John P. Strohm is a transactional entertainment and intellectual property attorney with the firm Johnston Barton Proctor & Rose LLP . John’s practice focuses on the representation of musicians, songwriters and independent record labels. Prior to becoming an attorney, John was a professional musician and producer for over a decade. He performed and recorded as a member of several notable alternative pop/rock acts, including The Lemonheads and Blake Babies. Follow John on Twitter @JohnPStrohm.

             I get a lot of calls from bands I’ve never heard of, and there’s a recurring conversation I’ve been having ever since I started practicing entertainment law.  It generally goes something like this:

Band dude: “I got your number [from a friend, from an industry resource, off the bathroom wall, etc.], and I want to talk to you about hiring you to be my lawyer.”

Me: “Great.  Why do you feel that you need a lawyer?” 

B.D.: “Because we’re getting our team together.” 

Me: “Well, that’s fantastic; but what exactly do you need a lawyer for?  Do you have a contract to negotiate/a dispute to resolve/ product to shop?” 

B.D.: “Right now we’re just getting my team together because big things are about to happen.  We have 30,000 MySpace friends, a tight set, and a great image.  We’re doing you a big favor, because I can feel it – we’re going to be huuuuuge.” 

            One of the most difficult aspects of working with musicians is managing expectations, which is especially true of young bands.  Pretty much every band believes they are going to be huge, which raises all sorts of issues – not the least of which is artists’ tendency to perceive any business opportunity as a potential “big break.”                 

  But what do they mean by the “team,” and when should a band or solo artist worry about assembling a team?  This article provides a quick introduction of the members of the typical business team (which should be distinguished from the creative team, e.g. producers, choreographers, lighting directors, makeup artists, etc.), along with some guidance regarding when these advisors may become necessary or desirable.   

              Attorney:  Please feel free to take this with a grain of salt: an attorney is often the first professional an artist will require to assist him with his career.  In my opinion, an artist should consult with a competent (i.e. knowledgeable about the music business) attorney whenever he is asked to sign a document with respect to his career or even to enter into a verbal agreement (which may be binding).  I’ve often been retained to get an artist out of a lousy agreement that the artist signed without the benefit of an attorney’s review.  You should regard signing any legal document with respect to your career without consulting an attorney as very risky.

              Other than reviewing legal documents and in the absence of a lawsuit or potential lawsuit, when does an artist need an attorney on his team?  First off, attorneys are by no means uniquely qualified to shop product to labels and publishers.  Historically, attorneys have played a big part in shopping deals for artists; however, their role has diminished in recent years.  These days labels are primarily interested in artists who have already done a great deal of work in terms of self-development; as such, even a fantastic demo tape will beg the question, What has the artist done to establish a career? 

  Rarely do labels actually sign artists who don’t have a sales history, a significant touring footprint, and/or a significant online presence.  If an attorney does shop an artist, generally the attorney will require a contingent fee, i.e. the artist must pay the attorney a percentage of their advance money, sometimes in addition to a percentage of gross income and/or hourly billing for certain services.  In short, it is generally far less expensive to find your own deal or have your manager (who gets paid a percentage regardless) shop for you.  If you bring an attorney a deal that’s already on the table, then you should be able to pay the attorney by the hour, rather than a percentage of the deal.  But beware: if you accept an informal offer of business terms (even delivered via email or MySpace), you might lose the opportunity to have your attorney negotiate the terms later. 

  In short, any successful artist must retain an attorney or attorneys to deal with the myriad legal issues that arise with regard to their many contractual relationships.  Less successful or newer artists generally only need an attorney when their business dealings expose them to risk, such as when they are faced with legally binding agreements, or for business planning purposes.  Such artists should generally retain attorneys as needed by the hour, as opposed to retaining attorneys who require payment of a percentage of the artist’s gross income. 

  Most music attorneys charge between $200 and $400 per hour, though some charge upwards of $500.00 per hour.  Keep in mind that many music attorneys are willing to negotiate flat fees or fee caps to work with a limited budget – though don’t be offended if an attorney requires a percentage of the projected fees as a retainer.    

  Personal Manager:  The personal manager is the artist’s principal advisor and agent with regard to both day-to-day and long-term matters relating to the artist’s career.  The personal manager (often referred to simply as the “manager”) generally acts as a conduit and communicator between the artist, the other team members, the record company and publisher, and all other parties involved in the artist’s career (including the creative team and parties providing specific services, such as publicists and licensing agents). 

  The personal manager generally commissions a percentage of the artist’s gross earnings – which can range from 10% on the very low end to 20% or more on the high end.  Established managers usually don’t get interested in artists until the artist has consistently shown the ability to earn income.  Management contracts often have rather long exclusive terms (generally measured in album cycles rather than years), and contracts generally entitle the manager to at least some income even after the term has expired. 

  When it makes sense for an artist to enter into an agreement with a personal manager should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.  It’s almost never a good idea for an artist to enter into a long-term agreement with a less established personal manager without first determining whether the manager will be a good “fit” with the artist.  Many younger managers will work on a handshake basis for a period of time to allow the artist (and manager) to make an educated decision as to whether there is such a fit.  Most protections in management agreements benefit the manager, though there are usually some protections for the artist as well.  If a manager is not consistently generating enough of an increase in income to cover their commission, then they are probably not doing a good job (that is to say they are costing you money).

  Unlike lawyers, agents and (generally) business managers, personal managers are not required to be licensed.  As such, be aware that you should do plenty of research with respect to a prospective manager.  Researching a lawyer is far easier – you can simply call the state bar to confirm that the lawyer is in good standing.  With a manager, you should take the time to follow up with references.  If the manager won’t give you references, that should be regarded as a bad sign.

  Business Manager:  The business manager’s role is generally limited to managing an artist’s finances: including receiving income, paying bills, preparing tax returns, and general investment/financial planning.  If a business manager is not a CPA, you should probably regard that as a red flag. 

