The Play Poster for Jesses Song

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I was going through my junk email folder this weekend and I found a link to a video that a director had sent me. It’s a short video for a training class that uses two instrumental tracks from my 2nd CD, One-Way Ticket. The clip opens with the instrumental version of my song Motha Funky. It concludes with the instrumental version of Alright To Drive. Check it out:

http://corporatainment.com/2164709.htm

Note: I’m amazed by how well Motha Funky works…I had reservations about even pitching the instrumental version of that track…mainly because the music has so many stops and starts…and I thought that stops and starts would not work well with a filmed scene. As it turns out, that is the thing that makes that part of the video clip so cool. (Ok, I know I’m biased…) Please let me know what you think.

P.S. If you want to use my music in your videos, you can do so for FREE as long as you aren’t making money on the video. (I offer my “free-ness” this under a Creative Commons license.) You can purchase a copy of my CDs here, and you can get a copy of my instrumental CD here. Once you have the music, you are welcome to use it in any of your non-commercial productions. If you intend to make money on your tv/film/video production (like the above clip), simply contact me and we can work out a deal…and I can guide you through the process if you haven’t done it before.

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I got a call yesterday from someone who wanted to license two of my instrumental tracks for a video project he was working on. OK, that’s not really true. He actually called me LAST WEEK!…and I didn’t bother to check my messages until yesterday when I called him back. I’m TERRIBLE! Sure, I was traveling, very busy, etc., but is that really an excuse?? Which reminds me–always email or twitter or facebook me if you need me…I guess I’m just an anti-social geekoid like that. I always seem to get those messages first. Human interaction scary. Machines good. Ug!

Anyway…so the guy is working with a film editor in Wilmington, NC and wants to use 8 seconds of one of my tracks and 6 seconds or so of another. I worked out a deal with him and pocketed $300…which is about $21.42 per second.

I thought I’d describe how I did this in case it helps any of you musicians out there.
It started two years ago…I submitted my music to a couple of guys in Wilmington, NC who were making an independent film called Half-Empty. I honestly can’t remember if I sought them out or they sought me out first…but I do remember getting an email from them saying they liked my music. In response to that, I sent them a couple of CDs of my songs–including instrumental versions of each track from my last album.

Apparently, those discs are still hanging around the editor’s studio…and when one of his friends came in to put together a video project for the company he worked for, he took a listen and liked a couple of the instrumental tracks for the project. He gave me a call and I agreed to the terms and to put together the licenses for him.
I think this kind of thing happens a good bit–where your music gets used a few years after you submitted it…and it gets used for something you didn’t even submit for. Here’s what I recommend for those of you who want to replicate this…or who want to get into the world of licensing:

1. Make sure you are satisfied with your songs and recordings. If you are wondering if you should replay that last bar of the solo, or re-sing that background vocal track–DO!!

2. After you are satisfied with your mixes, make sure you spend another few minutes on each track to create an instrumental mix. By this I mean just mute all the vocals and background vox and run down the mix again with the same mixer and FX settings. This will be used by directors a lot more than your vox mixes because the vox in the vox mixes tend to interfere with the dialog in a tv show or film. Even if your lyrical content happens to match the action on screen, the editor may still edit in the instrumental version when the characters are speaking to make room for the dialog.

3. Make mp3′s of your instrumental tracks, just like you do of the versions you intend to put on your CD. Emailing mp3′s is how you’ll get a lot of your gigs…and if you have them at the ready, you’re more likely to submit them–especially to those opportunities that pop up at the last minute. Also, you’ll be surprised (and horrified) by how many times they just use your low fidelity mp3 in the actual tv show!

4. Make sure you title and tag all your mp3 files. Include your name, email, and website in the tags. Include your artist/band name in the file name. This ensures that whoever ends up with your track can contact you. If you have a lot of files to tag at one time, use STAMP ID3 tag editor.

5. Do some reading to understand how licensing works. You should know what a master use license is, what a synchronization license is, what the responsibilities are of each person you may encounter are (director, editor, music supervisor).

