Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.
Marcus Aurelius
Thursday, March 31, 2011
How Music Royalties Work
How Music Royalties Work
Making money in the music industry is tricky. Recording contracts are notoriously complicated, and every big recording artist has a small army of legal representatives to translate and negotiate these deals. In this article, we'll look into the world of music royalties and see how money is actually made in this industry.
Who Gets What?
The first thing we need to do is distinguish between recording-artist royalties and songwriter/publisher royalties.
In The Internet Debacle - An Alternative View, Janis Ian, a singer/songwriter, states:
If we're not songwriters, and not hugely successful commercially (as in platinum-plus), we [recording artists] don't make a dime off our recordings.
She's referring to the fact that recording artists and songwriters do not earn royalties in the same way. Recording artists earn royalties from the sale of their recordings on CDs, cassette tapes, and, in the good old days, vinyl. Recording artists don't earn royalties on public performances (when their music is played on the radio, on TV, or in bars and restaurants). This is a long-standing practice that's based on copyright law and the fact that when radio stations play the songs, more CDs and tapes are sold. Songwriters and publishers, however, do earn royalties in these instances -- as well as a small portion of the recording sales.
The only current instance in which artists earn royalties for "public performances" is when the song is played in a digital arena (like in a Webcast or on satellite radio), is non-interactive (meaning the listener doesn't pick and choose songs to hear), and the listener is a subscriber to the service. This came about with the Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recordings Act of 1995. This act gave performers of music their first performance royalties.
We'll go into more detail about the types of licenses and royalties later in this article. But first, let's look at song copyrights.
Song Copyrights
Works Made for Hire If you've written a song as a part of your job (maybe you work for an ad agency and have written a song for a commercial), you don't own that song -- the company does, because you wrote it as part of your job. This is also true if you've been commissioned to write something as part of a collective work. In this case, however, the agreement you sign will specifically state that it is a work "made for hire." |
Copyrights are very important because they identify who actually owns the song and song recording and who gets to make money from it. When songwriters write songs, the songs are automatically copyrighted as soon as they are in a tangible form (like a recording, or fixed as printed sheet music). In order to sue for copyright infringement, however, the song should be registered with the copyright office at the Library of Congress. Registration should always be done before the song is set loose in the public domain (available to hear on a Web site, etc.).
As copyright owner, you have the right to reproduce the copyrighted song, to create derivatives or variations of the song, to distribute it to the public, to perform it publicly, and to display it publicly. (Although we're not sure how you "display" a song.) If you have recorded the song with yourself as the artist, then you also hold the sound recording copyright (a different animal entirely) and have the right to publicly play or "perform" that recording by means of a digital audio transmission.
Copyright licenses
By giving someone a license, you are giving him permission to use your song. Once the song has been recorded and publicly distributed, however, compulsory licensing kicks in and everyone who wants to cover (record) the song can do so without your specific permission. They are required by law to pay you a statutory royalty rate, however, as well as notify you that they're going to release it, and send you monthly royalty statements. They are NOT allowed to make any changes to the words or melody or change the "fundamental character of the song" without the copyright owner's approval. If the song is changed, it is considered a "derivative work." Record companies rarely use compulsory licensing because they don't want to have to provide monthly royalty statements. Instead, they go to the copyright owner and get a direct license so they can negotiate the terms more freely.
Shared copyrights
If you write the lyrics to a song and your buddy writes the music, then you each own 50% of the song. You don't own all of the lyrics and your buddy doesn't own all of the music -- you each own 50% of the total song, music, lyrics and all. This means you can't give someone exclusive rights to the song on your own if you have a fight with your buddy. And, if you make any money on the song, half of that money must go to your partner.
Other forms of shared copyrights come into play when you or your publisher (typically you give control of the song's copyright to the publisher) sign over a portion of the copyright to another publisher for a sampled composition -- a song that uses a portion of another song.
