MUSIC BIZ 2

So, what does this all mean for a young person starting out in music? I hope you use the BIZ 101 information to properly set your goals. Do not assume that just because you pack your local bar on a weekend, that you can make a living. You WILL make a great living for the bar OWNER. He or she will LOVE you! But you may not make a very good living for yourself.

Your goal if you are interested in music biz, should focus on sales of product, acquiring publishing rights and receiving copyright royalties. This is how musicians make money. They (w/ VERY rare exceptions-and I can't even think of one) do not make money by playing a musical instrument, no matter how well they may play it.  John Lennon is considered a great musician along with Jimi Hendrix. Both played guitar, but neither one received money for playing their guitars. Lennon got rich from SELLING records and  from songwriter royalties. Hendrix also made money from SELLING records and to a much lesser extent, songwriter royalties. Both of these guys (and countless others) got royally screwed out of the big money which comes from the leasing of publishing rights. This is how record producers and some artists (Jackson, McCartney) really do become rich.

Publishing rights means (and I am simplifying, please email me if you really want to get into this subject) that if you own the rights to a copyrighted work, you will receive a fee EVERY time that work is performed or published, That means when someone buys the sheet music to "Feelings', the guy who owns those rights gets a fee. Every time it's played on the radio--cha-ching! Fee! When u hear Zeppelins "Rock and Roll" on the Cadillac commercial- FEE! The artist is NOT usually the one who owns these rights!!!!!!! I don't know who owns "Rock and Roll" but they are making a FORTUNE from those commercials-and you can bet the house it's NOT anyone who was in Led Zeppelin. The artist who created the work often does not understand that this is "where the REAL money is" in the music biz and often gives up these rights. It's not in touring or being cool or famous. It's in the publishing! The Beatles never owned their publishing and got NONE of that money. Michael Jackson  now owns most of the Beatles catalog and leases those rights out to companies (like apple computers..."It's getting Better all the time") for fees.

He also owns many other catalogs (for one, he owns the entire Sly and the Family Stone catalog)  as does McCartney. McCartney (who says he could not afford the Beatles catalog when it went up for sale in the early 80s) does own many Broadway show rights like Hello Dolly. He owns the Buddy Holly catalog and reaped great rewards when "the Buddy Holly Story' movie came out and a lot of major artists of the day (like Linda Ronstant) were covering Holly tunes. Most of that money went to Paul because he owned that publishing. You would never live long enough to play enough gigs to equal the cash flow from publishing. So, if you are ever facing a table of lawyers while signing a record distribution deal (soon to be a thing of the past), be sure YOUR lawyer included publishing rights in your deal. If he didn't bring this issue to you, you picked the WRONG lawyer.

I would like to conclude the discussion of the biz by mentioning P2P. I am an artist offering my work on the net for a price in order to make a profit. I'm not at all ashamed of this. But I will tell you that I have not paid for a CD since I got my new computer and hooked up to Lime Wire.  I am REALLY offended by the record companies suing folks for downloading music in the name of fairness. I totally agree that it is stealing and it should NOT be done. But for the record companies to sue people after ALL THE RIPPING OFF OF ARTISTS THAT THEY ARE KNOWN FOR, is really too much. If the record compaines want to be "fair and equitable' then maybe they should pay back the royalties they stole from all of the black artists of the 50s WHO FU%$ng INVENTED rock and roll, but who the compaines could not market because the artists were black.  People like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Sam and Dave, Holland & Dozier and ALL of the artists that recorded for Excello records and I don't have enough meg space to complete this list! They would swindle the songwriters out of their rights to collect royalties, give the songs to people like Elvis for delivery, and keep the profits. In many cases the original artist's name was taken off the copyright altogether. Don't get me started on the Jazz artists. Charlie Parker never made more than $300 a week time during his lifetime and he was one of the most creative musicians to ever walk on this or any other planet. And that would have been a GOOD week.

Hey Sony Corp. I DOWNLOAD!  Sue me.

But folks, don't listen to what I just said, as I have a recording available for sale and would MUCH prefer you to BUY it from me than to burn copies and give them out free. THANKS!

I would love to hear your thoughts and questions on this (to me) interesting topic.
Please email me