Updated: 7-1-09
Featured: Dear Mama Remix – Tupac Shakur
Brief Guidelines for Negotiating Any Contract
[by Peter Spellman, Director, Music Business Solutions]
If you’re involved in the music business, sooner or later you’ll sit down with someone you have to negotiate an agreement with.
It may be a management or record contract, or perhaps a "work for hire" agreement where you provide music for some particular use.
Use the following general guidelines to keep the communication on the best level possible.
And always think "win/win".
*Negotiate only with those in authority to agree to your requests.
*Have a prioritized agenda. Start with the most incontestable items and work downwards to the stickiest points.
*Put yourself in the other person’s place and structure your arguments to address his or her concerns.
*Never issue ultimatums.
*Never concede a point, however small, without winning a comparable concession in return.
*Take notes and verbally summarize each point agreed to before you move on to the next so that there’s no misunderstanding.
*Follow up negotiations with a memo or letter summarizing what was agreed, and ask for a written response within so many days or hours if any points are disputed.
*Make the other party feel good about the outcome.
Freestyle Rap Tips & Freestyle Battle Tips
Note: You should make sure that you’re comfortable with each phase before moving on to the next. Also, this section is just a brief overview of how one could go about improving their battle rap skills. A further breakdown will be made available later. Check back often for more details.
PHASE 1:
FREESTYLE RAP TIP #1: Write down your freestyle rap practice sessions.
I was driving around the city last week and threw on a mix tape of instrumentals. I started messing around freestyling when I suddenly came up with something like "…that didn’t rhyme cuz I’m in the frame of mind, to simply fuckin say a line…"
Now I thought that was kinda funny so I kept a mental note of that line. So that the next time I don’t rhyme a line in a freestyle rap, I can throw in that bar or a variation of it. And that’s where writing down your best lines during your practice sessions come in handy.
At first just stick to listening to an assortment of instrumentals, slow, fast, everything, and keeping a notepad to jot down dope lines you may accidentally come up with…then just quickly forget them and keep freestyling. Then repeat the cycle. Over time you will have a nice thick notebook, move on to your next one.
FREESTYLE RAP TIP #2: Be patient, there’s no need for perfection.
Don’t feel obligated to use every single one of the lines your write down in your notebook. Those lines are just for reference. You should review your notebook every now and then to keep those lines fresh in your head if you ever need them and they fit in during a freestyle rap battle.
PHASE 2:
FREESTYLE RAP TIP #3: Become a master at observing your surroundings.
In a real freestyle battle, you can’t just throw out an endless barrage of writtens (sometimes that may be acceptable in a radio station freestyle, but not a battle). I remember a particular 106 & Park Freestyle Friday where one contestant who was battling spit a line against his opponent that went something like this:
"My sound scorches suckers when it comes out the speakers/ Everybody moment of silence: (pause) look at her sneakers."
That line got a roar out of the crowd because of many reasons, one being the tension that built up during the quick pause, another being the battler’s keen observation that his opponent had on a pair of very worn out sneakers…
8 Tips for getting your music heard for FREE
Much like trying to get a unique domain name these days, getting an unused name for yourself/group is a bit more complicated that it once was. Even if you do have an original name, getting people to hear your music before you have any fans can seem almost impossible. With some clever thinking and hard work, it can all be done without spending a dime.
So let’s get right to it – you want to upload your music, photo and bio to the internet, without being lost in a sea of obscurity. It’s understandable how it can happen to even the most talented artists. As mentioned before, it’s not necessary to spend any money in promotion to get great results. It’s also not something that happens overnight.
Establishing your music online ten years ago was an amazing experience. I remember posting tracks made with a Yamaha DJX onto MP3.com, a couple years after it first launched in 1997. I uploaded the music to the Hip-Hop category, and within a few weeks, I had over 47 downloads (this was before streaming was typical, and AOL’s 56k internet connections were still running most of the US). Fast forward a decade later, and you are lucky if your band’s name hasn’t already been taken by at least three or four different groups across the web.
Here is a list of 8 tips for getting your music heard:
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THE SECRET TO SELLING LOTS OF MUSIC
I just received my biggest single payout ever for digital music sales from CD Baby. How much? Over $2,000 just in digital music sales. That completely blows my mind. Seeing that I make “about” .60-some-odd cents per track sold on average, that means this single payment represents about 3,200 downloads sold.
