Today I was just randomly googling search terms and I saw this link pop up for a site I haven’t had a chance to visit called vipstand. I ended up opening a video on its site called “ You Are Watching: Publishing Deals and Performance Rights Organizations” (PRO’s) and decided to watch this video uploaded from one of my fav sites, artistshousemusic.org, with entertainment attorney Wallace Collins speaking because he appeared to be relaxed and ready to give us viewers some good insight into his point of view on publishing.
I liked how he explained owning the copyright in a publishing deal and how much is typically divided in splits. He briefly went over how one may co-own the copyright and get 50 percent as the writer while the rest goes to the publisher and writer, an example of an average co-publishing deal. I didn’t realize how administration deals worked. They get commission for just collecting your money but it is straightforward calculation regardless of how much percent they get.
Collins says the X factor on the publishing side is the PRO’s (i.e ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) and how its not always clear how much they are taking from the money you may make on your songs. He said he has never been told a formula and how much percentage they get for calculating song royalties but he was not trying to indict any of them. I thought the system was doing a good job on tracking these numbers but apparently not! I have heard stories of people signed to separate PROS’s as songwriters and received different monies even when they worked and co-wrote the same record and had the same contract splits. I believe ASCAP is the way to go as far as the signed writer advantages I feel they have over the other two, but more details about them in a later post. That topic can go on for weeks!
We will have better tracking systems in the future so you know you are getting your exact money the first time around and worldwide changes need to occur so the whole planet is in sync in royalty tracking because business is international. And you shouldn’t have to wait to see what your co-writer received on a record in a check to know you may have been cheated and for them (the PRO’s) to give you the difference. I will be checking out future videos on this site and even some old ones already uploaded about music publishing, indie labels, and copyrights (fun and informative videos alike) and so should you!
I recently went back to visit one of my favorite company sites, ascap.com, and saw a brief article about getting financing for your music publishing company and I happen to know a few entrepreneurs with young companies in the music industry who themselves are trying to decide on whether or not to sign a deal with a major publisher in order to guarantee success.Most of these companies are new record companies, including my own that I am in the process of developing. Some people I have spoken with are up and coming producers/songwriters like myself who are unsure of starting their own small publishing company or not let alone where to get financing for one. The title of this article is called “ Getting Financing For Your MusicPublishing Company”, a fitting and simple title that helps searchers in their quest for knowledge on the topic.
I am a fan of making joint alliances with other companies, my company itself will be a partnership and joint venture, so I am in support of signing co-ventures, as long as things remain fair and equal! The article talked about the advantages that major music publishers gain from adding on a record company and that includes their “creative expertise” that they would have otherwise lost out on if they didn’t sign with them. This may help them tap into undiscovered talent and boost their own revenues. It is also an advantage for the small record company, producer or songwriter because this venture will help decrease their financial and administrative worries while allowing them to focus on their creative side and business goals. That is a big burden lifted! Later on the article brings up the topic of song financing and ownership and how signing with a major publisher usually means they [major publisher] will pay a certain amount of financing on an annual basis which in turn will be used to sign songwriters that is selected by the new partner. Both companies will then own the copyrights to songs written by their signed writers, and I see this as a very beneficial move for a company without the financial backing or industry connects at first and for its roster of writers, producers, etc.
I also learned from reading that sometimes both partners will co-pay the advance although its usually the major publisher who funds all the advance money that is due to the writers. I love advance money and I wish there were more ways to obtaining advances, but as a fresh artist or songwriter or producer, one needs to know advanced money is on the brink of distinction and is not handed out like it used to be to a newly signed artist or writer or whoever. In terms of sharing income for these songs, net income could be split in an equal amount between both companies but can be shared solely based on how much each party pitched in to the advances to their signed writers in their co-venture. I really liked what I “heard” from this article and this isn’t a bad direction to head in as a new indie record label by any means…great way to get yourself and your clients ahead in this tough game from a music publishing POV.