Business managers generally charge a fee in the amount of 5% of an artist’s gross income for their services.  An artist generally doesn’t need a business manager until he earns substantial income (i.e. six figures annually), and similarly good entertainment business managers generally aren’t interested in clients who are not earning substantial income.  Most services provided by business managers, such as tax preparation, can be obtained by accountants who will bill at an hourly rate.

Often personal management agreements require even newer artists to retain a business manager.  Such a requirement clearly benefits the personal manager, who wants to ensure payment of his commissions; however, it’s not always in the artist’s interest to give up an additional 5% of gross income to the business manager primarily for the manager’s benefit.  Assuming the artist has good money management skills and habits and delegates some important financial duties to an accountant, a music business manager sometimes constitutes an unnecessary expense, even for moderately successful artists.

Agent:  The role of the agent varies from one entertainment industry (e.g. film, literary publishing, television) to another (e.g. music).  Nevertheless, in every entertainment industry agents are subject to strict licensure requirements by statute in certain states such as New York and California.  The role of agents in the music industry is generally limited to booking live engagements, for which agents are generally paid 10% of the gross income generated by such engagements. 

           Unless your state does not have licensure laws and bookings will be limited to your state, it is important to confirm that a booking agent or agency is licensed in the relevant states.  Another important matter to keep in mind is that personal managers are prohibited from booking engagements in states with licensure requirements.  If managers violate state licensure laws and is sued by the artist, a possible remedy is that the management contract (regardless of the term) is void.

              It’s a buyer’s market for booking agents, because there are relatively few agents that have sufficient contacts and experience (and interest) to book less established acts.  As with other potential team members, agents rarely become interested in artists until the artist is able to generate significant income from live performances.  Most artists must book their own engagements until they establish a significant touring base, at which time agents are likely to pursue the artist.

              If your band becomes financially successful, it will probably become clear which of these advisors you need and when.  Keep an eye out for conflicts of interest among your advisors – especially lawyers and managers.  It’s probably a good idea to seek a lawyer referral from someone other than your manager, since the first order of business with your manager may be negotiating the terms of a management agreement.  Attorneys are bound by ethical rules that prohibit representing clients when such conflicts exist, but that doesn’t mean that all attorneys abide by the rules. 

              In sum, take your time and ask a lot of questions when forging professional relationships.  Although there is a documented history of dishonest or incompetent music industry professionals, I have met many solid, honest and respectable lawyers, managers, business managers and agents.  Make sure that you end up with good people that make sense for your unique needs and circumstances.

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.

Since you've asked me, the owner of the lowly but scrappy Bloodshot Records what we look for in a new artist, and not David Geffen or the CEO-of-the-month at DynaMusicTechNet Global LTD, I will assume that we all understand my advice and taste and goals all come from the staunchly independent perspective. We don't have to worry about shareholders or making sure the CFO's housekeepers at the Caribbean island getaway are paid, nor do we deal with pie charts, Venn diagrams, oily A&R men and focus groups.  We don't care how many MySpace friends you have (I actually heard some VP flack at SXSW say somewhat haughtily into his cell that he doesn't even LISTEN to a band unless they have x number of friends on their MySpace page). I am a lifelong music fan who got lucky and gets to put out records I like for a living.

To start, there are a few questions you need to ask yourselves before even approaching a label.  What are your goals? Expectations?  Be brutally honest with yourselves.   Why do you even want to make a record?  Seriously.  It seems like a basic question but one that needs to be asked.  Is it for fun?  Vanity?  Cuz it'd be "neat" to have one?  Because you sell out the local watering hole and everyone gets drunk and has a grand time?  That's great, I love bands like that, but put the record out on your own and be happy to sell a few hundred.  If you have a full time job, familial responsibilities and no intention or ability to do the road work, leave us out of it; be content to play for local friends and fans, there's no shame in that.   If you look to the label deal as a magic bullet for your band, think again.  Countless bands over the years have told us in effect "once we have the deal and are selling records we'll be willing to go on the road and support," or "we are ready to finish our songs once we have an agreement." Thinking that the label deal puts you on your way is like thinking that putting some greasepaint under your nose makes you Groucho Marx.  Making a living in this racket is hard, dirty work; nothing can replace that.  You need to have the confidence, arrogance and awareness to overcome the unceasing obstacles that'll come your way.  Oh, and it's not a meritocracy, either; many a great band gets shunted aside in favor of some couch potato-friendly pablum.   The septic tank metaphor (usually only the really big chunks rise to the top) is all too apropos.  What we are looking for is a band or an artist that HAS to create, HAS to perform, that is committed to their art regardless.  We want to see an unstoppable drive.  We cannot care about your career more than you do, nor should anything like a lack of a label prevent you from your craft.

Okay, you've answered all the above questions truthfully and determined that you, yes YOU have the goods and the guts to pursue this, how do you then get the attention of a label?  The one and true and all encompassing answer to that is quite easy: be good.  We have to LIKE the music. We have to totally believe in what you are doing and get behind it 100%.  We have to be able to care enough about it to evangelize when no one is listening, to work on its behalf in the face of commercial indifference, and fight trench warfare.  Life is too short, and staying in business in the venal snake pit that is the music industry is too grinding, maddening and frustrating to go to the mat for something that you just don't like very much. 

It's as simple as that.

If that sounds too glib or too vague, let me explain lest ye get too discouraged by your inner- voice yelling "How the hell should I know what they like?"  Indie labels are, by their very nature, products of their owners' idiosyncrasies.   Since we don't have to answer to anyone but our own whims, it is in your best interest to do your research BEFORE sending music---you would hate to end up on a label that doesn't "get" you or doesn't care deeply or wouldn't know how to effectively promote you just for the sake of having a deal.   To whit, think of several bands that track well with what you do, or artists you've admired or been influenced by.  Are there any labels or outlooks on the biz or attitudes that tie them together?  If so, follow the leads.  Learn about your prospective mate.  I mean, really, you don't Internet date without seeing the picture first, right?  Without finding out some pertinent details?  If they describe themselves as a Masterpiece Theater watching animal lover and you are a snuff film watching dog-fighting impresario you wouldn't go and get married would you? All I ask is that you put at least as much care into a potential artistic partnership with a label as you do finding a date.

