John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.

Hello John,

I have been writing songs for some time now and it's been a dream of mine to record my own record. The local recording studio near my house gave me a handwritten price quote of $2000.00 to record, mix, master my recordings and cover the costs of a couple of session musicians. It seemed like a lot of money but the people there seemed to know what they are doing and I wanted a professional recording of my material. Now that the recording process is over a couple of things happened that have left me confused and upset. The person in charge at the studio helped me with melodies on two of my songs, now he says he wants 25% ownership of those songs! He never told me that his help would give him part ownership of MY songs. If I had known that I would have stuck with my original melodies. Additionally he is now asking that I sign a producer agreement that gives him 3% points on my sales. Shouldn't these "agreements" happen before I started recording, not after? I have already paid for the recording session in full but now he is won't give me the masters until I sign his agreements. Are artists always treated this way by people who offer "help" in the music industry? What would John Doe Do in this situation?

With much respect,

Amanda

WWJDD?

Hey Amanda,
   I'd love to kick this guy in the shins for you!
First of all, you have ALL my sympathy. This is totally unprofessional & YES these agreements should be negotiated before the session.  The first thing I thought of was how can you break-in or bring a couple of big, nasty goons & physically take back yr tapes.  Then of course I realized there are no tapes. I suppose you could do that to his computer but . . . doing 1 to 3 @ the State Pen for breaking & entering & robbery probably isn't that attractive. One way to avoid this is to use your own hard drive, possession is "9 tenths of the law".  BUT what's done is done.  You could get a lawyer but that means more money & too much time & effort.  You probably should make a complaint to the "Better Business Bureau" & tell anyone in yr town who cares, what a shitbag this guy is.
  Now, to solve yr dilemma. Even though what he's asking for should have be settled before recording, a producer's fee isn't uncommon.  Standard is 3% but that applies to established producers.  Offer him a 2%, producer's fee.  Regarding the melodies; go line by line & figure out what percentage yours to his melodies are used in the songs that he contributed to. That may be difficult but be generous & make yr best guess.  This way if he questions how you came up w/ the number, you will have a plan. Then offer him half of that percent of the writer’s credit, since I'm guessing he didn't write any of those words.  Also he would not be entitled to any publisher's royalty.  If none of this is acceptable to him, take him to small claims court, maybe you'll get Judge Judy.
  This is a lot of wrangling for, probably, not much reward ($$) but there is always a chance that the song could get licensed to some movie or TV show & that can be big dough.  Let me know if I should dust off my brass knuckles, be tough & best of luck.
I hope this helps and as always, thanks for writing.
yrs,
JD

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com .

A graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School, Passman is listed in The Best Lawyers of America. He is the author of the nonfiction bestseller All You Need to Know About the Music Business , which has sold more than 150,000 hardcover copies in print. Passman has lectured extensively on the subject of the music industry, including teaching a course at the University of Southern California Law School's Advanced Professional Program, and lecturing for the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, Harvard Law School, the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the USC Entertainment Law Institute, and the Los Angeles Copyright Society.

 Question:

Assuming an independent musician has no record label, is the sole songwriter and owns their copyright and has digital distribution for a flat annual fee - How would they earn royalties from the sources below? Who collects and pays the royalties for each?

- Non interactive radio (Pandora) 

Answer: There’s some question whether Pandora is “interactive” but for now, a court has held it is not. Assuming that’s correct, there is a compulsory license under the copyright law for the masters, and the monies are collected by a nonprofit company called Soundexchange.

ASCAP / BMI (performing rights societies) collect for the songwriting.

The artist (who is also the record company and publisher in this example) affiliates with each of these companies for payment.

- Streaming services (Spotify) 

Answer: Interactive streaming requires a license for the master from the company; there is no compulsory license, so they can charge whatever they can get. There are “aggregators” (like Tunecore and Orchard) who put together small companies and re-license the digital rights to masters. That would make sense for an owner/user like this example, because it’s hard to get streaming services to make one-off deals.

Songwriting is collected by ASCAP / BMI.

-  Digital downloads (iTunes) 

Answer: Master rights are also licensed directly, or through aggregators, as above.

Publishing rights are done directly, or through Harry Fox.

