Many Serve The Song readers have asked me to listen to their songs and give them my opinion, so I’ve decided to launch a song critique service. It’s really simple. For $4.95 I will listen to your song (it must be less than 5 minutes total in length) and send you an email with thoughts/suggestions for how to improve it. This post should answer any questions you have about the new service.

What Will Be Included In My Song Critique?

Your critique will cover everything that I hear in your song, including vocal performance(s), musical performance, recording quality, lyrics, and overall song structure. Here’s a sample critique (used with permission).

What Makes You Qualified To Critique My Song?

While I’m not a million-selling recording artist or Grammy-winning songwriter (yet), I have sold thousands of my own independent records and written music for corporations that have reached over 250,000 consumers. Several of my songs have received radio airplay and won songwriting contests. I also have solid relationships with working producers, songwriters, and other musicians who are currently making hundreds of thousands of dollars with their music. I’d love to help you with my experience and knowledge.

Why Do I Have To Pay?

Serve The Song is already packed with tons of free content that can help you become a better songwriter. I think $4.95 is an awesome deal to get direct, honest feedback from someone with years of industry experience who can help you take your songwriting to the next level. For $4.95, you can either buy a song critique or get a Big Mac value meal. At the end of the day, which is going to help you move forward with your music?

What If I Don’t Like The Critique?

If you don’t like it you don’t pay. It’s that simple. I’ll give you your money back.

Sign Me Up!

Ready to get started? Great! Here’s how it works. Order your song critique(s) using the PayPal order button below. As soon as I receive payment confirmation I will contact you by email to schedule your critique within 24 hours. From there you may either email me an .mp3 along with the lyrics or send me a link to your music. I look forward to hearing your work!

photo credit: istockphoto.com

Happy New Year from Serve The Song! While Serve The Song strives to bring you great songwriting tips and information about music production, I know there’s lots of other songwriting websites out there. So here’s a list of 25 websites that I think will help you become a better songwriter. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think in the comments.

1. Performing Songwriter

The stars have aligned and Performing Songwriter is back! Performing Songwriter was my favorite songwriting magazine for years until it closed. Publisher Lydia Hutchison has brought it back as a thriving online community. Whether or not you perform your own songs, visit this site to learn from the greats.

2. Ravenous Raven

Ravenous Raven is a growing Twitter community featuring amateur and professional songwriters all sharing tips and tricks about songwriting. There are many opportunities to submit your music for group critiques and participate in ongoing songwriting exercises.

3. How To Write A Song

Songwriting instructor Peter Franklyn makes it easier for you to learn how to write songs through a series of free video lessons. These intelligent, entertaining videos are all delivered directly to your email when you sign up.

4. Robin Frederick

Robin Frederick is author of the best-selling books Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting and Shortcuts to Writing Songs For Film and TV. Robin has had over 500 of her own songs published in film and television programs. Her website provides a goldmine of helpful tips and information about how to become a successful songwriter. Be sure to visit The Songwriter’s Sandbox. It gives you fun ideas/games on how to improve your creativity and bring up new ways to craft your songs.

5. WriteSongs.com

Pat and Pete Luboff’s songwriting consulting website offers insights and education opportunities that are hard to find anywhere else. Based in Nashville, the Luboffs are established songwriters, music publishers and songwriting educators with over 40 years of combined industry experience. Their songs have been recorded by Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Patti LaBelle, and featured in major motion pictures.

6. Secrets of Songwriting

This site provides a great collection daily songwriting tips and free online songwriting lessons. Founder Gary Ewer is a veteran music teacher, clinician, composer and arranger.

7. Music Biz Academy

Bob Baker’s Music Biz Academy has been helping indie songwriters and music producers for years. Bob also teaches music business courses at BerkleeMusic.com. This section on songwriting has some great advice for newbies and those with years of wear and tear.

