How to make money out of musicians
Posted under: Warning: This post is a rant and will include very strong language. If you are a kid you are used to it already. If you are over sensitive please go and watch Cinderella.
This post is divided in two parts: The first one has to do with Twitter and how the circle of trust works for me. The other part is aimed at describing and calling attention to how some unscrupulous companies or individuals try and take advantage of young musicians.
The Twitter circle of Trust
Today in the morning I saw a tweet by my dear friend Shelly Kramer that was a RT of a RT:
I was tempted to RT the Tweet immediately but the fact is that I don’t know who @yahaloma is, so I decided to click on the link and read it for myself before I did my RT. What I found on that post is the reason I am writing this one. If that tweet was “@ShellyKramer RT @SEOcopy RT @adamsconsulting text link ” I would not hesitate and I would have RT it immediatelly. All of them are what I call trusted sources (Shelly and Diana I’m honored to call my friends). I’m not blaming anyone here, mind you. I’m just trying to explain how this twitter circle of trust works for me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is important to check the link if you don’t know who the original person is. That way you are helping to keep the level of overall tweet quality on Twitter high and clean. Also beware of people you don’t know asking you to RT something: Always check the link before you do. On the other hand I’m glad Shelly did RT that tweet because she gave me something to rant about! So thank you Shelly and here we go:
A Scam disguised of Opportunity
With every line I read of this post I got more angry. I got angry to the point of shouting out loud “What the FUCK?!?!?!” (Told you I was going to use strong language). I’ve seen lots and lots of these messages spreading across message boards and also via email and let me tell you: Be careful.
I will skip the motivational blah blah that is the first part of that post. It’s innocuous and it can be applied to everything from fridges to frogs. Let’s deconstruct what really matters:
Universal Music Group is taking submissions for their upcoming compilation cd, deadline is February 28th for the selection process.
Notice the lack of a link to the Universal Music Group? To that page at the Universal Music Group website where they announce they are taking submissions? I do! And so should you. And why is there no link? Because there is no competition, or any call for entries I suspect. Universal Music must get hundreds if not thousands of submissions every single day and to scout for new talent they have a department called “A&R” (Artists and Repertoire and not Artists and Repitore as it is written on their website)
The master, finished product, must be submitted no later than June 2010 for all selected artists, which will be for the summer and Holiday releases.
As anyone in the music industry can tell you, music works pretty much in the same way as Fashion does: Any “finished” product submitted by June 2010 would probably be able to make it to the shops by June 2011. But not only that: Universal, like all majors, likes to keep a tight control on what their bands sound like: All the mastering is done by their trusted studio engineers and adds to the bill that artists have to usually pay. The way it works is that a band gets signed by a major, its taken to a studio, records their material with trusted producers and engineers and then it’s sent on a tour if it sells enough records. If not the band is ditched. End of story.
They request no fewer than 3 songs, from each artist, be submitted for the selection process in which one or two songs will be chosen. One song selected is $250 and if two songs are selected $400. If two songs are selected, they will choose which song is to be on which release.
Ok let me get this straight: You have to submit more than 3 songs, you have to master them (this costs real money) and on top of that you will have to pay $250 if one song is chosen and $400 if two songs are chosen. Anyone wants to bet with me that the lucky winners are going to have two songs selected? Am I the only one smelling something strange around here?
Artist WILL RECOUP this expense: they will receive their royalties from sales and music will be submitted to SoundScan and various publishing companies, which will be paid through your publishing company. They will build a tour from artists with highest number of downloads, and a video shoot of artist in concert, developed into a video for airplay, which the artist is to receive royalties from as well.
This part is what I call the funny, hilarious part of the post. Really! Hilarious! I could laugh till the walls around me would turn into rumble. But I’m not laughing. Actually I am pretty pissed off! Why? I will tell you why!
Do you have any idea how many records an artist has to sell or stream on services like Spotify to get $250 of royalties? I will give you a number to make you think: Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” streamed more than one million times on Spotify and got payed €133 (Around $191) [read the whole story here] Just do the math please. And what publishing company? You mean the same publishing company that is now calling for tracks to be submitted? Universal Music group? Who? Or do the artists have to setup a publishing company to get the royalties? And just one more thing: Nothing is submitted to SoundScan, as far as I know it. SoundScan is a Nielsen service that companies, like Universal, can buy.
I am not going to post here the e-mail that is given for sending submissions but I would alert you that a company that has a gmail account as their contact should not be trusted. If you check the website you will see how active it is and how full their tour dates are. Furthermore, and interestingly, there is no mention of this call for submissions anywhere to be found.
To give an opportunity to comment on these issues I will send a tweet to @yahaloma asking her to read this post. I do hope that she takes the time to read it since I’m still thinking that she is an innocent victim in all of this.
* Pictures from Mikey da Photographer and Photos8 via Flickr and edited by me under a Creative Commons License 3.0 by-nc-sa
@yahaloma Hi you don't know me but I would ask you to read this post that concerns your post: http://tr.im/JTZR
@holgr http://tr.im/JTZR There you go!
@shellykramer You asked for it, you have it: http://tr.im/JTZR #cantsayNOtoyou
RT @fjfonseca: @shellykramer You asked for it, you have it: http://tr.im/JTZR #cantsayNOtoyou
Another great rant from @fjfonseca "How to make money out of musicians" http://bit.ly/5a46fB
Great rant, but I think you are a little too polite in your rants, you need more frothing at the mouth
Totally agree with the checking links before RTing, I do it even with those I trust for a couple of reasons. First, to make sure it’s a valid link, I’m always amazed at how many people RT broken links! And secondly to at least scan the content of the link, I feel that by RTing it I am validating it in some way, not always agreeing with the link but at least saying it’s worth looking at for some reason or another. Nice post as usual, hope it makes people examine before tweeting a little more!
