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General Bobby Farrell

Bobby Farrell CD Mfg Price List

Vandor Company Directory

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INDEX

Article 01 - Court Approved LEGALIZED THIEVERY by ASCAP, BMI & SESAC!

Article 02 - Recording Contracts: THEY'RE AVAILABLE! Don't believe the liarsat ASCAP, BMI & SESAC!

Article 03 - ExP vs 'Paying for Publishing': ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, THE GRANDLIARS!

Article 04 - Real & Phony Charts, Radio & Sales: INDEPENDENT vsDISTRIBUTED LABELS! ASCAP, BMI, SESAC pay one - Rob the other!

Article 05 - Who to Trust - Who NOT to Trust: SONGWRITER ASSOCIATION SCAMS!ASCAP, BMI, SESAC endorsed outright thievery!

Article 06 - Shelving Contracts - Career Nightmare! What to Look For/Avoid.FACTS & FIGURES that ASCAP, BMI, SESAC approve to your detriment!

Article 07 - Industry Ignorance vs Paranoia: TURKEY LIST, HOW TO AVOID IT!Regardless of the lies of ASCAP, BMI & SESAC!

Article 08 - Publishing Contracts: PRICELESS & WORTHLESS! Beware of allASCAP, BMI, SESAC 'endorsed' contracts!

Article 09 - Music Publishers - Labels - General Licensers: NOT THE SAMETHING regardless of what the liars at ASCAP, BMI & SESAC claim!

Article 10 - Before You Record: WHAT WON'T WORK! The facts ASCAP, BMI &SESAC don't want you to know!

Article 11 - The Industry's BEST & WORST DEAL! The truth ASCAP, BMI &SESAC spare no effort to hide!

Article 12 - General Licenser's FINANCIAL SUPPORT! How to get it! ASCAP,BMI & SESAC really don't want you in on this information!

Article 13 - ASCAP, BMI - The Whole Scam And How It Works!

Article 14 - ASCAP's Bergman Buys Senator Orrin Hatch (R) Utah In OpenConspiracy!

Article 15 - Promo (Digital Music) Libraries and how they work!

Article 16 - Prep 101 - How to Copyright a Song - Book - Stageplay!

Article 17- Kindergarten Course To Become A Recording Artist!

Article 18 - Prep 101 - How To Get A Recording Contract!

Article 19 - Exact Process To Become A Recording Artist!

Article 20 - Underground Artists Wanted!

Article 21 - Production! - Do It Right The First Time!

Article 22 - Where The Money Really Is In Music!

Article 23 - World Wide Distribution For Your Label!

Article 24 - Vandor Music Group - Debt Free and Growing!

Article 25 - Area/National Vice Presidents Record Producers & ProductionStudios Wanted To Join A Growing Company!

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LEGAL NOTICE

LEGAL STATEMENT for those who want the truth about ASCAP, BMI and SESAC!

Each and every Agency and Company mentioned in the following International Industrial Review report (and some who aren't!), To Wit: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, LASS, NAS, Songwriter's Market, American Songwriter's Guild, General Licensers, Labels, Billboard, Radio & Records, Gavin [UPDATE: Gavin has folded! Another casualty of TRUTH in a hype-is-everything market!] and the United States District Court, Southern District of New York; have been contacted to present any commentary in defense or explanation concerning statements and/or charges made about or against them to be presented here: UNEDITED, FREE OF CHARGE, AT OUR EXPENSE!

To Date: Only the General Licensers and a few of their Labels have responded! Their comment? "Cold, hard truth never hurt anybody nor does good competition!" Their updated Executives and email addresses will be included when they are provided.

This site originally went on-line August 14th, 1995, and not one of the accused herein has even so much as threatened to sue for either defamation or libel. They all KNOW FOR A FACT that TRUTH is a perfect defense against both! Period. And they all damned well KNOW we have the unquestionable documentation and will present it in its entirety in any court of competent jurisdiction at any time. Therefore, because the accuseds dare not sue under any pretense whatsoever - as they would certainly do "IF" they were not guilty as charged - each and every word, statement and claim contained herein must be considered to be cold, hard, full and documented TRUTH. And it is!

The General Licensers and Labels, none of whom are maligned herein, do not care if the world knows how they actually operate. For the products they are required to deliver, the Prima Donna and Paranoid nonsense they must endure, whatever they charge can more often than not be fully justified.

Oh, yes! Before we forget, this site has been downloaded by the Department of IN-justice, Senate Investigations Committee, - "nameless" from the House Investigations Committee, several - UNKNOWN - hosts (and we damned well know who that is!), ASCAP, BMI and SESAC: all of whom can go straight to Hell!

That Damned Akurian,

General Bobby Farrell.

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INTRODUCTION

This publication is verbatim from our old web site and is intended for study by those who want the real, cold, hard truth about the Entertainment and Recording Music Industries. The what-will-work every time processes all successful Producers, Artists, Songwriters, Record Labels, Music Publishers and General Licensers know and use are contained herein for those with the intelligence to see it and the courage to use it.

If you're one of those sucked in to thinking a Record Label is the " CASH COW " of all 'good enough' Artists or Songwriters (by whatever never-defined and mysterious process such is supposed to be accomplished), this site is the best thing that ever happened! It blows that myth at the outset. If you're looking to 'get signed' and be instantly rich and famous, by that never-defined process supposedly to have happened to all the Super Stars (which it never did!), you're not going to like anything in this site.

TRUTH often hurts, but the pain doesn't change the bottom line facts. Either you want to KNOW what you're doing - the TRUTH of it - so you can get into your share of the many millions of dollars available in this Best Of All Industries, or you want to waste your life dreaming bubbles in a hail storm. The TRUTH is, Recorded Music and Entertainment is a volitile and sharp steel business that does not tolerate bubbles, cream puffs or weak-kneed namby-pambies. It also doesn't tolerate paranoids or Idiot Elements who scream "scam&qupt; at anything and everything that doesn't fit their life-long programmed stupidities.

Unfortunately, the Recorded Music and Entertainment Industries are more over-loaded with liars, lies, congames, myths, delusions and stupid never-did-work scenarios than all other Industries combined. Politics and religion included. This site is dedicated to exposing the major scams that infest and infect this Best Of All Industries, and delivering in documented detail the exact processes to become successful songwriters, recording artists, producers, singers, musicians, arrangers, record labels, music publishers, script writers, literary authors, screen writers, motion picture producers, directors and such professionals. Once you KNOW what you're doing, and what to AVOID, all doors are open.

But a word of caution: the exact degree you either don't like, or will not accept, the information in this site is the exact degree of your chances of being an abject failure in it!

We didn't make this Industry's rules. We weren't even asked. We did pay through the nose for years on end to glean, test and prove this information, and often at exorbitant cost. But these are the rules you will operate by or they are the rules that will cut you off at the gate, and that choice is yours. And, like all good rules, each and every one has a very valid and sound business reason behind it. Knowing what that reason is, and how to use it to your advantage is just about the whole secret ( if there is such a thing ) to this Industry.

The "HOW TO DO IT" and "DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME" processes are clear, and probably nothing like anything you've ever heard before. The fact YOU haven't heard these things is no reflection on YOU. For years this information - by design - has simply NOT BEEN AVAILABLE any where else on the planet. That you may not like these contents DOES NOT alter them as TRUTH so much as one iota. And you can take every word herein to the Bank!

The WHAT-WON'T-WORK (and never-did-work ) scenarios, all the major SCAMS, and deliberately perpetuated Beer Joint Baritone DELUSIONS are exposed - naming the names - and we're ready for court any time the lying, thieving bastards are.

You'll find this Best Of All Industries can often be harsh. Downright brutal isn't uncommon. There's neither mercy nor second chances for the Idiot Element. But in the same breath, let me clarify that nobody in any position of real power is out to break your back. They have better things to do, such as MAKE MONEY with or without you. They do not have, and will not take, the time to humor this Industry's rampant and perpetual stupidities! If you want to be IN this Industry, then learn the BUSINESS of this Industry.

Everything you've ever heard from those who've never made a record in their life (Aunt " Send-It-In " Ninny, Uncle " Wait-to-be-discovered " Stupid and Cousin " Reeecords-is-free " Chucklehead, to name three) and those victims who followed such idiotic advice and got themselves royally creamed, is as bogus as a politician's promise. The psychopaths who spew their idiocies at every opportunity, and those who are stupid enough to be sucked in by so much as one word of their nonsense, are both equally doomed to fail without hope of rescue. Prepare yourself with ACTUAL how-to knowledge, and those in power have open doors and more support than you can imagine.

So, BEFORE you blast off rushing to the nearest so-called music Capital to "get discovered", 'going into the studio', making or shipping worthless demos, shopping for a label to finance your life-long beer party, or other such jackass "send-it-in" stupidities, READ THIS ENTIRE SITE, LINKS AND ALL! Don't think you can skim it and plug the few holes in your already-vast-and-superior 'knowledge' - you can't! And it will only take about five seconds for any Record Executive to know you're dumber than a brick, if you try! You need to either THROW OUT or PUT ON HOLD all you 'know' or 'heard' about Entertainment and Recorded Music UNTIL you've been through this entire site. You'll find that some of what you supposed is correct, just polluted to hell and back with untold layers of half-truths! [Old Proverb: A half-truth is a WHOLE lie!]

And then, whether you sign with VMG or not, you'll be prepared to deal with any Entertainment cum Music Company to your own best advantage. Knowledge is POWER! And VMG wants you to be armed to the teeth.

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THE VMG PROCESS

Contrary to the popular delusion, Record Companies DO NOT throw millions of dollars to the winds just for the hell of it. They'd skin a flea for the hide and tallow, so make no mistake about their intentions regardless of the disguise they wrap it in ... such as "your talent" ... "audition" ... "be discovered" ... and other such deliberately perpetuated damnable and knowing lies. Record Companies MUST make money to survive just like every other business, but they DO NOT have to take YOUR SHARE in the process! And VMG doesn't.

All VMG contracts guarantee full composition rights to the authors/composers and NEVER a 'collateralized' (less than statutory) mechanical royalty for artist-composed songs; NEVER an assignment of Public Performance earnings (in case you're in the Pay Clique of a PRO) under the guise of 'recoupables'; ALWAYS full ownership of the masters by whoever paid for them (and VMG does NOT pay for them!); 100% total control over one's career, image and management; and a whole lot more such goodies. VMG is legendary for paying ABOVE statutory royalties and NO CHARGE-BACK against the Artist!

NO! We do not finance pipe dreams. We'll help you prove your product to those High Dollar Financiers who do! Once you're on solid business ground, the money is there, the opportunity is there, and VMG is there.

So, what DO we do?

First, we get the product into commercial acceptability range: Radio Friendly, properly cleared, properly protected, and released on a distributed label. (For those stupid enough think we do all that 'in our studio', have a great time at the International Jackass Convention and don't forget to write home about all the other fools you've encountered.)

Radio Friendly: keep the production UNDER 3:30 total running time. Long winded productions cost too much to air, and in hard economic times can cut radio exposure to fatal levels. Even when you're BUYING it! We'll have it NORMALIZED when we process from here.

