SONG CONTEST BLOG

A citizen of the United Kingdom, Don immigrated to the United States from Australia, where he jump-started his career by doing record promotion for several labels, including Chess and Capitol Records. During that time, he was involved in the promotion of The Beatles, and was singularly recognized with the only Golden Apple Award ever presented by them for “outstanding promotion in launching Apple Records in the United States”. At Capitol, Don was also Manager of International A&R/Promotion, where he signed Little River Band, and Director of Merchandising and Advertising. When Capitol created a second label, EMI America Records, in 1978, Don became its Vice President of A&R. His credits at EMI America include Michael Johnson, Kim Carnes, Sheena Easton, Kate Bush, Sir Cliff Richard, J. Geils Band, and Kenny Rogers. In 1982, Don moved back to Capitol where he signed and helped guide a number of hit-making acts, including Heart, Joe Cocker, Freddy Jackson, Melba Moore, Steve Vai, Megadeth, WASP, and George Clinton. He was personally involved with the recording careers of Tina Turner, Bob Seger, Anne Murray, The Motels, Duran Duran, Power Station, Thomas Dolby, Ashford & Simpson, Billy Squier, and assisted in the emergence of Crowded House, Poison, The Smithereens, and Great White. In 1987, Don resigned from Capitol to join CBS/Sony as Senior Vice President of A&R, Epic Records, where he personally signed and worked with such acts as Celine Dion (via Sony Canada), Bad English (finding their #1 hit “When I See You Smile”), Iron Maiden, Basia, as well as bringing his expertise to bear on the careers of Cheap Trick (finding their #1 single “The Flame”), Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, REO Speedwagon, The Jacksons, and Europe. Under his direction, the Epic A&R staff also signed successful acts, including Living Colour, Indigo Girls, Allman Brothers Band, Alice Cooper, Social Distortion, Firehouse, Suicidal Tendencies, Front 2423, Ottmar Liebert and Joe Satriani. In 1993, Don created Drive Entertainment, a company with emphasis on classic artist and niche market catalog exploitation, where he compiled and packaged over 140 albums. Five years later, Don chose to reenter the broader-based music market and, to date, operates his own independent consultancy and music supervision company. We Are Listening is delighted to have Don on board!

The digital media age has brought about a new breed of music marketing professionals armed with next-generation music marketing tools and savvy.  Cheap and, often, free online music marketing solutions are at the disposal of anyone with an internet connection.  However, today’s music marketing leaders are not your average Joe’s.  Dare I coin the term: music marketing Joe 2.0?

Budding young marketers are spending more time finding and sorting through information online – looking for patterns, clues, leads, characteristics etc. – that will help them learn more about their target audience and build relationships on behalf of their clients, as opposed to wining and dining with label executives.  Sad really, but music marketing is a different game now.  A decade ago, artists were still ‘enjoying’ the luxury of a label financed focus group and the gut feeling of the music managers at the top.  Today, they’re either getting feedback themselves from social networks or fortunate enough to have a music marketing wizard on their team to do the dirty work for them.  In other words, independent artists have been forced to become promoters and professional artists (i.e. financed artists) outsource to music marketing specialists as opposed to relying on old school record industry tactics.
Although the revenue pyramid still looks the same – a handful of megastars at the top,  a long tail of independent artists at the bottom – new digital media has leveled the playing field and empowered fledgling artists with music marketing solutions only the megastars had access to but a decade ago.

Typically, an artist manager receives 15% – 20% of the artist’s Gross income or 50% of the Net income.  I personally like the 50/50 model.  15% may not sound like a lot but keep in mind that the artist is responsible for expenses and if the artist is a four member band, you can guess who gets the biggest piece of the pie.  The artist manager is often the primary reason why the artist sees any money in the first place.  As such, a good artist manager deserves to be rewarded for his efforts, expertise, contacts and, above all, risk.  Besides, 15% – 20% of the gross is often the same as splitting everything down the middle.  In addition, the artist manager may negotiate a commission based on new deals he closed during the course of his relationship with the artist.  This is to protect his investment long after the contract has terminated and he and the artist have gone their separate ways.

A no-commission management deal, whereby the artist pays an artist manager or management firm a salary or ‘retainer’, is a relatively new contract model in the music industry.  The artist has the power to hire, fire and negotiate with his management.  The artist manager has a certain degree of ‘job security’ but can not reap the rewards of a huge commercial success.  No points.  No success fees.  Simple.  And the artist is in control.  This is similar to the way PR companies operate and charge for their services.

At the negotiation table, the terms of the deal, regardless of the type of payment model, should be in light of the degree of financial risk the artist manager is expected to undertake by the artist in the event that the artist can not pay upfront.  Considering that financial institutions define the terms of a loan by assessing the degree of financial risk, it is reasonable to expect an artist manager to be compensated based on similar projections.

On January 24th, 2009, Kings of Leon will headline the Dare 2 Dream benefit concert at the House of Blues Chicago to raise funding and major awareness for pediatric cancer research and treatment. Platform One Entertainment, the organizer of the event, is giving one Sonicbids artist the opportunity to open for Kings of Leon and receive $1,000.00 for travel and hotel accommodations.

Musicians typically hire music managers (also referred to as artist managers, band managers or, if they work beyond the sphere of music, talent managers) to oversee the creative and business aspects of their careers. Traditionally, music managers receive a commission anywhere from 10% – 20% of their clients’ gross income as opposed to a monthly retainer for their services.