From this basic research, you should be able to find a manageable list of labels to intelligently approach.  I'll stack my love of Motörhead against anyone's but that's just not what we do.  If that is what you do, DON'T send us a CD anyway with the attitude of "yeah, but WE can be the exception;" it's just a waste of your resources and time.  I have filled a dumpster with such "exceptions."

Once you have whittled down your A-list of labels, what should you send?  Back to the first point, send the BEST you've got to offer.   Don't be clever with sequencing or packaging.   Thick packages with quotations of lofty praise from the Traverse City Nurses College Gazette and the door guy from Cooter's Bar who thinks you rule, or lists of bands you've "shared the stage with" (we ALL know that means "opened for") are annoying fluff and promptly get recycled.  Fancy vellum cover sheets sent by a lawyer REALLY get shuffled to the bottom of the pile.  Don't tell me who has influenced you.   Hell, Rush influenced me as much as the Cramps.  One influenced me to shave my head and start digging around for Charlie Feathers records, and the other influenced me to never like drum solos or go to arena shows---they almost turned me off Canadians altogether (but John Candy brought me back to my senses).   Truthfully, it's a crapshoot that we'll even listen to it at all.  It may sit in a box for two years, or it might only get noticed because of an obscure reference to Raising Arizona in the bio.   Just the other day I opened a package that had nothing but a CD and a hand written note on a torn scrap of paper that said "Rocks" and a myspace address.  Turns out it was just some Iowa Doom Metal, but still, I listened.  Again, the maddening and endearing vagaries of the indie world.  Don't let it get you down.

What to do in the face of this?  Continue on.  Don't wait for us.  Keep playing.  Learn something from every show.  Develop your material and hone your live show.  Come to Chicago and let us know.  Nothing gets things rolling faster than a killer live show.  Get on the bill with our other bands when they come to your town and impress the hell out of them.  Have them pass along another CD to us.  Walk that thin line between persistence and annoyance.   Nothing is more attractive to a label than a band whose music we love who comes to us with a built in fan base and a massive email list, a track record with clubs, accumulated goodwill from folks in their town or region and an organically created sense of momentum.    

With all this said, and with all the caveats and limitations endemic in a tough environment,  it always goes back to point one:  if we love it, we will ignore all the common sense in the world and all our own rules and figure out a way to make it work.   We have always regretted it when we didn't.  Heart over brains.  It's what makes independent music so great.

Good luck.

It seems the way money flows at a record label is largely a mystery to most artists who haven’t worked in the music industry for an extended period of time. It’s always interesting to lift the veil a bit on an unknown. Let’s take a look at one side of the economics of an indie record label, getting a new release to market. Below is a summary of the actual expenses an indie record label incurred for a new release:

Recording advance: $15,000
Tour support: $2,100
Mastering costs: $934.96
Marketing: $13,433.23
Advertising: $2,067.50
Publicity: $5,153.34
Manufacturing: $16,581.04
Artwork / photos: $200
Misc: $587.71

Total: $56,057.78

Here is an overview of each of the line item in a little more detail:

Recording Advance – The money for the recording advance is used to cover the cost of recording. Including studio rental, mixing, session musicians, sound engineer and producer.

Tour Support – Artists have traditionally sold more overall units when they tour so record labels will often times financially support a tour. Tour support money can help pay some of the expenses of touring such as gas, insurance, hotels, food and supplies.

Mastering – Mastering is a post production process that takes the final mix of the recording, edits minor flaws, adjusts volume and stereo widths, equalizes tracks, etc. It’s usually expected that the person who masters the recording will be different from the person who mixes it so there is typically a separate line item in the budget.

Marketing – The marketing line item is entirely for retail co-op marketing expenses. Co-op marketing dollars are expenses distributors incur from retailers for special product placement, in-store promotions, listening stations or advertising. The amount of co-op marketing dollars the distributor (and ultimately the label) are willing to spend on a new release has a direct correlation to the amount of product the retailer orders.

Advertising – Advertising expenses can include any print, radio and online advertising the record label incurs to promote a new release (outside of retail co-op dollars).

Publicity – It’s fairly common for a record label to hire an independent publicist for a 90 day period to help promote a new release to press, print and online media, bloggers and anyone else who can help influence music fans.

Manufacturing – The manufacturing costs for a CD with jewel case can vary but is still around $1.00 per unit for a distributor or label with measurable volume.

Artwork – The cost of custom creative and / or photos for the release.

Miscellaneous – Just like the name implies this is the catch “everything else” expense category related to a new release. For example, legal fees or video production expenses charged to a new release could end up here.

For this particular release to break even it must generate $70,072.23 in gross sales ($56,057.78 + the 25% fee of sales paid to the distributor ). The typical deductions a distributor takes on sales including return reserves and breakage (to name a few) further impact cash flow on sales back to the record label.

It’s important for artists to fully understand how the basic economics of an indie label work since they will not get paid any royalties from sales until the record label recoups all the expenses incurred in getting the record to market. This is true of both traditional record label agreements and even “50/50” licensing agreements. It is very common for artists to never receive royalties on sales from their record label since many new releases never fully recoup their expenses.

Being signed to a record label is no guarantee of sales success. Artists need to carefully weigh what a record label is going to spend on a new release to determine the level of sales that will be needed to achieve profitability before signing a recording contract. Even though the artist might sell a lower number of units on their own there is a very real chance they can actually earn more money without a record label being involved. 

