music industry

Artist News

Ever Wondered why youre getting paid CRAP for your streaming??

musikandfilm

June 1, 2015

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This is probably why…

Have you ever felt like you weren’t being paid appropriately for your music streaming? Well it turns out you’re not alone on that one! Deals between streaming services and music distribution companies have long been affecting artists, and not for the better it seems. Distributors never asked the artists themselves for permission to stream their content, nor have they spoken with them about proper compensation. THIS is why artists aren’t making any moneystreaming, because they’re being cut out of the negotiation process. Online news blog “The Verge” recently got its hands on the 42 page contract between Spotify and Sony Music that was signed back in 2011, spelling out the details between the streaming service and the record label giant’s mega deal. Apparently Spotify pays Sony MASSIVE advances of money, to the tune of $42.5 million, to have streaming access to the vast music catalogue that Sony possesses.

“In section 4(a), Spotify agrees to pay a $25 million advance for the two years of the contract: $9 million the first year and $16 million the second, with a $17.5 million advance for the optional third year to Sony Music. The contract stipulates that the advance must be paid in installments every three months, but Spotify can recoup this money if it earns over that amount in the corresponding contract year.

But what the contract doesn’t stipulate is what Sony Music can and will do with the advance money. Does it go into a pot to be divided between Sony Music’s artists, or does the label keep it to itself? According to a music industry source, labels routinely keep advances for themselves.” – The Verge

The million dollar question seems to be…why aren’t the artists getting a piece of this?? Artists are paid fractions on the penny per stream on these services, making practically NOTHING for their music play, which is in turn making it hard for artists everywhere to make a living making music these days. The problem is not exactly an unknown issue either, you may have already heard about Taylor Swift pulling her entire music catalogue off of Spotify. The platinum artist wasn’t happy with the outcome of her streaming profits, and decided to do something about it!

Musik and Film has THOUSANDS of songs streaming from their catalogue, and has yet to see ANYTHING from our digital distributors in the form of advances, has anyone else? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Here is the full article so you can check it out for yourself:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8621581/sony-music-spotify-contract

Artist News

Tired of Articles About How To Make it In The Music Business?

Rhonda

November 14, 2014

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My email gets blasted everyday with 10 tips or 5 ways to get discovered or some other bs article. All to get you to subscribe to their site , to lure the uneducated musician into believing if they just follow these steps they will have a successful career in the music business, BS. They all say the same thing but in a different way.

Do you really want to know how to succeed in the music business? Then read on I will tell you how without any hype. Do you see the word business? Being a good musician is not enough, you have to be a good businessperson. If you are going into business the first thing you should do is fully educate yourself on the business you have chosen to go into. Then formulate a business plan and make sure you have money to carry out your business plan. If you’rE not prepared to be a business person or hire a manager who is — then get used to playing on your porch to the flies cause that’s all that will ever hear you besides the people at the corner bar.

The record labels are dead they aren’t selling records, music is free now . So why would a record label want to sign you and invest thousand’s of dollars with no way to get it back or make a profit. They don’t. The days of record labels are over. So get over it, forget the ole school way and educate yourself and move on.

Lets take a look a one successful indie artist, Mackelmore . He played all over the country for over a decade and built a huge following. The following drew investors and Mackelmore knew the business so he took the money and played the game very successfully.

OK you’ve read the above articles now read this –promotional dollars spent by Mackelmore were in excess of one million dollars.

The fact is you ain’t gonna hit billboard anytime soon no matter how good you are unless you have at least ½ million to drop into promotion in the US. The whole US and music industry is just as crooked as politics. Fact is you could be Donald Duck and sing out of tune but if you had enough money you could have a hit record. I have heard some awesome musicians and songwriters but unless they learn the business and execute a business plan you ever won’t hear them unless you wade thru the billions of releases on a free streaming site.

OK you don’t have a half a million dollars? Then there are alternatives. Lets begin by crushing some myths. Streaming, the streaming companies advertise free music ,then they try to tell the musicians this is great exposure for them. That BS – how is anyone ever gonna find you among billions of songs. They’re not. Harvard law calls streaming piracy plain and simple. You’ve been ripped off . They have taken the music that you have created and stolen it from you all so they could charge a minimal monthly fee. If Indie musicians would unite, they outnumber the big machine and could crush it. Refuse to give your music away for free. Sell it off your website.

