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Prepare to ProfitIn the Next Generation Music Biz
by Kevin J Ryan
http://kevinjryan.co.uk
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Kevin J Ryan
He is best described as someone hugely passionate
and knowledgeable about music and the music
business. Some would call him a music biz
veteran, even entrepreneur, but that all sounds very glorious and boring.
Bottom line is this:
1) Been around long enough in music to have tried
and done most things. Some successfully and some
not so successfully.
2) He has the advantage of ‘hands on’ experience and expertise because
since the 70’s he’s got his hands dirty in the following areas of themusic world:
Songwriter, Session Musician, Record Plugger, Head of Artiste &
Repertoire, Producer, Production Company, Music Label, Music
Licensing, Music Publishing, Artist Management, Product Marketing,
Music Investment Funding and Financial Management. What’s in this
guy’s head may be very useful to those of you trying to cut a path in the
next generation music biz.
A Little Music Biz Background
First entered the record industry back in the
mid 70's, the usual 'mail room' start which
lead to moving into artist promotions and
then A&R with The Famous Charisma Label,
Artists like Genesis, Lindisfarne, AlanParsons Project, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel,
Audience, Clifford T Ward and various other
70's rock / pop acts. Since those colourful days of the 70’s working on
projects as diverse as GENESIS to LIBERTY X provides a wealth of
experience that definitely spans Progressive Rock to Manufactured
Pop!
Having spent a lot of time making music and working in the music biz
he often gets asked by up and coming musicians, songwriters and
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performers about music, the music biz, music and money issues or
even 'How to' type questions. The website http://kevinjryan.co.uk is
dedicated to helping you solve the problems of Music, Money and 'How
to' in the Next Generation Music Business. The articles, resources and
info on Music DIY will show you how to focus and build a profitable andlasting music career.
About this e-book:
The book is yours to keep, read, print off and use as a guide, a reference
or reminder about what works and the benefits that come when you
“Prepare to Profit” in the changing world of the next generation music
biz.
Please feel free to make it available to your musician friends, email it to
them or distribute it via your website or by any other means as long as
it’s in a non-commercial setting.
Just One thing:
Please do remember to credit my authorship if at anytime you do
distribute this e-book in any way and provide a link to the Kevin J Ryan
website (http://kevinjryan.co.uk ).
If you want to use the e-book or part of it’s contents commercially in
some way please contact me directly and we can sort out some
arrangement that can be mutually beneficial and keep everybody
happy!
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Part 3
Once upon a time most aspiring musicians had the same dream: to sign
a deal with a major record label. That was the OLD WAY. Now there is a
hunger for doing things the NEW WAY.
I read an interview recently with David Byrne the former member of
the band Talking Heads. It was for Wired Magazine and appropriately
entitled “Survival Strategies for emerging artists”. In commenting on
the future of music and doing business with record companies he said
“There is no one single way of doing business these days. There are, in
fact, six viable models by my count. That variety is good for artists; itgives them more ways to get paid and make a living.”
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The Old Way:
When talking about the ‘OLD WAY’ or how it used to be with record
companies David rightly explains that what record companies used to
do was market the product or more accurately the container of the
music - vinyl, tape, or disc — the medium that carried the music.
Now More Ways:
Recording costs have declined to
almost zero. Digital distribution is
pretty much free. Touring is not
just about promotion of some recent
album release. Performing is a
thing in itself, and for those who can
do it, it's a way to make a living.
There used to be one way, the ‘OLD
WAY’ now there are at least six
possible music distribution models. These cover just about everything
from the artist’s total ‘hands off’ approach to the artist does just about
everything approach, or the Music DIY model which is obviously not foreveryone.
Somewhere in Between:
David went on to explain that the great thing about this is that “now
you have choice” or as I’ve called it here SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN!
At one end of the scale you have the 360 equity deals, done by people
like Robbie Williams or the Pussycat Dolls who sell a slice of everything
they touch, for lots of money upfront.
These artists are the ‘brand’ and their careers are controlled by
promoters, producers, marketing people and managers. This is a world
of money in, control out.
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At the other end of the scale you have the self-distribution model,
where the music is self-produced, self-written, self-played, and self-
marketed. CDs are sold at gigs and through a Web site. Promotion
starts with a MySpace page. The band handle’s its own download sales
and the artists have complete creative control. This is the Music DIY
model which continues to grow in popularity and is often used by new
emerging artists.
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN you have the distribution Deal, where
the record company bankrolls the recording and handles the
manufacturing, distribution, press, and promotion. The artist gets a
royalty after all those other costs you never keep up with like
manufacturing, distribution, the endless marketing and promotion
costs, all have to be repaid and guess what - the label owns the
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copyright to the recording. Forever! What’s the saying “he who pays
the piper calls the tune”
The license deal is also
found SOMEWHERE INB E T W E E N a n d i s a n
approach I’ve used myself on
a number of occasions with
projects. When releasing
dance music under some of
my pseudonym’s like Route
33, Riot Act or SW14 theser e c o r d i n g s h a v e b e e n
released under a license deal
agreement. It’s similar to
the standard distribution
deal, except in this case the artist retains the copyright and ownership
of the master recording and rightly so. It’s normally me who has funded
making the recording in the first place. The right to exploit that
property is granted to a label for a limited period of time — usually
seven years and less if you can get it.
