Cecil Murphey's Writer to Writer Blog

Hello all! I am excited to say that I have just begun the start of the second week of my new class called Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution. In our class, we have to participate in what is called a Collaboration Assignment where each student is required to add helpful links and comments on the board every week that they have researched and used or that they think someone else may use. It has proven to be very beneficial to the class already. One student posted a link to blogger Cecil Murphey and earlier this week I decided to click on it and check him out and I was happily surprised at the content I found on his blog, Writer to Writer. Here is a YouTube video with Mr. Murphey about the start of his blog:

As the video mentioned, Murphey originally was going to write a book for writers and it didn’t work out. He was also working as a mentor working with writers and that became too much for him to do everyday. His assistant finally insisted that he do a writer’s blog after the book idea was flat lined. Murphey decided he would then do a twice a week blog where he will write short blog entries that give bits of informative advice from a longtime writer to other writers searching for help.

Cecil has more than a few hundred followers on his blog and most are likely writers themselves. I really like how his blog gives real world advice and gets to the point. For this class, I was fascinated by his knowledge on how to approach possible agents and where to go to find them, like writing conferences. He gives writers a list of do’s and don’ts based on his own experience. He makes excellent points about how to make money writing and what to look for in a contract. These are all vital things a new writer needs to know. Murphey even has blog entries on the other roles a literary agent plays in a writer’s life other than negotiating contracts and I thought that was very savvy of him.

All of his followers’ comments have been positive because he has helped them in their quest to becoming better and more profitable writers. I have decided to follow his blog as well and have provided the link below to that and his website. On his blog, he has a few other links to other websites of his from his radio show to male survivors of sexual abuse. In his member profile on blogger.com he states, “The more I give, the more I receive. Or to put it another way, the more I teach others about writing, the better my own writing.” And that is true about everything in life.

http://themanbehindthewords.com/
http://cecmurpheyswritertowriter.blogspot.com/

An Evening Interview with Entertainment & Business Attorney Alonzo Alston

I was happy that for my last week in my Advanced Entertainment Law we were given the assignment to search for a potential attorney to interview that has experience in our fields and can assist us in our business plans. I went about on my search and hit gold very quickly when I was referred to a Mr. Alonzo M. Alston of North Carolina and was even happier when he decided to have a two hours plus long chat with me at the end of his busy workday. Below is an excerpt of the conversation that Mr. Alston and I had as we exchanged questions, thoughts and opinions on common legal matters in the music industry and for independent recording labels.

Attorney Alonzo M. Alston ( lawyers.justia.com)

Q: Hi Mr. Alston. How are you? Can you please state your name and job title and what it is that you do in entertainment business?

A: Yes. My name is Alonzo M. Alston aka Mac (giggles). I am an Entertainment and Business attorney in North Carolina. I mostly deal with litigation and IP work.

Q: How do I best protect myself against copyright infringers on my clients’ and staff’s lyrics and sound recordings?

A: Please have a legal budget for copyright infringement lawsuits at your company. Get business insurance and get incorporated. Everything needs to be registered. Do not forget about producer agreements. Honestly, I do not think piracy is as big an issue as people think. If you are going to do a website as you say you will for your business, only provide snippets of your artists’ music on it.

Q: What are some website concerns a business like mine should watch out for, in your opinion?

A: Look out for hackers! YouTube is always amazing for promotion on your website. Try to always control your sound/editing on your website. Be careful what you put on your site and don’t think that no one is paying your site any attention. As you grow in popularity and even before, someone will notice lol.

Q: How do you reduce liability issues with software or websites?

A: Try to keep everything in-house with your staff. Just like you said you were in reading about in class, make sure all of your workers understand the privacy laws and electronic agreements. Get the right permissions and keep what you can keep “original” content on your website. Like you mentioned, have a website disclaimer apologizing if you were to infringe.

Q: What do you think about these 360 deals that record labels are creating in order to gain on all the profits an artist is ranking in?

