Re-Post: Writing Country? Only hits, please...

REPOST FROM:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/country/nashville-publishers-say-a-hit-is-still-1005220782.story


Nashville songwriters may be fewer in numbers than in years past, but they can rest well knowing that hits still pay well.

"The good news is a country hit is still worth as much as it's ever been," said Jody Williams, VP, Writer/Publisher Relations, BMI Nashville, at the second annual Billboard Country Music Summit in Nashville.

And there are many opportunities for publishers to get a song into the market, added John Barker, Founder and President, ClearBox Rights, such as synchronization uses and video games. "I'm optimistic about the future because now we so many more outlets for songs to be available."

But publishers don't have it easy, either. "We've all lost a lot of income to the decline of mechanicals," said Pat Higden, president, Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville. As album sales have declined over the years, the amount of mechanical royalties publishers earn from those sales has fallen (the full mechanical rate paid to publishers is 9.1 cents per track). In fact, Higdon claimed that three years ago Universal Music Publishing lost 45% of mechanical revenue that has yet to return to the company's books.

Fewer mechanical royalties from album sales means an album cut might not recoup a publisher's investment. The result is a market that is almost completely hit-driven, said Chris Dubois, partner at Sea Gayle Music.  "If you're a publisher and you're not getting singles, you're not surviving." And while Dubois agreed that digital has breathed life into mechanicals, he cautioned that mainly singles were the beneficiaries.

BMI and ASCAP are currently renegotiating their deals with radio stations, noted Williams, and the interim agreement has reduced BMI's collections of radio performance royalties by about $4 million.

Perhaps the biggest change in Nashville is the rise of the artist-songwriter. As labels seek out artists who can both perform and write songs, publishers are finding the best way to get their songs onto albums is for their songwriters to co-write with recording artists.

But it's a controversial aspect of today's artist development in Nashville. "There is a misconception with artists over the last few years that just because you have a record deal you are all of a sudden a songwriter," said Higdon. "Every artist is not a songwriter. There have always been those great artists that didn't write that just interpreted songs, and we still need those in the format."

It's just a fact of doing business in Nashville today if you want to get a song recorded, said Dubois. "The reality of it is if you're not getting cuts you're not making money then you're not going to be doing it for long. I think a big part of publishing has shifted from song-plugging to politically positioning your writers to have the best opportunity of getting cuts. That means trying to infiltrate the little camps that exist around town, around artists."

Carla Wallace, co-owner and VP Creative of Big Yellow Dog Music, takes a balanced approach to working with artists. "If it makes sense for Josh Kear to write with Lady Antebellum because musically it's a good match, then that's great."

CALL FOR SONGS: Singer/Songwriter Showcase!

For the first time over the summer, Songwriters Club is putting together a Singer/Songwriter Showcase! A panel of judges will choose the BEST from the TOP song submissions from the songwriters at Berklee to perform at the end of the summer. Don't miss this opportunity!

If you would like to perform, please submit ONE ORIGINAL song in mp3 format to berkleesongsubmission@gmail.com!

Deadline is July 8th

The concert will be held in The Loft in 939 on July 26th!

Write Jingles and MAKE MONEY

Recent Berklee grad, Tom Harrison, has developed a BRILLIANT way for jingle writers and companies to reach each other. As it says on the website:

"All businesses would benefit from having their own Advertising Jingle to use wherever they want. . .Until now this has been a prohibitively expensive process and the business owner would have to put his faith in just one composer. Equally young upcoming composers face an uphill struggle to get their work noticed by companies large and small and spend too much of their time chasing difficult to achieve business."

The Jingle Works connects businesses and composers to make the process quicker and simpler! Go check it out and sign up, this really is a great opportunity!

Re-Blog: How much money can I make with Songs?

Original at http://blog.startmysong.com/2010/01/02/songwriting-how-much-money-can-i-make/

Songwriting: How Much Money Can I Make?

JANUARY 2, 2010

tags: music supervisors, performance rights payments, song publishing, songwriter profits, Songwriting Help, sync license

by Scott McIntosh

According to Dan Kimpel’s article in Music Connection Magazine, “Songwriting, Where Did All The Money Go?”, the following amounts are the average payments songwriters are receiving for song use:

$45,500 : One song on a million-selling CD. This is based on the 9.1 cents per album sold mechanical license rate with a publisher taking 50%. If the songwriter self-published their music, then they would get the full $91,000 per million albums sold.  This rate can further be reduced if the label or artist has negotiated a reduced mechanical rate.  Standard reduced rate is 3/4  or 6.8 cents per album sold.

