Industry Liabilities

As I continue my Masters Journey this month I will look at three recent legal controversies affecting the Music Production industry, I will look at each one and give my opinion on how this might impact my future music production company. In the music business there are many lawsuits brought because of infringement of copyrights to illegal music piracy, so there are many to choose from.

I’ll start by examining the formally Homeless music intern who brought a lawsuit against Warner Music reported in Newsweek Magazine. While living in a homeless shelter in the Bronx Kyle Grant took an internship with Warner Music Group (WMG) in 2012, with dreams of starting his own label he figured that working at Warner Music Group (WMG) would be the right place to learn the industry. As is the custom when working as an intern you have to keep the studio clean, run errands, and whatever is needed to keep the studio running smoothly before you will be given the opportunity to learn.

According to Fact Sheet #71of The Department of Labor The Fair Labor Standards Act that an unpaid internship should be for the benefit of the intern to be trained. So after having to come in earl and leave late he was about to lose his bed at the shelter and the thought of getting fired form the internship was very awkward for him. After working there for eight months he was indeed fired because he took to much time for lunch, and never received any compensation for his time at the job.

I know what that feels like when you want to learn the business and take a position as an intern and all you do is manual labor and you don’t learn anything. On top of that no one who becomes an intern should not be given the opportunity to be trained in their field of choice when they are not getting paid, this is wrong and most people who become interns learn that it is a cut throat business and the one who devotes all their time to the company is the one who after years of interning that will get the opportunities.

Next I will take a look at MusicPiracy and how it has made an impact on the music industry, according to an article in Forbs magazine last year there are different opinions on music piracy, some believe that it has help drive sales and others who believe that people who illegally download music are cheap and don’t want to spend the money to buy it legally. There were two reports that the article looked at on by the European Commission that stated “all signs point to piracy leading to a slight increase in sales” and the other by OfCom‘s report that based on attitudes people have about paying for music.

I believe that all the streaming services (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon) and their cost to the consumer they are actually ripping off the music creators, and it is obvious because of the lawsuits being filed by ASCAP and BMI to get Congress to provide fair pay to music creators who want to profit from their creations. It is unfair to music creators when people illegally download music from the Internet without paying for it. People have been sharing music for a very long time even before the Internet by making tape copies for their friends, so I know this will continue to happen, but if music creators would price their music where it affordable we can see our sales grow.

Lastly I will look at trademark cases involving two record labels with the same name, but each “served different niches in the music industry”.  One label used “sTRANGEmUSIC” as its mark and recorded music combining classical and electronic and secured the domain name  “strangemusic.com” in1998, while the other used “Strange Music” while producing Hip Hop and Rap and registered “strangemusicinc.com.” in 2003, because “strangemusicinc.com.” was more commercially successful “sTRANGEmUSIC” asked for an injunction, but the courts refused finding that  “strangemusicinc.com.” “Appearance in the marketplace is unlikely to confuse consumers.” Even though both sound the same their mark differed in “font, color and design.” “sTRANGEmUSIC” lost the case because the court did not find the defendants to be in violation of “sTRANGEmUSIC” mark.

This case makes it clear that in the music business you need to know what constitutes infringement and trademarks are hard to infringe on because of the different categories. I will make sure to do my research when I look to protect my brand so that I don’t get sued.

Product and artist management

This month I am reviewing Artist and Product Management by Japheth Campell from the website 360 digital artist. In this article Mr. Campell discusses the differences between Artist and product management and how they rely on each other for the success of the artist career. How it is the manager’s responsibility to integrate the artist and products on behalf of the artist. It is also important that a manager designs a career plan for the artist before any sources of revenue are attempted, this way the artist had connected with his/her fan base building awareness for the brand before trying to turn them into customers.

According to the article taking a creative inventory will help identify the artist abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and see if the artist has an appealing appearance that is marketable; are they the total image package? After the creative inventory a manager can start to map out the career path and seek to develop and market the artist by having an online presence to retain current fans and make new ones. It is also important that a good manager knows how to manage a product and understands the target audience, and to talk to the fans to find out what they want.

In Ian’s article he make mention of a few good resources for the aspiring artist and product manager, The Product Manager's Field Guide: Practical Tools, Exercises, and Resources for Improved Product Management and This Business of Artist Management by Jr. Xavier M. Frascogna, H. Lee Hetherington both very good resources for anyone interested in artist and product management. I have found this article to be of great importance to me in my efforts to become a very good manager in the music industry and the resources are a mainstay on my bookshelf and I read them to help me be a better manager.

