How many full songs have you heard on internet websites? Yeah, me too. If you are trying to make money from your music, don’t upload full songs to Facebook, MySpace and other sites…not even your own websites — unless you want to give them away free, because you will be.

When using internet marketing to sell music, he only way to prevent people stealing your work is to only put snippets (20 – 30 second edited samplings of songs) online.. not full songs. Don’t believe me? Try googling “rip facebook or myspace music” and you’ll see how easy it is for unethical music thieves to RIP you off!

You can easily edit mp3 snippets with free, open software like Audacity.

If you do want to offer free music as part of your marketing strategy, make the most of it and offer it as such… advertise your generosity to your fans – don’t just put it out there whole and hope nobody rips it without paying.

Last point… don’t worry about people ripping off your snippets without paying. The more those snippets get spread around, the better! If someone likes it, chances are they’ll want to buy the full song.

Here’s an update of my production work for those of you who may be interested. For some clients I produced full projects, some I joined their team as vocal producer, for many I wrote on their songs and they are all my vocal students who smartly prepared for their productions by getting their voices in top shape. Here’s a summary:

This spring I finished full projects for several clients including

• John Farndell- a Christian minister from South Africa. We cut his tracks at Hilltop Studio with John Nicholson, engineer and an amazing cast of musicians. Background singers included me, Jennifer O’Brien and Michael Black.
• Cecilia Halsey- an alt-country artist based in Alabama. This production was recorded at Eclectic Sound, Nick Sparks engineer. Again a great team of musicians led by bassist Mike Chapman.
• Darby Haas, a country artist living in Kentucky. We recorded Darby at Mainframe Studio, Nathan Smith engineer. Mike Chapman again led the band.

These unique, creative projects were great fun for me are now out to the public! They are all quite different, I co-wrote the whole project with John Farndell, produced hers and others’ songs on Cecilia and co-wrote part of Darby’s project. I sang background vocals on their projects and they are all my vocal students as well; I can run a full-service shop:)

I also very much enjoyed joining other producer’s teams as vocal producer for artists including

• Winfield’s Locket, a Louisiana-based country duo produced by the amazing Ilya Toshinsky. We recorded at multiple studios.
• Jenni Schaefer, a novelist/public speaker/singer/songwriter whose works have been endorsed by none other than Dr. Phil. I joined Ilya’s production team working as vocal producer for several of her tracks, including some Jenni and I co-wrote. Several studios and engineers were involved.
• “Jenny and Ashley“, a teen country duo. The production team assembled and led by Mike Borchetta included me as vocal producer and Darran Smith (band leader for Tim McGraw’s band “Dance Hall Doctors”) who produced the tracks.  All tracks and vocals were recorded and mixed at Loud Studio, Julian King engineer.

CURRENTLY: This summer I’m working on finishing up…

• Pop teen artist Emil Bishaw’s new project with engineer Richie Biggs working on final mixes. Tracks were cut at master drummer Steve Brewster’s studio Brewbeat, Richie Biggs engineering. (You won’t be surprised that the drums  sound great!) Vocals were cut in a couple different places with engineer Billy Whittington.
• Country artist from New Mexico  Sim Balkey’s new project – tracks were cut this spring at Mainframe and vocals will be recorded later this summer.
• I’m also beginning a new production for Cecilia Halsey, to be recorded at Eclectic.

As you can see, I work in all kinds of different ways in different studios, with multiple genres of artists. If you’d like to contact me about your production, hit the contact button on this site and I’ll be happy to talk to you!

Recording a music project is a heady experience. A sonic dream gets turned into a reality. No wonder you want to get into the studio as soon as possible! And if you prepare well, it often turns out even better than you hoped or imagined.

But I hope you just noticed I added “…if you prepare well”. No, you can’t wait til everything is perfect (it never will be) but you can wait til you have done some wise preparation to maximize your time, money and effort of heart.. and keep your sonic dream from turning into a sonic nightmare.