Want a sure fire way to achieve success in the music business? Work your ass off. That’s right work your ass off. First polish your craft so you can hold your own with anyone in the world, develop your product, book gigs even if for free at first if your that good the listeners will know it to and they will tell others and they will all come to see you, get more gigs , work to get them calls , emails what ever it takes even playing acoustically in front of the venue drawing their crowd outside . If you’re good they will hire you. Yeah all this time you are spending several hours a day blogging on social media trying to get fans and if you work your ass off and you are good then you will get fans. That’s success – it’s like a building it’s built one brick at a time- so is your music career.

Then there is radio promotion, essential for all artists. Some produce measurable results some don’t. There’s cheap guaranteed spins, So what if your played on a few internet stations with 4 listener’s each at 4 am. That’s not gonna translate to anything for you. There are some good promotion companies,ones that deal in major charts –ones that deal with the world not just the us or any other geographical area. After all we are all connected now. I’d advise the world, massive affordable exposure. Musik Radio Promotions just happens to offer the largest network of 250,000 stations anywhere in the world.

I leave you with one last word, “The young kid said to his mother ‘when I grow up Mom I want to be a musician‘ Then his mother then said, “You can’t have both son.”

Grow up and go after your dream as a businessperson and make your dream come true.

Stephen Wrench

President, Musik and Film

Artist News

5 Industry Moguls talk about their experiences

Rhonda

February 13, 2014

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Joe Smith, past president of Warner Bros. Elektra/Asylum, and Capitol Records, says, “with today’s rules, I couldn’t sign the Grateful Dead”.

Musik & Film Records changed the rules to create a new model for indie artists.

Five industry mogels provide a powerful insight into the music industry in the article below, courtesy of Hollywood Reporter. Great to know Musik and Film is on the same page!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!

It hasn’t been a pretty picture for the record companies the past 15 years. In that time, the U.S. music business has shrunk in half, from revenue of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $7.1 billion in 2012, and that’s been reflected in job losses, consolidation of seven music giants into three and a general feeling of malaise that says the industry’s glory days are an irretrievable thing of the past. Indeed, the landscape is littered with former executives bemoaning the loss of expense accounts and cocaine- and hooker-fueled days, but not these spry veterans, who have survived this brave new digital world to tell their tales.

Jerry Greenberg, Atlantic Records president (1974-80), MJJ Music president/COO (1993-2000)
THEN: Signed ABBA; connected producer Mutt Lange with AC/DC (the result: Highway to Hell); broke Led Zeppelin on U.S. radio with “Whole Lotta Love”; signed Chic, Sister Sledge and The Trammps.
NOW: Founder of Ibiza-based label Pacific Electronic Music; spearheading documentary about his career.
NEXT: Involved with the Polyphony Foundation, a music school in Nazareth where kids from both Israel and Palestine learn together. “I love music and working with artists. I can still tell a hit when I hear it. I want to find the next Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake.”
WHAT HE MISSES: “Labels signing artists, developing them and waiting for the money to come later. Record companies don’t stick with artists as much as they did back then.”
WORDS OF WISDOM: “This is as great a time to be a small, independent label as it was in the ’60s.”

Mike Bone, Island Records president (1990-91), Mercury co-president (1991), Def American Minster of Truth (1992-94)
THEN: While a promotion exec, broke Thin Lizzy in the U.S. with the single, “Wild One.”
NOW: Graduated Loyola Marymount with an MBA in marketing and a 3.93 GPA; owns homes in Santa Monica and Encino, a condo in Atlanta and a 215-acre Georgia tree farm.
NEXT: “In five years, my daughter will be a senior in college and my son will be a freshman, so I will start divesting my real estate, and prepare to move to Hawaii with my wife.”
WHAT HE MISSES: Being part of a team and moving the ball down the field, the snap, crackle and pop of the business, the camaraderie of orchestrating the whole ensemble. “My best years were atBob Krasnow’s Elektra in the ’80s, a magical time.”
WORDS OF WISDOM: “I saved my money. I didn’t put it up my nose or get divorced three times. My vices are now my kids.”
STORY: Afrojack Signs With Island Records and Universal Music Group

Joe Smith, Warner Bros. Records president (1970-75), Elektra/Asylum (1975-82), Capitol (1987-93)
THEN: Built Warner Bros. with Mo Ostin; signed the Grateful Dead and “changed the industry perception of the record company as the home of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin”; helped breakGarth Brooks; wrote Off the Record, a collection of more than 200 artist interviews now archived in the Library of Congress.
NOW: Lakers season ticket-holder, avid wine and art collector.
NEXT: “I hope to continue standing above ground.”
WHAT HE MISSES: That collegial feeling which disappeared when the business got corporate. “You rooted for your competition to have a hit because it meant increased retail traffic for everyone. We were never really competing with each other, we were all trying to make our own way. I also miss going to the NARM [National Association of Recording Merchandisers, since renamed the Music Business Association] convention, where I got to see everybody from around the country, where I emceed several of the award dinners and panels. I really felt at home.”
WORDS OF WISDOM: “There was room for everybody then. With today’s rules, I couldn’t sign the Grateful Dead.”