8. Taxi

If you’ve followed our articles on Taxi you know Serve The Song is a big fan. In fact I recently renewed my membership and highly recommend it. Michael Laskow has some great songwriting tips and articles in this section of the Taxi website. Be sure to also check out the Taxi forums to get insights from people actively marketing their songs.

9. Guitar Noise

This no-nonsense songwriting overview by A-J Charron cuts to the chase about everything from initial inspiration to combating writer’s block. A-J’s direct approach is refreshing and his clearly articulated advice might help you get your next big hit.

10. Jason Blume

Veteran songwriter Jason Blume has songs on albums that have sold more than 50,000,000 copies. He is one of only a handful of writers to ever have songs on the Pop, R&B, and Country charts all at the same time. The author of three of the most successful songwriting books (all published by Billboard Books), he teaches acclaimed workshops for BMI and NSAI, and master classes for universities and organizations throughout the world.

11. John Braheny

In case you missed our 3-part series about John Braheny, his website is chock full of great tips and advice. John is a longtime music industry veteran, having helped launch the careers of dozens of songwriters since the 70′s. He is currently a songwriting consultant and the author of “The Craft and Business of Songwriting”.

12. Songwriter 101

Powered by BMI, Songwriter101.com has everything about the business side of the songwriter’s profession – information, education, and the accumulated experience of music business professionals. There are great articles here from everything about how to setup your home studio to how to place your music in film and television programs.

13. Songwriters Guild of America

With over 70 years of experience, SGA is a great place to learn about the industry. It is a non-profit agency that offers services to communities and individual songwriters.

14. February Album Writing Month

Every February, FAWM.ORG forges a collaborative community where musicians of all walks and skill levels write an album’s worth of material in the shortest month of the year (roughly one song every other day). Fawmers are a mix of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work dayjobs but rock nightclubs. The site also releases an annual compilation CD of the best music from each event.

15. The 50/90 Challenge

The 50/90 Challenge is a songwriting marathon open to anyone who wants to participate. Between July 4th and October 1st, members attempt to write fifty songs. Songwriters test their creative mettle by trying to create a finished song in less than 2 days every day for nearly 3 months. Along the way they receive encouragement and collaboration from other members.

16. Jai Josefs

Jai Josefs, author of Transforming The Tune – Secrets of Musical Rewriting
and Writing Music for Hit Songs, is a nationally renowned songwriting coach who has taught songwriting at UCLA as well as for dozens of songwriting organizations and conferences nationwide. Many of Jai’s students have gone on to successful careers in the industry, and several have been signed to major label deals. Jai is also a successful songwriter/producer whose credits include more than 30 recordings with such companies as MCA, RCA, Motown, and Disney.

17. Berklee Press Songwriting Books

This site offers a collection of amazing songwriting books by Berklee Press, the publishing arm of Berklee College of Music. I personally own most of these titles and highly recommend them to help you improve your songwriting and producing skills.

18. Muse’s Muse

Muse’s Muse is a wonderful resource for both beginners and pros packed with news, articles, message boards and all sorts of helpful resources for songwriters.

19. Songwriter Universe

Songwriter Universe is a vibrant online songwriting resource founded by music business executive Dale Kawashima, who has an extensive background as an A&R Executive, Music Publisher, and as a Music Critic/Journalist/Editor. As a music publisher Kawashima has supervised and represented many of the world’s top catalogs, including the songs of the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Little Richard, Burt Bacharach & Carole Bayer Sager, and Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly. He has worked as an executive at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Irving Azoff’s Giant Records, Mercury Records, and Jobete Music (the publishing division of Motown Records).

20. The Garage Door

If you use Apple’s GarageBand this is a great site to learn a variety of tips and tricks to get the most out of Apple’s free music software.

21. Artists House Music

Renowned Berklee Songwriting instructor Pat Pattison has a great series of videos in this section of the Artists House Music website. Be sure and check out this fascinating before and after session with a songwriting student.

22. Blogging Muses

Although this blog hasn’t been updated in a while, it’s loaded with great songwriting tips and useful content for DIY musicians.

