Inside The Music Industry

The mindset for unsigned, up and coming singers, rappers, songwriters, managers, producers, beat makers, engineers, etc. It has to change. The internet has done some marvelous things to change the Stone Age music industry as we used to know it. Major labels are struggling, firing personnel every time you look up, and things are shaky for the big boys. They are really reeling now because of the internet explosion over the last 5 years. That’s their bad, right says the indie artist. True dat!

But I say to that same indie artist, there are always two sides to a coin. Let’s flip it over now and see what that uncovers. Since the internet has taken over the music industry, any and everybody who has a computer now think they can be a professional singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer and so on. They don’t care that they can’t recite what a triad or what a bass clef is, everyone wants to be in the music industry now. Making things worse is the music creation manufacturers with the software programs that practically make the music for you. You do not have to do anything but turn your computer on. No longer is anyone required to take Music Theory or go ask a true professional to assist in creating a hit with them. No, your $29 software you purchased at the local flea market audio store can now make you an instant star!

But this isn’t the biggest problem, not quite. Today, it’s a known fact that NO ONE VALUES MUSIC anymore! Music is no longer held in the same realms as it used to be. Music is no longer a special gift from GOD nurtured and developed by those having the most desire and passion to be the best they can be and having fans totally appreciate their art by supporting them with their hard earned money by purchasing CDs, merchandise, going to concerts and so on. No, now you can steal the music online and that’s OK, because that’s the norm today. Who cares that you invested thousands of dollars to create your project, I am going to steal it anyway. That’s the mindset of many online. But this isn’t the biggest problem.

No, the biggest problem that I see each and everyday is the mindset of the up and coming artists. The lazy, let the computer do the music for me, get music for FREE online fans are now the up and coming artists now! Yes, I said that! Why? NO ONE VALUES MUSIC anymore! Check this out….I once did sales for a national alarm company (Protection One). The company was really about selling value and it could back that up like none of its competitors (Brinks and ADT). But, one of the competitors saw sales decreasing and decided to lower the value of the alarm industry by hiring local subcontractors to sell customers to them (sort of like your mortgage getting sold to another company). The subcontractors sold cheap equipment, provided poor installations and low class service but the alarm didn’t cost the consumer a single penny. So, what do you think happened to the mentality of people when you are at home and someone knocks at your door offering you a FREE alarm over and over again? The effect of this, even to this day, is that everybody expects to get an alarm for FREE. No matter if it’s going to work when you need it or if the person who sold me this is a convict or if I get horrible service, it’s FREE and I want it. Back to the subject at hand…….

The up and coming artists and beat makers need to understand one thing about the music business. This is the music business with the strong ninety percent emphases on business. Businesses operate on making a profit to provide its consumer with a quality product and service and to feed their family as well. Businesses are not NONE PROFITS or charities. The same epidemic that has destroyed the alarm industry is taking place with the online music industry because too many artists expect to get services from qualified production companies, such as ours, for FREE! They don’t realize that independent companies such as ours have invested over $100,000 in equipment, training, conferences, etc. But, the artists are partially the blame. The brunt of the blame resides with the online beat makers, why? Music creators control the industry. Artists will always need new music so why are beat makers failing? Out of ignorance. Beat makers control how much value is placed on the music. Since many beat makers (most beat makers are not producers) do not possess the business know how, they operate on the same premise as the alarm subcontractors. They do not know how to provide value in their product so they give it away for FREE. Since most beat makers do not invest much in their music education or equipment, they possess a ‘I don’t care attitude’. They just use the cheapest (or free) software programs out and give their stuff away for like value not knowing how much power they are losing. In effect, they are bringing the industry down to crummy standards instead of raising it up.

What’s the remedy? It all starts in the mind. You have to believe you have created something of value. Something that will benefit the consumer (artists or fans) much more than the FREE stuff ever will. People will pay for it if you believe in it. But if you don’t put much stock in your work by offering everything for FREE or dirt cheap, the artists and fans won’t either. So, remove the fear factor of selling value. One thing that I learned when I sold alarms and when the subcontractors were offering the FREE stuff was to adjust my mindset. I knew that we had the better system, service and product and I had to make the people in whom I came in contact with know the same. I had to have confidence in myself and what I was selling because I knew in the long run that what I had to offer would benefit the customer more than what the subcontractor was offering.

So my last words to the up and coming singers, songwriters, rappers, managers, beat makers, etc…. If you don’t invest in yourself, no one will ever invest in you.

So, get a job! Stop living by excuses that you don’t have the money! Stop living with a poverty mindset and in lack. Get a job, save your money and invest in others who can help you! The Bible says in book of Galatians that “you reap what you sow”, so if you don’t sow much, don’t expect to reap much in return.