Transfer of copyrights
In most music publishing agreements, there is a requirement that the songwriter assign the copyright of the written song to the publisher. This is known as a "transfer of copyright," or simply "assignment." This, in effect, transfers ownership of the song to the publisher in exchange for the payment to the songwriter of royalties in amounts and time intervals agreed upon in the publishing contract. Typically, song copyrights are held by the music publishers, while sound recordings are controlled by the record companies.
The Major Players
Songwriter - The songwriter is the person (or people) who write the lyrics and melody for songs.
· Publisher - The publisher is the person (or company) who works with the songwriters to promote their songs.
Publishers usually get either partial or total ownership of the song copyright, known as "assignment" or "transfer" of the copyright. They pitch the songs to record labels, television or movie producers, or anyone else who may be interested in it. They then license the rights to use the song and charge fees. Those fees are typically split 50/50 with the songwriter.
Publishers usually get either partial or total ownership of the song copyright, known as "assignment" or "transfer" of the copyright. They pitch the songs to record labels, television or movie producers, or anyone else who may be interested in it. They then license the rights to use the song and charge fees. Those fees are typically split 50/50 with the songwriter.
· Performer - Anyone who licenses the song in order to publicly perform it is the performer, or performing artist. The performer doesn't have control of the song (it's controlled by the songwriter or publisher) or the recording (it's controlled by the record company).
· Recording company (record label) - The recording company creates, markets and distributes the recordings.
· Performing rights organization (PRO) - A performing rights organization is an association, corporation, or other entity that licenses the public performance of nondramatic musical works on behalf of the copyright owners. The major performing rights societies are:
· Mechanical rights agency: The right to record a song -- mechanical rights -- for most publishers is obtained through the Harry Fox Agency in the United States, or the Canadian Mechanical Rights Reproduction Agency (CMRRA) in Canada. These agencies issue the mechanical royalties for songs, keep track of them, make sure the users pay, and provide statements to the publishers. They charge a set percentage of gross royalty collections for their service.
Types of Rights and Royalties
Licenses and their corresponding royalties fall into four general categories:
1. Mechanical licenses and royalties - A mechanical license refers to permissions granted to mechanically reproduce music onto some type of media (e.g., cassette tape, CD, etc.) for public distribution. The music publisher grants permission for the musical composition to be reproduced. The mechanical royalty is paid to the recording artist, songwriter, and publisher based on the number of recordings sold.
2. Performance rights and royalties - A performance-rights license allows music to be performed live or broadcast. These licenses typically come in the form of a "blanket license," which gives the licensee the right to play a particular PRO's entire collection in exchange for a set fee. Licenses for use of individual recordings are also available. All-talk radio stations, for example, wouldn't have the need for a blanket license to play the PRO's entire collection. The performance royalty is paid to the songwriter and publisher when a song is performed live or on the radio.
3. Synchronization rights and royalties - A synchronization license is needed for a song to be reproduced onto a television program, film, video, commercial, radio, or even an 800 number phone message. It is called this because you are "synchronizing" the composition, as it is performed on the audio recording, to a film, TV commercial, or spoken voice-over. If a specific recorded version of a composition is used, you must also get permission from the record company in the form of a "master use" license. The synchronization royalty is paid to songwriters and publishers for use of a song used as background music for a movie, TV show, or commercial.
4. Print rights and royalties - This is a royalty paid to songwriters and publishers based on sales of printed sheet music.
In addition to these royalties, the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 brought about yet another royalty payment for songwriters and performers. This act requires that the manufacturers of digital audio recording devices and the manufacturers of blank recording media (blank cassette tapes, blank CDs, blank DVDs, etc.) pay a percentage of their sales price to the Register of Copyrights to make up for loss of sales due to the possible unauthorized copying of music. There are two funds set up where this money is funneled. One is the Sound Recording Fund, which receives two-thirds of the money. This money goes to the recording artist and record company. The other fund is the Musical Works Fund, which receives the remaining one-third of the money to split 50/50 between the publisher and the songwriter.
