hey all hope you're well! i'm gearing up to release my first single soon and thought i would register with a PRO. ascap seemed nice bc its free if you sign up as a writer and publisher, but i don't have a business address and don't really feel comfortable having my home address on display like that.

i have a friend who's released as a writer and publisher and i actually saw his address on the publisher side :/

if there isn't any solution, should i just try bmi ?

Anyone here that’s an Entertainer lawyer or knows a lot about contracts like this? Just wanted some advice on if it’s good to go as far as signing it.

Has anyone here hired a virtual assistant or remote freelancer to help manage the business/social media side of being a musician?
I’m a working drummer and I’ve recently been wondering how much of the non-playing workload could reasonably be outsourced.
The two things I’m most interested in are:
Social media/content: Taking raw live footage, finding interesting moments, editing Reels/Shorts, writing captions, organizing content, etc.
Finding gigs: Researching venues, entertainment companies, fill-in/sub opportunities, booking contacts, and potentially doing initial outreach/follow-ups.
I’m NOT looking for someone to make creative/business decisions for me or negotiate gigs. I’m thinking more about outsourcing the repetitive work required to consistently create content and keep a booking pipeline moving.
I’d especially love to hear from musicians/bands who have actually done this.
What did you outsource?
Where did you find the person?
What do you pay?
What worked well?
What did NOT work?
And most importantly — did outsourcing booking/outreach actually result in more gigs?
I’m fascinated by the idea, but I’d like to hear some real-world experiences before jumping in.

genuine question for anyone booking their own shows or short tours.

every time we finish a run i realize we have no clean answer to "did we make money." gas is on one person's card, lodging is split three ways over venmo, per-diems come out of the merch cash box, and the actual guarantees live in whatever email thread the venue used to advance. by the time i try to add it up weeks later half of it is a guess.

same thing day-of. load-in times end up in whatsapp, the rider is in email, setlist in someone's notes app, and we're chasing missing info hours before doors when we should be soundchecking. the guest list only exists in the drummer's head until it doesn't.

i've tried keeping one master spreadsheet but it falls apart the second two people edit it or a date shifts.

so, honest question: how do you track income and expenses live across a tour so you can actually answer what the gig cost at the last load-out instead of piecing it together later? and how do you keep the day-of stuff in one place your whole band can see?

curious what's working for people who are self-managing without a full-time manager. spreadsheets, an app, a shared doc, a notebook, whatever it is.

I have been working with a client in looking to secure a label deal, I have been doing research but have not reached out yet. I spoke to client to confirm the contents of the label as I know a few tracks are copyrighted however the client has refused to send the information across. Only for the client to inform me that the creative process is their responsibility and that I should just be focusing on securing the label and copyright. However apart from the copyright tracks she told me about I have no other information on the album.

anyone have any luck getting their artist on one of spotifys official playlist ( ie: New Rock or New Alternative ) ?

just wondering what approach has been taken with that.

thanks !!

What’s the process of an artist and their team developing a sonic identity? Once an artist reaches a stage in their career where they have a team, who, how, and what happens to turn the artist from just a person playing music, to some mythological presence? I’m talking chappel roan going down the drag route, Cameron winter separating his solo stuff with this almost Tom waits-ish persona and brand compared to the more rockstar Geese character, etc. Who in the team helps develop and put these ideas into work.

I’m gearing up to release my first single! Does anyone have any advice on what I should know and do. Maybe regarding promotion or advice or what I should do after. Don’t have no one to talk to about the business side of music. Thank you in advance.

I have finished my internship in production in a well known company here in Europe. I wanted to send out some emails and contact people through LinkedIn with my CV, but I was wondering, do I have to make a portfolio showcasing my experience in concerts? As an intern, I did a little bit of everything trying to shadow my bosses so I am not sure if I should just wait for them to ask me when we speak or make a portfolio. Many people in the industry know the company and know good interns emerge, but I want to give it my best shot.