Properly cleared: Kak (infinitely unqualified) lawyers and equally crack pot bought-and-paid-for courts have created a mountain of totally useless and unnecessary paperwork that must be done properly. We take care of all that as the industry requires.

Properly protected: The Copyright Office and all it's must-hires can take forever and a year to process a copyright that used to take no more than ten days including mail. Even so we REQUIRE you to have a duly executed protective and mailing to yourself WILL NOT WORK! More details in the site.

Released on a Distributed Label: The amount of MONEY involved to establish a legitimate label, get it LICENSED for global distribution, and all the necessary logistics involved, is HUGE! But we have that, labels and publishers, since we're a GENERAL LICENSER (did you ever wonder WHY the Great Madonna's Maverick label needs Time-Warner?). Your own label is as good as ANY so-called Independent because you can throw the copies as far as they can.

Yes, we TEST everything via the most cost-effective resources available. Currently that is Electronic Music Services (EMS), aka promolibraries. The best part about EMS is the fact you don't need a manufactured record! More about that later.

Second, we watch the response, if any. If none, we go back to the drawing board. And since we haven't blown the entire farm, we can afford to go back to the drawing board! If some, we pay attention to the what, the where and the how much. Then we make a business plan - appropriate to that response - to follow up because a commercially acceptable product costs a lot of money to exploit.

Third, we count the cost to build this tower, spell it out, and go after the money to do it. We get the Artist on the desk of the investors! That STOPS the record company "front" cum "advance" that cleans the clock come CHARGE BACK time. It's the ARTIST's/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER's money, sufficient to do the job for as long as it takes, well invested and well managed.

Fourth, we live by that business plan, adapting as the market requires.

That's one hell of a lot of work for four points, and often one hell of a lot of time involved. But that's the sound business principals all successful businesses operate by. And understand this loud and clear: Entertainment and Recorded Music IS NOT a glory trip! IT'S A BUSINESS! And all other scenarios are poppycock.

VMG signs such PROVEN product Artists to a minimum of 5 Albums over 5 Years with an identical option. Depending on the Field of Music and the market at the time, costs can vary all over the place, and we make our projections accordingly to insure enough resources to stay the course for the entire term and duration of the contract.

NO! We do not 'pick up' anybody, at any time, for any reason. If you're free and clear of all encumbrances, READ THE ENTIRE SITE (links and all) and call us.

If you're tied up with Jackass, Jackass & Jackass and Associates - get UN tied - and call us.

If your 'management' got you signed to a label that's robbing you blind - fire the bastards - and call us.

If your 'management' got you signed to a label YOU can throw as far as they can - fire the bastards - and call us.

If your 'management' got you signed to anybody that cannot, or will not, get you on the desk of the financiers for the Booking and Concert Resources ($$$) you need - fire the bastards - and call us.

If your 'management' is 'shopping' you with "advance, advance, advance" on the brain - fire the bastards - and call us.

If your 'entertainment' attorneys approved such jackass contracts as just mentioned above - fire the bastards - and call us.

If you've got baggage, personal or legal - UN load it - and call us.

If you've got what it takes to be a Super Star - ability and business acumen - call us.

NO! We do not 'pick up' any product and 'take it from there', at any time, for any reason. If your product is free and clear of all encumbrances, READ THE ENTIRE SITE (links and all) and call us.

If you've already manufactured your product - throw it in the trash - and call us.

If you've already signed away part of your 'distribution' - don't call us - do another project and call us before you do the same thing again.

VMG's doors are always open.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! Copyright 1994-2004, IIR. Blanket Permission Granted to Copy and Reprint in whole or in part. Published Here by Permission.

ARTICLE 01
UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT ENDORSED THIEVERY!
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE SWINDLE!

Corabin Thessleux
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Bruxells, Belgium

Recorded Music is a multi- billion dollar per year Industry. Most of those billions are wasted on well intentioned, but worthless, what-won't-work scams, schemes and scenarios. The EEC is deluged with foreign product, most of which gets counterfeited by licensers, labels or sub-publishers. Even so, the outright thievery by the United States' public performance licensing agencies: (ASCAP) American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers; (BMI) Broadcast Music, Incorporated and SESAC (which stands for SESAC?); make EEC counterfeiters look like rank amateurs by comparison.

The scam is simple, even if legal, and they've been doing it for years! They profess to 'monitor' broadcasters, count the plays of music in their respective catalogues, divide the license fees (after expenses!) between the publishers and songwriters, and pay the due amounts every quarter.

The fact is: 'monitoring' is strictly controlled, limited to broadcasters who program music published or written by their Elite Cliques! The few 'other' stations that do get 'monitored' are carefully chosen 'followers' of the 'in' programming to insure as much money as possible is retained, by hard documentation , for said Elite Clique members. In short, stations who play only Billboard 'chart' records, which are determined by cash 'advertising' and NOT what listeners want to hear!

Therefore, their reputed 60,000 hours of 'monitoring' done by outside agencies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are nothing more than a system of controls to insure their Elite Clique members get the lion's share of all public performance monies. To be sure, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC all pay a pittance list of members (for years on end whether they've released anything or not!), lest the whole scam be revealed by proper questioning! Something 'the courts' have proven to be incapable of doing.

The thoroughly corrupt courts of our own EEC should take lessons in moral degeneracy from courts in the United States, and could get Magna cum Laude PhDs in blatant stupidity from the United States District Court, Southern District of New York! That 'court' has rubber-stamped every non-public scam of ASCAP since 1941, and has kept: United States vs ASCAP, et al., running ever since!

At least their antics make money for the lawyers. We don't know WHEN, WHERE, HOW or HOW MUCH various 'court' officials get paid, but we suspect tee times, the golf course, in cash, and lots of it: or else this scam would have been shut down years ago! The fact that said 'court officials', primarily Judges, are appointed to ASCAP's 'review boards' upon 'retirement' from the Bench! Now you know "why" ASCAP never loses a case against it's members and Members never win a case against ASCAP! It's a matter of nine wolves and one sheep deciding what to have for lunch. And it's prima facie evidence of a totally corrupt, ASCAP-bought-and-paid-for 'court' as charged throughout these IIR articles.

Initially ASCAP, BMI and SESAC operated on about SIXTEEN PERCENT (16%) of gross collected revenues. Today that's about what gets distributed! There's obviously some very expensive overhead. Overhead 'the courts' are reluctant to question, and over which the membership has absolutely no control. Tie that together with their continual 'improved distribution' scenarios that benefit only the Elite Clique, and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to comprehend ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are Recorded Music's WORST SCAMS!

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC collect (or should that be extort?) millions of dollars every year in 'license' fees from broadcasters, live music venues including night clubs, background music systems such as MUZAK, cable television and just about everywhere else music is used in public for profit. The cold hard fact that most of that money is siphoned into the bank accounts of the Elite Cliques or wasted on over-priced employee 'benefits', all duly endorsed by 'the courts' is an abominable affront to justice and the free enterprise economic system!

The only real differences between ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are telephone numbers and addresses. The thievery is the same and their 'excuse' is the same. The most long-running of which is, "make sure your work is cleared" so they can LOSE the damned thing before your earnings are paid!

Most performers do not know that night clubs where they hope to be discovered are literally blackmailed into paying ASCAP, BMI and as often as not SESAC, a 'license' fee based on the number of live music nights times the seating of the house! Most performers also do not know that even though they perform their own compositions: just as much a public performance for profit as any other song; they will never collect one penny for those efforts! The entire royalty 'distribution' scam is based solely and exclusively on 'monitored' radio air play!

Legalized thievery with full
endorsement of the courts!

Let's explain the scam one more time so even those nitwit 'judges' who get a chance to read this column can also understand it.

1. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC contract to represent authors, composers and publishers of musical works;

2. They 'license' said works to music users who use them for profit;

3. They determine royalty 'distribution' only by their own 'monitored' broadcast airplay;

4. They 'monitor' only the clique broadcasters who program only works of and by their Elite Clique members;

5. They pay their Elite Clique the lion's share of collected 'license' fees;

6. They pay a select clique a continual pittance to cover the scam; and

7. Legally rob everybody else with the court's full approval!

What can be done about it? Legally, nothing! Violence is outlawed, and that's the only language corrupt politicians, including those on court benches, really understand.

However, if the law were changed: A: To require payment by users only when they were documentably monitored, and only for the period of documented monitoring; and B: Only upon billing on behalf of those whose music was actually used!

There would be a massive improvement in 'distribution' preceded by equally monstrous howls of resistance from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC!

It's hard to tell what kind of a roar the 'courts' would produce, since they too would be losing out on a great deal of graft from the public performance gold mine of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Recorded Music could certainly use an honest Public Performance Licensing Agency. Those who are being robbed should be about the business of establishing it. Like everything else in Business: it would take a little money!

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 02

RECORDING CONTRACTS
THEY'RE AVAILABLE!
HOW TO GET THEM!
CONTROL YOUR CAREER & DOUBLE YOUR ROYALTIES!

Everest Whyte,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
London, United Kingdom

The dream of getting a recording contract and living happily everafter in the lap of luxury is the prime motivation for most entertainers, despite the few burned out hippies that still insist in their best American nigger english, "for the arts, man". Being an actor, singer, musician, or any other 'art' related profession is being in that particular business!

Businesses cost money. Somebody must pay the bills, profit or no profit. And right there is the prime downfall of most hopefuls trying to break in to this most-lucrative of all Industries: they never recognize anything but the glory trip! They'll squander every last farthing in recording (known inside the Industry as "session rich and promotion poor") under the false assumption that some record company 'will take it from there'. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Executive Producers must not only foot the recording bill, they also have to pay their share of promotion!

Record Companies only 'discover' those few artists who pose a threat to those acts the company already has a hard financial commitment to! The only 'insurance' they have is to play people's ignorance against them and let the fools keep themselves out of the Industry on any ruse that will work. If you will believe their "record-company-pays-all" nonsense - you're a prime candidate to become a never-was.

Any record available on the commercial market is owned by four entities: 1., the Executive Producer; 2., the Record Label; 3., the Music Publisher(s); and 4., the General Licenser. These are the same four who finance INITIAL promotion! If the record should achieve market sales, the Label, Publisher(s) and General Licenser must carry the load, at the direction of the General Licenser. If the record is one of those out of eight that actually sells any copies at all, the General Licenser usually just carries the load on their own.

It's the General Licenser who fronts the marketing and distribution costs, with a charge back to the Label and Publishers (especially their own in-house subsidiaries) should there be severe losses. In cases of dubious market demand, General Licensers are often required to produce financial statements of the Label and Publishers or have them contract for some portion of liability (co-sign) to acquire short term business loans. It should be becoming apparent there are no free rides in Recorded Music regardless of myths to the contrary. After all, it's a business!

The cold hard facts for all concerned is: only ONE distributed record out of EIGHT ever sells any copies at all! Non-distributed (Indie) product is totally worthless as an investment, even as demos. But with an ROI (Return on Investment) at a tremendous FORTY SEVEN PERCENT (47%) AVERAGE: the reason why records still exist as investment entities is obvious. Even at those ONE out of EIGHT odds: when a record does pay it pays in solid-sterling spades!

