Avatar:

• Avatar has an application process, and it is not guaranteed they will take your music.
• If accepted, your music should be available on iTunes within 3-4 weeks after you submit all the required items (contracts, CDs, W9, etc.)
• Avatar does not charge a set up fee, but will keep 20% of earnings as their distribution fee.
• Payments will be made 45 days after the end of each quarter (mid May, Aug, Nov, Feb)
• Better Business Bureau: No Rating, no complaints.

Catapult:

• Catapult offers self sign up, and includes multiple stores in their distribution agreement including iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Zune.
• Expect a 4-8 week time frame from the time you submit your music, to the time it will be available for download (varies by store)
• Catapult charges a $25 setup fee, and has a tiered distribution fee starting at 9% and scales down to 5% as downloads increase.
• Catapult does not require a physical CD, so you can start the process while your music is off to the replicator, or you can choose to scrap CD replication altogether.
• Payments are made once a month via Paypal.
• Better Business Bureau: A Rating, no complaints.

CD Baby:

• CD Baby is also a self sign up service, and includes over 20 stores in the agreement.
• Expect your music to start showing up in the different stores after 3 weeks.
• CD Baby charges a $35 set up fee, with a distribution fee of 9%.
• CD Baby issues payments the Monday after they received the sales reports from iTunes, Amazon, etc.
• CD Baby also has a physical distribution offering that includes Amazon (which is required if you plan on submitting to Pandora).
• Better Business Bureau: A- Rating, BBB processed a total of 18 complaints about C D Baby Inc in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 18 complaints closed in 36 months, 14 were closed in the last year.

The Orchard:

• The Orchard has an application and approval process.
• The Orchard distributes through iTunes, Verizon, Amazon MP3, Zune, and many more.
• Better Business Bureau: No Rating, no complaints.

QuickStar Productions:

• Quickstar also has an application and approval process.
• Quickstar distributes through iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, and “almost every other mp3 retailer on the world.”
• Better Business Bureau: A Rating, no complaints.

TuneCore:

• TuneCore is completely self service and includes 19 different stores (iTunes, Amazone MP3, eMusic, etc.)
• TuneCore does not retain anything as distribution fee, however, it does have 3 different setup fees depending on single, album (standard), or album “a la carte” distribution.
• Better Business Bureau: No Rating, BBB processed a total of 2 complaint(s) about this business in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 2 complaint(s) closed in the last 36 months, 0 were closed in the last 12 months.

**All the distribution fees are based on earnings after the retailer fees.

Good Luck!

image by DeusXFlorida

SoundExchange is legit and has money waiting for musicians.

Fifteen years ago the U.S. Congress started changing the laws to create performance royalties for artist. Now, in some situations, not only do the people that write and own songs get royalties, but so do all the individuals involved in the recording of a song.

For over 80 years American radio stations have convinced musicians that radio does not have to pay performance royalties. They found a loophole, and they have made sure to keep it a loophole. Yet, it’s not the same story around the world. In many countries artist do get performance royalties.

Lately things have gotten better in the U.S. You, and your copy write holder, can now collect performance royalties for digital performances. This would be when music is played on satellite or Internet radio. The non-profit company SoundExchange was created to handle the payments music providers would pay to musicians from government licenses. There has been hundreds of millions of dollars collected on musicians’ behalf.

The only problem is that the concept of performance royalties is so unknown in the U.S. that many artist don’t collect the money they are due. It’s why soundExchange is holding more than $10 million dollars in royalties for musicians who they have contacted six times or more. It’s why SoundExchange has sent out 14,000 checks to artists, yet these artist have never cashed the checks.

Musicians are afraid it’s a scam. But the money is legit. SoundExchange has collected over $350 million dollars in performance royalties. Now you need to collect it.

It’s not too complicated, at it is never too late. SoundExchange has royalty payments that date back to 1996.

To start with, you need to go to SoundExchange.com or their registration site. The money is taxable. Don’t forget that Congress created this, so you will need to fill out tax forms. If you are in a band, this is a great reason to turn the band into a small business. You will be able to keep all the money together, and not have to register each member individually. (Also, turning your band into a small business has lots of other advantages and is fairly common among successful bands Detone8.com has interviewed.)

