Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart.

Before we delve into the wonderful world of touring logistics, strategies, great ideas that can help, bad ideas that won’t, and a few stories along the way; perhaps we should ponder if, with all of the technological advancements every day AND (for f’s sake) the price of gas!, If it’s even necessary to tour anymore?

Yes it is, you know it is, stop smoke-screening you lazy bastard and get with it!!

You don’t need to look far for an example of how important it is to get out there. Do you think for one second that, if it wasn’t essential, that politicians ever leave home? Most of those guys can’t even bring themselves to think about other people, let alone touch them—(unless it’s on the ass). So the only reason they are out there is: 1. More ass, or 2. Their advisors told them that they had to, showed them the evidence, and pushed them out the door. Think about this the next time you see one of them getting on the ‘truth bus’ or whatever crap they are selling this week.

Every single element affecting your career and your ability to continue is helped by touring:

• Anyone anywhere is more likely to check out your MySpace page if they see you are coming to town.

• Any promoter in any other city is more likely to give you a gig if they see you are performing in other parts of the country.

• People on the web write about things that happened at shows they went to, not shows that didn’t happen, that they couldn’t go to…

• Your manager, if you have one, will prioritize you over another (maybe better?) band because you are working harder (unless the other band is Radiohead).

• You can be the eyes and ears for your label, if you have one... or for other bands too lazy or frightened to leave their home base. You can tell them where responses, crowds, sound-systems are good or where ‘promoters’ are baaaaaad.

• Your agent, if you have one, will pay more attention if you show him you are prepared to perform seven shows a week. That means if he can get you to a point where you are earning $1,000 a night, then he could earn $1,000 a week.in commissions. (good job agents don’t care about money huh!)

• The record store (if you can find one) is more likely to stock your music and put up a poster.

• Everyone from the local blogger to the local paper is more likely to review your CD or mention your show.

• You can leave behind promotional beacons… t-shirts etc, put up stickers in bathrooms, graffiti in the dressing room and generally ‘leave your mark’

• Your album (or collection of songs) will be better because you’ll have direct and immediate feedback from a real, live audience; either smiling and jumping up and down because the songs you thought were great really are, or throwing things because you are delusional and your songs are shit. Either way, this is way more valuable than a bunch of people on your MySpace page plugging their own albums.

• It is a great opportunity to triumph over your shyness (eventually without the aid of alcohol) and polish your people meeting skills.

• This is stuff YOU can do – (while you are waiting for all of the people who said they were going to do something to come through for you.)

• You are creating more of your own content, audio, video and mythical…. you can’t release a Live in Paris (Texas) album if you don’t go and play there!

And, very importantly:

• The more you play, the better you get!

• You can meet GREAT, enthusiastic people who can help you next time around

• You can discover wonderful things in other town’s thrift stores

In addition to all of this – many other things will just become blindingly obvious to you as you begin this journey. You will realize when the guitarist pukes on you for the fourth time that maybe his drinking is becoming a problem – you can reflect further on this as you pull out pieces of sweetcorn and carrots from the pockets of your jeans at the laundromat.

What does all of this mean? How will it really help you? Well, all of these bits of information are little bricks in your wall (I use that analogy a LOT) but, here’s an example of what you’ll be getting from this column to leave you with:

A simple decision for a band in the mid-west – between heading out to the west coast or staying closer to home but still hitting major markets – the difference in gas costs alone - $1200. That’s the tour support that the label that wouldn’t sign you, wouldn’t give you!

Ok, now, do I have your attention???

GREAT – if you want to start reading up on this, taking control of as much of your career as you can – then there is a great deal on my e book here or you can go to Amazon and get it here.

P L R

Martin Atkins

 

Paul Chodirker is an entertainment lawyer at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto. He is also featured on the “law boys” radio segment which can be heard every Wednesday night on the Toronto-based radio station, 102.1 The Edge.

So You Still Wanna Do The Show Business? 

The title to this article comes from a lyric in a song called, “Show Business”, by A Tribe Called Quest. It’s one of the best songs that deals with the business of the music industry. This article deals entirely with the business side of having your music featured in a film. In the first part of this article, we dealt with the legal side of licensing music in film. Now, it’s time to negotiate the deal.

As stated in the first part of this article, the producer of a film is going to need a synchronization and master-use license if they want to use the master recording of a song in the picture. So, who issues these licenses?