It’s amazing to know there are that many people buying my music. Lest you think my success is the result of some gimmick, think again. I’m just a pianist. Nothing extravagant. I just play, write, and record my music. I have a few cover tunes, yes, but surprisingly that’s not where most of my sales come from. A hefty portion of my digital music sales comes from my original music. In fact, my best selling song is an original tune called “No More Tears.” If you look at my top ten best selling singles, six of the ten are original tunes I wrote.
I have been enjoying great digital music sales for awhile now. I typically average between $1,500-$2,000 over a month period. But to get one single payment of that size (CD Baby pays out weekly) is a marvelous thing. My lovely wife, the love of my life, is rejoicing.
I posted a simple comment about the event on my personal Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/davidnevue) . Here’s what I said:
“I received my largest deposit ever from CDBaby. Record month for digital music sales! I’d do a happy dance if I wasn’t so full from dinner!”
And that prompted this response from a fellow musician:
“Hi david…to what do u owe your great digital sales success?”
Why Do People Buy Music?
That got me to thinking about it. Why do people buy music? What is it that makes someone, a total stranger, actually go out and PURCHASE your music? Especially when, in this day and age, people can find so much music for free on the Internet? To what do I owe my great digital sales success?
Now, I could get spiritually-minded here. I could say, To Whom do I owe my great digital sales success and then thank God for His great provision. That would certainly be correct and true. However, it would be a bit prideful and silly to say that God is out there telling people to buy my music. Yes, there certainly is a spiritual element to what I do. My music is faith-based. But there’s more to it than that.
My response to my fellow musician was this; two reasons for my success came to mind:
1) I write music that some folks love so much that they can’t wait to share it with others.
2) I have a large catalog. I have a discography of ten albums now containing somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 tunes. More product = more sales. It’s easier to sell a little of a lot than it is to sell a lot of alittle. When someone discovers a song of yours that they love, they’ll listen to your other songs as well. And that single sale might turn into a whole lot more sales. The more product you have, the more you have the potential to sell.
It’s All About the Music…
When all is said and done, it comes down to the music. You can be the best online marketer out there, have a fantastic web site, get widespread distribution and all the press in the world and still not sell very much music.
True? Yes, absolutely. A great web site and publicity will help you sell great music. But it won’t help you sell mediocre music, or even skillfully played music that people don’t connect with. You can watch someone play and be amazed at their skill on their instrument, but is that what makes you buy their music? No. You don’t buy the music because someone is a great player, you buy the music because you like it. And even if you get caught up in the moment and buy someone’s CD because you were amazed at their skill, what happened when you got home and actually listened to the CD? The excitement faded, didn’t it? Because what you want to listen to for enjoyment is music that speaks to you emotionally, not technically.
It’s About Emotion…
Music is all about emotion. For total strangers to buy your music online, especially if they are hearing it or sampling it for the first time, they have to fall in love with it in that very moment. Call it “love at first listen.” They have to want it, to desire it, and then for you to find real success, your buyer has to love it so much that after experiencing it they can’t help but to share it with their friends, family and co-workers who, in turn, fall in love with your music. That’s how real success happens. That’s how you grow a business based on your music.
At its core, music is more than just dials and buttons. It’s more than good production. It’s more than a great mix, more than a marketing plan, more than a skillfully played instrument.
It’s raw, untamed, emotion. Capture that, and you just might have something.
1) Focus on your music and songwriting, first.
2) Then focus on the recording and production, taking great songs and making them sound the best they can possibly be.
3) Then focus on the marketing, distribution, and promotion.
A final word of advice: Never, ever, ever release an album or song before it’s time. Never be in a hurry to release your music. Make sure what you put out there is 100% what you want it to be and that it represents you well. Because once you put it out there, you can’t take it back.
Do it right, no matter what it takes. If you settle for doing less than your best, then less than your best is what others will perceive as your “best.” And is what you are about to release really your best work?
Make it your best. Do it right. And then enjoy life.
—–
David Nevue is the founder of The Music Biz Academy and Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio.
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