6. Get your business self together: i.e. make a plan for what music you’re willing to give away and for how much. For example, will you allow your music to be used in commercials? Will you let an indie filmmaker use your music in a feature at film festivals for free? Will you let a political party use a song? How much will you let your best song be licensed for in a tv series? Will you let MTV use your song in a reality show for free? You don’t have to have all the answers together before you start pitching, but you need to have a basic licensing strategy that you can communicate when opportunities arrive…and you need to make sure you can talk intelligently when someone calls to work out a deal. Also, you should be prepared to educate film guys a bit about how a licensing deal works. It’s been my experience that the first opportunities you’ll run across are going to be from indie (maybe even local) filmmakers who don’t have much experience in how to legally license music. I license my songs for free via a Creative Commons license–anyone can use them for free as long as they aren’t making money on them. If they want to make money on their creation with my music in it, they need to approach me for the sync and master licenses.

Another thing you should put together is a basic sync and master use contract template. While each deal is different and you’ll definitely need a lawyer before signing a contract someone else develops, you’ll also need a couple of basic contract templates (one for master use, one for synchronization) that you can customize to handle the small deals. I got mine out of a book and tweaked it to fit my needs.

7. When someone is interested in your music, follow up with them to send them all of your tracks. Who knows, if your CD is in their studio and it’s labeled and it sounds good–it’s much more likely to be used.

That’s basically what I’d recommend to do to get prepared for tv/film licensing…of course, I didn’t describe where to look for opportunities…but you need to get the above things in place first. Maybe in an upcoming post I’ll describe where to look for licensing opportunities.

That’s all for now…email me if you have any questions.

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I’m undertaking a new way to make music. Wanna help? I’m going to let my friends and fans…MY AUDIENCE…YOU…help me create my next set of songs. While I haven’t yet figured out exactly how I’m going to make this all work…or if it will work at all, I do know that it will involve me asking you which direction I should go next…or which of the ideas I’ve created interests you most… If you can take the time to check out what I’m doing and respond, I’ll do my best to incorporate your feedback and show you how it comes out.

I’m currently fascinated with this idea for several reasons. First, I’ve had a tendency to create a bunch of music before packaging it and letting everyone hear it….that’s the traditional model of how songs have been released, really. It tends to take a long time between releases…(Just think of how long it is between U2 albums.) I think this model is dying. Indie artists like me should be the first ones to kill it! (Where’s my knife?) The delay between when a songwriter has an initial idea and when he or she gets real feedback on that idea from their fans is way too long…especially for me…especially these days when I’m juggling complicated work life, home life, and music. In addition, I find that when I do put out a batch of new songs, the ones you (my audience) choose as your favorites often surprise me. I want to get your feedback sooner.

Secondly, I want to let you into my creative process in the hopes you will support what I’m doing…by that I mean, I want you listen to it as it develops…to think about where it’s going before it gets there…to tell your friends about the music we create together…and, of course, I wouldn’t mind if you buy some of my music when it’s done…

Finally, I think this idea is interesting because I believe it is the next step in interactive music. Artists that have tried to let their fans into the creative process up until now have mostly still held too tight a control on what they let the audience do. For example, they’ll release individual tracks from the master tape and let the audience mix it. This means, the song is written, the tracks are recorded, and the tracks are often submixed, and then they are given to the audience to twist a few knobs with. Or….like Weezer did, they’ll let the audience put together the recorded tracks into a song…i.e. a very light-weight remix. Or even, they’ll supply the music and let the audience write the lyrics. That’s better, but still pretty tightly controlled. What I want to do is to let you help me decided what is good, bad, and mediocre about what I’m doing as I’m doing it. I’ll be doing all the work, but you’ll be providing your opinions. And when you see a spot where there’s a hair out-of-place, I’ll get out the razor. (Where IS my knife??)

I won’t be asking you to join the band (yet)…but I will think of you as an outside producer…one who will help shape what comes out of me with your opinions…kind of like my very own 5th Beatle. In fact, that’s what I’ll call this…The 5th Beatle Project!

In case you missed my first survey, you can take it now. Here the results so far. I find them very interesting…I’m interested to see what the first song will be.

I hope you’ll join my mailing list or fan me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter…or do all three…so you can be a part of this project. My next set of funk and roll depends on YOU!

Wanna play?

Please join my mailing list so I can keep you up-to-date with my progress. In my next post, you can pick which song idea I work on first…

Brian

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Now that it’s February, have you thrown out any New Year’s resolutions yet?