Foreign Royalties
The licenses we mentioned above (mechanical, performance, synchronization, and print) are also issued for the use of U.S. copyrighted material in foreign countries. The foreign agents, or sub-publishers, are responsible for managing the licenses in their countries and paying royalties to the songwriter and U.S. publisher.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
How Multitrack Recording Works
How Multitrack Recording Works
Multitracking allows musicians and sound engineers to record and edit multiple instruments in separate takes.
When we're given a delicious plate of food at a fancy restaurant, we can savor the wonderful medley of flavors without fully realizing the skill that went into choosing the different ingredients. The same could be said of hearing a great song on the radio. We probably hear the final polished product without realizing the enormous amount of work that went into it. Sure, most people know that writing and rehearsing a song takes work for musicians, but fewer realize the time and skill that goes into the engineering side of the recording process.
To explain, consider the evolution of music recording over the 20th century. Before the 1950s, recording a song always depended on musicians and singers performing over and over again together until they got the "perfect" take -- or at least the best. In this tedious process, if someone made a mistake, everyone had to start all over again.
This was the case until musician and innovator Les Paul started experimenting with recording over himself so that he could play multiple parts in the same song. In 1954, Paul convinced a company that made recorders, Ampex, to build him a 3-track recorder. This was the first multitrack recorder, which allows different "tracks" or channels of sound to record and playback synchronously (the vocals on one track, guitar on another, and so on). Each track can be rerecorded or deleted without affecting the other tracks.
Multitrack recording soon started to revolutionize the recording industry. The 4-track recorder became common by the 1960s. Innovators like the Beatles, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and producer Phil Spector took advantage of multiple tracks, experimenting with the new sounds they could create. The Beatles' John Lennon even decided to splice together two different versions of the song "Strawberry Fields Forever," meaning their producer George Martin constructed the final product from two four-track recordings. It didn't take long for eight-track recorders to become the industry standard.
Even since the 1990s, when the industry completely switched over to digital recording from analog tape recording, the multitrack process has only gotten more sophisticated. Now, the 24-track recorder is standard. But these can even be linked together to have 48 or 72 tracks if necessary.
We'll delve more into the process for a deeper appreciation of the engineering side of modern music recording.
by Jane McGrath
How to Remove a Deadline
How to Remove a Deadline
Ok, you can’t actually remove a deadline. If someone wants or needs something done and they have to have it by a certain day and time those are non-changeable things. But if you take the same approach to every project you can make it seem like there is no deadline.
First off, when you get in a project look it over, draw up a chart of what needs to be done and how long it is going to take to get each of those components done and done well. That gives you the bottom line. If it is just you in your company there is a good chance that you are now freaking because it looks like you are already behind schedule.
That is not the case, like I said making that chart was the first step, let’s say there are four components each estimated to take a week. Concept design, Sound recording, Graphic Design and Packaging / Shipping. If it just you doing it you can figure on at least a months worth of work maybe a little longer – more like five weeks to get it done.
Now if you hire a freelancer to do three of those four jobs and you give each of them one week to complete the task. Your four to five week project just came down to a week or two at the most. And while the deadline has not been taken away, the pressure to reach it has.
One common mistake that people make at this point is thinking, “Ok, I can get this done in two weeks maximum and it is due in 5 weeks so I can wait and start it in three weeks and be good to go so they move on to another project. The problem here is that what happens if one of the freelancers you hire drops the ball or a PC crashes or a tornado wipes out your Internet connection? You are back to a deadline that you might not make.
Avoid the temptation to procrastinate until the last minute. You did the chart so you could save time, so go ahead and get the project done now and finish it two weeks ahead of schedule. The client will be amazed and will remember you every time they have a project and your stress level will drop way under the radar.
Plus, you’ll find you can manage more projects at a time this way meaning more money in your pocket.
Provided by MMC
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What are the differences between remastering and mastering?
What are the differences between remastering and mastering?
