When it comes to licensing their music, most indie artists shoot for the holy trinity of film, TV, and commercial placements — but in recent years, an entirely different market for licensing music has blown wide open: video games.
Whether it’s the latest epic first-person shooter on PlayStation or a cutting-edge spaceship racing game that runs on your smart phone, nearly every game needs music of some sort. Armed with the right knowledge, high-quality tracks, persistence, and a little luck, indie artists can begin to tap into this market.
Here are a few tips from Tom Salta, acclaimed video game composer and producer responsible for the soundtracks to multiple Halo games and other massive hits. Music he created under his artist moniker, Atlas Plug, has been placed in various games, including Project Gotham Racing, Crackdown, and RalliSport Challenge 2.
Read more: Placing Music in Video Games | Tom Salta | Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2015/09/music-in-video-games-halo-composer-tom-salta/#ixzz3pGKtRgPX
Reply
1. Running and hiding
Music piracy works by someone downloading the release from iTunes or similar digital download stores, or ripping a CD/DVD then uploading the song on a music sharing website or torrent website.
The most popular websites for this are zippyshare, 4Share, mp3olimp, downloads nl, kickass to, demonoid com, bittorrent, kazaa, vuze, hulkshare but there are many others and more pop up everyday.
You can find out what sites are storing your music by searching “artist name song name mp3″ with and without quotes. Please make sure you check at least 10 pages of search results if not even more.
There are a couple of ways to get these links removed:
a. Copyright Link Removal
If you go to the copyright removal page on the link above you can copy and paste all links that relate to your music being downloaded for free and submit them for removal on the base of copyright from searches by Google. Most major labels are already doing this – but there is a problem here.
This removal generates a notice from ChillingEffects that is actually a list of all the links that have been removed. This makes it easier for music pirates. To stop this from happening make sure you contact ChillingEffects and request the list not be displayed as this in it’s own is a copyright infringement. This also makes sure that links are actually not found at all.
b. Privacy Link Removal
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-131/12, 13 May 2014) found that certain people can ask search engines to remove specific results for queries that include their name, where the interests in those results appearing are outweighed by the person’s privacy rights.
Quote from Google Website.
As the ruling states this is on a privacy basis and includes “the right to be forgotten”. This arguably implies that anything that infringes your privacy can be removed from Google Search Results.
I see myself justifying on this basis that on-line privacy means anything that you or your public image representative did not approve or upload, that you do not want to be found and can be detrimental towards you as a person, or an artist/label for that matter.
An example for this, and for what the ruling used as an example case, is a house owner that received a auction notice for the sale of his house. This infringed his privacy and his image on-line, as it shows that he did not pay his bills and can be a major concern for people wanting to rent/buy a house from him.
Applying this to the music industry this can mean that anyone searching for your artist name or you as a person, should not be able to find anything that can infringe your privacy. This means that any illegal download for your music, on-line articles or links that can be damaging to your on-line presence and others can be removed.
A good example how this can help minimise music piracy is getting all links removed that show up under your artist name and you don’t want them there. This also includes illegal download sites that facilitate music piracy. These make the artist/label look unprofessional, breaches privacy as he/she only wanted the links to appear for places previously approved – like digital download stores and is detrimental to their careers and on-line presence.
I am not a law representative – so please consult your music industry representative with the law as they could advise more on this.
2. Facing it head on and being in control
Music piracy is only there because someone uploads the music in the first place – but what if the label is that person and uploads the music to those sites intentionally…
Reply
The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has announced that starting this summer, “new albums and singles will be released at 00:01 local time on Fridays.”
In the US, we’re used to new releases coming out on Tuesdays, but the IFPI is making Friday the international standard for a couple reasons: 1) they hope that releasing new music on payday will equal more music sales, and 2) since everyone is online these days, staggered release dates don’t make a whole lot of sense anymore.
According to Benji Rogers (president of PledgeMusic), in a recent interview he gave on the subject of World Release Day:
… the shift will work well for the major labels that have been lobbying for such a move, since they will continue to receive the lion’s share of attention…
Attention on social media will likely cater to the ones putting significant ad dollars behind it, creating a funnel effect where everyone vies for attention at the same time.
The obvious outcome is that it’s going to unfortunately become too easy for some artists to get lost in the process…
In this way, it’s important for artists to begin to think outside the box when it comes to approaching their releases.
What does Benji mean when he says “outside the box?”
Basically he advises that because all social media, press, and advertising on Thursdays and Fridays will be focused on new releases from major artists and buzz bands, you might want to launch YOUR next single, album, or artist experience at a different time on a different day — preferably a time when your fans are highly engaged online that doesn’t fall on a Thursday or Friday.
