at record labels that control \nthe copyrights of artists and musicians, it is tough to value the firm, as what they own is a \ncopyright and not a physical tangible good. Record labels have therefore tradi tionally \nbeen valued by a going multiple of their projected cash flows “as determined by recent \nsales of similar properties and subtracting net debt 20 ”. As the Internet and file sharing \nhave gained popularity, so has the uncertainty of cash flow projections for record labe ls. \nAs consumers turn to alternate methods of acquiring their music, it is difficult for \nanalysts to truly value the Recording Industry as cash flows have become ex tremely \ndifficult to project. \n Publications are a unique revenue stream for the music industry. Any publication \nsource has to pay royalties for using the music of an artist or musician. When a ra dio \nshow, television show, or movie uses a clip of a song during any part of the publication, \n \n19 Vogel, Harold. p. 196 \n20 Vogel, Harold. pp. 217-218 16 \n \nthey are required by law to reimburse the artist for their use. Since music copyrights are \nheld by the record labels, they too are the beneficiaries of these royalty payments. \nTwo major firms control the collection of royalty payments. The American \nSociety of Composers, Artists, and Producers as well as Broadcast Music In corporated \nare in charge of ensuring that any one who commercially uses the music of a n artist pays \nthat artist and the record label the correct amount in royalty payments. These two firms \naccount for 95% of all royalty payments in the United States 21 . The use of the Internet to \nbroadcast music has posed as a major problem when determining the correct amount of \nroyalties that a firm should pay. \nAs the Internet has become a major distribution channel for music, many \nconsumers turn to Internet Radio and other online service providers to discover, find, and \nlisten to new music. A major problem of “double dipping” has emerged when \ndetermining the royalty rates that these service providers should pay. The roy alty \ncollection agencies have been seeking royalties for both song reproduction and song \nperformance from these service providers for every single play 22 . These agencies argue \nthat because consumers are using the service as a way to listen to music and not just \nacquire music that the playing of the song constitutes performance as well as \nreproduction. These online services feel like they are being taken advantage of by record \nlabels and the collection agencies. Many of these companies are very small and ar e \ndeeply affected by this problem of double dipping. \n \n21 Vogel, Harold. p. 202 \n22 Keesan, Joshua. “Let it Be? The Challenge of Using Old Definitions for Online M usic \nPractices”. Berkeley Technology Law Journal. p. 362 17 \n \nTo add to the problem of double dipping is the fact that royalty rates have been \nrising every year to compensate the losses from record sales. Royalty r ates have been \nrising by a small percentage every year, which have significantly aff ected many of the \nsmall players in the music industry 23 . Many of the small radio broadcasters as well as \nother smaller organizations are more affected by the rising royalty r ates than others. \nThese smaller companies operate at much smaller profit margins than maj or radio \nstations and companies as they have a fairly small user base. The increased ro yalty rates, \ntherefore, are affecting the ability of these companies and stations to rema in profitable. \nNot only are these royalties hurting small companies and online service provider s, but the \nartists themselves have been affected adversely by royalty collect ions. \nWhen artists sign a contract with a record label, they expect to make a lot of \nmoney from the music they create. More often than not, they find themselves losing t heir \nmoney to the record labels. Traditionally, record labels have withheld a large a mount of \nroyalties from the artists that created the music. There are many diff erent types of \nroyalties that are withheld from artists. About 5-10% of the total records s hipped are \ngiven out for free by record labels to retailers in order to ship a larger amount . Artists \nnever get the royalties from those records. Royalties are also withheld f or all the \npromotional records that are given out to radio stations. A percentage of royalti es is also \nwithheld from artists as a reserve against any record returns. Record l abels also deduct \nfor the usage of new formats such as digital downloads which are actually less costly to \nproduce, meaning that the record labels keep more money in their pocket. The initial \nadvance that record labels give an artist to produce an album is also repaid fully f rom the \n \n23 Keesan, Joshua. p. 367 18 \n \nfirst few royalty payments as well as any promotional and recording expe nses incurred 24 . \nArtists have begun to find themselves frustrated by their relationship with r ecord labels as \nmore and more is withheld from them every year. \nArtists constantly feel as if they are taken advantage of by record lab els. Record \nlabels vertically integrated the entire process of production and distribution of mus ic \ngiving them a lot of leverage against the artists. The dependence of artists on r ecord \nlabels has made them susceptible to the abuse by these major corporations. The typi cal \nbreakdown of revenue payouts from record labels is quite shocking. On an album that \ngains the prestigious award of going Gold the breakdown is as follows: \n500,000 Albums sold at a wholesale price of $12.05 \nGross Revenue of $6,025,000 \nTypical Artist Royalty rate is set at 14% which equates to $845,000 \nTouring and Recording Expenses of $300,000 withheld \nTotal Payout to artist is only $100,000 \nArtist receives $0 in first payment due to reserve against returns 25 \n \nArtists feel taken advantage of since their album, which is one of the most popular \nalbums of the year, is only making them a fraction of the actual money it is m aking \noverall. Many of the most famous artists of the 90’s made little money from the ir \nalbums. For example, the world famous boy band of the 90’s, The Backstreet Boys , who \nsold millions of records throughout the 1990s, received no money from record labels as \nroyalty payments 26 . Artist distrust towards record labels has only been growing year afte r \n \n24 Welsh, Jared. pp. 1507-1508 \n25 Welsh, Jared. p. 1508 \n26 Welsh, Jared. pp. 1508-1509 19 \n \nyear and slowly but surely artists are starting to move away from working with record \nlabels. \n Musicians and artists constantly find themselves losing more money from the \nmajor record labels. In fact, record labels have gotten quite creative in t heir method of \nmaking money at the artists’ expense. In recent years, it has become an indus try wide \npractice to decrease the royalty payouts to artists. For example, recor ding agreements \nnow exclude all digital sales from “normal retail channels,” which is where r oyalty \npayments are calculated. Digital sales actually decrease costs f or record labels as many \nof the variable costs for producing physical copies of CDs are eliminated. How ever, the \nabuse by record labels does not end there. As digital sales have begun to grow and \nexpand internationally, record labels also decided to decrease the royalty pa yments on \ninternational sales 27 . There is no difference in expenses between local and international \nsales due to the effectiveness and ease of the Internet and digital space as the major \ndistribution channel. As costs and artist payouts decrease as well, record labels are able \nto hold on to a bigger piece of the pie and keep a majority of the profits to themselves. \nDo record labels deserve a bigger piece of the pie or are they merely taking adva ntage of \nartists that have no leverage to defend themselves? \nThe role of record labels has not changed much over the many years that record \nlabels have controlled the music industry. Jared Welsh, an important lawyer in the mus ic \nindustry describes the relationship between artists and record labels as very unstable. \n“Ownership of the intellectual property has always been controlled by the indust ries that \n \n27 Welsh, Jared. pp. 1510-1511 20 \n \nexploit it rather than the individuals that create it 28 ”. Record labels are able to exploit \nartists’ talents and keep a majority of the money for themselves. \nTraditionally a record label has 3 major functions. The first major function of a \nrecord label is to sign a recording contract with an artist. Record labels nee d to find new \nartists and sign them to a contract to produce a new album. The record label will a gree to \nprovide many resources for the artist to assist in the creative process. The second role of \na record label is to advance money to an artist and arrange for the recording of a n album \nto take place. The record labels provide what is essentially a loan to the artis t to cover \nthe upfront costs of producing an album. Record labels withhold the first royalty \npayment in order to recover this loan that they gave out to the artist. The third and final \nrole of a record label is to handle the entire distribution, sales, marketing, and prom otion \nof the album 29 . Essentially a record label has become a one-stop shop for the entire \nrecording process from beginning to end. An artist contributes the creative t alent while \nthe record labels handles the financing, arrangements, marketing, production and \ndistribution. \nIn its traditional form, a record label contributes a very large amount of capit al \nand resources to produce an album with an artist. It is because of this role that the record \nlabel can demand to keep such a large percentage of the revenues from album sales. \nRecord labels were the link between an artist and his fans that buy the music. An a rtist \nsigns a contract with a record label in order to leverage on the core competenci es of the \nrecord label such as marketing and distribution. The artist, after signing the cont ract, \n \n28 Welsh, Jared. p. 1505 \n29 Welsh, Jared. pp. 1502-1503 21 \n \nrecords the album, after which the record label can produce the album onto a CD. \nRetailers then buy CDs and other media forms directly from the record labels . \nConsumers receive the end product album directly from the producer 30 . With this \nbusiness model, artists only receive a very small percentage of sales while the record \nlabels keep the bulk of the revenue. \nOver the years many record labels have appeared, but over time these companies \nall merged into and became The Big Five of the music industry. As record labels grew \ninto corporate giants, they needed to increase their resources and therefore ma ny of the \nolder record labels consolidated in order to maximize their economies of scale. The Big \n5 in the music industry consist of BMG, Warner, Universal, Sony, and EMI. With the \nrecent Sony and BMG merger, the record label giants are now referred to as the Big 4. \nRecord labels were caught in a price fixing scandal where their albums wer e overpriced \nin order to maximize their return. From 1999-2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2% \nfrom $13.04 to $14.19 31 . At the same time, new album releases were rapidly decreasing \nmaking it extremely difficult for these record labels to match the revenues t hat they had \nseen in previous years. \nRecord labels need to keep a bulk of the revenues from CD sales in order to \nremain profitable. Only about 10% of major album releases are profitable f or record \nlabels, and this 10% must be able to offset the losses from the other 90% of releases. \n \n30 Lam, Calvin K.M. and Bernard C.Y. Tan. “The Internet is Changing the Music \nIndustry” Communications of the ACM. \n31 Janssens, Jelle, Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. “The Music Industry on (th e) \nLine? Surviving Music Piracy in a Digital Era.” European Journal of Crime, Crimi nal \nLaw and Justice. P. 80 22 \n \nAlbums typically have a very small profit margin due to the high cost of distr ibuting and \nproducing many CDs. Record labels have been raising the prices of albums to try to r aise \nthe profit margins on CD sales. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has founds rec ord \nlabels liable for overcharging consumers in their price fixing scheme 32 . As a result of this \npricing, consumer sensitivity to price is eroding as a majority of music fans feel that the \nrecord labels are grossly overpricing music 33 . This has made many consumers to adapt \ntheir habits and find alternatives to finding new music thus beginning the path that has \nlead to making record labels a thing of the past. \nThe advancements in technology would eventually lower many of the costs \nassociated with distribution and production as the market began to go digital. This shif t \nhas made the role of record labels shrink. Record Labels have become inefficie nt due to \ntheir low profit margin, and the fact that 90% of their releases end up costing them \nmoney rather than returning a profit. Record labels have a broken market structure for \nseveral reasons. Firstly, record labels have created an inefficient monopoly , as they only \nbenefits a few major corporations at the cost to both the artists and consumers. Rec ord \nlabels have also become very inflexible and conservative to adapting new technolog y, \nleaving them behind the rest of the music industry as artists and consumers have both \nadopted newer technologies. \nWith the adoption of new technologies, the music industry has been able to lower \nmany of the costs of distribution and production that had previously limited the industry \nas a whole. The advancement in Internet and MP3 technology have made it possible for \n \n32 Welsh, Jared. p. 1522 \n33 Warr, Richard. p. 129 23 \n \nartists to distribute their own music just as efficiently as record labels do, at a fraction of \nthe price. Record labels are constantly losing artists due to the new ability and ease for \nthese artists to become independent. Artists are able to make and distribute the ir own \nalbums and music through the use of the Internet. So the question remains: Is there room \nfor Record Labels today? The simple answer is that labels cannot maintain the ir control \nover the music industry in its traditional role. There is one key role that record label s \ncould continue to hold as technology continues to advance and that is the role of \nmarketing. Record labels still have a lot of experience and resources, and can off er their \nexpertise to artists to help intensely market their new music to wider audienc es. \nHowever, the era of record labels holding a monopoly over the entire creative proces s is \nover thanks to new technology. These new technologies have helped erode the control of \nthe record labels on the music industry. \n \n 24 \n \nChapter 3 \nThe Internet and Adoption of MP3 Technology \n \n At the beginning of the 21 st century, record labels were caught committing their \nprice fixing scheme. Artists and consumers were being taken advantage of by t hese \ncorporate giants. The adoption of newer technology made it possible for these consume rs \nand artists to fight back. Through the use of newer technologies, artists were a ble to get a \ncloser link to their fans and circumvent record labels at the same time, thus making them \nirrelevant in the business process. As the music industry began to move towards the \ndigital market place, it made alternate pricing strategies possibl,e t hat helped artists and \nconsumers gain leverage against the record labels. Artists began utilizing t he Internet to \ngive away free music to their fans in order to grow fan loyalty 34 . The Internet provided \nartists with alternative means for releasing their music. \n The Internet not only provides for a closer link between artist and fan but it also \nallows artists to bypass the traditional recording route that is dependent on re cord labels. \n“In theory, the technology also makes it possible for an artist to circumvent the \ndistributor, maintain control of the master recording, and capture a significant pa rt of the \ndistributor’s margin 35 ”. The Internet has become a major distribution method for music, \nwhich is readily accessible to every consumer and artist, and places a direc t link between \nthe artist and fan that was previously held together by record labels. \n \n34 Vogel, Harold. p. 211 \n35 Vogel, Harold. p. 211 25 \n \n There have also been other major impacts that the Internet has had on the music \nindustry. More artists are able to penetrate the music industry than ever bef ore thanks to \nnewer technology. The new distribution channel made possible by the Internet has \nlowered the barriers of entry to the music industry and has made it possible for an yone \nwith a computer to distribute music online. New entrants in the music industry are \noutpacing traditional labels ability to find new artists 36 . This has also made it possible \nfor the music industry to become globalized at the same time as the rest of the world. In \n2012, of the top ten singles that were purchased, the artists that created the music w ere \nfrom Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Korea, Trinidad, and the United States 37 . The \nInternet has made it possible for international artists to become global hits in just a short \nperiod of time. \n Digital marketplaces also have been created as a result of the advanceme nts of the \nInternet. A digital hub has been created, allowing consumers to acquire their music ove r \nthe web, as opposed to buying a physical copy. The digital marketplace has been the \nfastest growing method for acquiring music since the turn of the 21 st century. By 2008, \nonline music sales accounted for 33% of all music sold in the United States 38 . This \nnumber has been growing and by 2012, digital sales of music accounted for nearly 50% \nof the total revenues for the music industry in the US 39 . 2012 saw a year of major growth \nin digital sales of music. Total sales were up 12% from the previous year with s ingle-\n \n36 Lam, Calvin K.M. and Bernard C.Y. Tan. “The Internet is Changing the Music \nIndustry” \n37 IFPI Digital Music Report 2013 \n38 Styven, Maria. “The Intangibility of Music in the Internet Age.” Popular Music a nd \nSociety. p. 54 \n39 IFPI 2012 Let’s Play Report p. 3 26 \n \ntrack sales rising 8% and album sales rising 17% 40 . The digital marketplace for music is \novertaking the physical one as consumer have turned to the Internet instead of re tailers \nfor their music needs. \nConsumers are turning to the Internet as the source for discovering and acquiri ng \nnew music. A recent study on consumer interactions found that 25% of young people \naged 15-34, and especially males, tend to discover new music primarily through the us e \nof the Internet 41 . As record labels began to catch on to the shifting trend towards the \nweb, efforts were made to adopt this technology. \nIn a late response to the digital shift in music, record labels attempted to cr eate a \nmarketplace for purchasing music but it was too little too late. 3 of the 5 major recor d \nlabels provided a service for some time to purchase music directly from them. In \nDecember of 2001, MusicNet was set up by Warner, EMI, and BMG as a hub to purchase \nany of the music released by those three record labels. Sony and Universal followed suit \nimmediately with their release of PressPlay. Due to their late entran ce into the Internet, \nthese services failed to gain much market share. Both of these services were subscription \nbased, which allowed subscribers to stream the music directly from the appli cation. The \nnumber of users never grew to a prominent number and eventually these services were \nshut down. \nThere were several reasons as to why these services failed to gain control of the \ndigital space. The choice of music on these services was extremely limite d as each \n \n40 IFPI Digital Music Report 2013 \n41 Warr, Richard. p. 127 27 \n \nservice could only provide music that was owned by the record label. This excluded \nmany independent artists, as well as those of the other record labels. Also, give n the Big \n5’s fear of piracy, these services were given many technological restr ictions that limited \nthe amount of downloads and the length of time that downloads were kept. This angered \nmany consumers, as they were unable to truly own and keep the music that they were \nacquiring through these services. \nWhile the restrictions were increasing within the record labels, a new tec hnology \nbegan to emerge the eliminated many of the restrictions and eased the process of \nacquiring music from the consumer point of view. The emergence of MP3 technology \nallowed for music to be shared instantly with no restrictions or security figure s. MP3s \nalso compressed audio files with no loss in quality making music downloading much \nfaster and more efficient 42 . The emergence of the MP3 made file sharing possible and \nmade the record label’s subscription based services lose their competitive advant age. As \nMP3s had no security restrictions, they could be transferred between people at mi nimal \ncost, making it the obvious choice for a consumer over the record labels’ heavily \nrestricted services. \nMP3 technology allowed for music to be transferred for free amongst consumers. \nHowever, the problem arising within the music industry was not with the open standard \nthat MP3 provided, but rather with the Internet, that facilitated a free distri bution center \nthat shifted the control of the industry from record labels to consumers. The technolo gy \nadvancements of the MP3 shook the entire music industry and leveled the playing fiel d \n \n42 Jansens Jelles, Stijn Vandaele and Tom Vander Beken. p. 90-92 28 \n \nfor all the players. Record labels could no longer hold their competitive advantage and \nlost their prominent role in the industry. \n MP3 technology was created in the late 1990s at the Frawnhofer Institute in \nGermany. Dr. Karlheinz Bradenburg worked within the Institute for Integra ted circuits \nand was experimenting with different methods of compressing audio and video. In his \nexperimenting, Dr. Bradenburg created this astonishing technology known as MP3 tha t \nwould soon transform the entire music industry. MP3 is short for MPEG 1, Layer 3 \ncompression that is the method discovered by Dr. Bradenburg. The compression proces s \nbegins with computer hardware and an optic driver that will convert physical CDs i nto \nMP3 files 43 . These MP3 files can then get played on a computer through a 3rd party \nmusic player that were available at the time such as Winamp or Windows Media Player. \nBy running uncompressed audio files through an MP3 encoder, a user can shrink \na music file to 10% of its original size while maintaining a majority of the qua lity. This \nis done by getting rid of all the sound waves and frequencies from the file that cannot be \nrecognized by a human ear, thus only leaving behind that which will be useful for a \nhuman ear. Through this encoding process, a CD, which could previously only hold 72 \nminutes of uncompressed audio, could now hold between ten and eleven hours of \nmusic 44 . This compression would soon allow consumers to hold larger quantities of \nmusic, increasing their demand and consumption of music as a whole. \n \n43 Gunduz, Ugur. “Digital Music Format MP3 as a New Communication Technology and \nthe Future of the Music Industry. The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies. p. 202 -\n204 \n44 Gunduz, Ugur. P. 202-204 29 \n \nCompressed MP3 files have many benefits to consumers. MP3s allow for music \nto be transferred between people and computers at a faster and more feasible r ate. This \nmade downloading music online a quick and easy option for consumers as a song could \nbe downloaded in minutes or even seconds. MP3 files can also be copied an infinite \namount of times without the degradation in quality that would occur with all previous fil e \nformats 45 . As is the case with any good that is non-excludable and non-rival in \nconsumption, a free-rider problem began to emerge with the adoption of MP3 \ntechnology. Since MP3s could be downloaded an infinite amount of times and the \nquality would remain the same, consumers could download a song for free and not take it \naway from anyone else in society. MP3 technology made free music downloading \npossible and acceptable as consumers came to realize that their consumption of mus ic \nwould not hurt anyone else. \nAnother benefit of MP3s is that it is an open standard, meaning that nearly anyone \ncould gain access to an encoder and create their own MP3. The invention of the MP3 is \nsimilar to that of the printing press. The Guttenberg Bible, made possible by t he printing \npress, allowed for every person to own a bible in the common tongue. Prior to the \nprinting press, only the Catholic Church had a copy of the bible and it was in Latin. The \ncontrol of the bible and religion shifted from the Catholic Church to individual people as \nthe Guttenberg Bible soon became available to all. The same is the case wit h MP3s and \nthe music industry. Prior to this technology, only record labels could own and control the \ncontent that was recorded onto a CD. With the adoption of MP3s, consumers could now \nown and control a copy of any song that wanted. \n \n45 Welsh, Jared. p. 1513 30 \n \nThe music industry, and the record labels were bewildered by MP3 technology \nand sought ways to fight the open source. A number of proprietary audio codes emerged \nwith higher security features such as a2b and Liquid Audio 46 . None of these audio codes \nwere able to gain significant market share as the open code of the MP3 proved to be t oo \npopular to overcome. Even though record labels fought to change the file format, \nconsumers and artists were not going to change their consumption of MP3s to a more \nrestrictive technology. \n MP3 technology also allowed newer artists to distribute their music online \nquickly and efficiently without the use of record labels. Established artists also created a \ndirect link to their fans through the Internet as a result of the increasingly popular MP3 \nformat. The introduction of new products such as the Apple iPod and other MP3 devices \nbegan to emerge, allowing consumers to hold thousands of songs on a single device thus \nfurther encouraging consumers to download MP3 music files 47 . \nMP3s also made peer-to-peer file sharing software possible as the compres sed \nsize of an MP3 made the transfer of music that much faster. This allowed program s like \nKazaa, Morpheus, I-Mesh, Gnutella, Win-MX, Soulseek, Limewire, and Napster to e xist \nas the technology allowed consumers to get music for free through this software instead \nof purchasing overpriced music from record labels. As consumers started turning to these \ntechnologies to get free music, it pressured the recording industry to respond. All re cord \ncompanies entered the e-commerce world with their streaming services i n order to try to \n \n46 Easley, Robert F. John G. Michel, and Sarv Devaraj. “The MP3 Open Standard and the \nMusic Industry’s Response to Internet Piracy.” Communications of the ACM. \n47 Gunduz, Ugur. p. 202 31 \n \nmonetize the digital market. The record labels were too late to respond and MP3s m ade \nrecord labels lose a large portion of the revenues from CD sales. The record labe ls were \ntoo little too late to enter the digital world and by the time they got there it w as too late to \nstop consumers from acquiring their music for free through these file-shari ng programs. \nThe introduction of MP3 technology transformed the music industry and there \nwere many winners and losers from this change. The record labels were the obvi ous \nlosers as they were rapidly losing revenue, as music was being “stolen” and downloaded \nfor free. Record labels were also losing artists who had decided to remain indepe ndent as \nthey could now fulfill many of the roles of the record labels on their own. However, \nwhile record labels suffered, it seemed as if consumers and artists were both benefitting \nfrom this shift. Artists benefitted in several ways. The barriers of entr y were lowered on \nthe music industry as a whole, as any artist with a computer, encoder, and file sha ring \nsoftware could distribute their music online without an intermediary such as a re cord \nlabel. Artists also were able to gain a closer link to their fans through the us e of MP3 and \nthe Internet through the use of fan loyalty gifts of free music. The other be neficiary of \nMP3 technology and the increased prevalence of the Internet were the consumers. \nConsumers gained from these new technologies, as they now were able to access a much \nlarger and greater variety of music as well as access it for free. U sers not only were \npaying less for their music but were also increasing their consumption of mus ic as a \nresult of MP3s. \nAs record labels looked to combat this trend and save their business model, the \nbuzzwords that began to be thrown around were “piracy” and “stealing”. Record labe ls 32 \n \nfelt like these newer technologies were allowing consumers to steal from them and deny \nthem their hard earned money. While artists and consumers were clearly benefitt ing from \nthese advances, record labels were being significantly hurt and they were not about to go \ndown without fighting for their cause. \n 33 \n \nChapter 4 \nPiracy and P2P Software Destroy the \nRecord Label Industry \n \nAs the technology in the music industry advanced to a level that allowed \nconsumers to access music for free, online piracy and file sharing emerged a s the biggest \nissue the music industry would have to face. As consumers and artists were benefit ting \nfrom these newer technologies, the record labels were struggling and fight ing to stay \nrelevant. In fact, record labels have recognized piracy as the biggest c ause to their loss in \nrevenues since 1999. \n The effects of online piracy on the music industry appear to be huge. According \nto a report released by Forrester, as of 2004, music piracy has denied record labe ls an \nestimated $700 million in revenues 48 . Music sharing and free downloading has hurt the \nrecord labels ability to make money. According to the IFPI, global CD sales droppe d \n19.8% from 1999-2002 49 . It is evident that the Internet has had a tremendous affect on \nthe music industry as a whole, as upset consumers have turned to alternative measure s to \nget music. \n Online piracy has quickly been becoming the norm in the music industry. Piracy \nis most popular amongst college students who feel that downloading music is not morally \n \n48 Hajdu, David. “The iPod Blues” \n49 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. P. 79 34 \n \nwrong, despite the claims being made by the record labels 50 . Consumers got tired of \npaying for overpriced albums that record labels were selling, and therefor e acquire their \nmusic illegally for free. “Music will be bought legally when the price is worth the \ndifferences in ethical consideration, (expected) quality, and (perceived) risks 51 ”. As there \nseems to be little risk and no downgrade in quality from acquiring music illegally , \nconsumers will continue to download music for free over the web. \n Since music downloading began to gain popularity in 1999, it has quickly grown \nas the fastest growing method of acquiring music. According to the IFPI, onl y 37% of \nmusic acquired by US consumers is actually paid for. This means that just under two \nthirds of music is downloaded illegally in the United States. It is estimate d that from \n2004 until 2009, thirty billion songs were illegally downloaded 52 . It is unclear how much \neffect illegal downloads have had on global sales, but it certainly is the case t hat CD sales \nhave dropped since downloading became popular in 1998 when the first file sharing \nprogram, Napster, emerged. A look at the top 10 albums of the year before and after file \nsharing emerged show that CD sales have suffered. In 1999, the top 10 albums of the \nyear sold a combined 54.7 million copies. Ten years later in 2009, the top 10 albums of \nthe year only sold 21.4 million copies, which is less than half of the original amount 53 . \nMusic downloads have only grown in popularity due to the ease and convenience that \ntechnology has allowed it to become. File sharing software began to emerge in 1999 wit h \nthe first P2P program called Napster. \n \n50 Warr, Richard. p. 129 \n51 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 93 \n52 IFPI 2012 Lets Play Report. p. 10 \n53 IFPI 2012 Lets Play Report. p. 11 35 \n \n Since 1998, when Shawn Fanning created the program, Napster, file sharing and \ndownloading music have increased exponentially in popularity. Made possible by the \nnew MP3 technology, Napster allowed users to share files through the web at high \ndownload speeds. Given the small size of MP3 files, Napster allowed for songs to be \nshared amongst users in just a couple of minutes. Napster is the first peer-2-pe er network \nthat emerged throughout the 21 st century. Napster operated by using a central indexing \nserver that bookmarked and created a catalog of every user and song title availa ble on the \nserver 54 . At its peak, Napster has 80 million registered users and over 250,000 daily \ndownloads on its server 55 . The average user would be able to access around 220 new \nsongs at any given moment. Napster was the first of many file-sharing networks that \nwould emerge at the beginning of the 2000s. \n Napster’s downfall came as a result of its technology. The use of their ce ntralized \nserver was enough to deem the company responsible for all of the content that went up on \ntheir network. Record labels, therefore, were able to get Napster shut down as the court \nsystem found Napster liable for assisting in copyright infringement. In Nap ster’s ashes, a \nnew network, named Grokster, emerged that introduced a new technology that ultimat ely \nallowed all file sharing networks to survive the court system in the long run. Gr okster \ndeveloped a completely decentralized system over which it had little supervisor y power \n \n54 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 91 \n55 Lam, Calvin K.M and Bernard C.Y. Tan. “The Internet is Changing the Music \nIndustry”. 36 \n \nover the content on the network 56 . This decentralized network is what kept these P2P \nnetworks alive as no liability could be found on the service’s part. \n Yet another technological advancement in file sharing software emerged aft er \nGrokster. This newest advancement is still used to this day as the most complex fi le \nsharing system available. The next big file sharing software to emerg e was BitTorrent. \nTorrenting music files is the newest and current method to acquire new music. M any \ndifferent file sharing software exists that uses the technology introduc ed by BitTorrent. \nThe new technology introduced by BitTorrent was a highly complex system that shar es \nonly pieces of media files from one source but uses many different users and sourc es to \ndownload the final copy 57 . This technology also allows for many different forms and \nsources of software to be used which has allowed programs like UTorrent, Vuze, and \nTorrentz to emerge. \n The record labels did not take kindly to the emergence of these file-sharing \nnetworks that were hurting their ability to collect revenues from music sal es. There were \ntwo major responses taken by the recording industry to combat the rise in P2P networ ks. \nThe first response was to create a strong awareness campaign to dissuade pe ople from \n“stealing” music. However, most people did not feel that an ethical dilemma exist ed or \nthat they were even stealing when downloading music. The next response by the mus ic \nindustry, once the awareness campaigns were deemed ineffective, was to scare people \nwith legal action. The record labels did this by targeting three main groups. \n \n56 Welsh, Jared S. pp. 1517-1518 \n57 Welsh, Jared S. pp. 1518-1519 37 \n \nRecord labels sought legal action against the file sharing platforms for thei r \npromotion of illegal downloads. The record labels also raised legal action agains t \nInternet Service Providers to force them to release the names of all the users of their sites \nto find the individuals downloading music. Finally, the record labels also began to \npursue individual P2P users for downloading music, however, this method was the least \neffective, as the amount of users was growing exponentially daily. \n The Recording Industry was initially most effective in pursuing legal act ion \nagainst the file sharing platforms. In March 2001, the Recording Industry Ass ociation of \nAmerica (RIAA) won its lawsuit against Napster, forcing it to filter t he items on their \nserver. The court found that Napster has materially contributed to infringing activity by \nproviding the support services through the use of their Central Indexing System, whic h \nallowed users to search for, find, and distribute content 58 . By April 2001, the swapping \nof MP3s on Napster’s platform had decreased by 36% as a result of the lawsuit 59 . \nHowever, as seen earlier, this did little to dissuade new entrants to the market that was \ncreated by Shawn Fanning. Today, more P2P services exist that ever before and a re more \ndifficult to shut down. The progress in technology coupled with the growth in consumer \nbroadband speed only helped promote the shift toward file sharing platforms. All \nsubsequent platforms found ways to limit their liability starting with Grokste r, which had \na decentralized server. \n In September of 2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals for copyright infringement. \nBy 2005, that number had grown to 9,000, as the RIAA was trying to intimidate the \n \n58 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1516 \n59 Lam, Calvin K.M. and Bernard C.Y. Tan 38 \n \npublic in hopes of scaring people into stopping their copyright infringements 60 . It seems \nstrange that the record labels were suing for copyright infringement and not the artists \nthat actually created the songs. Why are the record labels the one suing and a n even \nbetter question is why aren’t the artists? It seems peculiar that no outcry ha s really been \nmade from artists regarding copyright infringement for downloading their song. “ The \npractice of having businesses exploit copyrights was so widespread that the Cop yright \nAct of 1909 permitted business entities the right to be designated as the author/owner of \ncreative work 61 .” Record labels are the business entities that control the rights of these \nartists’ music. \n Artists and musicians agree to transfer the ownership of their music when signi ng \na recording contract with a label. When a band or artist makes a song, there are 3 \ndifferent products that are created. The first is the song itself; the music al composition. \nThis song is what is actually performed by the artist, the notes themselves. T he second is \nthe audio recording, which is the phonorecord or physical medium that the song is \nattached to. An example of this is a vinyl, tape, or CD. This is owned by the record l abel \nand sold to retailers who then sell the item directly to consumers. The final piec e is the \nsound recording itself, which is not held as a tangible good 62 . When someone hears \nabout the copyright infringement lawsuits from the music industry it is referr ing to this \nthird aspect, the sound recording. Copyright Law indicates that the record labels ow n the \nexclusive right to record and distribute these sound recordings. \n \n60 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1519 \n61 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1506 \n62 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1500 39 \n \n As issues of piracy began to develop and emerge in the 1970s several revisions of \ncopyright law were made to further protect the record labels. The 1976 revision of \ncopyright law granted copyright owners (the record labels) the exclus ive right to be the \nfirst to record and distribute any creative content that they owned 63 . This revision \ngranted the copyright holder with six exclusive rights. Copyright owners had the \nexclusive right for reproduction, preparation of derivative work, distribution, public \nperformance, public display, and the right to public performance “by means of digi tal \naudio transmission 64 .” The issue of right to distribution is what has arisen in the case of \nmost of these lawsuits, as piracy results from acquiring the music from someone ot her \nthan the record label themselves. As technology advanced and the music industry moved \nto a digital space further revisions where required of copyright law. \n As file sharing and P2P networks started gaining popularity and MP3 technology \nmade it possible to store high quantities on music, record labels again pressured the \ngovernment to further revise copyright law to protect their content in the digita l space. \nThe Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 extended the rights provisioned in the \n1976 revision to sound recordings on the Internet 65 . It is under this provision of \nCopyright law that allows the record labels to pursue legal action against anyone t hat \ndownloads a song over the web illegally. \nMany defendants and opponents of copyright argue, however, that copyright law \ndoes not protect the artists from getting their work stolen but is rather a syste m put in \n \n63 Vogel, Harold. p. 203 \n64 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1499 \n65 Lam, Calvin C.K and Bernard C.Y. Tan 40 \n \nplace to protect one of the biggest monopolies in the world, and therefore these \ncopyrights should not be enforced. “It is, after all, the purpose of copyright to promote \nthe creation and dissemination of expression in the marketplace, not to protect large, \nexisting industries from new competition. 66 ” It would be premature to think that \ncopyright is totally unnecessary. Copyright laws were important in helping to start and \ngrow the music industry. “In all, copyrights and the protection of intellectual properties \nfrom counterfeiting and piracy, have played an important role in the growth of the m usic \nbusiness. But royalty income losses from piracy remain substantial and widespr ead 67 .” \nRegardless of what copyright law is, the issue of piracy remains a big one, a nd so far the \nuse of lawsuits has done little to deter consumers from downloading music. \nThe lawsuits by the RIAA did little to stop P2P networks and also hurt the image \nof the music industry as it was seeking to pursue legal action against its own custom ers. \nThis drove more people to file sharing and P2P networks as they looked to fight against \nthe monopolistic record labels. Since the emergence of Napster, many more prog rams \nhave emerged to allow users to share music and other files over the web. Users of \nKaZaA, another program similar to Napster, download more than 160 million songs eac h \nmonth 68 . Also, as of June 2009, another program, Morpheus, had been downloaded 173 \nmillion times and Limewire had been downloaded 181 million times 69 . As file sharing \nhas grown exponentially as the go to source for consumer to get music, the record label s \nhave failed to maintain a presence in the industry. Since the emergence of Na pster in \n \n66 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1497 \n67 Vogel, Harold. pp. 203-204 \n68 Hajdu, David. The iPod Blues \n69 Bender, Mark T. and Yongsheng Wang. “The Impact of Digital Piracy on Music S ales: \nA cross-country Analysis” International Social Science Review. p. 158 41 \n \n1999, music sales in the US have dropped 47% from $14.6 Billion to about $7.7 Billion. \nMost consumers find it easier and more efficient to get their music online through th ese \nservices that pay for a CD in a store. \n File sharing and P2P networks are often looked at in negative light due to its \ncrippling effect on the music industry. However there are several other effect s that result \nfrom file sharing and downloading music. The first of these effects is the subs titution \neffect, which is the main argument for as to why the record labels have been suf fering. \nThe substitution effect is that consumers who download music will no longer buy the CD \nas they have gotten their product from a different source. However, it seems unl ikely that \neach music download will displace 1 sale so there are arguments that the substi tution \neffect has minimal impact on the music industry. The sampling or exposure effec t also \nplays a major role in response to file sharing. The sampling effect state s that users want \nto sample or try music that they otherwise wouldn’t listen to 70 . Consumers will \ndownload songs that they do not value enough to purchase but are interested enough to \nlisten to. The sampling effect has a positive impact on the music industry as overal l \nconsumption rises, where consumers are able to listen to a higher quantity of music due \nto their ability to access it at a lower cost. \n The studies done on the effects of file sharing have been extremely unambiguous. \nSome research has shown the effects of piracy to be extreme and have many impl ications \nfor the music industry as a whole while other studies have described the effects to be \nmore positive. Market statistics from the International Federation of the P honographic \n \n70 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 91 42 \n \nIndustry (IFPI) show that worldwide music sales have fallen with the blame be ing solely \nplaced on P2P software 71 . Whether or not file sharing and P2P networks actually hurt the \nmusic industry is a big argument in the music industry, but the effects since the \nemergence of Napster on the music industry appear to be tremendous. One study f ound \nthat Internet Piracy actually did have a weak effect on CD sales. This study found a \ncasual relationship between the number of P2P networks available and the decline in CD \nsales 72 . Another study done by Leibowitz found that between 2000 and 2003 online file \nsharing reduced CD sales by as much as 30% or about $4 billion annually 73 . Many other \nstudies exist that comfirm that P2P networks have decreased CD sales. \n There have also been several studies that have argued that P2P networks have had \nvery little impact on CD sales. In fact, one study done by Anderson and Frenz found that \nP2P networks actually increased music sales overall due to the sampling effec t and other \nfactors 74 . Yet another study done by Felix Oberholzer and Koleman Strumpf had some \ninteresting results. Their study attempted to look at the impact of file shari ng on CD \nsales and collected their dataset from 0.01% of all downloads from 11/23/02 until \n12/2/02. Their findings were that file sharing had limited impact on record sal es and \nsuggested that 5,000 music downloads are required to displace 1 CD sale 75 . \n Another study done by Rafael Rob and Joel Waldfogel examined data on album \npurchases and music downloads amongst college students in 2003. This research study \n \n71 Bender, Mark T. and Yongsheng Wang. p. 157 \n72 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 82 \n73 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 82 \n74 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 82 \n75 Bender, Mark T. and Yongsheng Wang. p. 159 43 \n \nattempted to assess college students’ habits in music consumption. Their results \nindicated that downloading music reduced CD purchases by 9% but that downloading \nmusic also mitigated the deadweight loss due to monopolistic allocation ineffici ency and \nprice discrimination 76 . The study also contends that the sampling effect is a major factor \nand that downloading music occurs primarily on low valued CD’s, and that therefore \nsales displacement is not a prevalent factor because most albums were never a ctually \nintended for purchase. Most consumers are not willing to pay the high price for an album \nthat they do not value, and since the only alternative to this high price is to download the \nalbum, they choose to do that instead. The study by Rob and Waldfogel is one of the \nmost groundbreaking in research done on the music industry. \n Yet another study was done by Zetner to study the macro effects of file sha ring \nand piracy on music sales. Zetner’s study found that countries with the highest levels of \nP2P usage also experience the greatest reductions in music sales. The stud y calculated \nthat a 1% increase in the piracy rate resulted in a 0.6% decrease in music sal es. Zetner \nalso found that a 1% increase in the Internet penetration rate would result in great er than \n1% decrease in music sales 77 . This study shows that Internet penetration has 60% higher \nimpact on record sales than the piracy rate. Zetner argues that the incre ased prominence \nof the Internet was the leading factor in displacing sales, as it was the most efficient \ndistribution channel for music. The Internet heavily lowered the cost of producing m usic \nand the lack of a price shift made consumers seek their own change rather than pay f or \noverpriced albums. \n \n76 Bender, Mark T. and Yongsheng Wang. p. 160 \n77 Bender, Mark T. and Yongsheng Wang. p. 165 44 \n \n One final study that had a huge impact on the knowledge of piracy and the music \nindustry was a regression analysis done by Patrick Mooney, Subarna Samanta and A li \nH.M. Zadeh. This study attempted to run an econometric regression analysis with \ncontrols for every variable and factor that has impacted the music industry. The r esults of \nthis study are very interesting. Mooney, Samanta, and Zadeh found that piracy had a \nminimal effect on CD sales but there were other factors that had a huge impact on the \nrecording industry. According to the study, vinyl singles had the largest negative impact \non CD sales and are the main reason for the decrease in CD sales. Medium income w as \nalso found to have a slight positive effect on CD sales. Another factor that had a \nsignificant positive impact on CD sales was time. CDs became immensely popular and \nwere heavily purchased for a certain period of time before technology outgrew the m, \nwhich caused the heavy decline in CD sales. The study found that time was a huge \nvariable as CD sales numbers from the early 1990s were heavily inflated due to t he \nwidespread movement to update individuals’ multimedia libraries. The final fact or that \nhad any significant impact was the emergence of iTunes and the sale of digital music \nthrough their iTunes Store that displaced a large portion of CD sales 78 . The empirical \nstudy concludes that the recording industry cannot place the full blame of declini ng CD \nsales on illegal downloads and that rather it was vinyl single sales that had the largest \ninfluence on declining sales as it became the favorite substitute for CDs. \n The RIAA has shipment numbers on all of the different media formats for the \nmusic industry. These numbers show the unit sales and total revenues for the music \n \n78 Mooney, Patrick, Subarna Samanta and Ali H.M. Zadeh. “Napster and its Effects on \nthe Music Industry: An Empirical Analysis”. Journal of Social Science. pp. 307-308. 45 \n \nindustry broken down by music format. A look at the shipment numbers show the rapid \ngrowth of CD sales as a result of the movement to update individuals’ music librari es and \nthen the decrease in CD sales as P2P networks became popular. A look at the graph \nbelow shows the total unit sales for the music industry from 1990 until 2012 79 . As you \ncan see, the actual units of CDs sold stays pretty level until 2005 when downloading \nmusic really takes off as the biggest method to acquire music. Also, as downloading \nmusic and streaming music take off in popularity one can see the sampling effec t as the \ntotal consumption of music units rises. In fact in looking at the total units sold in Exhi bit \n1, in 1999 when P2P first became available, there was a total of 1.16 billion units of \nmusic sold while in 2012 there was 1.819 billion units sold. This change has resulted in a \n56% increase in total consumption of music since the introduction of P2P networks. \n \n79 RIAA Shipment database 46 \n \nMusic Unit Sales by Product Type from 1990-2012 \n Another interesting thing to note from the RIAA shipment number is the shifting \ntrend towards acquiring music in the digital space. Whether it was due to P2P net works, \nthe introduction of vinyl singles, or digital downloads through iTunes, a movement to \ndownload music began in 2003 and has only grown since. As you can see in the graphs \nbelow depicting the breakdown of how music was purchased in 2004 and then in 2012, it \nis interesting to note how CD sales went from being 80.1% of music sales in 2004 to \nmerely 11.6% of 2012 sales. Downloading music took over as the primary method to \nacquire music and by 2012, 76.5% of music was acquired by a download. The shifting \ntrend to the digital space was further encouraged by the introduction of products l ike \nMP3 players, iTunes, and the increasing amount of available memory in personal \ncomputers, which allowed consumers to hold more songs. \n47 \n \n2004 Music Unit Sales broken down by media form \n2012 Music Unit Sales broken down by media form \n48 \n \n \n Whether or not the decrease in CD sales and increase in downloads is a result of \npiracy or not, the fact remains that the sale of music has shifted from CD to downloads . \nIt has also become clear that music is valued at a lower price per unit since t he \nintroduction of file sharing. After adjusting for inflation there is still a huge de crease in \nthe value per unit of music sales. At its peak, consumers valued their music at $18.72 per \nunit in 2002, just prior to the introduction of iTunes. In 2012, music was only valued at \n$3.88 per unit, a 79% decrease since 2002 80 . Consumers will not pay record labels the \nhigh amount that they are seeking as over time consumers have valued music at a lowe r \namount. Since the price offered by record labels does not correspond with the value \nconsumers have for music, the record labels have been left behind as an irrelevant pa rt of \nthe music industry. The adoption of the Internet and newer technologies lowered the \nvalue of music, as consumers were willing to pay less for music or even nothing at all. \n Despite the revisions to copyright law and the increased attempt by record la bels \nto pursue legal action against copyright infringers, the music industry did not he sitate to \ncontinue to shift towards a digital market. As the record labels refused to init ially move \ninto this new market, entrepreneurs and businesses decided to do so first in order to \nalleviate the problems with overpriced music. While there are very unambiguous repor ts \nas to what the actual effects of piracy has been, music has shifted to a digital market and \ntotal consumption of music has risen since 1999. \n \n80 Exhibit 1 49 \n \nPutting aside the ethical issues of downloading music illegally, P2P networks ar e \nhere to stay and consumers will continue to download music over the web at minimal \ncost. That being said, there needs to be some sort of revision to copyright law as it is \nextremely inefficient in its current state and has done nothing to deter people fr om \ndownloading music. Perhaps the problem isn’t from the consumer side, but rather the \nlaw must change to better benefit the artists and consumers who are the primary \nbeneficiaries of the music industry. Copyright law as it is, only benefits a fe w giant \ncorporations that wish to continue to hold their monopoly over the music industry. \nCopyright law should not exist to deter new entrants and competitors in the market and s o \nfar it hasn’t. \nThe problem with the music industry is not the artists or the consumers who have \nboth benefited since the introduction of MP3 technology and file sharing. The only \nvictim of the changing market has been the record labels. It seems as if t he \nadvancements in technology have made the music industry outgrow record labels and \nsome might even question if there is even a role for record labels today in the mus ic \nindustry. There have been many different solutions proposed by both the players in the \nmusic industry and independent entrepreneurs to help solve some of the issues in the \nmusic industry and better adapt to the new environment. These solutions have further \npushed record labels away from playing an active role in the music industry toda y. 50 \n 51 \n \n 52 \n \n 53 \n \n \nChapter 5 \nSolving the Problem of Record Labels \n \n As the recording industry has struggled to recover since the adoption of MP3 \ntechnology and the emergence of file sharing, many have questioned the role of r ecord \nlabels moving forward. Many solutions have been proposed to fix or improve the music \nindustry and help get rid of some of the biggest inefficiencies in the market. L aws that \nwere written in the 20 th century, even though they have been updated over the years, \ncannot dictate the way the music industry is run as it has changed so radically ove r the \nlast 10-15 years. Many different attempts have been made by entrepreneurs to pr ivately \nsolve the problems that the music industry has faced because the record labels fai led to \nact. It is thanks to some of those innovations that the record labels have even survived \nthis long. \n There are three major solutions that have been proposed to fix the music industry. \nThe first of these solutions is the Administrative View. Under this approach, a \ngovernment agency would be created to track, monitor, and administer royalties for \nmusic distribution but would incentivize free distribution to consumers who don’t publish \nor use the content for a profit. Another component of this solution is for the government \nto tax complementary products for music such as iPods and other MP3 players and 54 \n \ndistribute the tax revenue amongst the record labels 81 . This solution creates a more \nefficient way of tracking royalty rates as the current method is very vague and the issue \nof double dipping still exists. \n The second major solution proposed for the music industry is called the Free \nMarket View. The Free Market view is that the system will eventually a dapt of its own \naccord. Consumer friendly technology will slowly emerge that will lure user s away from \nillegal downloads 82 . This wait approach, believes in the capitalistic model in the United \nStates and the idea of Adam Smith’s invisible hand, as the market will dictate where the \nmusic industry goes. This solution also argues for the shift towards free music. T his \nsolution lacks appeal from the recording industry, as it would result in the imminent \ndeath of record labels. The free market solution argues that due to the record labe l’s \ninability to adapt and slow adoption of technologies that it has been left behind the musi c \nindustry and is no longer a necessity. Private entrepreneurs and investors have st epped in \nto take over where the record labels were slow to enter. These businesses wil l continue \nto adapt to the market and will overtake the record labels as the major players in the \nmusic industry. \n The third major solution is the Statutory Change View. This solution claims that \nthe system holding the music industry together right now is broken and institutional \nchanges are needed to account for the changes that have occurred since the init ial \ncopyright law was written. This solution contends that copyright law must be updated \n \n81 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1528 \n82 Welsh, Jared S. p. 1529 55 \n \nand changed. Copyright law should be streamlined and weakened 83 . This solution agrees \nthat copyright law is currently only protecting a few large corporations i nstead of the true \nplayers in the music industry. This solution will allow for copyright law to actua lly \nprotect the artists from copyright infringement instead of a few corporat ions. This \nsolution also calls for a privately administered tax distribution system si milar to that of \nthe Administrative view to help allocate royalties accurately and effic iently. While all \nthree of these solutions have been proposed ,no action has been taken by the government \nand record labels to fix the music industry and as such, private solutions have emerged t o \nmitigate the inefficiencies in the music industry. \n All of the private solutions to the problems the music industry face. focus on \ncapitalizing in the online market. It is agreed upon that the future of the music indus try is \nin the digital marketplace, and that online distribution is the best option as it lowers \ndistribution expenses, coordination costs, and production costs. Most private solutions \nalso believe that P2P networks should be allowed due to the positive impact it has on the \nmusic industry such as the sampling effect. The value proposition of these new privat e \nsolutions will be large enough to draw most users away from illegal downloads and to \ntheir services as it will be more convenient and allow for a better interact ion with the \nuser. \n The first major private solution for the music industry came in 2003, when Steve \nJobs of Apple Inc. announced the introduction of iTunes and the iTunes store. iTunes \nwould allow users to purchase single tracks for $0.99 and would have a large library of \n \n83 Welsh, Jared S. pp. 1530-1531 56 \n \nmusic that was not limited to just a few record labels. Anyone can sell his or her music \nthrough the iTunes store. iTunes introduced a new breakthrough in the music industry, as \nit was the first time that consumers could purchase single songs instead of ent ire albums. \niTunes breaks down the continuity of a full album and shifts the control of creating \nplaylists to the consumer instead of the record labels. iTunes was the first innova tion that \nhas lead to the destruction of the control that record labels used to have. iTunes became \nimmediately popular and has since become the fastest growing marketplace i n the music \nindustry. \n iTunes quickly became the primary marketplace for consumers to download \nmusic. An IFPI report of music downloads shows that there were 160 million songs \ndownloaded from iTunes in 2004, its second year of existence. Two years later, in 2006, \nabout 795 million songs were downloaded 84 . iTunes quickly became a market leader in \nthe music industry. Apple realized that digital music sales would most likely nev er offset \nthe decline in CD sales that the industry had experienced. The challenge the music \nindustry faced was not to regain those lost revenues but rather to compete with P2P \nnetworks in the digital space for market share. iTunes quickly became the ma in \ncompetitor to file sharing as it provided the best alternative to consumers. \n The introduction of iTunes further accelerated the downfall of the CD. Legal \ndownloads not only compete with P2P networks but they also negatively impact CD \nsales 85 . Consumers prefer to download music whether legally or illegally to CD sales , \nand the movement towards downloading music is a result of the shift in technology that \n \n84 Jansens Jelle. Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. p. 92 \n85 Mooney ,Samanta, Zadeh. p. 3-8 57 \n \nhas allowed people to hold all their music on their computers. The popularity of iTunes \nwas almost instant, as within a couple of years Apple would control the market for onli ne \nmusic purchases. According to PC World, iTunes holds a 70% market share of online \nmusic purchases 86 . iTunes is highly considered the best solution and savior of the music \nindustry but many other solutions have emerged in recent years. These solutions l ook to \nstep in where the record labels failed to find ways to capitalize on the digita l marketplace \nfor music. \n Another major solution that has emerged in the music industry is the idea of \nstreaming music. Recent companies like Pandora Radio, Slacker Radio, and Spotify ha ve \nemerged that offer streaming services for music. Many consider strea ming to be the \nsavior and future of the music industry. The idea of streaming stems from the thought \nthat music should be thought of as a service rather than a product 87 . These services bank \non the idea that people do not need to own their music but rather need to be able to access \nit and listen to it any point in time. These streaming services allow users to listen to and \naccess music from any and all of their devices but do not transfer ownership of the musi c. \nConsumers pay a monthly fee to use these services and this money is used to pay the \nroyalty rates for broadcasting and streaming the music that they acc ess. \n Yet another private solution that has emerged is the Amazon model as an online \nmusic retailer. Shortly after Apple announced the release of iTunes, Amazon wor ked \nhard to create a retail space for music. Amazon music was releases a fe w years after \niTunes but provides a different value than Apple. Using the Amazon marketplace to buy \n \n86 Styven, Maria. P. 59 \n87 Styven, Maria. P. 56 58 \n \nmusic allows Amazon to use cookies and data mining techniques to create customer \nprofiles 88 . Amazon can then use this information for two different purposes. The first of \nthese is to recommend new music to customers and help expand peoples’ libraries. The \nsecond use from these customer profiles is that it allows for focused marketing e fforts by \nthe record labels. As Amazon was one of the first services to profile their cus tomers \nthrough the use of data mining they were able to provide a lot of information on customer \npurchase habits that allow marketers to target specific customer groups. This in turn \nallows for a new revenue source for Amazon that not only makes money from selling \nmusic but also has become a growing space for advertising through their introduct ion of \ncustomer profiling. \n The use of social media has also emerged as a major player in the music industry . \nEvery artist has a Facebook page and uses their page to give out free music in retur n for \ncustomer loyalty. Social media networks also provide a huge infrastructure for new \nsolutions to emerge in the music industry. It is difficult for new platforms to be built \nfrom scratch and attract a lot of users in a short period of time. However, through the use \nof Facebook’s 3 rd party app ability, new apps can be built and leverage the large user base \nof social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to attract its customers. I n September of \n2012, Facebook has 163 million unique visitors 89 . Leveraging this large user base has \nmade Facebook a popular destination for any entrepreneur who wishes to provide a new \nservice through the use of Facebook apps. For example, market leading ticket vendor, \nTicketmaster, has already started using Facebook’s capabilities. Ti cketmaster has been \n \n88 Lam, Calvin K.M. and Bernard C.Y. Tan \n89 Bylin Kyle, Louis Hav and Glenn Peoples. “Building Digital Businesses around Music \nand Rights” 59 \n \nutilizing the use of Facebook’s Graph Search to maximize their marketing ef forts and \nsocial features to there ticketing services. Ticket companies have also begun us ing social \nmedia to sell tickets as the use of word of mouth can greatly increase ticket sa les. \n The music industry has begun to thrive as the amount of private solutions has \ngrown. The private sector has taken it into their hands to revive the music industry and \ncapitalize on the missed opportunities that led to the demise of the record labels. The \nglobalization movement has also helped spark the music industry, especially for the se \nprivate solutions. At the start of 2011, the major digital music services, iTunes and \nSpotify, were only available in 23 countries. Today these services are available i n more \nthan 100 countries 90 . As the Internet penetration rate has risen in emerging markets, the \nmusic industry has been able to quickly expand to parts of the world that had previously \nremained outside of the music industry. This provides for a growth in opportunities in \nthe music industry. \n As private solutions have become the source for innovation and entrepreneurship \nwithin the music industry the question remains: Is there a role for record la bels in todays \nmusic industry? In their current form, there is no way that record labels w ill survive \nmuch longer. All record labels have been doing for recent years is to fight and res ist the \nchanges that have occurred. Rather than becoming flexible and adapting to the chang ing \nenvironments, record labels decided to stay put and have utilized the legal system to force \nothers to stay within their confines of the music industry. It is the record label ’s inability \nto act and adapt that ultimately led to its demise. Record labels are no longer t he primary \n \n90 IFPI 2013 Digital Music Report 60 \n \ndistributors of music and more and more artists are leaving record labels to w ork \nindependently. The use of technology has made it extremely easy for artists to perform \nall the functions of the record label directly from their own laptops. In the absence of \ninnovation from record labels, businesses were formed in the digital space to ta ke over \nthe digital space and the record label’s late entrance into the digital spac e will be seen as \ntheir failure. Record labels have become obsolete and are no longer a necessary par t of \nthe creative process and therefore no longer fulfill a role within the music indust ry. \n The music industry has transformed as a result of technology and has since \nbecome leaner. The age of large production plants and distribution centers are over a s \none individual with a computer can do every function of a record label. Artists grew \ntired of receiving just a small share of the revenues from music sales and th eir \nunhappiness with the record labels drove them away and led them to becoming \nindependent. This freedom will ultimately support and spark artist creativity as their \nrevenues will grow with the fall of record labels. Artists were forced t o find new ways to \nmake money, and now the major revenue for musicians and artists comes from touring \nand merchandise. Tracks and an artist’s music help promote these live tours as seei ng \nlive shows has grown in popularity over recent years. Music will continue to shift \ntowards becoming free, as they will be used to promote artists and help bring people to \nlive shows. Very little can be done to stop consumers from seeking to pay a minimal \namount for music as technology has made it possible and even probable that they acquir e \ntheir music for free. 61 \n \n Ultimately it was the failure of record labels to adapt that will lead to t heir \ndemise. While record labels might not disappear altogether, their reign as t he major \nplayer in the music industry has come to an end. Record labels might be able to survive \nif they stay as a consultant service and use their resources and expertise to he lp market \nmusic to the right audiences, but record labels will never again be the major producers \nand distributors of music. As technology has advanced and the music industry has \nmoved forward with innovations that benefitted the artists and consumers, record label s \nwere left behind and are now closer than ever to becoming extinct. \n 62 \n \nWorks Cited \n \nBender, Mark T., and Yongsheng Wang. \"The Impact of Digital Piracy on Music \nSales.\" International Social Science Review 84.3-4: 157-70. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. \n \nBylin, Kyle, Louis Hau, and Glenn Peoples. \"Building Digital Businesses around M usic and \nRights.\" Billboard 123.44 (2011): 16-19. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. \n \nEasley, Robert F., John G. Michel, and Sarv Devaraj. \"The MP3 Open Standard and the Music \nIndustry's Response to Internet Piracy.\" Communications of the ACM 46.11 (2003). Web. \n5 Mar. 2013. \n \nGunduz, Ugur. \"Digital Music Format MP3 as a New Communication Technology and the \nFuture of the Music Industry.\" The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies 4.7: 202-07. \nWeb. 18 Mar. 2013. \n \nHajdu, David. \"The IPod Blues.\" The New Republic . 29 Mar. 2004. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. \n \nIFPI Digital Music Report 2013 . Rep. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, \n2013. Print. \n \nIFPI Lets Play . Rep. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2012. Print. \n \nJanssens, Jelle, Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken. \"The Music Industry on ( the) Line? \nSurviving Music Piracy in a Digital Era.\" European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and \nJustice 17.2 (2009): 77-96. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. \n \nKeesan, Joshua. \"Let It Be? The Challenge of Using Old Definitions for Online Mus ic \nPractices.\" Berkeley Technology Law Journal 23.353 (2008). Web. 10 Mar. 2013. \n 63 \n \nLam, Calvin K.M., and Bernard C.Y. Tan. \"The Internet Is Changing the Music \nIndustry.\" Communications of the ACM 44.8 (2001). Web. 29 Mar. 2013. \n \nMooney, Patrick, Subarna Samanta, and Ali H.M. Zaden. \"Napster and Its Effect s on the Music \nIndustry: An Empirical Analysis.\" Journal of Social Sciences 6.3 (2010): 303-\n09. Academic Search Premier . Web. 29 Mar. 2013. \n \nStyvén, Maria. \"The Intangibility of Music in the Internet Age.\" Popular Music & Society 30.1 \n(2007): 53-74. Print. \n \nVogel, Harold L. \"Music.\" Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis . \n6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. 192-227. Print. \n \nWarr, Richard. \"Is the Music Industry Stuck Between Rock and a Hard Place? The Rule of the \nInternet and 3 Possible Scenarios.\" Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18.2 \n(2011): 126-31. Academic Search Premier . Web. 5 Mar. 2013. \n \nWelsh, Jared S. \"Pay What You Like- No Really: Why Copyright Law Should M ake Digital \nMusic Free for Noncommercial Uses.\" Emory Law Journal 58 (2009): 1494-537. Print. \n \n ", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "record", + "label", + "industry", + "artist", + "consumer", + "sale", + "technology", + "p", + "cd" + ], + "summary": "Claremont Colle ges\nScholarship @ C laremont\nCMC S enior The ses CMC S tude nt Scholarship\n2013\nThe " + }, + { + "filename": "44011175-Major-vs-Indie-Label.pdf", + "text": "1\nDavid P.\nMrs. Finnerty\nSeminar 12\n23 Feb. 2006\nEQ: How are independent artists and new technologies dismantling the impact of major \nrecord labels?\n“The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 \nmillion dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about \n1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.” Producer \nSteve Albini discusses this commo n situation in his controversial essay, The Problem With Music \n(Albini). Bands have historically been eager to sign contracts with major record labels, mostly because \ncorporate-backed record companies have the resources to turn their artists into successful money-making \nbrands. Signing to a major label has been the only reasonable way for an artist to be heard by a broad \naudience, yet many record deals end up as unfavorable to the artist as the deal Albini discusses.\nSince the beginning of the record industry in the early 1900s, corporate record companies and \ntheir artists have been the most successful (in terms of earnings, fanbase, awards and recognition, etc.), \nyet much of this success is due to the independent, trend-setting labels that the major labels follow. \nIndependent labels are known for taking risks and developing artists with unique sounds, and many of the \nworld’s top artists (Elvis, The Beatles, Maroon 5 and 50 Cent, for example) were once signed to \nindependent labels. However, partially due to new distribution technologies introduced in the past few \nyears, and an increasing amount of opportunities for exposure to consumers, independent artists have \nbeen moving towards the center of the mainstream music market; some are successfully competing with \nmajor-label artists, and finally receiving their hard-earned, long-overdue attention and recognition. \nArtists, labels, and consumers are finding that because of the overall appeal of independent artists- \npartially due to the growing exposure and resulting popularity of independent artists as well as a \nhistorical trend in broadening consumer music tastes- changes benefiting independent artists are taking 2\nplace in this system that has indisputably favored corporate-sponsored major-label artists in the past.\nThe Record Industry – Background\nSince the beginning of the recording industry, corporations have been the most controlling forces. \nIn 1940, three record companies controlled the music industry, and two of the three companies \n(RCA/Victor and Columbia/American Recording Company) were part of major broadcast corporations \n(Bishop 12). These companies recorded, produced, manufactured, marketed, and owned the rights to \neach of their artists’ recordings, and they focused on producing mostly big-band jazz and classical \nrecordings. However, as more African Americans moved toward urban areas in the 1940s, blues, jazz, \nand gospel began to move away from their classification as “race music” and moved toward the \nmainstream; the corporate labels wanted to capitalize on this growing popularity in major markets \n(Bishop 12). The popularity of this music grew simply because the music was around and it was \nsomething new, and by the 1950s the majority of people had developed an appreciation for more than just \none or two musical genres.\nBy the early 1950s there were six major record labels, which had adapted in order to \naccommo date the diverse music tastes the public was developing. At the same time, teenagers were \nbeginning to look for a style of music they could call their own, since their parents had seen and been a \npart of the rise in blues, jazz, and gospel music (Bishop 13). By this time the major labels had \nsuccessfully signed, recorded, and promoted many unknown artists, but the smaller independent labels \nbetter understood what the younger generation wanted to hear. In 1954, Sun Records in Memphis, \nTennessee signed Elvis Presley, who created an early version of rock ‘n roll by combining country music \nwith R&B (Sun Record Company). Independent labels caught on to the rock ‘n roll sound early, and as \nmore and more labels released rock ‘n roll records, their popularity grew among teens who wanted to \nhear specifically this style of music. Major labels felt the pressure to shift their artist rosters in order to \naccommo date this consumer demand, and they gradually did so by the late 1950s (Bishop 13).\nAs rock ‘n roll’s popularity grew, so did record sales for independent labels. From 1955 to 1956, \nindependent labels saw a 44 percent increase in sales. Yet in the mid-1950s genres other than rock ‘n roll 3\nstill dominated the radio and sales charts, and from 1954 to 1958, four major labels (Columbia, \nRCA/Victor, Decca, and Capitol) were responsible for 75 percent of the hit records listed in Billboard \nMagazine. By the end of the decade, however, in 1959 the same four major labels were only responsible \nfor 36 percent of hit records (Bishop 13).\nIn 1960, there were around 3,000 record labels in the United States, and 500 were under the \n“corporate umbrella” of major labels (Bishop 14), and major labels saw that the smaller independent \nlabels were setting trends and, at the time, had a clearer understanding of what the younger generations \nwanted to hear. Even after a decade of observing independent labels, and having the opportunity to \ndevelop similarly successful artists, those majors who either could not effectively compete with \nsuccessful independent labels, or did not see a need to risk promoting unproven new artists, simply began \nto buy, distribute, or co-own independent labels in order share in the success. This led to a cycle that still \noccurs today: independent, entrepreneurial labels start musical trends, “[identify] a particular market \nniche in which to specialize” (Bishop 12), and eventually sell their company, catalog, or artist roster to a \nmajor label.\nMajor Label Structure\nWorking through a major label is the “mainstream” way to produce and release a record. An \nartist signs with the label, and the label gives the artist an advance, with which the artist records an \nalbum, and then turns the master recording over to the label. The label turns the master into CDs and \nsends them to the distributor, which in turn wholesales the product to record stores (Passman 81). Once \nthe CD is in the distributor’s hands, the label focuses its efforts and resources on advertising, promoting, \nand marketing the album.\nIn a major label, the following people have the most important jobs:\nA&R - “Discovers” and develops new artists, and often helps coordinate the artist’s release (Passman \n81). This can include helping choose the songs the artist records, choosing the producer, album artwork \ndesigner, and most importantly, coordinating all the departments of the label to make sure that all of the \nlabel’s resources work together successfully for the release.4\nMarketing – Handles the advertising, publicity, album artwork (sometimes), music videos, in-store \ndisplays, and promotional merchandise (Passman 82). This department is responsible for turning the \nartist into a successful comme rcial brand.\nPromotion – The promotion department exclusively works to get the artist’s songs on the radio (Passman \n82). Most major labels have an in-house promotion department, while some hire independent promoters. \nUsing independent promoters allows for a smaller full-time staff, and can work as an advantage to the \nlabel because their artists are getting promoted along with those represented by other labels; this makes \nradio’s decision to play the song more about the song and artist, and less about the label.\nIndependent Labels\nThe term “independent label” has several meanings, all of which are drastically different. “True \nindependents” are owned independently from a corporation, and distributed through independent \ndistributors (owned independently from a corporation). Some “true” independent labels are owned by \nmajor labels, but are still viewed in this way when they are distributed by independent distributors, and \nthe major label owner stays out of most of the label’s affairs (Passman 85-86).\n“Mini-majors” are complete record labels, without distribution systems of their own. They are \noften distributed by a major label’s distribution company, and sometimes co-owned by a major label. \nExamples of “mini-majors” include Jive Records, which is distributed by BMG, and Maverick Records, \nwhich is distributed by WEA (Passman 84).\nA different type of label, which is becoming more popular in recent years, is the major-distributed \nindependent label. This label simply supplies the major label with the recording, and the label does \neverything else. The independent label essentially acts as a production company, and some even rely on \ntheir major label partner to do the promotion (Passman 85). Sometimes the label is owned by the artists \nthemselves, as is the case with Ani Difranco’s “Righteous Babe Records.” Difranco uses the label to \npromote her own records, and it is now considered one of the most successful independent record labels \nin the United States (Barnet and Burriss 23).5\nMajor vs. Independent Labels\nIn order to examine how independent artists are dismantling the impact of major record labels, it \nis important to understand the real effects of the major and independent label systems, whose operations \nhave been summa rized. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the advantages and disadvantages of major \nand independent labels, from the perspective of both the artist and the consumer, and determine which \nsystem has the greater potential to dominate the music industry in the 21st century.\nMajor Label Advantages\nMoney and power are the most desirable assets of a major record label. In order to successfully \nrelease an album nationally and expect it to have widespread appeal and attract the attention of the \nmajority of people who listen to new music, a significant amount of money must be invested in the \nrelease. Major record labels often spend a considerable amount of money on promotion in order to make \nsure that their artists are successfully promoted through outlets like radio, music videos, TV, magazines, \nnewspapers, in-store displays and promotions, etc. These outlets have long been considered the most \nreputable means for finding and selling new music; they contribute highly to the sales of records whose \nmarketing campaigns rely on and utilize them, and while it takes power and money to access them, that’s \nnot a problem for corporate-backed major record labels.\nBecause of their financial structure, it appears that major labels simply have an advantage over \nindependent labels with limited funding. Michael Jackson, for instance, benefited greatly from the \n$200,000 his label spent to produce his Thriller video in 1983 (Alderman 62). Thriller sold 20 million \nrecords (Alderman 63), and its video was groundbreaking and widely popular. A $200,000 video budget \nis absolutely out of reach for independent artists and labels, and when it comes to making a promotional \nmusic video with no restrictions, exactly as the artist and label want it, major labels certainly have an \nadvantage.\nRadio airplay has historically been an especially important factor in a record’s release. \nConsumers of mainstream music listen to the radio to hear their favorite songs, and greatly rely on it to \nintroduce them to new music. Launching a national comme rcial radio campaign takes money, time, 6\neffort, and strong relationships with the program directors at radio stations. Many labels, even majors, \noutsource the job of radio promotion to an independent promoter who can take the time and effort to do \nthe job successfully, and has good relationships with radio stations. A national comme rcial radio \ncampaign through an independent promoter can cost $40,000 just to try to get one single onto national \npop radio, and after eight weeks, the promoter is done working for the artist (Farrish). Major labels have \nthe advantage of being able to afford this kind of promotion, whereas $40,000 is sometimes more than an \nindependent label can spend on an artist’s entire album- from the production to the promotion. \nMajor labels also have the advantage of having more money and better distribution networks than \nindependent labels, which gives them a better ability to meet a demand for their product as they see it \ngrowing (Barnet and Burriss 23). As Richard Barnet and Larry Burriss, authors of Controversies of the \nMusic Industry, put it, “[l]arge multinational labels have the capital to manufacture larger inventories of \nCDs than do indies. With their company-owned international distribution systems, majors can quickly \nmove many recordings from their CD manufacturing plants and warehouses to retail stores if a song \nsuddenly gets radio airplay” (23).\nMajor Label Disadvantages\nOne of the main arguments against major labels is that they are set up to promote and reward \nformulaic, unoriginal music, in order to safely market music that is known to have high consumer appeal. \nMusic Genres and Corporate Cultures author Keith Negus writes “[t]he work of record companies is now \nbased far more on strategic calculation, data management, monitoring and measuring techniques and the \nexplicit applications of forms of management theory. It is based less on gut feeling, hunches, intuition \nand inspired guesswork” (62). This attempt at formulaic, corporate-created music is also seen in the use \nof “hit-picking software,” which digitally analyzes a song, compares it with hit songs, and predicts its \nability to succeed on the radio and charts (Kusek and Leonhard 157). Music has historically served the \npurpose of both entertaining listeners and causing them to react to the moments of new, original \ncreativity that truly define a song. With originality thrown aside by software that intentionally promotes \npredictability, and corporate executives who market “safe” artists with mass appeal and little surprise to 7\nlisteners, it may become difficult to find music that appeals to those who appreciate originality, within the \ncorporate music industry.\nMajor labels, as Steve Albini mentioned, also have a reputation for giving artists unfavorable \ndeals and rewarding the business team greater than the artist who created the music. Herbie Hancock, a \nwell-known and respected jazz pianist and innovator of technologies, shares his opinion on the major \nlabel business model: “I’m not happy about the business model that the record companies have been \nrunning until now. They have proven again and again that they are far from angels, far from having even \na casual interest in giving artists and songwriters a fair share. They have been ripping off artists, writers, \nand the public for close to a century, to the point where I can honestly say I don’t trust them at all” \n(Alderman xvii).\nMajor labels have also been slow to utilize the marketing potential of the internet, and have just \nrecently begun to bring in technology-savvy executives to compete with the independent labels who have \nbeen using digital distribution and internet marketing for years (Maney). The traditional, corporate \nenvironment of most major record labels often does not foster the same kind of creative, forward-thinking \ntalent from its business people that is embraced at small independent labels, which is why major labels \nare at a disadvantage when it comes to embracing new technologies and taking advantage of non-\ntraditional marketing opportunities. Without utilizing new digital technologies, major labels are \nbecoming less appealing to music consumers who do use these new technologies, and the major labels \nare essentially ignoring their opportunity to have an impact on the technologically inclined demographic. \nIn this age of constant technological advancements, this demographic is only growing.\nIndependent Label Disadvantages\nFor the most part, every advantage that major labels have is a disadvantage to independent labels. \nIndependent labels often lack strong, international distribution networks that would help get their \nproducts in stores. They often lack the capital of major labels that are part of international media \ncorporations, which affects all of the independent label’s operations, from the production of records to \nthe promotion. Because they are less powerful and often not as established as major labels, independent 8\nrecord labels often do not have the same leverage and access to radio, retail, and the media as major \nlabels do. Ultimately, these disadvantages make it the responsibility of independent labels to seek out or \ndevelop new ways of promoting records, simply in order to survive and compete with the corporate-\nbacked labels.\nIndependent Label Advantages and Appeal\nIn 2005, CD sales in the entire music industry were down 8% from 2004– yet independent labels, \nat 18%, have the largest share of the market that they have held in the last five years (Leeds). This is \nbecause independent labels are developing more sustainable business models and artist rosters than major \nlabels, and music consumers are finally recognizing the appeal of independent music in greater numbers.\nIndependent labels are run in a way that is completely different from major labels. While \ncorporate major labels are run by business executives who are often distant from the creators of the music \nthey market, many independent labels are run by just a few people who sign, develop, and work closely \nwith each artist on the roster. This shorter, more direct path from the creation of the music to its \npromotion helps maintain the artist’s original intended vision, and simply makes for a more authentic, \nunaffected musical production.\nOn the business side, independent record labels are run as small business, with few employees \nand lower expenses than major labels. Therefore, they are structured to make more money with fewer \nrecord sales (Kusek and Leonhard 111). Lower expectations for record sales allow independent labels to \ntake more chances on the types of artists they sign, produce, and promote, which can only bring greater \nmusical diversity and selection to consumers.\nRecord labels typically do not attract consumers, as music fans are more concerned with the \nmusic itself and not the business people behind it. However, independent labels often have a particular \nsound, and fans of artists signed to a certain label often trust it to deliver music that they like (Kusek and \nLeonhard 21). Major labels, however, are home to artists of many different styles of music, and therefore \nif a major label’s roster consists of 40 artists, it would be reasonable to assume that a certain music fan \nmight only like ten or fewer of these artists– whereas an independent label specializing in “indie folk” 9\nmusic might have a 10-artist roster, and an “indie folk” fan might like nearly all 10 of them. This kind of \nconsumer loyalty creates a built-in fanbase for many independent labels, and these labels and artists are \nable to satisfy their fans by simply maintaining musical integrity and releasing quality music that their \ndiscerning fans want to hear.\nThe Impact of Technology\nMore than ever, artists have the ability to succeed without the backing of a major record label. \nStudios are cheaper (due to the constant advancements in recording technology), marketing can be hired \nout to powerful and effective agencies, and there are numerous distribution options for independent \nartists (Kusek and Leonhard 22) in this age of consumer demand for diversity in music and music \ndelivery methods. As consumers move towards internet stores and digital music stores, independent \nmusicians and labels have a better chance of competing with major labels, since independent labels have \nthe same access to these digital stores as major labels (Barnet and Burriss 23). Traditional distribution \nmethods will become less significant (Barnet and Burriss 23), and consumers will have the opportunity to \neasily access to a huge variety of music, from which they can choose the music that appeals most to \nthem. The long-term impact of digital distribution has yet to be seen, however.\nBecause digital distribution is cheap and accessible for artists, almost anyone can start a record \nlabel and release music (Passman 390). This digital pool of music makes it very easy for consumers to \ndiscover relatively unknown artists, and leaves the decision of what is “good” and “bad” music up to the \nconsumer. Teenagers often discuss new bands with each other through podcasts and Myspace.com, and \nwithin minutes of hearing talk about a new band, can have that band’s album downloaded onto their \ncomputer and ready to be played on any audio device they want (Maney).\nConclusion\nThe digital music phenomenon, which appears to be leveling the playing field between \nindependent and major artists, affects music consumers as much as it affects those inside the industry. \nThose who are used to discovering new music on the radio may soon find themselves listening to a \npodcast, hearing about the next big independent band through the internet. The diversity in music that 10\nconsumers can discover is now virtually unlimited, and with digital outlets favoring more than simply the \nfive major record labels, consumers are gaining access to a new music market. This new market is one \nwhere major-label artists are just as accessible as local garage bands, which means consumers in general \nare becoming more exposed to quality independent artists than ever before.\nThough major record labels still dominate the music market, the overall appeal of independent \nartists, labels, their direct path from artist to consumer, and their musical integrity will ultimately, with \nthe growing popularity of digital distribution and decreasing emphasis on traditional methods of \npromotion, lead to the dismantling of corporate-driven music.11\nWorks Cited\nAlbini, Steve. The Problem With Music. Negativland. 