What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business by Thall, Peter M. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1 • INTRODUCTION

Selecting the Right Attorney Personal Representation Deal Makers: Why You Need Them Deal Blockers: How to Get Past Them Staying the Course or Calling It Quits

2 • INVESTORS The High Costs of Low Finance

The Costs of Being Heard Of Investors and Investment Agreements Finding the Money Internet-Specific Offerings The Safe Harbor Disclaimer Getting the Right Advice Paying It Back Overcalls and Conversions Commissions Crowdfunding Should He Who Pays the Piper Call the Tune? A Backer Who Knows What He’s Doing

3 • ADVANCES Why They Seem a Lot Like Loans (and Vice Versa)

A Sad Story and a Happy Story About Advances Is One Person’s Money Another Person’s Motivation?

4 • ROYALTIES Some Unvarnished Truths

How the Royalty Pie Is Sliced and Who Gets the Pieces Recording Costs United States CD Album Royalty Calculation Payment on Less than 100% of Records Sold “New” Technology? “Special” Categories Two Diabolical Deduction Devices Reducing Mechanical Royalties Special Issues Regarding Controlled Compositions The Beat Goes On: Other Important Deductions Prepayment of Royalties The Myth of Royalty Escalations Free Goods Lost or Misplaced Royalties Chipping Away at Post-Term Royalties: Synchronization Licenses Accountings, Audits, and the Statute of Limitations How Responsible Should Record Companies Be? The Effects of Digital Downloading on Pricing and Royalties 360 “Deals” The Digital Evolution

5 • PERSONAL MANAGEMENT The Whys, Wherefores, and Watch Outs

What a Personal Manager Should (and Should Not) Be Expected to Do Managing the Five Stages of an Artist’s Career Remakes KMMA: Keep My Music Available—At All Costs Choosing Your Manager The Question of Clout Paying Your Manager The Term of the Agreement Extending or Terminating an Artist-Manager Relationship Breach of Contract in Artist-Manager Agreements

6 • MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE When “Show Me the Money” Isn’t Enough

What a Business Manager Does Finding the Right Person Certified Public Accountants Auditing the Auditor What Kind of Business Is Being Managed? Should You “Do Business as” or Form a Partnership? Money Means Options: Resisting the “Keep ’Em Poor” Philosophy Managing Your Money Investing: Is Anyone in Charge Here? Making It and Saving It

7 • WHEN YOUR JOB IS MORE THAN A GIG Employment Agreements and Disagreements

Term of Employment Duties Reporting Lines Confidentiality and Competition Stock Options Perks Termination Working in a Foreign Land Relocation and Re-Relocation Visas Disability and Death Provisions That Survive Termination Vacations Release and Settlement Employment Issues Specific to the Music Industry Variations of Royalty Calculations Employment Agreements with Celebrities and Others Otherwise Engaged Mail The Ownership of Ideas

8 • RECORD PRODUCERS Are They as Sharp as Their Points?

How 25% Can Equal 100% Cross-Collateralization: It Does Not Apply to the Producer Producers’ Royalty Provisions: The Basics The Producer as Author of the Sound Recording Producers and Neighboring Rights

9 • GETTING YOUR RECORD HEARD A Practical Guide to Marketing and Promotion

Marketing Tools The Goal-Oriented Campaign The Record Contract Do Record Companies Know What They Are Doing? Victim or Victor? Television Campaigns Radio Promotion Airplay and Payola The Same Old Song (Only the Coda Is New) The Beginning of the End? A Brief Look at the Promotional Picture—from the Artist’s Point of View

10 • TOURING CONCERNS Trials and Tribulations

The Club Tour The Grand Tour Sample Tour Budget Private Charter Elements of Touring Agreements: Commonalities and Idiosynchrasies

11 • MERCHANDISING Your Band, Your Brand

Tour Merchandising Retail Merchandising/Web Merchandising Confidentiality Compliance with Local Laws End-of-Term Inventory and Sell-Off Artwork and Photographs Coupling Life and Disability Insurance Piracy Audits

12 • AUDITS Truth or Consequences

Examining the Audit The Flow of Money Access to Registration Information The Black Box or “Something Is Abyss Here” Television Campaigns Interest Charges Statutes of Limitations Conducting Audits in Foreign Countries A Few Practical Suggestions The Right to Audit: A Contract Issue

13 • MUSIC PUBLISHING The Odyssey of the Song

What Is a Music Publisher—and What Does It Publish? Copyright: A Bundle of Intangibles Financial Secrets and Realities Mechanical Royalty Rates Outside of the United States Top Gun—a Top Buyout for Paramount The Administrating Function Family Ties (Too Close to Sue) When Your Publisher Forgets You Foreign Taxes At-Source Versus Receipts Deals The Black Box Revisited Copyright Reversions

