Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Focusrite Guide To Releasing Music: Part 3

30/03/2021

Words: Chuck Fishman

If you've followed the series so far, you're probably thinking that releasing music involves an awful lot of steps. The thing is, following them will help you to reach the most engaged (if not largest) audience possible, with the greatest opportunities to generate income from the release. In order to reach this audience, you will need to spend some money, but investment at this stage will pay dividends further down the road. For instance, in part two of the series (check it out here), I talked about copyrighting your songs, which can cost up to $100 in the USA per composition. That's quite a bit of time and investment that follows finishing each album, EP, or even an individual song, but it is well worth it to protect your work and your future musical career.

In this part of the series, I'll be discussing the terms of a deal that you'll want to negotiate with an independent record label, if you've been able to find a label receptive to backing your music. If you decide you can't get the deal terms you'd like, or you feel that you're the best party to release and market your music, I'll take you through how to find a music distributor who can deliver your physical and digital release to music retailers and streaming services.

Registering as a songwriter

While your music is already mixed and mastered by now, there is critical metadata you'll need to collect and deliver before you find your record label or music distributor. You'll need this information so that music fans will be able to find your music on their favorite streaming service.

Whether you're releasing with a label or on your own, there is an important next step to take if this hasn't already been addressed in your music career: you need to register as a songwriter with a performance royalty organization (PRO). Registering within the US, your two main options are ASCAP and BMI - for a complete list of copyright collection societies worldwide, click here. ASCAP charges songwriters a one-time fee of $50 to register, BMI offers free registration. Once you've registered as a songwriter, you will be assigned an IPI/CAE, a nine digit number that identifies you as a songwriter globally. You are going to need this IPI/CAE number to get paid for the streaming of your songs whether you're releasing music on your own or with a record label. You can also register with BMI and ASCAP as an individual song publisher or set up a publishing company. No matter how you intend to release your music, first ensure you have your songwriter number set up.

Determine the extent of the deal

You'll also want a lawyer to review any deal you sign with an independent record label. There are specific points of the deal you should ask to be included (and excluded) and the duration of these (number of years of contract), should also be reasonable.

Let's assume you have the songs already mixed and mastered, copyrighted and ready to go to market. Make sure that the deal you are trying to achieve with the record label is only for the release(s) you've pitched. You'll probably want to avoid deals that ask you to deliver another album, EP or more singles at your own expense. Also, you may be presented with a deal that promises you cash upfront to deliver future albums. Do keep in mind that if a record label is investing in your career, they may ask for a 2-3 release deal with you so that they can develop you as an artist.

A deal to avoid is one that attempts to take ownership of your artist name, your brand, your non-music merchandise (e.g. t-shirts) and your live performance/DJ/ touring revenues. Such record label artist signings are called 360 deals and are designed to allow a record label to fully invest in an artist's career development. For the purposes of this article I'm assuming you're looking to release just this set of songs, and 360 deals take too much of a stake in your overall career to simply achieve that purpose. Also, as you've already copyrighted your songs and retain the copyright, there should be no provision in the deal asking you to assign copyrights to the record label.

Licensing your masters

The licensing of your music masters for streaming and physical copies (CDs, vinyl) is the biggest point of any record deal. This should be an exclusive license to the label - meaning that no other record label can come along and be able to sign your music. This allows the record label to really invest in your music without fear of competing against another party in the market. If you feel you might outgrow your label at some point, you can add a provision that if another label - bigger in size or based in another country - wants to license the songs, they could do so at a price paid to your label, and that your label would have the right to negotiate this.

The term of an exclusive license of masters to a record label should really be no more than 10 years. It's my belief that a five-year license is a bit too short and that the last thing you want to do is to try to re-negotiate a license to remain part of a record label's roster. Additionally, a 10-year license is beneficial in terms of your visibility in the market. For example, if a label is doing a Best of compilation, a 10-year anniversary album, or something similar, there's an opportunity for your music to be included. Another way to structure the deal is that the label gets a license to your masters for five years, after which it renews with the same terms for another five years unless you object.

