Saturday, July 30, 2011

Rhianna Does Cover Of Glamour, Calls Women Dominant Force In Music Business

Rihanna appears on the cover of Glamour magazine for the September issue, where the singer discusses how women are such a dominant force in Pop music right now. "There's a pack. It's me, Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyoncé... who else? Ke$ha for sure," she tells Glamour.

The singer, who finished up the US leg of her ‘Loud’ tour on Sunday, said that it is “exciting” that so many female stars are topping the charts and selling more records than their male contemporaries.

"Women are definitely dominating music right now, and that's because we are competitive beings. I feel like music hasn't been this exciting in a while." Meanwhile, a trailer for Rihanna's movie, Battleship, hit the web on Wednesday. The singer appears in the upcoming film as the character Raikes, alongside actor Liam Neeson. “All my friends are guys, to be completely honest. when I met Katy Perry, it was such a breath of fresh air. I just couldn’t believe this chick had no edit button. Katy and Lady GaGa came out of the gate exactly the way they think, the way they wanna dress, the way they wanna speak.’’

With the rise of Adele who doesn't fit the typical model body type of singers that most major distributors push to find and sign, it is a strong and true statement from Rihanna. She most certainly falls into the class of women like Lady Gaga, Pink, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj that not only dominate the music charts, but do such a great job at handling themselves as business women.

In 2009, Rihanna was awarded with a Women of the Year title by Glamour Magazine. She also covered the US edition of Glamour Magazine for the month final edition of that year, December 2009.

Jay-Z and Kanye Broker Deal To Sell Cd Through Best Buy Exclusively First Ten Days Of Release

Independent record stores are taking Kanye West and Jay-Z to task for signing a deal with Best Buy that gives the chain exclusive rights to sell the deluxe version of the Watch The Throne CD for the first 10 days of its release, as well as giving iTunes an exclusive window for the digital release.

The organizers of Record Store Day have called on independent retailers throughout the United States to sign an open letter to the rappers, which says that exclusive deals with stores such as Best Buy are a "short-sighted strategy, and that your decisions will be doing great damage to over 1,700 independent record stores -- stores that have supported you and your music for years." At press time, dozens of independent record store owners had signed the letter, which can be read here.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Millions Of Records Sold Does Not Always Equate To Success!!

Walk into most recording studios, entertainment lawyers offices, distribution companies, media companies and you more than likely see numerous plaques on the wall of gold, platinum, and multi-platinum plaques. Does this always equate to success for the artists, or the folks whose walls are decorated with these trinkets? You can go to Ebay, and purchase these same plaques and adorn your walls with them as well it you wanted to.

The fact that an artist sells millions of records does not equate to success in the business just because their face and persona is plastered all over global media and a few have proclaimed them as the queen of pop!! How did so many of you fail to miss the story of Miss Lady Gaga filing for bankruptcy?? This is the fourth time as that! http://www.totalbankruptcy.com/bankruptcy-news/personal-bankruptcy/lady-gaga-says-she-went-bankrupt-fr-800522260.aspx Tony Braxton, Willie Nelson, Ronald Isley, TLC, and the list goes on for so many artists that eventually file bankruptcy after selling millions of records. Extravagant spending, not knowing the infrastructure of the music business or how to run a business, and personal problems lead the reason behind these bankruptcies.



BUT THE BIGGEST REASON IS CONTRACTUAL


Simply put, artists sign one sided contracts, of which most of the top artists get into these 360 deals that allow the record distributor to realize profit not only from record sales (song royalties), music publishing print rights (sheet music), and mechanical licensing rights, but to also share in the revenue from branding contracts, touring, and other revenue.

These artists are given contracts that are so one sided it amazes me that any of them sign them. For instance, the majority of artists today are in what is called a non recoupable state". This simply means the distributor will put up millions of dollars for recording, paying producers, videos, promotion, marketing and creating an image for the artist, and advanced royalties to the artist, and often tour support to support the album pre-release appearances on mini tours, special performances on talk shows, in store signings, etc.. All this goes into an "artist account' and this money is held in escrow against future earnings, until the artist's financial obligation to the distributor has been met. Sadly, most never get out of this situation.

The majority of these artists never earn one red penny because they have to sell an exorbitant amount of albums in order to "recoup" the cost of putting the album out. If the costs are not recouped, then the balance of what was not recouped goes to the next album, and the process starts all over again. Celine Dion, Nas, Willie Nelson, Rick Ross, The Jonas Brothers, and yes even your Lady Gaga finds herself in this situation as well, as well as numerous other artists in the industry.

