Sell Your Music (with No Competition) - CustomComposing.com

My name is Aaron Billings. I am also known as the Custom Music Guy.

I have created a revolutionary website and system that helps composers turn their dream of creating music for a living into a reality.

In fact, I ran some numbers about how likely it is for one composer’s work to be chosen when a music sale is made. And these are the results that I found:

Click to read more ...

Hey YouTube! 750 indies have signed the Fair Digital Deals Declaration

The 32 pages long YouTube horror story

Some time ago I happened to read the long, horrible contract that YouTube asked indie labels to sign for launching their new premium streaming service. A copy of the leaked contract is here but I guess you won’t go far: their legal patois is unintelligible to a normal human being.

The contract is not only horrible to read: it is also greatly unfair toward indies. So indies promptly replied by taking off content from YouTube (Adele was said to be missing although I was much more concerned about XX and Anna Calvi).

Indies’ next bold move

Now it seems that indies have taken another move toward the Cupertino’s giant: more than 750 of them have signed the Fair Digital Deals Declaration (and notwithstanding the longish hashtag #fairdigitaldeal4artists, they quickly created a buzz on twitter), an initiative launched by the WIN- Worldwide independent network, that represents the interests of independent labels.

Click to read more ...

Copyright and Your Band: 4 Must-Do's Before Playing a Festival

Festival preparation for musicians goes beyond renting the van and finding a place to sleep. For instance, are your songs copyrighted? Did you know that you should be getting paid royalties for your performance? Here are four things you should do to secure your intellectual property before you pack your bags this summer.

Click to read more ...

New Start-Up Provides Independent Musicians and Labels with One-Stop Solutions

Happy Dog Music is one of a handful of marketing centered music start-ups that are a product of the seismic shift that has taken place in the music industry in the last ten years. Happy Dog Music crafts and implements custom marketing campaigns and provides any other ancillary support clients may need during the course of the agreement. Unlike the typical record label deal, Happy Dog Music clients retain 100% of all rights. Happy Dog Music provides major label support without all of the strings that come attached to a major record deal.

Click to read more ...

How Artists Should Deal with Auto-Renewing Contracts

It’s easy to fall into the routine of scrolling past terms conditions agreements without thinking much about them. However, they can often affect the future of your music, where it can be released, who controls it, and how it can be distributed. For example, a licensing agreement can change how future revenues are received (or waive future royalties entirely); a contract with one distributor might limit future opportunities with another; some sponsorship agreements will bind you/your band members to one specific type of product. These are all instances when you are limited by the choices made without full consideration of long-term effects.

Click to read more ...

MINI: Music Business: It's a Dirty Game!

MINI: Music Business: It’s a Dirty Game! FULL COLOR eBOOK & INSERTS! Preview Chapters 1-6 for only $2.99 This MINI version is AVAILABLE NOW at the low cost of $2.99 Direct from www.sevenwestpublishing.com for a limited time! See full color inserts showing firsthand some of the tactics used to deceive the masses and to hide the truth behind decades of abuse. FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF WHY AND HOW IT ALL BEGAN!

Click to read more ...

Before You Sign...

What You Should Know Before You Sign the Deal can be found in this book…

Unlike any other book about the music business, “Music Business: It’s a Dirty Game!”,

this book is not a ‘puff piece’ about the glitz and glamour about the music business.

This book takes you on a journey from the excitement of having a music publishing contract with a major music publishing company to the legal battles that followed.

Click to read more ...

Why Copyright is Still Evil

I published an article last year on copyright and its evils. Both the title and tone were deliberately provocative for a reason – I argued against copyright from moral not utilitarian grounds. That is, I attacked head-on the fundamental injustice of copyright laws, rather than quibble about how they can be tamed and made “fairer”, as most pro-freedom advocates do.

The article was picked up by many websites. Many objections – some sensible, some just angry – came in from readers. I address some of these objections below.

Click to read more ...