23. SongwriFormation

This section of the musmormation.com provides daily songwriter news, tips, gear, and business advice. Right now my interview with Jai Josefs is a featured video on the site

24. Song MD

Molly-Ann Leikin has written songs for multiple gold and platinum selling recording artists. She’s written themes and songs for over four dozen TV shows and movies, including an Emmy nomination and the Oscar-winning “Violet”. Her work has been recorded by Cher, Tina Turner, and hundreds of other artists. She’s also the author of How To Write A Hit Song.

25. Nashville Songwriters (NSAI)

Last but certainly not least, the NSAI website is an excellent resource for songwriters who want to improve their art and craft. To paraphrase their mission statement, “The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) represents songwriters from all genres of music, professional and amateur, who are committed to protecting the rights and future of the profession of songwriting, and to educate, elevate, and celebrate the songwriter and to act as a unifying force within the music community and the community at large.”

Your Turn

What songwriting websites do you regularly visit? Are they helpful? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

photo by Mister Boboli

These days, it seems searching for potential bandmates is much like looking for a new job.  Or hiring an employee.  Or finding a roommate.

It involves hours of scrolling through craigslist and message boards, searching for someone who shares your musical vision, fits with your style and matches your goals and commitment.  So what do you look for in a potential bandmate?

Here are some things to consider when contacting, auditioning, and working with potential bandmates:

• Find someone who shares your musical influences. It seems this is the number one thing folks are looking for out there on the craigslist scene.  Classified ads list the top five favorite bands of the person or group seeking others to jam with.  This can be a good starting point, but don’t make it the sole criteria.  I have found many people list bands and genres that are far different from the way they actually play or write music.
• Find someone with different musical influence. You want to mix things up a bit.  When it comes to formulating a “new sound”, mixing styles and genres is the name of the game.  Unless of course you’re forming a Guns and Roses tribute band.  Then of course, you better all live and breathe G&R.
• Make sure share your level of commitment. If you’re in it for 2+ weekly rehearsals, constant gigging, touring, and studio recording, then be up front about that in your search.  Make it clear that’s what you’re going for, and only work with folks who are up for it.  If you’re in just for fun, maybe a monthly jam and the occasional house party gig, then don’t seek out players who dream of rock stardom.
• Find players that have as good or better chops than you. If you know you’re a solid player, then you know who’s on your level and who’s not.  Respectfully decline to continue on with guys who just can’t keep up with what you’re doing.  Finding players who are better than you can greatly improve your musical skills.  Welcome this opportunity, and if they’re up for moving forward with you, then it could be a good thing.
• Be sure the logistics work for all parties. If they live 2 hours from you, rehearsals will be difficult.  If someone doesn’t have a car or access to public transport, that can be a hassle.  Figure out the ride-share situation, sharing of equipment, etc.
• Avoid money issues. Lets face it, cash problems can be a tricky issue – especially if your friendship doesn’t go back a long way.  Be clear about everyone’s share of expenses and avoid players who refuse to pay their fair share.
• Personality matters. Just because everything works on all of the above points doesn’t mean you will get along with your potential bandmates on a personal level.  Find someone who gels with your personal sense of humor, or shares your perspective on things you care about.  If there’s no personal chemistry, there won’t be any musical chemistry.
• Age matters. Or should I say, stage-in-life.  If you’re 18 and you’re interested in playing gigs, partying all night, and looking forward to a lifetime of world domination that lays ahead of you… You probably don’t want to commit to a band relationship with an accomplished player in his fifties with a wife and kids, full-time career and a mortgage to pay.  Or you might, but just realize the differences in approach and commitment that will arise based on which stage of life you’re in.

Over to you

What do you look for when considering potential bandmates?

Editor’s note: We’re always happy to promote awesome events like this one here on Serve The Song.  We’re not limited to just New York City.  If you know of a quality up-coming event happening in your city, drop us a line with all the details!

