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November 19, 2015 HI I am Michelle Lockey, award winning songwriter and composer for Film & TV. You can see a breif bio below. I write a blog on Writing & Licensing songs for Film & TV. In this weeks episode I am talking about the Pay to Pitch model. Is it a good idea or bad? This is my experience and opinion only. Here you go!
July 16, 2014
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.
February 4, 2014 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.
Band Marketing, Band Website Tips, Booking Agents, Branding, Business, Copyright, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Distribution, Indepedendant Artist , Life in the Music Business, Making money from music, Management, Marketing, Marketing 101, Music Industry, Music Licensing, Music Management, Music Publishing, Music Services, Music Strategy, Music Think Tank, Musicians Resources, Online Marketing, Royalties, Selling Your Merch, Social Media, Touring, Touring and Gigging, booking, digital music, direct to fan, entertainment news, independent music, merchandise, music business, music marketing, music supervision, social media for musicians January 22, 2014 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.
Artist Development, Artist FYI, Artist services, Breaking into the industry, Copyright, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Distribution, Endorsements, Music Business Jobs, Music Business Plan, Music Industry, Music Licensing, Music Management, Music Publishing, Touring, Touring and Gigging, artist, independent music, music business, music marketing, sponsorship | tagged agreements, contracts, distribution, exclusive agreement, licensing, manager, nonexclusive agreement, record labels, royalties, sponsors July 11, 2013 The Day The Music Dies: What’s Really At Stake When Licensing Music
By Christopher Rucks—Music Dealers
It’s more than just a car to drive. It’s more than just a belt to hold up your pants. It’s more than just a song to go in a web video. It’s a promise of service.
We recently lost a music licensing opportunity. We proposed a fee of 1K for the requested use; web content, worldwide, perpetual use, mid-tier, but phenomenally licensable up-and-coming artist that we have a great relationship with.
July 1, 2013 Some television shows do such a wonderful job at selecting the soundtrack and discovering new and lesser-known artists to feature for their viewers — you can’t help but hunt down the songs on the show after you’re done watching.
Music Licensing | tagged tv music May 30, 2013 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.
.MUSIC Website, Acapella, Advice, Album Release, Ambient, Artist Development, Band Marketing, Band Website Tips, Benefit Concert, Book, Booking Agents, Branding, Business, Christian Music, Competitions, Copyright, Creativity, DIY Artist, Distribution, Education, Endorsements, Hip-Hop, Indepedendant Artist , Investing In Your Music, Kickstarter, Life in the Music Business, Music 3.0, Music Business Plan, Music Conference, Music Executives, Music Industry, Music Licensing, Music Management, Music Publishing, Music Reviews, Music Services, Music Strategy, NEW MUSIC: Good Day, The 72 Hour Project, Networking, New Album , Online Marketing, Presskit.to, album, artist, award show, awesome indie music, baby boomers, black music, blogging, booking, careers, conferences, country music, crowdfunding , digital music, entertainment news, independent music, indie musician motivation, interviews, mtt radio, music , music business, music marketing, music production, music production templats, music promotion, music supervision, music theory, musician, new age, online music business courses, production, public relations | tagged Music Publishing, music, music business April 15, 2013 Money. Let’s face it: most artists aren’t very good with it. Most of us don’t have much to invest into our music career (relatively speaking), and when we do, we tend to throw it at some random opportunities without a larger strategy in mind.
Take, for instance, submission fees to music festivals. Each year, thousands of artists spend over $100 in application fees or subscription costs to EPK sites, in hopes of getting a show at SXSW, CMJ, Bumbershoot, or other large festivals. Personally, I think festivals are overrated in terms of importance for your career, but if you really want to get in, try reading this guide: How to Get Into SXSW.
You can easily spend $100 on strings, picks, or sticks. You could even buy a cheap electric guitar. Or, if you were riding in my tour bus, $100 almost covers the gas from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA.