“This is an industry-wide decision, but personally I have to question the logic of everyone doing something at the same time,” says Benji. “The Internet just isn’t about that.”
Reply
Attorney Steve Gordon continues his excellent masterclass in music contracts over at Digital Music News.
In the latest installment he tackles “production companies,” which usually consist of one or two people who will help you record some demos and try to shop you to labels with the hope of cashing in when you ink a big record deal.
If you can structure your arrangement with a production company to benefit both parties, excellent! But oftentimes production company contracts lock the artist into terrible terms. Steve says:
There are many differences between a production company and a real label, but they have at least the following in common: Both production companies and labels own or have access to recording studios and equipment, and they both have producers on payroll or relationships with indie producers who they can call on to make professional recordings.
A real label, however, has the following additional assets:
• Staffers and/or freelancers who provide both traditional marketing and publicity as well as online social networking support;
• Staffers and/or freelancers that continually pitch records to terrestrial radio – still a crucial element in breaking a new artist especially in pop, R&B, hip hop, rock, and country;
• A video department to produce, oversee and pay for the production of promo videos and electronic press kits (EPKs);
• Relationships with popular TV shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show and Last Call to help the artist garner invaluable exposure;
• Relationships with leading digital services to promote an artist – for instance, by continually lobbying iTunes to feature the artist on its home page;
• Relationships with music supervisors and ad agencies to secure placements in TV shows, movies and ad campaigns;
• Distribution channels through all the big-box chains, such as Walmart, Best Buy and Target to sell physical copies of records;
• The ability to coordinate digital distribution to hundreds of digital music services throughout the world;
• The money necessary to pay staffers and freelancers to do the all the work above; and
• Perhaps most importantly, the financial capacity to pay the artist an advance on top of production costs so she can quit her day gig.
The production company… doesn’t. So when it comes to working with a production company: caution! And be sure to read Steve Gordon’s detailed breakdown of both good and bad production agreements.
Reply
A 360 deal is an option record labels offer to try and combat the current effects of the Internet age. It is used as a counterplan in order to make up the loss of income in their investments (the artists) due to downloading and streaming.
A typical 360 deal is usually done by a major or larger record label that puts a large initial financial investment into a newly signed artist. In order for the label to counter the loss of sales from physical albums, they become involved in all (360 degrees) revenue aspects of the artist, including record sales, publishing, touring, merchandise and any other forms.
The problem with these deals is that the large majority of artists make most of their actual incomes from these other sources of revenue, especially ones who aren’t radio-friendly or a mainstream pop artist. Most of these cuts will go to the record label through gross revenues, meaning all of the cuts you as an artist take a hit on for the things you need, like publishers, managers and booking agents, are not considered in the revenue you owe. The percentage will stay the same, causing you to end up with even less in your own pocket. The record labels also still own all the rights to your music, despite you paying them back on their initial investment. This might not seem fair to a lot of people.
There are a few positives in the 360 deal system, however—being that there is no set system yet. You as the artist have the right to negotiate your terms to what you are happy with, and you have the power to try and find the best medium. I have personally known quite a few artists who went with the 360 deal platform. Some made their own unique terms like getting a weekly paycheck of an agreed amount no matter the quarterly revenue. You can try to look at it as a safety net, because you will always have a steady check coming in to pay your bills. However, if you do eventually end up breaking through to that next level, you won’t see a large chunk of the profit you otherwise would have without the 360 deal.
360 deals also help newer artists by having the label front the cash for touring and merchandise during the initial year(s) without the hassle of having to deal with third party collectors. Either way you want to look at it, it’s an interesting element that is being more commonly used to counteract the negative effects of ever-growing technology in the music industry.
In the end, you have complete control as an independent artist. By taking advantage of service like the ones offered by Symphonic and other free tools you have access to on the Internet, you can promote and distribute your music and build up a fan base all on your own. When those record labels do come knocking—if you decide to go that route—you will be able to negotiate and get the best terms possible for your interest as an artist.
By: Grant Brandell
Service & Product Sales Manager for Symphonic Distribution
grant@symphonicdistribution.com
Reply
Building local momentum through gigs and networking is a great music promotion strategy
You’ve spent countless hours writing, revising, and rehearsing, and now it’s time to take your material to the stage and wow some audiences. While a tour bus, road crew, and booking manager are helpful when it comes to worldwide — or at least nationwide — musical domination, gigging locally and building a live following, honing your chops, and refining your performances is the recommended first step. Here are a few music promotion strategies to help you get attention for your music on a local level.