• Synch licenses are issued by the entity that owns the musical composition; usually the composer, or more often, a music publishing company. However, synch licenses can also be obtained from various licensing agencies such as the Harry Fox Agency in the US, or the CMRRA (Canadian Mechanical Reproduction Rights Agency) in Canada. These agencies may have the non-exclusive right to issue the license on behalf of the publisher or owner. Many music publishers use these groups to administer the reproduction rights of the copyright holder in the underlying composition.

• Master-use licenses are issued by the entity that owns the master recording (typically a record company, or the artist…if they’re lucky).

So, how much will it cost the producer to acquire a synch and master-use license? This question is difficult to answer because the cost of licenses will be dictated by market value, the popularity of the song, and the budget of the production. A song can be purchased for use in a film for anywhere from $1 to over $50,000. It’s not uncommon for a publisher to charge a synchronization fee of $15,000. However, film producers are becoming much more savvy when it comes to licensing songs in their films. As discussed previously, many of the most popular soundtracks feature independent artists that have little or no exposure to the public-at-large. The fact is, indie music is becoming increasingly popular for use in films because they’re cost effective and provide the movie with cultural cache…it’s cooler to use a song from the new album by Band of Horses than it is to use a song by Def Leppard (with the exception of using “Pour Some Sugar On Me” in Coyote Ugly).

Far too many indie musicians and publishers care about the money they might receive from licensing their music in a film. There are several advantages to putting less emphasis on the money and simply getting your song in the picture. Some of these advantages, include: 

1. Exposure/publicity – having your song included in a film is one of the best ways to expose your music to a larger audience. This is especially important if you’re lucky enough to have your song released on a soundtrack.
2. Public Performance Royalties – Worldwide exposure of your song (if you wrote it), whether it be in theatres, or free/pay TV, will mean public performance royalties from ASCAP in the US and SOCAN in Canada.
3. Loyalty – if you negotiate a fair deal with a producer, the chances are very good that he or she will come back to you for more songs.

Quick. What was the song used for the end credits for the major blockbuster movie, “Wedding Crashers”? It was a song called “Aside” by Winnipeg’s Weakerthans. Surprising, isn’t it? The paradigm is shifting and indie artists need to get on board because no matter how obscure your band might be, there is always a place for music, popular or not, in film.

So, once you’ve agreed on a price and you’re ready to see your name in lights, what should you be weary of when signing the synch and master licenses? This topic will be included in part 3 of this article.

 

 

Since co-founding Bloodshot Records in Chicago in 1994, co-owner Rob Miller
has dirtied his hands in all aspects of keeping an independent label afloat
in a world beset by American Idol, illegal downloading and a collapsing
economy.  Before that he lived in and around Detroit where he was a middling
music writer, college DJ and Production Manager catering to the demands of
everyone from GWAR to the Pet Shop Boys.

 

We all like music, right?  We love it, as a matter of fact.  It’s the art form that speaks to us on a profound level, connects us to the greater world and taps into some of our most deeply held feelings and beliefs.  Many of you, like myself, have used music to aid in your personal journeys, have let it expand and define your outlooks and, yes, if we want to get all mawkish (don’t worry, no one is looking) let it touch our souls.

The Sex Pistols told me to GET PISSED and I took it to heart, I looked around me and saw that I didn’t have to take what was being shoved down my throat and follow someone else’s rules.  I felt Otis’ pain in the lapping bass line of “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” when I moved to the Bay Area on an ill-fated follow-the-girlfrie-out-west fiasco.  Man,  that was lonely.  When the Mekons dared me to “destroy my safe and happy life, before it is too late” it was like a jagged rock being thrown into a pond, the ripples spreading through my life to this day.

Even an entire generation of trust-funded, junk-bond-traders-to-be were entranced by the rallying of Give Peace a Chance.

Music means something.  Right? RIGHT?

When I was at college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there was a pizza place that would, at the end of the night, throw all the unclaimed pizzas away.  Being right in the prime years of our stick-it-to-the-man, Raskolnikov-light poverty we’d stake out the dimly lit alley by the dumpster and make off with whatever pizzas were discarded. 

Toppings?  Size? Square? Round? Who cared!

Fresh? Hot?  Slices missing? Misshapen pies that had slid to one side of the box?

Didn’t worry about it…

Bags of doughy, greasy bread sticks? Bonus!

