Industry Insights

This week’s blog touches on several topics based on some very interesting blogs I had a chance to listen.  In these blogs I’ll discuss a little information from each concerning the 360 Deal, Trademarks, and a copyright infringement case.

Podcast #1: Entertainment Law Update: This podcast discusses the legal aspects of the 360 Deal.  It takes a look on whether on the deal is in violation of the California Talent Agencies Act. It says only a licensed agent or agency can only procure or find employment opportunities, except record deals, for their talent. If you are working with a licensed agent that the licensed personal and you were requested, then it’s ok to procure employment.  The website has the full article written by Firemark’s guest.

It goes so far that if the Act were violated, one would have to give back all commissions for any items that you needed a license.   My company wants to represent artist, and as an independent label and manager, I would first have to look to see how a 360 Deal would benefit me as a label, then how it would benefit my client.  I believe if the deal is based upon grooming my client to be a huge artist, then I believe the 360 Deal will be in that client’s favor.  As a label, that’s not something I’m interested in that will work for my company.

Podcast #2:  This Week in Law 176:This podcast talks about the legal perspective of copyright infringement.  The conversation goes into how technology has definitely advanced, but actually hurting our copyright owners.  Denise Howell called it the “Whac – A – Mole” mentality, meaning once there was success at handling how songs were getting out for free then something new came along that needed to be figured out.

Laws are still being developed on whether it will be okay to just give music away free.  Licensing has been more of an option through venues like Spotify and MOG. Licensing still does give some money to a songwriter, but nothing gets paid barely any money.  The example given by guest Loren Mulraine puts it in perspective when she gives an example of a songwriter who sees their royalty statement with 200,000 units, but received $.40 of income.  Her college students didn’t really see the significance of why it’s NOT okay to take free music.  Why pay for because it’s free?  But she said the students sang a different tune when they realized that they wanted to make a living at it.  Hopefully there will soon be some progress so that we as creators will benefit. This law applies greatly to my business plan because it seems that I’ll have to be even more creative with finding ways to get my music out there and get paid for it. I can see it’s already hurting the industry, so it will be important to my business to have great marketing strategies to find out who is actually buying music and then marketing to them.

Podcast #3:  This Week in Law 119: The legal issue deals with the trademark law with a real life court case in session. Five years in the running because Apple feels that Kokin used part of their trademark to create his brand.  Daniel Kokin is the creator of Video Pod.  Kokin said he wanted to invent something that would be more for the home and not the conference room.  He talks about how he didn’t even think Apple at the time as being a threat since they were focused on audio.  Unfortunately, this has been holding his small company from gaining success and Kokin feels trademark laws don’t really support him.

This case was instrumental in helping me make better decisions when developing my trademark for my company. It is important to conduct the proper research to ensure your idea for your business is secure and not infringing on anyone else.

That's My Song!: A Look at Plagiarism

Collaborating is one of my favorite ways to write a song. Its nothing like getting together with fellow musicians, song writers, and singers that you respect.  Although, you might feel like this is the circle where you can trust everyone, its not always the case. Whether its who wrote the song or are you giving credit to parts of a song you've used.  It's necessary to get these things street from the beginning.

There was the court case between a song writer Janne Suni and super producer Timbaland.  He produced a song for Nelly Furtado called Do It. Suni was suing for the usage of samples from his song Acidjazzed Evening.  Timbaland denied all claims and said he heard the music on an old Commodore 65 Game System.  He also said he didn't know who it belonged to anyone. In the end, the case was dismissed for the plaintiff because it was found that the song was never sent for copyright.  Huh? I was a little confused.  I was trying to find more information other than Wikipedia, but it was interesting to me that Timbaland, knowing it wasn't his music on that Commodore 64, didn't check for the owners of the music.  I'm just wondering. Not cool in any instance.  

In the gospel genre of music there was this great song performed by Vashawn Mitchell and written by Darius Paulk. The song rose to the top of the charts and everyone loved it.  It even won a Stellar Award for Song of the Year.  But there was another person claiming to be the other writer on this song, Travis Malloy, and he's suing EMI Gospel and Darius Paulk for have of the earnings.  According to Paulk he wrote the song by himself and Malloy says that Paulk sang the song to him and he wrote the music to it.  The case is still open and I'm very interested to see what the outcome will be.  I do believe that if they were together working on this tune and Paulk didn't pay Malloy for his services, they should share the copyright.  

