I was asked this great question by a relatively new session singer who is starting to get some demo work: If I sing a demo and get paid up front and then it ends up getting used (with my vocal on it) for commercial purposes, do I have any right to any more more money?… Read More » about Demo Lead Vocals: Can They Be Released?
Music Business
Branding Your Voice: Artistic Definition
What makes YOU stand out from the crowd? If you want to have a commercial music career with your voice, there is a step you don’t need to skip: Branding your voice. I like to call this your “Artistic Definition”. What goes into branding or defining yourself as an artist? Here is an excerpt from… Read More » about Branding Your Voice: Artistic Definition
Vocal Careers: How To Find Success
Do you want a vocal career? Do you want a bigger or more prosperous music business? There is no substitute for planning for success. You can’t plan for every contingency, as the pandemic era has proven, but without a morphable plan, success is a pipedream – not a real one with legs and not just… Read More » about Vocal Careers: How To Find Success
Finding Your Voice: Vocal Uniqueness
When it comes to finding your own vocal uniqueness, you have to create your own vocal art. Very much like painting your own picture or writing your own novel, you take the color palate and alphabet of other vocal masters and create your own vocal work of art. It’s a process; most people start by… Read More » about Finding Your Voice: Vocal Uniqueness
Authenticity: Lesson from the Hummingbird
I was watching my hummingbirds today and thought about how much they are like an audience. They may investigate you to see what you are about. If you have a red shirt on they may look for a flower opening for a few moments (which can startle you!). But since you don’t have one they… Read More » about Authenticity: Lesson from the Hummingbird
Separating Music and Business
For recording and performing artists who are in or want to be in commercial music business, meaning the making and selling of music, I have a suggestion for you: Separate music and business in your mind and in your actions. Why? Because unless you do, you will not do either as effectively or successfully. What… Read More » about Separating Music and Business
What Songwriters Get From Mechanicals
Mechanical license fees paid by record labels are sent to publishers, not songwriters. So how can songwriters benefit from physical sales if they have signed away all their publishing? I know from my experience that major publishers usually split these mechanical fees with their songwriters, after all advances (staff writer ‘draws’) are recouped, but I… Read More » about What Songwriters Get From Mechanicals
Music Makers in the Changing Music Business
In the music industry today, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is subject to change. So what does that mean for the music makers (artists, session singers, musicians, arrangers, producers, songwriters, studios and studio engineers, etc.)? Music will continue to be made. Where, how and with whom will change, but people’s listening ears will always want… Read More » about Music Makers in the Changing Music Business
When your music backup is… not
Producer/Engineer Ronny Light doing the other creative thing he loves From Judy: I don’t know about you, folks, but my voice and my music (not to mention press photos, videos, schedule, so much more) are located in files on my computer that I don’t want to lose. (Understatement!) So face it; all of us singers… Read More » about When your music backup is… not
Artistic Definition
Many, if not most, of us would like to make money in the music business. There is a very important factor that must be determined: Your artistic definition. In other words, who are you, and why would I want to listen to the music you make? Here are some things that go into your artistic… Read More » about Artistic Definition