Photo by Robert Menzer
By Steve Weinstein (The Village Voice Blogs), Wed., Nov. 5 2014 at 3:00 AM
With Bushwick already having gone the way of the East Village and Williamsburg, musicians in New York remain “all but extinct,” at the top of the city’s critically endangered list.Read More >>
Originally posted by The Trichordist
There’s a media pile on claiming that Taylor Swift is going to lose her war on streaming… really? Is there a war on streaming? No. There is no war on streaming. The battle is over economic injustice, not technology. We’ve written about this before… Continue reading
You’re a musician…but is it a HOBBY or a “REAL JOB”?
(This article was written by entertainment attorney and indie artist Christiane Cargill Kinney. You can follow her on Twitter for more helpful indie-artist tips.)
As independent musicians, there are many times when we have to work second jobs to make ends meet, and after you factor in the costs of recording, manufacturing, marketing, touring, and other legitimate business expenses, not to mention sharing any profits you may receive with your co-authors, managers, agents, labels and distributors, the fact remains: independent music does not always turn a profit.
When tax time rolls around every year, many of us receive the same lecture from our accountants: “You need to start showing a profit, or the IRS may consider this a ‘hobby’ and not a ‘real job.’” If you haven’t heard this lecture in the past, you should probably get a new accountant. However, for those of you who have heard it, your reaction may be the same as mine. Read more »
Songhack helps artists “hack the music industry”. It’s a consumer guide to over 100 digital products and services targeted at musicians. Songhack features news, resources and coaching content to help musicians make money.
Watch founder Zac Shaw describe the mission behind Songhack and read more here: http://www.songhack.com/what-is-songhack/
Post by trichordist
Right now a byzantine system is in place that not only dates back more than 70 years but also differs depending on the distribution platform. Traditional radio stations, for instance, pay royalties to the composer of a song, but not to the artist or band performing it — known in industry parlance as a performance right — if they are different. Sirius XM only pays royalties for songs released after 1972. Pandora does pay government-mandated royalties to songwriters but has been aggressively lobbying regulators to lower the rate in recent years. Use of music in both professional and user-based content on YouTube and other websites and in TV shows or commercials is yet another category of music licensing, with the difference being that it is free-market-based and not subject to government oversight.