Every record, CD and MP3 has to be mastered before it's distributed to the public. The master is the final, definitive version of each track that will be copied and printed on millions of CDs and downloaded from Web sites like iTunes. A master is created by a mastering engineer, a special breed of audio engineer who works in a dedicated mastering studio.
Consumers often buy remastered CDs or DVDs that feature classic movies or albums.
Mastering engineers are different than studio recording engineers. A recording engineer's job is to faithfully record every instrument and vocal track with as much clarity -- and as little signal processing -- as possible. In recording terminology, signal processing is any kind of compression, distortion or other effects that alter the sound of the recording.
Once the recording engineer has captured clean copies of every track, the music is handed over to a mixing engineer who is responsible for assembling the final mix. The mixing engineer takes each separate instrumental and vocal track -- perhaps dozens for a single song -- and tweaks their volume, stereo pan and other settings to achieve a balanced, satisfying whole. Even though this is called the final mix, nothing's final until it's passed through the hands of the mastering engineer.
A mastering session is called finishing, because this is where each song on a CD receives the final adjustments that make it sound great on vinyl, CD, MP3 or radio. Each different playback medium requires its own special equalizing, balancing and compression to make the music clear and powerful for the listener.
Vinyl records, for example, are usually played on home stereo systems with good speakers. MP3s, however, might be played on a pair of cheap computer speakers or through an iPod. It's the mastering engineer's job to know how to make the songs sound great wherever and however they're played. Mastering engineers usually have decades of experience in the recording business and an exquisitely trained ear.
Remastering is simply the process of taking an existing album and mastering it again. In the 1980s and 90s, many bands issued "digital remasters" of their original vinyl or tape cassette recordings. In this case, the albums were being remastered for playback on CDs. To do this, a mastering engineer would digitize the original analog version of the final mix and use a digital audio workstation (DAW) like Pro Tools to rebalance and equalize all of the tracks.
Remastering is usually reserved for box sets of a band's "greatest hits" or other special releases. The word has taken on a highly promotional significance, used to resell existing music to consumers with the promise of sharper sound clarity and even a totally new sound.
DVDs are remastered for many of the same reasons. The idea is to use modern digital editing technology to create the cleanest, most artistically authentic print of an existing movie. The editors go back to the original film stock and use special editing software to remove dust, fix damaged frames, improve color balance and greatly improve the clarity and quality of the audio.
These remastered DVDs are often reissued on high-definition discs with the director's originally intended aspect ratio (wide-screen, for example, instead of the 4:3 ratio favored by conventional TV screens) and with extras like behind-the-scenes documentaries and filmmaker interviews. Once again, remastering is an excellent way to breathe new life into an old product.
How do they remaster CDs and DVDs?
Digital technology has not only allowed filmmakers and musicians to create inspiring new works of art, but it's also given audio engineers and film editors the chance to reach back and restore classic albums and movies to their original grandeur.
Independent filmmakers like Spike Lee often release new remastered versions of their films.
Remastered CDs and DVDs promise consumers a crystal clear, artistically faithful reproduction of their favorite music and films. Led Zeppelin fans rush to the record store every time the band issues another "definitive" remastered collection of its pioneering rock albums of the 1960s and 70s. And companies like the Criterion Collection have created a market for painstakingly restored, high-definition DVD releases of classic, foreign and independent cinema from filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa and Spike Lee.
But all of this digital wizardry is not without its detractors. Many listeners complain that remastering CDs, especially in the age of the MP3, is nothing but an excuse to make the music louder and overproduced. DVD remastering runs into the same problems. There are viewers who feel that film restoration can go too far, taking away the imperfections of the filmed image that make it unique and alive.
by Dave Roos
The Age of Virtual Record Labels (Article 1 of 3)
The Age of Virtual Record Labels (Article 1 of 3)
Back in “the day”, you had to have a physical building and separate recording studio all housing your very real record label in order to have product to sell. You would hire artists to come into the studio to record real songs that were chosen by a real Artist and Repertoire man who’s sole purpose in life was to match a song to an artist.
