Remember These Before Signing a Record Label Contract

May 22, 2013 Brand Management, Music Publishing No comments

Whether your band or radio station finally made it to the big time by finding a record label as a sponsor, the challenges do not end there. A record label has their interests as your band does and sometimes, these may conflict. To ensure that every party gets a fair deal out of the contract, you need to watch out for the following contract loopholes.

1. “Product First, Payment Later”
Most big-time and long-staying record labels usually impose a product first payment later basis when sponsoring a band. This means that you have to shell out for what you need and the studios would have to issue a billing statement to reimburse you. The bad side of this deal is that you can lose money if the studio’s quality does not match up the quality the record label is looking for.

2. “Exclusive Brand Endorsement”
Some record labels may require you to endorse certain brands or backers of the record labels themselves. While nothing is wrong with the setup, you are bound by contract to avoid endorsing other products in the same industry. You could also earn from the endorsements that you receive.

3. “Intervention on Creative Process”
Your band has a sound that is unique, which is why the record label signed you up in the first place. However, some record labels may indicate they also have a say in your band’s creative process. If you think this can affect or change the sound of your band, you could have a conflict with your record label here.

Copyrighting Your Band Songs and Albums

April 1, 2013 Music Publishing No comments

Before you find a good distributor and sell your records, you and your band should first know how to get copyrights for your band songs and albums. Having copyrights entitles you to get royalties when the distributor finally sells your records. It also indicates that it was your creative idea and you have full control in modifying and airing it on public. Here are a few things that you should remember.

1. Collaboration
A song could be made by one person or by the band as a whole and once the song is done, it is important to credit the people who collaborated and contributed to bring the song to life. In a band, this could be all its members. This ensures that if the band line-up changes in the future, royalties would still go to the old band members.

2. Organizations
Many organizations that protect intellectual music copyrights, such as BMI and ASCAP in America, monitor the airwaves and other entities that play music. These organizations collect royalties from these establishments who use the media artists registered in their organization made. If you could have your band register with these organizations, rest assured that all your music played in public gets royalties and you could get extensive copyrights.

3. Laying Out the Rules
Sometimes, some band members contribute to a song and others only contribute less. There is no formal way to settle portions with musical segments and contribution but you and your bandmates could lay down some rules. Some groups prefer a higher royalty to anybody who contributes an integral part in the music. Sometimes these royalties are divided equally regardless of contribution. Laying down rules especially in song copyrights is very important.

Brain/ Head Injury Compensation Claims Comprehensive Guide

March 14, 2013 Law and Politics No comments

Victims of brain and head injuries can get compensation for the damages a negligent party, such as a medical professional in an operation or the offender in an accident, committed against them. Below is a few things victims need to remember to get the right compensation they deserve.

1. Medical Reports
Having a medical check-up helps victims have the help of a medical professional estimate the overall damages the brain injury caused, the possible pain and suffering of the victim, the future expenses and losses of the victim and so on. The victim’s legal representative can easily use the medical report as evidence in your claim.

2. Kinds of Bran/Head Injuries and Their Compensation

Here’s a list of the possible injuries and compensation you could receive:

a) Minor Head Injury
A minor symptom of brain damage that is easily resolved in less than a month can gain £1400 at maximum.

b) Minor Head Injury with Slight Brain Damage
If you recover from the damages but you still find very minor brain damage, you could gain £1400-£8000 in compensation.

c) On-Going Brain Damage
If the head injury is directly affecting the victim’s basic motor functions and senses and it affects the victim’s ability to work, concentrate and may induce nervous problems, the victim can gain £10,000 to £180,000 in compensation.

d) Serious Brain Damages
If a patient’s life expectancy is reduced, they can gain at least £180,000 – £260,000 in compensation.

3. Legal Support
In any case of brain/head injury compensation claim, victims need a legal representative at all times. Most offenders and liable parties only provide a lump sum for brain/head injuries. Victims need legal support to gain the complete compensation they deserve.

PPI Claims Deadline: What You Should Remember

February 13, 2013 Music Publishing No comments

If the Financial Services Authority pushes through with its PPI deadline, it can have customers locked out by the deadline itself. However, customers face at least 3.2 million contenders in making and processing PPI claims. The Financial Ombudsman Services is actually facing 11,000 claims on a weekly basis. When making a PPI claim during these difficult times, remember the following.

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1. The Proof of Your Claims
Remember that in any PPI claim, the proof is always important. Gather your evidences, such as the billing statements your bank sends monthly for every PPI repayment you’ve made to verify your first and last payment term for the insurance and the evidences that will help prove your ineligibility for a mis sold PPI. Remember, PPI can only work for people without pre-existing medical conditions, are not unemployed or self-employed and are still within the claiming age.