Soon word spread, and, like an army of Morlocks, a growing horde of students descended on the dumpster for their rightful repast.  Every evening the garbage gourmands had to stake out their space earlier, or be craftier with their timing.  Eventually, complaints about noise, concerns over health and safety and liability led the place to start locking the dumpster.

Far from being discouraged, the hungry rabble of the night merely moved on to the next pizza joint.  Brand loyalty? Hah!  Free pizza is free pizza.  Furthermore, since the alluring patina of OUTLAW had been attached to these raids, the pepperoni was that much spicier, the rubbery cheese that much more crema della bell’italia, the bland sauce that much saucier.  Every night was a potential pizza night and the efforts to obtain this free bonanza became more and more elaborate as security and competition heightened.  Soon, there were entire message boards dedicated to the wheres and whens and howtos of dumpster diving.  No restaurant was spared.  Hell, it didn’t even matter if we were hungry; it was the getting that mattered.

Sound familiar?

Just because we CAN have everything, should we?  Just because we CAN download entire bodies of work with a couple of mouse clicks are we experiencing them  Just because we watch Citizen Kane on an iPhone, does that make us appreciate artistry?  Does anything sink in? Can it sink in during an age when the expectation and a smug environment of entitlement insists it is all for our taking? Will Lollapalooza 2019 be celebrating the cultural impact of the Arctic Monkeys?  Is mere accumulation an end?

How do we craft an identity out of this?  “Everything” is not a self; it is not a journey of revelation and awareness.  There’s no soul in it.  The music becomes ephemeral, a mere soggy box.  If the Vampire Weekend dumpster gets locked or too crowded, we’re on to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart before the anchovies cool. The bins behind Snow Patrol and the Strokes seem like positively ancient ruins (like my brother TOTALLY dove there like forever ago), trite and dismissed.

I dunno.  Maybe these are just the rantings of a crank.  Maybe it’s a good thing that the only ways for musicians to ply their trade these days is to pray for getting a cut on Gray’s Anatomy or a plum slot at the latest “it” festival.  Maybe the effects of Twitter and MySpace, which make old fashioned Lester Bangsy criticism seem like a Russian novel, are a healthy democratizing of the hype machines.  Maybe it's a boon to creativity and artistic expression.   But maybe it’s something to think about the next time you’re at some mega-event with scores of bands, loads of “lifestyle” booths selling “ethnic” crafts and hemp shit all underwritten by phone companies and multinational retailers trying to get into your pockets.  You've spent $100 plus just to walk through the gate, but somehow putting a value on the music itself is outré. Way to stick it to the cruel overlords who’ve kept music from its rightful place in our earbuds!  Now, let’s play some ‘sack and enjoy that rad new energy drink!

 Ask yourself this, though:  Am I a music fan, or am I indiscriminately rooting around dumpsters and anything’ll do?  Is the event, the doing, what I carry with me?  Will I wake up in the morning with a deeper appreciation and insight to my life and my world, or with just a goatee of grease and a vile rumbling in my gut?

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 Lauren

John,
I have a question. One time I read that Lennon and McCartney really fought on who should sing McCartney's "Helter Skelter". Lennon thought he would sound better singing the song (I agree totally), but because it was McCartney's song he won the battle and sang the song.

Hearing this story made me think of you guys. I always wondered how Exene and you shared the singing duties. When you both wrote a song did you ever argue about who should sing it? Did you ever sing her songs? Did she ever sing your songs? What about deciding on harmonies, it seems like such a delicate decision, but you guys nail it.

Anyways, I would appreciate the inside info.
Lauren Melton.

What Would John Doe Do?

Lauren,
  Good story about Helter Skelter.  There was never any disagreement btwn Exene & I.  I wrote "Come Back To Me" for her & she wrote "The Have Nots" for me.  We have so much respect for each other & our unique talents, it's usually obvious who will sing what.  Most of the time whoever wrote the lyrics, will be closer to the feelings & ideas expressed & will deliver it best.  Also we always apply harmonies in unconventional ways that still serve the song.
hope that helps
and as always thanks for writing,
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. To keep up with the latest news on the IAXP follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Below are the Indie Artist X Project statistics for the month of August:

 

August Stats:

 

