mistrustmusic's posterous http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com Most recent posts at mistrustmusic's posterous posterous.com Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:02:17 -0700 The colour Purple http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/the-colour-purple http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/the-colour-purple No post for a few weeks, mainly due to family commitments, work commitments, and stuff like that. However, I'm excited right now. I'm finally going to get some tunes played on an upcoming internet radio show. More details to follow after 10pm (UK time). In the meantime, you can get hold of all my music for free. See the previous post for details....

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Tue, 01 May 2007 16:08:52 -0700 Music Licensing http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/music-licensing http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/music-licensing Someone on the Big Chill forum that I occasionally visit wanted some advice about getting his music marketed through a music library and wondered if he had to sign up with MCPS and pay £100 for the privelege. As you may have read on here, I've recently signed a non-exclusive agreement with a major UK library, and haven't had to register with MCPS, so something doesn't add up if this chap has been told otherwise. As far as I'm aware, the agreement I signed sorts out pre-clearance for my tracks that the library is offering to film, tv, companies etc. In other words, if a few tv production companies hear of one my tracks on the music library's website and want to use it, there's no need to wait ages for them to send me an individual agreement for each programme, for me to check them, sign them and send them back, etc, before anyone can use them. From what I understand, the music library registers my track with MCPS (they get listed as the publisher), the production company requests a licence from MCPS website giving the catalogue number of my track, and the production company pays MCPS for the licence. MCPS (eventually) sends the licence fee (minus their admin fee) to the music library, which then pays me (minus their take - usually 50%). If anyone else is looking for advice on signing up with a music licence in the UK, have a look here at the MCPS production music guide, which even shows you the official rate card for different types of production (anything from about £20 to £000s). The music library should be registered with MCPS - if they're in the UK and not on this list, it's probably not worth dealing with them. If anyone from the USA or other countries is reading this and knows something about it in other countries, please let me know.

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Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:45:17 -0700 Signed by a music library http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/signed-by-a-music-library http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/signed-by-a-music-library I've sort of mentioned this before, but now I can tell all..... I've signed a non-exclusive deal with a major UK music library, called CandyCover, that supplies music to TV, film, and advert production companies. They've worked with big players like Orange, O2, Virgin, and the Ministry of Sound. It's a massive break for me - never had anything like this happen before. They've asked to use 8 of my tracks - not my long, instrumental tunes that have been doing the rounds for a couple of years like Never Alone and For All we've done, but my more recent ones that are available at Music Freedom. They're all fairly short and are wanted for the library's "Art/Quirky/Cult Drama" section. I've signed a contract with them and the tracks are going to be registered with MCPS, the official publishing organisation in the UK, which means I get paid the proper rate if any of my tracks get used. I know that a lot of musicians get tracks signed to music libraries, and the competition is huge
Listen to this article , but it's a massive break and I'm really pleased about it. I've been told in the last couple of years that my music hasn't been commercial enough to get on a record label release, which was a bit disappointing at first. I got some tracks taken on by a company called Archangel Media Group for use in some O'Neill Surfing promo films - Deep Blue Open 2005 and Anglet Pro, but it was unpaid and not a lot came from it apart from a decent showreel and the prestige from getting airplay on Extreme Channel. However, more and more people in the music licensing business were saying that I had a "soundtrack" edge to my music and that it would fit in with the sort of thing that gets used in film and tv. I got a knockback a couple of years ago when a licensing company called Raw42 said that my style was not suitable for adverts, but I carried on in the same style, making more short instrumental stuff, and it looks like it's paid off. Finally, a big thanks to everyone who's pushed my music and kept me going with words of encouragement and support.

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Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:13:21 -0700 Paul can't open up to people but he can talk to his blog http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/paul-cant-open-up-to-people-but-he-can-talk-t http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/paul-cant-open-up-to-people-but-he-can-talk-t
Should this blog be entirely about music? Comments please! I just wanted to put in a quick word about Paul's blog. Paul Harrison is my stepson, who happens to have PDD-NOS, a condition similar to autism and asperger's syndrome. He's very withdrawn and hates having to meet new people, as it makes him anxious and can't cope. He can't get into school at the moment as his stress levels go through the roof whenever he thinks of being in class - he's 14 y.o. and you just try making him go! The whole thing makes him more anxious and less confident. His school agreed to send him work home, which is a start... We've had major problems getting him to communicate his feelings and anxieties, and won't go to see the pyschologist he's under at the moment, so me and his mum have to keep diaries and try to tell the psych what we think Paul is thinking. He just can't open up to people. Until he discovered I was writing a blog. Now he's blogging all the time. At first it was only to tell people about his music on myspace. Then he posted something about PDD-NOS, I helped him tag it, and he started to get loads of hits and a few comments about how he wasn't alone in the ASD world. People from around the world were writing to him. He's now added more posts, writing about his days at home, and life in general, and he's really opened up in writing how he feels, and actually puts across his anxieties. Whether he's found a way to get more hits than me (he's very competitive) or whether he genuinely thinks he can write down how he feels, I'm not sure. Oh, and if you want to read about music, I've just been signed by a major music library in the UK. Some of the tracks are on musicfreedom.com, so have a listen while you post a comment on here!

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Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:31:07 -0700 How many forums - how many blogs http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/how-many-forums-how-many-blogs http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/how-many-forums-how-many-blogs
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Just how many blogs should a person have? How many forums should a musician sign up to? All in the interest of promoting a new song? My stepson, Paul, is trying to get people to listen to his music. He's only 14 and gets very focussed and obsessed with everything he does. You wouldn't say he's very musically-minded, but he wants to make tunes. He's not interested that they might need mixing properly or mastered to get them sounding good. He just wants to put them on the internet like me. He thought that people would just come across his myspace profile or his page on MP3.com and just his total plays would go up and up without any input or promotion from him. So, I told him that he should start a blog and tell people all about himself and his music. He could always join a few forums and start swapping reviews and opinions, and start to get people to listen to his music. I even mentioned music competitions. I think he's taken me a bit literally. He's looking on the web for almost every music competition that's listed. He wants to me to put him on every blog site going - especially the ones I'm on. He wants me to sign up to loads of forums and let him copy and paste a "Listen to my music" message so he doesn't have to write anything new. Why gets me back to my point. How many blogs does an unsigned musician need to do a bit of self-promotion and to get some new listeners? How many forums do you need to sign up to? Is it ok to sign up and just post a thread saying "here I am"? It made me think that when I first started putting my music on the internet just over 2 years ago, I wanted to post threads on every forum and tell everyone to listen to my tracks, hoping that someone somewhere would hear me and I'd stand out from the crowd. I'm still on a few of those forums, but don't post much these days, mainly because I haven't got time, due to other things like making music. Budding artists like Paul need to stick to getting some decent tunes together and put them on a couple of sites, and spend a few weeks plugging away and posting comments about other people's tracks, in the hope that someone will listen. It happened to me. When I go on the old forums, I see the same old names, hoping that someone important will notice them, or they'll get a good review from someone on Outer Mongolia who's never heard of them and will never ask the to play live. There's more to making music than forums and blogs.

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