Your Gateway to Success in the New Music Industry
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 42 Different Ways That Artists Can Earn MoneyBy Paul Resnikoff Songwriter & Composer Revenue
Performer & Recording Artist Revenue
Session Musician Revenue
Knowledge of Craft: Teaching & Producing
Brand-Related Revenue
Fan, Corporate, & Foundation Funding
Other Sources of Revenue
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In today’s world where content is king, the most highly sought after content is high quality video. Many artists invest significant amounts of money to create great music videos for their fans, without realizing they have produced great content that can generate significant revenue. Gone are the days where Music Video budgets are just thrown away as promotional expenses, an expense that was traditionally split between the label and artist, with half the cost being recouped on the artists project. Now with the age of VEVO and YouTube partners music videos are generating billions of impressions and millions of dollars for the owners of the copyrights.
Independent videos can be monetized as well if they can create a significant viral presence…this is where Blip.TV comes in, it is a very simple Web 2.0 platform that allows you to manage your video distribution across 20+ platforms, including Vimeo, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, etc. With just one upload your video is syndicated across all these platforms, also with the ability for advertising revenue to be generated. With a loyal buzz and small budget videos an artist, label, or brand can now easily sydicate and monetize videos using the internet and the digital age.
Check out the video I just uploaded from our convention using Blip.TV
When working with the mass media (radio, TV, papers, magazines), one thing to keep in mind is that they are just that… MASS… and anything you can do to let radio know that you are building a mass story for your artist will help tremendously in your ability to get airplay. A special note here: This info is not intended for an individual artist (or one-person label) to go and try themselves; it is beyond what an individual can do. Even if you had the time (40 to 120 hours per week), you would not enjoy the process.
Commercial radio wants to build a “star”, and the first step to doing this is to build a story. A “star” is an artist whose one particular song is being played all across the country at the same time. Radio wants to be part of the other media building this star. Commercial radio (especially) does not want to be the only media doing it, or much less, be the only radio station doing it. As a matter of fact, by definition, a single station (or two or three stations) cannot “build a star”; no matter how much they play an artist. It takes a group of stations, across the country, doing the same thing at the same time with the same song from the same artist.
Let’s start with radio itself. In a promoter’s daily phone calls with the program directors and music directors, one of the most important things to inform a station about is what other stations have just added the artist. “Add” information is SO important that it is often the ONLY thing that is talked about, especially in the early stages of a campaign. Nothing in commercial radio happens without the add. It might start out like this: “We have adds last week in Tacoma, Austin, Orlando, Fresno, Wichita Falls and Dearborn, and commitments from Miami, Seattle, Dallas and Chicago.”
Next up on the airplay menu are spins. Starting with the P1s and then the P2s and P3s, and starting with the highest (or most exciting) spins, the whole list is gone over with the station, describing (and thus somewhat proving) to the station that action is developing. This information is applied to each station in a way that is designed to make them want to jump on the bandwagon.
As things develop, the promoter goes for quotes from the stations…like “Mary’s record is getting great calls!” or “The XYZ song is moving into power…it’s strong females for us!” The quotes are then fed to every station that is talked to; it might take two weeks to get the message to everyone, even with full-time phone calls.
Finally, as the campaign progresses, the promoter might move into telling the stations which stations are doing what type of give-aways, which ones are doing visits, or which ones are doing any number of other things which help the “story” look like it is building.
Moving on from radio, other pieces of information are also fed to stations, thus helping the stations to decide if a particular artist is worthy of adding…
What performances is the artist making? What are the attendances? Is the artist being invited back? Did the artist get a letter of reference from the venue? And most important, did/will the artist perform in the station’s particular city? (And, is the venue an advertiser on the station?)
How about retail? If CDs are only available at the gigs, how many are moving at each gig? If the CD is distributed, who is the distributor(s)? Have there been any past sales of this artist? Most importantly, what stores is the CD on the shelf at (and what are the sales at those stores) in the city where the STATION is located? Are any of those stores advertising on the station? This process is repeated with each and every station every week.
Finally, the process is applied to press information (newspapers, magazines, TV, web). Stations are shown a building of interest, especially when the press is in the same city as the station, and when the press mentions the station by name.
Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com
What’s up to all the heavy grinders, hard working, and struggling artists, producers, musicians, managers, and DJs! Many of you may know me from my production, or my work with the iStandard Producer Showcase / istandardproducers.com; however, I still get a surprising reaction when mentioning my involvement with ASCAP. Once someone finds out I work there I get this:
“Oh woooooord?! You work for ASCAP?!? (long pause) oh…. That’s cool… (light bulb goes off) Oh ok…. So then how do I (insert question here)… “ And so it begins!
As I don’t mind helping anyone who approaches me in person about their ASCAP account or any other Performing Rights Organization they’re involved with (BMI or SESAC), it has come to my attention in the last couple of years that there is a glaring gap in the knowledge of many industry personnel that needs to be filled when it comes to this aspect of the industry. The most disturbing thing is that it seems people involved in the urban music genres are the ones that know the least about how to handle their PRO (Performing Rights Organization) business. I have helped managers, attorneys (as scary as that sounds), established artists, platinum producers, publishing company founders, and countless others.