More tips, books, videos, songwriting, music production and studio services can be found at HotBeatsandHooks.com and Kontagiouz Soundz Producktionz.

Get the E-Book, ”How to Make the Bedroom Artist Sound Pro” when you join Hot Beats and Hooks today!

Christopher “Trill Notez” Harold

Black Music Award Winning Producer

P.S. Any real producer interested in partnering to create a coalition to raise the value of our work, get at me! There is power in numbers.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

A couple years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to do an ad for a popular advertising agency.  So, I brought together my crew (fellas I have recorded with but they were all solo artists) at that time and we made a hit song and presented it back to the agency in two days.  They loved the song and sent it over to their client for approval.  Needless to say, the song was approved and hit the airwaves a few weeks later.  The ad agency promptly cut a nice check out to our company and the funds were distributed out to all those who had a part in the song.

Great story, huh?  Well, not quite.  There is a lesson in this.  Keep reading…..

The real reason why I sent you this message is coming up.  After the checks were written to the individuals who had a part in the song (manager included), a dispute broke out over the distribution of the funds.  One member felt that the money was not allocated fairly.  This member, who received the smallest portion of the funds, felt everything should have been given out equally.  Did he have a good beef?  Let’s see.

The member who was upset had the smallest amount of input to the tune.  He contributed about 10%.  There were three others who contributed much more musically to the song and those three had the remaining 90%.  Unfortunately, this did turn ugly and relationships were scorn and has never been the same til this day.

Could all of this been avoided?  You bet!  If a written agreement had been in place to detail how we would split the income.  Many people want to learn the hard way about this music industry.  Relationships are not worth losing over money.  I’m sure you have heard the countless stories of artists being robbed because they didn’t use contracts with their business dealings.  They used ‘word of mouth’ handshakes, which is ‘word of crap’ in court.  It cannot hold up.

Every business dealing that I conduct in from giving someone a beat to write lyrics for to giving a major artist a mechanical license is done on paper.  It does not matter how small it might seem, I get it in writing.

To avoid the mistakes many are making and are regretting it later, I highly recommend you invest in Legal Contracts.  That is a great investment without paying an attorney $250 per hr.  We do have some available at hotbeatsandhooks.com for only $9.95 for the first 100 people.  There are over 175 music/entertainment contracts for every situation you will ever be in.  No one will have your best interest in mind more than you will.

Oh yeah, if you have a similar situation as to which I described above, the industry-unsaid rule is to split everything equally, no matter who put in more to the song.  Otherwise, get in in writing!

Holla………..

Trill Notez
Hotbeatsandhooks.com

One of the ways a producer can be most useful to you is by providing an objective ear. In the studio, it can be difficult to gain perspective as you create. A typical example is vocal performance. Your producer can recognize if you need to try it again and guide you through phrasing, pitch, emotion, etc. A good producer will also know to stop you when you’ve nailed it.

But don’t think of a producer as some uninvolved bystander. They can be your partner in the studio, arriving at the ideal guitar sound, finding the right tempo, choosing the sweetest harmonies. Involve them early in the process by inviting them down to rehearsal. This gives you a chance to see if this is the right producer for you. It also allows you to avoid certain problems later on. For example, the band might be convinced which three songs out of ten should be recorded for a demo. At rehearsal a producer can bring a fresh perspective on which songs will work best.

The organizational skills of the producer should also be considered, as even a simple demo can present all sorts of logistical nightmares to the inexperienced artist. Someone needs to find the right studio and engineer, assemble musicians, and negotiate the rates for each. Whether you’ve secured a $20,000 loan from a wealthy fan or scraped up $1500 on your own, every penny counts. Someone needs to keep one eye on the budget while keeping the other eye on the musical “big picture.” You may have the talent and willingness to do all this yourself. One question to ask yourself is, “Do I want to put all my energies into logistics to the possible detriment of my songs?” For some artists, the answer is “yes, I’ll do it myself.” And I say all the power to ya. But while I can’t speak for other producers, much of the pleasure I get out of a project is creating a situation where the artist can focus solely on the music.

Click this link to see a more detailed video on How to Find a Music Manager and Producer

Creating an attractive brand for your music is one of the most important marketing elements to help gain customers. A bland brand means no sales, and the wrong brand can be a disaster.

With a great brand that fits your music image perfectly, your music image can soar.

But what is a good brand? Is it a nice website? Is it the level of quality in your music? Is it just a catchy name?

It’s all that and more. It’s everything from the logo on your website (you do have a website, right?) to the design of your CD to the values your music conveys. Brand is the perceived value and quality of you as an entertainer.

When you’ve branded well, you’ve created a remarkable and distinct image. It’s memorable. It’s easy to recognize. People know exactly what they get if they’re into you – before they even decide they are.