2. Banks Still Try to Make It Difficult
You might think banks will play fair at this point, but, in reality, they do not. Banks continue to hassle customers with the PPI claims process, and even try to delay or even reduce their repayments. If you’re filing a claim against your bank, expect them to delay your claims or tell you that they only keep insurance records of up to six years. At this point it is important to…

3. Consult With a Legal Firm
Claims management companies are very good allies at this point. By consulting with a legal firm, you can determine your legal position and plan your next action. Also, a legal adviser or claims expert can help you make a claim. Claims experts can do the entire claim for you on a no win no fee basis as well.

The Characteristics of a Good Digital Music Distributor

February 13, 2013 Music Publishing No comments

Your band finally completed its first long-play album and the next question to answer is how to distribute it. Sure, social media can work best in these cases, but this is not enough because you all need to earn your keep for producing your music. Digital music distributors are all around the Internet and here are a few pointers in finding the best ones in the big cyberworld.

1. Respects Legal Boundaries
A good digital music distributor would include in their terms of agreement all the details that you need to agree with and respects these legal boundaries. While some distributors may ask you some demanding terms, if they can respect these legal boundaries and not add any additional infringement during their use of your music, then they’re a reliable company.

2. No Up-Front Fees
Some digital music distributors can ask you for up-front fees as soon as you join their community. Any distributor asking for fees at once is an unreliable company. They can just take your money and then do anything with it while not ensuring the increase in your album sales. Reliable digital music distributors will first sell your album and agree to take a cut from the proceedings as well.

3. Digital Accounting
You need to see how your album performs in the market and they can only achieve this through accounting. There are digital accounting software usually integrated with music distributor interfaces. Talk to past users and see if they find the software useful and if it helps them keep track of how their music is doing in the business.

4. Promotion
For the commission you pay them, reliable music distributors would also promote your album free in their social media networks. Social media integration for your albums should also be available to you and your band’s social media profiles. Make sure to find these applications and perks once you make an account with the distributor.

Ensuring Complete Refunds From a PPI Claim

January 24, 2013 Finance No comments

PPI claiming is a very simple task to complete, but ensuring you have complete refunds will take some effort to guarantee. Reputable claims management companies, such as fastppiclaims.org, can provide you great advice regarding earning complete refunds through specialist help. However, if you think you can handle the claim on your own, here are some things you should remember.

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1. The Billing Receipts
From day one the bank released your loan, mortgage or credit card, if you have kept your billing receipts, now is the time to make use of them. The billing receipts indicate the amount of repayment you deserve, including other details, such as compound interests. In a notebook, list down the dates and the amount you repaid for the insurance policy.

2. Compound Interests
Banks are willing to provide compensation to customers, but not as much as they want to reduce the payout amount. What can increase a customer’s refunds are their compound interests, which you also paid for. If you had the insurance policy for at least 10 years, you have repaid the compound interests along with your financing as well. Look through your receipts and terms of contract; you could find that compound interests actually raised your insurance prices.

3. Send a Letter of Claiming
The first stop you have is submitting your PPI claims form to the bank’s call centre for PPI claiming, but do not be too hopeful. Customers comment about banks rejecting claims up-front without evaluation, and the Financial Ombudsman who handles the rejected claims has 7 out of 10 rejected claims win compensation. So if your bank rejects your claim, submit to the FOS instead.

4. Claims Help
If you were discouraged in your first attempt to make your PPI claim, you could ask for help from claims management companies such as fastppiclaims.org. Claims experts have the skill and knowledge to help you get back all your repayments and even follow it up for you if the banks are taking too long. All of these services are under a no win no fee basis, which means you don’t have to pay for anything if they fail to meet your satisfaction.

Band Competitions and How They Can Benefit You

January 22, 2013 Brand Management No comments

If you’re in an independent band and you want to gain some fame and reputation for your musicianship, you could step into a band competition. A band competition does guarantee prices, but the actual plus side of the band competition is that you could actually promote your musicianship with the other competitors and if you make it to the bigger leagues.

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Most bands who join band competitions often aim to win, but like every cheesy line in a movie, it is not about winning, but about how you play the game. A band competition is a game, but the rules and mechanics are different from sports and other types of games.

In a band competition, you learn how to interact with music industry authorities, with your audience and with other bands. Sure, sometimes, there are tensions between bands or band members of different bands, but the bands can settle disputes as they play their set. It does help to make things competitive in a competition to up the passion, but the band should avoid disputes. Remember, you are here not only to win, but also to market your band. If you fail in interacting with the other bands, you miss an opportunity of touring or even releasing an album along with them.

The second thing when it comes to band competitions is that you gain more audience than what your band initially hoped to see. Band competitions have big audiences, given that promoters are eager to see new talent. The band’s performance determines how the audience reception could be. It is different from playing in a small crowd bar or party; playing in a stage with many people watching you is different and this is where you learn how to develop your charisma and skill.

