Youtube – music royalties issue: a business that could not be?

I wonder if the founders of youtube would have known from the start that they had to pay performance royalties for the use (‘web-casting’ anyone?) of music, film and tv productions on their site, would they have discarded their business idea?

Okay, youtube probably had been created for people to upload their own private videos, but the fact that users would also upload music videos and their recordings of tv shows must have been obvious to the site’s creators and potential consequences could, well, should, have been considered: Paying performance fees to the collecting societies or screening uploaded material in order to keep chargeable content off the site (thus hiring quite some staff).

With that being ignored, youtube seems like a wrongful business plan. When drafting a business plan you would probably consider taxes and other fees imposed by authorities. Can the youtube model be legal simply because its creators have forgotten about such issues? Try to evade taxes and tell the IRS you just didn’t know…

Other sites that stream free music while paying its composers from advertising income (such as we7.com, ubetoo.com) have shown how difficult it is to meet the music industry’s financial standards. Ubetoo currently can’t afford to pay more than a cent to artists for a single stream of their song.

I assume that with all unpaid performance royalties youtube must be in severe debt. Nevertheless, google acquired it for a fortune. Who would acquire a business that is either in debt, not legal or, at least, not “OK”?

With the Federal Court’s current ruling against file-sharer Limewire is it a matter of time until youtube will be next?

Think…

Julian Angel
www.soundsofaction.com

This post is a reaction to “GEMA breaks off negotiations with youtube“.

SoundsOfAction.com inks sub-pub deal with Apollo Music in Scandinavia

Danish music publishing and licensing company Apollo Music has added the Sounds Of Action Music Catalog by Julian Angel to its repertoire. Apollo will pitch and administer Angel’s action tracks as a sub-publisher in Scandinavia, The Baltic States and Poland.

With his yet young Sounds Of Action Music Catalog German rock musician Julian Angel caters to the sports and action niche specializing in loud, authentic guitar driven rock and heavy metal instrumentals to capture, support and enhance the on-screen action. “Music should always be real and it takes lots of enthusiasm and dedication to sound credible with what you do” says Angel who backs his statement with his experience as a recording artist and touring musician for the last ten years as well as a nomination for German Rock Awards as “Best Guitarist”.

Apollo Music is the leading supplier of production music in the Scandinavian market and has gained a reputation of having provided a very sophisticated and wide-ranging repertoire in its thirty years of being in business. “We’re happy about expanding the rock and metal sector with the addition of the Sounds Of Action Catalog” says CEO Claus Andersen.

As effective of May 2010 the Sounds Of Action Catalog can be discovered through Apollo Music’s online search system and licensed instantly for use in the Apollo territory.

www.apollomusic.dk
www.soundsofaction.com

The importance of music categories

Categorizing music may be a slap in the face of most music creators, however, it is more valuable than it might appear in the first place.

Let’s talk about how beneficial categorization can be in the field of music licensing. A music supervisor generally isn’t looking for “something cool” or “a weird mix of styles”. A supervisor (or her client) usually has an idea about which type of music she is looking for. She may search by tempo, lyrics, instrumentation and style to narrow down the search results. It becomes yet more specific with details such as mood, type of use or the “sounds like” information.

Many music libraries that allow self-uploads of your material offer a large number of stylistic options. You will be faced with the decision whether your song is Hard Rock, Alternative Rock, Independent Rock, Arena Rock, Glam Rock, Classic Rock, Southern Rock or just plain Rock.
Then you decide whether it is an aggressive track or rather just energetic. Cool or laid-back. Would it be better used for car chases, racing scenes, cars, speedboats?

I have found out that it is very valuable to know what my music sounds like, where it is going and what it delivers. When it comes to pleasing an expert of a particular style you have to know that there’s a difference between Metallica and Megadeth, 2 Live Crew and Public Enemy, Britney and Xtina.

To sum it up: Know your every song and be able to tell what it sounds like and what it is best used for.

Yours truly
Julian Angel
www.soundsofaction.com
www.angel-rock.com

CD Retail Shot In Own Foot

Isn’t it the cd retail business that has been moaning the most about the decline of cd sales? Shouldn’t the record distributors be worried the most about what is going on at the sales front?

