Music Business Masterclass: Make a Living as a Musician

U1: Introduction

• Introduction 
• Who am I?
• Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer
• Disclaimer: Regionality
• Copyright, licensing, and record deals

U2: What is Copyright?

• Copyright in the Constitution
• Rights We Get
• Intellectual Property
• Copyright Does not Protect
• Educational Use

U3: Copyright Basics

• Term
• Public Domain
• History of Copyright
• Additional Materials
• How to get a copyright
• Fair Use is... tricky
• Trademarks

U4: Work for Hire

• What is work For hire?
• What is work For hire?

U5: Collaboration

• Collaboration and copyright
• Presumption of equal ownership (Including song lyrics)
• How a band divides copyright

U6: Why you need to master “Publishing”

• Publishing: Not just for books anymore!
• Musicians as publishers
• Co-Publishers
• Working with a publisher

U7: Performing Rights Organizations

• The history of the PRO
• What the PROs do
• How the PRO gets paid
• How to join a PRO, and which one to join
• How you get paid by the PRO

U8: Mechanical Licenses

• The player piano
• Writers and publishers
• Two methods for getting a mechanical license
• The Harry Fox Agency
• Ok, what does it cost?

U9: Synchronization & Dramatic Rights

• Back to silent movies
• Sync deals
• Dramatic rights
• All the rights!

U10: A Few Odd Copyright Examples

• The Love Song Medley
• Hairball and Tribute Bands
• The Frank Zappa Tribute Band
• A case for all the rights

U11: How a Recording Company Works (Traditionally)

• What is a “master recording”?
• The 5 roles of a traditional record company
• Record Labels: Discovery
• Record Labels: Capital
• Record Labels: Produce
• Record Labels: Distribute
• Record Labels: Promotion
• Do artists still need a record label?

U12: How many albums do you want to make for the record company?

• What is a Term?
• Additional Songs
• Contract options
• Making 10 albums doesn't mean releasing 10 albums

U13: Advances: The big payday from the record company

• The “milion dollar record deal”
• Recoupment
• Payback

U14: Royalties: A million little paydays

• What kind of royalties?
• The royalty basis
• The royalty rate you will get from the record label

U15: Merchandise: An secondary income for the touring musician

• Merchandising rights: Making t-shirts, stickers, patches, and more
• Merch companies
• On-site sales

U16: 360 Deals: A recent addition for the record labels

• Why “360”?
• Taylor Swift

U17: Producer Agreements: Working with producers, and working as a producer

• The Producer
• The legendary George Martin
• Selling Beats: How to sell beats, and where to sell beats
• “Development deals” with a producer

U18: What is Distribution?

• The last stronghold of “the majors”
• Independent label distribution partnerships
• Distribution alone deals
• DIY distribution: going it alone
• The effect of file sharing

U19: Digital Distribution & The Laws

• The labels fight back - music industry digital revolution
• Additional resources
• 1992: Audio Home Recording Act
• 1995: Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording Act
• 1998: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• 2000: RIAA creates SoundExchange
• 2003: SoundExchange spun off into own company

U20: Digital Distribution Today: Getting your music on Spotify, Apple Musi and more

• The GateKeepers
• Popular Companies: Distrokid, Symphonic Distribution
• Inside my personal account
• A look at my royalty statements
• What you need to get started

U21: Hidden Royalties: A few more opportunities

• The ways we get paid 
• The secret of SoundExchange
• Setting up Sound Exchange

U22: Wrap Up

• What comes next?
• Thanks for watching!

Course evaluation

•  This course contains a final exam

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