Being that this is the first blog a lot of people want to know what ASCAP is… what does it do really? We can all sit here and say “I got my ASCAP set up I’m straight” but what does that really mean? I’ve had people spend the money on the account… and then call me and ask me what does it do? There have been people who have been members for 10+ years and never touched their account and expected to magically get a check.
STEP 1 – WHAT TO EXPECT – So what does being a member of a PRO do exactly? ASCAP BMI and SESAC collect royalties based on the amount of music that you wrote and/or published that is mainly played on Radio (commercial, satellite, internet, digital, NPR, college etc) and TV (network, cable, local, satellite, etc.) – Does this mean EVERY SPIN, EVERY AIRING of your music? Of course not. So keep this in mind going in! It would be humanly impossible to cover every single thing that plays everywhere. The PRO’s also pay royalties for a limited amount of ringtones, airlines, musak (elevator/ doctor’s office music), internet, etc.
The web is especially growing with their royalty payouts. There are so many things in court at this point that a lot of these cases are waiting to pan out to set standards for the future…. This is why the popular sites like youtube or myspace don’t pay out for your webhits.
If you are anticipating a heavy volume of radio play, or anything that’s going to be play on NATIONAL TV (this doesn’t mean your local public access station) then it would be a good idea to join: http://www.ascap.com/about/howjoin.asp
I would recommend joining as a writer AND a publisher.
If one thing sticks on this blog – go home with this:
1 song = 50% writing, 50% publishing
If you just join as one – you are getting half your money. Plain and simple.
We can go further with publishing deals and how keeping all of it vs. signing some away may or may not work to your advantage. We can also get into music libraries and what their exchange is in return for publishing.
There are many routes we can take moving forward – SO if you have any questions regarding ASCAP – whether you’re a current member or would like to join… feel free to twitter me your questions @RhythmJ and I will either answer you via twitter or another blog posting, depending on what you are trying to find out. Welcome to your new source of PRO FAQ!
Lastly – for all artists, producers, managers in the game who are trying to network, check out the ASCAP I Create Music Expo in LA this April. http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/
Producers, you can also submit for the iStandard Producer Showcase at the ASCAP Expo http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/2010/istandard.aspx
So I was recently asked by an artist/friend how does publishing work? My response is do you have a couple of hours to site down and we can go through everything and you can buy me lunch. I think I got the short end of the deal.
Now onto publishing 101…..Successful songwriters (Lyrics) and composers (Producers) have a relationship with a publishing company defined by a publishing contract or can become there own publishing company. You can do a publishing agreement with a major publishing company such as EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music and/or a smaller publishing company like Bug Music Publishing, The Royalty Network, Spirit Music Group or Kobalt Music Publishing or even a sub publishing company of one of the majors.
The publisher agrees to see to it that the composers receive royalties from various uses of their compositions. Generally they also provide an advance against future income. In return, the publishing company receives a percentage, which can be as high as 75% and varies for different kinds of royalties, or the current trend an administration deal. An administration deal is when a publisher just collects the above mentioned royalties for a smaller advance and a smaller percentage generally between 10% to 20%.
There are several types of royalties: Mechanical Royalties derive from the sale of recorded music, such as CDs or digital downloads. These royalties are paid to publishers by record companies (through the Harry Fox Agency as well as through American Mechanical Rights Agency in the U.S.) or can be directly collected through the record labels publishing royalties departments. Performance Royalties are collected by performance rights organizations such as SESAC, BMI or ASCAP and are paid by radio stations and others who broadcast recorded music. Synchronization Royalties are required when a composition is used in a film or television soundtrack. These royalties typically pass through the hands of a music publisher before they reach the composer.
A publisher will typically also handle copyright registration and “ownership” matters for the composer. Music print publishers also supervise the issue of songbooks and sheet music by their artists.
Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com
Marc Smilow
To become your own expert on publishing be sure to see the post on the industry handbook, Music, Money & Success
Publishing Companies Contact Information:
EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING
WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC
http://www.warnerchappell.com/
BUG MUSIC/WINDSWEPT
ROYALTY NETWORK PUBLISHING
SPIRIT MUSIC GROUP
http://www.spiritmusicgroup.com/
KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING
HARRY FOX AGENCY
AMERICA’S MECHANICAL RIGHTS SOCIETY
ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc)
SESAC
Many artists know that licensing their tracks is a great way to make money from your master recordings from the use of them in Film, TV, Online and more. But not many artists actually know how to go about doing it. There are many online “Licensing Marketplaces” now that simplify the process using Web 2.0 type sites to aid in the sale of your master recordings. I have links to a few of the best websites that I have found but there are many more emerging everyday! Most of these sites just allow you to upload music and hook up your PayPal and take care of the rest for you!
The one downfall to this is these sites do not act as a typical Publisher, all the licenses that they negotiate are typically fractions of what a large publishing company could potentially secure. The problem it is nearly impossible to get a publisher until you have proven success with your music. So until then, enjoy the fruits of the New Music Industry and Web 2.0 technology!!
The sites we are listing here include www.YouLicense.com, www.Rumblefish.com and www.PumpAudio.com. Each of these sites grant non-exclusive rights to license your music, so join all 3 by clicking their logos below!!
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