Most indie record label owners are simply trying to get music they love heard by fans. They aren’t in it for the money. In addition to the above mentioned costs of getting a new release to market they have to cover multiple other expenses such as insurance, rent, payroll, travel and mechanical royalties . Making money as an indie label is no easy task. Needless to say, label owners give it a great deal of consideration before signing a new artist and committing to releasing their music.

It does take a lot of money and resources to get a new release to market. However, real transparency in accounting for these expenses is still largely lacking. Inevitably this leads to conflict between the record label and artist around recoupment of expenses and payment of royalties. Hopefully, as artists better understand the economics of record labels they will be able to make more informed decisions about when it makes sense to sign with a record label and when go it alone.

Michael Zapruder is an award-winning musician who serves as Music Curator for Pandora , the Oakland-based internet radio service based on the Music Genome Project. As curator, he directs all aspects of music collection, curation, and cataloging for Pandora's stations. Zapruder has been with Pandora nearly since the inception of the Music Genome Project and was appointed as Pandora's music curator in 2004.

There are any number of ways to get your music on Pandora. We're always looking for new music to play for our listeners, so we watch all kinds of blogs, radio stations, show listings, charts and things like that. And while we don't automatically add everything we see in those places, when an artist reaches a certain level of visibility we like to try our best to make that music available on Pandora.

So that’s the first thing you need to know. If you are connecting with an audience or community in a strong way; if you're playing good rooms and getting attention, you will have a fine chance of getting into our collection.

We know we can't find everything, though, so for the many deserving bands that we miss for one reason or another (and for bands that are just starting out), we offer a web-based music submission process that is free and open to everyone.

Here's how it works:

1.    Register for Pandora (the submission process is connected to listener accounts, so you can use your existing account if you have one).

2.    Go to http://submitmusic.pandora.com and follow the directions for submitting.

3.    If your CD meets the requirements for submission (you have to have a valid UPC code and the record has to be for sale in the Amazon CD store), you'll be prompted to upload two songs along with any biographical or press information and any links you'd like us to know about.

4.    When we get to your submission, we listen and make a decision about whether your submission is right for us.  (This takes time, so be patient.)

5.    If you're accepted, we send you an email with a customized mailing label that you'll use to send us your record. If we pass on your record we let you know on your submission page and we encourage you to keep us posted on your future work.

Lots of people ask us about the Amazon requirements, so here's the skinny:

We use UPC codes as identifiers to display the right artist information and album art when something plays on Pandora. We want to be able to show as much information about the artists we play as we can, and UPC codes make that possible.

Requiring albums to be available in the Amazon CD store guarantees that we will have usable metadata for every album we accept, which in turn frees us up to spend our time listening to your submissions instead of entering song titles and such. It also means that interested listeners will be able to find and buy your music by clicking the Amazon link in the Pandora tuner.

You can get your music into the Amazon CD store for free using a service called CreateSpace. They press on-demand CDs for Amazon purchases. For people who have CDs for sale already, there is a vendor program that Amazon offers that charges an annual fee as well (and in case you're wondering, we don't have any financial stake in the above services).

So, what are we listening for when we get to your submission?

Well, for unknown bands the fundamental question we have to answer is: will fans of this kind of music be excited to discover this on Pandora stations?

We also consider how the submission might add to our existing collection. We may have more of a need for Black Metal, a less visible genre, than for something more common like Indie Rock (that's not to say that we close the door on any genres, but the state of our collection sometimes comes into play).

We have a few basic internal guidelines for listening to every submission.

For one thing, our reviewers never have to give a reason for accepting music, but they always have to explain their decision if they are rejecting something. This only seems fair to us.

Also, we try to keep our personal musical preferences out of the decision-making process. The fact that a reviewer may not enjoy Darkwave or East Coast Hip hop or anything else really has no place in the decision about whether our listeners would embrace that music.

We are looking for excellence. Tim, Pandora's founder, often says: "You have to earn your way into Pandora." We try to make good decisions about whether the music lives up to that high standard.

When it's all said and done, though, we know that with music and art we can't ever be 100% sure we're making the right call. We can never completely transcend our own subjectivity. Our way around that is to keep it simple: we try as hard as we can to give your music a fair hearing. We do our best to be conscientious with your work.

If we do get it wrong (and we do sometimes), we'll find out about it; and when we see your music being reviewed or appearing on a chart somewhere, or when you're playing the Fox Theater here in Oakland, we'll make sure to get it into the collection right away!

Best of luck to everyone who is considering submitting their music or has already done so, and thanks from all the reviewers here for your interest in being a part of Pandora.

Rick Goetz is a Musician Coach and Music Consultant by way of a fifteen year career as a Major label A&R executive at Atlantic and Elektra Records a musician and a music supervisor. Throughout his career he has played bass for members of the Cult and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and on the industry side has worked with artists like Kid Rock, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and Damage Plan. His current client list ranges from Grammy award winners to people just looking to get their foot in the door. You can check out Rick at www.MusicianCoaching.com or twitter.com/musiccoaching

I am sitting at the edge of the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon trying to fill it in. That’s what marketing and self-promotion can feel like in the digital age or at least, that’s the way it feels to me.

I walked into a cavernous Barnes and Noble last night. They just opened another location by me on East 86th street in New York. I can’t begin to describe how big it is. I’ve lived in Manhattan my entire adult life so I do a double take when I see wasted space- but this? This place is ridiculous. It completely freaked me out. I felt a primal fear that I haven’t felt since Sylvia Rhone (former CEO of Elektra) used to scream at me but that’s a whole other blog post. I’ve spent considerably more time than I originally thought I would writing and creating content for this website and to realize that this one store contained a million or more books and these were just the books that were deemed the best by major publishers meaning the total volume of writing out there is… staggering.

What could I possibly have to offer that wasn’t already written somewhere?

It made me think about the quality of what I write and the quality of my coaching.  You really have to be exceptional to make it these days.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Mark Hermann recently about “just because you can – should you?”