11 Dec. 2005 \n. \nAlderman, John. Sonic Boom. Cambridge: Perseus Books Group, 2001. \nBarnett, Richard D, and Larry L. Burriss. Controversies of the Music Industry. Westport: Greenwood \nPress, 2001. \nBishop, Jack. \"Building International Empires of Sound: Concentrations of Power and Property in the \n‘Global’ Music Market.\" Popular Music & Society Oct 2005: 443-471, 29p. Academic Search \nPremier. EBSCO. 9 Sept. 2005. \n.\nBryan Farrish Radio Promotion. 11 Dec. 2005 . \nKusek, David and Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto For The Digital Music Revolution. \nBonston: Berklee Press, 2005.\nLeeds, Jeff. \"The Net Is a Boon for Indie Labels.\" New York Times, 27 Dec. 2005. 4 Feb. \n2006 .\nManey, Kevin. Band’s Net-Inspired Hit Shows How EMI Goes With The Flow. USA Today, 2 Nov. \n2005. Academic Search Premeir. 8 Nov. 2005.\nNegus, Keith. Music Genres and Corporate Cultures. New York: Routledge, 1999. \nPassman, Donald S. All You Need To Know About The Music Business. New York: Simon & Schuster, \n2000.\nSun Record Company. 11 Dec. 2005 ", + "keywords": [ + "label", + "music", + "independent", + "major", + "artist", + "record", + "consumer", + "new", + "radio", + "company" + ], + "summary": "1\nDavid P.\nMrs. Finnerty\nSeminar 12\n23 Feb. 2006\nEQ: How are independent artists and new technologie" + }, + { + "filename": "474279484-Record-Deals-Guide.pdf", + "text": "DISSECTING THE\nDIGITAL DOLLAR\nthemmf.net/digitaldollarTHE DEALSGUIDE\nASSIGN?For the last two years the Music Managers Forum has been \neducating the artist and management community about \nthe inner workings of the streaming business through the \n‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ project.\nThis included the series of ‘Digital Dollar’ roundtables involving \nartists, songwriters, labels, publishers, lawyers, accountants and \nlots of artist managers. \nOne of the outcomes of these discussions was the consensus \nthat artists and managers needed to be better informed about \nthe various different kinds of label and distribution deals \nthat are now available in streaming age, and to have a fuller understanding of the pros and cons of each different approach. \nThat way managers would be better able to advise their artists \nDISSECTING THE\nDIGITAL DOLLAR\nthemmf.net/digitaldollarWELCOME TO THE \nDEALS GUIDE\nFor the last two years the Music Managers Forum has been \neducating the artist and management community about \nthe inner workings of the streaming business through the \n‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ project.\nThis included the series of ‘Digital Dollar’ roundtables \ninvolving artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, lawyers, \naccountants and lots of artist managers. \nOne of the outcomes of those discussions was the \nconsensus that artists and managers needed to be better \ninformed about the various different kinds of label and \ndistribution deals that are now available in the streaming age, and to have a fuller understanding of the pros and \ncons of each different approach. \nThat way managers will be better able to advise their artists \non what deals best suit their objectives. And, by having \nmore options on the table, managers should be able to \nachieve better terms with key partners. \nThis Deals Guide seeks to do just that by identifying, \nassessing and explaining ten key deal types. The music business is made up of \ncompanies and individuals who work with artists to help them unlock \nrevenue around their music, their \nperformance and their fanbase. Most music companies specialise in a specific revenue stream, meaning \nan artist will have multiple business \npartners at any one time. \nA key job of the artist manager – as \nthe one business partner involved in \nall aspects of an artist’s career – is to \nhelp their clients identify and select the other business partners and to then negotiate specific deals with \neach of them. And to then manage \nthe relationship between the artist and each business partner on a day-to-day basis. \nThe record company – or record \nlabel – is the business partner that works with the artist on creating and exploiting their recorded music. The \nlabel has always been seen as a \nkey business partner for the artist – especially with new talent – because as well as helping artists create and distribute recordings, they also provide investment and marketing \nwhich can help the artist build their \nfanbase and therefore their wider business. \nOver the last ten years the artist/label \nrelationship has started to evolve, partly as a result of changes in the economics of recorded music, partly as a result of the emergence of digital \ndistribution and marketing channels, \nand partly as a result of the expanded role of the artist manager. \nRecord labels – or companies that \nprovide the services of a record label (which may call themselves labels, distributors or label services companies) – remain key business \npartners, especially for new talent, \nbut the nature of the partnership has changed. This guide looks at the different ways artists and labels work \ntogether, the kinds of deals available \nto artists today, and the pros and cons of different artist/label models. THE DEALS GUIDE\n3Introduction\nSection One: The Services \nA Label Partner Might Provide \nAlthough primarily focused on the \nartist’s recorded music, and the revenues associated with those \nrecordings, labels may provide a \nwide range of services to the artists they work with. These might include all or any of the following: ADVANCE\nUpfront cash provided to the artist. For new talent, this cash injection may allow an artist to focus on their \nmusic full time for the first time. The \nhope is that, by going full time, an artist can focus on growing their THE DEALS GUIDE\n4fanbase and, in turn, boost each of \ntheir respective revenue streams. The label isn’t necessarily the only \nbusiness partner to advance cash, \nthough a label advance would traditionally be the most significant. \nRECORDING COSTS\nThe label often organises and pays for the recording of the artist’s music. This would involve covering the \ncosts associated with hiring studio \nspace, record producers, sound and mastering engineers, and any session musicians. Under UK copyright law, \nby organising and paying for the \nrecordings to be made, the label would be the default owner of the sound recording copyright in those tracks. \nARTIST DEVELOPMENT\nThe label may support the artist’s creative development. This may be simply through informal feedback, \nor by funding songwriting and \nrecording sessions, or by organising collaborations with other artists, songwriters and record producers. \nPRODUCT DEVELOPMENT\nOnce recording sessions are complete, various recorded music products will be created including \nsingle, album and EP releases. The \nlabel will usually work in liaison with artist and management to decide what form these products will take, \nand then commission and pay for \naccompanying visuals such as photography, artwork and videos. \nDIGITIAL DISTRIBUTION\nThe label arranges for completed tracks to be made available to all relevant download stores and streaming platforms. Some labels have their own infrastructure to \ndeliver this content and deals in place \nwith the digital services, while others will utilise the infrastructure and/or deals of third parties. \nPHYSICAL MANUFACTURE \n& DISTRIBUTION\nIf physical products are to be \nreleased – ie CD or vinyl – the label will arrange for these products to be \nboth manufactured and delivered to \nhigh street and mail-order retailers. Again, labels may have their own physical distribution network or \nmay utilise the infrastructure of third \nparties. Several logistics partners may be involved to get product from the factory to the high street. \nCONSUMER MARKETING\nAs a recording is first released a consumer-facing marketing campaign will be staged to promote both the \nartist and the record. Labels normally \nlead on this marketing activity, putting together a campaign plan in liaison with artist and management, and \nthen delivering the campaign, either \nin house or by employing third party agencies. \nTraditionally most marketing \ncampaigns would be structured \naround an album release, with about twelve weeks of activity leading up to and after the release date. Though \nwith the shift to streaming - where \nrepeat listening rather than first week sales are the objective - longer campaigns are often necessary. \nAn album marketing campaign will Cash Advance\nRecording CostsArtist DevelopmentProduct DevelopmentDigital DistributionPhysical ManufacturePhysical DistributionConsumer MarketingB2B MarketingPressPromotionsSocial & DigitalSync\nWHAT DOES YOUR PARTNER PROVIDE?\n4THE DEALS GUIDE\n6likely include press and promotions \nwork, social media and email activity, and possibly advertising, events and \npublicity stunts. For the label, the \npriority is generating sales and/or streams of the record, though for the artist – especially with new talent – \nthe album campaign is as much about \nbuilding their brand and fanbase, so to grow their other revenue streams as well. \nB2B MARKETING\nIn addition to the consumer-facing marketing campaign, the label will also promote the artist and their \nrecordings to an industry audience. \nThis traditionally meant sales activity to persuade retailers to stock the record. In the digital domain, the \ndigital service provider allows any \nrecordings to be pushed into its platform, so the B2B marketing is more about ensuring a track has prominence, which usually means \ngetting it included in playlists on \nthe streaming services. The label may also promote the artist to other decision makers and opinion formers \nwithin the industry, usually on a more \ninformal basis. \nPRESS \nA key component of a label marketing campaign is getting media coverage for the artist and \ntheir release. The label usually takes \nresponsibility for this activity, either utilising in-house publicity teams or hiring the services of external music \nPR agencies. Although the label \nis primarily promoting an artist’s new recordings to blogs, websites, magazines and newspapers, it may also promote the artist’s other activity if it believes this will lead to extra coverage which, in turn, further promotes the new record. \nPROMOTIONS\nIn addition to getting media coverage for an artist’s release, the label will also seek to get the new music \n– specifically the single releases \n– played on radio and TV, and in relevant clubs. Labels usually have separate PR teams working on this - \nusually referring to as the promotions \nor plugging team – or again may outsource this work to an external promotions agency. \nSOCIAL MEDIA & \nDIGITAL CHANNELS\nAnother key component of a label \nmarketing campaign is the use of social media and other digital \nchannels such as email. Most \nartists will have active social media channels and email lists already, and the label will work with artist \nand management on creating \nbespoke content for these channels around the new release. This may also involve the label putting some advertising spend into social media, \nespecially Facebook. The label may \nalso have its own digital channels via which it will promote the release. \nSYNC \nBeyond generating revenue through the sale and streaming of the artist’s recordings, the label may also \nseek opportunities to have tracks \nsynchronised into TV programmes, movies, adverts and games. This work involves pitching tracks to \nmusic supervisors and negotiating \ndeals with potential sync clients. WHAT DOES YOUR PARTNER WANT?\nExclusivity\nCopyright OwnershipControl Of RecordingsMajority Cut Of Revenue50/50 Split Of RevenueMinority Cut Of RevenueCut Of Other RevenuesTHE DEALS GUIDE\n8All artists need business partners to \nprovide at least some of the services outlined in Section One. \nAn artist may seek to do an all \nencompassing deal with a single label that provides all of these things. Or they may seek to engage a \nnumber of companies that together \nprovide all of these services. \nOr they may seek to do a deal with a \nlabel – or a label services company \n– to provide some of these services, \nwhile the artist’s management company provides the rest. \nWHAT THE LABEL \nPARTNER WANTS \nEXCLUSIVITY\nA label partner will usually want some \nsort of exclusivity arrangement with \nthe artist. In the case of a traditional \nrecord deal, this would usually mean that the artist is obliged to deliver a certain number of recordings to the label and is not allowed to make or \nrelease recordings with any other \nparties until that obligation has been met (or the label has decided not to exercise its right to receive additional \nrecordings). \nREVENUE SHARE\nWith a few exceptions, label partners \ndon’t usually expect to charge upfront fees to the artist. Rather the \nlabel initially provides its services for \nfree and then shares in any revenue the artist’s recordings generate. How this revenue is shared varies hugely \nfrom deal to deal – in a classic record \ndeal the label keeps the majority of the money, in a modern distribution deal the artist keeps the majority of the money. The label will also likely \nbe able to recoup some or all of \nits costs before the revenue share arrangement kicks in, either from the \ntotal income pool or specifically the \nartist’s share. Section Two: The DealSome labels are more proactive than others when it comes to sync, though most will usually be pitching tracks \nfrom across its catalogue to potential \nsync clients, rather than specifically seeking opportunities for any one artist at any one time. \nOTHER COMMERCIAL \nOPPORTUNITIES\nThe label may also be seeking \nother commercial opportunities that benefit both it and the artist. This includes exploiting the artist’s recordings by placing them on \ncompilation albums and possibly \npursuing brand opportunities other than sync. It may also include seeking commercial opportunities beyond \nthe artist’s actual recordings if the \nlabel is cut into other any of the artist’s other revenue streams such as merchandise, brand partnerships and direct-to-fan. THE DEALS GUIDE\n9COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP\nUnder a classic record deal the label \nwould own the copyright in any sound recordings generated under \nthe deal. This means that the controls \nthat come with the sound recording copyright belong to the label – not the artist – and therefore it is the \nlabel that is empowered to exploit \nthose controls for profit. \nUnder UK law, if the label arranges \nfor the recordings to be made, \nit would be the default owner of \nthe copyright anyway. Where the recordings have already been made prior to the label’s involvement, those \nrights would be assigned to the label \nthrough contract. The label may own the copyright in the artist’s sound recordings for ‘life of copyright’ – so 70 years after release in the UK – or \nthe label may be the rights owner \nfor a period of time after which the copyright reverts to the artist. \nDistributor and distribution deals \ndo not usually involve copyright assignment, though the distributor or label will still often be granted an exclusive licence to exploit the artist’s \nsound recordings for a set period of \ntime, and will likely act as if it was the copyright owner while those deals are still valid. \nANCILLARY REVENUES\nTraditionally a record label was only cut into the artist’s recorded music revenue stream. Other revenue \nstreams – such as publishing (ie the \nmonetisation of the separate song copyright), live, merchandise, direct-to-fan and brand partnerships – were not part of the deal. Artists would \nusually enter into deals with other \nbusiness partners to capitalise on these other revenue streams. \nHowever, as the value of recorded \nmusic slumped in the 2000s, many \nlabels started to demand a cut of some of the other revenue streams \ntoo, especially with new talent \ndeals. The labels argued that it was their investment and marketing that unlocked these other revenue streams and that, as the financial \nreturn on recordings had declined, \nthey needed a share of other “under a classic record deal the label \nwould own the copyright in any sound \nrecordings generated under the deal. \nThis means that the controls that come \nwith the sound recording copyright \nbelong to the label – not the artist \n– and therefore it is the label that is \nempowered to exploit those controls”THE DEALS GUIDE\n10revenues to justify their upfront \ncommitment. \nWhich other revenue streams a label \nmight share in, and quite what that means, varies greatly from deal to deal. Labels usually refer to these as ‘ancillary revenues’, which tells you \nthat most labels are still primarily \ninterested in partnering with artists on their recordings, and involvement in other aspects of the artist’s business is seen as secondary, even if those \nother revenue share arrangements \nmight prove to be as lucrative. \nWHAT THE LABEL \nPARTNER PROVIDES\nINVESTMENT\nFor new artists in particular, the most \nimportant aspect of the record deal \nis the investment the label provides. The label invests both money – in terms of the cash advance and \nbudgets to pay for external suppliers and advertising – and resources. This investment is secured on future revenues generated by the artist’s \nrecordings. In the case of new artists, \nthat can be a risky investment in that the future revenues are not assured. As a result, the label will usually be more demanding in new talent deals. \nSERVICES\nThe label will provide some or all of the services outlined in Section One. The artist’s deal needs to \noutline which services in particular \nwill be provided, with as much clarity as possible as to what the label is committing to the artist in terms \nof budget, time and expertise. A \ntricky task for management is then ensuring the label delivers on these “artists like to retain ownership of \ntheir copyrights, though most new \ntalent deals involve some copyright \nassignment to the label, and in the case of major label deals that may \nwell be for life of copyright. Artists \nmay be able to negotiate back some of those copyrights in future \ndeals with the label, though that \noption is not guaranteed\n”THE DEALS GUIDE\n11commitments once the deal has been \nsigned. \nROYALTIES \nUsually, all monies generated by an artist’s recordings will initially go to the label partner, which will then pay the \nartist their share. The one exception \nto this is monies generated via the collective licensing system – so when PPL collects in the UK – where 50% \nof monies will be paid directly to all \nthe performers who appear on any one recording. This is because when the so called ‘performing rights’ of a sound recording are exploited, statutory Performer Equitable Remuneration is due. \nBut all other income will be paid to \nthe label partner in first instance. The label partner then needs to \npay the artist their share, subject to \ncontract. As mentioned above, the way income is shared between label and artist varies greatly from contract to contract. The label will also likely \nbe able to recoup some or all of \nits costs before the revenue share arrangement kicks in, either from the total income or specifically the artist’s \nshare.\nSection Three: Negotiation Points\nAn artist’s manager and lawyer will \nusually negotiate the deal with the label partner. \nLike any business deal, the \nnegotiations will cover a number of topics, but there are usually four key elements to the deal. \nCOMMITMENTS\nWhat is the label committing to the artist in terms of investment and services? And what is the artist \ncommitting to the label in terms \nof number of recordings, time and exclusivity? While these commitments will be outlined in contract and \ntherefore in theory enforceable by \nlaw, in reality there needs to be a degree of trust between the artist and label with regard each party’s willingness and ability to deliver. COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP\nWho owns the copyright in the sound recordings created under the deal? If the label is the copyright owner, \ndoes the artist have any contractual \nrights over how the recordings are exploited? If the artist is the copyright owner, does the label have an \nexclusive licence to exploit those \nrights, and are there any limitations to that licence? \nArtists like to retain ownership of \ntheir copyrights, though most new \ntalent deals involve some copyright assignment to the label, and in the case of major label deals that may \nwell be for life of copyright. Artists \nmay be able to negotiate back some of those copyrights in future deals with the label, though that option is not guaranteed. THE DEALS GUIDE\n12ROYALTIES, RECOUPMENT \n& DISCOUNTS\nThe contract will set out how \nrevenues will be shared. Where the label is the copyright owner, it \npays the artist a royalty on revenues \ngenerated. Where the artist is the copyright owner, the label charges a commission on revenues generated. \nIn many ways the distinction is merely \nsemantic, though these respective deal types are often viewed quite differently. \nEither way, the artist will usually \nreceive a percentage of revenues generated. There may be one percentage across the board or the \npercentages may differ depending on \nthe revenue stream - eg 15% on CD, 20% on stream, 50% on sync. The contract may also provide ‘discounts’ to the label, so that in certain \nscenarios – such as if income comes \nin via a non-UK subsidiary of the label – a lower royalty rate applies. \nThe contract also needs to define \nwhat the percentages specifically apply to – if the artist is due 20%, it needs to be clear “20% of what”. The contract may allow the label to make \n‘deductions’ to income – possibly to \ncover specific identifiable costs or possibly more generic deductions – before the percentage due is \ncalculated, therefore reducing the \noverall royalty that is paid. \nThe label will also usually be allowed \nto recoup some or all of its costs out \nof the revenue generated before the \nartist is paid any money at all. The contract needs to set out what costs are recoupable in this way. Also, are these costs recouped out of all the \nincome that comes in or from just the \nincome allocated to the artist? The former arrangement would usually be referred to as a ‘profit share deal’ while the latter would be referred to \nas a ‘royalties deal’. The ‘royalties \ndeal’ arrangement is actually more common. \nTo illustrate the difference, take this \nexample: the artist and label are on a 50/50 split, there are £100K in recoupable costs, and £250K in income has so far been generated. \nOn a profit share arrangement, the \nfirst £100K would go to the label, and the next £150K would be split 50/50, so the artist gets £75K. On a royalties \narrangement, half of the money \nwould be allocated to the artist – so £125K – of which £100K would be taken to cover the label’s recoupable costs, so the artist gets £25K. \nArguably, many contracts have overly \ncomplicated systems in place for royalty payments, especially when it \ncomes to discounts and deductions, \nmany of which came about in the physical era and don’t make sense in the streaming age. Managers support simpler royalty arrangements – with \nfewer or no discounts and deductions \n– and some labels and, especially, distributors, already offer such simpler arrangements. \nREPORTING\nAs most monies generated by the artist’s recordings go through the label at first instance, the artist is \nreliant on the label to report all \nincome, sums received and royalties due to the artist. THE DEALS GUIDE\n13The shift to streaming has created a \nnumber of challenges in this regard, because with streaming there is so \nmuch more data to report. Though \nat the same time new technologies should also make the crunching and distribution of this data simpler if the \nright platforms can be built. \nThe streaming services also provide \nvaluable usage data as well as royalty data which can inform an artist’s \nwider business. \nWhile some streaming services \nprovide this information directly to \nartists, others only provide data to \nlabels and distributors, so artists rely on their label partners to access this information. \nManagers recognise that some \nlabels and distributors have invested heavily in building platforms to more efficiently share royalty and usage \ndata, though there is still much room \nfor improvement here across the industry. \nThe MMF Transparency Guide \ngoes into all this in more detail, but \nensuring the artist has access to this information is something that now needs to be considered when \nentering into a deal with a label \npartner. \nSection Four: Deal Types\nThere is a range of label partners and deal types for artists to choose from. \nAs mentioned above, some of these \nlabel partners are record labels in the traditional sense, while others may call themselves distributors or \nlabel services companies. However, \nall offer at least some of the services described in Section One. \nNot all these label partners and deal \ntypes are available to all artists. The \nmore risk a label partner needs to take, the more selective they will be in choosing which artists to work \nwith. Quite what partners and deal \ntypes are available – and which are most desirable – will often depend on where the artist is in their career, and they will likely work with different kinds of partners signing different types of deals as their career progresses. \nDEAL 01: DIY DISTRIBUTOR – \nFEE BASED\nThese companies provide basic \ndigital distribution, getting tracks into most digital platforms (download \nstores and streaming platforms) \nand providing usage and royalty data back from the services. These companies don’t usually provide \nproactive marketing services though \nmay provide some digital marketing tools. These services are usually available to all and any artists with a menu of off-the-shelf packages to \nchoose from. They charge the artist \na nominal set up fee for each release but then pass on 100% of the income generated. Some DIY distributors actually provide the basic distribution \nfree of charge and then try to upsell premium services. There is usually \nonly a nominal commitment to these \nservices, meaning artists can cancel contracts by providing only minimal notice. \nDEAL 02: DIY DISTRIBUTOR – \nCOMMISSION BASED\nThese companies also provide basic \ndigital distribution, getting tracks into most digital platforms and providing \nusage and royalty data back from the \nservices. Likewise, these companies don’t usually provide proactive marketing services though may \nprovide some digital marketing tools. \nThe difference with these companies is that instead of charging a set fee, there are no upfront costs and the distributor instead takes a cut of any \nincome generated. These services \nare usually available to all and any artists, though some might employ some sort of selection process. There \nis usually only a nominal commitment \nto these services, meaning artists can cancel contracts by providing only minimal notice.\nDEAL 03: DIY DISTRIBUTOR \nWITH ADVANCE\nDIY distributors usually provide artists \nwith the tools to get their music into the digital platforms and then pass on \nany monies as they are generated. \nHowever, some DIY distributors have also started offering advances on future income in some scenarios. \nSuch advances are usually made \nbased on past performance, ie where a distributor can see what income an artist has generated in the last year and can advance money based on that information. The idea is that by advancing on future income the \nartist may be able to fund some \nmarketing that, hopefully, will boost streaming and therefore revenue. The terms of this advanced income varies, and usually locks the artist to \nthe distributor until any advance has \nbeen paid back. \nDEAL 04: DISTRIBUTOR \nArtists can also seek to do deals with more conventional music distributors, which traditionally \nworked for independent labels, but \nwhich may now work directly with artists too. There is usually more flexibility in these deals, rather than \nthe distributor offering off-the-shelf \npackages. \nConventional distributors will likely \nwant a higher commission than a \nDIY distributor, but should offer more \nservices in return, in particular B2B marketing, helping to get releases stocked by retailers and playlisted by \nstreaming platforms. Most of these \ndistributors can also assist in physical product distribution, either directly or via third parties, where an artist plans a physical release. \nArtists can usually negotiate \nadvances from distributors, but again this will primarily be based \non past financial performance. The \nadvance will then be recoupable from the artist’s share of subsequent income. More conventional music distributors will usually want a longer \ncommitment from the artist than \na DIY distributor, ie a contractual commitment that they will work together for a set period of time. THE DEALS GUIDE\n14THE DEALS GUIDE\n15DEAL 05: DISTRIBUTOR \nWITH MARKETING\nMany distributors now offer consumer \nmarketing as part of the deal. Quite what this means varies greatly \nfrom distributor to distributor. Some \ndistributors have in-house marketing teams while others will commit to hire external agencies. At least some \nof the costs associated with this \nmarketing will likely be recoupable. \nDEAL 06: DISTRIBUTOR \nWITH LABEL SERVICES \nSome distributors offer a range of \nother label services in addition to distribution and marketing, ie some of \nthe other services outlined in Section \nOne above. The range of services on offer varies from company to company, and which services are \nincluded varies from deal to deal, \nthough most distributors assume that the artist has already recorded the album before engaging their services. Distributors of this kind \nusually offer a lot of flexibility as to \nwhat services are part of the deal, so that artists can pick and choose what they require. The deal obviously needs to set out what costs are recoupable. \nDEAL 07: DISTRIBUTION \nDEAL WITH A LABEL\nMany record labels now offer \ndistribution or services deals as well. These may be through separate \ndivisions that are basically distributors \nas described above, or an artist might be able to sign a distribution deal with a more conventional label. In the latter option, the label may \noperate more like the label services \nagency described above. Or the label may actually provide all the services associated with a traditional record deal, but without any copyright \nassignment. This could be seen \nas the best of both worlds, though deals of this kind are most commonly offered to more established artists. \nDEAL 08: ASSIGNMENT \nDEAL WITH A LABEL \n(PROFIT SHARE)\nThis is a more traditional record \ndeal, in which most of the services outlined in Section One are provided, \nincluding a cash advance, and the “the more risk a label partner needs \nto take, the more selective they will \nbe in choosing which artists to work \nwith … quite what partners and deal types are available – and which are \nmost desirable – will often depend on \nwhere the artist is in their career\n”THE DEALS GUIDE\n16label is involved in the recording \nof the album. The copyright in any sound recordings belongs to the \nlabel, at least for a time. Under \na profit share arrangement, any recoupable costs are recouped out of all the income generated, not \njust the artist’s share. These deals \nare traditionally offered by smaller independent labels which would generally commit to invest less money upfront. All of the label’s costs \nwould commonly be recoupable, and \nthe subsequent split would usually be 50/50.\nDEAL 09: ASSIGNMENT \nDEAL WITH A LABEL \n(ROYALTY DEAL – INDIE)\nThis is also a more traditional \nrecord deal, in which most of the services outlined in Section One \nare provided. Indeed, under more \nconventional record deals of this kind the label may choose to go beyond their contractual commitments \nin distributing and marketing the \nrelease, especially if it feels like the record is gaining momentum. The copyright in any sound recordings belongs to the label, at least for a \ntime. \nUnder the royalty deal arrangement, \nit is agreed which of the label’s \ncosts are recoupable (this commonly \nincludes the advance, recording costs, videos and TV advertising) and these come out of the artist’s share of income. Although indie labels may be \nmore generous on royalty splits than \nthe majors, these deals would usually still see the label keeping the majority of the income generated. Indie labels generally can’t afford to invest as much upfront as a major, but \nare usually more flexible on copyright \nassignment for a set term (rather than life of copyright), are less likely to apply complicated discounts and deductions, are less likely to interfere \nartistically, and are more likely to \ncontinue working an album that doesn’t enjoy immediate success if they believe it still has potential. \nDEAL 10: ASSIGNMENT DEAL \nWITH A LABEL (ROYALTY \nDEAL – MAJOR)\nThis is basically the same as the \nindie label deal described above. Again, the label provides most of \nthe services described in Section \nOne and may choose to go beyond their contractual commitments in distributing and marketing the \nrelease, especially if it feels like the \nrecord is gaining momentum. The copyright in any sound recordings belongs to the label, some costs are recoupable out of the artist’s share, \nand the label likely keeps the majority \nof the income. \nMajor labels are generally able to \ninvest more money upfront and \nhave access to global infrastructure if the local division can convince divisions in other countries of an artist’s international potential. Major \nlabels are more likely to push for \nassignment for life of copyright and to apply complicated discounts and deductions to income. They may \nseek to interfere artistically – though \nthis happens a lot less than it used to – and major labels generally expect more immediate results from releases. WHAT SERVICES DOES EACH DEAL PROVIDE?\nCash Advance\nRecording CostsArtist DvlpmntProduct DvlpmntDigital DistManufacture?Physical DistConsmer MktngB2B MktngPressPromotionsSocial & DigitalSync\nDIY – FEE\nDIY – COMMDIY+ADVANCEDISTRIBTORDISTRIBTOR+MDISTRIBTOR+SDISTRIBUTIONPROFIT SHAREINDIE LABELMAJOR LABEL8\n888488888888888848888888848884888888884888484848888488848444444848844444444444884444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444\nRemember – every deal is different. This chart simply provides a guide \nto the kinds of services the different deal types might commonly provide. Section Five: Trends & ChallengesTHE DEALS GUIDE\n18Artists have a greater range of label \npartners and deal types to choose from today than in the past. \nTraditional deals remain attractive \nif an artist seeks a single business partner to take on full control of their \nrecorded music and provide all the \nservices outlined in Section One, but the label will likely seek copyright ownership and royalty rates in its favour. \nFor artists who – probably with their \nmanagement – can handle areas like organising recordings and planning \nmarketing campaigns themselves, the \nvarious distributor and distribution deal options are attractive, enabling the artist to pick and choose which services they take and – by reducing the label’s risk – being able to \ndemand more favourable terms when \nit comes to copyright ownership and royalties. \nThis puts more strain onto \nmanagement, both in terms of navigating the deals on offer, sourcing alternative finance, and \nin providing some of the services \nthat were previously handled by the label. Though as more artists pursue distributor and distribution \ndeals, managers may find they can \nnegotiate more favourable deals with more conventional labels in an increasingly competitive market place. More optimistic managers also hope that this market pressure \nmight encourage labels to be more \ntransparent and flexible. \nHowever, one key challenge that \nremains is that, in a recorded music \nmarket that continues to evolve rapidly, negotiating future proof deals – ie deals that remain logical and fair as the recorded music business \nchanges – is difficult. \nThis is principally a problem where \ndeals involve assignment for life of \ncopyright because, while an artist \nmay only be actively working on new content with a label for a few years, they will be receiving royalties from their label partner for at least the next 70 years. And the recorded music \nindustry will likely go through several \nrevolutions in that time, making legacy contract terms impractical and \ninequitable. \nThis is proving problematic today \nwith legacy contracts from the Twentieth Century when assignment \nfor life of copyright was the norm. \nManagers feel that – in the absence of an industry-wide initiative to bring old contracts into the modern age \n– legislative change is required to \nempower artists to bring old deals in line with current standards. “negotiating future proof deals – ie deals \nthat remain logical and fair as the recorded \nmusic business changes – is difficult”INTRODUCING THE MMF DIGITAL DEALS \nCOMPARISON CALCULATOR\nTo accompany this guide, the MMF has created a \nDigital Deals Comparison Calculator to help managers \nmore easily compare the pros and cons of different \ndeal types, in terms of the services a business partner \nprovides and how future streaming income will be \napproximately shared. You can access the Digital Deals \nComparison Calculator at themmf.net/digitaldollar\nASSIGN?The Deals Guide identifies, assesses and explains ten key \nlabel and distribution deal types available to recording artists in the streaming age. It has been produced by music consultancy CMU Insights for the Music Managers Forum. \nABOUT THE MUSIC MANAGERS FORUM | themmf.net\nMMF is the world’s largest professional community of music \nmanagers in the world. Since our inception in 1992 we have worked hard to educate, inform and represent our managers as well as offering a network through which managers can share experiences, opportunities and information. \nWe are a community of 500 managers based in the UK \nwith global businesses and a wider network of over 2000 managers globally. We engage, advise and lobby industry associates and provide a professional voice for wider industry issues relevant to managers. \nThe MMF runs training programmes, courses and events \ndesigned to educate and inform artist managers as well as regular seminars, open meetings, roundtables, discounts, workshops and the Artist & Manager Awards.\nABOUT CMU INSIGHTS | cmuinsights.com\nCMU is a service provider to the music industry best known for its various media: free daily news bulletin the CMU Daily, weekly podcast Setlist, and premium services CMU Digest and CMU Trends. \nCMU Insights provides training and consultancy to music \ncompanies and companies working with music. We offer training and research services; seminars and masterclasses; and insight sessions at music conferences around the world.CMU\nDISSECTING THE\nDIGITAL DOLLAR\nthemmf.net/digitaldollar", + "keywords": [ + "label", + "artist", + "deal", + "service", + "recording", + "may", + "copyright", + "partner", + "distributor", + "usually" + ], + "summary": "DISSECTING THE\nDIGITAL DOLLAR\nthemmf.net/digitaldollarTHE DEALSGUIDE\nASSIGN?For the last two years t" + }, + { + "filename": "241638510-Think-Like-a-Record-Company.pdf", + "text": "Think Like A Record Company \n By, Diane Rappaport author of \"How To Make And Sell Your Own Recording\" and \"The \nMusician's Business And Legal Guide.\" The books are published by Prentice Hall.\nInstead of asking the question, \"Are 3 points per album a fair royalty,\" approach a deal from the point of \nview of a record company. Put yourself in their shoes and try to think like them. It's a valuable way to \nevaluate whether you should release your music on your own artist-owned label, look for an indie or major \nrecord deal, or evaluate the fairness of a contract. \nStart with these questions.\n1. How many records will the artist sell in a year's time?\na. You can make some estimates about how many records you, the artist, can sell by totaling your best \nrough guesses of....\n(1) sales to 10% of the total amount of people who will see you perform at gigs during a year; \n(2) sales to 2% of the total number of people on your mailing list; and\n(3) sales of 2-5 records a month per local record store. Most stores know (and will tell you) how many \nrecords a month are sold by like artists in your genre who regularly perform in your area. (For a recording \nthat is $15.98 list price, a store will buy them from the record company for something near $7.50 each, \ndepending on volume.)\nb. Most indie labels count on artists to be among their best distributors, because they will sell recordings at \ngigs and mail order in the amounts estimated above, which is why it is valuable for you to make these \nestimates. Most indie labels, and some major labels, will sell artists CDs at a price close to what they sell \nthem to distributors for-somewhere between $8.87-10.40 depending on quantity for a $15.98 recording. \n(My book provides ranges of costs for stores and distributors for vinyl, cassettes and CDs based on retail \nprices.)\nIndie labels will ask you what you figure you can sell at gigs; and they will then add some guess on their \npart (based on the number of distributors they use, the stores they service, your draw and draw potential) \nabout what they will sell to other distributors. They know that if you have consigned your records to some \nstores, that this will be valuable information to a distributor. Record companies who release more than 5 \nrecordings a year know what the expected rates of sale are for a first time artist and will tell you what you \ncan realistically expect. \nc. Know up front that there are approximately 50 deals a year available from major labels for first-time \nartists. Perhaps 2 bands will recoup their costs, make a profit for themselves and their companies, and have \na chance to make another record. The others will fail, go into debt with the record company, and become \npart of the notorious statistic that there is an 85-90% failure rate among first-time signed bands. That means\na major label expects to lose money on a percentage of bands that they sign and only 'win' on a few.\nThey will choose to prioritize their 'bets,' and put their best efforts at sales and promotion for the lucky \nartists selected. And they will have a pretty good idea of how many records they will manufacture for that \nartist, what regions will be selected for primary exposure, and how many records are likely to be sold.\nIf you know this, then you (and your lawyer) will ask yourself and the major label who may be interested in\nyou these questions: \n(1) How many new bands (in my genre) did you sign within the last three years? \n(2) How many of those new bands are making a profit for you? For themselves?\n(3) What other bands will I be competing with on your label \n(4) What can we do so that our band doesn't become part of the failure statistic. \n(5) How many records can we realistically expect to sell if you get behind us the way you did (name of \nrecent first-time artist that was a winner)?2. Sales estimates help set the boundaries of a recording and promotional budget.\nEvery label does this, big or small. Here are some very rough figures to consider for CDs that are going to \nsell under 20,000 a year and are priced at $15.98 each. (There are lots of variables, but this will give you a \nstarting place for your thinking like a record company.) (In another column, we'll talk about major label \nrecordings.)\nExample A. You put out the record yourself and manufacture 2500 copies. You plan to give away 500 for \npromotion; sell 1500 at gigs and mail order for a special price of $14.00 ($21,000); and sell 500 to stores \nfor $7.50 ($3750). That gives you a total budget of $24,750 to work with. How are you (the record \ncompany) going to spend this money?\nHere's one rough allocation:\nFixed costs: manufacturing and printing of CD and CD booklets/tray cards @ $1.25 unit ($3125). (Actual \ncost depends on volume and can vary widely, depending on manufacturer and services desired.)\nGraphic design of CD cover and booklet; and graphic design and printing of all other promotional materials\n(logo, letterhead, press kit, photography, fliers): 15% of expected sales or $3712.50\nRecording: 25% of expected sales) or $6187.50\nAnnual sales and on going promotional costs: (postage, phone calls, travel, office, photocopies, etc.):15% \nof expected sales or $3712.50 (around $300 month).\nTotal Expense $16,737.50 \nExpected profit: $8012.50\nIn this budget, 2/3 of estimated income have been budgeted for expenses, leaving l/3 for profits and hedge \nagainst unexpected expenses or emergencies). Good work, if you meet your expectations and stay within \nthe budget. An investor would be happy to see the realism here, because it means that even if your \nprojections are somewhat off, you probably will meet your expenses, and there is potential for profit. \nExample B. Indie label figures it will sell 4500 copies to a distributor (one of which is you and your \nestimated sales of 1500 copies) at $9.00 each ($40,500) and use 500 for promotion. In this budget, \nhowever, the record company is going to reserve 1/3 of this amount ($13,500) up front as a hedge against \nfailure, leaving approximately $27,000 to be realistically allocated between expenses and profit. How will \n$27,000 be allocated? Every company figures it differently depending on how many records they put out a \nyear; their cash flow; distributor relationships, risk, etc. \nHere's one projection. The record company will allocate 50% of that $27,000 for recording and \nmanufacturing some of them recoupable from the artist. \nFixed manufacturing costs for 5000 CDs: $1.25 each or $6250. (The actual figure may be as little as $.90 \nfor an indie company pressing 50,000 recordings a year (10-15 artists.) Manufacturing costs are not \nrecoupable from the artist.\nRecording $7250 (which will be charged to you as a loan and recouped from your royalties). Possible, \ndepending on the type of music, readiness of band to be recorded, skill of the recording engineer and \nproducer to stay within budget\nSome percentage of budget remaining (with lots of variables in this arena) are reserved for sales and \npromotional costs, which are not recouped from an artist's royalties. ", + "keywords": [ + "record", + "artist", + "sell", + "company", + "recording", + "label", + "sale", + "many", + "year", + "distributor" + ], + "summary": "Think Like A Record Company \n By, Diane Rappaport author of \"How To Make And Sell Your Own Recording" + }, + { + "filename": "452500267-OVERALL-ARTIST-CHECKLIST-docx.pdf", + "text": "MUSIC MARKETING PLAN\nTable of Contents\nNUTS AND BOLTS ...................................................................................................... 1\n1.Music Distribution .................................................................................................... 1\n2.Band/Artist Website & Brand ................................................................................... 2\n3.Social Media.............................................................................................................. 2\n4.Digital Service Provider – DSPs.............................................................................. 4\n5.E-Mail Lists & Newsletter ......................................................................................... 6\nPREPARING FOR RELEASE ..................................................................................... 7\n6.Timeline – Your 12-Week Music .............................................................................. 7\n7.Release Day – Be Ready For It .............................................................................. 12\n8.Publicity & Marketing ............................................................................................. 13\n9.Playing Live And Streaming .................................................................................. 15\n10.Real Life Networking .......................................................................................... 16\nKEEPING THE MOMENTUM .................................................................................... 16\n11.Keep The Music Coming – This Keeps Momentum Up! ................................... 17\n12.Fan Nurturing...................................................................................................... 18\n13.Create Consistent Content – Ongoing Social Media ........................................ 19\n14.Strengthen VIP/Industry Connections ............................................................... 20\n15.Making Money..................................................................................................... 21\nNUTS AND BOLTS\n1.Music Distribution\nDigital distribution moves a lot faster than it used to, but you should still\nchoose the right distributor for you.  There are different distribution\nchannels you can use that allow you to get your music on digital service\nproviders. We recommend CD Baby because they have customer\nsupport that you can call and we like their marketing platform which is\ncalled show.co. However, there are others such as Distrokid, ONErpm,\nand Tunecore. Distributors don’t cover everything, and independently\nyou need to also be aware of additional distribution outlets for increased\nreach, a list that includes   SoundCloud   and Pandora.\nAggregators like 4-5 weeks to get your music to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon\nMusic, and other digital service providers (DSPs). You should speak with\nyour rep regarding the exact release timing to ensure that they have\nenough time to speak to the major DSPs about the release. If possible,\nyou should upload the entire album when you upload your first, second,\netc. single. Apple likes having full albums available for pre-order and that\nwill open additional placement options for you.\nTIP: new music used to come out on Tuesdays and now Friday is the\nofficial release day so choose a FRIDAY to release your music – even if\nthe release  party is on a Saturday or if your astrologer says the best\ndate is a Monday – you will look like a noob if you release on any other\nday!\nTIP: If you are ordering physical copies of your music, make sure that\nyou get them in plenty of time, especially if you are running a pre-sale or\nhaving a release party and you want to offer physical products at the\nshow.\n2.Band/Artist Website & Brand\nThe music industry is built on appearances.  To be taken seriously it is\nvery important to have a complete and professional looking online\npresence built into your marketing plan. This starts with your home –\nyour website. You need a modern,  functional site that you can update\non your own. Your website should have a section where fans can easily\nget to your music (not a player that automatically  plays, please!), a news\nsection with latest happenings, an EPK, and a newsletter sign-up that\noffers an incentive. Ariel wrote a detailed guide to help you with the\narchitecture.\nPlease keep in mind that Artist Branding is the starting point and should\nbe well thought out. A brand is an abstract, malleable concept and it maybe difficult to know if you’re heading in the right direction. Your brand\nstarts with your bio/signature story (which we will talk about more in Part\n2 of this series and it also incorporates colors, style of copywriting, and\nfonts. Photos and visuals must be in alignment with your brand and\nmake sure to carry this brand across all of your socials. Use your current\nsingle artwork with text on top of the images that promote the release\ndate, new music videos, and tour announcements.  We love a tool called\nCanva for fast and easy banner, graphics and social skin creation.\n3.Social Media\nTime and energy need to be spent building a strong online presence in\norder to be taken seriously as an artist for when the time comes to start\nactively promoting. Many artists don’t know the basics and try to skip\nsteps by hiring shady companies to swiftly build audiences.  This might\nnot be the best idea.  Fake followers and limited knowledge of how to\nuse these channels properly will hurt your promotional efforts. A solid\nsocial strategy must focus on themes & narrative and you must\nplan your consistent content so that it is constantly fan nurturing.\nKeep in mind that music bloggers and fans will visit your socials to see\nwhat kind of existing following you have and they will want to catch a\nvibe. Stale, overly promotional, or boring profiles will not help your\nchances of engaging. Your content calendar is a crucial component to\nyour social media success.  Don’t leave it up to chance.  Download our\nSocial Media Organizer above to properly schedule and plan your posts.\nInstagram\nThe most popular visual social platform has experienced a meteoric rise.\nThe best way to get great at Instagram is by using it and emulating\npeople who already know how to use it well.\nWhen you post photos, choose at least two hashtags, as this is how\nphotos are found. Make sure to take the time to select popular hashtags\nthat people are looking for and also create your very own “owned”\nhashtags i.e. #CyberPRMusic.  In addition to hashtags, you can also add\ncaptions to your photos before posting. I caution you to be selective\nabout what you cross-post to socials. You want to tell a separate story\non each social channel to get people to join you, and not get fatigued by\nthe same posts across channels.  Also, post more Stories than posts as\nthey drive more views.  We have created two guides to help you take a\ndeeper dive: The Musician’s Guide to Instagram & Advanced Instagram\nTips for Musicians.Twitter \nEven though a lot of artists are turning their backs on Twitter, we still\nencourage you to keep an active profile. Journalists and music bloggers\nstill actively use it so if you want to connect to them this is the platform to\nmake that happen. Every single person you interact with in real life\nshould be followed on Twitter (friends, musicians, bloggers, producers,\nclubs, etc.). Increase your followers by following people and many will\nfollow you back. Target similar sounding artists and follow their Twitter\nfollowers, as there is a high probability that they may also like your\nmusic.\nTo keep your profile active with Tweets, use Buffer. In as little as one\nhour you can schedule a few weeks worth of tweets. Vary the topics you\ntweet about from career news (which should be no more than 20% of\nyour output) to your interests, passions, and hobbies. News, politics,\nsports, and/or culture are all great topics to share to engage and connect\naround.\nFacebook\nPay-to-play is the reality on Facebook for a Page to get any real\nexposure. We suggest you build an ad budget into your marketing plans\nfrom time to time but have goals in place before you do, and you should\nhave a complete Page that is active with frequent posts. Make sure your\nPage has an attractive cover banner (as discussed above) and install\napps that work as promotional tools for you and your music. We\nsuggest a store from Bandcamp, a Tunecore or CD Baby Tab, and a\nmailing list signup form from MailChimp.\nYouTube\nYouTube is the first place where millions of people go to search for\nmusic. It is a  powerful platform where artists are getting discovered. For\nany artist looking to increase awareness, it is imperative to have a\npresence on YouTube with a professional looking channel, and a cover\nimage that is linked to your socials so people can connect with you\nacross platforms. Make categories to group your videos for easy\nviewing, such as “Behind The Scenes”, “Official Music Videos”, and “Live\nPerformances”.  Also, highlight an official music video in the featured spot\nat the top. \nWe often see musicians leaving off their artist name in the title of the\nvideo, which is terrible for search engines. Create a list of tags.  Make\nsure to include keywords and place important keywords/ phrases at the\nstart of your tag fields. Use adjectives that describe your music and\nsimilar artists also as keywords, the latter of which will show up in the“related videos section” after your videos are viewed. We often see\ndescription sections left blank. This is crucial because it tells the viewer\nwhat they are watching and provides links to other content you own,\nsuch as your website and socials.\n4.Digital Service Provider – DSPs\nDigital Service Provider or DSP  is another term for music streaming\nservices. This can also mean music stores. You can not build an\neffective marketing plan without having a working knowledge of DSPs\nand of course that includes how to drive your fans and followers to\nSpotify and get included on playlists.  Here are a few to get intimate with\nbut remember there are over 70 DSPs. To take a deep dive into 2 vital\nDSPS – Spotify & SoundCloud click the image above to get our ultimate\nguide e-book.\nSpotify \nOnce your distributor of choice releases your new songs to Spotify, you\nare able to claim and verify your Spotify profile with Spotify for\nArtists. That allows you to review listener analytics, check for any new\nplaylist adds, add an “Artist Pick,” make playlists, and keep your photo\nand bio up to date.  It is crucial that you understand the basics of Spotify\nand know how it can help you.  They have created a great series of\nvideos to guide you through. The most important thing to you must know\nis how to submit your tracks directly to their playlist curators to be\nconsidered for inclusion on official Spotify playlists.\nApple Music\nApple Music For Artists launched in August of 2019.  You can now view\na quick snapshot of your music’s overall performance,  identify\nmilestones and all-time bests at a glance, expand your understanding\nwith details of trends over time, discover which of your songs are getting\nshazamed (Apple owns Shazam) the most and see how many people\nare listening to your music over time in over 100 countries.  Plus you can\nnow update your profile photo through the very same portal. Find out\nmore and sign up for Apple Music For Artists here.\nAmazon\nIt’s a big one and you should make sure your Amazon profile online is\nupdated and that you have reviews of your music posted on this platform\nas it helps with the search. More and more people are using Alexa to\nstream music and you should be sure you are verbally findable so check\nyour Alexa or a friend to see if you are verbally discoverable!SoundCloud\nSoundCloud is the go-to platform if you plan to do publicity as this is the\nmain platform music bloggers and many podcasters use to accept tracks\nfor consideration  and embeds. Your SoundCloud presence can be a key\ndeciding factor to having your music covered. SoundCloud also allows\nyou to create private links for your music before it is released or select\ntracks to send to industry folks or anyone you wish to share a preview\nwith.  And of course, SoundCloud also has a robust community of music\nfans and other creators so it’s a great place to connect and give and\nreceive feedback.\nBandcamp\nWhile Bandcamp is, in essence, a direct-to-fan e-commerce solution, it’s\nalso a vast community of fans who understand that paying artists directly\nis the best way to support. Discovery features like fan accounts, the\nmusic feed, and artist recommendations  introduce your music to new\nfans and can potentially drive sales. Bandcamp also has email collection\ncapabilities and a subscription service (like Patreon) so you can grow\nyour email list and make money. Plus many artists have success\nshowcasing their past releases and selling them as bundles as a great\nrevenue stream.\nPandora\nPandora has over 74 million active users and an artist marketing\nplatform called AMP – Artist Marketing Platform built-in. AMP allows you\nto record 15-second messages and attache them to any of your tracks\nplus you can target specific regions and build stories to share. It also\npays you royalties (through Sound Exchange so make sure you are\nsigned up with them). Most digital distributors say that your music will be\nsent to Pandora, but in our experience, you still will have to send your\nmusic through to them using their brand new independent artist\nsubmissions portal. \nUnderstand DSP Graphics Sizing\nMake sure you have put your best foot forward on each DSP. Here is\na guide that shows you the exact dimensions for images for each DSP.5.E-Mail Lists & Newsletter\nYour email and your ability to nurture your list is the most important part\nof the musicians marketing plan release strategy that you will want to\nskip – DON’T.\nIt’s so important that we have an entire LAB focused on how to improve\nyour email called Level Up Your Email Game.\nSocial media is key to attracting your crowd and building engagement.\nThat said, email is still the most vital asset you will build for generating\nrevenue. You make relationships with fans on socials, but you turn those\nrelationships  into customers with email. According to the Direct\nMarketing Association, email marketing produced an ROI (return on\ninvestment) of 4,300% — or $43 for every $1 spent.\nBut it is not just about writing an effective newsletter and contacting your\nmailing list once a month. You also need to understand the concept\nof email nurture sequences. Spend money on a mailing list service\nprovider that can help you design a rich looking email and provide\nanalytics and tracking capabilities so you can measure the effectiveness\nof your newsletters and make adjustments where need be. A premier\nsolution that many of our clients enjoy working with is MailChimp.PREPARING FOR RELEASE\n6.Timeline – Your 12-Week Music\nRelease Tasks\nPlanning is everything as you can’t stuff the genie back in the bottle after\nthe release is out! If you struggle with managing your time this will help.\nWatch this 12-Week timeline come to life in a special video musicians\nmasterclass I gave in New Orleans.\nThree Months Before Music Releases\nRegister With A Performing Rights Organization.\nYou probably already know this but just in case – to collect your royalties\nyou’ll need to sign with a both a Performing Rights Organization (“PRO”\nfor short) as well as SoundExchange.  The three options in the U.S. for\nPRO’s are ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI. \nFor live royalties, BMI and ASCAP both offer portals to collect\nroyalties from playing live. Once your songs are registered on the PRO\ndatabase, you log in and enter any dates you have performed those\nsongs, where they were performed, and which songs. The PRO\ncompanies payout quarterly so be sure to enter the performances  soon\nafter they are through, otherwise, you could miss a deadline!\nYou also have to register with SoundExchange , which focuses on\nroyalties for your recording (mechanical rights), while your Performing\nRights Organization focuses on royalties for your song (performance\nrights).\nDocument the Recording & Creation Journey For Your Fans\nWhat may feel mundane to you – writing, recording, mixing, mastering,\nbeing in the studio, etc. can be really exciting for your fans.  Taking them\non a behind-the-scenes  journey of this music release is a great way to\nform a stronger bond with your current and growing base.\nSend updates on how the recording, mixing and mastering is going using\nvideos and photos via your socials, plus capture longer-form stories for\nInstagram Stories and for your newsletter.\nEngage with your following on milestones like artwork and song titles by\npolling your fans and holding contests to select what cover or title to go\nwith, have your fans weigh in on photos, graphics and get them involvedwith the process. The goal of all this activity is to get people excited so\nthey are engaging and sharing your updates.\nChoose Your PR & Marketing Plan\nA big component when releasing new music is getting PR. You can\naccomplish this by hiring a team or by going the DIY route. When hiring\na PR team make sure you do your homework and make sure your music\nis a good fit for that firm’s approach and philosophy. Be sure that the\nteam talks to you about their well-thought-out  plan for your campaign.\nA PR company should work with you to make sure you are fully prepared\nbefore you are introduced to the press. This is the first part of their job\nwhen you engage a firm.\nIf you’re going with a do-it-yourself approach here are some tips for an\neffective music PR campaign:\nChoose Your Playlisting Plan\nSubmit Your Music Directly to Spotify\nSimply sign in to your artist account (or Spotify Analytics if you are a\nlabel) and choose your best song. When submitting take extra care to\ngive a detailed description of the song supplying any and all relevant\ninformation about the song to easily guide editors to the best for place\nyour music.\nBuild Your Own Playlisting Initiatives\nIf you don’t know all the steps to set up a playlist follow this step-by-step\nguide. Start building and sharing playlists. You need to build up plays as\nthis impacts the current song that you are promoting, as well as any\nforthcoming singles. Use interesting titles and themes to grab people’s\nattention to aid with search\nFind Playlist Curators & Pitch\nThis is, of course, easier said than done!  It is not easy to find curators\nbut it is possible with some dedication. Google and all the Socials are\ngreat places to start. Reddit has an active Spotify Playlists Page. There\nare also quite a few on SubmitHub you can access for a small fee.\nTwo Months Before Music Release\nGet Great Photos\nMake sure you have at least 3-4 great images and variety is important.\nMost music blogs feature square or horizontal photos. When getting\nphotos taken think through your brand and think about variety to keep\nyour images fresh as time goes by.Finalize your Single / Album / EP Artwork\nYour Artwork should be ready and look on brand and amazing!  Ask your\ndesigner to animate it, break it up into tiles for Instagram and or resize it\nfor all your social posts.\nResearch Which Spotify PreSave / Marketing Platform is Right for You\nYou will need to run a campaign to get that Spotify track presaved! \nThere are 3 great services to choose from. Feature.FM has Action\nPages to help build your audience.  From The Site: Action Pages are\nhighly engaging pages that reward fans for taking the actions you want\nin the platforms you want and provide you with deep insight into your\naudience. Toneden can also facilitate social media follows/likes and/or\nemail addresses for free downloads. You can also optimize Facebook\nads via Toneden, and customize those ads. Show.co is owned by CD\nBaby and is integrated so you can use it as well.\nFocus on Increasing Your Audience\nIf you have been recording new music you may have taken your eye off\nof the constant grind it takes to keep your socials and your email list\ngrowing. This takes a lot of heavy lifting and your whole band or team\nshould be helping.\nUse my Social Media Tuneup system to diagnose each one of your sites\nand socials and get them updated.\nIf you have not kept up consistently find your friends and people you\nadmire (bloggers, other artists, venues, local spots you like to hang out\nin, etc.) on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and friend away!                                 \nThis will increase your audience because as many of the people you\nfollow will follow you back. Also, start reaching out to people in your\ninbox and outbox and get them on your list (remember it’s illegal to just\nsign people up, so do this with integrity and ask each person). Your\nnewsletter is the place where you will be able to monetize so, don’t skip\nthis step.\nPrep Your Content Calendar\nYour content calendar is outlined with all of the assets that you need for\nyour release with dates for each asset/action needed. Countdowns,  art\nreveals, listening party of live release party announcements,  ticket links\nand calls to action (like Spotify Presaves) are all fodder to add to your\ncontent calendar.\nUse my SMM tracker to organize all of your posts and your VIPS. This\nwill help you keep track of all the content that you will post. You can see\nthere is a tab for each platform. If there are several of you in a team or ina band, assign one platform per person. You will also see a VIP tab here\nthis is where you will add industry people you need to connect with in\nreal life (more on that below).\nSix Weeks Before Music Release\nSubmit Your Music to Your Distributor\nIf you are leading this music release with a single (or two) make sure to\nlet them know you are releasing a single(s) FIRST before the EP (if this\nis the case). You must have your single artwork ready at this time!\nTunecore, CD Baby, and other aggregators like 4-5 weeks to pitch your\nmusic to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music, and other digital\nservice providers (DSPs).\nLaunch a Facebook Like Campaign to Get More Followers to Your Page\nOr if you have not done so in a long time go through your personal\nFacebook Page and ask all of your friends to Like your Page.\nI know this may seem crazy to do during a time when Facebook is\ncatching a lot of heat but promoters, venues, and music bloggers still\nlook at social numbers so make sure yours are consistently growing (and\ndon’t buy fake fans ever!)\nOne Month Before Music Release \nRelease Your First Single\nThis is a great way to build buzz, get fans excited, and also get some\nmusic bloggers interested. Any reviews you can place will help build your\noverall online profile.\nOn the press side of the house aim for appropriate blog targets. If you\nare a brand new artist Pitchfork is probably NOT appropriate. Go for\nsmaller, more targeted music blogs!\nThat being said, be sure to reach out to your “within reason” dream\ntargets with your single(s). It’s not the best idea to wait to reach out to\nthese loftier sites with your album.\nAlbum reviews take a considerable amount of time and, if you look, most\nmusic sites are reserving these full album review slots for the most\nanticipated albums so don’t feel disappointed if you don’t get full album /\nEP reviews (they are not en vogue these days) \nDownload and read our Spotify & SoundCloud Guide       to make sure both\nof those platforms are set up correctly and you have done what you\nneed to to get these working for you.Announce a Music Release Event: Live Show or Listening Party\nIf you play live shows, book a release show and do something to make\nthis show more special than the others. Decorate the venue, work with\nthe bar to create a special shot or cocktail, pre-sell a merch pack, hire a\nparty bus, ask a food truck to pull outside the venue, etc.\nIf you don’t play out, create a listening party at a small bar, create an\nafter-work happy hour, or choose a local favorite coffee shop. If you are\njust starting and don’t think you can draw a large crowd, hold a listening\nhouse party with wine tasting, cupcake bake-off, fondue party, etc. Think\nabout your fans and make this special for them. And, of course, the key\nis to announce that tickets are on sale and share links!\nLaunch Your Music PR or Playlisting Campaign \nThis is a great way to build buzz, If you are hiring a PR team this will be\nwhen they will launch.\nTwo Weeks Before Music Release\nBuild the Momentum!\nKeep the excitement up on your socials by scheduling countdowns\nacross your socials.\nWrite your Day of Newsletter so it is ready to go out.\nHold a contest to win the new music or give away tickets to your show or\nlistening party.\n7.Release Day – Be Ready For It\nPrep Your Website:\nChange the artwork on the landing page to announce the new\nmusic\nAdd an announcement  to the News section\nSkin ALL socials with “out now!”\nUse Canva to size and design\nCreate CTAs for each platform to post as well\nInstagram:\nChange your bio to announce the release – add the musical note\nor an appropriate emoji too! Add streaming link and CTA to listen\nCreate a release tile and post with the album / single art and say\n“out now”\nCreate an Instagram Story video and postGo to Instagram Live and talk about the fact that the music is\navailable and ask for fan feedback\nFacebook:\nMake a fun video about the release – and Boost!\nBoost or Buy an Ad announcing the release to your fans and a\nlook alike audience\nEdit the “About” section to include the new release\nPost a status update announcing your release, and pin it to the top\nas a timeline feature.\nGo to Facebook Live and talk about the fact that the music is\navailable and ask for fan feedback\nSpotify:\nHeader and Profile Photo: Keep these up to date and in line with\nthe rest of your social profiles.\nImage Gallery: Choose images most aligned with your brand and\nrecent music.\nSocial Media Links: Add links to your socials. Here’s a How To\nfrom Spotify on adding those and an image gallery.\nSpotify Bio  : With 1500 characters to share with your fans, you can\nupdate this whenever it makes sense for you. Keep your bio\nupdated, include shows, notable press, and new singles.\nAdd an Artist’s Pick: You can designate a song, album, or playlist\nas the “Artist’s Pick.” This will appear at the top of your profile with\na note from you. You can add a custom image to your Pick or\nshare tour dates if preferred.   Read more here   .\nTwitter:\ntweet out your release announcement.\nPin the tweet to the top of your profile page\nGo to Buffer and program the tweets for 1-3 times a day for the\nnext 10 days\nYouTube:\nCustomize the top banner, profile picture to announce the new\nmusic\nAdd your bit.ly link and mention of the release to the “About”\nsection\nUpload cover art and have track streaming in the backgroundNewsletter:\nSend out a newsletter announcement  to your mailing list.\n8.Publicity & Marketing\nPR takes time and effort to execute well. Sadly, many artists believe that\nPR = blasting a press release out to the top 100+ music sites that they\nGoogled. This never works, because PR placements start with astute\nresearch.\nBio / Signature Story\nThe cornerstone of your brand is your bio. You will need a solid story to\nbuild your marketing and PR from. We suggest hiring a professional to\nwrite your musician bio, which we call a signature story around here.\nEven if you are a strong writer, it can be challenging to write about\nyourself. A professional writer will be able to craft a compelling bio that\neffectively conveys all the important details while keeping the audience\nin mind, which in this case includes press and music industry. Read our\n5 – Steps guide here or We would be delighted to write one for you.  If\nyou feel like you still need a boost, listen to the Signature Story Webinar.\nMusic Press Outreach\nThe first people to target should be local press and outlets that have\ncovered you in the past (if applicable). When contacting blogs make it\npersonal. Be sure to research which writer/journalist  of the site is the\nbest or most appropriate. Always include a SoundCloud link (set to\nprivate until your music is released). Follow our full music PR guide for\nmore detail on how to handle this process.\nThen as we touched on in Part 1, plan ahead so you will have content\nfor multiple press outreaches such as a new music video, remixes, or\ntour dates, as you don’t want to repeat the same message about the\nnew music.\nBuild Your Targeted Media List\nThere are many ways to start building a targeted media list. One method\n– identify a musician or band that is slightly further along and fits into\nyour musical wheelhouse, and take note of the press outlets that they\nare getting featured on. There is a great chance that those publications\nmay also feature you.\nLearn how to do your own PR with Ariel in her amazing deep-dive\ncourse.Blog Savviness Gets Placements.\nStart to familiarize yourself with blogs, podcasts, and outlets that are\nappropriate for your release. If you live in a smaller town (read: Not in\nNYC, LA, or Chicago) there may be some local press that you can go\nfor.\nYour big goal might be a review on Pitchfork, but what’s your backup\nwhen Pitchfork doesn’t respond to you and then doesn’t respond to your\nfollow-ups? Is Pitchfork even the right outlet for you to showcase your\nproject? Sure, they have a large audience, but is it the right audience for\nyou? It’s OK if the answer is “no.”\nResearch is not the only thing you need before you send your first pitch.\nTo find out what to do come download our Ultimate Guide to Music\nPublicity.\nTIP: Keep in mind that a music blog is made up of content written by\nhumans. When it comes time to pitch, you will be pitching to them.\nIncrease your chances that they will be interested in you by first being\ninterested in them. Make a connection by following them on socials.\nStrike up a conversation on Twitter or Instagram if the opportunity arises.\nA conversation  about literally anything other than your music is\nrecommended.  This way when you send an email  (or if a publicist does\nfor you), there could be some familiarity and existing relationships that\nwill help in getting your emails opened and help your new music be\nfeatured.\nDrive Friends, Fans & Family With Marketing Platforms\nYou are responsible for driving likes and streams to Facebook,\nYouTube, Spotify, and all other streaming sites.  You also need to drive\nsubscribers to your email list. Marketing platforms are key tools that will\nhelp you to get your fans to take powerful actions that will pay off forever\nlike saving your profile/track on Spotify, subscribing to your YouTube\nchannel before watching a video or liking your Facebook Page as they\nvisit.\nIn a saturated, crowded space (approx. 20,000 new tracks are added to\nSpotify each day according to DMR) these platforms are vital.  Read this\npost to understand Feature.fm, Toneden and Show.co.  We use all of\nthem here and they are deeply incorporated in our Total Tuneups.9.Playing Live And Streaming\nIf you are already building through touring or playing live at home,\ncontinue.  This builds on the momentum that has been made. If you\nneed a helping hand LAB taught by the brilliant Kyle Weber of Indie On\nThe Move (IOTM) who walks you through exactly how to get better gigs\nin your hometown or in new markets,\nThere are undoubtedly limitations on how often you can tour.  More than\nlikely won’t be able to tour every market and for this, we have a\nsolution…\nNo Shows? Try Live Streaming!\nStreaming a show is also a great way to interact with your fans on a\nmore personal and direct level. A live streaming concert is where the\naudience is online viewers and can be filmed at your home or any\ninteresting location have access to, a great tool to connect with fans. \nArtists, big and small, are taking advantage of this to keep engaged and\npresent with their current fanbase, generate revenue and to increase\ntheir brand awareness.\nYou can stream on Facebook and Instagram, however more robust\nplatforms offer features geared towards creating “official” shows. The\ntwo major players are Stageit and Concert Window. Picking between the\ntwo (they are both quite similar) will allow you to either charge a set\nticket price.  What many artists do, is use the pay what you want model\nwhich gives fans a way to pay you more tha what you ask for and can be\nlucrative.\nKeeping the shows fresh and different will help with increasing\nviewership from show-to-show Play a game at the end of the\nperformance or midway through using the chat features. Trivia would be\na very easy game, where fans could win merch or other prizes.\nPlay New Cover Songs Each Week\nAsk your fans what covers you should play. Post the question on\nYour Facebook Page or on Instagram as a tile. The song suggestion that\ngets the most likes or comments will be the one(s) you cover.\nHave Guest Performers Join You\nThis is a great way to add a new element to the live stream while cross-\npromoting to each other’s fans at the same time. Our LAB 5: Mobilize\nYour Fan Army teacher and client Eli Lev did this with 2 other musicians\nand covered Fleetwood Mac.10.Real Life Networking\nYou will not make it in music without mastering the power of live\nnetworking. That’s the problem with all of the digital tools available to us:\nWay too many artists believe they can hide behind a screen and launch\nthe careers of their dreams without ever talking to other humans face to\nface. Building your IRL networking into your planning is key.  Many\nartists are shy and introverted and this part does not come easily.\nIt is crucial to connect the dots of your digital world to the real world.\nEven if you only want to be a studio musician and never tour, you still\nneed to be able to meet people and find out about potential work. It can\nbe hard to break out of your comfort zone, and I have met so many\nartists who struggle with anxiety and a sense that networking means\n“selling” but the most successful people go out and meet other people\nwho can help them.\n 3 Reasons Musicians Need to Network\n1.Connect with new fans.\n2.Gain a sphere of influence, and a source for referrals (more fans)\nas everyone is connected online and offline.\n3.Become a resource for your fans and for yourself.\nKEEPING THE MOMENTUM\n11.Keep The Music Coming – This Keeps Momentum\nUp!\nA music marketing plan these days is about consistent releasing. \nSpotify recommends  a new release every 4-6 weeks and we do too.\nReleasing singles and videos will keep fans engaged consistently. This\nis what you are striving for.  You also want to submit each new track\nfor playlisting consideration.\nA skill set that you need for this is to understand how to use\nSpotify. Download my Ultimate Guide to Streaming to brush up on the\nmost effective ways to get the music out there. Remember, you’re not\nlimited to just releasing original new tracks. A best practice for keeping\nfans engaged with Spotify is the plan to release something every 4 to 6\nweeks. This does not mean you have to write new songs although that is\nalways great of course.Create Alternate Versions of Tracks\nGet a DJ to remix one of your songs. This does not have to be a famous\nDJ. Choose someone who is familiar with what’s trending on Hype M (if\nthat is a goal), or has worked with an artist you love. If you’re interested\nin holding a remix contest you should contact the folks over at Indaba\nMusic. They put together some great remix campaigns.\nOr take a page from Nirvana and release an album of stripped-down\n“unplugged” versions of your studio tracks.  This is a great way to show\na different side of the band and appeal to potential new listeners.\nLastly release a live album, preferably from the release show, but any\nshow will work as long as the audio is of top quality.\nMake Videos\nVideo is an integral part of your music marketing plan. Share and upload\nmore videos: official music videos, lyric videos, live videos, vlogs,\nFacebook Live sessions, Instagram Live, etc.\nRecord Cover Songs\nMusic fans love covers. Recording cover songs is a great strategy for\nyour music marketing plan. This works to gain awareness by tapping into\nwhat people already know and provides fun content to share. You can\ncover artists that inspire you, or similar sounding artists. Covering a song\noutside of your genre can be a great way to tap into a new fan base.\nThis is what the pianist Scott D. Davis did when he decided to combine\nhis love of heavy metal with the piano pieces he was recording. The\nresult was millions of YouTube hits for his metal covers and new fans\nfrom the heavy metal community. Scott has been invited to open for\nGodsmack, Korn, P.O.D., Sevendust, Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe and\nQueensrÿche.\n*Please note, to legally sell a cover song you will need to obtain and pay\nfor a mechanical license. Harry Fox Agency is the foremost mechanical\nlicensing agency in the US.  To legally make money from cover songs,\nwork with the company We Are The Hits.\n12.Fan Nurturing\nIn their desperate desire to connect with as many fans as possible artists\nare forget that not everyone “out there” is the same. You need to\nunderstand the differences and create a separate way of communicating\nwith each community. Some may be following you simply because they\nliked your sunglasses or your cat and have no idea you are even a\nmusician, while others are waiting to like and comment on every post. Iwrote a 3-part series that explains how to nurture each one up to the\nnext level of fan.\nCommunity #1: Your Super Fans\nThese are fans are primarily your closest friends and your live audience.\nYou know them by name. If you play live, they attend your shows\nregularly and buy merch. They are the first responders when you post on\nsocials and they follow you on multiple channels. It is important to\nremember to   talk to fans   at your live shows and get as much face time in\nwhen you can.\nCommunity #2 : Engaged Fans\nThese fans are your Active Online Audience. They are newsletter\nsubscribers, blog readers, video watchers, RSS subscribers, active\nSocial Media engagers who frequently comment & engage with you on\nFacebook, Twitter, etc.\nCommunity #3 : Ambient Fans\nThese fans are your Passive Online Audience and they are your social\nmedia friends who are aware of you via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram\netc. but don’t actively communicate  with you and may not have ever\neven heard your music (yet).\nDon’t Neglect Your Email List  & Study Write Email Nurture Sequences\nEmails should still be going out once a month, and your socials should\nnever go stale. Just because you may not have a big “news” item (a new\nrelease) doesn’t mean you should stop communicating  on a regular\nbasis.  You should also be consistently be building your list.\n13.Create Consistent Content – Ongoing Social Media\nUpdate Your Socials Every Day\nUpdate daily, respond, and interact. Post about things happening in your\nlife. News, food, parenting, fashion, art, sports, and other musicians are\ntopics to engage and connect around. Follow our Social Media\nPyramid     for content guidance.\nUse Hashtags\n#mcm = man crush Monday /  #transformationtuesday  / #wcw = woman\ncrush Wednesday / #tbt = throwback Thursday / #NewMusicFridayAdd hashtags to Instagram of course but also to social media channels\nare alive and active. \nVisualize All Buzzworthy Moments\nThe more press and social media-worthy  moments you can generate the\nbetter. Anytime a fan, playlister, or music blog, mentions you share it. \nCreate tiles with CTAs and links to Spotify, SoundCloud,  Apple Music,\netc.\nIdeas to visualize and keep your socials fresh:\nAsk your family, friends, and fans to write reviews of your music on\nApple Music, Amazon or CD Baby\nSubmit your music to Pandora for consideration  if you get\naccepted use the Pandora AMP program\nMake GIFS or boomerangs to keep the visuals fun\nCheck for any new Spotify playlist adds and thank the playlist\ncurator\nDo Facebook or Instagram Lives consistently\nALL PR – blog, newspaper, magazine, show listing, podcasts, etc.\nPR Quotes – highlights from articles (make a few to share over\ntime to mix it up)\nRadio Adds – Showcase the station logo and tag the DJ\nLive Show Announcements\nTicket On Sale Dates\nFilm & TV Placements\nMilestones – Spotify playlist counts, award nominations & wins,\netc.\nFollow CTAs (Follow me on Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, Etc)\nFocus On Leverage\nThe whole point of having a music release strategy in the first place is to\nleverage it to get your big picture goals.\nMy client wanted higher profile gigs around his hometown, Denver. He\nleveraged his PR hits strategically by sharing visuals with the\npromoters/venues  he was targeting.  He did this by writing each a\npersonal email saying: “I have retained a PR team to increase my\nvisibility and they will work hard to promote shows I am booked to play.”Every time he was featured in an article, he posted it across social\nchannels, tagged the venues and artists he appeared with. From his\nefforts, he began to get more gigs because he had something his\ncompetition did not – strong PR and proving he would promote. You can\nuse a similar strategy. The moral of this story? Always share successes!\n14.Strengthen VIP/Industry Connections\nI have never met a successful musician who does not rely on at least a\nfew people in the music industry.  Even if you never want to sign to a\nlabel you will need a team to help you.  This could include management,\nbooking agents or service based companies to handle things like play\nlisting, publicity, marketing, production, and the list goes on.\nMusic Conferences\nAn incredible place to meet all of these types of people and more is at\nmusic conferences.  Conferences  give you the opportunity\nfor networking and self-growth. Once you are there you want to be\nmemorable.\nMusic conferences are invaluable when looking to learn and to grow in\nthe industry. There are so many types to choose from – small and\nintimate, huge and overwhelming,  hyper-focused  or general. No matter\nwhich you decide to attend you will have the opportunity to network,\nmeet established professionals,  and make connections with other artists\nall who can be vital to your growth. Here’s my guide to my favorite\nconferences.\nMusic Mentors\nSome artists (I’m looking at you introverts) don’t like conferences.  Read\nIndustry newsletters and sites to get inspiration and keep up with people\nand latest industry news. I highly recommend signing up for – DIY\nMusician, Water & Music , Platform & Stream,    Hypebot  , and\nthe Billboard Biz newsletters. \nAnd, there are many wonderful mentors you should know about who are\nworking tirelessly to help support artists with free and paid options. I love\nall of the teachers of my LABS classes and follow  Suz The Rock/Star\nAdvocate, Bobby Owsinski, Cheryl B Engelhardt, Eli Lev, Randy\nChertkow & Jason Feehan, Brady Sadler, and Kyle Weber from IOTM. I\nalso highly recommend   These 19 Rockstars    who pitched in with their\nbest advice for marketing including Ari Herstand, Bree Noble, Rick\nBarker, Bryan Calhoun, Ross Barber-Smith  and Ryan Kairilla.15.Making Money\nYou want to be considered an artist and not a hobbyist, right? So making\nmoney is key to your music marketing plan as it is your ongoing\nstrategy.     I made this the last part of the 15 because a lot of building\nneeds to happen before you can monetize. There are so many ways to\nmake money in the business you may not have thought of many of\nthem. LAB 10:     Making Money With Music features Randy Chertkow &\nJason Feehan,  the authors of The Indie Band Survival Guide & Making\nMoney With Music. They have come up with over 300 ways to make\nmoney.\nMerchandise\nMerch has become very sophisticated  over the last few years, there is\nno need to order a bunch of XL Mens fruit of the loom T-shirts. Our three\nfavorite Merch ideas are\nUSB Flash Drives \nDifferent kind of merch item to sell that you can load up with music,\npictures, videos, lyrics, sheet music, etc.\nVinyl \nIs hot right now. According to a recent Guardian article: “sales of vinyl\nreached a 25-year high as consumers young and old have once again\nembraced physical formats of music.” Make sure you keep the fact that\nordering can take months and make sure you are prepared to mail it out\nand carry it to shows (it’s heavy!)\nDIY Craft Items \nWe also love the idea of creating unique DIY items as a vehicle of selling\nyour music, our client Mary Jennings sells bolo ties at her shows and in\nher Etsy store when she’s not on the road. We loved hanging out with\nher and watching her fans try on ties after her set.  \nPlease avoid this costly music marketing plan mistake: You do NOT\nneed to create merchandise until you have a fanbase who will buy merch\nand you need to have a sense of what they want.\nCrowdfunding \nCrowdfunding is a great way to fund an album, a tour or a big idea. By\nthe time your campaign ends, your contributors are invested in the idea\nand the journey, increasing their loyalty levels to “super fan” status.\nHowever you must keep in mind that the average crowdfunding\ncampaign raises $7,000, according to fundable, and it takes dedication\nand perseverance  to pull off successfully. Also – no crowd, no crowdfunding,  so make sure you have a real\ndedicated fan base before you try this. In order to raise $5,000, you\nwould need around 250 backers who would give an average of $20\neach. In order to raise $10,000, you would need around 500 backers,\nwho would, again, give an average of $20 each.\nMy book  Crowdstart, will walk you step-by-step through your entire\ncampaign, and it comes with amazing done for you bonuses!\nSubscription Sites\n Are another area that artists are moving towards, where people sign up\nto receive music via Bandcamp or support the creation of videos and\ncontent through Patreon.\nJust because people don’t buy CD’s anymore and even downloads are\nin a decline, people are willing to support artists, you just need to give\nthem the platform to do so and interesting items and experiences to\noffer.\nPatreon\nPatreon is all about content. This means you want to have consistent\ncontent to keep your patrons happy. Make sure to share exclusive\ncontent only available through your Patreon page. \nUltimately, the success of any kind of crowdfunding  strategy will come\ndown to you reaching out to your network through your newsletter, social\nmedia and getting them involved with both the funding and by helping to\nspread the word about your Patreon to their friends and networks.\nExperiences \nBackstage meet and greets, private Skype sessions, and dinner with the\nband before a show are all possibilities and should be built into your\nmusic marketing plan. You don’t need to run a crowdfunding  campaign\nto sell experiences. \nMake Sure Your Fans Know\nMention your Patreon on your website and across socials. Mention it in\nyour YouTube videos and include a link to your page in the video\ndescriptions.\nI don’t want you to finish reading this 3-part guide overwhelmed!  When\nwe write Total Tuneups for our clients the intention is that they will take afull year to successfully implement. This requires a mindset which will\nallow you to stay in it for the long haul.\nMaking the music and playing live are not the parts that are hard to focus\non.  It’s the 15 elements outlined here that can be challenging.\nCyber PR LABS\nThis is why I designed Cyber PR LABS to address each and every part\nyou may not know all about in an effective and targeted fashion.  They\ncost less than 99 bucks each and they will give you access to a great\ncommunity of like-minded artists as well as to the amazing teachers I\nhand-picked to run each LAB.", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "fan", + "release", + "social", + "artist", + "make", + "get", + "new", + "also", + "need" + ], + "summary": "MUSIC MARKETING PLAN\nTable of Contents\nNUTS AND BOLTS .............................................." + }, + { + "filename": "409050772-Music-Promotion-Blueprint-pdf.pdf", + "text": "HOW TO GET MORE EXPOSURE, \nMORE FANS, AND SELL YOUR \nMUSIC ONLINE BY JUSTIN SMITH\nINSIDER SECRETS OF THE \nNEW\n MUSIC BUSINESS...\nIn the summer of 1998 I picked up Jeff’s Epiphone E350 hollow body electric guitar. Jeff is my godfather who I was living with in high school. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I never stood a chance of learning to play that thing due to the unbelievably high action caused by the guitar sitting in storage and slowly warping over the course of sev-eral decades. Nonetheless, I still wanted to learn to play the guitar. \nINTRODUCTION1\n1A few months later for my 15th birthday, Jeff and his wife got the guitar fixed and signed me up for lessons. That was my first step step towards a wildly successful career of rock stardom. Spoiler alert: I am not now, never have been, and no longer have any particular desire to become a rockstar. However, rockstar seemed like the only logical career path when I was in high school.My friends and I rehearsed relentlessly to become successful musicians by sitting around in my buddy John’s basement smoking weed and drinking pretty much any kind of booze we could get our hands on. Occasionally we would even pick up our in-struments and jam for a few minutes before rolling another joint.We were dedicated to becoming rockstars and very diligent in our practice. We got high every weekend and Monday through Friday we would regularly skip class to get in some extra practice smoking and drinking at the mall.So that’s why I decided to write this book. I want to help you better understand how to quit your job or drop out of school, smoke a bunch of weed, and practice play-ing an instrument if you feel like it, so that you too can live the life you’ve always wanted.Okay obviously I’m joking.Over the next 20 years my attitude and behaviors changed pretty dramatically. After finishing high school and taking a little time off to party, I decided to go to col-lege to study classical music and jazz. Eventually my interests evolved and I became more interested in the business side of the music industry. I moved to a city just out-side of Nashville, TN called Murfreesboro to attend Middle Tennessee State Univer-sity, which is widely known for having an excellent Recording Industry program. I learned all about the music industry as I completed my Bachelor degree in Re-cording Industry Management at MTSU. While working on that degree, I did about everything I could to learn more about how the music industry works. I took on intern-ships in just about every aspect of the music industry, and I managed the social media presence of a country artist named Josh Thompson who ended up landing a couple hits on Billboard’s Top 10 Country chart.2After finishing my degree at MTSU, I went on to get my MBA at the University of Tennessee, where I had the opportunity to work with AC Entertainment (one of the largest concert promotion companies in the South East, and the company that started the Bonnarroo Music Festival). It also just so happened that while I was working on my MBA, Sony Entertainment asked the UT College of Business for help creating and implementing an online marketing strategy for 14 time Grammy nominee, Martina McBride.Due to my previous experience in the music industry, I was chosen by my peers to lead the project. It was a great experience, and turned out to be quite successful. At that time I considered staying in Tennessee to pursue a career in the Country Music in-dustry, but instead I opted for something a little more exciting.After grad school, with no money and no job, I decided to pack up my car and drive to the west coast. I arrived in San Diego, CA on January 1, 2011. I was completely broke at the time, but through a series of unexpected circumstances ended up connect-ing with some young guys that had recently made millions of dollars online with a very simple business model.The model revolves primarily around email marketing, and it can be applied to any industry and virtually any business. For the past several years, I’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs make millions of dollars by applying a very simple email marketing strategy to their existing businesses.My passion for music has inspired me to adapt the model to the music industry, more specifically independent artists with limited budgets and no record label sup-port.It used to be the case that the only way to really have success in the music indus-try was to get the support of a major record label that could get your album distributed into stores, finance a professional sounding recording, and funnel a bunch of money into promoting you and your music.That’s just not the case anymore.3The Internet has made music infinitely more widely accessible than it was 20 years ago. People aren’t even buying music in stores anymore. Most people are pur-chasing digital downloads online or streaming it directly using Spotify or YouTube.It no longer requires tens of thousands of dollars to produce an album. Independent artist can produce their own recordings on their laptops. And in turn, that’s made booking studio time more affordable than ever.The days of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote new artists are over. While that’s still common practice for major labels, it’s not at all necessary for the average musician.By following the simple, PROVEN formula that I’m sharing in this book, you’ll be able to get more exposure, sell your music online , and grow your fanbase for next to nothing.Now of course, you will have better results if you have some money to put into it, but you can at least get started even if you’re flat broke. Then you can scale up as you start to see some money coming in.Helping independent artists, like yourself, have success in the music industry is something I’m very passionate about. Our world is evolving, and the advent of the Internet has made it so people all over the world can connect with one another with in-credible ease. For musicians, this means that you can easily connect with people that will love and appreciate your music. My number 1 goal with this book is to help as many musicians as possible see how easy it really is to grow a following online, and to show them exactly how to do it.That’s why I’ve made this book free to you. And I highly encourage you to share it with anyone else that you think will appreciate it.It’s much easier to demonstrate certain parts of this strategy in video form than it is to explain them in a book. For that reason, I have put together an in-depth step by 4step video course that you may want to check out. (you can access the course at https://www.musicpromotionmachine.com )Some people won’t need the videos. If you already have some experience with web design, email marketing, online advertising, and any of the other elements of the strategy outlined in this book, you may not need the videos. This book alone might be enough for you. However, the video course is always an option if you find that you need a little bit of additional help.In any case, I’m glad and you made the decision to download this book. I hope you find the music promotion strategy outlined in these pages to be helpful in acceler-ating your success and career as a musician.\n5In this book I’m going to cover a simple strategy that you can implement right away to get more exposure, grow your fanbase, and sell more music and merch online. I’m going to show you how to set up a music promotion system that will run 24/7 on autopilot.\nTHE STRATEGY2\n6Countless independent artists have already used this exact system to get more fans, sell more music, and even get their music on Billboard charts. And the system will run automatically, even while you sleep.This music promotion strategy revolves primarily around building an email list.Why email? And not Facebook, or YouTube, or Twitter, or Instagram?Because quite simply email is going to be a lot more valuable to you, and you’re going to have a lot more control. When you’re building an email list of fans, you’re building an asset that’s going to allow you to reach your fans any time you want. When you have a new album coming out, you can send out a series of emails to your fans let-ting them know about it.The bigger your email list is, the better. Every time you add someone to your email list, you’re adding one more fan that you can notify about any upcoming shows, album releases, new band t-shirts, etc.So you might be thinking, “I can post that on Facebook and all my fans will see it, right?”Wrong.How many bands do you follow on Facebook? And how many of their new posts do you see?You might see a few, but I can almost guarantee that it’s far less than 10%. The problem with relying on third-party platforms like Facebook and YouTube is that you���re completely at their mercy.First of all, they’re generally going to cater to advertisers first and foremost. That’s completely understandable. It’s how they make money. People that are paying to have their posts boosted on Facebook are going to get precedence in people’s news feeds over your posts.7On top of that, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other social platforms change their algorithms all the time. You could be having great results with YouTube. Then they change the way they serve content to their audience and suddenly you lose the majority of your daily views. This type of thing happens all the time.Now that’s not to say that you shouldn’t be promoting your music on Facebook and Youtube. I love Facebook and Youtube. They are tremendously powerful plat-forms for independent artists to promote their music.But your #1 focus shouldn’t be getting more Facebook Likes or YouTube subscrib-ers. Your #1 focus should be getting your fans’ email addresses.When you add a new post to Facebook, you can consider yourself lucky if 10% of your fans see it. When you send an email to your email list, you can rest assured that the vast majority of those fans will at least see the email. They might not open it, but they’ll at least see that they’ve received an email from you. And they’ll see the subject line of the email, which is often all you need.Emails are simply better for staying connected with your fans than Facebook, YouTube or any other social platform. Think about it. When you check your email in-box, do you at least check to see who emailed you? And do you at least read the subject line of the email?You might not open the email and read it, but I bet you at least read the subject line.Keeping in contact with your fans, via email is much more effective than any so-cial platform out there. And you have complete control.The email list that you build is yours. You aren’t at the mercy of the algorithm changes of third party services. Your email list is an asset that you own and that you can use anytime you want to to reach your fans.And just in case you’re thinking, “Yikes! It would take forever to email all of my fans!”8Don’t worry. That’s what your email autoresponder is for. It allows you to email all of your fans at once, and you can also set it to send out emails on autopilot.Using an email autoresponder ensures you’re fans will be hearing from you on a regular basis. This helps you build a connection with them, and keep them updated with album releases and upcoming shows.And that can be happening all while you’re on tour or vacationing in the Ba-hama’s. Those emails can even be going out to fans while you’re sleeping.Parts of The SystemLanding Page - This is the webpage that you’re going to send people to so they can sign up for your email list.This type of page is often referred to as a “squeeze page”, because you’re “squeez-ing” information from someone before sending them on to the next page.That next page is typically referred to as the “thank you page”.Thank You Page - The page where you deliver the offer or incentive that was of-fered in exchange for your fan’s email address.Offer/Incentive - People that are already your fans would likely join your email list simply because they want to receive notifications from you; however, a lot of the people that will be landing on your squeeze page will have never heard of you or your music before.You have to give them a reason to join your email list. You have to offer them some type of incentive in exchange for their email address.This can be accomplished by offering some free downloads.Email Autoresponder - The email autoresponder is simply a software/database that stores all of your fans’ email addresses or other contact information. This way you can easily send out email notifications to your entire list.9The autoresponder can also be set up to send out some automated messages af-ter someone signs up to your email list.Traffic - Targeted visitors to your landing page that are likely to be interested in your music.In this book, I’ll explain how to set up this whole system so that people who will likely enjoy your music, but have never heard of you before, will find their way to your landing page and sign up to your email list.Once someone has joined your email list, you’ll be able to start building a connec-tion and share your music with them. This will lead to a dedicated following of die hard fans that will come to your shows, buy your music, and support your music ca-reer.So that’s a basic overview of what the strategy is. We’ll get into more detail in the next few chapters.\n10There are several tools and resources that I recommend for getting best results with this system, which I’ll share with you in this chapter. If you would like a detailed expla-nation of how to set all of this stuff up, I highly recommend that you check out the video course I’ve put together. (you can access the course at https://www.musicpromotionmachine.com )\nTHE TOOLS3\n11Inside the course we’ll take a much deeper dive into this whole system, how it works, and how to get the best results. I demonstrate exactly how to set up the entire system, so you can easily follow along, even if you have no technical knowledge whatso-ever.Alternatively, if you feel pretty comfortable with doing all of this on your own, this book by itself should give you enough guidance to a least get started promoting your music online.Now let’s go over some of the recommend tools for making this system work.Must HaveThe only tool that you absolutely must have for making all of this work is an email autoresponder.An email autoresponder is an online database that will store all of the email ad-dresses that you collect, and it allows you to send out mass emails to your entire email list with the push of a button.The one that I’m recommending is GetResponse. There are several reasons I’ve chosen GetResponse as the email autoresponder that we’ll be using in this course.1.) It’s very inexpensive. It’s only $15/month, and you can click here to get a free 30 day trial2.) It’s incredibly easy to use. Anyone can get started with GetResponse without any technical skills or experience whatsoever.3.) It includes a customizable landing page builder. You will need to have a sim-ple landing page to send your visitors to so they can sign up to your email list.4.) GetResponse includes some very helpful automation tools that will allow you to get this system humming along on autopilot.12Recommended Tools And ResourcesNameCheapNameCheap is a domain registrar. This is where you can purchase a domain for your website or landing page. A domain is the web address that you will send your visitors to. In other words, it’s your .comIf you already have a website for your music, you probably already have a do-main. It’s typically going to be something like www.YOURBANDNAME.comRegistering a domain is very inexpensive. Most domains on NameCheap are only $10 a year. Any landing pages you create within GetResponse can be hosted on your custom domain. If you choose not to register a domain, you can host your GetResponse landing pages on a URL that get response will provide you.It will be something like YOURBANDNAME.getresponse.com rather than simply YourBandName.comHaving your own domain is very inexpensive, it’s more professional, and it’s eas-ier for people to remember than the much longer one that GetResponse provides.So that’s why I recommend registering a domain, but if it is technically optional.DreamHostThe next thing that I recommend is hosting.When I say hosting, I’m referring to a server that hosts your website. A server is simply a computer that is made specifically to store your website files on.13Think about it like this.If you build a website, all of the files that make up your website have to be stored on a server. Your domain will be connected to the server, so that when someone types your domain into their web browser, the web browser will know where to find the files that belong to your website. This will allow your website to be displayed for the visitor.The main benefit of having a hosting account is that it will allow you to create much more customizable landing pages than using GetResponse alone. You will also be able to create many different landing pages. Being able to create multiple landing pages makes it easier to create geo-targeted email lists. By that I mean, you can have different email lists for different cities that you perform in regularly. So if you have a show coming up in Los Angeles. You can send out emails specifically to people that live in Los Angeles informing them about the upcoming show.Creating multiple landing pages also allows you to test different designs and con-cepts to optimize for better results. Testing multiple landing pages against one an-other will ultimately help you get more fans for less money.The basic $15/month plan with GetResponse limits you to only 1 landing page. That’s all you need to make this strategy work, but having the option to create multiple landing pages will help you get better results.You can get a reliable hosting account with DreamHost for only $10 per month. So it’s not going to break the bank, and it’s well worth the investment.WordPressIf you decide that you want to be able to create multiple landing pages and have pretty much limitless customization options, you’ll want to install WordPress on your hosting account.14Wordpress is a user interface software that makes it easy for anyone to build a website without knowing anything about coding. It’s 100% free, so no added expense there. Thrive ArchitectThrive Architect integrates with Wordpress and makes it super easy to create nice looking landing pages that are completely customizable.The landing page builder that comes with GetResponse is certainly adequate for getting this system in place, but Thrive Architect will give you so many more op-tions. In my opinion, the customizable landing pages you can build with Thrive Archi-tect simply look better that the ones you get with GetResponse.Thrive architect can be purchased for a one-time fee, or you can have access to it along with a ton of other cool stuff that Thrive offers for a monthly membership fee.Those are the tools and resources that I recommend for your music promotion strategy. If you would like to see exactly how I set all of this stuff up, click here to check out the video course I’ve put together.\n15When you’re trying to promote anything, whether it’s music, a car, or laundry deter-gent, what you’re really trying to do is communicate a message with the goal of per-suading someone to do something.In order to do that effectively, you need to be able to craft your message in a way that will compel someone to take action - to buy something, to subscribe to an email list, to click a link.\nCOPYWRITING4\n16The act of crafting this type of message is called copywriting. Copywriting is sim-ply the act of writing text for sales and marketing purposes.Why should you learn about copywriting?In order to get anyone to sign up to your email list, purchase your albums, or even want to read any of the emails you send out, you need to understand at least a lit-tle bit about copywriting. This way you can convey your message in a manner that’s in-teresting to your audience and compels them to take action.A common mistake that many musicians make with email marketing, is that they focus too much on “pushing” their music to fans. You don’t want to come across as being “salesy” or overly-promotional. That will turn people off and you won’t have much success with any of your marketing efforts.Instead of “selling” you should focus on giving value to your fans. That will al-most always result in more sales.So how do you do give value instead of selling? Well, let’s take a look at a couple of short email examples.Bad email example:Dear Fan,I have a new album and I want you to buy it.I would really like to have your money, so buy my album.Also, please tell all of your friends about my album so I can have their money too.The album is really great and everyone who 17listens to it likes it a lot. I’m sure you’re going to love it too!==> Click Here To Buy It NowSincerely,Broke MusicianWhat would you think if you received an email like that?You would probably be turned off immediately. People don’t like to feel like they’re being “sold”.Writing emails like that is not only a waste of time, but it could also lead to a lot of people unsubscribing from your email list. And you’re going to lose out on a lot of potential sales, both now and in the future.So how can you write a better email?Dear Fan,First of all, I really want to say THANK YOU!As my way of saying “Thank You” for all of your support, I want to give you an early bird discount on my new album that’s coming out next month.The album is going to be priced at $9.99 on iTunes, but today I want to let you have it for only $4.99.That’s a 50% discount!And as an added bonus, I’m going to throw in 183 additional exclusive tracks that you can’t findanywhere else...Absolutely FREE!==> Click Here To Download The Album At 50% OffThanks again for all your support.I hope you enjoy the album.Sincerely,Smart MusicianWhat makes that email so much better?Primarily because you’re not coming right out of the gate ASKING for something. Instead you’re OFFERING VALUE. Even though the goal is still to get them to buy your album, you’re framing the message in such a way that you’re GIVING them something (a 50% discount and exclu-sive tracks) rather than ASKING for something.Now instead of being put off by an email that’s selling, the fan is receiving an email that is offering value in the form of a discount and some free exclusive tracks.The result?You’ll sell more albums, get fewer unsubscribes, and you’ll maintain higher open rates on future emails. That all, of course, correlates to more money, more exposure, and more fans.And what did you have to do to improve your results?Simply learn some very basic copywriting.19Write CasuallyWhen you’re sending emails out to your list of fans, it’s important to write in a way that’s engaging and will keep their attention.Remember, you’re not writing a technical manual for how to operate a kitchen ap-pliance. You’re trying to build a connection with your fans and sell your music.Boring and confusing copy is going to put your readers to sleep. You need to add a little personality when you’re writing your emails. Write like you speak. Not like you were taught in English class.The fact is, you really don’t need to worry too much about using grammar and punctuation the way that you were taught in English class. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to misspell words and throw punctuation out the win-dow completely. It simply means that you shouldn’t let rules about grammar get in the way of writing engaging emails that are will keep readers interested.Write casually like you’re talking to a friend.If you were emailing a friend to let them know that you’re band is playing a show this weekend, how would you write?Would it be stuffy and formal? Like…Dearest Charles,You are cordially invited to attend a live performance put on by my band, Homeless Hooker.The performance begins promptly at 8pm Eastern Standard Time on the eve of May 14....20No. You’re not going to write like that. You’re probably more likely to write something more like...Hey dude!My band’s playing at Whiskey a Go Go tomorrow night at 9pm. Come check us out!There’s a bunch of kick ass bands opening for us that Iknow you’re really going to dig...Plus they’ve got a bunch of great drink specials. Jack and Coke’s are super cheap...Now, which of those email snippets do you think would be more engaging to your readers?Probably the second one right?The point is we’re not trying to win any awards for grammar here. We’re simply trying to communicate a message to our fans, and the best way to communicate that message is to make sure it’s interesting.Speak To One PersonAnother important tip that will help you write engaging copy is to write as if you’re speaking to just one person. This will make the reader feel as if you’re speaking directly to them and not to your entire email list.21Of course they know logically that they aren’t the only person reading the email, but the email will still feel a lot more personal.So let’s take a look at that email snippet from the last example, but with a few slight tweaks to make it sound a little less personal.Hey Everyone!My band’s playing at Whiskey a Go Go tomorrow nightat 9pm. You should all come check us out!There’s a bunch of kick ass bands opening for us that I know you’ll all really dig...Plus they’ve got a bunch of great drink specials. Jack and Coke’s are super cheap...It’s a lot less personal, right?When the email feels like it’s written just for you, there’s almost a feeling of obli-gation. Like it’s really up to you to show up and help support the band.That feeling kind of goes away when it’s written for everyone.Don’t you feel a little more like, “Ehh... I really like the band and want to support them, but I’m sure plenty of other people will show up”?Try it out for yourself and I’m sure you’ll see what I’m talking about.Write in a casual manner and speak to one person, like you’re writing an email to a friend.22Your emails will be much more engaging, you’ll be able to sell more music and merch, and you’ll be able to get more of your fans to turn up to your shows. A.I.D.A.Every piece of copy you write should follow this simple 4-part formula.A.I.D.AAttention: Grab their attentionInterest: Create interest, by being interestingDesire: Build desire - make them want what you have to offerAction: Make them take actionHere’s an example of the AIDA formula applied to an email:(NOTE: You can get a more in-depth breakdown of the AIDA formula inside the video course)ATTENTIONSubject: Did Stevie Wonder And Eric Clapton Have A Love Affair?INTEREST: CREATE SOME INTEREST BY PRESENTING INFORMA-TION ABOUT WHAT IT IS THAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER, AND DO IT IN A WAY THAT COMPELS THE READER TO CONTINUE READINGWhat would happen if you took the soulful melodic keyboard of Stevie Wonder and combined that with the rockin’ blues guitar of Eric Clapton?You might get something like “DFJ”That’s one of the tracks off our full length album that’s now available on iTunes, but don’t waste your money!23DESIRE: MORE INFORMATION, BUT THIS HAS INTENT. AT THIS POINT WE’RE GIVING THE READER REASONS WHY THEY SHOULD PURCHASE THE ALBUM.That album’s 10 whole bucks on iTunes...Now we’re not saying that it’s not worth $10 (in fact, we’d estimate that it’s probably worth about a gazillion dollars)But why pay $10 to get the album on iTunes, when youcan get it right here, right now for half that?That’s right!We really appreciate having you as a fan, so we want to give you 50% off on our full length album.This is an exclusive offer that’s only available to our email subscribers.ACTION: A SIMPLE, DIRECT STATEMENT THAT INFORMS THE READER HOW TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TO GET THE ALBUM==>> Click Here To Get The Album Now For Just $4.99We hope you enjoy it!Talk soon,Dr.B and the EaseAt this point you should at least understand what copywriting is. I’ve introduced you to some basic copywriting principles that you can apply when setting up the sys-tem outlined in this book.24Remember, copywriting is an art form, just like playing an instrument or writing music. You will get better at it with practice, so be sure to do that!Copywriting is an invaluable skill that will help you with all of your promotions. Take the time to learn about it and apply it to all of your marketing efforts.\n25Fan Generation FunnelTo build your email list, you’re going to need to set up a “fan generation funnel”. This is called a “funnel” because you’re “funneling” prospective fans through a series of steps that will weed out people that aren’t interested in your music, and capture the email addresses of those who are.\nYOUR EMAIL LIST5\n26The simplest version of this will have 4 main components:1.) Squeeze Page - A simple landing page that has 1 single purpose - get your fans’ email addresses. This is where new fans will be able to sign up to your email list.2.) Autoresponder - An online software that serves 3 primary functions:1. It allows you to capture and store all of your fans’ email addresses. You will integrate your autoresponder with your squeeze page. Whenever a fan enters their email address on your squeeze page, that email will be collected and stored auto-matically in your autoresponder.2. Send out mass emails to your entire list with your autoresponder3. Set up an “autoresponder series” of emails to be sent out to new fans auto-matically when they join your list3.) Incentive - You need to offer fans something in exchange for their email ad-dress. I recommend some free tracks that they can download immediately4.) Thank You Page - A simple page that the fan is redirected to after they en-ter their email address so they A.) know that they’ve successfully completed the proc-ess of signing up and B.) can receive their free downloads, which will typically be deliv-ered on the Thank You PageElements Of A Squeeze PageAll 4 components of the fan generation funnel are essential, but you’ll want to pay particular attention to the squeeze page. The layout, design, and text on your squeeze page are all going to influence a person’s decision as to whether or not they’re going to join your email list. For that reason, you need to understand how to create a landing page that will get fans to take action and sign up to your list.First and foremost, make sure that you don’t give people multiple options. 27One of the most common mistakes people make when creating a squeeze page is that they don’t focus solely on getting the email address. They give an option for the fan to enter their email address, but they also give them the option to listen to music on Spotify, subscribe to a YouTube channel, “Like” on Facebook. Don’t do that!Your squeeze page should have two options:1.) Enter email2.) Leave the pageThat’s it. It’s okay to send people to Spotify, Facebook, or Youtube. But do that after the fan has already signed up to your email list.So you’re squeeze page serves 1 singular purpose, and that’s to collect email ad-dresses.The best squeeze pages are usually very simple. They are clear and concise, and they don’t have a lot of fluff. It is possible to create a good squeeze page that has a lot of information, images, and videos on it, but I don’t recommend that when you’re starting out.Keep it simple.All you need is a Headline, a sub-headline, and an sign up form.Headline - Your headline should be something that grabs the visitors attention and helps them immediately understand what the page is about.Sub-headline - This will give the visitor a little more information. What you’re offering, why they should sign up, and how to do that. Your sub-headline should be clear and concise. It should only be one or two sentences at most.28Sign Up Form - The field where a visitor will submit their email address. This integrates with your email autoresponderSales FunnelGetting your fans’ email addresses is great, and that’s our primary goal with this strategy. Once you have a fans email address, you can stay connected and generate revenue with future promotions.But just because you can email a fan in the future, doesn’t mean you should waste this opportunity to promote something right away.Take advantage of the fact that your fans are seeing your Thank You Page as soon as they sign up to your list. This is a great place to offer your album at a discount, so you can actually make a few sales when people first join your email list.In the video course I’ll demonstrate exactly how to set up your sales funnel us-ing PayPal, so you can sell your music as soon as someone signs up to your email list.Click Here To Follow Along As I Set Up This Entire Funnel Step By Step\n29There are 2 basic types of emails that you’ll send out to your fans.There’s your autoresponder series, which is a series of emails that are sent out automatically when a fan signs up to your email list.And there are broadcast emails, which are one-off emails that you send out to your fans at a specific day and time.\nSENDING EMAILS6\n30The emails that you add to your autoresponder series should be “evergreen”, meaning that it shouldn’t matter if a fan receives them now or six months from now. Those emails should be equally relevant to a fan regardless of when they sign up to your email list.Time-sensitive emails, on the other hand, should be sent out as broadcasts. Some examples of time-sensitive emails would include: upcoming shows, album releases, limited-time promotions, etc.“How Frequently Should I Mail?”One of the most common questions I get is, “How often should I mail my fans?”The answer is that there really is no set mailing frequency that’s right for every-one.Remember that your primary goal is to build a relationship with your fans. This means that you want to be sure that they are continuing to open your emails, that they’re engaging with your emails, and that they’re getting value from the emails.Your emails should be interesting and engaging to your fans. At the very least, your emails should be informing them of things they want to hear about, like upcom-ing shows and album releases.If you can’t send out emails every single day and keep them interesting and en-gaging, then you don’t need to be sending out emails every day. If on the other hand, you can write creative and interesting emails every single day, and your fans are enjoying receiving those emails, keep up the good work.You want to send out emails just often enough that your fans are getting value from them and enjoy receiving them from you.31But don’t go too long without sending emails either. This is especially important when a fan has just discovered you and your music. You don’t want to let them forget about after they discover your music for the first time. That’s a big reason why you want to have an email autoresponder series in place. So in terms of frequency, I would say as a general guideline, try to mail at least once a week. Mail as frequently as once a day if you want, but only if you can keep your emails interesting and engaging.Initial 7 Day AutoresponderYou can build out your autoresponder series to send emails every day, every other day, once a week, whatever you like.You can set it up to send for the first 7 days after someone sings up to your list, or you can set it up to send emails out for 500 days.It’s really up to you, but I recommend at least setting your autoresponder to send out emails for the first 7 days after someone joins your email list.Why?Because this is a critical time, when fans are most likely discovering your music for the first time. If you don’t capitalize on that, many of those people will forget about you.There are 2 general types of emails that will go out to your fans. There are promo-tional emails, and there are strictly “value” emails.Promotional emails are the ones where you’re clearly selling something. You may be promoting an album, merch, whatever.32On the other hand, sometimes you’ll send “value” emails. These emails can still have major benefits to you, like new Facebook fans, YouTube subscribers, followers on Spotify, etc., but they aren’t asking your fans to buy anything.If you email your fans about a new music video that you’ve just uploaded to You-Tube, that would still be considered a “value” email. Even though you’re technically promoting your video, you aren’t asking for any money, so I wouldn’t consider it a “promotional” email.When emailing your fans, you want to alternate between promotional emails and value emails. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t send promotional emails out for 2 or 3 days in a row. It just means that you shouldn’t send out only promo-tional emails for weeks at a time.You may have a number of things in mind already that you would like to promote to new fans. The most common thing would be an album download of course.Not only is the first 7 days a critical time to make sure your subscribers don’t for-get about you, it’s also the time where your new fans will engage with your emails the most. You’ll want to capitalize on that by promoting something that you can generate some revenue from. I recommend that you continue to promote whatever album you were selling in your initial sales funnel. Most people aren’t going to buy it when they first sign up to your list, so you’ll want to remind them about it and continue offering it at a discount.In the video training I’ll show you how to segment your email lists, so that only people who do not purchase your album will continue to receive emails promot-ing it. That way fans don’t continue to receive emails about albums that they’ve al-ready purchased.In addition to promotional emails and value emails, there is one other type of email. Your welcome email.Your welcome email will just go out to your fans one time, welcome them to your email list.33This is a great opportunity to provide some value, as well as to promote you’re al-bum(s).Most of your emails should have one singular focus. If you’re selling an album, don’t link to a YouTube video or Facebook, just link to a page where they can purchase the album.In the case of the welcome email, I recommend promoting your album. But it’s also a good time to link to all of your social platforms and blog if you have one. And you should also let them know a little bit about what kind of emails they will be receiv-ing from you, so they know what to expect.There’s no steadfast rule about what your first 7 day autoresponder series should look like, but here’s what I recommend:DAY 0 (IMMEDIATELY ON SIGNUP) - WELCOME EMAILDAY 1 (24 HRS LATER) - VALUE EMAILDAY 2 - VALUE EMAILDAY 3 - PROMOTIONAL EMAILDAY 4 - PROMOTIONAL EMAILDAY 5 - VALUE EMAILDAY 6 - PROMOTIONAL EMAILThat’s a quick rundown of some things to consider when sending emails to your fans. If you want a more detailed explanation, check out the video training.\n34Once you have your fan generation funnel and autoresponder set up, it’s time to start getting new fans to your squeeze page.But first before you do that, it’s a good idea to test your funnel to make sure eve-rything is working correctly.\nTRAFFIC7\n35Be sure that when you enter your email address in the email field on your squeeze page, your email address is being added to the appropriate list that you set up in GetResponse.Make sure that you’re being directed to the correct thank you page after you’ve entered your email. If you’re selling an album on that page, go ahead and go through the process of purchasing it to make sure that’s all working correctly as well.Once you’ve tested out your funnel and you’re sure it’s working the way it’s sup-posed to, you’re ready to start sending traffic to your squeeze page.There are a lot of ways to do this. Some of which you can do right away without spending a dime on advertising.For example, you should be collecting email addresses at all your shows.People attending your live shows are the most targeted audience that you’re ever going to get. Not only are these people that are interested in your music, they are also clearly the type of person that’s going to get out of the house and come see you live. Even if they didn’t initially come to see you, you know that they’re the type of per-son that enjoys live music as a form of entertainment. If they’re willing to sign up to your email list at your show, you know they obviously like your music too.Getting people to join your email list at your shows doesn’t have to be compli-cated. Simply let the crowd know that you’ll be hanging out at your merch booth after the show, and they can sign up to your email list to get some freebies and to be noti-fied next time you’re are playing in the area.You can simply use a good old fashioned notepad and manually enter those email addresses into get response later.Alternatively, if you want to get fancy, you can pull your squeeze page up on an iPad and have them sign up right there on the spot.36It’s up to you how you do it. Just be sure that you’re getting fans to sign up to your email list at all you’re shows. Now as far as promoting your squeeze page online, there are many ways to do that, but easily one of the best ways that I’ve found is using Facebook ads.There are a lot of benefits to using Facebook ads. First of all, you can start with a really small budget. You can get great results with just $5 or $10 a day. There are hun-dreds of millions of people on Facebook, so scaling is easy once you start getting good results.Facebook has a lot of great data about the people on their social network, includ-ing music interests, and demographics like the area that they live in. Using the Face-book ad platform makes it easy to get your squeeze page in front of the people that are most likely to be interested in your musicInside the video training, I demonstrate step by step how I’m using Facebook ads to generate new fans for a band for less than $1 per new subscriber. Seriously, less than $1 per subscriber. Think about that. Once someone’s on your email list, how diffi-cult do you think it will be to earn that $1 back?You could have a flash sale of your latest album and charge just $2 and you would have doubled your money on what it cost you to get that subscriber. How much do you charge at the door of your shows? $5 per person? $10? How much merch are you selling?My point is, it’s probably easy to see that getting new fans for under a buck each can be very profitable.Click here to get access to the video training and follow along as I set up a Facebook Ad campaign.\n37So that’s the simple system that you can use to get more exposure, grow your fanbase, and sell your music online. Start by creating your squeeze page using GetResponse or Thrive Architect. Be sure to create a Thank You page as well, so you’re fans will know when they’ve suc-cessfully entered their email address.\nWRAP UP8\n38I recommend that you also take the opportunity to promote your latest album at a discount. That way you can generate a little revenue that you can put back into adver-tising. If you’re using Thrive Architect, you will need to be sure to integrate it with the appropriate list in GetResponse. If you’re using GetResponse to build your land-ing pages, then the you are already integrated, you just need to select the appropriate list when prompted.Collect fan email addresses at live shows and promote your squeeze page using Facebook ads to start building your email list.Then you can use your email autoresponder to connect with fans and build rela-tionships with those fans. By cultivating your following, you will build a fanbase of diehard super fans that will spend a lot of money to see you perform live, buy exclusive merch, and download your albums. Those diehard superfans are also likely to share your music with all of their friends, which will grow your following even more.At the beginning of this book, I told you that I would outline this proven-effective, music promotion strategy for you. I also mentioned that this would be enough for some people to follow along with an implement on their own.However, I realize that you may not have much experience with marketing and you may not have a lot of experience with some of the more technical stuff involved.That’s why I’ve created this step by step video course that you can get access to right now, so you can follow along with me as I set this entire system up for a real band.Not only will you see how I set everything up, you’ll also:• See how I get new fans for less than $1 using Facebook Ads• Learn how to build an army of diehard superfans that will support your career and share your music with friends39• Create geo-targeted email lists to build followings in the cities you perform the most• Craft the perfect squeeze page to get more people to join your email list• Automate the whole process• And much more!So if you’d like to build an automated fan generating machine that will help you get more exposure and sell more music 24/7, even while you sleep, click here to get access to the full step by step video training.If you decide to get access to the course, I’m sure you’re going to love it!In any case, I hope you’ve found the information in this book helpful. Be sure to put it into action right away, and I have no doubt that you’ll have a much larger follow-ing in no time!Thanks for taking the time to check out the book.I wish you the best of luck in your music career! \n40Copyright © 2018 by JMS Digital Media Inc.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other elec-tronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommer-cial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, ad-dressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.JMS Digital Media302 Enterprise Dr. Ste. A38655 Oxford, MSUnited States\n41", + "keywords": [ + "email", + "fan", + "get", + "music", + "page", + "youre", + "list", + "like", + "album", + "people" + ], + "summary": "HOW TO GET MORE EXPOSURE, \nMORE FANS, AND SELL YOUR \nMUSIC ONLINE BY JUSTIN SMITH\nINSIDER SECRETS OF" + }, + { + "filename": "614756980-5-Pillars-of-a-Great-Release.pdf", + "text": "A PRACTICAL REVIEW OF\nELECTRONIC MUSIC MARKETINGTHE 5 PILLARS\nOF A GREAT RELEASECHOOSE YOUR RELEASE PLATFORM\nFOR EVERY RELEASE, YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO \nRELEASE 1) ON A RECORD LABEL, OR 2) INDEPENDENTLY \n(INDIE). BOTH REQUIRE UNIQUE APPROACHES IN ORDER \nTO BE SUCCESSFUL.\n A main advantage of releasing on a record label is access to their \ndistributor — distribution is how your music gets onto streaming platforms and music stores. Labels work closely with distributors to handle this for you; however, if you release independently, you’ll have to work with the distribution company of your choice directly, and often pay for their services.\n Labels often produce greater stream counts and sales due to a larger \nmarketing reach, but this comes with a price. Labels regularly take up to (and sometimes greater than) 80% of a song’s revenue. By releasing independently, you can retain up to 100% of the song’s revenue (depending on which distributor you choose), but you’ll need to do your marketing yourself.LEVERAGE YOUR MARKETING DATABASE\nTAKE THE TIME TO BUILD A DATABASE OF VALUABLE \nCONTACTS TO USE FOR YOUR RELEASE MARKETING \n(EVEN IF YOU PLAN TO RELEASE ON A LABEL) — YOUR \nDATABASE SHOULD INCLUDE EVERYONE FROM \nINDUSTRY TASTEMAKERS IN DIFFERENT VERTICALS, TO \nDEDICATED FANS/FRIENDS, TO OTHER ARTISTS.\n Identify and find contact information for curators of Spotify playlists and \nowners of large Soundcloud channels. Send emails to these contacts before a song release to have them include your song on a playlist or repost it to their followers. The number of Spotify/Soundcloud contacts should be well into the hundreds — this list can be reused for future releases.\n Build a network of similar artists to help you market your music — from \nplaying other artists’ music during live performances or in radio shows, to Soundcloud reposts, tweets, and Instagram stories, artists can co-market music to their fan bases. But, be sure to be equally supportive — seek to give support as much as you ask for it.DESIGN A RELEASE STRATEGY\nIT ISN’T ENOUGH TO WHIMSICALLY POST ON YOUR \nSOCIAL MEDIA PAGES WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT. IT’S \nEXTREMELY USEFUL TO CREATE AN ORGANIZED AND \nDETAILED PLAN FOR EVERY RELEASE — AND, THIS ONLY \nGETS EASIER WITH EACH RELEASE!\n For every song, create a document (we like to use Excel) to house all song \ninformation, links, a calendar for social media posts, and database contacts who require personal outreach (because of past support, a stronger personal relationship, etc.). Be sure to plan a release relative to other releases, too — we recommend releasing a song every 1-2 months.\n Create at least 2-3 pieces of ancillary content per release. DJ mixes, \nin-the-studio tutorials, quirky social media videos, Instagram story takeovers, etc. — these are all effective ways to market your release to your audience without repeatedly posting Spotify links. It’s important to maintain constant contact with your audience to create a buzz around a release.ASSETS AND ARTWORK\nTHE VISUAL ELEMENTS OF YOUR SONG AND ALL THE \nWRITTEN COPY SHOULD BE PREPARED IN ADVANCE OF \nRELEASE DAY. TO ACHIEVE A TRULY VIRAL RELEASE, THIS \nNEEDS TO GO BEYOND A SIMPLE ALBUM ARTWORK.\n “Copy” is an important term to understand — it is the exact text that will be \nused in marketing materials. Write all social media posts and emails in advance of the release, and pre-schedule as many of them as you can. This allows you to strategize on the collective language that will be used, and it will save you precious time during the release cycle.\n \n Artwork: do it yourself, or pay for a visual artist? First, this depends on \nyour budget. If you have a budget for artwork, working with a visual artist \ncan be a great way to professionally build out your own visual ideas, or leverage someone else’s creative vision. If it’s not in your budget, no worries — keep it simple and clean, you can’t go wrong there.THE KEYS TO SPOTIFY\nWE’VE ALREADY TOUCHED ON THIS, BUT WE’RE GOING \nTO REITERATE — SPOTIFY IS THE DOMINATING FORCE IN \nMUSIC STREAMING. IN MOST CASES, WITHOUT A ROBUST \nSPOTIFY PRESENCE, IT’S VERY HARD TO GROW YOUR \nBRAND AS AN ARTIST.\n Focus on playlists. Spotify’s playlists snowball on each other — the more \nplaylists a song is in, and the fewer times listeners skip a song in a playlist, the more new playlists Spotify’s algorithms will place it in (specifically the Discover Weekly playlists). In order to avoid skips, make sure you submit your song only to playlists curated for your specific genre.\n A NEW Spotify playlist system is just around the corner. Currently in beta, \nthis artists-only platform will allow for direct submissions to playlist curators from a single submission page. Start using this as soon as it is available — but remember, even though this will be convenient, nothing beats a personal contact with a playlister built upon individual, direct contact.HYPERBITS HYPERBITS HYPERBITS HYPERBITS HYPERBITS\nwww.hyperbitsmusic.com\n", + "keywords": [ + "release", + "song", + "playlist", + "music", + "contact", + "artist", + "label", + "spotify", + "marketing", + "every" + ], + "summary": "A PRACTICAL REVIEW OF\nELECTRONIC MUSIC MARKETINGTHE 5 PILLARS\nOF A GREAT RELEASECHOOSE YOUR RELEASE " + }, + { + "filename": "540674759-26-Things-Before-You-Release-a-Song-or-Album.pdf", + "text": "26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG \nOR ALBUM• ARI'S TAKE PRESENTS •1. MARKET RESEARCH\nH o w d o y o u k n o w i f y o u s u c k o r n o t ? Y o u ’ r e b i a s e d . S o a r e y o u r m o m a n d y o u r\nb o y f r i e n d . Y o u r f r i e n d s a r e n ’ t g o i n g t o t e l l y o u i f t h e y h a t e y o u r m u s i c . T h e y w i l l c o m e\nt o y o u r s h o w s t o s u p p o r t y o u . T o m a k e s u r e y o u r m u s i c i s r e a d y f o r p r i m e t i m e , y o u\nn e e d s o m e u n b i a s e d o p i n i o n s . Y o u c a n s u b m i t t o i n d u s t r y e x p e r t s , i n f l u e n c e r s a n d\nc u r a t o r s o n F l u e n c e ( F l u e n c e . i o ) . F l u e n c e a l l o w s y o u t o p a y p e o p l e w h o a r e d i f f i c u l t t o\nr e a c h t o l i s t e n t o y o u r s o n g o r w a t c h y o u r v i d e o . M o s t ‘ c u r a t o r s ’ ( a s t h e y ’ r e c a l l e d o n\nt h e p l a t f o r m ) c h a r g e a f e w d o l l a r s a m i n u t e . I f y o u ’ r e a s k i n g f o r f e e d b a c k , p r e p a r e f o r i t\nt o b e b r u t a l l y h o n e s t . W h e n I w a s a c u r a t o r o n F l u e n c e I t y p i c a l l y w r o t e f i v e t o t e n\np a r a g r a p h c r i t i q u e s o f s o n g s s u b m i t t e d t o m e . 8 0 % o f t h e s t u f f I r e c e i v e d w a s n o t v e r y\ng o o d ; 1 5 % w a s d e c e n t , b u t n o t g r e a t ; a n d 5 % w a s s o g r e a t t h a t I h a d t o s h a r e i t ( i f i t w a s\nr e l e a s e d ) a n d h e l p t h e a r t i s t m a k e c o n n e c t i o n s . B u t F l u e n c e c a n g e t p r i c e y . T o h i t t h e\ng e n e r a l p u b l i c , y o u c a n u s e T u n e c o r e ’ s F a n R e v i e w s . Y o u d o n ’ t a c t u a l l y h a v e t o\nd i s t r i b u t e y o u r m u s i c t o g e t i t r e v i e w e d . T o g e t 1 0 0 r e v i e w s b y t h e s e ‘ m u s i c f a n s a n d\nc o n s u m e r s ’ ( p e o p l e w h o g e t p a i d t o t a k e s u r v e y s ) i t ’ l l r u n y o u a b o u t $ 4 0 . O t h e r w i s e , i f\ny o u h a v e a s t r o n g c o m m u n i t y a r o u n d y o u , e n l i s t s o m e t r u s t e d e a r s t o t a k e a s u r v e y\na n o n y m o u s l y . Y o u c a n u s e S u r v e y m o n k e y o r G o o g l e F o r m s a n d t h e y c a n r a n k t h e s o n g s\ni n t h e o r d e r o f t h e i r f a v o r i t e s , r a t e e a c h o n a 1 - 1 0 s c a l e , a n d o f f e r o t h e r k i n d s o f\nf e e d b a c k . I f y o u ' r e n o t s u p e r e s t a b l i s h e d , I r e c o m m e n d d o i n g s o m e k i n d o f m a r k e t\nr e s e a r c h b e f o r e r e l e a s i n g y o u r m u s i c . I t c a n a l s o j u s t h e l p t o k n o w t h e o r d e r t o r e l e a s e\ny o u r s i n g l e s .\n2. MAKE A TIMELINE\nThis should include all the elements below. A great song needs a great strategy. The\nmost important thing you can do is know exactly what you have to do each day and\neach week leading up to your release and what to do after. Be specific and thorough.\nAt the top of each week, you should already know exactly what you need to\naccomplish. Which photos and videos are you posting? What emails are you sending?\nWhat stories are you telling? Once you have it written out, make sure to use a system\nthat will work for you so you execute with precision. Maybe it's the calendar on your\nphone, maybe it's post-it notes on your wall, maybe it’s a fancy project management\nsoftware. Whatever it is, stick to it. This is your roadmap to a successful release.\n26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM4. SIGNUP FOR A PRO\nI n A m e r i c a , t h e m o s t w e l l - k n o w n P e r f o r m i n g R i g h t s O r g a n i z a t i o n s ( P R O s ) a r e A S C A P ,\nB M I a n d S E S A C . I n C a n a d a t h e s o l e P R O i s S O C A N . I n t h e U K i t ’ s P R S . Y o u m u s t b e\ns i g n e d u p w i t h a P R O t o g e t y o u r p e r f o r m a n c e r o y a l t i e s f o r s o n g s y o u w r i t e . M o s t a d m i n\np u b l i s h i n g c o m p a n i e s w i l l r e g i s t e r y o u r s o n g s w i t h e v e r y P R O i n t h e w o r l d ( i n c l u d i n g\ny o u r h o m e t o w n o n e ) , s o y o u d o n ’ t n e e d t o w o r r y a b o u t r e g i s t e r i n g e a c h s o n g w i t h y o u r\nl o c a l P R O a s l o n g a s y o u r e g i s t e r t h o s e s o n g s w i t h y o u r a d m i n p u b l i s h i n g c o m p a n y . I f\ny o u d o n ’ t h a v e a n a d m i n p u b l i s h i n g c o m p a n y ( u h , s e e # 2 ) , t h e n y o u ’ l l n e e d t o m a k e\ns u r e y o u r e g i s t e r e v e r y o n e o f y o u r s o n g s w i t h y o u r P R O .\n6. REGISTER YOUR COPYRIGHTS\nYou can currently register 20 of your unreleased songs for $85 with the US Copyright\noffice. You can do everything at Copyright.gov. Make sure you’re protected so when\nthe future Pharell and Robin Thicke steal your song in 30 years, your kids will be able\nto sue for their retirement! If you don’t register the copyright, you can’t bring a suit.5. REGISTER WITH A SOUND RECORDING PRO\nSoundExchange is how you get paid for Pandora and SiriusXM (and all other\ndigitalradio) plays in the US. Other countries have their own \"Neighboring Rights\nOrganizations.\" Find the one in your country and register for it.\n26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n3. REGISTER YOUR PUBLISHING\nIf you want to make sure you’re collecting all of your publishing royalties wherever\nthey exist in the world, you’re going to need an admin publishing company to help you\ncollect these (if you don’t have a publishing deal). Songtrust, Tunecore Publishing, CD\nBaby Publishing or Sentric are some admin publishing companies that any songwriter\nat any level can sign up for and get 100% of their publishing royalties collected. \nDID YOU KNOW\nYou can get paid for playing your original music live? Your admin publishing company\ncan help you collect this money!9. CREATE THE FOLDER OF ASSETS\nW a v s o f e v e r y s o n g ( i n c l u d i n g i n s t r u m e n t a l s ) .\n3 2 0 k b p s ( m e t a d a t a t a g g e d ) m p 3 s o f e v e r y s o n g ( i n c l u d i n g i n s t r u m e n t a l s ) .\nH i g h - r e s a l b u m c o v e r ( a t l e a s t 3 0 0 0 p i x e l s x 3 0 0 0 p i x e l s ) .\nS t e m s ( f o r r e m i x e s ) . T h e s e a r e i s o l a t e d v o c a l s , d r u m s , b a s s , g u i t a r t r a c k s .\nH i - r e s p r o m o p h o t o s ( n o b i g g e r t h a n 1 0 m b p e r i m a g e )\nM e r c h d e s i g n s\nP r e s s r e l e a s e\nS p r e a d s h e e t o f p l a y l i s t s , i n f l u e n c e r s a n d p r e s s o u t l e t s t o t a r g e t\nT e x t d o c w i t h c r e d i t s ( b r e a k t h e s e d o w n b y s o n g )\nS h o r t a n d l o n g b i o s\nA l l p r o m o m a t e r i a l s ( w i t h o r i g i n a l f i l e s t o b e a b l e t o u p d a t e a n d e d i t )\nD e m o s\nA l l v i d e o s ( m u s i c v i d e o , B T S , a d s , u p c o m i n g p o s t s )\nT e x t d o c c o n t a i n i n g l i n k s t o a l l s h a r e a b l e a s s e t s t h a t y o u ’ l l n e e d t o r e f e r e n c e\nq u i c k l y .C r e a t e a f o l d e r i n y o u r p r e f e r r e d c l o u d - b a s e d d r i v e ( D r o p b o x , G o o g l e D r i v e , B o x ) w h i c h\nc a n b e s h a r e d w i t h y o u r t e a m t h a t c o n t a i n s : \n26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n8. GET A SYNC AGENT\nIf you’re interested in getting your music in TV shows, commercials, movies, video\ngames and trailers, you’ll want to work with a sync agent. Some call these sync\nlicensing companies. You can find a list of the top 25 sync agencies in the world in\nHow To Make it in the New Music Business. You can also learn all about sync licensing\nin Ari’s Take Academy’s Advanced Sync Strategies course.7. PICK YOUR DISTRIBUTION COMPANY\nTo get your songs on Spotify, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, TikTok and 100+ other\nDSPs (digital service providers) worldwide, you need a distribution company. There are\nmany distribution companies out there who you can use. I keep an updated\ncomparison article on many of these companies on aristake.com.11. WRITE A NEW BIO AND PRESS RELEASE\nY o u r b i o i s y o u r s t o r y . I t i s t h e s i n g l e m o s t i m p o r t a n t p i e c e o f y o u r r e l e a s e — n e x t t o t h e\nm u s i c , o f c o u r s e . I t s h o u l d r e v e a l w h y p e o p l e s h o u l d c a r e a b o u t y o u . W h a t s e t s y o u\na p a r t ? W h y a r e y o u u n i q u e ? A n d m o r e s p e c i f i c a l l y , w h a t i s t h e a l b u m ’ s s t o r y ? W i t h t h i s\ni n m i n d , y o u c a n c r a f t y o u r b i o . M a n y o u t l e t s w i l l c o p y a n d p a s t e y o u r b i o f o r t h e i r\nn e e d s . M a k e s u r e y o u h a v e t h r e e b i o s , a l o n g o n e , a s h o r t o n e ( 1 o r 2 p a r a g r a p h s ,\nd e f i n i t e l y u n d e r 5 0 0 w o r d s ) a n d a n e l e v a t o r p i t c h ( t h i s i s j u s t f o r y o u a n d y o u r t e a m\nw h e n d i s c u s s i n g t h e a l b u m ) . \nT h e p r e s s r e l e a s e i s d i f f e r e n t f r o m y o u r b i o a n d d o e s n ’ t n e e d t o b e p o s t e d a n y w h e r e\no n l i n e . Y o u w i l l s e n d t h i s d i r e c t l y t o m e d i a o u t l e t s . Y o u r p r e s s r e l e a s e s h o u l d i n c l u d e\nr e c e n t m e d i a c o v e r a g e , t h e r e l e a s e y o u ’ r e c u r r e n t l y p r o m o t i n g , a n y n o t a b l e s h o w s a n d\nt o u r d a t e s ( p a s t o r f u t u r e ) , a n d a s n a p s h o t o f y o u r b i g g e r p i c t u r e p l a n .\n12. CLEAR ALL LICENSES\nI f y o u a r e r e l e a s i n g a c o v e r s o n g o r h a v e s a m p l e s i n t h e t r a c k t h a t y o u d i d n ’ t c r e a t e ,\ny o u h a v e t o c l e a r t h e l i c e n s e s . F o r c o v e r s o n g s , m o s t d i s t r i b u t o r s w i l l g i v e y o u g u i d a n c e\no n h o w t o g e t t h e m e c h a n i c a l l i c e n s e ( s o m e d i s t r o s d o t h i s f o r y o u - f o r a f e e ) . I f y o u\nu s e d a p i e c e o f r e c o r d e d m u s i c i n y o u r t r a c k t h a t y o u d i d n ’ t c r e a t e f r o m s c r a t c h , y o u\nh a v e t o m a k e s u r e y o u ’ r e l e g a l l y a l l o w e d t o u s e i t . M a n y r e c o r d i n g p r o g r a m s ( D A W s )\na l l o w y o u t o u s e t h e i r s o u n d s a n d l o o p s , b u t i f y o u t o o k e v e n a s p l i t s e c o n d o f a p i e c e\no f s o m e o n e e l s e ’ s r e c o r d i n g , y o u n e e d t h e i r p e r m i s s i o n . D o n ’ t t h i n k y o u ’ l l g e t c a u g h t ?\nA u d i o r e c o g n i t i o n s o f t w a r e t h e s e d a y s a r e i n c r e d i b l y p o w e r f u l . D o n ’ t r i s k i t .\n26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n10. GET NEW PHOTOS\nY o u s h o u l d b u i l d u p a n e t w o r k o f p h o t o g r a p h e r s i n y o u r c i t y . Y o u c a n n e v e r h a v e\ne n o u g h h i g h - q u a l i t y p h o t o s . E v e r y r e l e a s e i s a n e w b e g i n n i n g . I t ’ s a t i m e t o u p d a t e a n d\ne n h a n c e y o u r i m a g e . T o r e b r a n d i f n e c e s s a r y . P h o t o s g i v e y o u r a u d i e n c e t h e f i r s t\ni m p r e s s i o n o f t h e m u s i c . P e o p l e w i l l j u d g e y o u r p r o j e c t b a s e d o n t h e a r t w o r k a n d\np h o t o g r a p h y b e f o r e t h e y c h o o s e t o l i s t e n t o t h e m u s i c . S o y o u r p h o t o s s h o u l d h a v e t h e\ns a m e v i b e a n d e n e r g y o f y o u r r e l e a s e . M a k e s u r e y o u r p h o t o g r a p h e r l i s t e n s t o t h e n e w\nm u s i c . A n d m a k e s u r e t h e p h o t o s y o u r e l e a s e a l o n g s i d e t h e n e w m u s i c m a k e s e n s e . Y o u\nn e e d t o w e a r a n o u t f i t c o n d u c i v e t o t h e n e w s o u n d . Y o u r n e w a l b u m n e e d s a s t o r y . A n d\nt h o s e p h o t o s n e e d t o m a t c h t h e s t o r y . P u t a l l t h e e d i t e d p h o t o s i n y o u r F o l d e r o f\nA s s e t s . C r e a t e a s e p a r a t e f o l d e r f o r e a c h s i n g l e r e l e a s e w i t h t h e a c c o m p a n y i n g p h o t o s\nf o r t h a t r e l e a s e .14. MAKE A LIST OF PLAYLISTS TO CONTACT\nM a k e a l i s t o f u s e r g e n e r a t e d p l a y l i s t s t h a t y o u r m u s i c w o u l d f i t o n . I l i k e d o i n g t h i s i n\nG o o g l e S h e e t s a n d i n c l u d e a s m u c h i n f o o n t h e p l a y l i s t a s p o s s i b l e . C h a r t m e r t r i c c a n\nh e l p w i t h t h i s . R e s e a r c h w h o t h e p l a y l i s t c r e a t o r i s a n d c o n t a c t t h e m w h e n y o u r s o n g i s\nr e l e a s e d a n d a s k t o b e i n c l u d e d . S t a r t y o u r m e s s a g e w i t h t h e i r n a m e a n d a c o m p l i m e n t\na b o u t t h e p l a y l i s t .\n15. PRIVATE SONG SHARING AND STORING\nY o u n e e d a p r i v a t e w a y t o s h a r e n e w m u s i c w i t h m u s i c s u p e r v i s o r s , l a b e l s , a g e n t s ,\nm a n a g e r s a n d b l o g s . S o m e o f t h e m o s t p o p u l a r o p t i o n s t o d o t h i s a r e D r o p b o x , D I S C O ,\nG o o g l e D r i v e a n d B o x . P u t b o t h w a v s a n d m p 3 s i n t h e r e a l o n g w i t h l y r i c s a n d a n y n o t e s\no n t h e s o n g . T h i s w i l l b e t h e i n t r o d u c t i o n o f t h i s p r o j e c t , s o m a k e s u r e w h o e v e r g e t s\nt h i s l i n k c a n u n d e r s t a n d t h e f u l l p i c t u r e . Y o u o n l y g e t o n e s h o t a t a f i r s t i m p r e s s i o n ! G e t\nl i n k s f o r e v e r y s o n g ( m a k e s u r e y o u c l i c k t h e S h a r e b u t t o n - d o n ’ t c o p y t h e U R L\nb e c a u s e i t w i l l m a k e t h e m l o g i n ) a n d p o p t h e s e l i n k s i n t o y o u r t e x t d o c i n t h e F o l d e r o f\nA s s e t s .\n26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n13. CUE UP SPOTIFY FOR ARTISTS\nY o u w a n t t o m a k e s u r e t o d i s t r i b u t e y o u r s o n g a t l e a s t 5 w e e k s b e f o r e t h e r e l e a s e d a t e .\nO n c e i t i s o f f i c i a l l y c u e d u p f o r d i s t r i b u t i o n , a c o u p l e d a y s l a t e r i t s h o u l d b e l i s t e d i n\ny o u r S p o t i f y f o r A r t i s t s b a c k e n d a s a n u p c o m i n g r e l e a s e . T h e r e i s a n o p t i o n t h e r e t o\ns u b m i t t o t h e S p o t i f y p l a y l i s t e d i t o r s . A n d t h i s i s h o w y o u m a k e s u r e y o u r s o n g s h o w s\nu p i n y o u r f o l l o w e r s ’ R e l e a s e R a d a r a n d h i t s o t h e r a l g o r i t h m i c p l a y l i s t s o n S p o t i f y . T o\nh a v e s u c c e s s h e r e y o u n e e d t o b e c l e a r a b o u t y o u r l o n g t a i l s t r a t e g y . W h a t s u p p o r t\nh a v e y o u h a d ? W h a t p r e s s i s c o m i n g ? W h a t c a n p e o p l e e x p e c t f r o m y o u f o r t h e n e x t 6\nm o n t h s t o a y e a r ? H o w o f t e n a r e y o u r e l e a s i n g m u s i c ? W h a t ' s y o u r s h o w h i s t o r y a l o n g\nw i t h u p c o m i n g s h o w s ? W h a t a r e s o m e h i g h l i g h t s t h a t m a k e y o u s t a n d o u t f r o m t h e\nn o i s e ? S p o t i f y w a n t s t o k n o w t h a t y o u a r e a n a r t i s t w o r t h s u p p o r t i n g . S p o t i f y a s k s f o r\nt h i s s t u f f a n d t h e y w i l l h e l p a r t i s t s t h e y k n o w h a v e t h e i r s t u f f t o g e t h e r . Y o u ’ r e a l s o g o i n g\nt o w a n t t o c u e u p t h e . C a n v a s ( 8 s e c o n d s i l e n t v i d e o l o o p s ) f o r e a c h s o n g ( w h i c h p l a y s\nw h e n s o m e o n e s t r e a m s y o u r s o n g o n S p o t i f y m o b i l e ) . M a k e s u r e t o a l s o s e t u p\nC o n t r i b u t i o n s s o y o u r f a n s a r e a b l e t o d o n a t e t o y o u d i r e c t l y w h e n t h e y ’ r e o n y o u r\nS p o t i f y p r o f i l e - y o u g e t 1 0 0 % o f t h i s m o n e y .26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n19. REBRAND YOUR SOCIALS & WEBSITE\nN o w t h a t y o u h a v e n e w p h o t o s , a l b u m c o v e r a n d b i o , u s e t h e s e a s s e t s t o r e b r a n d a l l\ny o u r s o c i a l s i t e s a n d w e b s i t e . Y o u a r e b r i n g i n g a n e n t i r e l y n e w p a c k a g e t o t h e w o r l d .\nM a k e i t s h i n y , s p a r k l y a n d t a s t y . A n d p u t a b o w o n i t ! I t ’ s a g o o d i d e a t o r e b r a n d y o u r\nw e b s i t e e v e r y c o u p l e y e a r s r e g a r d l e s s i f y o u h a v e a n e w a l b u m o r n o t . T h e r e a r e p l e n t y\no f w e b s i t e b u i l d e r s t h a t r e q u i r e n o d e s i g n o r c o d i n g k n o w l e d g e . T h e y h a v e b e a u t i f u l\nt e m p l a t e s t o c h o o s e f r o m a n d a r e v e r y s i m p l e t o u s e . I k e e p a n u p d a t e d c o m p a r i s o n o n\na r i s t a k e . c o m o f s o m e o f t h e b i g g e s t w e b s i t e b u i l d e r s .18. PUT THE RELEASE ON BANDCAMP\nB a n d c a m p i s t h e # 1 i n d e p e n d e n t m u s i c s t o r e . I t i s s e l f - m a n a g e d b y y o u . Y o u d o n ’ t\nn e e d t o u s e a d i s t r i b u t o r t o g e t o n B a n d c a m p . Y o u c a n g o t o B a n d c a m p . c o m a n d s i g n\nu p f o r f r e e . Y o u c a n o f f e r “ n a m e y o u r p r i c e ” d o w n l o a d s ( t h e y a l s o h a v e a s t r e a m i n g\nl i b r a r y ) . A f a n o n c e p a i d m e $ 2 0 0 f o r m y a l b u m ( s e t a t $ 5 m i n i m u m ) . B a n d c a m p n o w\no f f e r s s u b s c r i p t i o n s a n d a p h y s i c a l m e r c h s t o r e a s w e l l . T h i s i s a n e a s y w a y t o\ne n c o u r a g e y o u r f a n s t o p a y y o u m o n e y f o r y o u r m u s i c . Y o u a i n ’ t g o i n g t o b e m a k i n g\nm u c h f r o m s t r e a m s , s o e n c o u r a g e y o u r f a n s t o e n j o y y o u r m u s i c o n B a n d c a m p . 17. CREATE THE VIDEOS\nE v e r y s o n g y o u r e l e a s e s h o u l d h a v e a n a c c o m p a n y i n g v i d e o . I t d o e s n ’ t n e e d t o b e a\nh i g h p r i c e d m u s i c v i d e o , b u t i t s h o u l d h a v e a v i d e o c o m p o n e n t . T h e r e a r e e v e n\ni n e x p e n s i v e a p p s o u t t h e r e t h a t c a n e a s i l y c r e a t e l y r i c v i d e o s f o r y o u . Y o u ’ r e g o i n g t o\nw a n t v i d e o s o f d i f f e r e n t l e n g t h a n d a s p e c t r a t i o f o r S p o t i f y ’ s C a n v a s , I n s t a g r a m S t o r i e s\na n d o t h e r o u t l e t s y o u w a n t t o c u s t o m i z e t h e v i d e o s f o r i n a d v a n c e . M a k e s u r e t h e\nv i d e o s f i t t h e v i b e o f t h e s o n g a n d t h e p r o j e c t .16. MAKE A LIST OF PRESS OUTLETS TO CONTACT\nS e n d o u t y o u r p r e s s r e l e a s e t o a n y o u t l e t y o u t h i n k w o u l d r e s p o n d w e l l t o y o u r s t o r y\na n d y o u r m u s i c . B u t m a k e s u r e t h e e m a i l i s p e r s o n a l i z e d t o t h e w r i t e r . O p e n t h e e m a i l\nw i t h a c o m p l i m e n t a b o u t a p r e v i o u s a r t i c l e t h e y w r o t e . T h e s e w r i t e r s a r e m u s i c f a n s\nw h o a r e w o r k i n g o n t h e i r o w n c r e a t i v e m e d i u m . C o m p l i m e n t s t o t h e i r w o r k c o m e f e w\na n d f a r b e t w e e n . Y o u w a n t t o h a v e p i t c h e s o u t a t l e a s t a m o n t h i n a d v a n c e w i t h r e g u l a r\nf o l l o w u p s ( e v e r y 4 d a y s o r s o ) . B o o m e r a n g i s a g r e a t G m a i l p l u g - i n t h a t c a n a u t o m a t e\nt h i s . C o m p l e t e w i t h a n o p t i o n t o o n l y s e n d i f t h e r e i s n o r e p l y s o y o u c a n s e t i t a n d\nf o r g e t i t . I f y o u h a v e a b u d g e t f o r a p u b l i c i s t , t h e y w i l l d o t h i s f o r y o u .26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM\n22. CUE UP THE ADS\nD i g i t a l m a r k e t i n g i s n o w a m u s t f o r e v e r y r e l e a s e . R u n n i n g s o c i a l m e d i a a d s ( f o r a r o u n d\n$ 5 - 1 0 / d a y ) i s s i n g l e - h a n d e d l y h o w L u c i d i o u s w e n t f r o m 1 0 0 m o n t h l y l i s t e n e r s t o\n5 0 0 , 0 0 0 m o n t h l y l i s t e n e r s i n 3 y e a r s . C u e u p t h o s e F a c e b o o k , I n s t a g r a m , Y o u T u b e a d s .\nY o u c a n l e a r n h o w t o d o t h i s i n t h e A r i ’ s T a k e A c a d e m y c o u r s e : S t r e a m i n g a n d\nI n s t a g r a m G r o w t h21. CREATE NEW MERCH\nA n e w r e l e a s e d e m a n d s n e w m e r c h . Y o u c a n c r e a t e p r i n t - o n - d e m a n d m e r c h s o y o u\nd o n ’ t n e e d t o b u y ( o r s t o r e ) u p f r o n t i n v e n t o r y . T h e m e r c h c o m p a n y w i l l p r i n t a n d s h i p\nt h e i t e m d i r e c t l y t o y o u r f a n . W e k e e p a n u p d a t e d c o m p a r i s o n o f p r i n t o n d e m a n d\nc o m p a n i e s o n a r i s t a k e . c o m . A l s o m a k e s u r e t h a t y o u r m e r c h i s l i n k e d t o S p o t i f y a n d\ny o u r o t h e r p r o f i l e s o n l i n e t h a t s h o w c a s e m e r c h . C u r r e n t l y , M e r c h b a r i s t h e o n l y w a y t o\ng e t y o u r m e r c h o n t o S p o t i f y . Y o u c a n s i g n u p h e r e .20. GET A MAILING LIST\nI f y o u d o n ’ t h a v e a m a i l i n g l i s t y e t , s t a r t o n e . T h i s i s t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t f a n e n g a g e m e n t\nt o o l y o u h a v e . A M c K i n s e y & C o m p a n y s t u d y r e c e n t l y c o n c l u d e d t h a t e m a i l m a r k e t i n g\ni s f o r t y t i m e s m o r e e f f e c t i v e t h a n F a c e b o o k a n d T w i t t e r c o m b i n e d . O f c o u r s e e m a i l i s\ni m p o r t a n t , b u t t e x t m e s s a g e m a r k e t i n g i s b e c o m i n g m o r e w i d e l y u s e d a n d i n c r e a s i n g l y\na m u s t - h a v e . M a i l c h i m p i s g r e a t f o r e m a i l . \n23. WIKIPEDIA PAGE\nE v e n a l l t h e s e y e a r s l a t e r W i k i p e d i a i s s t i l l o n e o f t h e f i r s t p l a c e s p e o p l e g o t o g e t a\nq u i c k g l a n c e a t y o u r b i o . A n d i t ’ s a l m o s t a l w a y s t o p o f t h e l i s t i n G o o g l e s e a r c h r e s u l t s .\nI t v a l i d a t e s y o u a n d h e l p s t h e i n t e r n e t l e a r n a b o u t y o u . I f y o u d o n ’ t h a v e a W i k i p e d i a\np a g e y e t , t h e r e a r e p l e n t y o f p e o p l e a n d c o m p a n i e s o u t t h e r e y o u c a n h i r e t o m a k e y o u\no n e . Y o u j u s t n e e d a g o o d a m o u n t o f p r e s s u n d e r y o u r b e l t . I f y o u h a v e o n e a l r e a d y ,\nt i m e t o g e t i t u p d a t e d . W i k i p e d i a d o e s n ’ t l i k e w h e n t h e s u b j e c t e d i t s t h e i r o w n p a g e\n( a n d i t c a n ’ t r e a d l i k e a p r o m o t i o n a l b i o ) , s o e i t h e r d i s g u i s e y o u r e d i t i n g , o r a s k y o u r\nn e t w o r k t o h e l p w i t h t h i s .24. TRACKABLE LINKS\nS m a r t u r l , F e a t u r e . f m , S h o w . c o a l l h a v e w a y s f o r y o u t o c r e a t e c u s t o m l i n k s t h a t y o u c a n\nu s e t o t r a c k c l i c k s o n w h a t e v e r y o u ’ r e p r o m o t i n g . T h e y a l s o e n a b l e y o u t o c r e a t e\nS p o t i f y p r e - s a v e c a m p a i g n s a n d a l i n k t r e e s t y l e a l b u m l a n d i n g p a g e w h e r e t h e f a n c a n\nc h o o s e t h e i r p r e f e r r e d D S P . R e a d a c o m p a r i s o n o f t h e s e r v i c e s o n a r i s t a k e . c o m\nA l s o , a d d a o n e c l i c k , l a n d i n g p a g e l i n k , l i k e l i n k t r . e e , t o y o u r I n s t a g r a m , T w i t t e r , T i k T o k\na n d o t h e r s o c i a l p l a t f o r m s ’ b i o s e c t i o n w h e r e y o u w a n t t o s e n d p e o p l e t o l e a r n m o r e\na b o u t y o u .\n25. GET ON ALLMUSIC.COM AND DISCOGS\nA l l M u s i c i s t h e m o s t i n c l u s i v e c r e d i t s d a t a b a s e i n e x i s t e n c e . D i s c o g s i s a c l o s e s e c o n d .\nE v e n t h o u g h m a n y o f t h e D S P s a r e s t a r t i n g t o d i s p l a y c r e d i t s i n t h e i r p l a t f o r m , t h e y ’ r e\nn o t f u l l y i n c l u s i v e o f e v e r y o n e y e t . Y o u r m u s i c s h o u l d b e r e g i s t e r e d o n A l l M u s i c . c o m\na n d D i s c o g s s o p e o p l e c a n f i n d o u t w h o p l a y e d t h e v i o l i n o n t r a c k 3 a n d w h o c o w r o t e\nt r a c k 7 , b e c a u s e m o s t p e o p l e w o n ’ t e v e r s e e y o u r p h y s i c a l l i n e r n o t e s . T o g e t\nr e g i s t e r e d o n A l l M u s i c , y o u g o t o h t t p : / / a l l m u s i c . c o m / p r o d u c t - s u b m i s s i o n s a n d f o l l o w\nt h e i n s t r u c t i o n s . F o r D i s c o g s , y o u c a n s u b m i t t h e i n f o d i r e c t l y t h r o u g h t h e s i t e\n( D i s c o g s . c o m ) .\n26. FORM A CORPORATE ENTITY (LIKE AN LLC)\nT h i s g i v e s y o u s o m e l e g a l p r o t e c t i o n s , t a x b r e a k s a n d e n a b l e s y o u t o o p e n a b a n d b a n k\na c c o u n t ( a n d g e t p a i d ) . Y o u s h o u l d c o n s u l t a n a t t o r n e y a n d a c c o u n t a n t t o m a k e s u r e\ny o u s e t t h i s u p p r o p e r l y . O r i f y o u ’ r e o n a b u d g e t , L e g a l z o o m c a n h e l p y o u g e t t h i s s e t\nu p c h e a p l y .26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG OR ALBUM", + "keywords": [ + "e", + "r", + "n", + "u", + "l", + "h", + "c", + "p", + "g", + "f" + ], + "summary": "26 THINGS TO DO\nBEFORE YOU RELEASE A SONG \nOR ALBUM• ARI'S TAKE PRESENTS •1. MARKET RESEARCH\nH o w " + }, + { + "filename": "404181045-An-Introduction-To-Music-Marketing-By-Shaun-Letang-miht-pdf.pdf", + "text": " \nPage 1 \n \n \n \nPage 2 \n \n Contents \n \nHi! - Page 3 \n \nWhat Is Music Marketing? – Page 5 \n \nWhy Do You Need To Market Your Music? – Page 6 \n \nHow Much You Should Market Your Music If You Want To Be A \nProfessional Musician – Page 8 \n \nHow Much To Market Yourself If You're NOT Aiming To Be A Pro \nMusician – Page 12 \n \nCreating Your Unique Selling Point – Page 14 \n \nTop Secret: Leverage Your Music Marketing Efforts (And A Common \nMistake) – Page 17 \n \nGetting Fans Involved With Marketing Your Music - Page 20 \n \nIdeas For Marketing Your Music Online - Page 22 \n \nIdeas For Marketing Your Music Offline – Page 25 \n \nDon't Spread Your Music Marketing Efforts Too Thin - Page 27 \n \nConclusion – Page 29 \n \nThe Next Steps - Page 30 \nPage 3 \n \n Hi! \n \nWell hello there, and thank you for joining me. My name's Shaun \nLetang, and I'm the owner of music advice w ebsite Music Industry \nHow To. While that site advises on a variety of issues that musicians \nface on a daily basis, this ebook focuses on one of the most \nimportant things every musician needs to learn: \n \nHow to market your music ! \n \nI wanted to create this ebo ok as there are lots of talented musicians \nout there, that never get where they could be. This is often because \nof one of two thing; they don't fully understand what music \nmarketing is, or they don't put in enough effort to market their \nmusic. \n \nIn this ebo ok, I aim to give you an understanding of how important \n \nPage 4 \n \n music marketing is in your music career, and get you some much \nneeded information to get up and running with this side of things. It \nwill not only show you why you need to market your music, but let \nyou know how you can get your music marketing campaign up and \nrunning. It'll also show you some of the best practices you should \nbe putting into affect and much more. \n \nIf you find it useful, please share it with your fellow musicians by \nsending them to this page . \nPage 5 \n \n What Is Music Marketing? \n \n \nSo, what is music marketing? Well, music marketing, also know as \nmusic p romotion, is the process of raising awareness of your music. \nBy marketing your music, you are getting people to know it exists. \nWithout properly promoting yourself or your music, no one would \nknow you even make music. \n \nThere are a number of ways in which y ou can market your music. It \ncan be as simple as talking to people and letting them know you \nmake songs, to bigger marketing efforts such as performing gigs, \ngetting on TV, or letting people on social networking websites \nknow what you're all a bout (And let ting them listen). \n \nFurther examples of ways you can promote your music will be given \nas this guide goes on. \nPage 6 \n \n Why Do You Need To Market \nYour Music? \n \n \nSimple: If you don't market your music, no one will know it exists! \nHow many sales or fans do you think y ou'll get if people don't know \nyou make music? That's right, none! You can record 1000 songs and \nhave the best album in the world, but if you don't effectively \ncommunicate this message to people, it won't be worth anything. \n \nProper marketing can make or br eak your music career, so make \nsure you learn how to do so properly. \n \n“But wait...” I hear some of you thinking, “... I just want to make \nmusic and not worry about the marketing side of things. Can't \nsomeone else do it for me?” \n \nPage 7 \n \n Well... probably not. While it used to be the case record labels \nwould do all the marketing for you and you just focus on projecting \nyour talent, this is no longer an option for most new musicians. \nRecord labels generally won't sign you unless you already have a \nproven fan base, and have shown you have the potential to make \nmoney. The only way you can do this is by building up your fan base \nand income levels yourself. The only way you can get those things \nin place is by making good quality songs AND properly marketing \nyour music. \n \nWhile you could always hire people to do the marketing for you, this \ncan get costly and often isn't a good idea unless you're at a good \nlevel with your talent. If you're paying someone to promote your \nmusic for you, it's hard to get honest feedback from them . They will \ntell you you're ready to get your music out there, even if you're not. \nAfter all, they're trying to secure a contract with you and earn a \nliving themselves. \n \nYou will sooner or later find out if the fans don't take well to you, \nbut by then you will have wasted a lot of time and money on music \npromotion. If however you had started out promoting yourself, you \nwould have got this vibe a lot earlier, and improved your talent \nbefore you took the marketing of your music any further. \n \nSo, we should sta rt out our music marketing campaign ourselves. \nWith this in mind, today we're going to look at some of the ways \nyou can do just that. Read on to the end to get a good idea of how \nyou can get going. \nPage 8 \n \n How Much You Should Market \nYour Music If You Want To Be A \nProfessional Musician \n \n \nSo now you know what music marketing is, and you know that it's \nimportant if you want to increase your fanbase and the amount of \nmoney you make from your talent. But how much time should you \ndedicate to promoting your music? Well, that will depend on where \nyou currently are in your music career. Depending on your current \ntalent levels, you should take one of these two paths: \n \n1. Your Talent Is At A Good Level Already \nIf you're already talented and you've made good songs people will \nPage 9 \n \n love, then you're at the stage of your music career where you \nshould be marketing your music more than making it ! That's right; \nthe making of new music should now take a back seat, and the \nmajority of your efforts should go into promotions and raising \nawa reness of your sounds. \n \nThe reason for this is simple. From here on you can make a load \nmore good songs if you want to, but it won't help you achieve your \ndreams of becoming a full time musicians if you don't get enough \npeople hearing and buying it! \n \nGood music without promotion won't benefit anyone's ears other \nthan your own, so MARKET YOUR MUSIC! \n \nI've seen people 'release' a good song and video, get under 150 \npeople viewing it on Youtube. They then think the answer is to \nrelease another song and video wh ich will hopefully take off better \nthan their first one. So they release another song and video a few \nmonths later, and what do you know; it gets around the same \namount of views as the first video! \n \nThis is a vicious circle that musicians need to \nbreak ou t of. Simply putting stuff out there \nisn't a good idea if you want to take your \nmusic career to the next level, you need to \npromote it so it gets in front of new people . \nIf you only get a few views on your first \nvideo, don't leave it to die out in the \nYout ube graveyard. Promote it to new \npeople and get more people seeing it! \n \nThere's no reason you couldn't get at least 2000 - 3000 views on \nyour first video if you really wanted to, you simply have to keep \npushing it. And if you went through the effort to mak e a music \nvideo and want to see how well it'll do, this should be your aim. And \ndon't you think fans of your genre deserve to be shown your good \nmusic? Yes, they do. So be sure to reach out to them and give \neveryone a chance of hearing your work of art! \n \n \nPage 10 \n \n Don't work on another song until you've given the previous song a \nfair chance to take off . The aim is to pick up new fans along the \nway, as well as giving something existing fans will love as well. \n \nI'd go as far as to say you should spend 70% of your time marketing \nyour music if you want to have a financially successful music career, \nmaybe even more if you can. Making music is fun and the reason \nyou became a musician, but if you want to make a living from your \ntalent, you're going to have to start treating things more like a \nbusiness. \n \nIf however: \n \n2. Your Talent Isn't Quite At The Level You Need To Make It Big \nIf you want to make it as a earning musician, the only reason you \nshouldn't be dedicating more time to marketing over making music \nis because you sti ll need to improve your talent or song recording \nskills. In fact, if you can't yet create a good enough product to \nmatch the top 20% of talented people in your genre, then you \nshouldn't be marketing your music at all!! \n \nThe thing is, first impressions coun t for a lot. It's a hard job to get \npeople to listen to your music, even if you give it away free. The last \nthing you want to do is get people to listen, but not impress them \nwith your song. If it's bad, the next time that person is given the \nchance to lis ten to your music, most likely they won't take it. Your \nnew song could be 100 times better than your old song, but they \nwon't know that because they simply won't listen. \n \nIt's hard to shake off a bad image, so be sure to only start fully \npromoting your mus ic when your music's good enough. And when \nit is, after you've made a few promotional songs along with ones to \nsell and perform, spend the majority of time getting those songs \nout there as mentioned above! \n \nSo that's how much you should market your music i f you want to \nincrease your fanbase, increase the money you make from music , \nand generally take steps towards being a professional musician. But \nPage 11 \n \n what if you don't want to achieve any of these things? \nPage 12 \n \n How Much To Market Yourself If \nYou're NOT Aiming To Be A Pro \nMusician \n \n \nSo, you're just making music for fun and have no desire to increase \nthe amount of fans or make money from your music. So how much \nshould you market yourself? Simple, as much or as little as you \nrequire! \n \nMarketing is only needed if you wa nt to be more than a bedroom \nmusician. If you're happy playing to you and your friends, then \nmarketing isn't needed. \n \nThat said, if you're reading this ebook, my guess is you want to be \nmore than a bedroom musician. If that's the case, the above 'no \nPage 13 \n \n market ing' statement doesn't apply to you. Get your music \nmarketing game on! \nPage 14 \n \n Creating Your Unique Selling \nPoint \nOk, so marketing your music is vitally important if you want to be \nmore than just a bedroom musician. That said, just because you \nmarket yourself to people, it doesn't mean that they are all of a \nsudden going to become your fan. Yes it will give people the \nopportunity to hear you and make that choice, but unless you're \noffering something that people really want, all the music marketing \nin the world wo n't help your music career take off. \n \nSo what other things do you need in place before you start your \npromotional campaign? \n \nWell firstly, you need talent. You should all already be aiming to \nmake the best music you possibly can, so I'm not going to talk \nabout that here today. Just know that if you market yourself and \nPage 15 \n \n you're not very musically talented, this can actually do more harm \nthan good. \n \nSecondly, you need a unique selling point, or USP for short. \n \nA USP is something that helps you stand out from th e crowd, and \nmakes what you're offering only obtainable by going to you over \nyour competition. Sometimes you will already have a USP by simply \nbeing yourself, while other times you will have to consciously create \na USP to add more value to yourself as a br and. \n \nAn example of a natural unique selling point is a singer with a \ndistinctive voice. They don't have to put this on or do anything to \nmake this happen, it just part of who they are. Yet this voice can \nhelp them stand out from the crowd, and make people buy into \nthem over someone with a much plainer voice. \n \nAn example of a created USP on the other \nhand is your dress sense. If you haven't got a \nstand out voice, as in it's not majorly \ndifferent from what's already out there, you \ncould always dress differe ntly than other \npeople in your genre do. For example, a big \npart of Nikki Minaj's image is her colored \nhair (Not to say she doesn't have any other \nunique selling points, but that's not the \npoint I'm trying to make). This makes her \nstand out, and adds to th e package that her fans by into. \n \nYou don't have to go as extreme as colored hair though, you could \nalways just have a set style which is different from what everyone \nelse in your niche is doing. \n \nA final example of a created USP is the way you deliver you r songs. \nYou could have a certain saying that fans will come to know you by, \nor you could deliver your lyrics faster or slower than others do in \nyour genre. \n \nIt doesn't matter what it is and it doesn't have to be something \n \nPage 16 \n \n huge, BUT you should try and offe r something different to people \nthat they're not already getting to a high level else where. Adding a \nunique selling point to good music will help potential fans choose \nto follow you over others. It'll also help people relate to you, and \nhopefully buy into your brand for the long -term. \nPage 17 \n \n Top Secret: Leverage Your Music \nMarketing Efforts (And A \nCommon Mistake) \n \n \nOk, so let's get into the good stuff. If you follow this one tip, you will \ngive yourself a better chance than the majority of independent \nmusicians out there! \n \nA common mistake when promoting their music, is many people try \nand reach their fans in the wrong places. Further more, they try and \ngain potential fans on too much of a small scale. \n \nAn example of this is Facebook and Twitter marketing. While I \nencourage all musicians to use these tools as they can be very \nhandy for getting yourself out there, when used wrong they can be \nPage 18 \n \n more of a hindrance than anything else. \n \nForget adding people on Facebook and Twitter one by one, there \nare two big problems with doing this: \n \n1. It's Time Consuming. \nAdding fans one by one is a long process. This will take a lot of \ntime out of your day, and get in the way of other more \nbeneficial things you should be doing. \n2. You're Not Reaching Your Core Audience. \nIf you're adding a load of random people on Facebook, there's \na good chance that the majority of them aren't going to be \ninterested in what you're offering. This means you're wasting a \nload of time and effort in adding people that will never be a \nfan of your music, and you 'll probably get marked as spam a \nlot too. This can, and probably will, lead to Facebook deleting \nyour account. \n \nSo, if you shouldn't be sitting on your computer adding people on \nsocial sites all day, what should you be doing instead? Let me tell \nyou: \n \nFinding out where your audience hang out, and reach them all \nthere at the same time! \n \nMakes sense right? Why try and turn people into fans one by one \nwhen you can reach a load of people that are already fans of your \nmusic all at the same time? Doing it any ot her way is an uphill \nstruggle, and won't give you as much results in the long run. Yes \nyou may get a few fans by reaching people using the 1 by 1 method, \nbut it's a constant grind. \n \nMaking it in music is always going to be a \ngrind anyway, but you don't wa nt to make it \nmore of one than it needs to be. Further \nmore, you'll find it nearly impossible to build \nup any real traction. \n \nOn the other hand, if you can reach a load of \n \nPage 19 \n \n very targeted people in a short space of time, you will be more \nlikely to get a much better reaction. Not only will you be able to see \npeople instantly enjoying your music, but as there is more people \nfinding out about you at the same time, the chances of 'word of \nmouth marketing' are much higher as well. People will start talking \nabout y ou, and as other people interested in your genre also just \nheard about you, they will be able to relate and carry on the \nconversation. \n \nNow two questions remain: \n \n1. Where does your audience hang out? And: \n2. How can you reach a load of potential fans at once? \n \nWell with regard to where they hang out, this can vary. It will of \ncourse differ based on what genre of music you make, but if we're \nlooking at things in broad terms, there are two main places; Online, \nand offline. We will look at these places more specifi cally below, \nand look into some of the most popular places you will find a load \nof people who are into the types of music you make. \n \nNow to the second question. Once you find out where your \naudience hang out, how can you reach them all at the same time? \nThat one has a answer I can give a lot quicker: By using established \noutlets to get yourself heard! This can be in the form of a \ncommunity radio station, a popular website, a popular Youtube \nchannel, and the like. Once again, we'll look at this more below in \nthe 'Marketing Your Music Online' and 'Marketing Your Music \nOffline' sections. \n \nSo with this in mind, read on for some cool ways to both market \nyour music on and offline. \nPage 20 \n \n Getting Fans Involved With \nMarketing Your Music \n \n \nBefore we look at some ways to p romote your music both on and \noffline, I wanted to quickly talk about getting fans involved in the \nmarketing of your music. \n \nAll to often I see musicians treating fans to a one way relationship. \nThey simply put out music and post a couple of random updates on \nFacebook, but don't interact with fans outside of that. \n \nNow I know some like to keep a boundary between them and their \nfans so they appear as something 'harder to reach so worth having', \nand I totally understand this tactic. BUT, it makes it a whole l ot \nharder to get new dedicated fans when your fan base is still small to \nmedium in size. \nPage 21 \n \n \nInstead of distancing yourself from personal interaction with your \nfans, it might be time you think about embracing this interaction \ninstead. After all, a happy fan i s often a loyal fan. And a loyal fan will \ntalk about how great you are to their friends. This is how word of \nmouth marketing works, and is as easy to implement as having a \ngood two way relationship with your fans. \n \nNow I'm not saying you should reply to ev ery one of your fans \nindividually about every little thing, when you start to get more fans \nthis will become virtually impossible. That said, you should still \nmake the effort to address your social fans (Rather than just post \nmessages to buy things), and t hanks them in status updates and \nthe like. \n \nYou should also get them involved by \nbuilding up a 'street team', whether this is \nan online one, or a street team in the \ntraditional sense of things. Often fans will \nlove the opportunity to get to work with you \non a project, so not only will you be getting \nyour music heard in places it may not have \nbeen heard before, you're also building up a \nstronger relationship with your street team \nmembers and turning them into long -term \nloyal fans. \n \nDon't underestimate the p ower of getting fans involved in your \nmusic career, especially when you haven't got the budget to hire \nanyone else to help with promotion. As you get more of a budget to \ninvest in things, consider hiring a part or full time team of \nprofessionals to help yo u out. \n \nPage 22 \n \n Ideas For Marketing Your Music \nOnline \n \n \nOnline music marketing is probably the path most independent \nmusicians take when it comes to getting their sound out there. This \nis partly because the ease of it (You can promote your music from \nthe comfort of your own home) and partly because of the potential \nreach. With the internet you can access people in nearly any \ncountry of the world. \n \nThat said, just because all these people can potentially hear you, \nmaking them WANT to hear you is a whole other chall enge all \ntogether. So using our leveraging tactics, what kind of online music \nmarketing can you do to get in front of more people? We look at \nsome below... \n \nPage 23 \n \n Baring in mind you'll want to leverage established platforms rather \nthan building up a fanbase slow ly yourself, we're going to want to \ninitially build connections with other media outlets, rather than with \nfans one by one. Yes you should reply to fans when they reach out \nto you, but you shouldn't initially be trying to reach out to them in \nthis manner. Instead, put the majority of your time and effort \nbuilding up relationships with people that can get you out there on \na much wider scale. \n \nTypes of people and places online you want to build up \nrelationships with include: \n \n• Big Websites In Your Genre. \n• Onlin e Radio Shows That Cater To Your Type Of Music. \n• Music Forums In Your Genre. \n• Youtube Channels In Your Genre. \n• Facebook And Twitter Groups And Pages That Cater To Your \nType Of Music. \n \nAll of these places have two things in common: \n \n1. They have people who like y our type of music watching them. \n2. They have a much bigger reach and influence than you. \n \nPeople that listen to these channels and read these websites \nrespect what their owners have to say. Therefore, if a owner of any \none of these mediums tells it's followe rs you're the next best thing \nsince sliced bread, you are bound to get an influx of people visiting \nyour website and taking notice of you. \n \nFrom this point it's down to you to give people a good impression \nof your self and get these people on your mailing list, but you'll have \na much easier sale on your hands than if you was just another \nrandom musician blowing their own trumpet. A neutral and \nrespected third party bigging you up is always more effective than \nyou doing it yourself, so bare this in mind. \n \nWhile these big platforms may take longer to cover you and it may \nfeel like you'll start seeing quicker results from Twitter adding, \nPage 24 \n \n when you do get a break through, the \nresults will be a lot bigger. \n \nThe great thing about this style of doing \nthings, is you can leverage your first success \nand use it in your musical CV. When you tell \nother big forum owners and radio stations \nthat you've been featured on a well \nrespected Youtube channel, many will be a \nlot more likely to listen to you and in turn \ngive you a sl ot on their outlet. After all, if 'That person' featured you, \nthey can't miss the opportunity of also covering potentially the next \nbig thing. \n \nLeveraging previous successes is important if you want to keep up \nmomentum and grow as a musician, and something I will talk a lot \nmore about in future. \n \nPage 25 \n \n Ideas For Marketing Your Music \nOffline \n \n \nA big mistake many musicians make, is they only ever promote \ntheir music online. Why is this a big mistake? Well, mainly because \nall the extra exposure they leave on the ta ble! There are a lot of \nestablished offline mediums you can use to get your music out \nthere, so you should put as much effort into getting on them as you \nwould getting on the online promotion sources. \n \nSome of the ways you can promote your music offline in clude: \n \n• Performing Live Gigs In Venues Where Your Target Audience \nWill Be. \n• Making Music Videos And Getting Them On Relevant Music TV \nChannels. \nPage 26 \n \n • Getting Your Music On Local Radio Stations. \n• Appearing In Radio And TV Adverts. \n• Having Your Flyers And CDs In Indu stry Related Shops. \n• Using Street Teams To Spread Your Message. \n• Doing Your Own Street Selling And Promotion \n(You're not leveraging anything here, but we'll look at why this \nmethod of offline promotion can still be useful below). \n \nEven just missing out the f irst of these things will mean you'll reach \na lot less of your target audience than you would otherwise. \nPerforming gigs gives you a chance to get an instant reaction from \nyour music, and connect with potential fans on a much more \npersonal level. It's poss ible to plant seeds a this stage, and do the \nearly relationship building needed to make life long fans. \n \nMusic videos on genre specific TV channels \n(Or general ones), appearances in other \npeople's projects, street selling and the like \nare all other ways t o get your face seen and \nyour music heard. While street selling \ndoesn't keep in line with our leveraging \nmethod, it is still good for starting to \nunderstand what makes people buy from \nyou. Once you learn the factors that will \nmake people make a purchase fr om you, \nyou can use this throughout your music career to greatly increase \nthe amount of sales you end up making. \n \nI'd suggest a healthy mix between both online and offline music \npromotion. Both have their uses, and should be used together \nrather than have it a 'one or the other' type situation. \n \nPage 27 \n \n Don't Spread Your Music \nMarketing Efforts Too Thin \n \n \nThe last real point I want to make today is this: While it may seem \nlike doing as many different promotional activities as possible is the \nway to go, often it is n't. \n \nIf you've got a big marketing budget and a load of people working \nfor you, then of course promoting your music in as many ways as \npossible is a good idea. That said, if you're a solo act who's \nbalancing making music and marketing themselves, often th ere will \nbe a limit to what you can do in terms of daily promotion. \n \nWhile I strongly encourage you learn to promote yourself, you don't \nwant to dedicate so much time to it that you don't get time to \nmake music anymore. After all, I'm guessing that's where your real \nPage 28 \n \n passion lies? \n \nNot only this, but if you try to have your 'hands in all pies', you won't \nhave enough time to dedicate to making any one or two methods \nreally work. \n \nMy advice to you is this: Initially, try out a few methods of \npromotion that you feel may work for you. At this stage don't be \nafraid of trying out more than you normally would, you won't be \ndoing them all long -term. \n \nAfter a while, you will start seeing a few marketing strategies that \nwork for you better than the others. At this stag e, ditch all the \nmethods that aren't working, and focus more heavily on the ones \nthat are. \n \nThis is running with your winners, and will help you stay motivated \nas you will start seeing results sooner rather than later. Once you've \ngot these methods down an d you've rinsed them for all they're \nworth, you can start to incorporate new strategies if you have the \ntime and man power. \nPage 29 \n \n Conclusion \n \n \nI've said it before, and I'll say it again: Making good music alone isn't \nenough to make you a well known and paid mu sician. People won't \nfind out about you simply by you being able to make music, you \nneed to do everything you can to get your music out there. This is \nthe process of music marketing, and a process you have to \nundertake if you want to be more than just a 'b edroom musician'. \n \nUsing other people's established platforms is one of the best ways \nto do this, and one of the fastest routes to success as a musician. \n \nNow, if you signed up to get this guide for free, you'll be emailed \nparts 2 and 3 over the next few d ays. \n \nIf you stumbled across this randomly on the internet however, you \nwon't get those emails and other helpful ebooks. :( \n \nPage 30 \n \n That said, you can click here to t o sign up and get them ! :D \n \nThe Next Step \nSo now you've got a good base knowledge on music marketing and \nwhat it entails. But how do you r eally get your music out there? \n \nHow do you take full advantage of memorable gig performances, \nhigh converting web sites, big Youtube channels, other big \nmusician's audiences and more? How do you create a product \nlaunch strategy? Should you provide singles or albums? \n \nAnd how do you get these all pressed and if needed and \ndistributed? Most importantly, how do you increase your fanbase \nand make more money?! \n \nStay tuned to our emails and we ’ll sho w you next steps each and \nevery week. :) ", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "people", + "marketing", + "get", + "page", + "fan", + "make", + "one", + "musician", + "want" + ], + "summary": " \nPage 1 \n \n \n \nPage 2 \n \n Contents \n \nHi! - Page 3 \n \nWhat Is Music Marketing? – Page 5 \n \nWhy Do" + }, + { + "filename": "430827755-AWAL-2018-ULTIMATE-RELEASE-GUIDE-pdf.pdf", + "text": "1 2018 ULTIMATE RELEASE GUIDE\n2018 ULTIMATE \nRELEASE GUIDE2 2018 ULTIMATE RELEASE GUIDE\nTimes have changed for independent artists. \nToday, success isn’t just about making great music, \nit’s about understanding the fundamentals of \nmarketing and release planning to get your music \nout there and find the right audiences. That said, we \nstill see artists making the same mistake – devoting \nall their time and energy into creating music (that’s \nthe fun part), only to rush through their release. \nThat’s why we created the Ultimate Release Guide for 2018.3 INTRODUCTION\nThis best-practice guide will keep you organized, help you \nfocus on what matters most, and give you industry tips from \nour artist marketing team with years of experience releasing \nmusic. We’ve also included some real case studies from AWAL artists on how they approach the release process.