You would then take that finished product and have literally hundreds of thousands of them pressed and shrink wrapped at a manufacturing plant and they would be shipped off to countless retail locations for sale and to the appropriate radio stations along with some payola to get some airplay to generate sales to repay the huge outlay of cash behind that release. In the interim you had more projects going that were doing the same things. It was an actual production line of music that followed that path.
Every once in a while an artist sold well and it made up for the money that was lost on the ones that didn’t and people were happy. A lot of pollution was generated and trees were lost in the name of music. Enter the age of the virtual Record Label.
Today record labels still can function much the same way but the exception is that with the technology level where it is, you still do the recording but you can actually make the product AFTER it sells. So there are not huge stockpiles out there to clutter up the bargain bins and cut out racks and less of an ecological impact is felt, which is a great thing.
The promo copies of the songs going to the radio stations can bow be emailed as a digital file so that the release can be live on the air only seconds after it is complete and ready to go to the buying public.
What once took an office building full of people to generate the business of music, can now be managed in a small room the size of a modest bedroom. That can cut the money needed in order to show a profit phenomenally so that instead of having to sell hundreds of thousands of CDs to break even, it can often be done on as little as a few thousand.
As one of the singing poets of the sixties, Bob Dylan once said, “The times, they are a changin’.”
Provided by MMC
Friday, March 25, 2011
Different Aspects of Audio Post Production
Different Aspects of Audio Post Production
Boom mics record the actor's voices, which are then edited during audio post production.
In film and TV, the audio portion of a project is recorded separately from the video. Unlike your home video camera, the film or video cameras used in professional productions don't have built-in microphones. Instead, all dialogue is recorded with either a boom microphone (those long sticks with the fuzzy mics on top) or a tiny, wireless lavalier mic that can be hidden in an actor's clothing. Most other audio -- like ambient background noise and music -- is added in post production.
Post production refers to all the editing, assembling and finalizing of a project once all the scenes have been shot. Audio post production begins once the editors have assembled a locked cut of the project. A locked cut of a film contains all of the visual elements -- selected takes, special effects, transitions, graphics -- that'll appear in a film's final cut.
With the locked cut in hand, the audio post-production staff can start spotting the film for sound. Different members of the post production team look for different things:
· The dialogue editor examines every line of spoken dialogue, listening for badly recorded lines (too quiet, too loud, jarbled, et cetera) or times when an actor's voice is out of sync with his lips.
· Sound effects designers look for places where they'll need to add ambient background noise (honking cars in a city, tweeting birds in the country), and "hard effects" like explosions, doors slamming and gun shots [source: FilmSound.org].
· Foley artists look for places to fill in details like footsteps across a wood floor, a faucet running, the sound of a plastic cup being placed on a marble countertop, et cetera.
· The music editor looks for inspiration to either commission original music or buy licenses for existing song use.
· The composer, if he's already hired, looks for places where original music would add to the on-screen moment.
If the dialogue editor needs to replace or re-record unusable pieces of dialogue, he'll ask the actors to come in for an automated dialogue replacement (ADR) session. Here, the actors and editors synchronize the newly recorded dialogue with the lip movements on the screen and mix the audio smoothly into the existing recording.
Foley artists -- named after the pioneering audio and effects man Jack Foley -- use an eclectic bag of tricks to reproduce common sounds (a wooden chair for a creaky floor, cellophane for a crackling fire, a pile of audio tape for a field of grass, et cetera) [source: The Art of Foley].
Sound designers and effects editors spend much of their time collecting libraries of ambient natural sounds. They record the sound of Monday morning traffic and save it as a digital file for later use. They record washing machines running, children playing and crowds cheering. You can also buy ready-made libraries with all of these sounds. But some of the best sound designers like to create entirely original effects.
Ben Burtt, sound effects designer on the original Star Wars movies, used a distorted elephant bellow for the roar of a tie fighter. And the famous hum of the light saber? A blend of TV static and a 35mm projector [source: FilmSound.org].