Here are some recording preparation tips:

• Do you have the right songs?

If you don’t have strong songs, you don’t need to record. End of story. There is no amount of production or mixing or mastering that will turn a weak song into a great one. (And who wants to hear weak songs?) Maybe get back to the drawing board, write and/or collect more songs til you are satisfied that they will represent you well.

• Do you have enough funds to cover your budget?

Make sure you don’t have to cut important corners… putting recording off til you accumulate your funds can be very wise.

1. Budget more time than you think you’ll need to do your tracks, vocals, and mixing!
2. Consider any extra musicians you might want to create the project you really want.
3. Try to have enough budget to cover mastering. There are many levels of mastering, some inexpensive and some quite expensive, but any mastering is better than none at all.
4. Most of the time you’ll want to buy your own hard drive for keeping and saving your project files. Ask your engineer for a recommendation.
5. Consider also that recording budgets don’t usually include graphics and duplication. Of course you can go ahead and record and then put off doing this until you have the funds. But if it turns out great, you’ll want to get the whole package finished as soon as possible!

• Are you vocally ready?

You can do your tracks when you have the songs. No pressure there. You can sing scratch tracks (sing while the band is recording your tracks) when you are not vocally at top form, but do NOT try to do your lead vocals without having your voice as strong as you can get it unless they really aren’t that important (and when is that?) Practice at full voice volume for 4 to 14 days before a significant lead vocal session. Consider doing some pre-production vocal lessons for optimal vocal preparedness

• Have you memorized your songs?

While you can indeed sing with lyric sheets in front of you, it is my strong opinion that you should memorize your material. It’s too easy to let the page get in the way of your focusing on the emotional delivery of the song. Also, it’s really great to be able to ‘own’ your songs, become immersed in the rhythms, play with your voice and experiment with different ways of singing the material BEFORE you get into the vocal booth.

• Are you physically strong?

You don’t have to be a triathlon champion, of course. However, you need energy to be able to support your voice well for great lead vocals. Sleep, eat, exercise, and by all means hydrate yourself with plenty of water days before you go in to sing. It will matter, I assure you, to the quality of your vocal efforts.

• Do you have the right production team and musicians available?

It’s best to wait until your dream team is available. Musicians and background singers can be interchangeable to a degree, but you might be surprised at how few are best at what you need. Make sure everything is booked far enough in advance to ensure your best team is on board.

For more (a ton more) studio information, please check out “Singing In The Studio“, a multimedia professional guide to getting vocal magic in the recording studio. www.singinginthestudio.com

Are there legitimate reasons for courting a major label deal? Of course- such as needing a larger engine for promoting and distributing your music. However, I would suggest that you understand in the real world you are highly unlikely to get one unless you’ve already demonstrated your major market potential – like having your own huge fanbase already in place and having booked regular performances attended by great crowds.

It also gives you a huge advantage as an asset to a major label if you and your music are perfectly matched to the age and preferences of the demographics the labels are marketing to. And of course, if your street creds are better you can negotiate a much better deal if you do get some major label interest.

That said, there is a very enlightened truism going around right now that you don’t get a deal until you don’t need one. Major music labels are struggling like everyone else to find profitability in this ever changing market.

An independent music label may be a better option for you. Indie music labels come in many sizes… from your own start up label to a large indie with #1 charted records and joint ventures with major labels for distribution. Can you say Taylor Swift and Big Machine Records? Also think Ani Difranco, who chose to go it alone and now signs other acts to her “Righteous Babe” label.

Investigate these choices. Network with others who are investigating. Share and brainstorm… consider leading the way with creative approaches to marketing and promoting business. Double check, have accountability partners and good walls to bounce ideas off… whether it’s a financially wise parent or a circle of major music players. Look into organizations like Indie Connect, get your own website,  MySpace, Reverb Nation, Facebook pages up. The times, they are a-changing, and I for one think the anarchy could be good for you! Then if you get a major label deal… congratulations, but make sure you keep growing your business. Deals can be lost quicker than they are aquired.