\nThe guide breaks down the release process into three stages:\nPre-Release\nRelease DayPost-ReleaseTo really get the best results from this guide, you need to start \nplanning early. Running out of time is one of the most common \nmistakes we see artists make. So, start planning at least two \nmonths before Release Day to make sure you’re covered.4 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nPRE-RELEASE \nPLANNING5 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nAs we said at the start of this journey — organization is key. \nThere are a million things for you to keep track of, so before \nyou start anything, begin with making a clean, easy-to-follow \ntimeline. This will be your guide during your entire release process, highlighting all major milestones and important \ndates. Organize your timeline in three major buckets:\nPre-release\nRelease dayPost-release1\nMake a Release Timeline\nPRO TIP\nKeep in mind that your personal \ntimeline might include some, all, \nor a completely different set of \nmilestones. Customize your plans to your release.1 TIMELINE6 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nThen, break those three into specific events you can use to \nnot only earmark as goals to work towards (or backwards \nfrom) but also use in all of your planning and strategizing.\nThese might include:\nSingle and/or album release date\nLive show dates and release partiesVideo premieres or teaser releasesStreaming sessions Press release servicing date1 TIMELINE7 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nBefore you make any major decisions about your release \nplans, make sure you have the budget to cover all of your \nexpenses — including a cushion for any unforeseen charges \nor last-minute opportunities. Depending on your particular strategy, and what responsibilities your team has, you may \nneed to pay for:\nSocial media promotion\nDigital advertisingPublicity (including hiring a publicist)Show/release partyPromotional materials\nPRO TIP\nAlways be realistic with how much you can do yourself. Even if you’re currently handling all \nof your marketing and promotion yourself, will you feasibly be able to maintain social media while prepping and promoting your release? Though hiring someone to help out might require spending a bit of money, the benefit of being able to properly spread the word about your music while focusing on big-picture release execution might be worth it.2\nSet a Budget2 BUDGET8 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nA stream or MP3 is great, but obviously not the only way to \nshare your music. Depending on what works best for your \nbrand and budget, you could consider releasing a music \nvideo, lyric video, or even a live video of you playing the song in a venue as a post-release strategy. \nThe reason why we’re mentioning this in your pre-release \nplan is because the time to think about creating any kind of \nvisual content is well before your music ever comes out. In \nsome cases, more elaborate videos may take a few weeks or months to finish, so get any plans in this arena rolling well \nbefore your release happens.3\nPlan to Create Music Videos, Lyric Videos, \nand More3 VIDEOS9 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nVisuals are everything. You need to make sure you’ve got \nvisuals that are compelling and really grab an onlooker’s \nattention. So, make sure you’re planning and preparing your \nphoto and video content well beyond your release date. It can be extremely useful to create a downloadable folder \nto make it easy for industry contacts, your publicist, and/or \nteam to help lock in any premieres, shows, or partnerships.\nHere are just a few of the digital assets you’ll want to have \non hand for your release:\nArtist bio\nAny album liner notesHi-res press photosTrack or album artworkAudio/visual teasers Music or lyric videosAnimated GIFs 4\nOrganize Your Creative Assets4 CREATIVE ASSETS10 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nDepending on your budget, build out some ideas of \nmarketing and promotion that might be effective for your \nnew release. Would local radio be a logical vehicle for your \nmusic? What about an interview or premiere on a small, niche blog? Pretend social media doesn’t exist for a hot \nsecond (difficult, we know), and think about how you’d \nspread the word in the before-times.\nSocial media, however, does exist, as we all know, so \ndon’t neglect it when you’re thinking about marketing and promotion. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, \nYouTube, Tumblr, and more are your direct channels to \nengage and communicate with your fans to share music and build loyalty. Even if you’re deep in the throes of promoting \nyour latest release, make sure to keep 80% of your posts \n“personal” and 20% (or less, ideally) “salesy” pushes for \nyour music.\nWhen digitally advertising or sponsoring posts on social \nmedia, make sure to check in with native analytics tools \n(like Facebook and Twitter Insights) that can help you better target whatever ads you decide to run. Also, use trackable \nlinks from Linkfire or SmartURL to point to your music on \nDSPs (i.e., Apple Music, Spotify, etc.). You can use these links not only on social media, but also for tracking clicks to \nyour music, mailing list, and more.\nPRO TIP\nDon’t forget about social media — \nkeep yourself on track and organized \nby creating a comprehensive social \nmedia calendar to plan your posts \nacross Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, \nand other platforms.5\nCreate a Marketing and \nPromotion \nStrategy5 MARKETING / PROMOTION STRATEGY11 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nAs we’ve mentioned before, your website is your central \nhub for any big news . It’s where many of your existing and \nprospective fans will be looking to for any new releases. So, it’s important to plan ahead with that in mind.\nBefore a new release, you want to make sure your website is \nlooking its best or create one if you don’t already have one. Make it easy for people to learn more about you, and ensure your fans can get the key info in one place, including:\nTour dates\nStoreContactsBioSocialsListening links 6\nCreate or Update Your Website6 YOUR WEBSITE12 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nMore importantly, make sure news about your upcoming \nrelease is front and center, with pre-order call to actions \ntaking precedence. Beyond that, think about matching \nthe aesthetics of your website to that of your upcoming release. Updating hero visuals across your digital channels with the artwork and information about your arriving music \nis definitely a good idea.\nSee how AWAL artist \nTom Misch updated \nthe aesthetics of his \nwebsite to highlight his upcoming album \nrelease and tour.6 YOUR WEBSITE13 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nYour website isn’t the only digital real \nestate you want to update in advance \nof your release. Consider updating \nyour social media headers and profile images with release information. This is \nsomething you may want to plan having \nboth pre- and post-launch. Additionally, finesse your biography and contact information to work in the date \nof your release. If you have a Wikipedia \npage, make sure that’s current also.7\nUpdate Your Social Media Pages7 SOCIAL MEDIA\nTom Misch also updated \nthe heroe images of all \nhis social pages to help \npromote the news of Geography’s arrival.14 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nMaintenance is only half the battle. Think about creating a \ncontent plan and teaser campaigns. It’s a great way to build \nhype around a release. Release images from the studio, promo \nshots, video clips, tracklists, GIFs, etc. throughout your release cycle. Tag partners and the people involved on social media. \nAs your release campaign rolls out, you’ll be able to see which \nchannels are growing faster than others; this can really help you decide where to spend that marketing budget.\nAWAL artist Emma McGann gets extra social engagement by \ntagging all those involved in \nher release.7 SOCIAL MEDIA\n15 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nFirst, put some effort into your mailing list. You want to make \nit as easy as possible to sign up. Consider putting email \ncaptures on all your digital real estate like your website and \nsocial pages. You can even have a physical mailing list at shows for people to sign up. It’s also a good idea to include \nsome kind of incentive, like sending a free MP3 or a ticket \ngiveaway in exchange for email addresses.\nVÉRITÉ added a subscribe option on her website so \nshe can start capturing \nfans’ email addresses to stay in contact with them.8\nWork on Your Mailing List8 MAILING LIST16 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nSecond, for your upcoming release, build out a flow of \ncomms to send to your list that will keep them in the \nknow about any important details. Email is a bit more \ninvasive as a means of communication, so be cautious about the frequency that you contact your fanbase. \nYou want to keep people engaged, but you don’t want \nto be annoying. There’s a balance to maintain.\nAs anyone will tell you, owning your audience is \nextremely important. It’s not only beneficial to “own your audience” for comms around your release, but \nit’s just a best practice, overall.8 MAILING LIST17 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nInfluencer marketing is a huge aspect to start thinking about before \nyour release. Think about the key people to involve ahead of time who \nmight share your music or your news. Consider press, industry contacts, \nor even just peers, fans, and/or any partners. Ideally, you want to shoot for individuals and/or organizations who have a substantial following. \nIt’s best to approach them in advance and onboard them within your \ntimeline; that way, you can benefit from their following.9\nThink SocialInfluencers\nPRO TIP\nConsider partnering \nwith music companies \nthat not only distribute \nyour music but promote its success to their \nfollowers as well! 9 INFLUENCES18 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nIf you decide that radio will be part of your release strategy, \nstart approaching stations, hosts, or shows with your release \nbefore its street date. Common collabs with radio include \npre- or post-release interviews and airplay, day-of premieres, or even live, in-studio acoustic performances. Regardless \nof what your ideal radio situation looks like, it’s another \nelement that requires thought and planning as far out as possible to maximize time to make it happen.10\nHit Up Local Radio Shows10 LOCAL RADIO19 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nHow are you getting your music to major services? There \nare tons of music distributors that will take that burden off \nyour shoulders and can really maximize your exposure. For \nexample, AWAL distributes to different stores and services \ncovering 190 territories across the world such as Spotify, \nApple Music, Amazon, and YouTube Red. Due to its curated \nroster, AWAL has formed strong relationships with DSPs, getting artists on more popular playlists more frequently.11\nPartner with a Music Distributor\nNewly welcomed \nsinger/songwriter \nRupert Stroud knew \nit was time to find a partner in preparation \nof a big 2018 release.11 MUSIC DISTRIBUTORS\nPRO TIP\nNeed help finding the best digital music distribution \nservice for you and your music? Here are the major \nconsiderations to evaluate before coming to a final \ndecision, including the right time to start looking for one and the qualifications that really matter.20 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nJust like with your websites and social pages, your streaming \nprofiles should reflect and champion your upcoming music \nas well. Two of the biggest you absolutely want to prepare \nare your Spotify and Apple Music profiles. Make sure all your hero and profile images are updated to reflect your song art, \nyour bio with release info is updated, and that you’re posting \ncontent on your Apple Music Connect profile about the news with teaser content.12\nPrep with Digital Services12 DIGITAL SERVICES\nPRO TIP\nIf you’re looking for some tips to get the most out of \nyour Spotify or Apple Music profile in preparation of \nyour release, we’ve got you covered with everything you need to know to update your profiles and get yourself noticed on these crucial platforms.21 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nSelling merch is a great way to \ngenerate some extra buzz around \nyour release. Think hats, shirts, \nbackpacks — whatever seems reasonable within your budget. \nRegardless of what you end up \ngoing with, just make sure it accentuates the aesthetic of your \nnew release.You not only need to contemplate \ninventory, but it’s also important \nfor you to plan out how you’re \ngoing to sell everything. An easy solution is to use a platform like \nMusic Glue . They’re a specialist \ne-commerce platform specifically \nfor artists, where you can create \na free website and store to sell \nmerchandise, experiences, tickets, music, and more direct to fans \nin one simple transaction. If your \nbudget is limited, their print-on-demand T-shirt feature is an easy \nway to stock your store for free; \nit’s money in your pocket when you make a sale.13\nCreate Custom Merch\nAWAL artists Sea Girls know how to \nshowcase and sell their customized \nmerch from their website! 13 MUSIC DISTRIBUTORS22 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING\nPart promotional strategy, part rallying cry for your new \nmusic, live shows are a great way to not only premiere \nnew tracks but also generate buzz around upcoming \nreleases. Get creative with these shows, whether that means playing the entire album start to finish (while \nbookending with songs your fans love to sing along to, \nof course), creating a custom takeaway item for every person in the audience or even giving them a free \ndownload when your music is officially unleashed. 14\nUse Live Shows to Create Buzz14 DIGITAL SERVICES23 PRE-RELEASE PLANNING 15 RELEASE DAY\nThink of release day like your birthday. If you want it to be \na success, you’ve got to do it big. There are tons of fun \nand creative ways for you to capture as much attention as \npossible around your release during the big day.15\nPlan Something Special for Release Day24 RELEASE DAY\nRELEASE DAY25 RELEASE DAY\nContests are a great way to drive organic engagement and \ndraw attention to your new release. They can be as simple or \nas elaborate as you want; you know your fanbase better than \nanyone, so make sure you tailor your strategy specifically to what you think they’d interact with.\nStarting early in the day, post across every channel \nencouraging fans to share their favorite tracks from your new \nrelease with a specific hashtag and to tag you in their posts. \nYour custom hashtag should relate directly back to your new album or single; try keeping it simple by transforming your \nrelease title into an easy-to-remember tag. Alternatively, create \nyour own promotional post and encourage followers to share it on their own profiles along with your custom hashtag.1\nThrow a Social Media Contest1 SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST26 RELEASE DAY\nDon’t be afraid to think outside the box when \nbrainstorming contest ideas. For example, \nif your band has a rocking, guitar-heavy \nsound, invite fans to record and share videos of themselves jamming out air-guitar style. \nAnything fun and engaging will capture your \nfans’ imaginations and get them excited about participating — and about your new record.\nLike the contest concepts themselves, prizes \nreally run the gamut. Something as simple as a \nretweet, follow, or direct message from you is \nprobably enough to motivate some fans to share, but giving away signed CDs, concert tickets, \nor merch isn’t a bad idea either. Whatever you \ndo, make sure to clearly indicate the stakes at the beginning of the contest so there’s no \ndisagreement about who won later on.\nPRO TIP\nWondering which social media platform is right \nfor your release-day contest? Here are some \nimportant factors to consider in general when \nchoosing where to spend your time and place importance when it comes to your socials. Use \nthis evaluation to help determine where fans \nwill most likely flock to your contest.1 SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST\nAWAL artist Grabbitz promoted the release \nof his single “Things \nChanged” by launching an official hashtag and social \ncontest to complement \nhis release day. 27 RELEASE DAY\nAs you brainstorm your release-day marketing tactics, which \nmay very well center on social media, make sure you’re \nalso thinking of ways to make sure people actually see \nyour posts and promotions. Consider methods that come with a notification for friends and followers in real time, like \nlivestreaming on Facebook and Instagram. Otherwise, create \na specific budget to promote your posts and ensure they’ll escape algorithmic traps , which plague artists at every level \nfrom DIY to mega-superstar.2\nSet Up Real-Time Notifications \nfor Your Fans2 REAL-TIME NOTIFICATIONS28 RELEASE DAY\nChances are, you’ve got friends in similar-sounding bands or \nwithin your particular genre and scene. You might even share \npockets of fans with these artists. Give your fellow musicians \na heads up that your release day is approaching, and ask if they’d be willing to share a link and/or a track with their fans \nand followers via social media. (Bonus: Offer to do the same \nfor them when they release new music.) Sometimes it’s really that easy. You just have to ask!\nOn release day, shoot them a DM with the link to your album \nor lead track. You can even draft a line or two of “suggested \ntext” for a post; make sure to switch it up a bit for each \nperson you’re tweeting so their fans aren’t seeing the exact same post from multiple bands. Think about asking your \nfriend to tag you in their posts so you can share or retweet.\nLikewise, you’re probably a member of at least one or \ntwo genre-related groups on Facebook or via forums, \nindependent mailing lists, etc. Make sure to share a link with these folks on release day and encourage them to \npass it along to their listeners and followers. Just be sure \nthe group applies to your music; if a metal artist pops into a folk-music group and posts a link to his or her new screamo \nEP , it probably won’t gain any traction (and will probably \nbe deleted). A group catering to metalheads, however, will probably run with it and help increase your exposure.3\nAsk for Support From Friends3 SUPPORT FROM FRIENDS29 RELEASE DAY\nIf you’re working with a publicist, you may already have a \npress strategy in place for your release, but if not, try to \nsecure an exclusive premiere with a music blog on release \nday by contacting them directly. Not only will a public premiere help attract that blog’s readers to your tunes, but \nit’ll also give your release a bit of media cred; after all, you’ll \nbe kind of a big deal if your lead single warrants a write-up and earns the respect of a hip blog. \nIf you manage to wrangle a premiere, make sure you parcel \nout your other promotional efforts so that outlet has a true \nexclusive for a set amount of time. Also, remember to share \nyour write-up multiple times across your various channels including via your website. Not only will it remind your \nfollowers you’ve got a new release and maximize your reach \n(i.e., if someone missed your first post, they’ll see it the second time you share it), but any extra promotion will also \ningratiate you with the publication.4\nMaximize Exposure From Blog and \nMedia Outlets4 MEDIA EXPOSURE30 RELEASE DAY\nAWAL artists Now, Now \nreceived great publicity \nfrom NPR Music around their \nlatest release “Yours” and made sure to pin it to the \ntop of their social channels \nfor maximum exposure. PRO TIP\nWhen reaching out to press for any reason, make sure to include everything they might need for a review \nor feature, including a current bio, one-sheet, hi-res \nphotos, and streaming links and/or downloadable \ntracks. Try sending everything together via a virtual \nEPK or even a Dropbox folder.4 MEDIA EXPOSURE31 RELEASE DAY\nIt’s your release day, so that’s reason enough to celebrate, \nright? Consider giving your music some love by planning a \nspecial release show or other event to promote your new \nmusic. Many artists opt to throw a release bash complete with a live set at a venue they’ve frequented in the past (such as \none that served as their “home base” in the early days) or \njump on a bill with friends and keep the party rolling all night.\nIf you’re playing live, especially if you’re performing with \nother acts, it’s a great opportunity to earn new listeners and move some copies. Chances are, you’re going to be pretty \nstoked anyway (who wouldn’t be?), so be sure to shake some \nhands between sets, let everyone there know it’s your big release day, and personally invite them to hear your new \nrelease. Take selfies, and ask fans to post photos with your \nrelease’s custom hashtag. Even better: Consider sending attendees home with free, custom merchandise promoting \nyour album. Attempt to theme your merch to the title of your \nalbum or single to jog their memories later.5\nPlan a Special Release Show or Party\nAWAL artists Glassio \nthrew an epic release \nparty to celebrate the \nrelease of their summer hit Papaya.5 RELEASE PARTY\n32 RELEASE DAY\nWhat if the bulk of your fanbase \nis elsewhere (for example, if you \njust moved from Los Angeles to \nNew York City and aren’t able to travel back for your release day) \nor the type of music you make \nisn’t exactly conducive to playing live? Hold a virtual release party \nvia one of these platforms:\nGoogle Hangouts\nConcert WindowStageitDaCastSharkStreamIBM Cloud Video \n(formerly Ustream)\nLivestreamGigee (currently in the \nprocess of re-launching)Also consider simply going live \non your Facebook, Instagram, \nTwitter (via Periscope), or \nYouTube channel.\nIf anyone purchases your album \nduring the party (which you may or may not be able to see depending \non which platforms you’re using \nfor distribution), make sure to thank them. For an added bonus, \nyou can even think about telling \nanyone who buys a song or full album you’ll make up a tune using \ntheir name live during the party. \nGet fun and get creative! Any incentive to engage your audience \nwill help you achieve your ultimate \nrelease-day goals.6\nLivestream a Release Party or Live Set6 LIVESTREAM A SET33 RELEASE DAY\nEven if you’re also planning a show in \nreal life, invite your hardcore listeners, \nfriends, family, and fellow artists to join \nyou from the comfort of their own living rooms earlier in the day via Facebook \nLive or a Twitter chat. Shake up the \ntraditional release-party format and consider holding a Q&A session where \nyou can share some of the stories behind \nthe songs on your album.\nBelieve it or not, they might be a little \nintimidated, but by showing your goofy side, you’ll put them at ease. If they’re \nstill radio-silent, go with it and shift \ninto concert mode by playing acoustic versions of your tunes.\nBy bringing people who love your music \ninto your world in such an intimate way, \nas opposed to a straight-up concert \nexperience, you’re deepening the already existing bond there and breaking down \nwalls. You’re also creating a connection \nbetween your listeners and your new material; they’re getting to know the \nheart and soul behind your album and forge a relationship with it the very first \ntime they hear it. Even in a virtual arena, \nhaving a direct conversation with fans \nabout what your music means and the intention behind it adds gravitas to your \nefforts and makes it resonate.\nOkay, you’ve successfully put out your \nalbum and had a killer release day. \nCongrats! The hard work is over now, right? Not quite.\nOnce you’ve put something out there \ninto the world, you want it to remain \nrelevant and fresh for as long as \npossible. It’d be a tragedy to share something you’ve worked so hard on to \nonly have it be forgotten over the course \nof a week. That’s why an artist’s work is never really done, and it’s important to \nkeep engagement with your listeners \nalive well past your actual release day. Here are some of the best ways to do \njust that.7\nHold a \nReal-Time Q&A\nPRO TIP\nIf you’re feeling ambitious or want to \nturn your release day into an online \nmarathon, consider combining a full live \nset with a Q&A session for the ultimate virtual bash!7 Q&A34 POST-RELEASE DAY\nPOST-RELEASE DAY35 POST-RELEASE DAY\nIn the previous section, we mentioned the importance of \nhaving paid ads. This is a surefire way to make sure your \nfans realize when you’ll be releasing a new track or album. \nOf course, there’s a chance they’ve seen your ad, but forgotten to actually stream your music. Changing up your \npaid advertisements to share different content surrounding \nthe release is a gentle way to remind your fans to listen to your music. For example, you could throw some advertising \ndollars behind a link to some great press like a review to \nmake sure your share gets noticed. Having a post-release day timeline and content plan is just as important as having \na pre-release plan.1\nChange Up Your Ad Content\nPRO TIP\nEnsure that you’re not wasting your advertising dollars \nby creating ads that speak to the people who matter \nmost (and who are most likely to engage with your \nads)! Follow these tips for ads that connect with fans on Facebook and Instagram.1 AD CONTENT36 POST-RELEASE DAY\nAWAL members \nCoasts did a fantastic \njob putting a little \npromotional backing behind the release of \ntheir summer album \nThis Life to grab some extra listeners. \n1 AD CONTENT37 POST-RELEASE DAY\nIf you planned for these elements in your pre-release \nstrategy, now’s the time to unveil them to the world. \nVideos are a great way to essentially reintroduce your \nmusic to the world after it’s already been released. It gives music you may have released two weeks ago a \nfresh, new feel. You could also try sharing other people \nplaying your track, whether as a cover or as played by a DJ at a club. Covers and remixes are another great way \nto resurface music which has already been released.2\nPost and Promote Your Video Content\nAWAL member Madison \nBeer released the audio \nto her newest release \non Nov. 2 but dropped the official music video \ntwo weeks later on Nov. \n15, keeping the track “fresh” longer. 2 POSTING VIDEO CONTENT\n38 POST-RELEASE DAY\nJust as we recommended you to do a social media contest \nencouraging users to share feedback on your song or \nrelease via a custom hashtag, you could also encourage \nyour followers to share their own personal covers, edits, or remixes of your song in exchange for retweets and support \non your end. It’s a way to garner support for both you and \nlesser known artists.3\nEncourage Fans to Share Their Own Covers or \nRemixes3 FAN COVERS / REMIXES39 POST-RELEASE DAY\nWe can’t say enough how important it is to thank everyone \nwho supports you every step along the way. Shoutout all \nthe publications, writers, photographers, die-hard fans, \nand anyone else who you feel is seriously backing you up throughout your career. This shows humility and gratitude, \nand the fans will notice. It also works as an excuse to bring \ngood news to the surface again. 4\nSay “Thanks” for the Press4 THANK THE PRESS\nAWAL artists Aly and AJ \ndid a spectacular job \nthanking Nylon magazine \nfor the press coverage on the release of their latest \nEP , Ten Years. \n40 POST-RELEASE DAY\nNow that you have a new release and are (hopefully) getting \ntons of attention, the time is right to pitch yourself to talent \nbookers, promoters, agents, other bands, and more to \nshowcase your talent in a live space. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing music at a large venue, coffee shop, art show, music \nfestival, or in your local subway station — you’re still getting \nnoticed and have a reason to be there, which is to promote your newest release. As we’ve said before, performing live \nshows is a great way to bring music which you have already \nreleased back to the forefront of everyone’s mind. \nYour release plan doesn’t have to stop there; your new \nrelease is now an important part of your catalogue and story. For the foreseeable future, you’ll still be promoting it as your \nlatest music, so keep brainstorming new and exciting ways to \npromote it using the above tips and techniques.5\nUse Your Spotlight to Book Shows5 BOOKING SHOWS41 P.S. FROM AWAL\nP .S. FROM AWAL42 P.S. FROM AWAL\nIf you’re releasing new music in the next few months, use \nthis comprehensive plan to start preparing now! With some \nof these action items, lead time is key (especially for things \nlike press and booking a release show at a venue), so don’t delay in at least making a timeline of what you need to have \naccomplished when. Then, your best bet is staying as far \nahead of that timeline as you possibly can. \nAbove all, have fun! This is a super exciting time, and you \nshould make the time to simply enjoy sharing your music with the world. You’ve not only recorded (what we’re sure \nis) great, new music, but if you follow the steps in this guide \nyou’ll also be ready to thoroughly plan your campaigns leading up to release, conquer the actual big day, and keep \nthe momentum moving long afterwards! Apply to AWAL today see how we \ncan help you to better release your music in the new year! \nAPPLY NOW", + "keywords": [ + "release", + "music", + "day", + "make", + "planning", + "social", + "prerelease", + "sure", + "new", + "fan" + ], + "summary": "1 2018 ULTIMATE RELEASE GUIDE\n2018 ULTIMATE \nRELEASE GUIDE2 2018 ULTIMATE RELEASE GUIDE\nTimes hav" + }, + { + "filename": "614756983-Release-Strategy-2-0-Mark-Eckert.pdf", + "text": "RELEASE STRATEGY\nHOW TO RELEASE YOUR SONG, RUN A\nPR CAMPAIGN, GET WRITE-UPS, GET\nON PLAYLISTS, AND BUILD A CAREER\nAS AN ARTIST.\nMARK ECKERT MARK-ECKERT.COMVERSION 2.0\nThis ebook has been downloaded by nearly\n4,000 independent artists around the world now.\n \nHoly fuck.\n \nI can't even believe how many people this\nhelped. Really has been such a rewarding thing\nseeing this methodology help artists near and\nfar get closer to their goals.\n \nI was inspired to write this because an artist I've\nworked with for years called me up crying her\neyes out because she spent thousands of\ndollars on a PR Campaign (from someone that I\ndid not know) that truly shit the bed. \n \nI swore to myself, I wouldn't let that happen\nagain.\n \nThat's why I took off time from production to\nfocus on writing this.\n \nFrom writing this up, starting as a simple 'guide'\nfor the artists I produce and develop, to\nbecoming a full fledged 'movement' of people\ntagging me left and right on IG with new Write-\nups, Spotify official playlists, Shows, Tours,\nRadio, (and even international festivals. again,\nholy fuck.) they landed directly or indirectly\nbecause of this ebook. It's been unbelievably\ncool to see how many of you this truly helped.\n \nAnyways, just wanted to thank everyone for the\nkind words. It truly means a lot. Just trying to\nhelp everyone out. Really proud of everyone's\nhard work.We've approached a new era of the music\nindustry, specifically for independents, and the\nresults people are getting prove it.\n \nUltimately, the harder you work, and the more\npersistently you work, the more results you get.\n \nProud of ya' for downloading this and taking the\nsteps that are needed to share your music with\nthose who need to hear it most. I am truly excited\nto hear what you achieve with the words and\ninsight that follow...\n \nGrab some coffee, sit down, get comfy, take some\nnotes, take action - and have a kick-ass day. \n \n- MarkCREDITS FIRST:\nWe need to put credit where credit is due. To put\nsome perspective in the credibility of what you're\ngoing to learn in this ebook, these methods have\nbeen used time and time again to get the artists I\nwork with into earmilk, kick kick snare, noisey,\nspotify playlists, radio, store playlists (Hollister,\nH&M, Urban Outfitters) to name a few, and has\nalso helped me get more connections for pitching\nsongs to ads/film for my publishing & licensing\ncompanies, and .\n \nThe advice in this particular ebook is a collection\nof best practices from 2 of the most badass PR\nagents I know/have worked with, as well as a few\nProducers / Label Owners who fuckin' slay. \n \nA huge shout out to Lynn Banks of \n in Toronto.\n \nAs well as a huge shout out to Nicole Riolo of \n in NYC.\n \nThank you for all of your advice, and willingness to\ngive back to independent artists all throughout the\nworld. Links are provided to their sites up above.\nShould you need additional help for a larger\ncampaign, I highly suggest putting your investment\nin with either of these agents. You'd be in the right\nhands working with either. They are wonderful.ICON ISLAND \nTHAT NINETIES KID \nTHAT PITCH\nTHEY CALL ME RIOLOSO YOU KICK ASS...\nThis book is divided into 3 Parts. \n \nThe first part is called \"Mentality\" - which\ncovers the overall process and mentality\nneeded to have yourself a successful release\nstrategy, and PR campaign. By \"Release\nStrategy and PR Campaign,\" I mean so a shit\nton of people listen to your song(s) and you\nget further along in your artist career.\n \nThe second part is called \"What You Need\"\nwhich covers everything you need (press\nrelease, photos, software) etc. It also\nincludes details of each of the materials so\nthat all of things you send off to a music\njournalist or playlister etc is at an industry\nstandard level and you don't embarrass\nyourself.\n \nThe third, and final part of the ebook is called\n\"The Playbook\" which gives you actionable\nsteps to position yourself as an artist, and\nthen run a proper PR Campaign for your\nupcoming song release. \n \nTo get the most value out of this book, it is\nbest that you read it page by page, in order -\nso you're not confused as fuck. \n \nLet's jump in.\n \n- MarkMENTALITY\nTHE MINDSET, AND OVERALL \nSTRATEGY NEEDED TO HAVE A \nSUCCESSFUL RELEASE STRATEGY AND \nPR CAMPAIGN.So, I'm just going to be straight up as hell.\nYou worked a year and a half on a song, hired a\nproducer, got your live show together, got all the\ngroupie homies to rep your merch at that trashy\ndive bar that you still can't remember the name\nof - and you still have no idea how to release\nyour song, get it premiered on a cool blog, and\nget it on playlists. Subsequently, you just keep\ntelling everyone \"I'm getting my release strategy\ntogether\" - but deep down... you literally have\nno fucking clue what that means. You just heard\nthe term \"Release Strategy\" before, so now\nyou're repeating that. You've become a parrot.\nWell, my dude/dudet, I'm here to remind you,\nyou're not a parrot - you're an artist. \n \nListen. I get it. Seems crazy as hayullll because\nthe last thing you want to do is put this track out\nyou slaved over, just to get that dreaded \"\n<1,000\" caption on your song on Spotify. A\nreally shit thought, and for sure something we\nall try to avoid. So, you want to do it right... \n \nThis process is the biggest stressor, over-\nthinking time-period, & overall waste of\nenergy artists I work with deal with. After\nproducing well over 50 artists around the\nworld, drumming for them, developing them -\nI have decided, we are done with the \"What.\nThe. Fuck. Do. I. Do. Now.\" mentality.\n \nSo... let's get this explained. Right. Now.\n \n \n The reason I made this book, is #1 - I want to\nstop explaining this constantly. Because it's a\nlot to go through, and I just don't consider\nmyself an educator at all. I just like hooking\neveryone up who's going for it. It's really that\nsimple.\n \n#2 is more important though. When I work with\nan artist on their record - I want to provide them\nactual results. Not just make a track, then leave\nand not talk until we're in the studio together\nagain.\n \nMy passion is developing the artists I produce &\ndrum for. Meaning, I help them get to the vision\nthey have created for themselves - no matter\nwhat that means.\n \nIf writing this ebook, and offering more\nresources for the artists I produce & develop\nhelps them get further in their career even by a\nlittle bit - then I'm going to do it. Period. Just\nhow I roll.\n \nI want you to know, the problem of \"release\nstrategy\" is an age old problem. A problem that\nevery single artist I've worked with has gone\nthrough. But year after year of being in this\nindustry - I'm reminded over and over, there\naren't many secrets in the music business.\nThere's just people with knowledge, acting\nmysterious and inaccessible. \n \nHere's the thing though: its really not that\nmysterious - and fuck it, I'll be accessible. I want to make very clear - providing you follow\nthese directions to a T - this ebook will change\nthe direction of your career, save you 10's of\nthousands of dollars on PR campaigns because\nyou'll be able to run your own, will give you\nactionable results AFTER running your PR\ncampaign so you can continue to build\nrelationships to the 'gatekeepers,' and without\ndoubt, can finally prove to your old man - YES\nyour song IS worthy of being in Rolling Stone\nAND the Victoria Secret in-store playlist (his\nchildhood dream that he will now vicariously live\nthrough you.)\n \nWhen I first decided to write this, the idea was to\nprovide this strictly for the artists I produce. But\nafter literally 1-minute of thought - I decided,\nfuck it. I'm going to give this ebook out to\neveryone for free.\n \nWhy? Because frankly, I think this industry\nneeds a little less \"how can you help me\" and a\nlittle more \"how can I help you.\"\n \nThere is plenty of \"success\" to go around, and\nplenty of good people that need guidance. So\nhere is some guidance, my good people of the\nearth. An offering to all the homies, a massive\nhookup to running your own PR campaign so you\ncan have a badass release that you're proud of.\nSo, if you know of any artists who need help, tell\nthem about this ebook, it will always be free af.WHO THIS IS FOR\nAND WHO THIS IS\nNOT FOR.\n \nThis book is for independent artists who are\nbuilding their careers, or artists on labels that\nwant to rely less on someone else and take on\nmore personal responsibility for their career (for\nwhatever reason.) This is for people who don’t\nblame their surroundings for their lack of\nsuccess. This is for people who take on full\nownership, responsibility, and control over their\nown career and future.\n \nThis book is NOT for people who aren’t willing to\nhustle and make it happen by any means\nnecessary. This is not for people who make\nexcuses. This book is not for people who “wait\nfor the right time.”\n \nEssentially this book, (and me personally) is not\nfor people who wait to get all their ducks in a\nrow. This is for people who find a duck, and work\nwith that.\n \nUltimately to build a career in anything - you\nneed to create hype for yourself to propel\nforward, be your own salesman/saleswoman, and\nhave chutzpah. If you don’t fall into ‘who this is\nfor’ - this book will not apply to you in the\nslightest. HYPE: WHAT IS IT?\nPerception is Reality. If someone says you’re\ndoing something cool, and people trust that\nperson - that means you are doing something\ncool. Whether or not you’re actually unbiasedly\ndoing something cool. Remember, it’s not who\nyou are - it’s how you are presented, and who is\ndoing the presenting. That’s why everyone in this\nindustry pushes their ‘credits.’ I know people\nthat are making close to a million a year\nindependently, and I also know people who have\na major label deal and can barely get by every\nmonth. Yet the label represented person is\ntreated differently by peers - because they are\nassociated with the establishment that is\nperceived as ‘higher’ over decades and decades\nof societal training.\n \nNow, the industry is changing fast, but it’s like if\nyou see someone who is verified on instagram.\nAt first glance, they can sometimes be treated\ndifferently - like they are higher tiered than\nsomeone else. Without doing anything other than\nthe establishment (Instagram in this case)\ndeclaring them as someone legitimate.\n \nThis is all psychological, and the music industry\n, (and entertainment industry as a whole) have\ndesigned it as such for the very reason I am\nabout to state: Hype is essentially our product to\nthe masses. Music itself is enjoyable, but there\nare plenty of enjoyable free things. Hype though,\nis what people buy into. \n \nLet me continue...The more respected and established the\npublication that puts you out first is, will ultimately\ngive you the credibility needed to move to other\npublications (relative to the status of your first\nwrite-up.) \n \nPopular kids in high school started the trends.\nThen the average kid followed it.\n \nEveryone is a follower to a certain degree. I'm\nwearing joggers right now (I don't jog.) These\nthings look fucking ridiculous and lazy, but I (to\nsome degree) bought into them because people\nwith hype, or \"perceptual value\" changed my\nperception about them. Music is not a product like\nsomething in technology where we are fixing a\nproblem. Medicine cures tangible diseases. Cars\ntangibly move us from point A to B. \n \nMusic does incredibly beautiful things in this\nworld, saves lives, cures depression, brings\ntogether communities, gives us identity - but there\nis nothing tangible you can see at face value.\n \nOur value is convinced, or perceived through\nfeeling (much of which feeling is determined by\nperception.) Thus, the music that is heard most by\nthe masses is not the hardest music to play /\nperform - it is the one best packaged to attain a\nhigher perception of value to a potential audience,\nor 'consumer.' \n \nIt is not just the music. It is not just the brand. It\nis not just the live shows. It is 'everything,\npackaged' that counts.\n \nSo, let's talk about some people who give you\nhype, or 'perceived value' in the next chapter.\n MUSIC\nJOURNALISTS AND\nPLAYLISTERS\n \nWHO THEY ARE AND\nHOW TO APPEAL TO\nTHEM\nMusic Journalists are curators, skilled writers,\nand exceptionally hard working people - just as\nyou are with your craft in music. They are a\nmajority-hold gate-keeper between you and an\naudience that you have never met in person.\n(This discounts the importance of Social Media\nof course.) They deserve respect, and admiration\nfrom you. Do not treat them as a servant. They\nhave worked their asses off to be where they\nare, and you need to be aware of that. They\nhave their own goals in their own career and you\nneed to be empathetic with their time. Because\nusually - they are exceptionally busy. You are\nnever the only one reaching out to them.\n \nProfessional Journalists for notable publications\n(typically) are paid for each article they write\n*that is approved by the editor.* Now, typically,\nif a journalist is on staff, it means that 90% or so\nof what they write is approved. However, the reason why they have a high\napproval rate, are well respected, and are\ndoing this full time - is because they write\ngreat stories for an audience that resonates\nwith them. \n \nA good story drives traffic to their\nsite/publication, builds their brand awareness\nand respect, gives them potential for more\nquality stories, attracts advertising dollars and\nbrand partnerships, which will give them an\nability to grow the publication. There are many\nstories of publications that literally blew up,\nbecause of one exclusive story they covered\nfirst. \n \nExample: Average consumers did not give a\nflying shit about Wikileaks before the Edward\nSnowden story they covered. \n \nPoint made. Keep reading..\n \nYou are pitching them a story of value - about\nyou, and your music. That story needs to help\nthe writer and publication’s brand, which in turn\nwill help their business in the long run. \n \nIn order for you to provide value to them, you\nneed to be interesting, you need a good\nrelationship with them, and you need a story\ntheir target audience will enjoy and resonate\nwith.\n \nIf you are first starting out - this takes time\nAND self awareness to understand how to\nposition yourself/story. Do not think you’re going to get a write-up for\nyour new indie group in Billboard tomorrow when\nit’s your first song with this project. I have a\nfriend who’s done that (and it seemed like they\nrandomly got hooked up) but we ran into each\nother at a show and talked in more detail. Turns\nout, they became tight with that journalist over a\n10 year period from pitching / eventually getting\nwrite-ups with their previous band. That\njournalist was very familiar with their story and\ntook a genuine interest in their new single.\n \nBuilding your relationships takes real time.\nProviding value to a publication takes time and\nproper positioning. If you’re not willing to commit\nyourself to this long term, then you’re not willing\nto commit yourself to your career, because a\ncareer in this IS long term.\n \nIt will be exhausting at times, a bummer at\nothers - and the best feeling ever on occasion.\nThis is what you’re signing up for. So, don’t\ncomplain to people if you chose this path.\nBecause this ebook will give a play by play of\nhow to do this and continue doing it so you can\nbuild yourself up. You can always hire a proper\nPR agent later on (who have these trusted\nconnections,) but starting out? - like we said\nearlier...\n \nyou got a duck, homie. \nThis ebook is a duck.\nWork with it.\n \nSpeaking of building relationships, let's talk\nabout that in more detail...\n RELATIONSHIPS\nRelationships are everything. We all know this\n- but I am telling you factually, since this is a\nhow-to book so-to-speak, that there is no way\naround having solid relationships. It is just as\ntrue in the music industry as any other industry\n- your network is your net worth. \n \nHaving said that, if you are living in the middle\nof nowhere, there are plenty of ways to still\nconnect with people in high places via the\ninternet. \n \nNo matter what though, ultimately, you need\npeople behind you that believe in what you’re\ndoing. They need to like your music, and they\nneed to like you. \n \nIf they don’t like your music, they don’t like\nyour story, and they don’t like you - you will\nnot get any write-ups and you won’t get into\nplaylists. \n \nIt should be of no surprise, if you’re an anti-\nsocial, miserable, boring douchebag with\nterrible songs, nobody will pay much attention\nto you and your 5th re-released remix of\n‘Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran.’I know people who had incredible records, and\nhad no process for marketing it, had no\npersonal connections, and didn’t hustle it.\nSubsequently, the record went nowhere. \n \nI also know people with pretty great music\n(arguably not life-changing though) that are now\ntouring internationally with Tier A artists. All\nbecause they were able to build their hype,\ncraft a story of themselves, their music, and\ntheir life with perceived value so journalists\nfound them valuable to their readers.\n \nThe music ABSOLUTELY needs to pass a\ncertain threshold of badassery. \n \nI want to make that INCREDIBLY clear...\n \nYou DO need an incredible song, and an\nincredible production. 10000%. This book will\nwork providing you ALREADY have that.\n \nBut once that is there (non-objectively) - it's all\nabout your packaging, and the perceptual value\nor \"Hype\" you can obtain for it.\n \nIt is NOT like the old days where if you don’t\nlive in NYC, LA, or London you’re fucked and\nnot taken seriously. \n \nYou don't need to hire a producer that costs\n250k for a record (yes that was a normal thing),\nto get connected to specific people, and then at\nchance maybe get in a b-rate radio station. Or\njust be shelved for the next 7 years on contract.\n Here is what I am saying...\n \nYou. Can. Meet. Anyone. Now. \n \nYou. Can. Do. Anything. Now.\n \nThere are no real rules anymore, and the\nmarket / fanbase is open for you to take if you\ncan position yourself strategically.\n \nMost people get scared when there are no\nrules. But I thrive in it, and the artists I choose\nto work with also do.\n \nThe internet is INCREDIBLY dope, and you are\ncapable of just about anything now. So embrace\nit. Realize when you 'find a duck,' and ignite\nyour chutzpah when you do.\n \nNow that your mentality is put together to run\nyour own PR campaign / form a proper release\nstrategy, let's move forward to the actionable\nsteps.\n \nThe remaining portion of the ebook is 'What You\nNeed' and 'The Playbook.' Covering materials\nneeded for a release strategy, and the step by\nstep actions to run your very own PR campaign.WHAT YOU NEED\nWHAT YOU NEED, AND WHAT THE HELL\nTHESE THINGS ARE.1. 6 WEEKS TIME\n- You need 3 Weeks before your Release Date, and\n3 Weeks after.\n \n2. PRESS RELEASE\n- A bio on single / album (1 Paragraph MAX) Craft\na good story and tell it. Quickly.\n- A brief bio on artist/band. 3 Sentences Max. (you\nhave one shot to get through to them, don’t bore\nthem with too many words - they’re busy, they\nsimply won’t read it.\n- Album / Single Artwork Image (1400px1400px)\n- Promo Picture (Often, writers want to include a\npromo shot of the artist or band, along with the\nalbum/single art. \n1 HD Promo Photo, no more.\n- Your email Subject should be a very convincing,\nhead-turning headline that says “Who, What, and 1\nInteresting Detail.\"\n \nExample: “Asap Rocky announces NJ Generation\nTour” Respect Magazine\n \nExample: “Montreal’s Golden Child releases new\nsingle My Slime” Complex\n \nEssentially, write what you think their headline\nshould be, in the publication when they publish the\nstory.\n \n4. Links to Socials, and Website. \nYes, you need a website.\n- If you're new to web design, I suggest using\nSquarespace and buying your site domain through\nthere. The templates are great, and a simple\ndesign is fine.\n 5. Private Soundcloud Link. \nYou will need a private Soundcloud link to share\nwith the journalist for a premiere. You will need a\npublic Soundcloud Link for additional write-ups\nafter your release. (Private can be converted to\nPublic.) DO NOT send an MP3. They won't open it.\nMake it as simple as possible for them to listen to\nyou.\n \nINSIDER TIP: If someone does asks for an MP3, be\nweary because typically they’re trying to get quick\nlicensing rights for their youtube channel. You\nwould most likely not be getting paid for it. This is\ncalled getting \"fucked over.\" We are trying to avoid\nthat.\n \n6. \"Representation.\" (A false email)\nRemember - Perception is key. \nOn Squarespace, you can get a custom domain\nname with Google Apps. There, you can get an\nemail for yourself with your site in it. Do not email\nsomeone with bandname@gmail.com - You'll look\nlike shit. If you email with a yahoo or askjeeves...\njust fucking give up.\n \nInfo@bandname.com or press@fakemgmt.com is\nmuch more convincing that you're someone legit. It\nsounds like you have it together, and you're taking\nthis seriously. More than anything - It doesn't\nsound like you're alone. It sounds like there are\npeople who already believe in you. You can be\nyourself when emailing if you want to (or, if you're\nmoderately good at bullshitting) you can create a\n'fake agent' so to speak. \"Hi, I'm Janet with SOSO\nAgency and we are interested in a premiere for an\nartist on our roster.\" There is no right or wrong,\npeople do both all the time. If this is controversial\nto you, please read back to who this is for and not\nfor. <3 7. Have both a \"press\" and a \"fan\" email.\nAgain, perception. Make an 'alias' email in google\n(look it up,) and this will give you the ability to\nsend from different 'departments' so to speak.\nYou can email journalists from\npress@fakemgmt.com etc and you can contact a\nbooking agency at booking@fakemgmt.com etc. It\nwill all go to your same inbox - and it'll look very\ngood to everyone else.\n \n8. Mailtrack.io\nMailtrack.io (that's the site) is a free software you\ncan install with your gmail. It will tell you when\nsomeone opened your email, or if they haven't\nyet. This is a game changer for following up.\n \nEXTRA CREDIT:\n \n9. Create a mailing list with Mailchimp.\nMailchimp is an incredibly easy software to use\nfor mailing lists. It also syncs perfectly with\nSquarespace. You can get your fans, friends, and\ngrandma on your mailing list - so you can let them\nknow when a new song is out, or to push your new\nsong and post it. You can also give them the\nability to 'pre-save' your song (if you distribute\nwith distrokid) so it notifies them when the song\ndrops. #marketing #sexytime\n \nBUT HERES WHERE IT GETS REAL FUCKIN\nTECH SEXY.You can ALSO upload those emails\ninto an ad campaign for Facebook / Instagram\naudience targeting and you can advertise to them\nfor pennies on the dollar. EXTRA EXTRA credit,\nyou can make a \"look alike\" audience on facebook\nads and facebook will generate an audience with\nsimilar likes to your email list - so you can market\nyourself to strangers who will probably dig ya'. \nThx Zuckahboothang.THE PLAYBOOK\nACTIONABLE STEPS TO RUNNING YOUR\nOWN PR CAMPAIGN FOR YOUR RELEASE.6 WEEKS  *CAMPAIGN TIMELINE\n3 WEEKS BEFORE\nRELEASE DATE3 WEEKS AFTER\nRELEASE DATERELEASE DATE\n(SPOTIFY APPLE ETC)\nHUSTLE A PREMIEREPREMIERE\n1 DAY BEFORE\nRELEASE\nHUSTLE PLAYLISTS\nAND ADDITIONAL\nWRITE-UPSSTEP 1\nSET YOUR RELEASE\nDATE & DISTRIBUTE.\nCHOOSING YOUR DISTRIBUTOR\nIf you’re a nobody. Distrokid / Ditto / Landr is\ngreat. Just understand, since they are making\nmoney up front for distribution, they will not be\nactively hustling your material to playlists -\nbecause they have already been paid.\n \nIf you’re a somebody. Leverage your existing\nstreams / monthly listeners to get on something\nlike Symphonic, United Masters, or AWAL etc.\nSince they make money on the backend (they take\na percentage of your streaming royalties in\nexchange for their distribution service) they will do\ntheir best to get you as many streams as possible\n- because if you make money, they make money.\nThey charge nothing upfront - but they require a\nfollowing already, to minimize risk. \n \nWHEN TO RELEASE\nYou need at minimum 3 weeks time to give enough\nnotice for a premiere. So anytime works, so long\nas you give yourself 3 weeks to hustle (look at\ndiagram earlier.) Check out so you can\nsee releases from bigger artists coming out soon\nso your release isn't overshadowed that day.\n \nSet it on a Friday for New Music Friday (Spotify.)\nIf you want less competition, New Music\nWednesday and New Music Monday exist as well.\nSignificantly less listeners, but great cred builder\nfor long term, and less competition.\nSet your release at 12AM if the option is given.this siteSTEP 2\nPITCH TO WRITE-UPS AND\nHOW TO LAND A PREMIERE\nTo start, you want to get an “Exclusive\nPremiere.” Make sure to mention that in the\nemail. Premiering a song on a site, gives them\nthe ability to be the first showcase of your new\nwork. Since you will be offering it to them\nexclusively, this incentivizes the journalist -\nbecause it’ll be the only place someone can\nlisten to the new song. If you have a following,\nthis will increase traffic to their site, and can\npotentially add tremendous taste and respect to\nthe writer, should you blow up. Think of why\nTiffany’s is worth more than somebody buying a\nring at Costco. They’re the same fucking\ndiamond, but you can onlyyyy get that diamond at\nTiffany’s. It’s all brand. Help them increase their\nbrand with your work. You are a Tiffany Diamond,\nbb. \n \nOnce you get a premiere, that's when things start\nmoving- because more people want to write about\nyou - because now, you are perceived as worth\nsomething. You've gained some Hype! Mazel Tov.\nExclusivity is how you get a premiere, period.\nOffer this to every journalist initially. Whoever\nresponds first (and is decent) gets it. Once you\nland it, update every other journalist you reached\nout to about the premiere. They will then think\nthey missed out. They can feature it once the\nsong is out. there is your perceived value, your\nhype. Point is, you really gotta hustle a premiere.\nA solid premiere, will give way for a solid PR\nCampaign.STEP 2 \nEMAIL FOMULAS \n& EXAMPLE\nINITIAL COLD-CALL EMAIL FORMULA:\nSUBJECT\n- Imagine what you believe the subject of the\nwrite-up would be. If your goal is a premiere, say\n\"EXCLUSIVE:\" followed by your ideal head-\nturning subject of the write-up. \nBODY\n- First Paragraph on Song\n- Second Paragraph on Artist\n- Maybe some (quick) additional info afterwords\nto help sell it to them / mention creds.\n- Links to induldge (socials, past write-ups etc.)\nFOLLOW UP EMAIL FORMULA:\nSUBJECT\n- Literally just let them know you're following up.\nBODY\n- A few sentences asking whether they saw your\nprevious email, and restating you think it would\nbe valuable to their audience. You can alter your\nemail depending on if mailtrack lets you know\nthey read your email or not.\n \nFOLLOW UP A MAX OF 3 TIMES OVER 10\nDAYS. IF THEY DON'T RESPOND. STOP. THEY\nCAN (AND MAY) BLACKLIST YOU.CLICK HERE FOR EXAMPLESTEP 3\nRELEASE DAY\nON THE RELEASE DATE - send a follow up to\npress, letting them know its released to the public,\nand provide the public link to the song instead of the\nprivate. \n \nThe people who haven’t responded, try to get the\npublic soundcloud or spotify link sent over to them\nso they can write a story on it after the release if\nthey want to (one final time.) Include details of your\npress release within the email obviously.\n \nSend press writeups to fans (premiere and\nadditional write-ups,) post them on your instagram,\nfacebook, twitter, (tinder?) and feel free to run those\nads I talked about earlier (go back to the extra credit\nsection of WHAT YOU NEED if you feel inclined to\ndo so.)\n \nTo fans who already exist, these perceived\nsuccesses will in turn, increase their engagement\nwith you and make them more avid listeners. They'll\nconsider themselves OG's now, and some\npride/community is built with that. To strangers, it'll\ngive more incentive to become a listener of yours.\n \nAlways remember, a lot of people haven't listened to\nyou NOT because your music sucks - but because\nthey simply don't even know its out! A release\nstrategy and proper PR Campaign just lets people\nknow its out, and gives them a reason to listen.\n \nAfter all of this - START PITCHING TO\nPLAYLISTS...STEP 4\nPITCH TO PLAYLISTS\nFirstly, it's very difficult to get into a major playlist\nunless you have an established connection. The only\nother way in (to my knowledge) is if the Spotify AI\nalgorithm sees your song organically doing extremely\nwell through independent playlists.\n \nSo, if you don't have an established connection, focus\non Independent playlists initially.\n \nYou can find playlisters all over the net, but an easy\nway of doing so is just going on Spotify (or other\nstreaming platforms) and find independent playlists,\nand looking up the person who made it. Easy as pie. \n \nEmail / contact them - and do the same schpeel that\nyou did to music journalists. Just with playlists in\nmind. \n \nDo this with any playlist that fits your style of music.\nThere are MANY.\n \nNOTE: Now, as you saw on my site - I have a\nproprietary master sheet of around 1,000 playlister's,\nnearly 5,000 journalists, and contact infos for\neveryone in Spotify, Apple, Deezer, Pandora, Amazon,\nMajor Labels HQ's etc. I give these contacts info,\nadditional insight and industry know-how to artists I\nam producing & developing free of charge. However, if\nwe don't work together, these 6,000+ contacts and a\nbonus insight series is available for purchase on my\nsite. Quite literally, people have gotten coverage /\ncross platform marketed in MTV, Earmilk, H&M, and\nhave played pretty massive festivals because of it. \nIf we don't work together, it is available for purchase\non my site here: Mark-Eckert.com/indieprbundleSTEP 5\nFOLLOW UP FOR WRITEUPS\nAND PLAYLISTS\nFor the remaining 3 weeks of your campaign, follow\nup, and continuously reach out to literally everyone\nyou can. \n \nNow, as far as the 3 week campaign goes after\nrelease... you can continue to push on Spotify\nforever. But the reason you should start winding\ndown after 3 weeks for write-ups is simply because,\nyou're old news after 3 weeks. Can't pitch old news.\nYou're not able to add much value to a publication at\nthat point. \n \nSimple as that. (Unless there's a sex tape or you're\narrested / get caught for racketeering. Yeye.)NURTURE \nRELATIONSHIPS\nSo the vast majority of artists I work with, I have\non a monthly retainer that is affordable so they\ncan have (on average) an EP's worth of music out\na year, on a consistent basis. The reason for this,\nis because you need consistent material out,\nconsistent relationships being built, and\nconsistent advancement in what you're trying to\nachieve. It's cyclical. It all goes together. You\nneed to nurture your career in general.\n \nYou should follow journalists, spotify playlisters,\nand anyone in the industry on IG. Be tight with\nthem, on a personal level. Keep building the\nrelationship. If you're in the same city (living or\ntouring through,) offer to take them out for coffee.\nYour treat. After someone writes up about you,\nsend an email, text, or something THANKING\nTHEM for doing that. Keep building relationships. \n \nIf someone that gave you a write up is in a small\npublication - they're most likely hustling their\ncareer as much as you are. They may move on to\na bigger publication later on. And when they're\nthere - you'll still be tight with them. \n \nDon't overlook becoming tight with these people.\nBeing a good person, having friends, and checking\nup on people is great for your mental health AND\ncareer.ARTIST RESOURCES:\nSo, this has given you the basics of what you need to\ndo to create a proper Release Strategy and PR\nCampaign for your upcoming release.\n \nAlong with this book, I have MANY additional\nresources for artists I work with, along with artists I\ndon't. All I want is to help you as an independent artist\nget further along. From production, to shows, to\ngetting your song placed on a commercial, to building\na fanbase. That's my job as a producer and artist\ndeveloper.\n \nIf you'd like to make your PR Campaign a helluva lot\nmore effective, you can have access to over 6 , 0 0 0\nBloggers, Playlisters, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon\nMusic (and more) contacts, with a really badass\nadditional insight series I made covering everything\nyou need to know about the ins and outs of running\nyour campaign. This is the exact framework I give to\nthe artists I produce and develop. \n \n \nIf you want to start pitching your music to\nadvertisements and major motion film for sync\nlicensing, I am the owner and founder of THAT PITCH.\nWe send you all the opportunities for these ads. You\nsend us a song. We pitch it to our contact. If you land\nit, you keep 100% of everything. We don't take a dime.\n \n \nIf you want me to produce and develop you \n1-on-1, \n \nIf you want more free artist resources, you can go\nback to my site\n you can hit me up here.Click here to start pitching your music.\nhere. It's called the INDIE\nPR BUNDLE, and it's available on my site here.This ebook is the intellectual property of me. If\nyou copy it and distribute it / try to sell it, I'll sue\nyo ass and give all the $ to all the downloaders.\nBecause, this ebook will be free 4evr &\nalwyzzzzz. - MarkWE DONE NOW.\nHERE'S MY \"LEGAL:\"", + "keywords": [ + "get", + "people", + "release", + "artist", + "need", + "music", + "youre", + "song", + "give", + "email" + ], + "summary": "RELEASE STRATEGY\nHOW TO RELEASE YOUR SONG, RUN A\nPR CAMPAIGN, GET WRITE-UPS, GET\nON PLAYLISTS, AND B" + }, + { + "filename": "508512102-The-Fan-Building-Formula.pdf", + "text": "FAN-BUILDING\nFORMULAFAN-BUILDING\nFORMULATHE\nTHE 7 STEPS YOU NEED TO MASTER TO\nCREATE SUPERFANS & MAKE A LIVING\nFROM YOUR MUSICTHE 7 STEPS YOU NEED TO MASTER TO\nCREATE SUPERFANS & MAKE A LIVING\nFROM YOUR MUSICDespite what a lot of people think, this is the best time to\nbe in the music industry. \n \nThere are endless ways to find and connect with your\nideal audience of fans who love your music. No longer\nare you at the mercy of corporate gate-keepers. There is\nnothing standing between you and reaching the people\nwho are waiting to fall in love with YOUR music.\n \nWhen you get this right, your music can bring you\nfinancial freedom that allows you to keep making music! \n \nWith that being said, let's dive into the Fan-Building\nFormula...\n1.Quality Music\nThis is probably pretty obvious, but it must be said. The\nfirst thing you need to start building a fanbase and\nmaking an income from your music is QUALITY MUSIC. \n \nIf your music isn't good, nothing else will matter. You and\nI don't have the budget to launch a massive international\nadvertising campaign to make people think our music is\ngood. It has to actually be good. That's why a lot of the\ncontent on OAA is dedicated toward helping you create\nyour own high quality music from home!\nHow Do You Know If\nYour music Is Good\nEnough?Here are some ways you can test to see if your music is\ngood enough to start promoting:\n2. Micro-GenreListen to your music in a playlist with other songs in\nyour genre. How does it stack up? Does it distract?\nGet feedback. Ask people for their honest feedback on\nyour song!\nGet your song reviewed on AudioKite.com.\nThe second step to creating superfans is choosing a\nmicro-genre for your music. You don't need to write\nmassive hit pop songs in order to make a living from your\nmusic. You just have to write songs that are hits inside a\nparticular micro-genre of music. \n \nWhen you niche down, and pick a micro-genre to create\nyour music inside of, then you suddenly become a big fish\nin a small pond...which is much better than trying to\ncompete with giant artists who have a lot more resources\nthan you. \n \nWith a \"Micro-genre\", you have to ask yourself....\n\"What Is My Twist?\"\nYour \"twist\" is whatever it is that sets you apart.\n \nExample: My top genre is Electronic, then Synthpop digs\ndeeper, and then Synthwave digs even deeper. Then it's\nFuturistic Popwave. Futuristic Popwave is my micro-\ngenre.3. Culture\nNext, it's key that you learn how to build a culture around\nyour micro-genre. This can take some time and\nexperimentation, but once you build a strong culture, you\nhave the potential to really grow your income. \n \nYou build your culture by working on your brand and\nimage, and by what you post on social media. \n \nBRANDING: Branding is simply who you are and your\nmusic. It's what other people think and feel about you and\nyour music. \n \nYou want your music, micro-genre, social media posts,\nalbum art, and so on, to all be congruent. This will help\nyour audience know that everything comes from the\nsame person or band. Make sure there is a theme going\non between everything that makes up the experience for\nyour audience. \n \nWhen you post on social media, make sure that it either\nentertains, inspires, or educates your audience. \n \nIt's the culture and brand surrounding your music that can\nturn listeners from fans into SUPERFANS! \n \nAnd a superfan is someone who spends at least\n$100/year on you and your brand. Get 1,000 of these\nsuper fans, and you are making $100,000/year from your\nmusic! 4.Email Marketing\nYour email list should be the foundation of your music\nmarketing. Email marketing is how you can really start to\nbuild a relationship with your fans. Social media is not\nsomething you own or control. In fact, increasingly, social\nmedia platforms are making it so that you have to PAY to\nreach your fans. Plus, you can get your account shutdown\nfor no good reason. You don't want to lose all your fans\novernight if that happens. \n \nWhen you have an email list, you have an asset that is\nworth real money! Your email list is something you DO\nown and control, and it's the best way to get a message\nto your fans. Plus, you even even upload your email\ncontacts to Facebook and show ads to those people! \n \nNow, to grow your email list, you're going to need\nprofessional email marketing software. You can't just\nsend mass emails from your gmail as that violates anti-\nspam laws. The best email marketing tool for Music\nArtists is ConvertKit, and it's what I use. \n \nYou can get started for free by clicking here.\n \n(This is an affiliate link so if you decide to upgrade to the\npaid version I'll earn a small commission at no extra cost\nto you.) \n \nOnce you have your email list software, you can start\noffering a free song in exchange for an email address to\nbegin building your list!At this point, fans are finding you as you're attracting\nthem with your high quality music, enticing culture, and\nengaging social media posts. \n \nYou've started to grow your email list by giving away a\nfree song, and now it's time to LAUNCH. \n \nMost indie artists rely on \"hope\" marketing, where they\nsimply upload their music to the internet hoping people\nwill find them. I've been guilty of this. \n \nBut real marketing is predictable, repeatable, and\nscalable.\n \nSo you want to put an automated system in place that\nallows you sell your music or other products in a way that\nis predictable, repeatable, and scalable. In the marketing\nworld, this called building a \"sales funnel\". It's where you\ntake someone who doesn't know you, and you have them\nreceive content which eventually turns them into a buyer. \n \nThis probably sounds a little overwhelming and confusing\nright now, but I'll be putting out more content on\nOrpheusAudioAcademy.com that goes into how to do\nthis. \n \n 5.Online LaunchingPaid traffic, specifically Facebook Ads, is how you can\nreally explode your fanbase. \n \nSince you've already done the heavy lifting of figuring out\nyour micro-genre, culture, and you've started to build your\nemail list...it becomes pretty easy to locate pockets of\npeople on Facebook whom you KNOW would love your\nmusic!\n \nThen it's just a matter of creating an effective ad that\nattracts them to you and your brand. This is the first piece\nof creating an automatic \"machine\" that sells your music\nfor you on autopilot. You need to get traffic, meaning,\npeople seeing your offer. \n \nOnce you've mastered the steps above, you can start\nbuilding a giant list of engaged superfans for just a few\ndollars a day. \n \nAnd eventually, you can even start to use Facebook's\nadvanced \"Retargeting\" tools. It's like when you're looking\nat an item on Amazon, and then you see the same item\nshow up on your Facebook feed. \n \nYou can post a video for your fans on Facebook, and\nFacebook will automatically track who watches more\nthan 3 seconds of the video. You can then show a\ndifferent ad to that audience of video viewers which\nallows them the further engage with, or even buy, your\nmusic. 6. Paid TrafficThe final step is to master copywriting. Copywriting is the\nart and science of using the written word to motivate\npeople to take an action. \n \nIt's the headline you use in your press release, the text in\nan ad, or any of the words you post in a social media\npost. It's everywhere! \n \nThis is a skill that most people don't know how to do.\nCopywriting is a skill that can be learned and developed\nthough. You are going to learn how to communicate best\nwith your fans and your audience in a way that increases\nengagement and develop superfans. \n \n \n \n \nI want to help you take the next step in your journey,\nregardless of where you're starting. Shoot me an email at:\nReagan@OrpheusAudioAcademy.com\n \nAnd let me know how I can best help you on your artist\njourney. \n \nAdventure On!\nReagan Ramm, OrpheusAuidoAcademy.com\n \n7. Copywriting\nNext Steps\n", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "email", + "people", + "fan", + "get", + "marketing", + "step", + "make", + "song", + "microgenre" + ], + "summary": "FAN-BUILDING\nFORMULAFAN-BUILDING\nFORMULATHE\nTHE 7 STEPS YOU NEED TO MASTER TO\nCREATE SUPERFANS & MAK" + }, + { + "filename": "261875613-SoundCloud-Guide.pdf", + "text": "How to promote your music \non SoundCloud \nBuild your fanbase using the world’s most popular audio-sharing platform.CD BABY PRESENTS:\n2\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Promoting your music on SoundCloud\nBuild your fanbase using the world’s most popular audio-sharing platform.\nBy Budi Voogt, author of The SoundCloud Bible\nIntroduction\n \nBoth up-and-comers and music legends alike are using SoundCloud as a central part of their music \npromotion repertoire. If you’re not using SoundCloud to promote your music, you’re missing out.\nThe platform is a great way to build a community, get feedback on your tracks, and interact with lis -\nteners who are into your style of music. SoundCloud is easy to use and it’s essentially free too!\nAs an artist, manager, and founder of a label, I’ve been using the platform intensively for years. In \nfact, SoundCloud has actually been the primary marketing tool for many of my releases. In this guide, \nwe’re going to talk about how to use SoundCloud successfully — from setting up your account proper -\nly to promotional tips.\nSetting up your SoundCloud account\n \nFirst impressions always last.\nYou want to make sure everyone that visits your SC profile immediately gets \na good impression of you. Therefore, it’s crucial you make sure that all the \naccount details are set correctly.\nYour URL\nThe URL extension for your SoundCloud profile should be identical to the ones you have on other \nsocial media platforms. If you’re running with www.facebook.com/thebestbandever, then you want \nthe same ‘/thebestbandever’ extension on your SoundCloud account. You can edit this in your account \nsettings, under ‘Basic Profile.’\n3\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Social Links\nIncreasingly, social media profiles have become the standard for the younger generation of music \nfans, particularly the 15-25 demographic. We immediately look to social-media profiles when we want \nto investigate a new artist. I’m sure you’ve come across a band you liked on Facebook, went to their \n‘about’ section and discovered there weren’t any links to their other social-media profiles there. \nAnnoying, right? \nSoundCloud has integrated the ability to add social media links to your profile, and even adds the \ncorrect thumbnail images to the links of the larger sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You can edit these \nunder your ‘Advanced Profile’ settings. \nDescription and details\nSoundCloud is a community platform heavily focused on allowing you to discover what’s trending and \nwhat the people you’ve already connected with on SC are listening to. It’s VERY easy to discover new \nacts on SoundCloud.\nA common mistake I see bands making is not providing a succinct biography and contact information \non their profile. \nIdeally, you should place your contact email address on top, or that of your booker/manager, followed \nwith a short bio (about 50-250 words) written in the third person. Include info about who you are, what \nyou do, any labels you’re associated with, and any notable achievements. \n4\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD The Content\nPeople go to your SoundCloud profile to listen to your music. When they do, they’ll either listen to the \nfirst track that’s on top of your feed or to the one with the most plays and comments.\nYou want to make sure that these people hear some of your best material. You also want them to be \nable to easily identify the tracks, who made them, what type of mixes and recordings they are, and any \nspecific information about sub-genres or influences. \n \nDon’t upload everything\nFor people who are new to your band and music, you only have one shot at impressing them. You know \nhow it goes: if you discover a new artist, you’ll give one track-maybe two-a shot, and if those aren’t to \nyour liking, you’ll move on.\nIt’s essential that you don’t place everything you make on your SoundCloud account. Sure, a Sound -\nCloud upload is less definitive than a track distributed to iTunes or Spotify, but it’s still out there for \npublic consumption, and fans you win on SoundCloud can certainly become paying customers for gigs \nand actual releases. Ideally, your profile should showcase your best finished work.\nWhen considering an upload, ask yourself these questions: Is this ready for release? Do I consider this \na finished track? If so, then go for it—put it up!\nSome bands argue that SoundCloud is the best platform for sharing works in progress and getting\nfeedback from friends and fans, but I’d counter that with the fact that majority of the biggest acts out \nthere don’t do it, and the benefit of that feedback doesn’t outweigh the prospect of a great first im -\npression.\nIntegrate these steps, and get your profile looking right.5\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Track Details\nYour music should be instantly findable based on the track title, your artist name, and the keywords \nand genres associated with it. That’s why it’s important that you label everything correctly. With the \nnew SoundCloud update, the platform now suggests that adding your artist name in a track upload \nis no longer essential. I say that’s wrong. Why? Because with the new repost feature, people can now \nrepost your tracks to their own feed, and the only way to then trace the name of the original artist is \nby looking at the minuscule reference to the original uploader. Not the way to go.\nFor track titles, stick to the following format: “Artistname - Track Title (Mix Type).” \nIn terms of genre, always make sure to place the correct genre as the first ‘keyword’ to the track. It’s \nimportant to do this because SoundCloud has an explore function which indexes all the ‘trending’ \ntracks within a particular genre. The only way to define the genre is through the keywords, and the \nfirst one that’s embedded in the player is often the most valuable in determining the genre. Alterna -\ntively, the platform’s search function browses through keywords as well, so if you search for ‘electro.’ \nit’ll find tracks that have that word embedded in its title, keywords and lastly description.\nOther keywords that are important to include: are the original artist, associated artists, record label, \nand possibly the place where you’re from or any notable clubs you’ve played.\nCode of Conduct\nApart from the music, the most essential element of SoundCloud is it’s community aspect. If you \ninteract within this community properly, you’ll be able to establish new relationships and develop true \nfans. There’s a few basic rules of conduct on SoundCloud:\nActually use your account\nThis is the most common mistake I see artists making on SoundCloud. The majority of them use the \nplatform daily, but don’t bother to log into their accounts. They don’t interact with the stuff they like. \nAn artist who stays engaged and maintains a lively account is much more likely to foster a community. \nIt will also force you to get a true feel of the intricacies of the platform. So, every time you use it, log in, \nlike the tracks you love, and keep it buzzing.\nNever spam \nThe whole idea behind the comment system and the waveform players is that people should be able to \nleave precise and constructive feedback on the tracks. It’s supposed to add value, to help artists make \nbetter music, and to allow fans to praise what they think is great.\nThere’s always been a group of people on SoundCloud that make comments along the lines of “Great \ntrack! If you like this, I just made a new EP. Check it out!” Never EVER be that guy. When you comment \non an artist’s tracks, make sure you’re adding something of value to the conversation. A simple “Nice” \nor “Great drop” works, but doesn’t hold as much value as actually giving intricate feedback. 6\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Don’t be hesitant to be critical either. Usually, the more honest and critical the feedback, the more \nlikely you are to get a dialogue started. Elaborative and constructive comments can be conversation \nstarters and will also lead people to check out your profile. \nReply to all comments\nThis is one of the most overlooked yet most powerful ways to harness the community aspect of \nSoundCloud. Reply to EVERY comment someone makes on one of your tracks. It’s by far the best way \nto get people to come back to your profile, and they’ll likely proceed beyond that (by checking your \nwebsite or other social-media platforms) because it shows genuine interest in your community and \nfans.\nDoing this is simple: go to one of your tracks and click on the little comment bubble indicator (the \nthing that shows how many comments a track has). That’ll take you to a list of the comments where \nyou can click on each of them to reply. When you do, place comments that actually make sense. A \ngenuine “thank you” works, but prevent yourself from typing the same thank-you responses to nu -\nmerous comments, personalize them.\nPromo Tips\n \nIn addition to a smart content strategy and harnessing the power of the SoundCloud community, there \nare many other promotional tricks you can use to get your music heard. Next, we’ll discuss GROUPS \nand how to share to them, embedding your content on other websites and platforms, using your spot -\nlight tab, and leveraging free downloads.\nThese are essential basics that you should integrate into the way you work with SoundCloud daily. \nImplement these consistently and you will see cumulative results. Your fanbase will get bigger and \nthey’ll be more engaged. 7\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Groups\nIn SoundCloud, a group is a collection of people who share music. Only members of a group can share \nmusic amongst the group, and they’re also the only ones who can hear all the music that’s been \nshared to the group. \nUsually, groups are focused on one specific genre or subject. You might see a genre-related group \nbased on ‘Dark Dubstep’ or ‘Melodic Techno.’ As for subjects, groups can be used to catalog music for \na specific purpose, such as a remix contest or a record-label submission pool.\nThere are two types of groups: unmoderated and moderated. A moderated group has a moderator \n(usually the creator) who has to approve the track submissions before they become available to the \ngroup and its members. Once a track is approved, the account holder submitting that track becomes a \ncontributor. Moderation of a group is a good way to reduce spam and to curate content. Unmoderated \ngroups allow people to post tracks to groups without any restrictions.\nAccessing Groups\nIn the old version of SoundCloud, groups were accessible from the main menu. With the newer ver -\nsion, you have to access groups from the search bar. To do so, you just type in a search query such as \na specific genre or subject, and go to the “groups” tab. \nYou can also view the \ngroups you are a member \nof by clicking on your \nprofile thumbnail in the top \nmenu and then selecting \n“groups.” All groups you \nare a member of will be \ndisplayed here and you’re \nalso able to perform a \nsearch from here.\n8\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD How to use groups\nYou can discover music you like by joining the groups focused on your genre. But more importantly, \nyou can only share tracks to the groups you’re a member of.\nIf you have a free SoundCloud account, you can share a track to a single group, whereas Pro and Pro \nUnlimited account-holders can share with up to 75 groups within 24 hours. After those 24 hours, you \ncan simply submit it to more. \nYou’ll make the biggest impact when you share tracks with large groups that are organized around \nyour style of music. You should look for groups with more than 15,000 members. Particularly interest -\ning are the groups with relatively few uploads and a lot of members, as it’ll then take longer for your \ntrack to get snowed under by newer material.\nTo add a track to a group, click the ‘add to group’ button on the sound. Pay attention when doing this \nwith private tracks though, as these will automatically become public once submitted. Once you make \nyour track public, try sharing it to a group to attract a quick surge of traffic to the upload.\nSpotlight Tab\nThe spotlight tab is an option that’s only available for paid accounts. Both Pro and Pro Unlimited \naccounts have access to it.\nThe spotlight tab allows \nyou to select up to five \ntracks or sets that you \ncan showcase at the top \nof your profile in any \norder you like. This helps \nyou put emphasis on \nyour best tracks and can also give your profile a cleaner look. The tracks below the spotlight on your \nstream are shown in a reversed chronological order (so the newest uploads are visible first).\nTo access and edit your spotlight, go to your public page (click the thumbnail on the top menu and go \nto profile); then you’ll see it immediately at the top of your stream. Click ‘Edit Spotlight’ on the \nright-hand side and add whatever track or set you’ve uploaded.\n9\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Embedding\nEmbedding is a way to place a SC track somewhere else on the web, whilst still linking back to the \noriginal source. For example, you could embed your latest track on your website and all the plays \nfrom your website will be tallied to that track on SoundCloud. The embedded players are also called \n‘widgets’.\nHow to embed\nYou can embed a song by clicking on the ‘share’ button for the track. \nThe ‘widget code’ can be pasted into the HTML of your website or blog. You can customize this play -\ner by clicking the pencil icon beside the code. The ‘wordpress code’ is a shortened code that works \nwith Wordpress as long as you have a SoundCloud shortcode plugin installed.\nFree accounts are able to access the HTML5 and Flash players. \nPaid accounts get access to the mini player (which is just a tiny stretched bar) and the artwork \nplayer (which is a square player with the track’s artwork).\n10\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD On all of the available players, I suggest that you display the artwork as it gives you a chance to do \nsome visual branding. Also, I recommend you disable the ‘play automatically’ function. People tend to \nget annoyed when sounds are triggered immediately when they access a website.\nBest uses\nEmbedding is a great tool to make your SoundCloud tracks available on your website and other social \nplatforms. I suggest using the embed function to integrate your entire SC account with your website, \nso that it automatically displays everything on your stream (including the new stuff). Use the ‘share’ \nbutton below your profile picture to do this.\nI also suggest you integrate your SoundCloud account with your band’s Facebook page, as it allows \nfans to listen to your music from within Facebook.\nFor more details, check out ‘SoundCloud Page Tab’ by topdeejays.com (https://topdeejays.com/apps/).\nFree Downloads\nGiving away free downloads is one of the best ways to get exposure and encourage fan engagement \non SoundCloud. \nSoundCloud Downloads\nSoundCloud gives you the ability to enable downloads on a track. Note that it will provide the identi -\ncal file that you have uploaded, so make sure to upload at least a 320kbps MP3 or 16bit+ 44.1hz .WAV \nfile. I recommend you stick with MP3’s as the majority of people don’t care about the added value of a \nlossless file. \nThe number of times your track is downloaded also contributes to the popularity of that track on \nSoundCloud, thus making it more likely to appear in other SoundCloud users’ streams and on the SC \n‘explore’ page. If you are not a Pro user, the total number of downloads per track is limited to 100. A \nPro account is capped at 1000 downloads per track and a Pro Unlimited account has no download \nrestrictions.\nYou can enable your track for download by going to its settings and enabling ‘download.’\n11\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Once enabled, the download button will appear at the bottom of your track.