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Hi All, I have mentioned previously in various interviews, in our most recent communique, etc. that Stable Audio is, at least in this current initial version, labeled as “experimental” by Stability AI. Based on my own substantial exploration and use of it, it’s MUCH BETTER at creating instrument tracks with one or two instruments than it is in creating full ensemble music containing many instruments. Since it’s better at creating instrument parts, this version is more useful to composer/producers than it is to end clients looking for complete, finished songs.
While I do not have any info about the details, I’m certain that there are changes coming in Stable Audio that will begin to resolve the shortcomings of the initial release. Stay tuned!
Hi All,
The short answer is that attempting to collect neighboring rights royalties via SoundExchange or services like Rident is problematic for participating with RadioSparx.
First, under the terms of our content license agreement, neighboring rights (NR) are among the rights that composers/performers agree to direct license to our clients and customers. NR royalties, therefore, are included in the fees that we collect from our clients and customers and which we then distribute to our vendor content providers (whcih can be a composer, label, publisher, artist, producer, band, etc.) who then split the earnings with the stakeholders for each track as appropriate.
This is very beneficial in the context of in-store commercial background music because every performance is counted and the proper rights holders are compensated. As with US PROs, foreign collective management organizations (CMOs) have no accurate way of identifying which tracks are performed as in-store background music in commercial venues, and the money collected rarely reaches the proper rights holder. They use arcane payout formulas that are based on which artists are receiving radio play within each country, and who is touring and performing in live venues within each country, which completely skews payouts to major label artists only (yes for YOUR music!! — it’s outrageous!)
Other problems also arise because, in many countries, these CMOs try to assert a monopoly position and unlike the US, their membership agreements are exclusive, and, as such, they do not recognize a rightsholder’s ability to direct license. Also, by signing up with services like Rident to collect your NR you are setting up a “double-dipping” situation which foreign collective management organizations (CMOs) work against aggressively, often with militant force, causing massive significant legal challenges for RadioSparx which we constantly have to expend resources fighting.
In a perfect world, composers and performers should have complete autonomy with regard to controlling their catalog, including the ability to assign different categories of rights to different organizations, while also managing and direct-licensing those rights individually or through companies like AudioSparx/RadioSparx. In some territories, the law is moving slowly in that direction, but it’s not there yet. Until then, unfortunately, using services like Rident to collect neighboring rights is not compatible with participating with AudioSparx and RadioSparx.
Regards,
Lee Johnson
lee@audiosparx.comState51 Conspiracy is not a pirate, they are a label name that is distributing music content from AudioSparx for B2C (consumer-oriented) listening only. If their distribution of music to SoundCloud is preventing you from uploading your own tracks to SoundCloud, please send the URL of your SoundCloud channel to info@audiosparx.com and request that it be whitelisted and we will take care of it for you promptly.
Thanks,
AudioSparx Support Team
http://www.audiosparx.comLike most parts of the music business, the 20/80 rule applies: 20% of participants are earning 80% of the money and vice versa. The key is to figure out how to be in the 20% group rather than the 80% group. Having a large, diverse, high-quality catalog with both instrumental and vocal music makes all the difference. We are growing but the headwinds are massive.
I used to think that the society system would be so benevolent and just. However, multiple societies have been either banned from the system or have been suspended for a year or longer due to substantial unlawful and/or unethical conduct. For example, SGAE (Spain) is on a yearlong suspension now. AEPI (Greece) was terminated completely. There are other examples. We and our resellers have won multiple court battles against societies for unlawful conduct over the past 8 years.
The societies definitely do much better for tracking and paying royalties for TV/film uses. However, for in-store music, in general they do not track and pay the composers whose music was actually played. Instead, they use an arcane payout formula that is based on whoever they deem to be the “top artists” based on radio play stats and in-concert performances within the country, which means their payouts for in-store music are heavily slanted towards major label artists. It’s not a huge surprise considering that executives from major labels sit on the board of directors for most societies.
So, while it would be great if things functioned the way you imagine, the reality is not so. The societies’ operating procedures are completely unfair to independent artists and composers and serve only to enrich major labels and their artists and to distort the marketplace and deprive independent artists/composers of meaningful participation in in-store music earnings. Think about it, your music gets played, but somebody else other than you gets paid. How is that even fair?
