Musicpress

The Heretic’s Comment: We ran across a great Forbes article by columnist  Zack O’Malley Greenburg discussing Mac Miller’s independent march to fame and fortune. If you want some motivation to keep you going in this brutal game called the Music Industry, take time out to read this excellent article. The article will take you about 10 minutes to complete. The link appears directly below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2011/12/19/mac-miller-indie-music-savior-30-under-30/

Closing Comments:

Read this article!!! It will motivate you!!!

The thing I love about Mac is that he gets it. He understands that it is better to get a bigger slice of a smaller pie, than almost no slice at all from a huge pie. When you do the numbers, dollars wins over pennies. But what artists/musical groups/bands get caught up into thinking is that having the major label machine behind them will translate into them making more money. It sounds good, but in most cases it is not true. Now I grant you, if you are signed to a major label you may be able to charge a higher fee for your shows, but those days are rapidly coming to an end. Nowadays, you can’t draw people to a show just because you are an artist signed to a major label, instead people attending live shows are there because somehow they feel connected with that particular artist whether or not that artist is signed to a major label.

It boils down to your efforts to consistently connect your music to a fanbase that is loyal to you as opposed to being loyal to the record label you may happened to be signed to. We have a post called Rent-A-Fanbase versus Own-A-Fanbase that goes into this topic much deeper and we highly recommend you to read.

Find a way to get your music and products into your fans’ hearts and that will get you to the money. It is not easy….but it can happen…just read Mac Miller’s story!!!

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The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

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The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comments: George Howard (a Berklee Professor of Music Business/Management) contributed an article describing strategies you can use to make your music successful (whatever success means to you) for the upcoming year of 2012.

We have provided a direct link below to Mr. Howard’s article. It will take you about 10 minutes to read. Also (as we always recommend you do) if you have time to read the comments following the article make the effort to do so. In a lot of instances you can learn more from reading the comments, than you do from reading the article itself.

http://blog.tunecore.com/2011/12/7-ways-to-increase-your-odds-of-success-in-the-music-business-in-2012.html?utm_medium=email&ref=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newseletter12_15_11

Closing Comments:

Don’t chase someone else’s musical style!!! I call this the flavor of the month syndrome. Instead, in 2012 make the determination to create the music that personally moves you and brings you enjoyment as opposed to creating music simply because you think it will sell (but it doesn’t move you)!!!

Have the courage to believe………..in YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comments: Vinny Ribas of Indie Connect Magazine provides some excellent insight to why you might not have been successful as you want to be in selling your music online.

A direct link to the Vinny’s post appears directly below:

http://indieconnectmagazine.com/2011/11/indie-artist-tip-day-buying-music-online/

Closing Comments:

One of the most tragic mistakes I see recording artist constantly making is thinking that creating great music will cause people to discover them.

It is only partially true!!!

It is a given that you must record and deliver great music, but you also have to make great decisions in mapping out a plan which will allow the widest possible fan-base and customer-base to discover your music.

That being said, if YOU are not good with marketing and promoting YOURSELF these days, YOU will have a very short music career as well as not make any money.

Long gone are the days when you can just be a great songwriter, singer or musician and leave the responsibility of promoting yourself to a Record Label. YOU are YOUR own Record Label, and YOU better realize that YOU are going to have to get out their and kiss some babies and shake some hands if YOU are going to make impact.

YOU are in a business of relationships….if they don’t feel connected to YOU….YOUR music will be ignored…and they won’t spend money with YOU or YOUR products!!!

Take time to read Vinny’s post. It will help you organize your efforts in generating money online!!!

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comment: Those of you who read this blog regularly know how strongly we emphasize the importance of owning and controlling your creative content, but with that being said, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way the U.S. Congress is attempting to enforce the rights of content owners through the proposed controversial legislation known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

The major entertainment conglomerates from the music, books and film industries among others are all lining up to put pressure on Congress to pass this legislation which would effectively criminalize the act of posting up content which you can’t prove that you have ownership in or  license to use.

One version of the act, has as part of its punishment, a 5 year prison sentence for a first time offender. Additionally, websites such as YouTube or Facebook which allows users to place content on their sites could be shut down (yanked from the internet) if the offending content is not removed within 5 days of posting.

The Entertainment Conglomerates are using SOPA as another way to control and police content. Either you play their game or they shut you down and possibly have prosecutors attempt to throw you in jail. These companies have not learned one damn thing. They tried this same tactic when the RIAA (Record Label Police) went after highschoolers and college kids among others for file sharing. These efforts had a negative impact on the public’s view of the major labels which still lingers to this very day.

We have told you several times in this blog that censorship of the internet is the fight taking place as we speak, but sadly most of the public is not even aware that a war is being waged.