The last example I wanted to point out is why its important to understand the contract and follow it.  Matthew Knowles company Music World Entertainment, also the father of superstar Beyonce', is being sued by Cathy Hughes, owner of Radio One.  She is suing his company, BET, and MTV for violating the exclusive rights deal she has with the Essence Festival in New Orleans.  This article is interesting because it seems to have gotten personal with Ms. Hughes.  Since she knew that Matthew Knowles company has some of gospels great new stars, she had all 12 of her radio stations to pull all of the artist off of the their playlist.  Of course this seems evil, because Knowles is losing money.  Nevertheless, someone broke the contract and they'll have to pay regardless.

So there are more cases that we could analyze to give us examples to show us that in we always should have the proper understanding when collaborating and make sure we get permission to use any portion of creativity that we didn't create. Simple right?  Not in every situation, but at least you can cover yourself in the end so that you can have the proper back-up in case you ever come across a situation similar to ones above.  Go create!!

Knowing Your Artist

Since the last couple of classes that I've been engaged in at Full Sail University, I've been given a wealth of knowledge on the importance of knowing your artist.  I have been looking into my business plan and evaluating or reevaluating what my strategies are to make sure that I'm representing an artist correctly.  The first thing I had to look at was if me and my artist were a good fit for each other. This is very important for me to have an understanding of the artist's vision.  Then the question is if I am capable of helping the artist fulfill the vision.  Sometimes a manager may not be able to travel and that's ok, but it needs to be understood so there can be a road manager in the works of the contract. Finally, I would want to make sure that as we move forward that we make sure we agree on the contract that we put together.  This requires research of my artist type of music and population they're trying to reach. This is important to the success or failure of any artist/manager relationship.

Life of an A & R Rep

The A & R Rep also known as the Artist and Repertoire representative is the core of any label.  Before there is  any success for a record label it is imperative that there is a song and artist that is unique enough to garner enough attention to gain millions of records in sales. It's about the song and the artist. If you look at music past and present and really analyze the presence that our huge artist have had, they had to be unique, and there's a song that just makes you remember where you were at that particular moment.

Attached is a video documentary segment I found on You Tube about the A & R rep for Def Jam Records. She is a young lady by the name of Tina Davis.  She has been successful in spawning the careers DMX, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Redman. In this video you get a glimpse of her life as a record executive.  She is seen in a few meetings with hopefuls as she listens to track after track, instrumental only or some with vocals. She gives positive yet constructive feedback. She says, its just a gut feeling that she has to have that she just knows what artist needs to be apart of the label, and what songs need to be on the album. "Her advice is to stay focused, and don't do anything that does not pertain to your goal." She believes that the A & R department is the most important part of a label that you can't do without.

If I didn't learn anything else that she discussed was the importance of asking one of the hopeful managers, "What makes him special?"  As a potential artist manager, I know now that its very important not to waste anyone's time telling them they've got 'it' and they don't. What I mean by having it, means that your set apart or incomparable with what you're bringing to the industry. "Build your own story", Davis says.

Check the video out if you'd like.  Tina Davis A & R Rep for Def Jam

Entertainment Management

I interviewed a manager of clients like Christian hip-hop artist, musicians, and singers.  He said he heavily deals in negotiations 75% of the time. I truly thank him for the time he made for me.

Me: Ok..I know you have managed different artist which means you have had to negotiate on their behalf in some way. Can you give me a brief description of what type is your business, and how much of your business is negotiations?

Dave:  Sure...I do mostly artist development & road management although I have been heavily involved in contract negotiations for record deals, DVD production deals, & publishing deals. About 75% is negotiations...even negotiating with the artists I represent.

Me:  Awesome..I definitely have a lot to learn from you!

Dave:  Successful negotiations always begins with you knowing two starting points...your WATNA (worst alternative to a negotiated agreement) and your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement). All the space in between these two points is your room for negotiation.The goal is to end closest to your BATNA while facilitating a win-win agreement between opposing parties.

