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Derek Lefholz is How can artists get themselves noticed in the digital age?<\/p>\n \u2018It really helps to have a marketing view of music, just \u2018You have to\u2026 take a look at your project, your band, or \u2018You know, what do you see your future as because there are \u2018There are some artists and bands I\u2019ve come across over the \u2018After you do all that visualisation of your career and Artists have to think of themselves from a record company\u2019s \u2018Well, let\u2019s get one thing straight. First of all, the major \u2018To me, the future \u2013 in a perfect world for the music \u2018I\u2019ve worked in a lot of different aspects of business and \u2019I\u2019ll give you a prime example: I\u2019ve dealt with, worked and \u2018That\u2019s always the answer with music, \u201cWe don\u2019t have a \u2018But they will allocate money from other places and that\u2019s Artists have to work out what it is they want, and how to \u2018You have to know \u201cWhat do I want to achieve?\u201d, because if \u2018A company like Soundreef that curates your music and then \u2018The people that are working for the artist have to make Are artists getting more savvy?<\/p>\n \u2018Artists definitely know way more. But you still see artists \u2018You see this trend happening in Hollywood and LA right now \u2018That\u2019s what Soundreef does, that\u2019s what Music Supervisor \u2018But the kicker, and the catch there is it\u2019s very hard to \u2018You have these huge companies that work with the \u2018Then they go around putting press out, and all of this, Sometimes getting paid the money you\u2019ve earned is even \u2018People are sitting on money longer. We\u2019re seeing the same A member of the Derek Lefholz is Director of Artist Relations and Radio in Retail for Music Supervisor Incorporated, Owner and President of Embark Music, as well as continuing to create music as an artist in his own right. He took some time out to tell us about why artists need to work out what they want in order to get noticed \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nDirector of Artist Relations and Radio in Retail for <\/i>Music Supervisor Incorporated<\/a>, Owner and President of <\/i>Embark Music<\/a>, as well as continuing to create music as an artist in his
\nown right. He took some time out to tell us about why artists need to work out
\nwhat they want in order to get noticed \u2013 and get paid!<\/i><\/p>\n
\nfrom the artist\u2019s perspective. Artists traditionally don\u2019t want to be involved
\nin business\u2026 it doesn\u2019t traditionally go hand-in-hand with the artist\u2019s nature
\nfor a creative type to get into lots of tedious processes and paperwork and all
\nthat kind of stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nwhatever your project is, and really ask yourself, \u201cWhat are my goals? What do
\nI want to achieve with my music in the end? Do I want to get a major label
\ndeal? Do I want to go on tour? Do I not want to tour? Do I want my music in
\nfilm and TV? Do I want on commercials, do I want my songs in retail?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
\nso many outlets, and there are so many different places that you can spend your
\ntime online now, as a label or from an artist\u2019s perspective, doing it yourself,
\nthat you really have to pick and choose what\u2019s the smartest approach for you
\nand for your music.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nyears that have their mind set on an ultimate goal. So whatever they have to
\ndeal with in between now and to get there, they\u2019re okay with, so they\u2019re okay
\nwith not making as much money right now, but from someone else\u2019s standpoint
\nthat may have a family or may want a different career, that doesn\u2019t want to
\ntour or something like that, then they have to look to other areas where they
\ncan earn money and make money, then it\u2019s kind of a sum of all the parts at that
\npoint.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nwhere you want to be as an artist, then you can figure out where you want to
\nbe. Again, that\u2019s where Soundreef comes in to be really key, because they\u2019re
\ndefinitely a huge chunk of where artists can earn money on a consistent basis.\u2019<\/p>\n
\npoint of view \u2013 and the record companies need to be realistic about what
\nartists need to make a sustainable living; it isn\u2019t fair to expect music to be
\nfree.<\/p>\n
\nlabels are only interested in one thing, primarily, and that is business. That
\nis making money, that is doing deals, that is creating an image, making a
\ncommodity out of the music and the product.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nindustry \u2013 the incomes have to be increased for the artist. An artist making a
\ncheque from wherever, a PRO, for like $50 or $100 every quarter, that\u2019s not
\ngoing to sustain anybody\u2019s career. Rent prices, mortgage prices, are thousands
\nof dollars a month for most people.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nhave my feelers out in a lot of areas, and one thing that is consistent
\nthroughout all industry is people expect music for free traditionally\u2026 They
\nexpect people to provide music, when they need it free of charge.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nserved on an art commission that pays artists that do huge sculptures thousands
\nof dollars for their project, basically for temporarily showing their piece of
\nart in a location. But when it comes to music, and implementing music, there\u2019s
\nno budget for that.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nbudget for that\u201d. And that\u2019s because, traditionally, there hasn\u2019t been a budget
\nbuilt in for music. So this is where we have to get smart as artists and go
\nokay, we have to somehow work our music into marketing and the money has to
\ncome from the marketing budget. The money has to come from the advertising
\nbudget because they\u2019re not going to create a new rung of budget.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nwhere \u2013 with marketing, or advertising. That\u2019s why the advertising placements