Therefore, if Labels, Publishers and General Licensers are financially embound as partners: they only need one more to make a complete set: Executive Producers to create and invest in the actual product! Executive Producers are like all other businesses: they need to buy goods, services and expertise in order to sell their wares at a profit. All businesses must buy goods, services and expertise just to stay in business, and those in Recorded Music are no different.

The days when a Label would front or pay all costs of recording, promotion and distribution began to fade in the '50s when returns fell from previous 800% levels and went on the critical list in the '60s, except for communist money to finance the moral and intellectual degeneration of Western youth. By 1970 it was a Zombie (rare but reputedly walking dead), and by 1980 both the funeral and grave site had long since been forgotten.

There are no surviving Labels who pay all the bills except to shelve the unsuspecting competition!

Even when Labels did front money their contracts had charge back clauses to deduct any and all expenses incurred plus loan-shark-level interest from just the Artist's royalties: all to be paid in full: before the Artists get paid one red cent and before the contract can expire! That's right! All the investment plus interest deducted from just the Artist's royalties even if the Executive Producer, Label, Publishers and General Licensers were making money by the bucket! And, until the entire debt was paid in full: including all that exorbitant interest, the Artist was bound to that contract and not allowed to contract with anybody else! And that's where the one-hit acts came from and went to!

All other myths and delusions to the contrary are just that: myths and delusions and only a total ignoramus doesn't know any better. That Record Companies pay anything except to shelve is on equal par with the 'send it in' stupidities still found among the terminally ignorant 'song-poem' writers.

To cut through all this: anyone can get a solid recording contract! 'Talent' has nothing to do with it. It's a business procedure pure and simple. That means you're going to have to spend some money and manage your career as a business.

1. You should be your own Executive Producer if at all possible. It will permit you to retain 100% control over your career, including what to record and how to record it and double your mechanical royalties at the same time! You'll get paid as the Artist, and get paid as the Executive Producer, and have the right to record your own compositions and get paid any songwriter public performance earnings you can blackmail your ASCAP, BMI or SESAC affiliation out of!

2. You need an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER'S RECORD RELEASE AGREEMENT [INSERT: VMG's current issue on-line for your study and review. ] that only a member of the Board of Directors can authorize. Don't waste time talking to anybody else, they're in place to 'wild goose chase' all those who don't know any better. And don't waste your time with anyone who doesn't respond immediately to your request! A turn-down or run-a-round is solid evidence that the company you're talking to is simply out of available money for your project. Unless you've shown your Industry Ignorance or paranoia, or both. Call the next one until you get a "YES!" response.

3. Your finished productions (which you will pay for) must conform to the General Licenser's dictates: format, total running time, etcetera. Therefore, get that ExP Agreement in Paragraph 2., above, before you spend one penny in recording something that is totally worthless! The Licenser will provide a BREAKDOWN and you'll have no more than THIRTY (30) DAYS to deliver, so be ready to do business.

New Artist album promotion budgets (2002) should run between $60,000.00 to $250,000.00 for a project to financially prove itself; up to $5,500,000.00 for a project that intends to buy the 'main' charts and make a good bid for the equally bought 'awards'; of which you will be required to pay from one quarter to one third, depending on the Licenser. And these costs do not include any Artist Promotion, which has little to do with Record Promotion, although they look a whole lot alike in most cases. There are only eight General Licensers, so don't waste your time talking to 'labels'! And don't waste your time 'waiting to be discovered'.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 03

ASCAP, BMI, SESAC
THE GRAND LIARS!
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
VS
'PAYING FOR PUBLISHING'

Misram Alheid,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
New Delhi, India

In a land of over 200 languages and an ancient taste for music, we have fewer myths and outright lies about records and publishing in our entire nation than you'll find on the sidewalks of 16th Avenue, Nashville, alone. If New York's lying-myth system were garbage, their famed mass of Sky Scrapers would be little more than prickly thorns at the bottom of the pile. The Los Angeles cum Hollywood mess can be smelled as far East as Tokyo with the wind due West at Hurricane speed.

And the one myth leading the parade? Any money you have to invest is "paying for publishing"! If you're not willing to invest in your own business for your own career - why should anyone else?

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC have shot down more legitimate record deals with their 'paying for publishing' lies than all the street cons, preachers and politicians combined. Because record investments are often substantial those new to the Industry will contact ASCAP, BMI or SESAC for information. What they get is The Great Grand Series of Defamations and Damned Lies designed to eliminate any and all competition that might infringe on their own respective Pay Cliques!

Record Companies do not pay all the bills! Anyone capable of kindergarten arithmetic can see why. Publishers do not pay all the bills! The same kindergarten arithmetic shows they can't afford it either. The fact there is a lot of money in a selling record is buffered by the odds of only one album out of eight ever selling any copies at all! Dividing the cost of producing and promoting a record between the Executive Producers, Labels, Publisher(s) and General Licensers doesn't increase the odds, it simply lowers the price to gamble!

Should the content (songs) manage to log any air play, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will reputedly collect and disburse the earnings via 'their own monitoring'. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will also spare no effort to smear and defame anyone who asks an Executive Producer for their share of the promotion budget! ASCAP, BMI and SESAC also know for a fact that each and every one of their Pay Clique members have to pay their share of each and every recording project they're involved with.

The unnumbered fools who get taken by the 'send it in' song shark scams and the 'your song in an album' on Stupid Jerk Records (not to be confused with legitimate Radio Compilations of CDX, Stardust and the Super Eight) is as appalling as the perpetual lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC that any costs borne for production or promotion by whoever wants to make a record is 'paying for publishing'! Nor does it justify their deliberate omission that not only does being one's own Executive Producer (ExP) double the mechanical (record sales) royalties, it also guarantees: a 100% choice of music to record, a 100% decision in the finished mix, a 100% ownership of the masters, and a 100% control over your career!

All record companies pay earnings to FIVE entities: 1., Artist; 2., Executive Producer; 3., Record Label; 4., Music Publisher(s); and 5., themselves as General Licenser. Music Publishers pay the songwriter(s) any mechanical royalties, usually a full fifty percent of the remainder after limited expenses. However, publishers do not pay songwriters an equal split of Public Performance (airplay) royalties, as the affiliation agency has reputedly already made that separation at their 'payment' to both parties. (That is if you're a member of one of their Pay Cliques!)

Now put that together: YOU are the Executive Producer producing YOU as the Artist; and that's TWO (2) shares of mechanical earnings from record sales paid direct to YOU by the General Licenser or Record Company! Now since YOU are paying all the recording and a share of promotion costs: YOU'RE A FOOL TO RECORD ANYBODY ELSE'S COMPOSITIONS BUT YOUR OWN; and that's another FIFTY PERCENT of a mechanical share from airplay and the publisher! Next, when and if you can blackmail ASCAP, BMI or SESAC (however you're affiliated) into paying you the Public Performance (airplay earnings) as the songwriter: your Return On Investment (ROI)

Radio air play royalties begin about TWELVE CENTS per logged play times the stations of the same programming in that market. They go up in a series of plateaus until at ONE MILLION accumulated plays, as a songwriter not per song, to FORTY EIGHT CENTS per logged play times the stations in the market being 'monitored' of the same programming format , etcetera.

Now you know why ASCAP, BMI and SESAC spare no effort to gut anyone who isn't in their Pay Cliques! They want to keep all those mechanical and public performance royalties to themselves! If there are no other records available, The Cliques have the entire Field to themselves!

Seven of the Super Seven General Licensers have closed door policies to limit the amount of new releases, artists and songwriters into the market. Vandor is the only General Licenser with an open door policy in all fields of music.

The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will give you every reason known to mankind to prevent you from doing business with anyone who permits YOU to own and control your product and primarily with the "paying for publishing" scenario. They'll profess 'not to endorse any record company' and in the same breath tell you that Sony (CBS), Bertlesmann (RCA), Universal (MCA), etcetera, will be a better deal: yet they will not open those doors for you unless you're a member of the United States Senate!

If YOU want to be in the business of making money with your music, then be ready to invest in your music like any other business! Think about it, why should any business, including a record company, finance anyone who won't invest in themselves? Are you going to stay out of music just because The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will tell any lie to keep you out of their multibillion dollar per year Super Graft gold mine?

And, tragically, because money talks the entire Industry is overloaded with talentless racket, the Nashville MONOTONE being a bit more palatable than some other fields. Every truly original thought in music since the invention of records has come from the independent 'looking for a break'.

It's a good Industry, with a lot of good people in it, despite The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. But be prepared to be your own Executive Producer once you have that all-important EXECUTIVE PRODUCER'S RECORD RELEASE AGREEMENT for you or your Artists. Once you have an ExP Release Agreement (the short term) you can record and produce as many or as few Artists as you want - and get each and every one of them the same Financial Support

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 04

REAL & PHONY CHARTS
RADIO & SALES
INDEPENDENT VS DISTRIBUTED LABELS

Renita Marie du Bourbon,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Paris, France.

Back in the Distant Dawn of Printed Piano Forte and Parlor Sing-A-Long Folios the only push to find out which tunes were the most popular were concerned with making Player Piano Rolls! The advent of sound recordings changed all that in such a rush it took nearly FORTY years to make a dent of any consequence. But once RADIO came on the air at regular hours, KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began to explore unknown territory on an expedition that is still in the field and a long way from final report!

Hard on the heels of mass-reach capability and for-profit use royalties law suits by ASCAP came the 'necessity' of a 'chart' of some sort to dictate which of the many records were really the most popular.

Where they were 'the most popular', radio or sales, was never made clear to the General Public and still isn't clear today. And by deliberate design!

The data used to make such determinations was reputedly gathered from those who either aired the record or sold them across the counter. The two original sources: 1) radio reporting the number of listener requests and 2) reported over the counter sales ; instantly became corrupted and no mercy was shown on anyone who dared 'question' the process!

Today, as always money still talks and the charts published by Billboard' SoundSCAM, Radio & Records, and on/off Gavin [UPDATE: Gavin has folded! Another casualty of TRUTH in a hype-is-everything market!] are as phony as last year's Second Coming of Jesus Christ! Anyone can 'chart' in any of the three by buying enough advertising, some of which might even get printed, or making sure that 'advertising' you bought is via Clear Channel's scam broadcast-vs-venue operation.

As of this writing, Radio & Records has been reputedly trying to clean up their act, but until they accept and fairly list Independent Labels their efforts remain as phony as Billboard and Cashbox always have been. Billboard's SoundSCAM con-job notwithstanding.

Gavin only 'charts' labels with "Gavin Membership" and that's why Vandor Music Group's (VMG) many successes are conspicuous by their absence. Vandor refuses to be black-mailed by anybody, regardless of the costs. As one of the eight General Licensers, they have no qualms about telling anybody "to go to hell" and especially when their integrity is in question.

But Independent Labels must suffer the 'major label' myths and delusions, and especially when it comes to real and phony charts and direct record sales. Getting a chart record is easy enough, but selling records is an entirely different nightmare! There are only NINE General Licensers who have world wide distribution, and they sell virtually all the records found on legitimate Record Store shelves. Generally speaking, the Label is either distributed by one of these NINE, or it's dead.