\nWhen making your track available for download, it is wise to note this in your track title. \nCommon formats include:\n Artist - Title (Free DL)\n Artist - Title (Free Download)\n Artist - Title [Free Download]\nSoundCloud unfortunately doesn’t offer a simple way to link people directly to the download of your \ntrack. There is a way you can get around this though…\nYou can link people to the download by adding ‘/download’ to the end of the track’s url. \nFor example: http://www.soundcloud.com/artist/track_title/download\nWhen sharing this link, it’s smart to use a link shortener and to track how often (and from where) it’s \ngetting clicked. This can be done using services like: www.goo.gl, www.bit.ly, or tinyurl.com . I recom -\nmend using bit.ly for all your shortening services. Set up an account there. It’s an awesome site.\n \n12\nHOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD Last Thoughts\nThe tips and strategies outlined in this guide should help you successfully promote your music on \nSoundCloud. The key is to stay diligent and disciplined about maintaining your account and, of course, \nto upload great content in the first place.\nIf you liked this guide, you’re in luck! I’ve compiled all my SoundCloud knowledge into a book contain -\ning even more insider tricks and tips than the ones we’ve discussed here. It’s called ‘The SoundCloud \nBible’ and is available here.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nBudi Voogt, author of The SoundCloud Bible , is a music lover \nand founder of Heroic Recordings, a record label and artist \nmanagement agency.\nFor more information, visit http://www.BudiVoogt.com .\nHopefully this guide has given you a framework from which to start marketing your music to new fans. \nFor more advice on social media marketing, PR for musicians, and independent music distribution, \ncheck out CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog — updated daily with tips from the experts.\nSell, promote, and license your music worldwide with CD Baby. \nGet started at http://members.cdbaby.com\n", + "keywords": [ + "soundcloud", + "track", + "music", + "group", + "account", + "profile", + "artist", + "promote", + "people", + "get" + ], + "summary": "How to promote your music \non SoundCloud \nBuild your fanbase using the world’s most popular audio-" + }, + { + "filename": "631904304-Submit-to-Indie-Music-Blogs-and-music-review-sites.pdf", + "text": "22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 1/23Home Industry Tips Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites and promote your …\nSUBMIT TO INDIE MUSIC\nBLOGS AND MUSIC\nREVIEW SITES AND\nPROMOTE YOUR MUSIC\nFOR FREEINDUSTRY TIPS\nposted on Oct. 20, 2019 at 11:12 am\nRoel Wensink20 October 2019Industry Tips\nFree,Free Promotion,Music Blogs,Music Blogs Directory,Music Promo\nHOME REVIEWS INDUSTRY TIPS PLAYLISTS INTERVIEWS\nPODCAST SUBMIT DONATE\ninfo@fortheloveofbands.com\n \nAbout Us \nJoin Our Team\nPrivacy Policy \nBlogroll\nAdvertise \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 2/23\nIf you have an upcoming release or have just\nreleased new music, you want to make the most\nout of it. Making music is like showing your most\nprecious possession to the world. It’s really\nabout expressing yourself. Submit your music to\nindie music blogs and use the following tips and list of\nmusic review sites in this article.\nA great way to get your music heard is to get a review on\nmusic blogs. Sure, a positive review on a blog like\nPitchfork will boost your career, but there are many\nother smaller blogs out there that are worth checking\nout. In this blog post, we have gathered valuable tips on\nhow to promote your music for free on blogs, dos and\ndon’ts of music promo, a 130 + list of indie music blogs\nand review sites and a few paid services (not in our\nmusic blog directory) worth checking out if you don’t\nwant to do all the hard work yourself. Getting featured\non one or more of these indie music blogs will surely\nopen new doors, get you new fans and can be the\nstarting point of a musician’s career. If you’re an\nindependent artist you’ll most likely do all the hard work22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 3/23yourself but how do you do that? Find out in this blog\npost.\nFirst of all, congrats on yournew release and all the best ofluck getting it out there!\nHow to submit to Indie Music Blogs\nWhat is a music blog?\nTips how to submit to a music blogger\nElectronic Press Kit (EPK) for musicians\nHow to create an EPK\nTips for your EPK\nWhat to include in your EPK\nHow to get music reviews (and how not to)\nSelect blogs within your niche\nFollow the indie music blog’s guidelines\nDon’t use BCC\nEngage with the music review sites you’re\nsubmitting to\nKeep your e-mails short and relevant\nMake sure your music is easily accessible and\nplayable\nHave patience\nMusic promo e-mail etiquette\nPaid services worth checking out\nSubmithub22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 4/23\nWhat is a music blog?\nMusic blogs have been around for quite some time. In the early\nzeros, before streaming platforms existed, these (indie) music\nsites were the go-to place to discover new music. Can you\nimagine a world without Spotify now? Spotify wasn’t founded\nuntil 2006 so music blogs were the place to go when you\nwanted to discover music.\nMusic blogs are great for exposure and to help artists build\ntheir fanbase and visitors to discover not only new music but\nalso the stories behind the music. Most music blogs not only\npublish music reviews, but also feature artist interviews, music\nindustry tips, and showcase videos. The exciting recent\nintroduction of popular music podcasts elaborate on the\nstories behind the songs, provide in-depth interviews with the\nartists and much more.Subtub\nHumanHuman\nGroover\nList of music review sites22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 5/23Another big advantage of getting featured on music blogs is\nthat the content will stay on the website inde\u0000nitely. This\nmeans whenever people Google your genre/mood or\nadjectives describing your music, they could \u0000nd the music\nreview about you, start reading and become a fan!\nTips how to submit to a music\nblogger\nElectronic Press Kit (EPK) for musicians\nYour \u0000rst impression is the most important one. Make an\nawesome impression with music media using an up-to-date\nEPK (electronic press kit). An EPK is a CV for DJs, bands, artists\nand musicians and shows your portfolio. A good and well-\nstructured EPK includes everything a potential blogger will\nneed in order to write a blog post about you without having to\nlook up all in the information themselves. Music bloggers, like\nmusicians, don’t have all the time in the world and are most\noften doing everything in their own free time. Having a\nprofession al EPK at the ready, will most de\u0000nitely help you get\nmusic reviews. It shows bloggers you actually care about your\nmusic career.\nCredit Reverbnation\nHow to create an EPK22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 6/23There are various free tools out there that will enable you to\nmake an EPK yourself. Check out Adobe Spark, Wix, SonicBids,\nReverbNation, Drooble,  Canva, Epresskitz, ArtistEcards for\nfree options. Websites like Bandzoogle offer a premium option\nthat are also worth checking out. If you already have a website,\nyou can easily create your own and make sure to include the\ninformation listed below.\nTips for your EPK\nWant to get on more Spotify playlists?\nMake sure to check this blog post as well, with\nvaluable tips how to contact curators and a list of\ncurators to submit your music to.1. Make your EPK eye-catching and unique so it really\nstands out. Music bloggers and industry professionals see\nmany EPKs daily and an outdated shoddy looking EPK will\nmake them look away and move to the next one.\n2. Keep your EPK simple. This sounds easy because you\nwant to stand out but remember, as mentioned before,\nindustry folks like music bloggers don’t have all the time in\nthe world to \u0000lter out the relevant information. Always\nmake sure a quick glance will show them everything they\nneed.\n3. Only include your best stuff.\n4. Keep your EPK up-to-date. Have a new track? Include it.\nHave new press photos? Include them. Have a new music\nvideo? Include it. Have new gigs or a tour coming up?\nInclude it. Have a … well, you get the point.\n5. Don’t add very large \u0000les. If you want to add high-quality,\nlarge PNGs, videos or tracks, include a link to e.g. Dropbox\nin case a music outlet needs it.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 7/23Check it out\nWhat to include in your EPK\nMusic \nMake sure to have your best three tracks on top. Most\npeople mostly will only play the \u0000rst tracks in your EPK. Ask\nfriends, fans and family what your best track is if you’re\nunsure yourself.\nBand photos and album art \nCombine band photos (press) and live photos here. Live\nphotos are cool, but only if they are really awesome and\nstriking. Make sure to also include your band photos here.\nLogos and branding\nAdd your logo and other branding material for e.g. venues\nand clubs to use in their advertising and posters.\nEmbedded audio and video\nIt’s easy to embed YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and other\nmusic and videos in your EPK. Find out how to do that here.\nBiography\nThis is a very important part of your EPK. Your bio should\nbe well written and well structured. Make it short and\nconcise. Start with the present, a bit about your history and\nend with the future. Find more info on how to write an\neffective musician bio (with examples) on Bandzoogle.\nVideos\nLinks \nTo social media, your website and where to purchase music\nPast press and or testimonials\nAdd a few positive words from music review sites that\nalready featured your music. Always add a link to the\noriginal article for people to read the entire story.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 8/23How to get music reviews (and how not to)\nUse the directory with a list of music review sites below this\narticle to \u0000nd useful contact information on how to submit to\nmusic bloggers. But the most important thing here is to really\nstand out and have the blogger want to write about you. How\ndo you do that? And also, how not to submit to an indie music\nblog… At For The Love Of Bands, we have seen submissions in\nall forms and shapes and more often than not they don’t follow\nour guidelines and or don’t match our niche. That brings us to\nthe \u0000rst tip.\nSelect blogs within your niche\nSimply put: do your research. Don’t just send your music in\nBCC to hundreds of irrelevant media outlets at once.\nDemonstrate to the music blogger that you actually care and\nare a frequent visitor of their website by reading their reviews.\nOr, at least pretend you do. If you’re an alternative rock artist\ndon’t submit music to a hip hop blog. If you’re an indie-pop\nartist don’t submit to punk, garage or noise bloggers. It makes\nyou look bad and not serious about your music career.\nFollow the indie music blog’s guidelinesGigs or tour dates\nApps like BandsInTown are great for showing your past and\ncurrent tour dates and connect with fans. Sign up if you\nhaven’t already. BandsInTown lets you promote events, talk\nto fans, have an events widget and a tour trailer to\nshowcase your band. It will encourage more fans to see you\nlive. It’s also easy to share on your socials (automatically) so\nyou only have one place to manage your gigs. Alternatively,\nadd your tour dates manually.\nContact info\nAdd a contact form, e-mail address or other ways to contact\nyou.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 9/23Most blogs have a preferred way of receiving reviews. Some\nonly accept submission s on e.g. Submithub. If they do, only\nsubmit on Submithub. Most music blogs, however, also accept\nsubmission s via their own system. Most even have their\nguidelines spelt out for you. E.g. if they want you to contact\nthem via a submission system on their website use that option\nand don’t send them e-mails. We at For The Love Of Bands\noften get e-mails (mostly via mailing lists) about new releases\nasking about music reviews. These are not personalized and\ndon’t show the submitter knows he or she submitted music\nspeci\u0000cally to us. Long story short: follow the music blogger’s\nguidelines. If you can’t \u0000nd instructions on the website, send\nan e-mail to the blogger keeping in mind the information\nshared below. \nTip: Check if you can \u0000nd contact details of the writers on the\nblog. If so, see what kind of music they’re into. If they like your\ngenre, try to connect with them and e.g. refer to a few articles\nyou read.\nDon’t use BCC\nThis sounds harsh, but receiving a bulk e-mail is really off-\nputting. You’re right, receiving a BCC’d message is still better\nthan seeing hundreds of bloggers in the CC but BCC is bad. If\nyou don’t care about the blogger, why should the blogger care\nabout you? If you don’t take the time to get to know the\nblogger, why should they? If you’re sending an e-mail (more\nabout that below), address the blogger personally. Maybe even\nlook up some writers on the blog and address them. It makes\nyour e-mail so much more personal.\nEngage with the music review sites you’re submitting to\nPrior to sending your music, establish a (virtual) relationship\nwith the blog. Follow their socials, start liking their content\nand maybe even share a publication. Refer to the content you\nliked in your \u0000rst contact with the blogger.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 10/23Keep your e-mails short and relevant\nMany e-mails we get start with “I know you must be really\nbusy…”, “Hey, check out this new release…”, “You must be\ngetting hundreds of these a week…” etc. Start with something\nnice, engaging and compelling. E.g. by mentioning what you\nlike about the blog, which artists you discovered, that you\nadded music discovered via their blog to your road trip playlist\netc. Don’t add lots of images and design to your e-mails. It\nreally clutters your message and makes it hard to read. In\nshort: keep it fresh, nice and simple. If you really knock your\nsocks off, it almost looks like a mailing list subscription the\nblogger didn’t sign up for.\nMake sure your music is easily accessible and playable\nUse an EPK (see above) or structure your e-mail or contact\nform nicely to make sure the blogger has easy access to your\nmusic. Always actually add your music to the e-mail. You can\nalso use Dropbox (2 GB free) to host your MP3s, WAVs or\n(unreleased) videos. When you’re sharing cloud-hosted \u0000les,\nmake sure to properly ID3 tag your MP3s. Find 5 free MP3 tag\neditors here. Another big plus of Dropbox is that you can also\nuse it as an alternative to a web-based EPK. Simply include\nyour bio, audio, press photos etc. here, easily sharable and\neasily accessible for bloggers of music review sites.\nWant to get on more Spotify playlists but don’t want to\ndo all the hard work yourself? Run a campaign with\nPlaylistPush using our af\u0000liate link or use coupon\ncode AGD5MHW for a 7.5% discount!\nHave patience\nMany bloggers get hundreds of e-mails per day. Follow up e-\nmails really clutter blogger’s inboxes and in fact, most will\nsimply ignore follow up e-mails. Remember that writing a cool\narticle about music takes time. Bloggers are human beings, not22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 11/23machines. Take a look at the website, see how many articles\nthey post weekly and do the math. It’s not strange if they only\nwrite about less than 0,25% of all submissions, so if you’re not\nhear something back, don’t stalk the blogger. It won’t do you\nany good. You can, of course, ask for a follow up if the indie\nmusic blog answered your initial e-mail and told you they are\nwriting about your music.\nMusic promo e-mail etiquette\nE-mails sent to nobody in particular starting with “Hello!” or\n“Hi there” or are sent via mailing lists or other automated\nservices, are mostly not read or followed up. Mostly they also\nend up in the blogger’s spam inbox. Ask yourself: do I reply to\nall the junk mail I receive? Imagine getting hundreds per day …\n🙂 A few tips for e-mail etiquette:\nDo your research\nAddress the blog you’re contacting personally. If you found\nout who writes for the blog, address them personally.\nShare something nice about the blog you’re submitting to\nWhy does your music \u0000t the blog?\nFollow the outlet on their socials\nMaybe even share a blog article or playlist you liked on your\nsocials?\nMention what it is you want from the one you’re sending the\ne-mail to\nWrite what you have to offer for the outlet (e.g. social\nshare?)\nAvoid stupid subject lines\nDon’t use CAPS-LOCKED subject lines (or CAPS-LOCKED e-\nmail body…)\nDon’t be rude or overly friendly calling the blogger dude,\nguy, brah, bro, friend.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 12/23Paid services worth checking out\nAs you can read above, getting your music heard and\ncontacting all the different blogs individually takes a lot of\ntime, practise and, most probably, stupid mistakes. The music\npromotion services listed below, are services we at For The\nLove Of Bands use or have used in the past. The biggest\nblogger outlet is Submithub and you’ll either love it or hate it.\nSubmithub\nThere are 784 active blogs and labels using Submithub at the\ntime of writing this blog post with a combined reach of 103.6\nmillion fans. Submithub is a website started by Jason Grishkoff\nin 2015 that makes it easy for musicians (or their\nrepresentatives) to send their songs to blogs, record labels,\nradio stations and playlisters. Find all the pros and cons listed\nhere. Submithub is has a premium option ($1 per credit) or a\nfree option. With premium credits your submission \u0000lters to\nthe top of each outlet’s dashboard and the blog has to respond\nwithin 48 hours and listen to your track for at least 20 seconds\nand provide feedback. With free credits a blog can choose\nwhether to provide feedback or not.\nHumanHuman\nHumanHuman is a platform where you can discover new\nmusic and can conversely be discovered. More than 75,000\nartists have already been discovered and added by\nHumanHuman users. Music bloggers, A&R representatives,\nmanagers, radio makers and all-round music professionals are\non HumanHuman sharing their expertise. They all set their\nown price (ranging €1 – €10) and you pay a fee to bene\u0000t from\ntheir expertise. Submit music via this link.\nGrooverNever attach MP3s or videos to an e-mail. If you want to\nattach an unreleased track, use a private Soundcloud link or\nshare a Dropbox folder with all the relevant information.22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 13/23With Groover you can, like Submithub, send music to relevant\nmedia and labels. Feedback is guaranteed, as media and labels\nhave 7 days to listen to your song, write feedback and decide if\nthey will share your tune. You can send your music for 2\nGrooviz credits (€2 per credit) per contact. If you don’t get\nfeedback, you’ll get your credits back.\nUse our discount code FORTHELOVEOFGROOV to\nget a 10% discount on our next Groover campaign.\nList of music review sites\nSo, now that we’re 2500 words in, it’s time to share our Indie\nMusic Blog directory with the list of music review sites. Surely\nat least one of them will want to write about your piece of art,\nright? The list below shows everything you need to get started\nsubmitting your music to these media outlets. Remember to\nalways check the website before submitting, read a few posts,\nsee if your music is a good \u0000t. You can search the list by\nentering your genre, or search a speci\u0000c blog. Many outlets\ncover most genres, these are simply listed here as ‘All’ or\n‘Multiple’, although they might not feature your style. Make\nsure to always check the ‘about’ page, as the blog mostly\noutlines their submission guidelines there so you won’t go\nwrong there.\nGood luck!\nThis is a dynamic directory and we’ll add more blogs all the\ntime. Do you have a blog and want to be listed here as well?\nSend us an email. If your blog is listed here and you want us to\nchange anything, email us as well. Feel free to download the\ntable below as xlsx and add an extra column to keep track\nwhen you submitted music (and what) and another column\nwhen you received a reply.\nSave as xlsx22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 14/23Show\n25\nentries\nEnter your search word here. E.g. blog name, genre etc.\nPitchfork Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Pitchfork Submit\nPigeons And Planes Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Pigions And Plans\nvia mailSubmit\nPop Justice Name\nBlog Type\nPop Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Pop Justice Submit\nLouder Than War Name\nBlog Type\nPunk, Rock, Alternative,\nIndependentNiche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Louder Than War Submit\nIndie Band Guru Name\nBlog Type22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 15/23All Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Indie Band Guru Submit\nalexrainbirdMusic Name\nYouTube channel Type\nPop, Folk, Rock, Alternative Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to alexrainbirdMusic\nvia mailSubmit\nAll Things Go Music Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to All Things Go\nMusic via mailSubmit\nFresh On The Net Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Fresh On The Net Submit\nSolid Muse Name\nBlog Type\nPop, Alt Pop, Electronic, Rap,\nHip Hop, RockNiche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Solid Muse Submit\nHillydilly Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 16/23Submit to Hillydilly Submit\nCrack In The Road Name\nBlog Type\nPop, Independent, Electronic Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Crack In The Road\nvia mailSubmit\nDancing Astronaut Name\nBlog Type\nDance, Electronic Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Dancing Astronaut\nvia mailSubmit\ndynmk. Name\nYouTube channel Type\ndynmk Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to dynmk. Submit\nLittle Indie Blogs Name\nBlog Type\nIndie Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Little Indie Blogs Submit\nMix It All Up Name\nBlog Type\nIndie Rock, Indie Pop,\nAlternative, ShoegazeNiche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Mix It All Up via\nmailSubmit22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 17/23Wave Music Name\nYouTube channel Type\nIndie electro, Chill, Trap Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Wave Music via\nmailSubmit\nWe The Beat Name\nBlog Type\nIndie Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to We The Beat via\nmailSubmit\nIndiespot Name\nBlog Type\nIndie Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Indiespot via mail Submit\nAltpress Name\nBlog Type\nunderground, alternative,\npunkNiche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Altpress via mail Submit\nGorilla VS Bear Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Gorilla VS Bear via\nmailSubmit\nFor The Love Of Bands Name22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 18/23Blog Type\nIndie, Alternative, Rock, Punk,\nPunk Rock, Pop Punk, Indie\nRock, Ska, ReggaeNiche / genre(s)\nSubmit to For The Love Of\nBandsSubmit\nPuna Name\nBlog Type\nHip Hop Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Puna via mail Submit\nWe Are Going Solo Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to We Are Going Solo\nvia mailSubmit\nHouse Music With Love Name\nBlog/label Type\nHouse Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to House Music With\nLoveSubmit\nStereogum Name\nBlog Type\nAll Niche / genre(s)\nSubmit to Stereogum via mail Submit\nPrevious 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 19/23TAGS:FREEFREE PROMOTIONMUSIC BLOGSMUSIC BLOGS DIRECTORYMUSIC PROMO\nROEL WENSINK\nRoel started ForTheLoveOfBands to provide bands and artists with a\nplatform to get their music heard and provide tips gathered along the\nway. Being a musician himself, he knows how hard it is and how much\ntime it takes to promote your newly recorded gems.BEST SITES FOR YOUR MUSIC SUBMISSIONS\nPREVIOUS ARTICLE\nThe Author\nOwner\n ROEL WENSINK All posts by\nLEAVE A REPLY \nYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE\nBLOG22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 20/23BEST SITES FOR YOUR MUSIC SUBMISSIONS\n8 October 2019BlogGuest WriterMusic Blogs,Promotion\nNewsletter signup\nReceive our editor's picks weekly\nThank you for sign up!\nLATEST REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 21/23\nINTERVIEW WITH MEIKO – STATE OF INDEPENDENCE\n4 October 2019\nFROM SKA-PUNK BASSIST TO RAISING MONEY FOR THE HOMELESS TO CRAZY CYCLE RIDES TO PROMOTE MENTAL\nHEALTH CHARITIES – MEET ANDY BAKER\n2 October 2019MUNKY – MEGATON | A DARK, SLEAZY DISCO TRACK THAT IS MUNKY – MEGATON | A DARK, SLEAZY DISCO TRACK THAT IS\nUNNERVING, YET ODDLY IRRESISTIBLE UNNERVING, YET ODDLY IRRESISTIBLEREVIEWS\n7 October 2019ReviewsAmy HeatherAlternative,Disco,Rock22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 22/23SILENT FEATURE – ON YOUR HANDS | CHUGGING GUITAR, FILTHY VOCALS AND INDUSTRIAL PERCUSSION COMBINE\nTO CREATE A PUNCHY, PROGRESSIVE TRACK\n1 October 2019\n\n\nForTheLoveOfBands is your go-to indie\nmusic blog to discover awesome new\nindependent and emerging talent.\n        \nNewsletter signup\nReceive our editor's picks weekly\nEmail\nName\nLast name\nS U B S C R I B E\nPOPULAR POSTS\nHOW TO GET YOUR MUSIC ON MORE SPOTIFY\nPLAYLISTS22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/20/submit-to-indie-music-blogs-and-music-review-sites/ 23/23 \n9 January 2019\nSUBMIT TO SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS FOR FREE 2019\n13 September 2018\nHOW TO USE HASHTAGS TO PUSH YOUR MUSIC ON\nTWITTER\n6 June 2017\nTHE BRIDGE CITY SINNERS – WITCHES’ WRATH\n2 November 2018\n© Copyright 2019 For The Love Of Bands\nAbout us .\nJoin our team .\nPrivacy Policy .\nBlogroll .\nAdvertise", + "keywords": [ + "music", + "blog", + "submit", + "indie", + "review", + "site", + "blogger", + "genre", + "name", + "email" + ], + "summary": "22/10/2019 Submit to Indie Music Blogs and music review sites\nhttps://fortheloveofbands.com/2019/10/" + }, + { + "filename": "507777096-Artist-Management-Marketing.pdf", + "text": "1WRITTEN BY AMY THOMSONARTIST \nMANAGEMENT\n& MARKETING\nA BEGINNERS \nGUIDE\nIn early 2020 I decided to close my Management Company after about 17 \nyears. An odd decision for some to understand but sometimes you just get to a \npoint where you need to stretch into something new which can be terrifying and \nexhilarating all at the same time.\nI was an Agent before I was a Manager and a Promoter before that so my whole \nworking life, I have seen so many cases of what I list in this book. I dropped out \nof school at 16, had my own company by 21, and have had a happy career where \nI’ve watched clients grow up, get married, have kids, have hits, have flops, have \nglobal firsts and each one comes with its own set of memories and lessons.\nIn 2018 I ran a school which donated all it’s proceeds to Climate Change, which \nsaw 152 young people come from 17 countries as far away as China to come \nand hear me speak. This was not I am certain down to my prowess, it was down \nto the sheer lack of any documentation available to teach what is essentially a \nself governed industry. With the exception of a few contracts and copyright laws, \nmany of which are so dated, clinging to an age of physical product as streaming \nchanges the face of everything we knew. We are all on catch up and it’s the next \ngeneration who will have never known any differently who will now take the reins \nand lead us into the future.\nWe read about labels hitting a million dollars an hour in streaming and our job is \nnow to protect the songs which have generated that, get the Artists paid not only \nnow, but for their children who inherit the songs. In my opinion the money getting \nArtists is completely disproportionate to the money being made by their craft.\nThis generation is not prepared for the minefields of terminology which we all \ninvented, and are often too shy to ask for fear they will look stupid. And as the \nvalue of a song grows and grows these are portfolios you are managing now. \nManagers can be let down by experts they hired and realize too late. \nHopefully some of this advice will help this, and these fine young minds will fight \nfor all of us. They are the greatest source of ideas and evolution we have. The \nsame way new Artists bring new sounds and visions, so do the industry who will \nbe standing behind them.Artists AND Managers have often come from uneducated backgrounds. Tough \nchildhoods often being the very inspiration as to why they can create at the \nlevel that they do. Often feels like it’s us against the Corporations despite their \ncontracted role to get us paid. The lack of education here is part of the problem. \nThe expense of specialists in the early days preventing the protection of their \nwork and the fame later causing so many distractions that protecting yourself can \nbe your last thought. That has to change.\nThat has been my biggest lesson in the last 3 years and the one I would hope the \nreader takes away from this the most. It was the inspiration for my new business \nand the importance of protecting the business side can be as satisfying now as \nthe creative side which I never thought I would hear myself say. Management \nhas always been about protecting and nurturing Artists and now this has a new \nlayer and it can be fun and extremely rewarding if you adapt your mindset that an \norganized and safe Artist is a more creative one. The confusion of Royalties and \npaperwork expelled. Their estates in order. Trust me when I tell you its a buzz \nequal to selling out a stadium when you know how.\nWhat is essential here is that whenever I say ‘I’ in this book, I mean WE. Absolutely \nnothing is done without a team, without the Artist who’s craft you are protecting \nand promoting, the inspiration of those who came before you, without their fans, \nwithout every single person who got you to those places so this book is not about \nwhat I did, but about what we did and what so many others taught me.\nI also included incredible examples of Artist’s I did not work on and therefore of \ncourse take no credit for that, only admire it from afar.\nDue to the Corona Virus outbreak my students, who still keep in touch with me, \nare sat at home. Hundreds of people in this industry are isolated, lost their jobs \nfor the summer and beyond, and so I decided to write this to keep busy and \nshare knowledge, so we can all be creative at this unprecedented time.\nI stress I did this in 5 days because of the isolation we all sit in, I could have \ngone on for weeks but this is what I think is good for Beginners. It is said that \nIsaac Newton discovered gravity whilst sat home isolated by the Black Plague in \nLondon so using this time as a positive is all we can hope for. FOREWORDI’ve got so many crazy stories of crossing the border from Beirut into Syria with \nthe Gorillaz for a concert in the Citadel, to getting chased by gangsters across \nDelhi, a kidnapping right in front of me, tear gas bombs, finding a man in a deep \nfreeze to standing behind one of the my best friends on the side of Glastonbury \nmain stage while her band headlined with tears of pride in my eyes… it’s been \none hell of a ride. \nBut those stories are just for me, this book is to help sketch out as much as I \ncould put down in 5 days and to hope someone somewhere spots one line that \nmakes a difference and carries on the protection and innovation around the love \nof my life, music.\nStay home and stay safe,\nAmy ThomsonCONTENTS\nForeword\nArtists have one career\n• What’s Changed?\nLet’s get started\n• Equipment you need\n• Practical items\n• Brand Pyramid\n• Runways \nWho’s around here?\n• Contracts\n• Artist\n• Manager\nRecord companies\n• Deal types\n• Approvals\n• Your team & the things you need to know\n• Featured Artist processes\nAgencies\nLawyers\nBusiness Managers (includes Withholding Tax information)\nPublishers\nCollection Societies\nStores\nTelevision\nMarketing companies\nPromotional companies\nPR\nRadio\nPromotersVideo Directors & Videos\nCreative Directors\nShow Directors, Graphic Designers\nPhotographers\nMood boards\nMerch Deals & Merch P&L\nDomain Names & Trademarks\nPress\nManagement\n• Strategy\n• Layers\n• Timing is everything\n• Cross marketing\n• Story telling\n• Who are your fans\n• Shop windows\n• Consumer journey\n• Be ready: one sheets & assets\n• Bringing the vision to life\nTimed releases\nRecord bundles\nInternational roll outs\nRelease day\nPower\nTouring\n• Hard tickets\n• A run\n• Ticket Bundles\n• Tour marketing\n• Multiple nights\n• Tour contract\n• Your team\n• Tour budget\n• Cheap touring\nBrand deals\nRoyalties9\n10\n17\n18\n19\n20\n24\n30\n31\n33\n34\n44\n45\n54\n58\n62\n71\n75\n79\n89\n94\n96\n100\n102\n104\n106\n109\n112113\n118\n121\n123\n124\n125\n129\n132\n138\n142\n145\n152\n156\n158\n160\n162\n165\n167\n169\n175\n178\n180\n183\n201\n208\n217\n222\n224\n227\n231\n236\n238\n245\n249\n250\n2599ARTISTS HAVE \nONE CAREER.\nAn Artist once said this to me and it stuck in my head. Artists are often not \nlike us. They have been through things which got them here, they are gifted \nin ways we don’t understand. We can’t write hits (or at least I can’t) and they \ncan’t necessarily read contracts. That’s why you need each other and why your \ndifferences are to be celebrated.\nThey do however have one thing in common. They have one career. As a \nmanager, you may work on multiple people at once or in your lifetime, but their \ncareer is the only one they have. Their worst nightmare is to become famous, \nand then be the guy in the bar where someone says ‘ didn’t you used to be…’ \nWhilst this is a hazard of the job and indeed not all Artist’s want to be active their \nwhole lives and in today’s world there is no way of avoiding getting older and \nwhat it means to be recognizable and less active, but… they want this to be their \nchoice. Not because mishandling of their affairs caused an abrupt end to their \nchances to see their work reach their goals.\nThis is of course as much up to them as it is to you, but the number one rule \nis if you cannot dedicate the time needed to get someones dream to become a \nreality, don’t do it.264\n268\n275\n279\n281\n284\n292\n298\n299\n300\n302\n303• Writers share & Publishing share\n• Record sale income\nBusiness Plan – you\nBusiness Plan – them\nSocial media\nMental health\nFiling\nBeing A Woman\nRecommendations\n• Films\n• Books\nFinal word10 11WHAT’S \nCHANGED?\nSpotify changed everything. Daniel Ek should be sainted. Once streaming was \nborn, you no longer needed your record label to keep pressing your CD and \nstocking it in Tower Records to see royalties. Streaming meant for life, you can \nnow see income from your work. When the Artist dies, the publishing income \ncontinues for 70 years after the last person who wrote on the record died. This \nis not just a single coming anymore. This is the management of their asset \nportfolio, and their estate in death. Which may seem (hopefully) like a long way \noff now, but that’s as much of the job as anything else. Changing your mindset to \nunderstand this is vital for you to move in this business now. \nLong term ownership planning, protection and filing of assets is one of the more \ncentral elements of your business trust me.\nThe ‘catalogue’ you build which is the list of songs you make, are worth in many \ncases more than a car or even a house EACH over the length of the time you \ncan claim. You would not leave your family a load of cars with no registration \nreceipts right? So why would you build a catalogue of songs of epic value for \nyour pension and your family after death, and not have your s*** in order? The \ngame has changed. Change your mindset.\nDaniel Ek, Creator of SpotifyTHE IMPORTANCE \nOF TECH\nJust because you work in the music business and your mate works in tech, \ndoes not mean the two of you are not the greatest of allies. Music was saved by \ntechnology. I could be wrong, but to my knowledge, no record company has ever \ninvented a method in which we mass consume music. Not from the Gramophone \nto the plates of glass etched with sound they played, to the walkman, to iTunes, \nto the iPod, the streaming, to social media platforms which magnify it. Go beyond \nmusical people to see a new vision. \nA few years ago streaming was a new thing, now downloads are as old fashioned \nas the VHS. But there will be new ways we push music and the right for music \nto earn into the everyday lives of billions of people, and there is no reason why \nyou and your friends cannot invent it. Steve Jobs, the legend of even how I am \ntyping out this book on my Mac, started in his garage. One of you has a garage, \ntrust me. Use it. \nSteve Jobs, Apple12 13You my friend? You signed up to spin plates. You are the central point, the strategy \nmaker, the strategy enforcer, the information pusher, the calendar holder, the \nemotional supporter, the social media director, the team leader, the gig chooser, \nthe A&R and so much more. Obviously every Artist is different. They may never \nwant your help with music for example. But trust me when I tell you will wear 10 \nhats and you need to be able to cope with that.\nWhat is important when you are spinning these plates is that you remember to \npush all the information to those who need it. You confirm shows, tell your label. \nHow else will they work on press around it? Tell your tour manager, your crew if \nyou run the calendar. So many mistakes come from people simply not knowing \nwhat’s going on.\nYou confirm a deal, tell your business manager. How else will they know when \nRoyalties are missing or payments are due? You get the drift here…. be open to \nthose internally about movements, ideas can come from this, efficiency comes \nfrom this, maximizing the opportunity comes from this. There is nothing worse \nthan a dog in the manger.\nObviously some things are private. But know when they are, and beyond that, \ninformation is key, it’s hype, its progress.\nDon’t bombard people….Perhaps do a gig update once a week for the label \n…business manager once a month…decide what’s right and stick to it. Set \nreminders in your calendar if you need to.\nIn the case of delivering deals to people who then have a responsibility to work \non it, always ask them to confirm receipt of your email. If it’s big, or complex, call \nthem and follow it up with the email. Email has lost us so much of the detail, how \nit fits into your plan, what could come next… what you are now looking for. The \nLaw Of Attraction if you believe in that is just dead in emails.\nUSE YOUR VOICE.SPINNING PLATESBUT IN A \nNUTSHELL\nYOUR JOB\nIS...\nTo take the Artist’s vision and get to the right consumers \nwho will appreciate it. To explain it to everyone you \nneed to to magnify it, to manage those who you task to \nwork with you, and to plan out the journey of a career \nin a way which creates a long term strategy.\nYou...are a catalyst. Sometimes it feels like you wake \nup and draw your sword all day to fight for your artist. \nFight to be heard, fight to stand out, fight for their rights, \nfight for everything, nothing seems to come easy to \nyou but it seems to fall in others laps.‘I’ve learned that people \nwill forget what you said, \nforget what you did, but \nthey will never forget how \nyou made them feel.’\nIndeed music is exactly this, the shows are exactly this, \nan Artist speaking out to their fans and sharing how \ntough life can be, is this. These are the raw ingredients \nyour Artist gives you to make this quote come true. Don’t \nunderestimate your value in making that message get \nto people and how much you can enjoy how that makes \nyou feel. You can literally change lives. You may well \nbe forgotten in the history books, but if you are doing \nthis to be in the history books you’re in the wrong job. \nYou will know, and that has to be enough.- Maya Angelou.\n14 15WHAT IT\nIS NOT\nYou do not have to know absolutely everything and \ndo absolutely everything until you break under panic \nattacks by not knowing the law of copyright off by heart \nand 52 tax treaties between countries. Use experts, \nask questions, learn. You are not a self taught expert \nin 250 subjects.\nAnd when you are just starting out, anyone can \nintimidate you with fancy terms or just their experience. \nBut you have a genuine passion for music, a genuine \nprotective nature which will protect and support your \nclient.\nIf this is you, you’re going to be fine.\n16 17LET’S\nGET\nSTARTED...18 19EQUIPMENT YOU NEED\n1. TRUST:\nBetween you and the Artist. Never to be abused. Tell the truth including \nsaying sorry when you make a mistake. Nothing makes a mistake fade away \nlike admitting you made one, which basically tells the other person you’ll \nlearn from it and won’t do it again.\n2. INSTINCT :\nNot to be confused with your ego… and they are easily confused. Your first \nthought is often completely right, but if your first thought is how this will make \nyou look or if you will win an award for it, look more powerful or generally \njust flex at your mates, that’s your ego. Instinct is killer. Ego is death. The \nolder you get the more you see this but if you’re young, try and learn this \nlesson early.\n3. PASSION:\nThis road is going to be long and tiring. Passion can help you get that one \nextra hour you needed done and enjoy it. Nothing like having job satisfaction. \nDoesn’t feel like a job when you love it.\n4. BALLS: \nYes, for men and women alike Management is for the brave of heart and the \nfearless. You’re going to ask the Artist to hold your hand and jump off cliffs \nand they will ask the same of you.\n5. FAITH:\nIf you stay true to what you believe in, you can’t go wrong. Win or lose, your \nmoral compass and belief in your art will always means when you look in the \nmirror - you’re all good.\n6. FINANCIAL SENSE:\nDon’t blow your first commission check on a car, save before you buy \nwatches, know the rate of tax you have to pay and save it each month. Like \nactually for real guys…. not all of us can stockpile money to last us when \ntimes like now are happening. We will all pull together to work on that, but \nthe tax man is an annual worry for some, and not one who thinks you’re so \ncool because you know famous people that you won’t get your house taken \noff you for not paying tax. You are not exempt from everyday life’s rules \nbecause you went to the Grammys this year.\nMobile phone\nWhatsApp\nBut this has no real back up \nand is for fast communication \nand groups only not storage.Computer\nMicrosoft Office\nExcel is your friend, and all of \nthis is also online in Google \nalternative products called \nSheets, Docs and Slides. This \nallows you to share and allows \nediting rights for teams. Excel \ntype set ups allow you to lay \nout timelines and those squares \nallow add up functions for easy \nto create budgets. Learn how to \nuse EXCEL formulas, they are \nyour best friend.Dropbox\nFiling is everything trust me and \nfor now, this is what you use but \nI do have a surprise for you this \nsummer.\nA way to be contacted \nIf you don’t want your own social \nmedia, list your contact info on \ntheir Facebook ‘About’ page, \nLinkedIn or on their WebSite. \nPeople from big companies do \nreach out to you this way - you’d \nbe surprised.AND SOME PRACTICAL ITEMS!\nFor Teams\nFor some teams software like \nSLACK helps keep everything \norganized.Drawing your plans and sitting and looking at them, wiping them \noff and moving them is far better than a screen. Plus you can \nleave them on your wall. The number of times I’ve been on a call, \nand remembered a plan we had and been able to adjust the call \nagenda to get me pieces I needed are limitless. When you have \na team there’s no better way than a timeline to check together \nin the morning on what has to be done, or to remind them con-\nstantly of the overall status of where you are and where you are \ngoing. You can buy whiteboard paint and do one whole wall in \nyour office…. Its FAB!\nA Whiteboard20 21BRAND PYRAMID\nThe Brand Pyramid is a marketing legend, who know’s if it’s true but who cares, \nthe theory is correct. The legend is that in its early days, Calvin Klein set up a \nmodel of business. Their 5th Avenue Stores showing off it’s Couture lines which \ngraced catwalks and red carpets alike, were funded by their other products.\nThink about it. We all went out and bought underwear, jeans, socks and so on, \nbranded Calvin Klein. Why? Partly of course because of Marky Mark and his \nincredibly photogenic face (!) but also because we understood from the press and media that Calvin Klein was high end. Legend has it that every perfume bottle \nand every pair of underwear sold paid a ‘tax’ to fund losses of the 5th Avenue store \nand the one off couture gowns given away to celebrities to wear.\nWe paid a premium for the products we had access to because we bought into \nthe brand and all it stood for. Whether that’s true or not, most high end brands \nwill openly admit it’s their make up / perfume lines which make the most money. \nPeople opting for their red lipstick to really treat themselves. Or a bag being the 22 23next step up in spend to show proudly to their fellow humans that they love that brand \nand what it means. Rarely do these people cross over into Couture purchases. But a \nwalk around the shop on 5th Avenue bathing in the fairy tale smelling like the brand \nis close enough for now. As such, your brand pyramid fits your Artist.\nThere will be some moments where you make no money or even lose money, to \nincrease the profile of who you are. Coachella is a good example of this. You know \nthe prestige of the booking. Your record label understands it and is impressed. You \nknow it will look amazing on your socials, that the press will be there, you know other \npromoters are watching that line up whilst finalizing their summer festivals. Your \nbio will glow with it on there. It’s at the top of the brand pyramid for shows for many, \nso you may well lose money on your show nailing the production, bringing special \nguests to own the moment, or indeed even just flying to get there.\nHaving these moments in your planner as a brand moment should be highlighted so \neveryone around you also knows this is when they have to deliver. Your publicist, \nyour record label, your crew, your merch team - all of them KNOW this one is a \npriority for the Artist. \nPlan then where this loss comes from. Do you just swallow it, or perhaps you do \nanother show on the way to fund it. I’ve seen cases where a brand deal that was not \nperfect got closed.\nOne funded the other, and the brand deal fell into the shadows as Coachella roared \nthrough their social media.\nIn the case of Swedish House Mafia these moments were their first Miami party in \na tattoo studio called Ink. Then it was KOKO in London with a live orchestra, then it \nwas Brixton, then their first film, then Madison Square Garden and so on. Each one \nmoved us down a runway we had mapped out and got us there faster. Looking back, \neach one might look small, but it was a huge brand moment at the current top of the \nBrand Pyramid. The Pyramid just grew and it was onto the next top of that triangle! \nBrand pyramids grow. Every evolving at the top. So you don’t need to play at the \nTaj Mahal on your first year. But each one you achieve you can use to help explain \nwho you are, even if it’s selling out a cool 100 cap venue. People understand it and \nmore importantly, if you tell them clearly, they repeat it. Which is promotion in itself.\nThis is why I have put this in the planning section, but I will keep repeating it over \nand over again. You can apply it in multiple ways and areas of your business. These \nare moments you cannot force but you will know them when you see them… you will \nhave a dream that explains who the Artist is… and you should put it in your planner. 24 25RUNWAYS\nRunways are the way I describe the 3 years ahead. Not just take off but a steady rise, \nand sometimes steady flight at an even level which carry - not ram you - through 3 \nyears. It’s so easy to get big, grab everything and burn your way through a long \ncareer in a short space of time. It’s an old saying but it’s not a sprint guys…\nFor example, you cannot play Coachella 2 years running. You cannot play \nmany festivals 2 years running. Which year do you want to play? Do you \nneed it to kickstart something this time, or do you feel confident enough to \nwait a year for a better slot? Do you play at the beginning of the album \nto launch it, or the end when everyone knows the songs? There’s no \nright answer, but debating the question with those around you is vital.\nAsk yourself - with each thing of consequence you agree to, what \ndoes this do for us, and what would be next? ALWAYS know the \nnext move. Sometimes it changes, you play the show and you \ntrended worldwide and you skip the next move for the one af-\nter that. That’s GREAT but… going and having no plan for \nafterwards, no strategy to chat to someone about who can \nhelp you on the side of that stage is a classic mistake in \nmy opinion. Plans make Artists feel good, so for them, \nwhen they walk off the stage… exhausted, emotionally \nspent… you know what the next move is, there is a \nplan. Plans can change, but plans mean calm, they \nare not fixed - you are in charge of them. But have \nthem…‘Ask more questions, get more answers.’\n26 27Blinders on.\nThis is my favourite quote of all time and one to remember before we get into \nall the details. There you are scratching at your phone and potentially so is your \nartist, competitors seeming to be doing better (IG is all true right?!) and you get \ndistracted. You react. This only EVER takes you off your path. This is not smart. \nYou have plans, you are aware of the competition and that’s great, but stay on \nyour path.\n“When you’re a race horse, the reason they put blinders on \nthese things is because if you look at the horse on the left or \nthe right, you’re going to miss a step. That’s why the horses \nhave blinders on. And that’s what people should have. When \nyou’re running after something, you should not look left or right \n— what does this person think, what does that person think? \nNO. GO.”\n- Jimmy Iovine\nDon’t sweat the small stuff.\nEvery single fight you have is energy. Fight when you need to, and the older you \nget the more you realize sometimes losing on purpose is also a way to gain trust \nand good favor to win bigger battles.\n“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw \nstones at every dog that barks.”\n- Winston ChurchillASK.\nIt can never hurt to ask. I once asked Martin Scorcese to direct a video for me. \nAnd you know what? His team took the call. And even though it wasn’t possible I \nstayed in touch and we did something else together with another of their clients. If \nyou have a GOOD idea, ask. \nI once emailed Jimmy Iovine who I had not seen for 3 years and said I had a great \nsong for his new Beats campaign, I sent it, was in his house the next day and \nconfirmed for the Christmas campaign. It was a good song, I wasn’t wasting his \ntime, and it worked. ASK. They can only say no.\nBut also ASK when you don’t understand. If someone on a conference call says a \nphrase you don’t know what it means - ask. Yes you can feel they will think you are \ninexperienced, and you can feel embarrassed. But what is more embarrassing? \nAsking on a call…. Or making the mistake in front of the world because you didn’t \nknow… and the label say - we told you this…\nQuestions are strength. Period. The End. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. And \nif someone asks you a question remember how you felt when you had to ask. \nDon’t patronize or make them feel small. We all start somewhere and there is a \nshockingly low amount of ways to learn this stuff online or in a book.\nMaya Angelou (can you tell she is my favourite poet) was mute as a child after \nsomething horrific happened to her. A lady read poetry to her and eventually after \n5 years or so, she said Maya you will not truly love poetry until it rolls off your \ntongue. She started to recite poetry under her house after that.\nUsing your voice rather than email and messages will serve you well. People \nare tired. They are scan reading hundreds of emails. You will lose the fun, the \npassion, the expression in your voice. Trust me they will remember a conversation \n100 times more and they will understand you more. Also how many times have \nyou spoken to someone weeks after a message and they took it the wrong way \nbecause your words can be taken in two ways? Your voice will be your greatest \nmethod of clarity, speed and enthusiasm. It’s an old fashioned method but it \nremains the greatest.YOUR VOICE28 29BEFORE \nWE \nSTART. \nBEWARE \nTHE \nPAST.I touch on this again when it comes to the contract, but i cannot say strongly \nenough now that rules do NOT apply to you. There are laws for sure, but even \nlaws can be changed. You need only look at the battles over Copyright to see this.\nWhen you look at the past, do so only for inspiration. These are not rules. These \nare rarely laws. If you approach this like you have lived on a desert island and you \nknow none of the previous ways done before you, you will think big. You will think \nwith a free mind.\nDon’t take pride necessarily in that you did it a LITTLE differently. Do it entirely \nYOUR way. If that’s the same way and it was your choice… OK. But think before \nyou repeat someone else’s work.\nWhen we decided to do Madison Square Garden in 2013 our record label chief \nsaid we had to take on the entire risk. They were a shareholder in our live income \nand refused to underwrite it. You cannot do a rock venue that size they said (well \none person said, most of the younger people said HELL YEAH - shout out Tony \nBarnes here)\nWhat they meant to say was not ‘You can’t do that’ they meant ‘that’s never been \ndone before’. LOOK for the difference with your instinct as your guide.\nWhen Sebastian Ingrosso and I watched the Foo Fighter documentary in \nStockholm, Dave Grohl was in the audience and we were in awe, I mean this guy \nwas in Nirvana for heaven’s sake, we watched the band play Milton Keynes Bowl \non the big screen. We sat in a hotel having a glass of wine afterwards almost \nsilent, thinking about what we just saw. THAT is inspiration. We confirmed the \nvenue 48 hours later. Everyone said it was impossible to do and not to do it.\nIt sold out, and remains to this day the largest DJ Headline Show of all time.\nThis is the difference between Precedent and Inspiration. Rules and Rule Breaking.\nThe past can set a layer of fear on your decisions. I promised I would not curse in \nthis book but this is the one time I will.\nF*** THAT. F*** FEAR. F*** THE PAST. WHAT’S THE \nCONTRACT?\n30 31WHO’S \nWHO \nAROUND \nHERE?“I knew all the rules but the rules \ndid not know me, guaranteed.”\n- Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam.\nContracts are the past. The moment they are written they are old. They are a \nbunch of precedents set by people before you. They are not ‘the rules’.\nDo NOT think about the contract AT ALL when doing your deal. The second you \ntalk in terms set before you by other people, you stop innovating and imagining a \nnew future.\nI mean… the whole world changed with streaming and the contracts changed \nhow? They added the word streaming into the revenue section when the entire \nbusiness changed? What’s a royalty?! These are terms where those before have \nfound a way to be paid for creating. \nThink what your business is. What you want to do. Read NO agreements. Draft out \nhow it works. Then go from there. Do NOT try and fit your ideas into a framework \ncreated for you by people you don’t know. Steve Jobs did for sure not consider the \nclam shell when he invented the iPhone.\nSomeone changed owning for life to Licensing (thank you whoever you were)\nThere is NO reason why you will not be that change.\nDraw the deal on your whiteboard. Consider the flow of your work and how it \nneeds to move around and where it touches… should you be paid?\nFor me, labels promise they will try and they will pay at agreed rates. Is that \nenough now?\nCan you change the game? The answer is yes. Maybe not overnight, but you can \ndo this. PLEASE try.First of all...32 33CONTRACTS\nThey are documents outlined to confirm the promises you make to each other, \nand how long you keep them. Most of what they contains is not government law. \nTherefore there can be no two ever the same. \nObviously there are laws to prevent stealing your work but is a Royalty Rate Law? \nNo. Is a structure of a deal Law? No. Is an agency you hire only able to charge you \na certain fee? No. Is the way you are confined to sell music limited to streaming, \ndownloads and physical? No. \nThese rules are simply what happened before you. Evolving as Managers like you \nover time pushed one inch at a time. Yes you may have to be massive to create \nan entire new deal structure, or to get paid every day by your label. Everyone has \nlearned what is cost efficient and have huge machines slow to change around that, \nbut change CAN happen. Push Push Push.\nCan Contracts change? Yes. If you drop your first single and it goes worldwide \nnumber one, marketing minimums will fade away. If you suddenly get offered a \ncrazy collaboration and you were given a small advance, then yes you can make \ndecisions together to increase it. \nContracts are to set minimums, a framework for your working deal. But they can \nchange, they can even be re-negotiated on either side when extreme success or \nfailure happens. Don’t be afraid to ask, but do so with logic.\nWhilst the contents of the contract may not be governed by government law a \ncontract is legally binding. Once signed you can and they can be held to it, and \ntrust me, breaking it never ends well. \nIrving Azoff pulled together a group of superstars to leave ASCAP and BMI, a long\nstanding pair of performance rights collection agencies, by threatening to pull \nhuge catalogues off the air which they relied on and increased their rates of \npay. This is someone knowing the rules are not set, and forcing change through \ncollective power. But it took someone to lead it, and he did. Global Music Rights \nas a company is an example of change being perfectly possible.ARTIST\nThe Artist is the person everyone works for, and \nthat’s the bottom line. They hire their manager, and \noften the manager is then trusted to build the rest \nof the team. It’s important you get the expectations \nclear from day one. You will be available pretty \nmuch 24/7 to the client. If the Artist wants to approve \nelements of your work, like who you hire and how \nmuch you pay them, have that conversation early.34 35MANAGER\nHired by the Artist the Manager oversees the world \nof the Artist and is the go between on everyone \nelse involved. Their roles can vary. Some are \nheavily involved in creative, some are not. But the \noverall role of the manager is sort of the CEO of the \ncompany. The company being the Artist and all the \nservice companies and contracts you take on.\nContracts are not necessary but most prefer them. \nThey tend to vary from 3-5 year periods, with clauses \nfor both to be able to leave, or should misconduct \noccur, they can be fired. A Manager is responsible \nto work with your business manager (we’ll get to \nthat later) but not for the personal finances of the \nArtist. Once the Artist has their money, their own \nbusiness manager (or sometimes it’s the same guy) \nwill do their personal taxes. You’re not responsible \nfor paying their mortgage on time, but you are \nresponsible to make sure the Business Manager is \ngetting every penny they are owed.Commission for Managers vary. The general rule is 20%. If the Artist is already \nhuge they may choose a lower level.\nThere’s no set length, you can have a trial period, average however is 3 years. I’ve \nseen some at 5 years and I’ve seen some which are simply “we end it when we \nend it” and you get a notice period. TERM (HOW LONG THE\nCONTRACT LASTS)There are 2 important things to note when agreeing commission rates:\n1. Is it Net or Gross? Net means the 20% comes after costs, gross means \noff the top. Examples of Net & Gross commissioning on live and records \nare featured on the following pages.\n2. Sunset Clauses. This is when the relationship is over for whatever \nreason and they will receive some income for a period of time afterwards. \nNormally this is 3 years at 20% and 3 more years at 10% on songs released \nduring their time with the Artist. On Live Shows it’s normally confirmed \nshows.\nThere can be extra wording around these. For example, the Manager may want to \nspecify that songs recorded and pretty much ready to go are also included. They \nmay have secured the sessions on these songs and feel entitled to it. Same with \nshows, if shows are not contracted but were at verbal confirmation stage. This is \na personal choice between the Artist and the Manager both who have separate \nlawyers for this process.\nFor the Manager, remember songs can be unrecouped, and income can take some \ntime to get to you, so Managers may have worked super hard at the beginning of \nthe songs, and if fired or leave, do not see the long term income. As streaming now \nbrings money in for years, you may see longer Sunset Term requests.\nFor the Artist Sunset clauses, if they have to pay on songs not yet released, and \nhire a new manager, they may have to pay twice or hope the new manager will \ncompromise. Work for free on these songs and wait to commission on the new \nsongs you create together. So there is an argument on both sides here.WHAT DO THEY GET PAID?WHO PAYS \nFOR WHO?\nLIVE GROSS COMMISSION LIVE NET COMMISSION\n36 37\n38 39Artist Pays for:\n• Their assistant\n• Their studio\n• The business manager **\n• Their personal accounts if they have more than one (not normal)\n• Their own home & living expenses\n• Their own travel to your meetings\n• The lawyer **\n• Audits **\n• Design of their assets made for their own platforms (IE not single artwork if the \nlabel pays, but general content for their platforms)\n• Their work permits **\n• Touring costs **\n• Publicist when not provided by the label **\n• Photographer & Videographer for day to day use **\n• Recording costs depending on their record deal **\nManager pays for:\n• Their own lawyer\n• Their own accountant for their personal taxes\n• Their team \n• Their office and costs associated to.\n** These cost types you agree if the manager charges commission before or after \nthey are deducted.NO RULES HERE EITHER BUT THIS \nSEEMS TO BE THE NORM:\nGREY AREAS\nManagers travel to shows and meetings. If the manager charges on Net, it is likely \nthey do get their travel paid for by the Artist but the trips are pre agreed and the \nclass of travel confirmed. Often this is highlighted in the Management Agreement.In older times, you may hire a social media company, or a graphic designer. More \nand more now the management companies have one full time in house. However \nif the manager only does one client, and you need all these full time staff, there \nmay be a discussion around who pays for it. There are no rules for this. If the Artist \ndoes pay, the manager has to agree if they charge commission after this cost, or \nnot. \n3rd Party deals. So a brand agency has brought in a deal. And they charged you \n10% to do so. The manager can either charge 20% also, or charge 20% after the \n10% is taken off the top, making it around 18%, or only charge 10% so the Artist \npays a total of 20%\nArguments for and against:\nThe manager hired the agent and had the foresight to see that an expert was \nneeded. The manager will then handle all the roll out and the delivery of the \ncampaign and feels 20% is fair. The campaign would never have happened with \nonly the manager and the fee is good so 10% is fair. There’s no right answer, but \nit’s wise to cover 3rd party income in your deal.\nThe Artist receives an advance. The manager has agreed to commission after \nLegal fees for example (or not, depending on your deal) and then works the \nrecords using their in house team. But the Artist owns the songs, licensing them \nfor example for ten years to the record label and then full ownership after that. \nSame with Publishing deals. But they spent all the advance making the record. \nDoes the manager charge zero commission because you’re all in this together \nBUT he or she only has a 3 year term with a Sunset Clause of 3 years? OR does \nthe manager charge the full 20% knowing they do not own any of the copyrights \ncreated? Or do you compromise? This is a debate to be had now. You can change, \nmake exceptions, but don’t get there and then feel its too awkward to bring it up.RECORD DEAL GREY AREAS40 41Questions:\n• If you decide to ask the manager to commission only on the profit, how are they \ncovered to profit from the record long term? \n• Is your sunset in place, and does it reflect you asking this? \n• If you decide to do this, when do you pay the manager? At the end when the \nrecord is out? If they were planning to use some commission to add staff to their \nteam to work on the record, perhaps discuss this early. \n• If you are going to allow the manager to commission on the gross versions of \nthis, have you left enough money to record the record if you pay them now? \nPerhaps agree to pay half now, half later.\n• If your manager has no sunset clause or a short sunset clause, they are likely to \nask for gross in one form or another. \n• Is the artist paying the lawyer, or the manager? Be clear. \n \n“Pick someone \nwho sees and \nengages in your \nvision and will \nbe there for you \nwhen you need \ntime.”WHO DO YOU \nHIRE?42 43Well first of all, you are not likely to be trained in finance or law, so you are trusting \npeople to do a good job. I have always said in the first meeting that I need to be \nable to ask questions. If you find yourself feeling like you look stupid for asking \nquestions, even basic ones, you’re hiring the wrong person. A great expert will not \npatronize you and will respect your honesty when you don’t know the meaning \nof basic terms or deals. You’re learning, we all are, no matter what our level of \nexperience. And you NEVER stop. Rules evolve, your size evolves and new rules \napply. I have learned the hard way not to ask because I felt stupid.\nHires often come via recommendation. The hotter you are or the more established \nyou are, the easier it is to get the top experts to work with you, but there are many \nyounger professionals out there who will be as good as you will be. Don’t choose \nthe one with the biggest rep, who potentially also has the biggest roster. Pick \nsomeone who sees and engages in your vision and will be there for you when you \nneed time.\nThe reputations of terrifying lawyers with huge power used to mean bigger \nadvances, but the more the market changes, the length of time you actually \nnurture your assets is now getting longer and longer. I always think it’s better to \nhave someone who is strong, but known as fair. Who will get you what you want \nbut not be so hated in the label you choose that people dread dealing with them. \nBalance of power, firmness, forward thinking and fairness is the key here I think. \nFor your Business Manager you need someone diligent. I find some can be \nreactive. Royalty Statement comes in, invoice goes out. Sometimes without ever \nasking you for a copy of the deal. So I’ve wondered how do they know the royalty \nrate was right? I’ve seen some miss Royalty Statements completely.\nNo matter what, I’m afraid it is your job to check these come in. But half the battle \nis someone who takes an interest in where the money is coming from and what \nyou are owed. Someone who keeps you informed in a simple and regular manner.\nI’ve also had clients who think they don’t need to pay tax. As in.. AT ALL. I was \nsent off to another country to meet a finance guy who was going to run the tax \nfree set up. He was pretty patronizing and I didn’t trust him and thank goodness, because I then googled experts in their field, asked a couple of other Managers I \ntrusted and ended up with someone who absolutely showed me why the other tax \nstructure was illegal. My client would have ended up in jail. \nNow, I have no legal expertise at all, but I used my instinct, and I was right.\nI’ve always joked that if your Business Manager has a tan, run. And what I mean \nby that is, if these people who look like they live in St Barts promising this scheme \nand that scheme. They don’t go to jail, you do. They are not likely to answer when \nyou call them from jail with your one phone call! Your money is a serious matter. \nThe transparency and planning of it is vital to keep you and the Artist calm. There’s \nnothing more guaranteed to kill creativity than money worries and confusion.\nAsk your Artist what they want to know. Do they want to know Royalty amounts \nwhen they come in, or be able to see the amount coming in for shows, and the \ncosts for shows? Some do, some don’t. But ask, and have that narative open and \nflexible to change as your business grows.\nArtist’s may not want to ask after a while and you may feel not trusted if they do. \nThis is not the case. Money is a number, it’s there to be discussed, costs to be \nchallenged, it’s all part of evolution.\nWhoever you hire, be clear on their financial terms before you begin.44 45RECORD \nCOMPANIES\nTHE PEOPLE \nWHO SELL YOUR \nRECORDS. WORK FOR HIRE\nThis is where you will not own the music you record. Do not do these unless the \nmoney is so insane you have no choice. In some cases like movies, or adverts, \nthis can come into play. Discuss with your lawyer. \nLICENSE DEAL\nMore often now the norm, this means they sort of borrow owning it for a period of \ntime. During that time they can make money. When it’s over, the record is returned \nto you. They never legally own it, they own the rights to make money from it for \nthe agreed period of time.\nThis is why i will keep banging on throughout this book about filing. You are not the \nArtist now, you are the owner of works and these works can include contributions \nfrom others. When it comes to owning your own music in full later on, you will still \nneed to pay any producers and collaborators so have your paperwork in check. \nJust because you handed in all of this paperwork at the time, it doesn’t mean the \nlabel filed it. You own it, you keep it. You would not buy cars or houses and not \nkeep the paperwork. Your options with the catalogue over the rest of your life will \ncontinue to evolve. Including the option to sell the songs. To do that you need your \npaperwork in place to make any sale easy. Songs are assets.PERPETUITY\nIf you see this term it means for life. Do NOT sign it unless the value of the deal \nis next level! There is however a law passing slowly through the USA system \nallowing this to be overturned for records made after 1978 where at 35 years you \nhave a 2 year window to get your Masters back. And there is a strict guideline \nas to how. Most are not winning purely because no-one wants to go the whole \nway and pay out legal fees to be the one who wins, but they ARE getting better \nroyalties and terms with their labels. A student asked me recently if he should sign \na lifelong deal for one song. It was his first release, the label was good, it was his \nchance to break. In this case, I said yes. But then you limit the amount of product \nyou deliver here. Use it as a springboard and then as you grow, keep your rights \naway from this type of deal.DEAL TYPES46 47ADVANCE\nI hate to tell you this but the Advance seems to be the golden word thrown around. \nI got this much, I got that much. But an Advance is literally like an advance on \nyour paycheck, which when used in that context normally is associated to people \nstruggling financially. An Advance is not money, it’s a loan, and if your royalty rate \nis 20% it’s a loan with an 80% interest rate. Unless you have a non recoupable \nadvance which I have never seen.\nSo why would you sign that? Well, Record Companies say the 80% they get for \nthe agreed period of time is what they will invest in you, put huge teams around \nyou, give you global distribution of your music and offer you expertise you cannot \nget anywhere else including helping to make your records through A&R. They feel \nthat they have huge overheads, and if you tried to do it yourself 1) you could not \nafford their experts and 2) those experts enjoy working for them and working on \nmultiple campaigns so even if you could afford them, would they leave these good \njobs and work for you full time?\nThis is only the case when they do deliver and it is also down to you to deliver a \nproduct that they can work. There’s no right answer and right now there’s not a \nhuge amount of choices. Personally, with established Artists, if you were a normal \nbusiness, the buyer would have to value your business and buy shares and then \nearn after that. But… right now you’d have to be massive to even discuss it. This \nis the formula for now in many cases. So be sure when you take it, to make it last. \nRecouping take’s years and is achieved by very few.\nRECORDING FUNDS\nSometimes this is what the Advance is called and for me I always think that means \nthe label assumes you will be spending all of it on making the record. How do you \nlive then we ask ourselves! \nSometimes you see an Advance (which is the fee for you, your name, your time) \non the profits of the records you plan to sell together AND a Recording Fund which \nis the amount on top to make the record. Generally both are fully recoupable \n(which means both are loans). The rates of recouping could vary but normally they \nare both 100% recoupable.IS IT OVER WHEN THE TERM IS OVER?\nOften no. They have a retention period. A retention period is where the label \ncontract is over but they have the right to keep collecting. This is justified by the \nfact that they did all the hard work at the start. The record is now making money \nwith little investment, and they continue to get paid, and pay you the agreed royalty TERM (LENGTH OF DEAL)\nThis can be a number of years and a minimum commitment you need to release \nin that time. This can be determined by the number of records you have to make \nbefore you can leave. When albums were king, this was generally the number of \nalbums. This can include a period after the final product is released where you \ncannot release elsewhere. This was to allow the record company a clear lane to \nwork your music. It also often outlines if you create a Live Album and a Best Of. RECOUPABLE ITEMS\nThese are amounts the label spend on you which they ask to get back BEFORE they \npay you royalties. Sometimes you will see 50% Recoupable (or any percentage) \nand that means that some they pay themselves and you don’t, and some they \n‘recoup’ before they pay you.\nAlways ask for one list of recoupable items to be ON ONE SUMMARY PAGE IN \nYOUR AGREEMENT. They can be scattered. This is your money!\nAlso be clear how recouping works. Is it all coming in, but only recouping from \nyour share… meaning all those costs sit in the 20% you get, or off the top. I’ve \nseen both! Ask them to draw it for you if you get stuck with long complicated text. \nIt’s not your fault you don’t speak contract Latin.48 49NEW ADVICE ALERT\nFrom what I have seen with the relevance of owning your records now, we are yet \nto really see many deals return the records now in this streaming era purely as so \nmany License Deals are new, and their terms are not yet up, but more and more \nwill now come. ADD a clause to your agreement that\n1. 120 days pre end of Term the Record Company will present you with a file in a \nmutually agreed software format, which contains all Audio Files, Art Files and \nAssets. Without this you could be going somewhere else with your music and \nnot have the files and if you didn’t follow my magic filing advice, you will have \na dead period\n2. If the software of your new service allows it, the streaming links will simply be \ntransferred to you without losing the stream count. Essentially they will do their \nbest to allow you to pick up where they left off, and all those lovely streams \nstay yours, and will prevent messing with any algorithms and playlists where \nthe songs sit. As i said, this hasn’t really happened yet but it will, and people \nneed to be ready.for that time. Retention Periods are normally around 10 years. I’ve seen shorter \nand longer. \nSell Off. This is normally an extra 6 months. This was designed for them to be able \nto sell off the CD’s still in the market in their final months. This is ancient now and I \nbelieve should be removed from agreements. Agree a Retention Period and that’s \nthe end would be my advice.\nCAN YOU RELEASE FOR FREE \nDURING THE TERM? \nNo, without their permission and without agreeing with all the people involved \nin the record, a promotion free record is not an option without permission. This \nalso applies to pricing. Unless you have agreed in your contract that you approve \npricing they can set the pricing. In reality they will be competitive to drive sales, \nbut if you suddenly want to drop iTunes to 59p to drive you to number one, that’s \na corporate decision and can take time, not your decision.\nINTERNATIONAL RATES\nAt source. CLEAR wording. At Source with no other deductions. I’ve seen an \nagreement recently where the rate was 25% at source, but on another page it \nallowed the At Source to be defined by the rate the USA got from the international \nmarkets which was 60%. This left the Artist with 15%. Don’t worry about what all \nthat means just insist that it’s at SOURCE with NO possible loopholes.BONUS TRACKS\nPersonally I think this is nonsense and you should just remove it. But if you do \nagree, make sure you deliver. When you leave no one wants to remind you that \nyou owe them 3 tracks from 3 years ago. Record companies do not want you to \nleave so whatever you agree to, deliver it.\nBonus Tracks are also almost always after thoughts. You forgot to do it, or you \nlove all your records and they all made the album. So the quality can feel lower \nbut were stuck on a Deluxe Version to up the price by 3 dollars? Fans may love \nanything you make so it may be ok, but maybe not. This is why I think you do not \nput them in your deal and only deliver when you feel it’s a smart move and the \nrecord you plan to add is worth it.\nIF you get to release and you don’t get asked for bonus tracks for the campaign, \nask in writing that the need is waived and you will not be asked to give them. \nThis should not come from your A&R guy unless it’s been cc’d to someone from \nLegal Affairs for the label. Make sure you are covered with any change in your \nagreement.TYPE OF MUSIC YOU MAKE\nThe label may ask that X amount of the tracks you deliver have vocals. This is to \ntry and ensure you deliver a radio hit. Be aware of what that is and ensure you \ndeliver. Can they refuse to accept records if you follow the agreement because they \nwanted something else? In Geffen VS Neil Young, David Geffen sued Neil Young \nfor making a record which didn’t sound Neil Young enough as he experimented in \na new sound. He lost.50 51OPTIONS\nThis section is where it is determined if you do well, what the terms are for them to \nkeep working with you. This does not mean both of you have the option to choose \nif you stay, only the Record Company may extend, or drop you. You don’t have the \n‘option’ to leave so it can be misleading. The Options will tell you:\n1. When they have to tell you if they want to continue. And sometimes they ask \nyou to remind them! Be clear on how this works and follow procedure exactly \nincluding if the letter has to be recorded delivery. If it does, keep and scan in \nthe ticket.\n2. How much you get for the next commitment and what that commitment is. This \ncan sometimes be based on how well the first part did. They agree to pay you \na percentage of what you already made again. \n3. It may require them to hit targets to be able to get the Option. IE they have \nto sell X amount of records to get you to stay. This can be calculated by how \nmany streams or single downloads count as 1 record or 1 album. Be careful to \nunderstand this section.\n4. They may have more than one option. You go into the first option period, \nthen they can keep picking you up. Personally I don’t like Options but most \nwill say it incentivizes them to work hard on you as they have a chance to \nstay in business and I can see that logic. But years and years of Options are \nnot healthy. Keep the money high for new Options. Not just a percentage of \nturnover. Maybe ask for a minimum of X amount OR a percentage - and the \ngreater amount is the amount they owe. \nTERRITORY\nGlobal is normal. Very few cases now allocate your deal to a country. This normally \nmeans you have a ‘Repertoire Owner’. This means the local label you sign to, \ngets the lions share of the profits, the international offices normally receive less. \nLocal labels will normally therefore prioritize acts they get a bigger piece of. When \nsigning its always worth asking how this works. You traditionally sign Global Deals \nbut in fact you may get very little access to global offices unless you are classed \nas a Global Priority by the label - a decision you have no part in. If you know and \nhave history of strong sales in more than one market, it’s worth asking for joint \nRepertoire Ownership so more than one office feel fully incentivized. \nIf you are signing multiple territories you will want one song upload or you will split \nthe stream counts and not do as well as you can, how will you tackle that? Think \nearly on.360 DEALS\nThis is a phrase, rarely used, for when someone goes completely into business \nwith you taking a piece of all revenue. Live, Merch, Brand Deals, if you produce or \nremix or work with other poeple in whatever capacity. It requires a bigger advance, \nguarantees of investment and I do not advise you to do them. It does not cover \npersonal income, like profits from stocks and shares, or selling your house! It’s \ncalled this because imagine your business as a pie, they take a slice of the whole \nthing, of the whole 360.\nANXILLARY RIGHTS\nFancy term for extra stuff you can sell. This section of your agreement may give \nthe label profit shares in Merch for example. This can however be limited to not \nkick in until you have made X amount of profit, OR it can be only on what they \nbring in. Brand Deals for example are now a serious level of business for labels \nbut more often than not they only charge you IF they bring it in. This can also \ninclude movies, TV shows and books.AUDITS\nThis is your friend. Your contract must have a right to fully Audit every 3 years, set \na reminder for 6 months prior. You are often required to notify the label in writing \n(and be careful if they insist on it as a paper letter not an email and keep your \nrecorded delivery receipt on your filing system). This means you can check every \n3 years for the 3 years gone by. Did they recoup everything right, did they pay you \ncorrectly? \nAudits cost money, but you can do a ‘desktop audit’ for around 5k and if you have \nachieved over 100k in revenue I would recommend it. Any money found goes \ninto your account with them. If you are unrecouped, your unrecouped balance \ngets smaller, if you are recouped, you get the money either now, or on the next \nstatement. I once found for a large Artist MORE MONEY THAN THEY HAD EVER \nMADE ON RECORDS. DO NOT EVER WAIVE THIS RIGHT.52 53LICENCE DEAL NOTE:\nIf you are on a license deal, everything created in that time with your money (even \nwhen they are spending it) belongs to you. Therefore agreements for your music \nvideos, photoshoots and assets in general should be between the company where \nthe Copyright is held, like The Band LLC, and the supplier. Tell the person involved \nto ensure this is the case - they will normally just drop your name in rather than \nmake you do a whole agreement, often the contract is coming from the supplier \nanyway. Ask for your copy of everyone, and file it in your song folder. You will \nneed it when you come to own the records again.\nIn a band? Your deal will contract you in your own name, so changing Artist name \ndoes not get you out. However if you are in a band, you can limit the contract for \nonly this activity and exclude your solo work. But be clear. Some are smart and \ninclude it and you don’t notice until it’s too late.\n50 / 50 DEALS\nThis tends to mean all of the costs come off the top and then 50 / 50 split on profits. \nSounds good right? 50% Royalty Rate going to sound great to your mates. BUT \nyou need to study what the label were going to cover on your regular deal. If they \nwere going to cover marketing costs, radio costs, 50% of video costs - you may \nwell end up paying more costs than before. Speak to your Business Manager, they \nwill have examples about other Artists who have done both. My auditor warned me \nthese are not as gold as you think. Advances do apply here so may be included \nplus Recording Costs. Remember you still have to pay to make the record. These \nusually include a distribution fee for them. Lowest I have seen is 12% and they \nnormally ask for a lot more. Negotiate. This is to cover their ‘services’. \nNEIGHBOURING RIGHTS\nThis income goes partly to the label and partly to you depending on your role (see \nRoyalty Section). Insist this is included in income streams on their side. There has \nbeen mass confusion on this issue to date.BEWARE THE BIDDING WAR\nSo … you’re red hot and everyone is after you. No matter what, the people you turn \ndown will have ego’s. You will publically have said no to them because everyone is \ntalking about you. You think these guys won’t turn on you? WRONG\n‘Well I didn’t want it anyway… it’s all hype’ etc etc - watch them all turn.\nIn a bidding war, do not act like Billy Big Balls. This time will be short and then \nthe hard work of delivering comes. The less you make of the hype the better your \nchances of proving to them that all the hype was justified. \nBe polite, take all their calls, don’t lie to them, don’t tell them other deals were so \nhuge you can’t even tell them the number.\nYes…you can use the hype to get what you want. A higher advance, a larger \nmarketing spend, better terms on the time until you get your music back, guaranteed \nvideo budgets and transparent marketing spends. But lying excessively will not \nserve you well. Choose who you want, get them to a place you feel good, shut it \ndown. \nDo NOT do some big press release…. Saying you signed for X amount of million. \n99% of those cause backlash. The Artist can’t live up to the hype. The press \nstay poised with their pen to write about this billion dollar album and you deliver \na masterpiece but feel underwhelming to the hype. Let the music speak. Gather \nrespect, but not envy. Gather goodwill.\nYour ego can have a knock on effect on how your Artist feels plus pressure to \ndeliver. Bear that in mind!\nLet’s also remember as a manager, this may not the be the last client you \nhave and you may end up needing to sign to one of the guys you passed on, \nand your current artist may need a featured artist on their label. See now \nwhy you needed to be nice?54 55APPROVALS\nOTHER APPROVALS\nAsk for sync approvals and approvals on Compilations. This is to keep a track \nof sync income which is normally a 50% royalty (different rate to your average \nArtist royalty which is 18-25%). Track your Publisher is also approving if you have \nwriting on the track and the income comes in on both sides. Again, cc yourself \non approvals, file in a SYNC APPROVAL file in your email. This is also to ensure \nsyncs are suitable to your brand. Approve same day if you can, never let the Artist \nhear someone was chasing you, this is easy revenue.\nIf you see the terms MFN on the sync, it means Most Favoured Nations which is \na fancy phrase for - no one got more than you. This is often seen on TV show for \nexample.\nRead it carefully. Is the brand suitable for your Artist? If you won’t endorse some \nthings like political broadcasts, alcohol etc - tell your label to minimize wasting \nanyone’s time. If you see a sync you didn’t approve, tell your label. It may be \nthe TV show has a ‘blanket license’ or someone has been naughty and must be \nchased.\nA sync creates income on ‘both sides’ of the record (see Royalty Section). \nPublishing and Master Rights and both charge the same. So you should see one \nfrom your label - and you get the Royalty you agreed on this (going into your pot COST APPROVALS\nThis is where you may approve costs you have to recoup. They will not like this. \nThey will say it slows them down so offer 24 hour approval on weekdays. They also \nwon’t like having to disclose the marketing budgets. This is so you don’t tell other \npeople what you got if it was good, and don’t complain if it’s small. Remember - \nrecoupable monies is just a loan. You pay it back so be wise when you demand \nmore, and be aware it’s your money when you think they are over spending. Push \nto get approval but on new Artist’s it won’t always be granted. Keep a record of \napprovals, maybe cc yourself on the emails then file them all in one folder if you \ndon’t have time to set up a sheet.56 57NEW ADVICE ALERT\nTry and agree that no Gratis License (free) requests for media partners using 30 \nseconds or less, for a period of 2 weeks can be blocked. This is to stop labels \nblocking you from a SnapChat or IG filter for example. Which they do when they \nare battling those platforms. Now this can be because they are busy battling to \nget everyone paid for these profitable platforms using their music, and all power to \nthem, but when you badly need the promotion of a global look on these platforms, \nit’s every man to themselves. I’ve almost lost huge looks fighting labels to allow \nme to have a lense on IG or SnapChat. Happily I’ve always won but it was a waste \nof time fighting it.\nAlso that the label may not disapprove of a sync - IE if you want to sync to Nike at \n1000 USD, you can. They will not like it as Nike perhaps took advantage of you by \nknowing you want it, but… there’s no time sometimes to worry about precedents \nyou set. (Nike of course don’t take advantage but you see my point… when you \nneed the look, nothing should hold you back).until you recoup) and on the Publishing side the same but remember you only get \nyour share. You have a 10k sync, you percentage of writing is 25%, you get 2,500 \nto your pot to either help you recoup or be paid to you, from which your Publisher \nwill take their agreed rate of commission. If it’s a cover version you will only see \nit on the Publishing Side (see Royalty Section) and ensure you have the right to \napprove the version before this is deemed approved.\nMARKETING AND VIDEO BUDGETS\nYou can in some cases agree a minimum commitment to what they will spend \non Marketing and Videos. But unless you’re massive it’s normally to be spent in \na mutually agreed way. So all they have to do is say no and you’re stuck. Ask \nfor data. Did the spend on YouTube ads work, how many click throughs did you \nget….what Ad words worked (See Marketing Terms page). Learn with them they \nwill respect you for it and learn where the dollars go. If you are recouping that’s \nyour Artist’s money you are spending.NEW ADVICE ALERT\nAdd marketing spends being triggered to release more money if you do well. IE at \n10 million streams they release 50k in marketing additional to the original budget. \nAdd video budgets will be increased to include ALL Featured Artist costs. You \nadd a featured artist you add a bucket load of costs but the label got an Artist they \ndidn’t sign on a track. Let them front the money. Ideally non-recoupable but you \nmay have a fight on your hands there. Featured Artists won’t do bad and cheap \nvideos. So you are stuck if you cannot get the budget from your label.\nEXTRA NEW ADVICE\nSo you have done well. You kept your word and delivered 2 Albums and you are \non your last one. I’m afraid to say this is when the games can begin. They want \nyou to stay and start renegotiations now. You want to finish your deal and see what \nelse is on offer. Doesn’t mean you are leaving but I’m pretty certain your Artist will \nwant you to shop around.\nWell this is when I have seen real bully tactics start. Spending starts getting cut. \nSay what? Yep… you’ve done great work and you’ve both made a tonne of money \nso they would be super nice to you right? Wrong. You may only sense it and not \nbe able to prove it but they will not want to invest more than ever to watch you \nleave.\nThe way to protect yourself here is to put that marketing contributions rise per \nalbum. Guaranteed. And are released at the start for mutual approval. If you want \nto be really fancy and you worry these 3 albums will take a lot of time, you can put \npercentages that rise for every year you are there. This also tackles the inflation of \nrising video costs and featured artists who can double year on year.\nDiscuss with your lawyer but don’t get all up in the Advance section growing per \nalbum with bonuses triggered by the amount you sold… think also what you need \nto release in a way which is constant. 58 59YOUR TEAM \nAT THE LABELPRODUCT MANAGER\nThis person is your go to for all things. They coordinate all the other people around \nreleases. They also know things like chart rules, if you can or cannot have guns \nin videos and still get broadcast on TV and other rules to help you not make \nmistakes. Unless you’re a total rebel and don’t care in which case all power to you \nmy friend.\nA&R\nStands for Artist & Repertoire (the records) They help you find demo’s, vocals, \nproducers, song writers, book sessions, find remixes, advise on radio edit lengths, \npossible re-arrangements for radio etc. If you do this all yourself just be nice to \nthem anyway, you will need them at some point and good ones are a dying breed. \nAlso the first person you tell when you used a sample. They can help source \nwhere it came from, who owns it, and even replay it to help ease the clearances.\nMARKETING MANAGER\nThis person will work with you on digital marketing including advice on new \nplatforms, how to improve yours, and along with the product manager will also \noften work on promotions with the stores. They will buy the marketing from \nagreed budgets set by the label, and can report to you on the effectiveness of the \ncampaigns. These guys have the data you need! In times when you need external \nhelp, like a developer to build an app, they are the ones with the contacts.\nVIDEO COMMISSIONER\nOften report to the Product Manager for you but have the rolodex of directors to \nfit all budgets. 60 61INTERNATIONAL MANAGER\nThis person will be repping you and countless others sending your product out \nto other markets to get them excited and engaged. Now… think about this for a \nmoment. They are repping you and their team is repping the whole label. They \nare pitching let’s say Germany who has a huge market of their own, and so are \nALL the other International Managers for all the other labels in the group. (Majors \nhave lots of labels) If you signed to a label outside your home country, or outside \na country you are massive in, it’s wise to insist you meet and speak to the label \nin that market to get their commitment in writing to your project. The labels are \nswamped. They won’t care you got 50 likes from Poland and need to hike up the \ncharge. But also use the rule I explain later to use data to precision target where \nyou push. Don’t burn the label to attack 50 countries. Pick some, focus. See \nexample later in the book.\nSTORE / DIGITAL DEPARTMENT\nThis is the person in charge of plugging your records to stores. They ‘pitch’ your \nrecord to the stores for as much good placement as they can and work on a plan \nso you start strong, but have somewhere to go afterwards. They also give you \nthe good and bad news and outline to you social media commitment required \nif you are lucky enough to get a billboard, or a commitment of placement which \nwarrants it. They are also the bible on how not to offend stores. They are dealing \nwith multiple Artists and know the do’s and don’ts. They would always rather you \ncheck with them. You misbehaving can reflect equally badly on them so they are \nyour friend!