Live concerts remain the glamorous face of today's music scene. However, the real money lies in the ownership and licensing of the songs themselves. Whether you sign with an established publisher, or opt to handle the job yourself, some basic business knowledge and administrative skills are needed to succeed.
Learn the basics of music publishing. As taxi.com explains, the writer of a song automatically owns all the copyright and publishing rights. Music publishing income, in turn, is divided into writer's and publisher's shares. If you keep your copyright and publishing rights, the songwriting money is all yours--meaning, if the royalties are $100,000, you collect $100,000.
2
Sign with an established music publishing firm if you don't feel you have the knowledge or networking contacts to market your material. Use music industry reference guides like "The Songwriter's Market" to get contact information, and whether or not a company accepts unsolicited material. Unsolicited material is material that has not been requested by the publisher either through an agent or as the result of a query letter sent to them. Unsolicited material cannot be submitted without permission from the publisher.
Study how co-publishing agreements work, taxi.com advises. If a publisher accepts your song, you own 75 percent of the writer's share, plus 25 percent of the publisher's share. If your royalties are $100,000, then you get $75,000. If you transfer all publishing rights, everything is split evenly, and you'll only collect $50,000. The publisher only earns their percentage to market your material--so, if they don't expect any profit, you probably won't get a deal.
4
Make it your business to understand all potential revenue sources. Although radio play, music and TV licenses are the most visible--and most common--avenues, don't overlook lesser-known sources, such as sheet music, Internet downloads and cell phone ringtones, which are rapidly becoming an alternative income stream for performers.
Set Up Your Own Company
5
Evaluate your career honestly before becoming your own music publisher. Without consistent airplay or licensing income, setting up your own music publishing company makes little sense. On the other hand, if you're seeking movie or TV placements, signing up with a well-connected publisher is the way to go.
6
Join one of the three main performing rights organizations--ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC--as a songwriter and publisher, since you'll wear both hats. Otherwise, if you only join as a songwriter, you'll effectively miss out on half the income that you may have coming.
7
Request a publisher's application from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, music-law.com advises. If your bandmates aren't members, request writer's applications for them, too. Fill in the name of your new company and information for each band member, which is required to show how your band exists as a legal entity.
8
Return the form and any required fees. Once your company is accepted, music-law.com advises to apply for a new business license and tax identification number. These will differ from the ones made out for your band, which exists as a separate legal entity. Once you have those details, submit them to the organization that reviewed your publisher's application.
9
Think carefully before deciding on an equal split with your bandmates, no matter who wrote the song. That's because copyright protection exists for an author's lifetime, plus 70 years, and can transfer to heirs. This can be a major sticking point once your band is no longer active, according to entertainment attorney Joy Butler.
Need Help With eBook Publishing? Get A Free eBook Publishing Guide.
Tips & Warnings
If you set up your own music publishing, have another company act as an administrator. This places the burden of collecting and distributing potential income on someone else's shoulders.
Don't forget to create a checking account in your new company's name. Royalty checks will be made out to your publishing company, not the people running it.
Do an online search to determine if your potential publishing company's name is taken. Have several alternatives ready to go, just in case.
If you have a band, work out ground rules for song ownership. If a bandmate contributes a part, you're still the copyright owner. However, if someone changes lyrics, or adds other distinct musical elements, they may have grounds for arguing co-ownership of your song copyright.
Never sign agreements without understanding the terms. If you're not sure about the implications of signing with a particular publisher, have an entertainment law attorney review the agreement.
At the RGT conference recently I was talking to a number of
teachers and the question that seemed to keep coming up was how much work
everyone had and to everyone’s surprise the pupil numbers had actually gone up
for most which considering the economic climate was not what you would expected.
I had written about this a while ago after having a
discussion with someone high up in a teaching organisation who was of the
opinion that we were going to hell in a hand cart and my point was that even in
the war people were learning musical instruments and therefore there is
something else happening inspiring the public to learn.