January is a time everyone makes resolutions and BIG PLANS for the new year. I do, do you? I’m sure I’m not the only one who starts out the year with BIG PLANS…I mean, every January the gym parking lot is so full of “resolutioners” that you have to show up 20 minutes early for the class you always attend to make sure you can even get in. All year, the class is empty, and in January…boom, there are no seats. The funny thing is…by mid February, it’s empty again.

My music plans are no exception to this annual ritual…every year, I think about what I want to accomplish…and I dream up a giant list…and, like those January fitness resolutioners, by mid-February my grand list of plans settles into something much more workable…and by late August, I’m doing something that wasn’t even on my original list…but this year, I’m doing something differently. This year, I’m gonna ask you for your help in choosing what music I write next. If people take me up on it, I may even ask for your help as I’m putting the songs together. I want to try to this because I want to know what you guys want to hear me create…There are always several directions I can go with a song, but I’m curious to what we can create together…

Will you help me? All I ask is that you take this 8-question survey to point me in the right direction:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2DGL9RD

Thanks,

Brian

P.S. Please forward this to anyone else you know who is a musician, loves music, or knows me. The more opinions I can get, the more confident I can be that I’m giving everyone what they want to hear. Thanks!

Brian

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I found a few pages on my website that describe some of the shows I’ve done through the years. It’s not a complete list, but will give you an idea of how I was operating at the time. I’ve decided to link to them from here for those of you who want to reminisce.

If you want to read the
press releases related to my music activities, you can do that as
well. Believe me–these descriptions are not as exciting as venturing
into some seedy club late on a SCHOOL NITE…but for those of you who
like the experience of being there without actually being there, HERE’s to ya:

One-Way Ticket Shows

• SK NetCafe Gig January
  22, 2005 in Charlotte, NC
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  August 21, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• WBZK 980 AM Charlotte Japanese
  Radio Show July 25, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  June 8, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Border’s Songwriter
  Showcase May 22, 2004 at Border’s Stonecrest in Charlotte, NC
• Scorcher’s Gig May 19,
  2004 in Mooresville, NC
• The Cotton Gin Tavern Gig
  April 24, 2004 in York, SC
• Funk and Roll Show Returns to
  Wine Up! April 2, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Music Trip to Los Angeles
  March 28-April 1, 2004 in Hollywood, CA
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  February 6, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Tosco House Party Open
  Mic January 6, 2003 (Evening Muse) in Charlotte, NC
• Border’s Songwriter
  Showcase December 27, 2003 (Borders Stonecrest in Charlotte, NC)
• Barbara Cloyd’s
  Songwriter Search Workshop September 19-21, 2003 in Brisol, TN
• Earth Day April 20, 2003 (Nature
  Center) in Charlotte, NC
• Songfinisher’s Showcase
  March 27, 2003 (Evening Muse) in Charlotte, NC

The Smashing of Pictures Shows (excerpts)

• Route One Music
  Conference (Carey Street Cafe) in Richmond, Virginia
• Songwriter’s Nite
  June 20, 1996 (Double Door Inn) in Charlotte, NC
• Cobblestone Brewery
  July 25, 1996 in Richmond Virginia
• Lambdapolluza Sept. 28,
  1996 at Washington and Lee University
• The Cellar,
  Oct. 5, 1996 at the University of Richmond

Listen to Brian’s new
CD!

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Hi.

Welcome to my blog.

I’m sitting in front of my computer, wondering what kind of cool people will stop by here to check out my random thoughts. I’m thinking some of you will be hard core music addicts or classic rock fans…I’ll bet some of you will be songwriters…maybe some of you will love DA FUNK, maybe others will kick the rock-and-roll…I bet some of you are probably computer geeks, while others may have trouble checking your email…I bet some of you are street poets, and others hide your poetic scribblings in little notebooks for only you to read…or maybe your poetry is your life.  Whatever you do, I’m sure I’m one of you.

And, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, freaks and geeks, poets and prophets, funksters and punksters alike:
Welcome to my Funk and Roll Diaries!

Please make yourself at home. I’m going to be spouting off here about my music, my ideas, my hopes, my dreams, my successes and my failures…I will be giving you the insider scoop on what I’m up to with my music and my life…

so make sure you subscribe…
and I hope you enjoy the ride.

Also, send me a note or a comment and let me know what’s on your mind…
and I will post back if you give me some time…

Love and dreams (and collard greens),
Brian

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