DubSpot & Ableton present the

Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour: New York City

on Saturday, June 27 – Sunday, June 28, 2009

Ableton Live 8, Akai APC40 : 8 Workshops, 8 U.S. Cities…
with very special guests Scientist and Richie Hawtin


From www.dubspot.com/pages/abletontour.jsp:

Dubspot’s Live 8 US Sessions tour is coming home. After a successful maiden voyage to San Fransisco last month, we are preparing our home-field advantage stop for the weekend of June 27th and 28th. Join us for a unique series of interactive workshops, Q&As and live performances from a diverse pool of talented artists, instructors and established musicians. Experience five ‘sessions’ daily, each specially designed to developed and enhance a diverse range of your production and performance abilities. Our tour will showcase just how far-reaching the capabilities of Live 8 are, and why it is the most advanced piece of music software on the planet.  Come learn from Ableton Live experts & veteran producers and who will be coming together to help take your skills to another level…

Here’s a video from last month’s workshop in San Franscisco:

Here’s a Word doc containing all the information you need about the Workshops.

• Recording Your Indie Album: a Pre-Production Checklist
• The DIY Guide To Singing In The Studio
• What to Do Before You Record Your Song Demo
• The Differences Between Songwriting in New York City & Nashville

The Workshop

Cliff Goldmacher Music Production Presents

“Stripping Down Your Demos & Getting Them Cut”

Wednesday, June 10th
6:00pm – 8:00pm
@ BMI in New York

320 West 57th Street  map

This workshop is for songwriters who would like to streamline the demo process, keep their demo budgets in check and maximize the return on their investment. The workshop also provides multiple examples of stripped-down demos that have gone on to become major label cuts.

The workshop covers:

• Pre-production
• Studio/engineer selection
• Hiring/working with producers, session musicians & vocalists
• Explanation of the guitar/piano & vocal recording
• Demo examples/tricks of the trade
• Tips for song pitching/submission

Cliff Goldmacher Bio

Cliff Goldmacher is an engineer, producer and owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City. A multi-instrumentalist, Cliff has recorded, played on and produced thousands of demos for major and independent publishers, brand new songwriters and Grammy winners. The demos Cliff has recorded have ended up as major label cuts, in feature films and on television.

Cliff has worked as a staff songwriter for Nashville’s Wrensong Music Publishing. His songwriting collaborators include multi-platinum selling artists Chris Barron (Lead singer of the Spin Doctors) and Lisa Loeb. Cliff’s songs have been cut by major label artists in genres ranging from country to jazz and classical crossover.

As a teacher/instructor, Cliff has served as a panelist on engineering at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) convention and teaches workshops for BMI, ASCAP, The Songwriter’s Guild of America and the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International. Cliff is also an editorial contributor to EQ Magazine and ProSound News along with numberous online websites and blogs.

“The demos Cliff produces don’t just sound great, they also do an excellent job of selling the song whether they’re simple guitar/vocals or full band productions.”
-Leslie Roberts (A&R Manager, Sony/BMG Records)

“Cliff Goldmacher is one of the most professional and talented musicians/songwriters/demo makers I know. His ability to both engineer and play on tracks as well as organize, edit and even harmonize is impressive. He can take a song from a basic one instrument, one voice work tape and turn it into a mini-record faster and better than anyone I’ve seen. I highly recommend him!”
-Dean Miller (former Capitol Records recording artist/Head of Creative at Bluewater Music Publishing)

RSVP

Call BMI at 212.586.2000 or email mortiz@bmi.com.

photo by woodleywonderworks

We’re moving right along in our series on making money with production music libraries.  Now that you have produced your music for picture tracks and registered your music copyrights, the next step is to register your tracks with your performing rights organization.  Why is this step important?  It’s how you get paid.  This installment will show you how it works.

If you’re new to this article series, this is where we’re at:

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries?
2. Producing tracks that sell
3. Copyrighting your music
4. Registering with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submitting your songs to production music libraries
6. Leveraging your music placements to gain future music for picture work

Subscribe to free email updates or the RSS feed to keep up!