- Subscription download service (eMusic) 

Answer: I assume you mean a streaming subscription with a number of downloads included? If so, they need all the licenses above.

- Video streaming (YouTube) 

Answer: The record company makes a deal with the site. Songwriting isn’t totally settled. Mostly, the record company gets paid by the site directly, then pays the songwriter / publisher.

Swank currently resides in Chicago, Illinois where he does radio promotion and tour press for Bloodshot Records. Previously he spent 7 years at Yep Roc Records as head of radio promotions. Swank also has a collective 20+ years as on air talent in both commercial and non-commercial radio, 5 years as an entertainment journalist for the Nightlife in Carbondale, Il, a six month stint as a stand-up comedian and has written, produced & directed 3 one-act plays. Joe Swank and the Zen Pirates self-released Hank Williams Died for My Sins on November 10, 2009.

I started playing music rather late in life. I was in my mid-20’s when I joined my first band. Mostly covers at first, but one by one, I started incorporating originals into the mix. Fast forward past several bands and two albums and I was starting to wonder how this music thing seemed to take plenty of money, but never really gave all that much back.

The music I have always played is best described as Honky Tonk. Honky Tonk fans make up a VERY narrow band of the Country Music crowd. They are the ones who seek out artists/groups like Dale Watson, Shaver, Wayne Hancock, Whitey Morgan and Hank 3 ….or to a further extent, Drive-By Truckers, Slobberbone and The Waco Brothers.  

My first record (The MoJoDeans – The MoJoDeans 1998 – Relay Records) was almost all my money invested. The band fund kicked in a few hundred dollars, and I ended up eating around 8K over the course of 2 years. Funding recording, hired radio promotion, keeping us on the road and general expenses. A key band member moved away and the band broke up. It was then I realized if I was going to invest in music, I was gonna need to get my name in the title, or it was virtually a wasted investment on my part as far as branding my music was concerned. The second record (Joe Swank & The Mule Skinner Band – Cowpunk! 2001 – Cowpunk Music/Self Released) was recorded in exchange for my Honda Shadow 750. The band had problems that can all be traced back to medication, and was a short-lived project. By the time mixing and mastering was done, the band no longer existed. I pulled together a band and about 200 copies of the disc for CD release and then put it to bed.

I already had eyes on North Carolina as they seemed to have the most thriving record industry outside of Nashville and L.A. I moved to North Carolina in 2001 and started working at Redeye Distribution in order to figure out where the money goes and how to get some of it back in my pocket. This was supposed to be a temporary warehouse job that would help me do it right the next time. I would learn where to spend the money vs. where not to waste my time. Something funny happened along that path in that I ended up taking a full time job with Yep Roc Records (owned by Redeye Dist.) and actually started liking the Rubik’s Cube that is the music industry. I became intrigued with the different patterns in an attempt to get to the same end.

This, unfortunately, put MY band on the back burner. I tried to keep up on nights and weekends, but time just wasn’t on my side. As I got deeper into the business, there was always something else to research and study. Just when I thought I had it almost figured out, the whole game changed with a little thing called the internet broadband connection. The computer was relatively useless back in the dial up days, but the high speed connections changed the game. I-tunes also changed the game. Pretty much everything that happened on the internet in the last 8 to 10 years has eventually changed the game.

I released our record HANK WILLIAMS DIED FOR MY SINS on November 10^th, 2009. I formed the Zen Pirates in Raleigh in late 2001. We played around and worked up a mess of my originals and tried recording them in 2002. Two days in, the sound just wasn’t right and we scrapped to re-group. Second attempt at recording in 2004 was with a cat that got a last minute gig offer to go on the road. He stored the hard drive with nearly a completed record. I have not seen him (or the $800 I paid him) since that day. Third attempt was in 2006. 3 songs in and the engineer got called away to a 3 month job in Ohio. Finally, (with an entirely different band than when I started), I got all the ducks in a row and booked studio time with Rick Miller in 2008. Between the time I booked the studio and the recording date, I was offered a job I couldn’t refuse. Despite my 7 years in the industry at this time, I was still a one trick pony as far as my views of how a label works, so I decided to make the leap, accepted the offer and literally recorded the album in the two days before I got in a U-haul and moved my life up to Chicago and went to work for Bloodshot Records.

