21Miles

Hi Again John, Great to read your comments! Thanks very much. While we are on the subject could I put something to you and ask for your opinion? For the sake of clarity I am an amateur musician. I listened to the Audiosocket material online from accepted artists and was forever envious of the commercial material that was listed. I have always been attracted to music that belongs in the charts, is popular, radio ready and, sorry for being crass, makes money. However it has never been my intention to make money from my music, I simply had a desire be accepted by these organisations and have my music rub shoulders with the commercial fraternity. To this end I studied popular music for a number of years and discovered that, to a greater extent, it is not easy to compose. Material that sounds off the cuff doesn’t come easy. So with that in mind I continued to study and look for ways to compose popular chart music. Once I had something that I considered acceptable I then uploaded my music and waited. When I was accepted it gave me a certain degree of satisfaction of a job done. I hear modern musicians, that currently hold chart positions, and listen how they aspire to land a synchronisation deal with Microsoft to expand their career. Case in point would be an interview with Ellie Goulding this weekend where she described her excitement when her music was used as a background to sports broadcasts. So maybe, with the decline in CD sales, this is a way that the armature musician can compete with the best that popular music can offer. This leads me to my question. Is popular music a dirty word? Does lack of credibility mean lack of musical ability?

Hi John, Thanks a lot for this reply. Clear and concise, exactly what I needed

Hi, Has anyone ever been accepted by Audiosocket or Pump Audio and if so could you help me with this query. I have recently been accepted by a music licensing company to provide songs for their roster. To produce the songs I have hired various musicians including vocals and all instrumentation. The company have asked me to quote all the musicians they played on the tracks because they may qualify for performing rights payments. Is this correct, even if I paid them for their services?

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I am new to this and it would seem it’s a complicated subject. I submitted my songs to the company and they reviewed them and now they will try to sell them to anyone who requires media (TV, Radio, Films etc). The deals are non exclusive so I still have all the usual rights to the work. This is a common process with several internet based organisations performing this service. You audition by sending your songs and if you are accepted they represent your music and actively promote it. As part of the contract I need to quote the musicians who have performed on the tracks. The musicians are all studio session players and come with a long list of recommendations. Nothing about the process has been underhand in any way and the tracks are performed to the highest quality. I did not sign any agreements with the musicians with regard to royalties and their services were accepted by me once the tracks were recorded. I think, as the media companies concerned are in the US, they will not want to limit the opportunities that are available to the tracks so they want to cover all the bases and have requested the details musicians concerned. Any further thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi, If anyone can help with this I would be grateful I have recently been accepted by a music licensing company to provide songs for their roster. To produce the songs I have hired various musicians including vocals and all instrumentation. The company have asked me to quote all the musicians they played on the tracks because they qualify for performing rights payments. Is this correct, even if I paid them for their services?

Hi, I have been playing tracks by the script recently and I am very interested in the technique Danny uses when he inserts a line of what I can only describe as rap in his songs. You can here this in the track "for the first time" in the third line of the verse (I don't know what the words are but it's right after the line "and we don't know why"). Anyway I am not sure what my point is apart from I think it's very cool and I would love to know how he does it. Not to copy it but to understand better this very good melody technique. I have read articles that state rap vocal is not easy so maybe it's linked to that.

Hi again, I am in a band that has been together for a long time and we have started to record our own stuff. We have been told by the producer that we should decide who owns the songs and come up with a legally binding publishing agreement. To try to work this out we had a band meeting. Basically the song writing process involves me receiving some lyrics from the other band members. I then will write a melody and the chords to go with it and fit the lyrics or change them by adding more and a chorus etc. I then record the song and take it to the band who then, under my direction, will play the track. For the publishing deal I have stated that we should split the song between melody and lyrics and work out who made a contribution. The rest of the band say we should all take an equal share. And that is when the arguing started. The rest of the band have issued me with an ultimatum. Either I agree with them or basically I don’t. Lots of things have been quoted for instance friendship, any other agreement will spoil the fun etc. I really do not know what to do. Some times I agree with them. Sometimes I feel resentful due to the fact that, most of the time, the rest of the band do very little. They sit there and wait for me to come with the next idea. If I don’t agree then I guess that’s it. The producer has said that he would still like to take the songs and record them but the question is who records them? If I leave do I take the melodies with me, write new lyrics and record them myself? I am sure they will resent me for that.

Hi again, Thanks for the reply. This is great advice. However please take a look at my new post as I may about to make a mistake. Thanks

Hi Guys, I have been them member and main songwriter of a band for the last 4 years. We are a bunch of aging 50 plus’ with aspirations to give our music a wider audience. To get to the point we have recorded some tracks with a local producer, who has done an excellent job, and we have five tracks with about another twelve to go. The other night the producer said if we are to release the tracks as downloads and potentially make money we should decide who “owns” the songs. This question has given rise to a whole bunch of other question that I was hoping someone could help us with. 1. The producer, to save time, has played all the instruments on the tracks. We have played him a hefty sum for his services but do we need to include him in any cut? 2. We have split the songs in to melody and lyrics. I am responsible for the melody so no argument there however the lyrics are more of a complex problem. For instance I have written three verses with the last verse written by the lead singer. As there are five verses to the song do you think he should get say 10%? 3. I guess if we are to go down this route we will need to examine all the songs and decide who gets a cut of what? Obviously the whole thing could fall flat and no one makes anything, in which case problem solved however the producer was fairly keen that we decide. Any comments would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks Again

Hi Guys, Sorry for dropping in on this one late but this is a favourite topic of mine and one that I struggle with. I purchased a book by Ricky Rooksby titled “How to write a great melody” and tried my best to read it. It has some great theory but wow is it hard to get through. I came to the conclusion that it’s a black art. In other words it can’t be taught, learned or theorised. It will either come or it won’t. The only thing you can do is keep plugging away and maybe, if the gods are on your side, you will probably, given enough time, write a good one. Thanks Allan