A: For the most part this is great for the record labels and bad for the artists. The relationship an artist has with his label is important in this deal. It is only good when the artist is able to get 50% of everything and the label has the artist involved in many parts of the industry.

Q: Have you ever come across a client claiming joint ownership on a work after the fact?

A: Oh yes. Agreement is highly important! Anyone can claim they did a song so you need a formal agreement in place. Registration has to be done in the beginning. People tend to forget that when they’re making music, they have to get their business together too. There aren’t too many cases of attorneys wanting to do these types of cases and a lot of times it is because the client is broke!

Q: What is the best method for when negotiating a license fee for a permission request?

A: Read as many books as you can on this. Know what the compulsory royalty rate is. Negotiate for a fraction of the cost if you are only using a fraction of a song. Research the sample and explain to the copyright owner that you just need a master license so you can make them rich! Do your best to talk directly with the copyright owner because that will help you.

Q: What are some works/products/services that in your practice you have seen recording labels trademark or copyright most often when starting a business?

A: A lot of urban recording labels are very slow when in comes to copyrighting their music until the business grows. They lose out. They only get more serious when merchandising is involved. I will like to stress the importance of having an accountant and lawyer around for any contracts and to keep track of your revenue streams and numbers as much as you can as an owner or music publisher, if you choose to go that route. Allow the attorney to help you manage.

Me: Wow, great advice. Thank you Mr. Alston for the wonderful expert advice this evening. Excellent. 

Mr. Alston: You’re very welcome. Have a good evening and I hoped this helped and call me for anything else and for any questions you may have in the future. Goodnight! 

Mr. Alston can be reached at the following:

http://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/alonzo-m-alston-1485208

and

http://www.McAlpinePLLC.com/

Who is Suing Who in Entertainment? 3 Copyright Infringement Stories to Learn From

Hey readers, I am back! I was browsing through some recent controversies online today and came across three of many stories revolving around copyright infringement and liabilities in the music industry that people are talking about and wanted to share my opinion on each of them.

I first visited the infamous allhiphop.com website and noticed a picture of Southern rappers the Ying Yang Twins and saw the title next to their picture saying “Rappers Sue CBS, CNET for Millions Over Illegal Downloads” and I could pretty much guess what was coming next lol. The article said how they and other money-making rappers, including 2 Live Crew and Pretty Ricky, were suing CBS’ Interactive’s website CNET because they were the main distributor of Limewire, the oh so popular peer to peer sharing software. They claimed CBS made large sums of money off of the downloads and advertisements people saw while using Limewire and basically are suing for copyright infringement and are seeking millions in damages, court costs, attorney fees and I am sure other things will pop up as this goes on.  (allhiphop.com)

Now I do agree that CBS does owe these rappers some compensation, but I wonder how will they calculate an exact amount? Royalties themselves aren’t even 100% accurate. Truthfully, a number of the rappers the article mentioned seem to be struggling financially period and I don’t think Limewire or CBS or CNET should take all the blame for their dire situations. I feel like a fair judgment will be made in this case but I feel this may later sprawl out of control because if they win a considerable amount, that opens the door for every singer or rapper to file suit against CNET and that will be a whirlwind circus because artists will be asking for more than what they are even owed thinking they should be overcompensated for their losses.

 http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/05/04/22743559.aspx

On to the next one! I was on the urbandaily website and saw an article about superstar rap mogul Jay-Z that I actually heard on the radio the other day so was more curious to read up on it because it involved another country and their moral rules. Jay-Z is being sued a 2^nd time for his sampling of Baligh’s Hamdy song “ Khosara Khosara” for his big hit in 2000 called “Big Pimpin”...one of my fav records I must say. The family is actually suing others including EMI and MTV in the suit and said that in 1995, they only licensed the right for Jay-Z to mechanilly reproduce the song for sound recordings while Jay-Z and his team thought they obtained all the proper permission...but maybe not so, according to Egyptian law. Egyptian copyright law holds different standards for what they call economic rights (which is solely what the family offered Jay-Z) versus moral rights, which the family says Jigga did by “mutilating” the original song by sampling it and changing it up and did so without the permission of his Hamdy’s four children.