The last year has been a difficult time of booking for overdubs and trying to mix from 850 miles away. I flew down a couple of times to do what I could in person, but ultimately, half the disc was mixed without me present. In the end, I had to remove two cuts because they just weren’t where I wanted them to be. Had my mastering done here in Chicago where I could be present, and finally called it done.

2 constant truths about the music business:

#1) If you don’t tour, don’t bother

#2) If your #1 concern is making money, join a cover/tribute band.

Now, without my presence in North Carolina and everyone in the band having a full time job, it’s pretty clear that we’re not going to be able to tour behind this record, outside of weekend bursts when all of us can get away. On top of that, we play Honky Tonk. Not a large demand for such a splinter genre. The Americana/Roots section at the store is already small enough, and there are some road warriors out there that deserve the coveted slot a lot more than we do. So what does one do with a record that doesn’t have much of a chance? Why even MAKE the record in the first place?

Ars gratia artis is latin for “art for the sake of art”. I have had many of these songs in my head for several years and needed to document them to let my brain move on to the next creative endeavor. The amount it might reap at the end was never even a concern. It would’ve been SO much easier on me to just call the 7 years in N.C. a wash and get a band together in Chicago to do the songs, but these guys in the Zen Pirates are the best band I have ever had and we’d been playing the songs so long that I knew they would nail it, and nail it they did. Now we have a finished disc and with the knowledge I have in my head about how the industry works, I knew it was a relatively dead project coming out of the shoot. Any artist will tell you, sometimes you just have to do things, regardless of how well thought out they may or may not seem at the time. 

BUT…There is hope. This new-fangled internet thing can at least give me exposure to a large number of people that, until the last few years, would’ve been unreachable. Tunecore is a godsend. With a nominal fee and a few weeks waiting time, they can post your record to most every major digital site in the game. You can hyperlink a button on your site to take people directly to your album. This is an amazing leap forward in getting music out there. Granted, it is also easier than ever to get free copies of stuff off the net, but one hopes that people who actually like the music, would want to compensate the artist. Myspace and Facebook are both huge tools to get the word out on your music and each day, new opportunities show themselves. Café Press is another site that is truly helpful in getting you some merch. Your take is about 10% for the use of your logo, but it at least makes your chosen image available to the general public world-wide. The newest event that I am excited about is the ability to “gift” song streams on Facebook for a dime. This business is BUILT on nickels and dimes, so even if that gifted song only shows up as a penny in earned income, a thousand pennies can make a different.

From a professional “what-you’re-supposed-to-do” perspective, I mailed around 100 cd’s to radio and about 60 to press. That is dramatically shy of what I would recommend on an artist we’re trying to work with professionally, but I am honing down to the precious few that have shown themselves to be Honky Tonk fans. I am paying for every mailer and every disc that goes out, so the shotgun approach is not an option. Also hitting a handful of Digital sites, but the main bulk of those can be serviced digitally. I have the record up on Airplay Direct as well as a private link I have to send someone the full download with art. Digital Distribution is also a boon to the new Music Industry. Stations that wouldn’t even consider downloading a song 5 years ago, now request digital delivery in an attempt to fight back the wall of hard copy discs that fill rooms in the radio stations. You can save a TON of money servicing people digitally. There are still people that require a hard copy, and you need to factor that in for radio service. I am also currently talking with film & T.V. licensing agents regarding video game, movie and television placement. There are thousands of outlets out there now, many for free or nominal cost. You never know where an album may earn its keep. 

The Zen Pirates will continue on as a band that rarely plays out, but I’ve learned that it’s a very small world and that you never know where the next wind will take you. As for me, I am going to take a break from MY music, at least through the holidays and see how this whole digital campaign works out for us. We have plans to do some touring next year. We’re pondering a couple of long weekends up the east coast and down to Texas, as we have connections in both directions. In the mean time, I love my day job and I’m gonna continue to punch in and try to get the word out about good music that other people have made. If I’m lucky, some of those same folks will find our stuff out there in the digital landscape.

