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Songtalker
So RADIOHEAD, as I said in the last issue, offered their latest album “In Rainbows” to their fans (digitally) for whatever price they wanted to pay for it. ZERO was perfectly OK. RADIOHEAD made more money than if they released their album through traditional channels. What I didn’t know then, was the results of their releasing the physical product CD at $9.98- $13.98. Guess what happened. You’re right! It hit #1 on the album charts, knocking Mary J.Blige from the #1 position. So what’s the lesson for all artists out there? Unless and until you’re as big as RADIOHEAD, don’t do it. Answer to Y.G.H. in Great Neck I’d suggest YouTube and MySpace for exposure to the industry professionals as well as expanding your fan base. How about blogs? Importantly, I’d never leave my eyes off the fans I have right now. You know them better than anyone else. Promote their interests and you’ll have many of the answers you’re looking for. Make it your mission to make them happy and you’ll be happy. Don’t fall into the trap of saying you need distribution channels when, in fact, you need more concentration on Marketing. Marketing and distribution take many pathways. Not all artists require both physical and digital albums. Think about consignment online and off. Remember, you’re the VP of your own marketing and distribution firm. As VP, it’s up to you to find the pathways that work for you. Where do you find them? “Right---- your fan base”. Answer to E.W. in Oceanside: What it means is there are a lot of writers out there who find it difficult to write a second verse as strong as the first verse. As a matter of fact, they’d prefer not to write a second verse at all. The better writers are not put off by the challenge. They’ll write a second verse or a pre-chorus depending upon how many lines they need going into the chorus. I have never seen it to fail. Put in the effort and you’ll come up with a second verse that will serve you even better than you would have hoped. Don’t put in the effort, and you’ll end up carrying the second verse curse with you. Be good to yourself and your writing will be good to you. NEW MEDIA--- Seven years ago, the Digital Media Association promised to pay digital mechanical rights royalties, utilized by music services like Rhapsody, Napster etc., to the songwriters/music publishers. Being good guys, they also promised to pay, retroactively to 2001, whatever rate set by the Copyright Royalty Judges. But that was seven years ago. A lot can happen in seven years, a lot did. The DMA changed their minds. They don’t want to pay, period! They say that digital performances should be treated like terrestrial radio which pays performance royalties only to the copyright owners. SONY/ATV says it has decided not to license any more of its songs to Digital Services. SO, with the lawyers on both sides busy counting the millions they hope to bill in litigation, who’ll win? I hope they all do------- and you too. Tune in next month.Copyrighted 2008 by Melvin J. Glazer & Associates, Inc. You can contact Mel Glazer by E-mail Songtalker at Songtalker.com. Please E-mail only questions - no lyrics, no titles! Mel Glazer teaches Music publishing and Advanced Music Publishing at Five Towns College, and Songwriting for beginning and intermediate students, privately, and at the continuing education branch of Nassau Community College. Writing credits and other information can be found at: www.MelGlazer.com
AURAL FIX COMMUNIQUE IS PART OF THE AURAL ISLAND INDEPENDENT MUSIC NETWORK |
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IF I TOLD YOU that Spain leads the world in illegal music downloads what would you say? I didn’t hear you. OK, suppose I told you that it amounted to over a billion free downloads in 2007 alone, how would you feel about that? I can’t hear you. The screams from the Spanish and American Music Publishers are drowning you out.