Your brand should capture:

* The emotion people feel when they think of your music
* What they achieve from being a fan of your music
* The overall impression that your music projects

How to find the right brand for you

Capturing all of these impressions can seem daunting at first, but there are few tricks that make finding your brand a little easier. By answering some questions, you can gain direction towards a perfect fit:

* What feeling do you want people to have when they think of your music?
* Fill in the blank: A consumer thinking of your music should say, “Wow, these guys seem really….”
* What type of personality do you have? (E.g. Fun, quiet, casual, dedicated, curious, whimsical, scientific, etc)
* What values do you want your music to project?

The more you learn about what impressions you want to convey, what your business represents and who you are, the closer you come to building your brand.
A few examples…

Brandi produces and records her own R&B. She wants people to feel comfortable with her, not overwhelmed. She believes in helping other people and giving away lots of content so more fans can find out about her and enjoy her music. Brandi is a very friendly person, and she likes having fun. Her friends think she has lots of pizzaz too. Brandi wants to convey that high energy and fun-loving attitude to fans.

Brandi’s brand is: Energized, helpful, friendly, and fun.

Here’s another example:

Kelly is an mature, experienced gospel singer/songwriter. She likes intimate performances where she can connect people with the deep spiritual energy of her songs and playing. She’s a kind, warm, caring woman, and she’s always mothering people. She wants to provide meaningful an honest music, traditional, nostalgic and comforting and she loves for people to feel right at home at her events.

Kelly’s brand is: Warm, comforting, welcoming and caring.
It’s all about emotion

Notice that much of building a brand has everything to do with emotion and very little to do with actual marketing. A good brand makes people feel something. It resonates with consumers on a deeper level beyond what they want to buy and the price they’re going to pay.

Think about some big-name business brands, like Apple, Toyota, or Campbell’s. When you think of one of the large brand-name corporations, what kind of feeling do you get? What do you think they stand for? What emotions do they convey? Every brand tries to represent a certain lifestyle or personality to resonate with targeted consumers.

And it works.

Once you’ve figured out your business identity and image, you can start creating marketing materials like a logo, a business card, and a website… All properly branded so you can achieve maximum success.

CLICK THIS LINK TO WATCH A VIDEO FOR MORE DETAILED INFO ON How to Create a Music Image That Sells

What do you think?

Do you want to know how to record Platinum vocals? This video gives you insight.  Many people fail to do the proper research on this.  This is one of the most important part of the recording process and separates amateurs from pros.  Click the link below to watch the video……

How To Professionally Record Vocalists in a Studio

ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are the three main performing rights organizations (P.R.O.) in the United States. Their primary function is to collect performance royalties from those who commercially use the music of their member writers and publishers. They distribute royalties to their members on a quarterly basis.

In the United States, performances of music on television generate performance royalties. Performances of music in movie theaters do not generate performance royaties. In almost every other country, performances of music in movie theaters ARE covered by the local performing rights organization which has a reciprocal agreement with the U.S. performing rights organizations.

If there’s one question I get asked perhaps more than any other question, it’s regarding what exactly a music publisher does. Technically, the moment you write a song you are the song’s publisher, unless you assign the right to market your song to someone else.  Think of the actual writing of the song as an art form, which of course it is, and the act of publishing and marketing the song as the business of turning your art into something that makes money.

As most songwriters have probably learned by now, there is no guarantee that simply writing a great song will generate money.  The song needs to be properly exploited in order to bring the songwriter any income.

ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are the three main performing rights organizations (P.R.O.) in the United States. Their primary function is to collect performance royalties from those who commercially use the music of their member writers and publishers. They distribute royalties to their members on a quarterly basis.

In the United States, performances of music on television generate performance royalties. Performances of music in movie theaters do not generate performance royalties… In almost every other country, performances of music in movie theaters ARE covered by the local performing rights organization which has a reciprocal agreement with the U.S. performing rights organizations.

If a performance is logged (i.e. identified by ASCAP/BMI/SESAC as having been broadcast on television), a royalty will be generated based on the number of times the film or show is broadcast and a variety of other factors such as the length of the segment, how prominently the music is used and whether the songs is aired during “primetime” or daytime. There are very specific weighting formulas that are used to calculate the royalty payments for each performance of a song or composition.

If there’s one question I get asked perhaps more than any other question, it’s regarding what exactly a music publisher does.  Technically, the moment you write a song you are the song’s publisher, unless you assign the right to market your song to someone else.  Think of the actual writing of the song as an art form, which of course it is, and the act of publishing and marketing the song as the business of turning your art into something that makes money.

