BrandNewMusicUK.com

Dining with James

Chris — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:06:06 +0000

So here we have Joe, Pete, Toby and Dom and collectively they make up Dining with James.

http://www.myspace.com/diningwithjames

According to their MySpace page they hail from Cheltenham and Leeds which, if it’s correct, is a massive distance for the members to be apart and still continue to write some great sounding songs.

I do wonder though if this is why there is only three of them on their photos. That doesn’t matter though, it creates a sense of mystery about the band and we have to remember that music isn’t just about music – it’s about lifestyle with a sprinkling of wonder and fantasy. Would the KLF have been as successful if we knew everything about them at the time? I don’t think so.

I digress though and I’ve just listened to Intro & Safari and what’s interesting about the tracks on their player and the ones they sent me via email is that they are live recordings and show the band in their raw form, and I love it.

This is a band that is growing up in public and my hat goes off to them. They sound like a young Franz Ferdinand with some great passionate drumming, in your face bass and lead / rhythm guitars and meaningful vocals and some lovely rhythm changes giving that afore mentioned Franz Ferdinand sound.

Here we have four young lads and for their ages they’re making a great sound and I will certainly be watching them very closely.

http://www.myspace.com/diningwithjames

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Tom Gee

Chris — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:51:41 +0000

The first thing I usually do when reviewing music is visit the MySpace page of the artist or band and listen to the song with the most listens first. The idea behind this is that it must be the most popular song and therefore a great starting point.

No disappointment here with Tom Gee

http://www.myspace.com/tomgeemusic

Tom attends the Leeds College of Music and my impressions of Leeds over the past few months is that it is spawning more musical talent then anywhere else in the country at the moment. I love what I’m hearing and I love Tom’s music. I’m actually nodding my head and I’ve only just realised.

I’m even typing in rhythm – I’m in the groove. The first track I listened to was What’s She Gonna Say and it was a funky soulful song. There is a lot of talent in Tom and he is currently gigging heavily and working with Chris Dawkins who plays guitar and has produced most of Tom’s songs. Chris himself has worked with the likes Jack Johnson and Nightmares on Waxx and his skills lend himself perfectly to these songs.

Tom has an exceptional voice which I could listen to all night. Whilst tapping away at my keyboard two songs have passed Bang Bang and Move a Little and they again display a superb song writing ability. Not just the words, but the melodies and ideas.

However I don’t like to ignore the others that give songs their landscape so big up to Jim “SpaceMan” Jamm on bass, David “Thad” Sudall on drums, David Levi (Smokes) on keyboards and Bridie Burkinshaw & Laura Popperwell providing wonderful complimentary backing vocals.

Wonderful production, wonderful songwriting, superb team of players and something for everyone. If Tom Gee doesn’t get signed to a label soon there’s no justice. He will sell records, sign him and see.

http://www.myspace.com/tomgeemusic

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Pete Waterman to Write 2010 Eurovision Entry

Chris — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:41:01 +0000

After much speculation, the BBC has finally announced that legendary and award-winning songwriter Pete Waterman is to produce this year’s British entry. The format for choosing an artist to perform the song is still yet to be announced.

Today in a press release from the BBC, it was announced that successful hit-maker Pete Waterman would write and produce this year’s entry for the United Kingdom.

Waterman has been responsible for over 200 hits, working with famous artists such as Kylie Minogue, Donna Summer, Geri Halliwell, Westlife, Rick Astley and Steps. He has also worked with the United Kingdom’s 1993 entrant, Sonia.

Waterman seems upbeat about his selection and said: “Eurovision is one of those iconic competitions that has stood the test of time and keeps coming up with great acts, great tunes and great performances. Life’s full of challenges and I’m relishing the opportunity to put my own stamp on this one.”

Commenting on the recruitment of Pete Waterman, BBC executive producer, Phil Parsons said: “This year, with an extremely successful pop writer, the aim is to build on the UK’s success while moving on in style and doing something different. Pete Waterman has an incredible track record of hits that are known all around Europe so we’re thrilled that he has taken on the Eurovision Song Contest.”

In 2009, after a string of bad results, the BBC decided to change its approach to selecting the British entry and recruited Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber (and Diane Warren, in the end) to write a song and help to choose the artist to perform it. After a series of live-shows where various artists battled it out, Jade Ewen was chosen to represent her country. She achieved a respectable fifth place in Moscow with the song My Time. It launched her career as a member of the highly successful Sugababes. Read more about that in our article about Jade Ewen’s career developments.

