How to Find a Music Publisher

In my Entertainment & Media Publishing class, we have been discussing a lot about music publishers and agents. A music publisher’s job is to make sure that a song lives the longest, most financially prosperous life as possible. If you are a songwriter then you would want a music publisher, but how do you find a music publisher? Helen Austin, a music licensing veteran provided tips of how to find a music publisher on PassivePromotion.com.

Austin has done a vast amount of work from working with large instrumental libraries to Coca Cola ads. Today, she exclusively writes songs for pigFactory that are used in ads, on TV and in movies. Austin offers seven ideas of how to find a publisher that’s right for you.

1.     Is your music ready? You have to listen to your music from a critical perspective and really critique your music to decide if it is ready lyrically, melodically and when it comes to quality. A good way to do this is to add your music to a playlist with other successful songs from your genre and see if it blends in or sticks out. You can also ask someone who has never heard your music to see if they can pick your songs out from the crowd.

2.    Educate yourself! Learn as much as you an about the rules and regulations of music publishing. Don’t get to eager to sign with the first deal presented to you. There is a book called The New Songwriter’s Guide to Music Publishing by Randy Poe that provides the information necessary to prepare you for what you should know about the music publishing field.

3.    Google is your friend. If you’re looking for a publisher or want to know more about one that you found, use Google to research them. You have to process what you see in a critical way though. Don’t believe everything you read. Austin recommends Taxi as a great site for finding music publishers.

4.    Pick up the phone. If you find a publisher that you really want to work with, call them up and talk to them. Fifteen minutes on the phone with them will tell you if this relationship is worth pursuing or not. An actually phone conversation will do you more good than a text conversation via email.

5.    Use your gut. Follow your instincts. If you are in the midst of an agreement but something doesn’t feel right, listen to your inner voice. It’s better to wait than end up putting your music in the hands of the wrong person.

6.    One song, one publisher. Don’t sign the same song with multiple publishers. This is something music supervisors loathe. The result of not following this rule could get you blacklisted as a songwriter and your songs passed on. If your write multiple songs for multiple publishers, you can test the waters before you sign an exclusive contract.

7.    Find a lawyer. The last tip from Austin is to find a good music lawyer through recommendations. Even though this may seem expensive, it could save you money and heartache at the end of the day.

Even though finding a good music publisher may seem like a lot of hard work, if it’s something that you take seriously, then it is what must be done. Don’t cut corners or rush because you could  find yourself in a bad deal or legal situations that will hurt your career and cost you time and money.

iTunes or Pandora?

One of the upgrades that came with the iOS7 update for Apple iPhone/iPod users was the new iTunes Radio. Did you ever wonder how it compares to other music streaming services such as Pandora, YouTube, and iHeartRadio? Well I have the answer according to an NDP sampling of 328 users. The survey was published in an article on Hypebot.com.  According to the article, of the 328 users, 71% reported listening to Pandora in the last week, while only 15% had used iTunes. YouTube was used by 43%, iHeartRadio 23%, and Spotify, Slacker, and Rdio had only single digit usage by the group.

These results surprised me because I have used all of these streaming services. I would have expected iTunes and YouTube to have higher percentages. What the article does not take into consideration is how many of these 328 users have an Apple product that has the iOS7 update.

Both Pandora and iTunes Radio have their strengths and weaknesses. One of Pandora’s advantages is that it is available to more users, not just one ecosystem as with iTunes and Apple. Users may have also spent years customizing their Pandora stations to get them just right so there is no motivation to switch over. Pandora offers an ad free subscription version for users who don’t want to be pestered with commercials while iTunes does not. I used to use Pandora but I felt that its stations were way too broad. When I created a station from an artist, it would play artists not even close to the artist I chose. iTunes Radio is convenient for Apple users. It also allows you to quickly purchase a song that you like. You can also create a station from artists and songs in your iTunes library. The songs they play on the station are related to the artists and songs you chose to create a station from. The frustrating thing about iTunes Radio is that it plays a lot of the same songs across EVERY station. It also sometimes repeats the same song that you just heard.

