Back in the Day

was told at a recent music conference by an executive from an independent distributor that he wishes the Internet would be destroyed because it hurts record sales so bad.

I have in recent times heard from a major market radio consultant that the Internet was responsible for the demise in listener ship at radio formats around the United States and it should be banned.

To both of these statements I say, “It’s about time.” The one-sided business practices and limited opportunities within the radio / record / store system should have ceased years ago.

Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio magazine Talkers, told a group at the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show that competing technologies -- like Internet, Wi-Fi, podcasts and cell phones -- would all but fill the niche they now occupy.

"These are dark times for terrestrial radio," Harrison said. "And most people in terrestrial radio are in denial of it."

The old record industry depended on radio airplay to sell records for record retailers. Then they added MTV / BET to their record selling mix. This vicious cycle has finally started to erode. Technology has made it easier for more creators of music and multi-media projects, and with this proliferation of new material came new avenues to listen and expose these creations. The new record industry has been birthed and the initial growing pains are now presenting themselves. Change can be embraced, fought or ignored. Change cannot be stopped, and today’s technology has brought many new revenue generating ideas to our industry.

Read the entire article@
http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12004

Gigging and Touring as an Indie

Playing live gigs is one of the most traditional ways for musical artists to spread the word about themselves, entertaining fans and attracting new ones. And nothing beats gigging as a way to build a band’s musical chops. Playing gigs also gives you a recurring reason to contact your fan base and promote your act. It’s a great vehicle to collect names for your email list, and it’s the best forum to sell products like CDs and t-shirts.

What’s important to realize is there’s a focused and unfocused way to go about booking and playing gigs, and the difference can spell success or failure for your act.

An unfocused approach might include booking gigs in towns you’ve never played without doing any research into the club you’ve booked. Or it might simply be booking yourself too frequently in the same area. Or it could be booking too big a room, or playing dumpy rooms for too long and establishing yourself as a second-tier live act.

Read the entirearticle@
http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12131 article@

Artist Quote of the Week

"There are more letters in the word 'business' than there are in the word 'music'."

Anonymous

BETA Records To Sign 100 Indie Artists In 2008

Rebelling against the current downturn for traditional record companies, Chris Honetschlaeger, President of BETA Records, has announced a new generation of record deal which partners the company with the artist in a non-exclusive three song contract and plans to sign 100 artists in 2008.

BETA will analyze and utilize listening behavior across its own fast-growing community database of 75,000 unsigned artists to find, sign, and develop the best 100+ acts over multiple genres throughout the year. BETA has already signed 5 acts with another 12 pending in genres ranging from metal to pop.

NEW DEAL

The BETA deal incorporates a multitude of distribution channels available online including featured placement of the artist within the newest version of the BETA Records website slated for release in Feb 2008. "Plugging into the new BETA is like accessing over 100 distribution channels simultaneously," says Georg van Handel, BETA Records CEO. "Alongside selling songs and ringtones, BETA will unveil two innovative online revenue features to monetize the artist. BETA has solved the industry wide riddle in its upcoming website release to generate revenue from the passionate and engaged fan who already owns the music via purchase or piracy."

NON-EXCLUSIVITY

Contracts with BETA "allow the artist to keep all physical CD sales, tour and concert revenue, and merchandise," notes Honetschlaeger. "BETA's position takes a 50/50 stake in the copyright, digital song sales and online advertising of the artist's music. All of this comes packaged in a concise 8-page contract, blessed by some of the best music attorneys in Hollywood. And since our deal is non-exclusive, BETA allows and encourages artists to find other deals to help with their career growth. I am convinced that we will discover the next generation of superstars faster and more efficiently than Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI combined," Honetschlaeger adds.

In working with each of the 100 artists signed to the company, BETA will utilize its new multimedia facilities in Hollywood to record both the audio and respective video of each song in a high energy 3-day 3-song production schedule. With 18 streaming cameras and microphones in the studio, not a moment is lost in the "making of" each song and video.

FUTURE PLANS

BETA plans on hosting a private unveiling dinner of the new site to a group of 50 press, bloggers, forum leaders, and music industry tastemakers in the first week of February. Those interested should contact scottg@betarecords.com.

Artist Management

Breakdown of Rights and Royalties

Licenses and their corresponding royalties fall into four general categories:
Mechanical licenses and royalties - A mechanical license refers to permissions granted to mechanically reproduce music onto some type of media (e.g., cassette tape, CD, etc.) for public distribution. The music publisher grants permission for the musical composition to be reproduced. The mechanical royalty is paid to the recording artist, songwriter, and publisher based on the number of recordings sold.

Performance rights and royalties - A performance-rights license allows music to be performed live or broadcast. These licenses typically come in the form of a "blanket license," which gives the licensee the right to play a particular PRO's entire collection in exchange for a set fee. Licenses for use of individual recordings are also available. All-talk radio stations, for example, wouldn't have the need for a blanket license to play the PRO's entire collection. The performance royalty is paid to the songwriter and publisher when a song is performed live or on the radio.

Synchronization rights and royalties - A synchronization license is needed for a song to be reproduced onto a television program, film, video, commercial, radio, or even an 800 number phone message. It is called this because you are "synchronizing" the composition, as it is performed on the audio recording, to a film, TV commercial, or spoken voice-over. If a specific recorded version of a composition is used, you must also get permission from the record company in the form of a "master use" license. The synchronization royalty is paid to songwriters and publishers for use of a song used as background music for a movie, TV show, or commercial.

Print rights and royalties - This is a royalty paid to songwriters and publishers based on sales of printed sheet music.
In addition to these royalties, the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 brought about yet another royalty payment for songwriters and performers. This act requires that the manufacturers of digital audio recording devices and the manufacturers of blank recording media (blank cassette tapes, blank CDs, blank DVDs, etc.) pay a percentage of their sales price to the Register of Copyrights to make up for loss of sales due to the possible unauthorized copying of music. There are two funds set up where this money is funneled. One is the Sound Recording Fund, which receives two-thirds of the money. This money goes to the recording artist and record company. The other fund is the Musical Works Fund, which receives the remaining one-third of the money to split 50/50 between the publisher and the songwriter.
Foreign Royalties

The licenses we mentioned above (mechanical, performance, synchronization, and print) are also issued for the use of U.S. copyrighted material in foreign countries. The foreign agents, or sub-publishers, are responsible for managing the licenses in their countries and paying royalties to the songwriter and U.S. publisher.

Performance Royalties

How are performance royalties tracked and calculated? Remember that performance royalties are tracked and paid out by the performance rights organizations like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.
The royalty trail begins when the song is registered with one of the three performing rights organizations mentioned above. Once a song is registered, it becomes part of that PRO's collection and is available to all of its users. Most of those users have a "blanket license" to use any or all of the PRO's music, however some users license on a per program basis and only pay for the music they actually use. (This is good for users who don't use that much music.) The PROs deduct money for their operating expenses and the rest goes to the songwriters and publishers.


PRO customers include just about anyone who plays music in a public place -- even those who play "hold" music for their business. These include television networks, cable television stations, radio stations, background music services like MUZAK, colleges and universities, concert presenters, symphony orchestras, Web sites, bars, restaurants, hotels, theme parks, skating rinks, bowling alleys, circuses, you name it -- if they play music, they have to have a license and pay royalties.


Read the entire article@
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties7.htm

Artist Quote of the Week

"I wish there had been a music business 101 course I could have taken."


Kurt Cobain