The most important job in audio post production is the mix, where all of the sound elements of a project are balanced and blended together. Typically, this job is shared by a dialogue mixer, effects mixer and a music mixer [source: FilmSound.org]. The final copy of the composite soundtrack is delivered either on optical film stock, as a digital file or both.
by Dave Roos
How Audio Post Production Works
Batman looks down from a Gotham rooftop into the dark alley below. We hear the sounds of the big city: cars whizzing by, sirens wailing in the distance, indistinguishable voices calling to each other from the street. The Joker and his henchmen enter the alley dragging a helpless Vicki Vale. We hear Vicki's muffled screams, the Joker's evil cackle and the scrape of Vicki's high heels across the pavement.
Films like Tim Burton's Batman require extensive editing of audio, including voices and special effects.
The movie score swells as Batman dives from the rooftop. We hear the metallic whir of his zip line and his leather cape snapping as it cuts through the air. Then comes the fight -- the punches, grunts, thumps and slams punctuated by blaring horns and sharp percussion from the soundtrack.
On the screen, this scene takes less than a minute. But behind the scenes, professional audio post production engineers worked hundreds of hours to make sure that every snippet of dialogue, every scrape of a shoe, every tiny detail of background noise, every sound effect and every second of the film score are perfectly blended to create a cohesive and powerful cinematic experience.
Audio post-production editors won't ever be famous (they don't even give them speech time at the Oscars), but the work they do is crucial to film and television productions. A screenwriter can come up with the funniest dialogue in the world, but who's laughing if the audience can't hear it? A digital animation team can design dazzling characters and expansive virtual worlds, but often it's the audio details -- the ruffle of the character's clothes, the wind through the digital leaves and the subtle hints of the musical score -- that make the world come alive.
The tools of audio post production can be as low tech as a fist and a sirloin steak (for the most realistic punches) or as high tech as a sprawling mixing console powered by the latest digital editing software.
What are the different roles and responsibilities of an audio post-production team? And how does digital technology help post production engineers do their work faster and better than ever? Read on to find out.
by Dave Roos
Online Gigs - The new means of finding talent
Online Gigs - The new means of finding talent
Summary: Music industry professionals these days have a new savior in the form of the Internet for finding gigs by the means of social marketplaces for musicians. Those places where people looking for professional assistance can look for and find help.
One of the most important parts of anyone’s life is music. You get in on your car radio on the way to work, on almost any television program you see, in the elevators we ride. Music is literally everywhere we are. This is evident in the fact that there are more TV stations on the “air” today devoted entirely to music than there even were of television stations 30 years ago. The music industry professionals know this all too well.
With the explosive growth in the industry over the last decade the number of youngsters wanting to join what they perceive as a hip industry where they can make money doing what they enjoy, which is music. The music industry professionals are also searching through this new pool of potential talent looking for the best of the best for the open positions and needs.
For instance, an advertiser might need jingles for one or more of its products, an aspiring band could be in search of a drummer or guitarist, or a drummer could be searching for the perfect band, or that band may be searching for the right person to produce the album that it has in the works. In days gone by these tasks were completed manually by good old-fashioned searching and work of mouth. This takes a lot of time that the music industry professionals just don’t have these days.
However, since the industry has grown so much, and nobody knows which geographic location is going to present the world with the next superstar, the Internet has proven to be a great resource for the music industry professionals. The World Wide Web provides an easy two-way platform for people to find each other and to match needs with talent.
Networking sited like myMusicCircle bring together the needs with the providers making it easy for everyone to find what they are after. The music industry professional can find the best talent that the world has to offer and the talent out there across the globe can find the best music industry professional for their need.
What happens here is that that either musicians or the music industry professionals can set up a project or bid on a project that bid for the project so that both parties feel like they are in control of the situation and everyone gets the best that the other has to offer. What this format does is helps both parties find the right talent for the need and as a direct result it is going to help the music industry continue to grow at the unbelievable rate that it is currently trending at.
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