Advice, Album Release, Artist Development, Artist FYI, Band Marketing, Breaking into the industry, Budgeting, Business, Competitions, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Endorsements, Indepedendant Artist , Information, Innovation, Investing In Your Music, Life in the Music Business, Management, Marketing, Marketing 101, Music Business Plan, Music Industry, Music Licensing, Music Strategy, Online Marketing, Radio Play, Touring, Touring and Gigging, artist, booking, conferences, earn a living playing live music, festivals, independent music, indie musician motivation, managing money, merchandise, music business, music festivals, music marketing, radio, sxsw, tour | tagged Artist, album review, band money, banner, booking, books, cmj, consultation, merch, merchandise, money, music biz February 27, 2013 Hello my name is Hollaman Lindsay and I am asking all of you to see if you can possibly aid me in my attempt to win Joe Bonamassa’s Blues Masters Competition. The first round for this contest is based off of viral popularity and how many views and shares your audition video gets, now I aint sayin that I cant generate that many views and shares because I dont have the talent, Its just that I live in Hiram Georgia and we got more stock in rakes then we do computers so its hard for me to find many people around me to support it. So I am inquiring you to see if you can help me get my name out there and get my audition video views and shares because if I can get past this first round and make it to guitar duals I think I got it made in the shade.
.MUSIC Website, Advice, Artist Development, Artist FYI, Band Marketing, Benefit Concert, Booking Agents, Breaking into the industry, Competitions, Contests, Crowdsourcing, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Endorsements, Feel good, Finding bandmembers, Free Download, Free Mp3 Download, Funk, Future Of Music, Gigs, Home Studio, Indepedendant Artist , Information, Innovation, Live Music, Music Business Jobs, Music Business Plan, Music Conference, Music Industry, Music Industry Crisis, Music Industry Interviews, Music Licensing, Music Management, Music Publishing, Music Reviews, Music Services, Music Strategy, Music Video, New Album , Online Marketing, Performance, Performance Coach, Practicing Musici, Promotion, Publicity, Radio Play, Realistic Music Careers 101, Recording Vocals, Reddit Promotion, Social Media, Soul, TEDx, The Business of Independent Music, Viral Growth, Web 2.0, YouTube, artist, awesome indie music, blogging, careers, crowdfunding , digital music, direct to fan, donations, email, fans, getting signed, independent music, indie musician motivation, mobile, motivation, mtt radio, mtv, music , music business, music discovery, music festivals, music mar, music marketing, music production, music promotion, music statistics, music supervision, music technology, music theory, musician, online music business courses, opinion, philosophy, practicing music, rant, record labels, recording, recording studio, social media for musicians, song, song pitching, soundcloud, sponsorship, streaming, sxsw, the internet, viral | tagged Blues, Guitar Center, Joe Bonnamasa, competition October 18, 2012 Authors, composers and publishers have the right, but not the obligation, to register with Performing Rights Organizations (a.k.a Collection Societies, internationally) for the collection of royalties.
The primary function of PROs is the intermediation between copyright holders and entities who wish to use their music publicly (ex. a business establishment that broadcasts background music).
They can take the role of your lobbyist, your “agents”, and most importantly, your royalty collectors.
October 11, 2012 Dirty secret: Musicians and songwriters all know that if their music is being played commercially, the reports they are getting back are more than likely wrong. Cue sheets and affidavits are routinely entrusted to interns to fill out – sometimes by hand. One misspelled song title and the artists wave goodbye to their royalties. In fact, over 80% of music played commercially is either unreported or misreported.
September 26, 2012 If you were presented with the opportunity to pitch your band directly to the Chief A&R representative for Capital Records, what would you say? If there was a venture capitalist looking to invest into the dreams of one band, how would you convince them to choose you? If your favorite band was in town and looking for an opener, what would you tell the promoter about your act?
Being able to pitch your band is one of the most important steps in being able to book shows, secure sponsorships, get a booking agent/manager, receive press, and even to getting on a label. It’s also one of the areas that I see independent musicians struggling with the most. Even though I have a disclaimer on LastStopBooking.com that we are not accepting submissions, I still receive about 50-100 EPK submissions and query letters per week. 90% of these sound the same: the band describes themselves as having “great music,” and they almost always say they are different than other artists because they are “hardworking.”
Artist Development, Band Marketing, Band Website Tips, Booking Agents, Branding, Breaking into the industry, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Education, Endorsements, Indepedendant Artist , Innovation, Life in the Music Business, LinkedIn Marketing Strategy, Marketing, Marketing 101, Music Licensing, Music Management, Promotion, Radio Play, booking, epk, independent music, music marketing, record labels, selling, song pitching, sponsorship | tagged booking, booking a tour, booking agent, booking agents, manager, managers, pitching, record label, record label deal, record label demo submission, song pitching, sponsors July 25, 2011 Spotify could add an extra charge if users wanted to make their local files available to their friends via shared playlists. They could do so for an extra charge, to cover the added bandwidth costs and royalties.
