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The answer to the first question is fairly easy. Simply look to see the results the manager has delivered in the past. Every artist manager is going to drone on and on about their connections to many industry executives (which can be legitimate or not), but the question you should be looking at for every person on your team (band mates included) is, “What can you deliver?” This sounds very business-like, which most artistic people want to run away from, but it is the reality of the situation if you are trying to make a sustainable career.

As for the realistic expectations of the manager, I think that both sides must spell this out during the contract and negotiations stage. For every manager it looks different and each one is going to have areas of strengths and weaknesses. However, there are some key questions about personal attributes and connections that you definitely want to explore, including:

1. What is the past experience and reputation of the manager?
2. Do they believe in your vision and are they willing to become your advocate?
3. Is there a connection to a recording studio that can produce the kind of sound your band is looking for?
4. Can the manager find you a booking agent?
5. Does the manager have business and contract negotiation experience?
6. Are there connections with a merch/graphic/web designer? Is there knowledge of your key music business websites and how to create a solid SEO for the band?
7. Does the manager know of a place for the band to practice?
8. Can the manager help you define and achieve your goals, as well as help decide where to invest your limited money?
9. Does the manager know how to find good writers for press, websites, contracts, etc. (i.e. publicist)?
10. Does the manager know how to get your songs published and ensure your royalties will be paid?
11. Does the manager have connections with a photographer and videographer?
12. Does the manager have relationships with any record labels in which you are interested? Do they at least have good phone conversation skills in order to discuss matters concerning your band?

Obviously, you may not need your artist manager to fulfill all of these duties, as you may already have some of these needs met (such as a practice space or a recording studio where you feel comfortable). As a band, it is important to prioritize the needs of the group and search for those attributes.

In today’s online world, you are looking for a person who has marketing expertise, an understanding of your target demographic, and is enthusiastic about you. As a band, remember that the manager is only getting paid a commission off of the money you are making. If you are a band that is at the level of only playing a couple of local shows, you can not have expectations that the manager will have connections or experience in all of these areas. However, most artist managers will look to get between 15-20% of your gross (with certain deductions). As a band, you have to ask if that type of investment is worthwhile for you. Hiring a manager may seem like you are giving up a lot of control and money, but not doing so is the mistake that many talented bands make across the world. When your music and fan base starts growing, so should your team. The person who assembles that team is your artist manager. This is by no means an exhaustive article for an artist manager, but for independent bands, this could give you a starting point in attributes to look for in your quest for an educated and connected artist manager.

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About the Author:
Jonathan Sigmon (aka “Sigs”) is the founder of Signature Entertainment, an artist management company in Lancaster, PA and a blogger at TaintedCanvas on music business, faith, and marketing.

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Metronome Online.

No need to actually buy a metronome, just go to their site, click on the beats per minute you need, and magically you have your tempo. Awesome. As long as you are sitting near a computer! Rock on. 

Sure beats the old version.

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Beginning July 1st, 2009, Pump Audio will move to a 65/35 split with artists, instead of their existing 50/50 split. This means that licensed artists will see a drop in their take from each licensing fee by 30%. Awesome.

I was alerted to this Wednesday by an existing Pump Audio user. I followed up with their Artist Relations contact, and unfortunately the bad news is true. 

Here’s what they said:

“…this move is being made to support the growth of our business on a global stage…”

“We believe and will work tirelessly to insure that Pump Audio continues to be the top music licensing company for real artists.  As we grow and succeed, you will grow and succeed right along with us.  Pump Audio has always been, and will always be one of the biggest supporters of independent artists, and our intention is to see all Pump contributors make more money with us in the coming years.”

Well. Naturally, my gut reaction is negative. Anything that means less money in the hands of music creators sounds like a bad deal to me, being a creator myself. The prevalence of web-based music licensing services, while making some media placements accessible to the average nobody musician, is contributing to the overall commoditization of music, meaning that its perceived value continues to drop. And now, not only do placements pay less because the availability of music is overwhelming, but Pump Audio will be paying you a smaller percentage of those fees. 

Sounds like a winner for Pump.

Pump Audio also practices Re-Title Publishing, which means they re-register your songs under different names with their own publishing company, meaning the artist receives a smaller share of the backend royalties. Awesome.

So. Be forewarned. I’ve gotta get back to my night-shift at the local minimum wage national chain. 

By the way. If anyone has any experience using Pump, please let us know. I heard from someone recently who had a placement in a national TV campaign, and only found out about it when a friend told him he’d seen his song on TV. Apparently this was last September, and no money has materialized thus far. I’m registered with them too but have nothing to show for it. My songs must suck!

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I’m tired of hearing the suggestion that musicians just have to cross finance through merchandising, ringtones, more gigs and expensive VIP tickets to their gigs. This may work for some bands - call it the Arctic Monkeys Bands – but it ignores a great field of composers and musicians committed to the studio and artists who aren’t willing to perform a rock’n’roll show every night and sell t-shirts, because their “fans“ may have outgrown the age of wearing band t-shirts.

