Hip-hop production tutorials, news, review, marketing and ideas.

Great chart to explain to possibility of revenue while staying independent!

Interview By Jerry L. Barrow

“When I first got into things I was writing and producing the entire song. But as time went on I saw that my network wasn’t growing with each placement. …” -Chris Henderson

Nodfactor.com: How does a Physics student at Hampton get involved in making music?

Chris Henderson: I guess it was always in me but it’s like there were clues there looking back. I used to fill up water glasses and play them. But they never took that as musical. I wasn’t even drawn to the piano until I saw Purple Rain. I always assumed people who played piano had lessons. But when I saw that scene of him playing the tape of the girl’s song and then played it on piano I turned to my brother and asked “what’s that?” and he said it’s called playing by ear. Some people can just listen to music and just play it. I started trying it and I was actually pretty good at it.

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2 excellent interviews with Drumma giving insight on being more than a producer and becoming a brand!

next one after the jump

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With the help of the readers of Stradagized.com and members of

I want to build a Q&A  with 10 years music licensing veteran, UCLA teacher, Owner of Ten Music & HANK™ Sarah Gavigan.

All aspiring producer, musician, songwritter, band…. drop in your question in the comment section about music licensing in movies, ads, tv, video games….

This is a great opportunity to have your question answers by a pro and learn the ropes of this great avenue for independet musicians. Here is a link to previous post about the subject.

Dont be shy, there is no bad questions !!!

Things to keep in mind:

1. Networking is about being genuine and authentic

2. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish so that you can select who can be a suitable candidate to help you get what you are looking for.

3. Focus on quality contacts as opposed to quantity.
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What are common mistakes artists make?

Something I always explain to artists is that they have to understand records. I always compare records or songs to babies. With a baby, there’s a natural development cycle. Just because you wake up one day and want that baby to walk, you can’t tell that baby, “All right, get up now. Stop crawling, we’re gonna walk today.” Nah, that baby is gonna walk on its own when it’s ready. That’s the same thing with records. One of the biggest reasons why people are successful is because they give these records the time that they need to develop. They nurture ‘em and feed ‘em and do the things necessary for that record to go through its organic development cycle. Everybody wants things to happen right away. Nowadays records are taking longer and longer to break. You might be looking at four to six months. You have to support that record and be patient. You have to have stamina to see a project through. That’s where so many people go wrong. Lastly, everybody’s so focused on developing a record, they miss the whole point of developing a brand. In order to have longevity and be successful in this business, they have to develop themselves as a brand and create their own movement.

caught here on emusician

Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?

It shows the fate of the three main pillars of music industry revenue - recorded music, live music, and PRS revenues (royalties collected on behalf of artists when their music is played in public) over the last 5 years.

from artistpaid

via knowthemusicbiz.com

Assuming an independent musician has no record label, is the sole songwriter and owns their copyright and has digital distribution for a flat annual fee - How would they earn royalties from the sources below? Who collects and pays the royalties for each?

- Non interactive radio (Pandora)

Answer: There’s some question whether Pandora is “interactive” but for now, a court has held it is not. Assuming that’s correct, there is a compulsory license under the copyright law for the masters, and the monies are collected by a nonprofit company called Soundexchange.

ASCAP / BMI (performing rights societies) collect for the songwriting.

The artist (who is also the record company and publisher in this example) affiliates with each of these companies for payment.

- Streaming services (Spotify)

Answer: Interactive streaming requires a license for the master from the company; there is no compulsory license, so they can charge whatever they can get. There are “aggregators” (like Tunecore and Orchard) who put together small companies and re-license the digital rights to masters. That would make sense for an owner/user like this example, because it’s hard to get streaming services to make one-off deals.

Songwriting is collected by ASCAP / BMI.

- Digital downloads (iTunes)

Answer: Master rights are also licensed directly, or through aggregators, as above.

Publishing rights are done directly, or through Harry Fox.

- Subscription download service (eMusic)

Answer: I assume you mean a streaming subscription with a number of downloads included? If so, they need all the licenses above.

- Video streaming (YouTube)

Answer: The record company makes a deal with the site. Songwriting isn’t totally settled. Mostly, the record company gets paid by the site directly, then pays the songwriter / publisher.

Brilliant article by Paul Resnikoff about the move that needs to be done by the major labels to survive, even if it means taking a hit now!

What would happen if the majors stopped pressing CDs right now, closed down their plants, and wrote off their physical retail networks?  The answer is that they’d lose billions, right off the bat!  The lights would start flickering immediately!

But, they’d also quickly shrink unnecessary overhead, ditch ineffective legacy commitments, assume nimbler stances, and refocus all of their energies towards digital formats and concepts.  And, start building companies designed to survive in the 2010s.

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When it comes to total damages, the disparities are even greater. Thomas-Rasset’s retrial ended up with a $1.92 million award, while Tenenbaum faces $675,000 in damages. Those who didn’t show up owe around $7,500.

I was interested more in what happens within the federal court system for this article, but several commenters rightly point out that “not showing up” isn’t the cheapest way out of such situations. Settling with the RIAA usually leads to payments of between $3,000 and $5,000, lower than the default judgments issued here by Judge Gertner. Convincing a jury that you’re innocent could be cheaper still (if you find a pro bono lawyer), though it comes with certain obvious risks.

Well that was useful, now everybody is scared of the big bad Riaa…. everybody stopped dowloading right? When are people going to understand to stop being against change, embrace it !