r/musicbusiness

Long story short

originally released a song independently, Later it became huge on tik-tok and youtube, billions of views across the platforms

i signed it to the major label later but i am still fully independent and don't have a publisher so they didn't register it as well and idk why but i just forgot about it, royalties were great even without the bmi that's why i probably just didn't think about it

we did a different version of the song later and they registered that song with their publisher, since there was a few different artists involved so i started getting 100 % as a writer on BMI, and the royalties were crazy good considered that version is like 1000 times less popular

So i went and registered the original myself and should be getting 200 % from now on

Now i realized i probably lost shit tons of money... yes i am a complete idiot, we live we learn i guess haha

What is the chance BMI can recover something from the black box ?

Sorry i can't say the name of the song, hope for your understanding

Hi there. I have a video produced and ready to go for a song called “The Fifth Beatle,” and I wanted to run it by y’all about whether I need a mechanical license(s) for this.

It’s an original song about someone wistful to have lived the life of The Beatles, and wishing they could have been the oft-discussed “fifth Beatle.” As part of describing that, I weave a number of Beatles references and song titles into the lyrics. So for example, the second verse goes:

*If I’d have been the fifth Beatle, the wonders I would have seen; here, there, and everywhere, across the universe in a yellow submarine.*

You get the idea. And it’s not those parts I’m too concerned about (or should I be?), because the music and vocal melody is entirely original, and I don’t think (?) there’s any issue with just referring to their song titles like that.

But at the very end of the song, there’s a verse that goes:

*I know I’m not the fifth Beatle. Still, I know what I need; love in my life, a little help from my friends, and… eight days a week!*

And that final “eight days a week” line does kinda sound like how the Beatles sing that in their song, and it also goes from the IV to I chord, which the OG song does. The whole thing is maybe 3 seconds long, but still, it’s pretty clearly a cop of that.

Another questionable part is at the end of the bridge section where it says, ”And when the band was broken up, I’d… let it be.” The words “let it be” aren’t sung at all like they are in The Beatles “Let it Be,” but, immediately after that line, there’s a descending chord sequence that mimics the same IV-IIIm-IIm-I thing that’s a recurring part of the Beatles song. Again, about 3 seconds and just that one time, but it’s an intentional cop and homage.

I’m happy to pay for whatever license is needed… also happy (okay, happier) to not pay anything if this wouldn’t be considered a licensable use of those songs. But I’ll appreciate your input and advice, and thank you in advance for it.

Throw away account, I recently interviewed for an internship at a record label. I didn’t end up getting the internship, but when they called me to deliver feedback, I was told everyone really liked me and they want to set me up a call with someone else in the company to give more career specific advice. They also encouraged me to continue applying to positions within the company as my skill set develops.

Basically I just want to know if this is a common thing that happens? Are they just being polite and helpful because it was quite a long interview process, and they want me to get something out of it? Or is this a possible sign that they may be interested in hiring me in the future? Some sources I’ve found online have even suggested that this could be an informal job interview of sorts.

Basically I’m just trying to figure out how the label may be viewing this meeting so I can prepaid myself adequately. Any insight or advice appreciated :)

Hi guys, I’m about to release a song and I’m pulling my hair. Mainly CD Babe language in Addendum “..you herby grant to us the exclusive right as explained below and to our Licensees;
Reproduce, distribute, publicly perform,promote, sell and deliver Your Content as Digital Masters..”

My understanding is they own my masters.

Since CD Babe was recently acquired by UMG it looks like they are acting now like a regular record label. I don’t want to lose my ownership that early in a game. Are there any better aggregators I could choose from?

A lot of people focus only on dropping music, but the artists that actually stick usually build a full world around themselves. The music matters obviously, but so does identity, consistency, visuals, community, and personality.
Curious what everyone thinks newer artists overlook the most right now? What makes YOU pause and want to invest your attention to a new artist?

Im pretty new to PRO registration and how that whole side of the industry works. Let's say you send out loops or instrumentals to people and they potentially get placed on a record, how can you protect yourself with the splits and things when you might not know where loops are going? They could be passed around everywhere. Is it possible to register them on a PRO before sending them, does that even have anything to do with it?

Whats some general tips and common practice when sending out things to people like that and keeping yourself safe?

Thanks!

Looking for advice on how to market my beats better, been making beats for about 3 years and mostly working on improving my quality while doing basic marketing. I post lots of short form content showing my beats finished, making the beats, transitions, beat breakdown etc, sometimes with my face sometimes just the DAW and i don't get many views. I see alot do the same thing and it works out, for YouTube I just post my beat with an artist / photo that matches the vibe. One of my issues is I'm not sure if I wanna sell beats, make songs by myself, or find artist to work with so I'm just doing whatever to get my music out there but definitely need some more advice. Especially with YouTube, it's hard to find a good thumbnail and title for your beat that gets more than 10 views imo. Any help is appreciated, Thank you

Alright, so I’m seriously considering switching from Too Lost to Symphonic Distribution because my experience with TooLost has honestly been pretty frustrating so far.

The main issue is my YouTube Official Artist Channel. They now claim the request has been processed and submitted to YouTube, but everything has taken so long that I genuinely don’t know what to believe anymore.

I’ve heard from other artists that Symphonic handled the OAC process much faster and with better support overall.

Would love to hear honest experiences from people who’ve used Symphonic, especially regarding:

• YouTube Official Artist Channels
• support responsiveness
• release transfers/migrations
• general reliability

Thanks in advance.

