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Making Money With Your Music – budget and contracts

The Business of Music

The business of music is probably one to the most overlooked part of a recording artist, songwriter or music producer’s career. I’ve found that experienced industry professionals sometimes don’t have a clue about the business of music. Time and time again I am approached by recording artist, songwriters and music producers, who are looking for a way to get exposure, build a fan base and start making money with their music.

I must admit that some to the demos I listened to were very good. The production quality met today’s industry standards, art work was unique and eye catching. The overall product looked good on the surface. After digging a little deeper, I found the music was not registered nor was it copyrighted. To make matters worse, the artist didn’t have written agreements with the producers of the music.

With that said, there was nothing I could do with their music, and no way to make money with it; more than often artist present music that's not properly registered or cleared. Publishers, music supervisors, radio stations, Youtube, and other potential sources of revenue streams will not touch your music unless it is properly cleared and registered. So, before you can start making money with your music you must first establish a good business foundation. Not only will a good business foundation make your music marketable, it protects you and your rights. This segment will cover 2 key areas you need to focus on before you can properly register, market, and license your music to start making money. Working from the ground up, starting a new project, a recording artist or music producer should consider these two elements.

Budget and Contracts

Budget

On the surface a budget may sound like a simple and straight forward concept, but it’s not. There are many details and unavoidable expenses when launching a music project. The worst is spending the bulk of your funds on one item and end up with nothing left to cover the list of other things you will need to give your project its best chance for success. Too many projects fizzle out because a budget was not established to ensure key areas of the project would be covered. Not only will you have to pay for recording and recording related expenses, you have to pay for marketing and promotions as well. Let’s consider some of the expenses you will need to incorporate into your budget. When establishing your budget, consider the following:

 

  • Recording/Studio Time
  • Photos Shoot
  • Video Production
  • Promotions (release party, marketing materials, etc.)
  • Wardrobe
  • Web site design and maintenance
  • Manufacturing and distribution
  • Social site maintenance
  •  Memberships, registration fees
  • CD / demos
  • Administration fees
  • Legal fees

This is just an example of some of the expenses you can except to incur when launching a project. By the time you get our making money with your music series, you'll have a good ideal of how to structure your project, the elements you want to include, and the cost. I can’t stress enough the importance of establishing a solid and accurate budget. Thank your project through. Make a list, write it down. Go over it repeatedly to ensure you are incorporating all the key elements needed to give your project the best chance of success. Research the cost, do price comparisons. You can save by doing a lot of the work yourself, like setting up and managing you own web site, which we will get into later in this series. If you can’t afford a lawyer for contracts and other legal issues at the start of your project, do them yourself. There is no law that says you can’t write your own contracts. Of course later on you will need professional legal advice as you grow and start generating revenue. But for now, simple written agreements can save you headaches, time and money, as well as offer you some limited protection until you can afford the expense of an attorney.

Contracts

Although I am not an attorney and cannot give legal advice, I will say that you as an individual have the right to enter into and execute agreements without the assistance of a licensed attorney. Of course if budget permits, hire an attorney; although I find that most entry level and some more experienced industry professionals can’t carry the cost of legal representation, especially, let’s say when you are recording in your best friend’s garage, you wrote the lyrics and he created the music. Who wants to shovel out $3,000 to an attorney for that? But even in a situation like this you need to have a written agreement covering ownership, royalties and publishing rights to any song you create, so if the song suddenly skyrockets there’s no dispute over owns the song or who gets what from sales and publishing royalties.

What’s a contract? A contract is defined as an agreement to do or not to do a certain thing. For all intent and purposes it should be in writing but can be verbal. There are four essential elements to a valid contract;

 

  1. The parties to the contract must be capable of contracting (not a minor, mentally stable, etc.).
  2. Mutual consent (both parties must agree to the terms and conditions of the contract.
  3. A lawful object (the contract must have a legal objective).
  4. Consideration (what will each party get by fulfilling the agreement).

