Share your knowledge freely !

Hey up people,

This was originally posted on the Club / Hard Techno forum but have been advised it could be useful if posted on other parts of the site as well. Hope you can get some use out of what follows...

We (Axiom) have managed to secure support and possibly funding from a government / EU agency called Inspiral, based in Sheffield. The support involves music industry training workshops, contacts, music business guidance, consultations with an independant record label owner / artist, possibly funding and more.

There are lots of grants available out there, if you are serious about getting into the music industry then check out some of the links below. They don't make it easy for you but you have to be dedicated and have a passion for your art.

I ended up going to a training workshop last Thursday hosted by Inspiral and had an afternoon of really useful training with some fairly big music industry professionals and other people like me who are trying to break into the music industry.

One of the things they said there was to share your information freely.

BoA forum is a good place to share useful information and resources.

So, I produced a report after the workshop to distribute to the other Axiom guys and I thought it might be really useful to everyone (established and up 'n' coming artists) if I posted it here.

The workshop covered
•Sound Recordings
•Publishing
•Live Music
•Business Relationships

Please read on if you are interested, I hope it helps.

Peace

MM

Music Business Opportunities in 2004

The Realities of Developing a Successful and Profitable Music Business in 2004

Free workshop hosted by Inspiral and MMF Training

Thursday 29 July 2004 – Sheffield Hilton Hotel

Description of event:
Informal, 4 music industry professionals discuss and present various issues concerning the current and future music industry, taking questions and comments. Attendees include artists, producers, engineers, managers, promoters, PR Consultants - people who are serious about a career in the music industry.

Panellists:
•Johnathan Dickens – CMO Management. Formerly A & R at Warner and Instant Karma. Roster includes Blur, Turin Brakes, Graham Coxon, Gorillaz, Fat Truckers, White Trash, I-Monster…
•Rupert Dell – Promoter, Leadmill, Sheffield live music venue
•Ian Grenfell – Manager of Simply Red
•Stuart Worthington – MMF Training, The MMF (Music Managers Forum) was formed in 1992 to represent the interests of Managers in the music industry. It now runs comprehensive training courses throughout the country and has international chapters across the Globe.

What an entrepreneur requires:
•Information
•Contacts
•Resources

Four Main Topics Covered:
•Sound Recordings
•Publishing
•Live music
•Business Relationships

SOUND RECORDINGS

Three main ways to generate income:
•Sell records – retail outlets
•Royalties – whenever your record is played you are paid for this – radio, public performance (includes DJ’s etc), old phrase was “needle time” meaning whenever a needle was placed on your record and played publicly you were paid
•Licensing – other labels, TV, film, advertising, computer games etc.

Other methods to generate income:
•Digital download
•Buy direct from artists – web site etc.
•Subscription services
•Ring tones – described as a short term fad that is not worth the amount of time and effort it takes for about 20 seconds of repeated play time

PUBLISHING

Chart music:
•Singles are not big earners, albums are – CD single audience age is generally under the age of 18

Market:
•Now split into so many genres and sub-genres. It is likely that market may fragment more in future.
•What section of the market are you aiming for ?

Radio Promotion:
•In America music is promoted and played on radio before general release, not done often enough over here in the UK
•Phone radio stations and send them demo’s, promo’s, etc. If you can convince the radio stations your music is good enough to play then people are very likely to buy it.
•Local pirate radio stations are a very good way to create a buzz if your music is played

Price:
•Who sets the price of a CD or 12” vinyl?
•Not artist, not distributor, not record label but retailers, importers
•CD’s very over priced – official published figures / statistics incorrect
•Supermarkets appear to do deals with major labels where there is a 33-50% reduction in price from high street music stores
•If you are an independent record label try to set your own retail prices, these can be cheaper than those set by high street retailer. Good for direct purchasing from artists.