The BBC are yet to announce whether or not this year’s selection format will follow that of 2009 but we will post any announcement here in due course.

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Be in a Pop Video Without Leaving Your House

Nathan Gero — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:05:42 +0000

Sarah and Stephen from Holice on the set of Tokyo Boy

Have you ever fancied being in a pop music video? How cool would that be… the envy of your mates and all the girls / boys you could ever want.

Well okay let’s not go crazy. What we’re talking about here is an opportunity to film yourself doing your best Cheryl Cole at the Brits 2010 miming and dancing along to the next single from Liverpool electronic pop band Holice.

“When You’re Around” is released late May early June and all you need to do is get to their website www.holice.co.uk and follow the link to register for a pre-release of the single.

When it’s emailed to you film yourself using whatever means you have, webcam, mobile phone, camcorder etc then upload it to YouTube and let Holice know the link so they can rip it from the site.

This pop music video will then be distributed via all the usual 21st Century channels, social media etc and of course they have a slot on SKY where it will be shown too – straight up.

Kudos to Holice for involving the fans in this way in their pop music video, more bands should take note and give something back instead of expecting fans to just keep shelling out.

www.holice.co.uk

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The Fall of Kings

Chris — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:41:08 +0000

It’s been a few weeks but I’m finally getting round to doing more band reviews and I’m glad to say I’m getting back into the swing with a great band like The Fall of Kings.

http://www.myspace.com/thefallofkingslive

They have a great sound which is quite unique yet familiar at the same time. I would possibly go as far as saying they sound a little like the Killers however I feel they don’t warrant any pigeon holes.

They have some lovely synth textures in their songs, especially Life in the Wire which I’m currently listening to on their MySpace player. I’m not going to bang on about how tight the drumming and bass playing is anymore when reviewing as the quality of music I’ve been sent for review is so high – and The Fall of Kings is no exception to this.

Good Blood has a great hook and those haunting distopian synths again which I absolutely love. I don’t know the band and I’ve never met any of the members but I’m going to take a guess that the synth player is a Numan fan. If not then I’ll get my coat.

I love the guitar riffs in all the songs and the low bass playing. There are no pretentions here, no egos, no one trying to out do anyone else and Dan Forrests vocals are great to listen to, he has a superb tone that compliments the music and vice versa as we can hear in The Hands of Many.

Everything sits together perfectly and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for big things for The Fall of Kings in 2010.

If you’re in the Liverpool/Wirral area where the band are from then you may well catch them live. Check out their MySpace and see when and where they’re next playing as you won’t be disapointed.

http://www.myspace.com/thefallofkingslive

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How to Have a Number One the Easy Way

Chris — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:24:07 +0000

It was written in the second Summer of Love in 1988 and it’s technically out of date – but that doesn’t matter because Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s book “The MANUAL – How to Have a Number One the Easy Way” is a great read and a lot of the principals of having a number one single are still relevant today.

The book also foretells its own imminent irrelevance, The Timelords admitting that they are writing “a book that will be completely redundant within twelve months. An obsolete artifact. Its only use being a bit of a social history that records the aspirations of a certain strata in British society in the late eighties…”

The Austrian Eurotrash band Edelweiss took the book as a primary influence: they read the book, borrowed ABBA’s “S.O.S.”, and sold five million copies worldwide with “Bring Me Edelweiss”. It also proved to be an influence on 2000s British girl group The Pipettes who formed after reading the book in order to explore “the idea of being a pop machine.”

In the liner photographs of the Chumbawamba album Readymades, Boff Whalley is seen to be reading a copy of The Manual. It is a reference to Chumbawamba’s earlier success with their hit single, “Tubthumping”.

Jamie Reynolds of The Klaxons admitted in an interview to reading The Manual and stated that he “took direct instructions from it…. Get yourself a studio, get a groove going, sing some absolute nonsense over the top, put a breakbeat behind it, and you’re away! That’s what I did! That’s genuinely it. I read that, I noted down the golden rules of pop, and applied that to what we’re doing and made sure that that always applies to everything we do. That way, we always come out with a sort of catchy hit number.”

Have your own Number One and get a copy to cherish from Amazon today.