\nRADIO PLUGGER\nThis is who takes your record to Radio. They have the relationships, they have \nthe power to hire external specialists when you need them and will work with the \nproduct manager on when to go for what types of radio.PUBLICIST\nThe label normally provides them in-house and these tend to be only around \ncampaigns but they can blast out Tour Announcements etc around a release period \nas it’s all layers anyway. Rarely do they engage all year round. If you want that, \nyou may want to ask for a budget for a publicist in your deal and hire externally \nand see how they react. Be clear with them what you do and do not want, what \nyou will and will not do. \n**Notice here: when doing your press shots, if you arrange yourself, speak to \nthem. They have good knowledge on how many you need to give them the content \nthey need for possible exclusives and useful tips like most magazines do not like \nblack and white images.\nSOCIAL MEDIA\nStrategy is covered with your Marketing Manager, but… don’t expect them to post \nfor your run the day to day, that’s you.\nDESIGN\nThey can do basic ad assets in-house but the design of cover art etc is either \nsourced by them out of house (and you recoup it unless your deal says you don’t) \nor you do it. If you can, agree a fee per cover / product in your deal so you don’t \nhave to approve every time. As always non recoupable would be nice but rare.\nROYALTY & LEGAL\nThese guys will do your deal with you and then give you log-ins to the portal \nto register for Royalties. If you are on a License Deal you do the paperwork for \nFeatured Artists, Producers and Writers yourself with your lawyer and need to \nhand them in, signed, for them to be logged into the system. Always ask them to \nconfirm receipt when emailing. If these guys are eligible for any sales royalties \nthey then pay them and deduct from your share. Keep them in the loop. If you \ndon’t hand it in, records can be stopped. They cannot release a Featured Artist \nwithout paperwork or they open themselves up to being sued for it. 62 63WELL HERE’S THE LOVELY TWIST \nFEATURED ARTISTS PROCESSES!\nYou have a song, and the session has an Artist on it. It’s at demo stage. You hit \nthe manager of the Artist while your Artist finishes the song. You start to discuss if \nthis is even possible (some Artist’s get ahead of themselves, jump on a record and \nforget they have an album coming out and it’s not a good time). You agree a fee \nand you get looped into their Lawyer. You then loop in your Lawyer. In my opinion \nyou stay involved, some don’t but I stay and often lead it all the way home. Terms \nare agreed. Fee - and if that’s recoupable or not.\nCHECK POINT 1\nIs the fee from your Advance (or as some call it your Recording Budget)?\nHave you spent it all? If you need more - you have to go and ask your label and \nthey have no obligation to say yes.\nLet’s say you got Beyonce, and she was 20k because she loves the record and \nwants to do you a good deal. You’ve spent all your Advance / Recording Budget \nbut damn - it’s Beyonce - this is a no brainer. Can you agree this? No you cannot. \nYou have to go and ask for an additional 20k for your fund. They probably will but \nthis is a Contract Amendment and must be documented to keep your royalites \nstraight. Emails are ok if you keep them somewhere safe. Start a folder for the \ncontract and anything which adds to it, file it in the same place.In the case of a Featured Artist who is also on a major label a ‘waiver’ is required. \nThis is where the label who has the Featured Artist says - it’s cool they are on your \ntrack but you need to pay us X amount of royalties. More often than not the fee you \npay the Featured Artist goes to them, royalties go to their label. But this is a case \nby case basis and be CLEAR with your lawyer.\nThe Waiver can have catches on. Like holding you back with radio so you don’t \ninterfere with another record they have out. Either way the Waiver is done by the \nlabel with the other label. You don’t do it BUT you need a copy of it and you need \nto approve it Why?\nPOINTS \n(FANCY NAME FOR ROYALTIES).\nThe ‘points’ let’s say they say 4%. They do not mean 4% of your share which \nis let’s say you get a 20% royalty. So you now know you get 16 and they get 4. \nKeep a note of this. I keep one spreadsheet of all the records I have helped make. \nPublishing splits, royalty splits and what my Artist should get. An online copy goes \nto my business manager who should check the statements reflect this. Later on, \nmy auditor gets a copy. It takes 5 mins if you do it at the time, 5 hours if you forget \nand go over emails. Especially in a dispute.How to avoid this: \nYou can do a deal where a fund of X amount is available to be drawn down for \nFeatures on top of the fund you had. If you are a DJ or a Hip Hop Artist they \noften signed you expecting this and had already accounted for that in the Advance \noffered, so it’s a negotiation. If it’s a fund to be mutually agreed. This means they \ncan say no, and you can’t do anything. Think about these possibilities. You can \nalso ask any royalties agreed to the Featured Artists come from their share. Again, \nrare, but think about this in your business plan when you sign.\n“FROM RECORD ONE”\nThis means they recoup absolutely nothing. And from the first record sold they get \n4%. But you’re unrecouped. So the label isn’t set to pay a penny out for a while.\nYou do have to check this is OK with them first or be prepared to pay that yourself!\nRECOUPABLE ITEMS\nOk, so they’re being nice and will agree to Recoup. But maybe not everything and \nsome things you cannot grant because of your deal. Remember they don’t own \nthis record, you do if you are on a License Deal so they want a good deal too.\n 64 65Ask your Lawyer if what they want to not recoup mirrors your deal and if not, \ndiscuss the differences. Ok so they’ve agreed to recoup everything. Wow nice \npeople and you are SUPER happy because it’s a famous pop star and her hair bill \nalone for the video will be 20k.\nAnd they have agreed by some miracle to only take a fee and no royalty.\nNow … here’s the catch\nYou’ve now got your paperwork in place… and you start budgeting the video \nout based on exactly this. You have other people to pay on the record, maybe \nmore than one feature, or samples, writers, producers… and you have balanced \nyour budget perfectly. Then you are told by the label that the WAIVER is going to \ncost you. Major labels lend artist’s to each other but it costs you. This can be in \ndifferent formats\n• Set company rate. This is when they charge a set royalty for most of their \nArtists. Let’s say 4%. \n• This can be a Percentage of the Artist Rate. So they want 25%. You’re on \n20%. So the Featured Artist’s label gets 5%. 25% of the 20%. \n• They can also set recoupable items before they get their payment. \nAnd guess what…These recoupable items can be COMPLETELY different to the \nones you agreed. Suddenly you cannot pay for the video before paying them their \nshare!!!! And often these Waivers come in days before the record comes out. \nAnd guess what some more? You agreed a swap. You get them for 4% and they \nget you for 4%. But their label only does percentage deals. You’re sitting on a 20% \nRoyalty and they get 5% as their label charges a 25% rate. If your label does the \nsame, which may be ALL that label may allow - and they only have a 16% Royalty, \nyou get 4%. 25% of their Royalty. DAMN! Your swap just cost you 1%.\nFair? Probably not. But if you want these guys on your record for now…. This is the \ndaily battle. There is also nothing in your contract that regulates this, and the rates \nbetween the majors changes weekly as they are waking up to the revenue being \ngenerated by their Artist’s sitting on other people’s records. I saw one change \nwhere I cleared one Artist on a major for 4% then did another a week later and it \nchanged to 33%.CHECK POINT 2 \nNEW ADVICE ALERT\nFor now, to protect yourself put in your agreement as follows:\n1. Waivers will be applied for within 48 hours of your alerting the label of the \ncollaboration.\n2. Waivers will be in your name, and if the receiving label does not allow that it \nmust state ‘on behalf of’ your company.\n3. Waiver terms must be approved by you.\n4. Waivers for Artists on the same label as you must still be clearly documented, \nin your company name, and must be applicable for the life of the record not \nthe length of the agreement with the label. File all waivers immediately in your \nsong folder. \n5. Create a spreadsheet of records you have made and list anyone taking \nroyalties from your share, and their recoupable items. Trust me here, it’s way \neasier than looking back for the info. Share this with your business manager \nand when you audit, with the auditor.\nRemember - major labels have different sub labels. If you think you can get a \nbetter deal because Bieber is on Def Jam and you are on Interscope and they are \nboth Universal, think again. A waiver is still required.\nHow will you know when to stop paying the major and start paying the Featured \nArtist direct? Well hopefully the manager of the Featured Artist will tell you, but \nwatch the press for updates. Remember when they leave they may still be in a \nretention period where that label may collect for some years to come.You are pretty powerless here. Your label has some leverage. They all need \neach other. But your one song won’t overturn an ever changing system and the \nFeatured Artist is signed to them and cannot override it. So why on earth do the \nFeatured Artist agreement in the first place?\nWell - remember…. You OWN this record if you are on a License Deal. So in ten \nyears or so when you get the record back you will take over paying these Artists and \ncontributors to the record. You can see now why i am saying file EVERYTHING.66 67I’m going to stress one more time to keep and file the waivers. If you pay for an \naudit, and he looks at your statements only based on the agreements you did with \nthe Featured Artists and you’re paying an hourly rate, you will kick yourself when \nhe comes back puzzled as to why the agreements don’t match the deductions. \nAnd you have to admit you knew there was a waiver, and you had neither saved it \nnot shared it with him or her.\nBuild a relationship with the person who clears these features at the label. The ones \nI have dealt with are SO nice and are on your side. Shout out Todd at Interscope \nhere who is a living legend. He made the craziness of juggling 24 Featured Artists \nin a year bearable. You’re in this together, they keep it calm. They get it done. Be \nnice. They are often hidden behind your A&R guy or product manager but a thank \nyou when it’s done is a thank you WELL SAID.\nThey are very much on catch up on this unregulated set of rules set by major \nlabels see their Artists bounce from one song to another.\nTerm you don’t need to worry about is Market Share. This is where major labels \nreport how big they are in the marketplace. For example the one with the most \nrecord sales and streams is the biggest Market Share. They are protective of this \nand it looks super fancy to their shareholders. When they lend an Artist to another \nlabel they will contract the label to give them up to 50% of the label share to their \nown reporting. This also helps keep their big bosses happy on results, while they \nkeep their Artists happy by not blocking collaborations.\nIf your Waiver doesn’t look like its happening, well it’s all balls to the wall here. \nCall the Artist, call their manager, call whoever you need to put pressure on. But… \ndo that LAST. these labels have processes and indeed when you hop on someone \nelse’s record they are there for you too. Don’t push them while they deal with \nyou. They are dealing with hundreds at a time. You will annoy them and that’s not \nsmart.THE LICENSE DEAL AND \nTHE RE-LICENSE DEAL\nThis is when the labels will have to give back your songs and will want to keep \nyou. Back Catalogue streaming is a HUGE part of the label’s revenue and now \nLicensing Deals have replaced ownership, these are just loans. They will want to \nkeep earning.\nWhilst for many they may want to stay and simply take new advances, improved \nroyalties and pitches that state how they will keep pushing the records on classic \nplaylists - for some they want the control back.\nIn this case I see no historic reason why Record Companies won’t play hard ball \nhere and they are powerful.\nWaivers will be one way. They did the deal with the other major, not you. They own \nthe Featured Artist if they were on their label..and now won’t allow them on your \nrecords. They won’t allow you to keep the play count on the songs even though \nSpotify are saying you can (who knows here!) pulling you down from thousands of \nplaylists by having to re upload the record. It’s coming trust me. \nSo… THINK about this when you are doing all these deals. If you are a Featured \nArtist on a record TELL YOUR BUSINESS MANAGER. This revenue from your \npercentage will appear on your royalty statement…..CHECK IT MADE IT ON.\nTired yet? LOL! Ok here’s the easier things Featured Artist’s ask for:\nAPPROVALS\nSAVE THEM. Learn them off by heart. There’s no greater offence to an Artist \nwhen you post something they didn’t approve and it ruins relationships. Give them \nlimits of time, like you have 48 hours to approve (on weekdays) or it’s seen as \napproved. This keeps up you work flow time at busy times. Video costs. They \nmay charge you a fee to appear, but will also list items like travel and the class of \ntravel and how many people, rider on set, need for a Trailer (this can add 20k so \nbe careful), stylist budget (can be 40k for a big star), glam (hair, make up - again \ncan be pricey).There will be 2 types of record deal in the future in my opinion…68 69PRIMARY ARTIST OR \nFEATURED ARTIST\nThis applies to stores. If you want them to be a Primary Artist this is how it looks \non Spotify when it is in Bold Type and appears on their page. You would prefer \nthis normally as their fan base see it more clearly. You may not want this for some \nreason. Be clear. You can only have 3 Primary Artist’s on Spotify for example so \nif you have 4 you can’t even offer it to all anyway. On Apple Music I am sure you \ncan have 4. Check before you ask Artist’s to commit.\nMEDIA COMMITMENT\nThis is where you outline if you expect social media posts of interview time. Most \npush back here and post what they want which is sort of fair enough to be honest.\nMFN\nMost Favoured Nations. Which means no one gets more than them. This applies \nto records with more than one Feature OR they could ask for MFN across a whole \nalbum which means you need to watch other deals on your record. They could say \nMFN on only certain terms, so they don’t care if someone got more hairdressing \nthan they do, but they do care if someone gets more of an advance than they do.\nBILLING\nThis is how they appear on Artwork and in the title of the song. Now… if they \ncannot be a Primary Artist because they have another single out, they cannot go \nahead of any other Primary Artists that’s just how the software works on songs. \nBUT… they can insist on the Artwork they go first ahead of the others. It’s a \nnegotiation. Stay calm!VIDEO COSTS\nThey may charge you a fee to appear. But will also list items like travel and the \nclass of travel and how many people, rider on set, need for a trailer (this can add \n20k so be careful), stylist budget (can be 40k for a big star), glam (hair, make up \n- again can be pricey). WHAT THEY NEED TO SIGN?\nWithin the agreement, they state they ‘indemnify’ which means they promise that \nno one they worked with on the record used a sample or stole anyone’s music or \nif they did they declare it and you have to clear it. If they get caught, you can pass \nthe lawsuit over to them. But… this means you had to have this signed and you \nhad to keep the sessions at all stages. Emails they sent, what app’s they sent. \nShowing clearly it was them who added that part.\nPRODUCER DEALS\nA producer normally asks for royalties (from record sales). They can also ask for \nPublishing. If you are managing a Producer and you want them to be known you \ncan contract, the Artist tags them on social media. It’s rare you can ask they are \nlisted as an Artist. However you do see some who plan to go on and be Artists \ninsist on this and be a featured artist.\nThey can ask for a fee upfront. This fee will then be stated as Recoupable or \nNon Recoupable. It will list what they will or will not recoup. This fee would come \nfrom your Advance or Recording Budget and is normally payable at the time they \nengage. If you want to see how they do, like trying out a new producer they would \ndo the work ‘on spec’ which means you buy it if you like it.\nREMIXER DEALS\nRemixers generally receive a fee. Many now ask for Royalties on sales. Some ask \nfor income on the Performing Rights income generated on the Master side. Speak \nto your lawyer about what you are giving away and ensure you have the rights \nto do so. Like producers you can insist on social media support from the Artist, \napproval on Artwork where their name is listed. More often than not their name is \non this product. You can request Primary Artist status which means it will show on \ntheir Artist page on stores. The Artist is likely to be fine with this as they want your \nfans to see it, that’s why they picked you. Your sound and your following.\nTheir agreement includes a Sample Waiver to say their work was all their own, \ntheir terms, what they will recoup, and goes to your Record Company who will pay \nthem and deduct that from your income.\nIf you have a Featured Artist on your record they may have approval rights over \nRemixers so be sure to follow agreements when you add new versions of songs.70 71This confirms they used all their own ideas and the share of writing income they \nreceive. I have seen these not done and a share be agreed on email but covering \nyourself they didn’t copy anyone is smart. Again, you can insist they get social \nmedia support which inevitably may get them more work, be included in press \nreleases. You will not get Featured Artist or Primary Artist status on stores. Or at \nleast I have never seen it (so far!)\nA hit song has demand. You can ask to ‘hold’ it meaning only you can work on it \nfor a period of time. There may be a fee for this. There may also be a fee to buy \nthe song ensuring the writer gets paid. Remember, they have no control later on. If \nthis song doesn’t work because you or your label messed it up, they get no income \nso some are now asking for fees. I think that’s fair enough to be honest. \nThey can insist it’s a single. Not sure how you guarantee that once it’s on an album, \nis there such a thing as a single anymore at this point? But it can be defined by if \nyou invest in taking it to daytime radio and making a video for it. The fee can also \napply for them to even do a writing session although it’s less common. Writers are \ncrucial and in my opinion underpaid, so look after who you work with. You will want \nmore from them. Also keep them in touch with when songs come out and how they \ndo. It’s their work too. SONGWRITING DEALSAGENCIES\nAn Agent is who gets you live \nwork including DJ shows and \nprivate performances (cash!)72 73Yes, but the bigger ones will only take you on if exclusive in their territory.CAN YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE?\nYes. You can normally split the world with North America, Rest of World. But I have \nseen Asia and LATAM go to Agents totalling 4 worldwide.CAN YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE \nWORLDWIDE?\n10% of the GROSS normally but some will negotiate. So that’s straight off the top, \nnot after Withhold Tax (coming to that) or any of your costs so be sure you put this \ninto your budget.WHAT DO THEY CHARGE?\nNormally monthly but most will issue payments when asked. Ask in your meeting \nearly how it works. If you need cash show by show, discuss with them how it works.HOW OFTEN DO THEY PAY YOU?\nThe larger agencies now have active brand, film, gaming, influencer and music \nscoring departments to name just some of the ever expanding service. This can \nseem amazing but unless you fit the bill for these types of deals (which they \nnormally decide more than you do) you will not see a huge amount of action here. \nYou have to feed them the info on your Artist, suggestions for brand targets and \nbe realistic that these departments service hundreds of clients. \nThese services are normally on a non exclusive basis. So you can get these deals \nfrom anywhere and only pay them if they bring it in.WHAT ELSE DO THEY DO?If you’re lucky enough to have options don’t go with commission rates as the way \nto chose. You can work on that part last. Who LOVES you, who gets you, who will \nfight for you?\nIt can be wise to be on a roster with other similar agents who are successful, this \ngives the agent bargaining power. Allowing you some of the slipstream from the \nother bookings he or she handles. But big agents can also grab new talent to stay \nin control and you end up with an Assistant booking your shows. To be fair I’ve \nseen some Assistants do better jobs, but for now lets stay on the topic.,\nYou don’t want someone who comes to the show to sign you and you never see \nthem again.\nThink back to all the shows you have been to. Which agents were there? Until the \nend! Who can name your songs and not from a cue sheet their assistant handed \nthem. Who will answer your call when you ring them without an appointment?\nAsk promoters. They don’t like agents but they respect the good ones and they will \nhave good feedback. Look at other Artists you like. Who did great runs of shows \nwhere the travel looked decent and planned out well, where perhaps there was \nalso a special show where the agent had sought out a special venue for a one off?\nThese are all tell tale signs this was done with care. Your live income is your bread \nand butter so there is an argument this is the most crucial relationship. \nIf you have more than one agent especially, but no matter what, keep your agent \nupdated. When songs are to come out. When you need to be somewhere (for \nexample you are playing an Award show and you know 3 months in advance, \nmaybe you need a show to help with travel costs nearby)\nKeep them in touch with where the songs are reacting globally to allow them to \nshare this news with promoters who can then book you for the region or improve \nyour shows. COMMUNICATE or they cannot do their job.\nGo over the touring periods you want to give to each market. I set up an online WHO DO I CHOOSE?74 75calendar so everyone could layer in their targets at beginning of the year, and as \na manager I would decide which festivals, shows and public holidays were better \nfor the strategy and give them the green light to go hard after those targets. The \nothers still worked on options so if we failed we were OK but not wasting their \ntime working on a whole year when there are multiple agents, is vital to keep them \nengaged and enthusiastic.\n \nThey need to show you their plan is long term. If they say you will play everything \nthis summer… well that’s awesome but what about next year as none of the \nfestivals allow 2 years running?\nGood agents say… first we do this…. Then next year we do this….\nIf they plan to move you to Hard Tickets (your own shows) do they have experience \nat this? This is an expensive move. Not for the faint hearted but we will get there \nlater.DOES YOUR AGENT HAVE A PLAN?Traditionally there is no signed agreement with your Agency. I have never signed \none. If you need to move on, be nice, explain why but not in an aggressive way. \nThey will commission all shows they confirmed or 99% confirmed. The new agent \nstarts and commissions all new revenue.FIRING YOUR AGENTLAWYERS76 77You use a lawyer to sign deals. Most deals have a clause which ask you to confirm \nyou sought legal advice, this is to cover their ass so that you can never claim you \ndidn’t know what you were signing.\nLawyers charge in different ways.\n1. By the hour.\n2. A Percentage of gross revenue.\n3. A percentage of some gross revenue (IE take our touring).\nThere’s no right answer here. I’ve had clients where I have needed a constant \nlawyer due to the sheer volume of songs being created. I’ve had clients where I \nneeded a lawyer once a year when someone claims against one of my songs for \nexample.\nDoes the Artist pay the 5% on top of your commission? That’s between you and \nthe Artist. I paid the lawyer in my case, so I took my share and paid the lawyer \nfrom my income. Essentially we were partners. Others I have seen charge on top. \nDiscuss it with your Artist and do what’s right. Obviously the Artist won’t want any \nmore costs but as they will own the catalogue you create for life and 70 years post \ndeath, perhaps you can argue your income is shorter term and they need to pay it. \nEither way an open conversation is needed.\nDo you have one lawyer or more? Lawyers tend to be experts in the country they \noperate in, and the copyright laws there. They can also only really defend you in \na case brought in their territory. But most have good global knowledge and can \nhandle the day to day, or call on local experts when needed. I always used a \nlawyer from the country where the record deal is based, but that’s not essential.\nThe lawyer may want to be exclusive, so if a lawyer becomes essential in another \ncountry and you are paying 5% perhaps you want to insist that comes from their \nfees. Negotiation of live contracts - that’s your agent. Basic deals - I must admit I have \ndone myself as I gained confidence over the years. \nSample Waivers, I used a template given to me by a lawyer and issued it and sent \nit to them once signed. This template can also come from your label who want to \nknow they covered themselves and so decide the terms they will accept.\nNDA’s. Ask them for a template for your staff and touring staff, then issue yourself.\nLitigation - well that big day has come and someone is taking you to court all the \nway for stealing their song or at least claiming you did. Then you need a Litigator. \nNormally your lawyer will recommend one and stay involved during the process.\nI will go over what paperwork you issue per deal you create later on.WHEN DO YOU NOT NEED A LAWYER?\nSome lawyers will actively go find you deals. They have good relationships with \nbrands and bring deals in. This is quite rare in my opinion but some do, and it’s \nalways worth the conversation if this is a service they provide, so expectations are \ncorrect AND you remember to tell them what you are looking on a regular basis if \nthey do. They can’t help you if they have no idea what you want.\nLegal Fees can sometimes be contributed to by the Record Company who want \nto sign you. They give you a budget in the agreement. Remember to look for this \nand invoice them for it.WHAT ELSE DO THEY DO?\nAs I mentioned earlier, lawyers with terrifying reputations are amazing at getting \nhuge advances but more and more now they stay involved for longer so a balance \nof getting you the dream deal with being someone your label respects is worth \nconsidering.HOW DO I CHOOSE?78 79• Do they understand your goals?\n• Have they done other work you admire?\n• Do they have a good working relationship with the label or labels you \nare considering?\n• Do they allow you to ask questions and answer them without patronizing \nyou and in a way you understand?\n• Do they charge rates you can afford?\nYour agreement with them will have the termination terms on there. Check this \nbefore you sign and know how you get out and what that costs the Artist if you \ndo. Ironically the agreement they send you to sign also says ‘I confirm I got legal \ncouncil on this deal’ which means you need a lawyer to check your deal with your \nlawyer. I rarely see people do this, so be careful here what you sign. WHAT IF I WANT TO CHANGE?I THINK YOU ASK YOURSELF \nTHESE QUESTIONS: BUSINESS \nMANAGERS80 81Like I said earlier, for your Business Manager you need someone diligent. I find \nsome can be reactive. Royalty Statement comes in, invoice goes out. Sometimes \nwithout ever asking you for a copy of the deal. So I’ve wondered how do they know \nthe royalty rate was right? I’ve seen some miss Royalty Statements completely.\nNo matter what, I’m afraid it is your job to check these come in. But half the battle \nis someone who takes an interest in where the money is coming from and what \nyou are owed.\nSomeone who keeps you informed in a simple and regular manner.\nI’ve also had clients who think they don’t need to pay tax. As in.. AT ALL. I was \nsent off to another country to meet a finance guy who was going to run the tax \nfree set up. He was pretty patronizing and I didn’t trust him and thank goodness, \nbecause I then googled experts in their field, asked a couple of other managers I \ntrusted and ended up with someone who absolutely showed me why the other tax \nstructure was illegal. My client would have ended up in jail. \nNow I have no legal expertise at all, but I used my instinct, and I was right.\nAsk your Artist what they want to know. Do they want to know Royalty amounts \nwhen they come in, or be able to see the amount coming in for shows, and the \ncosts for shows? Some do, some don’t. But ask, and have that narative open and \nflexible to change as your business grows.\nArtists can not want to ask after a while and you can feel not trusted if they do. \nThis is not the case. Money is a number, it’s there to be discussed, costs to be \nchallenged, it’s all part of evolution.\nWhoever you hire, be clear on their financial terms before you begin.Within the Artist’s business you will need to do the following :\n• Raise invoices for income due to them. This can include show invoices, \nadvances, royalties and brand deals\n• Insure your shows\n• Pay Bills\n• VAT and Tax Returns\n• Trademarks\n• Foreign Tax Reduction Applications\n• Tax and Salaries on Employees\n• Secure things like credit cards and mobile phones\nBusiness Manager’s can do all of this and more. I was at a school once where a \nmillionaires’ Business Manager was doing the scouting for schools for a client who \nwas moving there!\nBut the reality is you have to get the costs and choose what you want them to do.\nIf you are happy to raise invoices I would really recommend the accounts software \nXERO. This is online, accessible by your Business Manager and allows you to \ncode income and costs. It also shows you your bank balances all the time so you \ncan see who owes you, what you owe and what you have in easy reports.\nIf you raise invoices, your Business Manager will need copies so they can ‘reconcile’ \nyour accounts which means… putting them in a format the tax man understands. \nYou can pay your own bills online, XERO allows you to store the receipts from \nyour phone to match (i told you about filing right? This includes receipts!) For \nexample you can give your tour a code on XERO, and it will then tell you the profit \nyou made. You can give income a code, like Live Touring, or Royalties, or even \nRoyalties from a certain company, and it will tell you the totals. \nI doubt you can do a tax return so I really would advise they do them for you if you \ncannot afford them to do the rest.SO WHAT DO THEY DO?82 83Well that’s a tricky one. \nIf you are not a USA Citizen, but you tour there a lot, you may well need to open \na USA Company or bank account. The USA, like all countries worldwide, take \n‘Withholding Tax’ or WHT from your gigs at the source. It will be deducted by the \npromoter or the agent by law, plus the State Taxes. The current rate of this is 30% \nfor WHT. To do a CWA you need someone who is authorized to speak with the \nIRS on the applicant’s behalf via Form 2848 Power or Attorney or Form 8821 Tax \nInformation Authorization. \nThis can cripple you when touring - remember your agent is also taking 10% off \nthe top. So you get under 60% to play with plus the cost of your crew getting there.\nYou can reduce this to 30% of your PROFIT which is often a lot less if you apply \nfor a CWA. This is a Central Withholding Agreement. Basically you say to the IRS \n‘hey I may be earning 10,000 USD but I’m only making 4,000 USD so please only \ncharge me 30% of that’.\nYou have to apply 45 days in advance with a budget and a signed copy of the \ncontract. You can apply for multiple shows per CWA so a whole tour or if you know \nall your shows for a period of time, do them all. When you apply you guess your \ncosts, and be realistic, don’t over do the costs or the IRS will not like you. But you \ndon’t need to know your flight and hotel costs exactly. Put in solid estimates. You \nsubmit a true return via your business manager after the show, with receipts. ALL \nof them. So that meal you got in an airport where you left the receipt on the tray - \nKEEP THE RECEIPT.\nTo do a CWA you need a USA Business Manager in my experience, and you need \nto own a USA company. Normally called an LLC. You do need to do the maths \nhere. If you pay Withholding Tax, you get it back about a year later… but you get \nit back as a credit against your own tax bill.\nIf the IRS agree you may be required to pay the lower amount of tax upfront. In \nthis case, if you have no cash, the Agent can ask the promoter if he will allow DO YOU NEED MORE THAN ONE?the deposit to be released to you. It’s not a service all Agencies offer and it’s \nnot something the Promoter has to do and you have to sign paperwork to be \nresponsible to return the money if you cancel etc.\nSo the Math is…\n• What is the cost of the business manager / accountant to process the tax \napplication?\n• You need a USA Bank Account what are the costs associated with this?\n• If you don’t do a CWA and you have a massive tax credit in the USA at the end \nof the year, is your tax bill back home the same size or bigger? If you don’t \nhave a big tax bill at home to credit it against, you don’t get the difference back \noften. I’ve seen this happen, where an Artist is not American, but their touring \nrevenue was 90% USA.\nIf the cost of these services are worth it for the cash flow you will gain by paying \nless tax while you tour through the year, do it. I always do it.\nWARNING:\nThe simple act of performing in the USA triggers the need to file a tax return. Say \nwhat? Yes. Speak to your business manager about which countries this applies to \nfor you, you need to set reminders, ensure you have the people in place to do it, \nand follow it up for copies which you sign and FILE. \nGeneral notes if you are still in this chapter? If you left… well that’s a common \nmistake and you need to know this! In general most countries in the world apply \na rate of Withholding Tax to shows. They take it from the promoter, not you. You \nnever see the cash. Rates vary from 12% to 30% normally. Sometimes you don’t \nsee any, well that’s the promoter not deducting, it does exist I assure you in 99% \nof cases.\nI tell my agents to ALWAYS present an offer to be with the tax clear.WITHHOLDING TAX84 85IE the show is $10,000 USD and tax is 13%, which it is in China for example, Net \nAmount = 8,700 USD. Do State Taxes or any other formal legal tax deductions \noccur? You need to know what you get NOW. Or how can you cash flow? Make \nthem SPELL IT OUT.\nRemember they take 10% off the top, so actually you get 7,700 USD which is a huge \ndifference from telling yourself it’s 10k. It’s not. Some countries allow split contracts. \nA legally agreed percentage you can charge for production (your crew and kit) and \na Performance Fee.\nFor example:\n$10 000 Fee\n30% Production, 70% Performance Fee. \nSo you get\n$10,000 Fee broken into..\n$3,000 Production Fee (not subject to tax)\n$7,000 Performance Fee (subject to 13% tax)\nSo you would get 910 USD in tax removed. (13% of the $7,000 Performance \nFee)\nSo this means you get\n$10,000 Gross\n$9,090 After Tax on the Production Fee\n$1,000 Agency Fee (charged on the gross remember)\n$8,090 to you.\nSo what happens to that $ 910?\nWell you get it back… You know that nightmare time when your tax bill comes in… \nyou have receipts in the form of Withhold Tax Certificates (receipts) for what you paid \nglobally. Most countries worldwide have a Treaty. They all withhold to make sure all \nyou pesky rock stars pay your taxes then they all pay each other back so they all get \ntheir taxes.\nSo you have a Tax Bill of $50,000 USD. But over the year you have paid $25,000 \nin Withholding Tax. You will show the tax man (or woman) your receipts and its deducted, technically leaving you $25,000 to pay. If you don’t have the certificates, \nyou only have your agency statements showing the tax deducted this is NOT \nenough to claim. Sometimes they accept it… But sometimes…the promoter didn’t \npay the tax, they went bankrupt or just didn’t pay it. And this , is your problem sadly.\nIt is your job to make sure these certificates come in. Your agent needs to chase \nthem and they don’t normally offer to do that. But it is their job. They commissioned \non the gross, and they need to make sure the total money be it in actual funds or \nin tax certificates come in.\nI run a column in the Artist diary, and on the fee’s column, next to it I note the WHT \namount, and then another column which confirms I have filed the tax certificate \nand I keep the whole year in one place.\nThis also allows you to keep a tally of what was deducted, and what you SHOULD \nget back from your tax bill. But never count on it.\nLike I said, in the rare case your tax bill back home is SMALLER than the tax you \npaid overseas, at the time of writing this I have never seen a refund happen. One \nexception is that in some countries you can move the tax credit to a later year. \nSpeak to your business manager to be sure you know the status of Withholding \nTax balances at the end of the year before you start. Know your countries rules. \nAnd remember, it’s not YOUR personal country, it is the country where the Artist is \na tax resident (pays tax). This can be different from where they live! Be clear here. \nIt sounds more complicated than it is. Where are they tax resident… what are the \nrules. Ask that and you will be fine\nHowever I have never seen a tax bill lower than the WHT paid either BUT if you \nhad a year of heavy investment, maybe you bought all your touring kit, or you \nbought a new studio, you may have a very low tax bill, and in that case the tax you \npaid overseas stays… overseas.\n1. On all shows, ask your agent to show you the tax amount as a number, not \njust as a percentage, from the very first time a show is mentioned. Awareness \nis everything\n2. Ask your agent and business manager if there is a split contract possibility for \nthe region. They will have experience of other shows there and will tell you if \na Production / Performance split is possibleHOW CAN I MINIMIZE MY \nTOURING TAX?86 873. With smaller independent agencies I always asked they bill their commission \ndirect. So the 10% they charge isn’t included in my fee, on which I pay tax. \nEvery dollar helps and once you get to 100k fee’s this can be 1,300 USD in \nsavings on an Asia show for example. Which is someone’s flight there. Large \nagencies are not keen on this, but can when asked nicely oblige you.\n4. Log all WHT you pay for the year and tick them off as you receive the tax certs. \nThese can not be issued for a time after the show to the promoter, sometimes \nseveral months, so make a note of the date they say they will get it and put \nit in your diary to remember to chase and make a note on the sheet you’re \nlogging tax on.\n5. If you have a large tour you may need a local tax agent to apply for the reduction \nlike a CWA. Australia is a good example of this. I use Michael Roseby. He \ncharges by the tour, and asks for his fee upfront. He will then do a process \nlike the CWA. Submits signed agreements and your budget, reducing the tax \nto only on the profit predicted to be made, a large saving for me. In this case, \nfor me also, the Client had a tax structure which saved him global tax in many \nways and he could not claim back WHT certs under this structure (this is rare \nand not for beginners so don’t stress about it) but for me, WHT certs were \nworthless so reduction of tax upfront was the name of the game.\n6. When do you hire a local tax person? When their cost is worth the cash flow \nto you instead of waiting to get it back later. Get a quote, do the math, decide. \nAnd then of course save EVERY receipt you can. Always ask what is a valid \ncost. Food on the road is often classed as subsistence, perhaps also your \nPersonal Assistant who works remotely but didn’t come on the road, their \nsalary for the tour period may apply. Visuals you bought for the year can be \napplied at a fair percentage for the show using them… etc. Get creative but do \nNOT take advantage or lie. I’ve seen it come back to haunt people.\n7. Your business manager is always a good person to ask if it’s worth it and will \nhave a local tax agency they use - I’ve only ever done it in Canada, Australia \nand America.1. With the fee offer, ask your agent to tell you with the fee offer, what the \nrate of any taxes deducted is and confirm the net amount\n2. Ask your agent to be clear if you can split the fee into Production and Fee \nportions, and do you need to justify the splits with any forecasts and if \nso, by what date?\n3. Get ahead on asking your Business Manager if you can claim more WHT \nback if your tax bill is smaller at the end of the year and how long these \nrefunds take to come.\n4. Keep a running list of tax you paid.\n5. Set a reminder to chase tax certificates and file them.\n6. Ask how much WHT reduction agent fees are before you start and what \nyou need.\n7. Ask your Business Manager which tax returns you have to do. They can \nonly tell you this if you tell them where you are touring, which, if you are \ndoing your own invoicing, you may not be doing. Share a calendar with \nthem of shows. Set reminders for when these are due, and file all copies.WITHHOLDING TAX SUMMARY\nThey can set an hourly rate, set a retainer or charge you a percentage normally \nnever exceeding 5%. I prefer hourly rates and I cap the amount they can go up to.BUSINESS MANAGER FEES\nWith a hourly rate company, set a maximum per month or per job they can go to \nand they have to alert you first before going over that.CAPPING FEES88 89A&R DEALS\nIf you do the job of A&R independently, it \ngenerally means you are focusing on the part \nof the job which finds the songs. In these cases \nyou can charge people as follows:\n• Retainer. This may have exclusivity within \nthe genre of music if it’s high.\n• Points. A royalty of varying size for the song. \nThis lasts for the life of the song and you \nneed a ‘Letter of Direction’ from the Artist \nfor the label to direct and then claim from \nthe Artist when they own the song after their \nLicense Deal is up.\n• Publishing. Very very rare but some do get it \nif they truly put the entire thing together.\n• Expenses. Cars to sessions, flights to \nsessions, living expenses and hotels when \non the road for you.PUBLISHERS\nThis is who collects money created by \nthe composition of a record. The lyrics, \nthe music etc. Some of my students get \nconfused here and think you need a label \nOR a Publisher. This is not the case. IF \nyou wrote on the records, you need both \nservices.\nBut...you don’t NEED a Publishing Company. \nYou need someone to collect the revenue. \nRead on my friends!90 91As I said in the Record Company section try and agree that no Gratis License \n(free usage) requests for media partners using 30 seconds or less, for a period of \n2 weeks can be blocked. This is to stop publishers blocking you from a SnapChat \nor IG filter for example, which they do when they are battling those platforms. \nRemember you don’t own the whole song unless you have 100% of the writing so \nsomeone else may block it but don’t let it be you.\nAlso add that the Publisher may not disapprove of a sync - IE if you want to sync to \nNike at 1,000 USD, you can. They will not like it as Nike perhaps took advantage \nof you by knowing you want it, but… there’s no time sometimes to worry about \nprecedents you set. (Nike of course don’t take advantage but you see my point… \nwhen you need the look, nothing should hold you back).\nYour Publisher is who you have to go to and collect your Publishing Share. \nTechnically you don’t need one. You can do the syncs yourself, and your Society \ncan collect that share for you. I must admit I had to sync for an artist for 18 months \nand it was a living hell. All the TV shows with tiny amounts when you have to \nagree, then check back 2 months later if it was used, then register on their invoice \nsystem, then invoice, then chase the invoice.\nIt was a NIGHTMARE. I had to do it as we were in a legal battle with our prior \npublisher. It’s a long story, but I would not recommend it unless your Artist is big \nenough to have someone full time in your office doing it.\nWhat I will say is that the money we generated was 5 times what we had seen in \nsyncs prior. Which I thought was strange. I obviously assumed it would be less as \nwe were less experienced but I do believe we got back to everyone, and did every \ndeal (where suitable). I do think the big publishers possibly focus on the bigger \nrevenue syncs and the little ones, which really add up, don’t get done, but that’s \njust a theory.NEW ADVICE ALERTSo what else does your Publisher do?\n• They register the song. Their number ONE responsibility. Make sure your \ncontract clearly says they do it. You can get out of your deal if they do \nnot (it will take time and a good lawyer but I have actually seen it done). \nEnsure you know and follow their registration procedures\n• They do your syncing, which includes handling incoming enquiries \n• Pitching to people to use the music - movies, brands and TV shows\n• Help secure writers or producers for you by listening to your needs, from \ntheir own roster or going to other Publishing companies (they all swap \nso they can go to others) to secure songs for you\n• Help change laws and protect your music\nAn ‘Admin’ Deal is normally cheaper and means you get less services. Less \noutgoing pitches and is more about going out and collecting. Essentially doing \nyour ‘Admin’.\n A Publishing Deal means they promise, but cannot be held accountable, if they do \nnot deliver, to the items on the previous page. \nEither deal can receive an advance although Publishing Deals are more likely to \ndo so. Again, like your record deal you recoup this BEFORE you get any more \nmoney.\nAdmin Deals can be as low as 5% commission. Publishing Deals can be 25% \ncommission. I’ve seen however superstars secure 4% Publishing Deals. Be \nsure to ask if Sub Publisher rates are included in your deals. This is when they \nuse Publishers across the world to service their global business, and those \nSub Publishers take commission. Is that on top, deducted before it gets to your \nPublisher and they also take their commission? Or included? Be clear here.\nAsk for approvals on all syncs. Again, get back to them same day, it takes 15 mins \na day to stay on top of this and you will become known as someone who is fast \nwhich can mean you get more opportunities. Tell them what you are doing, what \nyou are looking for. The types of brands you love, movies you love and want to be \na part of. DEAL TERMS92 93Send them new releases or how will they sync? Tell them if you are willing to write \nthe brief for commercials or movies. If you are ingesting a larger catalogue to a \nPublisher I make them Spotify playlists of tracks and name them. ‘Suitable for \nGaming’, ‘Love Songs’, ‘Cinematic Music’ if you think globally these offices will \nlisten to 200 songs when they sign you, you are dreaming. Make it EASY for them \nto engage with you. They will appreciate you for it.\nYour deal is typically 3 years. But there’s no rules. It could also be for a set number \nof songs delivered but that is less usual in this space. The Retention Period is how \nlong they can keep collecting on the songs you delivered. It can be 5 years - 15 \nyears or none at all. Depends how big you are.\nThe shorter the better. Set reminders as to:\n1. When your deal ends with 6 months notice so you can take meetings on where \nto go next.\n2. On Retention, so you know when those songs return to you, again with 6 \nmonths notice so you can plan ahead.RETENTION PERIOD\nOnce again your friend and you must have the right to Audit every 3 years. Set a \nreminder for 6 months before so you can decide if you want to, hire an Auditor (your \nbusiness manager or peers will recommend) and notify the Publishing Company - \nthe process for which is outlined in your agreement.AUDIT\nSPILTS\nThis is how you ‘split’ the Publishing between all the writers. No legal formula \nexists. You have to negotiate. Start with what you feel is fair and get everyone to \nagree. Your record can’t come out if you don’t. A sample can also take a percentage \nwhich goes to all the writers who made the sample in the same proportion as they \nwrote what you used. So if they all split their record evenly, getting 25% each, and \nyou agree they get 20% of yours, each writer there gets 25% of the 20%. Getting \n5% each on your record and all of them are listed as writers on your ‘label copy’ \n(the big list of people involved) Who gets Publishing? Just writers? Nope. Anyone \ncan demand a slice of Publishing - its your call if you give it. REGISTERING YOUR SONGS\nBe clear with them what they register. Do they register with your Collection Society \nfor your writing share or do you have to? The norm is they do it. I saw one HUGE \nissue here where they were supposed to and didn’t! So check the process but then \ncheck your statements which show your songs on all services and that they made \nit on. Do not assume sending your label all the info makes it there.\nAsk how your Publisher wants to be notified of new work. What does this require. \nThis can include length of song, lyrics etc. Also it can include you handing in the \ninstrumental and the stems or at least having them on file. Why? Because some \nTV shows and movies etc will not want the whole file or to adapt it. Don’t lose a \nmovie sync because your Artist didn’t give you the stems. Get them when the \nsong comes out before laptops get lost and back ups don’t happen. \nWhen registering, how do you confirm they got it? What’s your ‘receipt’ it’s in? \nCHECK.Superstars who do not write can demand a piece (and the money they get from \nit) can still demand a piece of publishing. This is because they feel they made it \nmassive and want to share in all the revenue it generates. Producers can do the \nsame. And to be honest I think that’s fair enough. \nIf a record is covered, generally the writing splits stay the same. But let’s say you \nhave a song that’s not done well, and someone massive wants to cover it, they \nmay say they need a Publishing share. If they do, you may choose to grant it but \nevery writer has to agree. Same with syncs. It’s your song, and you have a massive \nCoca Cola ad, and you’re mad excited because it means HUGE exposure. Every \nsingle writer has to agree and you may never have met some of them. You need \na free usage for an Instagram Lense…? Same. Every single writer has to agree. \nNow you can put in their agreements that every single sync is pre cleared, but do \nthey even have those rights to give away? I’ve never seen it, plus writers want \ncontrol of their work - you would for sure! But if they do say that’s ok and their \nPublishing Deal doesn’t allow them this freedom, you will hit a wall. In general \nstay in touch with the writers, and when you do a deal, get their phone numbers \nand publishers phone numbers for emergency clearances and file it with the song.94 95COLLECTION\nSOCIETIESYou don’t actually NEED a Publisher. What you do need however, is a Collection \nSociety. These can have various names (confusion sets in… I feel you)\nIf you have a Publisher you STILL NEED THIS.\n• Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers: it is the most standard name \nlike in CISAC = International Confederation of Authors and Composers. \nAlso known as...\n• Copyright Collecting Societies \n• Authors and Publishers of Music = Societe des Auteurs Compositeurs et \nEditeurs de Musique = SACEM\n• Performing Rights Organisations = PRO\n• Performing Rights for Music (PRS)\n• Collecting Societies for Music\nYou do not necessarily have to register in the country where you were born / hold a \npassport. Ask your business manager for advice and always speak to them. They \nare actually VERY friendly. You cannot however, that I have seen, audit them.\nRegistrations have sell by dates. It’s around 5 years. No registration? The money \nis redistributed to lower their operating costs or between other artists - the rules \nvary.96 97STORES\nDigital stores are referred to \nin meetings with your label as \nDSPs.Pretty self explanatory, this is where you sell music. Digital or Physical. Later on I \nwill show you how to know where to focus but the world does not revolve around \nSpotify, Apple and YouTube. There are many amazing stores globally, capable of \ndelivering millions of streams, revenue and boosting your profile in the region.\nWhen you determine your markets to focus on (explained later) make sure you \nknow ALL stores in the region and check how your profile looks. You think the \nlabel ensures your nice fancy new profile picture goes up worldwide? They do not. \nGoogle, and make a list for your International Rep to fix it, and then check back \nand make sure you are all good.\nStores generally now all need you at the same time and require ‘Parity’. This \nmeans they all get the same. Some people do buck this and deliver extras to \ntheir favourite store but this can result in less action on other stores in terms of \nplaylisting and profiling.\nWarning here: streaming platforms consider themselves Radio Stations. If you \n‘premiere’ on radio, and indeed I have been shot down for even mentioning the \nword Premiere on my socials, they consider you put it there first and will pull back \non support in many cases.\nRadio will tell you they won’t give you the love if you don’t go with them first. \nDebate what is best. You can time a release within reason to go when the radio \nplay goes live. It’s not easy and not everyone will help you but it can be done.\nLiners (video and audio) for these platforms do get used. If the label asks you for \nthem, do them, but make them look nice. They can spread like wildfire and if you \nspit them out walking down the street that’s ok, but be ready for them to be shared \nby fans.\nYour Smart URL (the link where you send fans and it lists all the places to consume) \nlink can be made yourself, or link in your Bio in IG etc. Be sure here to tell your \nlabel who to include. They will do the obvious ones but for me I always wanted \nto include Gaana and JioSaavn in India, BoomPlay in Africa, Melon in Korea, \nNetEase for China and so on. There’s no point hammering home a link that your \nfan bases don’t subscribe to. Use your Top Ten Markets exercise I’ll give you later, \nto determine which stores go into your Smart URL.98 99I miss this. Building up a record before release so kids were waiting for it… but \nstreaming changed the rules. HOWEVER - you can get around it. Stores tend not \nto mind the following pre-promotion:\n• 60 second clips in your socials especially if linked to a pre-save\n• Live Performance - you played it out live… and it’s shared by you and your \nfans… with crowd noise. So far, no one has complained about that to me. And \nthis is a great organic way to build anticipation\n• You can drop records to DJ’s and they can play them out BUT they cannot play \non radio before it’s in stores. So controlling that can be tough. Send to those \nyou trust or the promo company (covered later) can say NO RADIO on drops \nbut it doesn’t always work, so be mindful. But a few cool DJ’s playing the track \nis good. Old fashioned and I love that!PROMO BEFORE RELEASE\nStores will tell you they base their entire business on algorithm and to some extent \nthat is more and more true. However as you build contacts, you can pitch tracks \nto editors. Keep it brief, include the URI (the label will give it to you) to help editors \nfind it in their system if it’s not out yet.\nA short pitch - like ‘Hey, I think you will like this one for XXX playlist. FYI we will be \nheading to Coachella this year, full European festival run in the summer, hope to \nsee you there, it’s looking like a big year for us. The last record did XXX streams \nand performed amazing in this one, Shazam’s were mental! Send link to previous \nsong etc etc’. Be short, factual, be nice.CAN YOU PLUG STORES?\nIf Spotify offers you a ticket pre sale, or someone else offers a feature like a lyric \nvideo or video interview, YES, you can do that. As long as the track is in all stores, \nextra promo you are offered can be taken without offending other stores. If they CAN YOU DO EXCLUSIVES WITH \nSTORES?First of all go to similar Artists and it will show you on their page playlists they \nappeared in. Go there. Heavy records can work well on workout playlists, some \nbands love making an acoustic version and dropping it later and there are whole \nplaylists for this etc. Go to these lists, write down the name. Look on Instagram, \nare they on there? Can you DM them your track? Building a database of who to \nsend records to is vital. There are various services, decently priced, who will \npush for you. PlayList Push App is one. But the reality is, this is a grind. Look at \nothers, find the editors, target them. This is a task for all year round. Not a panic \npre release.PERSONALIZED PLAYLISTS\nThey take a percentage for selling on their platform. If you want to be really fancy \nand you have a spare day, you can work out from your statement how much you \ngot per million streams. This varies per store and per country. This is because your \nstreams are broken into freemium (in the free part of a store supported by ads) \nand all kinds of other rules they apply. Why would you do this crazy thing? Well - I \nfound some CRAZY results. \nI found one store, in the Philippines (one of the biggest markets for this Artist) paid \n13 times more than the one I thought paid me the most! This meant my label had \nbeen nagging me to promote this store and I thought I’d done enough promo and \nsuddenly my respect for this store shot through the roof and I did a local campaign \nfor them and I posted them more. It also helps you plan. How much did your \nYouTube video generate? Can you afford the video? It’s a process with so many \nTBC’s. This science has so many variables. But it’s a guide and who doesn’t want \nto be able to tell the Artist how much you made per million streams.MONEYwant you they do need to come forward and ask for you, so if they missed it, that’s \nnot your fault. But sometimes I drop the others a note, and tell them I’m doing a \nshow with one store, and hope that’s cool. They appreciate sometimes not being \nblindsided and able to come with their own looks for you. Invite editors to shows, \nbe careful about sending gifts, bribery is frowned upon.100 101TELEVISIONTV is a good way when your record is popping to help take it all the way home. \nGenerally they want records with heat on them unless you are a superstar and \nthen they will allow new music. It’s expensive. TV shows rarely pay costs, and \nremember if you have a Featured Artist on the track you are paying all their costs \ntoo plus ensuring they are available, ideally before you try and pitch.\nThe label pitches for you, or your independent Publicist who will tell you if they do \nTV early on, this is more common in the USA where they do both.\nCosts for you will include whatever show you need to build, your equipment, travel, \nhair and make-up, styling, travel and ground transport.\nSame for your Featured Artist. If you do do it, this cost is sometimes recoupable \n(your money) or non recoupable - make this clear in your contract. Don’t let \nMarketing not be defined to explain TV performances. If it’s non recoupable you \nmay find your label hesitant to pitch because it’s all their cost. Push hard if you \nfeel it’s right.\nLOOK at the TV show first. Is the stage big enough, is it more designed for songs \nwith vocalists and you will look stupid DJ’ing by yourself? Is there an audience to \nadd vibe? Don’t grab it, then look like an idiot. Look at the viewer ratings for the \nshow and previous performances when deciding if you spend.\n \nTV Plugger independent agencies rates vary. Ask before you start.102 103MARKETING\nCOMPANIES\nThese come in various forms. First of all your \nlabel should provide these services so if you \nhave a good Marketing Manager on your team \nhopefully you don’t need one for records. \nThey tend to come in these formats.SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES\nDIGITAL MARKETING\nTRADITIONAL MARKETINGThese guys will help you create a content plan, advice on posting strategy and \ntimes, come up with digital ideas to make you stand out. Personally I think most \nArtists and Managers and often your interns are a great place to start and use \na good graphic designer who is flexible to make different types of content like \nanimations, short videos through to IG Gif stickers.\nFees here range from monthly retainers to per project - like a launch. Can be \n$1k per month can be $10k for a project. Depends, negotiate and insist you get \nreporting, how often and what day of the week. In my opinion reporting means they \nare ON IT. And not just at the end of the project. Week 1 reports mean they have \nchecked results and you can tailor make the remaining 3 weeks to fit how you are \ndoing. PLUS you get data to dive into and share with others who can use it.\nThis goes beyond social and can work on entire plans online including stunts and \nglobal strategies, hiding things online, hosting specialist websites that do crazy \nthings, building games, app’s etc. Again, hopefully your label can do this plan with \nyou, and then you just find the developer for the build. \nFees: normally these guys are on a project by project basis. Same rules on reporting \napply. They will also need a ‘spend’ which is a budget to buy the marketing the \nproject requires and this is normally on top.\nPhysical marketing is my favourite and due for a come back I think. Touching and \nfeeling marketing is so much more engaging. But it’s expensive. But… you can \nblend the two. Create a physical piece of marketing as one layer of your campaign \nand post about it in a way for people to join in online. For things as simple as \nbooking poster, sticker, stencil, billboard type campaigns, ask your label who they \nuse and what rates they get. For records, it’s their cost. For touring if they don’t \nearn on it it’s still good to get advice from them on who to use and rates. ALWAYS \nask for photos of posters etc going up. You can post them but you also know it \nactually happened!\nFees: if they designed the campaign, that’s a services fee. There is a fee for the \nspace they bought to put up the marketing. Or you can take the idea and then buy \nthe space yourself which may be cheaper. Reporting = same rules apply.104 105PROMOTIONAL\nCOMPANIESVarious types here. You may have a company who can help plug to their database \nof playlists on stores. Companies who will plug to specialist radio shows or drop \nrecords to DJ’s. Some companies do both.\nThere are also Record Pools like DJ City which offer more mass lists to drop \nrecords to. Be careful if you drop records before release. If it ends up on the radio, \nyou may annoy stores if it’s not yet available with them. \nAs I said earlier, they can label the promo drops NO RADIO but can have no liability \nif a DJ doesn’t respect that. That’s a risk so be careful. Larger radio promotion \ncompanies are covered in the Radio Section.\nFees: to work a record for a 4 week period I have found is around $1,000 USD for \nregular records. Bonuses can apply if they achieve certain targets featuring your \nsong. Reporting is weekly and VITAL. Radio & Streaming combined is around \n$1,500. Do you need both? How many radio shows are likely to feature you? \nDecide with the Artist.106 107\nPRPR stands for Public Relations. This is pieces written in the press ranging from \nreviews of your work to interviews or getting you snapped on red carpets etc. In \nthe old days you had one for print media (physical magazines and newspapers) \nand one for digital. This is now rarely the case and one agency will do it all.\nQuestions to ask are...\n1. Who else do you rep?\n2. What do you charge? (your label should provide PR but perhaps you feel you \nwant a bigger rep, or you want tours covered. However again, as a tour is to \npromote records, the label should step in here to help with announcements \nand reviews)\n3. What countries do you cover? While press online is global, agencies will \ntell you where their priorities are which is normally determined by where the \nwebsite is based. However for example The Daily Mail you could argue is the \nUK, but it’s a global site and most USA press agencies cover it and they have \nreporters and editors in the USA.\nI’ve run campaigns with a USA, India, French and Latam indie press agency \nbefore - 2 paid by the label, 2 paid by me. Plus the local label offices all received \nthe same press pack. Keep your publicist updated at all times, they need time, \nthey need the vision, even if they are not getting press for all of it yet they engage \nwriters by sharing the plan. They keep them engaged that way. They get them \nto buy in early. They need to know your plans, your updates, your shows, your \nrelease dates in AMPLE time and need constant new images and an updated biog.\nSo you’ve done a brand deal, or a movie soundtrack… and they want to do press \nwith you. Cool you say...Well intro them to your rep. What you don’t want is multiple \npeople selling you OR you had no idea your rep was close to a Rolling Stone cover \nrefusing a 8 page feature for 6 months and kept it quiet, and your brand rep goes \nin and takes the 8 page feature LOSING you the cover. This is bad. Co-ordinate. \nPublicists are strategists too. They have runways for you to get larger pieces, \nturning down and making you unavailable to look hard to get, to get you bigger \nlooks. They may not explain all of this to you, so discuss it and keep them in the \nloop.108 109Fees range from retainers for constantly supporting the vision, to one off fees. If \nyou have a month off you still pay them knowing some months you do more, some \nmonths you do less. This ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 a month. Remember you \nmay need more than one. They do need to communicate.\nFees can be per project like a single. This means they will work the record and \nyour presence around it, then stop. They will not continue when the single period \nis over and that period is not when you think the record has stopped, it’s when the \nagreed period of time ends. Be clear.\nReporting: same rules apply and keep scans of the links they send for your portfolio \nas you go along.RADIO110 111Radio is a mystery to many of us. It’s a format now competing with streaming in \na big way. You will want to go go go go go at the start of a single, and the label \nmay want to hold back. Why? Well, first of all it might be their cost and huge pop \nrecords can cost up to 200,000 USD in marketing costs to deliver a chart topper. \nIs this cost recoupable? ASK this when you do your deal as this will help you \nunderstand whose money you are spending and their mindset when it comes to \ncommitting. You will start to have radio shows that love you and you can go to \nthem from day 1. They know their audience wants anything you have, and it’s a \nsolid start.\nHowever, IF you choose to go to pop radio or any mainstream format (in America \nyou have Rhythm, Latin, Hip Hop, Pop and so on) be ready. Radio shows do \n‘research’. This is based on how many Shazams you generated when they played \nyou, which they can easily see in their region, what time you were played, how \nmany tweets, texts they got and so on.\nThey ask for the story when you go in, which can be you are streaming well in their \ncity / country, you are touring, you are massive on social media in their market so \nhave what information the label needs from you ready.\nYou can come out swinging, the song is new and people don’t recognize it (and \npeople want songs they know in their 30 min car journey), research badly and be \ndropped.\nBe prepared to build a relationship with the Radio Plugger at the label. Listen to \ntheir advice BUT question it. Can you go now? What’s the story? What is the \nearly reaction? What other good news week on week is happening on the record \nto update the pitch...COMMUNICATE.\nTrack Shazams. Support the stations that play you on social media, re-tweet, post \ntheir stories and if asked for Liners do them if you can (there can be hundreds).\nRadio do live shows, like Jingle Bell Ball in the USA, I Heart Awards, Radio One \nOne Big Weekend (UK), NRJ Awards (France) and so on. Being a part of these \ncan include the unwritten agreement of support on a song or Artist for the period \nof time up to the show, and some time afterwards.You won’t get paid for these, so it’s back to the questions 1) who pays for this and \n2) how much does it cost. \nRadio hosts are generally nice and when you know them, invite them to shows and \ndrop them an email with the link to the track with the release date and say ‘hey, \nthis once is BIG! Don’t play until XXX date but…. Wanted you to have now’\nThis will mean they feel informed, can leave space, may ask for liners or offer you \nan interview. If you are in their town offer to go in if the timing is right for more \npromotion. If they say no, that’s fine.\nFEES: specialist records will need a smaller handful of shows. Large USA pop \nrecords will require a wide campaign. Specialist can be 1-5k, a full Pop attack on \nUSA radio can be 40k in fees and 160k in marketing. Some will ask for bonuses \nlike if you go Billboard Top Ten or certain stations go into Power Rotation.\nYour Radio Plugger may also pitch you for live radio show performances and \ninterviews. Be clear on what they do.\nCOMPETING STATIONS\nWell it’s like stores, Radio Stations do not like if it you do something special with \na rival. Think before you commit, how does this affect the other stations and talk \nit through with your label what the best thing is for the Artist now, and long term.112 113PROMOTERSThese guys are a dying and undervalued breed and put on the shows we all rely \non to earn money and to reach mass audiences. They take all the risk normally for \nfestivals offering you a fee, no matter how many people turn up.\nSupport them. List their shows when they go on sale, on all your portals, and post \ntheir shows if you can. They will ask you to stream your show, and to be honest, \nI always say no. Or allow them to film and then I decide when and for how long it \ngoes up (also helps to see quality of film before it goes up). Some will insist and \nyour agent does need to tell you this from the start. If you don’t like streaming then \nyou can do a one-time, and one repeat broadcast.\nThis allows them to be live, and then for 24 hours fans who missed it on another \ntimezone can see it, then its down and do check! They also often want you to do \npress. A lot of this is not always great press. Ask your press agent or label for \nadvice but some blogger shoving an iPhone in your face before a show is not \ngood. Be supportive but be selective.\nAn old rule was also that you only allow shots from the first three songs for \ncamera’s from the press. For some artists this means the best shots are missing. \nAllow longer time, but also issue a guide. IE - 45 mins in, Track Name - Antidote \n- HUGE fire moment. So the photographer is not off shooting someone else when \nyou need them there. \nYou rarely if ever get shot approval. If you are so powerful you can ban all \nphotographers, issue 2 or 3 approved shots to an agreed rep of the festival 1 hour \nafter the show to ensure fan photos don’t become ‘the’ press shot.\nBE NICE\nBe nice to promoters, they take a lot of risk and we need them. Ensure your friends \nwho come don’t tear up the dressing room, say thank you when you leave and \ntreat them like you want to come back. Because even when you think you won’t \nyou often do….114 115VIDEO \nDIRECTORS\n& \nVIDEOS THE TYPES OF VIDEO PEOPLE\nYOU NEED\nTour video and daily life videos - usually this person is called a Videographer. \nRecap videos from your tour through to daily life Behind the Scenes type videos \nare done by a videographer. They may be on day rates (300-750 a day, more if \nthey are amazing) and include rates for days between shows on the road and \nediting days. \nGood things to look for are fast editing, so content can go up fast, and the ability \nto do engaging pieces from 7 seconds to 3 mins long. For the various platforms.\nThey should sign an NDA (non disclosure agreement) and you should have \npaperwork which means you own (outright) what they film. If you do not, they can \nhike up prices to give you footage for documentaries and other uses, or come to \na fair way to handle that. They can also publish later footage you don’t want the \nrest of the world to see. Use them on the road to also do your video liners and \nto deliver them to you on individual links for you to throw out to all your partners.\nAlso take them to music videos to do Behind the Scenes for you. You pay for their \ntravel, per diems and hotels on the road, and so always remember to agree the \ntravel types you can afford to early on. Ask them nicely to wear all black so they \ndon’t stand out on stage and move around easily, and remember to always check \nif they need a video pass at the show issued by the promoter.\nAnd never ever post before the Artist does (it happens, trust me) and share with \nthe management any links the Artist has posted so you can go around posting on \nall the other platforms.\nMUSIC VIDEOS\nFollow as many as you can online including their production companies who \noften rep multiple directors. Agree your budget with the label and be aware now… \ndirectors quote the cost, without insurance. Insurance is on top and the label will \nremove it from your budget so get that clear. \nAsk the label’s video commissioner to help you. Normally insist on doing so when \nan investment in a video is to be made.116 117They will help you - and as always, explain the vision for the Artist. Videos are \none chapter of your story, so them understanding where you want to go with all of \nthis helps them a lot. They will select a shortlist, and invite you to add to it. Based \non vision and budget. You then go out to these directors, with the Artist’s info, past \nwork where relevant, the song you want a video for, deadline etc.\nTo brief or not to brief? To brief the director means you give them some tips \non what you are looking for. There’s no right answer to this. I’ve seen the best \ntreatments in the world come in when no brief has been issued and the directors \nhad free reign. And I’ve seen equally good ones come in and nail it based on what \nthe Artist wanted.\nA ‘treatment’ is a PDF moodboard of images with the written storyline, image \nreferences and sometimes video references. Look at the directors past work and \nask how much approval you have on edits. Some allow none, some allow a lot. \nWhat will you accept? The bigger the director, the less control you tend to have. \nIf you feel you will want beauty work - improving skin for example in a video it will \nbe on top so discuss it with your commissioner from the offset.\nEnsure you order 3 trailers - 3 main feed IG up to 60 seconds and versions of \nthose cut into 15 seconds in story shape. If they cannot or will not do that, can \nyour video guy have the files and do them for you? If he or she is talented enough? \nThat’s a cheaper way sometimes. \nBRAND PLACEMENTS\nThese can come in before or after the treatment. Some brands will just want to \ngive you money because they know you always deliver and will get good views to \ntheir target market. \nIt’s then your job to try and make one of the scenes work to include the brand. \nMaybe a car is in it, maybe the Artist is holding a drink etc. The director needs to \nagree to honor the conditions of the brand (or brands) in the edit. They have to \nwork it into the script and that’s a conversation not a demand on set. This normally \nincludes who is holding the product (you rarely get away with extras), how long \na close up of the product is needed etc. If you don’t show them the treatment or \nadapt it and lets say add a shooting scene in it, the brand has the right to pull out.The brand has the right of approval before the video goes live. Save yourself a \nlot of trouble and follow the brief or you will end up in an edit which cost you more \nthan you made. Brands may also ask for a social media post from another Artist \ntagging them in the post. Be clear on this commitment. You may want the brand \nto also post, and get the reach of their socials if suitable. Check if you want that \nand be clear.\nCheck the brand in the video does not clash with any existing brand deals you \nhave. Eg you have a deal with Samsung - but the phone in the video is an Apple \nPhone. You may breech your deal. Brand deals typically offer about 25k for 5 \nseconds of time on screen but it can go up way past this depending on your size. \nThis can be valuable for all the extra costs you forgot which can include:\nOverages: the fancy word for costs that went over budget, you shot late, you \nwent over time, needed extra edits, needed extra special FX. \nInsurance: is on top and paid by the label and recouped from you at the rate your \nagreement states (under video recoupability). \nFeatured Artists: their travel, glam, styling and some charge for appearing. This \nis normally listed in their Featured Artist agreement with you when you contract \nthem to the record. They may also need their own trailer which was not in the \nbudget. Check with your commissioner what you do get, and what else you need.\nThe Featured Artist may also ban you from product placement or from products \nwhich negate their own brand deals. Ask from day one what the status is. Or \nremove their right to do so in their agreement when you sign them to the song. \nBut don’t ask them to hold the brand item if you do. \nYour Artists and your travel their trailer, travel, styling, glam. Rarely included in \na video budget. BTS film and photography is rarely included.\nBAN SOCIAL MEDIA AND PHOTOS OF \nANY KIND EXCEPT YOUR OWN ON SET . \nSTOP LEAKS.CREATIVE \nDIRECTORS \n118 119NEW ADVICE ALERT\nIf your record deal includes that if they bring in a brand deal they charge you \ncommission be CLEAR if this applies to videos. If they get Doritos to be in your \nvideo for 50k and you finally make the numbers work but they didn’t make it clear \nthat 20% of that is commission you are 10k under budget and that will be YOUR \nBILL. Now they may insist to do the service to give you some fancy video they \nneed but KNOW YOUR FACTS HERE. Keep notes on what they bought in and \ncheck your statements. I have found 50% of the time income like this has been \nmissed from my statement.SHOW \nDIRECTORS,\nGRAPHIC\nDESIGNERS\n&\nPHOTOGRAPHERS\n120 121A Creative Director is someone who comes in and overseas (normally with the \nArtist) that creatively all the layers tie together and applies a creative vision to the \nproject. It never works unless the Artist loves them, or often chooses them. They \nwork with the Artist (and you) to hear the vision, select graphic designs, video \ncreators and show designers to help bring the vision to life.\nThey can be involved as much as the Artist and can sign off anything from the logo, \nto the font you use, to how you use language in social media copy to marketing \ncampaigns. Drawing an invisible line through the content to create a feeling of \ncontinuity. This can be literally the logo is everywhere, to a gentler narrative turning \nup and turning down its volume.\nThey can insist on approval on assets, and you can insist they do so within a \ntime limit. They can oversee magazine shoots and press shots to video edits and \ntreatments. In some cases they also direct the videos and shows and you see \nthem in more than one roll. Sometimes it’s someone who you have known your \nwhole life with a good eye, sometimes it’s someone you hire, sometimes you don’t \nhave one. Few do to be honest.\nTheir fees can be per project, or a retainer with bonuses based on sales or the \nnumber of projects which end up happening.\nCan be 2k a month can be 20k a month. It depends and labels do not like paying \nfor them. So its more often than not your own cost. They can be free when you \nstart as they see the vision and want to get in early. 122 123A show designer may also be a show director. A show designer works to create \nthe show you see on stage at gigs and TV performances. Designing the stage, \nvisuals, lights, FX and so on. They work with people under them like your light \ndesigner. They don’t know everything about what’s on stage but they design the \noutline and the ‘look and feel’ of it. They create moments in shows which highlight \na mood or song, epic solo moments, crowd moments etc. They take the set from \nthe Artist and work it to become a story engaging the Audience fully.\nOnce this is done remember as a Manager to give the show schedule to your \nphotographer, videographer and press so they know when to get the best snaps.\nA show director (if they did not design the actual stage) simply works with Artist on \nthe musical journey of the set and all the triggers. Which visuals where…. Which \nFX where…. The visual journey, tempo and pace. More often than not the Show \nDirector also designed the show or worked with others to do so.\nSometimes the Creative Director IS the Show Designer and Director. An amazing \ndocumentary to watch on Show Designers is Abstract on NetFlix - the Es Devlin \nepisode, one of the greatest alive. \nShow Designers charge from tiny amounts for younger ones to 20k for good ones \nto 150k for the top ones. But… be careful to know how many shows they plan to \ncome to and their class of travel - these are all your costs. And be clear on budget. \nThey can’t create something you cannot afford to build. Set regular dates way in \nadvance for moodboards for drawings to be costed up, and then you need to go \nback to the drawing board when it’s over budget with no panic. Set these times \nin the contract and be aware of the level of rehearsals needed especially with \nmoving equipment. Rehearsals cost money so that’s your job to know.\nGRAPHIC DESIGNERS\nHired either per job, full time or on retainer. It’s always good to have a good all \nrounder. Capable of graphic design, basic animation of images, GIFs, and basic \nvideo editing. The longer you work with someone the better they get. Be sure they \nsign an NDA, they know your vision and you own their work outright created under \nthe term they work for you. This is vital.\nBe sure they understand if a record comes out on a Friday, you may need them \nthat weekend. Assets can pop up you need to create, adapting fan footage etc. If \nthey refuse from day 1, you have to account for that or hire someone else!SHOW DIRECTORS PHOTOGRAPHERS\nAgain, an NDA is signed, and you own their work OUTRIGHT or you do a ‘Full Buy \nOut’. If they refuse, bigger ones who do one off shoots do, read the restrictions. \nThis may be a date when you have to stop using the images (you cannot control \nothers sharing older uses but you may not issue these shots to partners to use \npast this date. So set the date in your diary. If there is a fee for extended use, \npay it). This may also be that you can use it for promotional use - and lay this out. \nTour Posters, Store profiles, Press shots etc. But they may not allow you to use \nyour show with brands. Like if you did a deal with Coca Cola and they want your \nimage on the billboard. ENSURE you AND your staff know this. I’ve been sued \nsuccessfully only once and it was over a photo where a staff member didn’t know \nan image could not be used in a certain place and it cost me 6 figures!\nEnsure their work belongs to you, and they cannot use it without permission (you \nwould grant them to have it in their portfolio or possibly a book once you see and \napprove it for example). \nChoose someone who will edit late night so your socials care reactive after shows. \nNice to have on the road. Ask them to wear all black on stage, again to move \ninvisibly wherever possible. Tag them when you can, but as this often leads to more \nwork for them be clear. If you want them to be exclusive to you either completely or \nwithin your genre and this is often reflected in their rates. Ensure they know they \nmay only post approved images on their own socials.\nRates are 300 a day for every day on the road, or up to 1500 a day - anything more \non tour you are moving into the big time! \nEditing days at home where justified. Be clear on the class of travel you offer, if you \ngive per diems and ensure you get them photo passes for all shows. Ask them to \ncarry their camera in hand baggage to prevent losses of equipment on the road. If \nyou cannot afford biz class or do not feel it’s warranted perhaps compromise when \npushed to premium or biz on long haul flights and define the number of hours that \ndefine a long haul. They cannot be in 2 places at the same time and running from \nstage to front of house to catch that big fire moment takes time. If you have a big \nshow, get someone else - often locally recommended by the promoter, to just stay \nfront of house and snap snap snap. Again, they sign an NDA and a Full Buy Out \nof their socials. \nPhoto Credits: Most will want a credit when you post on your socials normally in \nthe form of their own social media handle. This is frankly so they get more work - \nbut it’s a free world so always follow that when it’s agreed.MOOD \nBOARDSMERCH\nDEALS & \nMERCH P&L\n124 125This is a PDF or Word Document which \nshows inspirations, lists your Mission \nStatement (your plan in 2 sentences). \nIt can include buildings you admire, \nsneakers your love, logos and \ncampaigns you resonate with. It can \nbe totally irrelevant to their job. It’s a \ndocument of your TASTE.126 127MERCH DEALS ARE THE RANGE OF \nMERCHANDISE YOU CREATE YOURSELF, AND \nSELL. VIA FANS, STORE PARTNERS, TOURING.\nNot to be confused with a clothing deal or a collaboration, which is where you \ntend to work with a brand to design a piece or pieces for them and they tend to \ncontrol the roll out. Merch (short for merchandise) comes in all shapes and sizes. \nYou need only look at Travis Scott to see the possibilities. He is surely one of the \nbest examples of selling Merch in a bundle with the album to grab the number one \nslot. There are many companies who can do this for you, here is what to look for:\n1. Who else they do. This means they potentially know how to reach your \naudience. It may be amazing they do merch for Metallica, but do they know \nhow to get to your fans?\n2. Some pay for your manufacturing, and to do so generally charge a higher rate \nof commission and may have some say in quantity and product. If you need \nyour cash flow tight, this is a safe way to start.\n3. If you buy the product, you are responsible for getting the orders as right as \npossible. This means analyzing what sizes sell well, how many male / female \ncustomers you have, if the products are specific and where they live.\n4. If your fan base is mainly buying in the UK for example and you have a USA \ncompany, your fans will get stuck with heavier shipping costs and possibly that \nannoying sticker through their door telling them they have duty to pay.\n5. You can have more than one merch company, normally by territory. Ensure \nthe links on swipe ups and marketing work to direct the fan based on where \nthey live to the right store, the merch company or even your label can help \nyou.\n6. Always work out the profit per unit, your break even and remember to include \ncosts like Tax, Merch Company commission and free give away items and \nsamples.7. Start small, don’t get stuck with 7,000 lighters that didn’t sell and stay in your \nstore, plus marking up items as SOLD OUT and then BACK IN STOCK only \ncreates hype for you.\n8. Use a company that incorporates Shopify OR ensure they can do product \ntagging on IG. Not all can, and its a vital tool when starting out and beyond \n(Kylie Cosmetics for example…)\n9. Remember you may need to have a merch store which can handle different \ncurrencies, and have different languages via the website. Don’t alienate \ncustomers assuming everyone speaks your language or underestimate how \nmany people are put off not knowing the exchange rate.\n10. PayPal is always amazing to have and saves customers having to enter credit \ncard information, and of course the lovely ApplePay.\n11. Promote. Wear it on tour, have fans see it on the Artist where possible, and \nuse your own socials. Don’t forget to use stores like Spotify and Facebook. \nThis may mean needing MerchBar for Spotify - ask your merch firm. Your \nlabel can also help you there with advise. I’ve sold more vinyl on Spotify than \nanywhere else!\n12. Pop Ups are great and Artists can visit them. Be sure to stock amounts that \ncan sell out and ensure you include costs like Rental, Staff, PayMachines, \nsome losses for shoplifters (!), Carrier Bags (paper of course please) and \nsecurity for the Artist’s visit plus a Step and Repeat (backdrop) for photos and \na lovely sound system in your costs. They can get pricey so be aware when \nyou commit. Otherwise work with a local store you love to give you an area, \npossibly even for money, to sell your pieces and do a meet & greet.\n13. Merch deals can be exclusive, if so it’s normally for a period of time. If it is, put \nin targets that you generate X amount of revenue their commission goes down \nto push you to work harder.\n14. Exclude Brand Partnerships and One Off Collaborations with brands from their \ndeal. But… if they get you one perhaps offer them more of a cut to go get it. \nYou don’t want that you cannot do a Nike deal because you gave up all your \nrights to a T Shirt company for touring.\n15. If you record deal gave them rights to merch you will need to set reminders to \nsend your label statements on the agreed dates of their share which may be \nof profits (advisable) or gross turnover (please don’t do that!!).DOMAIN \nNAMES & \nTRADEMARKS \n128 129MERCH P&L\nThere are many variable but here you go on a basic. Remember you may have \ndesigner percentages, designs you paid for which you never sold, staff members \nin house, extra marketing costs, costs to get to meetings with potential buyers \nto include in the overall business P&L but here is a basic P&L. Determine your \nbreakeven per piece so you know what you have to sell. \nITEM TOUR HOODY\nPRICE 30\nCURRENCY POUNDS\nMANUFACTURING COST 1200\nSIZES\nXXS 10\nXS 20\nM 30\nL 40\nXL 50\nXXL 40\nXXXL 10\nTOTAL ORDER 200\nFREE GIVE AWAYS 10\nFOR SALE 190\nSELL PRICE 30\nGROSS REVENUE 5700\nSALES TAX AT 20% 6 Per Unit\nSALES COMMISSION @ 20% 6 Per Unit\nUNIT PRICE per hoody 6 **INCLUDES SALE TAGS AND BAR CODES AND DELIVERY - IF THESE ARE NOT INCLUDED ADD THEM\nbalance after costs 12 **REMEMBER THIS ONLY APPLIES IF YOU SELL ENOUGH TO BREAK EVEN, IF YOU HAVE NOT COVERED MANUFACTURING, \nYOU DON'T MAKE A PROFIT PER ITEM UNTIL YOU DO\nPROFIT PER ITEM 12\nFIXED COSTS\nPHOTO SHOOT & ITEM DESIGN 200 **REMEMBER YOU NEED TO OWN THE DESIGN OR YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE TO PAY THE DESIGNER A PERCENTAGE.\nMARKETING 0 **THIS IS WHEN YOU ARE ONLY USING YOUR OWN PLATFORMS TO PROMOTE.\nBREAKEVEN 77.77777778 **TOTAL COST TO MAKE THEM ALL + FIXED COSTS = 1400. TAKE SALES INCOME MINUS COMMISSION AND TAX (22 POUNDS) AND DIVIDE130 131DOMAIN NAMES\nGrab it when you first think of your name. But also grab it when you do anything \nwith heavy importance. Album title, big song title etc. They are cheap when you \nare looking for non famous names. GoDaddy is a good service but there are many.\nAlways get a lot of options. .Com, .Co.Uk, .Net, .FR (always take your home \ncountry at least) but also get one which could lead to exploitation. For example \n.porn and .xxx so no one sets up a false account. \nSet reminders for expirations! Do not rely on email updates that end up in \nyour spam.\nSame goes for socials. If you have an album title, you will know it before anyone \nelse. Go grab the domains on socials. You don’t want someone else grabbing \nit. You may not use it, but it prevents others setting up the channels and using \nin ways you don’t like. You can also open these channels for fans to run for you \nwhich can be nice.\nTRADEMARKS\nARE EXPENSIVE! First of all in some countries you are protected simply by using \nthe name first so this is not some huge expense you go after when you start. \nHowever, if you do a brand deal, let’s say you design some sunglasses, make \nsure you have this category, so the brand is protected in case they run off and \ntrademark it preventing you from doing other Glasses deals with others.\nYou have to apply per country sadly.\nI use a company called KNIFF in Holland who are great and remind me when \nthey are up for renewal BUT always set reminds in your diary for 3 months out \nfrom renewal so you stay on it, applications take time. I have never seen an Artist \nlose their name over a Trademark but I have seen some prevented from making \nequipment, but to be fair that’s because they were using a name which already \nexisted in that market. I did however have a Gangster type dude threaten me by \ntrademarking Swedish House Mafia in the UK and I did indeed need to pay to sort \nit. Not what he wanted but it was a headache no one needed and the legal fees \ninvolved to prove I’d used it for years and sold in that market was a waste of my \ntime.Keep records of what you sell. For every merch piece you sell, take a screen grab \nof the item being in your store. This is often enough proof to shut it down. I keep \none scan per item in Dropbox.\nOn a side note when you do a deal, Record, Brand etc - add a clause - the \nPurchaser may not attempt to Trademark anything connected with the Artist. This \ndoes give you some protection from dodgy dealings. Ask your lawyer to add a \nphrase with words that work. Mine are a little amateur and are what I would tell \nmy lawyer.\nFAKE MERCH\nIt will happen. It means you are doing well but it’s really annoying. Quality, \nundercutting your prices etc. Amazon is the worst offender for this where anyone \ncan sell. You fill out a form to pull it down, and you need to prove you own the \nTrademark but…. I hate to say this, but Amazon are TERRIBLE for enforcing take \ndowns. Sorry Amazon I love you but please…improve on this.\nRun a sheet where once a month you go in, get all the links for Fake Merch, issue \nyour take down and go back later to check if it went down. It’s painful but it often \ndoes work. And you look proactive to your Artist about the issue. Can you stop \nentirely, no I don’t think you can so don’t spend time on it with a view that it’s all \nyour fault it’s online.PRESS\n132 133PRESS\nDecide what you want to do. If you roll into every interview you are asked to do, \nyou will put off the bigger journalists who are looking for a more exclusive story. \nThe power of you saying no gets around. You become a more desirable interview. \nHowever when you are starting out, of course get your name out there but try and \npick stuff you know will come across well. The ‘I take this in my suitcase’ pieces \ndone on an iPhone don’t necessarily help.