Nothing is forever. This we all know. When we think about copyright duration, which is a lot less than forever, most of us in this business tend to think of it more in relation to compositions, not so much as it pertains to sound recordings. That’s why I believe you’ll find what you’re about to read especially interesting. Continue reading
Going The Publisher Route With Your Songs
Some songwriters are gung ho about getting a music publisher on board, without affording much thought to the pros and cons. Others are trepidatious. Still others are dead set against the idea. Whatever the case, the degree to which publishing can and should be important to an artist-writer’s long-term financial well-being cannot be overstated. Neither can the ramifications of failing to understand the hows and whys of it. Continue reading
Posted in Songs/Publishing/Copyright
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Digital Music Distribution – Choosing An Aggregator
This spring, SOCAN published on its website “A guide to digital music platforms”. The subject of distribution and retail in the online sphere is an important one to a lot of independent artists and I applaud Canada’s performing rights organization in its efforts to assist recording acts with this kind of information. However, when it comes to choosing a digital distributor (“aggregator”) Continue reading
Posted in All Things Digital
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Renaming Your Songs–Retitling Can Be The Indie Artist’s Friend
I wrote a blog a couple of years back (Giving Your Song Multiple Personalities) about the topic of song retitling. The practice of giving a song two or more names has been going on for a long time and has always got a bad rap from some quarters in this industry. If anything, the negative dialogue has only gotten shriller in recent years, so I thought it a good time to revisit the subject and Continue reading
Posted in Songs/Publishing/Copyright
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Crowdfunding – What Every Music Artist Needs To Know
Sometimes referred to as fanfunding, hyper funding, micropatronage, or other such terms, crowdfunding can be defined as the activity of raising money from the public through individual contributions that are facilitated by a fundraising campaign hosted on one or another Internet website. A handful of third-party fundraising platforms have garnered most of the attention these days, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but Continue reading
Posted in All Things Digital, Funding
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Some Basics About Internet Marketing for Music Artists
I recently moderated a workshop locally on Internet marketing (IM) that was geared specifically for music artists. I don’t consider myself an expert in the field, but I’ve learned a fair bit from private work with a top IM coach as well as extensive research and countless seminars, webinars and teleseminars I’ve attended.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to be part of this workshop because I think it’s essential for independent artists to gain a much better understanding about what this IM thing is really all about and why so many aspiring acts aren’t getting much traction with their online promotional efforts. We heard from a guest speaker about the social media management part of it, but I had a few things to say myself about some other key elements of online marketing that I’d like to summarize here. Continue reading
The Management Deal – Caution Is The Order Of The Day
My recent work on a management deal contract for a local DJ artist brought back to mind a number of things every musician, singer and band ought to think seriously about when looking for a personal manager.
Right off the bat, it’s important to know Continue reading
Do Record Labels Matter Anymore?
I recently hosted a Meetup workshop event for artists focused on the topic of record labels versus going the indie route. I think this is a pretty important topic these days, what with all the loose talk and opinions flying around about the death of the industry as we know it, let alone the plethora of negative stories out there about how labels treat their artists. Continue reading
Dealing With A Booking Agent And Protecting Your Interests
The agent has a responsibility not only to you, but to the party hiring you. He has to be confident that you will fulfill that party’s needs and that the party will also live up to their responsibilities. For all intents and purposes, then, the agent has both the employee (the act) and the employer (the hiring party) as clients, for ultimately his agenda is to make sure that both parties are satisfied. This dual responsibility is directly reflected in how money flows between the parties. Continue reading
Posted in Live Music and Performance
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