Not every artist is able to entertain crowds nor is sorely tempted to be the focus of a photographer‘s lightning storm, but - and that’s the point - can be an appreciated musician/artist. So there is an enormous number of musicians out there who do not benefit from a “share everything and get more concert visitors” precept. It makes me believe that the idea of making money with additional goods should still be a great possibility to have a greater income and promote the artist, but not the only chance to survive.

This doesn’t mean that we should support DRM, set restrictions on the consumer or try to save the CD as a medium and the exploiting businesses of the majors. The era of the digitalization won’t stop, we’ve already passed the point of no return. Do we have to believe that nobody is going to pay for music anymore? Don’t think so. What we would need is transparency. 

According to a lot of blog comments I’ve read the last months and conversations I’ve had with ordinary music consumers, it turns out, that yes, a lot of people would purchase music. From my point of view the problem is still the non-transparency relationship between the artist and the listeners: Music lovers feel patronized, controlled and criminalized by the industry and take the chance to give it a wipe by downloading illegally via torrents and so on. People rightly complain about the less distribution of profits to the artists, and I often hear that they would like to give their money to the artist not to the unknown industry surrounding the artist. To argue that the only chance to rebel against the abuses of a big music industry and to save the artist’s future is to download music illegally, is not that sustainable, I think. By doing so, we are killing the indies before the majors are reached. Too many independent labels were killed off over the past years. By downloading from other non-label illegal networks, people get paid, who care even far less than the most evil music manager. We pay them with our attention by clicking their advertisements.

I’m still missing an appropriate platform or an initiative, where music consumer’s demands are met. If people would like to give money to the(ir) artist, they need a clear definition of what the artist gets by buying the song/album. Imagine the “fair-trade coffee” culture: consumers willingly spend more money for “fair-priced” coffee to help producers in developing countries and promoting sustainability because they can trust the certificate that guarantees the fair trade. Wouldn’t this concept be possible for music industry? A certificate for music sold online and the same for a physical medium (be it vinyl, a CD or whatever physical medium will be established in the next few years). 

A) Combine the online platform with information buyers used to get when they bought a physical medium and much more: Who wrote the song? Who produced it? When was it recorded? In which band did the guitarist play before?  Keep me updated when they are on tour, give me the sound tracks for remixing it, and show me rehearsals, etc.

B) The physical medium could be produced from eco-friendly materials to provide sustainability. I’m pretty sure people would start taking care and bring the discussion to a moral level if there is an explicit way to support what they cherish. 

I am aware that this approach requires a great moral acting in an easy-to-steal world, but our make-it-sustainable generation gives me hope.

-Chris Wochagg

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This past week, I had a number of artists ask me about potential music licensing deals that they had on the table. The common concern was whether or not the deal they were being offered was legit. This is something that could be discussed in great detail on a case by case basis, but I thought I would give a few brief bullet points on some things to considerbefore getting involved with a licensing company.

Are they a licensing company or a music library? - The lines can be a bit blurry here, but a general distinction between the two is that a licensing company will pitch individual tracks, where a music library might supply clients with a searchable hard drive of music with thousands of tracks. In general, a licensing company will get higher fees.

What rights are they asking for? - At a minimum, you have to grant a licensing company the right to represent your music, but there can be varying levels of artist involvement for each placement they negotiate. Some contracts are pre-cleared(Meaning they don’t have to get the artist to sign off on each individual placement), and others give the artist the right of refusal before the deal goes through. Most indie artist will encounter pre-cleared contracts. Another thing to look for is if it’s exclusive or non-exclusive.

What type of placements do they typically get? - All licensing companies are not created equally. Most of them have areas of strength and weakness, so one company may be really strong on network TV, but not as great at getting songs placed in film trailers. Another company may specialize in getting music into video games. One thing to watch out for are companies that do a lot of bulk licensing deals that return little money to the artists they represent

What percentage do they take? - Fees can range between 20%-50% of the gross licensing fee, but it’s important to keep that in perspective. A small company that gets a high number of placements for you might be worth the 50% fee.
 
*Things to Avoid*
 
Don’t work with a company that asks for an upfront fee - They should make their money off of getting songs placed, not by getting you to sign up more songs

Don’t grant them mechanical rights - Some licensing companies will slip some language into the contract that allows them to release your music in album form and make money off of it. A standard sync license contract is pretty straight forward, but granting mechanical rights ventures into record company territory which is far more complex. This should be avoided at all cost.

Don’t permanently sign over any rights to the song - That would be more of a publishing deal, which can be beneficial, but it’s important to make a distinction between a publishing deal and a sync licensing representation deal.

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Thanks Kevin for your guest blog! If you enjoyed reading his thoughts, check out his blog, and the DIY Musician Podcast he runs at CD Baby. 

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If you are interested in writing a guest post, interview or article on the music industry, music marketing or something else related, please get in touch with us. We are as interested as ever in learning the latest strategies for successful independent musicians.