We were talking about music and how there were no more barriers to entry and how on the one hand – what a wonderful freedom! On the other hand – how can we hear any one thing if we are in a stadium full of people screaming and demanding to be heard? Would we know if one of these voices was the next Beatles? Probably not. I love that image and wish I could claim it as my own but it belongs to Mark and I think he’s right on. One of the larger music management companies in New York has a sign on the door that reads “It’s about the music, stupid.” I think we are very quick to forget that these days.

I have been consulting and coaching artists informally for years but have only really begun Musician Coaching as a business in the last month which is when this site went live. I help people make sure they are in all of the right places online and to make sure that their website accomplishes what it needs to accomplish. I help people by providing a critique of their audio and video materials and their marketing efforts, their live show and the way they approach the people who sit behind one of the many desks where dreams go to die that stand between them and opportunity.

Sometimes I need to spend more time telling people to continue to develop their product and how best to do that because it can be worth the wait. The Beatles wrote a hundred songs before you ever heard note one of their first record and had played covers for several years. R.E.M played pizza joints in Athens Georgia in complete obscurity for a long time. Peter Frampton toured non-stop for three years before recording Frampton comes alive.

I can wake up tomorrow, write and record a song and have it up on MySpace tomorrow but should I? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with doing so but I do think if you are just starting out you should have realistic expectations of your abilities and the level at which you expect people to respond.

Why doesn’t anyone care anymore? It is simply because there is too much mediocrity out there. I say this often “There is no one in the audience because everyone is on the stage.” Cheap recording gear and low or no cost international distribution are now tools that are in everyone’s hands. The music business is no longer an exclusive club – if you’ve got an Internet connection and a mic in jack you can now be considered a member.

“It’s about the music, stupid.” It’s a great reminder. All I am suggesting is write 100 songs and put the best one of those 100 out for people to hear. I am suggesting that if you have to cut your teeth playing live and are struggling making it solo- try to do it as a sideman or a hired gun. 99% of the “overnight success” stories you hear involve someone working their ass off behind the scenes for a long long time before they broke. If you want a good read- check out the Hendrix book “Room Full of mirrors” – Jimmy played 2nd fiddle to a ton of people before going out on his own.

In America there seems to be this feeling that everyone gets their 15 minutes or worse yet- everyone deserves their 15 minutes. We have been sold this vision that at any moment fame and wealth may strike without working for it. There is something tattooed on the back of our brains that somewhere out there Ed McMahon is looking for each and every one of us with an over-sized check and that the rest of our lives will be taken care of from that moment on… I’m all for the Lotto slogan “Hey, you never know” but I’m sure as hell not depending on it.

What is my point? My point is, and I don’t exclude myself, we have to spend less time on marketing and more time making sure we have products that are worth marketing. There is more music out there than ever before- everyone you know is a “musician” or at least a hobbyist and consumers are very jaded. Before shotgunning your product out there and whipping your fans into a frenzy about your new release you had better make damn sure that you have a product that is not only competitive but stronger than most of the stuff you see and hear or it’s over before it starts.

Nick Fitzsimons founded Penny Distribution in 2007 and launched sister company Penny Black in 2010. Originally a physical and digital distributor, Penny Distribution and marketing services for its artists and labels.  Penny Black is a boutique music licensing and consultancy service representing independent Irish & UK labels catalogue to the media industries for sync and brand partnerships.  Nick also helped organize UnConvention Belfast and the NI Music Industry Meetup series, as well as the informal Open Music Media Belfast meetups

It’s something that anyone involved in music in 2010 will tell you is big business, and maybe the answer to dwindling (if not non-existent) recorded music sales.

The sync, or “synchronization” of your music with a moving image.

Indeed, the pursuit of that perfect sync (or even an imperfect sync) has been a focus of recording artists for years – closely coinciding in the past decades meteoric slide music sales.

Prior to 2002, it’s safe to say that most label’s sync strategy was “passive” – there’d be little to no active outreach, with content creators such as ad agencies and TV producers instead, upon hearing a record on the radio or through other promotion, would call the label directly and negotiate a deal. 

The tables have well and truly turned.

The sheer amount of pro-active music producers (labels, artists and music clearance houses) now pitching to music supervisors, creative directors at ad agencies and games companies is so huge that it’s having the natural market economy effect when supply greatly  outstrips demand i.e. less and less money is being made available to pay for music licenses. 

Whereas 10 years ago, a Hollywood picture would have about 10% for a music budget, that margin has slimmed to 6%, even as low as 3% in some cases.

That said, independent music has a significant advantages over music from other more “established” artists.  Stressing the “indie advantage” – that you can be more flexible, clear the license more quickly and allow for wider uses of the music – can be an attractive proposition for folks seeking that killer track that connects with their audience.

First things first:  before you can even think of a sync strategy, you need to get your tracks sync-ready.

1)     Register your songs with performing rights organization in your country.  Sounds obvious but I’ve heard some horror stories.  Some TV companies actually ask for a detailed songwriter split BEFORE a deal is signed, for no other reason but to make sure there’re no hiccups in clearance later.  Be sure to be explicit about song-writing splits during registration and keep a clear record of all communications.

2)     Instrumentals:  When you’re in recording the new release, think seriously about paying up for vocal-less versions of your mixes.  It’s the #1 most asked for variant of any commercial recording and could well be the difference in getting a sync or not.  Getting instrumentals after you’ve finished recording and mastering can be considerably more expensive – it’s worth keeping in mind.

3)     Metadata:  Ensure ALL of your digital music files are correctly tagged.  You can use iTunes (“Get Info”) to edit meta-tags, but I find an audio editing software (like Audacity, which is free) is more suitable for editing tags. Including genre, bpm and songwriter information as well as contact information in the file will help people track back to you if they hear something they like.

Once your tracks are as sync-friendly as possible, the next step is to look at where to aim and who to contact:

1)     Film:  IMDBPro is a great resource here – most music supervisors will list their previous work and upcoming projects - a great way to start a conversation with them.