I see more and more cd retail stores and departments, especially those operated by big chain stores, switch from ordinary cd players to computer based listening stations. Instead of picking a cd, having the shrink-wrapping removed, putting it in a cd player and listening before you buy it (and having control over the fast-forward button) you search for an artist or record title in one of those listening stations or scan the cd’s barcode to get to hear a “demo”.

Now the idea of having access to an almost unlimited database of music, including music you can not find on the shelves, is good. The big downside, though, is quality. Not only are songs presented in a lower sound quality, you rarely get to hear the whole song. Listening stations provide you with excerpts of songs and you’ll be happy if they do not cut off the chorus or make it through the intro at all.

So I politely asked the sales assistant at Germany’s leading retailer Media Markt to open a cd for me. Despite about ten cd players standing around she pointed me towards one of their listening stations, telling me this was the new thing and that they would abandon cd players soon and entirely switch to listening stations to offer music previews.

Now I had been looking for a song I could only remember by its chorus. Since five out of ten demo excerpts didn’t feature a chorus anyway I couldn’t find the song I was willing to buy. Needless to say that I went out empty handed.

How can the cd retail business try to survive (and I believe they are trying) by making it less convenient for a fan to find, try and buy music? How can a man-managed retail store offer less service than an impersonal website? CD Baby offers 2:00 minute preview versions of all songs (if the artist has chosen to). Why do Media Markt, Saturn and others offer excerpts of less than 30 seconds and with a lower bit-rate?

Would love to find out how things work in other countries…

Julian Angel
www.soundsofaction.com
www.angel-rock.com

Why pay music licensing fees – aka ‘sync’ fees?

Why shall music users pay licensing fees?

There is music out there that can be licensed for use in film and television without paying an up-front fee (often referred to as sync fee, synch fee, needle drop fee or licensing fee). The composer of the song will solely be compensated by the royalties he receives from his performing rights organisation (PRO). Especially major tv networks embrace that policy – in fact they made it their policy.

Now sometimes, though, a song can only be licensed against an up front fee. That is when a song has been performed by a non-writing musician (e.g. a singer) who can not receive songwriting royalties from a PRO but needs to be compensated as well. Some countries have collecting societies for performers too (e.g. GVL in Germany), most countries, however, don’t. As a result, the performing artist (who hasn’t been involved in the songwriting) needs to be compensated directly by either the client, the music library or the record label. Thus the up-front licensing fee.

I hope this puts some light on why “no fee” sometimes just doesn’t work.

Cheerz

Julian Angel
SoundsOfAction.com – The Loudest Music Library

Composer Of The Month: Julian Angel

Yes, this reads cool. Please allow some selfish exposure.

I have been chosen as “Composer Of The Month March 2010″ at the YookaMusic Network:

http://www.yookamusic.com/news/2010/03/01/julian_angel

The interview has been made a few months ago, so quite some things have changed. So I’m no longer ‘getting started’ in music licensing, I may say I’m right in now…

If you’re looking for some of my “Music For Action Scenes”, yookamusic is one of my representatives.

Cheerz

Julian Angel

Music should be real – even in film and television

This might turn out to be another ‘good’ music vs. stock music, but here’s the point:

If you think that a small snare drum and some “yo brother” make a rap song, don’t even bother selling me anything under your Hip Hop banner.

If you can’t tell the difference between Metallica and Children Of Bodom, don’t even start recording a Heavy Metal track.

If you think that Reggae is just about highlighting offbeats, don’t insult the Rastafari with your ditty.

However, if you live and breath a certain type of music, know its background and been playing it for years – then go ahead and let the world enjoy it.

How great would the music licensing landscape be if musicians specialized in the style they’re really familiar with. How easy would it be for a music supervisor to find a song that really hits home. How time-saving would it be for her if she hadn’t to comb through all the half-hearted “we need to diversify so let’s play a 12-bar and call it blues” tracks.

That’s why I play Hard & Heavy Rock and guitar music…

Julian Angel
www.soundsofaction.com
The Loudest Music Library