Making Money With Your Music in the UK

Making, performing and releasing music may sometimes feel like labour of love - why, sometimes we are even expected to pay to play gigs. Yet so much cost can be involved: equipment, instruments, recordings, studying, coaching/music lessons... not forgetting the hours we put in for composition, practice, marketing and promotion. And we can't expect the world to owe us something (or a lot) for what we choose or need to do. It's survival of the fittest, right? The strongest music gets the income.

Well the strongest and/or most popular music may get most of the income and the big bucks. But they are not necessarily the only ones making money with music. OK I may not be talking millions or new cars or houses here. But small amounts of revenue can be accrued by the most lightly active musicians. If you perform gigs at live music venues, release or sell your own music or get play on less mainstream radio shows you can still make some money with music.

Of course there is a few things you need to do first to make sure the world is aware of you music. I will cover the UK here as this is what I know of living and publishing independent music here. You need to join the bodies PRS For Music and the PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd). You then register any recordings and releases (if you do not have a label to do this for you) with the PPL and acquire ISRC's for each track. An ISRC is a unique code for each released recording and needs to be included in the metadata during the mastering process. Ask the mastering engineer to include them or research this further if you are mastering your own material.

If you are playing live shows at your local pub, even at an open mic event you can still be making a bit of money with your music and claiming music royalties. By joining the PRS in the UK you can claim for each performance in a venue that is registered with a PRS music license. There is a PRS license sticker in the window of these places and ask the manager if they are licensed. Most of the time they have to be - even sandwich shops and hairdressers have to have licenses to play music in public. Which has it's pros and cons I know, but as a musician you can take a share of the moneys allocated by registering your tracks/setlist even if it was a small gig with very few audience members.

If you do send your music to radio stations and shows that are likely to like and play your music, then you may very well get some airplay and this can also accumulate. They are free to join and take a small percentage from music royalties they claim for you. And they hunt them down internationally. Research radio stations that may specialise in your music - I make quite unique or weird creative music and still find enough outlets to play and support my independent music.

Third party companies such as Sentric Music can make this process a lot easier as they are free to join and claim music royalties for you. As payment they take a small percentage from music royalties they claim for you, and their registering system is a lot more straightforward and accessible than I have found by going directly to PRS site. You just let them know when your music is played on any radio show you know about and tell them of any live shows with set list. They also send out regular requests for music for adverts for TV etc. Now that is can be artist's dream that can come true music royalties wise.

Finally selling your independent music yourself has surely never been easier. Sites like CD Baby and Bandcamp mean you can offer your independent albums and singles at whatever price you like. And you receive most of the income. Through CD Baby you can also get your music onto the likes of iTunes and Spotify which can mean more listens, sales and royalties. On Bandcamp you can give away your music for free or set a price to pay per download/item purchase. Alternatively, you can set a minimum amount an will invariably find a few supporters will pay more than this.

So we can't all be making loads of money from our music but you could be missing out on some moneys you are due. You could actually make quite a bit of money from your music. I have only shared a few avenues of revenue I know of and reap rewards from making my creative music. It can be straightforward and could be a surprising amount. More advice and information can be found at PRS for Music, PPL and Sentric Music websites and a thorough search engine search.

Caro Churchill aka caro snatch is a producer and performer of her own brand of creative music, toying with conventions of spoken word, electronic and avant-garde pop. Her latest independent album - Til You're No Longer Blinkered - has received many encouraging reviews and radio play, including BBC Radio 6 and Radio 3's Late Junction show.

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Unsigned? Need to Save Money on Your Project? Here's How!

Everyone wants their music to sound like a major label recording but those records have six figure budgets behind them and your working as a server, so now what? You can still make your project sound amazing for an affordable price. So how do I as an unsigned artist put together a great product?

"The writing phase"

We all know how expensive studio costs can get and how fast time fly's when you're in them. This is why I recommend not going into the studio until you are completely clear as to what you are doing. Most people can't afford to pay a producer, studio time, mixing and mastering costs. You can easily rack up a thousand dollars before you even get to the mixing and mastering. So what do I do? Understand that these days you only need one great song. Remember quality over quantity! You need to find a great instrumental/beat site. You can usually purchase a killer instrumental for $10-$40 so where you save big is on the production fee and studio time it would cost you to produce or have it produced by a band/musicians. Once you receive your music track you write your song/melody to it and practice, practice, practice and when you have finished practicing, practice some more. When you know your song inside and out and have all your vocal harmony parts worked out perfectly then you're ready to go into the studio.