2)     Advertising:  Resources like FileFX (in the UK) list many key advertising agencies and their respective key players. The biggest problem can be getting your music to the right person at the right time – there are literally tens of people involved in the creative process of making an ad.  Developing a few relationships, rather than trying to contact everyone who might be involved, is usually a safer bet, but a good place to start might be the company’s Head of TV.

3)     Games:  A more difficult bet for commercial music – many games use a custom composed scores.  Certain game genres do use commercial music, and the major publishers (Sony, EA, Konami, Xbox etc) usually have a music supervisor who you can target.  The key, as always, is being relevant to their current projects.

4)     TV:  IMDB is a great resource here also.  Most TV studios have folks in charge of a series.  As these folks often move from show to show, establishing a good relationship can be advantageous here also.

There are many other routes to market for your music – coupling with a consumer brand or corporate communications being two that spring to mind – that are also worth considering as your sync strategy develops.

When you’re ready to reach out, keep a few things in mind:  as with any communication with folks you’re trying to get interested in your music, remaining personal in your communications, as well as persistent is important. 

1)     Be a real person: Rule of thumb – forgo any language in an email that you think sounds “professional”.  That doesn’t mean write emails in LOLspeak, but passion about your music and more importantly, passion about the project you’re hoping to get involved in, will take you much further.  Anyone today can be slick.  Be authentic.

2)     Be relevant:  NEVER pitch a song or album just because it’s something you’re working on at the moment – only pitch music that’s relevant to the individual you’re targeting and they project they’re working on.  The temptation can be to “carpet-bomb” supervisors with your new release – bad idea.  Quality, not quantity, of conversation will take you much further.

3)     Do it together: Consider forming a collective of artists or labels and pooling sync resources.  A wider range of genres will make it easier to match briefs .

Jessica Sobhraj is co-founder and Sr. VP of Production for Sir Groovy, an online B2B music search company, which focuses on helping film studios and TV networks expedite the process of finding and purchasing music synch rights. Sobhraj oversees pre-clearance procedures and relations management for new and existing content providers.

There are thousands of synch licensing opportunities created by hundreds of buyers that are seeking independent music in the United States. Yearly, this is a billion dollar market that is rivaled by an additional billion dollars generated by international buyers. So who’s buying? Television and film remain the largest purchasers in the industry, but new niches such as interactive usages are also appearing as new forms of media/content emerge.

Although the number of placements available to independent labels has increased, the budgets have not. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Stricter budgets translate into a world of potential for independent labels to dominate a niche that once belonged exclusively to major labels. Also, A demand for better quality music and branded artists has created an opportunity for independent labels to capture business from the (cheap) production libraries.

Many labels seek the perfect concoction of strategies to address the question of “How do I get more placements??”. There are a variety of tactics that you as a label owner or licensing representative can employ to capture a chunk of this two billion dollar market. The most common method is to use a third party to seek licenses on your behalf. There are many third party licensing firms, each with its own way of navigating the (sometimes) muddy waters of synch licensing. In order to find the partner that best accommodates your situation, take the time to assess what is crucial to your synch licensing strategy, assess which partner offers the greatest penetration in your target market segment, and which partner offers a suite of services that complement rather than impede your own efforts. Here are a few research tips to guide you during the decision-making process:

-       Call: Try to get a human on the phone. Employees can reveal much more information than automated voice dialogs and email robots. During the contractual process, ask a representative to go over the agreement with you. Should you feel that the terms are not clear, be cautious of signing anything.

-       Protect Your Rights: Ask if the potential partner will re-title your copyrights and retain a portion of your royalties (this is important!!). Some partners will require that you grant them the right to re-register your music with a new title, under their publishing entity in exchange for placement opportunities. In most cases, revenue from royalties amounts to more than the original licensing fee – this is definitely an issue that you will want to address with every potential partner you research.

-       The Importance of Brand: If you’re concerned about branding and making sure that your music is in good company, ask for a list of the partner’s top artists. Partner’s with larger names often attract more buyers. Having branded artists also indicates that the partner has generated enough sales, buzz, and happy artists to retain those larger names.

-       Prove It: Ask for potential partners for a list of clients and placements from the last 3 months. This will indicate whether or not the partner is selling music in volumes that are meaningful to you! Since numbers (and placement reels) don’t lie, you should be especially suspicious of partners that cannot provide this information.

-       Strategize: Ask potential partners how they plan to get your music to interested buyers and not stuck in a massive dormant catalog. A good rule of thumb is the larger the catalog, the less you'll be heard. Because of this, labels often find that partners with smaller selective catalogs are more appealing than larger production libraries.

-       Where’s The Money?: Ask potential partners how you will be paid, and how often. Will they notify you of each placement and when you can expect to be paid?

-       Personalize Your Experience: If having someone that will update you personally and work with you on a one on one basis is important to you, factor this into your decision process. Larger pre-cleared libraries may not be able to provide such a personalized service because of the sheer volume of licenses they execute. Although they do not generate as many sales as libraries, smaller partners (like song-pluggers) work very closely with labels.

Whether you go with a song-plugger or a library, working with any third party service requires a great deal of trust and understanding between both parties. For example, your partner needs to know that the information you provide is 100% truthful (especially concerning rights clearances) and you need to be able to trust that your partner will not license your music for pennies. Moreover, understand that despite the size of the industry and opportunities available, you may not achieve your desired outcome immediately. Synch licensing can be a tedious, drawn-out process, so work with your partner to craft and re-tool your strategy frequently. Most important of all, be patient and keep the lines of communication open!

Glenn Boothe is the owner of Local 506, a 250 capacity music venue in Chapel Hill, NC. Prior to owning Local 506, Glenn worked for Island Records, Epic Records, Caroline Records and Sony Music Distribution.

