Legal Disputes in the Music Industry

In the music industry, it is fairly common to hear about or know someone who has entered into a legal dispute. Whether it is about distribution rights, a copyright claim or a contract, they are all matters that can greatly delay if not end your career in the industry. This post provides 3 articles that provide examples of popular artists and the lawsuits they've recently dealt with. I feel that as inspiring artists, bands and music industry professionals, we can all learn from these court claims.

Creative Methods to Sell Your Music

The days when musicians and their record labels could rely on selling their albums through traditional record stores are gone. Today, very few musicians get the opportunity to have a multi-million dollar campaign as their force to distribute and sell their music. Your team has to learn to do it themselves. Artists, manager and their labels need to start finding creative ways to disburse their music.

Website Review: ReverbNation.com

Hello everybody! Today I will be reviewing the website ReverbNation.com . ReverbNation is a promotional website for professionals in the music industry. It most specifically aims for the independent part of the industry. They aim to use the technology for today to prosper careers in the music field. They provide hands-on and easy to use tools to distribute and promote solutions to career goals in the complex world of music. The following image is what ReverbNation stands for.

Interview with Antwain Booth

Antwain Booth is an entrepreneur in the entertainment and media industry. In 2005, he started in real estate with investors in Greensboro, North Carolina. In mid 2007, he ventured off into the entertainment and media industry in Raleigh, North Carolina. What started as a way to market real estate activity evolved into his own promotional, marketing, media, event and entertainment company. For more information about Antwain Booth and his company BWI visit http://bwinvests.tk/about .

Veronica Belmont's interview with music industry professional Ethan Kaplan

For today’s blog post, I decided to write about a video I found of an interview. Veronica Belmont “Tech Talks” with Ethan Kaplan, who during the time was Vice President of technology at Warner Bros. Records, about the music industry. Although the video is about 4 years old, I found the information valuable and applicable for today’s industry.

Apple is Preparing iTunes Renovation

The article talks about Apple Inc. and its plans of major changes to iTunes since its debut in 2003. Bloomberg acquired this information from people with direct knowledge of the matter, and they mentioned that Apple would release the details of the plans later in the year to the public. Any change to iTunes becomes critical to the company since it is a major source of revenue. Also the changes are sure to affect the music and media industry because it is the “gateway” to many users of the Apple products such as iPhone, iPod, Mac computers, etc. to purchase music, movies, shows and television shows. 

Use the inspiration! You'll need it in this industry

The video of the TED speaker named Chris Anderson emphasizes what he calls a “crowd accelerated innovation”. Despite the population of the planet growing, the Internet has made the world a smaller place. People are able to communicate and influence each other despite the distance through different vehicles in the Internet. To explain what he means by this, he uses the example of webcam videos. These videos that people make and put online become abundant and global. It becomes a self-fueling system.

NARIP - A Professional Association Program

There are several professional association programs that impacts the music industry. One of the most appealing ones is called National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP). NARIP is an association program across the country and around the globe that brings together the brightest minds and leading innovators in the global record and music industries. It is the biggest in the world, and it is specifically for record industry professionals.

What's the Deal with Music Publishing?

Music publishing is incredibly similar to the big record labels. Aside from royalties, licensing deals and administrating copyrights, music publishing involves the recording and selling of songs, just like record labels do. So what's the deal with music publishing? Simply, the business of recording music is getting weaker as the music publishing business is becoming stronger. A revenue collecting company for songwriters called SongTrust states that the importance of music publishing has increased during recent years. The Internet has made an abundant amount of music distribution methods. The digital media has caused a much wider audience to be reached, and the payments from these audiences increase the publishing revenues.

The End of the A&R Era?

Possibly. A&R back in the day were considered creative people who had some sense of power over pop culture. They knew the dos and don’ts of commercial success, and they were responsible for scouting talent for their record label. They would go spend their evenings in nightclubs to listen and discover new artists or bands, and help them develop.  Nowadays, however, the talent needs to have some sort of momentum before A&R even consider getting involved. Once an artist achieves this momentum, they go straight to the contract without the need of an A&R.