DEMONSTRATION (Demo) RECORDING:
Demonstration Recording: (3) When should I do a demo of one of my songs?
Demonstration Recording: (8) How much does a decent demo cost?
Demonstration Recording: Is the quality of my demo good enough?
Demo Recording: How do I package my demo before sending to a publishing co and how should I follow up and with what tools (postcards included, follow up with phone call, etc)?
Demonstraton Rec./Promotional material: 5 and 6. Another tie. Questions about performance and questions about creating promo material.
Quite often, the questioner wants a publisher, but the publisher wants to record the questioner's demos.
Copyright: If a demo company wants part of my copyright for doing the demo that I pay for?
Producer Points: "I took my words & melody to a producer who added drums & bass& stuff, now he says he owns 50 percent of the song, what do I do"
Feedback/Critique: 10: How much should a good demo/critique cost me?
Demo Rec: 6: When I feel my song is good enough to invest money in a demo; should I do a full scale production? Or, is a vocal with just guitar or piano backing adequate?
WHEN TO 'DO A DEMO':
When you want to 'demonstrate' the merits of your product to others, a Demonstration Recording can travel. When you have someone who has expressed interest in hearing the product you should probably already have the Demo ready to 'send'. If they want to hear it but it's going to take you a long time to create a Demo they may lose interest. When you transition from avocational hobbyist to 'Company', engaging in Commerce, 'marketing' product, you have to have that product ready for the 'consumer' as soon as they express interest. When? Now. In the ever-elapsing moment of 'now'.
COST:
Bela Fleck, Jazz Banjo-ist, said,
"I'm getting better recordings in my living room with Pro Tools than I got in thirty years in expensive studios!"
https://try.output.com/protools28?u...hjIKa-wIVbjizAB3jcwc9EAAYAyAAEgIy7_D_BwESo cost depends on what you can do for yourself, or what a local 'technician' will charge, or what a big city 'professional' will charge.
Before you spend your money, expecting to make money, what makes you think your product can make money?
How much Market Research have you done? Do listeners want to know where they can hear you again? Do people want to buy it? Do they ask to buy a CD, download card, USB; any hard-copy device? Have you sold a substantial number of copies already at the 'quality level' you already have? Did your 'Company' document those sales? Did you document that 'feedback' as Market Research? Can you cite your success in a sales pitch to the 'Consumer' you're trying to get as a Publisher, the Artist or Artist Management you're Pitching to, the Music Supervisor who might be interested in a Synchronization License?
Cost depends on justifying it as 'investment', versus 'spending', on what you can afford, and on how optimistic you are about earning profit to recover costs.
QUALITY:
Is the one you made in your living room with your own technology and skill level ready to go 'on the air', Synchronization Licensed for 'use' in a movie or television show? Is it 'broadcast ready'? The 'quality' you might 'desire' for a 'hit record', played on radio and streaming might be higher than that adequate for background music in a movie or tv commercial.
Full band? Simple guitar and vocal, piano and vocal? What is 'adequate?
It is a judgment call. You make yours. Listeners make theirs.
I read that Kenny Chesney 'doesn't have ears' for anything less than a full band presentation.
Others are said to 'have ears', to hear a simple presentation of a Song and recognize its potential.
You, the first listener, the Song-Writer, have ears. But...do you have 'ears'? Can you tell the difference between a fun Song for you to play and a fun Song in the opinion, the judgment call, of others, people in the industry you're Pitching to, the general public, the market?
Your judgment about how much you should logically 'invest' in a Demonstration Recording may be influenced by your own attachment to the product.
To qualify as 'Investment' versus 'Spending', you have to have an expectation of 'ROI', 'Return-On-Investment'. Can this Recording of this Song go to market, and make 'Capital-Economic-Connection', earn profit, come away with 'Capital', money, money, money, money? Maybe. Maybe not. How good is your judgment? What makes you think it can, justifying your Investment?
PACKAGING:
Put your contact data on every 'piece' you submit to a Publisher, Artist/Management, Label; any 'entity' you're trying to engage in commerce with.
Put that data on the Compact Disc or other hard-copy device, the Jewel Case, the paper 'inserts', your cover letter, the envelope.
The 'listener' may be messy and stuff gets scattered around. Putting it all back together again to enable them to get back in touch with you and make money could be made easy for them if you label every piece.
Embed the Metadata in the recording. That's how the Shazam Application (App) 'recognizes' and 'identifies' music coming out of your radio, tv, or phone. The data is there, 'broadcast' whenever the Recording plays.
Performance Rights Organizations (PRO) monitoring 'plays' to calculate your Royalties can let a computer collect, process and analyze that data if it's embedded as metadata in the recording.
FOLLOW-UP: You may not hear from them for months. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be. Assume they're busy. Assume, if they want it, they'll get in touch with you. Don't 'pester' by phone, email, or showing up in person...before a 'reasonable' amount of time has passed.
Three months? Okay. Follow up with whatever communication you used to get permission to submit in the first place.
