Question :
What is the best way to get heard by an A&R department ?
Answer :
There are many things that you can do which will almost certainly
NOT lead to being heard by an A&R department !! Yet, many
people do them.
For example:
1) Sending in CD's / tapes without permission
2) Sending in CD's / tapes addressed to "A&R Dept."
rather than a named person
3) Sending an email to every record company you can think of announcing
your music can be downloaded from a specif ic website
The only way to get heard by A&R is
to know them personally or know someone who does. If you're relying
on somebody else to get your material heard by A&R then you
must ensure that they have the right contacts. The turnover of
staff at an A&R department is incredible and it's almost a
full
time job in itself, just keeping up with changes.
Question :
What information should go in an Artists biography ?
Answer :
Many people put in too much information when writing a biography
- or at least, too much of the wrong kind of information !!
When an Artist is signed to a Record or
Publishing deal, on one level or another it will be because of
their personality as well as their music. So, a biography needs
to be a reflection of the person and their music.
There are no right or wrong ways of constructing
a biography, but it should ideally be one page accompanied by
a couple of photographs (which will also reflect the Artists personality).
It is OK to mention your background and
upbringing, but only in passing: nobody cares where you went to
school and nobody cares how out of place you felt in your suburban
commuter town (it's a cliche for artists !).
People definitely care about what makes
you tick. Why you create the music you do. Avoid the hard sell
though - "we're going to be huge in a years time". It
sounds so amateur.
Question :
What is the difference between a Major Label and an Indie Label
?
Answer :
The difference is basically in the funding & ownership of
the company. A Major label, by definition, is owned by one of
the four major corporations: Sony-BMG, Warner, Universal &
EMI. They all have many offices around the world that are under
direct control of the parent HQ.
An Indie (independent) label is not necessarily
completely independent - it may be part of a bigger group of companies
- but it is not related to one of the 4 major corporations.
Question :
If I get a meeting with a Music Publisher or Record Company, what
should I say when I meet them ?
Answer :
First and foremost, in my opinion, a Music Publisher or Record
Company needs to see that you are fully aware of how your music
would be marketed within the industry. Many people may think that
this is none of their concern: it is the Publisher &/or label's
job to sell your work, but successfully
marketing music is the hardest and most expensive job around.
If you are a songwriter who is looking to have your material recorded
by signed artists, then each song should be tailored to a specific
sector or even a specific artist. A Publisher may ask who you
imagine performing a particular
song of yours: you should be able to immediately respond with
something like "I could see this song being recorded by someone
like Alicia Keys on her first two albums or maybe a girl group
aiming at a teen audience". Be specific. You should clarify
at what point of an artists career your song
would have fitted their style. Alternatively, particularly if
you were a recording artist, you could speak geographically: "I
don't see this working in the U.K as it's too rocky, but N. America
or Germany/Italy would be good" or mention similar artists:
"I'm like a more mature Nivea, aimed at early 20-
somethings".
They also need to know that you are doing
everything in your power to get your music out there now - no
A&R person would want to feel you were just sitting back waiting
for a deal to happen to you. So, a songwriter would mention labels
and artists they have pitched their song to (even if it was unsuccessful)
and a recording artist would mention gigs, press, website, etc.
Money is rarely discussed at meetings with A&R people, so
the absolute last thing you should ever do is ask them how much
they'd give you if you were signed !!
Question :
How do I get my music into Films & Television programs ?
Answer :
Placing Music in Films & TV shows has become one of the most
important jobs at Record Companies and Music Publishers. Why ?
As record sales have dropped over the past few years, industry
executives have looked to replace that lost income. Not only is
Film/TV music placement lucrative, it also serves the dual purpose
of promoting an artist or their latest release.
So, competition is high. Independent artists
though, do have a number of advantages over large companies. For
example, they can often agree contractual and payment terms much
quicker than the multinational music companies (who are infamous
for their turtle-like speed). An independent artist
also has virtually no overheads compared to a large company and
would therefore be perfectly happy accepting a few thousand dollars
for one use of their song; whereas a deal of that size is simply
not profitable for a major company.
The people in charge of choosing music
for Film & TV are known as 'Music Supervisors' and have a
similar role to A&R people. Consequently the same rules apply
as to how you come to the attention of Music Supervisors.
Question :
What kind of publishing deal might a new Songwriter be offered
by a major or independent Music Publisher ?
Answer :
There are two kinds of Publishing deal: a single-song assignment
and an exclusive agreement.
A single-song assignment, not surprisingly,
grants the copyright in one specific song to the Music Publisher.
The royalty split varies between 50/50 (most common in North America)
to anything up to 100/0 in favour of the writer: the latter is
extremely rare but does exist where the income is so high
that the Publisher is happy to merely earn interest on the total
sum before paying the writer. Advances are usually minimal for
a single-song deal.
The Exclusive agreement ties the songwriter
to the Publisher for a certain period, usually from one year to
the next, and states that every song written or co-written during
that period is automatically assigned to the Publisher. This is
sometimes referred to as a "staff" deal as it has many
of the
advantages associated with a "normal" job, such as a
regular salary, place of work, etc. The salary one could expect
would not usually be too extravagant but it will be enough to
live on.
Question :
What do companies like MCPS and The Harry Fox Agency do ?
Answer :
The MCPS, The Harry Fox Agency and others, collect and distribute
'mechanical' royalties generated from the recording of music onto
CD, DVD and other "mechanical devices". This income
is distributed to their members - writers and publishers of music.
Each agency can only grant licenses within
in its own country: for example, The Harry Fox Agency can only
grant licenses to a US company and the MCPS can only grant licenses
to a UK company. If this was not the case, then a record company
could go to whichever agency was the "cheapest" thereby
massively reducing the income for Publishers, and their writers.
This is the exact problem being
faced by Publishers and rights societies in the European Union,
which by design, allows free and unrestricted trade between member
countries.
Question :
What does "master-quality" actually mean ?
Answer :
These days, unsigned musicians are spoiled rotten when it comes
to music technology. While affordability is certainly in the eye
of the beholder, what you can do with $1000 worth of equipment
today would have cost ten times that 5 years ago. Go back 30 years
in time and if you were unsigned, you simply could not afford
to make recordings that sounded like what was on the Radio or
TV. Consequently, you had two types of recordings: masters and
demos. Of course "demo" is short for demonstration,
which is what demo still refers to today - a demonstration recording.
But in those days demo also stood for inferior recording quality,
because it was done on a much tighter budget than those available
for commercially released recordings (ie "masters").
Anyone with $1000 worth of equipment today can - and should be
able to - produce master quality recordings: but only if they
have the skill to do so.
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