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Learn to Sing in 3 Months

Chris — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:14:45 +0000

One of the most daunting prospects for any person wanting to have a some sort of career in music, be it songwriting or actual singing lead it’s always worrying when you have to step up to the mark to sing. Even just to demo your latest song.

How do you go about learning? Who do you call? I want to learn to sing and develop my voice but I would rather do it in secret.

Well why not do it in your own time and even in the car whilst driving. Just learn the techniques needed and take it a step at a time and you could be at a professional level in just 3 months. YES 3 MONTHS!!!!

For great lessons and teachings Click Here for Singoramas great teachings on how to achieve this… I can recommend it and so can many more people

Roland Smithers said:

Hello. I am just calling from Ireland. I bought the singorama package to help me sing, about a year ago now and I have to say it is the most comprehensive and fun course that I have ever experienced. I was so surprised that I could do this in my own time in the evenings after I do my day job and that is what inspired me to then purchase a studio.

Jiang Junxuan said:

I would like to thank Singorama for this wonderful product! With this, I have managed a much better projection of my voice and my head voice has definitely improved through the course.

Learn to sing with Singorama in 3 months

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Peter Hook

Chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:43:51 +0000

Recently I was fortunate to chat with Peter Hook famously from Joy Division and New Order about indie music and his own history as a DIY musician.

http://www.myspace.com/peterhookneworder

Peter’s irrepressible energy and on going love for music makes him a prominent figure in the industry with an enthusiam and drive not even God himself could curb.

Hi Peter, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to have a chat. Let’s do what I always like to do in interviews and go back to your beginnings…

Back in the days of Joy Division before you had a manager or record deal what was the driving force for the band? Was it a passion for making and performing music or was it a desire to get famous?

It was music! That fame and money thing was an unknown quantity luckily.

Is it true Joy Division released an E.P called “An ideal for living” in 1978 on their own label Enigma Records prior to any involvement with Tony Wilson and Factory?

Yes.

As a fledgling post punk indie band how did you fund this release?

Ian got a loan, Barney did the artwork we co-ordinated the whole thing and folded the sleeves ourselves.

As Joy Division your first album “Unknown Pleasures” and the single “Love will tear us apart”, produced by Martin Hannett, put you on the map. However it’s a documented story that you hated its sound and what Martin did to the music. Would you say a producer is an integral part of any bands sound and its success?

Sometimes depends on the producer and the band, generally I’d say if they agree you’d get an inferior product!

Anyone who is familiar with the story of Joy Division and New Order will know how important a role Rob Gretton had as your manager. Would you say that these days a manager is just as important for bands?

Good ones are hard to get, I still don’t have one. Rob was a very interesting manager but I’d say with two bands like us you couldn’t go wrong!

How instrumental would you say that Tony Wilson was in propelling bands in front of the masses be it gigs, on TV or Radio?

He loved punk rock with a passion and he used his positio to champion it! God bless him, VITAL!

Would Joy Division, New Order and Factory Records work in today’s society with its mp3s, file sharing and constant stream of manufactured pop bands?

Good music works on every level, BRING IT ON!

Factory Records granted you total freedom as Joy Division and New Order. Is this freedom important to musicians and their development?

VITAL!

If you could do it all again would you change anything?

No.

What advice would you give to today’s indie musicians?

Wrote great songs.

You’ve been very busy lately with FAC 251. How are things progressing and what can we expect?

The unexpected, it’s going very well fingers crossed.

Will we be seeing you at Creamfields this year?

Hopefully Ha Ha!

Thanks for taking the time to chat to BrandNewMusicUK.com Peter and the best of luck with your projects and especially FAC251 – we’ll see you there soon.

http://www.myspace.com/peterhookneworder

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Do-It-Yourself Home Recording – An Interview With Vicki Silbert Of Bittybox

Joe Santos — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:29:02 +0000

The computer revolution of the last ten years has radically changed the tools available for individual content creators. I recently spent an hour talking to Vicki Silbert of Bittybox, who recorded much of her indie album “Smalltime” in her home studio. I wanted to know what can really be accomplished these days with home recording, and can an indie project come anywhere close to the quality big budget recordings?

http://www.myspace.com/bittyboxdotcom

Just to set the groundwork for this discussion, maybe you should tell us briefly about the Bittybox project?

Sure… I had been through the whole band experience in the 1980’s. We played the Los Angeles club scene for 6 years, but we never had much opportunity to record. Years later I was making my living on the Macintosh computer and it occurred to me that maybe there was software for recording music. So I looked into that and sure enough there was! This was the start of Bittybox, I made a decision to learn about digital audio recording software and finally record an album.