How much do I get paid for licensing my music?

You can determine what you think your masters are worth for this five- to 10-year period. Consider the upfront expenses you incurred in producing the music, such as studio time, and mixing and mastering eng
LINK: https://focusrite.com/en/news/focusrite-guide-releasing-music-part-3...
See more stories from focusrite

Most recent headlines

20/02/2025

NAB Show To Feature New Business Of Entertainment Track

WASHINGTON The 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, at the Las Vegas Convention Center will mark the debut of the Business of Entertainment track developed with The Ankler...

20/02/2025

Local News Veteran Adrienne Roark Joins Tegna as Chief Content Officer

TYSONS, Va. Tegna Inc. has announced that news veteran Adrienne Roark has been named chief content officer reporting to CEO Mike Steib, effective March 31....

20/02/2025

Roku to Become the Streaming Hub of Bassmaster Tournaments

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Roku has further expanded its sports content with a new media rights deal with Bassmaster that will make Roku the streaming hub for Bassmaster ...

20/02/2025

NABs Curtis LeGeyt Calls for Modernization of Broadcast Ownership Rules

WASHINGTON National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt opened The Media Institute's 2025 Communications Forum series with a s...

20/02/2025

From Storage Struggles to Streamlined Storytelling How Th...

The Belonging Co., a Nashville-based church renowned for its dynamic worship experiences and multimedia-rich conferences, tapped DigitalGlue's creative.spac...

20/02/2025

Mediahuis Radio Chooses DHD Audio Mixers for New Studios...

Mediahuis Radio continues its expansion with the completion of a new production facility in Amsterdam. DHD RX2 and DX2 audio mixers connected to XD3 Cores form ...

20/02/2025

Calrec expands its flexible production model at NAB 2025

At NAB 2025, Calrec is introducing a suite of new interconnected products and updates aiming to help broadcasters meet a variety of challenges. With increased c...

20/02/2025

Keepit achieves exceptional growth in a tough 2024 market

Keepit, the world's only independent vendor of cloud backup and recovery solutions designed to protect SaaS data, today announced a remarkable year of growt...

20/02/2025

Hitomi Broadcast Showcases Enhanced UHD Capabilities at N...

Expanded SMPTE ST 2110 support strengthens lip-sync and latency measurement solutions Hitomi Broadcast, the market leader in audio/video alignment and latency ...

20/02/2025

LiveU Transforms Tabcorp Sky Racing Coverage through Rem...

LiveU, a leader in live IP-video and remote production solutions, today announced the successful implementation of its comprehensive IP remote production soluti...

20/02/2025

MainConcept and Veset Collaborate to Enhance Live TV with...

MainConcept, a leading provider of video and audio codecs, has announced a partnership with cloud playout solutions provider, Veset, to integrate its JPEG XS SD...

20/02/2025

OOONA Launches OnStage - A Free Archive for Media Localiz...

OOONA, a leading provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announces the launch of On Stage, a free-to-acces...

20/02/2025

Feisty Feminist Murder Mystery He Had It Coming Announced

18 02 2025 - Media release Feisty Feminist Murder Mystery He Had It Coming Announced Stars of He Had It Coming, Lydia West, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Liv Hewso...

20/02/2025

Screen Australia and Stan Announce New Comedy-Horror Series Gnomes

18 02 2025 - Media release Screen Australia and Stan Announce New Comedy-Horror Series Gnomes Gnomes writers Tegan Higginbotham and Paul Verhoeven, and creato...

20/02/2025

Do I Know You From Somewhere? Shot with URSA Mini Pro 12K

Do I Know You From Somewhere? Shot with URSA Mini Pro 12K Brie Clayton February 19, 2025 0 Comments Canadian indie film uses Blackmagic camera to crea...