As most songwriters have probably learned by now, there is no guarantee that simply writing a great song will generate money.  The song needs to be properly exploited in order to bring the songwriter any income.  Established publishers have established relationships with many different music supervisors and they are able to successfully connect songwriters with music supervisors and get their songs placed in order to generate revenue for both the songwriter and the music publisher.  A songwriter could hypothetically contact music supervisors directly and initiate contact that way but it’s easier to break into the business if you have someone who already has an “in” so to speak as many publishers do.

I hope this helps clear up some things for you. Until next time…..

Holla…………………..

Trill Notez
Hotbeatsandhooks.com

Creating vocal hooks with thick 3-4 part harmonies is an art that is sometimes lost.  With the advent of pitch software, you can pretty much create your own harmonies by only really singing one note.  But even with the technology, it still lacks the flavor and authenticity that you get when a real singer can do this and use the technology to make it better.  That is exactly what we did here in this live studio recording of myself and singer/songwriter “G-mar).  Learn How To Create and Record Phat Vocals Hooks with 3 Part Harmonies by clicking this link.

After you watch the video, tell me what you think?

Many artists, musicians and producers run into problems in the mixdown session. A lot of times, the budget is way over and the deadline for the album is on the horizon.  This is a critical time because many people have made the sad decision to try to fix problem areas during the mixdown.  If at all possible, you want to avoid this and I give you 8 Ways to Fix It Before You Mix It in this video link.

Enjoy the video and let me know what you think?

4 Reasons Why This is the Best Times Ever in the Music Industry

#1  Everyone has FREE in their pocket, right?  With everyone becoming real funny about their money, file sharing is really on the rise. I know for most musicians, it’s hard to deal with those who copy and share your music online.  So, what should you do about it?  Well, we can’t sue everyone who does this but we can find an alternative.  Try selling your merchandise, videos, paraphaneiIia, anything you can think of besides CD’s. There are a number of things that can be sold to market you besides your music.  Until things change, which I don’t foresee about file sharing, I don’t recommend picking fights with your listeners.  Begin to work with them and include them on your marketing team and see what happens.

#2 A lot of places to get your music placed.  In the past, it was nearly impossible  for unsigned artists to get their music into films, video games, TV, etc.  Now, with the budgets of most companies shrinking, they look for indie artists to get their music.  They can no longer afford the majors so this opens the door for the “little people”.  Always do your research with any company you decide to license  your music with and take advantage now!

#3 The Entire World Has Access To Your Music Instantly!   The digital age has spawned a revolution of music to be totally global.  Instantly, somewhere in TinBuckTo can get access to your music.  No longer do indies have to beg and depend on A&R’s at major labels to get your music heard.  With some many social networking sites, you can create  yourself a platinum following without the help of a major label.  If you come up with some creative marketing to put yourself out there, you will be famous.

#4  A Lot of Ways To Make Money?  Music is needed more than any other art form today! Music speaks to the soul, emotion and every fiber of our bodies.  When things are sad, you can find music to relate to.  When you are feeling great, you can find music to relate to.  Music is the escape for people all across the world.  They can get away from life and come into a world where no one is judging them, telling them what to do, etc.  What special talents do you have?  Software developer, management, writer, businessperson, publicists, filmmakers, public speaker, preacher, teacher, etc.  There are a lot of ways you  can contribute to the creation of good music by following your passion and harnessing the power of music. So, what are you going to do?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

4 Reasons Why This is the Worse Times Ever in the Music Industry

#1  People believe it’s OK to copy your music and share it with the world for FREE.  P2P downloads have cost the music industry billions of dollars and it is on the rise.  The majority of people feel it’s their right to do so but for some reason, it’s not OK to do the same with software.  What gives?

#2 A Million song sharks online.  Today, you will find a million websites claiming they can get your music into major motion pictures, TV shows, major labels, etc for a small fee.  Unfortunately, the majority of these companies can do about as much as you can to get your music there.  Most of these companies are getting rich off of independent artists who have no chance of their music ever getting to these places!

#3 Too Much Music is Available!  Huh?  The digital age has spawned a revolution of music to be totally global.  Instantly, somewhere in TinBuckTo can get access to your music.  With 100 million artists online, how can anyone break through the crowd?  The industry is so saturated now more than ever before.  Everybody wants to be a rock star?  What happened to being a fireman, lawyer, teacher, etc?

#4  Too Many Musicians are Broke Now? Why?  Technology?  I believe technology is a major reason for this.  With the rise of software programs, too many computer musicians are popping up.  Sad but true, many fans are being subjected to very crappy music day in and day out and technology is the blame.  These lack of musically educated computer musicians are allowing the software to make the music and it’s killing the musicianship.  Ever wonder why the old school stuff still sounds so great today!  They didn’t rely on technology to make their music for them.  Use the tools don’t allow the tools to use you.  Besides, the only ones who are getting rich today are the manufacturers.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?