There is often a self-fulfilling prophecy at work when the
economy is ‘talked down’ by the experts and, as a friend of mine calls them
‘sheeple’, follow the instructions to the letter. However some arrive at the
point of thinking ‘what the hell I want to do something interesting like learn
an instrument’ and therefore problem times can throw up anomalies in human
behaviour some of which are very positive for music teachers.
The more we focus on the positive outcome the more chance it
has to manifest because you begin to notice opportunity around you that is how
the mind is wired; to see things that match and confirm your thoughts.
In NLP there is a term for people who do the opposite to the
expected reaction, the term ‘polarity responder’ would apply to the character
who will change direction simply to be different from the crowd. These people
are good for rock guitar because ALL of the early guitar greats where polarity
responders because the guitar was the instrument for the social subversive and
even though there is an abundance of college courses it is still looked upon as
socially different to be a working musician.
So the best advice for you in these times if the numbers are
not stable or going up look at how you can attract new customers by offering
group lessons and get them involved having fun playing. Focus on the enjoyment aspect
of playing an instrument and make customers feel good about themselves. As there
is scant little about to make anyone full of cheer making your music happiness enhancing
will create a good USP for the business whether you are teaching or playing
gigs.
Well the English Baccalaureate has been unveiled and it looks
like we aregoing back (as the
abbreviated version Bac suggests) to something similar to the old O level and
this was after the discussion of abolishing the A level.
This could be just a rant on my part but I want to focus on
the long term aspect of education and what they focus is for this
reorganisation is attempting to create or correct.
The idea of a race to the bottom created by the examination
boards maybe a good point however I see pupils working much harder in the
schools than I ever remember doing whilst I was at school and maybe this is why
I am so good at playing guitar because I had time to practice!My concern in all of this is why become
educated? What is it that we are striving for? If the answer to this is to get
a job then I would argue that the jobs market is changing so fast with jobs
disappearing or morphing into something else with new disciplines appearing in
areas that two or three years ago did not exist how can you prepare? If the
idea is to broaden the mind and to learn to use your brain power in a focus yet
flexible way then the education system has lost its direction and the ‘new’
examinations will also fail dismally.
Teachers in schools work harder than many other professions
putting in extra hours unpaid as a normal part of the regime and as for the head
of Ofsted to make the comment that teachers should go the extra mile probably
makes most teachers so angry that they would like to take Mr Wilshaw and shove the
Ofsted reports where the sun does not shine and maybe make that go the extra
foot.
I have never involved myself teaching in the classroom for
one very good reason it’s a thankless task and more about box ticking than
teaching but I see enough of it and I know enough teachers to know the score.
What is the answer to this question? Well children are
clever enough to do well whatever the system and if they are encouraged to have
an open mind and become passionate about learning they will be able to outperform
their contemporaries who may be far more privileged than they. Flexibility of
mind is the answer, keep learning and to paraphrase Winston Churchill “Never
stop learning, never, never stop learning”.
Over the last few weeks I have been going on about the need
to be business like in the way that you approach business but this time I am
going to readdress the balance and as with everything this outlook has to have
its opposite.
So as the day needs the night I need to introduce to the
equation of making a living from music that element of love. If you love what
you do you can get anywhere because something that requires as much practise
and hard work as music needs the devotion of love to get you through.
Watching the Olympics recently you could see this was the
unspoken element that made these athletes great, the love of the sport and the
willingness to sacrifice time and effort and to experience pain to get to the
very top.
As with most things this idea is a metaphor for other aspects
of life that you must love what you do to make things happen, it seems to be a
given; so let us look at the element of love in this context.
I think that it is safe to say that love distorts reality
making you think that the thing that you are in love with is the most beautiful
and important thing in the world, in fact it is safer to say that all other objects
move into the background and sometimes vanish in this state. Love is a form of
hypnotic trance and in that state you can suspend the rules of reality and make
things happen because you believe that you can.
An example in the case of music is the group of musicians who
believe that their music is the most powerful or beautiful thing around and
that they are the ONLY band worth listening to. If they looked at the statistics
they would know they do not stand a cat’s chance in hell of getting anywhere but
that logic fortunately slips into the mists of the trance.