20/02/2025

Berklee Ensemble for Musicians with Disabilities Is Stronger for Our Differences

Berklee Ensemble for Musicians with Disabilities Is Stronger for Our Differences Associate Professor Adrian Anantawan, who founded Berklee's Music Inclusi...

19/02/2025

Give Your Playlist Covers a Tyler, The Creator Touch With Our Exclusive Stickers

For more than a decade, Tyler, The Creator has blazed his own trail, exploring unique aesthetics across music, fashion, and art. Now he's bringing his signa...

19/02/2025

10 Billion Streams and Counting: Spotify Singles Celebrates Its Biggest Hits

Spotify Singles, our longest-running original recorded music franchise, has officially surpassed 10 billion collective streams worldwide. That's a whole lot...

19/02/2025

ST Engineering iDirect CEO Nominated for Via Satellite's Satellite Executive of the Year Award 2024

Via Satellite recognizes Don Claussen's leadership in driving innovation to ...

19/02/2025

Calrec Launches True Control 2.0 at 2025 NAB Show

At the 2025 NAB Show, April 6-9 in Las Vegas, Calrec will introduce a suite of new interconnected products and updates aiming to help broadcasters attract more ...

19/02/2025

ThinkAnalytics To Feature Newly Launched ThinkMediaAI At 2025 NAB Show

LONDON and LOS ANGELES ThinkAnalytics will feature its newly launched ThinkMediaAI, a unified artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform that encompass conte...

19/02/2025

Fubo Launches New Multicultural Content Bundles

NEW YORK FuboTV Inc.has announced plans to launch of multicultural content bundles that will provide U.S. consumers with international programming available in ...

19/02/2025

Spectrum Business Launches New Flexible Packages, Boosts Internet Speeds

STAMFORD, Conn. Charter's Spectrum Business has announced new packages, pricing, improved internet speeds for new business customers and free internet speed...

19/02/2025

C2HR: Broadcast Engineering Among Hottest Jobs in Content Development

A new survey among media HR professionals identifies broadcast operations professionals as among the most sought after jobs in the content development sector....

19/02/2025

Behind the Scenes of The Brutalist: An Oscar-Buzzed Workflow with Signiant Media Shuttle

Behind the Scenes of The Brutalist: An Oscar-Buzzed Workflow with Signiant Media...

19/02/2025

Berklee Ensemble for Disabled Musicians Is Stronger for Our Differences

Berklee Ensemble for Disabled Musicians Is Stronger for Our Differences Associate Professor Adrian Anantawan, who founded Berklee's Music Inclusion Ensemb...

19/02/2025

DNEG makes move into AI with Metaphysic acquisition

Metaphysics AI neural performance toolset, which was used on the Tom Hanks and Robin Wright film Here, was recently honoured at the Visual Effects Society Award...

19/02/2025

SES responds as Moody's downgrades company's outlook

Responding to the ratings realignment, SES provided a market update ahead of its Full Year 2024 Results which will be published on 26th February By Matthew Co...

19/02/2025

Ikegami Electronics Announces US Market Introduction of I...

Ikegami Electronics announces a new addition to its range of broadcast quality television production, control and monitoring equipment. The IPX-100 is an IP gat...

19/02/2025

BCNEXXT Innovates Playout in the Cloud with Amazon Web Se...

BCNEXXT, a leading provider of virtualized, cloud-native systems for Linear, VoD, and OTT publishing, today announced its successful collaboration with Amazon...

19/02/2025

Experience Commerce Secures Social Media Mandate for Inve...

Experience Commerce, a leading full-service digital marketing agency within the Cheil Network, has won the social media mandate for Invecto Technologies Pvt. Lt...

19/02/2025

ThinkAnalytics launches ThinkMediaAI - the first unified...

ThinkAnalytics, the global leader in video content discovery and personalization, today launched ThinkMediaAI, the video industry's first unified AI powered...

19/02/2025

SES Market Update in Context of Moody's Ratings Press Release

Luxembourg, 18 February 2025 -- SES S.A. has taken note of Moody's Ratings Press Release today with regards to SES and is providing a market update ahead of...