\nAim at blogs you have read and admired. Reviews of your single through to \nInterviews all count as ‘Press’. Press Releases should be short. Don’t tell them \nyour life story. But… get across your vision in a cool way. Tease them a little and \ntell them your story. ‘Coming straight from Ultra Festival Miami where he played \nthe main stage (now you play at 2pm but they don’t know that). \nEDIT. Tell them what you know turns them on. Always add links to your socials, \nyour tour dates, links to the record or tour you are promoting and an up to date \npress shot. If you see a blog post an old photo, do ask them nicely to switch it. Try \nand control the way you look online whilst being polite. Ahead of any interview, \nsend the journo or radio host notes. If you think they sat at home googling you last \nnight, you are wrong. I have sent notes to massive show hosts and literally heard \nthem read them out. We controlled the narrative.\nWhy are you on the show, what are you promoting, what have you been doing and \nmaybe one or two fun facts. ‘I heard you just raised money for charity in Africa…. I \nhear you were a pro at Basketball at school, is that true?’ That kind of thing. Help \nthem!\nBIO\nYour biography is who you are, where you came from, often including some of \nyour childhood background. It lists key moments of how you got where you are. \nThey are generally quite long and when you become big, people can write them \nfor you. This is not everything that ends up in a press release, it’s like a back up \nfor journalists to read your background in a couple of pages.REMIND THE \nARTIST WHY \nTHEY ARE \nTHERE!PRESS \nTRAINING & \nAPPROVALS\n134 135You think the Artist, jet lagged and angry at a recent IG comment, remembers why \nthey are doing interviews? Think again. A quick chat in the car or a WhatsApp or \na little paper of notes are your job. You think they remember their release date or \ntheir tour dates? NOPE. That’s your job. So… quick note to them is GOLD.\nExample...\nSo today is Zane Lowe, Facetime (ALWAYS tell them if they are on camera or \nAudio Only). If they’re in bed in a hotel room that’s really embarrassing. It’s 5 mins, \nabout the the new release (name of song), remember it’s out This Friday and if he \nasks about Tour Dates just say Next Week bro… we don’t wanna announce yet, \nand move on, but lets plug the news is coming if we can.\nRemind them the day before, 1 hour and 15 mins ahead of the interview. Do NOT \nassume they remember and whenever possible connect the call, don’t give their \nnumber out. Don’t stay on the call with good journalists… they won’t like it.\nAs you can see this means you need to know what the interview is about, who the \ninterviewer is, and is it audio or video. Always google the prior pieces to know what \ntype of interview this is before you approve it and let it get to the Artist.136 137PRESS TRAINING\nThe best piece of advice here, beyond turn up sober and don’t be rude, is this…\nWhen you have answered the question STOP SPEAKING. Silence forces the other \nperson to carry on. Journalists when asking sensitive questions are trained to not \nask another question. So you keep going. When you keep going this is normally \nwhen you start saying too much.\nJournalist:\n‘So what do you think of Diplo (and he knows you have had some online beef … \nsorry Diplo I needed an example)?’\nYou:\n‘You know, we fight, but we have love. I respect other Artists we all have our role.’\nJournalist:\n…. Silence….\nYou: \n2 choices. Keep going and end up getting into the beef to be quoted on 50 blogs \nin 15 minutes, or you stay SILENT\nJournalist has to move on. If he / she does not, you just say - “dude I just answered \nthat, let’s move on.”\nAPPROVALS\nDepending on your size you can approve cover images and interviews. To prevent \npeople lifting quotes and twisting your words. You have to stay on top of that, they \ncan say ‘you didn’t get back to us’ so set a reminder to approve on the date they \nstated. The bigger publications won’t allow it. For example you cannot approve \nyour Billboard cover. But I have never seen a bad one.\nDon’t demand it on small pieces and look like an idiot. But don’t serve them \ncontroversial soundbites on a plate if you don’t want to. But be honest. \nWhitewashed interviews are not interesting. If you have something to say, say it.I personally don’t like haters though. There’s always ways to attack people you \nthink are hurting your scene without naming and shaming. Through positivity, \nhighlight what you are doing well. This in turn reflects on how they are not trust \nme. Don’t think all magazines are English. They are not. Press worldwide is \nvaluable. Listen to your label, the promoter and your fans about where else to \nspeak globally. Sounds simple but did you send your latest press shot?\nDO NOT DO INTERVIEWS FOR THE SAKE OF IT , YOU WILL LOOK LIKE \nYOU LIKE THE SOUND OF YOUR OWN VOICE. TIME THEM TO PROMOTE. \nHAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. OR BE QUIET . LET YOUR MUSIC AND THE \nREVIEWS DO THE TALKING.\nSING WHEN YOU’RE WINNING\nDon’t do interviews, like I said, about ‘I just signed to a label for 5 million dollars’, \nor ‘I am going to do this or that’. No one cares and you overhype. Do the interview \nwhen you did it. A story of success, of rags to riches, of fighting all odds is AMAZING \nand everyone loves it. Everyone wishes you well even if they don’t tell you that. \nThey respect the hustle. Do the interview when you have done it. Not saying you \nare going to do it. No one likes a big head, and if you don’t do it you look like a \nMORON.MANAGEMENT\n138 139WHO WORKS\nFOR WHO?Artists\nPressPR\nTouring \nCompanies Promoters\nPublishers\nBusiness \nManagersAgenciesStores\nShow \nDesignersMarketing \nCompaniesAgencies\nRadio TelevisionArt Directors\nSIMPLE ANSWER:\nEveryone works for the artist. Period.140 141VISION:\nBACK TO THE RUNWAY \n& BRAND PYRAMIDWHAT’S THE GOAL?\nSo you’re a manager now, and it’s back to the Runway and the Brand Pyramid we \ngo. Always back to there. And you’re ready to make a plan. You and the Artist have \nagreed the vision. You have been bold but realistic, no one likes an unachievable \nplan, but no one likes a plan for wimps either. You have a 3 year goal in place. \nSo now what?\nPLAN….MANAGEMENT\nSTRATEGY\n142 1433 YEAR PLANNER\nThis is a 3 year planner. You JUST put the headlines in. Do NOT panic. You can \nchange this anytime. But you have to start somewhere….\nThis can then be enlarged into year by year and add some more detail. Don’t go \nmad you will also use a daily diary for that, even one per department if you have a \nlot of staff. This is an easy eagle eye view. Good to have on the office wall. Remind \nyou of your plans when its chaos. Keeps you grounded :-)LAYERS\n144 145So you have your plan but now you need to think hard on your strategy to get \nthere. People you need to explain your vision to, people you need to meet and \nbuild relationships with, social media targets, where you need to tour. \nAs you list the strategy that gets you there, go back to your plan and ‘massage \nit’ which is my way of saying tweak it, add to it, perhaps you need to perform at \na festival earlier than planned to put you in a market you need to be at for an \nAwards show the same week, perhaps you need to launch your social media in \nChina earlier than planned…. Massage and then massage some more and move \nbetween plan, strategy and actual confirmed items all the time\nREMEMBER: \nIf you know your mission in one easy paragraph, and you tell people. People \ntell other people. Your team all say the same. The people your team speak \nto say the same. A message gets out. Control that message. Stay on target. \nAnd sure enough, the law of attraction kicks in and people resonate to the \nmessage and come forward if they can help achieve it for you and achieve \nsomething for themselves at the same time.\nYOUR MISSION STATEMENT\nIs the plan, in one or two statements which is a summary of the goal and who you \nare. This is what you share, learn, repeat.146 147\nTELLING THE STORY IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE\n• Live Touring\n• Record Releases\n• Press\n• Radio\n• Merch\n• Story Telling\nHere’s a few examples, now when do you turn \nthem on?\nBlasting them all out on day one, is a lot of noise and that’s great. But then what? \nRepetitive marketing is dull. Turn the volumes up at varying levels to keep the \ncontent fresh, the news rolling and people engaged.Layers are what I call the different approaches to reaching who you want to reach. \nHaving layers of different types of activity achieves so much\n• It stops fans getting bored, you appear to be doing more than one thing but \nactually you are constantly promoting yourself.\n• It allows you to talk to different types of fans.\n• Some things mean you can use it more than one way. For example, when \nSwedish House Mafia made their first film Take One, we used it for fans to \napproach film online in a better way and engage them in a bigger way. As \na Manager I used it for record company execs and journalists who were \nnot quite taking us seriously and would not commit to coming to a show at \n1am, to come to a cool cinema and experience us there. I also used it to \nget film press, a press and set of readers I had been unable to access. And \nthose readers included brand managers who loved a good film review in their \nSunday papers. One brand deal we did did indeed come from this. LAYERS \nmy friends, LAYERS.\n• Another example is the Swedish House Mafia book. Itunes was massive, \nremoving that wonderful feeling of vinyl and physical product. So we did a \nbook, which contained a vinyl, the DVD of the movie, the CD of the album \nand some beautiful photos of stories of the band. We worked out the break \neven and ensured we sold more than we needed (which wasn’t much at the \ntime) and it was a great product to send to brand directors, movie directors \nto keep the momentum going for the business, whilst giving super fans a real \nmomento to hold onto.\n• A brand campaign when done well is a layer, opening you up to fashion or \nlifestyle press and the brand’s customers eyeballs and their lovely marketing \ndollars.\n• A tour going on sale is a layer\n• A tour happening is a layer\n• A record coming out is a layer\n• A music video coming out is a layer\n• A Merch Drop is a layer\nYou see my point? Layers, well timed and spaced out can continually create noise \naround a campaign whilst not boring the fans.\nWith Swedish House Mafia I wanted the respect of the rock journalists who 148 149dominated high end media by playing Brixton, but the core fan needed a rave, \nintimacy, some fantasy and so Masquerade Motel at Pacha and the rather famous \nrave on Miami Beach showed fans we knew who we were and who had made us.\nWith DJ Snake, when you first meet him the first thing you see is his intense pride \nof France. Of Paris. His home. No matter how tough it was to grow up in the poorer \nareas of Paris, his love and gratitude for the City was huge. At the time Beats \nwere making incredible commercials about the rise and backgrounds of stars like \nLeBron James. I asked them (see …ASK) if they could film the show on the roof of \nthe Arc De Triomphe which for me would achieve a few things. First of all no-one \nknew the guy behind the glasses. His name was William. His voice was powerful. \nMany thought he was American which was where he had seen huge radio success \nwith English speaking records. He was about to play a monument in Paris which \nstood for victory and survival. It stood for France. This commercial would deliver \nthis all in an iconic way.\nIn the voice over edit, I clipped him saying ‘my name is William’ at the start, and \nhe had said ‘Impossible is not French’ in a whole other sentence, but I clipped the \naudio and added it to the end. He spoke of Paris, his home, where he came from. \nAnd in one move, people started to move closer to the story of who he was and \nwhere he came from. This triggered multiple times we used this over 3 years.\nWith Kanye West, his New Slaves video lyrics highlighted the prejudice of major \nfashion houses, so when we selected the 66 buildings on which to project the \nvideo - I looked at Prada on 5th Avenue and Chanel on Rodeo Drive conveniently \nwere huge white buildings which offered rather perfect projection surfaces, and so \nwe ended the New York projections, which Kanye attended on the Prada Building \njust as LA was beginning which went from walls of diners ending on Chanel.\nMy name is William.\nDJ Snake, Beats By DreKanye West, Yeezus projections marketingSwedish House Mafia Masquerade Motel150 151Layers are also using everyone around you to create them. For example, Virgil \nAbloh was involved in the design for Swedish House Mafia’s return to Miami Ultra \nMusic Festival in 2018. The night before we asked him to tease it (the show was \nnot announced it was only ‘Special Guest’) And he did. In his own rather magical \nway. We didn’t know then he was about to be announced as the head of Louis \nVuitton men, which he did on the Monday after our show, forever putting his post \nabout the band, right next to the announcement of that. But regardless, one of the \nworlds biggest tastemakers posted the night before, giving a 3rd party confirmation \nthat the band would indeed perform without the band saying a word. \nShortly after that day Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels, who worked on creative \nand marketing, posted the pocket of the denim jacket he had made as part of the \ncampaign.\nLayers… layers and more layers….\nAnd of course in the case of both of these the reach went beyond those fans \nattending Ultra or SHM fans, it went to the heart of fashion and cool hype press \nwho don’t necessarily attend Ultra. The stage was set, eyeballs were open all over \nthe place... In the case of Francesco it also nicely teased the design of the Merch \nwe dropped one week later for 48 hours, breaking global online merch records. \nAll of these things had a time, a date, a moment in the plan. Which of course was \nnot all my doing! But you can see how the layers move together, and if some news \ndrops… GREAT… go back to your plan, massage the new piece and time other \nthings now to reflect off it. Telling the story one layer at a time.\nVirgil Abloh Instagram Palm Angels Instagram‘Layers allow a story \nto live and live and \nlive. Touching different \npeople in different \nways. Reaching new \npeople in a way they \nwill feel good to enter \nyour story. It’s like a lot \nof different doors on \none corridor.’152 153TIMING\nIS \nEVERTHINGThe greatest example of timing, of course, belongs to the Queen…Beyonce. After \nknocking our socks off at Coachella 2018, she waited to drop her documentary \nof the show until between the two weekends of Coachella 2019. Having taken \na lesser fee than the 2019 headliner she retained her rights to release the film \nselling it to NetFlix for a sum larger than the difference in Fee. Boss move part \n1. She dropped it just after weekend 1, silencing reviews and chatter of weekend \n1 performances and leaving headliners of the main stage the following weekend \njust pretty much feeling they should go home. She headlined for 2 years dropping \nthat doc not only when the world was Coachella crazy, but when she would yet \nagain dominate the world’s biggest festival, without even being there. Genius. \nShe raised the pay debate for Artists of color, she debated the power of women, \nshe owned the festival for 2 years without saying a word.\nTiming is like a pin in your calendar. Don’t stick them all in one date. Events are \nnot the only thing to think of, neither are release dates. It’s the announcement \ndate, the pre-sale, the launch of a pre-save link, the launch of the merch for the \ntour or the release, the date of the video trailer, the date of video trailer 2, the \npremiere of a video, the Behind the Scenes video launch of the video, the remixes, \nthe pop up store, the pop up store announcement, the social media partnerships, \nthe fan content, the magazine cover date.\n154 155There are plenty of things to talk about if you strip back everything you have \ninto layers, and apply gently. The world has got a 9 second memory, no one \neven watches entire IG stories anymore, so the idea of a long tease campaign \ndoesn’t really have a place now unless it’s genius. Allow enough time between \nannouncements, launches and products to let each piece breathe to tie a nice \nline through the campaign, but don’t do over-tease or leave and huge gaps and \nassume people can follow. People get hit with 200-500 pieces of content a day.\nHold their hand and walk them through your campaign slowly enough they enjoy \nit, but not so slowly they get sick of you. Learn your consumer and the pace at \nwhich they move and go with it. And NEVER EVER be afraid to take a break. \nThere is no greater noise than an announcement or piece of content after some \nsilence. The natural gift of a break allowing you and the Artist some time to come \noffline, reboot, refresh AND give the public a break… let them wonder…. Let them \nforget… it’s fine. If you know you are coming back with something DOPE… a break \nis as strategic as a content plan. Each item you add to your calendar, will stimulate \ndates. Log them on your calendar. A show will stimulate an announcement date \nif it’s a festival which means you need to add it to your show calendar at the very \nleast, or promote it on your socials if you feel it warrants it… it will also stimulate an \non-sale date. The two are not always the same. A show of your own, will stimulate \nan announcement date, pre-sale date (there can be more than one, one for fan \nclub or a media partner, and one general one) and an On-Sale.\nA record release can stimulate so many dates\n• Release date\n• Pre-Save date\n• Lyric video date\n• Video Trailer date (Sometimes more than one)\n• Video Launch Date\n• Radio and Store partnership dates\n• Behind the Scenes video and photo launch\n• Merch for the single launch\n• Partnerships with social platforms like aTikTok campaign, Instagram filter or \nSnapChat Filter\n• Remix dates\n• TV performances\n• Radio performances\n• Magazine Covers \n• Digital promotions like launching a game or app you can play withAll of these need to be in your mind when you are planning. Don’t put them all on \none day. Or where will you go? So now you’re back to your runway. A runway just \nfor this task - putting a record in the air and it needs a steady climb with a massive \nlift off to go go go go go.\nBe aware of the dates, allow them to move, but put them on your calendar, so \nwhen you move one thing, you may decide you also move another.\nAnd now you’re back to your layers. The record release you have timed so the \ntour is announced shortly afterwards. Making more waves, and all the radio plays \non the single gave your tour a plug.. Layers in full effect. All your artwork nicely \nfits into a series, and you’re looking pretty slick. But the release goes back …. You \nwere offered a huge campaign with one store if you can go back a week… and \nyou didn’t have all your dates on your diary, and you accidentally announce the \ntour before the single. OR you decided the tour came first. You sell tickets like hot \ncakes, and you have bundled an album in with the ticket to all count on chart day \nand WHOOPS you moved your album back and forgot. Plus your album leaked as \nyou just sent 10 000 people the CD by mistake. \nDiaries matter, dates matter, strategy matters. You think you will remember, but \nyou don’t always. Be safe, have it on your wall, have your team all work from the \nsame file, Google Sheets are AMAZING for this. All on line in one place, all of you \ncan view, you can limit who can edit so people don’t make changes and forget to \ntell you, you can use it as part of the agenda in your team meeting, and the Artist \ncan see it…Think of each layer as a layer in a track, or as a volume button. You’ve \nturned your campaign on…. And soon the volume starts to sound quiet, so you \nadd, and you add and you add….The perfect symphony.CROSS \nMARKETING\n156 157This is how you pull all the messaging across your campaign and target it.\nFor example, your album name and packshot is likely to need to be on your tour \nart.\nYour tour dates should be on your press release about the song.\nBut also think beyond this.\nIf you used someone in your campaign, let’s take Virgil and Francesco from the \nlast example. Do you send a press release written differently to the media you \nknow love them. In this case it was dope blogs and fashion media. The title of \nthis press release is more likely to be ‘Virgil Abloh and Francesco Ragazzi tease \nSwedish House Mafia reunion show. Catering to their audience and gaining you \nmore eyeballs.\nAnother example if you used an amazing photographer or film director. Do they \nhave their own media fans who would not normally care about you?\nI mean… if Quentin Tarantino directed your video, you are likely to get as much, if \nnot more film and creative media than you are music press..\nIf Jeremy Scott made all the costumes for your video, you are likely to get a large \namount of fashion press.\nLook who follows them, look at their press on google, where else can you go here? \nIf you have a close relationship with them perhaps their PR sends out the press \nrelease, not your PR, who’s roladex is more limited to music media.\nIf you used a famous skateboarder in your video… have you targeted the blogs \nwho cover him or her?\nCreate different press releases for these media types. Start with the thing they \nwill like.STORY\nTELLING\nIt can be in a video, the narrative of your so -\ncials but it can also be dropped nicely into \nartwork. This vinyl is one of my favorite exam -\nples of this. See DJ Snake before it all kicked \noff, and several years later at a sold out arena \nshow. Subtle but so powerful. \n158 159Well what is this? So you and the Artist have agreed on the vision. You can tell this \nstory through interviews, through copy on social media posts and not like spell it \nout, that’s a bit corny, but imply it. People will get it trust me.\nIf a journalist really gets it and uses an amazing quote, re-post it, it endorses the \nvision. And you didn’t need to say it, you showed someone else did.\nAnd I hate to tell you this but StoryTelling also means sometimes being a little \nflexible with the truth…\nMaybe you put up a pre sale and you want to super flex this is a hot ticket, you put \nit on sale and you pull it off sale 5 mins later. SOLD OUT you say on your socials. \nWell little do they know you sold 10 tickets. Just flex a bit.\nI must confess now I have told some white lies in a lot of my marketing. I’ve \nphotoshopped that we have had billboards in Tokyo, I’ve lied about capacities of \nvenues or how fast it sold out, heck I’ve even lied about it being sold out when \nactually there’s 3000 ticket left …. But the sold out sent people flying to the store \nand they soon went.\nI’ve tagged brands like I had an endorsement deal to make us look super pro, and \nsure enough brands came (be careful not to tag one which removes your chances \nof working with the one you actually want!), I’ve said a merch drop sold out, when \nactually I just took the orders for 5 hours, and then made the exact amount which \ngot ordered and had never made any items in the first place… but technically it \nwas sold out I guess! I’ve even changed festival artwork when I posted it to move \nus up some spaces on the bill!\nBut hopefully none of you were injured in the process and we all got to a happy \nplace. I hyped it, you guys seemed to love it, and the Artists delivered to the hype. \nObviously be careful how far you take this advice. Fans don’t want to be lied to.\nBut also remember if you are flexing a bit, so are your rivals so when you see their \nIG post and want to throw up because you feel 100 miles behind… its back to the \nearlier quote. BLINDERS ON. There’s room for everyone, so focus, deliver, deliver \nagain, and you will be fine.WHO ARE \nYOUR FANS?\n160 161DATA IS A FRIEND BUT NOT\nAN OBSESSION\nThe nice people at the stores give you app’s to help understand who’s listening. \nMake sure you set up your Artist App access. In the case of Apple you also get \nyour Shazam results. Social Media platforms give you nice analytics also. \nDETERMINING YOUR INTERNATIONAL \nPRIORITIES THROUGH DATA\nCreate one spreadsheet and take all of these platforms… and list the top ten \nmarkets side by side across the sheet. Normally you will spot many countries in \ncommon. This helps to focus you. You CANNOT focus on every country in the \nworld and I’m telling you now the labels don’t and if you burn them demanding 52 \nmarketing plans for every country you will not do yourself any favors.\nYou may see top ten markets like India or China appear in some social media \ncharts but not in streaming. This is because the big stores where you have the \ndata, are not open there, or are small there. ASK what stores matter in the \nmarkets, and how many streams you have. The labels do need to tell you. And \nwhile you’re there, have a google and check your profile looks good. If it includes \npeople following you on the platform, make a note of the followers, go back once a \nmonth and track growth. This all helps in forcing a label to take you seriously there\nBut why maybe would you see high streams in China once you dig in, but not \nin your top ten IG followers. Well IG doesn’t exist there (people can get it with \nVPNS but…) so be aware this method is to help raise questions…I always have \n10 markets to focus on, and 2 wild cards. These are the 2 I don’t care how we \nare doing, I need to get better. That might be the home country of the Artist or a \nmarket I just know we need to conquer, the USA for example.\nSome of what you create is an illusion. You can pull together the layers, explain \nthem in a new order, pull it together and create an illusion. I can’t go to into that \nmuch but I have created some and you all loved it so…. Some of the storytelling \nis actually every now and again, pulling the layers together and telling that story. \nMapping it out. Perhaps in a video you make, a book you write but also in press \nreleases and social media. Draw the lines for fans sometimes and let the layers \ncome together after months of careful planning into a huge crescendo.SHOP \nWINDOWS\n162 163\n• Instagram\n• iTunes \n• Tik Tok\n• Listings: \n• Website/Songkick/BandsinTown\n• Merch Stores\n• Apple Music\n• Soundcloud\n• Spotify (profile and bio)• Twitter\n• VK\n• Website\n• Weibo\n• YouTube Community and TV \nchannel\n• Your WebSite\n• Global storesCONSUMER\nJOURNEY\n164 165Well what am I talking about now?!\nI call them shop windows. This is all the places where you control how you look. I \nlist examples below the picture. This is all the places you communicate a message.\nI call it this because, like the picture above, see how one window doesn’t have the \nSale sign in? So imagine your customer walked past your store and it has many \nwindows and you forgot to put the sale sign in one. And one customer who had \nshopped with you for YEARS missed it. How do they feel?\nYes Facebook is less cool than IG, yes Chinese social media is a pain in the ass, \nyes your website is not really busy…. Who CARES. If a fan has chosen to follow \nor visit you they deserve an equal amount of information. Don’t be a platform \nsnob and forget the rest. Set a time per day and replicate what your Artist has \nposted on all of them. Yes there can be exceptions. Where you place something \nexclusively in one place and promote it, perhaps you are pushing the followers on \nthere to go up. But in general treat all followers with respect. How would you feel \nif you actively signed up, that golden moment when they click follow, and I didn’t \nkeep you updated because I didn’t think you are cool enough\nFacebook has a huge reach, it owns IG, it owns WhatsApp, it has a store and \nshow listings facility. Your website has a sign up for your newsletter. \nTreat them ALL well, all fans have chosen how they will follow you, don’t treat them \nless than one another when it comes to vital information.BE READY:\nONE SHEETS \n& ASSETS\n166 167Ok the golden rule…. You listening?\nFANS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!\nYou’re deep into the planning phase of a project and you’re about to start. It is\nSO easy to assume fans know what on earth you are talking about. They do not. \nNow that’s not to say you launch saying a single is out, and a single is a 3 minute \naudio file! \nBut do NOT EVER assume they know what you are talking about. They are weeks \nbehind you and totally in the dark. \nTheir consumer journey is how they move around the messaging. Swipe ups need \nto work. Links need to work. Don’t send them to your website, to not have what \nthey are looking for on the home page or CLEARLY marked. People will just leave \nthe journey.\nBe CLEAR. Be EASY. You think people are sitting around wondering how to engage \nwith you more? Think again. Be mindful of global reach. State timezones. State \ncountries not just cities. Apply subtitles when relevant. Reward their attention with \nclear easy to manoeuvre instructions around the world you have created for them. \nIf you want them to do something tell them what in short sentences. And I like to \nkeep it to 2 things. Post this, hashtag this. Etc.\n“GENTLEMEN, THIS IS A FOOTBALL. ”\n- Vince Lombardi \nIn five words, Vince Lombardi, the new coach of the Green Bay Packers stood \nbefore 36 proffesional athletes and communicated his point: if you want to be \nsuccessful, we’re going to remember the basics and make sure we’re executing \nthe fundamentals first. Six months later they celebrated their NFL championship \nand their 37–0 victory over the NY Giants.BRINGING THE \nVISION TO LIFE\n168 169One Sheets for the Artist, update them monthly. It lists key stats, achievements, \naudience size and stats, examples of brand collabs etc. Have it READY. I have \nbeen called before when someone dropped out of an amazing opportunity, I had \nthe deck the brand needed in my phone, sent, got the job. These jobs added reach \nat short notice to my campaigns.\nBE READY: ASSETS\nA perfect marketing plan is useless without assets. Have you booked a fair amount \nof time with your graphic designer alerting all of the variations of Art you needed? \nThese should be created by looking at your calendar and creating one list of \ndeadlines for Art including allowing time for approvals where you owe them and \nit also gives them names. By naming them you get less confused when you file \nthem. Better filing means better, more accurate, sharing of assets.\nAnd walk the consumer journey. If you change your website to say ‘Out Next \nWeek’ come Monday …. It’s out of date. And it has to be changed to Out This \nWeek (or the day) and once it’s out, to OUT NOW. Walk the consumer journey.BE READY: ONE SHEET170 171A roll out is the time from when \nyou start to when you launch the \nrecord / tour and the short period \nafterwards. Labels call it a Roll \nOut. It’s a runway of its own.THE ROLL OUT\nIf you are able to, start with something which catches attention but says very little. \nI made these directors chairs for the Taki Taki video shoot and laid them out, took a \npic and sent to the Artist’s on their way to the shoot. I knew if one of them posted, \nthe media would go mad, but did not ask them to do so.\nI included a chair for Kulture who had not yet been seen by the media to add the \nextra reach to mass media. I did not however ask them to do it, or pushed them to \ndo it. I made some effort and it worked.\nI also did robes on one wardrobe rack and coffee mugs with their names on. I \nhedged my bets someone would like one of them.\nSure enough Cardi B posted, the others followed. And the announcement of the \nsong was out. This was Aug 28. One month prior to the song. That’s a long time TO START…\nbut the record was big enough to warrant it. It told nothing of the audio. No shots \nfrom the video were released. Still had lots of room to unfold the story. The picture \nwent viral and the Artist’s were excited by the hype on set and started to do their \nown social media on set which we had previously said we would not do to keep \nthem all calm as they are all (quite rightly) very protective of their social media.\nPhones on set were taped so no photos could leak. DJ Snake added a little volcano \nemoji to his post which of course was a huge part of the video, and it stuck… and \nbecame THE emoji to say Taki Taki.\nFROM THE DAY YOU START, DECIDE \nTHE HASHTAG\nYou can follow the hashtag and search on it to find engaging and vital fan content \nyou will want to use later.\nI KNEW WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE ON \nSET.\nSo I was able to get ahead on the marketing. I knew Selena Gomez and Cardi had \ncrazy internet followings, so IG Gifs were key. A pack of Taki Taki stickers were \ncreated and used for phase one.\nAnimated them…aren’t they cute?\n172 173\nDO YOUR LINERS ON SET\nIf you have all your Artist’s there (and even if you don’t) do liners on set. They are \n‘camera ready’ IE they look good and are styled… and you can capture banter \nbetween them. Pick a reasonable amount of liners. Ask your international key \nmarkets BEFORE the shoot. Have time to see which ones you do, including any \nfor key media partners and generics like ‘Taki Taki is out now, Swipe UP’, The Taki \nTaki video is out now, swipe up’.\nNow you can watch it all back and cut them up to adapt them if you are smart. \nDo not ask artists to do more than 20 and even that’s a push. Print them on large \npaper so they can read to the camera and see you behind the camera. Insert their \nnames. Do NOT present them as you get them which is ‘Hi This is (Insert Artists’ \nName).’ Type them again and insert their names. It must read as they are to say \nthem.\nAsk them extra stuff for extra IG, media and YouTube and Tik Tok content. \nInteraction - how the record came about, what they think of each other, funny \nquestions if they are game WORK. Go through it all. Save all the clips separately \nand name them. You can have hundreds!\nShoot your Behind the Scene pieces on side of the set. You will get great stuff if LYRIC ANIMATIONthe Artist is up for it. If they are not, leave them alone.\nYour contract will almost certainly say you need to approve all footage and images. \nIf it doesn’t, do it anyway. The more in control they feel the more they will post for \nyou.\nGo back to your top ten markets. Which subtitles do you need? Taki Taki needed \nSpanish of course, but we also did French and Chinese. Portuguese for Brazil and \nother regions in LATAM where this was the primary language. Tell your label in \nADVANCE you need this. Hopefully they were the ones telling you this but…. No \ncomment there lol.\nDo you need more than one press shot? Maybe one retailer will give you a billboard \nfor an exclusive. I’d say 3 is a safe number.\nSTYLING\nOn a complicated video connect the stylists. They work to ensure people look \nsomewhat coordinated. Look after them. Welcome the glam, hair and stylist teams. \nThey work hard and can be your ally when you are trying to get an Artist on set, \non time. Look after the assistants and make the Manager feel welcome, you need \nall these people.\nAPPROVALS\nYou’ve been great, you’ve approved every single asset with the artists. But… you \ndidn’t take the unapproved ones out of the folder and your staff share it. DO NOT \nDO THIS. Clear all non approved images OUT. Clear all old audio versions of the \ntrack OUT. Allow only approved assets of all kinds in your office space. Artists can \nbe aware of issues on their image you don’t know about. A tiny difference in skin \nthey are paranoid of. Respect that. PRESS SHOT\n LINERS TIME!TIMED\nRELEASES\n174 175WHAT’S NEXT\nYour internal planning with your label is happening daily. You are telling them all \nthe assets they will have to play with, the promo shots and video you got at the \nshoot. Artwork, Gifs, quotes from the artists for the press release, animations of \nthe artwork etc. You agree the priority markets and you go heavy with them. Local \nmedia partners, local radio you need to support when they play, influencers or \njournalists who will post, and of course their marketing plan which includes digital \nmarketing and physical (in this case the record got outdoor billboards)\nYou are massaging this list daily. And you are CAREFUL to list all the things \nyou promised. You got the Spotify billboard? That comes with a social media \ncommitment. You got the biggest influencer in Brazil confirmed to run an exclusive \nclip from the interviews… that means 1) deliver the clip! and 2) get their socials to \nrepost if that is the commitment. An hour by hour calendar starts to build. STICK \nTO IT. Make it clear. If you are lucky enough to have a team, use Google Sheets, \nset a schedule, and allocate a name next to it. Remember, the world is not 3 \nstores. It’s multiple and they all deserve your love when you have a big record \ncoming. They do remember…\nYou want a list of ALL playlist targets from all your key markets. Put them in a \nspreadsheet. Tick off the ones you got. This creates a list of targets you still need \none a weekly basis. And who attacks the task is split, between the label and you, \ndepending on who has the best contacts.176 177Well this can be confusing. Because when the label said to me a timed release \nmeant it went live at midnight in each market, Spotify told me it meant it went at \nthe same time worldwide. Or the other way around, I can’t remember, but there \nwas mass confusion and it didn’t help on one record I put out. Traditionally you \nrelease as the store turns on your release date. So New Zealand first, and then \nHawaii last.\nBut… if you have a massive record or indeed your local partner wants it (this \nhappens to me a lot) you may decide it comes out when it turns midnight in New \nZealand Worldwide. This technically means the release date is the day BEFORE \nyou have been banging on about to fans. But if that’s what you need to do - do it. \nYou just handle it in how you speak to fans - don’t stress it, they will forgive you.\nWhy would you do this? Well if the record is hot, the radio stations in markets after \nNew Zealand will simply go to their contacts, buy it on itunes, have it sent to them \nand play it. Meaning radio has it BEFORE streaming services and it was not your \nfault. Maybe they promised your label they won’t…. But when their rival breaks the \ncurfew - its all to themselves. We talked about how streaming services feel about \nthis, and whilst you can get away with it, if they have asked you not to and it still \nhappens, watch your playlist support fall. I’ve had billboards from stores taken \noff me for it. Be clear when you start but LISTEN for the warning signs. Ask your \nstore rep if you have gotten close to them, their advice will often be polar opposite \nto your label. I generally go with the store advice and force it at the label.\nPRE-SAVE\nPre Save links means it saved already by fans and can provide vital streams the \nfirst day when you are pushing for the best position you can. It also then helps the \nalgorithm to work in your favor. You can get the link from your label or distributor \nbut they are not automatic, you do need to request them. Create the asset with a \nswipe up. Ensure all stores that can offer it are included. Not all do.ARTISTS PACKS\nYour Artist and the featured Artist’s should all receive a pack from you. I would \nstart a new WhatsApp Group with the name of the song for my Artist so all the links \nwere in one easy place.\nThis includes :\n• Pre Save Link\n• Buy Link\n• Key store links (you need to swipe up their specific promotions and when \nyou send those to the artist, give them the right link again)\n• Assets : story shape, main feed shape, state one line of the content type \nEG Animated pack show / main feed, and the link\n• Keep it brief.\n• If you have uploaded IG gifs (do not underestimate their power) tell them \nwhat hashtag to search on \n• Give them the tags of the featured artists (they will know but be safe)\n• When you send a playlist to post give them the store or editors tag, or \nboth if available and the link.\nYou keep in your phone\n• Audio file (people will be calling you late night for a copy for a radio \nshow)\n• All assets \n• Smart URL\n• All store links\n• Press release (you can ping it from your phone to lazy journalists if \nneeded)\n• Approved press shot links\nFollow everyone involved in the record. Journalists, Editors, Stores, Featured \nArtists. Then you will see when they post and determine if reposts are relevant.GOOGLE ALERTS\nHopefully I didn’t need to tell you to set up Google alert on your \nArtist’s name but now you need to add other key words like the \nname of the single and associated artists to stay on top of news \npieces flying in.\nRECORD \nBUNDLES\n178 179This is when you sell a product, normally a merch piece or a tour ticket, with the \nrecord. There are rules for this.\nFor example you can add a download link, but it only counts if the fan downloads \nit. It can be that the week you sell, applies to the charts only that week, so you \nhave to time it.\nSpeak to your label for advice. They can be VERY clever tools for higher chart \npositions. But there are rules. And you have to pay everyone involved. All the \npeople to pay for the album, including your label, and of course the cost of the \nitem you sell with it.\nBe mindful also what territory is applies to. If you want to achieve a chart position \nin America, is the sale counted to everyone you mail to from your warehouse or \nonly those in the USA? Does the point of shipping need to be USA or can you \nship from China to America and the sale counts? These rules are complex so be \nsure when you start.\nThere are rules here to stop you jumping into the charts, by saying you are offering \na million dollar check with one of the packages. Be clear on the rules with your \nlabel before you start. UNLESS you don’t want to chart and reach was the name \nof the game I guess!INTERNATIONAL \nROLL OUTS\n180 181We went over how you prioritize your International Markets earlier. You have your \nten and your 2 wild cards.\nWhen would this change? Well your records are different shapes and sizes. \nSo it’s always worth looking at songs you have done before with a similar vibe. \nFor electronic music for example, big banging loud club records can perform \ncompletely differently to vocal radio records. Look closely at your list before you \nstart.\nWhat else might influence a change? Your Featured Artist is one. Ask to see their \nstats or use your instinct if they don’t want to share it. This could mean that you \nneed to add these and give up some of yours. \nThis does not mean you don’t work every single market in the world but let’s be \nreal for a second here. A few years ago there was no public Global Chart. Now \nthere is a Top 50 on Spotify watched like a hawk and to add to the pressure, it \nrefreshes daily. You used to care about local chart positions. Now you have all \nof those AND your global position. Now lets not complain, it is what it is, but the \npressure on you is huge from day one.\nLook at this way before you start, and insist then 2 weeks out your priority markets \nhave sent in their strategy including radio targets, and most importantly perhaps, \nplaylist targets. Now… this can be a copy and paste job on their part so look back \nat your research from before, google what you can, and ask questions. \nCreate one document called International Plan. List all of these playlists, tick them \noff as you get them like I said on this earlier section.\nWhat are the stores in those markets. Which will you support? \nInfluencers in these markets can be in all different shapes and sizes, spend some \ntime on IG and Tik Tok. You can Google the top ten in many markets. Do they \nlook like they work with new music? Are they the type of people you want to do \nbusiness with? \nIf you are announcing shows in this market, this is a good time to map that out. If \nyou have already added and announced festivals in this market, ask the promoter \nto re-post the news of the song. Can extra press now be gained by linking one \nlarge news outlet who will feature the song, with a VIP ticket competition to the \nfestival? They are usually very helpful here.\nWhen you are working all year round, your International Database will build. \nPromoters, mega fans with decent reach, press, influencers. If your label is \nbeing cagey about letting you have direct access to a local office look back at \nold International Reports. SOMEONE will have forgotten to BCC the database. RELEASE\nDAY\n182 183AMAZING. Blast the list. \nHave an email folder of your international contacts and promoters who love you all \nyear round. All of them have reach and will likely post your asset / link.\nFor priority markets I do a call with each of them. Using my voice to get them \nexcited and you will get one or two more ideas per call, trust me. You would never \nget that on email. \nInternational is a year round task to nurture and grow. If your Artist is at a show, \ngo grab the cards of everyone in the press tent! \nInternational Social Media can vary as much as the stores. China being the \nbiggest difference in approach and sites. Don’t hire a company to do your socials, \nand then when the record is over, not be sending them content. This can be the \nsame content as the rest of the world so it takes no time to do. Don’t just wake up \nthe socials around release and expect a result. DO however work with them on \nholidays around the year where you celebrate with local fans.\nIn China for example Instagram does not exist. BUT some access it with a VPN. \nBut wording a global campaign as only on IG will mean no Chinese real reach. Do \nyou replicate the contest there? Discuss.\nBe aware of the rules also. If you describe Taiwan not as Taiwan, China on your \nglobal tour ad, but you listed Shanghai as Shanghai, China, you are basically \nsaying you agree Taiwan is independent in the eyes of the Chinese government. \nYou may be banned from touring there. Now, if your political beliefs are willing to \ntake that hit all power to you, but that’s your Artists choice, not yours.\nOnce you identify key platforms check your song is in there. You’d be surprised.\nAsk for data on a regular basis. Listen to advice on tour dates. You think you \nknow good months to tour, did you stumble into trying to go to the Middle East in \nRamadan? And then you wonder why no one wants you! \nBe mindful of time zones. Not just on your marketing. If your label is in America, \nand you hand the final assets into them on Thursday, they will put it into their \nglobal systems on Friday Asian time. Which is not only late, its disrespectful. Don’t \ndo it. Personally when I make the final asset pack I also blast all markets with a \ncute little menu. I mean… if you think they will go into that system and have time \nto look at all your lovely GIF packs… think again.\nGeo Targeting. This is posts where you can target only one country. The content \nalmost certainly leaks if you are a hot act, but it’s a way to post local stores for \nexample.\nBe mindful the USA lists months and dates the other way around when using \nnumbers, use months spelt out on global marketing where possible.184 185WELL HOLY COW IT’S HERE! You’re nervous, tired, stressed, your Artist is \nsomewhere between hyperactive, depressed and full of joy. All the planning in the \nworld can be done, but once that beast is out the game changes. \nNow it’s about holding your nerve. You go hard at the start. IF you can get into the \nTop 50 on day one, it’s a home run. If indeed you can stay there all weekend and \nmany Artist’s streams go down on weekends. \nYou’ve posted it’s out. Change the link on all your social media biogs to the link. \nChange all social media channel headers to the artwork with links where the \nbanners allow.\nYou’ve checked your swipe up links WORK! You’d be surprised. Everyone has \ntheir assets and your calender of commitments is done and delegated (which you \nstill check lol) You anxiously wait to see what support you got on stores. How? I \nuse a site called Kworb, and ChartMetric (this one is a subscription) You’ve got 5 \nones you really feel are worth posting (don’t spam it) have you checked all stores. \nYou post 5 Spotify and no Apple how will they feel? \nTips to post these are to take the screengrab, have your designed 1) move your \nrecord to the top it looks better on the art 2) if someone else is on the cover, when \nyou post it wack your IG sticker over the top (or change it to yours .. sorry but…) \n3) add audio. No one wants to see loads of pics of playlists. But you add audio \nand the song is just hammering home over and over again. \nEASY PROMO\nRepost fans doing amazing things to the record, radio show hosts playing it… add \nthe swipe up link. Every post then becomes a possible stream. People leaving \nstories to go back to your feed to find the link in your biog. NOPE.\nBeware of chart rules. Do NOT say ‘stream this and win a chance to win a million \ndollars’. There are rules. You can be knocked out of the chart for breaking them. \nIf you want to do something like that check with your label AND your international \nrep at the label. Rules are not the same globally.\nAn easy one for reach though which breaks no rules is something like ‘Repost the \nclip of Taki Taki to your main IG feed, hashtag #takitakioutnow and be entered to \nwin the directors chairs from the video set!!’ and re-post the chairs.\nIf 5,000 fans share, average 500 followers (often way more) you are reaching 2,500,000 people. Not bad! IG Live for Artist’s who just wanna connect on the \nrelease day… is always good and keeps the Artist feeling engaged while the world \njudges their work. It can be a VERY long day.\nAsk the featured Artists to post but also to add as Artist’s Pick on their platforms.\nRemember all your juicy clips you got when you interviewed the artists. YouTube \ncan be used as social media, so post them in your channel too. I’ve posted clips \n9 seconds long and with steady drip of content engaged and sharing, we gained \n9 million subscribers. YouTube is not for 3 min videos trust me. It’s a platform like \nany other plus use their Community Page to post all photos and artwork you do \non other platforms.\nVIDEO NOW OR LATER?\nThere is no right answer to this. Its hit and miss. I have had records where the \nvideo 2 weeks later gave us a welcome boost. And records like Loco Contigo by \nDJ Snake and J Balvin having the video on the same day we saw helped get us \ntop 50 on day 1. \nWith Taki Taki, we knew the hype was massive, and that the video was fire. The \nproblem there can be.. What if YouTube (the largest streaming platform in the \nworld) took all the streams and it hurt the global chart position. I also think at the \ntime YouTube streams didn’t count towards the main chart. Your choice is upload \nthe artwork with audio day of release. Or a lyric video. And then set the video date \n(and their Premiere feature is super dope).\nYou may decide, and then change, and then pull up the dates. In the case of Taki \nTaki we had the chance to be on the American Music Awards ten days later, at \nthe show on the screens and in the commercial break which was sponsored by \nYouTube. And drop online at the same time. This gave us a big media push on TV \nAND on YouTube. The song was at number 2 at the time. The video dropped and \nwhilst I think we were on 3 million streams a day on Spotify at this point, we saw the \nvideo drop AND drive traffic back to overall listening not only on YouTube doubling \nit to 7 million and then well… who knows. It went bananas, I don’t remember the \nnumbers. We went number 1 the following day.\nSo in short there’s no right answer and the debate rages. Choose, and plan your \nassets.186 187VIDEO ASSETS\nWe’ve talked about this already but you need:\n• 4 - 8 story IG clips with SWIPE UP written at the bottom and don’t burn them \nall day one\n• YouTube and Twitter clips for stories (cannot have SWIPE UP on as they don’t \nhave it)\n• Tik Tok shaped clips\n• IG gifs - for Loco Contigo for example we did the pink car and all the animated \nanimals.\n• Banners for your social media if you want to change format to this\n• Press release - who directed it, influences behind the storyline\n• A list of any commitments you made to brands who paid for coverage\n• Directors social media tags if you want to thank them\n• 2 main feed IG trailers (2 days before, day before)\n• One release day main feed trailer (the big one you love the most!)\n• Media commitments, if you activated a premiere have your Artist online to \nanswer fans, if you got given billboards there’s a commitment to post them. \nWith tags.\n• And some nice stuff - make a movie post for example.\n• Still images for later to keep content moving.\n• Making of / BTS video ready to go \n• Press Shots from the video (approved by artists)\nIssue a NEW Asset pack to all. Be careful to be mindful the other Artists want \ndope clips of themselves. So do a ‘Cardi pack, Ozuna pack, Selena pack not all \nof DJ Snake..!’\nSTORE CHECK\nIt sounds insane but check your song is actually in stores! and check the credits, did \nall your writers and producers make it on. It’s one more way to check registrations \nare flowing well.\nAFTER THE VIDEO\nWell by now you know how you’re doing, who loves it, which countries are leading \nthe drive to the global chart. Data once again is your friend here. Identify weak and \nstrong areas with your label and work on them together. You’ve seen fans make \ntheir own content. Re-post or make a montage of clips. In the case of Taki Taki \nYouTube Kids (a VITAL platform but utterly censored for good reason) would not \nput my video in, it had too much boob!) so…. We made an animated one of the \ncharacters we had done for IG GIFS.188 189We made a game online with the characters with signed merch prizes. We pushed \nthe success of the video ( we were on crazy numbers by this time) to press to keep \nrenewing features and continued to push stores. \nHave you gone to radio yet? In some cases your featured Artists had another \nrecord at radio and their label can enforce you to hold back so the week you go, \nfor all the reasons we talked about earlier you need to some LOVE. SnapChat \nlenses are connected to Shazam so a jump on there helps so it’s a good time to \ndo a lense then but they take time so agree this date weeks in advance if you can.\nGone to radio? Great. Watch Shazam per city like a hawk. You see it move, divert \nsome of your marketing dollars there. Don’t see it move but you think it could. \nSame. By this time you probably have live clips of your artist performing or playing \nthe song, same from the featured Artists. \nyou have possible usages where they played it at half time on a basketball court… \nsave them all. Stagger the posting, but it gives you content for days if you do \nit well. You can of course add another layer and drop vinyl (requires 12 weeks \nnotice), Merch items etc. LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS lol.\nHAVE A ONE SHEET\nA one sheet might come from your label but it’s all the fab stats on the record to \nsend to people fast who you need to support from.\n• Streams\n• Shazam position\n• A bit about your artist that sounds super fire.\n• Artwork\n• Link to master file\n• Approved press shot link\n• Approved asset link\n• Chart positions and key playlists where relevant.\n• Radio stations on board if relevant.\n• Key quotes from the media where relevant\nUpdate weekly.CAN YOU MAKE A SINGLE WORK \nAFTER YOUR ALBUM IS OUT?\nThe million dollar question. You used to drop 1 or 2 singles, one of them the day of \nthe album, then 2 or 3 more. Name me the last Artist which achieved this?\nRadio is less and less relevant so once your album is on streaming, you will have \nasked for focus from fans on a lead single from that day, maybe with a video or \nheavy social content.\nFans will also surprise you and stream tracks you perhaps overlooked.\nHowever, I have tracked this over and over again. Artists just dropping a video \nlater to bring a song new life, increases streams by 2-5%. \nUnless your video is literally game changing, it does add a new layer and it does \nincrease streams via YouTube but I have not seen any really achieve huge chart \nleaps if that’s what you were going for.\nSo what does this do? Well it means you now need to release all singles pre album \nor save only ones where the video are killer and perhaps also linked to a huge \nsync, or in a movie.\nYou can activate radio to pick up on one song if you are a big artist on a major label \nwith radio stations who love you and they will agree to go with it.\nHowever is the album the last thing you do?\nNope. You are putting up tours and at the end of the day you are SUPER proud of \nthe album. This is where I think what I would called ‘brand’ pieces come out. This \nis where you take a track you love, which literally says who you are… and make a \nself indulgent video which literally just lets you flex about who you are. Expensive \nmaybe, but it’s my dream to do this and I have rarely been allowed. This is going \nto be the LAST memory of this record. Make it ART. Make it the thing you send to \nKendrick Lamar because you want him on your next album and he is blown away \nby your vision. This is like a door closing and you opening up the door to the next \nphase. Make it count. Kendrick is not going to look back and see if that video put \nyou into the Global Top 50. He won’t even look at how many views it has. He’s \nlooking at YOU. He is going to watch what you stand for, what your vision is and \nif he f***s with it.190 191INFLUENCERS YES OR NO?\nYES.\nBut what is an influencer? In short it’s someone you want to post about your \nproject. The way it’s sold to you is X person has X amount of followers and they \nwill charge you X amount to post. \nWell, fuck that quite frankly. If you just whack out content via people you don’t \nknow, to people who follow them you don’t know 2 things can happen. \n1. It can make absolutely zero difference.\n2. It can make it into fan groups that put off your original, core and loyal fan base. \nYou can partner with someone who has 500 followers but people you really admire. \nI’d call this more of a tastemaker than an influencer, but both terms apply. Which \nones do you want? Tastemakers are harder to get. They have to feel genuine love \nand often you don’t know they will post. \nNow yes of course, if an AMAZING dancer or performer does your song, it’s great, \nbut be mindful when you use them, and certainly be mindful of how much you pay. \nRemember they post most days, how much impact will you have? I have gone \nthrough IG by hand, to collate smaller, dope people - messaged them direct, paid \nby PayPal and got better content than these agencies offer. Who also charge a fee \nby the way. Just be careful here to balance what you pay, who you reach and how \nyour main fans feel about that. Great content by these guys also give your Artist \nnew content to repost, but if your original fans don’t like it… be aware. At least \nperhaps use these guys later and keep true to core fans early on. Fans will forgive \nyou for having a global smash when they felt special for spotting you early, but \nbeing hammered on day one of their legend posting people falling over on banana \nskins in an obviously paid for post, will start to make them doubt you, and they will \nbe here for the next record, these casual fans, or ‘tourists’ as I like to call them \ndon’t stay. They engage in the influencers channel and then it’s on to the next.\nAs always, if you do deals it may require a re-post. Be careful to commit to a \nminimum here in case it’s wack, and never main feed. But do do it. If you say you \nwill do something do it. Rip the content, send to the artist to post with the tag. Or \ndo it for them. Log the costs and commitments as you go. It adds up….WHAT IF IT DOESN’T WORK?\nMove on. No one died. Learn if you made any mistakes, and never ever take for \ngranted the people who DID engage. These are fans and deserve your love and \nappreciation. Build on it, move onwards, move upwards. Do not dwell on it. The \nworld has a 24 hour memory. Every single day is a new beginning for you and \nthe Artist. I can’t stand people who were like ‘that didn’t work’ when over a million \npeople listened. Do you remember when no one listened? Those 1 million people \nliked what you did, or at least took the time to hear you out. \nNEVER EVER EVER FORGET THAT. OR THEY WILL SENSE IT AND FORGET \nYOU RIGHT BACK!\nSee success in small records. Something worked trust me. Even if it was only \nyou successfully had the team not send out the wrong files for the first time. \nAcknowledge these and smile.\nMY RECORD IS NOT A CROSS OVER SMASH.\nCOOL. Not many records are. Take the bits you need and suit to fit!\nUnderground campaigns are equally important. Especially at the start. But also \nthroughout. Had a hit? Great. But your core fans loved you early. Don’t stop \nfeeding them what they loved and become a slave to popularity.192 193Pack Shot:\nThe artwork / Single / album cover\nPSD:\nThe file from the designer which is adaptable and people can use it to shape to the \nsizes and move text around. \nUGC:\nUser Generated Content. Content made by other people and loaded to the internet. \nAll those crazy fan videos, holiday recaps and pretty much the entire content of \nTik Tok.\nSkip Rate:\nUrgh chills down my spine. This is how many people start listening to your song, \nand then press NEXT! They skipped your record, Hot damn that’s painful to hear. \nUnless you are being told its low or zero then its champagne all round.\nEngagement:\nNo you’re not getting married. This means people getting involved., Responding \nto your marketing. Engaging with the campaign. This is also used a lot in social \nmedia. A lot of likes, means good engagement. You could double your likes on a \npost and you’re label will say ‘we saw a 100% increase in engagement’ Fancy way \nof saying - WELL DONE.\nCTR:\nClick Through Rate. How many people clicked the link you advertized. Always \ngood to learn. \nAd Words or Key Words: \nThese are words you give to the people buying your ads to target when looking \nfor who to advertise through. This can be the names of you, the featured Artists, \nyou competitors as kids are also searching on them (sorry its true), musical type \nand they will have insight on what else is working for others in your field / sound.MARKETING PHRASES\nVertical:\nFancy word for content you shot which fits into story shape or portrait style shapes \non stores and media outlets.\nCall to Action / CTA: \nThis is the phrase used for when you are asking the fan to do something. Normally \nhowever though not a purchase. This is a ‘sale’. This is ‘click here and download \nthe free map’, or ‘share this and use the hashtag to enter’.\nConversion Rate: \nThe number of people (normally a percentage) that did the Call to Action. You \nasked them to do something - and the number of people you asked - lets say 100 \n000 people, turned into 20 000 people doing it. Thats a 20% Conversion Rate\nConversion Rate Optimization: \nThis is improving the rate and how you do that . That’s as simple as improving \ncopy, to advertising driving more conversions etc.Pre-Roll:\nThe annoying ads in front of your YouTube (or other video platform) videos.\nLean In:\nDescribes fans actively searching for your records / products / you\nLean Back: \nThose who listened through playlists they already listen to or read about you from \nwebsites they already read.194 195AXWELL & INGROSSO\nFresh off Swedish House Mafia we wanted people to engage in our new journey \nand the song was called On My Way which was all about exactly that...\nBEFORE WE RELEASED\nRemember we had some of the most loyal fans in the world, we had just been on \na tour which sold 1 million tickets in one day. But… the fans had been marketed to \nfor months so we wanted to do something lovely…We asked for their addresses, \nand went against digital marketing and sent them the sheet music. Most framed it, \nbut some actually managed to perform the song premiering it before it came out. \nTruly leading the journey.Copy: \nA fancy word for what you say! You post , you write a sentence to go with it. That’s \ncalled Copy. What’s the copy - means - what do you wanna write here. It can also \nbe ‘can i have the copy for the press release’... means give me the damn press \nrelease please! Give me the info!\nCredit: \nWhat’s the credit for this photo? Means who shot it please…?\nImpact date:\nThis is the day you go to radio in the USA. I’ve heard the UK say this means when \nthe record is at it’s peak so there can be various uses of it. But Radio Stations in \nthe USA don’t like to act alone but go with what’s popular or about to be popular \nso setting an Impact Date tells stations when everyone is potentially going to run \nwith the record.\nLET’S TAKE SOME OTHER EXAMPLES\nZane Lowe (then on Radio 1) did the first interview. We wanted to stay off dance \nradio for a moment. Again, this is a choice. You have a strategy and you make \nchoices from there. \nWE CHOSE COOL INDIE FESTIVALS \nSTARTING AT GOVERNORS BALL NYC.\nThe boys were named top act \nthere by Billboard and the risk \npaid off. We didn’t go back to \nUltra straight after SHM, straight \nback to EDM, we took a different \npath, some different eyeballs. \nSo by the time we went back \ninto that festival circuit we had \nachieved other goals, stood out.\nThe song was not out yet still at this point, and we laid a map leading to lyrics \nacross NYC. We used metallic posters which kids tore down and kept but first they \ntook a picture of themselves mirrored in the artwork truly becoming part of the new \njourney. 196 197\nCONTINUITY\nYeah great you’ve got a logo. You’re SO fancy.\nBut what about the secondary layers, the use of words and shapes?\nWith Swedish House Mafia, we used the word ONE. Shout out to Christian Larson here.\n• First single - One featuring Pharrell.\n• Take One the movie\n• Until One (the album)\n• Until One (the book)\n• Until Now (we used Until to keep continuity here)\n• One Night Only (first hard ticketed tour)\n• One Last Tour (final tour)\n• One Last Tour (the live album)\n• Leave The World Behind (the movie, which didn’t use ONE but was the last piece, and the \nname of a single everyone knew so indeed was familiar as a layer title)\nOne Feat. Pharrell\nTake OneUntil One (the album) Until One (the book)\nUntil Now\nOne Night Only \nOne Last Tour \nOne Last Tour (the live album)\nMasquerade Motel & The Dark Forest. These could also apply to you for example for a Tour \nName or an Album Name where you have a ‘sub brand’. Masquerade Motel logos included a \nmask and a key. ‘Masks On Please’ and ‘You are the key’.\nThese came with lots of lovely art and copy which explained the deeper connection to us to \nbe experienced at clubs where we played nearer you, and longer for you. Less ‘brand’ more \n‘story’.198 199\nSHAPES\n SHAPES\nPOWER\n200 201SYMBOLS\nAre not just logos. You could argue Virgil Abloh made his use of “words” more \npowerful than his logo.\n202 203I was asked to work on the launch of Yeezus straight after the SHM final tour with \nhis manager Izzy and his team who were Virgil Abloh and Matthew Williams. I \nmean.. looking back now it’s surreal. I hasten to add here I learned more from \nKanye than I have learned from anyone. Photographers, directors, playwrights , \nsculptors, inspiration after inspiration poured from him and his team. He’s a genius \nand the most involved Artist with their creative I have ever worked with. He was \nalso open to ideas. There was no idea too small. He listened. Encouraged debate. \nAnd asked that you applied what you knew beyond your comfort zone. If you could \ndesign an event poster you could design a better version of a hotel. He saw no \nlines between genres of applying creativity.\nEventually between the team it was decided projections of New Slaves would occur. \nThis would mean fans posted the video rather than a glossy YouTube upload. A \nreal underground movement, fitting to the lyrics and feeling of the song. He would \nallow one tweet. So we did a map with the times of the projection on his website. \nHe simply tweeted kanyewest.com and he was so powerful, so respected, we did \nthe tweet one hour before launch. Kids followed the map and history was made. \n66 buildings - all pre vetted for their smooth surfaces and visual look, plus their \nmeaning behind the building (fashion houses and I think we did the CIA!) and all \ndone by matt black trucks so all of the aesthetic was perfect if you took photos of \nthe whole thing, broadcast the Nick Knight video of Kanye’s epic and iconic face \nhearing him speak to you from the walls of the world.\nThe next day we were told we had reached 1 billion people. Via shares, news \npieces on TV stations and radio, newspaper and blog articles, re tweets and \nuploads which still to this day is the most successful video launch of all time. It was \na military operation but possibly the team I was most proud to be part of, because \nlearning and being inspired is pure life.KANYE WEST - YEEZUS\nWATCH\n‘I have always thought New \nSlaves, looking back this felt \nlike more of a speech than \na record and this felt like a \nbroadcast you would see if \nsomeone invaded the world \nand spoke to the people from \nthe streets.’204 205\nARROGANCE\nLet’s be real here. Fans don’t want you to be one of them. They want to aspire to be \nyou a lot of the time. A little lashing of arrogance every now and again is amazing. \nAt the end of the Madison Square Garden Trailer which essentially outlined how \ncould a band who no-one we stopped on the streets of NYC had ever heard of, be \nplaying the venue?! Well.. it was because COOL people knew. We played on the \nfact you needed to be cool to know them and ended the video with this. Fans loved \nit. They were in the inner sanctum now, they knew something others did not and it \nbrought us closer, while we behaved like arrogant rock stars :-) Please note the 3 \ndots after the first sentence (see what we did there?)\nCHANGING \nSOUND\n206 207My students asked me to include this. How do you be in more than once band, be \nmore than one name or have more than one sound?\nWell tough one. If you are Pharrell Williams or Mark Ronson, you’re a cool cat, so \nit’s likely your fans will not mind one bit and you use your one social media handle \nto promote them all. Does anyone mind when Pharrell says NERD is back? NOPE. \nDave Grohl, Josh Homme….Diplo… Eric Prydz… the list goes on.\nIf you are putting out some more commercial sounding music do you do it? By this \ntime you have learned your fan base. Will they smell a cash grab? Will they like \nit? If even a sliver of your instinct says they won’t…. Start a new profile and test \nit over there. Then own it if your original fan base will not leave you because of it.\nDo you have to please fans? No. But you’ve spent a long time saying one thing, if \nyou switch, either do so smartly or be ready for the consequences no matter what \nthey are.TOURING\n208 209STRATEGY\nWe touched on this earlier but you have your 3 year plan, and the year ahead \nneeds booking for shows. Shows are often how Artist’s earn the majority of their \nmoney. Shows do not book 3 years ahead, but the importance here is to remember \nyour goals. Things to consider:\n• When is your Album or big single or EP dropping?\n• Do you want to tour when it’s out? Before? Wait a second and then tour?\n• Things to consider here is do you want to play material out to fans beforehand \nto build hype for your album\n• Do you want to wait and tour when the songs are hopefully huge?\n• Or blend a mixture of the two?\n• Do you want a launch event and which markets would you do that / them in?\n• Festivals or Hard Tickets?\nROUTING\nRouting means the geography between show. How do you get one from the other. \nSmart routing creates cost savings.\nDOWN SIDES\nYou don’t design and own the marketing roll out\nYou cannot access the data of the ticket buyers\nYou may not get a good slot meaning even the best shows can be missed as \nyou’re on early\nYou cannot do ticket bundles\nYou are limited by your slot, the changeover time or the stage you are on to bring \nyour own show.BENEFITS\nFestivals provide a larger marketing spend but you share that spend with multiple \nother Artists’ on bill. Festivals offer fans who would not normally come and see you \nto come to your show. A chance to convert new people who may come and see \nyou later at your own show. They pay you a fee. Guaranteed. Normally larger than \na Hard Ticket show. You have costs to pay from this determined by the contract, \nand in electronic music pretty much everything is provided as you play a built \nstage. You tend to have less costs than a Hard Ticket Show.Hard Tickets is the name for when you move into venues of your own.210 211BILLING\nThis is where you sit on the marketing. Headline means at the top. This may also \nstate if you sit on your own line of the ad. So it’s you at the glorious top and no one \nelse on the same line. TopLine means more than one act is at the top of the ad, \nand you need to know where you sit. First on top line, second, third? ABC - means \nall acts in ABC order. Be clear from day one if you have more than one word in \nyour name which one you use for this purpose. If you are DJ Zinc for example are \nyou a D or a Z. Always push for the D. Bands tend not to get this luxury taking \nonly the first letter from the first part of the name. ABC can also be in sections. \nHeadliner section which means first chunk of names, ABC mid level section and so \non. Ask for clarity. If you want to be fancy you can get into font size, but if you’re \nthere you’re a massive headliner and you don’t need my advice. Promoters have \npower here. A lot of people wanna play their show - you don’t just list demands \nand they happen. Well unless you’re Daft Punk maybe…!\nCHANGEOVER TIME.\nIf you are a DJ and you want fans to have a little break so you can make a big \nentrance you need 10 mins changeover time. This is the time when there is no \nmusic and equipment can be reset or changed. If you use vinyl or any equipment \nnot on a stage normally - same - you need time to change it over, ensure you have \ntold your agent and they guarantee you that time. If you are a band the time is \nlonger while whole bands are removed and you are installed. 30 mins - 1 hour is \nsometimes necessary. Do not forget this. \nFX\nTheir basic package is not enough? You want more. You can state with your \nbooking what will be in your ‘Rider’ to be provided at their cost, and then you can \nfight over it. You also need to ask if you don’t get it all, if you can provide it at your \nown cost. This will mean normally you have to place an order with their production \noffice as they hold the fire license and will only allow safe products managed by \nthem. If you want an overhead firework display - again - you need to say. This is \nsometimes reserved only for the headliner.FESTIVAL BOOKINGS: \nWHAT TO LOOK FOR\nFee. This fee is gross normally, so remember you have Withholding Tax and \npossibly State Taxes to pay before you see your money.\nWhat you get on top and what you pay for?\n• Generally Festivals offer you ‘Sound and Lights’\n• This does not mean you suddenly can demand loads of money on the world’s \nlargest light show.\n• It means the lights they already put on their stage. Many also won’t have \ndesigned their stage yet but if you google their pictures from the last 3 years, \nchecking you are looking at the right stage, you will get an idea of the quality\n• They may offer you a basic FX package (FX are pyro / c02 etc). Ask what that \nincludes\n• Ground Transport - meaning they will collect a reasonable amount of people \nfrom the airport.\n• Hotels - depends. Some do, some don’t. Negotiate.\n• Access to their screens for your Visual Artist. This does not mean you design \nthe screens. This means you use theirs. Designs again, often not set yet, you \nneed to google past looks to get a feel for what to expect.\nWhich stage the offer is on (don’t ever assume you’re on main stage and if the \nstage has a name ask for the capacity of it and all other stages. Set Time & \nLength. Ask when the stage opens and closes and you will see if you really are \nclosing out the stage.\nWHAT TO ASK\nWho is on before and after you. Position yourself where you will shine, don’t \nalways try and grab the headline. That’s an illusion that the headline is the last \nslot. In some festivals that means 6AM. Your agent will have knowledge of great \nslots to take.212 213WHAT ELSE DO YOU ASK?\n• Who did that slot last year, it helps bring a picture and google references\n• Who else is on the other stages at the same time. I mean...YAY you’re \nheadlining one stage and it’s your dream but Daft Punk’s comeback is on the \nother stage at the same time. Nightmare.\n• Is it streamed and if it is, is it optional. The time of the booking is the time to \nlay out if you will not be part of a stream.\n• Announcement Date (not always known when booked but this date means by \nthis time you should have seen and approved artwork so you sent a reminder \nfor 2 weeks beforehand to chase chase chase. Don’t assume you will be \noffered it… )\nThings to watch out for:\nGUEST LIST\nThis includes guest passes and AAA. Guest Passes cannot get on stage often. Be \nclear on what you get. These can be very strict.\nRADIUS CLAUSE\nThis is when the venue protects themselves from you playing a rival or close by at \nyour own show. This is normally a number of miles from their show, and a period \nof time. Remember this they are serious about it.\nSUNSET\nIf you are not in a tent, sunset is key. If your visuals or FX require darkness, these \nslots are fewer and harder to get. Check. It’s not the same time in all markets. For \nexample Sweden summer has almost no full darkness so you think 9pm will be \nfine,. Maybe not! Check if you want, Google will tell you.\nLive headliners \n(ABC order)\nDJ headliners \n(ABC order)Live headliners \n(ABC order)\nDJ headliners \n(ABC order)\nTier 2 Support\n(ABC order)\nHEADLINE. FRIDAY. \nFIRST. TOPLINESECOND HEADLINE. \nTOPLINE.\nDay by Day ad Weekend Ad. Or ‘generic’ adSecond headliner. \nTopline. Second \nposition.Overall headliner. \nTop Line. First \nposition.\n5th headline.\nLine 2. \nFirst position.\nIMPORTANT NOTE\nThink here. Are you announcing your own show close to a festiival? Which one \nstrategically comes first? Normally I would say your own show. Sell it out, then \nannounce the festival. Take time to consider this. You don’t control the festival \nannouncement so this requires planning on your part, not theirs. Also take time to \ncheck the market can sustain ticket sales and success for both shows.214 215Set Up Time. our production crew have to programme. This is plugging their light \nboards and VJ equipment into the festivals system. They need time to do this. \nWhat are your restrictions. For example if you need a different light board you may \nonly be allowed to install the night before… but you have another show then. Do \nyou change board? Do you have 2 light directors? Do you leave straight after the \nother show and drop your light guy off at the next show at 5AM. \nSome of this just cannot be agreed on confirmation. But get as much done as you \ncan early to protect you later when everyone is crazy busy. Your agent will have \ngood advice what you can and can’t do now. You will want a Production Manager \ncontact from them for your Tour Manager and you will want their Marketing Office \nso you can supply them with information nearer the time. Updated press shots, \nask them nicely if they will do a piece on your album or re-tweet your news… \nwhich they have no obligation to do… You might want to ask how you buy ad \nspace in the programme or on the festival site. Your agent will get you the Artwork \nfor approval but once that’s done they pretty much step out so a nice relationship \nwith marketing means you can join in with PR opportunities on site and thank them \nfor their help after the show. Go drop them a T Shirt off on site! They work hard, \nappreciate them.SET UP TIME\nThis is Front of House and that’s that nice hut you see out in the crowd which is \nwhere most sound guys, Visual guys, light guys work from etc.FOH\nCan you cue the Pyro shots, or fire regulations mean they have to? In which case \nyou guys stands with their guy and tell them when. If you are allowed to bring your \nown, or ordering extra from them, a deadline will be set for this. Do NOT miss \nit. Fire regulations do not allow you to just roll up with a bunch of fire to set off. \nPeriod.PYROUSEFUL PHRASES\nCLOSED STAGE\nThis means the headline Artist has closed the sides of the stages down and no-\none can stand on the side except those they authorize. It does not mean their \nstage is closed! If you are the headliner you can confirm Closed Stage with your \nshow. But don’t do it for the sake of it. No one likes a flex when everyone was \nhaving a good time. Ego’s have their place.\nDRESSING ROOM\nWant your own? It might be something to check when you confirm for large \nfestivals. Otherwise cover off this issue in your rider.\nIMAGS (PRONOUNCED EYE MAGS)\nThese are the two screens either side of the stage where you often see the crowd \nor the Artist. This is run by a camera which is often controlled by the festival. These \nscreens are perfect for you to control. They offer 2 extra screens for free, a wider \nlook and a way for you to control the look of the whole place not have your show \nlooking fire in the middle, and some drunk fan wearing your rival band’s T Shirt \non the side screens! Always ask for the ‘feed’ to these screens to be controlled by \nyour team. You can then also run your visuals on this screen giving an easy super \nwide stage effect for free.\nPIXEL MAPS\nThese are the shape of the screens you will be given to put your visuals and \ncameras onto. They come in so many different shapes and sizes. Get them early. \nYou’ve made amazing visuals but you need a large rectangle screen for them to \nwork. And now you’re seeing a stage with 52 circle screens…. WHOOPS! Have a \nplan for broken LED screens which can often be more simple shapes and colors. \nLED just blasted white, on beat, is the cheapest form of adding a tonne of lights \nby the way!HARD \nTICKETS\n(APTLY NAMED AS THEY \nARE HARD TO DO)\n216 217Need a license. They can burn eyes and have to be checked before installed and \nlimits put on. For example none at eye line or lower, none in the sky when you are \nin a flight path.LASERS\nThis is the term where they can insist or you do, that your crew wear all black. And \nthat includes you. That was you are less likely to show up on stage in photos. This \nis the Artist’s moment but it goes deeper. You have a Nike deal and that KILLER \nmoment your photographer captures the moment… except one of your crew has a \nmassive Adidas hoody on. WHOOPS!STAGE BLACKS\nIs the agreed time you roll all your kit in, Load Out is when you have to be out.\nThis is important because if these slots are limited that’s when you have to be \nthere. So if you tell your Artist - you’re fine, you just leave one venue and drive \nan hour and get there ten mins before so you can sleep LOADS. Wrong, you have \nto be there for Load In unless the Artist has their own transport and you have \nremembered those transport costs for both them and the Tour Manager going \nseparately.LOAD IN\nIf your Artist requires a soundcheck at festivals it can be the night before, know \nbefore you plan.SOUND CHECK\nIMPORTANT NOTE\nYou may not as a manager ever contract a show directly in the USA. It is a sackable \noffence and I have seen some people get absolutely f***ed for it. Have someone \nelse do the agreement if someone came to you for the booking in the.218 219Hard Tickets is the phrase for when you go into Touring on your own. Into venues \nwhere you rent them, and sell the tickets. I guess you call this a ‘Concert’. \nIn 99% of cases you don’t actually rent the venue. You have a Promoter, and \nthey ‘buy the show’. They offer you a fee - which is called a Guarantee and a \nVerses deal which appears as ‘VS’ and a percentage. So how is this fee and deal \ndecided? Well the promoter will first take a look at how confident they feel you \nwill sell tickets. If you are a no brainer sell out they will offer you more. If you’re \na risk they will offer you less. The guarantee you get no matter what - of course - \nWithholding Tax applies if you are not from that country. So first of all they set up \na Costings Sheet. This is a fancy name for a Budget. On it you will see:\n• Venue\n• Date\n• Capacity\n• Ticket Price\nThen you will see a whole terrifying list of costs. Venue Rental, Marketing through \nto Catering and Crowd Control Barriers through to Venue Cleaning. You rented an \nempty venue. More often than not - not even sound is in there. Anyone who thinks \nMadison Square Garden comes with those big speakers - think again. It includes \ncrew and rigger costs. Great you think they pay for your crew. Nope. Wrong again. \nThis is the crew you generate the need for by bringing your show. Your show is \nput up by your crew, with their crew, and both crews are your costs. Catering is \nincluded? Nope. This Catering is more often than not for their own workers. But \nit’s still your cost.\nSo this deal you have gives you a guarantee. From that you will pay all your crew, \nall your equipment, sound, lights (if sound is included in their Costing sheet is it \nenough?) and then if you ‘break percentage’ it means you recouped the guarantee \nat the agreed rate. So if you are on a 80 / 20 deal. You get 80, Promoter gets 20. \nIf the tickets generate enough profit after all the costs in their Costings sheet that \nyour 80% has made more than the guarantee, you have ‘broken’. Which is a good \nthing!After that, all profit after Breaking Your Guarantee you get 80% of the profits on \ntop. Again, subject to WHT.\nTicket Income\nThe promoter may list a few lines here\nThis is to cover ticket levels and put next to them how many tickets this applies to. \nThe types can include:\n1. Complimentary tickets (this is your guest list)\n2. Fan Club Pre Sale (small amount at potentially lower price)\n3. Good seats (or in the case of a high energy concert, the floor, where people \ncan rage is normally higher) and how many people can have that\n4. Bad seats (cheaper)\nThere is no limit to how many you can have. You could be really fancy and every \nsingle ticket is a difference price but good luck on the marketing. You can include \nticket bundles here (see later section) but only the ticket element of that bundle \nwill show up here. As you have to ‘break’ the guarantee you can see why if you \nare not a guaranteed sell out the promoter will keep your guarantee low. If you \nare a guaranteed sell out you can push for a higher Guarantee AND a higher \nThis is the accounting you do after the show (often in the venue right afterwards) \nto agree if you broke guarantee and if you are owed money. If you did earn more \nyour agent gets their commission on this also.\nYou can query costs. Did they spend that on cleaning and barriers? You didn’t \nuse any marketing etc. But warn them what you want to see there. Some costs \nare fixed and based on average annuals and not up for negotiation so it’s better \nto know that.\nBroke guarantee? CONGRATS. Remember any new profits are subject to \nWithholding Tax.SETTLEMENT220 221The costings sheet is a starting point. You can go over it and say I want to see it \nwith cheaper tickets, or cheaper tickets for the first two weeks and really play with \nit to suit. How do you decide? You may know your market, or you may choose to \nask to see other’s prices in your genre and same consumer base, to see what \nworks, especially in a market you have never been to.TICKET PRICEYou’re used to a promoter going all out on Marketing at Festivals. Now they will \nonly go as far as the budget allows in the Costings Sheet. Check their plan. I saw \nrecently on an Arena that they were doing very old fashioned spends and we \nmoved the spend to Tik Tok and IG with amazing results.RED FLAGS\nAgain recently we managed to do a Spotify presale. Everyone said not to bother. \nIt was the largest presale ticket seller of the presale with over 30% of tickets sold \nvia their platform. These take time to arrange. 3-4, weeks so don’t ask the day \nbefore like I did pretty much (thank you Spotify but we killed it no? LOL)\nPre-sales can also be with venue partners, credit cards like AMEX, sometimes \nthey are not your choice but a condition of the venue and their own sponsorship \narrangements.RETAIL STORE PRE- SALES.\nThere are laws when people buy tickets as to who owns the data and if you can \nmessage them later to sell them additional items. Know these rules beforehand \nto avoid disappointment when a vital part of your plan was needed. Facebook \nevents are a good way to get around this, encouraging people to ‘Check In’ so \nyou can get to them. Easy way to sell out an After Party… and advertise Merch \navailable etc and communicate set times and travel advice.TICKET DATAAre they on top? What is the final cost you are asking a customer to pay. For many \nthey will accept them but when you are looking at some just can’t afford it, true \nfans, be mindful. If Booking Fees are included what are you REALLY making from \nthe ticket after sales tax and this deducted? Have your budgeted correctly? Do the \nbooking fees on all sites work the same. I had one recently where Ticket Master \nwas operating differently to other sites meaning all the work I’d done to keep ticket \nprices at one point was lost. Thankfully my agent spotted it and we fixed it but it \nmeant a complete re budget with one day left to go. \nYou almost never see any of the revenue from booking fee’s come into your show \nincome stream, even if the venue owns the ticket site.. (I know right?!)BOOKING FEES\nHave they given you enough? Or if you are genuinely sure you will be able to sell it \nout through your own socials tell them to take it out and put it onto the guarantee. \nIf you are using various promoters across one tour, you may want each of them to \ngive you some of the budget to one large ‘look’ which might be a tour video trailer \netc. So they all contribute.MARKETING\nYou have to pay to play music in live venues. It’s on average 3% of the GROSS \nREVENUE. This is shown on the Costings Sheet as a Cost. This is then paid to \nthe Collection Societies (see Royalty section) of the writers who wrote the music. \nYou hand in the tracklist and they do the rest so technically you get it back IF you \nwrote the songs. If you didn’t you don’t. If you wrote some, you get some back. It \nvaries per country but generally more goes to the headline slot. So you get more \nthan the support Artist. If you are smart, hand in a 2 hour tracklist AND write the \nmusic for walk in time and changeovers and collect as much as you can. You can \nhand these in at the venue but I always hand in to the Collection Society. There \nis normally a nice page on their website for you to do it. Your Business Manager \nis the one here to get you sorted. ASK! Also ensure your agent states in your \nagreement that ALL Performing Rights income must go to the Society with no \nPromoter Deductions. This is some naughty venues have a quiet deal where they \nonly passed through 80%. NOPE. PRS / PRO’SA RUN\n222 223A run of dates is a cluster of dates put together. Routing is everything here. You \nping yourself east to west of a country back and forth you will tire your crew and \nwaste money. Same with a world tour. Do it geographically. Don’t be foolish here. \nNot least because the mental health of everyone on the road is pushed so hard \nfrom travel. Don’t look like you don’t care about this and if it was unavoidable, \nexplain why. Don’t assume they know you tried your hardest and it just could not \nbe done in a better way.\nNational and Global Promoters like Live Nation, AEG and SJM Concerts (UK) can \nbuy multiple dates off you, offering you one lump sum for X number of shows and \ntickets, again with a VS deal, or they can offer you a deal per venue and add it up \nto get your totals.\nThis CAN include Festival appearances if they own the festivals. So you do 20 \ndates, and 5 of their festivals. If this is the case - all the deal details like fee, billing \nand what you do and don’t get on site has to be broken out.\nThese are generally exclusive deal and you may not do other shows during this \ntime and sometime afterwards. Private shows may be exclusive apart from Private \nunadvertised events or a launch party. So if you have a brand deal where you \nagreed you had to do an event in April, and that’s when the tour is…. Exclude this \nfrom your deal. Depending on the type of show you could then avoid it on that run, \nor put the date you need to be there right next to that date to save costs but only \nif you know both will be successful.\nWhy are multiple dates good? Well you can lump all the dates onto one set of \nmarketing for National or International campaigns. But… you still need to go hard \nin the regions. Don’t think just because you bought some IG ads with all the dates \non that local news sites are not valid. They are.\nTOURING PERIODS\nThis is when you sketch out when you will tour.\nAVAILS\nWhen your agent says I’ll get the ‘avails’ it means they will get all the available \ndates of the venues you want. This is to start the Routing Process.TICKET \nBUNDLES\n224 225Do you want to be able to ‘bundle’ your tickets? This is when you do your own \nshows - take over a venue - and you can sell the ticket as a package or ‘bundle’. \nThis could be a:\n• Ticket + an album download. Depending on your countries chart rules these \ndownloads only count if the fan actually downloads them. \n• Ticket + a physical album (sometimes signed)\n• Ticket + a piece of merch\n• Ticket + piece of merch + an album\n• Ticket + a meet & greet\nThere are no limits to a bundle but always check the chart rules. \nThey do however affect the price of the ticket, and price is often the number one \ndetermining factor in how many tickets you sell beyond your own popularity, and \neven then it has an impact. When you decide your ticket price remember just like \nyour Merch, there is sales tax. Make sure your agent or promoter has been clear \nwhat you get. For example:\n50 GBP Ticket\n20% sales tax\n40 GBP to you. \nYou want to add an album… and you think who cares, a CD is a dollar to make. \nWRONG. If you are in a Record Deal the label owns this part of the product and \nyou have to agree a price with them. They may have internal rules on minimums, \nthey may want to also achieve a chart position and go full pelt with you. But no \nmatter what, you may have people to pay on the record, and these percentages \nhave to be accounted for before a label will agree a price. This relates back to all \nthose Featured Artist and Producer Deals you did. Check with your label and / or \nlawyer what this will cost you. TOUR \nMARKETING\n226 227If your agent is on gross commission at ten percent, do they take 10% of the \nbundle, or only the ticket part? Be clear on this before you start.COMMISSION\nSo you’ve done well. You have done the budget of what the ticket price, minus \nsales tax, minus commission, minus the cost of the CD or download is…. But hot \ndamn, you forgot you had to ship the package which is no longer a digital ticket but \na parcel, potentially to other countries. You can add shipping to the ticket price, but \nremember the fan cares about the final cost coming from their bank account, so \nyou fought hard to keep this all under 50 bucks, but then the shipping adds $15! \nYour fan only see’s 65 USD in their basket at the end. Some don’t mind, to some \nit’s a deal breaker.SHIPPING\nIf you do a bundle and lets say it’s announced 3 months prior to your album… \nyou won’t be shipping that album element until day of release unless you want to \nannoy every digital store and have your album leak. State this clearly. Protect your \nconsumer journey with clarity - or expect a tonne of comments on your IG where \neveryone can see them that you suck. Maybe you said it in the small print - but \nyour fans deserve LARGE print.BE CLEAR\nThe Costing Sheet should show you, or have the agent confirm, the venue rate for \nMerch. They will charge you a percentage of GROSS profits from Merch to sell it \nin their venue and may not provide staff or credit card machines, just the booth. \nSo if you are doing tour merch you may have to 1) deduct their commission before \neven sales tax comes off and 2) have someone on your tour bus who manages \nthe Merch and is in the shop. These are HUGE costs to forget when making a \ndecision.MERCH SALES228 229If you are doing this type of tour you likely have an album or number of singles out. \nYou will want to consider the artwork reflecting the same as these products and \npotentially name them on all artwork. You will want to enforce your brand core \nvalues on it, logo, font type etc. It’s always best to issue the promoter with a pack \nof these including a recent press shot to service with local press releases. You \nwill want to create one tour advert template and this will be one with all dates on, \none with only one date on - which goes to each city, and one per country which is \nfor country wide but not international marketing. Create IG Gifs and all the normal \nsocial media banner artworks and website home page artwork. Make the ticket \nprice clear but most importantly make the date they are on-sale clear. Pre-Sale? \nGreat, good for you. Do it before school opens or half your market just missed out \nand they will actively diss you on socials for it, plus that’s just dumb so…. \nWhen is it? Where is it online? Need a code? Where will you put it?