14 • WHEN RODGERS MEETS HAMMERSTEIN Determining Songwriter Credits

Cowriting Agreements Cowriters Who Are Band Members

15 • BEING YOUR OWN MUSIC PUBLISHING COMPANY Pros and Cons

Self-Publishing Getting in Touch with the Copyright Office Why Bother Doing It Yourself? Acquiring Copyrights Reversion of Copyrights The Value of the Copyright The Impact of Administrating Costs on True Earnings The Cost of Giving Away a “Piece” of the Publishing

16 • INTERNET ENTREPRENEURSHIP Doing It Yourself

Competing with the Big Boys Artist, Songwriter, Performer—and E-Commerce Expert? Making a Living Stealing and Protecting Against It Dos and Don’ts of Internet Entrepreneurship Manufacturing and Distribution Kickstarting Your Career Podcasting Instantaneous Dissemination of Live Performances Creating a Website Which People Should Do It Themselves? A Word of Warning—and Encouragement

17 • LOST, MISPLACED, NEGLECTED, AND ABANDONED Royalty Opportunities You Were Never Told About

An Introduction to Neighboring Rights Broadcast Mechanicals Neighboring Rights in Our Own Backyard: Canada Lost, Misplaced, Neglected, or Abandoned: Which Category Are Your Royalties In? Show Me the Money Two Neighboring Rights–Friendly Countries: The UK and the Netherlands Neighboring Rights Collections Agencies Performing and Other Obscure Rights in Sound Recordings

18 • URBAN MUSIC The Beat Goes On

Roots The Milieu Urban Music: The Producer’s Cosmos Different Strokes for Hip-Hop Folks Rap as Protest The Importance of the Mix: Mixtapes Career Ceilings Hip-Hop and Pop Culture Business Management and the Management of Business The Changing Image Contractual Issues The Rap Coalition: Self-Help Exemplified Hip-Hop Rules

19 • CLASSICAL MUSIC Dead or Alive?

A Little History Demise or Rejuvenation? The Metropolitan Opera An Essential for Success: Spirituality New Life for an Old Genre The CD Arrives: Both a Blessing and a Curse The Internet: Is It the Answer? The Role of Record Companies The Composer-Artist: Special Considerations Classical Composers and their Publishers: Some Pitfalls and Some Options Classical Management Presenting the Singer Music Education

20 • TERMINATION OF GRANTS OF COPYRIGHTS For Every End, a Beginning

Basic Term of Protection “K-K-K-Katy” Termination of Grants Duration of Copyright: Subsisting Copyrights Who Can Terminate The Control of Termination Decisions The Rights Granted The Windows for Termination When Automatic Renewal Applies The Sonny Bono Term Extension Act Keeping Records The Technical Requirements for Termination

21 • COMPLIANCE WITH COPYRIGHT LAWS Hints for the Corporate Counsel

Intangible Rights and the Internet Licensing From Music Publishers and Sound Recording Owners Copyright Provisions Applicable to the Internet Term of Copyright Sampling, Borrowing, and Stealing Rights Management Dangerous Language Alert Music Clearance: The Music Industry’s Revenge International Issues: One-Stop Shopping So Your Corporation Has Also Decided to Become Adventurous?

22 • CATALOGUE VALUATION How to Improve Your Odds at Winning Big

Factors in Valuing Catalogues: An Overview Satellite Radio, Internet Radio, Mobile Phone Streaming, and HD Radio Evaluating Data Who Owns the Catalogue? Termination Issues The “Trunk” Who’s Sorry Now? The Blackbird

23 • COPYRIGHT ISSUES A Sampler

Changing Copyright’s Image Copyright Infringement Sampling The Impact of the Internet on Recording and Publishing Agreements How the Internet Has Provided Context for Songwriters’ and Publishers’ Search for Equitable Treatment The Internet Is Global: So What? I’ll Tell You What What Is to Be Done? The Fairness in Music Licensing Act The Copyright Term Extension Act: A Lesson in Leverage MP3: How Two Letters and a Numeral Terrorized an Entire Industry Napster and Post–Napster The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same (or Do They?)

24 • COPYRIGHT Can’t Live with It—Can’t Live Without It

Battles or Battle-Axes Copyleft (aka Copy Wrong), But Not Copyright The Clearance Nightmare Copyright and Personal Property Misuse of Copyright Some Suggested Solutions

25 • SOLVING PIRACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY How to Avoid a Greek Tragedy

Illegal Downloading When an Apple Boomerangs When Culture Trumps Commerce Copyright Owners: Power (Not) to the People What Would the Greeks Do?

Conclusion

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