Archive for October, 2011

Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick Any Two

Friday, October 14th, 2011

Introduction

Making your way through the maze of a musical career is a complicated endeavor to say the least.  It’s doubly so given that you’ll have to make not only the musical decisions but also the critical business decisions along the way.  I heard an expression a few years ago that really stuck with me as it outlines the reality of the choices we have to make time and time again.  That expression is simply “good, fast, cheap - pick any two.”

Essentially, what’s being said here is that if you’re willing to invest the money, you can move more quickly towards the end goal of musical success - good and fast but not cheap - but what it also says that I find more encouraging is that if you don’t have the money, you can still achieve “good” by slowing down and being resourceful - good and cheap but not fast.  That leaves the one combination that we need to guard against - fast and cheap but not good.

In this article, we’ll look at all three of these scenarios and see how they play out daily in the music industry.

Good & Fast (Not Cheap)

“Good, fast and not cheap” is best illustrated in the approach taken by the big record labels and publishing companies.  When making albums for their artists, labels use the best studios, the most talented session musicians and employ whole marketing and promotion departments to spread the word about their artists.  This has the effect of bringing their music to the eyes and ears of the public in relatively short order but it comes at a huge price.  A price that the artists, themselves, often spend years paying back before they see any real financial success of their own.

When it comes to the major publishers, they invest significant capital in high-quality demos for their writers and hire song pluggers whose sole purpose is to get the songs in their catalog recorded. The end result is that these companies get their songs recorded much more often than the independent writers out there trying to go it alone.  But, again, songwriters who are signed to these companies - like the artists above - have to wait until many of these expenses are recouped before they see any income from their songwriting successes.

Good & Cheap (Not Fast)

Fortunately, for the majority of us, there is a more accessible option. While “good, cheap but not fast” requires patience (an asset in very short supply for most of us eager to have musical success), the dividends can be rewarding on both a spiritual and financial level.  Independent artists who finance their projects themselves, call in favors, wait for off-hours in studios or even take the significant time necessary to learn to the art of recording often end up with beautiful sounding projects at a fraction of the cost of their major label counterparts.  The trade off is the time (lots of it) it takes to put a project like this together and the additional hours of work (more than you can imagine) required to get the news out about their release.  The rewards are great, however.  Ownership of the master recording and creative freedom are just two of the many rewards waiting for those who are willing to make the effort.  Go to www.HeatherRigdon.com to hear what some friends and I were able to do on a shoestring budget over a period of about five years.

As songwriters, we face a similar struggle.  Without the budgets for full-band recordings of every song we write, we’re forced to be creative in order to put together a catalog of high-quality demos of our songs that we can then pitch ourselves.  Whether we have to barter for studio time and session musicians, learn to become experienced engineers/producers/session musicians in our own right or simply create great-sounding guitar/vocals or piano/vocals instead of going the full-band route, the goal is the same.  That goal - quality recordings for less money - can lead to a catalog of songs where significant upside awaits.  For example, by acting as your own publisher and owning your own master recordings, you’ll be free to pitch your songs for placement in film and TV and receive double the income when you eventually do have success.  And, speaking of pitching your songs, there are countless resources to help get our songs out there for those of us willing to look.  One that comes to mind right away is www.SongQuarters.com.  The thing to remember, however, is that all of this takes time and that’s the tradeoff that most of us have to make.

Fast & Cheap (Not Good)

“Fast, cheap and not good” is where things can get a bit ugly.  As long as there have been established methods of how to get ahead in the music business, there have been people willing to cut corners in an attempt to get ahead more quickly.  Buying a bunch of recording equipment before you know how to use it in an attempt to save money on your album project generally results in a sub-par recording that will do much more harm than good to your sound and reputation as an artist.

Similarly, choosing the lowest bidder who advertises full-band demos for songwriters often leaves you with a demo that is not only low quality but also instantly brands you as an amateur in the eyes of the industry professionals you play it for…an impression, by the way, that is very difficult to reverse once it’s been made. Also, spending less money on a demo that is unusable is the same thing as throwing that money away.  All this to say, when in doubt, take your time and do things correctly even if it means more time, money or both. As I’ve said before, as long as you’re not planning on having a career in music for this week only, it pays to take your time.  Fast and cheap is, without a doubt, the combination that has the most potential for disappointment or worse.  And, often, doing things this way actually leads to more money being spent which leads me to another one of my favorite expressions, “Cheap can be expensive.”