This was interesting to read because the Judge in this case is actually “willing to entertain the nuances” of what the Egyptian law says despite a lack of U.S subject matter jurisdiction. I do not think the plaintiffs will win this case based on moral rights alone and because they are up against the “big dogs” in entertainment, but I am positive there will be a case here and that the end result will set a precedent for future similar cases that will arise in music because the industry has evolved internationally and more artists will be using samples of songs from other countries and cultures. Everyone is so focused on getting permission and licenses to use compositions and sound recordings for economic uses as the article says, and never allow any moral uses or rights or possible issues to come into play in their decision to use these original records. It is a lot for an artist or label to think about because of the possible costs and aggravation associated with trying to prove you took all the right steps and got all the legal permissions and licenses to use a foreign sample. I think for Jay-Z it was all worth it and he will think that even after the case is over.

http://theurbandaily.com/music/theurbandailystaff2/jay-z-being-sued-over-big-pimpin-sample/ (youtube)

The third article that I had to check out was titled “ Rihanna being sued for ‘S&M’ music video” and I said ohh boy! It was funny because I am a fan of Rihanna and thought this was a great visually appealing and fun video. Famous fashion photographer David LaChapelle , who directed Gwen Stefani’s ‘Rich Girl’ and Britney Spears ‘Everytime’ video to name a few, said in his lawsuit that the video is based on eight of his photographs and Tweeted “ The next time you make a David LaChapelle music video you should probably hired David LaChapelle.” He claimed the video duplicated and copied the mood, tone, props, wardrobe, and composition etc of images he produced and hasn’t disclosed how much he is seeking in damages. Riri’s people have yet to release a statement about the video or his lawsuit.

(youtube)

Her video now has over 24 million views on youtube and is probably due to the controversy surrounding the video itself like the overtly sexy content the article mentions, but hey, the song is called S&M! I agree with the director Melina Matsoukas because the video could not be played down, it was supposed to have whips and leather and other crazy stuff to live up to its name. I am anxious to see what LaChapelle is asking for and if he can really prove that they stole his images because what some of the things he mentioned are images I would conjure up myself for a video of this nature. I honestly think this case will just be settled in monies if he can prove that his copyrights were truly infringed upon because I am sure all of his images are copyrights and known to be and would be obvious to others because it is one of her most viewed videos on youtube.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/304570/rihanna-being-

I will post future updates on these current music lawsuits as facts come along, but be careful out there musicians and composers of the world! 

What is the Artist Manager's Role in Our D.I.Y Era?

I was browsing for articles related to the topic of artist management because I have taken an interest in what it takes to really be successful as an artist manager and wanted to explore what it really meant to work in artist management. Here’s a brief overview of an article written by Jeremy Rwakaara on a special new emerging era of artist management.

D.I.Y stands for Do It Yourself and typically new independent artists choose this route either because they feel they are capable of handling all the necessities about their career on their own or perhaps because they could not find a manager or label willing to help them. The article brought up a great point that nowadays, the artist fan relationship is of critical importance to an artist and it is easier now more than ever to build that up in our digital world. We now have management resources such as ReverbNation, one of my favorite sites to check out new artists, and other tools that allow an artist to engage in direct contact with fans of theirs. Some sites like Sonicbids allow an artist to book their own venues, and music distributors such as CD Baby allow artists to distribute music to fans via iTunes and of course all the social media networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are enormous channels of publicity and promotion an artist can use and reach millions in an instant.