So you had no previous experience recording?

Well, my band had been in the studio a couple of times. We recorded a pretty good single, and another time we spent way too much money to record a bad demo, but that was in the days of 24 track tape. We also did some 4 track cassette recording with a Fostex X-15. Don’t know if you’re old enough to remember those? Strangely enough we were happier with the X-15 recordings than when we paid a bunch of money to record with a producer. I guess it was partly that experience that led me try home recording. But no, I had no previous experience with recording on the computer, and I was certainly not an engineer. I didn’t even know what midi was at the time!

How did you get started?

I got on the internet and researched the different programs for audio recording. When you’re totally new to something it can be pretty confusing, and you don’t really have much to base a decision on. Ultimately I chose Digital Performer Software, mainly because of the Motu-Mac Mailing List. It’s a mailing list of Digital Performer users who network and help each other with the program. It looked like a great resource, which is what it turned out to be!

At that early stage did you think you would record a project for commercial release, or were you just experiementing?

I always had the idea that I would record the album I had always wanted to release. I was actually way over-optimistic about how long it would take me to finish. I thought I would have a CD to release in 6 months, but it actually took me years!

How many years?

Don’t ask! I think I made pretty much every mistake in the book that home recordists make. I was working primarily with samplers and didn’t really know what was possible. So I spent endless hours programming drum tracks, all of which got thrown away in the end. Also the recording software is very deep and there are endless technical challenges and a huge learning curve. You have no idea when you start, what you’re getting into. Truthfully if I had any clue I probably wouldn’t have even tried!

All the drum tracks got thrown out! How much of the stuff you recorded at home got used in the final album?

I think maybe about half of my programmed tracks got used. We kept all the keyboard parts. Most of the programmed horn parts are still there under the one real horn part, there’s some programmed cello under what Novi Novog played on viola, one or two of the programmed bass parts got used, and some of the scratch vocals I recorded at home got used. Also a couple of my guitar parts made it onto the final CD but mostly it’s Ken Lasaine on guitar.

Was this because the parts weren’t good enough or the recording quality wasn’t good enough?

I really didn’t understand to what degree getting some live players would contribute to the final sound of the CD until after I started down that path. What really turned me away from trying to finish by myself was how long it was taking me. I started trying to record guitar parts, and realized that at the rate I was working the album would never get finished. I had played guitar back when I had my band, but hadn’t really kept up with it, so it was really a struggle for me. Once I got into the studio with some session players, it was like a huge weight lifted.

So what do you think about the question of whether a home recording can stand up to the big budget projects?

I’m sure there are people out there who have the skills that would allow them to do that successfully. It would be different for a band that just wants to make a record of the songs they play live, as opposed to a solo project like mine where all the parts had to be created from scratch. But unless someone involved has an audio engineering background it would be pretty hard to do a completely professional job in a home studio.

At least in my case, the decision to use some session players and an engineer in a real studio made a huge difference in the final outcome. And even so there are things that could have been better, but at some point you have to stick a fork in it…both because of the expense and because you totally burn out after a while. You just want to be done with it!

So in the end my “Smalltime” CD is about half home recording with samplers and half in the studio with real players. At least in this case that turned out to be a nice balance.

Well thanks for taking the time to chat about the project!

Yeah, you bet! Thanks for writing about it!

http://www.myspace.com/bittyboxdotcom

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Money and How To Make It in an Industry that can Suck You Dry (even your dreams!)

Jaci Rae — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:35:53 +0000

Let me preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect and admiration for songwriters who can write song after song. Those very talented individuals who, while they are sitting on the plane, in the bathroom, or at a dining table, grab a napkin, the roll of toilet paper, the safety guide on the airplane, or whatever may be handy and start frantically writing. While I have had this inspiration once in a while, its not a fluent talent. So my hats are off to you!

The statistics were very interesting and I hope not conclusive of what is going on in the music industry right now, although I suspect they are indicative of it. I have never looked at charts or believed in numbers. When I was growing up, I was always told about the statistics and had them thrown in my face with statements like the following: Dont bother, only 2% get the jobs and out of those 2% only a very limited few make a paycheck. Get a real job. Well of course I would get a real job to support me, but who came up with that stupid figure anyway!

QUESTION #1: What is your gender, male or female?