Me:  That's what I was going to ask you..When reaching for your BATNA, how have you handled separating people from the problem..if any. How do you separate the emotion?

Dave:  Separating the emotion isn't very easy all the time...honestly, I've had to remove myself at times by taking any "gain" for myself out of it. In other words, I've done lots of negotiations pro bono. I build in my take away on the other side of my successful negotiations.

Me:      I hear you, that has to be hard at times, especially know that some of your clients have been your friends as well.

            One last question and I'll let you go, can you give me an example of a time of how you worked toward a 'mutual benefit' when negotiating?

            Also, what is your favorite type of deal?

Dave:  Remaining neutral is essential. You have to do your research to know what is of value to the opposing party as well as know what is of value to the individual you represent. Also, you must think of more than immediate gratification...think big to make concessions or offerings over time

Dave:  I don't have a favorite type. Just as long as I can make all parties feel as of they've had their main needs/wants satisfied.

Me:  Well put Dave..I can tell this is your passion and study to show yourself approved:) I can't wait to sit and really talk with you this summer. Thank you sooo much for your time  

Four Quick Fixes To Your Songs

So I was checking out BMIs news section and noticed an interesting article on Song Writing.  This blog was written by Cliff GoldMacher, who has a couple of studios in Nashville and California, also is a songwriter, producer, session musician, and engineer.  The article focuses on what he believes to be four quick fixes when writing a song. These include cutting your intro in half, putting more concrete details in your verses, your chorus should be what your song is about, and make similar sections have similar structures.

Now the first quick fix, cut your intro in half speaks to all of us who feel so passionate about the vibes and sounds coming from our session and how it makes us feel.  Goldmacher reminds us to remember that people who’ve never heard a song before are not quite attentive the first time or second.  You must give the listener something to remember, therefore getting to that verse quick.

Put more concrete details in your verses. Goldmacher suggest using imagery, or painting a picture when writing your verses.  This makes your writing more colorful and exudes variety, though you could be saying something really simple. He used the popular phrase as an example, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and you get the picture, rightJ

Your chorus should be what your song is about. He notes that your choruses should definitely drive the point of your song home.  Your verses should connect the song right to the conclusion, the chorus. He says, “This is where your message becomes clear and memorable”.

Lastly, he says to make sure similar sections have similar structures.  That being said he means that your first verse should match your second verse.  Though he does mention that this is just his opinion and makes things simplified and memorable, and for commercial music, memorable is good.  He also reminds us that song writing is definitely an art and there is no particular right or wrong way to write, but these quick fixes or guidelines can be a blessing and I agree since it could possibly make the difference of making a song pop or not.

The Bee Gees Member Robin Gibb

The Bee Gees

Who are they? I’d heard more of their music than as a group, so I figured I find out a little more. First off, if you’ve seen the classic movie “Saturday Night Fever”, you’ve heard the music; you’ve heard the song, “Staying Alive”. This movie was made popular in the late 70s and its then young star, John Travolta plays a young single guy who frequents the discotheque’ on the weekends. Even though I was only 4 years old, I’ve watched and enjoyed this movie several times and as I write this blog am listening and grooving to the movie’s hit song.

Sadly, one of the Bee Gee’s members Robin Gibb died at the young age of 62.  His life is definitely celebrated as he is quoted saying, “an artist is an artist because he is not happy with the world”.  Wow! What a quote! I believe he did just that in his unique way.  Consequently, though fans mourned his death, they also paid homage to he and the Bee Gee’s by causing their record sales to soar.  Article from Billboard says that the Bee Gee’s album sales soared to 319%.   Their two biggest songs were “Staying Alive” and “How Deep is Your Love”.  Greatfully, his estate will receive these residuals.

Works Cited

Caulfield, K. (2012, May 30). BEE Gees' Album Sales Jump 319% After Robin Gibb's Death [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/bee-gees-album-sales-jump-339-after-robin-1007188762.story

Graff, G. (2012, May 20). Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees dead at 62 [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/robin-gibb-of-the-bee-gees-dead-at-62-1007106952.story

YouTube (2009, December 11). Saturday Night Fever (1977) Trailer [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq4ZMKqWk80