Local 506 is a 250 capacity in the non-major market of Chapel Hill, NC; however, we easily get ten emails a day from bands looking to get shows here and many of those emails are from acts who have never played the club and are just looking for a spot on an existing bill.  Since our average show has three acts that means seven of those ten acts get told ‘no’ by default – there just isn’t room to book everyone who contacts us.  

As an opening act at a venue of this size, your role goes beyond just providing entertainment to early arrivals.  Another expectation from both the venue and the headliner is for the opening act to help get a few extra bodies in the room, whether that is your own fans OR people you might have turned on to the headliner via your own promotional tactics

With that said, opening bands sometimes ask questions on the day of the show that often make me wonder to myself that if you haven’t taken the time to figure this stuff out before the night you are playing, then did you really tell anybody they should come to this show? But if there is one thing that makes me cringe more than any other pre-show conversation, it’s this one line: My band has a short set, can we move the start-time back? 

First and foremost, I always wonder why is this coming up 30 minutes before your show instead of the 30 days since the show was set up?   Every detail about a show is pretty much known the day the show is booked – if you think the show should start later, then that would be the time to have that discussion, not the day of the show when all the advertising has been set (some of which can be costly for a venue.) Think about this: Would customers like it if restaurants or banks just changed their opening time each day instead of the time posted on their door?

Secondly, changing the advertised show time on the night of the show displays little respect for the most important people of all, the patrons. Without paying customers, both bands and venues would suffer greatly.   Basically, the suggestion is to penalize the people who arrive on time for the benefit of those who are arriving late.  Think about this: Should we really encourage a behavior that, in a work environment, would likely get you fired.

Thirdly, those folks are likely intentionally coming late, as they aren’t that interested in seeing the entire set of your band.  You are the opener for a reason - you are less popular than the headliner.   However, in my opinion there is a benefit to someone only seeing a portion of your set – if they only get a taste but like what they hear, they are more likely to either buy your CD or come to your next show to experience more. Think about this: There is a reason grocery stores give out samples of the food they are selling, and not the entire product.

With all that in mind, most opening acts would still argue that anyone who is coming on that given night has already made up their mind to come, so there is little harm if the show is pushed back.  However, as a venue, the goal is for those patrons to come back again and since people do put value on their time, waiting around for the band they want to see leads to a less desirable experience.  In turn, patrons might think twice about attending a show here in the future, as it’s much easier for someone to NOT go to a concert than to try and guess what time makes sense for them to arrive.  Think about this: most other forms of entertainment, from movies to television shows to sporting events all start on time, they don’t wait for the audience to show up first.

So, if you wanted to go see the latest Hollywood Blockbuster, would you choose the theatre that starts the movie on time, or the one that waits for more people to show up before starting? I don’t think that type of movie theatre would last very long and in this age where we collectively have shorter attention spans, I’m not sure a music venue that operates this way can survive either. And fewer venues mean fewer opportunities for you to play.  Now, think about that!

I’m a firm believer that the longer an artist can manage themselves the better off they will be in the long run. I wrote a blog post last year titled “Build It and The Music Biz Will Come ” I encourage artists to read before rushing out to find a music management “team” early in their career. Once an artist has done all the hard work required to build a dedicated fan base they may want to consider hiring management to help grow and manage their business. Below is an overview of some of the traditional management roles in the music business.

Manager

Traditionally, managers have spent much of their time getting their clients signed to a record label deal then working with their client’s record labels to coordinate publicity, radio promotions and retail marketing budgets and programs. Today, the desirable skills for a manager in the music industry have changed fairly significantly. Managers need to be specialist in direct to fan relationships, social media, online marketing, licensing and sponsorships. They should be generally knowledgeable in ways artists can be successful with and without a record label.

Managers should handle all the artist’s personnel issues with the band and crew members and work with the rest of their management team including the attorney, booking agent, business manager and tour manager as needed.

Managers are typically paid 15% to 20% of the artist’s gross earnings. That means they get paid their percentage on all the artist’s earnings including, royalties, publishing, touring, merchandise, or sponsorships before the artist gets paid. Some managers have multi-year contracts (that can be quite complicated) with the artists they represent and some just work on a handshake.

Attorney

Given the uniqueness and complexities of recording contracts, management agreements, publishing deals, sponsorship or licensing agreements and the various other music business related agreements attorneys can play a critical role in protecting the interests of the artists they represent. The most important thing to look for in an attorney is experience in the music business. Just because someone has a law degree (even from a top school) does not qualify them to adequately represent artists in the music business.

A good attorney with experience in the music business can keep you from making contractual mistakes they have seen that have happen to other artists. Attorneys usually charge by the hour or by retainer (a set monthly fee) and in the music business it’s fairly common for them to charge well established artists a percentage of gross earnings, 5% is typical. 

Business Manager

A business manager is the person or firm that collects monies owned to the artist from royalties, publishing, touring and merchandise sales, pays the bills, band and crew, invests the profits and files the tax returns. They handle the artist’s general accounting related needs, royalty collection & auditing and tour budgeting & reporting. Many good business managers are either CPA’s or employ CPA’s on their staff due to the complexities of the music business accounting and the challenges of dealing with multiple state and international tax jurisdictions that come into play when an artist is on tour. They also handle all financial aspects of the artist’s personal life including insurance, loans, mortgages, investments and estate planning.

Business managers typically charge 5% of the artists gross earnings in the music business but some an hourly rate or flat monthly fee. 

Booking Agent

Booking Agents play an important role in the success of the artists they represent by planning and booking their tours with promoters and venues. They will make sure you are playing in venues that are known for your genre of music or booked as an opening act for bigger band. Booking agents negotiate the fee structure (guarantee,  % of the door, meals, etc.), determine ticket prices and ticket availability in the market. Thoughtful route planning is critical to the financial success of a tour and a good booking agent should make sure you are not playing in Atlanta one night, Chicago the following night and Jacksonville the next.  Route planning can be a challenge for even a seasoned booking agent due to the large number of competing tours and the limited availability of quality venues in highly desirable markets.

