Music BUSINESS

Being an artist can be a beautiful and fulfilling pursuit but being financially successful at it can sometimes be another issue. This is largely because most of us as artist place the wrong emphasis on our profession. It is important that we remember that we are in the music BUSINESS not the MUSIC business. Being financially successful is fully dependent on us understanding that the ratio is 80/20. 80% business and 20% music/art. Every artist should have a basic understanding of copyright law, publishing, management & a realistic view of how the business works. Most of us say we do it for the LOVE of the art and I agree that artistic passion is important but not enough. Each artist, when building their career, should have the basic view that the only reason to make music that you want to package as a product is to MAKE A PROFIT so you must understand how that is done. After your music is done you must first copyright it through the library of congress which now super easy because you can do it all on line at www.copyright.gov. Once your ownership is solid you must join either BMI or ASCAP as a writer member and publisher, these are licensing organizations that track usage and exploitation of our art. Once you get your product ready to present to the public, make sure that you have your sound scan form registered as well as your BDS forms filled out and submitted with full versions of the songs that you plan to promote for airplay. This is just the beginning of what has to be done to insure that when your music/art starts to make money that YOU can profit from it. I will stop here. As you can see there is a lot of BUSINESS involved with being successful in this industry. Just understand that just like a scientist or mathematician has to study and read to master their craft, so must we. There is a ton of resource material available that discusses the science and mechanics of the music industry. Read as much and as often as you can. Knowledge is POWER and MONEY. I will let you digest this much for a bit. Stay focused!

The Truth

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