You will need a bank account that they can deposit the money into. You can wait for them to send you a check., but direct deposit is much faster.

The form mostly keeps track of where you live, what music you are involved in and how to pay you. They do have a large, 42 person staff that would be happy to help you figure everything out. You can e-mail them, or even call them during normal business hours. But even with all these people trying to give money to musicians, not all of the money can be given to the rightful owners.

Bryan Calhoun, Vice President of New Media at SoundExchange, warns why you need to properly fill out submissions to SoundExchange and digital music providers like Pandora.

Digital music providers have to submit their play lists to SoundExchange, so the proper artists get paid. But because these providers can only share information that was submitted to them, some musicians will never get paid. Why? Because someone filled out the form as BAND UNKNOWN or DEMO. Calhoun said that SoundExchange has a lot of money for BAND UNKNOWN.

With all this money SoundExchange is trying to give away you would think they would have their hands full. Yet, they are fighting hard to get even more money. If digital performance royalties are bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars, what SoundExchange and the Music First Coalition are working on could dramatically change the music industry. They are trying to close the loophole broadcast radio uses to not pay performance royalties.

How much money could be paid to artist is hard to imagine. The scale is huge. Just one example is that France does pay musicians performance royalties for songs played on the radio. But because U.S. radio stations do not pay French musicians performance royalties, French radio stations do not pay U.S. musicians performance royalties. Calhoun believes that U.S. artist should received more than $100 million in performance royalties from foreign radio stations alone.

Musicians deserve to be paid for their work, and SoundExchange is one more way to get paid.

Performance royalties quick tips

• Create a bank account for music revenue.

• Make sure your information is correct when registering for XM, SIRIUS, Pandora and any other digital music provider.

• Register with Soundexchange.

Writing is difficult, and writing quality lyrics can seem impossible. Yet the biggest obstacle is not that you can’t write, but how you approach writing. Forget all that nonsense you learned in freshman English class that Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the world.

If you want to write the songs people will love, you need follow the rules of great writing today. But first you have to shake some misconceptions about good writing.

1.) Good writers are born good writers.

Contrary to popular belief, great writers are not born good at their craft. Great writers are created with hard work. No one expects a guitar player to be great as soon as they start, so don’t expect your writing to be strong until you have practiced, practiced and practiced some more.

2.) Great writing is complex.

Bullshit. The best writing is the most direct writing, and direct writing is when the way you speak and the way you write are nearly indistinguishable. Shakespeare is the greatest author in history because his writing could connect with people like no one else. But that is history. We don’t talk like that anymore.

Now that  your head is clear, you need to start filling it with what you really need to know. The first step to being a better song writer is to read good writing.

No one is better at teaching American English writing than William Zinsser. His book “On Writing Well” should be owned by every song writer. Fittingly, the best description of the book comes from Zinsser.

“The life-changing message of On Writing Well: simplify your language and thereby find your humanity.” -William Zinsser

So what are you doing reading this article? Get to work. Write the next great song.

BONUS:A few writing tips I learned as a journalist.

• Keep to one topic – If a song is about your friend Pete, don’t write about your dog, your job or your car. If you don’t have enough to say about Pete you should pick a new topic.

• Seek honest feedback – There will always be people who will cut you down, and there will always be someone who can’t say anything bad. These people are useless. Ask people who will be honest with you to review your songs.

• Put it out there – Sometimes your writing will seem pure genius, and no one will notice. Sometimes you will knock a piece out in 10 minutes and it will be the next big hit. You’ll never know if you don’t put it out there.

Michael Zapruder, music curator for Pandora, faces an onslaught of 400 to 800 songs every month. Yet even with a never ending supply of new music, Zapruder and his staff don’t cut any corners. Every song submitted to Pandora is analyzed by the experts at Pandora to be considered for inclusion in the collection.

“We are proud we listen to everything,” Zapruder said.

With over 40 million registered users, Pandora is not a market you want to miss out on. And, you should not. Submitting to Pandora is relatively easy, and all the steps you need to get on Pandora are steps you should be doing anyway.