Phil Quartararo, Virgin Records president/CEO (1992-97), Warner Bros. president (1997-2002), EMI North America executive vp (2005-06)
THEN: Part of the Island Records team that broke U2; One of the founding executives of Virgin U.S.; signed Linkin Park and Josh Groban while at Warner Bros.
NOW: Managing Arturo Sandoval and Yoshiki at The Collective (the latter with veteran publishing and A&R exec Kaz Utsunomiya); consulting for artist estates and businesses that look to “use music for currency, and are willing to pay for it,” including Australian brand-sponsored e-commerce platform Guvera and sync recognition app Shazam. “I have been very fortunate to be able to take my 30-year record company experience and convert it.”
NEXT: “I’m not one to sit around moping and being resentful, waiting for the phone to ring. I’m looking at the first part of my career as the launching pad for the best part, which is right now, because I get to work with artists, brands and music. That experience we had in the major label system is valuable for companies today. There are not a lot of guys around who have run multimillion-dollar companies and are still young enough to have the energy to do something else.”
WHAT HE MISSES: Being able to activate a team of people working every day toward a common goal: to break an artist or a song, to build a career. “That was art; that was beautiful. Today’s market is not conducive to record companies as we knew them. They’re overwhelmed and under-resourced, which is a bad combination. The major labels of the past had the revenue to support the effort. [Now] there’s no money to do anything. And the thing that suffers the most is artist development. If you’re a new band, and can’t get any traction on your own, the record company won’t be able to do it for you.”
WORDS OF WISDOM: “The time for new opportunity in the music industry has never been better.”

Jeff Gold, A&M vp marketing/creative services (1981-90), Warner Bros. Records executive vp/GM (1990-98)
THEN: Helped break Bryan Adams; won a Grammy for art direction for Suzanne Vega’s third album.
NOW: Founder of Recordmecca, collecting and selling rare memorabilia; author of 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl; consulting for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Experience Music Project.
NEXT: “I am going to do this for as long as I enjoy doing it. I wake up every morning and can’t wait to see who’s emailed me and from where, what I’ve sold. I engage in this fantastic treasure hunt where I get to meet super-interesting people, buy stuff from them they’ve had for a long time, research and contextualize it.”
WHAT HE MISSES: The expense account.
WORDS OF WISDOM: “The record business missed the boat on the Internet. It’s a real lack of vision. People aren’t doing the Steve Jobs leading thing in the record business.”.

For a consultation regarding how Musik and Film Records can help you, free of obligation, contact us today.

Press Release

Next Stop Bleu Lane Landing a Deal with Musik Radio Promotions

musikandfilm

April 18, 2013

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Buckle up because the band Bleu Lane has just drove head first into the arms of Musik Radio Promotions. Promoting their latest single “Church Of Da Blues“, Bleu Lane will now receive heavy traffic for their new song thanks to Musik Radio’s global connections. Bleu Lane’s track will be submitted to radio stations worldwide picking up major exposure along the way!

The group’s roster includes nine session players having very extensive musical backgrounds & deep roots. Bleu Lane is equipped with the following Album Band members: Founding member & guitarist Bill “Bleu” Lane, Stephen Fredrick, Lee Coate, Jimmie Davis, Jim Brown (Bob Seger), Mike Estes (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Debbie Estes, Matt Stauffer and drummer Ian Wallace–RIP (King Crimson, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Roy Orbison, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Traveling Wilburys, Jackson Browne, Lindsey Buckingham and many others). A lot of history with this band where band-mates would come and go but the Bleu Lane sound remains intact.

The song “Church Of Da Blues” is featured on the album Just Livin’ My Rock & Roll Life which has gotten rave reviews from all types in the music industry. When you think of great southern rock bands and true masters of the genre, Lynyrd Skynyrd & Allman Brothers come to mind right away but you can’t forget about Bleu Lane holding its own and doing it justice. Mixing of blues, southern rock and good-old rock & roll is what Bleu Lane is all about. Other influences include: Eric Clapton, Bad Company & B.B. King just to name a few.

Expect to hear one all-out jam session on “Church Of Da Blues” that sounds ohh so good and feels ohh so right. Bleu Lane is heading down the right path for sure with Musik Radio Promotions lighting the way.

By 2J Rae

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