Whereas some music managers are very much regarded part of the “family”, taking the managerial role because they were close to the artist or band from the beginning (and no one else wanted the job!), others are actively pursued for their music industry connections and business acumen.

Renowned music managers include Brian Epstein (The Beatles), who persuaded George Martin to listen to an early demo by the group; Paul McGuinness (U2), who has been with the group from the start of their successful career and also manages PJ Harvey, Art of Noise and several others; Simon Fuller (Spice Girls), also famed for his reality-driven Idol series across the world; Lou Pearlman (Backstreet Boys), who, aside from his music questionable music industry accolades, was exposed in 2006 for perpetuating one of the biggest and longest running fraudulent investment operations in American history.

Successful music managers have a keen sense for hiring the right booking agents, radio promoters, lawyers and other team players, and making new connections that may lead to new opportunities for their clients. Traditionally, music managers were most valued for their ability to put their clients’ demos in the hands of A&R executives at well financed record labels and negotiate the terms of record contracts. Since the convergence of music media with digital media, their role has changed somewhat and a new breed of young, dynamic music managers are emerging with extensive know-how in internet and technology marketing tools, allowing their clients to compete for attention on the web more so than on the ground and make their music available directly to the consumers without the aid of a label or distributor.

The much-talked-about 360 music deals give labels the traditional percentage of CD and MP3 sales in addition to a cut of ticketing, merchandise, licensing, publishing, and sponsorship opportunities.

In the Web 2.0 Summit, Warner Music Group CEO, Edgar Bronfman, outlined that new artists will have to sign 360 contracts, and that about a third of their signed artists are under such contracts already.

Bronfman expressed that it’s is no longer feasible to pour money into artists when CD sales continue to diminish. Without a stake in the other aspects of an artist’s career, WMG will simply avoid going to market altogether.

MP3 metadata contains a large amount of searchable information, including the basics of a song: song title, artist name, and album title and artwork. Some artists take the time to include discography and biography details, as well as liner notes, lyrics, images, and anything that allows the digital file to be found, catalogued and, most importantly, relevant and a source of added value to the consumer. The successful distribution of digital files largely depends on the manner in which they are tagged.

Data Syndication for Artists
ArtistData.com allows you to publish and manage your gig schedule across many different networks including MySpace, Last.fm, and Indie911, saving you time by seamlessly updating and distributing your data from a single hub.
http://www.artistdata.com

Breaking the Band
16 days and counting… the independent music event that puts artists on the stages at major festivals, provides network tv licensing opportunities, radio promotion, press coverage, tour support and much more, is open for submissions!
http://www.sonicbids.com/BreakingtheBand

Moving Large Music Files
Earlier this month, German startup, SoundCloud.com, launched a music-centric solution for moving large digital files online, a process artists and music industry professionals often go through to collaborate and distribute their work.
http://www.soundcloud.com

World of Music Awards
Ghalia Benali, a native of Tunisia, was selected by We Are Listening’s judges as the winner of the World of Music Awards, the first World music contest of its kind. Ghalia will be attending WOMEX, the acclaimed annual World music festival in Seville, Spain, next month for a weekend of networking, music promotion and career development. World of Music Awards is sponsored by Songlines Magazine.
http://www.wearelistening.org/winner_woma_1.php

Derek’s Entourage
Not enough time to do-it-yourself? CDbaby’s founder, Derek Sivers, is rolling up his sleeves so that you can focus on your music while MuckWork takes care of the rest.
http://sivers.org/muckwork

We Are Listening is delighted to announce the successful completion of its first-ever World Music contest, the World of Music Awards. The winning entry was submitted by Ghalia Benali, a native of Tunisia currently residing in Brussels. Growing up in Tunisia, Ghalia was raised with a strong background in Arabic music and poetry, as well as external influences including French chansons Egyptian and Indian musicals, melodies from Syria and Iraq and the ‘tartil’, the sung lectures from the Koran.

Throughout her carer, Ghalia has performed with a variety of talented World Music artists including Shahnez (Arabo-Flamenco), Yoda (Ethnic), Alpalna (Arabo-Indian), Maak’s Spirit (Jazz), Hh Kaly (Electro, Arabo, Indian), Timnaa (Arabo, Spanish, Folk), and many more. Ghalia is currently touring with her most recent project “Romeo en Leila”, a musical spectacle where Arab music meets traditional western music and jazz. Besides a successful careet as a singer, Ghalia also performs as an actress and played the role of Meriem in “La Saison des hommes” in 1999, under the direction of Tunisian producer Mouffida Tiatli and danced in the film “Swing” from Tony Gatliff in 2001.

As the winner of the World of Music Awards, Ghalia will join World music expert, Dubi Lenz, and a host of other WOMEX delegates in Sevilla, Spain, for a weekend of networking, music promotion and career development. She and the nine other finalists will also receive a free one year subscription to Songlines, the leading World music publication. We Are Listening is proud to welcome Ghalia Benali to the team and looks forward to helping her achieve all of her musical dreams and aspirations.

Congratulations to UK rockers, This Is Radio Freedom, winners of Breaking the Band 2! This Is Radio Freedom emerged from their previous guise as last year’s surprise festival crowd-pleasers VWF, blasting our their electro-tinged, visceral rock ‘n’ roll alongside Iggy Pop and Primal Scream at Almeria’s Natural Festival as well as other venues and festivals including Secret Garden Party and Truck 10. As the winners of Breaking the Band 2, This Is Radio Freedom are currently in the process of working with We Are Listening’s agents to customize their prize package and deliver an unprecedented promotional campaign that includes radio, licensing, representation and more.