Contracts:
•Contracts need to make sense. They must be clear English and easy to understand. If certain clauses are hard to understand ask the label to rephrase clauses.
•3 ways to earn money, this will be stated in the contract, these are:
*Profit share, usually 50/50 split, can sometimes be 60/40 in labels favour
*Sales – see below
*Royalty calculation – complicated, would need to be a member of MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society), PRS (Performing Right Society) and PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited)
•Deductions – different contracts have different deductions. These would typically include:
*25% packaging and printing costs
*10% deduction for promotional costs
*10% deduction for lacquer breakages
*10% deduction for Research and Development (off 90% already from lacquer breakages)
•8 issues to be aware of when considering signing a contract:
*Sales base - based on what ? 100% of sales, 85% of sales, minimum sales threshold before payment,
*Rate – paid for percentage of sales price, i.e. 18% of sales price is paid to you
*Price – what price is your rate coming from ? Retailer price, dealer price ? Usually dealer price
*Deductions – see above
*Reductions – if sales less than 100% then you may get a reduction in payment
*Escalate – if sales exceed a threshold stated in contract then your payment increases
*Reserve cap
*Recoupable – cash advances etc.
•Claimed that many record contracts could be thrown out in a court of law as they are unclear, unfair and unjust on the artists. This does not happen often though as many artists can not afford to pay legal fees to even approach a court of law.
•Performing live clauses may also exist in contract, i.e. if you perform any of the signed music live and there is income generated from that then the label stakes a claim and takes a percentage of that income away from you.
•Beggers Contract - instigated / created by CMO Management where the deductions are very limited, no packaging deductions for example
•“A 60 page record contract – the first page tells you what you get, the other 59 pages tell you how the label will take it way from you.” This statement is aimed more at the majors.

3 situations to enable you get your music released:
•DIY – all ourselves but this means we are doing about 8-9 jobs all at once, i.e. artist, producer, engineer, agent, publisher, manager, PR, graphic design, law, web master, etc.
•Signed to label – they do everything for you, individuals employed to this but deductions are made as discussed
•Employ freelance professionals to do some or all of the jobs listed above – can prove to be very expensive

D I Y
•If you can do everything yourself then why try and get signed ? Generally because of the promotion, support and contacts a label can offer.
•If you are unsigned then possibly a good position to be in. If you form your own independent record label you have full control and there are no commitments as stated in the contract.

LIVE MUSIC

Income
•Another good way to generate income. Could be way forward for independent musicians.
•Percentage of ticket price is paid to you, not just a flat rate. Therefore, incentive is there for you to help sell tickets and get more people down to the venue
•Sometimes the booking price is paid straight to the artist
•“Pay to Play” – artists / groups pay the venue a set price and use their venue, sound system and engineers, The artist / group then produce tickets etc. themselves and promote and sell them. Artists / group has to work at promotion (tickets, flyers, internet advertising) to play and make it successful.
•If you’re signed to a label this may form part of income deductions stated in the contract – see Contracts section above

General
•Need to have good relationship with promoter
•Short time span for performance (DJ’s, live music, band, etc) – may last anything from 1 – 3 hours. Sometimes more.
•Advised to create a buzz locally, get local audience and vibe, word of mouth is still a good promotion tool, utilise local and pirate radio stations for this

BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

Internet
•Create and maintain website, keep it simple, to include:
*3-4 mp3 tracks
*Biography
*Free downloadable tracks help album sales, i.e. Radiohead
*May also include forums on or affiliated to your website – keep in touch with fans
•Update web site regularly, keep it fresh
•Log on and create and maintain contacts on forums / message boards
•Flyers / advertising (also through email)
•Subscribe to one of the major search engines to get your details listed whenever a search is done with your name – google, yahoo, etc.

Fan Base / Interaction

•Log on or create message boards / forums – fans can chat / interact if they wish or just browse. Make yourself accessible.
•Use fans to help push / promote the record – ensure they all buy the record at the same time (good for statistics), all go to gigs, etc.
•It has been known for fans to all contribute financially to keep an artist / group going until they are self sufficient again

CONCLUSION

•Your music has to be good from the start. If your music is good enough and you have a passion then you will be able to make a living out of it eventually
•Share you information freely
•We all have to be very self critical and honest of the music we create
•Ethos should be on Art (music) first and then income will follow, if you go into this industry only for the money then you are likely to fail, you must have a passion for what you do

CONTACTS, GENERAL INFORMATION AND FURTHER INFORMATION RESOURCES

Web:
•http://www.mcps.co.uk
•http://www.prs.co.uk
•http://www.ppluk.com
•http://www.inspiral.org.uk– government funding agency
•http://www.ukmmf.net– music industry training agency
•http://www.nesta.org.uk – government funding agency
•http://www.9pr.co.uk– Public Relations consultancy, have many good contacts you can distribute demo’s to, especially major radio stations
•http://www.kcrw.com– L.A. based experimental radio station
•http://www.recordstore.co.uk– online retailer specialising in independent labels
•http://www.u-music.tv/index.asp- pirate music video satellite station I’m lead to believe. If you have a video with your music on a good way to promote yourself.

Books:
•MMF ‘Bible’ – The Music Management Bible (available from MMF website above)
•Music: The Business - The Essential Guide to the Law and the Deals, Author: Ann Harrison
•All You Need to Know About the Music Business, Author: Donald S. Passman

Submit demo’s to local, national and international radio stations.

Pinnacle and Vital are the biggest distributors

Approximate cost of 500 white labels = £500-850