E urope - Parent Directory

3. The Music Is Good, But The Artist Doesn’t Play Live: This applies to
all genres of music except electronica and experimental music.
4. Poorly Recorded Material: So you bought Pro-Tools … so what!
5. Best songs are not identified or highlighted on the CDR: Give the
folks a break. For demos-send only 3 or 4 songs and highlight the best
o n e s .
6. Sending Videos In Place Of CDRs: Keep it simple, in the demo mode.
All anyone wants is to check out your songwriting and musicianship.
7. Sending Unsolicited Recordings: You sent them, but they never asked
for them.
8. Sending The Wrong Music To The Wrong Label: You didn’t do your
research to find out what labels put out what kind of music.
9. Musicians Can’t Play Their Instruments Competently: This is so basic,
but you would be astounded at how incompetent most start-up
musicians are.
10. The Music Sucks: This criticism is as old as music itself. You may
think your music is the greatest thing since frappacinos, but most
demo recordings the industry receives are as bad as the first round
contestants on American Idol.
Christopher Knab is a music business Consultant, Author and Lecture r. He
was recently honored by Seattle’s Rocket magazine as “One of the Most
Influential People in the Northwest Music Industry.” Visit his website at:
w w w. 4 f rontmusic.com or contact him personally at: Chris@Knab.com
t o o l s
W H AT ARE PERFORMANCE RIGHTS
O R G A N I Z AT I O N S ?
by Jer Olsen, CEO MusicBootCamp.com
© 2009 All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.
Performance rights organizations like BMI, A S C A P and SESAC all
perform a similar task but in slightly different ways. Essentially, they all
perform the duty of collecting royalties for non-dramatic performances of
intellectual property. In simpler terms, they collect the income from radio
stations, T V stations, programming companies, Internet marketers and any
other entity where music and related intellectual property is used. T h e s e
royalties are then, in turn, paid to the various publishers and authors
associated with a particular recording or performance.
Why do we need them?
The fundamental reason behind the birth of these organizations is the
simple fact that individual artists and song writers can’t possibly devote the
time, attention and research required to collect royalties from the plethora
of companies that use their music, even though by law they are entitled to
those royalties. Artists depend on these performance rights organizations to
do the hunting and collecting for them—a small price to pay for a piece of
a much, much bigger pie! T h e r e ’s a saying, “50% of everything is a whole
lot better than 100% of nothing!” Well, we don’t know exactly how much
money these organizations charge for their services, but we can be certain
it covers their time and energy (similar to how music publishers earn
money for getting music played in movies, T V shows, or recorded by other
artists, etc.) The truth is, performance rights organizations are a necessary
and helpful tool for musicians and publishers. The toughest decision is
choosing which one to align with.
Which one to choose?
Please visit the page of each organization to find on-line information about
joining as well as a ton of other terrific resources. Compare and make a
decision on which one best suits you. If you don’t, you can practically
assure yourself of never being paid for airplay.
United States
BMI—Broadcast Music, Inc (www. b m i . c o m )
ASCAP—The American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers
( w w w. a s c a p . c o m ) ,
SESAC (www. s e s a c . c o m )
C a n a d a
SOCAN—The Society of Composers Authors and Music Publishers of
Canada (www. s o c a n . c a )
The UK
PAMRA—Performing Arts Media Rights Association (www. p a m r a . o rg . u k )
PRS—The Performing Right Society (www. p r s . c o . u k )
MCPS—The British Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Limited
( w w w. m c p s . c o . u k )
F r a n c e
SACEM—Societe Des Auteurs Compositeurs Et Editeurs De Musique
( w w w. s a c e m . f r )
CISAC—Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et
Compositeurs (www. c i s a c . o rg )
G e r m a n y
GEMA—The German Society For Musical Performing Rights A n d
Mechanical Reproduction Rights (www. g e m a . d e )
I t a l y
SIAE—Societa Italiana Degli Autori ed Editori (www. s i a e . i t )
S p a i n
SGAE—Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (www. s g a e . e s )
S w e d e n
STIM—Svenska Tonsattares Internationella Musikbyra (www. s t i m . s e )
A u s t r a l i a
APRA-The Australasian Performing Right Association Limited
( w w w. a p r a . c o m . a u )
Note: If you are looking for information on how to start your own
publishing company, inquire on each site or call each company on how to
obtain membership as a publisher. Becoming a publisher is not as nearly as
d i fficult as performing the duties of a publishing company since a
p u b l i s h e r’s main task is exposing compositions and recordings to as many
profitable opportunities as possible. Many of the duties of publishing
companies can be effectively performed through a membership with the
H a rry Fox A g e n c y ( w w w. h a r r y f o x . c o m ) .
Jer Olsen is the founder and CEO of MusicBootCamp.com, home of “Dirt -
Cheap CD Replication and FREE Music Business Training!” This art i c l e
is a sample of the many free re s o u rces available on the Web site. Jer is also
an accomplished musician and producer with several top 20 Billboard hit
remixes to his credit. www. M u s i c B o o t C a m p . c o m
UPC & BARCODES FOR PENNIES AND SENSE
by Lygia Ferra, LAMusicGuide.com
© 2009 All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission
With all the details that go into making a CD it is easy to put off making
certain decisions, especially if there is cost involved or contradictory
i n f o r m a t i o n .
♦
So what exactly is a barcode?
Bar codes are also called UPC Symbols (generated by the Uniform Code
Council (www. u c - c o u n c i l . o rg.) They are the small black and white lines
that correspond to a unique 12 digit number used to track sales of CD’s ,
while Sound scan correlates the information with your barcode in their
database. Unless you are planning on starting a record label and putting out
a number of releases with several artists, the $750 expense isn’t really
n e c e s s a r y.
S o u n d s c a n
Since Soundscan (www.soundscan.com) has a direct influence on
placement in Billboard and CMJ music charts and other forms of
recognition, payola has all been obliterated. It is a tracking system that did
away with the potentially subjective reports of radio programmers and
store managers prior to 1991. Sound Scan’s records are not public, so the
only way to access their data is open an account at a minimum price of
several thousand dollars per year. The only ones checking are the larg e r
labels and bigger companies. If you want to impress, you would need to
sell more than 1,000 units to catch their eye.
www.indiebible.com The Indie Bible – 10 th Edition