E.I.'s WORLD
Hi everyone! Welcome to E.I.'s World. This blog area is my new addition to the website. I wanted to give you guys some info on what's going on with me and the music biz that I'm so passionate about. I'll try to pop in and write when I get a free moment. I just purchased some new software synths ( Propellerheads Reason 4 and IK Multimedia's Sample Moog) for my DAW which should help a great deal with enhancing my music production. I was already familiar with a previous version of Reason, but was blown away by this new version. It has all the essentials for music production for the beginner as well as the pro. I love it and highly recommend it! I still have to dive into Sample Moog though. I've got my eyes on a few other pro audio toys but I can't reveal those secret weapons until I get them in my gear lusting hands! As fate would have it, it's also about that time to upgrade my old computer. I've had it for about five or six years now and it's starting to show it's age. I still manage to squeeze my track production & sessions out of it, but it's time, definitely time to take the plunge. Here's some gear recommendations you might wanna' check out: HIGH END-Openlabs Miko & Neko portable media workcenters.Openlabs. LOW END-MXL V69 Mogami Edition Tube Mic.MXL
'Til later... God Bless.
E.I.
Not Just Myspace Anymore!
Lately I've been making a lot of new friends and contacts at these social network sites. Although myspace is still an excellent way for the world to get a taste of your musical offerings, there is a new breed of up and coming social networks that are making some serious noise. I particularly like these:
Hits A Million, The Studio Exposed, and ChristianHangSuite.
These sites offer exposure, and a world of music industry information that could help ignite your music industry pursuits. Every area of the entertainment industry is covered, and you may even find answers to some of the questions that you'd normally have to pay an entertainment lawyer or consultant to get. I, myself, find this to be a great money & time saver! Kudos goes out to Thedy B who's at the helm of the hot and constantly growing Hits-A-Million.com site. I've watched it grow from a few members to over 750+ members in a few months. Her site has the potential of skyrocketing into something great and I highly recommend that you become a member of all the above. There's some exciting events and chat room topics 24/7, and you can meet some great people too. Pop in to anyone of them and tell 'em Beatmaker E.I. told you about joining when you make your profile!
Be Blessed,
BMEI
Music Business Knowledge-Producer's Points
Here's an excerpt from Gear Slutz- Producer's points from Michael Wagener on producer points for all of you who want to get that part of the music business clarified. You can go to the link above to see the entire thread:
In general, if there is no special deal going, producers points are paid from actual sales. They are calculated of the net retail price, which is a floating price to say the least.
The way it is normally set up (or at least was when the industry was still halfway sane):
The artist (with an artist deal at a label) gets anywhere from 10 to 20 % (points) of the net retail, which could be anywhere from $7 to $18 depending on the the deal the label has with distributors and a million other things. Out of the artist points he/she pays the producer's points.
Lets say for numbers sake and very much simplyfied:
the artist gets 13%, and out of that he/she pays the producer 3%, so he/she is left with a net artist rate of 10%. The net retail price for numbers sake, is at $10. That means the producer would make $0.30 per actual CD sold. The artist would make $1 per actual CD sold.
Here comes the hitch:
Royalties are normally paid retroactive from sale of unit one, after the "Recording Cost" are recouped. Recording cost (which include anyting to do with making the album, except for producers advances) are recouped at the "net artist rate" which in our example is 10%. So, again for numbers sake: Let's say the record cost $100,000 to make. The artist would have to sell 100,000 units to recoup the recording cost. At that time everybody would start to get paid royaties, BUT retroactive to sale of unit one. In other words, as a producer you would not see a dime until CD 100,001 is sold but then you would get $30,000 right away, plus whatever sales over 100,000 are accounted for, minus all the other contractual deductions for reserves, returns, packaging etc. etc. etc. The artist would get paid $100,000 at that point, minus any advances he/she got to survive during the making of the CD. If the producer got any advances for the project, he/she would have to recoup those first. In our examle above: if the producer got an advance of $20,000, he/she would get paid $10,000. After recoupment there should be a 3 month or 6 month statement, hopefully with a check attached.
The producer has no right to any Publishing royaties, unless he is part writer of a song or the artist "gives" him writing credits for his work on the songs. I never ask for publishing, but leave it completely up to the artist to include me in it, if they feel I contributed enough to a song to make a difference. Publishing is about the only money an artist will make for a while (other expenses like touring, or a video shoot will eat up any royalties), and since they have to be able to exist, otherwise they can't tour and sell CDs, I advise every artist to not let anybdy touch their publishing (and merchandising for that matter). Also, publishing is paid from sale one and is not reliant on recoupment of the Recording Cost.
All that said, you can imagine it takes a upwards from 50 pages contract to nail this down (especially since royalties are at a different rate in different countries), so I changed my royalty system to $0.0X per song sold, very simple, the artist sells a song (download or CD) and I get paid $0.0X. Makes for a one page contract.
This is a very simplified exlanation of the whole deal, but I hope this helps.
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Michael Wagener