However, the major difference between General Licensers is whether or not their 'budget' includes stocking the shelves with product whether it sells or not on the Executive Producer's nickel (Yes, that part is GREEN for a reason!) and any high lifestyle enjoyed by the General Licenser or 'label' Executive, swimming pools, etcetera.

Ever since France's Polygram (Phonogram) bought out America's Mercury Record Corporation, following their grand bust attempting to take over the Black Music market from MoTown without Black advice or input , the "I" word (Independent) has been a label curse throughout the Industry.

Most Americans had never heard of Polygram and incorrectly supposed it to be some Johnny-come-Lately without so much as a grain of an idea as to the American Music Scene or the "in" musical tastes. They were wrong on both accounts. Those who insisted Mercury's near demise in a hail of bad blood from the Black Community, and sale to some 'out of towners' would lower the label to that of any other backyard studio record company, were wrong about that too. Even so, the "I" word was in the world to stay.

That Mercury and it's second label, Smash, had impressive track records from Patti "Tennessee Waltz" Page to Matt "I'm Movin' On" Lucas, was neither overlooked nor ignored by the Execs at Poly, and they spared no effort to return the label to its glory of yesteryear. However, the Kiss of Death identity of "Indie" stuck to Mercury like hot glue and many recordings were re-released under the Polygram and Polydor labels to avoid the stigma.

Mercury was one of those 'major' labels of the 'direct promotion' scam to eliminate all 'indies', instituting buy back of unsaleable copies from distributors, blackmailing 'chart' mags into retaining the TOP 40 positions (thus the so-called "Top 40") for that Elite Few (leaving the remainder for whoever could afford to buy the bottom sixty (to avoid Anti-Trust litigation), and deliberately perpetuating the myth that 'talent' is the only way to 'be discovered'. With phony 'charts' the only charts, those so-called 'majors' had it their way for years.

However, the truth is: there is no such thing as an Independent or Major label! There are only distributed and non- distributed labels! And until the so-called industry recognized 'charts' list independents, distributed or not, on an equal and fair basis with the so-called majors: there won't be such a thing as an honest chart either!

That Billboard was forced to switch to a 'sales tracking' system called SoundScan (Sound SCAM would be more appropriate!) didn't raise their credibility one iota. Their 'sales tracking' is as phony as ever. They still dictate to their 'reporting' stations what they can and cannot air, and manipulate the reported sales from outlets and those from the majors to make any given record show up anywhere they want it in the so-called 'charts' in direct proportion to 'advertising' purchases.

Clear Channel's playlist smacks of conflict of interest just like reported Time-Warner's former ownership of Billboard and Warner Brothers Records through various corporate layers. (Billboard being currently owned by VNU does not raise their credibility one iota either.) Under such advertising income duress, guess who gets their choice of any chart slot they want? And, the integrity of any chart published by owners of a label found therein is then and there suspect.

Since it's common knowledge that all original ideas, musical and technical, are out of the Independent Label camp and only exploited by the so-called 'majors': it is high time for the Industry-At-Large to stop all this "Billboard/R&R/Gavin-' only ' nonsense and get back in touch with the market beginning with the Broadcasters!

Perhaps if we did that, talent would again mean something. Even if not, the honesty would be refreshing.

And that's something the Industry has seen far too little of in this entire Century: plain old honesty.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 05

WHO TO TRUST:
WHO NOT TO TRUST!
SONGWRITER ASSOCIATION SCAMS!

Antonio Guitonelli,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Roma, Italy

Every poet/songwriter worth their salt wants to have their creation be the work of the age in addition to providing sufficient income for a nice comfortable retirement as soon as possible. It's the closest to a something for nothing as most people are ever going to get. That very too-good-to-be-true content is an open invitation for every ScamArtist and con-game to avail themselves of the opportunity to play the ignorance of the victim to the limit.

Enter the song shark!

Since all fools, and most 'experts', refuse to even consider anything other than age-old lies whose only claim to credibility is 'they've been around a long time', the "send it in" stupidity is as rampant as ever. Every so-called "songwriter association" and public performance licensing agency advises against the "send it in" and get "professional lead sheets" or "your song in a (non-distributed!) album" song shark scams. Not because they have any real concern for YOU losing YOUR money, but because they want YOU to spend YOUR money with them!

It is true that all "send it in" operations are song shark scams. They do perform what they say they will do: and it's the Kiss of Death the minute they do it! Not one General Licenser, their Labels, Publishers or Executive Producers will knowingly touch a song once it's been through the song shark mill. They can't afford to! Regardless of what the songwriter thinks, or their so-called 'contract' says, the risk of litigation and related costs are easier and more cost-effective to avoid than to endure.

However, the many songwriter associations hawking their memberships aren't any improvement when it comes to con-games and deliberate mis-information scams. The prime come-on is the 'seminar' with 'known' singers, songwriters offering advice and publishing or record company executives who are reputedly 'looking for material'. Their 'guest list' often reads like a "Who's Who" but their Membership ALWAYS reads like a "What's That"! Ask any of them to give you a list of dues paying members (not gratis or lifetime members who were inducted to exploit the credibility of their names) who are making a living at writing songs by following the association's instructions.

THERE AREN'T ANY! The list is zero and always has been and always will be!

The reason is simple. If any record company or publisher wants material: all they have to do is open the mail! A listing in any of the credible Tip Sheets will get anywhere from 50 to 5,000 songs: in the exact requested format, free, clear, and ready to go!

Then why waste the time and money 'giving advice' at the Never Wases' Poetic and Sour Chord Every Other Six Months Ape de-Ticking & Sewer Tasting Poets, Songwriters, Authors, Composers and Ain't-Never-Been-Recorded Music Arrangers Society? To get a VERY LOW COST and totally unsuspected look at who is and who is not POTENTIAL COMPETITION in the Big Money realms of Executive Producer, Record Label, Music Publisher and General Licenser investments!

Such 'seminars' when a part of the equally scam 'music festivals', 'fan fairs', etcetera, give the 'guest' an unparalleled look at both songwriters and Artists who should be shelved due to their ability to be viable competition, and those who aren't worth the paper of a contract. And that's all those pay-all-your-own-costs but get here and PLAY FOR FREE in hopes of 'being discovered' music festivals are about!

Anyone who 'gets signed' at such scam gatherings are seldom ever heard of again once the initial 'publicity' runs its soon to be forgotten course. The content of those 'contracts' prevents the artist from writing or performing for anybody else until the record company is fully reimbursed for their investment. There's a huge disparity between what that 'investment' actually costs and what is charged back against the artist/victim.

As for songwriters ignorant enough to sign a 'staff writer' contract: they are then and there for hire which means any money they receive, 'salary' or other pittance, pays them in full regardless of how much they make for the publisher! And as often as not that will include the songwriter's entire catalog! Understand that! Under the terms of such 'staff writer' contracts each and every song the songwriter/victim has ever written or ever will write is instantly and forever the sole and exclusive property of the 'publisher'!

Most of the Industry's long-standing songwriter/publisher contracts and Contract Organizations, such as Songwriter's Guild of America, are so outdated from the current Industry that neither their contracts or advice is worth the effort to throw it in the trash. For instance: page after page of 'percentages with respect to printed music score for public sale': when in the real world Publishers license the music for flat fees to Music Book & Folio Publishers when and if they get a song with sufficient demand to justify it's inclusion. And that demand is always the result of a HIT record on a distributed release by one of the Super Seven General Licensers! And all other scenarios are phony!

Who to Trust? Anyone who will share the costs of a release using sound business principals. The General Licenser will get you a Label and Publisher who will pay their share and pay their own share for the privilege. All you have to do is be your own Executive Producer which includes paying all the recording costs and one quarter to one third of promotion.

Who NOT to Trust? Everyone who isn't contracted with one of the Super Seven General Licensers and legally displays the Licenser's logo on their Labels and Mastheads! And none of the so-called Songwriter Associations. And nobody who offers a 'publishing contract' but doesn't have a documentable record deal for the song already in the works. Nor anybody with the endorsement of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC emblazoned upon their Elite Clique souls. Affiliation is one thing - but endorsement is another!

The Recorded Music Industry is wide open for those who aren't afraid to put their money where their 'talent' is. But the investment and venture must be managed like a business! Just like any other business. And as in all other areas of life - you're known by the company you keep - good company is expensive!

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 06

SHELVING CONTRACTS
CAREER NIGHTMARE!
WHAT TO LOOK FOR - WHAT TO AVOID - FACTS & FIGURES!

Burley Watson,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Nashville, TN

Getting a Recording Contract is the dream of everyone who has been bitten by the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd since Edison invented the phonograph.

Those who 'go to (name the music capitol) to get a break' should realize they may very well be the best 'talent' their home town has ever seen but here in Nashville, New York or Hollywood they are just one more jerk looking for a handout!

Only one out of ten thousand ever even get to work on a distributed product. About the same number ever get a chance to 'road band' with an Artist on a distributed label. One out of ten thousand odds while you're starving on the street isn't exactly paradise terms.

Even those who manage to gin-mill enough to keep themselves in boiled eggs and a rat's nest never bankroll sufficient funds to make acceptable demos, let alone pay their share of a distributed record. For the most part they could do far better right there at home. Should someone from a 'label' or 'production company' observe them as being a potential monetary threat to any of their investments: the sign-them-to-a-contract scam is on in all it's full fury! But if you're stupid enough to be in one of the so-called Music Capitols 'to be discovered', they already know you're too stupid to be any threat at all and they don't have to waste one penny on you!

The 'sweetheart' contract is one that fulfills all the myths and delusions about the Industry: (1)It costs the artist nothing; and that's exactly how much the artist will get paid regardless of how many copies the record sells; (2) It takes all the artist's original compositions and song ideas; and retains them until the record company's 'investment' is paid in full which is usually never; and (3) Any and all Artist's earnings are charged back until the record company's 'investment' is paid in full which is also usually never; and (4) The record company can continue to run up debt against the Artist as long as necessary!

If there's an album involved, rather than a single or 'demo' session (why a record company needs a demo of its own acts for its own use is ludicrous) there is probably a "tour to promote the record" somewhere in the fine print.

Now think about that. When anyone buys a ticket to a concert it's to see an Artist whose recordings have made them famous, not some jerk hawking records nobody ever heard tell of! The real reason for the 'tour' is to guarantee the jerk will be head banging a gig somewhere in the dark regions of Swamptown when the Artist they might have infringed on plays The Grand Palace in Tinsel Ville.

And it's no more complicated than that!

Any and all such 'sweetheart' contracts are shelving (the record company can put the product on the shelf for as long as it likes) contracts designed for the sole and exclusive purpose of being a very inexpensive insurance policy!

There's no such thing as insurance on a record project, especially for ROI (Return On Investment), and the only recourse to protect a working investment is to shelve contract any and all real competition that's ignorant enough to sign. The fact it's legal doesn't change the immorality of it one bit.