For an uncanny, funny look at the practical world of seeking a major label deal…watch this revealing little video satire by someone who’s got an ear to the ground!

Background vocals (sometimes called backing vocals) can add enormous value to — or detract value from–  a recording. Done correctly, they can make the difference between a commercial hit or artistic masterpiece and … not a hit/masterpiece. I’ve been singing background vocals  and creating background vocal arrangements for decades now in all genres. Through the years, I’ve learned through trial, error, client wishes and resulting mixes what does and does not work. Here are some things I typically suggest to create background vocal magic.

NOTE: When the producer or group leader calls for “doubling or stacking a part” it means to record another track of the exact same part. When calling for “next part or sweetening”, it means singing another new note or part. “Multi-tracking” background vocals simply means recording a part or group parts on more than one track.

• What I chose or suggest to do with background vocals depends mightily on the genre of the song. For instance… for rock, r&b and pop, I usually multitrack and double or triple (or even more) each part. For bluegrass I typically suggest only one track/singer on each part to keep the intimate, tight, live sound this genre is famous for. Country… usually single or double any verse parts and multitrack the choruses.

• When I multitrack and double, for the tightest and purest sounds, I have each singer do all the doubling of one part. For thicker sounds and choir sounds, I have singers switch parts for doubling. And then again, some times I do all the parts for budget, time or other expediency reasons. How many times do I double each part? Sometimes it takes trying it out to see if it needs another track for richness or if another double makes the sound too heavy or muddy.

• As to how many parts I sing or direct to be sung, many times experimentation is called for, and I quickly sing or have sung a single duet part, full chord or an octave at top or bottom of the chord to determine which is best for that song. After many years, though, I can usually make that call without having to try out everything.

• I like to do non-conventional parts, not necessarily paralleling everything. Sometimes breaking a unison into parts at a chosen point, sometimes doing counterparts, sometimes fifths, sometimes even notes out of the chord (rock does this a LOT)…etc.

• If possible I like to have each singer on a separate mic each part can be controlled at mix. However, there are many projects I do that are set up with only one mic, then I make sure we record with the right balance of parts.

• For choir parts, many times a choir is recorded and then ‘ringer’ (professional session) singers overdub doubled parts to focus the choir sound.

• How many background vocal singers do you need per song? It depends on the sound you want (consult with your producer), your budget (AFTRA union singer rates are available at the AFTRA website – look under the tab “Sound Recordings”), and who is available for you to call that can come in to the studio in your area.

• Mixing background vocals is also a highly variable thing. Hopefully your engineer will make sure there is a balance of parts and that

I strongly suggest that you not use amateur singers for background vocal parts. Not only will the sound be sub-par, it can cost you more money because of the studio time it takes trying to get something acceptable. Get pro singers, or if you can do your own, you can save money and that might be the best thing to do. However, sometimes it’s best to use singers with different resonances than the lead vocal. The singers still need to be able to blend with your vocal in the way that gives you the best sonic results… and your background vocalist(s) need to be chosen carefully based on whether or not they can deliver that effect. Consult with your producer as to the best option for your project and your budget.

If you have any questions about this or any other aspect of recording, please let me know!

If you are doing a recording project in the music business, you will want to know about mechanical licenses. No matter how small a “run” of your project you print or make available for download, you need to understand the legal and ethical responsibilities you have to the publishers of your songs. Here’s a simple summary from the Harry Fox site:

If you are manufacturing and distributing copies of a song which you did not write, and you have not already reached an agreement with the song’s publisher, you need to obtain a mechanical license. This is required under U.S. Copyright Law, regardless of whether or not you are selling the copies that you made.

You do not need a mechanical license if you are recording and distributing a song you wrote yourself, or if the song is in the public domain. If you are not sure if the song you are looking to license is in the public domain, and therefore does not require license authority, we suggest you use the search on www.pdinfo.com.

How much does a mechanical license cost?