Swank*

Hank Williams Died For My Sins can be purchased at http://zenpirates.com/ as well as digitally at I-tunes, Amazon.com, Shockhound and other fine digital outlets. You can listen to cuts from the record at http://www.myspace.com/joeswankandthezenpirates.  Joe Swank recommends you read this piece if you are looking for a label, as it has many answers: http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/faqs#b

Laura Williams manages SoundExchange’s communications strategies, including overseeing the launch of a new, better-than-ever www.SoundExchange.com in coming weeks. She holds degrees in Political Communications and Writing from Susquehanna University.

You may have heard about SoundExchange lately. We’ve paid out more than $111 million in royalties so far this year, are out in front fighting for fair compensation for artists, and making sure the 43,000+ recording artists and 5,000+ copyright holders we represent are getting paid when they get played.

With all those artists and all that money, it’s surprising how many people don’t know about SoundExchange yet. If you've got questions about what SoundExchange is or does, check out our ‘What Is SoundExchange’ video:

Here's the upshot: when sound recordings are played on certain digital services, satellite radio like SIRIUS-XM, Internet radio like Pandora, those high-numbered cable channels like MusicChoice, or streamed as background music in some restaurants or stores, the artist who performed on that recording earns a royalty. So does the copyright owner, which may be a label, or an independent artist who owns his own masters.

The digital services who owe those royalties either have to make a deal with each and every artist and rights owner directly (a direct licenses) and cut them a check, or they can use the blanket permission set up by the government (a statutory license). If they’re eligible for the statutory license, that service can use any commercially-released track ever made, without asking for permission from the artist. The service writes a check to SoundExchange, and provides a report of use - basically, a playlist of every track they've used, and who the artist and copyright holder are for that track.

SoundExchange is the only service the government allows to collect those royalties. Our job is to sort through the reports, find out what percentage of the money each artist or rights holder is owed, and then send them a check for what all the services together owed them. That's harder than it sounds. We don't always get good data from the services that use your tracks - how are we going to distribute to "various artists" or "label unknown"?

More importantly, SoundExchange collects royalties for EVERYONE whose tracks are played, even if they haven't registered with us, even if they've never heard of us! SoundExchange has only been around since 2001, so we're still getting the word out to artists and rights holders that this royalty stream exists. Unlike our friends at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC (more on them later) we don't just collect for our members. But we need artists to register with us, or we have no way of knowing where to send the money. We have many ways of contacting artists, from social networking to database matches to one-on-one meet-ups at conferences and festivals, but it’s a big job. Our 43,000+ artists and 5,000+ rights holders spread the word to their friends and colleagues, and success stories are our best method of outreach. So get registered, get paid, and tell a friend.

If you're not registered, get registered. Don't worry, though- SoundExchange hasn't given away your royalties. Artists and rights owners who sign up today can collect royalties they earned all the way back to the beginning of collections in 1998. We get a few hundred new registrations every month, and our online registration site has them coming in faster than ever. Remember, it’s always 100 percent FREE. We’re just giving you money that’s already yours. 

Another big difference between SoundExchange and other performance rights societies is that we advocate and expect per-play reporting from services. That means that instead of relying on sampling reports – four weeks a year or a few days a month – to determine what to pay, we ask services to report every track they play, every time they play it. In fact, 95 percent of the money we distribute is accompanied by ‘census data’ – that is, every track played, every time it’s played. We strongly believe this is the fairest way to distribute, and to make sure royalties get to the people who’ve earned them. We still accept sampling data from a few webcasters as a special accommodation, but we believe that census data is the way of the future, and SoundExchange is on the cutting edge of that movement. 

SoundExchange is a nonprofit. None of our staff of forty-five music lovers is in this for the money. We come to work every day excited about helping the people who create music get paid for their work. A lot of us are musicians ourselves, and some are recording artists. Our Board of Directors, who set our organization’s course and priorities, is evenly split between the representatives of recording artists and of rights holders. We're run by the people we pay, and staffed by people who believe in what we do.

When we’re out on the road spreading the word about SoundExchange and digital performance rights, we hear and answer the same questions over and over. So in case you’re wondering, too, here are a few of our top FAQs.

Q: You have money for me? And it’s free? What’s the catch?

