john

So many indies struggle. Whether their music is good or not is almost immaterial. So what do you do? Do you put as much effort, love and attention into releasing your music as you do creating it? If not... why the hell not?

Well I for one am interested in your next steps in your process. What different people do interests me. That aside, the resulting discussion can be illuminating. I am guessing one or more posts have been deleted? From Cody’s one post I, it looks like he was being sarcastic in order to respond to your own self-deprecating presentation of being dubiously worthy to present your process. Ie of course you can share your process.. I don’t know about Patchez opinion, it isn’t here to see. To be honest, you haven’t written up your process for me to comment on, simply stated an idea. An idea is not a process, so how could I have an process related opinion built upon a lyric idea. I for one would prefer to talk about your actual ideas, processes, methods and tools. You do not need to be “somebody” to have a valid opinion. By stating your process, the resulting discussion might help others, but equally you might learn something. That’s how discussion works So.... what do you do to evolve your lyric idea? Cheers John

If you mean recreating it like for like, you are not breaching the recording copyright, but you are still breaching the song copyright in some countries and you should pay a license to the copyright owner. You would also be infringing on the arrangement and could still be taken to court for that. Exceptions would be if the song is "pre-cleared". YouTube has a list of many but it only covers posting it on YouTube. The fact that you are earning on Spotify, means you would be more likely to be sued. Basically if it is not completely yours, unless you have something in writing that specifically gives you permission to use a recording or arrangement, you can be sued. It doesn't even need to be the whole thing. In some countries (USA) you might automatically have permission to release a cover of an already released song, but only if you pay the license fee/royalty to the songwriter/publisher.

Welcome to our family! Good to have you with us.

@Patchez what Guerrilla ebook? On our boards? (I was doing some work in prep for launching it, and I do have some info about it out there) I’m now wondering if I made something available by mistake lol

I think if it isn’t addressed, music as a profession is deader than dead. @Cody he might have sounded like he was whining at the Napster hearings, but that didn’t mean he was wrong. Also, there’s a good chance he brought it up precisely because “he’s rich, he’s got nothing to complain about” was levelled at him last time. It wasn’t exactly a secret lol. A little context, back then half the staff of Songstuff owned or co-owned indie record labels. I know one of them was an electronica label with 25 acts on the roster, another was jazz and blues with 18 acts on the roster, so not huge, but not tiny. Pretty shortly after the dust was settled both labels closed as a direct result of the new settlement negotiated with Digital platforms and the nosedive in sales due to non-payment of licenses and unchecked piracy. During the pro-Napster campaign, and later the Pro-YouTube campaign, the general public were told by leading campaigners that artists and writers were being ripped of, with large labels profiteering, charging $15 for an album that cost 50 cents to press. Of course it was a lot of rubbish. At the time the raw unprocessed, blank Cd was about 60 cents, but the pricing omitted the cost of pressing, printing on the CD, printing the booklet, the jewel case, the cost of the bar code, the plastic wrap, the cost of cover design, photographs, mastering, recording and mixing, rehearsals, admin, distribution, marketing and promotion and a load more besides. Campaigners also pushed the story that their campaign targeted only major labels and big artists. This wasn’t true. The main reason the public were swayed to Back Napster and later YouTube, was because they only heard the Napster/YouTube side of the argument. Why? Because the top results in Google were all pro Napster/YouTube. Pro-music Industry articles were all below page 10 in the search results. Similar happened with stories about YouTube videos not being available due to the RIAA and PRS... but it was simply a strong arm negotiating tactic to force the acceptance of extremely low License fees and cancellation of back money. Of course at that point people didn’t realise that Google had bought YouTube and faced a massive bill for copyright licenses and the prospect of big law suits. I will let you draw your own conclusions. As a result those labels closed, and the owners left the music industry. Most professional members of Songstuff also lost their jobs including session musicians, producers, audio engineers, managers, marketers etc. Almost all were not involved with majors. Wind forward to today. It is impossible to make a living from streaming. For example, Pharrell's, "Happy" made $2,700 in publisher AND songwriter royalties from 43 million Pandora streams in the first quarter of 2014, according to an email from music publisher Sony/ATV CEO Marty Bandier. That means Pharrell only saw half of that. Most writers would be lucky to see 50 cents per quarter. For someone earning money in another job, pursuing music as a hobby, giving their music away for free is a luxury. Sadly I don’t see plumbers, carpenters, drivers, bakers, mechanics feeling obliged to do the same. A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work and all that. I remember reading somewhere that due to those rulings and the DMC some 80% of the Industry left or went semi-pro. Back to today, the main way to earn as an artist is through live. As a songwriter, many are still semipro. As the industry switch to making money from gigs and merch, songwriter deals of the past were geared to sales and sync. Only sync still made money for writers and for many artists the music itself was now a loss leader. So now Live has evaporated, and with it merch. So what, artists are left with pitiful download income and donations from livestream, and songwriters have sync.... but wait... big movie companies are re-negotiating with Songwriters, no ongoing royalties, 90% reduction in fees. Don’t sign? We’ll replace your music. You see, it is perfectly ok for Spotify etc to make loads of cash, or Microsoft or YouTube... creators aren’t meant to make a dime. It’s ok for the advertisers to sell their products all made possible by our ideas and hard work, but woe betide you if you want a slice. For too long artists have willingly undercut each other to “make it”, knowing that there were other opportunities to make a good living further down the road. Trouble is we’re at the end of the road now. If this isn’t addressed properly there will be no music industry. Companies from venues, to management, labels, advertisers all make money exploiting that desperation, time after time after time. Listeners feel ENTITLED to listen for free, to download, happy to let artists work for free, happy to let artists invest in gear, rehearsals and time... initially because of misinformation, later because they can. It’s a right now, isn’t it? Right now in entertainments, because of COVID 19, I know about 30 people directly with no income at all. Because of being classed self employed they can’t get state benefits. Because contracts were short they can’t get the help given to self employed. Online, I know hundreds like that. Make no mistake entertainments has been smashed. For music, for must they had already used savings and sold what they had to sell before COVID game along. So, I agree largely with Don. Why him? Well, it dawned on Don

