How to make money, or how to make MORE money - as a music publisher / studio owner

[Jules]

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[Jules]

OK I must have spent 3 months studio time with several acts signed to me for publishing or songs I have traded a share of and have made about $200 so far in publishing revinue, so I am in the "want to make more money from publishing" catagory...





Any studio / publishing tips or success stories out there?

[Steffmo]

Honestly Jules...you might as well make it a label. Get a small distro deal....only deal with bands with great work ethic that can sell outside of big radio.

In our marketplace if you can sell 3k records at 6.00 wholesale. Figuring 10k for your time plus 4k for pressing and 4 k for rudimantary promo.....you are even, and have in effect paid yourself for doing the record.

Now, If you can have a piece of the publishing as well....

[crispy]

Originally posted by Steffmo
Honestly Jules...you might as well make it a label. Get a small distro deal....only deal with bands with great work ethic that can sell outside of big radio.

In our marketplace if you can sell 3k records at 6.00 wholesale. Figuring 10k for your time plus 4k for pressing and 4 k for rudimantary promo.....you are even, and have in effect paid yourself for doing the record.

Now, If you can have a piece of the publishing as well....

The main thing that is putting me off doing this is the marketing/press/promotion thang. I just don't have the resources to deal with this stuff AND be studio owner/producer/engineer.

I would think you will need to be dealing with a number of artists at the same time to make it work.

A lot of young & local bands will just plain refuse to stump up for a lawyer to deal with contract issues too, methinks.

Crispy

[Jules]

"A lot of young & local bands will just plain refuse to stump up for a lawyer to deal with contract issues too, methinks"

This lack of $$$ for legal advice is huge issue for me...

[C.Lambrechts]

this is how we've been doing / read trying to do it.


Basic principle is based round spec deals :

order it works in is basically this :

- find 'talent' you belive in / want to invest in. This is imho the hard part. Sometimes in times of 'need' one might get tempted to easily to start something with 'talent'. In my experience however it's better to have no talent to put your time in then 'half' a talent.

- Make a deal : these days and in my particular situation this would include :

-- publishing on all tracks / wether composed , co-composed, arranged , produced ... whatever ... airplay has become an important part of our income so publishing is a must in times of 'low' sales.

-- As a general non negociable rule I become a 'band' member. Quite simple realy .... if they're 4, I'm the 5th .... If he or she is solo, then I'm the 2nd. This goes for the live part of the talents life. I'm a non active part of that. Sounds cruel to have part in their live action without actually being there ? no it isn't ... they get plenty in return ... unlimited access to a studio for example and whatever it takes to produce the record.

-- I produce the record .... including all costs ... artwork etc etc ...

-- Distribution is taken care of by an indipendent distributor. I've found they work best / better then the big ones. These days 'round here the 'big ones' attention goes out to whatever comes from oversees or abroad. Majors have become a 'local' office for international talent / big names alla Robbie Williams etc etc rather then a record company for local talent. In fact it has become rare ... very rare to sign a new local deal. New deals are usually 'products' that come from people like me. Products that are allready on their way ... they rather buy into a license deal then actually sign an artist and start from scratch.

-- promo is handled by independends. Pluggers get you airplay. Singles are made for promo use only and rarely end up in the stores. Full albums accompanied by a promo single is the best way to get a little bit of sales.

Sales alone are a long way from making break even fwiw. To illustrate our local market. 10 years ago a single sales of 5000 probably wouldn't even get you into the top 50 .... Nowadays with 5000 your a top 10 guarenteed ... possibly hit number 1 if Britney drops to Nr2 after her 7 weeks at the top and Destiny's Child is still on the way to the top. It is because of the sales that nobody wants to invest in new talent anymore and those who do and try ... like me need to find alternative ways to make that possible .... hence a reason to take part in their live action.


As for sales .... if it's a band ... I ALLWAYS encourage them to get some friends / girlfriends to set up a stand at their shows and I'll provide them with CD's to sell. More profit for all of us. Your actually better off selling a 1000 pieces through your own local network then selling 10 to 15 times as much with a license deal with a major. In my case ... I let distribution have 15 % of PPD (gross CD price) ... instead of taking 15 % signing it away to a major. BIG difference. Except for a few exceptions that's how people have kept their heads above water over the last couple of years. Most local bands, even former big ones have lost their deals with their rec companies due to budget etc etc blah blah. The ones that could live with actually selling 1/10th of what hey used to sell but do it themselves are still there and hanging in .... the others have given up and often even stopped working in the music industry at all .....

Over the last 2 years now however I've noticed that the situation is stabalised and that is positive. At least it isn't getting any worse. I hope I'm not sounding negative here ... not at all .... I'm actually positive that it's going to go for the better.

[oedipus_complex]

Hi guys,

I'm opening a small studio in Sydney, Australia in the next few months. I've got a question about acquiring the service of engineers. How do I pay them? I'd like to pay them cash in hand, but if the client pays by cheque or bank deposit, than I'll have money unaccounted for if I draw the money to pay them. That's obviously no good as I'll be screwed if I get audited (however unlikely that may be). The other option is to say the money is being paid to myself - but then the money is subject to income tax, which sucks considering I never got to keep the money. Do I have to bite the bullet and pay them in an offical, legal way? What do you guys normally do? What do the engineers usually like best? What if I asked the client to pay the engineer, and give me the rest?

- Anthony

[Jules]

Make them invoice you for those jobs...

Pay them by cheque.

If it's oficial - its oficial...

This is posted in the wrong forum BTW.

[anchorage]

BMI/ASCAP horror stories?

I'm looking for opinions/advice on music publishing and royalities.

A post by bloodstone got me thinking. He and I PM'ed about it and he gave me a lot to think about. Now I'm looking for other view points on the subject.

Is BMI the best way collect your royalites?

What has everyone's experiences been?

My band is about to hit it hard(in a DIY way) with our new CD and I'm hoping for any and all advice. But a partner and I also do the small studio thing, so it would be good to know for that as well.

Thanks in advance!
mark

[Jules]

In capital cities all the collection agencies run offices. The front line foot soldier satff are usually young & friendly ex A&R people, typically these folks are very sunny characters, attractive looking and seem to be paid just to 'hang out with' & 'hook up' artists & writers,

I think they can be especially helpfull to people wanting to get into co-writing...

They also do a lot of A&R hook ups,

So it's worth using them like a free service,

of course they want you to 'go with' their company...(they exist to help sway the needle in a haystack band like 'Hootie & the Blowfish' or whatever to be collected by them...)

In th end they are probably all pretty much the same....

Dan At ASCAP UK or Tabitha at BMI are both cool people....

I am sure they have equally cool counterpoints in LA, NYC & Nashville, etc

My 2c