So lets get down to what the survey said. The results of the first question showed that 70% of the writers who took the survey were males. This was an eye opener for me. I have many female friends who are writers. Why was the ratio so off balance? I thought maybe it was just this particular survey. But then I looked at my first demo album and then my real freshman album, and found that the majority of the writers were male. In fact, more then 70%! I couldnt believe it! I hadnt planned it that way or picked the songs based on who wrote them. I picked the songs purely on my likes and dislikes. I had always heard that the entertainment industry was male dominated in every field, but its 2001! It just couldnt be.

I went back to take a look at the demo tapes, which I still had, to see how many of the writers were male and how many were female. Some very well known publishers had submitted the songs to me, so there should have been a variety. To my surprise, 92% were males and only 8% were female. Why was that? Are we still in a society that does not encourage women to excel at anything and everything they want? Or are men simply more prolific in writing music then women? That might be an interesting study in and of itself.

QUESTION # 5: What are the categories that best describe the music that you write?

One of the other statistics that I found interesting was the category that best describes your music. At first I didnt think much about it, with Pop, Rock, and Country being the highest rated. But then I started thinking about the Hip Hop/Rap genres. Dont Hip Hop and Rap writers/artists make the most money? Dont they really smash up the charts and arent they everywhere? Even Jennifer Lopez changed her name to J. Lo, seemingly to me to fit more into the Hip Hop/Rap world. Yet only 2% of those surveyed were writers of Hip Hop music. Does only 2% of the writing population for this survey write most of the popular Hip Hop music, and are they cornering the market of profit for their genre of music?

It would be interesting to find out what percentage of the writing population is making money writing which types of music. This might give the writers and the artists an exact pulse on the pop music of today. Pop music of course was #1 on this question, with the highest percentage of people writing for it. But then I thought about that statement. Pop music is whatever is popular at that time. So maybe the Hip Hop writers really voted under the Pop category. Another interesting question might be how many women write for each category of music, and how many of them make money at it.

QUESTION #6: How would you describe your current status as a songwriter?

The saddest statistic of all to me, and one I can relate too, was #6, describe your current status as a songwriter. The results were not unexpected: 58% of the writers did not make any money at all from their work. The purists will say that they dont write to make money and they dont care if they do or dont make any money off their work. But the practical side, which may never be known to the public, is Why cant I make money when my stuff is so good and that song I just heard on the radio is so. wellbleck?! What is the answer to this problem? How can a writer or any of us in the entertainment industry make money?

I believe the key is education (now theres a new one, and how many times have you heard that before?!) and diversity. I am not only talking about a college education, although I believe that is so very important and should never be given up at any cost!

I grew up very poor; no one talked to me about college. I didnt have the money and my grades werent good enough to begin with. But once I found out about grants and scholarships, I went to someone in my school (I wont name names, lets just say that my normal high school counselor was not around.) I was told that college was not for someone like me and that I didnt have a chance for a grant or a scholarship. They also told me that my hopes should not stray beyond a regular job and maybe someday I would be able to marry someone who could support me.

No joke! Whats really bad is that I believed them for two years! Finally, I got off my duff and went to Junior College and surprise, surprise!!!! I was on the Deans list and Honor Roll! I havent been able to finish, but I have plans too. The lesson I learned from that experience and that I have pretty much held onto, sometimes much to my detriment, is that the word no means, Oh YEAH!!!! Just watch me! (People usually think of me as very tenacious.) Okay, enough about me for now and back to the subject of education.

Education is very important as I have stated many times, and I am not just talking to the 15 year olds! I am speaking to those people who think they are too old to go to College, 24 – 129! I just read about a homecoming queen/head cheerleader who graduated with honors. She was 41 when all these things took place. She had two children and a husband! Youre never too old! If you cant go to college right now and get your degree or finish it, educating yourself in the business aspect of your chosen profession by reading, watching, and asking questions is really important and obtainable.

Get your finger on the pulse of whats happening through education and knowledge, just like you do when you are writing a song. A staggering 40% of the people taking the survey are relying on record labels and publishers to sell their music instead of themselves. I hope everyone will rethink his or her position on this. Instead, rely on your ability and talent to get you to the place where you dont need the labels and the publishers. The key is to not need those people in high places. Once you dont need them, they will come running.