The 50/50 Deal:
Then there’s Profit share or Joint Venture type deals which basically
involve both sides contributing 50/50 in some way to the requirements
of the project. All associated costs are then taken off the top of
generated income. This normally means you would retain the
ownership of masters which are likely to play a role in considering your
contribution to the deal. Net Profits are then shared equally.
Plus there’s the Manufacturing and Distribution Deal. In this type of
deal the artists does everything except manufacture and distribute the
product. Often such companies offer services like marketing but the
incentive (margin) often makes such deals unattractive.
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One thing is for sure Artists are at the point where they realize going
back to the old model simply doesn’t make any sense. The major labels
— Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music no longer have
such a firm grip on creating and selling professional music and minting
hits with prime placement on the radio.
The rise of the Internet as a means of promoting and distributing music
is unstoppable. SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN like we’ve talked about
there is maybe the kind of approach or route that might work for YOU.
It might be already within your grasp.
Perhaps you’ll join the growing throng of Music DIY specialists and will
start to seriously look at ways you can develop this approach. All these
are decisions you need to be considering and that’s why you need to
know what you want!
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Part 4:
Ok this is the part everybody hates – self examination, decision making
time! The fact is you need to seriously think about what you want to get
out of the next generation music business in terms of your own music
career? What are you in for? Where do you want to be in 3 to 5 years
time?
Do you just want to keep your music as a hobby or are you up for world
domination, fame and fortune or SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN? Be
honest with yourself – you might as well be, nobody is listening. This is
just between you and me. Well, at the moment anyway.
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All those usual career type questions are the questions you need to ask
yourself and yes you need to write down the answers. Don’t walk away
and just forget about things, re-examine your thoughts a week later –
are you still thinking the same? If so you need to start preparing to
profit! You must know what you want, to be able to prepare the way forward.
Big Problem:
How many times have you heard people say
when talking about business or getting a
project off the ground that you needs to make a
plan? I’m going to tell you something now and
it’s based on personal experience.
I’ve raised a few million dollars over the last
few years funding investment projects mainly in music. Now let me ask you
this: Do you know one of the biggest problems people have after going
through all the pain and tribulation of raising that capital and getting the
project up and running? No it’s not spending the money! That’s the easy
part. It’s implementing the plan! This often becomes the problem, the follow
through or putting the plan into action.
Focus:
Often people start out OK then a little way
down the road they forget about the plan,
they stop looking at the plan or sticking to
it! They lose their focus or take their eye
off the ball. Things come along and peopleget sidetracked or distracted. I’m not
talking hear about sticking to something
when it becomes clearly apparent that changes are needed – sometimes
that can happen with a business or music project, plans can need
changing to keep a project focused on a successful outcome. No I’m
talking about implementation of a plan or its modifications – post
modification you still need to IMPLEMENT! If you know exactly where
you want to go and you have a plan of action to get there you just don’t
sweat the small stuff.
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Let me illustrate this further:
How many of you, the day or night
before you go away on vacation or
go on an important business trip,
make out a list of things you’ve gotto get done before leaving? What if
you’re flying off to the other side of
the world? Isn’t it true you want to
have everything done, sorted and
your bags packed and ready before
that taxi arrives to take you to the
airport!
It’s so simple isn’t it, when you get up the next morning, you know
exactly what you’re going to do? You feel so much more in control,
you’ve got that list you made, so you know exactly what you’ve got to
get done.
The Game Plan:
Because of having a ‘game plan’
which you’ve designed, you have
confidence in it, you get those
things done, get packed on time
and off you go. Notice how you
seem to get so much more done
under these circumstances? Have
you noticed how much more work you seem to get done the day
before your vacation?
You want things to be ‘all OK’ while you’re away, you want everything to
run smoothly and most importantly, you want to still have friends when
you get back!! Imagine the uproar and grief when you get back if you
left something undone at your place of work or all in a mess and others
have to sort it out for you – trouble & strife is coming your way!
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Think about this:
If just one day can make so much difference and you can get so much
more done, imaging the difference you can experience if you take that
same approach with planning or ‘Preparing to Profit’ in YOUR MUSIC
CAREER.
The truth is it’s essential in the next
generation music business. Imagine
the effect if you planned your life in this
way? Don’t you think you would have a
better, richer, more balanced or more
fulfilled life? Obviously the answer is yes and it can be the same with your
music career.
It’s the same with whatever you have decided about you and your music
and what you want to achieve in the next generation music business.
The world is full of artists and performers that seem to never quite
make it and spend the rest of their lives telling stories about when they
were in a band, back in the day!
The Starting Point:
This is why YOU must start from the
position of KNOWING WHAT YOU
WANT. If you don’t work this out
first, then how can you make a game
plan? Where do you want to be with
your music in 12 months time or in
3 years time? How about 5 years
time?
You MUST think about this and
make some serious decisions on all fronts: Music, financially, family, life
in general! This will enable you to make the right decisions about YOURmusic career and your future.
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So you’ve worked out
what you want, what you
hope to achieve over let’s
say the next 12 months.Let me tell you this
straight away - don’t
think you can do it all
yourself, or need to – you
said 12 months not 12
years!
I can guarantee you
there are not enough hours in a day, trust me, so you will . . . . . .
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To get your FREE copy of the complete
guide go to:
http://kevinjryan.co.uk