$15,000 – $60,000 : Feature film, one song, writers and publishers share sync fee’s.  (Synchronization License - syncing  music to moving images).  This can vary greatly depending on the use of the song in the film.  A song used for the end-credits or trailer would demand much higher fees than a song used in the background.  This is all negotiated between the music supervisor and publisher (or songwriter if he/she has been able to make the film aware of his/her music).  Well known songs can demand more where unknown songs will garner much less from a sync license.  The exposer may be worth the low sync license though as people who see the movie hear the song.  If a soundtrack is released, this will lead to mechanical rates generated from soundtrack album sales (see above).

$20,000 – $100,000 : Non-hit song, national commercial.  Advertising agencies and music supervisors are looking for new music to use with commercials and sometimes prefer unknown songs and independent artists as they are less expensive.

$75,000 – $1,000,000 : Hit song, national commercial.

$60,000 – $70,000 : Unknown song, major film trailer.

$12,000 – $100,000 : Known song, major film trailer.  ”Negotiations will take into consideration whether or not the song that accompanies the visuals is a theatrical trailer for in theater use only, or a television or internet commercial.”

$300,000 + : Hit song, major film trailer.

$2,500 – $20,000 :  Song used in video game.

$1,000 – $3,000 : Indie artist, network television show all-in (master + sync) fee.  All-in meaning the TV show gets all options for use of the song without further payments.  So if the show was later released in a different medium such as an internet channel, home video, or on-demand, the show would not have to pay more monies to the songwriters.

$800,000 : U.S. radio and television performance royalties, hit single.  There are three performing rights societies that make sure the copyright owners of songs are paid performance royalties when those songs are performed in public.  This includes radio, television, restaurants, nightclubs, dance halls, websites, and other venues and broadcasters.  The three societies are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC and they receive payments from the music venues stated above for the right to perform the songs in their respective catalogs.  The performance rights agencies use their specific systems to determine the amount of times songs are played throughout the different venues and send publishers / songwriters royalties checks based on amount of play.  Published songwriters must choose which agency to register with based on the different pros and cons of each organization.

0.66 cents : iTunes takes .34 cents per download from the standard .99 cent fee charged (although the rate now varies between .66 / .99 / 1.29 cents per song due to new negotiations between Apple and the labels).  If a song is attached to a label, the label will take .46 cents giving the songwriter .10 cents and the artist .10 cents per download.  If two songwriters co-wrote the song then this is now .5 cents per download.  It is also .5 cents per download if a publisher has 50% rights to the song.  Of course, you don’t need a publisher to get your songs onto iTunes or in other music stores, you can pay TuneCore a small fee and then keep the .66 cents per download.  Tunecore special offer below:

Sign Up for a free TuneCore account, save 30% on first distribution

(Note: You can also place your songs for sale right on Start My Song and keep 100% of your revenues from downloads using the Bandbox music widget.)

Again, the above numbers are just an idea of potential income that a great song can make when used through different venues.  Amounts will definitely vary depending on the negotiating power between those looking for music and those providing music.

Disclaimer: This article was not written by a lawyer and the information is the opinion of the author only. This article is not intended as legal advice or counsel. The author does not make warranty or representation as to the accuracy of contained statements.

Want the best secret to getting your videos to go viral?

Want to get your video to go viral?  Here's a quick tip: Have John Mayer blog about it!

Read on, and please re-tweet, re-blog, or re-post this to help Ken get his video going viral!

John came to Berklee to do a songwriting clinic for a few selected students, one of whom is a friend of the club, Ken Yates.  Since then, John has been radio silent on his blog (for over a month), but as of Thursday morning at 1AM, John Mayer posted the following entry, titled:
"Want to hear a great song? (I mean a REALLY great song?)"

Want to hear a great song? (I mean a REALLY great song?)

I taught a songwriting class at Berklee College of Music in Boston in March where I heard so many talented songwriters play some really great songs. Very few of the students have yet to record the songs they played for me, but Ken Yateswrote a tune called “I Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” and posted a live video of it on YouTube. This song moved me when I first heard it in the room and it still does today.

I love teaching at Berklee because I get to meet the artists that are going to keep the music world going strong
before the rest of the world does.

Enjoy, two years early.

(lots of love to everyone else that day who fearlessly played their songs for myself and the rest of the room.)

-JM

New Course: Writing the FILM Musical!

