Posts Tagged ‘music industry’

A mentor once told me that being an entrepreneur is about separating the wheat from the chaff.  This should come as no surprise to you as a musician.  If you are reading this the odds are that you are a musician or work with musicians / are related to one.  The point is- if you run in these circles you know how much BS there is out there.  In my experience with both musicians and executives – hollow promises and lack of follow through are too common.  How does one find the services and strategic partners that are going to do what they say they will?

In this day and age – musicians have to be entrepreneurs.  Most people have to take a stab at doing everything themselves.  They have to do everything from being their own label, manager, booking agent and their very own online marketing guru.  This work comes after all of the effort that goes into making great products and self- branding.  It is understandably too much for people.  This is why they turn to outside help – and help is available out there.  As of the typing of this article, Google has 129 million results for “How to make it in the music industry.”  The digital age has made the outsourcing of solutions to what were major obstacles to musicians in the past rather easy to overcome.  For a nominal fee you can get digital distribution.  You can take a stab at your own website for free on sites like Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress or even upgrade to your own URL without knowing how to program for less than $75 / year.  There are music business coaches, online marketing services, radio independents and various other kinds of helpful services out there waving around their contact information just waiting on your call.  Today, musicians have the power and the reach to hire contractors.

Back to the problem though – who’s real?

What is this provider promising?  Does it sound to good to be true?  If so – it probably is.  There are lots of people out there who promise the moon for a low fee or a signature on a contract and they are really just preying on people’s hopes and dreams.   Below are some tips that can help you sort through both potential investments in your career and potential strategic partners

1.  First hand testimony

The first and best choice when thinking about making a purchase of services (or even just the investment of time into a new technology or social network) is the testimony of someone you know and trust.  If it is a large investment or decision I would look around for multiple opinions if possible.

2. Internet searches

Look at this person online.  Try searching for their name in quotes and their company name or their company name and the word “reviews”.  If you are really suspicious try their name and the word “lawsuit” If they have online profiles on social networks like LinkedIn see if what they say is reflected on their resume there and who they are connected to.  This is entertainment – there should be some references even if they are ones generated by the person in question that at least tells you they are wiling to go on public record with what they have told you.

3. References

Still have questions?  Try asking the provider or partner for some references from their other clients.  People unwilling to provide references are suspect to me.  You can also take it upon yourself to cold email someone who has used the service and see if they get back to you with their experiences

4. Presentation

Particularly when you are dealing with services that live online you should see if this person or company has a decent website.  It need not be fancy, it doesn’t have to be terribly flashy but it should be a decent representation of what they do and who they are.  No matter what kind of service or partner you are thinking of working with you want to be aligned with a person or an organization that communicates well.  If someone is using MySpace as a corporate website – that feels a great deal more insubstantial to me.  I would want to be with a person or a company that has made a commitment to their own branding before allowing them to be a part of mine.

5. Metrics

This one is my favorite.  Are you informed when you are surfing the web?  Most people are not.  If you have not done so install the Google page rank tool bar and the alexa page rank tool bar into your browsers.  These are both tools that give you a very rough idea of how important a site is in terms of traffic and how well they have been prepared for search engine optimization.  Google works on a scale of 0-10 and Alexa from 1 to twenty something million.  Neither one is a perfect barometer for web traffic but if you are approaching a web marketing company and they tell you about how great they are at online marketing and both toolbars come back “n/a” or “0″…. Move on.  These numbers are also important when determining whether or not it is worthwhile to invest time writing content for a site, participating in a new social network etc.  Having numbers on your side will definitely help you feel how real someone is – at least in terms of what they know / how much time they have invested into online marketing for their own brand.

Be careful out there.  I don’t want to make anyone paranoid.  There are a number of great people and services in music but sadly there are a few bad apples that make it worth mentioning.

I have a bunch of exciting interviews lined up and several just waiting for approval – thanks as always for reading.

-R-

I recently sat down with my friend Ron Bienstock of Bienstock & Michael, P.C. to talk about getting a music business off of the ground from a legal point of view.  Ron is a very experienced entertainment lawyer who has worked with Billy Joel, Simple Plan, Dream Theater, the Goo Goo dolls and numerous instrument and music equipment manufacturers.  Ron is also one of the more talented bass players I have ever met and still plays out regularly.