Also, if anyone has any tips to approach companies with production + artist management (I have only experience in production) I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

I've been in the music industry for about 28 years now, TV, chart data, artist management, pretty much every side of it at some point, I now run a company called Blinding Talent. And honestly, the longer I'm in it, the more I notice how much of what gets repeated as "how the industry works" is either outdated, way oversimplified, or was never really true in the first place.

A few of mine to kick things off:

"Labels don't develop artists anymore." Mostly true if you're talking about majors specifically, but that role didn't vanish, it just moved somewhere else in the industry that most artists don't know to look for.

"You need a huge following before anyone will work with you." Depends a lot on the stage you're at and who you're actually talking to. It gets repeated so often that people treat it as gospel, but it's not the whole picture.

"Streaming numbers are the main thing that matters." For a lot of working artists, especially outside the US and UK, sync and public performance income quietly matter just as much or more, and almost nobody talks about that side of it.

Would love to hear what you've all got, whether you're an artist, a manager, A&R, a distributor, doesn't matter what corner of this you're in. What's the thing everyone repeats that turned out to be wrong once you actually saw how it worked?

Again, not really surprised but actually I am. Spotify has always allowed fake streams. It's hilarious as they try to stop it, even though the actors have already made their money and closed it.

I have started to produce techno , moving away from pop and hip hop.
I played my test track to some friends and they all danced. Every single one of them. I know it was good, okay? I understand the intricate details of dance music.

I shall make an album and send it off immediately to the big time electronic dance label. I shall then get some decks, do a set with some of my own songs.
I am writing articles about my own music and selling them to magazines - I am getting publicity this way and I will get more publicity when my music reaches the clubs- that’s why I am focusing on TECHNO music now .

I currently would like to become a A&R for any hip hop label and I feel like I can really showcase my talent for spotting talent as well as directing artists in the right direction to go musically but I find myself having trouble getting responses or moving forward with working for a label I’ve gon to shows I’ve applied online and I’ve been talking to upcoming artists on Instagram for years I’m just not sure where to go at this point I even made a YouTube and TikTok channel to shed spotlight on artists I think that have potential just unsure what my next move should be and how I can hopefully get a job at a label

I’m in my late 20s and recently landed a pretty rare opportunity in artist management. I can’t share much for privacy reasons, but my boss is a major name in the industry, the client I primarily work with has around 40M monthly listeners, and I’m being included in rooms I feel incredibly lucky to have access to this early in my career. Before this, I was torn between A&R at a major/corporate company and management, and this opportunity was too good to pass up. I’m doing well and getting great feedback, but now that I’m living it, I’m realizing how consuming management can be. There are basically no set hours or boundaries. I get calls early in the morning (today I got woken up by my boss) and at night, plans/workouts regularly get interrupted, and even when I WFH during the day, evenings and weekends are taken up by dinners, events, awards, shoots, etc. my entire weekend is booked for this week.
I’m an immigrant and spent years craving the stability and routine I never really had, so I think this lifestyle is hitting me harder than expected. I keep fantasizing about going corporate at a major label and having more structure and separation between work and life, even though I know I’d be giving up incredible access and connections and a potentially huge career. At the same time, I worry about career progression if I choose corporate because I see people my age who have spent 4+ years in assistant/coordinator roles at major companies. I’m currently a manager so I would be applying to higher roles, but it seems like I would be stuck in it for a while. I’ve even considered going back to my previous, much more stable industry I was in before transitioning to music. For those who’ve worked in high level artist management: is having almost no work life balance just part of the job, or does it eventually get better? What would you do?

So what do you think? Is this going to make a difference?

Vinyl sales keep climbing every year, and CDs are quietly having a moment too, but I don't think it's really about superior audio; it's about wanting something tangible in an era where everything is a stream you don't own. Change my mind.

The good news in this story is that now we are talking about artist being able to choose to opt in or not, and if they opt in they would be compensated. But this is between Suno and BMG, how long until independent artists would get these options? What do you guys think?