The Heretic Empowering you to make money from your creativity

Insights as to why your music isn’t selling Online

Published on December 14th, 2011 by attorneycross in The Heretic Grind, The Heretic Insight

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

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!!!

No Comments »

SOPA – Using Content to hold the Internet Hostage

Published on December 13th, 2011 by attorneycross in Occupy Music Industry

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

3 Comments »

Universal Music Using Fuzzy Logic as Excuse Not To Pay Artists Fairly

Published on December 12th, 2011 by attorneycross in Music News, Occupy Music Industry, The Heretic Insight

The Heretic’s Comment: The issue revolving around how recording artist should be paid from digital downloads continues to be fought out in court. In 2010 Eminem was able to win a lawsuit against Universal Music Group for how it was calculating the royalties payable to him for digital downloads (please search for our earlier post which discussed the Eminem lawsuit). And now a few weeks ago, a California Federal Judge gave initial approval for allowing a class action lawsuit to move forward against Universal Music for the same issue that was the basis of the Eminem lawsuit.

As a brief review, the essential issue that recording artists are hopping mad about revolves around Universal Music’s “fuzzy logic” in arguing that digital downloads operate as a sale and not as a licensing event.

Why does Universal Music want digital downloads to be classified as a sale and not a license, because their recording contract will allow them to pay the artist the standard artist rate (10 to 20 percent of retail) (in other words pennies on the dollar).

On the other hand, why do recording artist want digital downloads to be treated as a license, because recording contracts normally require that granting a license to a recording requires the Record Label and the artist to split the licensing fees 50/50.

So we are talking about a significant difference in the amount of money the artist can make per digital download sold based on whether the digital download is classified as a sale versus a license.

Please see the link below for further discussion of this very interesting topic. We will keep you posted on this developing issue.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/universal-music-lawsuit-rob-zombie-rick-james-256662

Closing Comments:

If you are already selling product independently and a record label offers to sign you to a recording agreement, look at the way the record label is attempting to calculate your payments for product sold. Remember, most artist who sign with major record labels never see one dime of artist royalties, so make sure that if you are able to sell enough units to pay for your recording fund that you have maximized the money you will make per unit sold.

Your best defense against the above, is to try and get the record label to pay you the biggest advance possible upfront. Unfortunately, however, advances are not what they use to be…but if you sign a recording agreement and don’t get any money up front, you are setting yourself up for the victim scenario!!!

Something to think about!!!!

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

No Comments »

An example of Music CD Cost and Payout Breakdown

Published on December 10th, 2011 by attorneycross in Occupy Music Industry, The Heretic Insight

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

2 Comments »

Author has sold over 400,000 books through Self-Publishing (and is now on BestSeller’s List)

Published on December 9th, 2011 by attorneycross in Book News

The Heretic’s Comment: An independent author named Ms. Darcie Chan has (to date) sold over 400,000 copies of her novel entitled “The Mill River Recluse” which had been previously rejected by over 100 different literary agents as being too difficult to sell, and then when finally presented to the major publishing houses, was turned down by everyone of them.

But Ms. Chan refused to be locked out of the market by the conglomerate gatekeepers and decided to self publish her novel in e-book format through Amazon, iBooks and Barnes and Nobel among others…and the rest (as they say) is history.

If you are an author and don’t believe you can sell books through self publishing, take time to read this inspiring story. Columnist Alexandra Alter does a great job of not bogging Ms. Chan’s story down. The article will take you between 10 to 15 minutes to complete. The link appears immediately below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577082303350815824.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Closing Comments:

If there is a will….there is a way!!!

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

Tags: authors, book industry, book publishers, book publishing, independent authors, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Literary agent, Nook

1 Comment »

Broadcast Conglomerates asking Supreme Court to let them Pimp the Game!!!

Published on December 8th, 2011 by attorneycross in events, The Heretic Insight

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

No Comments »

Turning your Music/Song Library into CashFlow

Published on December 7th, 2011 by attorneycross in The Heretic Grind, The Heretic Insight

The Heretic’s Comments: One of the most frustrating things I deal with day in and day out are producers/songwriters/composers who have compiled tons and tons of original music content but just sit on it.

Why do I use the word frustrate, because many of these individuals are saving their music for one particular project or one particular artist or for the number one hit single they think is coming.

As a creative person myself, I understand that certain songs we compose are indeed very special and we place such songs in our special vault, but if you are wanting to turn your song library into cash-flow, you simply cannot afford to sit on your music (to essentially be for your own exclusive personal listening pleasure).

Music can only generate cashflow if it is used and heard by others.