Musician Coaching:

So Ron, I wanted to ask you what the most important things for a band to do to set up their business from a legal perspective.  Is it registering their songs?  Is it registering with a Performance Royalties organization like ASCAP or BMI?  What is it that artists should be doing to make sure their businesses are in order from a legal standpoint?

Ron:

I think I may have a different perspective on this than others but I think that the most important thing is the name.  Obviously, if it is a band’s name that we are discussing it is a different issue than a surname.  If you are “Matt Schneckman” there may not be a whole lot of Matt Schneckman’s competing with you.  If however you are “the righteous dudes” you may not be able to use that name and the value and goodwill you create in the name is everything that you are in the marketplace.  Try to pick a name that you can own, exploit and remember.  There have been some very interesting names that are seven and eight words long that might not be the easiest to remember.

Musician Coaching:

How do you go about ensuring that you can get rights to a name?

Ron:

Trademark searches by a professional, most likely a law firm.  I hope people wouldn’t use any of the online services.  They tend not to have lawyers working there.  There is usually a gal named Sue who you call who says “that’s cool” but that’s not always going to be a real search.  You need to make sure the name is clear in a particular classification- it is kind of sophisticated now.  Most of the artists I deal with aren’t really clear about what the international classes mean.  Most bands I would say would want to clear a name in International class 41 which is live entertainment services.

Musician Coaching:

What should that trademark search and clearance cost?

Ron:

It shouldn’t be more than $500-$600 and it should come with a written report to back that up, hopefully written by an attorney.  An attorney will give you advice as to whether the name is open and the second that it is clear you should apply for the trademark.  If you are doing it on your own it will cost you no less than $325 because that is the fee that the government charges.  Try to use the law firm that did the search (if you like them) because they will be familiar with your application process.  So making sure the name is usable and secure would be my first piece of advice…

Another important tip – No you can’t send an undershirt to yourself in the mail with your band name printed on it in Sharpie and say that it is poor man’s trademark, that does not exist…  This is a common discussion I have.

Musician Coaching:

(I say nothing but distinctly remember trying this trick with my band demos at age 19.  I then find myself wondering how Ron went from an earlier conversation about the throw on one of his bass cabinets, to how his swimming was the weakest part of his Triathlon to the current conversation about music law so seamlessly.  It all added up to me thinking that if there are lots of people out there as smart and multi-talented as Ron that perhaps I should be somewhere with a name tag and a paper hat helping people from behind a shiny glass counter, struggling to fetch them their desired items and failing to give them correct change)

Ron:

There is no such thing as poor man’s trademark.  There is no such thing as poor man’s anything.  There’s just uninformed person’s something…

Musician Coaching:

(Maybe they will eventually let me play with the French fry machine at my new gig)

Ron:

Another big issue is not, surprisingly, the registration of your copyrights.  I think most Americans are fascinated by the concept of copyright infringement for all the wrong reasons.  I always say if someone very well known had access to your material (which is the key part of copyright infringement) and they produced a substantially similar composition and made money with it- it would be the greatest thing that ever happened to you but these are uncommon events.

Most people don’t know that their work is already copy written when it is in fixed form under our copyright act.  So again, the sending of the disc to yourself in the mail is…

Musician Coaching:

A waste of postage.

Ron:

Yes.  So, my second issue is what entity will you be if you are group?

I don’t care what genre you are in which is another common mistake actually.  People often say something like “Oh, we are a country band so it’s not the same as being a rock band.”  My response is always that sarcastic “Really?”

Musician Coaching:

It is the same in terms of a trademark I take it…

Ron:

It is in terms of your trademark and in terms of your corporate structure…  I don’t care what the genre is.  It doesn’t matter if you are death metal klezmer.  You are performing, you are earning and you will have taxes.  You don’t want to be a sole proprietorship and you don’t want to be individuals because then you are a partnership by default.   But you do really want to establish an entity because the entity will own the trademark.

Musician Coaching:

So what entity do you recommend for a band?

Ron:

Well, because of the state of tax issues in many states we are leaning towards LLC almost all the time.  However with an LLC you need an operating agreement.  So an LLC costs you a bit more.  Some states will require you to pay for the publication of the LLC.

Musician Coaching:

Oh, and those are pricey in New York, I did mine about a year ago.