\ncan pay so much bigger returns, is because they have more budget to work with
\nbecause a budget for an advertising campaign is astronomical compared to
\ntraditionally what the budget for a film project for music is. It\u2019s about 6% in
\na film.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nget the return they want form that \u2013 whether that\u2019s popularity or money. <\/p>\n
\nyou don\u2019t know what you want to achieve, you could be working your Facebook
\nprofile up to like 30,000 likes, but then you\u2019re not making any money and
\nyou\u2019re not getting your music out to any place that\u2019s gonna give you a return.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nputs it in retail stores and then pays you money for that is a win-win because
\nyou\u2019re getting your music promoted, it\u2019s being played for someone that wouldn\u2019t
\nhave ever heard it before, most likely in a location that you wouldn\u2019t get it
\nin and you\u2019re getting returns. You also
\nhave the ability of people to go on, discover you and find your music and all
\nthat kind of stuff through Shazam and Sound Hound.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nmoney, but the artists have to make more money too. It\u2019s just that it\u2019s give
\nand take in the industry, and then basically the golden rule of moving forward
\nin the future for the music industry is to eliminate the greed. Because when
\none person or company wants to make too much money, and they get focused on the
\nwrong things, all of a sudden their focus shifts from great music and getting
\nmusic to people and helping artists, to all of a sudden we\u2019re making money, and
\nwe\u2019re growing our company, and we\u2019re doing this or that. And then things get
\ndistorted, and the artists get less and the middle companies that are working
\nas the agencies or aggregators for the artists get more\u2026 There really has to be
\na balance of powers…\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nmaking silly decisions. Like you still come across artists every so often that
\nare letting a company retitle their work<\/a>.
\nI understand, from an artist\u2019s perspective, and people get desperate. They\u2019ll
\ngive away all their publishing, they won\u2019t make any money on the front end in
\nthe hopes that they\u2019re going to make some great big money.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\u2013 and other places too \u2013 where production companies are getting as much of that
\npublishing right as they can; if they can own the music, they want to. Because
\nthey want to build their own catalogue, so then that\u2019s another income stream
\nfor them, and so it\u2019s important \u2013 very important \u2013 for the artist to maintain
\ntheir rights.\u2019<\/p>\n
\ndoes, we allow artists to keep all their rights, and we get paid on the front
\nend: when they make money, then we get paid, we make money for what we\u2019re doing
\nand that\u2019s how it should be. It should be non-exclusive, so that you can go
\nwork with any other company you want, and you can push your music on your own
\nif you want, and then the harder you work and the more good people and good
\ncompanies you have working your music, then the more money you can make.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nfind good companies and good people in the music industry! Which, as Hunter Thompson<\/a> said best, \u201cThe
\nmusic industry is like a long, plastic, narrow hallway full of pimps and
\nhookers. And then there\u2019s the bad part.\u201d That\u2019s the music industry. It\u2019s really
\nkinda true! It can be very sneaky and sleazy\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
\ngovernment, and go in and shake hands with politicians\u2026 Sound Exchange<\/a> is a very good example. I watched this
\naffiliation – or firm if you will \u2013 come up from nowhere, and they went and got
\nall these laws passed because no-one had ever been collecting for the performer
\non radio in the United States, or the master holder like the label. So they saw
\nan opening and they went and they got all these laws passed and then, all of a
\nsudden, they could collect all this money.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCollected over $400 million for artists\u201d. But then as an artist you go to
\ntheir site and you say, \u201cHey, I want to sign up\u201d. Okay, send us your
\nrepertoire, okay send us an Excel, now what we\u2019re gonna need is\u2026 You\u2019re gonna
\nhave to wait because you\u2019re not in the distribution period of when we\u2019re gonna
\npay, so if you get over a threshold of this amount, then you\u2019ll get your money
\nhere.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nharder than actually earning it.<\/p>\n
\ntrend in film and TV licensing. We have the big studios holding out on their
\npayments for 90 days and sometimes six months from the air day. Traditionally,
\nif we have Warner or Disney come to us and say, \u201cHey, we want to licence a
\nsong,\u201d and we negotiate, and they take the song, we don\u2019t see a cheque for \u2013
\ndepending on where the production is, I mean if it\u2019s pre-production or they\u2019re
\nshooting, it\u2019s gonna be another few months before it\u2019s done, it\u2019s gonna be
\nanother few months or more before it goes to air and then at that point, we\u2019ll
\nget our money 90 days or six months after, and then the artist will get their
\nmoney once we account for it.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nRecording Academy, Derek Lefholz, aka DegreeZero<\/a>,
\nfounded <\/i>Embark Music<\/i><\/a>, a Creative Licensing Agency and Record Label in the early
\n2000\u2019s. Lefholz also works as Director of A&R and Radio in Retail
\nfor <\/i>Music Supervisor Inc.<\/i><\/a>, managing and consulting with
\nthousands of musicians, artists and bands daily. As an <\/i>artist<\/i><\/a> he continues to produce and has writer and publisher credits
\non over 200 tracks in many genres. You can contact him via <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"