MusicBizCenter's Blog

In the music industry, there is an insane amount of variety in the types of music contracts out there. If you are thinking of busting into the music industry, then it is a good idea to explore the business side of it. You need to educate yourself on the types and legalities of music business contracts before hopping in.

First, recording contracts are arrangements between the artist and the label. This is where the artist makes a record and the label sells it. Once recording contracts are signed with the label, the company will own all rights, copyrights, to that record. More often than not, the artist is unable to record or perform under any other label.

An exception to the above rule is under something termed as a distribution deal. This is where someone else, meaning you or your manage for example, owns the copyright but the album is licensed to the label for a set period of time which will be stated under the terms of the music business contracts.

You may choose to include an opt-out clause in music contracts. This generally states that if the popularity of an artist decreases or they fail to sell records then they can be dropped. This can be great for a record company but ultimately not so great for the artist. It protects the company but also encourages the artist to perform and produce at the highest levels.

The following items are what you will find inside recording contracts: definitions, terms and commitments, exclusivity, grant of rights and copyrights. You may also see sections such as, advancements, royalties, recording costs, publishing, group provisions, creative control and cost control. Lastly, music contracts may contain; tour support, equipment, producers, accounting, promotional terms, miscellaneous and a line to sign on. Music business contracts are complex but educating yourself with the basics your first step in the right direction.

About the Author:

Ty Cohen, the online music industry's most recognizable voice is the former owner of a successful independent record label, current owner of Platinum Millennium publishing and nation-wide music industry seminar speaker and panelist. He is also the author and creator of over 40 best-selling music business books, reports, courses, audio products and other music industry "How to" resources, that have helped tens of thousands of individuals like you to successfully find their way in the music business. Visit http://www.MusicContracts101.com for more information on Music Contracts, Recording Contracts and Music Business Contracts.

Just a quick post here to give you some food for thought.

In case you have not noticed, one of the quickest ways to stay in touch with your fan and to let the world know about what is going on in YOUR life as an Artist, Label Owner, Manager, etc is to become "Social" and by that I'm talking about both online and offline.


Doing it online is extremely easy, just sign up for a few of your favorite Social Networking sites (like Black planet :) and continue to make regular post to let people know about yourself, your music, what you have planned, what you are currently working on, etc.


The most important thing is to gather as many people who have in interest in the type of music that you provide and invite them to be your friends and the second part of this is to ADD them as YOUR FRIENDS! (I stress this part because so many people leave it out and it is crucial)


So to get you off on the right foot, I'll make it super easy for you... Lets Connect Online


Lets Get Social Join Me on:
Black Planet - MySpace - Twitter - Digg - Amazon - Facebook
And Last But Far from least... MusicBizCenter.com


P.S. on't forget to Click The Sites Above that You are Part of and Add Me as A Friend and I will DO the Same in Return!

Are You Being *Pimped* for Your Music? Take this test to find out..

Ok, so the title got you to open up the email Great.. Because
this is serious stuff and I want you to be honest with yourself
when reading this email.

Everyday I get phone calls from people who are still chasing the
dream of getting signed to a major label and for the life of me
I can't figure out why??

I mean, why give-away your creativity, your future and not to
mention most of your hard earnings, in what I call a modern day
pimping scandal

Major record companies DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT care about you
unless you can make them a hefty profit and once that stops
happening, you are out on your @$$@#

Think of all of the great artist that used to rock the radio waves
just 5 years ago Where are they now? No one knows, but I will
tell you this, to a major record label, you are only as good as
our last album.

Ask yourself:

A- Are you really doing all of this to be a failure to be laughed
at by friends and family or do you really have a desire to be
successful?

B- Are you the type of person who likes to have a say in things
such as what your music should sound like, what you should dress
like and how much money YOU deserve?
(or would you prefer that someone else run your life for you, and
dictate your every move the way a parent does a child?)

I didn't think so, your much to smart for that!

So think about it, what are your choices .
#1- Get Pimped
#2- Take the smarter option

THE (SMARTER) OTHER OPTION

O.K. so you want to be heard, you want to keep your creativity and
you surely want to keep as much as your hard earned money as
you can right? RIGHT

So the other option, which most people are successfully turning and
making a small fortune from doing Is Starting Your Own Record Label.

Yes, thats right, don't tell me that you have not thought of it
before or maybe you did but just did not know how to get started
or where to turn for help!

Well now, you are in luck because I have it all planned out for
you, take a look here:

It's the only way to start and maintain a highly successful record
label.

I'll show you step by step how to

* Get started
* Get money to get started
* Get global recognition

Also, for the first couple of people who act on this, I'm even
throwing in a free copy the brand new "Royalty Calculation Software"
take a look and read more about it here:
http://www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com

If you'd like to ask questions about this program (before ordering
it) give me a call on my personal line at 1-866-752-9968 ext 1
or to simply place an order with one of our always busy operators
press extension 2 or order online here www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com

Talk to you soon and as always, much success!

Ty Cohen
Your Music Business Coach!
www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com

P.S. There are a couple of extras that I'm putting in for the next 10 people to order

You Get:

1-
The Ultimate Record Label Business plan guide

2-
The "Multiple Ways to Get Money & Funding for Your record Label Guide

3-
The revised Ultimate Record Label Guide Itself.