A large majority of them never even realize music publishing revenue, because they don't know what it is, and sign it away to the major record distributors, managers, or other deviant folks in their inner circle, when it is the largest source of income for an artist. Music publishing is an artists "performance rights", and only if they contributed to the writing, composing, arranging or producing of the song itself. Royalties are paid for each single performance of the song, on radio, television, in videos, on commercials, in movies, on airplane radios networks, in night clubs, etc. The standard royalty set by Congress is currently 9.1 cents per play. What seems like a small amount of money, quickly can become millions if the artist has a hot song like Lady Gaga surely does have a few.

To give you an example of the importance of music publishing to an artist, Dr. Dre has not put out an album in years, yet still collects a cool $40-$50 million every year for his past work with artists and his own music.

Michael Jackson struck a deal in 1995 to merge ATV music publishing which owned a portion of the Beatle's catalog, and Jackson had purchased for 47$ million in 1985, with the SONY music publishing wing, SONY gave him a %50 share (of SONY's share), in all of the music publishing of every single artist on SONY's massive catalog. This meant that Jackson would earn money from every album that SONY released, the back catalog, and future catalogs that SONY would purchase. This was an unheard of deal for any artist in the industry then and even now. Jackson's estate now collects publishing revenue from Gretchen Wilson, Celine Dion, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Willie Nelson, Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, etc., etc. http://books.google.com/books?id=MDsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36&dq=Sony/ATV+%22michael+jackson%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=-JHYSY-XJYbEzQSywKCgCg#v=onepage&q=Sony%2FATV%20%22michael%20jackson%22&f=false

The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing has varied in reports. Industry experts have estimated the company to be worth as much as between $450 million to $1.5 billion. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/0812/054_print.html

Although some believe that Michael Jackson's Jackson's "so called" financial problems cost him a %50 share of the Beatle's cataog to SONY in 1995, http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-04-27-jackson-finances_x.htm Michael Jackson's estate last year alone will collect in music publishing royalties approximately $300 million, not including another $300-$400 million in revenue from other sources.. This revenue for the MJ estate is not only his music, but a number of elaborate deals the gloved one has made over the course of his illustrious career, not including the infamous purchase of ATV music publishing, which owned a portion of the Beatle's catalog, after being schooled in a studio session by Sir Paul McCartney himself, on the importance of owning and purchasing music publishing catalogs, but numerous other deals that the new SONY/ATV company would realize after the merger. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-06-21/entertainment/27067766_1_top-earning-dead-celebrities-yearly-profits-michael-jackson

Some of those deals were purchasing Tony Martin's Baby Mae Music catalog of 600 songs, country music publisher Acuff-Rose's music publishing rights to 55,000 country music songs, including the music of Hank Williams, The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison, Famous Music, a music publishing business with song catalogue of more than 125,000 songs including "Moon River" and "Footloose", and the catalogs of Eminem, Akon, Linda Perry, Bjork, Shakira, Beck, etc. Jackson's other publishing firm, Mijac, which publishes songs written by Jackson himself and which is administered by SONY Music competitor Warner/Chappell Music, is valued to be worth at least $75 million.


So while Lady Gaga has been financing extravagant over the top tours and going bankrupt, and other artists just sit in limbo in one sided contracts, Michael Jackson proved himself to be the most intelligent artist of them all.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Missy Elliot Reveals She Has Graves Disease, But It Hasn't Slowed Her Down

Missy Elliott revealed to People magazine that a major reason that she has laid low for the past few years is that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease in 2008. The disease affects the thyroid and can cause mood swings, dizzy spells, problems with motor skills and much more. Elliott says that at one point, she was almost in a car accident because she was unable to brake and another time was almost unable to hold a pen. Elliott is the focus of VH1's next episode of Behind The Music, set to debut next Wednesday, June 29. She says that now she is doing better and that "My thyroid is functioning, so I haven't had to take medication in about nine months."

My prayers and best wished go out to her!!

Prince To Cease Release Of Music Due To Internet Piracy!!

Prince tells The Guardian that he essentially plans to stop releasing music due to Internet piracy. He told the British paper, "The industry changed. We made money [online] before piracy was real crazy. Nobody's making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google. I'm supposed to go to the White House to talk about copyright protection. It's like the gold rush out there. Or a carjacking. There's no boundaries. I've been in meetings and they'll tell you, Prince, you don't understand, it's dog-eat-dog out there. So I'll just hold off on recording."