One of my favorite bloggers Seth Godin shared a list of the companies/organizations who support SOPA. As Seth stated, we are providing the list so now you know who to complain to:

ABC
AFTRA – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
AFM – American Federation of Musicians
AAP – Association of American Publishers
ASCAP
BMG Chrysalis
BMI
CBS Corporation
Cengage Learning
DGA – Directors Guild of America
Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc.
EMI Music Publishing
ESPN
Graphic Artists Guild
Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C.
Hyperion
IATSE – International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Kaufman Astoria Studios
Macmillan
Major League Baseball
Marvel Entertainment, LLC
McGraw-Hill Education
MPA – The Association of Magazine Media
NFL – National Football League
National Music Publishers’ Association
NBCUniversal
News Corporation
New York Production Alliance
New York State AFL-CIO
Pearson Education
Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
The Perseus Books Group
Producers Guild of America East
Random House
Reed Elsevier
SAG – Screen Actors Guild
Scholastic, Inc.
Silvercup Studios
Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Time Warner Inc.
United States Tennis Association
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Publishing Group
Viacom
Warner Music Group
W.W. Norton & Company
Wolters Kluwer

Closing Comments:

In the case of Conglomerates who are in the business of  buying content, stop giving up your ownership to these companies. Once they own your content and a law like SOPA is passed, you could possibly be thrown in jail for posting up your own music to YouTube!!! Stop this madness!!!

Are we a Police State or a Democracy??????

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comment:

According to Moses Avalon’s 1998 Book, Confessions of a Record
Producer, the proceeds of a then-$17 CD would typically be distributed
as follows:

Retailer: $5 (29.4%),
Record label: $4.92 (28.9%),
Distributor: $2.40 (14.1%),
Giveaways: $1.80 (10.6%),
Duplication/recording: $1.10 (5.8%),
Artist royalty: 83 cents (4.9%),
Songwriter license: 60 cents (3.5%),
Producer royalty: 27 cents (1.6%),
Musicians union: 8 cents (0.4%).

Now mind you, the numbers used in our example are from years ago, but it is instructive to show you just how greedy and abusive the Major Labels have been both to recording artists/producers/songwriters as well as to the general consumer.  The physical production cost of each CD might have cost the Major Label anywhere from 6 cents to 50 cents to manufacture, yet the Labels had the price jacked up in some cases as high as $19.98 for the retail price of the CD. Of this retail pricing, the combined money paid out to the recording artist, songwriter, producer and musician was  less than $2.00 per CD sold (in our example, it was actually $1.74 per CD sold).

The saddest part about the above is that despite using numbers from over 10 years ago, nothing presently has changed in the artist’s favor in reference to those signed under major recording contracts. In fact,  it is even worst now,  because of all of the 360 arrangements that Major Labels force artists to eat in exchange for getting a deal. So the possibility of an artist making money through record royalties in 2011 remains almost non-existent despite the fact that in this year Major Record Labels and their partners will pocket millions upon millions of dollars from physical CD sales.

Sadly enough the numbers on the digital side are even worst than the physical side, but we will deal with that in a separate post.

Closing Comments:

You have to have the courage to speak to Power and refuse to bow down. That is the only way these slave deals will ever change. As long as we are fighting and competing against each other to see who will have the next opportunity to be offered the major label deal, 10 years from now…nothing will have changed. Your musical sons and daughters will be signing the same slave deal you were forced to sign. Even more sadder than that is the fact that you will own none of your music…it will be under the firm control and ownership of a Conglomerate that has long forgotten about you.

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comment: On the back of muscling Congress into voting favorably to relax Media ownership rules in 2003, now the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is petitioning the Supreme Court to grant approval for a single media company or organization to own newspapers and television and radio stations in urban markets. There are statutes in place currently that prohibit this monopolist land grab.

Closing Comments:

We must aggressively fight against NAB’s further effort to consolidate media control on behalf of its member companies (Pimp the Game!!!).

Just think, if the Supreme Court rules favorably toward the NAB’s argument…that will mean that the SAME Conglomerate can own the primary newspaper(s), television station(s) and radio station(s) in the same urban market.

In other words, one Conglomerate can amass (legally) the supreme power to tell individuals in the creative community…it is either our way or the highway.

So if you pist off the wrong executive at the Conglomerate on the one other hand, or on the other hand a representative of the Conglomerate decides that they don’t like or that they are offended by your music, book, movie, stage play, live show, painting, exhibit, etc…consolidated ownership rules mean that they will have even greater power to use the media to silence you!!!

Email/write/call your congressman/congresswoman and tell them to protest this attempted land grab by the NAB. They are stealing our Free Speech Rights just like a thief in the night, but they are using the law instead!!!

Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!!

More info on the NAB’s activities to petition the Supreme Court appears below:

http://broadcastengineering.com/news/nab_supreme_court_ownership_rules_12082011/

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comment: Don’t count physical product out just yet. We found just the story we had been looking for  which indicates that a number of mom and pop retail stores are selling independent movies, games, books and music cds at a very brisk rate.