A: There isn’t one. Zero, zip, nada. We were set up by the Library of Congress and the Copyright Royalty Board to collect money you’ve already earned. It’s your money, waiting here for you. You just have to tell us where to send it. That’s all there is to it. No registration fee. No Nigerian email addresses. Promise.

Q: I’m already a member of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. Can I be a member of SoundExchange, too?

A: YES! We collect for a different royalty, for a different copyright than our friends at these organizations. They pay songwriters and publishers, the creators of music and lyrics written down on paper, and we pay recording artists and copyright holders, the creators of the master sound recordings. We encourage you to be a member of one of these organizations, AND of SoundExchange. They’re in no way in conflict.

Q: How does SoundExchange make money?

A: As an organization, we don’t. We’re a non-profit. We do retain a small percentage of the royalties we collect to pay our staff and keep the lights on. Although all performance rights organizations are funded this way, we have the lowest rate in the industry.

Q: Who does SoundExchange pay?

Of the royalties earned on a track, we pay 50% to the copyright holder and 45% directly to the featured recording artist. 5% goes into a fund which compensates backup musicians and session players. Independent artists who own their own masters keep 95%! 

Q: If I register, will I get paid right away?

A: Although we’re improving efficiency every day, SoundExchange can take up to 180 days to fully process a registration, including tax information, and compare it to our database of 7 BILLION performances. If those searches show you’ve accrued more than $10 in royalties, you’re eligible to be paid right away by Direct Deposit. Our average annual payout per registrant is about $3,000.

Q: What don’t you collect royalties for?

A: SoundExchange DOES NOT collect for digital downloads (like iTunes or “podcasting”) or “on-demand” plays like YouTube or MySpace, where a user can select and immediately play the song she wants to hear. SoundExchange also does not collect for the streaming of any audiovisual work, including music videos.

We also don’t collect royalties for AM and FM radio plays. Why? Because artists and copyright holders don’t get paid for radio plays. When you hear “Respect” on the radio, Otis Redding, who wrote the song, gets paid. Aretha Franklin, who sang the song and made it famous, doesn’t see a penny. Surprised? Most people are. Sound unfair? We agree. That’s why when our members authorize us to use a little bit of their money to protect and promote their rights, SoundExchange uses some of that to help out a group called musicFIRST (Fairness in Radio Starting Today). Our allies at musicFIRST are trying to close the loophole in copyright law which lets over-the-air radio stations to use your music without compensating you. Check out their website at www.musicfirstcoalition.org, and get in touch with your representatives in Congress, and let them know you support a full performance right for artists.

So if you hadn’t heard about SoundExchange, or you thought digital performance rights were just too good to be true, now you know. Get registered, get a friend registered, and let us help you get paid when you get played.

Laura Williams

John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.

A Question from Ronquaise in Atlanta

Hi John,

I would like to say thank you so much for all of your help. You have really answered allot of my questions just reading and studying your site.  I do have a question, I am a solo artist pop/ R&B I want to know if I should try and put together a backing band or just get backing vocals and dancers? I know it would be easy to travel and allot cheaper, but would I be taken seriously in the music business using backing tracks even with dancers and backing vocals. I am new, and I hope to release my Self released album next spring. I don't want to start out wrong starting out. What happens when it’s not a band but just a solo artist? Please tell me what you think

Thanks,

Ron

What Would John Doe Do?

Hey Ron,

   Regardless of how you present yr songs or what style the performance takes; getting music to the people is most important thing. If you can't afford something, don't go into debt at the start of a project.  Though my field isn't R&B, I'm sure that now-a-days many artists w/ complex backing tracks use pre-record. Are you sure that you need dancers? If the audience in the clubs where yr performing expect that, then bring them. 

  Have faith in the material & make every effort to get to the audience that will understand yr style of music. Stripped down versions of good songs can be very compelling but you don't want to waste time at singer songwriter clubs if yr record is very slick & produced. Try to find yr gut feelings & trust them.

I hope this helps, best of luck & as always, thanks for writing.

yrs, 

JD

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com .

The goal of the Indie Artist X Project is to develop a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy, prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget that can be implemented by any artist who has the inclination to follow it. About.com Music Careers, Artists House Music, Hypebot, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com and Revolution Number 3 have banded together to create this community based music marketing plan.  We will be working with one anonymous artist to design and implement this music marketing plan then track and report the actual results over a four month period.

