Michael Nickolas

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  • in reply to: Reality check — How much can you earn? #24840
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    The chart was interesting, and I think pretty accurate. And you’re correct, I would say it takes three or four music job revenue streams to earn enough. The bulk of my income does come from composing, but income from libraries is just a small part of composing earnings.

    in reply to: Reality check — How much can you earn? #24813
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Ok, so the case study has a musician

    “who writes, records and performs his own music and regularly tours the US and abroad. He spent a significant amount of time as a salaried member of two different independent rock bands that actively toured the US and abroad, and typically played festivals and large rock clubs. When he tours his solo work, he performs in night clubs, galleries, pubs, art centers, museums, small theaters, and bars…He has appeared on fourteen records as a leader, 32 records as a band member and 27 records as a sideman. He manages his own tours and those of the various ensembles that he co-leads. He sometimes works with a booking agent for his solo tours in Europe.”

    They sum up the case study with “After expenses and taxes, it’s estimated this musician will bring in around $12k in Net income. Not a huge number, but still not bad if you consider it supplemental income.”

    Supplemental to what?? This guy is touring all the time in the states and abroad with two bands and performaing all over the place as a solo act. He’s doing sessions, managing all his tours and works with the agent. Is he really supposed to be doing all that around some kind of full time job?

    The article missed the boat in their summary. There is a different story here.

    in reply to: How Do You Do Your Alt Edits? #24743
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    So you literally open a session with your mastered Wav file and slice it up to form what you want?

    Yes, I open my mastered wav file into a two track editor (Sound Forge) and create from there. I can easily see timings for highlighted audio. SF shows exact time for where the cursor starts, where it ends and the total timing for a highlighted section. So I use that in combination with SF’s playlist/cutlist features. The playlist feature allows you to line up highlighted sections of the tune and play them in any order with any number of repeats. The cutlist feature will play a song skipping highlighted sections. There are also two time-stretch tools. I won’t use time stretch on the entire song, but will occasionally use it on just a final hit to pinpoint a timing. So using my ears and different tools it isn’t too difficult to come up with the timing edits.

    in reply to: Loops and Reverb #24738
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Hi Michael, that’s going to be a tricky edit to make sound natural I’ll bet. Maybe not impossible, depending on the material. The tonic may not need to be sustained, if it’s a hit you can mix in a crash cymbal and let that decay. Or add reverb to a hit and let that decay. You’ll probably end up mixing in a cymbal even on a sustained tonic, just to give it a sense of finality.

    in reply to: How Do You Do Your Alt Edits? #24737
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Same here, I use the final stereo mix. Art is quite right, it takes practice and I will add you need to know your tools well. A good ear is equally as important!

    in reply to: YouTube content ID and NE libraries #24621
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Carles,

    Not sure either if when some NE’s are asking about any pre-existing Content ID, they do that in order to register Content ID themselves

    Applicants to the content ID system must have exclusive rights to the material they submit. So no, they shouldn’t be asking that in order to register your material themselves, because they have no right to register your material themselves.

    As you said, there are cases where non exclusive libraries just go ahead and do so anyway. But it appears google is making this harder, I see this on their support page, and don’t recall it being there before:
    “Applicants must be able to provide evidence of the copyrighted content for which they control exclusive rights.”

    in reply to: Getty Images – Pump Audio experiences #24591
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Looks like a couple of years, maybe mid 2014.

    Not that anyone wants to hear an old-timer whine, but it’s a far cry from the old days. I first put music with Pump eleven or twelve years ago and consistently received checks in the $1000’s…

    in reply to: Getty Images – Pump Audio experiences #24589
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    FWIW- I opted out of giving up my PRO money so Getty/Pump removed most of my tracks from their catalog.

    in reply to: Youtube Content ID & Monetization #24588
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Agreed. And more than once I’ve had to contact libraries that represent my tracks non-exclusively because they “inadvertently” placed my music in the content ID system without the right to do so and without telling me.

    in reply to: Universal Publishing Production Music moves to SESAC #24569
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7318702/umpg-ole-pull-film-production-music-ascap-sesac

    This article says Ole has also moved production music catalogs from ASCAP to SESAC. Ole owns Jingle Punks; has anyone seen this reflected in their JP tracks?

    in reply to: Belgian royalties? #24410
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Mine were your typical cable reality shows, re-broadcast in Belgium. Maybe the money is different for a Belgian produced first run show. Good luck!

    in reply to: Belgian royalties? #24407
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    My last international statement from ASCAP shows fourteen Belgium TV placements and paid $11.18.

    in reply to: Anybody know who this Music Library is? #24380
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    I had a friend who had a song that was the same title as a Kelly Clarkson song and he got a 4k check from Spotify (becuase people accientally played his song) but then had to pay it back!

    Sorry to get off topic, but that doesn’t seem fair! His song was streamed, so he should get paid. Don’t see how it matters why it was streamed. I wonder if the Spotify agreement has some kind of clause that says you don’t get paid if we feel the customer didn’t really mean to play your song. Doesn’t seem possible…

    in reply to: Anybody know who this Music Library is? #24378
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    Could the track have been licensed from an RF library?

    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    A copyright goes into affect from the moment you create the work, not from the moment you register the work. So yes, your song will be protected as of the time of submission. Of course having the copyright registered to prove ownership is ideal.

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