Hi! The professional association I wanted to research and learn more about this month turned out to be one of the best trade associations and one of the most esteemed in the entertainment industry. The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc! It is a trade association for music professionals. Also known as the Recording Academy, it was founded in 1957 and is based in Santa Monica, California. The association has instituted award programs such as GRAMMY and Lifetime Achievement awards. It also helps to support young people and musicians in crisis with arts-based education through its MusiCares Foundation and their Grammy Foundation. Neil Portnow is the President and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc.
(grammy.org)
I really am a fan of their Grammy Museum and would like to visit it someday in L.A. because this place literally goes back in time and past the present into the future and celebrates all forms of music, the creative process and is an interactive site. I enjoyed reading about MusiCares and their services and how they provide medical, financial, and personal emergencies in confidentiality for music people. Barbara Streisand is the 2011 Person of the Year for MusiCares. This is directly impacting the music industry. The academy has many sponsors (ie Gucci) and throws many events in support of various relief efforts in America. They also formed GRAMMY U, a community designed to help college students prepare for work in the recording industry through programs, networking and performance opportunities! And my graduate school, Full Sail University, is a part of this amazing community, whoo!
(grammy.org)
This association is important to me and affects my industry because as a songwriter and musician, they are responsible for creating the most coveted award in the music industry, the GRAMMY award!! This institution is highly revered and respected amongst music professionals and music lovers alike. Even the website is hip and fresh and you can download music applications and even purchase Grammy gear at www.grammy.com The website (along with grammy.org) has everything from the countdown to the Grammy’s and the nominees to the latest music news and even has Grammy radio which plays all your favorite Grammy nominees and musicians. This academy is an arts advocate and its mission statement is “to positively impact the lives of musicians, industry members and our society at large.” They have incredibly lived up to their mission statement and well beyond with all the strides they have made in reaching out to those in need in the music field, and also in continuing to honor excellence with the sought after but rarely attainable sign of achievement in the arts & sciences…the Grammy award! I’m off now to become a Grammy 365 member, yippee!
Hey everyone I am back and for one of my most recent class assignments, we were told to visit the ever growing so popular website TED.com. TED.com is “ a small non-profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading” as it says on the site. After viewing TED’s Executive Director’s Chris Andersen’s speech about what they represent and seeing how great that was, I was excited to see what other videos were available through their theme tab. I checked out their Best of the Web series and found, after looking and watching clips of a few of their listed videos, one from a Web 2.0 Expo with an entrepreneur speaking named Gary Vaynerchuk. Upon clicking on this video, I was immediately drawn to his hyper and boisterous outwardly attitude about people not doing what they love to do. During the beginning of his speech he was discussing his family’s wine business and why he left to start his own thing because he wasn’t happy and I realized that I actually shop at the Wine Library in NJ that his family owns! I even saw the link to his Wine Library TV on their website…very strange. I didn’t even know he was a relative of this family business until he said he was from Jersey and mentioned this. You really do learn something new everyday.
Gary knows how to reach and inspire his audiences through his passion of wanting other people to do what it is they want to do and that there is “no excuse not doing what you love” as he says. He gets his inspiration from just people in general and his user base online. He stressed the importance of networking and getting yourself and your business talked about so much that your brand just builds. Gary explained having a business model and making cash along the way as you work 9-5. He has inspired me to stop saying I don’t have the time or money to work in music or entertainment the way I want to. That to build your brand, you can work your regular day to pay your bills and when you come home, in the after-hours, that then is the perfect time to work on your aspiring business venture. Very true.
He talked about asking yourself the question “What do you want to do everyday of your life?” Now countless people have spoken about this very topic but he speaks from an angle that makes you want to listen to what he has to say. He is relatable, interesting, funny and right to the point. From watching Gary on stage and listening to his words I get where he is coming from and why he is so successful and how I can do the same thing using some of his tactics such as BUILDING BRAND EQUITY IN YOURSELF! He spoke about how legacy is greater than currency and to really think about what you would want your grandchildren to learn about you in years to come. He made me think about the value of PATIENCE and that to make something of yourself you have to hustle. You have to put yourself out there and expose the good and the bad and just network on all the social media sites. I understand that for people to cater towards you, you have to be and do what YOU are about and not try to turn your company into a mere reflection of someone else’s. It is not always healthy to compare especially if you are a new company but that is difficult to do because its natural but then you start imitating this other company and lose your own vision and focus for your unique brand. Other companies will always be an influence but your company should not be a splitting image of any company.