In an honest Executive Producer's contract here's what to look for:

(1) A simple twenty or so page agreement that used to be easily in no more than six or seven pages;

(2) A term of not more than five years with two year riders;

(3) A total lack of charge back;

(4) Royalties of not less than statutory - as of 2002 at EIGHT CENTS ($.08) per 3:00 song;

(5) A total lack of embindments on other songs you've composed (although they may not use them);

(6) An Executive Producer's fee that is NOT LESS than one quarter (or there won't be enough money to do the project properly) nor MORE than one third (or you're footing the whole bill yourself!) of the Total Promotion Budget;

(7) A total absence of lesser mechanical royalty rate for using your own compositions; and

(8) A breakdown of the Label's, Music Publisher(s)' and General Licenser's share of the investment.

What to avoid: any contract that costs you nothing and doesn't spell out the vast array of limitations inferred above; and any contract with any Label that isn't licensed and distributed by one of The Super Seven General Licensers and carries the Licenser's logo on its label.

Facts & Figures: The U.S. Copyright Office averages processing some thirty five thousand music copyrights each and every WEEK, fifty two weeks a year! About fifteen percent are renewals, leaving about thirty thousand copyrights per week covering brand new material. The average copyright for music covers TEN POINT THREE (10.3) songs for a total of 15,934,100 brand new songs each and every year!

Facts & Figures: The Super Seven General Licensers release about 2,500 albums per year combined, each containing an average of TEN songs. That's a total of some 25,000 songs. However, about one third of those 25,000 album inclusions are re-caps of previously released material, leaving only about 17,300 new compositions recorded and released per year out of 15,934,100 written per year! No wonder the song sharks have huge schools of fish to feed on!

Facts & Figures: Only one out of eight distributed albums ever sells any copies at all. Non-distributed (independent label) albums manage only about one tenth of one percent (.001%) of total commercial sales. Only one out of eighty singles ever sell any copies at all except as album outcues. A few Foreign Countries still buy 45RPM single records but most prefer cassettes, and there are some 3,500,000 jukeboxes still in operation (2002) using the old 45s. And a few thousand still using 78s!

Facts & Figures: The optimum running time for any record is UNDER three minutes and thirty seconds (3:30)! The reason is: cost of radio air time! The average United States radio rotation of a record is 8 times a day 7 days a week for 6 weeks; the average cost of a thirty second spot commercial is $25.00; making the average station's air time investment in each and every :30 of a song's running time $8,400.00 over the six week life of the average song!

Facts & Figures: The Golden Rule: Those who have the Gold make The Rules! And it's never more true than in the multi-billion dollar recorded music Industry and especially where the 'waiting to be discovereds' are concerned.

Facts & Figures: About 99% of all established Artists at one time recorded on a small label, and 99% of those will return to Indie labels before they retire. And the most successful avoided 'sweetheart' contracts from day one. It was easy enough, they just didn't expect someone else to finance their pipe dream.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 07

INDUSTRY IGNORANCE
VS
PARANOIA!

TURKEY LIST - HOW TO AVOID IT!

Tsunami Isuroko,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Tokyo, Japan

There's nothing worse than trying to do business with a totally ignorant know-it-all programmed with every idiotic idea ever imagined unless it's trying to do business with a paranoid ("Who-have-you-done-this-for-before?" is their universal "I'm a paranoid!" sign board!). Recorded Music and Entertainment Industry Ignorance when combined with paranoia can wreck a project faster than anything else. The greatest nightmares for Record Executives are paranoids who get on the phone to everybody they can get the number of, radio stations, wholesalers, print media, manufacturers, licensers, record stores, etcetera, and run their mouth to the instant destruction of their own project and as often as not incur sales cancellations of other records handled by the company they're back-dooring!

Horror stories are real, but happen only to those who are Industry Ignorant or paranoid or both! America's famed Bo Diddley was financially raped for untold millions, but he signed a contract with a charge back clause that would bankrupt the Rothchilds! He was Industry Ignorant and paid the price. He's still hiring lawyers, all of whom take his money knowing they can't do a damned thing! And neither can anyone else.

If you sign any contract, make sure there are hard limitations on the charge back or you're never going to collect one single solitary Yen. However, the minute you put a limit on charge back, the label will put an end to negotiations! The only way to avoid that scenario is to be your own Executive Producer (ExP) and then don't stick your nose into areas where the Label, Publishers or General Licensers have the contacts and the expertise.

Their money is on the line too, so they'll do their job without your interference. All contracts, and especially ExP Agreements, contain non-interference clauses that apply to the ExP, the Artist, and any and all associates of both under penalties of BREACH! And they must.

It takes a great deal of expertise to speak all the Industry Languages, and one word out of context with the right person can kill a project. The worst problems are the industry paranoids who went to work at industry shops: wholesalers, broadcasters, record stores, manufacturers, etcetera; to 'get' that non-existent 'break' themselves. When their big chance didn't happen, they become resentful, and anybody is fair game. They can be handled, but only by experts with authority to spend money and make deals.

The artist that 'calls the station', or has their 'friends' call, to hype their record is a fool of the greatest proportion! It takes about five seconds standing in a radio station lobby to acquire the ability to smell a phony 'hype job', and nothing will get your record thrown off the air faster. That's why most Licensers won't send PromoCopies to stations in the artist's area until the record is in demand, and why there are non-interference clauses preventing the ExP, Artist and all their associates from 'taking the record to the station'!

IT'S THE ABSOLUTE KISS OF DEATH!

The same thing applies to gin-mill juke box copies! There's nothing less professional than a juke box title strip ball point penned on the flip side of some other record that wasn't playing either! Industry Ignorants and Paranoids will do it every time. And when they do: they get a lifetime membership on the Industry's Turkey List! And often as not get all others associated with the product Turkey Listed too, with very few exceptions.

Blacklists are illegal, but Industrial Intelligence, such as credit reports, are not! And when any General Licenser or any of their business investors or associates gets damaged by some jerk, regardless of how 'talented' and regardless of their past industry accomplishments: they Turkey List that jerk!

And rightfully so. They've probably bankrupted the entire investment other people worked hard to earn and trusted them to make a profit on; defamed and bad-mouthed the very people whose reputation made the investment possible; and thus damaged or destroyed the livelihood of employees all up and down the Industry.

If someone caused you to lose your job, or lose a commission you've already worked for: how mad would YOU be? What would YOU do about it? You certainly wouldn't do business with that person ever again.

And in this business, you won't!

Either you want your music to make money or you don't. If your music is a living room, patio or garage hobby, that's fine! You can do the whole thing your way. After all, you're paying the bills! But if you intend to make money with your musical efforts: you're in the music business, and that changes all the rules.

The Recorded Music Industry has its own rules and they will not change to suit the preferences, delusions, dictates, idiocies, stupidities, ignorances or paranoias of anyone, including those in the industry! You can be as original with your music as you want, but the rules will not bend. Only a fool thinks differently, and only a damned fool attempts the process.

If you want to lose your money, and risk your reputation, then do so by all means. But if you expect anyone else to pay the bills and lay their reputation on the line just so you can blast off incoherently: YOU'RE CRAZY! Its as simple as that.

It may come as a surprise, but there are more Ordained Ministers, Attorneys, Accountants, Medical Doctors, Engineers, Politicians, Firefighters, Bank Officials, Stock Brokers, Postal Employees, Sociologists, Registered Nurses, Administrators, Business Managers, Court Judges, Police Officers, Scientists and Educators doing hard criminal time from each profession than all the Recorded Music 'criminals' in jail combined!

Remember, a Music Capitol address does not endow the addressee with any great expertise or honesty. And lack of a Music Capitol address does not strip one of either! For instance:

There are no General Licensers based in Nashville "Music City, USA"! And that is the very entity every Country Music Artist must get through to if they're ever going to make a living: The General Licenser. It's the General Licenser that provides anywhere from ONE THIRD to THREE QUARTERS of the Promotion Investment and ALL Distribution costs and expertise.

Running an Industry Ignorant or Paranoid mouth within hearing of any of the General Licenser or Label Executive, or any of their investor's ears will get you TURKEY LISTED instantly! The Recorded Music and Entertainment Industry is like a pristine Jungle, it has the promise of everything. But if you will commit suicide, the Jungle is quick to oblige.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 08

SONGWRITER'S AND
MUSIC PUBLISHING CONTRACTS
EITHER PRICELESS OR TOTALLY WORTHLESS!

Wilhelm von Kelvburg,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
Berlin, Federal Repubic of Germany.

Once the Printing Capitol of the enlightened world, we've seen our share of 'publishing' scams. But none are equal to the United States' "send it in" charades. Everyone who "sends anything in" gets 'accepted' and hustled to have 'professional lead sheets' printed at an outrageous cost even if you already have a song or poem 'set to music', all duly copyrighted 'in your name'.

These song sharks actually keep their part of the 'bargain' and do what they say they will do, and none of it needs doing!

First, 'lead sheets' haven't been used to hawk songs to publishers or producers since invention of the common cassette! One VOCAL with ONE instrument and a typewritten copy of the lyrics is all anybody need produce to 'demo' a new composition. The vast majority of composers can make their own in the living room or home studio and any request for anything more is a congame in progress.

There is never any need or request from legitimate music executives for 'studio' demos. In fact, it's a Mark of Stupidity to use studio-produced demos unless you have your own studio business, or unless you can't sing or play an instrument! Otherwise, simply make the VOCAL prominent and include a XEROXED copy of the copyright and typewritten copy of the lyrics . Anybody, especially 'publishers' who want 'a better demo' can pay for it themselves or they really don't want it.

To 'studio produce' a demo is all-but the Kiss of Death for the song! You spend a lot of time and money getting arrangements and musicians to 'make this demo' insuring Michael Jackson's horns are all there, and the producer who listens to the cassette is trying to hear Willie Nelson's guitars through your "horn racket"! And that is just plain everyday stupid!

ONE vocal and ONE instrument will let the producer hear whatever it is they have in mind, andanything that disrupts that process is instantly trashed.

NEVER PAY A PUBLISHER! Not one penny. Not one finnig for anything they might have to do to exploit a song! BUT NEVER CONFUSE BEING AN ExP (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) WITH 'PAYING FOR PUBLISHING'! The two are not the same thing and have nothing to do with each other.

KNOW THE FACTS: Somewhere between ninety eight point nine (98.9%) and ninety nine point three percent (99.3%) of all Recording Artists earning ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS per year are their own Executive Producers! Therefore getting one of them to 'record your song' is economically out of the question. They simply cannot afford to finance your fortune on their money!

However, even the greatest talents get dry spells, and when the artist you've chosen is in need of material: hit their Producers and the Publishers of their previous releases with your best works! It's the only chance you have of getting someone else to finance your writing career. Should you land such (or any other) contract, look for these terms: (a) A fifty percent of any and all earnings after deduction of limited expenses, which will not include Public Performance (airplay) as that is already divided by the affiliation agency; and (b) a contract that does not go on and on about "percentage of wholesale this ..." and "reduced royalty that ...", simply because it's all bull!