RT @booksbelow Another great rant from @fjfonseca "How to make money out of musicians" http://bit.ly/5a46fB #ciam
How to make money out of musicians #Zargon http://tinyurl.com/ybwz6w2
Hello,
I truly appreciate the time you spent in tearing this article apart. The email is real, and the opportunity is real. It is really up to the person to check this out and find out for themselves if this is something you want to do. I am not the person who is offering this opportunity, I only posted it and I know the person who is in charge of this personally. He is reliable and truthful. I can say that this rebuttal does not offend me or makes me angry in any manner, and everyone must search out a matter for themselves.
Thank you again for taking the time to make such a detailed article.
Blessings to you,
Yahaloma
P.S. Please now that you have written about my article follow me and let’s get to know eachother.
Peace
Hi Yahloma,
Show me the links. You see, in this time and age anyone can cross reference anything to anything so if you can provide any links whatsoever I will surely apologize for shadowing a cast of doubt about your post and your friend (?) that you wish to maintain anonymous. I also wrote to Universal Music Group to alert them to the fact that their name is being used in such a manner. As soon as I have their reply I will update this post.
Cheers,
Fernando
Hello Mr. Fonseca:
Yahaloma is not our spokesperson and, as such, we can answer any questions. Ostensibly, there is no scam here, at least not on our part. As anyone with any clear idea of how the Internet works can say, an original email can be taken out of context by the time it reaches the 5th person. For instance, our name was not even mentioned. Only Universal. Why? Perhaps that will cause a bigger reaction could be one reason. Who knows? Another for instance: we wouldn’t want the music mastered, only mixed. Why? So all songs are level on the final product when the master is done. As you well know if multiple people master their own project in multiple places the final CD will not sound even. Publishing companies? The artist would have to submit their music through their own publishing company to firms such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc. They in turn monitor SoundScan, BDS, etc. As to royalties: if an artist is getting, as ONLY an example, 10 cents per download of a song on top of a percentage of LP sales…well, they clearly earn more than what was showed…this not counting publishing royalties which is another animal. Our deadline for the holiday release is June 2010. There is no year lag time with Fontana. This can go on. As to our website: it’s being constructed on the backend. As to the Gmail account: even Bad Boy has Gmail accounts. So while it’s great one wants to rant and rave, I must ask…how come no one emailed the Gmail account anyway? Being wary is a good thing, it’s also good to double check. That email comes right to our blackberry. As does founder@serum-music.com. And out of the many submissions thus far, we’ve only selected one. If this was a scam we would have taken as many as possible. But we just want as many sure hits as possible. Really exceptional music. As it stands, at this late time, we’re picking up another completed compilation album and building from there so as not to lose momentum. Funny how no one mentioned talent shows that have unsigned artists paying to perform with no way of recouping and established acts having to buy into other artists’ tours. Thanks again for allowing us the opportunity to respond.
Best regards,
SERUM
FF, love the rant and totally agree with you – 100%. But, for the record, I know Gabi, who is @SEOcopy and hold her in the highest regard. I also know @yahaloma and, although I don’t communicate with her on a daily basis, felt reasonably confident about the content she provided. I did not scrutinize it and really know nothing about the music business, so that really wasn’t an issue for me.
But I agree with you with regard to the deeper issue. And that is that by RTing someone else’s content you are, in fact, supporting, endorsing, and attaching your name and reputation to it. And as you know, no one is more of a freak about ethics and appropriate behavior, both online and off, than I am.
Thanks for the reminder to always keep that in mind and to strive to look deeper, in most instances. Especially if the original post isn’t from someone you know really, really well.
And thanks for always being willing to take on the “big” issues – heart you mostest for that.
Hello ShellyKramer:
As a former member of the Institute on Global Ethics [and I say former because I did not renew my membership] I am also big on ethics and am glad to have had this opportunity not only to give rebuttal but to learn something. I love a good debate [being Type-A and all] but more so cordially, if at all.
Thanks,
SERUM
A RT is not a seal of approval, but a path to a link. I agree that RT should not be treated as endorsement.
I don’t want to label anyone a “scam” merely because they offer a deal I consider disadvantageous. Yet I do think that in an age in which one can tunecore one’s songs to the commercial vendors for a hundred dollars, it’s hard for me to imagine paying hundreds of dollars to get one’s music on a demo to the dinosaurs.
I’d rather focus less on whether this “is” or “is not” a good deal, though, than upon the embedded assumptions issue. I never mind anyone–large label or small–seeking to sell CDs and downloads.
I myself prefer netlabels, but that’s not an “everything must be free” statement so much as a “sharing is great” statement.
The embedded assumption in this particular product that I don’t share is:
“getting a record company deal with a large label is a good thing”.
I don’t share that assumption at all. I assume instead that such deals are a rare, not particularly advantageous and often unremunerative thing.
I therefore cannot imagine spending cash out of pocket to seek to get on a sampler to demo to a large record company.
My own assumption is instead that for all but a tiny fractional percentage of the folks who make music, large record company deals are neither obtainable nor advisable. Thus, I’d rather buy 20 dollars of lottery tickets, if I wish to gamble–and maybe buy a software synth with the money I save.
Your core point about tweets and “provenance” of deals is a good one.
How to make money out of musicians by @fjfonseca http://zz.gd/9b6944