hey gang Don make an excellent job of presenting the case of songwriters https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4879142/user-clip-don-henley-testimony Cheers John

Hi and welcome to the Songstuff family!

Hey there Maya! Welcome to the Songstuff family! Hopefully you plan to post more as we are a collective of writers and artists, not just listeners. We try to support each other with knowledge, advice, collaboration in writing, recording, production and promotion to name just a few ways we can help each other. You will find some excellent artists and writers here. Hopefully it will fit in your creative time and help you with planning your promo (among other things)?

that’s why we have a draft song critique board and a song critique board it’s good to know your intended uses too

look at your verse, perhaps you have said all you had to in that first verse. That’s a really common reason for what I think of as “verse block”. Ie you reached the natural end of the story or issue etc. The trick is to take that verse, split up the lines across new verses. So, say you have a 4 line verse, lines: A, B, C, & D. If you plan 4 verses, then distribute them as A goes to verse 1 line 1, B goes to verse 2 line 2, C goes to verse 3 line 3 and D goes to verse 4 line 4. Now gow back and write the in-between lines. If you only want 3 verses perhaps A&B go in verse 1. Or B&C go in verse 2 or C&D go in verse 3. Make sense?

Any specific aspect? What EQ & compresssion do you use?

No worries, happy to help

Ok... So it has a phones output (which gives a low-power stereo pair output audio signal. It's not clear if it is a stereo jack or stereo mini-jack connector, but lookslike it is the full size jack cnnector.), a usb connector and a sustain pedal connector (which will be a mono jack). The cables you have are full size jack connectors, both mono. it's far from the most versatile connecttion panels which can be quite limiting. Your Scarlet 2i2 has 2 mono jack / xlr inputs (used for instrument or microphone) a usb connector (for connection to your computer) and to mono jacl outputs (a stereo pair) for connection to active monitors (built in amplifier) or with an adapter to rca phono, to an amplifier and monitors. So you would use your scarlet to connect a traditional microphone (not a usb microphone) and instruments like a guitar. It could also be used to input a stereo pair as outputs from a keyboard, but if doing so you couldn't then also use it to input a microphone. Not necessarily a problem, it largely comes down to how you would work. Alternatively, you would connect your P-45 to your computer using the usb. You will see the term "MIDI" (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) in your manual. This is a protocol and format for primarily sending control information... mainly stuff like play this not, stop playing that note etc. Olders systems used a dedicated set of inputs for MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, MIDI THRU. On your system, MIDI is transmitted and received via the P-45 USB connection, to a PC USB connector. That said, it looks like the P45 can also send audio information using the same P-45 USB port. I am not sure if it can do both at the same time? I would need to dig. Solution #1 If it can do both at the same time, your port connections would look like: P-45 USB - > PC USB Microphone -> Scarlet Mono Input Sustain Pedal -> P-45 Sustain Port Solution #2 If it can't do both at the same time, that would be a pain. then you would need a y-split connector for the audio. These connectors can be solid physical connectors, or come in the form of cables: https://www.amazon.com/Tisino-Stereo-Y-Splitter-Return-Insert/dp/B07K591PFP/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=stereo+split+connector&qid=1591653407&sr=8-7 or more likely https://www.amazon.com/TISINO-Splitter-6-35mm-Stereo-Quarter/dp/B073SQ21CT/ref=sr_1_55?dchild=1&keywords=stereo+split+connector&qid=1591653596&sr=8-55 These are for full size jacks. For mini jacks (3.5 mm) you will find similar. Worth checking in case you have to have mini at one end (the stereo jack headphones on your p-45) and full size jack inputs on your scarlet. That said, I believe it is a full size stereo jack, so I believe the second Y connector above would work with your ordered cables. This setup would be like: P-45 USB - > PC USB (for Midi control) P-45 Headphones -> stereo splitter -> Scarlet IN 1 & 2 (audio) When you record your microphone using this set up you would need to unplug one keyboard channel to plug your mic in, or have previously rendered your keyboard to a wave file (ie recorded your P-45) into your PC and then be free to input your microphone. Because of all the mucking about, if it can deal with audio and MIDI at the same time across the USB connection, that would be much less hassle. Solution #3 The last alternative, probably the easiest, would be to connect your P-45 to your PC using USB to send MIDI info to your PC. In this scenario you do not use your P-45's sound generators. Instead you would install VSTi (Virtual instruments) on your PC. In this set up your P-45 is acting purely as a MIDI controller keyboard. This frees up both ports on your Scarlet interface. You can get some fantastic piano VSTi. There are a load of free and paid VSTi out these. With your keyboard as a good input device it would be very easy to use... though you would need to learn about VSTi... that said, if you plan on home recording, you would have to anyway! I believe you will need to install a Yamaha MIDI USB driver on your PC for any of the solutions. I hope this helps PS It is handy to build up your audio and midi connectors when you are a musician. They come in handy!