We are already doing what we can to solve the problem by providing direct-licensed service via RadioSparx, to allow the artists and composers we represent to actually get compensated for the in-store use of their valuable music.
Hi Per,
The societies in Europe continue to be the most confrontational in the world. They actively work to deprive composers and artists of the ability to directly control your commerce via direct licensing. In our opinion, the society system, insofar as in-store music is concerned, is a worldwide criminal cartel. This is especially true in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. They lie, deceive, threaten, coerce, and worse. Even so, we continue to make progress against them, step by step, through SUBSTANTIAL legal research and pushback against their unlawful attempts to monopolize this part of the music business.
Long story short, the in-store music business is not for the timid or weak.
Regards,
Lee
Hi JPT, We posted a message here about this payment issue, under our main forum board here on the MLR, explaining that due to a bank transfer error problem, payment would be delayed by 5 to 7 days for some artists. Additionally, on the 15th we sent out a communique about it.
Also, we received your tech support requests both at our technical support group, and at our social media group. People … we are humans here, not machines … as a courtesy it is appropriate to allow at least 24 hours for response….we just received your inquiries a bit earlier today.
Also, I found returned emails related to your account here. Please make sure to update your email address in your account at our site so that you receive all email notifications from us….you would have received the communique we sent out on the 15th notifying about the delay.
Thanks
The Guy at the Place
Hi Boinkee2000,
In the meantime, you’re welcome to come participate at AudioSparx and RadioSparx where we can help earn money for your cool tracks in a variety of different ways. I heard your tracks on SoundCloud, very cool, we have an immediate use for them here on RadioSparx right away.
For those of you who are interested to participate at RadioSparx but aren’t into the perpetual commitment required by our AudioSparx license, we now have a RadioSparx-only participation option that is both non-exclusive and non-perpetual.
Cheers,
Lee Johnson
http://www.audiosparx.com
http://www.radiosparx.comYes, you can generally review the album that any particular track is on at Spotify and see which label name released the album. On your External Distribution List report under your AudioSparx account (MyAccount, Reports tab), we list the various different labels that have distributed tracks in association with the distribution company that is responsible for distribution for each label name.
Hi Angopop,
AudioSparx definitely legally licenses music from our catalog to Spotify through multiple different channels. Hence, they have a valid license to play our music, and they pay us through the channels and then we pay our artist community. There’s no reason for you to join any lawsuit against Spotify, at least not in relation to anything related to AudioSparx.
Regards,
Lee Johnson
lee@audiosparx.comYes, any tracks uploaded to AudioSparx become available for use on RadioSparx automatically. Our music supervision team will playlist your tracks on the various RadioSparx stations as appropriate, and clients of RadioSparx can choose your tracks to place them on their own custom stations at any time.
Hi Wall E,
Yes AudioSparx operates RadioSparx which provides exactly the kind of music service you mentioned. We don’t require that you leave your society, in fact, we prefer if you don’t, so you can still earn performance royalties for any broadcast use placements we obtain for your music.
Please visit http://www.audiosparx.com/alliance to learn more.
Regards,
Lee
Yes Nilsson is one of AudioSparx’s compilation development distribution partners.
Regards,
Lee
One more clarification – if you find one of your tracks on YouTube like this and you see the label name that has distributed it there (e.g. The state51 Conspiracy), you can review your External Distribution Report on the Reports tab of your account at AudioSparx and see the label names that are used by our various distributors that have distributed one or more of your tracks. This allows you to confirm via the External Distribution Report whether the placement of the track on YouTube was performed by one of our authorized distributors.
If you see a label name that you don’t recognize, and which does not appear on your External Distribution Report, please feel free to ask us first before reaching out to anybody else. Sometimes our distributors add a new label name to their portfolio and forget to notify us about this, and so we’re happy to reach out to our distributors to inquire about a new, unrecognized label name to find out whether they are using such a label name.
Regards,
Lee
Also, to further clarify, this type of single-track streaming on YouTube is NOT the equivalent of having your music entangled with Content ID fingerprinting for general monetization of your tracks when anybody else uses your tracks in a video they post on YouTube.
The only earnings that occur for this type of YouTube placement is strictly the ad revenue that is generated for the playback for the single instance of your track that our partner has distributed to YouTube.
Regards,
Lee