NEW COURSE: Writing the Film Musical (Fall 2011)

A Pro-Arts Experience

Writing the Film Musical (PW-468) will match Berklee songwriters--composers and lyricists--with Emerson screenwriters to create original screenplays with songs. Students will study the screenplays of a variety of film musicals from the beginning of the genre to the present. Working in groups, writing students from Emerson will complete an outline and first act of an original screenplay, and Berklee composers and lyricists will write songs that help tell that story. The semester will culminate in a staged reading—with music—performed by acting/musical theatre students from both Berklee and Emerson.

Writing the Film Musical is the winner of a new course development contest sponsored by the Pro-Arts Consortium to foster cross-pollination of school communities. We will be working closely with Emerson screenwriting faculty member Diane Lake (whose impressive credentials include the screenplay for Frida starring Salma Hayek).  The Emerson course meets on Tuesdays from 4-8pm.  The Berklee course officially only meets from 6-8pm on Tuesday nights.  However, if it’s possible for any of you to keep free 4-6pm on your Tuesday schedule, you will be encouraged to audit the first two hours at Emerson as often as possible.  There will be a lot of screenwriting material covered that would still be invaluable for all of us to learn.  However, rest assured that this would only be encouraged, but not be required.  The homework load for Berklee students will be more song-focused and less screenwriting focused.  There will, of course, still be some screenwriting concepts to learn and work on for homework assignments, even for the songwriting students.

Title: Writing the Film Musical

PW-468

Credits: 2

Course Weight: 1.25

Contact Hours: 2

Tuesdays, 6-8, Uchida 511 [optional auditing of Emerson portion Tuesdays 4-6pm]

Cap: 15 students

Pre-requisite waiver requirements

The pre-requisite for PW 468 is either of the following:

• completion of SW-345 Musical Theater Writing 1 or SW-445 Musical Theater Writing 2

• demonstration of equivalent songwriting/composition ability via electronic submission of mp3/pdf of either music or lyrics or both of an original song (see details below)

In addition:

• to help me meet my goal of creating a balance of abilities among composers and lyricists and composer/lyricists – please describe your background/interest in writing music and/or lyrics

• don’t forget to send your student ID #

• be prepared to do summer reading assignment

Song submission

If you have not taken the course SW-345, please send a work sample of a song for which you composed either music or lyrics or both.  If it’s in the musical theater genre, great; if not, try to choose something that demonstrates writing for character or story if possible.  Instrumental composers must submit a song, so if you don’t have one in your repertoire, find a song lyric text (or a lyricist!) and write something new.  Ideally your work sample demonstrates a mastery of song form with clear hook (ie. Verse/Refrain, otherwise known as AABA form; or Verse/Chorus).  Send lead sheet or piano/score pdf and an mp3 demo of a vocal performance of the song.  Professional notation should at a minimum include melody, chords, lyrics; well-constructed and notated piano accompaniment is a plus.

Summer Reading

To hit the ground running, all pre-registered students should plan to do the following reading before fall semester begins:

Required:

The Musical Theatre Writer’s Survival Guide by David Spencer (one copy on reserve in the library, and the Bookstore should have some for purchase in the textbook section)

Highly recommended:

Finishing The Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim (an expensive hardback; I just put in a request for the library to get a reserve copy)

Melody in Songwriting by Jack Perricone -- Composition/Film Scoring majors who have not taken Songwriting 1 are highly encouraged to purchase and self-study this BerkleePress textbook.  There are a few library copies and also available at the Berklee bookstore.

Thanks again,

Michael Wartofsky

mwartofsky@berklee.edu

Associate Professor, Berklee College of Music

Music and Emotions Lecture!

Date:	Thursday, April 21 · 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location:	150 Massachusetts Ave, Media Lab

How does music move us?

Music reflects the human social-emotional brain, but how? Is music a cognitive fashion accessory -- something that the advanced brain does for fun? Or does music tap a powerful emotional mechanism in the human brain? How do we regulate emotions with music and why do we listen to sad songs? Dr. Susan Rogers will present leading researchers' thoughts on how and why music and emotions are linked and discu...ss the implications for music-makers.

Music moves us in ways that are both obvious and mysterious. In her work as a clinical music therapist and researcher, Dr. Suzanne Hanser presents a variety of clinical cases whereby people are deeply moved by music, to the extent that they overcome deep physical and emotional distress. She presents research to support changes in emotion, and poses theories to explain how music gains its power to influence the way we feel.

Join us for this fascinating glimpse into the research of these two amazing Berklee faculty members!