We also have a mobile site that works great on the iphone and other devices, and (should) collate articles in real time related to the business of independent musician.

Good luck on all your music endeavors!

Matt

I think this blog is fascinating because it has a great discussion of the relationship of music and branding in a setting I hadn’t thought much about before.

The music used in these retail playlists has benefits for both the retailer, as well as the artist.

“A good retail playlist can bring home the culture of a business and psychologically affect a customer in a way that doesn’t feel pushy. And it’s positive for the featured artists. In today’s flooded climate, where new songs are published at a crazy rate on the Internet, having your song play in a Victoria’s Secret, for instance, can help cut through the noise.”

Matson points out that with music recognizing apps like Shazam, any place your music plays creates an opportunity to connect fans to you.

Matson focuses on one particular retailer that Manio works with, Under Armour, to highlight what considerations go into selecting the music for a brand. Not only does this discussion exemplify how music can fit into a brand, it also offers thoughts about branding that artists can bring into their own brand building efforts.  Manio got the know the company, identified the word “innovation” as a word that represented the brand, and then used it in his strategy to create a playlist.

Similarly, artists should consider their brand, and identify specific words and ideas that they would like to exemplify their brand, then carry those specifics into all their marketing efforts. Furthermore, identifying the characteristics of their own artist brand, can help artists to pitch their music for synch or sponsorship opportunities in a way that shows how their artist brand fits in with the company’s brand.

“If [Manio] pulls it off right, he’ll communicate the brand, intrigue the consumer and expose people to extraordinary music.”

Visit NPR’s Music News section and read “Who Picks The Music You Hear At The Mall?” by Andrew Matson, and learn more!

For October’s blog post of the month, I chose “

In this blog, Mark Knight teaches artists how to use the advertising technique of story telling to promote their music.

According to Knight, as the advertising landscape became saturated with similar products,  “brands provided a point of differentiation by developing a personality and attaching values to a product.  The brands were bought to life through story telling in advertising.”

He suggests that artists can use this strategy as well – “Just as brands evolved their marketing, independent artists need to do the same to create compelling brand stories around themselves and their music.”  

Two benefits of this approach include (1) making artists more memorable and (2) building deeper connections with fans.

What I like about this article is that for every benefit discussed, Knight demonstrates his point by including an artist story, which leaves readers with the sort of memorable, engaging impression of his blog that he wants artists to leave with his fans.

Easy advice for anyone to immediately implement!

The entire thesis is full of useful information on a variety of topics from industry professionals, including top venues for indie artists to perform in to top indie record labels, as well as how artists can develop their careers.

In the Hypebot article, blogger Clyde Smith pulls out a selection of what the interviewees considered their “most important piece of advice.”  While each tip is vastly different from the next, each tip offers valuable advice.

So take a look at the list and think about how you can apply each piece of advice to your career.  Then, if you are an A+ student, check out the thesis in full for more tips.

Thanks to Clyde Smith of Hypebot for sharing this great information!

With a figure that high, I’m guessing it probably includes some if not many of V11 readers, which is why I’ve chosen this article (as well as SoundExchange) to feature in this August’s Blog Post of the Month column.

The reason why so many artists haven’t claimed royalties that are being held by SoundExchange seems to be that many artists don’t understand what SoundExchange is, what types of royalties it collects, and who should register.

The short answer is that if you are an artist on a recording that is performed digitally (for example through a digital radio station, or television that is streamed online), then you should register. SoundExchange collects royalties for artists that perform on a master recording- regardless of whether they wrote the song or own the master recording.

To read a more detailed account of what SoundExchange does, as well as the top 10 misconceptions about SoundExchange/reasons artists don’t register with SoundExchange, check out this article from the DIY Musician, written by SoundExchange.

So get informed, and don’t be one of the 50,000 missing out on hard earned royalties!

At the heart of both blogs is the issue of changing attitudes toward music ownership, and how music is acquired and consumed.

NPR’s blog demonstrates the expectation that many people have (particularly young people) that they shouldn’t have to pay for music.

David Lowery’s blog points out the problems with this expectation.

Lowery’s blog has garnered a lot of attention (it has hundreds of comments, and according to the site, received half a million views in only 2 days) and has been discussed across the media from Forbes to the Huffington Post. I think that’s because he has managed to articulate and explain the change in attitudes toward purchasing music in a way that identifies what many of us in the industry sensed was wrong but couldn’t quite put a finger on.