With the above as our backdrop, I found an excellent article describing options and strategies on getting your music catalog included in various music libraries whose sole purpose is to find work for songs. Additionally, the article provides an excellent explanation for how to set up your own music libraries for licensing (cash-flowing) your catalog. The article is authored by Michael Borges who I read regularly through Linked In. The link appears directly below:

http://www.licensequote.com/blog/index.php/2011/08/how-experienced-music-creators-can-increase-their-sales-revenues/

Closing Comments:

Make the decision that if you are constantly investing the time to create original music content that your creativity has value. Despite the attack the creative music community is under from the freemium models being thrown at us, if you have quality content and have the courage to put a value to it….place it out in the product stream and let the marketplace work for you. Quality is the key determinant. You must have professional grade music in its structure, recording, mixing, mastering and delivery. Remember, you are not competing with local songwriters/producers you are familiar with….instead, you should see yourself competing against world class composers and songwriters. That being said…be you…not them….there is only one you and no one can be a better you…than 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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

No Comments »

Old Media is selling this Holiday Season

Published on December 5th, 2011 by attorneycross in The Heretic Grind, The Heretic Insight

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

Tags: amazon, artists, bands, digital music, Entertainment industry, entertainment law, facebook, Independent Music Business, indie artist, Indie recording artist, iPad, iTunes, music, music business, music technology, Record Label, record labels, royalties, Warner Music Group

No Comments »

Billboard Will no longer Chart Discounted Music at Initial Release

Published on December 1st, 2011 by attorneycross in The Heretic Insight

The Heretic’s Comments: For years Billboard has been the primary barometer on confirming whether a project was a success or failure and every artist fights like hell to make the Billboard charts.For the recording artist, there is nothing quite like seeing your name in Billboard.

Well times are changing. Recently Billboard announced a change in its policy that essentially states that from this point forward albums priced below $3.49 will no longer chart on Billboard nor will these albums be given credit on Soundscan during the first four weeks of retail release.

I guess Billboard felt that labels/recording artists were trying to game the system by flooding retailers and e-tailers will heavily discounted product so that their products would make a higher Billboard charting.

Oh Well, by implementing this policy, Billboard will force an artificial floor to what can be charged for product. I don’t know whether this is good thing or bad thing!!! What are your thoughts?

You can read more about this story on the excellent blog Hypebot.com. We have provided a direct link below.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/11/billboard-magazine-declares-that-discounted-music-doesnt-count.html

Closing Comments:

Making the Billboard Charts is not as impressive as it use to be, but it is still important for artist who are trying to secure live shows in larger venues to be able to promote that they have a song/album charting on Billboard.

Let us know you thoughts on Billboard’s revised “chart” policy. By the way, Billboard’s policy went into effect effective as of November 21, 2011

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

Tags: bands, Billboard 200, billboard charts, digital music, entertainment law, Independent Music Business, indie albums, indie artist, indie bands, indie labels, indie music industry, indie producers, iTunes, musical groups, musicians, producers, recording artists, songwriters

No Comments »

A Warner Bros. Artist Royalty Statement (A Stone Trip)

Published on November 30th, 2011 by attorneycross in The Heretic Insight

The Heretic’s Comment: We wanted to share a very popular post from the TOO Much Joy Blog entitled “My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement”.

Well I think the title of the post pretty much sums up what you can expect to learn, but we highly recommend that you invest the time to read the post in its entirety. If you have the time, also read the comments that follow the post. The post will take you about 10 minutes to complete and we have provided a direct link below. Let us know your thoughts/comments.

http://www.toomuchjoy.com/index.php/2009/12/my-hilarious-warner-bros-royalty-statement/

Closing Comments:

Let me give you a definition of that famous Major Label “Fuzzy Math”: when three full albums earn the artist $62.47 for five years worth of sales, but they still don’t get paid because they owe the Major Label $395,000.00. You can rest assured that this group will never make another dime from record sales despite the fact that the Major Label is probably making a profit on the catalog.

Let me give you one more definition: Recording Artist Slave Deals….you do all the work…you owe for everything that is spent…you own none of your master recordings….you make pennies on the dollar

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.

www.thecrossfirm.com

Join our Facebook Fanpage: Search for Music Business Heretic

No Comments »

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »

The Heretic

The Heretic (Empowering You To Believe…….In You)

Insights as to why your music isn’t selling Online

SOPA – Using Content to hold the Internet Hostage

Universal Music Using Fuzzy Logic as Excuse Not To Pay Artists Fairly

An example of Music CD Cost and Payout Breakdown

Author has sold over 400,000 books through Self-Publishing (and is now on BestSeller’s List)

Broadcast Conglomerates asking Supreme Court to let them Pimp the Game!!!

Turning your Music/Song Library into CashFlow

Old Media is selling this Holiday Season

Billboard Will no longer Chart Discounted Music at Initial Release

A Warner Bros. Artist Royalty Statement (A Stone Trip)

Recent Posts

Archives

Links

WordPress

May 2012
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31