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Hi,
Is this info still relevant today in the year of covid-19 . How much has the industry changed. Seems to me everything sounds the same not much innovation or creativity.Well you can not earn much if you always enter the Lion’s jaws like a wounded Gazelle on the African plains.
What do I mean by that exactly?1. Signing stupid, unfavorable deals where you essentially give away your music for nothing and take deals that result 50% writers share to you and the other 50% to the Lion’s Jaw, where the publisher just crushes your neck and takes your money like a mobster criminal does.
2. Doing exclusive deals where you lose 50% writers share, a double whammy
3. Not knowing how to chase after performance royalties where you collect as both writer and publisher for your own music placements in high profile projects.
4. Not joining a PRO and understanding how they work. Not registering your titles on a timely basis
5. Not detecting airplays of your music with a service like TUNESAT
6. Not uploading your albums to Spotify where you obtain ISRC codes, UPC Codes, ISWC codes
7. Being lazy about admin work and seeking out multiple revenue streams from both Stock music sites and music libraries that feed tv production
8. Not uploading to Content ID to grab that revenue,
9. Not collecting Neighbouring rights revenue, and so on.Basically what you don’t know is that your publisher and stock music site “partners” who distribute and sell your music are the lion preying on YOU, your weaknesses, and your overly-excited agree-ability to every deal put in front of you. To make money in this business, not only do you have to sell your music to whomever is buying it on as many platforms as possible, you have to be willing to do all the tough admin work to maximize your royalties.
For those who just want to kick back and write tunes then give your wife and baby away for free…oops…I mean your music, don’t ever expect to get close to 50K in annual earnings. Why? because you are giving away everything and getting sucked into Sh_t deals that exploit you and your music to the fullest extent.
The answer to the opening question is yes, you can earn a lot in this business, but you better know what you are doing. You better be willing to write one track a week for 20 years straight at a minimum, and make almost nothing in your first two or three years.
If you are signing onto every 50% writers share deal and shoveling your music into subscription models at lightning speed and pricing your tracks for $5 to $10, you will be stuck in the gutter forever….by your own doing!
Yes Artists have been, and continue to just be eaten alive by Lions. Music Artists are the most dumb business people on the planet. They love to work for free, then give away their work for free and allow others to profit from it. Learn to be a shark yourself, otherwise…well….why are you in this business? Because you like making tunes for free?
My 2 cents on the matter….
Music1234’s post above is so true, it hurts. Well summed up in 1-9. Business 101.
Should be a sticky on the front page of MLR.@Music1234 I’m curious to know why you think that n.6 is important for a non-exclusive catalogue.
What advantages would you have in distributing your non-exc tracks in order to obtain those numbers?
Thank you
Or be like me… Lose money on every song but make it up in volume. 😉 [laugh emoticon here]
I think the issue I have run into is that it is entirely possible to spend too much time on a library that returns nothing!
I have put albums out through libraries where I probably should have backed off and not been so enthusiastic.
It’s hard to really know if you are with a library that accepts composers too “easily”…
An example from my “other life”. I applied to a masters degree in Computer Science. Got accepted and really thought nothing of it. The price was right and the classes convenient. I came to find out that it is a “top 5” school on many lists and is NOT easy to get into… I did it almost on a “this would be nice to do” and then I find out people spend years trying to get into the program.
The point being that perception of “easy or hard” to get into can be easily mis-interpreted.
The other thing I noticed with my last royalty is that I had placements on many episodes of a major series with very small royalties (some $1, $5) but because these are “streaming” series the payout is minimal.
I can’t help but think what those royalties would have looked had this been mid 90’s and that show was on network or cable TV.
Just some thoughts.
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