Of course there are many details in professionally written contracts that we won’t cover in this series, again, I am not an attorney and am not giving legal advice. This segment focuses on alternative ways to facilitate legal obstacles without the huge expense of legal representation.

Once you have written agreements you can copyright and register your songs with a performing rights organization, and allocate publishing shares according to your agreements; now your songs can be placed with a publishing company looking for songs to license for a new movie soundtrack, commercial or video games. Having written agreements allow you to properly copyright and register your songs, which is the first step in making money with your music.

Visit www.razorsharpmusic.com to get more information on music contracts and making money with your money. Visit us on Youtube as well for live video workshops on music publishing, copyright, streaming , downloading, monetizing, sample contracts, and more.  Learn to make money with your music.

 

 

 

 

 

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How To Really Make Money With Your Music

With over 25 years of music industry experience and founder of RazorSharp Music Production, it never fails to amaze me how little industry professionals and new comers know about the business of music.  I have worked with tons of recording artist and music producers. All of them had dreams of grandeur, making big bucks and becoming famous. In today's music industry that's a lot harder than it seems. Without understanding the enter workings of "the business of music", publishing, copyright, music licensing and music registration, as well as today's technology, and how to use it, you will just be spinning your wheels.

Developing a good foundation, like anything you want to build, is a must. Before I began writing this blog I researched the top sites and videos on how to make money with your music. I came up with was bits and pieces of the big picture. There were Youtube videos that focused on placing music on Youtube and getting hits, others talked about how to build a fan base, and even more talked about CDs vs thumb drives. Some of these sites had thousands of hits, I couldn't understand why; until I began to dig deeper into how they were getting their hits.

When searching the internet, most of us will click on the top results or videos with the most views, followings or likes. We do this because we think the information must be good, in some cases it is. Most of the time those web pages, videos and blog post get top ranking because of strategies used by professional bloggers and vloggers. They have learned to use key words and search engine optimization techniques to draw you in. I have found that when it comes to making money with your music, there are no short cuts, you have to start with the basic and work your way up. I will attempt to give you a one stop shop for all the information you will need to be successful with making money with your music, in the shortest amount of time.

Before you start, ask yourself how hard are you willing to work at making money with your music. Second, are you willing to make the commitment it takes to establish the proper foundation needed to generate the type of income you except to earn.

I always encourage new comers to the business to first start with establishing a operating budget. It's important to understand what cost are involved in completing a music recording project. Second, understanding music contract basics. This is important because ownership and publishing rights to your music needs to be spelled out. This is where the money is made. If a song you wrote or produced hits it big, you need to know what percentage of royalties each person involved will get. Understanding music publishing , copyright and licensing is a must if you want to have a chance at making the big bucks. You don't need to become an authority on the business of music, but you do need to know the basics.

Considering things like who is your target audience, and what niches are available within your target audience, what image you want to project, and does it relate to your target audience. Deciding on a music career can be a huge under taking; but if you learn the basics you will be on you way to making money and a successful career. A list of items to consider before starting your career are:

  1. Learn as much as you can about the business of music
  2. Get a working knowledge of music publishing and writers royalties
  3. Take a close look at your image and marketing strategies
  4. Build your own web site
  5. Social sites
  6. Manufacturing and distribution
  7. Music registration and licensing
  8. Music contract basics
  9. Copyright basics

Above is a very short list of things you will need to embrace before starting your project. I have written several audio books on how to make money with your music. Check them out on Audible, and Amazon. You can go to my /store page and get audio books for free if you want to learn key details of what you need to know about the business of music, and how to really make money. subscribe to my blog or Youtube channel. I will be posting a 12 part series on my blog page and Youtube channel on how to really, really make money with your music. I will cover the details of establishing a solid recording budget, music publishing and writers royalties, music copyright, building your own web site and using it to make money. I will also cover image and marketing strategies as well as music licensing, manufacturing and distribution.

Please subscribe to my blog or Youtube channel for updates and new post on making money with your music.