Lowery points out that the whole “Free Culture” shift in attitudes toward intellectual properties doesn’t actually make music free. Rather, it just shifts the revenue stream away from the people who create music and into the pockets of technology companies that make the products and services that help people acquire music, which explains why these companies have the incentive to promote the idea you should be able to get music for “free” through their products.

Lowery boils it down to this: Why do we value the network and hardware that delivers music but not the music itself?  Why are we willing to pay for computers, iPods, smartphones, data plans, and high speed internet access but not the music itself?  Why do we gladly give our money to some of the largest richest corporations in the world but not the companies and individuals who create and sell music?

However, I can’t put *all* the blame on technology companies, because we (as in the music companies and musicians) haven’t been doing much to stop it.

I applaud David Lowery for taking a stand and making waves, and encourage others to do the same.

We should all be working to spread information, change attitudes, and lobby for congress to take intellectual property and its protection seriously. Don’t let the technology companies be the only ones contributing to the conversations. We also need to take a look at bringing new technology, and new digital options for people to acquire music while fairly compensating artists from sources owned and controlled by people in the music industry.

Unfortunately we seemed to have missed the boat on that front.

Even iTunes, which is the leading “legitimate” source of digital music is owned by Apple, a company not necessarily in the business of music, but in the business of selling iPhones, iPods, and iPads. At the end of the day, they may only really be interested in selling music to the extent that it helps them sell other products, so they have little incentive to consider fairness to artists, writers, and content owners.

So, V-11 readers, I issue you the following challenge: Read David Lowery’s blog and the surrounding discussion and do one thing this week to help musicians and/or the music industry:  Buy music directly from an artist; learn about organizations that lobby for the protection of copyrights (or better yet, donate to one); and/or read up on current discussions in the legislature that affect copyrights (or better yet, write to your congressman about them). Lowery also suggests donating to a charity that helps musicians or writing to companies that have advertisements on sites that facilitate the theft of music.

Bottom line, if we in the music industry don’t care then why will anyone else?

We all need to do our part to make our voices heard in the public discourse on music in the digital age.

This post chronicles Hisham Dahud’s journey from music industry wannabe to music industry professional. In this blog, Dahud realys his journey, as well as all the lessons he learned along the way. No matter what you want to do in the industry, these lessons can help you get there.

Dahud encourages identifying what you love about the music industry, as well as what you have to offer, and learning as much as you can about the business as a whole. He also suggests coming up with a definitive plan to reach your goal, while remaining open to change and new opportunities.

I think the reason I liked this article so much is that Dahund’s story is in many ways similar to my own.

When I decided to pursue a career in the music industry a couple of years ago, I did many of the same things. I learned as much as I could about the industry, figured out what I have to offer and how I could best fit in, and worked to find any and all opportunities that could help me acheive my goals.

One of the opportunities I found was right here- writing for V11. I jumped at the chance to write for V11 when it crossed my path, even though I had no idea exactly how it would fit into my overall plan, or where it would get me. 2 years later, I’m working for an industry veteran that suggested I email him my resume while I was interviewing him for V11.

So check out “How I Earned My Place in the Music Business: 6 Insights For Breaking In” on Hypebot and start (or continue) your journey from music industry wannabe to music industry professional.

Have a story to share about how you reached a music industry goal?
Post it below!

The blog is a case study of how the band Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers converted YouTube sucess into an increase in fans and sales.

What I like about the article is that it includes so many ideas for improving your YouTube presense, from how to maximize the fan experience through video descriptions, to tracking views, licensing and copyright issues related to using cover songs, and becoming a youtube partner.   A very detailed, educational and interesting read for the business focused independent artist.

So whether you are already experiencing sucess on YouTube, or you are just hoping to in the future, check out “How to turn a YouTube hit into Dollars and Fans” and maximize your YouTube efforts.

While the focus of this blog is getting asked back to venues, the theme of building relationships and maintaining a good reputation is one that you can apply to all aspects of your career.

So check out “Get Venues to Ask You Back: 8 Tips You Can Use For Your Next Show,” and get to work on building lasting relationships with venues.