Conclusion

I understand that it’s a constant struggle to do what’s best for your music while trying to manage your patience and your budget.  That being said, simply paying attention to what you’re doing and keeping your eye on the big picture will serve you well as you continue to figure it all out.

Good luck!

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Fear Factor

Friday, October 14th, 2011

Note: This is a “guest commentary” by Dan Coleman, who is Managing Partner of “A” Side Music LLC, a music publisher administering over 15,000 songs, including “Bemsha Swing” by Thelonious Monk, “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock, and “I Wish” by Skee-Lo.

Just in time for Halloween, I’d like to address some of the fears that cause songwriters to tremble in their boots.

After all, when you decided to be a songwriter, you committed to a scary profession. At least if you made shoes for a living, you could rest assured that many people would need the fruit of your labor. But songs are only worth something after your audience has decided your music speaks to them, a process which is out of your control. And if you’re like most artists, it frightens you to lose control. Artists are control freaks, to some degree, because it takes a special kind of control to make something out of nothing.

Songwriters are inherently brave to make art in the first place. Most non-creative types don’t know where to begin. So if there is one point to take away from this article, it is: You have more power than you think.

What follows are my answers to two questions I’m frequently asked, which betray some misplaced fears among songwriters.

Will copyrighting your song prevent it from being stolen?

I like this question because it implies that the songs are worth stealing. It’s good for a songwriter to be confident. By asking this question, the songwriter is imagining that her songs are like little chunks of uranium that could potentially generate an atomic explosion, and they must be jealously guarded lest they fall into the wrong hands.

The real question is: what do you mean by “stealing?” And why would someone want to steal your work?

Let’s draw an important distinction between copyright infringement and plagiarism.

When someone plagiarizes your work, that person passes off your ideas as their own, without crediting you. Plagiarism is a serious and hurtful act, but guess what? Copyright law does not (strictly speaking) protect you against it. Why? Because copyright law does not protect ideas.

Instead, copyright law allows you to control who gets to make copies of your original work, because we hope that each copy can generate some income for you.

Let’s say you write a song about a girl threatening to apply the full force and effect of a baseball bat to her boyfriend’s car windshield, if he were to ever cheat on her. Or you write a different song that uses an E major chord for two bars, followed by A major, then E major, then B major, then A, then E.

Do these ideas sound familiar? Sure! Are they copyrightable as songs? Nope. Because these are just abstract descriptions that bear the same relation to real songs as the phrase “orphaned hero rescues a princess and saves the universe from the dark side” bears to certain famous science fiction movies.

Once you’ve written your song down on paper, or recorded it, you have something tangible that could be literally copied. Copyright law permits you to charge money each time someone makes a copy of your work.

Fortunately, your original work is protected by copyright law as soon as you write it down or record it. You don’t have to take any special steps, although registering your copyright with the Copyright Office affords you certain extra protections in court.

If you are afraid that someone might take your music and make money with it without compensating you, then you can take refuge in copyright law.

But if you write a hit song, it’s much more likely that somebody, somewhere, will crawl out of the woodwork and claim you copied the song from him. It’s quite a bit less likely that someone will make your original song a hit without you. Remember: copyright is about money.

So, what about plagiarism? Among musicians, acts–or accusations–of plagiarism rarely happen in a vacuum. They usually arise out of a toxic cesspool of bad feelings, jealousy, and imperiousness, which you probably will see coming. Other than cultivating your ability to judge character and use common sense, the best defense against bad faith dealing is to “get it in writing.” A simple email agreement between your co-writers or bandmates before embarking on a project will go a long way toward protecting your interests. And if there’s a lot at stake, go get a lawyer to help you draft a contract.

Another scenario to consider…

What if somebody is offering you a chance to get your music in front of a wider audience, but there’s very little (or no) money involved. Will you be missing out if you don’t take this opportunity?

Next time a new restaurant opens in your home town, ask to speak to the owner and tell him that you would like to give him the opportunity to serve you a delicious meal for free. After all, it will be good exposure for him. You’ll tell your friends all about it.

Let me know how that goes.

Artists seem to have a monopoly on this kind of thinking. This is probably because the feeling they get when someone reacts to their creativity is very similar to the feeling they get when someone tells them they look pretty. (Does this song make me look fat?)  Writing a song is a personal effort and makes songwriters feel vulnerable. But it’s also very hard work, and songwriters deserve to be paid. Remember that people who want to use your music would not be asking you if they could make something suitable themselves. They need you.

While every situation you encounter as a songwriter will be unique and will require a tailored response, I hope the above ideas embolden you to think differently about the value of your work.

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