Everyone has his or her favorite of these stations but I don’t think iTunes will be putting Pandora out of business anytime soon. My preference is to stick with my iTunes library but when I do want to hear something new, as an iPhone user, I conveniently go to iTunes Radio.

Knowing the Law in This Business

Getting tangled up in legal issues can be time consuming, costly, and just plain annoying. However, it is avoidable in most cases if you learn the legalities when you are doing business and follow those laws or legally binding contracts. In order to learn more about entertainment law, I researched and listened to four podcasts that discussed the entertainment industry and/or important laws and issues to be aware of.

The first podcast I listened to was “Musical Artist Management Contract Review.” It is part of a series titled The Music Law Podcast. This podcast discussed what to pay attention to when considering signing a contract that will enter you into a manager/artist relationship. The relationship between artist and manager was even compared to a marriage. Due to the seriousness and the high level of commitment required of both parties, it is important that you believe in and trust each other. The following are terms that will most likely be part of the contract:

·      Exclusivity: The artist cannot have anyone else service as his or her manager but the manager can have several artists as clients. Don’t be too worried about this if you are an artist because a manager having several clients is often a good sign of his or her abilities.

·      Term: Typically five-1 year periods that the manager has an option to extend at the end of each one year period. An artist can have his or her lawyer add a clause that lists expected performance objectives that the manager must meet each year and if these objectives aren’t met, then the artist has an option to not rollover the contract.

·      Duties: Make sure to include requirements of each party specifically and eliminate the unnecessary.

·      Compensation: Typically 10 to 25% of the artists’ gross income goes to the manager as compensation. Exclusions should be spelled out in details for things such as money from the label to the artist to pay for a video. The contract should also specifically mention how often manager will be paid. Every 30-90 days is common.

·      Power of Attorney Clause: Artist allows managers to sign contracts on his or her behalf. Artist should talk to lawyer in order to list detailed restrictions in this clause.

·      Sunset Clause: When the artist and manager’s relationship comes to an end, the Sunset Clause will determine how long and how much the manager will get paid for things that he or she helped artist to gain compensation for. The length of time and percentage is something that the two and their lawyers will have to agree on.

Another podcast I listened to from the same series is about Music Publishers and songwriters and the legal issues between the two. The podcast is titled “Music Law Publishing Part Two.” A Music Publisher’s job is to protect the interest of the songs and the songwriter by insuring the longest most profitable life for the song. He or she can typical approve or deny a request to use a song in any type of media, from advertising to print. The Business and Legal Affairs department handles drafting and negotiating of all music work licenses. Depending on the contract, the Music Publisher usually has the copyright rights of a song. A songwriter can seek to reduce the length of the publisher’s rights. It is typically 8 to 15 years that a publisher has the copyright rights before being transferred to the songwriter who can then reuse the song later. The transfer must be in writing to be legally recognized. Also included in a contract between the two are the share of the song and compensation.

From the Entertainment Law Update Podcast, I listened to their 43^rd episode “No copyright, Sherlock?” This podcast discusses copyright news around the country. In this episode they discussed a college football player, Sam Keller and how he an eight other players sued EA Sports for using their likeness in a college football video game without permission or compensation thus violating their right to publicity. EA could not pay the students because it violates the NCAA code stating that players cannot profit off playing sports. EA’s defense was that they didn’t violate the players’ rights to publicity because no names were used and based on the 1^st Amendment; there was nothing illegal about what they did. The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Keller ruling that the game didn’t go far enough from being transformative to constitute 1^st Amendment protection. Basically, they had guys playing football, with the same skin tone, stats, height, weight, position, and jersey number as the players. It would be different if they created a game that had all of these players in a Dancing With the Stars video game because that is not something that they have done.

The final podcast was a lecture given by Nina Ossanna concerning intellectual property. “Introduction to Intellectual Property” discussed patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Patents have limited life and full disclosure. They also have a strong, broad legal strength. Trademarks have a longer life but doesn’t’ protect the product. They have a strong, narrow breadth legal strength but are very dependent on the value of the company. Copyrights have a longer life, but narrow protection. They also have strong, narrow breadth legal strength but value is dependent on the market.

From the podcasts I viewed, I was able to learn more about the legal system and how it relates to entertainment business. I hope you are able to gain something too!