Band Metrics Score:          233 / Silver

Website Unique Visitors:    990

Website Total Visitors:       1189

Website Sales – CD’s:        $0.00

Website Sales – MP3’s:      $29.97

Website Sales – Merch:      $0.00

Fan List:                                760

Live Show Attendance:       785

Live Show Net Sales:          $2,590.00

Live Show CD Sales:          $315.00

Live Show Merch Sales:     $530.00

Distribution Sales:               Waiting on Report

Licensing Royalties:             $0.00

BMI Royalties:                      $0.00

Soundexchange Royalties:  $0.00

MySpace Royalties:             $0.00

 

Some notes about August’s IXAP reporting

·         Band Metrics measures activity across several web properties where IAX maintains a presence including iLike, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Band Metrics also measures terrestrial radio play but hasn’t picked up any spins to date for IAX. The Band Metrics score for August moved to 233 from 183 in July.

 

·          Direct CD and Merch sales for August were $0.00. The website ecommerce store is not yet set up for CD and merchandise sales since IAX is still waiting on the artwork files from the indie label that released the last two records.

 

·         Distribution for the indie label that released IAX’s last two records is handled through InGrooves. The label has agreed to allow Indie Artist X to work directly with the distributor moving forward but that transition has not yet taken place so we don’t yet have direct reporting access to distribution sales.

 

·         Despite regular IAX plays and streams on Pandora, Last.fm, MySpace, iLike and Imeem there are still no royalties reported or paid from Soundexchange or BMI.

 

 

Fiona McLaren is a Label Liaison with Last.FM and based in London

Promoting your music online these days is meant to be easy - but due to the sheer number of sites out there it might not always seem that way. This is a brief guide to why Last.fm should be one of the main sites you use to promote yourself, and how to get the most out of it with minimal effort.

The Last.fm music database

First off, you might already have a page on Last.fm without realising. Huh?

This is how it works. Last.fm is built on the data generated by our community of music fans (21 million of them!) ‘scrobbling’ their music collections. ‘Scrobbling’ means that when a Last.fm user listens to an MP3 on their PC or iPod, the title of the track and artist name is entered into our database – and, if a page for that track and artist has yet to be created, we automatically create one. In this way we’re building a massive, ever-growing database of information about all the music ever made.

So, if you have any music out there already, chances are one of your fans is a Last.fm user who’s scrobbled your music to our database – so you might already have a page on the site. (If not, you can always create one yourself.)

But don’t panic: even if a page already exists, this doesn’t mean we have your music actually on the site. We’ll only have this if you’ve given it to us or we have a deal with your label. So the first thing you need to do is register and upload your music: http://www.last.fm/uploadmusic.

What makes Last.fm different?

The important thing to note about Last.fm (and what makes us different to other services) is that we start promoting your band for you from day one. As outlined above, as soon as one of our users listens to your music it is ‘scrobbled’ to Last.fm. From this point on, we’ll start recording the number of times Last.fm users listen to the track, and more importantly, start actively recommending it to other users with similar music tastes to the people already listening to you.

We know you’re busy, so we also get our users to help out on a lot of stuff: they can upload band photos, write biographies and describe your music using tags. All these things are essential in maintaining an active community, based around music discovery and sharing tastes. What it means for you is that once you have a page on Last.fm, it can be kept up to date thanks to our users.

The Artist Royalty Programme

What’s more, by uploading your music you’re not only helping people discover it, but you can also get paid every time anyone listens to it on Last.fm as part of our Artist Royalty Programme. Enrolling in this scheme allows you to earn money each time your track is played by someone using our On Demand service, or if it is streamed on one of our radio services.

What next?

If you want to go all out and make sure that you get the most out of Last.fm, then here are my top tips for promoting your music on Last.fm.

1. Make your music available for free download

Assuming you have already registered for our Artist Royalty Programme then your songs will automatically be available as free on demand streams for our users. However by making one or two songs available as free downloads your artist will instantly become more visible on Last.fm as we promote free content more vigorously than anything else.

2. Upload Videos

Just as we promote free content, we also push videos straight to users who might be interested in them via their recommendation dashboard. You can upload as many videos as you like and whilst promotional videos are the obvious first port of call you can also upload live performances or anything else you have kicking about, which leads me onto...

3. Create special content

If you want to raise your profile on Last.fm by leveraging your existing fanbase, a great way to do this is to upload special content to Last.fm. This could be in the form of a video tour diary, studio diary or interview, or it could be a preview of your new album interspersed with you chatting about the tracks. Not only will this be promoted automatically on Last.fm, adding interest for existing users, but you can also promote the content via your own mailing lists or MySpace page using our range of embeddable widgets.