What Does a Performing Rights Organization Do?

The function of a performing rights organization, or PRO, is to track, collect, and distribute performance royalties to music composers.  When your song is played on television, radio, at a restaurant, public event, or even music on hold for telephone systems, it generates performance royalties.

The broadcasting company, restaurant, or company who uses your music pays blanket license fees to the PROs.  The PRO’s then distribute these funds as royalties to the composers and publishers of the music.

For television productions, a cue-sheet is filed by the producer of the television show.  The cue sheet lists who the composer and publisher are for every music track in the program.  This is how royalties are correctly distributed to the appropriate parties.

Which Performing Rights Organization Should You Join?

The three major performing rights organizations in the United States are BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC.  Here is a complete list of all performing rights organizations around the world.

A composer can only be a member of one performing rights organization.  It’s worth taking the time to read up on each of your options because you can only make this decision once.  That said, there isn’t a clear favorite or one that pays out more royalties than the others – although this is a point of widespread debate.

Since SESAC is much harder to be accepted to, the decision is most often between BMI and ASCAP.  Generally speaking, each are similar in the way they function.  Both are free to join as a composer.  There are minor differences in the scheduling of royalty payments, which may have an impact on your decision.  Both websites offer a tremendous amount of information and FAQ’s covering all the ins and outs.

How Do I Register My Music?

Each PRO has their own web-based system for managing your music catalog.  However the main points you need to know about are the same.

Registering a song to your catalog of works involves defining the title, length, names of collaborating composers (one or several), name of publishing company (if any) and other minor details about the work.

For each song, you will also define the percentage shares of royalty distribution.  Each song holds 200% royalty shares.  100% is considered the writer’s share.  100% goes to the publisher of the song.  If there is no publisher, then the writer(s) receive the complete 200% share of royalty earnings.

Receiving and reading your royalty statements and earnings will be covered in an upcoming article in this series.  For now, you should focus on producing lots of great and useful music and read up on the options available to you regarding your performing rights organization.

photo by Scarleth White

In a previous post I proposed 4 reasons keeping a day-job can benefit your songwriting career.  This post will tackle the flip-side.  Freelancing, or making a living without a steady nine-to-five job can be the perfect support system for the working songwriter.  The first part of this post covers freelancing as a career choice.  The second part ties freelancing to the songwriter’s career.

The Freelance Lifestyle

What do I mean by freelancing?  I’m talking about using your professional skills to service a wide variety of clients and companies – not one single company.  Many freelancers work primarily from home, or travel to various companies and locations to perform their service.  It comes with a tremendous amount of freedom, but also lots of additional responsibilities.  Aside from working in your field, you’re running a business and that can become very time-consuming and stressful.  But also rewarding.

Freelancing lends itself well to a few specific skills, particularly creative fields.  Here are just a few examples of common freelance career paths:

• Graphic Design
• Copywriting
• Journalism
• Web Design
• Computer Programming
• Audio Engineering
• Session Musicians / Instrument Instruction
• Video Editing

Professional freelancing comes with several pros and cons.  First lets look at the pros:

• Flexible working hours
• Little or no commute
• Often work from the comfort of your own home
• Involvement in a variety of projects and industries

And now the cons:

• Lack of a steady paycheck / fluctuating income
• Less or no interaction with co-workers
• Additional responsibilities (you’re running your own business)
• Work can stretch past 40 hours per week

If you are considering dropping the day job and diving into the freelance lifestyle, you should take some time to take all of the angles into serious consideration.  For more valuable info about freelancing, check out the fantastic blog, Freelance Switch.