The people who make the real money are the people in charge. The head of Sony Records is the one who makes the money. The managers and booking agents make the real money. The publishers make money. The heads of studios and the producers of TV shows, records, films, etc., they are the ones that will make the money. They are in charge. You need to be in charge, too.

Network with people and diversify. Some of you may be thinking, what do you mean diversify? I can only write Country/Pop or Rock or Jazz. I cant write them all! Thats not what I am speaking of. What I am talking about is finding other parts of the industry that interest you and go for them! That will not only get you into the right places, but it will also help you to meet the right people. Maybe Whitney Houston or Faith Hill will be at one of the places you are and you will be able to strike up a conversation.

You find out they are looking for new material, they find out you’re a writer and boom! Youve got your music in their hands! Or maybe representatives of a famous publisher that you have always wanted to submit your material to is also at the same place as you. You strike up a conversation with them and they ask if they can listen to some of your music. Viola Right place at the right time. A lot of those right places at the right time came from careful and strategic planning, so start planning your moment, too!

Back to the original point. Find something else to do IN the industry; not a waitperson, an executive assistant in some unrelated field, or the head of a company that you hate getting up in the morning for. (But, dont give up your current job until you find another one in the industry that you love and will support you.) Start your own publishing company that not only handles your songs, but also the songs of other writers.

I always believe it is best to help others when you are helping yourself. How can you do this? Ask the advice of those already in the game. Give them a call and ask them how they started and where you should go to network with them. The people at the top, when they have the time, are usually more then willing to talk to you and point you in the right direction.

Start managing a group or an artist, then you will really have an in for someone to record your music. Look at Shania Twain and her husband! You may want to use a publishing house or publisher to get you in the door initially, get connections, and the chance to prove yourself. But in the end, you may want to become the publisher so you can garner more of the profits in your pocket.

If those jobs dont suit your taste, get a job as an assistant at Warner Brothers Records or a job in the film industry as someone who listens to the music for film scoring. Become an editor for music in films and TV. Become a writer of a daily column! You are already a writer after all! There are literally thousands of jobs for the taking in the industry you love. All you have to do is start applying. Those jobs will eventually get you to whom you need to see to get your music noticed!

I am a singer, do I make all of my money singing? NO! Sure, I tour around the world, I have a web site, and my CDs are in selected stores. But most of my money, believe it or not, comes from my book sales or sales of my articles. I went from waiting for someone to give me a break throughout my teens, to taking charge of my own career to make it happen! I am not in the same league as acts like Dream or N Sync yet (and I stress that YET part), but I am holding my own. I am not saying that I havent had help and that I dont accept help. Of course I have and will! But in the same respect, I have not waited for that help to find me. The odds of that are like throwing up a tiny single piece of sand on a beach in Honolulu and expecting to find that very same piece again. RIGHT! You have to make your own waves if you want to hit the crest of that wave! So diversify and educate yourself.

Where do you go for the job leads? You can find that information in my article, A Helping Hand on http://www.MusicDish.com, and in my book, Indies Guide To Music Success and Contact Info, which is available for sale through http://www.MusicDish.com. Here are some examples that will get you started:

Show Biz Jobs: http://www.showbizjobs.com/jobserch.cfm

Electronic Library: wwws.elibrary.com/id/238/222/search.cgi?query=country+music+news&src-mags=1&src-news=1&src-tvrad=1&src-pics=1&src-books=1

Film Biz: http://www.filmbiz.com/

The Globe: globelists.theglobe.com/arts/acting/acting_uk-L/list.taf

Gebbie Press: http://www.gebbieinc.com/radintro.htm.

QUESTION #8: Do you feel that you have been adequately compensated for the use of your work?

My next and my last point on the survey is this. On survey question #8, only 15% of the people responding to the survey believed that they were being adequately compensated for their work. I am not sure where the writers believe they arent being fairly compensated for their work.

QUESTION #12: Has Napster had an impact on your songwriting career?

However, on question #12, only 5% said that Napster has had a negative impact on their career. I think Napster has its pros and cons, and I am not necessarily against Napster or those who use its services. But here are the pros and cons for me, in simple form: Pro being that people who cant afford and cant find the music they want on CD are able to get it. Freedom of Information act and all that. The Cons are that writers and performers arent getting their cut and as a performer, I can tell you from an artists standpoint, that that cut is very slim to begin with.

So, the statistical conflict between #8 and #12 confuses me. Dont get me wrong. I pay all of my writers up front, in cash, as soon as I press my CDs, even if they dont ask me too. I want the writers to get their money! But lets look at numbers.