Interview with the President of Rayo Entertainment

In this post I interviewed my long time friend David Ogden who changed his career focus from Real Estate to the Music Business and started Rayo Entertainment, a Record Label & Music Group that has offices in New York and Lima, Peru, he plans to take his company worldwide. Rayo Entertainment has four divisions, which offer Management, Publishing, a Record Label and opportunities to perform on Stage. David has used his negotiating skills to grow a international company that caters to artists and the music community, he has a long history in negotiating and making deals from his background in Real Estate.  

Here are the questions I put to him.

1) How do you separate the people from the problem when you are Negotiating? What tips do you have for new negotiators who are trying to do this?

When negotiating, it important to clearly know what you want in the negotiations. Once you establish what you want, I find it best to try to detach and stick to principles. It’s hard to negotiate with emotion.

2) How do you handle positional bargaining tactics?

Again, I think it’s clear to know what you want and what you are willing to concede before negotiations.

3) Can you give me an example of how you worked toward mutual benefit when you were negotiating a deal?

Its important to listen in negotiations, sometimes the other party wants less than you anticipated. If you know what you are willing to give, giving a little back might seem like you are meeting them. Because ultimately you want the deal to close, you don’t want the

person to kill the deal after an agreement. This is important, there is no deal until it’s closed.

4) How do you handle dirty tricks when negotiating?

Acceptance, there will be always dirty tricks, its negotiating. There are no rules.

5) When you are negotiating how do you view interests vs. positions?

Separate them; you have to be as detached as possible. In order to negotiate, you have to pay attention, and you must know your value.

6) Do you think self-confidence plays a major role when negotiating?

Yes, but more than that is self worth or what your value is to the deal.

Thanks to my class on Negotiation & Deal-Making I am able to reconnect with David and get his take on Negotiation and Deal-Making, I thought his answers were to the point and insightful. David has the skills for Negotiation from his days as a Real Estate broker and now with his passion for music he is applying those skills in the music industry.

Music Business Models Today

Just recently I read an article on growing your music business by Andy Hill CEO of “I Like Music” where he speaks about a simple business model that has kept I like music to survive and thrive in the ever-changing music industry. “I Like Music”  provides music that is full licensed for use in many markets, and has access to a large collection of vinyl and CD’s from every genre of music that includes Top 40 Hit singles.

In the 1980’s he was part of the creation of the first digital music-licensing model while working for IBM that would provide music for commercial use. Being there for the birth of digital music sharing he gained insight into what changes were being made in the music industry and with this knowledge “I Like Music” was able to thrive taking advantage of the many opportunities in the music industry. Looking to expand in the music market “I Like Music” set its focus on the North American market because of its large media and retail markets.

After identifying companies that could help “I Like Music” develop their products “I Like Music” decided to release their virtual jukebox, which were used in pubs and bars. At this time getting capital was hard to come by because Banks viewed it to be to high- risk. “I Like Music” has grown worldwide supplying their virtual jukebox to many areas of the world. Through it’s partnership with the Santander group and their Growth Capital fund “I Like Music” has been able to expand and hire staff to help their growth.

Businesses should always be sure that their business objectives could be scaled up to guarantee the potential for growth in overseas markets. For “I Like Music” Santander Growth Capital fund was right for their business and if you are a music entrepreneur in the Digital music market remember that changes are always happening in the industry, and we need to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come with change.

Do What You Love

This week I watched Gary vaynerchuk, “do what you love, no excuses” on TED Talk and found it to be very inspirational, in his talk he points out that many people are doing what they really hate and we all need to have patience and passion for what we are doing in life. There is no reason for us to do things we hate and we have to be passionate about what we do while being patient. As business people we have to care about the community that we engage with and learn to hustle because when we hustle we put the time in to grow our business.

I realize that I am building a business and I need to work hard to make it a success, so if I have to put many hours in to learn what my business needs then I need to hustle and hustle hard. Some people look at the word hustle as something that is only done in a negative sense, but we have to do the legal hustle to build a successful business. When we work for someone else we have no problem working long hours to make that business a success, so why not hustle and do overtime to build your own business.

Gary offers motivation to the up coming businessperson who has doubt about succeeding in business, there is no excuse for not succeeding we have the Internet that offers a formula for success. Gary goes on to say that we must believe in the product we represent or get out of the business NOW! If you love what you are doing it will show and people will want to be a part of what you do. Your business has to be transparent and we need to build brand equity to have a successful business. Don’t try to figure out what social tools you need to use Gary suggest to use them all, because the people who follow your brand are everywhere and you need to be there too.

It all boils down to YOU; what do you want to do, and once you put your finger on your passion then you can build a business modal no matter your niche, there are many opportunities available, but you have to have passion for what you do. The social media landscape is wide open.