SONG PROCESS. WHAT'S NEXT?
Peggy has a good question that many of us go through. What happens AFTER SOMEONE RECORDS OUR SONGS? That is what we all want. What do we do NEXT? Then of course you have ALL the good ones, BMI, ASCAP, Teamster's union, which one is best?
Well, my dear, here is where we enter the world of THEORY and REALITY.
In THEORY, and "the way things used to be" , you would have a publisher, be affiliated with a PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), you would have them sign a LISCENCE(contract) saying that they will pay you X amount of money, and you would sit back, check your mailbox every day, and go directly to the bank and spend those HUGE checks!
YEAH.....RIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHTTTTTTT!!!!
The fact is that if you sign a song with a major artist, major publisher, major record label, major producer, major this major that, it still works that way. FOR NOW.
Outside of that, we are all kind of on our own. And since out of the TWELVE BILLION songs a year uploaded to the Internet, about 500 will make any significant money worldwide. Most artists, particularly independent artists with no real label, manager, lawyers, agents, sell in the TENS of albums. Not hundreds, not thousands, TENS of records. And I am NOT EXAGERATING.
Everyone thinks they are going to record something, put it on YOU TUBE and Facebook and BOOM they are going to go viral. What happens? They do that, and it DISSAPEARS an hour after being posted, because ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND OTHER THINGS HAVE COME UP THE HOUR RIGHT BEHIND THEIRS. They have their site that their friends, family, publicise their gigs, and get a few people interested in what they do. But aside from that, they are a DAILY FOOTNOTE that uses the Internet. How many spam emails do you get a day? That is what most artists are. SPAM EMAILS!
What about live shows? Well, when they can get a place to play, gather up their band, pay them to play with them, do advertising, have to pay a club to play, print up posters, spend twenty hours online promoting their gig, do fifteen free gigs to bring people into the one they are supposed to play for, set up their CD, T shirts, hats,etc, that they paid FIVE TIMES TOO MUCH FOR THAN THEY'LL EVER MAKE BACK, be told by the promoter that they booked another band in their time slot so their time is cut in half, then somebody from a radio station comes in and has to get their girlfriend on the show, cutting their time AGAIN, down to three songs, they might be able to sell two copies to an AUNT or a friend their sister works with in the parking lot.
Don't expect some major royaltiy checks from there.
CD's are now GIVEAWAYS. We are lucky to get anything recorded.
Want to know where the actual music business is?
Each artist out there on a major label, has about $2.5 million dollars invested in them. Recording, promotion, radio tours, salaries, insurance, band fees, union dues, travel, food, etc. It is VERY EXPENSIVE. Want to do CONAN, Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show? Well you are paid about $500 for those. It costs about $15,000 in expenses to do all those shows. Pack up your band, roadies, road managers, that you are paying $10,000 a week to, into the $8500 a week tour bus, and burn up $1500 in fuel to go do those shows.
The "Break Even point" for a new artist is around 680,000 units sold.
The two biggest current artists in country are Eric Church, and Luke Bryan.
Eric's sales are right around 600,000.
Luke's are around 400,000.
These two, the TOP COUNTRY MUSIC STARS, ARE NOT EVEN BREAKING EVEN FROM RECORD SALES.
Now, they can make a LOT of money from Festivals, major arena concerts, Merchandising. This can be hundreds of thousands a night. So they are not going broke.
But as far as RECORD SALES and what they pay to OUTSIDE WRITERS? It is not even breaking even.
As a songwriter you are paid from MECHANICALS, or when physical product, CD's, LEGAL downloads, are sold.
You are paid for PERFORMANCES, which are when MAINSTREAM RADIO plays in standard rotation. Podstreaming (about 500,000 streams pay around $1500). Ring tones, movie and television placement, commercials, etc. Are what everyone is shooting for. And very few doing anything.
Enough of the down side.
If you are to get a cut on an artist, you should have your own publishing company. You are self published until you get someone to take the job.
Usually an artist is going to want to be involved with that. For all the good it does. (SEE ABOVE)
I would talk to the artist. Find out what they expect. I would draw up a simple lisencing agreement if they and you feel it is nessasary. These can be found on ASCAP, BMI or publisher's web sites.
If you draw up an agreement, you get 9.1 CENTS per copy sold.
PERSONALLY:
I would be encouraging people to record my songs and make it as easy to do so as possible. If they got very active, and a lot of money got on the horizon, I would pay attention. Most of it doesn't.
One foot in front of another. What if that one song led to writing with the artist? What if that led to another song, and another one, and other bands or artists finding out about you? Get some activity and a publisher will get involved with you.
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC?
They are COLLECTION AGENCIES. Most songs are FREE MUSIC. So there is NOTHING TO COLLECT.
Visit all three of their web sites. Find out people you can talk to on the phone. Ask questions you would like to know about. If you get a lot of cut activity and interest going on, I would then make a trip to personally visit them face to face.
ASCAP is the OLDEST.
BMI is the MOST SUCCESSFUL.
SESAC is the most intensive personal attention, but you have to be asked to join.
That is about all I can tell you tonight. I hope this helps.
MAB