A writer gets 7.55 cents in royalties per song under 5 minutes and an additional 1.45 cents for every minute or fraction of a minute thereafter. The typical Indie artist presses 1000 CDs. The standard procedure is submission of the packing slip from the pressing plant to the Harry Fox Agency or a similar agency that collects mechanical royalties. The artist is then charged by Harry Fox Agency for writer royalties according to how many CDs were pressed (this is of course after you have applied for a mechanical license). So for 1000 CDs, the writer will be paid $75.50 in mechanical royalties by the Harry Fox Agency or its equivalent. In addition to that, the writers will also get royalties from radio airplay and karaoke sales, which are performance royalties. These royalties are collected by the Performing Rights Organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

In most cases, the writer did not pay for the production, marketing, distribution, and advertising costs of the CD their songs are on, so eventually this will be money in the bank, after the writer recoups the costs of the initial demo he or she created to pitch to the artist or label. Thats the writers side. Now lets look at the artists side.

Artists, except in the United Kingdom, do not get paid for the performance of a song on the radio as the writers do. We artists must pay to get your songs and ourselves promoted. A typical CD recorded in a master recording studio, with pressing, royalties and promotion costs, will be around $14,000.00. How does an artist recoup that amount? By touring and CD sales, right? Sure they do.

If an artists gets booked into a venue and makes $500 in CD sales and $500 for the venue, that gives the artist a $1000 right? I wont do the math for you here, there is a lot more detail in my book, Indies Guide To Music Success and Contact Info, but out of the $1000, the booking agent gets 10%, the manager gets 10%, the IRS gets 33 1/3 %, the venue gets a percentage, and the artist still must pay for the promotion and marketing costs as well as staff. All of those people take it off the top, meaning out of the $1000. Their percentages are based on the gross amount from the CD sales and the performance.

After the artist pays everyone their share, the artist is then left with the negative amount of $53.33. At this point, the artist hasnt even paid for the band members, the travel expenses or food costs, let alone paid a salary to himself or herself, and the artist is already in the hole for the amount of $53.33. Meanwhile, the songwriter has $75.50 in the bank for each song on my CD!

So what am I trying to say? That the writers should be happy they arent the artists, LOL (unless of course they are artists also)! No really, what I am trying to show the writers is that artists dont make as much money as the writers do, even at the low rate the writers get per song. And that of course, the grass is always greener on the other side.

I wish that I had the talent to write prolifically as everyone in the writing community does. Then I would get some of the royalties off of my album sales and I would be less in the hole financially. But this again proves my point that you must diversify. Sure I get to do what I love most and that is awesome, but its not what supports me. I have chosen other paths in the music industry to support me and I have worked hard at them.

The majority of beginning artists arent in charge of their own lives musically, and they owe a lot of money to their label. Sure I would love a major recording deal, because there are so many advantages to it. But, I would want it with good terms, meaning a lot of points and a great distribution & marketing deal.

Now you can see both sides of the coin, for those who hadnt seen or known it yet. So when 85% of the writers think they are not being fairly compensated, I would hope they are not talking about the royalties they receive off of a record pressing from an artist, although 48% of you said thats where the majority of your royalties/income came from.

CONCLUSION

The lesson to be learned is that you will do much better in this business or any business if you are in charge of your own career, and you have the knowledge to make wise choices and keep track of the bottom line.

A little side note to writers: please make sure that you get the mechanical license to the artists. Dont just assume the artist will take care of the business side or you may end up without a royalty payment. And artists: make sure you obtain mechanical licenses BEFORE you record a song. If you do not do this, there are some very stiff fines and penalties and the publisher has the right to have your product pulled off the market. So make sure you do the business side first before the music side. Again, the point made is to educate yourself about the business side, too.

In the end, it really is all about music and our love of music, which is the universal language of Humans and animals. I believe if we work together, educate ourselves, and diversify what we can do, we will be much better off and a much stronger unit, whether youre a songwriter or an artist, a publisher or a record label. The key to all of our success is education, business savvy, being in the right place at the right time on purpose, and diversity. These should be all of our goals.

A point a very famous publisher made to writers as a quote in my book, “The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money ISBN 978-0-9746229-4-1 was (in paraphrase): Write and re-write and then write again every song. And when you think youve got it perfect and its a hit, write it over again.