Ron:

Yea, that can be pricey.  So contrary to the books that you may read- there is no shortcut.  So after your entity you will need your intra band agreement, the agreement amongst the band members.  Whether it’s two members or nine members (the later is when you desperately need it) it has to be established so you can understand the relationships between one another, who comes and goes and what happens…  This way I don’t get letters from the real estate attorney in Poughkeepsie who thinks it’s kind of cool that he’s in the rock world for the moment.  You can avoid all of these issues.  Keeping your band together should be a priority.

Then we can talk about copyright registration, which is fine, we can get to it and it’s not that difficult.  Anyone can do it.  It’s all online at LOC.gov You probably don’t need to have a legal expense there.

After those things are in order then you should select a performance royalty organization (ASCAP, BMI, SEASAC).  You have to register as a writer AND as a publisher.  And once all of these things (the name, the entity, the intra band agreement and affiliating with a Performance Royalties Organization) are in place you just have to organize yourself into a functioning music business entity.  From there we can talk about management and agency contracts and synchronization licenses etc but we are now ready to go.  You will have properly named and functioning publishing company, you are set up as a writer with the performance royalties organizations that will collect on your behalf…

Musician Coaching:

In your experience is there any difference between the Performance Royalties organizations?  To me it has always seemed like ASCAP and BMI were like Coke and Pepsi while SEASAC was more liking the refreshing taste of RC Cola and by that I mean that by pure volume BMI and ASCAP dominate the marketplace.  In your experience is there any tangible difference between them?  Is there a certain type of artist that should be on one PRO vs. another or does it come down to personal relationships…

Ron:

The differences are who you feel comfortable with.  Have you met someone there you like?  I hope they will be there for a bit… (***For those really new to music – music companies go through employees like J-Lo goes through husbands)

There are wonderful people working at all three organizations who really care.  Meet all three and decide who you like.  Yes, on sheer volume ASCAP and BMI probably have some dominant structure but there are devoted people at all three places…  Find someone you like and go with them.  If you are lucky enough that you performance royalty income is substantial you will have your choice to opt out if it doesn’t work with one and you can go to another.  In my experience, I have friends at all three and I think they all care and want to do right by people.

Musician Coaching:

When is the time to sign up for performer royalties which seems to have some up more in the digital age when is it time to go to SoundExchange and make sure you are in the phone book there so to speak.

Ron:

When my firm gets people signs people up with the PROs we do sound exchange right then and there.  We also do AARC (Aliance of Artists and Recording Companies) and anybody else, anywhere or anytime who can get a dollar for you.

Musician Coaching:

What does AARC do?

Ron:

AARC collects the blank tape and blank disc and other initiatives passed in congress over the last fifteen years.  It is a vast diminishing income stream but there are royalties out there.  There are DART (Digital Audio Recording Technology) royalties and AARC also has rental, people rent CDs and they pay various places for that rental value and that passes it’s way down to an artist as well.  I will take any income I can to support the artist.

Lastly, and I do not mean this in a self serving way but go speak to an experienced entertainment lawyer or an experienced entertainment executive who understands how the business works and make that you first stop.  Understand the income streams and how they flow.  It will be the wisest investment you will ever make.

Musician Coaching:

Are there books you would recommend?

Ron:

Books are great but my problem with books is it is almost impossible to keep current in this business, it is so difficult to be up to the minute and you have to be.  The deal I am working on today is different from the deal I was working on two weeks ago.  I will say this – just because it’s written online doesn’t mean it’s true and be wary of information from uncle Fred who had a deal with a small indie label in 1984 – his information is out of date.  And, by the way, Uncle Fred may have been wrong all along.

Careers don’t always stay up.   There are obstacles, there are down times and you have to prepare for them.  You have to know how to prepare the band for a down.  Bands want to see a high velocity upwards trajectory but that’s not going to happen all the time.

Musician Coaching:

So switching gears just quickly – you’ve been a bass player for thirty-seven years. Knowing what you know now is there anything you would do differently?

Ron:

I was very lucky in that I played with recording acts and well known acts and got to play on some great records and to some great touring back in the days when we flew mostly…(Laughs) rather than seventy-eight days straight in a van (I can’t help but notice the look on his face is more empathetic than “I’m so lucky”) While that was great what was missing for me was the opportunity to produce.  I think I would have enjoyed that.  It did not exist then.  There was no such thing as a home studio unless your home was the size of the Ponderosa.  So take advantage in every way of the home recording possibilities as a musician.  Music for Film, music for Television, music for plays, co-writes…you have an idea and your buddy is in the studio with you- write and record the song.  You could record it and master it at the end of the day and have it up on a website the next morning.  These are things that didn’t exist and they are what makes the music business exciting and wonderful now.  With all of this comes the hefty responsibility of admitting the things you can’t do.  Can you really produce yourself well?  Most musicians will not admit they can’t.