Your best bet is to sing your songs yourself once you've contacted a General Licenser and secured an Executive Producer's Record Release Agreement. Then you know YOUR MUSIC will be out in the world where it can be heard by the General Public and other artists who are looking for material! Artists know they're going to need material long before any mention of even doing another album is in any of the news.

Odds of getting a recap by another artist? Three hundred to one, but remember: about one third of all new releases are recaps! You must have a song someone else needs to record.

Getting a Publisher who will pay their share of YOURS or ANYBODY ELSE's record is the job of the General Licenser: and they'll do it right the first time. That kind of publisher's contract is priceless, so don't tie up your music with some fly-by-night 'publisher' who neither has nor will spend any money in the released record! Getting suckered by some 'send it in' song shark is not only the Kiss of Death for you and your song: that contract is worthless! So are the vast majority of contracts recommended by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT that's recommended by any Songwriter Association! They don't know any more about the real world of recorded music than the nearest 'send it in' relative and most are song shark operations themselves!

Songwriting could use a good all-field-of-music Tip Sheet published at least every month. Song Writer's Market would fill that void if they'd shelve their stupidity and learn something about this Industry. Don't call them for advice, they don't know anything you haven't already tried that didn't work either.

Be prepared to invest in your music, but don't be stupid and squander hundreds of tapes, envelopes and postage sending demos to everybody on the planet. That simply will not work. The average songwriter sends 100 submissions a year for five years per song at an average cost of TEN DOLLARS per submission! For that kind of money they could have a commercial distributed release!

You might want to try some of your best works in an UP-LOAD to a series of PROMOLIBRARIES . Contact any legitimate Promoter with a General Licenser contact or any of the several independent promolibraries, most are on-line. Prices vary but the cost is nominal for the coverage to put your music in the hands of some 8,000 broadcasters and background music users. Your song just might get picked up for recap or HIT in one of the industry's legitimate charts!

And if you upload through the promolibraries, "how do you know they'll play your song?" The same way you'd know if you squandered about $35,000.00 to $40,000.00 it takes to manufacture and mail the same recipients a copy!

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 09

RECORD LABELS,
MUSIC PUBLISHERS,
GENERAL LICENSERS

NOT THE SAME THING!
SOME YOU PAY, SOME YOU DON'T!

Jeremiah Jacob Jacoby,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
New York, NY

New York City. Once the great Mecca of print publishers and now the Great Grand Sewer of Entertainment Industry myths and deliberate distortions. New York City has produced and perpetuated more outright contemptible damned lies than all other so-called music capitols combined! Those of us of Jewish extraction are familiar with the old saying "A half truth is a whole lie ", and the New York Music Industry, specifically ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, do not even have the pretense of so much as a half truth.

The first Great Myth: is the deliberate distortion that because PUBLISHING IS FREE TO SONGWRITERS everything else is reputedly 'free' through out the entire Entertainment Industry. Promotion and Distribution is not 'free'! Neither is recording production, ASCAP's, BMI's and SESAC's damned lies to the contrary notwithstanding.

PUBLISHING IS FREE TO SONGWRITERS! But it ends there and stays ended there! Being one's own Executive Producer and paying those relevant costs is not 'paying for publishing'. However, the Great Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will purport that spending any money for anything is a no-no except to their Pay Clique Members who pay their share of a record investment just like everybody else!

There are THREE (3) elements of recorded music that are not only totally separate and non-related, they are critical to the investment and expertise of each and every record:

(1) Music Publishers: who not only print song sheets, books and folios (usually by licensing them to PRINT publishers with their own wholesale and retail chains), they also attempt to license their works to Record Labels and Trade Publications that cater to song lyric content in addition to background music users such as Muzak, and television and motion picture inclusions;

(2) Record Labels: who license, manufacture and release recorded music wherever recordings or their content can be used for profit as well as direct sales via existing commercial distribution and marketing outlets; and

(3) General Licensers: who are the Big Administrative and Finance Houses, with all the facilities, and sound business principals expertise, to cover all the bases of this very complex and risky Industry. And all it takes is MONEY!

The second Great Myth is: that once a song is contracted to a publisher that it's a surefire fact the song is going to be recorded and make everybody a million bucks!

The Great Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will tell you to "get a publisher and don't pay any money" , and in the same breath they confirm that getting a song recorded, and making any money on it once you do get it recorded, is only a shot in the dark at the very best. In fact, only ONE song in 5,000 ever makes any real money. That doesn't mean there isn't a solid return on investment, it just means that not every song is going to pay a million dollars.

The fact is: Executive Producers who pay all their own production and their share of promotion costs aren't going to record anybody's music they can't make a solid return on: i.e. paying themselves instead of anybody else! It's not a matter of a good song selling a lot of records, it's a matter of the content of their record paying the investors as much Return On Investment as possible. If YOU were paying all those bills whose music would YOU record? YOUR OWN!

But the Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will advise against paying any portion of production or promotion even as your own Executive Producer! Read the credits of virtually all 'name' records, motion pictures and TV programs and you'll find the STAR is usually their own Executive Producer! Peter Falk of "Columbo" and Angela Lansbury of "Murder, She Wrote" for solid examples.

The fact is: Music Publishers don't spend one dime knocking on doors to hawk songs in their catalog! All they do is advise the General Licensers as to available budget and take their choice of whatever is up for the next distributed release! And they only get that chance if the General Licenser's in-house publishers either don't have the budget or necessary material for the Artist.

If YOU were a publisher would you finance someone nobody ever heard tell of, or invest in a KNOWN quantity of business expertise?

The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will tell you to "make a better demo" and send it to everybody in the book knowing damned well their respective Pay Clique Members are spending money hand over fist to get their songs recorded and released on distributed Labels! If you're ignorant enough to believe ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, then you're welcome to stay out of this Industry as long as you want to!

The fact is: Record Labels don't have to spend one penny to 'discover' anybody! They may have to spend a bit to shelve someone to keep them out of competition with an artist they have a huge investment in under disguise of 'discovering', but for no other reason.

The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and at least six of the nine General Licensers will tell you "talent is the only way to go" and turn you down for a contract in the same breath! If you're stupid enough to believe the 'talent' nonsense then YOU are keeping yourself out of competition and nobody in the Industry has to spend so much as one more penny to keep you out!

The fact is: General Licensers aren't in business to humor perpetuated myths and delusions of the Industry: they're in business to make money selling records! They have all necessary facilities and expertise to process, manufacture, layout, print, promote, advertise, license, market, distribute, merchandise and sell records and Artists world wide.

The Grand Liars at ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and said six or so General Licensers will stop at nothing to keep those facilities exclusively to themselves because it's cheaper than competing in an open market! And MONEY is the name of the game.

NEVER pay a 'publisher' for "professional lead sheets" (which haven't been used for thirty years!), "a better demo" or ANYTHING ELSE a publisher does to exploit a song! And don't expect to earn more than a pittance at best unless YOU or someone with money to burn INVESTS A LOT OF MONEY in production, promotion and distribution of a record containing your song! Even when distributed by one of the Super Seven General Licensers the odds are only one out of eight the record will sell any copies at all!

NEVER confuse paying all or part of production, promotion, etcetera, with 'paying for publishing' because it is not! Neither Executive Producers, Record Labels, Publishers or General Licensers are bottomless pits of money: and none are in business to make millionaires out of non-investors!

NEVER pay anybody "to have your song in ..." unless that Artist records for a Label licensed and distributed by one of the Super Seven General Licensers! However, there are a few quality Radio Compilations that are not 'your song in an album' scams and should not be confused with such. CDX and Stardust, both out of Nashville are two examples of solid and legitimate compilations - that deliver what they say they will deliver without any nonsense attached.

NEVER confuse a Promoter as being a DISTRIBUTOR! Or a local Distributor with being a NATIONAL or WORLD WIDE GENERAL LICENSER! They are not the same thing. One is a wholesaler, the other SELLS TO wholesalers.

And NEVER expect someone else to pay all the bills and then give YOU all the money! Unless you're a total idiot.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 10

BEFORE YOU RECORD
WHAT WON'T WORK!
KISS OF DEATH ELEMENTS TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

LYMAN JERGENS,
International Industrial Review,
Staff Reporter,.
Los Angeles, CA.

More good record projects are destroyed in recording by fools than all the no-talents that ever lived!

First, only a complete idiot records anything before they have a hard contract for release and distribution. Emphasis DISTRIBUTION! Those who squander untold hours of tape, talent and equipment producing an emotional trip in hopes some record company 'will take it from there' are those proverbial fools from whom money is soon parted.

Record Companies do not need 'talent' or material: they need Executive Producers (ExP) with their share of the BUDGET!

Releases in the real world are owned by FOUR (4) entities, all of whom pay for promotion and THREE (3) who absorb distribution costs thereafter should there be any actual sales. The Super Four are: (1) Executive Producer (ExP), creator and Chief Financier of the project and who either owns the masters or represents the investors who do own it; (2) the Record Label, under whose license and liability the product is manufactured and sold; (3) the Music Publisher(s), who own the copyrights to the recorded material, various other rights and obligations that fall under Copyright Law; and (4) the General Licenser, who owns the distribution network and does the vast majority of administration.

The Label, Publisher(s) and General Licenser are the Big Three of Distribution once a disk is actually in demand. The ExP usually isn't required to invest any more money once a record is begins selling. But, that depends on the terms of the contract!

Therefore, before you record, get an Executive Producer's Record Release Agreement from one of the Super Seven General Licensers. Not only will it insure that your record will be released, it will get up to seventy five percent of promotion on someone else's nickel! If they have the budget to take your project at all, the General Licenser will put up their share and get you a label and a publisher who will put up their respective shares. Now there's enough money in the bank to properly release, promote and distribute the record.

It will not get you any front money to record! Forget it and be ready to pay the recording costs and a quarter to a third of the promotion budget. And be ready to do business! You'll have no more than thirty days to deliver the Finished Production Masters and a check. Should something go wrong, for any reason, contact your Exec immediately! Let them hang for even twenty four hours and your deal can very well be in the nearest sewer. They have to make money on their money, and while you're dillydallying they'll go with something that's ready.

The General Licenser will give you all the specs, from running times to mix secrets of commercial acceptability. Follow those instructions to the letter or your deal is dead, contract or no contract. The General Licenser will provide you with an ESTIMATED BREAKDOWN, and that's the available deal, take it or leave it. It may be a matter of available money, or that your music really isn't setting the sales world afire regardless of what the media hype claims.

WHAT WON'T WORK!

1. Any indication that you're either Industry Ignorant or paranoid. Industry Ignoramuses queer deals at the outset, but paranoids queer deals after the money is invested! You'll queer one deal and never come off the Turkey List ever again.

2. Manufacturing product (even demo copies) to 'impress' the record company. You've just destroyed any and all anti-counterfeiting capabilities! There's a first generation copy of your master out who-knows-where. Commercial copies are made from copies of your master, so 'having your master back' only displays your Industry Ignorance.

3. Trying to do the record company's job for them! They have, and pay good money to, all the expertise necessary to do whatever is required from start to finish in each and every field of music. The very last thing anyone needs in this (or any other) business is interference! They know what to do and when to do it, and with their money on the line too, they won't make any mistakes.