The third thing with band competitions is that if you win, you get all the glory and fame you wanted. If you lose, you at least tried and played a great set on that stage. It is not often that you could play on big stages. But the best part is that the connections you make with your talent can help you get on that stage again, this time without having to join a band competition.

No Win No Fee Compensation Claims May Soon Return

January 22, 2013 Law and Politics No comments

The Ministry of Justice first introduced the no win no fee claims system in the United Kingdom in the 90s and it was met with great applause from consumer groups and independent human rights organizations. The MOJ intended to give UK citizens wider access in terms of legal services and rights. However, in a span of more than 10 years, the no win no fee claims systems may have done more damage that it was originally intended for.

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The no win no fee agreement between a client and a legal representative is that a client will only pay the legal representative if the representative can successfully win the case. The client has no responsibility for the legal fee if the representative loses the case. The representative then earns his or her legal fees from the defendant, win or lose. The system allowed victims to win a great amount f their compensation, but the MOJ still found the victims undercompensated as legal representatives are paid 25% of the total compensation.

In 2007, the system then evolved into a win/lose no fee case, where the victims, upon winning the case, keeps all their compensation while the legal representative gains their legal fees from the defendants, including their base legal costs. This became great news for victims. However, there was a problem with the win/lose no fee cases; many cases became exaggerated and fraudulent that insurance companies were paying £2bn a year because of no win no fee whiplash claims and the NHS Welsh Risk Pool increased to £15.2m.

This prompted the authorities to return the no win no fee claims system, wherein victim would pay 25% to the legal expert, but there were given exceptions. The MOJ gave childbirth and brain damage cases the win/lose no fee exemption as the severe cases cannot be exaggerated and are unlikely to be fraudulent, meaning that the clients deserve the compensation they get from the win/lose no fee claims.

The return of no win no fee claims was designed to get rid of fraudsters who think compensation payouts are like lottery wins. True personal injury and damages compensation cases are life-devastating and the proper amount of compensation cannot even compare to the pain experienced by the victim.

Musician Brand Management Using the Internet

January 22, 2013 Brand Management, Music Publishing No comments

For any person aspiring to gain fame and fortune in the future, the Internet is the key to their success with the use of social media and crowd sourcing. However, it is important to remember that it is not only you, but other aspiring people like you, who would want to take advantage of marketing their own musicianship in the Internet. Here are some tips to help you gain the 1-Up over the competition.

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1. Social Media
Don’t just stick to Facebook or Twitter, expand the number of social media profiles you have. Find social media that springs up in the Internet. The advantage of having an account in every social media community is that people who look for you in that community can easily find you. On Facebook, you could easily be found and you can interact with your new followers, but others on other social media networks would also be looking for you to interact with. Interaction is crucial in social media networking to introduce your brand.

2. Applications
People want to listen to your songs or see videos of your performances. You could have a Youtube account to link your performances to your social media profiles and have a third party application create a music player with a playlist of some songs you want to share to people. You may post one or all of the music you have, depending on your marketing strategy.

3. Response
People like it when they follow and interact with a musician as they get to know more about the musician’s interests, hobbies, outlooks in life and other perspectives and philosophies other than the music they listen to. The Internet makes the world a large community and you, even if you become famous with your Internet marketing strategies, are part of that community that makes great things while remaining just a small portion of the world wide web.

Music Publishing: Get Signed or Do Independent

January 22, 2013 Music Publishing No comments

In the minds of many bands and musicians today, the independent scene is becoming more and more attractive. Lowered costs with the entire management of your band and your musician brand and label in your hands, you have complete control over the profits you reap even if it is hard work. However, there are many advantages signing up for a label as well. Here’s a good breakdown of what looks good for your band’s music.

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1. Signed Label Promotions
When it comes to promotions, a musician signed with a record label leaves the marketing up to the record label itself. The record label would also provide an up-front fee for recording and marketing that the musician can use for pre and postproduction of their album or songs. The signed labels can also use their connections with venues to get gigs for the musician.

2. Independence Wins You Great Cuts
The bad thing about record labels is that they provide you up-front money that you would need to return with a deadline. You would be recording in a studio and wishing people would like your songs and buy your albums, but if you can’t, you are indebted to the record label, who gets at least a 60% cut from your album sales. If you’re touring, 20% of that goes to your road managers and you get at least 10% of what you actually make.

3. Getting Copyrighted
Record labels can do the copyrights for you and ensure that you receive the royalties for your songs. However, they also get the copyrights for the songs as soon as you get off the label and most of the time, the record label still gets 50% from your royalties, leaving you with the other half.

4. Independence Means Hard Work, But Great Rewards
Being an independent label, you get to choose the people you want to make music for and the kind of music you want to make. Sure, it is hard work as you would be the one to promote your events and fund your own album, but you could do crowdsourcing to help you make an album that can satisfy all your investors, unlike a record label that can easily throw you out if you don’t deliver.

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