Today marks the wrap up date for the 4 month long Indie Artist X Project. I posted a blog at Hypebot today with an overall IAXP wrap up and summary.

The majority of the inquiries and questions I received during the Indie Artist X Project where about the identity of the anonymous artist who was participating in the project and how that artist was selected. Now that the project has officially wrapped up I can finally announce that the artist who participated in the project is Austin Collins from the band Austin Collins and The Rainbirds.

Background

I first stumbled upon Austin and his band by accident at the 2008 South by Southwest Festival. While I was at SXSW I attended a show case event to see a friend of mine’s band play and Austin’s band just happened to come on stage next. I was immediately impressed with the set Austin and the Rainbirds performed. After the show I briefly met the band and picked up a copy of their latest CD, Roses are Black.

Once I got home from SXSW I began listening to all the CD’s I’d brought home with me and after a few listens I decided Roses are Black was a damn fine record. After many, many more listens I decided Roses are Black was my favorite record of 2008.

At the end of the year I was one of the people who blogged about my “Five Favorite Things”  in About.com’s 2008 Music Wrap Up feature. Soon afterwards Austin contacted me to say thank you for mentioning Roses are Black was my favorite release of 2008. ‘I kept Austin’s contact information but we didn’t communicate past his initial email.

SXSW 2009

Two weeks before I was to depart for South by Southwest this past spring I found out my housing plans had fallen through. Anyone who has been to SXSW can tell you there are no hotel rooms available anywhere near Austin, TX two weeks prior to the event.

In an attempt to try and salvage my trip I pulled a list of everyone in my contacts that lived in Austin, TX and sent out an email asking if anyone knew a place where I might be able to crash during SXSW. Almost immediately Austin replied back to my email saying I could stay at his house. Problem solved!

When I arrived in town Austin and I agreed to meet up at the Guitar Town party after the day’s panels had concluded.  I learned several interesting things hanging out with Austin that first night. He has great taste in music, a wide circle of friends, strong interpersonal skills and a degree in Finance from the University of Texas. When I introduced Austin to Rob Miller from Bloodshot Records I was impressed with how easily Austin fell into my conversation with Rob (and didn’t immediately fall all over himself pitching his band).

The Deal

Austin was very interested in getting my take on music marketing and the music business in general and had a lot of good questions. We found it difficult to talk at the evening parties and showcases so we arranged to talk over breakfast on my last day in town. At breakfast we covered a wide range of music business related topics, online marketing, distribution, licensing, etc. while Austin made furious notes of everything we discussed.

I really liked Austin’s music and found him to be very motivated and driven so I made him a deal that morning. I told Austin I would help him pull together a music marketing / music business plan without compensation but I would only put as much effort into building his music career as he was. I have tried to help a few musicians with their business / marketing efforts in the past but always grew frustrated at their lack of follow through and execution.

We setup a Google Docs page to help us get Austin’s marketing efforts organized and to assign key tasks and due dates. I quickly found out that Austin always follows though. I can’t think of a single time that I even casually suggested an idea to Austin he didn’t have it done before our next weekly phone call.

The IAXP is Born

I initially thought I could pull together a fairly comprehensive outline for a music marketing plan easily enough but found it to be a pretty huge task. I started reaching out to other folks I know and respect to get their input on ideas for Austin’s marketing plan.

While talking to Cameron Mizell from MusicianWages.com one day we stumbled upon the idea of blogging about the creation of Austin’s marketing plan and the results it generated.  We discussed the need for Austin’s name to be withheld so it wouldn't provide him with free publicity during the project and in turn skew any results he might see.

After phone calls to some smart, forward thinking, indie focused music business blogging peers the Indie Artist X Project was born. Hopefully a few musicians will find the music marketing plan we created useful in developing their own plan and furthering their own music career.

What’s Next for Mr. Indie Artist X?

As the IAXP was preparing to kick off Austin won the 2009 AirPlay Direct “All Things Americana” artist contest. Austin is using the $35,000 contest prize package to self release his third studio record, due out in February 2010.

Moving forward you can follow Austin’s progress on his website, Facebook and / or Twitter.