That is a hard thing for a musician's musician to say about their music. He is one of the most bootlegged artists of the modern music era, and I can see why he would be angry. Most people who are just consumers and not in the industry, don't realize that despite all of his early success as a teenage phenom, and his millions of records sold, he was operating as most artists do today, locked in an ominous one sided contract, as a slave to a major distribution company and has never reaped financially what he should have for the work he sowed into his music and artistry. A stark lesson to be learned by all young aspiring artists, to treat your music as a business first!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

ARTISTS: Promo Items Aside; Manage Your Music Career Like A Business, Not A "FREE FOR ALL"!


















The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) offered the following statement from its Executive Vice President, Public Policy and Industry Relations, Mitch Glazier on the legislation: “On behalf of a music community that has lost thousands of jobs to piracy, we are frustratingly familiar with the damaging impact of online theft,” said Glazier. “As the music industry continues its transition from selling CDs to providing fans convenient access to a breadth of legal music online, laws that provide effective enforcement against new and developing forms of content theft are essential to the health of our business.


This article is being written in response to a posting on my Facebook profile, about a Senate bill that is being debated on in Congress (http://www.riaa.com/newsitem.php?content_selector=newsandviews&news_month_filter=5&news_year_filter=2011&id=6D8D72B7-8594-CE79-D4F0-5C95C50D770E) to make the streaming of content illegal. There currently is no law in the copyright law that covers streaming on various outlets. U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee members Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) introduced in May, S. 978, a bipartisan bill aimed at more effectively combating the online theft of copyrighted works by classifying the illicit streaming of music, movies and other content as a felony. Another Facebook member responded to the posting and this was my response to them:

Actually, this benefits all artists, this does not put a dent in the independent business, this helps independent artists realize another revenue stream previously not available to them. And there are more new things shared than old, trust me, I worked in retail distribution for 18 years, and it's horrid. Technology is going to continue to change and as an artist you must choose to change with the business as it evolves or be left behind as the majors almost did themselves that honor by trying to hold onto the old delivery system of physical distribution, though still relevant it is slowly phasing out. There are tons of streaming sites (downloading is something totally different) and the big 4 streaming sites (last.FM, Pandora, Yahoo Music, and Maestro.fm), have gotten away with it for years without paying performance royalties as traditional radio does, so why should they not pay as traditional radio does?

Just over a decade ago, there wasn't even a law in the Copyright Law to protect digital rights, because the business had tremendously evolved and no one saw the future of the business being so radical of a change, so after hearing the voices of numerous artists and a push by the RIAA (not as bad as people make the out to be, they are like a union we as artists don't have to pay for that protects our interests) Congress had to go in and debate on and write into law, a new Digital Millennium Copyright law that protects your digital rights, and the 3 main performance rights agencies had to change their business in order to begin monitoring digital performances. Sound Exchange was far ahead of the curve over these three though, but now the three do offer digital performance collection. If the 6 majors at the time their MAPS agreement had been created between them had not tried to corner the market and be greedy, there wouldn't have been a rise in p2p file sharing sites, and other digital media as we have realized over the past 10-15 years, and though they would have been launched, piracy would not have been as prominent as it has been. I agree with some artists freely offering their music, that is their choice, however, all artists don't think like that. The Music Industry is the only industry that has this wide spread problem. No one is going to Sears and pirating washing machines, or to McDonalds and stealing Big Macs from the counter. So it is up to each individual artist whether signed or independent what choices they want to make in their music careers to remain relevant brand. It is those artists that stay abreast of changing trends, new technology, creating or realizing new revenue streams (because many have closed for all artists, changes in the laws that protect and benefit them as an artist, and changes in the infrastructure of the industry as a whole that will remain at the top of their game.

Musicians/artists have been getting the bad end of the deal since the beginning of the recording industry, far too long, while others have reaped off of their hard work (distributors, labels, publishers, managers, etc.) and intellectual property. It is a shame that Prince doesn't own any of his masters to his best work with Warner Brothers, can't earn anything off of it, and didn't earn what he should have while with Warner Brothers. Even though Prince and Radiohead are making strides in how they are delivering content to their fans, setting up a model for other artists to follow, it took them both being in horrible contracts to realize that. Why waste time and know exactly what you re getting into and learn the game first. Although they both recovered and still have illustrious careers, every artist just doesn't have that luxury that finds themselves in a horrible recording contract, and most never recover.