These issues are paramount to an artist success because according to Mr. Winogradsky, “Indie artists, and artists in general, need to understand that as much as they think it’s about making the music, in some ways it’s really about making money and understanding the business, because if they can’t make the money, they don’t get the chance to make the music.”

What are the top things independent artists should be doing from a business standpoint that they aren’t doing?

Most of the time, they are not getting agreements upfront as to what their business arrangements are.

With people who are songwriters, if they co-write, they need to make sure they get agreements with their co-writers as to what everybody’s shares are, what everybody’s ownership interest is, and who administers the copyright.

There is something called a split sheet which is a fairly short document that all the parties should be signing to say what each party controls and owns, because as soon as something is successful, everyone thinks they wrote more than what they wrote. So you end up with more than 100% of a song, which means nobody gets paid.

For indie artists, one of the big issues is dealing with producers and recording studios, trying to figure out what those services are, and who owns the finished product. If you are working with a producer, you need to know what the producer’s deal is, what he or she is expecting in terms of compensation. Is it just a flat fee and the artist walks out with the master recording? Does the producer expect some kind of participation on the back end? Some points in the record or some revenue share? In certain genres of music- dance, hip hop, rap, sometimes the producers think they are co-writers which gets back to the first issue of split sheets.

So in most cases artists don’t pay attention to those details and that’s where all the problems begin.

What are some of the biggest business/legal misconceptions that independent artists have?

The biggest wives’ tale, if you will, is mailing the copy of a song to yourself, then thinking it’s protected by copyright. It’s called a”poor man’s copyright”. Copyright protection begins as soon as something is put in a tangible medium of expression – as soon as it’s on paper or on tape. In order to get full protection, they do need to register with the copyright office. Just sending a copy to themselves with a postmark doesn’t help. That’s a huge issue for indie artists.

The copyright office has made it fairly easy to register songs online. It’s cheaper if you register them online than if you send hard copies to the copyright office. Artists and songwriters can use what’s called a compilation copyright – in other words, they can register the equivalent of an album all under one copyright and save themselves some money and then they’d have full protection. Most people don’t do that.

What are the most important steps for an artist to take early in their career to set themselves up for success from a business/legal perspective?

Most artists don’t have the business and legal background that professionals do to handle their career. It’s important for them to try to get a team of people around them that can handle some of these things for them. Getting a music attorney, and make sure it’s a music attorney not just some attorney who does real property or car accidents. This is a very specialized business so you need someone who knows the landscape and does that, same thing with accounting people.

The music industry is pretty unique in some ways, so if you are in a position where money is going to start to come in an artist needs to know about the tax implications – what they can deduct, what they can’t deduct, how monies get paid out. If they are indie artists with a band and they are paying their band members, there are tax implications. Things like filing with the IRS, sending out 1099s so that these expenses are deductible to the artists. But they have to be documented, and so an accountant and an attorney are crucial.

Managers are also crucial. Managers perform an overall function in helping the artist guide their career. All of these people usually work on commission. Attorneys usually work on an hourly basis, but some work on commission. So the artist needs to be very clear about what sources of income are commissionable. A manager will usually commission every aspect of an artist’s career. So it’s important to know what’s commissionable and what’s not, and what deductions there might be from artist income that might not be in the commission.

What are the most common types of contracts an artist will encounter over the course of their career?

There are 3 main contracts: the management contract (contract with a manager), a publishing company contract if you get signed to a publishing company, and then a recording contract if they are lucky enough to get signed to a label. These are complex documents.

Recording contracts can be anywhere from 20 to 100 pages. They’re very detailed, very complex, with lots of legal mumbo jumbo in them, so it’s important for an artist to have representation to review it.

Publishing contracts are a little bit simpler, but they’re still complex. They talk about issues that a lot of artists don’t understand. That’s the real key, having an understanding of the business that you’re in, because it is a business. It’s not just about making the music. It’s about making money from your music and having solid contracts and having a solid team working around you can really help an artist.

It won’t propel them to success, but it will keep them from getting screwed

At what point in their career would you recommend an independent artist start seeking advice from a lawyer?

The first time they are presented with a contract of any kind.

These are very, very complex documents. Artists don’t understand them in many cases. There are rights being granted having to do with the artist’s work that the artist needs to understand or have explained to them. There are too many artists who have signed away their copyrights to somebody else for no money thinking it’s a good opportunity, not understanding that the artist has certain rights, the writer has certain rights that they may not be aware of.