"The Recording Process"

Now that you're ready to get into the studio it's time to find the right one for your needs. Research the studio that you would like to record at online. Look through their equipment list. Since you are looking to just drop vocals onto your track you need a great pre-amp. You can never go wrong if you see Avalon, Universal Audio and API. If you want to sound like a pro you have to use pro gear. Next you want to find a great mic for your vocals. If you use a Neumann U87 mic or similar and go through one of the above pre-amps mentioned you will sound incredible (providing that the engineer knows what he/she is doing).

Now that you have found your pre-amp and your mic it's time to find the engineer. Make sure that the engineer on staff has several recordings under his/her belt. If possible ask to record with the head engineer. Never book studio A as long as their studio B or C has the same gear mentioned above or comparable to it. The reason why is you're paying for the big room and the big board. You might be thinking to yourself I want the big board. Well, the pre-amps we talked about earlier are the same thing as a big board except it's just one channel strip of a big recording console in a rack mount form. When you're actually in the booth recording don't waste time talking or listening to the engineer's stories about how his/her band almost had a deal back in the day. The clock is ticking and you're paying for it. You can politely tell them that you have to focus and get this done. Remember you are paying them so they work for you until you are done. Also nice goes a long way. Make sure the engineer tracks your vocals dry without effects on them. You can add that when you have it mixed. At the end of the session get your Data Files on DVD not just the audio CD of what you did.

"Mixing & Mastering"

Once your done with all the tracking your ready to mix. It's not in your best interest to cut corners on the mix. You can think of it like this, you don't put Target rims on a Lamborghini. After you've finished your masterpiece find the right person to mix your song. If you're a Hip Hop artist find someone who's forte is Hip Hop. If you're a Rock artist find someone who's proficient mixing Rock music etc... It's imperative that you hear the mix engineer's material before you pay them to mix yours. Make sure that they know what is currently happening in the industry with regards to mixing. Make sure that they still have the current gear they used or access to it. Ask questions and let them know that you want to be there when they mix. When you sit in on the mix session tell them want you want it to sound like up front and then BE QUIET! Nobody wants to work with someone hovering over their shoulder. At the end of the session then address all of the issues. If you want that ad-lib level higher or lower then speak up. You have to be assertive but nice. If you don't have a vision for want you want that's when problems can occur. These days don't be afraid to trade services with people. If you're a killer writer then tell the engineer that you'll write them a song in exchange for their mixing services. Maybe you're a singer and can demo songs in exchange for mixing and or studio time. There is no exact formula here you just have to keep your head down and keep grinding until you find the right match.

All I can say about mastering is less is more. I'd find someone who has at least been mastering professionally for 5 years plus. Just because they can mix doesn't mean that they can master. I hope that this has been somewhat helpful. I'm just offering knowledge that I've picked up throughout my years in this business. Take what you can use and what you can't use let it go in one ear and out the other. Keep chasing the dream that most people let go or never had the courage to even try!

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You Could Make More Money Writing and Playing Commercial Jingles

Indeed, I must say I applaud all the garage startup bands of all the teenagers across this great nation who'd like to break into the music industry. As an entrepreneur it makes me smile, as I see they are serious, and they all have big dreams of becoming big-name musicians or rock stars. It is that energy, and way of thinking that makes America great.

Of course just like every little league baseball player will not grow up to be a major league baseball player, some of them will. Statistically yes, the odds are stacked against them, but you can't tell that to a group of teenagers who are pursuing their dream, and we all know you have to believe to achieve. Still, many of these young guitarists, drummers, and vocalists don't realize that they could actually make more money, and have a much better chance for success writing, playing, and producing commercial jingles for corporations.

In fact, the way it stands now with all the small businesses operating online, and all the multimedia content online, every business, big and small needs a commercial jingle to go along with their marketing and branding. They all need professionally done YouTube videos to put onto their website because we live in the information age and people wish to be entertained, and the businesses which can deliver that, will be pleased to see the consumers and customers responding with purchases - especially this new generation.

Interestingly enough, I was at Starbucks last year and I talked to a couple of teenagers who were sitting outside with their guitars and they had a small band, and I told them that they should write commercial jingles and go selling business to business offering to record something trendy and cool for each company owner. I later saw them a few weeks ago, well, at least two of the members of that band, and I guess there'd been some changeover so there were new people involved now, but those two thanked me for the advice, and had actually made a few thousand dollars writing jingles for local companies in our area.

Now then, with that money they were able to buy better equipment, recording studio time, and some electronics; synthesizing equipment to help with their future music projects. Okay so, they are still working on cutting a second CD and signing with a second level music label, and I'm sure that day will come because these kids are serious.

However, they also know they need to make money in the meantime, and they know there are lots of companies that need commercial jingles, until they can totally break into the big time and/or can perhaps sell a commercial jingle to a major corporation for some real money. Indeed, it is my sincere hope you will please consider all this and think on it. Don't ever give up on your dream, but consider other ways to make money while chasing it. Please think on this.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

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