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The steps to getting your music ready for submitting.

• First, you need to have a CD copy of your music with a bar code. When a recording studio agrees to record and replicate an album a bar code is often included in the fees. But watch out, it can cost as much as $99 to buy a bar code. Pandora recommends Nation Wide Barcode which charges only $10 for a bar code. You can get it the same day.

• Once your music has been reproduced into a CD format, Pandora requires that the music must be available in the physical Amazon CD store. You will need to create an account for Amazon Advantage, but there are no fees to join. It cost $29.95 per year plus a 55% standard commission on the sale of your CDs. Don’t forget to enter in all the information that Amazon lists about your music. Most importantly you need to upload the cover art for the album.

• Speaking of albums, no matter how awesome all the other songs on a CD might sound you need the rights to use every song on the album. Once Pandora accepts your music they may use all the songs on your CD.

• It is also suggested that before submitting you should collect relevant information about your fan base, selling power and music reviews. This will not help with the Music Genome Project, but it can be a good indicator to Pandora if people want to hear your music.

The simple submission process.

• Go to Pandora’s submit music form and give them all the information you have prepared. You will want to submit your best two songs from the CD you put on Amazon. Zapruder also suggests not putting in more than one submission until you know if your first CD has been approved or denied.

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You can check up on the status of your submissions, but be patient. Not only are there hundreds of submissions ahead of yours, the review process takes a long time. You just need to have the patience to wait as Pandora works their way through the songs ahead of yours. Zapruder said this process can take up to three months.

“We listen to the songs and if necessary and relevant we look up the supplemental information that the artist provided with their submission,” Zapruder said. “A decision is made on whether to accept the music or to pass on it, and that decision is added to the original submission.”

Once Pandora gets to accepts your submission, the Music Genome Project is used to analyze your songs. This process is a long list of music attributes that are rated by a group of music experts at Pandora. The rating process is extremely rigid so that all of the music analysts can give a consistent answer to questions like, “how distorted is this guitar?”

No matter what the genre, Zapruder is looking for quality music. Yet some of the more crowded genres, like four piece pop rock, can be difficult to get into. Also, some genres of music have yet to get their own genome, so Pandora would not be able to take any music of that genre regardless of quality.  Don’t worry. It is very unlikely you would run across this problem if you are writing any kind of music heard in clubs in the U.S.

Good luck.

This is part one of a three part series on Pandora Radio. Part two is an interview with Pandora Chief Strategy Officer & Founder Tim Westergren. He talked with us about how Pandora works, the future of the music industry and his advice for young bands.

The third part of the Pandora Radio series is on promoting your band and making money on Pandora. According to Westergren, 70 percent of the music on Pandora is from artist not on major labels, and Pandora pays royalties for every time a song gets played on the site. Last year Pandora paid more than $20 million in royalties.

A great photo will define a band’s presence decades after it was taken. A bad photo will turn a band into a bad punchline overnight.

So, what makes a great band photo? Authenticity.

A great photo should not cost more money than a terrible photo, but it will cost your time and commitment.

The big don’t- Above all else, avoid the staged photo.

A photo shoot of the band pretending to play their instruments will look like a band pretending to play their instruments. Guess What? Most musicians are not trained models, and they are not working with high-end fashion photographers. If Playboy asks your band to fake play your guitar, do it. If your aunt asks you to do this, politely decline.

If your band is not full of models, the best solution is to take candid photos. Have someone take pictures of your band doing real things, with real emotions. To create candid photos with real emotions, your band and the photographer need to get out of the lets take some pictures mode to lets show our fans who we are as people. Take focus away from the act of being photographed, and turn it into a way to connect with fans.

Let’s go bowling- If a band wants to show a fun side or competitive side, mini golf, bowling and the basketball court can cover both motivations. These are also cheep locations that generally don’t mind if people are taking photos. If the band wants to mess around or play for the win it all works, as long as nothing is forced. If it does not feel right, don’t do it.