Same thing with recordings. Usually there is a participation in the income stream in these contracts so if that income participation is not spelled out clearly, the artist won’t get the income they are probably entitled to.

Do you have any advice on how an artist can find the right attorney?

Word of mouth – artists know other artists. If you have a friend who’s an artist who has an attorney that they’re happy with, that’s a good recommendation. There’s an organization called California Lawyers for the Arts, I think they’re based in Santa Monica, who has some attorneys that they recommend.

Belonging to music industry organizations where attorneys hang out, the California Copyright Conference, the Association of Independent Music Publishers, these are regularly attended by attorneys in the music industry and it’s easy to talk to people there, find out who they are, talk to them over dinner or over a drink, and find out a little bit about them. Then if you’re interested most attorneys are happy to set up a meeting and have a conversation to see if it’s the right fit, the right mix.

What are some common legal issues that arise with bands, and how can bands prepare for them?

In a band context everyone likes to think it’s a democracy, that everyone has an equal voice, but that’s not always the case.

If you have a band, there need to be agreements drafted so that the band and each member of the band understands their responsibilities to the band, and more importantly what happens if somebody leaves or if the band breaks up.

Who keeps the name of the band? If a member leaves are they entitled to royalties? If 2 members of the band are strong songwriters and the other 2 band members are not strong songwriters how does the publishing for the band get split up?

Some bands take a very democratic approach and say that everybody wrote everything, so all the band members will be listed, and the band’s publishing is handled as an entity. Sometimes each band member will have a separate publishing company. Sometimes only the writers – the actual writers of the songs – will get credit and will own the publishing on the songs. So it’s a very complex situation.

What legal issues should artists be aware of when posting content on their websites?

If they are posting it to their own website, the key thing they need to be aware of is that all the songs are original to them.

If they do a cover song, if they do a recording of a George Harrison composition, or a Police composition, or a Who composition, they don’t own the rights to that composition. They may own the recording, but they don’t have any rights to the composition. They don’t have any rights to use other people’s material without those parties consent, getting a license. That’s huge.

If the band owns content 100%, they can almost do anything they want with it. They can post it online, they can offer it on iTunes, they can create YouTube videos – as long as they are the owners they can do that.

What frequently happens is that are 3rd parties that have some rights in the project – the drummer’s cousin wrote some lyrics and is not a member of the band. They don’t own his share unless there’s an agreement that says they own his share. So it’s important the band owns and controls everything they have.

And then once they put it up, it’s the usual protections – is their website coded so it can be streamed not downloaded? If somebody can hack it, and admittedly 12 year olds in Sweden are hacking things every day and there’s no way to stop it, but you take whatever precautions you have for security, so if you offer downloads people can do it for free that’s great, but if all you want is streaming, make sure that people can’t download it accidentally because then you’re losing sales and losing money.

What changes in technology have created new legal issues for artists?

Well one of the things technology changes, is it had made it much, much easier to sample things.

Taking an old James Brown recording, or an old Earth Wind and Fire recording, and putting it in a new recording is much easier than it used to be, but those have legal consequences. In order to sample those songs you have to get the rights to those songs, and a lot of artists don’t understand that. They think that they’re only using a little bit, no one will catch them, it’s fair use which is a legal concept where under certain conditions people can use other people’s material.

Sampling is not fair use. It’s been clearly shown in the courts time and time again. So there are rights that have to be obtained that a lot of artists are unaware of and think they can just do without any consequences. That’s a huge problem.

Other technological issues have to do with the ability to transfer files back and forth, making sure the websites are secure. Some bands, some companies have ftp sites which are password protected so only some people can listen to the music and download it in a business context.

If you are going to put music up online, you want to protect it in some way so that everyone can’t get access to it and take it.

What resources can you recommend to an artist who wants to educate themselves about the legal/business aspects of the music industry?

The Bible is a book by Donald Passman called All You Need to Know About The Music Business. Don Passman is a very well respected attorney and he’s represented people like the Eagles and Janet Jackson. His book has been out for about 25 years. It’s constantly being updated. It’s written on a couple levels, a basic level for musicians, and a little higher level at some points for people who want to know more about the business. That’s one of the bibles.