4. Add upcoming events

Last.fm has an extensive events system that recommends events users might enjoy, as well as allowing them to invite their friends and see what other people are attending. Adding your artist’s upcoming events is a great way to keep people informed and interested. Plus, if you’ve followed the above steps, hopefully you now have a few of our users who are curious to check your band out!

5. Get involved

Last.fm is a community-based site and so conversation is important. Start using your own personal account, and join some groups. As you start to figure out the landscape you’ll be able to work out when it’s appropriate to mention you’re in a band. If people already trust you, they might be more inclined to listen when you mention an upcoming release or gig. You can also communicate with existing fans through Last.fm via things such as journals, so jump in and have a play!

6. Get an extra boost

If you’ve got an album coming out or a tour to promote, and thus some money to be spent, Last.fm also offers highly targeted advertising. We know what our users like which means that you can make your budget stretch further by only reaching those people you know will be, or should be, interested in your music.

 

 

Paul Chodirker is an entertainment lawyer at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto. He is also featured on the “law boys” radio segment which can be heard every Wednesday night on the Toronto-based radio station, 102.1 The Edge.

What was the number one selling album on Billboard’s top 200 chart at the end of January 2008? It wasn’t Radiohead’s In Rainbows, or Mary J. Blige’s Growing Pains. Can you guess what it was? It was a soundtrack album from “the little film that could” known as, Juno.

If you’re not familiar with the Juno soundtrack, it’s basically made up of indie darlings and musicians that you’ve probably never heard of, like Barry Louis Polisar and Kimya Dawson. Barry Louis Polisar is actually a musician who writes music for children. So, what can the success of the Juno soundtrack do for the average indie musician? The answer: a lot!!

To start, film producers have paid far less attention to a film’s soundtrack since the world discovered how to download these songs for free. Thus, less soundtrack’s were sold and producers no longer saw it as another valuable revenue stream that could be packaged with the release of the theatrical film. It was clear that the music world had indeed changed since the release of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in 1994 (which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide). Now, Juno has come along to revive the popularity of the film soundtrack and independent musicians are increasingly being called upon to create a movie’s soundscape.

Unless you’re Martin Scorsese and you’re filling your film with songs from The Rolling Stones and Derek & The Dominos, film producers will not be able to afford music from chart topping bands to include in their picture. More so, it appears that a soundtrack which includes indie music would probably sell better anyways. So, how can a musician that nobody has ever heard of get their songs into a film?

Step 1. Get to know and pay attention to a film’s music supervisor. A music supervisor is the person or persons who oversee the music in a particular production. They typically work with the director and producer to choose songs for the score, seek out interesting new sounds that might work well for a particular film and handle the contractual and licensing issues related to the inclusion of music in film. So, the next time the credits start to roll at the end of a movie, stay in your seat a little while longer and write down the name of the film’s music supervisor. Better yet, go to a website like IMDB.com and search your favourite movie’s to find out who acted as music supervisor’s during production. Also, a website like musicregistry.com will sell directories, which include the names and contact information of various music supervisors in the film and television industry. 

Step 2. Understand how and whether I can license my songs for use in a film. The music business is complicated. Anyone who says differently has never worked in the music industry before. I will make the following portion of this article as simple as possible.

There are two things a music supervisor will need before they can include your song in a film – a synchronization license and a master use license. The question then becomes whether myself or my band have the right to provide such licenses to the music supervisor. There are two ways of knowing whether you or your band have such rights:

1: Find out who owns the musical composition.

If I write a song called, “The Guess Who Rock” (and they do), and I solely contributed to the creation of the music and lyrics of the song, I own the musical composition. I could have also written the song with my band-mates, and in that instance, the band may own the musical composition. It is also possible that myself or my band signed to a musical publisher and assigned the rights in the musical composition to the publisher. In that case, the band and its publisher may own and control the musical composition.

Step 2: Find out who owns the master recording.

If I record the song, “The Guess Who Rock” in the basement of my house, the master recording becomes that recorded version of the musical composition. However, in many instances, if a band were signed to a music label, chances are pretty good that the rights in the master recordings have been assigned to the record company. So, in many instances, a record company may own and control the master recordings. However, if I have no affiliation with a label and I’ve recorded the musical composition on my own, I should own and control the master recording.