You can't just 'mail' or 'email' material to them. That's called 'un-solicited' and, if they're legit, goes into the trash. They're afraid to open unsolicited material for fear of having 'Access' proven if they later Publish something you could credibly accuse them of having stolen from you, 'Copyright Infringement', since you sent them something. 'Solicited' means you contacted them somehow, and they said, "Yes. Send me your Song." You put that 'acceptance' in your Company's file on this 'business', for future reference; who, what, where, when, why. Use that same contact method for 'follow-up' if you have not heard back from them in a 'reasonable' period of time. What's 'reasonable'? Their opinion may be different from yours. Use some judgment.
If 'solicited', they're expecting it. Don't keep them waiting. Don't ask for permission to send them something and then have to wait while you finish writing it, getting it into 'Fixed Form', Registering for Copyright, or negotiating with Co-Writers, musicians or Producers involved in the writing or 'Master' Recording.
Three months waiting for them may be 'reasonable'. Waiting very long at all for you to submit the product is 'unreasonable'. They're the customer, the consumer, and the customer is always right. If they gave permission to 'submit', 'solicited your submission', they're interested, based on however you presented yourself.
Contact them, confirm that they have had three months to make a decision, and act accordingly. If they reject the product, be courteous, ask permission to submit something else. Tell them you're going to take back your earlier submission, maybe work on it a bit more, perhaps to re-Pitch to them, or to someone else. Be courteous. Don't get upset. Don't complain about three months. Don't tell them they're fools if they don't have 'ears' to hear your Song's potential. Just stay 'business-like'. Keep that 'door' you got open open. Your Company is bigger than one Song. Conversely, your Company IS your Song. Don't give away the store.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL:
I'm the consumer. What do I desire and demand to know? Don't tell me what you want me to know about your life story, your philosophy. What do I desire and demand? What's your name? Where are you playing live? Where can I hear you? How can I buy your products if I desire them? Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
You can tell me all that other stuff later. But 'right now' it is in your interest to get your music in my ears to enable me to make a judgment call about whether I want to keep listening, stop listening, buy, engage in commerce with you, or not.
PUBLISHING:
Publishing can be as 'simple' as handing out copies on a street corner. Making your product available to others is Publishing. Giving 'Access' is Publishing.
When someone presents themselves as a Publisher, but wants you to pay them COST of a DEMONSTRATION RECORDING, they probably are not a Publisher. If they want to become a part-owner of the product they may simply be trying to lock in that ownership because they believe your Song has potential, or simply to lock in just in case you get the product to market and it makes money. They may not do anything to get it to market, to do the legwork of Pitching.
A Publisher is a Company looking for music to 'Publish' to an Artist, with the intent that the Artist will 'Cut' (Record) and 'Release' the Song to market, where it can earn Publisher's Royalties and Song-Writing Royalties.
In exchange for doing that work, Publishers want a 'share' of your Publishing Royalties. They may want 100% of Publishing Royalties. You retain 100% of Song-Writing Royalties. That's what you come to the table with; ownership of those Publishing Royalty 'rights'. Your Song is your Company's asset. If they want to make money with it, they have to contract with you.
To earn their money they do the 'legwork' of finding interested parties and 'Pitching' the Song to them for their consideration.
If you can do that for yourself you are a 'Self-Publisher'. If you can't, you may want to sign a Publishing Contract, giving the Publishing Company 'rights' to those Publishing Royalties FOR...A SPECIFIED...Period Of Time. At the end of that time, if the Publisher has not accomplished the task, a Reversion Clause in the written contract ends the contract and the ownership of the Publishing Royalties rights 'Reverts' back to you, the Song-Writer. You then Pitch it to another Publisher, or other 'consumer', Artist, Artist's Management, a Label, a Music Supervisor/Broadcast Producer.
PRODUCER POINTS: Producers often negotiate to 'own' the Master Recording. A specified share of the Song-Writer's Royalties becomes their 'right'. Your Copyright Registration would list them as Co-Writers. They may not 'negotiate' it at all. You may not know they're 'laying claim' until after the Master Recording exists.
Producers often lay claim to the Master Recording.
Did your contract...let's capitalize that...your 'Contract' with them specify that you were 'Assigning' Rights to them? Did your contract... Contract specify their work as a 'Work For Hire', meaning they got paid for their work, and no further 'Rights' to the Master Recording or the Song will be transferred to them?
In Synchronization Licensing, for 'use' in a movie, commercial ad, tv show, you must be Legally authorized as 'owner' to 'clear' the Master Recording and Copyright for the Consumer, the Music Supervisor or Broadcast Producer to 'use' the product.
Nothing stains your reputation more than having a project come to a screeching halt because someone pops up with Legal rights to those aspects of the product, who wants to re-negotiate the deal. You're transitioning from avocational hobbyist to vocation, professional Song-Writer, 'creative', engaging in Commerce, signing Contracts, Legally binding yourself to the terms of the Contract. You've got to know the ramifications of your signature on a Contract. There are nuances of Contracts any attorney might know about. An Entertainment Attorney, specializing in the type of Commerce you're engaging in might know nuances of the Music Industry a Criminal Lawyer or Commercial Lawyer might not know.
Last edited by Gary E. Andrews; 11/06/22 01:18 PM.