Musician Coaching:

Thanks for your time Ron…

—————-

If you are in need of an entertainment lawyer I highly recommend you take a look at Ron Bienstock or the lawyers at his firm Bienstock & Michael.

I just finished reading “So you wanna be a rock and roll star – how I machine gunned a roomful of record executives and other true tales from a drummer’s life” by Jacob Slichter. I highly recommend it.

The business has changed so much in the last ten years that some of Slichter’s experiences as the drummer of Semisonic would be very different than those of a struggling band today (i.e. the band was dismayed by a $65,000 video budget.)  That said, he writes very well and his ability to capture the record label culture and the feelings of uncertainty of both the musicians and the label executives is incredible. If nothing else it provides the reader with an understanding of exactly why the major labels (other than online developments) are in the predicament they are today.

The book describes Jacob’s point of view of the whole process from struggling in obscurity as a musician to his joining Semisonic and the band’s rise off the single “Closing Time” and the aftermath of such a giant single. He reveals a surprisingly vulnerable and humble outlook for an accomplished musician and his recall of the smallest details of their career is just uncanny. Through Jacob’s eyes the reader gets an accurate firsthand look at how radio promotion, A&R and other label executives interacted with artists at the time. It is a funny and often a nerve wracking tale that had me laughing out loud and gave me empathetic knots in my stomach even though I knew more or less how the story would end as I was familiar with the band.

I added it to a list of good music and music business stories that are worth reading on Amazon called Music Business Stories.

This is a 20/20 piece that ran some time last year about OMC (the one hit wonder who gave you “how bizarre”) front man Paulie Fuemana. It’s pretty amazing how you can make five million on a song one year and be broke the next.

I am actually pretty psyched about the New Music Seminar book that was given out when you purchased a badge. In the past guidebooks tended to be lists of the events and panels and performances as well as a contact list of the industry people who were attending and very little else. This guidebook has tons of information geared directly to the artist including sample tour budgets, riders and advice from industry professionals on their topic of expertise. My personal favorite piece of advice from the book was from Kevin Lyman of the Warped Tour who suggested checking the oil in your van on a regular basis and several ways to prevent your gear from being stolen on the road.

I was perhaps overly critical in my post yesterday about the panels as I forgot to mention that Emily White from Whitesmith Entertainment offered very real and tangible ways that Amanda Palmer and her other artists retained fans from the road including having her tour manager’s cell phone number shouted out from stage for the purpose of collecting fan email addresses via SMS. Of all of the panelist I got the sense from her that she had spent the most time at ground level working with bands (and it turns out she started out tour managing the Dresden Dolls). The rest of the panelists were discussing some good advice for fan retention and interaction but I wanted to hear more about the process of building a fan base. As I mentioned yesterday I missed the touring panel and I am sure judging by the members on it they would have much more experience in growing a following than I would but this is what I’ve learned and oddly most of it came from my time as a gigging musician rather than an industry executive.

I played bass (and became the manager by default) of a seven piece band that had a three year run from 1992-1995. The band was by no means a big success but we did manage to bring between 200-300 fans out on a regular basis towards the end of our little run in the NYC market which is a particularly difficult market to build a following. I’ve had other projects but this one makes the most sense to describe because it was really the band I learned the most from because I knew absolutely nothing when I started. I have since used modern tools in other projects I have been in more recently but these examples somehow still resonate.

Our first gig came about opening for a friend’s band. We were spared the cold calling and got a pretty lousy time slot club that at best held 400 people (I mean really held 400 people not what the fire marshal said it should hold). It was late-ish on a weekday night but we did manage to put 35 or so people in the room and we were invited back. At that point I don’t think we had even spoken to the guy who booked the room other than to ask what kind of back line was available and I’m pretty sure as it was our first gig that none of us really knew that it was called a back line.

It’s a funny thing being in a band, the idea was to play music and not have a real job because I hated the part time jobs I was able to get at the time and I think I dreaded job interviews even more. I would come to realize that every gig we ever played was simply a job interview for the next gig. If we wanted a better job at a better time slot on a better night we had to out perform the attendance expectations. If we wanted the same people who were there that night to come back the next time we played then we had better put on a damn good show.

