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.

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5 Ways to Get to the Front at a Gig

Ok, you are all going to think I’m crazy when I give you these tips because, yes, they are from real-life experiences.  

I’m a music buff - that’s just how I am. If I go to a concert and I make the silly decision to buy a standing ticket, I want to get the most out of it.

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Do you have what it takes to rock Summer Fest 2013?

The Lufkin Convention and Visitors Bureau is giving your band the opportunity to perform in front of a huge crowd in downtown Lufkin during Summer Fest Texas, May 18, and the chance to win $1,000. For details, visit http://www.easttexassummerfest.com/BattleoftheBands/

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Queen is Britain’s Dream Festival Act, What's Yours?

What is your ultimate festival line-up? A recent competition hosted by a UK ticketing marketplace asked this question and collected 12.5k votes to put together peoples’ ultimate top-20 list.

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Creating a Booking Contract or Performance Agreement

Last week, I received several questions about bands or venues cancelling last minute and what the repercussions were. Between that and taking law classes at night, I’ve had a lot of contracts on the mind. Hopefully this will help answer some of your questions about band contracts, if you need them, and how to create one.

I’ll cover some of the more popular questions below:

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Festival Sponsorship Extremes

It’s rare that you go to a festival in this day and age that isn’t presented by some corporate sponsor who proudly drapes their brand on every imaginable piece of the festival. That’s not all, you can of course count on there being a number of other sponsors handing out free swag and creating these larger than life experiences for you to be a part of. It’s all become part of the festival experience . But at what cost?

The bigger the festival, the more extravagant the sponsorship partners. After attending Budweiser’s Lollapalooza in 2008 in Chicago and many years of Van’s Warped Tours, Virgin Festivals, Sirius Satellite Radio’s North by Northeast, Molson Canadian’s Canadian Music Weeks etc. etc. I’ve become accustomed (if not a bit obsessed) at watching how these corporate partners continue to out-do one another with their on-site presence and forward thinking campaigns.

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