Read more: Seven Strategies for Local Music Promotion | Disc Makers' Echoes http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/04/seven-strategies-for-local-music-promotion/#ixzz2bRFdVzVw
Reply
Kode Red Interactive Entertainment™ / Blog
Placing Music in Video Games
When it comes to licensing their music, most indie artists shoot for the holy trinity of film, TV, and commercial placements — but in recent years, an entirely different market for licensing music has blown wide open: video games. Whether it’s the latest epic first-person shooter on PlayStation or a cutting-edge spaceship racing game that runs on your smart phone, nearly every game needs music of some sort. Armed with the right knowledge, high-quality tracks, persistence, and a little luck, indie artists can begin to tap into this market. Here are a few tips from Tom Salta, acclaimed video game composer and producer responsible for the soundtracks to multiple Halo games and other massive hits. Music he created under his artist moniker, Atlas Plug, has been placed in various games, including Project Gotham Racing, Crackdown, and RalliSport Challenge 2.
Read more: Placing Music in Video Games | Tom Salta | Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2015/09/music-in-video-games-halo-composer-tom-salta/#ixzz3pGKtRgPX
Reply
How To Avoid Music Piracy
1. Running and hiding Music piracy works by someone downloading the release from iTunes or similar digital download stores, or ripping a CD/DVD then uploading the song on a music sharing website or torrent website. The most popular websites for this are zippyshare, 4Share, mp3olimp, downloads nl, kickass to, demonoid com, bittorrent, kazaa, vuze, hulkshare but there are many others and more pop up everyday. You can find out what sites are storing your music by searching “artist name song name mp3″ with and without quotes. Please make sure you check at least 10 pages of search results if not even more. There are a couple of ways to get these links removed: a. Copyright Link Removal If you go to the copyright removal page on the link above you can copy and paste all links that relate to your music being downloaded for free and submit them for removal on the base of copyright from searches by Google. Most major labels are already doing this – but there is a problem here. This removal generates a notice from ChillingEffects that is actually a list of all the links that have been removed. This makes it easier for music pirates. To stop this from happening make sure you contact ChillingEffects and request the list not be displayed as this in it’s own is a copyright infringement. This also makes sure that links are actually not found at all. b. Privacy Link Removal A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-131/12, 13 May 2014) found that certain people can ask search engines to remove specific results for queries that include their name, where the interests in those results appearing are outweighed by the person’s privacy rights. Quote from Google Website. As the ruling states this is on a privacy basis and includes “the right to be forgotten”. This arguably implies that anything that infringes your privacy can be removed from Google Search Results. I see myself justifying on this basis that on-line privacy means anything that you or your public image representative did not approve or upload, that you do not want to be found and can be detrimental towards you as a person, or an artist/label for that matter. An example for this, and for what the ruling used as an example case, is a house owner that received a auction notice for the sale of his house. This infringed his privacy and his image on-line, as it shows that he did not pay his bills and can be a major concern for people wanting to rent/buy a house from him. Applying this to the music industry this can mean that anyone searching for your artist name or you as a person, should not be able to find anything that can infringe your privacy. This means that any illegal download for your music, on-line articles or links that can be damaging to your on-line presence and others can be removed. A good example how this can help minimise music piracy is getting all links removed that show up under your artist name and you don’t want them there. This also includes illegal download sites that facilitate music piracy. These make the artist/label look unprofessional, breaches privacy as he/she only wanted the links to appear for places previously approved – like digital download stores and is detrimental to their careers and on-line presence. I am not a law representative – so please consult your music industry representative with the law as they could advise more on this. 2. Facing it head on and being in control Music piracy is only there because someone uploads the music in the first place – but what if the label is that person and uploads the music to those sites intentionally…
Reply
How independent artists can work with (or around) World Release Day
The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has announced that starting this summer, “new albums and singles will be released at 00:01 local time on Fridays.” In the US, we’re used to new releases coming out on Tuesdays, but the IFPI is making Friday the international standard for a couple reasons: 1) they hope that releasing new music on payday will equal more music sales, and 2) since everyone is online these days, staggered release dates don’t make a whole lot of sense anymore. According to Benji Rogers (president of PledgeMusic), in a recent interview he gave on the subject of World Release Day: … the shift will work well for the major labels that have been lobbying for such a move, since they will continue to receive the lion’s share of attention… Attention on social media will likely cater to the ones putting significant ad dollars behind it, creating a funnel effect where everyone vies for attention at the same time. The obvious outcome is that it’s going to unfortunately become too easy for some artists to get lost in the process… In this way, it’s important for artists to begin to think outside the box when it comes to approaching their releases. What does Benji mean when he says “outside the box?” Basically he advises that because all social media, press, and advertising on Thursdays and Fridays will be focused on new releases from major artists and buzz bands, you might want to launch YOUR next single, album, or artist experience at a different time on a different day — preferably a time when your fans are highly engaged online that doesn’t fall on a Thursday or Friday. “This is an industry-wide decision, but personally I have to question the logic of everyone doing something at the same time,” says Benji. “The Internet just isn’t about that.”
