5. May 2012 by Andy | Melodylab.

Folks - I’m sharing with you a link to an insightful article about how the current Top 40 songs are structured with regards to the form and length. One interesting insight - it takes on average 45 seconds for a song to hit the chorus. Take note when you’re arranging your next hit!

http://www.songwriting.net/blog/bid/103029/songwriting-tip-how-does-your-song-stack-up?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&goback=.gde_2668277_member_112888417

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29. May 2011 by Andy | Melodylab.

Now that your release is ready, and you found a distributor, the work is not over yet. There are a few and important items that you should check off your list to make sure that you get paid and your release info appears correct. I will be updating this list periodically, and feel free to contribute your own findings to the blog:

•  ALLMUSIC.COM -  the defacto go-to site used by many digital retailers and vendors to pull and verify release information from. Amazon.com and the Grammy Recording Academy are just a few that reference this site for credits and music information. You need to make sure that you send them your release first! For product submission info, click here.
• SoundExchange.com - an independent and non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), internet radio, cable TV music channels and similar platforms for streaming sound recordings. Why is it important to be a member? Because they are the sole entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties on behalf of featured recording artists, master rights owners (like record labels), and independent artists who record and own their masters.
• Performance rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. They will collect money owed to songwriters for the public performance of their songs. Some examples would be radio airplay, placements in movies or TV shows, concerts, “elevator music,” and even music on hold for phone systems.
• If you are a non-featured performer, such as a session player, backup singer, or other creative contributor, see the Recording Artist Royalties organization here.

Image credits: Guitar Neck by J Fry

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29. May 2011 by Andy | Melodylab.

Digital music distribution (DMD) sounds like the holy grail for music revenues. Companies like CDBaby.com or ReverbNation.com among many others make it inexpensive to get started, easy to set up, and open up ways to reach millions of potential buyers. However, DMD may not make sense for all. Let me explain some practical implications, and alert you to some potential problem areas:

• Don’t sign up for DMD if you are not planning on marketing your music: make no mistake, you will need to market your music, and if you simply “put it out there” without your marketing efforts - it will just “sit there.” The problem is that it will not generate an income for you just because now it is available for purchase. Have a plan. Be actively promoting your tracks. Without it, count on no new revenue. It will NOT sell by itself - the market is oversaturated and is very competitive.
• Keep your distribution deal to a short time frame: make sure that the agreement you sign is for a short period of time with the option to renew. The reason being - if something goes wrong with the distribution deal, you will have a difficult time changing it or fixing it if you’re locked into an agreement you can’t change. Secondly - distribution deals are usually NON EXCLUSIVE. Sometimes, you will be presented with an EXCLUSIVE deal from a record label that will want to market and distribute your songs online. This means you will NOT be able to enter into this agreement if you already have a long-term distribution deal with someone else.
• Make sure you can actually TALK to people who will be in charge of distributing your music. More often than not, you’re just an account number to a lot of service providers. As a result, when there is a problem, or you have a question, it’s the BIGGEST DEAL to you - but it is not to the other party. So make sure that your vendor can provide a telephone number you can call and talk to a real person because dealing via email support can be painful, and painfully slow.
• Ask for a list of all the digital stores your music will be distributed by and verify its correctly categorized once published. When your release becomes active, manually check that your music can be found where you expect it to be. Check for the category it’s under, and make sure that the price is correct. Sometimes, the categories don’t translate correctly from one digital store to another, and your WORLD MUSIC release can end up under CHRISTIAN ROCK. So do your homework, check, and if need be - complain to get it fixed.
• If you are a small-scale artist or band, DMD may not even be a financially viable option to pursue. Consider this - DMD costs money. It costs at least $10-30 to get a basic distribution deal, plus there is usually a “one time fee” to process your release and assign a UPC (unique code identifying your release), and that’s not all. You will be splitting revenue with each of the stores (sometimes you will give up 50%), and sometimes your DMD vendor will also get a cut off of your sales. You may also wait a long time to get any money at all if the sales are low. Now, consider that if you were to sell the CDs on your own - let’s say on your own website, you can control the price of your release, and you keep 100% of the revenue, minus the merchant service (from companies like PayPal) of around 3%.

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