Let’s get serious- For some bands rounds of mini golf and bowling are not going to cut it. It’s time to get serious. Take the band to a sculpture park or a universities art department. It will not only be a good way to see the band’s reactions to pieces they love or hate, but the art will make for a strong background.
It’s also more than likely that some members of the band are creative in other ways. Take your photographer to watch members paint, sculpt, draw or do whatever they love outside of music.

Let’s go- If all else fails, take your photographer on the road. The most candid shots, and often the best, occur when a band and a photographer have spent too much time together, and no one really cares what they look like or what they are doing.

DIY Tip – You’re poor. We Know. It’s highly recommended to get a trained photographer, but if all else fails you can take your own photos. The big secret to great photography is to take lots and lots and lots of photos. Then take some more. Remember, a band can take a long time getting the right photo. In the long run it is easier to work hard to get the perfect photo, than to be consistently reminded of those terrible photos on your CD covers.

Once you have some photos the band really likes it is time to test the images. Don’t trust your own judgment, and don’t ask your mom’s opinion. Put the images on photo critique sites like flickr or professional music photographers like Zack Arias. It’s better to have someone pick your photos apart now, then after you put them on 10,000 fliers.

For more tips on taking band photos, and other rookie band tips read these articles to help your band.

Jet Lag Gemini has no gimmicks to success. There are no tricks up their sleeves. The band makes music, and they do it very well. The dedication to their music is the reason Doghouse Records put Jet Lag Gemini on their label and set up tours with bands like The All-American Rejects. It’s also the reason the band has spent a year writing their current album.

“Write good music,” Misha Safonov, lead singer of Jet Lag Gemini, said. “People pick up on it.”

Yet even with a unique sound, Jet Lag Gemini had to work to get fans. The scene in New Jersey, at the time the band was created, was ruled by screamo bands emulating Thursday. Jet Lag Gemini was the only band in the area with a cleaner rock sound. Safonov said that people though the band was weird. But, it never detoured them.

They set out to be a touring band from day one. As soon as the band was formed they booked to play their first show only three weeks later. They didn’t even have all of their songs written. There was no MySpace push or crazy contests. It was an old school approach to making it in the music industry, playing as many shows as possible, and focus on the music first.

As Jet Lag Gemini played more shows and started setting up tours, the screamo scene got old. People were looking for something different. As the scene moved onto AutoTunes and the latest hipster look more people begin to notice Jet Lag Gemini’s unique sound and dedication to their music.

“It’s word of mouth,” Safonov said. “People see us live and there is a steady growth.”

The band started to tour and trade shows with other bands. They learned to become economical and not drive to Florida before anyone knows who they are.

People took notice. The band formed around 2004 and by 2006 Doghouse Records learned about their music and offered them a deal.

Yet there is more to Jet Lag Gemini’s success than good music, it is a good attitude. Along the way they have tried to stay humble, learning to not be like the bands that act like they are owed success.

“Some bands think that just because they left town and are on tour that they are a big deal,” Safonov said. “Sure, you want to have mystery, but you don’t want to come off as a dick.”

The success Jet Lag Gemini has tasted has not consumed them, but pushed them to be even better. After two albums, Jet Lag Gemini spent the entire year writing for their latest album. Even before stepping into a studio, and working with their producer, the band has taken time to write and record all the songs for the album, so they can give their producer the best idea of how they want the album to sound.

With the amount of time Jet Lag Gemini has spent on the latest album, they will go over two years without releasing anything new. It’s not been easy for the band. Safonov has had to earn extra money on the side to help pay his bills. Yet, they are doing it they way they want.

“There is no easy way to make it.” Safonov said. “There are a million different ways to make it, but non of them are easy.”

Franz Ferdinand gives some times about lyric writing to young fans at a writing event.

image by dearbarbie

After interviewing musicians, we at detone8.com ask for one piece of advice they would give a new band. Often, that advice is watching out for creative differences.

Creative differences is a nice way of saying, “we don’t like playing in this band anymore.” It can be a necessary tool in growing as a musician, but it can also destroy a promising band.

“If people don’t have a passion for the music it tears bands apart,” Steve Reter from Drop Out Year warned. “I have seen so many bands who have come and gone.”