(ted.com)
I agree that one has to work hard if they want the big houses and expensive jewelry or as he says, if you want to own the piece of the Jets! Overall, Gary Vaynerchuk’s speech was intuitive, persuasive, and has provoked me to want to stay as driven as I am now for later on in my pursuits for my own distinguished future business projects.
For my next blog installment, I wanted to interview a project manager that worked in the entertainment field, and below are brief excerpts from the in-depth conversation the two of us engaged in. Topics ranged from challenges he faced as a project and artist manager to the lost values of art in and of itself in this day and age. All statements are summarized or paraphrased unless quoted.
Q: Can you please state for the record your name and title?
A: My name is Mr. Hariz Farid and I am a screenwriter/director/film producer who was formerly an artist and project manager in the entertainment industry amongst other things.
Q: What are the names of some of the organizations you are affiliated with?
A: Foremost Films is my company and for over twenty years I have been executive director of the art based, non-profit organization called No Cane that looks at the issues that effect young people and promotes self-awareness, self-reliance and self-esteem. My team and I go into various schools and tie art into social service and teach film lessons.
Q: What types of projects have you worked on in entertainment?
A: I have previously worked as an artist manager, primarily for young hip-hop artists, My father was a musician and I am an artist myself in the film industry so I have experience in many facets of the entertainment industry.
Q: What skills/job requirements should a Project Manager in entertainment possess?
A: Hip-hop artists need to respect you as a person, a human being, before they will respect you as a project manager. “A project manager has to manage his own life first before he can manage someone else’s.” In order to manage others, one needs to be grounded and have self-centeredness. Secondly, a manager needs interpersonal skills because you are marketing and promoting for your artists, negotiating and networking with industry professionals, agents and executives. Third, you have to be able to speak and write effectively. There are a myriad of skills required of a PM and each day is different because one day I am playing babysitter to an artist, the next psychologist and brother.
Q: What challenges have you faced as a Project Manager?
A: Being “ready to grow and learn other areas and skills besides what I was used to as a project manager.” I had a lot of responsibilities and had to learn a lot of things as I was in the business and doing it constantly. Everyone needs a mentor with experience in this business.
Q: How did you motivate people and reward them as a manager?
A: Some artists’ successes come so fast that they lose motivation and the will to continuing working. You can look at the difference between Motown era artists such as Marvin Gaye and a popular hip-hip artist now and see the lack of polishing and artist development that we see present in this new culture. “Art, culture, and community go together.” They are not “ appreciating the blessing” and so I gave them “ the history of the industry” to remind them of how it used to be. I told them “ work should be a labor of love”. That is the true reward. Teaching them about the legacy established through blood, sweat and tears and the struggle others had before them.
Q: How do you stay organized within a project?
A: I would say surround yourself with a team that has a definite aim and purpose. You need to have a sense of commitment larger than yourself. You have to know what you want to do and have to learn how to say no. Give the project the proper nutrients like a plant needs water and sunlight, As a PM, you have to have people around you who know their places and the rules.
Q: What else do you enjoy doing in the entertainment field?
A: “Art should be utilized to inspire, to encourage, along with entertain.” With No Cane, I like working as a motivational speaker and “moving people” and this is also why I started making films and teaching film in schools for the young. “Young people need to feel how much you care when you are talking to them, it’s not just about what you know.” I would like to say also “ that there could be no change, unless you change the culture.”
Q: What did you like about being a Project Manager?
A: It was very exciting and hard work but I also got to see the “magic” happen in the studio and see the creative side of music. It made me appreciate art. I became a project manager over time, I did not choose this at first but it was my way to get into the other outlets in entertainment. Nowadays I only manage myself but I do like to hire and manage people still but just not on an everyday basis like before. I work virtually as well online with other filmmakers and industry professionals.
