Behind the Scenes: #19 The Rights
A Peek Behind the Curtain: A Solopreneur Produces an Album Recording
Photo by JP Valery on Unsplash
As noted in #6 The Funding, making music, whether performing it or recording it, is a pricey endeavor. In addition to lessons, coachings, rehearsal studios, performing attire, musicians, sheet music and recording engineers, we have one more cost: the rights to the music we perform.
In the case of recording, we pay for the right to sell a digital copy of our cover of the music. (And please note that I’m speaking here of popular music rather than classical music, which requires a slightly different process.) Generally, the publisher of the music owns the rights to the song we want to perform and we must pay them in order to sell our performance of the song, whether in recording or live performance.
Because it would be unbelievably difficult and time-consuming to chase the name of the publisher for each song we perform, and to locate a way to communicate with that publisher to ascertain the cost and how to pay that cost for each song, there is a clearinghouse for obtaining the rights to popular music. In the past, a solopreneur (as opposed to a record label) who wanted to get rights to publish a song cover might have used the Harry Fox Agency. That organization still grants rights, but is geared more toward labels than individuals now. The organization that most individuals use currently for the clearing process is EasySong—and easy it is!
To obtain the right to publish your cover song online, go to EasySong, Get Permission, Clear Cover Song. EasySong takes a fee for itself in addition to the charge by the publisher for each sale of the song. There’s a calculation chart to determine what the cost will be for the number of downloads (or whatever media you choose) that you expect to need. If you sell more than you anticipate, you simply go back to EasySong and purchase more; the cost will be less per copy than the original cost. For a hundred downloads of your cover song, you might expect to pay around $25-30.
If your album contains twelve songs, that’s around $300 to clear rights for all the songs; this is another expense to consider in recording, whether you’re producing an album recording or individual songs.
In the case of the album I’m recording, I’ve opted to record two songs at a time, so that the total expenses, including coachings, rehearsal studios, musicians, sheet music, recording engineers, editing and mastering costs, and song rights are around $2,000 per segment.
Once the entire album is available, I hope to recoup some of the expenses through download sales. Making a profit is unlikely since I have no label to represent me.
As you can see by now, music-making is not for the faint of heart … or the poor of pocket! But musicians make music because the creative drive in us insists that we do and for no other reason. We love what we do, and we really can’t live without making music.
Because part of the drive to make music includes the necessity of sharing it, our options are live performances or recording. The requirements and costs for each are different, and each has its reward.
Live performances generally cost slightly less to produce than recordings. (I’m talking here about relatively small concerts with an audience of under fifty and a simple stage or set, and definitely not huge stage productions, such as a Broadway show, which can cost many thousands.) They also provide a tangible connection between performer and audience, one which moves and enlivens both.
The benefit of recording, of course, is that you have something to show for your work, something that will last forever, whereas live performances are ephemeral and disappear with the tick of the clock. In current times, it is an absolute necessity to have recordings of your work to offer others with whom you might want to work, to secure an audition for a gig, and to represent your brand. (I dislike the word brand, reeking of commerce as it does, but a brand is what we are now in this digital world, like it or not.)
Younger artists come into the music business with digital awareness and record consistently without thinking twice about it. Although I’ve been performing for over fifty years, I haven’t stopped to create a digital legacy until the last couple of years, so it’s rather urgent at this point that I do as much recording as I can.
So, on with the recording!
Next up: The Review
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