Ways to soar as an independent artist

Making music is half the struggles in the entertainment world, and even that can be expensive. Independent artist have to worry about things like budgets for promotions, wardrobe etc., to try to push themselves and stand out in an over saturated market. As an independent artist you have to invest in yourself and pull in all resources possible. There are so many things that artist can do to promote themselves for minimal money. Sound cloud, reverbnation, YouTube, MySpace is a few great ways to showcase your music for free. The issue with that is now people have to know you exist to look for you. So how do you go about doing that on almost non-existent?

 “Instead of focusing on music publications and media, think in terms of audiences. Put your music where it can stand out from the crowd. Consider one of the early days of CD Baby: an album about sailing. Instead of following the crowd and sending the album to a music magazine, the band instead cleverly sent their album to a sailing magazine.The sailing magazine, which wasn’t used to receiving music, much less an entire album dedicated to exactly what the magazine was about, ended up reviewing the CD. The band’s CD didn’t have to compete against stacks and stacks of other CDs to get noticed. And because the magazine had a large audience and the CD got a great review, sales shot through the roof. The great thing about the standing-out strategy is there is room for everyone. While your music has a style or genre, just targeting the people that like that kind of music represents only one, highly competitive channel for your music. By putting your music where there usually isn’t any, you can get noticed. Another way to get recognized is known as the piggy backing strategy. One of the best known forms of piggybacking is listing out the bands you sound like on your website, CD Baby page, and press correspondences. This gives new listeners a clue as to what to expect by drawing on what they already know. Of course, another popular piggybacking tactic is to cover a well-known song. Often, these covers become your initial best sellers. But they also act as a gateway. If listeners like your version, they’ll likely check out your original material" (discmakers , 2013).

Lastly one of the best ways of getting your name out there is by having an agent. Finding a resourceful and well-connected agent that works on commission is one of the hardest ways, but the best way in my opinion.

References:

http://www.discmakers.com/pdf/10-effective-strategies.pdf

Industry Liabilities

In the entertainment industry there are many liabilities that have to be taken in to account. Some of those liabilities include intellectual property infringement, contract issues, employment law risks and much more.  In the first video provided below discusses copyrights extensively. There were some very interesting points made during the video that I was not aware of and that are very important for people in my industry to know. One thing that I had no clue of was that there is a 3-year statute of limitation on copyright infringement suits.  Another thing I found interesting is that you could reverse titles for works that have not been completed yet. The movie “The Butler” had to change their name to “Lee Daniel’s, The Butler”. Check out entertainment law update for podcast. 

Another issue that is common in the entertainment industry is employment law risks. Interns are always something that companies need to have a full understanding what is covered under the internship umbrella.  There are 2 main types of internships in the U.S.A. . The first on is, “Work experience internship: Most often this will be in the second or third year of the school period. The placement can be from 2 months to one full school year. During this period, the student is expected to use the things he/she has learned in school and put them into practice. This way the student gains work experience in their field of study. The gained experience will be helpful to finish the final year of study (Wiki, 2013).” The second one is, “Research internship (graduation) or dissertation internship: This is mostly done by students who are in their final year. With this kind of internship a student does research for a particular company. The company can have something that they feel like they need to improve, or the student can choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will be put in a report and often will have to be presented (Wiki, 2013).”  The questions that arrive from internships situations is when is it no longer an internship, how many hours can be works, what kind of jobs should be paid for and things of that nature which the podcast below discusses. 

The last things I want to touch on today that is one of the most important things in any industry are contract issues. Contracts are legal documents that protect the deal made and the terms between two people or entities. In the video the speaker gives a great example of what can happen if you do not have your paperwork together. He had a client that wrote on a multi platinum selling song only to receive no royalties because he gave the music without receiving a contract first. I had to learn the hard way when starting off in the business that you cannot work off of someone’s word, not even family. 

I hope you all like the videos provided and learn something from them, I sure did. Thank you all for reading see ya next blog.

The controversies of the music industry

The music industry is a very iffy business. Creations and innovations sometimes come from other people’s works but this can cause problems. In recent cases people are being sued for plagiarizing the work of other’s, the problem is when being inspired by someone else’s work what are the boundaries when it comes to plagiarism? When creating a sound it gets complicated because music is measured in numbers so no matter what instruments being played the movements or the feel stays the same. Manipulating sound and making it original is a challenge because when making music you play off of feeling so basically there will be similarities because most humans express feelings with the same emotions. In recent cases Marvin Gaye’s family sued Robin Thicke for his song “Blurred Lines” l, for being to close to Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it UP”. I remember the first time I heard “Blurred Lines” I was in the studio with my producers one of them instantly said they Sampled Marvin Gaye. Robin Thicke admitted that he was a fan of Marvin Gaye and draws inspiration, but the question is, where do you draw the line when pulling inspiration?  

Making music is not the only components that are important in a recording artists career. Making videos are just as important as the song because the visual represents your message. In 2011 Rihanna was sued for her S&M music video, she was accused by David LaChapelle of copying his photographs to create the music video.  So making sure that your song isn’t too similar to someone else’s is just the beginning your music videos are at stake also.

Lastly and one of the most important is the royalties cases, so many people get sued for not paying producers after they use their beats and make money from it. Lil Wayne was sued for $20 million by “Lollipop” producer.  The producer Darius Harrison aka Deezle claims he was not given his fair cut of the song’s sales. These stories are all to familiar in the industry, people write songs and make beats for artist then when its time to get paid its an issue. All to many times people are quick to take what they need to make their music but slow to pay for the works they received. 

There are a lot of problems that you can run into in the music industry so I warn you people dot your I’s and cross your T’s.