This was a very engaging interview and I will be contacting him again in the near future for advice and to help him and his organizations. I agree with him when he says, “ Poetry is a musical thought.”- Author Unknown. Below is a preview of Mr. Farid's documentary film that is currently being adapted for the stage and for a book.
As I was exploring the internet searching for articles to catch my eye, one popped out from Blue Cup Magazine called “Project Budgeting” under a section titled “Tools for Songwriters” and I said wow, this is good to know information for any singer-songwriter working on their first project in the studio! It started off talking about how most artists nowadays self-produce their own albums and is responsible for budgeting and scheduling themselves, compared to the record labels having these responsibilities. It is true that an artist has to be educated about the recording process and research and understand about how much money and time will be needed to record their projects. The article begins with the six stages of album recording and these are key in trying to “avoid costly mistakes and/or delays” (Ferguson, n.d) in the recording process.
Briefly, the first step is Preproduction, where artists write and record, along with rehearse and practice songs in advance before actually recording them for a cost. Second, Tracking, is very important because this step helps give the feel and tempo of a record and are the basic tracks that are later used in the overdubbing stage. Next in the recording process is step three, Overdubbing, a time when artists and producers can experiment with sounds and layering on top of those basic tracks I mentioned earlier. Fourth comes Editing, Comping, and Tuning, where you can improve on your recordings. The fifth step is Mixing and this is done after everything has been recorded and this “is the process of combining all of the individual elements into a single stereo mix”(Ferguson, n.d.). Mastering is the sixth and final step and the individual song mixes are fixed up to sound better with equalization, compression etc and sequenced in their final order to later be sent out on a special disc to a replication plant for mass production and mastering should be done in a studio built just for this final stage.
(fotosearch.com)
The bulk of the remainder of the article delves into studio budgeting for a project because that is the most expensive element in recording an album and gives tips on what to do once you approach each of the six stages I previously mentioned.It gives thought to whether a singer-songwriter could possibly get away with recording an entire project at home or does some steps require a professional studio and my answer is yes to utilizing both. The author (who is an engineer and artist himself), talks about when to use outside engineers and when to pay for help and deciding if your album even needs to be mastered, a possible huge money-saver until the time is needed to do so! The author repeatedly mentions that recoding a project will take longer than you may originally think and to be prepared because mistakes can happen or you can run out of money to give a few examples. He uses a spreadsheet displaying an example of an “”imagined indie budget” for a singer-songwriter and it gives great illustrations on how to look at costs and time of a project and helps one calculate these figures more efficiently if any changes should occur.
Great source of information, please read…you will save money and in this recession, any extra change in a songwriter’s pocket is a blessing! Happy Thanksgiving :)
I just came across a random article about tips for how to write a song without music and I just wanted to see how the instructor was going to break it down into layman's terms. I knew it would have to be something brief particularly if the audience you are aiming for are new, struggling lyricists and possibly even those who have been in the game for awhile. This lesson was on a guitar lessons website so I was even more curious to see if there really was much difference between writing a song that would later be accompanied by an acoustic instrument or not and it appeared not to be the case with this quick lesson.
First, she talks about how one can use a beat and drum track to help one write and this is true whether you have a melody in your head or not. You don't have to record and edit right away, just jot down and brainstorm to the drum track. In future articles I will revisit this in more detail but for now I am just responding to the simple tips I saw in this lesson. Next she talks about melody and how one can just mumble nonsense over the beat and later build on that. I think even the mumbling has to make sense at some point! You can create a melody without having a music theory background but it does take some music knowledge about pitch, rhythm, and tone to help get your point across through chanting or singing.
The instructor then points out lyrics and structure and recommends to listen to how other artists in your genre structure lyrics, what a chorus is, and if you want to sell commercial music to keep the lengths of your songs at three minutes. Its true that one of the best ways to learn how to write in any genre is to follow other successful formats and structures from that genre and because of radio formatting, songs cannot be more than four minutes long on the radio. I will talk about this and the value of a chorus in future articles. These tips were very useful as one person commented and are a good starting point for any writer but of course one needs to really research this topic some more and practice writing without music to make that smash hit before the music arrives!
(In this photo, Luciana Segovia, Singing Instructor for GMC Staff)