What make and model of keyboard do you have?

Hi Autumn22! Welcome to the Songstuff family!

Hey, welcome to the Songstuff family! Some great inspiration listed, so I am realy looking forward to hearing your songs and seeing how they develop

Hey Gang Just a short note to encourage you to play the Soundcloud songs at the top of the forums pages. These tracks are from fellow members and I know they would appreciate your support! Go on. Give the tracks a play while you are browsing! Cheers John

Hey Roland, welcome to the Songstuff family! I'm looking forward to hearing some of your tunes!

Writing songs that catch is a balancing act between what is, for the audience, the familiar and unchallenging versus the unfamiliar and challenging. Too familiar and it is too boring, safe, if not theft! Too unfamiliar and you risk the audience just not getting it. Too much pop (and mainstream music in general) is Dominated by board rooms weighing up risk. I get it. The trouble is the way the music industry markets music is a high stakes roll of the dice based upon brand saturation and market space domination. They try to manage that risk by forcing artists and writers to play it safe, “Give us another ‘Shake it off’ Taylor”. The restrictive contracts the artists and writers sign inevitably make it this way too. If you don’t play ball not only is your stuff not released, but you are stuck in a ridiculous cycle of not being able to use your own artist name. As for indies, they too are victims of the system, because the listeners, music bloggers, journalists, radio DJs are all victims of this system. Indies are the most free, especially if they have no intention to get anywhere fast. Their problems are more budget and contacts, but for want of both, they largely play the game too, curbing their creativity. So how do you get people to reinvent the system? Answers on a postcard!

Thanks. It covers a lot! Any questions, just ask any staff

Hey deArch, welcome to the Songstuff family! Glad to have you with us

My guess is it isn’t so much the topics so much as message and perspective. Are you completely stuck and can’t get started, or are you able to write a verse or chorus and then dry up?

Not normally a management role. A manager ...manages including handling negotiations and putting others with their own key competencies in place. Promotions tend to be designed by a music promotor working with a PR agency (unless you are signed to a larger record label using in-house music promoters) and implemented by them or people working under their supervision/direction (Such as street teams and online street teams). Music promotors also work for and with venues in a fairly different role. Managers tend to be paid by percentage (normally 15% - 25%) while PR tend to get flat rates, and they are not cheap. Even a simple automated PR task such as press release distribution is likely to cost you $150-$450 depending on the size and quality of the distribution list, and that is likely to have you writing the the press release. The kind of PR you get for sub $100 From fiverr really isn’t worth the money. Anything that actually involves someone work is much more expensive. A proper but short social media campaign might cost $2000 to $4000. An ongoing one is likely to be $1500 - $2500 pcm. Some PR companies can have low cost one of for $800 - $1200. The staff media company is looking at what they could do in this arena, but things are still being set up.

Sectretly you are of course a cool kid but just a by the by not a life goal as I see it lol