With Drake releasing three new albums last night, I have been seeing discussion regarding the fact that he did this so that he could fulfill the rest of his deal with Universal Music Group quickly. It got me thinking though: don't record execs have to sign off on an album before it's released? Why would they let him finesse them like this and fulfill the rest of his contract in one night rather than releasing the other two albums (Maid of Honour and Habibti; Iceman was already planned) over the course of 2-3 years like normal? Why did the record label let this happen? He's one of the biggest artists in the world so there's no way they wanted him off of their roster, right?

Hi.

I’m a UK-based musician who uses PRS for Music as my PRO. I released an album in 2022 and registered all tracks with PRS and, through them, ASCAP in the US. Since then the album’s received about 3 million streams, the majority in the US, but I’ve never received any US royalty payments.

I started querying this with PRS about a year ago and they first told me I just had to wait. However, after looking through the Songview database I saw none of the tracks were showing as being in the ASCAP catalogue.

After several more messages with PRS they finally agreed to contact ASCAP and look into it, using the example of the highest-performing track on the album. They’ve since responded that ASCAP have confirmed the song is registered with them but that “there are no eligible performances captured prior to the works registration with us.”

I’ve asked PRS twice now to clarify on what date the song was actually registered with ASCAP, but so far they seem to be avoiding answering that question. I suspect this means it’s only just been registered with them. (The song does now appear in the Songview database.)

I’m thinking now that it’s pretty obvious there was an error in registering these songs with ASCAP, whether through the fault of PRS or ASCAP themselves. Assuming that’s the case, is there any chance of me actually receiving these royalties and, if so, how??

Any advice much appreciated!

hello, im a junior in high school who will be graduating early next year (Jan 27'). i'm in need of advice on what I should do. I want to pursue a music business degree in college (save the not worth it comments), but with this extra time off, I wanted to kind of begin getting a little experience within the industry. my overall goal is to become an artist manager, but I wanted to start by maybe getting a full-time job in the industry in any part of it (preferably the production side of live events), so any advice of what i should do?

if you have location-based advice (idek if this is a thing), im about an hour away from chicago.

I am a singer-songwriter that works in bedroom/indie pop and indie rock spaces. I currently have a little over 600 Spotify monthly listeners and I’d like to get those numbers up. More importantly I wanna grow a dedicated fan base large enough where I can live off music. I don’t have the biggest budget, I use what I have for a sound engineer. However, I’m willing to spend more on ads if they’re worth the $10 a day or whatever the number will be. Lmk if there’s other options. The main thing I do is post content on socials. I’ve experimented with different strategies from 5 times a week to 12 times a day. If you’re knowledgeable in my specific niche please feel free to give some advice. If you’d like to look and critique my pages or music, the link in my bio will have all the info. All advice is welcome

I made a beat for an artist for free, and now we’re discussing the publishing split. He’s saying I should get 30% and he keeps 70%, since he’s writing and recording his own vocals. His reasoning is that if I were also mixing the vocals, then a 50/50 split would make more sense.

I’m not sure if this is a fair deal or not. From your experience, does 30% for the beatmaker sound reasonable in this situation, or should I be pushing for a more even split? (i’ve used no samples or loops)

title. i’m a work for hire producer, and i have a client (wrote all lyrics and chords, i’m literally just adding productions, i’m taking no mechanical split) who copied several traits of a fairly popular song. i know they know the song they ripped off because that was one of three songs they sent me for inspiration/reference.

how would you go about this? would you confront the client about it at all? would you step off the project entirely? would you keep doing it because you wouldn’t be taking any mechanical royalties?

i suppose this is both a question of ethics and legality…so, also, how would i protect myself legally as a producer from getting in trouble for interpolating on a song i didn’t write?

thanks y’all!

Would it be unwise to use 'Mako Reactor' for an album title?

It's from Final Fantasy VII

I don't want to get sued or anything like that.

I don't have much following at all atm, but want to grow over time. Figure I'd be fine for now since no one has heard of me, but maybe in future it could cause issues?

It's an album of experimental electronic music.

My late 80s/early 90s project had a record deal with a label in Berlin which resulted in a couple albums and a couple or more label roster compilations. AFAIK the records didn't go anywhere and to my knowledge no earnings were realized. The project disbanded after the second album release, the label went defunct in 2008, and the label owner passed in 2016.

TIL that the two albums are now on Apple Music and iTunes under the previously defunct label name.

Now, I'm guessing that there's no real money to be made but am wondering if it might be amusing to try to recoup whatever small royalties might be owed -- what's the lowest-lift method for accomplishing this? Thanks for any and all tips!

UPDATE: I found the contract for the first album, which clearly states that the record company has the right to do its thing for 6 years, so the Apple Music/iTunes stuff seems in breach.

I’ve seen a scam going around of someone who supposedly works a major label (Colombia Records is a common one) reaching out, then asking you if you believe in yourself and want to invest in yourself, want to work with Colombia records etc.

ANY REAL LABEL WILL BE OFFERING YOU MONEY, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

No label will ever ask you for money out of your own pocket. No label will ever ask you to match their investment (you out $50k, we’ll put $50k).

Also if you don’t have a few hundred thousand monthly listeners, or more likely over a million, there’s no way these big labels are reaching out.

If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.

Share experiences here if you’ve had them so others know what to look for.