There’s a book called The Business of Music by Bill Krasilovsky, Music Money and Success by Jeff Brabec and Todd Brabec. These are all sources that people in the industry use, and artists who want to learn about this type of thing should do so.

At least here in Los Angeles, UCLA Extension has an entertainment studies program where you can learn about contracts, learn about music publishing. There are other programs around the country that have similar types of classes and it’s to the artists’ interest to try to learn about their business. They don’t need to become an attorney to draft contract but they need to understand what’s in the contract and that’s what these classes and that’s what these resources offer.

What types of services and solutions does Winogradsky/Sobel provide for artists?

We do a lot of different things – publishing contracts, recording contracts if they’re with 3rd parties. We do a lot of licensing for TV and film, so if an artist has an opportunity to get their music into TV and film we know that landscape. Also for some of our independent clients, we pitch music for TV and film. So we’re their representative to try to get them placements and we handle all the legal work and handle the collection. We take a commission, and we take a fee for that.

We’ve had some success in getting indie artists into network television shows where the money can be somewhat significant on the front end in terms of upfront license fees, but once they get on network TV the money you can receive from the performance rights organizations, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, can be far, far more than the license fee they get. And so it’s a long term play and it’s what we in the business like to call “mailbox money”. It just shows up at your door 3 years later, when the show that you’re in airs in the UK.

We assist our artists in getting their music placed. We do publishing admin if we have a successful client who already has a deal, or already has some music out there, we can help them collect their royalties, handle licensing for them, register their copyrights, register with PROs. We’re kind of a full service firm in that sense, not everything we do is lawyer based.

There are a lot of things we do that don’t require a lawyer to do, we have staff who are very well versed in this area and know the business and can assist our clients at less than lawyer rates, because they aren’t performing legal services, so the rates we charge are cheaper.

You’ve highlighted your success at getting music placements for artists on winogradskysobel.com, can you offer any advice to artists who are working on getting songs placed themselves?

It’s very difficult. It’s become a very crowded landscape. People have begun to realize that record sales are down, radio airplay is down. Getting music on a television show is not only good money but great exposure.

The trick for indie artists, as well as for us, is getting the right music to the right people. So you have to start off with having the right music.

If you’re a hardcore rap indie artist, it doesn’t make much sense to pitch your music to a program on Country Music Television. You have to understand the difference; you have to know what your audience is. Finding music supervisors for those shows and making a relationship with them is very difficult. They get bombarded by artists and cds and mp3 files on a regular basis.

We’re lucky in that we’ve been doing this for a while and we have good relationships, so in addition to sending music to the music supervisors, sometimes they’ll actually call us and say we need a certain type of song, I know you guys have a good reputation, you’re easy to deal with, you know what you’re doing and you have a broad catalogue, do you have something that fits this slot that we need?

Indie artists will almost never get that phone call. Because they have a very specific type of music, where we represent a broad range of music so sometime supervisors will call us if we’re lucky, and say: “we need this type of song, what do you got?” So for artists, getting to the music supervisors is difficult, and making sure that you send the right music to the right supervisor for the right show -that’s a real challenge sometimes.

About Steve Winogradsky: With over thirty years experience as an attorney in the music industry, Steven Winogradsky is a partner in Winogradsky/Sobel in Studio City, California, providing global media and music business affairs & legal support for composers, songwriters, music publishers, recording artists and television, film, video and multi-media producers. In addition to an entertainment law practice, the company handles music clearance and licensing in all media for many production companies, worldwide administration of the publishing catalogs for a number of clients and New Media strategies and Revenue Modeling.

Prior to being in solo practice with The Winogradsky Company from 1992 to 2009, Mr. Winogradsky had served as Director of Music Business Affairs for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., Managing Director of Music, Legal & Business Affairs for MCA Home Entertainment, Director of Music Licensing and Administration for Universal Pictures and Universal Television and Vice President of Business Affairs for The Clearing House, Ltd.

He was twice elected President of the California Copyright Conference, after spending nine years on the Board of Directors, served for four years as President of The Association of Independent Music Publishers and was named as one of the Outstanding Instructors in Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts at UCLA Extension, where has taught since 1997. He has written numerous magazine articles on the subject of music for motion pictures and television and lectured on a variety of music-related topics at various symposia.