The Right Manager

Trustworthiness is an incredibly important attribute to look for in a manager. Think about it, you’ve worked for so many years learning how to play your instrument and write your songs, and your band has been rehearsing and promoting its shows for years—AND NOW YOU’RE GOING TO TURN OVER A GREAT DEAL OF RESPONSIBILITY TO SOMEONE YOU BARELY KNOW! Sounds scary doesn’t it? Trust must be earned over time, but if a manager doesn’t at least show an initial caring, enthusiasm, and commitment for your dreams and passions, you may not have the right guy. Is your manager just interested in making a quick buck off of you—or perhaps just interested in having a romantic relationship? Seriously! You really need to follow your gut instinct on both these issues from day one.

I remember one very famous manager firmly saying to a group that he didn’t need to like or be passionate about their music in order to do business with them. Sounds rather insensitive, but because of his power and clout, the band decided to go ahead and work with him. As it turns out, the relationship ended in disaster. The band drove all the way across country in a van to perform a showcase, and the manager didn’t even show up—nor did any industry people! True story. Coincidently, after that, the manager didn’t even return the band’s phone calls. Nice! Perhaps he realized there was no quick buck to be made from the relationship? Who knows?

In similar situations, so many bands are promised that there’s a big tour or record contract right around the corner and that the labels are ready to ink the deal. One or two years later, the band is still playing the same dive clubs and are unsigned.

A manager can’t lie to his artists as some ploy to keep them under control, feel powerful, or to perhaps manipulate into a romantic relationship. Again, an initial feeling of genuine caring, enthusiasm, commitment, and over all trust is a major quality to look for in a personal manager. Without these traits, no matter how powerful and well connected the manager may be, you may end up with nothing more than a lot of broken promises.


Respect
A manager must also be someone that you can respect. We’re not just talking about the number of successful bands this individual has managed or how many gold and platinum records he has on the wall, we’re talking about morality and ethics. What does your manager really stand for? Is he/she well educated? Well groomed? Does he show a genuine loyalty to other business partners and associates? Does he show an interest in win-win relationships in other business ventures? Is he family-oriented? Does he do anything to give back to the community? Or is your manager all about making money and flash—big houses, expensive cars, and arm-piece girl friends at any expense? Is he a spoiled rich-kid or businessman who got into management to fulfill some show-biz fantasy? Is he a former drug dealer or dubious business person? Does he hang out and party twice as hard as you? Is he a bully? Hey, I’m not making these examples up! Surely, it’s not like you’re an angel looking for a saint, but overall a manager must maintain a level of authority and respect and perhaps even be somewhat of a father figure to you. Many bands, not that they’ll always admit it, want someone they know they can look up to and feel protected by. They want both someone who’s going to take them under their wing and keep everything under control—a super hero who can do no wrong, and someone who knows how to be down to earth and admit that they don’t have an answer to a particular situation.

Of course, you may initially be impressed with someone who makes a lot of noise, blows a lot of smoke, wines and dines you, and flexes a lot of muscle—but are you really going to trust your whole career to guy like this?

A manager must be secure, grounded, firm, confident, educated, and well respected—far above all the bells and whistles and shallow surface stuff discussed above. Without these positive and respectful attributes, your only building a relationship in a personal manager that is doomed to eventually fail!

"Music is a big machine that would go on with or without me."


Rob Thomas, Matchbox 20

Lawyers vs. Managers

Once you have secured a lawyer, he will likely work with you to find management, if you don’t have it in place already. They will do this for two reasons. First, they know that most labels are going to be more likely to sign you if you have a manager, and second, because they don’t want to be your manager themselves. Managing you would keep them from doing what they are genetically predisposed to do: make deals.

Read the entire article@
http://www.artistshousemusic.org/articles/how+lawyers+differ+from+managers

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DiMA Requests

Digital music services, music publishers and Congress have been seeking for years to resolve complex legal issues that have hampered digital music growth and innovation. One of these issues is whether internet radio or any form of digital streams intended to be enjoyed as immediate performances require a license under Section 115 of the Copyright Act, which has historically been viewed as relating to the distribution of musical compositions that are part of sound recordings. Today DiMA has asked the Copyright Royalty Board to formally request that the U.S. Copyright Office resolve this issue.

Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only. Music publishers historically have asserted that "on demand" or "interactive" digital performances are subject to the both the public performance right and a publishing "mechanical" right (a combination of the reproduction and distribution rights that are generally granted together for the production and distribution of CDs or digital downloads).




Read the entire article@
http://musicdish.com/mag/index.php3?id=12173

The New Horizon

It’s a great time to be an artist interested in building a sustainable career in the music business. With the ongoing changes of the music business and the advent of the digital music industry, there is a thriving music scene and with more options than ever for artists to build and reach fans across the globe.

Technology has forever changed the music industry and is shifting the power from a handful of large corporations back to the artists themselves. Only a few years ago an artist would pretty much have to sign with a label to put a record out due to the high costs of recording and lack of independent distribution options. Today artists can make a fairly high quality recording on their own with some good equipment and readily available software. Most of all, today there are multiple direct ways to distribute CD’s and digital tracks.

That’s the good news.

The challenge is that the music business itself is still quite complex and the technology, licensing and distribution options are so numerous that it can be overwhelming. The industry and related technologies are changing so rapidly that there is virtually no expert to turn to for guidance. It’s also becoming increasingly difficult for serious, high quality artists to get noticed by fans, booking agents, managers, program directors and record labels given the sheer amount of music flooding the market now that pretty much anyone can get their music recorded and distributed.

Artist Quote of the Week

"The whole music business in the United States is based on numbers, based on unit sales and not on quality. It's not based on beauty, it's based on hype and it's based on cocaine. It's based on giving presents of large packages of dollars to play records on the air."

Frank Zappa

Lo-Fi Recording...

Lo-fi is the opposite of hi-fi. Technically, hi-fi sound implies a flat frequency response with no noise, distortion, or other imperfections. In contrast, lo-fi sounds might have a narrow frequency response (a thin, cheap sound), and could include artifacts such as aliasing, hiss, distortion, or record scratches and vinyl surface noise.

Lo-fi really took off with rap music, in which the drum sound was the opposite of the usual polished studio sound. Instead of a tight kick, we heard a boomy kick; wide-range snare sounds with a full thump and crisp attack gave way to tinny, trashy snares that were all midrange. Lo-fi is also a component of some dance music and of course, punk is not about polite sounds, either.

No matter what type of music you do, though, lo-fi can add extra textures and colors that make a song stand out from the crowd. So, let’s look at a few ways not to take out the trash, but put it in.

Read the entire article@
http://www.eqmag.com/article/lo-fi-recording/mar-08/33643