Freelancing + Songwriting

As any dedicated musician knows, pursuing a career in songwriting takes a tremendous commitment of time and effort.  It’s hard to strike a balance between paying the bills and meeting your musical goals.  Freelancing, whether music related or not, can offer the flexibility many songwriters and musicians are looking for.  Lets break down the benefits:

1. Flexible work schedule = Writing songs when inspiration hits.  Since you’re not stuck in a nine-to-five every day of the week, you’re free to use your daily time however you want (for the most part).  If you work from home, you might decide to dedicate 2 hours in the middle of each day playing and writing music.  Or a great idea may hit you at 10:00 am and you want to spend the morning laying down recordings.  Of course, this doesn’t mean you don’t have other paid work to attend to.  It means you have the freedom to work at night, or arrange your schedule however you see fit.  It’s hard to capture your songwriting inspiration when you’re stuck in a cubicle all day.
2. More networking opportunities.  While it’s true that as a freelancer, you probably won’t see much daily interaction with co-workers.  You might be working completely alone most days – especially if you work from home.  However, as a freelancer, you will get meet many clients, work at many different companies, and attend networking events.  This makes for broader networking opportunities.  Whether you meet someone who can directly help your songwriting career or not, knowing more people in more places is better than knowing a bunch of people in only one place.
3. Freedom to Let Your Creativity Flourish.  Many songwriters (including myself) find it difficult to talk about writing music with their co-workers at the daily nine-to-five job.  It can also be difficult to shameless self-promote weekly or monthly gigs to your co-workers.  When you’re in “work mode” you’re not in “creative mode”.  That separation can cause you to downplay that part of yourself – the creative and emotion-driven songwriter part.  Since freelancing brings in you in contact with a wide variety of people from week to week, it can be easier to put forth your true self.  Of course, this is different for everyone, but seems to be a common thread among many musicians.
4. Mix your freelance work with music-related goals.  Freelancing allows you to dip your hand in a wide variety of projects and interact with professionals in a variety of industries.  Even if your specific skill as a freelancer is not directly related to music, you may find opportunities to apply your skill in a music-related context.  For example, I make a living as a freelance web designer.  For the most part, my client’s websites are not music related, but from time to time I’ll work on a website for a recording studio, or music publisher.  I’m still doing web design work, but I’m involved in the music industry and networking with people connected to music.
5. Songwriting as a freelance career.  Of course, songwriting, composition, and many other skills within the music industry lend themselves well to freelancing.  You can easily apply any of the advice for running a freelance business to your songwriting career efforts.  Working as a freelancer also gives you the flexibility to work in several fields at once.  Once again, I’ll use myself as an example here.  The majority of my income comes from freelance web design work.  However I earn some of my income from producing music for picture – more on making money in music for picture here.  Freelancing gives me the freedom and flexibility to dedicate time to both web design and music composition.

As you can see, there are arguments to be made for both sides.  Freelancing and keeping a day-job both provide sufficient financial support systems to songwriters who are in pursuit of a career in music.  It’s all about finding that balance and keeping your lifetime priorities strait while staying financially secure.  It’s tough out there, but there’s always a way to make it work for you.

taken in Union Square, NYC

Anyone who has traveled the underground metro system of New York City is familiar with NYC subway performers. If you’re a band, songwriter, or solo performer, you (yes you!) can set up shop in a busy subway station and perform for thousands! This article serves as a guide to performing in public in New York City.

Street and subway performers are everywhere in New York City. You see sax players in the tunnels of Central Park, mariachi bands jumping through subway cars, jazz quartets in Penn Station, acoustic folk rockers in the Union Square subway station, and horn and drums combos at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. They’re in all five boroughs, covering all genres and styles. I have witnessed some of the most amazing and unique talent just by walking the streets and tunnels of New York City.

If you’re a musician living in New York City, performing in the transit system could be a tremendously rewarding experience.  You have the opportunity to share your live music with thousands of listeners from all walks of life.  The convenience of living in the NYC area allows you to try out different locations to see which spots work best.  Once you have a few favorites, you could stick with them in hopes of reaching repeat-passers-by and gaining fans.