\nPART 1\nIE. Yo...the pre-sale for Madison Square Garden, June 20th show, will be at 8AM \nEST, Friday March 13th, 2020. The code will be given right here on Instagram \ntomorrow at 6pm. Link for Pre-Sale in Bio (or Swipe Up)\nIf you have decided only to put the code on IG all your other ‘shop windows’ say \n‘Follow Instagram (with the handle) for the code. If it was me I would put the code \non all socials and your website.\nPART 2\nThe Pre-Sale Code for the Madison Square Garden show on June 10th, will be \nYEAHBABY, Pre-Sale opens at 8AM on March 13th 2020. Link in Bio (or swipe up). \nRemember your Shop Windows here and message every single one accurately \nplease. And don’t forget your mailing list!\nPART 3\nThe PreSale for MSG, June 20th, is live in ten minutes guys! Code YEAHBABY - \nSwipe UP! (reminders are normally better in tweets and stories)\nPART 4\nThe PreSale for Madison Square Garden, June 20th is NOW LIVE. Link in Biog. \n(or Swipe UP_)). Code : YEAHBABYPART 5\nThe PreSale is now SOLD OUT! General On-Sale is Saturday March 14th, 8AM. \nTicket Link in Biog. \nNow - can you see how you needed 5 pieces of artwork here? They can be all \nfancy and match your artwork or simple text blocks but have them done. You will \nhave enough to do with fans who, no matter how clear you are, always seem to \nget muddled.\nTHE GOLDEN RULES\n• Age Limit. There is no point you complaining, after the fact, that kids could not \nbuy tickets if you did not check the age limit. You may not choose to advertise \nthe age limit as your choices can be controversial and you would prefer to let \nthem discover it at the ticket site, but… KNOW IT.\n• Agree the amounts of tickets per section. You need to allocate what goes \ninto the PreSale. This is a fan experience. You may want to service as many \nthat wish to buy now. In which case you allocate a large percentage. You may \nwant a hot ticket and have less and announce SOLD OUT. You may want to \nchoose live. You are online when the presale happens and your Agent and \nPromoter should be online too. They should report the opening 5 minutes \nand then every 20 mins after that - more regularly if its a super hot ticket. You \ncan decide to pull it down whenever you like, and move the unsold tickets to \nthe General OnSale. If they are cheaper tickets and move into a sale which \nis more expensive, change your budget to increase your revenue when you \nhave finished the Pre Sale. If you pull some from the General OnSale into \nyour PreSale to meet demand and that decreased the income, change your \ncostings and be sure you can afford that before you do. \n• Can you increase ticket prices while you’re on sale? No. You could technically \nsay sold out then release 1000 more at the end at a higher price, but it’s not \nreceived well. You cannot do this live. It takes time to programme the ticket \nsites.\n• Check your link the second you have it.\n• Watch your socials to see issues and use your socials to help fans with live \nmessaging. Be Patient… or offer a link that actually works (hopefully not!)\n• Ticket group limits. This is to stop ticket sellers to buy 50 at a time. Decide MULTIPLE \nNIGHTS\n230 231BEFORE the online sale what the limits will be.\n• So you’ve announced the tour, this means all ticket sites that promised to \nstock you, should have the link up (not yet working until the on-sale but will tell \nfans when it is). Check them ALL. Check the photo is right, the info is right and \nthat you are present. Before you get here, it’s always wise to look at every site \nbefore you go up. Do they offer a better placement for some like banners or \n‘gig of the week’ type features? DEMAND THEM! Look at the venue’s socials, \ndid they list and promote you, look at local new sites… did they? Make one list \nand send it to your agent and promoter and say ….WHATS UP!! LETS GO!!!!!! \n• List the show on all your own portals and I like to add a PreSale and the \nOnSale as an event. Yes yes it’s not a show but it creates a reminder for those \nwho have switched on notifications, so who cares. It’s free. Use it! Add in Pre \nSale Codes to the event sections when you have them so your Shop Window \nis just as shiny as can be!\nCANCELLING A SHOW. \nNightmare! First of all it happens, so get over it. Always show the promoter respect \nand agree the approach to the announcement together. Never announce before \nthey can, that’s just disrespectful. Agree a strategy. Personally I don’t like to put \nit on social media. Your entire fanbase does not need to know. Use Geo Targeted \nsocial media platforms and if fans DM you, answer them. Ensure refund policies \nor a rescheduled date plan is clear.232 233AH THE DREAM COMES TRUE! Not only are you playing the dream venue but \nyou think you can do more than one night. To do this you have to have both dates \nheld from day 1. There may be a fee to pay for the second date if you don’t use it. \nBut hopefully you and your agent have judged it right.\nThis can also mean savings as you are not trucking from one venue to another, \nyou only had to pay crew for one load in and one load out, etc.\nDo you put both up (on sale) at the same time? There’s no right answer. If you are \nnot sure you will sell out both, no. You put one up, sell it out, put up the second. \nOr put up the second when you have done the bulk of the tickets on night one. \nDiscuss before the show what you will feel confident about.\nThis is when your instinct is KEY. For example, you thought it would blow out fast. \nAnd you have done 80% of the tickets but it took 3 days. Well then maybe you \ncannot do the second night. Don’t ever do it for the sake of it.\nMultiple nights are also good for when you THINK you will do 10 000 tickets and \nyou have 2 choices. Take the 10k cap arena or 2 nights of a 5k venue. You can \ndo 10k tickets like that, with a bit more confidence. But… this may be a more \nexpensive production as you have more wages. But the arena could be more \nexpensive to produce. Do the maths with your agent and your tour manager.\nWhich night do you put up first? Agents will tell you to put the less desirable date \nup first. IE a weeknight verses a weekend night. This is your call. What if you don’t \nsell both? But also consider how your core fans feel that you said there was one \ndate, they buy it, then announce a better night of the week? Think of these things. \nIf you sell out the less desirable and then add a more desirable you are more likely \nthat new fans will come. They’d always liked you, never been to a gig and now it \nwas on a Saturday night near them… its an easier first commitment from a new \nfan. Debate it. Either way your Artist will see how their fans feel straight away and \nif you didn’t discuss it they will not be happy. \nThe absolute best time to put the next night up is when you are sold out, people on \nthe line needing tickets. You can have the ticket link ready with the promoter and \nyour SOLD OUT artwork for night 1 and NOW ADDED artwork for night 2. Sitting \npoised to add it to your Facebook Events. Using your socials to communicate. \nGRAB THEM WHILE THEY ARE THERE, COMMITTED TO COMING!!!!!!\nSee how you needed art in advance…. NEW DATE ADDED and SOLD OUT and \nan amended tour poster of the whole run. Your graphic designer being sat with you or online for new needs also is always wise. There are just so many variables. \nYou need your promoter and agent on the phone for these and make the decisions \nlive.\nIn the case of Swedish House Mafia, ‘One Last Tour’, I slept on the floor at William \nMorris with Michelle Berstein from Live Marketing in the office and our Agent Sam \nKirby on the phone from NYC and we joined calls per timezone with every market \nadding shows we had held as they sold out. We didn’t realize we would do so many \nso in some cases Live Nation had to find me more dates live, I had to ask the band \nand communicate live to fans. But we did it… and what a memory that is to have. \nThere is no better buzz than watching tickets fly and being able to be prepared to \nkeep going and going.\nHOLDS\nBefore you go on sale and sell out, have your held the tickets you need? This \nincludes your guest list for you and the Artist and who you need to invite. This can \ninclude tickets for labels which they should normally buy. This is called a ‘Label \nBuy’ and they can often be looped into the promoter direct for this. If you are \nrecouping this cost, it’s still your money so be mindful of this before they buy 200!\nIf your guestlist free tickets was not on the Costings Sheet, go back and have it \nadded in. It affects the profit and every $ can count.SUPPORT \nARTISTSSEATING \nPLANS\n234 235If you want to be a support artist on a tour, tell your agent. Agents send lists \naround of tours they have for headline artists (the main act) which offers a slot to \npeople with examples of who they are looking for.\nWhy would they do this?! Well they are offering pennies for the slot. You are likely \nto make a loss early on, to get on the road and get on their adverts.\nWhat do you ask for?\n1. Fee\n2. Can you share any of their kit? Like the light desk / sound desk and are \nyour two riders compatible?\n3. What time do you go on? If you go on when doors open and 2 hours after \nyou stop the headliner goes on, is it worth it?\n4. Will you be featured on their adverts? From what date, how big will the \nfont be, and can you add your logo and any sales messages?\n5. Can you be tagged on their social media?\n6. Are any catering and any facilities like dressing rooms provided?\n7. Can you go on their bus?! (often that’s a big fat no)\nIf you are doing a Hard Ticket show, the Support Artist normally has a budget sat \nnext to it on the Costings Sheet. Spent more? That’s your cost. Spent less, the \nbalance goes back in as profit split according to the profit percentage deal you did.When SHM played nightclubs in Miami I would go in the day time and ‘walk the \nfloor’ with Carlos Correal (legend). We agreed where VIP tables which were in \nmega demand, and helped pay my fee, could go. We would not allow them too \nclose and blocking the rave feeling we needed on the dancefloor.\nVIPs are vital to revenue, but no Artist wants to be facing a load of champagne \npopping assholes who have no idea why they are there except to pick up girls and \nflash their watches. Nor do they want their fans to stand behind that.\nIn festivals and larger Hard Ticket venues, this is called the Golden Circle. Again \ncan be vital and often a nicer crowd, but the lower energy often caused by simply \nallowing them to have more space, so it feels less packed, and the crowd generally \na little older can mean the Artist just loses all connection to the energy they feed \noff.\nAlways check if it applies to you with your agent, and at events of high priority \nwhich Miami was to us, go before doors open.TOUR\nCONTRACT\nWHAT’S IN IT\n236 237IT’S PAGES LONG BUT HERE IS WHAT \nIT NEEDS TO HAVE IN IT.\n• Fee\n• Rate of Tax. Please note if the government change the tax laws you will pay \nthe new rate I’m afraid to say, but you can state here a rate change requires \nyou to be notified.\n• Additional items you receive, such as hotels & ground transport.\n• Your rider should be in the agreement. Have your agents add it as pages, not \nsay ‘Rider attached’. Make it legally binding.\n• Work Permits - you require clear notification of any permits needed and cost \nto be reimbursed\n• Catering \n• Load In time or prep time required\n• Number of passes for crew\n• Number of guest list passes and the category of list you expect\n• Are you demanding a Closed Stage\n• Are you allowing streaming?\n• Are you allowing their own photographers and videographers on stage? (I say \nno)?\n• Will you allow yourself to be included in after movies or only if you get approval\n• Set Time\n• Set Length\n• Name the Artist’s before and after you if you can here to save any surprises\n• Changeover time they want or you want\n• Billing Position \n• Approval of all artwork requirements\n• Insurance requirements for you and them\n• Cancellation Rules - when can they cancel, what they have to pay if they do. \nThis can include a difference between in advance or when the Artist is actually \nin town ‘ready to perform’ \n• Force Majeure - what happens if an Act of God cancels the show - a flood, \nwinds or nowadays a virus!\n• The level of Public Liability Insurance you are expected to have.YOUR\nTEAM\n238 239Well at first it can be you… driving them to shows and collecting the money!\nBut now you are doing well and you are going to hire a team.\nTOUR MANAGER\n• Co-ordinates the booking of crew and runs the online crew calendar\n• ‘Advances’ the shows. This means he goes ahead of you into the future (!) and \ncontacts the Production Managers of the shows to co-ordinate what you need. \nFrom airport cars to sound equipment.\n• Creates the itinerary and circulates it.\n• Books hotels and flights.\n• Secures work permits. If you do not share bookings with them way in advance \nthey cannot do this, it’s always best to ask you agent to flag if permits are \nneeded. But your tour manager needs to know. For example some countries \nonly need permits for some nationalities, or special permits apply. Your agent \nmay not know this so always tell them when a show is confirmed so they have \ntime to raise the red flag. \n• You may agree to tell them before the show is confirmed, so he can check all \ncrew are available.\n• Always discuss routings with them. You want to be in Holland one day, Belgium \nthe next. They will probably agree. You want to be in Holland one day, and \nIndia the next, probably not. Go fully armed with the facts. Set Times can make \nthe difference between making a flight to make it work, and not making a flight. \nThe city - means they know what airport you are talking about. Etc.\n• Helps create the rider with you for your show and the needs of your Artist\n• Reports back to you on how shows were if you were not there\n• Assists with getting agreed interviewers to the dressing room if you are not \nthere\n• Hands in your guest list if you agree this is their role, and sorts the production \npasses for the crew and if you ask, and the photographer and videographer \npasses.\n• Creates the budgets! Set the rules now. IE don’t book flights until I have seen \nthe budget. Don’t buy extra pyro until I have seen the budget. But that means \nbeing on hand to read them when needed or your prices just went up while \nyou ignore their email.240 241PRODUCTION MANAGER (PM)\n• If you are a starting out, your likely don’t need this yet. This person handles the \nproduction - which is stuff like your sound equipment, screens, staging, your \nbooth if you are a DJ, special FX etc. Most Tour Managers can do the basics \nfor now.\n• He or she is likely to also need to speak to the Production Manager at the \nFestival or Venue and often the tour manager can hand over this to them, and \nthey stick to other logistical details.\nVJ (Visual Jockey)\n• The person operating your visuals and often any cameras involved in the show.\nLight Director or LD\n• Operates the lights and can often also design how lights are used.\nSound Manager / Director\n(this can also be called FOH which is also the name for the area they work in)\n• Even at festivals where you share a stage design with many, great sound \nguys can improve how you sound by adapting the sound deck to maximize \nits output to the type of sound you make. At venues for Hard Tickets you \nmay have rented in the sound and need one. They are less common on small \nartists.\nTechs\n• These are specialists in your field. A guitar tech for example may have a band \nwith 4 guitars in, and band members who switch between guitars all of which \nhave to feed into the sound board. Larger bands will have one on the road with \nthem. If you have a string section, same. Drum kit, same. The larger you get \nthe more you need.Driver\n• If you are touring by bus you will need a driver. Driver shifts are legally limited \nto a set number of hours so sometimes you need two or account for stops\nNow this is all very basic, if you are Taylor Swift you have hundreds of crew on the \nroad. People to do the screens, riggers to install it all, security, specialists in FX \nof each kind and so on, but if you are Taylor Swift you are not likely to be reading \nthis book so…\nBackline: \nThis is for DJs your CDJs, Serato, decks and mixer. For a band, its drum kits, \nguitar amps, keyboards etc.\nTERMS YOU MAY HEAR\nRider: \nAh the bible. This document is issued with your contract and likely again by the \nTour Manager. But at contract stage is vital to protect your needs. This outlines a \nset of contacts, from the manager to the publicist to the tour manager and crew.\nIt then lists what you need. Your set up on stage, how long you need to set up, \nhow many hotel rooms you need where the contract allows, the type of car you \nwill accept to collect you and so on. It also lists you need a clean dressing room, \nrefreshments, and any security detail. There can be some fun stuff like a football \nor a disposable camera but don’t go over the top. \nI use 3. A, B and C. \nThis category is agreed with my agent so they send the right rider and my tour \nmanager is told and its listed on the show diary. For category C shows for example \nI also need less crew, so people know when they are needed.\nA = Full show - where we bring all the whistles and bells and have agreed with the \npromoter we can. This is pretty much a venue show onto a festival stage.\nB = Semi full show - I know I am using their stage, their booth and so I outline here \nwhat I need in the booth, that I need access to their IMAG screen feeds, the light \ndesk I need, the PYRO I need etc.\nC = Club show where I can have none of the above and I am playing in a club so \nits mainly what I need in the booth.242 243Wages\nYou can pay day rates. This will normally include full pay on travel days and often \nincludes if they fly over night and land back home the following morning, a full day \nfor that also.\nRetainer\nAn agreed monthly amount, you are more liekly here to agree exclusivity of their \nservices. This can include that it covers a maximum of X amount of days and you \npay more if you go over it. But normally a retainer is a one off fee like a salary and \nthat’s that.\nPayments\nI always ask crew to invoice after a show or run of shows, and pay them on \nMondays. This reminds me on that day to clear the invoices down and if your \nBusiness Manager does your payments, gets it all done in one day.\nPer Diems (means Per Day)\nThis is an amount granted on top of the day rates which cover food / phone bills \nand general expenses. Its normally around 75 bucks but can be more of course.\nInsurance\nCrew are generally self employed and should have their own insurance and show \nyou copies.\nPublic Liability Insurance\nIn addition to the promoter having their own insurance you will need your own \npolicy and can be asked to show the certificate at any time. Vegas is especially \ntight on this. It will state in the contract how much you need to have, I’ve seen $1 \n000 000 to 10 million.\nA 5 million policy for the year is about 750 USD. It is vital so don’t skimp on it.\nWork Permits.\nYour tour manager will do them and the cost is generally the promoters. However \njust waking up one day and saying you need 10 passport photos and for them to \ngo to an embassy is rarely successful. So keep them informedPassport\nWork Permits, ESTA visas and travel in general is restricted once your passport \ncomes to 6 months before expiration. The Crew should be told a valid passport \nis their responsibility and the Tour Manager will have a scan of the Artists but be \nsmart here. Set a reminder when the passport is 9 months out. You need the Artist \nto be home to get a new one and if your Tour Manager forgets… then at the end \nof the day it’s your responsibility.\nTour Insurance\nIf you have a lot of outgoings, its wise to insure your show and your business \nmanager will have good companies and can also purchase it for you. Ask \nquestions. What creates an Act of God which wipes out your cover? This is called \na Force Majeure. Are there rules like if you land 30 mins before and miss the \nshow, you’re not covered because they want you in the country 5 hours before \nthe show. Insurance can be adapted to suit so be clear. For example most will not \ncover the current virus issues.\nYou can insure a portion of your income. It is normally around 2% of your gross \nincome, so if you costs are low and you just have not had issues with cancellations \nand the routing looks pretty solid, you may want to only insure the percentage of \nthe fee which is costs. This is why understanding your budgets is so good. You \nwill know your rough average profit percentage for different types of shows and \ncan get a feel for the cover you would need. If its high, insure all of it. You can \ninsure a part of your show. So you could for example know your costs are 50%, \nand insure 50% of the fee.\nDo you have to insure your show? No you do not.\nDoes your agent charge you on cancelled shows even if you insured it? No I have \nnever seen this. If you have been diligently paying insurance on all your shows \nand they took the gross. Now your insurance kicks in it’s unlikely they can claim \na piece.\nIf you have a show cancel on the road, tell your insurance company IMMEDIATELY. \nYour Tour Manager should send you notes. Pictures of screens where the flight \ncancelled, a note from the airline desk, screen grabs of texts you got from the \nairline etc. Keep it ALL and make your claim straight away.TOUR \nBUDGET\n244 245RULES\nSet the rules when you hire. From Stage Blacks, to can you or can you not drink \npre-show. It’s way more difficult to do it later. And yes, perhaps having one beer \nbefore the show was not the reason all your pyro didn’t go off but the Artist will be \ndevastated and any excuse to pick at will be there. Set the rules on what they may \nand may not post on their own socials.\nTell them how to get paid, invoice address, payment dates and how you want them \nto work with you on work permits and being responsible for a passport which is \nless than 6 months away for expiration at all times.\nIssue these verbally and in writing and then say WELCOME TO THE TEAM AND \nIF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU OR YOU HAVE AN IDEA, WE \nWANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT!’\nFollow the same rules. If they cannot drink pre show, don’t do it yourself.246 247SHOW BUDGET - NO TAX APPLICATION\nPLEASE NOTE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS THE FORMULAS IN THE SQUARES MAY BE LOST.\nON THIS BUDGET :\nARTIST IS A DJ, SO NO BAND MEMBERS APPLY. COULD ALSO WORK FOR A SOLO VOCALIST IF THE PRODUCTION MANAGER IS SWITCHED TO SOUND GUY. DEPENDS ON LEVEL.\nWE ARE NOT A USA CITIZEN AND WE HAVE NOT APPLIED FOR A CWA\nWE HAVE 3 DAYS, THE GUYS FLY AND MAKE LOAD IN ON TIME ON THE SAME DAY AS THE SHOW, FLY HOME THE FOLLOWING DAY, LAND THE DAY AFTER THAT\nWE HAVE 2 NIGHTS HOTEL, NOT 3 AS ONE OF THE TOUR DAYS WE ARE IN THE AIR COMING HOME\nPER DIEMS DO NOT ALWAYS APPLY FOR THE DAY YOU LAND, BUT IN THIS CASE THIS WAS MY WAGES DEAL AND I HAVE INCLUDED IT\nI HAVE CONTRACTED THE PRODUCER TO PROVIDE ALL PRODUCTION ON MY RIDER AND SHE AGREED\nI HAVE ALREADY GOT MY WORK PERMITS AND THEY WERE ON A PREVIOUS CWA CLAIM AS A COST IN FULL SO THERE'S NO COST ON THIS BUDGET\nSOME HOTELS ARE INCLUDED IN MY DEAL BUT NOT ALL. DRIVER FROM AIRPORT TO AND FROM WERE INCLUDED.\nMY DAY RATE IS 500 EUROS, SO I HAD TO CHANGE IT TO DOLLARS. PER DIEMS I ALREADY AGREED IN THE USA ITS 75 USD.\nTHIS IS ONE SHOW. IF WE HAD MORE YOU CAN SEE WE WOULD SAVE MONEY SHARING FLIGHT COSTS ACROSS MORE SHOWS, BUT WE ADD DAILY COSTS DOING SO.\nDATE June 1 2020\nNAME OF SHOW F*** THE VIRUS FESTIVAL\nCITY CITY OF NO ISOLATION\nCOUNTRY USA\nFEE 50000\nCURRENCY USD\nFLIGHT CLASS HOTEL NIGHTS TOTAL DAY RATE DAYS TOTAL PER DIEMS DAYS TOTAL\nARTIST 3000 BIZ 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0\nTOUR MANAGER 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nPRODUCTION MANAGER 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nLIGHT DIRECTOR 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nVJ 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nPHOTOGRAPHER 1000 ECON 300 2 600 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nVIDEOGRAPHER 1000 ECON 300 2 600 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nTOTALS 9000 1200 9720 1350\nARTIST PARTY TOTAL COSTS 21270 (the sum of all the totals above)\nPRODUCTION\nLIGHTS 0 PROMOTER\nSCREENS 0 PROMOTER\nFX 0 PROMOTER\nBACKLINE 0 PROMOTER\nPRODUCTION TOTALS 0\nEXTRAS\nBELLMAN / TIPS 0\nINSURANCE @ 2% 0\nWORK PERMITS 0\nLAMINATES 0\nEXTRAS TOTALS 0\nSUMMARY always use excel or google sheets to link these squares to the totals above, you make a change it will carry through\nINCOME\nFEE 50000\nOUTGOINGS\nAGENCY COMMISSION 10% 5000\nWITHOLDING TAX 15000 30%\nSTATE TAXES 500 1% IN THIS STATE\nARTIST PARTY COSTS 21270\nPRODUCTION COSTS 0\nEXTRA COSTS 0\nTOTAL COSTS 41770\nPROFIT / LOSS 8230\nMANAGEMENT COMMISSION 4646 **This 20% rate manager does not take WHT into account as it's a tax credit but commissions after all other reasonable tour costs\n**This sum is done by doing Profit / Loss, add back the 15000 taken for WHT and taking 20% of that\nARTIST 3584 (PLUS TAX CREDIT OF 15000 USD WHT)\nPROFIT PERCENTAGE AFTER WHT 7.17% (TO DO THIS TAKE PROFIT / DIVIDED BY THE FEE AND THEN GO TO EXCEL 'FORMAT' TAB - NUMBER - CLICK 'PERCENTAGE)\n(TO DO THIS TAKE PROFIT + WHT AMOUNT (NOT STATE TAXES YOU DO NOT GET THEM BACK NORMALLY) DIVIDE THIS BY THE FEE, GO TO FORMAT ON EXCEL - NUMBER - PERCENT - CLICK)\nREMEMBER, YOU ARE GETTING THE $15000 BACK AT HOME END OF THE YEAR IF YOU TAX BILL AT HOME IS MORE THAN 15000\nIf you do not process this tax form, you will still have to pay tax on the profit in the USA at the time of the show (see WITH CWA worksheet)\nWHY DO THIS\n1. AFTER A WHILE YOU WILL GET A FEEL FOR BUDGETS AND CAN PREDICT INCOME, HELPING YOU TO DECIDE IF YOU TAKE ON SHOWS\n2. SHARE IT WITH YOUR ARTIST SO THEY DON'T GET ALL EXCITED ABOUT EARNING MORE THAN THEY THINK THEY ARE\n3. JUDGE IS A TAX APPLICATION TO REDUCE IS WORTH IT.SAME SHOW WITH A CWA APPLICATION IN PLACE 45 DAYS PRE SHOW\nARTIST IS A DJ, SO NO BAND MEMBERS APPLY. COULD ALSO WORK FOR A SOLO VOCALIST IF THE PRODUCTION MANAGER IS SWITCHED TO SOUND GUY. DEPENDS ON LEVEL.\nWE ARE NOT A USA CITIZEN AND WE HAVE APPLIED FOR A CWA\nWE HAVE 3 DAYS, THE GUYS FLY AND MAKE LOAD IN ON TIME ON THE SAME DAY AS THE SHOW, FLY HOME THE FOLLOWING DAY, LAND THE DAY AFTER THAT\nWE HAVE 2 NIGHTS HOTEL, NOT 3 AS ONE OF THE TOUR DAYS WE ARE IN THE AIR COMING HOME\nPER DIEMS DO NOT ALWAYS APPLY FOR THE DAY YOU LAND, BUT IN THIS CASE THIS WAS MY WAGES DEAL AND I HAVE INCLUDED IT\nI HAVE CONTRACTED THE PRODUCER TO PROVIDE ALL PRODUCTION ON MY RIDER AND SHE AGREED\nI HAVE ALREADY GOT MY WORK PERMITS AND THEY WERE ON A PREVIOUS CWA CLAIM AS A COST IN FULL SO THERE'S NO COST ON THIS BUDGET\nSOME HOTELS ARE INCLUDED IN MY DEAL BUT NOT ALL. DRIVER FROM AIRPORT TO AND FROM WERE INCLUDED.\nMY DAY RATE IS 500 EUROS, SO I HAD TO CHANGE IT TO DOLLARS. PER DIEMS I ALREADY AGREED IN THE USA ITS 75 USD.\nDATE June 1 2020\nNAME OF SHOW F*** THE VIRUS FESTIVAL\nCITY CITY OF NO ISOLATION\nCOUNTRY USA\nFEE 50000\nCURRENCY USD\nFLIGHT CLASS HOTEL NIGHTS TOTAL DAY RATE DAYS TOTAL PER DIEMS DAYS TOTAL\nARTIST 3000 BIZ 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0\nTOUR MANAGER 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nPRODUCTION MANAGER 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nLIGHT DIRECTOR 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nVJ 1000 ECON 0 2 0 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nPHOTOGRAPHER 1000 ECON 300 2 600 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nVIDEOGRAPHER 1000 ECON 300 2 600 540 3 1620 75 3 225\nTOTALS 9000 1200 9720 1350\nARTIST PARTY TOTAL COSTS 21270\nPRODUCTION\nLIGHTS 0PROMOTER\nSCREENS 0PROMOTER\nFX 0PROMOTER\nBACKLINE 0PROMOTER\nPRODUCTION TOTALS 0\nEXTRAS\nBELLMAN / TIPS 0\nINSURANCE @ 2% 0\nWORK PERMITS 0\nLAMINATES 0\nEXTRAS TOTALS 0\nSUMMARY\nINCOME\nFEE 50000\nOUTGOINGS\nAGENCY COMMISSION 10% 5000\nWITHOLDING TAX 0\nSTATE TAXES 500 1% IN THIS STATE\nARTIST PARTY COSTS 21270\nPRODUCTION COSTS 0\nEXTRA COSTS 0\nTOTAL COSTS 26770\nPROFIT / LOSS 23230\nMANAGEMENT COMMISSION 4646 **This 20% rate manager take from the profit made by the show\nARTIST 18584\nPROFIT PERCENTAGE 37.17%\nWHY DO THIS\n1. AFTER A WHILE YOU WILL GET A FEEL FOR BUDGETS AND CAN PREDICT INCOME, HELPING YOU TO DECIDE IF YOU TAKE ON SHOWS\n2. SHARE IT WITH YOUR ARTIST SO THEY DON'T GET ALL EXCITED ABOUT EARNING MORE THAN THEY THINK THEY ARE\nDIFFERENCE BETWEEN APPLYING AND NOT APPLYING FOR THE CWA WAS 15000 USD!!\nIN MOST CASES HOWEVER THE USA GOVT ASK FOR THE TAX ON PROFIT NOW.... SO THATS 30% OF THE PROFIT\nYOU DELCARE YOUR MANAGEMENT COMMISSION IS A COST THE CWA ACCEPT AS A COST\nSO THIS NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS IN THIS CASE\nARTIST PROFIT AFTER MGMT 18584\nTAX AT 30% 5575.2 (TAX CREDIT ROLLS INTO YOUR END OF YEAR TAX RETURN AT HOME IF YOU SAVED THE PAPERWORK)\nARTIST ACTUAL PROFIT 13008.8\nPROFIT %AGE POST TAX 26.02%CHEAP \nTOURING\nIf you use a good graphic \ndesigner, you can use \nShutterStock, StoryBlocks and \nVideoBlocks - you need 4K \nresolution. Some are free, some \ncost money but basic loops are \navailable.\n248 249BAND BUDGET (STARTING OUT EXAMPLE)\nIn the early days, you beg, borrow and steal to make it work. this barely breaks even.\nCan you borrow a van? Can the Tour Manager Ddrive and not be so tired he falls asleep on the way home\nWill anyone charge you if you cancel so you can avoid Tour Insurance\nYou have gotten good day rates and no per diems (for now they will rise)\nYou need a session guitarist as the band themselves don't have it but need it live.\nMost small venues constantly used for live will have sound and lights in there but have you checked? You would need to add rentals if so.\nDo they have mics?? I mean if you forget that.... Normally you take your own also but do you own them???\nYou could cut costs by using in house sound and lights. But then you need to be there in time to soundcheck, the local guy won't know what you need.\nThere's 4 band members getting an even split before mgmt commission.\nDATE June 1\nVENUE THE ROCK BAR, MANCHESTER\nCAPACITY 300\nFEE 900\nCURRENCY GBP\nVAN HIRE 100\nVAN INSURANCE 20\nPETROL 75\nDRIVER 50\nTOUR MANAGER 150\nTOUR MANAGER PER DIEM 0\nSOUND 150\nSOUND PER DIEM 0\nLIGHTS 150\nLIGHTS PER DIEM 0\nSESSION GUITARIST 75\n770\nCOMMISSION 90\nTOTAL COSTS 860\nPROFIT 40\nBAND PROFIT SHARE 10EACH\n• Look at using festival crew if your slot is not \nmajor. They may have VJ’s and LD’s on site. \n• Ask the promoter for local photographer costs \nand check their IG profile portfolio. You may still \npay a small fee but it’s less than a flight, hotel \nand wages.\n• Can you have a small level of live footage from \nthe promoter to remove Videography? Or if it’s \nstreamed, to be honest you can rip that, film \nwalking to stage on your phone and make a \nVHS style edit.• Use wireless calling and keep data roaming to \nan absolute minimum.\n• Use a company credit card for flight purchases \nwhich give you points which can be turned into \nAir Miles and register with every Airline for \npoints. Upgrades or free flights will save your \nbudget.\n• Share costs with other Artists. If you know others \nuse similar kit, like lasers or light packages, hit \nup the other manager and see if they want to \nshare the rental.BRAND \nDEALS\n250 251WHY WOULD YOU DO ONE?\nThe fee. The brand is one you love, let’s be real here most people would do a \nNike collab for free or pay them! Their customers are your customers, or you want \nthem to be. Their marketing spend is one you could never afford and in places \nwhere your marketing budget just does not stretch to (this can be across a whole \ncampaign or one offs like the Super Bowl Commercial Break).\nOr a combination of all of the above. When would you just take the fee? Perhaps \nwith a brand you didn’t think suited you? Well perhaps you were going to use \nthe money to fund a Brand Pyramid moment so you grit your teeth and take the \ncash. Or you just straight up can’t pay your tax bill. Not every brand deal is perfect \nand sometimes they are necessary. But many are genius, and some of the best \ncampaigns I have ever seen come from a collision of a brand and all their creative \nteams and history and an Artist.\nWHAT DOES THE DEAL LOOK LIKE?\nNormally it’s a fee for a period of time and a set of commitments. This can include \nyour ‘name and likeness’ which means they use your name and a picture of you \nor drawing of you in an agreed set of items. Photography, TV commercials, voice \novers on radio ads etc.\nExtras like appearances at a press conference, press event or small shows they \nput on with you for fans who they may invite through specific promotions.\nAttending a fashion show or red carpet event.\nSocial Media posts and Interview commitments.\nWHAT IF YOU MAKE A PRODUCT WITH \nTHEM?\nIf you make a product for sale with the brand, normally you get a percentage of the \nprofits for those also. This can be limited to a number of products or for a period \nof time. All deals generally have a start and end date and thats good so it stays \ncurrent, your pictures don’t date and in the case of products you make if they don’t 252 253sell out they don’t end up in a sale bin somewhere or look old fashioned. \nIF they want your music in a commercial, remember you have to pay the label for \nthe use of the Master and the Writers on the Publishing side. So you need to get \nthat on top of pre-agree what that cost will be before you sign. It’s always best you \nask the label to be kind and put the sync request in yourself here. Often checking \nBEFORE you get into the deal. \nIf you are owed royalty’s tell your business manager and be clear who will \nbe sending you the statements and if the royalty is before or after costs like \nmanufacturing and agree what you are comfortable with.\nCompetition for these deals is fierce. But if they really want you, you have good \nleverage. \nDeliver on time, deliver everything you said you would. Follow hashtags and \nposting agreements to the LETTER. If you get a good reputation on brand deals \nmore tend to come. Agencies are paid huge sums to deliver to these brands and \nthey will not tolerate people making them look bad.\nExtra Tip:\nBeyonce , rumor has it, did a private show for UBER once and instead of taking a \nfee took shares… and well you can guess the rest. \nYou could argue this was a private booking and not a brand deal and you would be \nright but the concept applies. If a new company approaches you to promote, you BILLIE EILISH\n& CALVIN KLEIN\n“I never want anyone to know everything about me. I mean, that’s why I \nwear big, baggy clothes.” \n“Nobody can have an opinion, because they haven’t seen what’s under-\nneath.” In a second video, she says “You can’t fake authenticity.”\nGenius. What she did here was not only appear in well shot ads that looked iconic, \nshe explained in one phrase something she stood for. I read interviews with her, I \nwas already a huge fan, but just had never had the time to read an interview, and \nthis took me there. She owned it.\nCALVIN HARRIS & ARMANI\nWell, which woman didn’t want to just send Armani a thank you card when this \nappeared on Sunset Blvd on a building 100 storeys high. He’s famously bashful, \nand there he was. Images of this shot around the world. Not sure what it sold \nmore of, Armani underwear or 6 packs in 6 weeks machines.\n254 255SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA: \nGREYHOUND\nGreyhound - a cocktail of grapefruit and Absolut vodka which they wanted to \npromote. They needed a track and we had one. We just changed the name.\nWhy? Well how often do you get Carl Rinsch as the confirmed director of a huge \nvideo budget. This would also form the TV ad.\nThe video was designed with them, showing a 3 dog race with a photo finish win \nwhere they all cross the line at the same time. It was a video we could never \nafford on our own for an instrumental track. It was a director we would never get. \nThe marketing budget was huge. Added to that the brand’s marketing tagline was \nMade in Sweden. PERFECT.\nSo off we went. The partnership let them have a chart topping record with the title \nas the the name of their cocktail, their video had made the name cool, the guys got \na killer video moment. Win win.\nThe partnership then evolved to their involvement on the One Last Tour.\nMARSHMELLO FORTNITE\nBrand connection\nThe Artist had already openly played the game online, with his fans. His fans were \nusing the game on a regular basis, in their thousands.\nPerfect combo...\nWhat happened?\nOn Feb 2, 2019 Marshmello gave a 10-minute mini-live-concert inside the popular \nonline game Fortnite, which made it basically the biggest moment in Fortnites \nhistory\nHow it worked\n• All gamers were transported to a virtual stage at the in-game location, Pleasant \nPark when the concert began.\n• Ability to use weapons was disabled for the event, which ensured that everyone \ncould enjoy the concert.\n• Stage - The stage had building-sized holograms of Fortnite characters and \ncustom graphics played behind Marshmello’s avatar.\n• Epic released a Marshmello skin, glider, and emote, alongside a special three-\nchallenge quest for players to earn a matching pickaxe and other items. \n• No gaming stats were recorded so that everybody could just enjoy the concert \nwithout having to worry about their statistics 256 257MARKETING CAMPAIGN PRIOR TO \nTHE CONCERT \nHow it worked\n• The event was teased for several days on social media \n• Marshmello listed Pleasant Park (event location inside Fortnite) on his touring \nschedule \n• The stage was being assembled in the game days before the event \n• Event advertised via posters within Fortnite itself \n• You could win some of the virtual merch by solving challenges leading up \nto the event: The Marsh Walk emote is rare. Solving one of the challenges \nthe day before the event got you the Keep it Mello emote for free. There \nwas a third challenge that round out the entire Marshmello set with a pickaxe \nfeaturing Marshmello’s iconic head. Truly, this was a good time for Marshmello \nfans.\nMerch\n• Non-virtual: Marshmello released a special edition Fortnite merchandise \ncollection, with hoodies & shirts \n• Virtual: Gamers could buy a Marshmello skin (character design - apparently \nthe skin lights lit up when you used musical emotes) for 1,500 V-Bucks – for \nyour reference, 1,000 V-Bucks costs $9.99 in Fortnite – as well as a related \nglider accessory and dance emotes: The Marsh Walk and Bobbin’. (S14 & \nS15) —> total revenue unknown, but around 70% of gamers make in-game-\npurchases at one point in Fortnite.\nThe Album\n• The new Apple format which allowed DJ mixes to be on the platform (the delay \ncaused by streaming platforms simply baffled at how to pay publishers and \nsales when DJ’s play bootlegs) was live, the album went in and stayed on the \ntop of the charts for weeks.\nThe campaign was genius. Perfectly taking a demographic who related to the Artist, \nwith music they liked, a character who was easily recognizable and applicable to \nVirtual Merch and a music release at the same time.\nAIR DRAKE\nAccording to reports, Drake didn’t actually pay for his private Air Drake \nairplane from Cargojet. Instead, perhaps unsurprisingly, the $200 million \nBoeing 767 jet was provided for free as part of a partnership between the \nrapper and Canadian airliner. Linked his country of origin, a free plane and \nboss images together in a legendary way.ROYALTIES\nThis one is tough, and the \namount of confusion around this \ntopic is huge.\n258 259PHARRELL WILLIAMS\n& ADIDAS\nPharrell’s ongoing relationship with the brand has included a trip to India for \nHoli Festival and sneakers beyond Adidas with Chanel which broke records for \nsecondary pricing. The Adidas Originals by Pharrell Williams ‘Now Is Her Time’ \npack is a new unisex collection of apparel and shoes for adults, juniors, kids and \ninfants that stand for women’s rights.\nThe photography included iconic and inspirational women, including the beautiful \nIsabella Grutman and Vida, and went one layer deeper into who Pharrell was. \nPharrell’s own clothing line, Human Made, removed the commonly used phrase \n‘man made’ with a less gender based feel.\nThis summed up amazing design, inspirational advertising, dope sneakers and \nclothes and how Pharrell is globally known to be pro-women in one go. BEAUTIFUL.\n260 261COPYRIGHT\nUsed in so many ways, this basically means you created this piece of work, or \nIntellectual Property, or IP. You own it, and you will grant the rights for people to \ncopy it to sell. Sell meaning broadcast, use, profit from etc. You grant the RIGHT \nto COPY. Copyright. Boom! So.. don’t be worrying you haven’t claimed Copyright, \nonly Royalties. The Royalties are the profit types you get for allowing the license \nto even happen.\nNo, this isn’t an explanation of a vinyl, it is the phrase used to explain the side \nof the income connected to writing it… (commonly known as publishing) and \nthe side to the record connected with the sale of it. (Commonly known as the \nmaster or original sound recording. This is the recording of the performance \nof the record).\nHOW TO VIEW THE WORLD\nIt’s a broad statement as this is for beginners. But the rules tend to be different on \napplications and definition rates and what generates income. This is a beginners \nguide, there are so many variables.\n1. USA\n2. United Kingdom\n3. Rest of world\nAsk your business manager for the differences if you are heavily doing business \nin any of these areas.THERE’S 2 SIDES TO A RECORD262 263WRITING SIDE\n(Commonly called the Publishing Side)\nMECHANICALS\nThis is the income generated \nby sales of physical product, \ndownloads and streams.Writers Share goes to your \nCollection Society. This \nappears on your statement \nfrom them. \nPublishing Share goes to \nyour Publishing Company and \nappears on your Publishing \nStatement.\nSYNCS \nIncome generated by the use \nof your work to TV Shows, \nadverts, movies etc, the fee for \nthe Publishing Side.Goes to your Publisher and \nappears on your Publishing \nStatement. If you are self \npublished and do not have a \nPublisher, you collect directly \nfrom the source of the sync.\nPERFORMING RIGHTS\nIncome from public \nperformance on radio, tv, pubs, \nbars, clubs, live venues etcThey send 50% (Publishers \nShare) to the Publisher if you \nhave one.Appears on your Publishing \nStatement.\nIf you have no Publisher this \nall comes to you on your \nCollection Society Statement.RECORD SALES\n(Can be referred to as the Record Side or Master Side)\nCollected by your record company or your distributor if you are not in a recording \nagreement for the product. 4 Things for beginners to look for here. Record income \nlasts for approximately 70 years from release.\nRECORD SALES\nOf downloads, physical \nproduct like CDs, Vinyl, \nstreaming.\nSYNCS\nThis was licensing the \nMaster side of the music \nto TV shows, Adverts, \nmovies etc.\nNEIGHBOURING RIGHTS\nPart 1.\nThe label share.\nPaid to the labels by \npeople using your music \nin public. Radio, TV, \nbars, clubs etc. Rates \nand what counts vary \nglobally.\nNEIGHBOURING RIGHTS\nPart 2.\nThe Artist Share.\nSame type of income \nas the label share, but it \nhas been split into their \nshare and your share. Appears on your record \nstatements. Dates for this and \nthe percentage you receive and \npermitted deductions are all \noutlined in your Agreement.\nAppears on the same statement \nfrom your label as Sales. Often \nin a different section. The rate \nof sync income is often greater \nthan your Sales Royalty and will \nbe reflected on the statement. \nIf you are independant and \nhave a distributor, you will have \ninvoiced syncs directly and the \nincome will come from who you \ndid the deal with.\nMake sure this income is \nincluded in your deal with your \nlabel and the percentage you \nreceive agreed. This has been an \narea of confusion especially on \nAmerican record deals. The norm \nseems to be 50/50 but it varies \nand your Recording Agreement \nwill confirm the amount you are \ndue. It appears on your Royalty \nStatement, with sales and syncs. \nComes direct to the Artist. \nRates vary depending on your \nrole on the record and territory \napplications of the law.You need \nto register with a Collection \nSociety Agency who will collect \nthis for you. EG. / PPL / Sound \nExchange.\n264 265FROM THIS CHART\nMake a running list as follows:\n1. How many royalty statements should you be getting? If you have a Publisher, \nit’s more than if you do not. Make the list and don’t be scared to ask your \nBusiness Manager to check it. They can be JUST as confused as you, trust \nme. In date order of when they are due in, have a calendar for the year. Date \ndue, from who, for what?\n2. Does a new deal create a new statement? For example, you have a record \ndeal, and a load of songs all fall into that, but you also did a remix which gave \nyou royalties. This means you are due to receive another statement from that \ncompany. Keep a list of who it’s from, with their contact info, the dates due, \nthe percentage owed. Share it with your Business Manager. I keep a sheet \nwith the balances of the statement in one place. This way, when I get asked \nat 11pm ‘am I recouped on my XXX deal’ I can answer. Nothing better than \nknowing financial answers to questions.\n3. Keep a list of songs registered and which statements they appear on. Tick \nthem off as you see income start to come in (which can take 6 months). This \nis the final test that the song was successfully registered.\n4. If you were a Featured Artist on someone else’s record and your label did \na waiver so they ‘lent; you to someone else, remember this will come in on \nTHEIR record statement for the sale sides. Yep - you’re going to see Sony \nand Warner income on your Universal statement. This is because they claim \nthe royalty you got, and it flows into your income with them. This depends on \nyour deal with them, and the fee advance for the feature may well have gone \nto you but on your royalty list - put the songs you are due sales on under the \nright deal. Ask your lawyer who will have been involved 99% of the time what \nincome it generates and where each type goes.\nPUBLISHING\nThis covers musical composition. The Music and the Lyrics. Basically who the f*** \nmade those beats, those words and the notes those the instruments are playing.\nWhy is it called that? I thought Publishing Houses printed Magazines and \nNewspapers? Well indeed that’s where it came from.Johannes Gutenberg invented the Printing Press in the 15th Century, and in 1529 \nthe first sheet of music was printed. Previously hand written with ink, this allowed \nthe symphonies of composers to be printed for multiple people to gain copies. You \ncan hear the violins squeaking all over Europe belting out their best Beethoven.\nWhen they used the composers music, they agreed to pay a sum of money per \nsheet sold to the writer…AH HA - now you get it. The work was literally PUBLISHED \nonto paper.\nSo… let’s imagine you are a composer, and a few of these guys have come to you \nto get your hot violin concerto’s and you need help collecting all the money.\nLike all needs, someone stepped in and created a business to do exactly that. \nEnter SACEM, the French collection society who were the first in the world to \noffer the service. The UK followed in 1914 (rumour has it they didn’t want to use \nSacem as Bonapart’s nephew was involved and had beef with them - apparently!) \nand so PRS (Performing Rights Society) was formed. In 1915 America followed \nwith ASCAP.\nTo be a member you do need to follow the rules of the Society and this is still true \ntoday. The by-laws do evolve all the time, none of them are scary, and you renew \nyour membership annually simply by not terminating it.\nWRITERS \nSHARE & \nPUBLISHING \nSHARE\n266 267The composer / creator of the work, is split into two sections. The Writers Share & \nThe Publishing Share. You own both, but mainly when you talk about the writing \nside, you just call it Publishing when you are a beginner. You don’t have to type \nboth names all the time.\nYou can transfer the Publishing Share to a Publishing Company with a Publishing \nDeal (we talked about this earlier) and grant them permission to work on your \nbehalf. Like issue licenses for syncs and of course collect royalties for the \nPublishing Share, but most importantly they have to register the song. This is the \nnumber one most important thing they do. Knowing and understanding what they \nneed to do so, is the most important thing to determine when you have done your \ndeal. \nWHAT DO THEY DO?\nWell, aside from getting your money, both Collection Societies and Publishers \ntry and get better rates for you from everyone. So people using your music from \nradio stations to streaming platforms, to new emerging platforms like Facebook, \nall need to pay the composers for the song being used, not just the label they sit \non. This includes fan content using your music to social media platforms. These \nguys go fight for you, but you also have to play along. You may want Facebook \nto get free access to music, but… you’re in a big game now, and if everyone wins \nthrough unity - fronted by these guys, you should give yourself a little pat on the \nback.DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE A \nPUBLISHER?\nNo you do not. Both shares can be collected by the Collection Society, but they will \nnot do the syncs for you, I referenced this earlier.\nWHAT DO THEY CHARGE?\nCollection Societies have different rates for different types of music. So it varies \nand is listed on your statement. Publishing Companies agree the rate they charge \nin your Publishing Deal. Discussed earlier. From 4 % upwards to 30% but there \nare no rules here, but your contract covers this.RECORD \nSALE \nINCOME\n268 269Well due to fancy tax moves and people putting their shares into company names, \nand then those companies into offshore bank accounts, you now have to register \nthem in a human name. You don’t have to use your real name however, you can \nmake one up. But obviously that only works if your collectors are in on it.\nIf your name is John Smith which is a more common name, don’t worry. You get a \nsongwriter ID number to ensure you get what you are owed.\nIf you want to have more than one name out there, speak to your Business \nManager and Publisher about it, but don’t expect them to know!WHAT NAME DO YOU USE?\nYou keep your composition income for 70 years from the time the last person who \nwas listed as a writer on the record dies. So you can see why I keep saying to file \neverything. Your family get this after you.HOW LONG DO I GET THE \nINCOME?\nThis is when you perform a piece of music in a venue, or now we all have sound \nsystems and radios, if you play a recording of it. Anything beyond a normal \ngathering of friends & family - IE at home. So… pubs, bars, restaurants, malls, \nshops, nightclubs all pay. They get a license for Public Performance from the \ncollection societies, and they pay their fee, and the Societies pay the writers. \nThis includes Radio, TV and live performances in venues. Definitions of what is \nincluded varies globally so ask your Business Manager if you want true definitions.PERFORMING RIGHTS270 271LET’S GO BACK A SECOND.\nSo the printing business running off all the scores from Mozart is super busy, \nand in 1877 Thomas Edison, the same dude who invented the lightbulb, invented \nthe Phonograph. Alexander Bell (who invented the telephone) improved it, but \neach cylinder of record had to be made separately which limited the success. In \n1887 Emile Berliner patented the first successful sound recorder and called it the \nGramophone. Unlike the previous two attempts, the gramophone did not record on \ncylinders, and instead used flat records made of glass. When recording, a small \ngroove was etched into the disks’ round surface. These grooves could then be \nplaced underneath the arm on the gramophone, where a needle would read and \ntransmit the sound vibrations to the speaker.\nFinally, mass-production of records was possible through the use of a Gramophone, \nand numerous disks were made from each recording. \nBy 1894, Berliner had created the United States Gramophone Company, which \nrecorded and manufactured hundreds of records each year.\nSee how we got here? He made Recordings, soon to be named RECORDS. Then \nwe had the need for companies to use the design to release what they wanted to hear on these marvellous flat inventions which boomed out your favourite tunes. \nRECORD COMPANIES. In fact you can see where Label came from. The central \nsticker in the center soon showed the name of the Record Company. The ‘Label’.\nThese companies had to pay 2 people now. Not just the guy who wrote it, like the \nprinters, but also the guy, girl or band who performed it. The Artist. And so… record \nsale income was born as this was the first time you HEARD the performance, not \njust read it and performed it yourself.\nSo… there are 2 sides to a record, this may even have come from someone linking \nit to a vinyl having 2 sides, but they meant, there are 2 people to pay here. The \nWriter, and the Artist.\nTo pay the Artist they generally didn’t have to find his mailing address and send \neach one a cheque, they had a Record Company - listed on the ‘Label’ , who did all \nthe dealings. They sent the cheque to them, and the other ‘side’, the Publishing, \nto the Society. Maybe if we could find original vinyl’s, we could see if the Label was \nindeed on the other side of the vinyl on a different sticker. If anyone knows - I’m \nfascinated to know if that’s true. It’s an easy way to remember it anyway!\n272 273Yes. If you are part of the group, or are the Artist on the Record Contract, you get \nthe income streams generated by Record Sales.\nIf you are also a writer on the song, you get the income generated on the \ncomposition side If you wrote AND performed, you can claim on both.CAN I CLAIM ON BOTH SIDES?\nThis depends. Traditional Producer Deals only allowed your ‘points’ to royalty \nshares to come from the income on Record Sales.\nBut the bigger you are, or indeed the firmer you are, if you feel you wrote on the \nsong, you also negotiate a piece of the other income streams.I’M A PRODUCER CAN I CLAIM\nBOTH SIDES?\nTraditionally you get a fee, and royalties. The amount of points of royalties you get, \nis determined in your agreement.\nEven though you essentially wrote new pieces, publishing is rare on remixes, but.. \nnegotiate. Sometimes you are not offered royalty shares at all but most do now, \nso push for it.\nImagine how Jason Nevins felt when his remix of ‘It’s Like That’ by Run DMC went \nnumber 1 worldwide - the rumor is he got a one off fee!\nSome remixers will ask for a share of Sound Exchange. This company collects \nincome from Satellite and Digital Radio Stations as Neighbouring Rights in the \nUSA has completely different laws, hence the confusion by American Record \nLabels who took time to understand how to contract the income created here by \nthe International revenue which differed totally to their own. Paperwork is needed \nto allocate this share to them, its not a simple note on registration of the song.\nIf an Artist hands in an album, and your split on your song is not clear, Societies \ncan freeze all income until everyone proves their share.I DID A REMIX, WHAT DO I GET?COVER VERSIONS.\nSo it’s back to the Two Sides. Someone else is singing the song now. So who \ndo you pay? Same rules. The writers who wrote it, and the person performing it, \nwhich is the new person singing the ‘cover’.\nYes it’s true. If you did NOT write the record you get ZERO from a cover versions \nsales. They covered what was written, not who performed it.\nThe law in most countries prevents cover versions of a song being released before \nthe first version, however if you release in one place, its free game. So in the olden \ndays when you released on one date in the UK, one day in the USA… once your \ndropped it.. The cover versions can come globally.\nSYNCS\nSync’s is the term for when you allow someone else to ‘synchronize’ your music to \nanother visual or purpose. Basically you’re allowing it into a TV show, a movie or \non a radio ad for Coca Cola.\nThis is normally a one off fee. The company approach you and quote you for your \n‘side’. So the label is asked to clear the sales side, and exactly the same amount \nis offered to the Publisher for the writing side. Or to you directly if you don’t have a \nPublisher. Collection Societies, like we said do not issue sync licenses.\nThe fee tells you what it will be used for (number of seconds, the type of visual it \nwill be accompanied by), can grant you the right to approval on ads, it often tells \nyou the media spend behind the ad (to try and tempt you to say yes), where the \nad will be shown (TV, digital (which means on the internet), Cinema’s and if it will \ngenerate revenue in other ways. For example a movie, will also be made into a \nmovie download, DVD and so on.\nIf it’s an ad, or a TV show, it can be limited to a period of time. At the point they \nwant to do re-runs, they have to come back to you to extend. and These terms can \nideed all be his can indeed all be pre-agreed on what those terms will be when you \nagree it. and included in your initial agreement.\nIf the sync uses a cover version, or in some cases they actually make the cover \nversion, they only agree with the Publishers and do not have to license the original BUSINESS \nPLAN - YOU\nMap it out, you will make less than \nyou think… and remember that’s how \nyou plan for your tax bill!\n274 275ACCOUNTING PERIODS\nRemember when you see any statement is it never accurate up to the day you \nreceive it. Most major labels report in March for the sales of July - December for \nthe year prior, and in September for January to June of the current year.\nIf you see a song missing, it could be you released in June, and the stores have \nnot yet paid the label. Check.recording the labels own (back to the 2 sides we go!)\nIf they are The Voice, they may pre-approve the terms with you but they don’t know \nif your song will be used. They then send reports out on what did get used, and \nyour invoice is sent off by your Publisher, or by you if you self-publish (nightmare).\nThese are called Cue Sheets. If you do self publish, always ask when to check \nback in when you pre-approve or you forget or don’t know when to start chasing, \nask, note the date, set a reminder.YOUR BUDGET\nJAN FEB MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPT OCT NOV DEC TOTALS\nINCOME\nLIVE SHOW PROFIT 0 8000 11000 4000 0 15000 15000 20000 10000 0 14000 30000 127000\nADVANCES PROFIT, RECORDS 0 20000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20000\nADVANCES PROFIT PUBLISHING 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0\nRECORD ROYALTY COMMISSION 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0\nPUBLISHING ROYALTY COMMISSION 1500 3000 4500\nBRAND DEALS COMMISSION 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20000 0 0 0 20000\nMERCH COMMISSION 1000 1000 2000\nTOTAL 0 28000 11000 6500 0 15000 15000 21000 30000 3000 14000 30000 173500\nOUTGOINGS\nMOBILE PHONE 300 300 500 500 300 500 500 500 500 300 300 300 4800\nTRAVEL 200 200 4000 4000 200 1000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 21600\nENTERTAINING 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 6000\nSTATIONARY 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 3000\nSUBSCRIPTIONS 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 4800\nASSISTANT SALARY 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 30000\nASSISTANT SALARY TAX 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 6000\nASSISTANT PHONE 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 1800\nOFFICE RENT 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 12000\nOFFICE GOVT TAX 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 1200\nPOWER 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 600\nCOMPUTERS / HARDWARE 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 2400\nCOFFEE / TEA 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 600\nOFFICE CLEANING 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 3600\nOFFICE PHONE 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 3600\nCOPIER RENTAL 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 3000\nPOSTAGE 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 1200\nCOURIERS 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 2400\n0\nACCOUNTANCY 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 6000\nLEGAL FEES 0 0 0 0 5000 0 0 0 0 0 0 4000 9000\nCONTINGENCY 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 6000\n8350 8350 12350 12350 13350 9350 10350 10350 10350 10150 10150 14150 129600\nPROFIT -8350 19650 -1350 -5850 -13350 5650 4650 10650 19650 -7150 3850 15850 43900\nCASH FLOW -8350 11300 9950 4100 -9250 -3600 1050 11700 31350 24200 28050 43900\n276 277NOTES ON YOUR BUDGET\n \n1. Remember budgets are a place to start, to spot where you simply cannot \nafford certain things\n2. They change, this is a forecast. Look each month how you actually did, these \nare called ACTUALS\n3. It is possible to forecast a loss, and still be proud. If you KNEW your business \nwould behave this way, you have been smart. If you plan how to cashflow it… \nwell then I’m not sure you needed to read this book!\n INCOME SECTION\n \nSee how I have remembered my Artist always wants January off for the studio.\nFebruary they are going back on the road with a larger set of shows - normally \nhappening in March.\nMay – off for studio especially as you can see we signed our deal in April, by then, \nI am charging commission. The summer is busier. October they are exhausted and \nneed time off. November and December is touring plus a nice bump from New Years \nEve. \nRecord profits - we got our deal in April and we will not see royalties again all year. \nWe will not recoup in that time, and even if we had had a hit, it won’t show up until \nthe following year. \nPublishing - we did our deal the year before, we have recouped because we took a \nsmall advance and a large percentage and had a big hit, so royalties are coming in \nMarch and September, but I get them in April and October by the time I invoice for \nthem.\nBrand deals - I feel confident enough that by September I will have done a 100k \ndeal, and if I do it earlier I will just move it up.\nMerch - I have tracked past sales, run some numbers and done a forecast of the \nprofit from two drops, March and July. I’ll be getting my share one month later.\nHow do you know what’s coming in? Well if you have done it for a while you will know \nroughly what you feel you can confirm in shows. Plus, you have been diligently doing \nyour show budgets, so you know rough profit, and you know what your percentage \ndeal is with your Artist because you have done a contract or a clear deal outline.\nYou have a feel for when the record deal will close… and feel confident enough to \nput it in. \nNever over forecast. Go UNDER what you think will happen, and don’t panic. This is \nto help you avoid disaster - do you need an office? Maybe grab a cheaper We Work \nSpace or even work from home and your assistant works remotely. Do you need to \nstay in a certain type of hotel? BUSINESS \nPLAN - THEM\n278 279OUTGOINGS NOTES\n \nI have my phone and I’ve added more for when I travel due to roaming costs.\nMy travel varies, from taxi and Uber bills to flights and hotels in Miami in March, \nCoachella in April and various summer festivals, and some extra at the end of year \nfor all those meetings I need to fly to for 2021.\nI’ve put the average I spent the last year and increased it a little to give me an \naverage for this year. I’ve remembered I need various office bits and pieces and \nsubscriptions to various magazine and data sites. I have hired an Assistant and their \nsalary also adds govt taxes on and a mobile phone allowance. I have rent, tax on the \nrent (!) and various office costs.\nI have an accountant on capped fees per month and I have allocated a chunk for \nlegal fees as I renegotiate my management contract in May. I then popped 4k in for \nthe end of the year just in case extra annual costs pop up.\nContingency is a little buffer for things I forgot..\nYour profit means you can judge with your accountant amounts to save for tax, BUT \nsee how some months you made a loss, especially January – you need to have that \namount in your bank account, or you will be overdrawn and unable to pay costs (and \nyourself).\nThis is when cash flow is important. You run one extra line at the bottom. This tells \nyou how much cash will be (or not be) in your bank account per month if all the \nincome and costs are correct. This shows you how much you need to keep in your \nbusiness to stop overdrafts and non payments of bills.SOCIAL \nMEDIA\n280 281Do you have to make one? I have done a business plan for some and not for others. \nWhat’s most important here, I think, is that you are honest about true profits that \ncome from your touring budgets. An Artist can think … I’m making a million dollars \nin fees this summer, but actually the profit is 400,000. Be honest now. Don’t let \nthem think they can buy a bigger house. If they find out later it won’t be pretty. So \nif a business plan for them helps, build one in the same way we did yours, showing \nTouring Income and approximate profit.\nIf their business account is the same one they live from, they need to keep enough \nmoney to pay you, the lawyer, business manager and crew. Don’t let them get into \na sticky spot, and see yourself unpaid. This is equally down to you to help them. \nIt’s not their fault if you told them the fee’s and didn’t remind them that’s not all their \nmoney.282 283Ah the nightmare begins…\nA direct line from fans straight to you. A double edged sword. You will love it, you will \nhate it. But you run it, the moment it runs you, its over.\nMost platforms offer good analytic back end services. This will help you see what \nengages best, the best times to post and the best days to post. \nIt will also give your fan bases according to where they are in the world (we talked \nabout this - this goes into your International Planner to determine priority markets)\nPersonally I like accounts which have some personality. If you sell all the time people \nfeel they are watching QVC!\nI also think varying content is key. Now I’m about to conflict my own advice here… \nWe talked about continuity and that is important but … when you have posted the \nsong 5 times even you are bored. I have often thought that when you hear audio and \nyou SEE something different, your eyes tell your ears it’s something new. I always \nnotice this at shows. When you hear a song at a show and the visual is new, you \nhear it sort of fresh. Know what I mean?\nMy DREAM was I always wanted to do a song which once a week had a new \nmusic video. So every week you dropped a new visual for people to get into the \nrecord. Yeah it’s probably got to be super well mapped out or it will look desperate \nbut my view was… you drop a video… and yes people use YouTube to listen not \njust to watch, and yes we all love the high stream count, but just how do you keep \npromoting it. People take time to discover a record and do so in so many ways. \nRadio, TV, in a Mall, in a nightclub, see it on someone else’s socials. How do you \nkeep dropping content for newcomers without boring the pants off the early fans? \nIt’s a mystery I would love to crack but budget wise not as easy as I just suggested. \nThink of ways to keep creating fresh looks which engage.\nSame goes for posting. Do you switch color? Switch content type? Do you allow \nmultiple posts of the video into various YouTube channels and treat socials like \nradio… the more stations who post the more you reach? It’s a debate and there’s no right answer but switching it up a bit can be a good thing.\nLook at all extras you can do in each platform. Have you checked your song is in the \nlibrary on Instagram? Have you uploaded your GIFS and added popular hashtags \nnot just your name? Have you made a filter yet? Have you used YouTube Community \nand Stories. Have you used their premiere service? \nCan you ask Social Media platforms to do more? YES. Make friends with them OR \nask your Marketing Manager at the label to help you.\nOh...and Ask Alexa and all your home ‘we promise we don’t spy on you devices’ to \ntell you who your Artist is and play your song and make sure it’s correct. Can you \ntrick Alexa into announcing your Tour? \nCan you put up enough Google stories without fans noticing but that Alexa picks up \non it and then just post ‘Ask Alexa when our tour is…’\nHAVE SOME FUN!MENTAL \nHEALTH\n284 285In my humble opinion, travelling and jet lag are one of the worst triggers for anxiety. \nIt’s also the hardest to appreciate when you are not there. Hitting your Artist as \nsoon as they land with a million questions is not smart.\nThey do need to rest, and the more they travel the more their demands may seem \ncrazy. Putting things into their schedule which allow sanity to remain is smart.\nThis means taking their requests seriously.\nFirst of all, when you ask them to do something be clear on the timings. Present \na gig with the approximate day of travel, length of flight, how long they have at the \nhotel. Decide together and be patient when it seemed harder to do in reality than \nit does on paper for them.\nI’ve had artists want rooms not near an elevator as in their jet lag state that little \nelevator bell kept them awake all night. Others need baths in their room not just \na shower as they find it helps. Others needed simply wifi to be at a hotel - you \nassumed there was, and there wasn’t. No NetFlix, not being able to hand in your \nsong via dropbox...WHOOPS! \nSome need to only tour for X number of days in a row, especially vocalists where \nthere are limits to the physical demands they can achieve. Some will not perform \nwhen they land from a long haul flight.\nHumor these needs. You’re not having to do what they are doing.\nLittle things like vitamins and meditation apps (I like HeadSpace), and just \nchecking in on them to say hi rather than about to discuss work is good for their \nmental wellbeing. Recommend a movie or box set, a book, a place to visit on the \nroad. Show you understand travel is work. Not just the show. \nBe wary of when you put in promo. Be aware of timezones and ensure your Tour \nManager has given you the itinerary so you can plan without asking them to do \nsomething. This way you will know their schedule rather than annoy them when \nyou didn’t realise they were at the airport.ON THE ROAD286 287For me, I always take lavender oil, a candle and my cashmere blanket for the \nplane, oh and my own socks and eye mask! ! Somehow the smells and comfort \nalways bring me back to reality. I also made a rule to never take a long haul flight \nto the UK from America when I had to be in the office the next day. I knew I couldn’t \ndo it and my team knew I was off limits (or almost). This is a luxury for sure, but \none I realized was necessary to survive. So I always flew home on Fridays, landed \nSaturday and didn’t have to be in the office until Monday. In reality I was online but \nnot in the office where I felt more tense.\nI do wish Apple would invent a Work / Family phone where you can switch modes. \nTaking your phone to the pub on Sunday so you know when your friends are \narriving and you wanna take pics of a reunion and order your cab home. Then you \nget WhatsApp’s that could wait, flip you back to work mode and can leave you \nconstantly on edge. So Tim Cook, I’d like to formally request this please. Can \nyou PLEASE make a ‘Mode’ phone where you set the tone of what mental state \nyou need to be in and Mark Z at Facebook - you own WhatsApp, can you please \nadapt it! Install an Out Of Office setting where people can see you are offline and \npause groups and you pick messages up when you go back into work mode… or \nsimply select groups which can be offline without leaving groups? \nTHANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE, YOU’RE KILLING US WITH YOUR TECH \nBY NOT HAVING FILTERS THAT MATCH OUR NEED TO REST OUR MINDS!!! Well what to say here? It’s toxic. A necessary evil some would say. Can you tell \nArtists not to take nasty comments to heart? No. Could you read 2,000 comments \nabout yourself every day and not take them to heart? I doubt that.\nIt’s hard to give advice here, but limiting screen time is smart. Most won’t but it’s \ngoing to be tough unless you do.\nRemember also when you wake up, you grab your phone and go straight to IG. \nYou can feel 200 emotions before you make a coffee. Happiness, FOMO, rage, \njealousy, fear…Remember, social media is a glossy, highly edited version of the \ntruth. Your competitors are playing the game just as much as you are… and \nyou fell for their over-hyped version of the truth - it affected your decision on \nsomething you were doing. Back to my favourite quote at the start of the book.\nBLINDERS ON!!!!\nDo not let other people rule your personal journey. PERIOD. \nSmall tweaks you can make: you can turn comments off, you can run their socials \nfor them or you can put breaks on, where you delete the app from your phone \nfor a few days, especially studio days. Socials can be where they discover new \nart, speak to other Artists and of course speak to their fans, but what are you? \nCustomer Services or the boss? Find balance and keep installing it.\nI read an amazing article once where a scientist actually showed on the brain an \nidea forming. Environments like driving your car, walking your dog or exercise all \nworked for this (no one on their phone). The idea grew. A chemical reaction. One \nscratch of the phone, the dopamine releases, a highly addictive chemical, and \nthe idea literally shrank. Now… you can think you remember the idea but it’s the \ndetail as to how you got there that was going to give it all the gold. GONE. If you \nread things like this, share it with your Artist, and beyond that, support them - you \nhave no idea what it feels like to be one, so don’t dismiss it just saying - “why do \nyou care?”SOCIAL MEDIA288 289What I like to call what it feels like when you get home. You assume they are \nhappy to be home and ready to work. The reality is, they have been used to \nroutine and travel for weeks on end and can feel completely wiped out, anxious \nand disoriented at being home.POST TOUR SYNDROME\nAs success kicks in, your fee goes from 500, to 5,000, to 50,000 to 500,000! \nAdding a zero. As it does, your value of money can do the same. You no longer \nscrutinize low costs and buying larger items gets easier and easier. McDonalds \nbecomes Nobu, economy becomes first class, Casio becomes Rolex. Then it \nbecomes 2 Rolex’s. \nYou can see the same also applies to success, now we see the results so easily. \n1,000 streams used to feel good, then 10,000, then 100,000 then 1 million and so \non. 6 months later 1 million is a failure.\nTRY and remember where you came from. Fame is addictive. No one wants to get \nsomewhere and just stay at that level feeling there is always more of a place to go. \nIt’s easy to shoot to stardom - easier than you think, but maintaining it is tough, \nmentally and strategically. Someone new will always grab the headlines. When it \nwas you, you loved it. Now it seems there’s a new you… grabbing all those spots. \nIt will happen to them too so BLINDERS ON. Stay focused on maintaining the \nquality of your work, that’s the number one way to stay there. If you dip, but your \nquality did not, the level of respect for you will not lessen and this will stand you in \ngood stead to still be here in years to come. \nDon’t throw your toys out of your pram because you ‘only got’ 10 million streams. \nYes, it wasn’t 100 million, but 10 million people listened to you! Remember how \nmany stadiums that is! Don’t come across like its a failure, those 10 million people \nwill be offended.THE ZERO THEORYMaintaining popularity can be a grind, getting it all for the first time, that’s a buzz, \nbut… once you start to ground yourself in the established phase, it’s an incredible \nfeeling. Like a marriage working I guess. You and your fame coming to a place \nwhere it becomes really comfortable\nScarcity Fear is a psychological term for those who tend to grab at buying things \ncaused by a lack of physical or emotional things when they were young. If you \ncan clearly see your Artist spending 99% of their advance on diamonds, say \nsomething. The buzz of the purchase making them feel good has to be replaced \nwith a feeling that savings in the bank will feel better later.\nSo you’re checking in on your Artist. Have you checked in on you? I’d be a bit \nof a hypocrite not to admit I have suffered with panic attacks. For about 3 years \nI suffered terribly with them. The worst ones were in my sleep. I was dreaming \nabout work. Waking up unable to breathe, freezing cold, often needing to throw \nup. Then crawling to my desk at home. You can get to a stage when you feel if \nyou don’t answer all your emails the world will just fall down. It won’t. I started \nKundalini Yoga and it was a life saver. But in general, by the time I admitted \nthe issue to one of my best friends about 18 months in, it got easier to handle. \nAdmitting it was the first step for sure. I will say however, when I told some people \nI thought needed to know, they sort of looked at me like… “yeah yeah you’re so \nstrong you’re using the wrong words to describe you’re a bit stressed.” I felt it \nwas not something people who didn’t suffer could understand. The effect it had \non my day was enormous, my ability to sleep, to focus...Talking to people who are \nalso suffering, changing my nutrition, choosing who I spent my time with, walking \nmy dog in the countryside (I actually moved house to help me cope with it). It all \nhelped, but it was a slog to control my anxieties. Anyone telling you that no-one \npowerful has these issues, can make you feel you will never make it, because you \nare feeling this way - they are wrong. It’s something to learn from.YOUR MENTAL HEALTH290 291At my MYOB school, the mental health class had student after student coming \ndown to the front to share stories exactly like mine or worse. The bond we created \nby saying our words out loud has stayed with me to this day. The tears flowed and \nthe respect grew. Medication can help, but it’s not always the answer. I tried it, \nand for me personally, it made me feel worse. What was more hurtful, was finding \nout years later that some of my ‘friends’ had discussed my need for medication \nand the effects they could see my work was having on me mentally. They actually \nsaid ‘yeah she’s falling behind, dropping the ball with a client’. I thought wow… \nyou could see it and your first concern was I was dropping the ball? I AM the ball \nyou idiots! Again, another cliche, but you really do learn who your friends are. \nThose who see you need to change some parts of your environment, are true \nkeepers. Zone in on how you can work more with them, even if it takes you slightly \noff the path you thought you were on. Your body is telling you something, listen. \nThe friends who check in on you, again, keepers. Change the frequencies you \nlisten to and watch what happens!\nPoaching was a category my students asked me to include. As an agent it happened \nto me and I was heartbroken, as a Manager I don’t think it has ever happened to \nme. Either way, when it happens, it hurts. But looking back, the poaching when I \nwas an Agent forced me to make decisions that got me where I am today, so I’m \ngrateful.\nPoaching is when another Manager approaches your client and takes them. If you \nhave a contract, legalities have to be worked out, but can you make them stay? \nNo. Can you financially be compensated? Yes. But at the time the money isn’t \nwhat you are thinking about, it’s the client you loved, the job, and it’s gone.\nAsk yourself, why did they leave? Was there more you could have done? Trust \nme, it won’t be all rosy over there, even though Instagram will have you convinced \notherwise.\nBefore this happens, you may perhaps have accepted you need help. You cannot \nafford staff as you’re still looking after a low income Artist but you know they have \nhuge potential. You need the relationships, the resources.\nDo you spend the next year stalking them on IG and posting pictures of your own \nnew success purely to annoy them? No. Move on. Every energy moment spent on \nthat is energy wasted. It didn’t work. Move on.POACHING AND PARTNERINGTo Partner with someone can come in different forms.\n1. You become the larger firms employee. This can mean a salary and bonus \nand gives you full access to their central team which can include accountants, \ndigital marketers and graphic designers. At even larger firms it may include \nInternational Release managers and Radio Pluggers. You can get a contract \nwhich is a base rate of pay and a large percentage - the percentage takes into \naccount your contribution towards the costs of central services. You get a \nlarge percentage, no salary, access to all services.\n2. You take no salary and give them a small percentage.\n1. What support you want. If you want to go with them to meetings, say now.\n2. What central services are vital and are a priority for you.\n3. You will NOT sign the Artist to them, that contract stays with you, but you will \nwork for them\n4. How long you do it for. - this varies from a trial period (rare) to 3 years or \npermanent\n5. Payment dates of your bonuses and how they are calculated.Be clear on:292 293FILINGEach song creates the need for a folder. Each song is an asset remember that.SONGS\nThis demonstrates the basic filing \nsystem you will need - you can add \nwhatever else you require.\nThe Song Information Sheet is a \nWord doc you set up. Release date, \nISRC code, all the info on featured \nartist teams, managers, lawyers, \npublishers, emails, cell phone \nnumbers, notes on how you got \nthere, you won’t know why you need \nthis…. until it’s too late.\nYour song folder will clearly label \neach version so people share \ncorrectly in your team and you can \ngrab information fast. Once you get \ninto mastered versions, remove all \nnon mastered files into a seperate \nfolder for archiving. But In no way \nshould these files be available to \nanyone you share with.294 295If your collection societies or any of your partners issue a receipt for \nregistering the song, add a folder for this. With SACEM you get a stamped \n‘docket’. FILE them all.\nIn the featured artist folder, you \nneed the Artists agreement and \nsample waiver, plus the WAIVER \nbetween their label and your \nlabel as discussed earlier. This is \nVERY important.\nAGENT\nRECORD COMPANY LEGAL\nRECORD COMPANY\nSYNC APPROVALS\nCOST APPROVALS\nRECEIPTS\nINTERNATIONAL CONTACTS\nSTORE AND PRESS CONTACTS \nPlus all the other ones you want to have.EMAIL FOLDERS\nGOOGLE SHEETS\n1. Your catalogue with splits and paperwork ticked off, I add the royalty \nstatement calender here and note new songs which should appear and \nlog balances. This can be shared with my Business Manager, and my \nArtist.\n2. Show a diary for your Artist with fees and WHT listed. Access should be \navailable for your tour manager who will run a seperate crew calendar Set yourself a list of reminders. These will include:\n• Delivery dates of records\n• Deliver dates of assets\n• Audit dates\n• Registration reminders - every time you release a song\n• Release dates\n• Dates the song ownership returns to you\n• Dates you need to notify options\n• Tax returns, your own country and countries you toured in which require \nthem\n• Withholding Tax - Application deadlines\n• Song files being completed \n• Agency statements due in\n• Royalty statement due in\n• ‘Shop Window’ checks - even when you are not in a campaign cycle, you \nshould check your spotify biog, for example, is up to date. Do this once \na month.REMINDER CALENDARfrom your diary but without any fees listed. On your diary, include budget \nand tax application deadlines that your tour manager will need to know. \n3. A Master Diary is for agents to log into and block out dates as you sketch \nout the year. Do not list fee’s on in this diary. \n4. Marketing / Release schedule with Artwork needs on - all staff can access \nthis. This lists shows as pins in campaigns but no fees. \n5. Log ins - filing all usernames and passwords for socials, emails, royalty \nportals, domain names etc - you think you will remember them, you won’t.\n6. Renewables / Important Dates - audit dates, returning catalogue, \ntrademark and domain name renewals, insurance renewals, passport \nrenewals, option notices, invoice reminders such as advance dates, \nroyalty statements due dates, including reminders in advance. I also add \nthese to my own diary on my laptop.\nThis is quite excessive I guess, but my Artists had large turnovers and huge \nassets to manage.296 297• Passport renewals for you and your Artist\n• Trademark or domain name renewals\n• Grammy Deadline, Sept 30th\n• Your Artists birthday and their key family birthdays so you can flag \nmissing any when setting a commitment\n• Award shows you care about and hope to attend or perform at\nSome of these will be triggered by new business. You confirm an American tour, \nwhich creates a 45 deadline for the CWA, which means getting it to your agent \n50 days before. Confirm the show, add the reminders. Just stick post it’s on your \ncomputers or on the wall of your office to remind you which business creates \nwhich checklists of dates. Put them in your diary, I set a 2 days alert beforehand \nso I’m not stuck on a long haul flight when something urgent needs to be done..\nNever set reminders for weekends, give yourself a BREAK. Set them for the Friday \nbefore the weekend.\nSubscribe to musicbusinessworldwide.com newsletter. I literally did the biggest \ndeal I have ever done by reading an article on it, and approaching the company. \nAlso does an AMAZING weekly job section.\nBillboard online service is FAB and worth paying for, also follow your local \nCollection Society and global Collection Societies social media. You get loads of \nlegal updates and tips on ownership and your rights which do evolve all the time \nbecause people just like you are winning battles and creating change.\nMarketing industry and social media accounts all give good updates and tips. I \nalso follow designs I love and dive into who they tag. We have hired several from \nthis method.SUBSCRIPTIONSIS THE DEBATE THAT YOU WANT TO BE TREATED THE SAME, OR TREATED \nLIKE A WOMAN?\nIt’s not necessarily the same. Equal rights perhaps refer to what you are allowed to \nreceive or do, not how you wish to be treated at work. Being a woman is a beautiful \nthing so behaving like a lad can send off the wrong signals about how you want to \nbe treated, but man, it can be HARD!\nI wasn’t going to include this section, but a lot of people asked me to, so I will say \nthe same as I said in my school. \nBeing a woman is like the ultimate Harry Potter cloak. They just don’t see \nyou coming. \nYou can sense which men have no issue with dealing with a woman the first \nmoment you meet them. Shout out to Doug Davis, Ted Cockle, John Jannick, \nIrving Azoff, Jon Platt, David Levy, Jonathon Dickins, Peter Mensch and Michael \nRapino to name a few here. Men at the TOP of their game so there is hope Ladies. \nIt’s natural for you to resonate with them.\nStay graceful. Keep your femininity. Please note I have failed dismally at both of \nthese multiple times. It’s easy to try and combat it by behaving and even dressing \nlike a man! I have seen smart men create a meeting specifically with women in \nit because they know we are different and our point of view is vital to create a \nbalanced approach. This does include women treating women well. And women \nvaluing the male opinion. Treat everyone how you wish to be treated.\nThe older I got, the more I realised that other women in the business were like my \nwolf pack. I could confide in them, I found support in them and I value them all. \nIf you are a successful woman you can doubt new women - wondering why they \nare there, did they deserve it? You’ve fought so hard to be there, did they have \nto do that? At the end of the day, hard working innovators are exactly that. They \nare not men, they are not women. They are people. It’s possible women are more \npassionate...Yes there will be bro jokes in trailers when you tour with all guys, but \nif you were all girls, would you not make any man jokes? Don’t let it go too far but BEING A WOMAN298 299you will need thick skin.\nThe ‘Me Too’ movement saw the treatment of women by some men in the business \nexposed. Has it happened to me? I honestly can’t remember. Yes I am sure I got \nmy ass pinched by a big radio show host in Miami one year… but I was a pretty \nterrifying chick when I was younger so I doubt I was a target. I had a big mouth so \nI would have told everyone what had happened. These predators are clever, they \ntend to prey on quieter women, those who will feel they cannot tell anyone. \nIf it happens to you, tell someone. Do not keep this to yourself and let it fester \nor it will turn you away from your goals. There are plenty of amazing men in the \nbusiness who see only talent, only strength.Your ability to nurture and multi task as \na woman, is a vital asset in their team. You will meet women like Michelle Anthony \nat Universal, Sam Kirby at William Morris, Emma Banks at CAA (who terrified \nme for years) Hannah Gianoullis - Manager to Florence & The Machine, Jody \nGerson at UMPG, Michelle Jubelier at Capitol Records, Rebecca Leon, manager \nto Rosalia and Ozuna, Cary Jones, COS for Jimmy Iovine and hundreds more \nwho are ball breakers but are also nurturers of other women who come after them. \nThey are tigers, but they are also mothers, teachers, and full of inspiration. You \ncan feel that if you get emotional, you’re crazy. Men getting emotional are ‘wow he \ngot so mad’. You can make a BOSS move… and you can have eyes rolling at you. \nAt the end of the day.. WHO CARES. Go WIN. \nIf they don’t like it, they are nicely showing you who is your ally, and who is not. So \nread their behaviour and turn it into a map to identify who you will go to with more \nopportunities. At the end of the day, if they miss out on you, it’s their loss. You’re \nnot going ANYWHERE.\nStay strong, do not accept inappropriate behaviour and if someone confides in you \nthat it’s happening to them, ACT. It’s your job to play a role in the standards set \nfor ALL women, not just you.\nMaya Angelou, And So I Still Rise\nThis film will show not only pure female strength but her \nability to admit her lack of perfection and yet to be graceful \n- almost celebrating them to younger women. The story \nis littered with lovers and marriages celebrated rather \nthan airbrushed. She installs a sense of true royalty in \nthe way she handles herself in a country where she had \nexperienced such oppression. Her poetry will calm you, her \nstory will inspire you and her grace will wash over you.\nRGB:\nThis will highlight to you not only her sheer determination, \nbut also how she fought for EQUAL rights, not just \nwomen’s rights. She defended men penalised for their \nsex in landmark cases and this is how people should be. \nStunning.RECOMMENDED VIEWING \nFOR THIS CHAPTER300 301RECOMMENDATIONS\nFILMS\nDaft Punk: Unchained Bruno Mars: The Finest Quincy\nAvicii: True Stories Swedish House Mafia: Leave \nThe World BehindJohn Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly\nJay-Z: Fade to Black\nWhat we Started Soundbreaking\n Sound it out\n Beyonce: HomecomingNick Cave: 2000 days on earth\nThe Defiant Ones\nI mean… what can you say about \nthese two. History has been made \nby them and they tell you all about \nit. Inspiring and real at the same \ntime. If they can do it, so can you. \nThey would be the first to say it...\nInventing David Geffen Clive Davis: The \nSoundtrack of our lives\nPump up the volume: A history \nof House MusicFINAL WORDRESPECT YOUR ELDERS\nYou’re crazy big on Tik Tok, they released on vinyl. They are not \nrelevant. INCORRECT.\nEver looked back and thought ‘wow’ I know what my Mother meant \nnow I am older. People before you broke rules for you. They pushed \nthe boundaries. Yes you can evolve them all, prove them wrong but \nyou are only in this debate because of what they did. Their insight \ninto staying sane for life, long term careers, maintaining a balance \nbetween work and family will be invaluable to you. Treat them with \nrespect.\n302 303Everything is going to work out. You can gain Artists, lose Artists, \nyou can be popular, you can be hated.You can lose staff. You can \nthink some people were your friends and it turned out they were not \nat all. Keep your real friends close both in work and out of work, and \nremember why you are doing this. Enjoy the music of others with an \nequal level of passion to the music you work on. Appreciate the art of \nothers with a big smile, even when it’s better than yours! Inspiration \nis a wonderful thing.\nCare. Share. Learn. Love. Smile. Cry. \nBut always TRY. It will always be enough...YOU will always be enough.RECOMMENDATIONS\nBOOKS\nThis book is AMAZING. Loads of \nlegal advice (way above the level \nI cover), royalty methods and in \ngeneral just an amazing book and \nnew editions come all the time.\nThis book makes you write out \ncreative thoughts every morning \nand can be a real way to unlock a \nlot of good ideas.All you need to know about the \nmusic business \nDonald S. PassmanThe Artist’s Way\nJulia CameronCREDITSCREDITS\n304\nWritten by Amy Thomson\nGraphic Design by Jac Harris\nAdditional Editing by Nicki Barber & Carry Wagner\nDedictated to the students of Mind Your Own Business School\n#WAGE (they will know what this means)\n© 2020\nWebSite www.myobschool.com\nInstagram @myobschool / @amyhesterthomson\nThanks to Max Weinberg. Maximilien Jazani. Christophe Piot. Charlie \nTorrible. Adrienne Willen. Jac Harries. All the school students. Carla \nSacks. Dan Rys. Tim Ingham. Glenne Christiaansen. Simon Winters. \nSean Granat. ", + "keywords": [ + "one", + "artist", + "get", + "need", + "show", + "time", + "dont", + "record", + "want", + "like" + ], + "summary": "1WRITTEN BY AMY THOMSONARTIST \nMANAGEMENT\n& MARKETING\nA BEGINNERS \nGUIDE\nIn early 2020 I decided to " + } +] \ No newline at end of file