Reply
The Music Contract You Should NEVER Sign via CDBaby.com
Attorney Steve Gordon continues his excellent masterclass in music contracts over at Digital Music News. In the latest installment he tackles “production companies,” which usually consist of one or two people who will help you record some demos and try to shop you to labels with the hope of cashing in when you ink a big record deal. If you can structure your arrangement with a production company to benefit both parties, excellent! But oftentimes production company contracts lock the artist into terrible terms. Steve says: There are many differences between a production company and a real label, but they have at least the following in common: Both production companies and labels own or have access to recording studios and equipment, and they both have producers on payroll or relationships with indie producers who they can call on to make professional recordings. A real label, however, has the following additional assets: • Staffers and/or freelancers who provide both traditional marketing and publicity as well as online social networking support; • Staffers and/or freelancers that continually pitch records to terrestrial radio – still a crucial element in breaking a new artist especially in pop, R&B, hip hop, rock, and country; • A video department to produce, oversee and pay for the production of promo videos and electronic press kits (EPKs); • Relationships with popular TV shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show and Last Call to help the artist garner invaluable exposure; • Relationships with leading digital services to promote an artist – for instance, by continually lobbying iTunes to feature the artist on its home page; • Relationships with music supervisors and ad agencies to secure placements in TV shows, movies and ad campaigns; • Distribution channels through all the big-box chains, such as Walmart, Best Buy and Target to sell physical copies of records; • The ability to coordinate digital distribution to hundreds of digital music services throughout the world; • The money necessary to pay staffers and freelancers to do the all the work above; and • Perhaps most importantly, the financial capacity to pay the artist an advance on top of production costs so she can quit her day gig. The production company… doesn’t. So when it comes to working with a production company: caution! And be sure to read Steve Gordon’s detailed breakdown of both good and bad production agreements.
Reply
What is a 360 deal???
A 360 deal is an option record labels offer to try and combat the current effects of the Internet age. It is used as a counterplan in order to make up the loss of income in their investments (the artists) due to downloading and streaming. A typical 360 deal is usually done by a major or larger record label that puts a large initial financial investment into a newly signed artist. In order for the label to counter the loss of sales from physical albums, they become involved in all (360 degrees) revenue aspects of the artist, including record sales, publishing, touring, merchandise and any other forms. The problem with these deals is that the large majority of artists make most of their actual incomes from these other sources of revenue, especially ones who aren’t radio-friendly or a mainstream pop artist. Most of these cuts will go to the record label through gross revenues, meaning all of the cuts you as an artist take a hit on for the things you need, like publishers, managers and booking agents, are not considered in the revenue you owe. The percentage will stay the same, causing you to end up with even less in your own pocket. The record labels also still own all the rights to your music, despite you paying them back on their initial investment. This might not seem fair to a lot of people. There are a few positives in the 360 deal system, however—being that there is no set system yet. You as the artist have the right to negotiate your terms to what you are happy with, and you have the power to try and find the best medium. I have personally known quite a few artists who went with the 360 deal platform. Some made their own unique terms like getting a weekly paycheck of an agreed amount no matter the quarterly revenue. You can try to look at it as a safety net, because you will always have a steady check coming in to pay your bills. However, if you do eventually end up breaking through to that next level, you won’t see a large chunk of the profit you otherwise would have without the 360 deal. 360 deals also help newer artists by having the label front the cash for touring and merchandise during the initial year(s) without the hassle of having to deal with third party collectors. Either way you want to look at it, it’s an interesting element that is being more commonly used to counteract the negative effects of ever-growing technology in the music industry. In the end, you have complete control as an independent artist. By taking advantage of service like the ones offered by Symphonic and other free tools you have access to on the Internet, you can promote and distribute your music and build up a fan base all on your own. When those record labels do come knocking—if you decide to go that route—you will be able to negotiate and get the best terms possible for your interest as an artist. By: Grant Brandell Service & Product Sales Manager for Symphonic Distribution grant@symphonicdistribution.com
Reply
Seven Strategies for Local Music Production via DiscMakers.com
Building local momentum through gigs and networking is a great music promotion strategy You’ve spent countless hours writing, revising, and rehearsing, and now it’s time to take your material to the stage and wow some audiences. While a tour bus, road crew, and booking manager are helpful when it comes to worldwide — or at least nationwide — musical domination, gigging locally and building a live following, honing your chops, and refining your performances is the recommended first step. Here are a few music promotion strategies to help you get attention for your music on a local level.
Read more: Seven Strategies for Local Music Promotion | Disc Makers' Echoes http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/04/seven-strategies-for-local-music-promotion/#ixzz2bRFdVzVw
Reply