Someone who believes in (and are obsessed with) an idea can
develop a multi-billion dollar business with no formal training, they make a
Microsoft, an Apple, a Virgin or a Google and when these things happen they
confound the experts. This happened with Rock and Roll and Punk where the
conceived wisdom was kicked out of the window by the passion and in the case of
the former lust for the music.
So go back and find what it is that made you fall in love
with the instrument and compare this to other times of falling in love. Go into
those memories and ‘double the feeling’ then bring them into your present and
project them into your future visions.
Making money from music.
There are so many musical people who have great skills but with no idea how to
monetise them. This is simply because the tools required for making money have
nothing to do with music but all to do with business.
So let's strip it down; money in, money out, the more money in than out and you
have an earner the other way round you don't. Next point, why is somebody
interested in you? Well the short answer is they don't UNLESS you have
something they want.
The oldest profession as the saying goes is prostitution and there it is, someone
has something that someone desires and is willing to pay for. So take these
ideas and apply them to your business and ask yourself, ‘Are your musical
skills something that someone desires?’ If not can you make it something they
desire?
In the way that music education seems to be pushed today is an academic, cold,
intellectual path but I think that the reason for learning a musical instrument
is visceral, passionate and full of driven desire to do something, if not you
will not keep people practising. Players would fall by the wayside as things
get difficult or other distractions get in the way unless they have the desire,
you must tune into their dreams and aspirations if you are trying to teach and
make money.
Another trick that teaching musicians miss is that to achieve something
pupilsneed more than lessons, they need
equipment, the band needs coaching, people need managing in other words there
is a bigger market beckoning you to be involved with in order for people to
realise their dreams.
I have made a living from music for well over thirty years and I was originally
told it was not possible and a crazy idea, also I had no formal college
education as there was little available at the time. I learnt my trade from
experience in the ‘University of Life’ so for you anything is possible.
In a nutshell the drivers for success in music are the same as any other business;
it is about desire and supply and demand. Keep it simple and think like a
business person not a hobbyist and then when you want to be an artist do not
think like a business person!
Vic Vic Hyland runs Bluescampuk which offers you the chance to play in a band, jamming with the pros and learn to songwrite all within the three day course. Vic also teaches both in Kent and Sussex and over Skype for more details contact Vic or visit www.vichyland.com
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Taking
Guitar Exams - Do they help you?
Over
the past twenty years of teaching guitar exams and working as an examiner for
the RGT in the UK I have often pondered what impact taking guitar examinations
has to someone's rate of learning and can it in some way damage a player’s
creative approach to playing.
I
have become very sceptical in the past about examinations in other areas of
education especially when children are subject to the testing torture that the
education system in this country uses.
The
idea that all things can be measured is moved from the world of business and
the time management philosophy of Denning to the classroom as if everything is
under scientific scrutiny. Well, from the world of the arts and music we have a
message for you; not all things can be measured, welcome to the alternative
world of the creative unconscious.
As
musicians and artists we will be only too aware of the small things that happen
that have profound influence on us; a small idea that literally transforms our
lives and our playing. I am reminded of the pre 'enlightenment age' of
revelation where something can just suddenly be known. Often in music you will
simply ‘know’ what to do and within this I find a problem with the education
system because the lasting memories of my education and playing literally are
subtle things that are life changing and immeasurable.
So
back to the world of examinations and to the experience of the years of
teaching and what can be drawn from this. I recently looked at the pupils of
mine that did well and in some way great or small became ‘successful’ and I can
safely say that all of these took the guitar grades, not all to Grade 8 but
certainly to the upper grades and the ones that never took a grade did not fare
so well.
The
first thing to consider is that to take the grades you need to have a mind-set
that is organised and focused on a goal and is dedicated to put in the practice
to achieve the standards required and that of course is also the requirement
for you to achieve anything in the world of music.