P.P.S. Take a look at the entire course below, it's called
The Ultimate Record Label and it contains every single
element that you'll need to get your label up and running.
(Do you see how much stuff is included, it's amazing!)

Take a look here: http://www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com

I came across this a few minutes ago and thought you might be interested

Want a free Obama/Biden sticker? MoveOn's giving them away totally free-even the shipping's free. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.

Click this link to get a free Obama/Biden sticker:

http://pol.moveon.org/barackstickers/?id=-10461161-yEKcarx&rc=fb.ads.biden.nonyouth

Thanks!

Ty Cohen
Your Music BusinessCoach

http://www.EZRecordDeal.com

In this article, I'm going to share with you a very popular
Social Networking site called Twitter.com that you can literally
spend just about 5-10 minute a day on and be able to attract a
very good amount of high quality traffic in the form of fans and
music buyers back to your website or myspace page. And its really fun.

Before we begin, I want to let you know that very few people are using this method of attracting new fans and attention to their music, why?

Simply because they either A- Don't know or B- Are to lazy

In fact, if you take the steps that I give you below and apply them you'll be waaaayyyyyy ahead of everyone else.

Are you ready? Great, then lets begin!

Things You'll Need to successfully use twitter:

* Computer
* Internet / mobile
* Few seconds of time

Step 1 - SMM (social media marketing) is the latest online
marketing trend to hit the music industry because its an highly
profitable and easy way to build brand recognition for you the
artist.

It's a also a great way to get new fans to your website, blog or
Myspace
page ( http://www.MySpaceMagicManuscript.com/main ) through social media like facebook, myspace, flickr, youtube, digg and the like.

Social media sites are web sites where news, photos, videos and pod casts are hosted through user submission. If you've ever thought that marketing your music through social media is time consuming, Twitter is an exception

Step 2 - The reason why I really like Twitter is because it is
a lot easier and simpler social networking and
micro-blogging service. All you will need to do is answer the
question, 'what are you doing?' in less than 140 characters. These short messages are called "tweets". Your tweets are immediately displayed on the your profile page and instantly delivered to other users who are following you (i.e. your fans.)

So for instance, some of your tweets may look like
"I'm in the studio recording a new song for the next CD"
"I'm sitting at the park writing a new song"
"I'm at the SWSX music conference"

So do you see how this works? Pretty easy right?

So how do you start Tweeting?

Step 3 - Sign up for a free twitter account. The most important
thing that you want to remember is to use you Artist name, Business Name or Real Name rather than some abstract alphanumeric combination. This will help build credibility.

The next step is to change a few things in your profile,
immediately. Include keywords about your music and genre, interests and whatever you want to use twitter for. You can restrict your tweet delivery to those in your circle, but I suggest leaving the Default setting in place, which is "delivery to everyone".

Step 4 - Click 'find and follow' to follow people from your aol,
yahoo gmail and other email contacts who are already tweeting. You can also find people with similar interests by searching for a keyword according to your Genre or interest (i.e. Jaxx Music, Hip Hop, Country). Click follow, if you find any interesting.

By the way, My twitter name is TyCohen

Step 5 - Now you are all set to send your first tweet. Type a small message (max 140 characters including spaces) telling people what you are doing. You can send tweets through twitter website or
instant messenger or SMS from your cell-phone. You need to confirm
your
cell phone number first. Do this by clicking devices.

If you think it doesn't make any sense and is sheer waste of time, then you are under estimating twitter potential.

Step 6 - Twitter allows you to add links in the tweets which is a
huge marketing benefit to you. You can use
this to display your own links. For ex: one of my tweets today was "Using MySpace to Make Your CD Sales Soar!
http://www.MySpaceMagicManuscript.com/main and Volume II at:
http://www.MySpaceMagicManuscriptV2.com "

Step 7 - By tweeting frequently, following and being followed, you can grow a small community of people with similar interests and who recognize your name and your brand!

Step 8 - I downloaded a great time saver Twhirl. It is a third
party application for twitter. If tweeting takes around 60 seconds, Twhirl cuts down that time to below 10 seconds.

Twhirl stays on the desktop (logged in). I don't need to visit the twitter website during my hectic workday. All I do is, click the twhirl icon from the system tray and type a short "whatever I'm doing" tweet and send. Twhirl also notifies when I receive messages from my followers or anyone that I'm following. So I don't miss a thing and
all without wasting my time.

You can also use twhirl to upload pictures to twitpic.com, a site
to share photos.

There are many applications for twitter like twitterfeed (similar
to twhirl), twittervision, which shows the geo position of the your twitter friends and so on.

So there you go! A quick and easy way to expand your marketing to millions of people all for free.

Happy Tweeting.

Your Music Business Coach!

Ty Cohen
htt://www.SellMusicOnlineLikeCrazy.com
Sell Music Online Like Crazy

P.S. For more great ways to use the Internet to Market, promote &

Sell your music world wide visit;
http://www.MySpaceMagicManuscript.com

and

http://www.MySpaceMagicManuscriptV2.com

and

htt://www.SellMusicOnlineLikeCrazy.com