Why does ownership in the musical composition and the master recording matter? Because, in order to license music in a film, you need to license the use of the musical composition ( typically called a Synchronization or “Synch” license, because you are synchronizing the composition with visual images) and a license to use and synchronize the master recording of the musical composition (typically known as a Master Use license).

Get it? The music supervisor needs two license to put a song in a film – Synchronization and Master Use.

Finally, what fees can musicians expect from the sale of these licenses and what sort of deal should I make if the film producer wants to use my songs on a film’s soundtrack? These topics and more will be included in Part B of this series.

 

 

A Question from Bill in South Carolina

Howdy John,

I'm an independent roots/Americana artist and writer based in the Carolinas.

I've been involved in promotion and marketing efforts for a number of recording projects over the years, and am currently releasing and promoting a new solo record.

I am familiar with the role that performance rights organizations play in tracking, collecting, and paying for "usage" of music in radio and broadcast media, but could you comment on the role that a performance rights organization might play in an artist's overall career development, or in supporting the artist's efforts when releasing a new recording or batch of material?

What does that relationship look like, and what kinds of things can the artist do to establish that relationship, engage with the PRO, and take advantage of potential services or assistance the PRO might provide?

Thanks and Best Regards,

Bill Noonan

http://billnoonanband.com

http://myspace.com/billnoonanband

 

What Would John Doe Do?

Hey Bill,
  As you may well know there's a million + ways to market & promote a record. But let's leave those other 999,999 ways alone for now & get to yr question. The PRO's that you ask about are the complete opposite of record companies. Because their non-profit status, they are required to respond to your questions. 
  I spoke to a friend who was a VP at ASCAP & here's the low down.  You can call or e-mail either organization, BMI or ASCAP, and ask who handles or specializes in whatever style of music that you write. You can also check their websites & see who their representatives are and who they work w/. If you call they should give you a name of a rep particularly favorable to yr style.
   At this point, if you are an affiliate, you can send them yr music & hope that it resonates w/ them. They sponsor various events that showcase writers and if all goes well, you could be included in those events. As in all business relationships, it requires attention, compatible personalities and a bit of luck.
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 .

 

 

 

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. To keep up with the latest news on the IAXP follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

Below are the Indie Artist X Project statistics for the month of July. Since July is the first month of the project we plan to use these numbers as our baseline. Now the goal is to see if we can implement marketing strategy and tactics that will move all these metrics in a positive direction through the remainder of the project and beyond.

July Stats:

Band Metrics Score:            183 / Bronze

Website Unique Visitors:    355* (10 days only)

Website Total Visitors:        628* (10 days only)

Website Sales – CD’s:        Waiting on Report

Website Sales – MP3’s:      Waiting on Report

Website Sales – Merch:      Waiting on Report

Fan List:                              739

Live Show Attendance:      1120

Live Show Net Sales:          $1650.00

Live Show CD Sales:          $510.00

Live Show Merch Sales:     $460.00

Distribution Sales:               Waiting on Report

Licensing Royalties:             $0.00

BMI Royalties:                      $0.00

Soundexchange Royalties:  $0.00

MySpace Royalties:             $0.00

 

Some notes about July’s IXAP reporting:

• Band Metrics is a relatively new service so it’s not yet entirely clear how to interpret the score of 183. It’s assumed that if the IAXP marketing efforts are successful that the Band Metrics score will increase accordingly.

 

• Indie Artist X launched a new website on July 21^st so we only had 10 days of website traffic data to report during July. The indie label that released IAX’s two previous records hosted and managed the original website and didn’t provide site traffic details to the artist.

 

• The Artist’s indie label also handled direct e-commerce transactions and fulfillment from the artist website and only provided semi-annual reporting so we don’t have any data to report for website sales during July. The label is winding up their operations and has agreed to let IAX handle direct website sales and fulfillment moving forward. Since IAX is now using the Audiolife for ecommerce sales and fulfillment on their website we will have monthly sales figures to report in the upcoming months.

 

• Distribution for the indie label is handled through InGrooves. Again, since the label only provides semi-annual reporting we don’t have distribution sales for report for July. The label has agreed to allow Indie Artist X to work directly with the distributor moving forward so we expect to have more frequent and better distribution sales reporting available in the months ahead.