4. Waiting for them to call YOU! Should any record company ever need 'talent' or material all they have to do is answer the phone or open the mail! Anyone who thinks 'it takes talent' to make a record should turn on the radio.

5. Not talking to their answering machines. People who want to do business know answering machines and voice mail systems are critical! Those who 'won't talk to them' have locked themselves out of the Industry with their own stupidity. Good riddance.

6. Going to a 'music capitol' to record. A tape deck or instrument will operate just as well at one address as any other, and General Licensers are unimpressed with people who squander money needlessly. Follow the General Licenser's production advice and your record will be as commercially acceptable as anybody else's.

7. Constant contacts with your Executive. Time squandered with you is time not spent taking care of the product! When there's news of any importance they'll contact you!

8. Don't take your half-cocked, used-car-salesmen reject 'managers' and other such baggage with you via contract or otherwise. Make sure if someone else represents you that they are: A) Industry Knowledgeable, B) have a spotless Industry Reputation, C) are not paranoids, and D) know how to do their job without spilling over into anybody else's.

9. Don't be caught dead presenting 'business plans' in the same vein as those palmed off by the Majors on wanna-be fools to insure they squander their budget and thus are kept out of the Industry and Competition on their own nickel. The most prime example is an "EP". Record Buyers don't want half an album and they cost as much to manufacture as a full production.

10. If you want an attorney to review your contract, get legal advice, not business advice. Lawyers suffer under the same what-won't-work nonsense as every other fool who has never made nor sold a record. And " not spending any of your own money" is the Title Page of each and every such scenario.

The General Licenser will present a copy of the broadcasters they've sent PromoRecords to after the record has run its course. The 'after' factor is to prevent destruction of the project by 'friends' and breach of contract, specifically the non-interference clauses.

One thing you'll need from day one besides money is original material! You can't just record somebody else's music anymore than you can just drive off with somebody else's car. You can perform it all you want to, but recording it takes a Mechanical License from the Publisher(s) prior to production and release of the record. Make sure your music is free and clear, and not plagiarized, unless you want a Lifetime Membership on the Industry's Turkey List.

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(CLARIFICATION - Music Publishers, Labels and General Licensers do not throw their entire budget into a record project! They make their investments in proven product only, in accordance with market demand, and only as that market demand dictates. They do have an initial investment in any release - mostly administrative and legal fees - and each does their own process of promotion. However, the greater part of the financial burden with respect to whether a record will sell in commercially acceptable quantities or not is the sole and exclusive domain of the Executive Producer (ExP) and is paid for out of the ExP's share of the promotion budget. WARNING! Any successful record project must be handled from start-to-finish by, or in exact accordance with instructions from, the General Licenser! There are myriad of legal, administrative and marketing details that are critical to a successful record. Blasting off on your own incoherent emotional tangent of Beer Joint Baritone Ph.D. stupidity is the best way to pre-empt all of them, to sure and certain financial disaster! - General Bobby Farrell.)

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 11

THE INDUSTRY'S BEST
AND WORST DEAL!
LONG-STANDING LIES, MYTHS AND CONGAMES!

Sebestian Garcia Mondragon
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter,
San Palo, Brazil

With all the MIS-information about recorded music filling the entertainment pages and air waves, getting accurate how to do it right the first time facts is all-but impossible. Nevertheless a non-distributed record is worthless regardless of how much money is spent in production or promotion.

Most Artists and Groups squander their entire budget making totally worthless 'demos' or being session-rich and promotion-poor. There's nothing more idiotic than thinking you can produce anything and some 'label will take it from there'. The only time that scenario happens is when some label has to take the act out of competition!

Talent is not the prime factor of success in recorded music. It does take good song material, produced in a commercially acceptable manner, sufficient budget to properly manufacture and deliver the record to appropriate promotion and distribution outlets with the industry expertise and logistics necessary for the General Public to hear, find and buy the record!

If you're an aspiring artist you're going to have to develop a market following of record buyers who will hopefully become Concert Ticket buyers and long term supporters who will contact their local broadcasters to air your music. And right there is the first Catch 22. How do you get to listeners without first going through radio? The fact is: you don't!

That means you've got to produce a recording that is air-worthy at the outset, then get it delivered to radio stations by those elite few who know the who and where your record will have the best chance. Mailing records willy-nilly flatly won't work! Broadcasters are reluctant to air records that can't be bought through existing commercial distribution outlets.

You need distribution through one of the Super Seven General Licensers!

If you're amenable to adapting to the market rather than expecting the market to adapt to you: then you have as good a chance as anybody else to make a well-paying life-long career as a Recording Artist. If you insist on some self-inflicted narrow little nit of 'your talent': you're wasting your time and money in this Industry. So what do you do to get on the air and develop a market following?

You pay strict attention to the advice of your General Licenser!

Currently, there are still satellite networks offering FREE programming to radio stations for carrying the satellite company's commercials. Stations insert their own commercials, reducing their staff and payroll to sales personnel and on-air technicians, the later usually at the lowest possible wage! Thus "On Air Personalities" (OAP pronounced APE) 90's doublespeak title of an 80's DJ) either have to perform or die the death. If they can't produce solid income for the station: they're dead.

Next, live music night clubs can cut their license costs and band overhead with the installation of an amplifier and mike into the jukebox and letting the customers entertain themselves! It's called "KARAOKE" and it became a rage in the Nineties, and a rage of rages in the New Millenium, with no end in sight. There are Karaoke entertainment services with the talent and equipment for hire, but with a lot less trouble of a live band and all their prima-donna nonsense. Club owners can charge the same prices at the door and for drinks as they would with a live band only at a near-nothing cost. And suddenly the door is wide open to the Artist who wants to build a market following!

First, the record must be a distributed product, easily obtainable by contacting one of the Super Seven General Licensers and requesting an Executive Producer's Record Release Agreement before you record! You'll know how much money it's going to cost, the latest market indicators as to instrumentation and music tastes, and get priceless production advice. Then you only need to concentrate on which FIVE songs to record.

FIVE SONGS? That's right. You need only record FIVE songs. And you mix them with and without the lead vocal!

Get that straight! You'll have TEN cuts for the album: FIVE with the lead vocal, and FIVE without the lead vocal. That will double your mechanicals as you'll get paid for both inclusions just as you would with ten songs, and cut your recording costs by half in the process! But make sure you only eliminate the LEAD vocal - everything else stays intact!

The OAP must either entertain or die, leaving no other choice but to hit the karaoke spots as few bands can actually credibly perform most new and popular records. That dictates the circumstance that said OAP must be about the business of making the songs popular they intend to perform! You've handed them a first rate quality set of KARAOKE BEDS to sing to: but the Karaoke Night Club or Operator has to buy their copy!

The OAP has to air YOUR version of the song in order to make it popular enough for their performance of it even in satire! And that has to be done over the air!

With OAPs in the either deliver or "we-go-satellite" squeeze, night clubs fed up with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC black mail, and prima-donna band nonsense, the doors to radio airplay and someone else doing YOUR MUSIC as covers are both as wide open as the Industry has ever been in its entire history!

Sing-A-Longs (kids call them TRAX, Industry calls them MMVs, Music Minus LEAD Vocal) often outsell the artist's vocal version by a factor of FOUR to ONE! That's a market increase of FOUR HUNDRED PERCENT! In simple rule-of-the-thumb terms if your record sells 100,000 copies - the MMV will generate another 400,000 in sales - and you're SOLID GOLD as it only takes 500,000 to get a GOLD ALBUM!

It doesn't matter if the OAP satirizes your song: you're still the Artist of all sold copies! It doesn't matter if the OAP sings your song over the air: you're still the songwriter on the receiving end of those Public Performance for Profit royalties! Once you have a distributed record containing songs ANY OAP can sing: the odds of building a market following are astronomical, not to mention the ROI (Return On Investment) from record sales!

At an average of $1.60+ (as ExP and Artist) per copy sold (2002) not counting airplay you can see why over 99% of $100,000.00+ per year Artists are their own ExP! (UPDATE: Royalties have been increased to EIGHT CENTS ($.08 USC) as of January 1st, 2002) per 3:00 song per copy sold. For a 10 selection album, that computes to $.80 to the Artist and $.80 to the ExP - totalling $1.60 per copy sold if you're both! And, when you're your own ExP you can record your own compositions and get another FORTY CENTS ($.40) as your FIFTY PERCENT (50%) share of the Music Publisher's mechanical earnings.

That's the best deal the Industry has ever had. Don't be disheartened if the General Licenser you contact turns down the deal. They may be too far in debt to take on any new projects unless the ExP is paying the whole show! Simply call the next Licenser until you get a taker. But never call until you're ready to do business!

The Industry's worst deal is the one that costs you nothing - has ASCAP's, BMI's and/or SESAC's full approval - and a charge back provision that's pure and simple robbery. The only worse case scenario is waiting to be discovered by some 'talent scout' reputedly representing a 'label' or one of the Super Seven General Licensers. The only time that is going to happen is when you are making enough noise to be a threat to the investment of somebody who has already bought their way to the top - and you have to be shelved - to protect that investment.

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INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW! ARTICLE 12

GENERAL LICENSER'S
FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Geoffery Borginton,
International Industrial Review,
Investigative Reporter
Bern, Switzerland

The Super Seven (7) General Licensers distribute virtually all the records available in legitimate record stores world wide. There are a few grandfathered Labels, some with National, a few with neighboring-country International, but none with world wide licensing and distribution. Only the Super Seven General Licensers are global!

If you're talking to a label, the odds are you're negotiating yourself into a shelving contract. That's the 'sweetheart' deal that sounds great, costs you nothing, and owns your soul and everything you create from date of signature to the far reaches of oblivion. Even if you're laying down a huge chunk of money! The old "If you've got a million dollars, we'll match it!" game played so well in the so-called music capitols.

A little-known fact is that all labels are caught in a near-closed market situtation. In order to have legitimate distribution, above and beyond the Mom & Pop operations, there are Fiduciary and Administrative requirements beyond the financial and expertise scope of virtually all Independent Labels. Most have to do with anti-counterfeiting Codes and Measures that will stand up in any court; product return (the money-back guarantee known in the Industry as buy-back) that must be in the Bank and not dependent on a 'promise' from somebody out in the hinderlands; established bank-transfer and credit lines that can often be into the millions of dollars; and promotional endeavors for both the Artist and recorded product. The legalities in these areas alone are mind-boggling.

Then there's the Buyer's side of the story. First, the cost to establish, administer and maintain accounts by Main Line Chains and Major Wholesalers is usually far greater than the profit earned from independent labels who release only one or two projects a year, if that! Most are self-produced custom runs with only the Artist who owns it as the 'stable', known as "hip pocket" labels in the Industry. Second, a product that is not properly promoted has little chance to compete against product supported by any of the Super Eight. Third, there is the liability factor, which includes all relevant clearances and licenses lest a product contain protected materials used without permission. Nobody wants to spend their narrow profit margins on Attorneys and Court costs because some wannabe is ignorant of mechanical or other use requirements and procedures.