It sounds as though the role of a traditional artist manager has been severely limited or maybe even completely washed away, but that isn’t true. It has simply transitioned into one where they are no longer just concentrated on getting their artist a record deal but about finding ways to generate more income and ways to increase their artists’ fanbase via they ways I just mentioned above. “The manager’s role in the D.I.Y age is less that of an advocate and cheerleader, and more that of an analyst and advisor.” This is so the artist can focus on recording, their live shows and supporting their fans. Using a well rounded combination of resources, an artist manager can sit and think of new products that need to be added, which pay models work the best, see which of the artists’ products sell the most, learn of any new trends or patterns, or what are the most useful widgets. They can even figure out what videos, songs, or t-shirts fans love the most, what ways do fans love to engage and interact the most with their artist, and even through analyzing, reveal the real costs associated with their artist’s operations and that is important.

This article opened up my eyes to the fact that even though the artist may be able to do much of this on their own, to be able to have time and energy to record their best songs or for a tour or to truly engage with their fans, they need to leave all of this “dry” work as the article says to their manager and the manager still has to have the right strategy in mind for their artist that will bring them both lots of revenues and success and knows how to get the most out of their resources available to them. The artist manager must show the artist that they need them or else they will be washed away and that will not be a good look for the industry overall. Everyone needs some help in getting to where they need to be and for me the artist manager and artist will always go hand in hand in order for true success to be reached by an artist. 

http://www.artistmanagementresource.com/helpful-articles/45-what-is-the-artist-managers-role-in-todays-diy-era.html

What its Like Being in Artist Management with Hughes Felizor

((Hughes Felizor- A&R, Artist Manager)

I was lucky enough to gain a recent interview with Mr. Hughes Felizor, A&R for Bad Boy Entertainment and Founder of Tri-Connect Entertainment & Management Inc., through my affiliation with Bad Boy as a Publishing intern there. He is a very busy man and a true “juggler” and I was so happy to get him to sit down for a minute to answer some of the artist management questions I had created for just him, and what he said was really helpful for any aspiring artist manager regardless if they are new or experienced in this line of work.

Q: Hey, please give us your name, title, and position.
A: My name is Hughes Felizor, A&R at Bad Boy Entertainment, Founder of Tri-Connect Entertainment & Management Inc.

Q: What is a typical day in the life for you as an artist manager?

A: Cool. My typical day consist of various follow-ups via phone and emails, discussions of the day's plan with all team members, seeking opportunities for our clients, arranging various studio/video projects, etc.

Q: Has the current economic conditions effected your business?
A: Yes. Today, we are still transitioning away from CDs to newer
available format compatible with the web and mobile devices. Most in
the music industry are still looking for a profitable way to sell
high-quality music online/mobile devices, while maintaining the
product's integrity at 100%. Adjustments made by majors labels, to
protect themselves, have been drastic but there is still a long way to
go; I believe. In an effort to gain additional control of company
assets which mostly reside online now, major labels must set the tone
enforcing various laws for their artists and, own sake. Unfortunately,
current economic conditions push people to acquire pirated music,
usually available before scheduled releases, for free. Free, doesn't help the situation if it wasn't intended

Q: What personality traits/or characteristics does an artist manager need to be a great artist manager and a successful one?
A: You have to be a team player first and far most. Problem-solver, have patience and be able to work under any given conditions. That is the truth.

Q: What part of your job do you find most satisfying? Most challenging?
A: The most satisfying part of the job is accomplishing what was
planned. Its great to see a team of different people working towards
the same goal with same, or greater passion. The most challenging is
finding the right clients; everyone wants to be an artist but only a few work consistently work to perfect their craft.

Q: How valuable is maximizing the effectiveness of an artist’s development team?
A: In my opinion, the team is everything. It is the company's foundation. If its weak, everything else will be as well. Its very valuable to get everyone on the same page.

Q: What type of training or education do you think is required in this position?
A: Besides street education lol, some training in business of course and financing. Understanding how this business works from being in it and that only comes from experience and learning.

Q: Any special advice for someone new entering this field?
A: My advice would be to do your homework because, keep in mind that
whoever you are managing career is in your hands.