Booking agents typically collect a 50% deposit on the show guarantee from the promoter once the show is booked. They usually charge 10% of the money the band gets paid for the show for their services. For example if the booking agent negotiates a $2000 guarantee for a show, they would collect a $1000 deposit, keep $200 (10% of $2000) then send the band $800. The band or their manager / road manager would collect the balance ($1000 in this example) from the promoter or venue after the show. 

Tour Manager

The Tour Manager handles all the details of life on the road for the artist during a tour. They will arrange transportation, hotels and meals for each stop, make sure the equipment is accounted for and maintained plus manage the crew. The tour manager makes sure the venue has the stage, sound and lighting set up as requested and that the band is paid per the terms arranged with the booking agent. They manage and safeguard the cash collected while on the road. The Tour Manager will work with the tour publicist to make sure the artist shows up on time for scheduled interviews, appearances and promotions in each market. It’s the tour manager who puts out all the inevitable fires that come up at each stop during the tour.

The tour manager is also responsible for maintaining the tour plan and budget set up by the manager, business manager and booking agent. They are typically paid a salary, per diem or a set amount per tour.

David Bean is President of Artist Airplay Advisors, a music service team for
DIY artists at www.BeanBag1.com/AAA

I joined the Internet Digital Music revolution with the zealotry of a true
believer! By 1999, I had arranged for the licensing of Folk-Rock icon Jesse
Colin Young's song catalog to eMusic.com for paid digital downloads, and had
become General Manager of OnRadio.com, with music streams licensed to the
SPIN & VIBE magazine websites. In 2001 I joined Musicmatch.com Internet
Radio and was promoted to Vice President, streaming 25 channels of
programmed music along with interactive choices. For the past few years I
have programmed the Reggae and Modern Blues channels at Slacker.com Internet
Radio, as well as consulting baseBeat.com Internet Radio and other digital
technology clients. After 10-years of looking for DIY artists to
break-through regularly on the Internet, I finally realized that it still
takes a knowledgeable music industry team to break an artist, it still takes
venture capital for that team effort that used to come from record labels,
and it still takes mass exposure of the artist that old media still does
best. From 1999 to 2010, popular entertainment exposed on Radio, TV, and in
Movies usually resulted in profiting artists more than the small number of
musicians successfully collecting income from appearing on the internet.
With the exception of the iTunes retail store and the few artists who can
claim profits from online exposure, the internet may have cost musicians
more than it has paid back during the last ten years.

At the MP3 Summits in San Diego in 1999, 2000, and 2001, the conference
speakers often predicted the rise of technology leading to the defeat of
copyright. During the court trials of Napster, Grokster, Kazaa, Pirate Bay,
and most recently Limewire, you always heard the technology corporations'
claim that they were promoting the sale of music and converting free users
to buyers. They all had enough time to prove such theories during the past
ten years, and as we know, music sales have dropped by as much as 40% since
1999 and free downloads exceed paid downloads by embarrassing margins. All
of the aforementioned software corporations were found guilty of not paying
songwriters and performers while using their music as content to attract
large audiences for advertising income, breaching the artist's
constitutional right to license their property for payment. Yet technology
extremists continue to allow other "sharing" technology corporations and
websites to not pay for entertainment content.

Availability of such blatantly infringing software continues online with
support from many of the same technologists who spoke-out against copyright
at the MP3 Summits, including members of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF). Having provided council to most of the pirate software corporations,
the EFF reportedly lobbied Congress in favor of lawsuits against student
down-loaders in order to protect the corporations providing the software
from being sued as the entertainment industry might have preferred. It was
not the RIAA that insisted the law be written to sue students and protect
corporations profiting from unlicensed content.

Recently, technology editors championed the rise in unregulated digital
downloads as bringing music democracy to the world. I suggested then that it
seemed more like anarchy, not democracy, because real Democracy creates a
set of agreed upon rules under a Constitution that is supposed to provide
equal protections for everyone. My perception of the online "sharing" world
was unregulated anarchy breaching the constitutional guarantees of authors
rights through bully power, mob rule, and the first-ever worldwide
distribution of content for free, without license or royalty. My current
take on the way things are going is that top artists could be forced to pay
ISPs protection money, and payola will probably become rampant online, if
left unregulated. Regulation might be as simple as the Danish Supreme Court
ruling in May 2010 that Internet Service Provider Telenor must continue to
block its customers' access to illegal Swedish service The Pirate Bay. All
ISPs can do this and more.

An editorial in the respected Digital Music News on May 20, 2010, surmised
that all music is now available online for free and there is simply no need
to purchase it in the future. The same newsletter mentioned that this has
made it very difficult for musicians to ask for money for their own
Intellectual Property.

Has your Intellectual Property become undervalued by so much being available
for free? Jerry Garcia put it as well as anyone has when he said: "I mean,
to talk about how music should be free... that music belongs to the people
and musicians rip them off. That kind of thing really irks me. It's like, in
order to get so you can play music you have to sacrifice a lot of what would
have been your normal life. You know what I mean? For lack of a better
phrase, you have to pay the dues to get so you can play music. It's not a
thing you just do. If that were so, everybody'd be making their own music
and there wouldn't be professional musicians. There'd be no need for them.
For someone to deny the fact that you spent a certain amount of your life
working on some sort of discipline and learning how to play... that's the
rip-off. That's the state versus the individual. Anytime someone comes down
on artists and claims their work on any level, I think that's pure bullshit.
There's been too many great musicians who died poor. People's music... it
just ain't so." - Jerry Garcia, from author/filmmaker Cameron Crowe's
website

Please support legislative regulation of Internet Service Providers to
mandate protection of Intellectual Property as guaranteed in the
Constitution. Write your congressional representatives today to insist on
protecting Intellectual Property through regulation of technology
corporations, not students.