The current US statutory mechanical rights fee is $.091 (9.1 cents) per physical or digital copy. That 91 cents is to be divided among all publishers, who then distribute to their writers according to the contract they have with the writers (not your job to do this). So if you want to buy a license for, say,  5oo physical plus 500 digital copies, you’d divide $91 among all publishers per song on your project. In addition, if you obtain a license through Harry Fox, there is a small processing fee.

How do you get these licenses?

Your record label or label rep has to obtain licenses either directly or through the Harry Fox Agency if the song is licensed there,  from each publisher /co-publisher of the song. Yes, that’s the tedious part… your label must contact and obtain mutually signed  mechanical licenses from all publishers who own each separate song. Fyi, publisher info can be obtained by asking the writers. And again, the agreement is between the label and the publishers, not the writers.

When do you need to get these licenses?

The label should pay for a mechanical license for each song before they are sold. The label would estimate how many digital or physical units they would want to sell at first (many times 500 of each) and pay $ .091 (for 1000 units the total for each song would be $91) to split between publishers (who then split it with their songwriters).

Information you’ll need to collect for each song:

• Writer and co-writer name(s), PRO(s) [BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, etc), percentage(s) and addresses
• Publisher and co-pub name(s), PRO(s), percentage(s) and addresses for where to send payment

Other random FAQ's about mechanical licenses:

• Licensor= Label rep would be whoever represents the record label.  Licensee= the publisher of that particular song.
• Yes, you need a license form for each song, even with the same songwriter and publishing co.
• No, the songwriter does not sign the license… the publisher does. The agreement is between label and publisher.
• The label would then pay the publisher the mechanical license fee.
• How the songwriter gets paid...  the norm is that the pub company will split mechanicals with the songwriter, according to the contract they have between them. This is not the label's responsibility; it's the publisher's.

What does a typical custom mechanical license  (not Harry Fox) look like?

When a record label approaches me concerning one of my songs, I give them any co-pub information so they can contact those publishers, and I issue this for my own publishing company. I got this form from an independent record label, btw:

*******************************************************************************************************

ONE-TIME FEE CUSTOM LICENSE

License Date: x/xx/xxxx

Licensee:                                                                                 Licensor:

name  of record label rep                                                 name of writer, c/o name of Pub company

street                                                                                        street

city, state, zip                                                                       city, state, zip

The Composition(s) covered under this License, as well as the total amount due per song per use, are listed in the table below.

Label copy/Copyright notices for each Composition:

Title of song, writers and co-writers

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

(c) Copyright xxxx. Names of publishing companies All rights reserved. Used by permission.

License Provisions/General Rights For All Uses:

1.       In connection with your exercise of the right and license granted herein, you shall have the right to make a musical arrangement of the Composition(s) to the extent necessary to conform the Compositions to the style or manner of interpretation of the performance and/or publication involved, provided however, that any such arrangement shall not change the basic melody or the fundamental character of the Composition(s). You hereby transfer and assign to Publisher(s) all rights, title, and interest in and to any such arrangement.

2.       Licensor hereby warrants and represents that it possesses full right and authority to grant the rights and license herein described for the percentage of each Composition owned or controlled by said Licensor. Licensee warrants and represents that it is the rightful owner or lawful assignee of the owner of the master recordings, if any, to be made and distributed pursuant to this license.

3.       In the event that you fail to pay royalties to Licensor on all copies manufactured and fail to remedy such default within thirty (30) days after written notice given to you by certified or registered mail, this agreement and all rights herein granted shall automatically terminate and such termination shall render either the making or distribution of copies of the product(s) for which the royalty has not been paid actionable as acts of infringement under the United States Copyright Law.

4.       This license is limited to the rights expressly granted herein and does not authorize any use of the aforesaid musical Composition(s) not expressly set forth herein. By way of illustration, but not limitation, this license does not include the right to change, arrange or adapt the lyrics or music, or alter the fundamental character of said musical Composition(s) or to use the title thereof as the title or sub-title of the product(s).