Big shout out to Hughes for allowing me to ask him these questions for my blog and readers, it is much appreciated.

You can find Mr. Felizor on Facebook or Twitter @yooggie.

Check out this video " Some People"! I am in it!

I am the lead/model actress and there is more to come from all of us! Follow Campanella's Twitter @CampSince1987 and add him on Facebook at J.R. Superstardom!

Negotiating in Business with Negotiator, Music Director, & Manager D Baker

For the next affair on my blog I wanted to go out and interview a professional that was very active in entertainment in the deal-making capacity and I did. Although very brief, speaking with him made me see how busy the life of a manager and/or director really is in entertainment, whew! So below is just a quick excerpt of the hour long conversation we had between us over the phone and I wanted to share and expose some of that with you this afternoon.

Q: Hi, please state your name and title/position for us?
A: Good afternoon Q, I am the CEO of Getosoul Productions, Founder and Co Owner of The Beattraffickers, and manager of artist Devvon Terrell.

Q: One of the first methods the authors discuss in “Getting to Yes” for use in principled negotiation is called separating people from the problem and they talk about how every negotiator has two interests and that is in their substance and in their relationship. Why do you think people have a difficult time separating the relationship from the substance and aren’t able to deal directly with a person(s)?
A: Emotions flat out. Some people are too emotional or have outbursts as you mentioned or they just like avoiding the whole source of the issue that we’re trying to work out. We tend to look at a person we’re dealing with as the problem that is stopping us from getting what we want and it’s hard just focusing on the issue and not the person in front of ya.

Q: How do you adjust your negotiating approach to account for differences in gender, culture and/or personality?
A: Umm, you just have to go in knowing everybody is different, expect that. I try to respect everyone I come into contact with in business. Talk to them and get to know them a little before if possible. Be open to what they got to say to you, learn to love the differences ya’ll share and use that to ya’ll advantage when you are learning what is gonna make each of ya’ll happy. Right?

Q: Right. How do you acknowledge the other side’s interests as part of the problem and let your interests come alive?
A: I’m really straight-forward, old school so to say, with that being said, I seriously try to deal with the issues that’s going to benefit my team first. I will take up any differences after we have attained what we came for.

Q: What do you think of the process of a brainstorming session with the participants in a negotiation for inventing ideas?
A: That’s a really good question. Both of us brainstorming together in a competitive nature is healthy, I welcome that. I feel we are as strong a team assembled out there… Kinda like were both beating on our chests yelling out for attention lol!

Q: How do you decide on where to meet at for a negotiation or when or who should make the first offer?
A: You know for me that just comes from intuition and experience and just watching the other person, really, just pay attention. I like to meet at one of my comfort zones lol, and uh as far as when and who should make the first offer, I try to gauge where the deal is headed and put what I want out there before the other side. I am learning somethin’ new talking to you about knowing my BATNA before I walk in the door, good stuff.

Q: Negotiating power requires lots of preparation and hard work in advance, but how beneficial is the power of commitment and developing a good-working relationship as sources of negotiating power and leverage? Good listening skills?
A: Super super beneficial! You right, always prepare and be ready for anything that may go down at the meeting. You want to end things on a good note cause these are people you will come in contact again in business… make them want to work with you again. Make it easy. Open up your mind and ears and have a game plan, that’s all your negotiating power right there. Folks want to know you are hearing them. Stay true to yourself and your integrity and be good to others and it will benefit you with wealth and a good reputation.

I would like to thank Mr. Baker for taking the time out to talk with me a bit about negotiating in his world and below is how you may contact him:

Follow D Baker on Twitter: @ MrDBaker, http://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdbaker and visit http://www.and1live.com for more exciting updates! Expect more to come from Mr. Baker and his team in the very near future when I introduce my Artist Note tab on the blog this Spring! Until then, watch these two youtube links videos that he delightfully shared for us to view.


(this video uses a song called And1 produced by The Beattraffickers)


(this video actually made it to Inside the NBA on TNT)