If you’re not local to the big apple, you might want to consider traveling here to take advantage of the live music culture of the NYC underground.  Be sure to walk the city a bit before you start playing.  Watch the subway performers and see how things are done.  Take note of where they set up, the volume, the way they interact with listeners, etc.  Take in as much as you can first, and then get out there and and perform.

Can anyone just play in the NYC subway?

There are mixed messages out there about the legality of performing without a permit (more info on permits below). It seems to me that many people DO perform without a permit and without hassle from police or station agents. To be sure you can rock out without problems, be sure to follow these general (and obvious) guidelines:

• Play acoustic, or with a low-volume, non-intrusive amplifier.
• Don’t block any stairways, escalators, elevators, entrances, exits or subway boarding areas.
• Don’t block the flow of walking traffic.
• Don’t play during public service announcements.
• Use common sense.  Be cool.

For the most part, your music is welcomed and appreciated by commuters who dread the daily grind of riding and waiting for the subways.  Serve them with well-rehearsed performances and pleasing and interesting material.

Permits and Music Under New York (MUNY)

There is an official program sponsored by the MTA (metropolitan transportation authority) called Music Under New York.  This program  sponsors musical performances at 150 of the most popular locations inside the New York City transit system.

To join MUNY, you must complete an application and perform an audition to be considered for membership.  It’s a fairly exclusive program which makes for a high level of talent as well as diversity in genre and style.

The advantage of performing with a scheduled MUNY permit is that you have the exclusive right to the most popular spaces and times.  If another non-MUNY performer is in your space, they need to stop playing or relocate during your scheduled performance.

More info

Arts for Transit: Music Under New York

NYC MTA Rules of Conduct

A Guide for Subway Musicians & Other Performers

photo by Craig-Photography

The next step in the series on making money with production music libraries is copyrighting your compositions.  Securing your work with proper music copyrights is an important part of building your music for picture catalog.  This article will offer a simple explanation of music copyrights, and show you how to register your copyright.

Stay up on this article series by subscribing to free email updates or the RSS feed! The series covers:

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries?
2. Producing tracks that sell
3. Copyrighting your music
4. Registering with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submitting your songs to production music libraries
6. Leveraging your music placements to gain future music for picture work

What is Music Copyright?

From Wikipedia:

“Copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.  Copyright has been internationally standardized, lasting between fifty to a hundred years from the author’s death, or a shorter period for anonymous or corporate authorship.”

Why Register Copyrights?

Legally, as the author and creator a musical work, you automatically own the copyright to your music as soon as you write and record the song.  However, you should still take the necessary steps to officially register your copyright.  This will offer you additional protection should anyone attempt to steal and use your music without your permission.

From the US copyright.gov FAQ:

Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Copyright Registration” and Circular 38b, Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), on non-U.S. works.

Sounds complicated, I know.  But since registering your copyrights is a cheap and easy process, you’re clearly much better off protecting yourself than putting your potentially lucrative work at risk of being stolen.

How to Register Music Copyrights

You can easily register your music online by going to www.copyright.gov.  It’s a complete online system, which guides you through the process of registering your works with the United States library of congress.  You can find detailed documentation and FAQs covering all the information you need in regards to copyrights, procedures, and the online system.

Start by registering for an account at the electronic copyright office at copyright.gov.  Once logged in, you can proceed with your online registration of works.  It’s a three step process:

1. Application
2. Payment
3. Works submission

All three steps can be completed online.  This is the easiest and cheapest way to do it.

The cost is $35 for online registration ($45 for paper registration).  You can register multiple songs together as a collection in a single registration.  That’s right, you can register 20 songs all at once for $35.

A copy of your music is held on file at the library of congress.  You can submit your music online without the hassle of mailing the CD.  The online registration system allows you to upload a variety of audio formats including .mp3, .aiff, and .wav.

When your registration process is complete, you will receive a certificate of copyright registration in the mail.  Generally the process is completed within five months.  But don’t worry about waiting that long to get your music out there.  Your registration is effective from time you submit your application.