I befriended the promoter of that first venue, it turns out he also booked a few other clubs and as we drew well for him on a usually slow week night. He was kind enough to suggest a few other nights at his other venues with bands that were more “our kind of music”. At the time we wanted to be like the JBs but were all very young and overplayed too much so it wound up being more like (sigh) disco. We played many such gigs with other bands who had a similar sound and were able to pull some fans from them as well.

I can already see this will be too long winded so I’ll sum up the things that helped the most going from a few dozen friends to a regular draw of several hundred people.

1) Make personal connections. I am going to take it for granted that everyone wanting to build a business is collecting email addresses and on all the social networks and using some restraint so as not to mass email everyone six times a day about important stuff like the lead singer having a headache. But I most remember being out and about with my bass on my back talking to people I worked with, talking to people I went to school with, talking to record store clerks and just talking to anyone about music. We wheat pasted flyers to telephone polls and send out mailers but I most remember that the people I stopped to talk to (without hard selling them) and actually handed a flyer to were the people who most often showed up. I still believe that looking someone in the eye will always be much more effective than emailing (at least locally). A side note about wheat pasting, I’m pretty sure no one does it anymore and it’s illegal (in NY) and the clubs get fined so be wary. Also be wary of smoking cigarettes while wheat pasting because inhaling wheat past that lands on your cigarette can be rather disorienting albeit not entirely unpleasant.

2) Be fearless. Like a band? Want to open for them? (and no, not U2, the big local or regional act) Introduce yourself after a show, get an email address explain your situation if they have some time. I’d be surprised if they didn’t do the same thing to the big regional act when they were coming up. Several larger acts mentored me after introducing myself in this way and one in particular became a life long friend. These relationships allowed my band to open up for some really powerful regional acts and really grew our band’s profile.

3) Be humble – Ask questions. Find people who have what you want, or even better find people who have what they want and ask them how they got it. For better or for worse I asked a local promoter for an unpaid internship because I wanted to learn how to get my band signed (yea, yea it was the 90s, shut up) and it got me an internship at Atlantic records. Ask the people at local clubs what they have found to be the most effective ways of promoting shows at their venue as soon as you book the gig and listen. The question alone let’s the person booking your act know that you care about your business.

4) Be Polite, follow up and don’t take rejection personally.

If you are in a position of cold calling put yourself in the position of the person on the other end of the line. And then think back to the stereotype of all musicians- guys and gals – as a rule, we suck! How much mediocrity and worse is out there? Do you silently groan when you see 3-4 normal looking people who are unknown to you take the stage before they have even opened their mouths or played a note? Well okay then… now picture it is your job to sift through mediocrity that we all know so well. If the last visual didn’t grab you go immediately to Guitar Center and stand in the guitar section listening to people trying out instruments for an hour if you come back smiling (from joy not Schadenfruede) please Fedex me some of what you are on immediately. Short story long – would you be happy to hear from a musician you didn’t know? I’m gonna go ahead and guess no. So call, be polite – provide facts about your business and accolades not how talented you are and then call as many other clubs that would have an act of your size and hope for the call back. Ask them their preferred method of getting material to them and do it as they request. Monday nights and open mics are the way to start and take baby steps from there.

5) Start small, start segmented. I will give it up to Terry McBride from Nettwerk who when I asked the basic build a band question to the panel he was on @ NMS simply said “start small, start local – Tribes.” This is sound advice. Go after an audience or community one community or segment at a time. At college- go after college students. Work at a big company? Go after co-workers. Belong to a strong group of some kind be it religious, national, political or hobby oriented? Group them together and market to them. The band I was in targeted the intoxicated, NYU students, Kung Fu fans and video gamers and even before the internet we manged to find these people. Be sure you are a part of these communities though because outsiders pedaling their wares with a hard sell are not at all welcome.

I may be way to scattered to be a blogger but those are some of the things that helped me – drop me an email I want to hear from you.

I ran across these photos recently of me, Ahmet Ertegun, Jason Flom, Arif Mardin and a group I signed called the Atomic Fireballs. It was pretty amazing that I was able to work with those three executives on my first signing. These were taken around 1998 by Amy Derouen in Montana Studios in NYC.