Look
deeper into the way that examinations affect people and you might see that a
person is acquiring a particular way of thinking which is prescribed because of
the context and this is not in my opinion always for the better. However the
structure of examinations can give the pupil a goal and maybe this is practical
nature of the discipline, the preparation and the organisation to make the
journey and not its arrival.
Like
many aspects of learning what you actually learn in the early stages may not be
relevant as you move on, this is as true for science as it is for music with
much of what you learnt pre A level being 'wrong' however the mental approach
stays the same. The basic components that you used to play your early rock
solos are not the ideas that you will use to play some Jazz fusion solo as you
progress but what makes a good solo still remains the same, that of phrasing.
So
for my pupils the ‘journey’ remains the most important aspect and grades seem
to help with this however when it comes to the diplomas then I am not so sure
because at this point the pupil is cutting their own way through the jungle of
music armed with the tools that they have picked up along the way, so if the
higher exams help with them becoming teachers then so be it but again I am not
so sure.
Make
sure that if you or your pupils decide not to take examinations then it is not
because of laziness but you have something else that drives you on, remember
there are lots of people out there playing guitar and you need to be in the top
five per cent of them if you want to achieve something with your playing.
Over
the past twenty years of teaching guitar exams and working as an examiner for
the RGT in the UK I have often pondered what impact taking guitar examinations
has to someone's rate of learning and can it in some way damage a player’s
creative approach to playing.
I
have become very sceptical in the past about examinations in other areas of
education especially when children are subject to the testing torture that the
education system in this country uses.
The
idea that all things can be measured is moved from the world of business and
the time management philosophy of Denning to the classroom as if everything is
under scientific scrutiny. Well, from the world of the arts and music we have a
message for you; not all things can be measured, welcome to the alternative
world of the creative unconscious.
As
musicians and artists we will be only too aware of the small things that happen
that have profound influence on us; a small idea that literally transforms our
lives and our playing. I am reminded of the pre 'enlightenment age' of
revelation where something can just suddenly be known. Often in music you will
simply ‘know’ what to do and within this I find a problem with the education
system because the lasting memories of my education and playing literally are
subtle things that are life changing and immeasurable.
So
back to the world of examinations and to the experience of the years of
teaching and what can be drawn from this. I recently looked at the pupils of
mine that did well and in some way great or small became ‘successful’ and I can
safely say that all of these took the guitar grades, not all to Grade 8 but
certainly to the upper grades and the ones that never took a grade did not fare
so well.
The
first thing to consider is that to take the grades you need to have a mind-set
that is organised and focused on a goal and is dedicated to put in the practice
to achieve the standards required and that of course is also the requirement
for you to achieve anything in the world of music.
Look
deeper into the way that examinations affect people and you might see that a
person is acquiring a particular way of thinking which is prescribed because of
the context and this is not in my opinion always for the better. However the
structure of examinations can give the pupil a goal and maybe this is practical
nature of the discipline, the preparation and the organisation to make the
journey and not its arrival.
Like
many aspects of learning what you actually learn certainly in the early stages may
not relevant as you move on, this is as true for science as it is for music
with much of what you learnt pre A level being 'wrong' but the mental approach
stays the same. The ideas that you used to play your early rock solos are not
the ideas that you will use to play some Jazz fusion solo as you progress but
what makes a good solo still remains the same, that of phrasing.
So
for my pupils the journey remains the most important aspect and grades seem to
help with this however when it comes to the diplomas then I am not so sure
because at this point the pupil is cutting their own way through the jungle of
music armed with the tools that they have picked up along the way, so if the
higher exams help with them becoming teachers then so be it but again I am not
so sure.
Make
sure that if you or your pupils decide not to take examinations then it is not because
of laziness but because you have something else that drives you on remember
there are lots of people out there playing guitar and you need to be in the top
five per cent of them if you want to achieve something with your playing.
. However, the real money lies in the ownership and licensing of the songs themselves. Whether you sign with an established publisher, or opt to handle the job yourself, some basic business knowledge and administrative skills are needed to succeed.