Then what?

Once you complete your online copyright registration, the next step is to register with a performing rights organization (PRO) so that you can collect your performance royalties when your music is played in broadcast.  The next article in this series will cover everything you need to know about performing rights organizations.

It’s one of the most feature-packed Twitter clients out there, and it’s geared towards the power-Twitter user.  TweetDeck is the perfect solution for songwriters and bands who need to manage a very large Twitter following, while connecting with lots of new like-minded fans.  TweetDeck is still considered to be in “beta”, but they just released the latest version, TweetDeck 0.25, which brings a handful of cool features on-top of all the gems it already had.

Multiple Twitter Streams with TweetDeck

While the overcrowded lot of Twitter clients out there stick to the traditional single stream of tweets – TweetDeck goes much farther.  You can set up an unlimited amount of streams (columns), each filtered for a specific purpose.  One could be for your favorite twitter followers, one could be for a search term, one could be for your facebook friends (yup, facebook is now integrated… more on this below), and one to view everyone.

Here’s a screen shot of my TweetDeck.  As you can see, I keep about 4-5 columns open most of the day:

I know what you’re probably thinking: “Information overload!  I thought twitter was supposed to be simple!”  Let me make some sense of all this.

Twitter Groupies!

OK, not exactly.  With TweetDeck, you could separate the people you follow on Twitter into groups.  This is perfect for those who follow hundreds or thousands of people and want to be sure they’re keeping track of the ones they’re most interested in.  For example, you might want to create a group for your real-world friends on Twitter, or a group for those who are based in the same region as you.

As of this writing, I’m currently following 871 people on Twitter.  I created a group called “My Favs” which contains roughly 30 of my favorite people on Twitter.  It’s a combination of some real-world friends, folks who I’ve been in frequent @reply conversations with, interesting people in my industries (music and web design), and people that regularly post hilarious or super-interesting tweets.

That’s not to say I’m ignoring the rest the 830 people I follow on Twitter.  My next column contains my entire Twitter network.

“This One Goes to 11″ or Power Twitter Search

As I’ve written about previously in the article, Grow Your Band’s Following with Twitter, Twitter search is the key to expanding your reach on Twitter and creating meaningful relationships with those who matter to you – people who have share the same interests… Those who are most likely to follow you on Twitter, dig your music, and become a fan of your band.

In TweetDeck, you could create a column which feeds you tweets from across the twittersphere based on a search term.  I like to keep one search column open at all times.  This week, my search term is “composing music”.  This allows me to find, follow, and connect with anyone who is tweeting about composing music – something I’m personally very interested in.  Other search terms I often use are “Reason 4.0″, “Pro Tools”, “studio recording”, and of course “The Mets”.

Now with Facebook!

The latest version of TweetDeck nicely incorporates Facebook into the mix.  You could create a column which contains all of your Facebook friends status updates.  It also allows you to choose to send tweets to Twitter, Facebook, or both simultaneously.  Pretty sweet.

I have found this feature has already rejouvenated my interest in Facebook and brought about connections with old friends.

The Rest…

Those are the things that truly set TweetDeck apart from your common Twitter app.  As if that wasn’t enough, here’s a list of the other cool features they packed into this tweeting-beast:

• URL shortening with several shortening services (including the new digg.com shortening service)
• TwitPic integration
• Language translation of tweets
• Ability to “favorite” tweets
• Twitter tag cloud (they call it “TwitScoop”)
• Integration with 12seconds.tv for video tweets (haven’t checked this out yet.  Sounds interesting)
• StockTwits integration (Lets face it.  Musicians don’t care about the stock market)
• Super-easy follow, reply, re-tweet, direct message functionality
• Custom colors

What’s your TweetDeck Set up?

As you can see, TweetDeck is highly customizable with various groups, search, and columns options.  If you’re a TweetDeck user, what’s your set up, and how do you use TweetDeck to enhance your musical / songwriting efforts?