Reter has been a part of Dropout Year for over five years. He started out as the bands personal manager, but as the band went through numerous lineups he added stability by becoming the singer.

According to Reter, success is a hard thing to keep up on, but it is the most rewarding things he has ever done. The way Dropout Year fights the never-ending battle against creative differences is by having a common thread that ties the band together. All of the members have individual influences, but they all have a similar style of punk rock they all listen to and want to play.

Even if a band of great musicians come together, there is no guarantee against the threat of creative differences. If the band loves the music, but no one else seems to care, the love can turn sour.

“Musicians play a crappy show and no one shows up,” Jesse Barnes from The Actress Adorable said. “They play 13 more shows and no one shows up and they quit.”

Barnes has seen talented musicians create great bands, but when they spend no time promoting and marketing their band the lack of interest becomes demoralizing. “They take shortcuts and it is a mistake,” Barnes said.

Creative differences will unravel a band without a solid foundation. Joe Bird, a founder of Quickstar Productions, has seen countless band come and go.

Quickstar Productions is a distribution company that helps unsigned bands get their music sold on iTunes or MySpace. But, even the bands with huge potential can fall to creative differences when the band members don’t have the same commitment.

At 17-years-old, Bird was in a band touring with and opening for major label bands. Bird has been in many other bands, but he said that he felt that band had a great chance of making it big. Yet, the band broke up after a short time.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Bird said.

Bird warns to watch out for band members that consistently fail the band. If the band starts having issues and they don’t get fixed, start looking for new members.

Ways to avoid creative differences

• Don’t write what’s popular now- For more than five years Dropout Year has built up a solid line up of punk songs based on a love for the music. Even with all the different styles of music the members listen to, every member is dedicated to punk rock. Is what you’re playing now what you will like playing in five years?

• Work with a producer- Even if it is just a friend, another person’s honest opinions can bring stale music back to life. Jesse Barnes of the Actress Adorable suggests talking with local bands you like and see whom they are working with.

• Remove bad elements- When one member of a band is less dedicated than the others, it will drag everyone else down. Joe Bird suggests giving the member a chance to change. If the person fails to deliver a second time it is time to find someone new.

When a pop rock band emerges out of metal stronghold Iowa it would be a miracle if anyone came to see it. Yet through a well-executed marketing plan, The Actress Adorable was able to sell out the first show they ever played.

By bringing in close to 300 people to their first show, The Actress Adorable has been able to get any show they want from hometown venues and have given their fans quality performances from day one.

It all started with metal guitarist, Jesse Barnes’, dream of starting his own band.

When Barnes wanted to start a pop rock band, he was going to do it the right way. He was not going to cut any corners, something he had learned from previous experiences.

Barnes had played in a professional touring metal band only months before starting The Actress Adorable. His time with the band left him with bad memories of how to run the business aspects of a band.

As the newest member of the band, Barnes was paid the least from touring. Often Barnes was paid as little as a $100 while at the same time the band’s roadie was getting paid $800.

“These guys ripped me,” Barnes said.

After this experience, Barnes considered giving up on his dream of being a professional musician.

Barnes decided to enrolled in college, and shortly after realized he could not give up on his dream to be a musician. On a trip to Michigan he heard some bands that he had never given much of a chance.  He started listing to Under Oath and Armor for Sleep and realized he wanted to start a band without a being tied to a specific genre.

Barnes and three of his friends started writing music, but is soon fell apart. One of the members did not like playing anything other than metal, forcing Barnes to rethink his strategy. He now realized to create a great band, he had to start by being great from day one.

Everything had to be done right 100% of the time.

“I wanted to find five rock stars…in it to win it,” Barnes said.

Barnes looked for not only talented musicians, but musicians willing to put in the time to making the band successful.

Once the band was created members got full time jobs with the intent of paying for a high quality recording and professional marketing. The members would pay whatever the band needed until the day the band could pay them to be full-time musicians.

The Actress Adorable wrote enough songs to get a professional recording with a producer. They hired a web designer to create a high quality MySpace page with photos they got from a professional photographer. All before they set up their first show.

