New Industry Tips

Bandcamp – The Future of Online Music Releases

Nick — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:18:28 +0000

Bandcamp.com is a great upcoming service that looks like the model of the future for online music distribution. This is a complete DIY solution for independent musicians of any size. The list of Features is endless, including multiple song formats, set your own pricing, advanced statistics, viral/social distribution and much, much more. The best part [...]

Involver – Complete Brand Marketing for Facebook

Nick — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:58:13 +0000

I’m sure everyone is aware that Facebook is now the largest social network to ever hit the internet, it is currently ranked the #2 site in the world for traffic, second only to Google. This feat is pretty amazing and leads one to contemplate how exactly can a business, brand, or individual take full advantage [...]

Rhythm J’s ASCAP Publishing Guru Session

rhythmj — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:46:46 +0000

What’s up to all the heavy grinders, hard working, and struggling artists, producers, musicians, managers, and DJs! Many of you may know me from my production, or my work with the iStandard Producer Showcase / istandardproducers.com; however, I still get a surprising reaction when mentioning my involvement with ASCAP. Once someone finds out I work [...]

Digital Music Distribution – iTunes, Amazon and more

Nick — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:58:10 +0000

In this new industry digital distribution plays a key part in an artists’ ability to market themselves and there are now many different options for independent artists seeking online distribution. The largest online retailer is obviously iTunes but a complete digital distribution deal should include the other 100+ online music outlets. Many distributors will also [...]

ASK AN EXPERT – Music Rights 101 Review of Terms

Smilow — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:52:03 +0000

In the world of music rights and commercial or in-public music use, there are a lot of terms and expressions that may be confusing to non-musicians. In fact, some of these are confusing even to musicians. In this article I will try to explain some of these terms and what they mean. Copyright Free Music This is [...]

ASK AN EXPERT – Publishing 101 Part 5 Synchronization Royalties

Smilow — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:07:44 +0000

Synchronization royalties (’synch licenses’) are paid for the use of copyrighted music in audiovisual productions, such as in DVDs, television, movies, commercial, and advertisements. Music used in news tracks are also synch licenses. Synchronization can extend to live media performances, such as plays and live theatre. They become extremely important for new media – the [...]

Top 5 Urban Email Blast Promotion Companies

Smilow — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:46:16 +0000

Many people have emailed me recently asking “what is the best way to get your single or mixtape out to the DJ’s, bloggers and tastemaker”. The most current trend to marketing and promoting your single to industry contacts mentioned above is strong email campaign. An E blast gives record labels, music artists and marketing departments [...]

ASK AN EXPERT – Publishing 101 Part 4 Publishing Split Sheets

Smilow — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:56:30 +0000

So after this four part series about publishing, I figured that maybe I needed to actually to back track with all the technical stuff and go back to basics and look at filling out a basic publishing split sheet. I can not explain the importance of filling out publishing split sheets. I am going to [...]

ASK AN EXPERT – STARTING YOUR MUSIC PUBLISHING COMPANY

Smilow — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:37:39 +0000

Starting your own publishing company is actually not that hard. You as a songwriter may truly benefit from setting up your “own” publishing company because not only will you be able show off your own catalog of songs you’ve written – but also you may exploit songs of other writers that you acquire material from. [...]

ASK AN EXPERT – Publishing 101 Part 3 – Performance Royalties

Smilow — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:45:57 +0000

In the United States, “performance royalties” are paid out mainly by three performance rights societies, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC. (Most foreign countries also have their own societies.) Under the copyright law, a songwriter controls the public performance of that songwriter’s songs. In essence, a songwriter designates either BMI, ASCAP or SESAC as his or her [...]