Distribution, manufacturing and licensing are available at all the Super Seven General Licensers. All, except EFA and Vandor, require at least TEN MILLION DOLLARS ($10,000,000.00) (USC) PER YEAR in sales. Or if you prefer being an Executive Producer and releasing on one of the relevant Flagship labels, you must be prepared to deliver not less than FOUR (4) PROJECTS per year at $2.5-Million (USC) each. Some of the Minor Majors (Independent Labels who license and distribute through one or more of the Super Eight) may be under that amount if the Artist Development budget is enough to make up the difference. Even then, only Vandor will assist in getting you the necessary finances.

This (United States) issue lists the eight General Licensers in alphabetical order:

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), 1540 Broadway, New York NY 10036; Tele: 212 930 4000; German owned, RCA and ARISTA are flagships. Distributes J Records, Vanguard, Jive, Mammoth, Ariola, Bad Boy, La Face, Volcano and BNA.

CAPITOL/EMI (EMI), 810 7th Avenue 4th Floor, New York NY 10019; Tele: 212 603 8600; British owned, CAPITOL, EMI and TOWER are Flagships. LIBERTY and UNITED ARTISTS are no longer active except for Specialty Product of expected limited market value. Distributes Nettwerk, Artemis, Liquid 8, Heads Up, Acony, CarPort, London, FFRR, and Virgin as it moves from BMG.

EFA Three main offices are: Arnsburger Strasse 70, D-60385 Frankfurt - Tele: +49-(0)69-943 424 0 - Fax +49-(0)69-943 424 22 - e-mail: frankfurt@efa-medien.de; Forster Strasse 4-5, D-10999 Berlin - Tele: +49-(0)30-617 989 0 - Fax +49-(0)30-612 841 51 - e-mail: berlin@efa-medien.de; and: Ober Buschweg 32, D-50999 Köln - Tele: +49-(0)2236-89 08 43 - Fax +49-(0)2236-89 08 52 - e-mail: cologne@efa-medien.de. EFA is more of a wholesaler and on-line distributor than a General Licenser, but in their market coverage arena, the lines begin to blur. Handles several solid independent labels throughout Europe.

SONY (GRG), 550 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10022; Tele: 212 833 8000; Japanese owned. CBS and COLUMBIA are flagships. Also owns Epic, Screen Gems. Distributes 550 Music, Immortal, American, Monument, Aware, Loud, MoTown on occasion, Blue Note, Legacy, Manifesto and So So Def.

UNIVERSAL (MCA), 70 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608; Tele: 818 777 4000; Seagram's owned, MCA, DECCA and Universal are flagships, licenses MoTown, Geffen and Vocalion. Bought out Polygram in 1999 and merged(?) with Vivendi in 2001. Distributes A & M, Rounder, Wind Up, RadioActive, Republic, Almo Sounds, Lost Highway, Dreamworks, Peak, Concorde, Island, Lyric Street, Polydor, Mercury and sometimes Interscope.

Vandor Music Group (VMG), 1826 Poplar Lane SW, Albuquerque NM 87105; Tele: 505 247 4843 - Fax: 505 247 0890; Privately owned, VANDOR, JUKE RECORDS OF TENNESSEE, and VMG WORLD WIDE are flagships, licenses IceFire, Peony, FMC Ltd., Suddath, Nitram, and distributes more independent labels than all the other General Licensers combined. Pays the highest mechanical royalties, offers up to seventy five percent of initial promotion financial support and all follow-up distribution and licensing costs. Assists with project financing, including seed money. Contracts and licenses through its own Agents - from individual Executive Producers through full group companies. Has an impressive string of Platinum, Gold, and Chart records. Does not stock product until market demand justifies the expense reducing buy-back (product return) to a minimum.

Walt Disney Company (WDC), 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521-9722, Tele: 818-560-1000 - Fax: 818-560-1930; primarily an entertainment Theme Park, motion pictures and television progams. Owns Buena Vista and Disney labels. Distributes DreamCatcher and Hollywood. Disney's interests are mostly with their own Themes and Program music and albums.

Warner Bros. Records, Inc. (WEA), 3300 Warner Boulevard., Burbank, CA. 91505 - Tele: 818-846-9090; One of the world's largest companies, combined with America On-Line and owns CNN. Distributes Warner Bros., Atlantic, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Lava, Concord Jazz, EastWest on occasion, Sire, Tommy Boy, Geffen, Giant, Rhino and Maverick (owned by Madonna).

Some labels move from one General Licenser to the other project by project, such as Virgin from BMG to EMI, MoTown from CRG to UMG, and InterScope sometimes with WEA and sometimes with UMG, so nothing is ever very permanent in recorded music. The reasons are usually economic rather than legal, creative or administrative differences. The Super Seven always pool resources as profit dictates, and labels often have no other financial choice. The cash register can make some very harsh demands.And due to that cash register, the fact is you'll find that with the exception of EFA and Vandor, the rest of these doors are closed for all intents and purposes. Vandor is uniquely established to secure business investment and venture capital for proven clientele, Artist or Label, and is the only true General Licenser of the Super Seven (EFA not being a true General Licenser) that is debt free.

Without the logistics and support of a General Licenser, marketing expertise, manufacturing, promotion and distribution, there is little, if any, hope of success for any record.

Getting financial support is easy enough if you don't expect someone else to pay all your bills! Pay your share and they'll all pay theirs, but none is going to lay out millions of dollars to anybody on the basis of a do-nothing and doing-nothing label or production. All the General Licensers need competent business associates, but none needs to finance any wannabe regardless of talent or originality. If you want to "be discovered" be prepared to wait a very long time, perhaps several lifetimes. But if you want action in this millenium, get your business house in order and contact any General Licenser.

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END OF INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL REVIEW ARTICLES Printed by Permission.

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ARTICLE 13

ASCAP, BMI - THE WHOLE SCAM AND HOW IT WORKS!

BMI - Broadcast Music, Incorporated
Guard Dog now raids the Chicken Coop!
Joins ASCAP in Multi-Billion Dollar Thievery & Extortion Scam!

The Chicken Coop = Songwriters and Publishers. Both too small and with too limited resources to track and collect from those who use their created and/or copyrighted materials for profit. In this instance - Songwriter's and Publisher's music - being used by broadcasters, live music nightclubs and other such concert venues where music is a part of the draw for profit. The entire licensing situation is much more complex than this, but I'm showing an example, not teaching credits for a Ph.D. in Entertainment. However, if you want a Ph.D. in being shafted then kiss the ass of the lying thieving bastards at ASCAP, BMI or SESAC!

The Guard Dog = Those organizations created to represent Songwriters and Publishers 'for a small fee' (there's no typeface or font that can put that statement in enough contempt!), to license users, collect and disburse the royalties 'fairly' (or that one either!). The big three are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Now that we know what the game is supposed to be, let's set the historical stage and expose what the game has become.

Back in 1940 ASCAP's (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) abuse - Clique Paying, Price Fixing and other 'honest' endeavors of such Court-protected thieves - began to wear thin on the Broadcasters. Most radio stations at that time were single company business ventures although Networks were in existence. ASCAP's extortion policies began to put a real economic crimp into those Broadcasters, large and small alike, so the fun began. They first just flatly refused to play anything that wasn't Public Domain and told ASCAP to go straight to hell. Their actions created what was called "The Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair era" named after one of Stephen Foster's most popular songs.

ASCAP began in 1909 because the Music Publishers made fortunes while the songwriters, such as Stephen Foster literally starved to death! But since bastards will be bastards, ASCAP's eventual antics were no less out-right thievery (then and now) than the uncontrolled Publishers had been. Then in 1940, enter BMI to counter the damned thieveries of ASCAP!

The major amount of license money at this stage of the game was (and still is) from Public Performance via broadcasters who use music to lure customers to hear commercials - where they make virtually all their income. It's called "Public Performance for Profit" and although any venue that uses music for profit - nightclubs, etceteras - the determination of 'use' is broadcast 'surveys' and only those 'surveys' conducted by the damned thieves at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC!

Now understand that: ALL PUBLIC PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES ARE DETERMINED BY RADIO/TV AIRPLAY! What you sing/hear in a nightclub, or a Concert Stage, is paid for by 'license' ("extortion" is a far better term!) just like the radio stations - but doesn't credit one god-damned penny to either the songwriters or the publishers!

And here's the Court-Approved scam: The lying thieving bastards only MONITOR THOSE BROADCASTERS WHO AIR THEIR ELITE CLIQUE's MUSIC! That's why and how the vast majority of YOUR MONEY is paid to a very Elite Few! To be sure, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC scatter pennies to their respective Pittance elements, as I'll clearly document below. But it's only a paint job to disguise the real scam!

The issue was, and still is, that because ASCAP deliberately collected license fees on behalf of Black, Country and other Artists they considered to be non-entities, these same Black, Country and other Artists were never paid a damned thing simply because they were not in the ASCAP Kak-Clique! It was hoped that BMI would correct these injustices and restore some fairness to the Public Performance licensing game. In fact, all that happened was: A CHANGE OF THIEVES!

I came on the scene in 1936, and as a child endured the perpetual repeats of the few Public Domain selections available to broadcasters - until BMI managed to formulate and gather a catalog. ASCAP then finally made a few concessions, all duly endorsed by the thoroughly corrupt United States District Court, Southern District of New York. In short, the thieves at ASCAP joined forces with the Thieves in Black Robes and their combined firepower (ASCAP-money and Government-oppression) kept many quiet who would have otherwise spoken out! Their only real problem is that I'm not afraid of the god-damned government - Court or otherwise! Such corrupt government and court antics have become so rampant, that if it isn't time to overthrow the socialist bastards and restore the Constitution and Justice, it's damned sure time to begin open and public consideration of doing so!

Once BMI began to gain membership and catalog, primarily from the Black and Country Music communities, none of whom were in the ASCAP Pay Clique, BMI's disdain for all those ASCAP Refugees became as ruthless as ASCAP always had been! Don't think so? Then ask the lying bastards "WHEN" they started paying Black, Country, etceteras, THE SAME RATE THEY PAID THE ASCAP KAK-CLIQUE? You'll find that it was many years after BMI's formation and ASCAP didn't relent until the mid-1960's! The mealy-mouth excuse that they "improved distribution" does not erase the previous outright damned thieveries anymore than a bank robber giving the money back excuses Federal Bank Robbery criminal charges! Of course, it did with these bastards because they were all duly cloaked behind the Black Robes of that perpetually corrupt United States District Court, Southern District of New York!

The scam spreads and the courts get more corrupt!

Because BMI can and does act on the Court Precedents established by ASCAP, and vice versa, anyone who doesn't have sufficient money to buy the Justices of said United States District Court, Southern District of New York - and any other Federal District Court where a case may be moved - is beat before the case is ever called to trial. Whether the suit is against ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, doesn't matter. The case was decided long ago on some golf course, fishing trip or vacation bacchanal, and it was decided AGAINST YOU! All the antics in the court room are just so much public-show poppycock, staged for those stupid enough to believe it is anything else.

And if you don't think so: TRY IT! Sue the bastards and see how far you get. The stage is already set and courts are already in the other camp. Neither ASCAP, BMI nor SESAC can be taken into any court that will require them to del