 

Where are the streaming and online radio royalties?

Many indie artists have long complained about not receiving PRO royalties for terrestrial radio airplay. The census taking methodology the Performance Royalty Organizations (ASCAP, BMI and SEASAC in the US) have traditionally used to track terrestrial radio airplay falls well short of capturing actual plays for individual songs.  In defense of the PRO’s, trying to track actual terrestrial radio airplay for every individual song from every single radio station is no easy task since up until the last few years terrestrial radio stations traditionally used manual, hand written logs to track what songs were played. Given that compiling aggregate terrestrial radio airplay data from hand written logs is all but impossible the census methodology did seem somewhat reasonable, even if it was bound to exclude plays and ultimately royalties for many indie artists.

I am a big fan of the opportunity Internet radio provides for indie artists. However, after reviewing the Indie Artist X statistics from July it’s hard to comprehend why there are simply no royalties from BMI or Soundexchange at all. A quick check of IAX’s profile on Last.fm shows the artist is approaching 4000 plays. I personally hear Indie Artist X’s music daily on my Pandora station. Despite clearly receiving Internet radio airplay, being registered with BMI and Soundexchange and having their most recent record posted on multiple Internet radio stations for the last two years, Indie Artist X has never been paid any royalties for Internet radio airplay or on-demand streaming. Yes, IAX did write the songs and owns the copyright to all their music.

So where are the Internet radio and streaming royalties for Indie Artist X?

Is the problem that Last.fm, Pandora, Imeem, etc. are simply not reporting all their plays to BMI and Soundexchange? Are BMI and Soundexchange collecting royalties from the Internet radio stations but not paying royalties to Indie Artist X? Are the royalty organizations applying the same dated and flawed terrestrial radio census methodology to calculate Internet radio royalties even though the play data for each song is captured electronically and stored in databases by the providers?

These are all troubling questions. Admittedly, I don’t know where the breakdown in this process is occurring.  I’m no copyright attorney or topic expert but I’m operating under the assumption that the copyright law and court rulings that have set current royalty rates are supposed to apply to all artists receiving Internet radio airplay, not just those in the Billboard Top 200.

All of the above mentioned organizations and companies owe their very existence to the songwriters and musicians that create music.  It’s time they figure out how to calculate and pay royalties on a per play basis for all artists. Even a few thousands Internet radio plays deserve compensation.

Despite the very public debate and the tremendous amounts of time and money spent lobbying Congress and the Copyright Royalty Board over Internet radio royalties it appears the Internet radio providers and royalty collection organizations have left Indie Artist X out of the equation.

You might have heard by now that Martin Atkins and partners started a school:  Revolution Number Three (www.revolutionnumberthree.com). Martin Atkins is a regular guest blogger here at KnowTheMusicBiz.com and has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the band s Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart.

Our friends Martin and Revolution Number Three provide five week immersion programs where students learn IN the music business, not ABOUT the music business.  It’s hands-on, down and dirty learning in the fast paced, continually evolving, head spinning, cross pollinated, entrepreneurial, groovy as all hell HUB that they are.

Check out this video to get a better idea of what R3’s programs are all about:

On August 21 – August 23 r3 is hosting the Weekend Revolution which is the five week program on speed! In just two and half days they are going to cram your head with as much information as possible to revolutionize the way you think about the business of your art.  The revolution weekend is limited to 30 attendees – guaranteeing hands-on learning and one-on-one time with Martin Atkins and other speakers.

Before you lose your ass, your mind, your relationship, your car, the reason you started in the music biz in the first place, and thousands and thousands of dollars, you can invest $299 on a unique two day immersion seminar with people who have been there, done that, are still doing it, and are teaching it!

In two days you will:
• screen print your own merchandise and promo material
• design simple graphics (logos, t-shirts, and postcards)
• write a bio other people will want to read
• engage your online community in tangible ways
• use audio and visual tools to market yourself and your stuff
• hack xboxes and traditional business models
• launch an actionable plan that you can do yourself!

 Also, Indie Artist X will be participating in the Revolution Weekend! Participants in the program will have the opportunity to hang with the anonymous artist behind our group music marketing project / experiment. 

Click here to register or to learn more about Martin’s upcoming Revolution Weekend. KnowTheMusicBiz.com readers can enter the discount code “martinrocks” and get $50.00 off the cost of attending.