On the other hand one of the greatest businessmen in the history of the industry, Michael Jackson was smart enough, and chose to to learn the game inside out, and now owns %50 of not only the Beatles catalog, but a 50% stake of the entire Sony/ATV music publishing catalog of every single artist ever signed to them (Black Eyed Peas, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Jonas Brothers, Ricky martin, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Gretchen Wilson, etc.,), the largest Country Music publisher Acuff-Rose with publishing rights to over 55,000 country music songs, Tony Martin's Baby Mae Music with a catalog of 600 songs, the largest sheet music company in the world, digital sheet music provider Musicnotes.com, Famous Music, a music publishing business with a song catalogue of more than 125,000 songs that includes (Rick Ross, Ludacris, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Dr. Dre., 50 Cent, Jay-Z, etc.) .and that does not even include Jackson's other publishing firm, Mijac, which publishes songs written by Jackson himself and which is administered by competitor Warner/Chappell Music.

The majority of signed artists today have no rights to their intellectual property, and most are in a non recoupable state, where the label has spent millions of dollars just to record, manufacture, promote and market a project, and when the albums sales don't meet the expenditures, the artist never gets one red cent. The balance of what is owed on the "artist's account" goes over to the next album, and if they don't recoup that money and the money spent on the next album, it becomes a revolving cycle. This is where independents have the power over most signed artists today. They have the ability to realize all the revenue streams available to artists out here today (and most are not tapping into them), have creative control over and wholly own their intellectual property, and I understand some are not in it for that, but for those that are, then I am an advocate for them getting what they deserve for their individual intellectual property. What is the sense of being in a business if the ultimate goal is not to enjoy others enjoying your product and you capitalizing off of it? Bills don't pay themselves, and children need to be raised. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly, involve the consumer in your music (promotional give aways, contests, etc.), but don't give away the entire farm.

All artists have the freedom to give their music away, build up a fanbase and following on Reverbnation, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, etc., , but how many independents are actually turning this into alternate revenue streams like performing in big venues like major artists, branding in commercials or with lifestyle company, ring tones, downloads (that actually pay), etc., creating opportunities with numerous amount of technologies available to them? I say establish an opportunity for fans to enjoy your music (a one time give away, promotional contests, etc.), , but also establish a way to capitalize off of the revenue streams available to independent artists out here.

Radio has changed, but it is not dead, witnessed by Dr. Dre earning over $50 million last year in publishing royalties, and the reason I mentioned him is because he really has not been consistent in putting out music like other artists have. Radio has become more corporate now with broadcasting companies like Beasley Broadcasting, Clear Channel, Fox, Cox Radio, CBS Radio, etc., buying up blocks of independently owned stations across the country. When I first broke in the business the PD's and MD's made all the decisions for airplay and what was added to a playlist on the station, now everything goes through a radio consultant who reports back to a corporate board, who then disseminates that list to all of the stations in their network, and though PD's and MD's have a little flexibility, they have to adhere to what the board tells them to play.

There are tons of opportunities for indie artists to perform, you just need to do your research, put yourself in the eyes of those who are promoting certain events in your area, and promote, promote, promote promote. Facebook, Reverbnation, MySpace, Youtube, are just a few of thousands of resources available to artists.

There are independent artists now making the charts on Billboard without the influence of a major distributor behind them, because they are flooding the internet with the right targeted sites that bring back real and consistent results, they register their music with the proper channels, not counting the performance rights agencies (ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI) or Harry Fox, but with the R.I.A.A. that certifies albums going gold, platinum or diamond, with NARAS to vote for and be voted for a Grammy, with NARM, if they are an independent online merchant selling their products to be in the loop with release schedules of the majors to know when to release their product, with the Urban Retail Coalition if they are an urban based company so that they will be able to target their sales towards their merchants, with Soundscan to track retail sales, even if you are selling product out of the trunk of their car, or with BDS to track radio airplay, etc., etc. So artists need to tap into these things as an independent to compete with the majors, because whether they realize it or not, they are.

Ice-T and CoCo Prepare For Debut Of Reality Show: Ice Loves Coco: Baby Got Backstory

Ice-T and his wife, Coco, are gearing up for the premiere of their reality show, Ice Loves Coco: Baby Got Backstory, on June 12 on E! But meanwhile, Ice-T also is working on his directorial debut, a documentary film called The Art of Rap. "I've interviewed 50 emcees - everybody - Kanye West, Ice Cube, Eminem to Melle Mell, Grandmaster Caz," he told Billboard.com. "The hip-hop scene became so pop. I was like, 'I'm gonna do a movie about real rappers and what inspired us.' Maybe that'll hit a reset button on the game and let these kids know it's not just about a pop record. Rap can do a lot." There's no word yet on when the movie will be released.