The story we found deals with sales taken place in the state of Maine, but we are hopeful that this trend will be proven to be applicable for other areas of the country as well. We have provided  a direct link to the story below.  The story will take you between 5 to 10 minutes to read.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/old-media-holding-its-own-this-holiday-season_2011-12-04.html

Closing Comments:

If you can afford to do physical product (and you have a fanbase that supports you), invest in physical product and don’t just limit yourself to digital.

Your profit margins are so much better going physical over digital and additionally you can be more creative with the packaging you offer…which will hopefully entice your fans to buy your product as gifts for others.

Its crunch time for the Holiday buying season…so if you have product…push it…push it…push it….

I know times are challenging, but this is the time of year that relationships you have developed consistently over the months leading up to the holidays can pay off.

On the other hand, if you are not having a successful holiday season selling your product this year, then come up with a game plan to introduce yourself to local retail business owners and service shops such as barber shops/ beauty shops/cleaners/convenience stores/medical offices.

Get to know the managers/owners/service providers. Find out if there is a way you can put your product in their stores on consignment. Let me emphasize, don’t limit yourself to music stores or stores that specialize in selling what you do.Expand well beyond that.

So you say to me…you crazy…I am not going to do that. Well my response to your reservation is to first make the owner or manager a Fan of what you do. If you are performing, make an effort to give free passes to local retail store owners. If you have new music, give a complimentary copy to the store owner and pitch them on the possibility of placing your product near the register or checkout if they truly like your music (or whatever you do).

It won’t be a hard sell for the store owner/manager, because hopefully their customers  will just naturally ask, what is going on with this music cd or dvd or book you are carrying. And a conversation can take place from there which will hopefully lead to a sell. Your sell!!! Anything can happen!!!

One Last Thought

Develop a thick skin and go beyond your fear of rejection. You have to be willing to do what others are too intimated to do in order to give your product a fighting chance of generating a profit. That being said, don’t be a pest. If they don’t like what you do, move on to the next until you are able to make the connection.

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comments: We wanted to share a very popular post from Mike Masnick  of TechDirt describing why even major label artists rarely make any money from Album Sales. Mike’s post will take you about 10 minutes to read and we have provided the link directly below. Let us know your thoughts/comments.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

Closing Comments:

The individuals that the entire industry is built on (artists/musical groups/bands/songwriters/composers/producers) are getting paid peanuts in some select cases, but in the vast majority of deals, artists end up being upside down to the Record Label and walk away with no money and no music….just fleeting fame.

The Major Label Game is not designed for you to make money.The Major Label Game is designed for you to make the Major Label money and then they chunk you some peanuts after they have fuzzy math(ed) you to death.

Unfortunately, these arrangements won’t change as long as Artists/Songwriters/Musical Groups/Bands/Producers keep biting and scratching to see who will be first in line to secure the next “big” slave deal.

One Final Note:

The lawyers, managers and accountants you might be introduced to represent you (in a lot of instances) have ongoing business relationships with the major labels you are paying them to protect you from. Always know that when a major deal is signed there is underneath table monies and kickbacks if your team is more loyal to the Major Label than to you.

Let us know your thoughts.

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comments: Steve Albini providing wisdom on how Recording Studios and Engineers can survive in the music game that has been turned upside down.  Let us know your thoughts!!!

If you enjoy The Heretic™ and the information we provide please sign up as a subscriber today! Thank You!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments.

The Heretic™ © 2011 Cross Live Media All RIGHTS RESERVED For the MAKE YOUR OWN MONEY FROM YOUR PROJECT Movement……..

www.thecrossfirm.com

Follow us on Twitter @attorneycross

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

The Official Release of the  “Before You Sign That” is coming soon. An indie artist inspired book Authored by The Heretic’s very own Leslie W. Cross Jr. and co-authored by platinum recording artist Paul Wall.  More details are coming soon if you are interesting in pre-ordering the book. We are very excited about this Project!!!! We also have other projects in the works that we will be sharing with you soon!!!

The Heretic’s Comments: If you use LinkedIn, please consider joining our Occupy Music Industry LinkedIn Group which was started earlier during this week.

We know that for some it will take courage to support the Occupy Music Industry effort because many of you still see signing with major labels/distributors as your best opportunity to achieve national and/or international success of your music.

We respect your concerns of not wanting to ruffle the feathers of those controlling the music power structure, and many of you have told us such in your feedback, however, we want you to consider that what we are proposing is to make a fundamental change in how Record Labels muscle ownership over content and control artists like indentured slaves.

We know what we are attempting to do now is extremely difficult because we have already been fighting this fight for years to enlighten artists to the importance of maintaining ownership and control to their content and products, and it has been a uphill battle to change belief systems that success can be had outside the control of the major music system.

We really feel that with the occupy movements sweeping the country, right now at this moment presents a great opportunity to also push and advocate for the rights of men and women trying to make a living through their music.

We will keep you posted moving forward and our goal is to use the Occupy Music Industry LinkedIn Group as a gathering place  to share information and encouragement to further turn the tables on Conglomerate control over the music business.