Email brian@themusicsnob.com

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• The number of people buying music online increased by 8 million people, for a total of 36 million, in 2008
• 13 million fewer buyers of music in the US last year
• Online social networks are playing an increasingly important role in shaping music listening. (duh)

Check it out if you feel like it…

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Song: Wasted Time by The Dead Letters

Listen, motherf*ckers, prepare to have your shit rocked. Oh damn, is that a quietly building loop? Fuck that is genius, IS THAT REVERSED? Hold on to your seathole, because that’s not weak-ass Chan Marshall, that’s f*cking Ashley Bullock, aka BullROCK. Listen to those lyrics! Thoughtful as a motherf*cker. 

OH SNAP! Is that a guitar/bass break? Yes, you pussy, that is. We don’t fuck around with weak ass shit, we go straight - BUILDING, SLOWLY BUILDING. I AM SO PUMPED RIGHT NOW! - to the ROCK OOOOH WA AH AH AH.

Now that you’ve been skullf*cked by this masterpiece, you best be snifflin. You’re right, that WAS the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard in your life!

Tell your friends. If they can handle it.

The Greatest Song In The World

My comments:

What got my attention before I’d even listened to the song was the line: “Is that a guitar/bass break? Yes, you pussy, that is.” I just love how direct and antagonistic it’s trying to be, given how asburd the use of “p*ssy” here is in the context of someone’s reaction to a bridge in a song. 

The “marketing” of the song is probably the most interesting thing about it here. From the writer’s tone you’d think the song was this over-the-top melodrama that tries to destroy the listener. I was pretty surprised that it turned out to be a melancholic, introspective haze, because that’s pretty much the opposite of the review’s attitude. So that was disappointing.

The song is thoughtful and captures a mood of youthful indie rock revery, but I wouldn’t consider it for “greatest song in the world”, as the writer refers to it, because I don’t really think of it as a song, more of a state of mind or something. The words are not entirely intelligible and I couldn’t find lyrics on their website. That doesn’t bother me, really. Production a little too sparse on the build, meaning the orchestration wasn’t full enough to back the force it was striving for.

I like the vocals, makes me think of the film character Juno, but a kind of deteriorated version of her that got detentions and practiced harmless forms of vandalism. Or Mazzy Starr in high school, getting pissed at boys who can’t hear how beautiful her voice is because she won’t sing to them, and she just walks past them in the hallways in a dark-colored hoodie with a silver metallic zipper down the middle. 

The intro section is very Godspeed You Black Emperor, which I like too.

Anyway, thanks to the Dead Letters for their song. Best of luck!

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The use of music marketing technology is not in and of itself an act of music marketing

In my own errant quest to get people to hear my music (and pay me for it), I’ve made an understandable but large mistake. I thought that by using the millions of digital music distribution tools out there, one of them would “stick”, and I’d somehow move forward.

Typical thought process: “If I put my music on MySpace, Reverb Nation, Facebook, etc., then set up my own site and embed my music download widgets everywhere, put it on iTunes and Rhapsody, etc. with Tunecore, blah blah blah, then something’s gotta happen.” Well, I was wrong. Putting a shingle out there with your name on it may be called “marketing”, but it’s so passive that it doesn’t really even qualify.

Why I Could Not Sell My Music

I became more interested in the means of delivery than the process of actively winning someone over with my music. It’s easy to find the details of technology interesting and consuming when the daunting tasks of real success are terrifying. 

This train of thought was spawned tonight by a musician who asked what I thought of Audiolife, a company I hadn’t heard of but which offers another turnkey solution for indie musicians to create embedded widgets of their music and merchandise. 

Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees

With sites like Nimbit, Musicane, and from the looks of it, Audiolife, you can have some great technology that allows any crappy musician to have some incredible tools to conduct all sorts of online “business”. And since my interest in music marketing has morphed primarily into the tech side of things, I can really appreciate these turnkey, embeddable solutions that people are putting out. Each empowers artists like never before, in different ways. From my very brief scan of Audiolife’s site, they look to be similar. They’ve extended the functionality ever further, but still depend on artists to actually sell things to make their money. They operate on a commission basis, meaning if artists aren’t selling music and merchandise, then Audiolife doesn’t make any money.

If We’re All Starring in Our Own TV Shows, Who’s at Home to Watch Us?

My general “feeling” is that the entire model is a losing enterprise.  In my narrow experience, no one wants to pay for music anymore, and no one cares about the merchandise of some unknown artist. Especially in today’s era of American Idol and Facebook, where everyone wants to and can be a celebrity in their own way. A company like Audiolife may be able to stay in business by taking a tiny piece of a tiny piece from the millions of amateur musicians out there. But for these amateur musicians, whether they choose Audiolife, Nimbit, or Santa Clause isn’t going to change the lack of demand for their “products”.

The Question to Now Ask Yourself

Can you can create demand sufficient enough to warrant the time and energy in setting up an online merch widget?

Update: Revenue Model Abandoned?

I just went to Musicane’s website, and noted that they now have generic banner ads on their site. Which tells me that their revenue model isn’t working. The ads are for auto insurance and checking your credit scores. This smells of desperation. I can relate. But encouraging people to leave their site isn’t going to improve their business. In my opinion…

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