Share Welcome back ASCAP members and future ASCAP members.  Now that we have Writing and publishing out of the way (See Guru Sessions #1 and #2) we can focus on what gets us money n the first place… The MUSIC! TITLE REGISTRATION Probably the #1 reason why music makers don’t make any ASCAP royalties even [...]

Share There has been a recent influx of businesses that are using online services to create legally binding agreements with clients. Not only is this easier and simpler for me, it is much easier on the company to both get the contract out as well as signed by both parties.  I have used two of [...]

Share What’s up music self educators?  You are making this industry better each day you learn something.  Previously on my last ASCAP Guru Session, we touched upon the importance of publishing and why EVERY songwriter, whether they are signed or not signed to a publishing deal, should have both a writing and publishing account with [...]

Share A specialty show or a mixshow is a one or two hour show on a commercial station, usually late at night, and many times on the weekends, which plays music that the station normally does not play. A disadvantage of these shows is that you get only one or two spins per week on [...]

Share We now talk about what is needed to promote to these types of stations. MAILING: Although mailing your CD to stations is not considered “promotion” in-and-of itself (promotion requires phone calls), it nevertheless must be done, and when doing it is recommended that you do your own mailing instead of using a mailing service [...]

Share 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 [...]

Share 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 [...]

Share 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 [...]

Share 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 – [...]

Share 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 [...]