Barnes even made connections with a national distributor, Quickstar Productions, to have their music available on iTunes.

The launch of the MySpace page and the announcement of The Actress Adorable’s first show was released to the public the same weekend. Then, promoting the show began.

Until the day of the show, every weekend the band took off work and spent two 12-hour days out on the streets talking with people. They lived close to several colleges and spent much of their days going from dorm room to dorm room.

The band also found a way to get the local media to write articles about the show. Two local newspapers ran page-one stories about the show.

The members of the band had a friend who needed medical assistance, so some of the proceeds from the show was going to help their friend’s bills. Once the local media got information that the show was also a benefit event it became local news.

“I put 100% of my effort into promotion,” Barnes said.

When the band finally played the sell out show it was a new experience for many the members. Some had never played for that may people before.

The club owner said that if they could sell out shows that The Actress Adorable could set up any kind of show they wanted.

Right from the start the band was getting a lot of respect from clubs and other bands that were more than happy to play with them. The Actress Adorable became the only local, non-cover band to play the largest venue in their hometown.

The sell out show also had a big effect on the work ethic of the band. They wanted to have this kind of audience for every show they played.

One of the biggest marketing tools they learned from that show was putting in the long weekends of hitting the streets pays off, and they have continued this practice for every show to date.

Working the streets with the full band has had great success to bring people to shows. It does a lot to help connect with the audience. First, it allows the band to talk to a lot of people in an area at once. Second, it allows different members strengths to come out whether it’s talking with girls or talking tech with music fans. Last, it helps to keep the band a tight group, something touring bands deal with every day.

Even as The Actress Adorable grows, the lessons they learned from their first show are still helping them succeed today.

Here are some of the tips for selling out your first show like The Actress Adorable:

Be prepared with marketing- When the band started promoting the show they already had a MySpace page with music for people to check out and follow. They followed this by making the music available on iTunes where fans were able to buy their music.

Meet people offline – Connecting with fans face-to-face is the fastest way to make die-hard fans and friends who can help your career.

Make the event more than just about you – The Actress Adorable’s first time on stage was also a benefit show. Give people more than one reason to come out and see you.

Don’t cut corners – Put away real money towards making the band better. Great recordings and good producers will cost money. A band is a business, and businesses need investments to get off the ground.

Don’t be satisfied – Congrats if you sell out your first show, but the job is not over. Promoting shows is a constant battle. Don’t assume that if you sold out your last show you will sell out the next one.

Detone8.com has collected a starting band checklist from up-and-coming artists in the music industry, so you can concern yourself with what is most important: making great music.

1. Get the right people for the right band.

Everyone should know, and believe in, the goals of the band. If every member’s goal is to only play local clubs, that’s fine. But, if three members want to tour full-time and one member joined the band to hit on girls, there is a problem.

2. View the band as a business.

Everyone in the music industry is there to make money. Some people may love what they do, but they also need to feed themselves. A band must make the industry a profit before the band members can expect to make any money. Band members do not need to be business majors, but they should think like business majors..

Just like a new business a new band will require a lot of money to succeed.

3. Make someone the manager.

Every business needs a leader, and every band is a business. A band’s personal manager does not need to control every aspect of the band, but a single person acting as the head of the business will help avoid confusion. This should be decided from the start, so if there are any problems later the band will have to decide together if a change is needed.

4. Make lots of contacts.

No one in the music industry works alone, so remember to make good impressions and to not burn bridges. This also applies to anyone that meets the band.  One can never know if the kid asking for an autograph, your hair stylist or mother’s friend may know someone in the industry that can help you. And, it never hurts to ask.

5. Read “All You Need to Know About the Music Industry,” by Donald S. Passman.

For any band that has a goal of making a living as a musician this is a necessary read. It gives basic information about every major aspect in the music industry and goes into detail without becoming confusing. It is a handy reference guide for each stage of a band’s life.

Book Review, “All You Need to Know About the Music Industry”

For those that have learned things from being in a successful band, or learned lessons from past bands share your experiences.

image by Made Underground

Contact the writer of this article at brett@detone8.com.