19/02/2025

Ikegami Electronics to Introduce IPX-100 IP Gateway at 2025 NAB Show

MAHWAH, N.J. Ikegami Electronics has announced a new addition to its range of broadcast quality television production, control and monitoring equipment for the ...

19/02/2025

Joel Davis Named President & GM of NBCU Local Philadelphia

NEW YORK Veteran local media executive Joel Davis has been named president and general manager of NBCU Local Philadelphia's NBC10 / WCAU, Telemundo62 / WWSI...

19/02/2025

Heather Gray Named New Interim General Manager at WRAL & Fox 50

RALEIGH, N.C. Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) has announced that longtime local media leader Heather Gray has been named interim general manager of WRA...

19/02/2025

Shure Forms Wireless Microphone Spectrum Alliance

NILES, Ill. Shure Incorporated has announced that it is forming the Wireless Microphone Spectrum Alliance (WMSA), a coalition that will work to ensure access to...

19/02/2025

Lipstick on the Legacy - The Pitfalls of Superficial Medi...

Lipstick on the Legacy: The Pitfalls of Superficial Media Transformation The media and entertainment (M&E) industry has been undergoing digital transformation ...

19/02/2025

Strengthened by Successful 2024 TAG Video Systems Plans t...

In 2024, TAG Video Systems dedicated itself to empowering customers to achieve their goals and deliver truly extraordinary media experiences. For 2025, TAG has ...

19/02/2025

Alfalite VP XR LED screens power Spain largest virtual pr...

Alfalite, the only European manufacturer of LED screens, is proud to announce that its Modularpix Pro VP XR solution is the core technology behind the new Coru ...

19/02/2025

The Ninth Order Completed With URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Fairlight

The Ninth Order Completed With URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Fairlight Brie Clayton February 18, 2025 0 Comments Film shown at 20 global film festivals us...

19/02/2025

People Want Ads as Intelligent as their Content

People Want Ads as Intelligent as their Content Andy Marken February 18, 2025 0 Comments In situations like this, carelessness, mistakes they will ha...

19/02/2025

Heather Gray Named Interim General Manager of WRAL-TV and FOX 50

Leadership change at Capitol Broadcasting Company's WRAL-TV/FOX 50 Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) today announced that longtime local media lea...

19/02/2025

Temenos' Barb Morgan Shares How Chatbots and AI Agents Are Reshaping Customer Service in Banking

In financial services, AI has traditionally been used primarily for fraud detect...

19/02/2025

XRANGE and Mira Aerospace Partner to Advance High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) Flight Testing

Collaboration enables long-term testing and evaluation support for HAPS platform...

19/02/2025

Mercedes-Benz Stadium Overhauls Production Ecosystem With Upgraded Control Rooms, New Integrated Workflows

Mercedes-Benz Stadium Overhauls Production Ecosystem With Upgraded Control Rooms...

19/02/2025

Season two of the Sky Exclusive drama series The Last of Us debuts 14 April

Season two of the Sky Exclusive drama series The Last of Us debuts 14 AprilOfficial Teaser Posters ReleasedWednesday 19 February 2025 The seven-episode second ...

19/02/2025

Elevate your networks IQ: ipoques AI-driven DPI technology unveiled

Elevate your networks IQ: ipoques AI-driven DPI technology unveiled ipoque, a Rohde & Schwarz company, showcases its groundbreaking Encrypted Traffic Intellig...

19/02/2025

Kyocera and Rohde & Schwarz join forces to demonstrate OTA characterization of mmWave PAAM at MWC 2025

Kyocera and Rohde & Schwarz join forces to demonstrate OTA characterization of m...

19/02/2025

Taiwanese Rom-Com Series I am MarriedBut!' Wins Hearts with Its Realistic Take on Marriage

Back to All News Taiwanese Rom-Com Series I am Married But!' Wins Hearts w...