5.       You agree to identify the Composition(s) on your project as detailed in this license.

6.       Licensor shall have the right to inspect and audit your books and records relating to transactions involving the rights granted herein upon reasonable notice.

7.       All rights not herein specifically granted are reserved by Licensor. All rights granted here in are on a non-exclusive basis.

8.       The Territory covered by this license is the United States only.

9.       If Licensor license less than 100% of a composition to you, it means that there are other owners of the composition that Licensor does not represent.  It is your responsibility to secure permission from these publishers directly.

10.     The term of this license shall be a one-time manufacture and eventual distribution of the number of units stated herein. Upon the expiration of this license, all rights herein granted shall cease and terminate, and the right to make or authorize any further use or distribution of the product(s) made hereunder shall cease and terminate.

11.     This agreement shall be binding upon the heirs, legal representatives, successors, and assigns of each of the parties hereto. The rights granted herein may not be transferred or assigned by you to any other party without written permission from Licensor.

12.     This license constitutes our entire agreement and cannot be modified except by written instrument signed by both parties. This license shall be construed and interpreted by the laws of the state of Tennessee applicable to agreements wholly to be performed therein.

Mechanical License Provisions (if applicable):

1M. You are hereby granted the non-exclusive right and license during the term of the United States Copyright in the Composition(s) to make and distribute the following phonorecords embodying a single performance of the Composition(s):

2M. As used in this agreement, all terms and phrases, including the word “phonorecord” and the phrase “made and distributed” shall have the meaning ascribed thereto in the United States Copyright Law and the regulations properly adopted in connection therewith, unless otherwise specified or defined herein.

3M. For phonorecords manufactured and distributed in the United States the royalty rate payable is the statutory mechanical rate.

By signing below, you agreed to abide by all of the terms of this agreement.

Agreed to:

LICENSOR (Name):

By: ____________________________________________________________________

Date: _____________________

LICENSEE (Name):

By: ____________________________________________________________________

Date: ________________________

****************************************************************************************************

If you would like a blank copy of a mechanical license as an MS Word doc or Excel file , let me know where to email it.
Creating a win-win situation for the artist/label and the writers/publishers keeps great music rewarding for all. Understanding mechanical licenses for music projects is information every record label, songwriter and publisher should have.

If anyone has any other questions or can offer any other information about mechanicals, I welcome your comments!

There is nothing that will fast-forward a vocal learning curve like having an experienced vocal coach/vocal producer in the studio with you. This works for new singers as well as veteran singers who want  to advance their studio technique.

It’s best to get one or more pre-production lessons before going into the studio. That way you save a little studio time getting up to speed. But if you’re on a tight schedule or deadline, you can go ahead and meet your vocal coach at the studio.

The way I like to work is to warm you up before actually entering the vocal booth, giving you tips on things like how to hit the hard notes, soft notes, high and low notes, long phrases, etc. as well as how to “think” as you enter the space of the song, and helping you figure out to whom you should be singing. Then off we go.

When you work this way,  your body may get tired and your brain may get fried but your voice won’t. You have to experience it to believe it. Caution: It is very important not to let the precision required for great studio vocals to get in the way of authenticity and passion. That’s why I recommend pre-production vocal lessons. But you will get a better vocal with intuitive, experienced in-studio vocal coach to guide you than you will any other way.

Also, you must know that there is no substitute for actual studio singing experience. Each time you go in you should be better and it should be easier to get that great vocal. But it is a better use of your budget not to waste studio time without someone to help you when you hit a frustrating point. Food for thought when you’re planning your recording project.

One other thought for remaining budget conscious… and a great idea for all artists no matter how experienced: If there is time, try doing even more pre-production by going into a cheaper studio situation with a vocal coach/producer and practicing and experimenting with studio vocals.  Then when you’re ready,  you’re more than prepared to schedule your final vocals which you will be proud to play for ANYONE.