Holding On To Your Master Rights Is One Record Deal Point You Can’t Afford to Ignore

by KEITH HATSCHEK

For decades, artists who signed a record deal with a label were expected to turn over the rights to their sound recordings – the actual studio/live recordings of their material. As part of a typical record deal, relinquishing these “master rights” was part of how an artist secured the financial support of the label to pay for the recording and release of the record.

With the master rights under their control, labels could then license the master recordings to third parties for placement in TV or film, use in commercials, or for use in another work (e.g. sampling) without the artists’ consent or monetary gain. Unless an artist had earned back all the money invested by the label in the recording and promotion of a record, all master license fees would stay with the label.

Songs that become hits can command master license fees as high as $100,000 or more. If the artist has repaid the label’s investment (aka advance) through record sales (or earned artist royalties, a process known as recoupment), then the artist may share in some of these third-party master license revenues. But often, the record labels are able to keep all this additional income.

With the dramatic increase in music licensing and the increase in the percentage of revenue this represents for indie and major artists, being the owner of the master rights is ever more important. Furthermore, there are now hundreds of channels for people to discover and enjoy music that didn’t exist even a decade ago, including streaming sites like Pandora, Spotify, and Rhapsody; downloadsites such as iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic; mobile carriers such as Cricket; and hundreds of unauthorized sites around the globe. For most of these new legal music delivery systems, playing a recording results in a payment to the master rights holder.

Songwriters – or more correctly, copyright holders – have always been compensated for the use of their songs, whether it was via traditional radio or new streaming services. With the rise of more and more new outlets for music consumption, master rights are an essential asset to leverage for artists and labels to earn money.

This brings up the question, “Should an artist try to keep his master rights, or sign them over to a label to secure a deal?” There’s been little change from the perspective of the labels: they clearly understand that holding the master rights can generate income. But artists and managers are recognizing that there are options to retain the rights to the master recordings and still work with a record label to help build an audience willing to pay for music.

Here are three options to consider when negotiating with a label to insure that as an artist, you will benefit from the increasing array of earning opportunities that accrue to master rights holders.

1. Pay to record your album
The cost to produce a high quality album in the 20th century often would exceed six figures. What new band had a cool $150-300K to drop on studio recording and associated costs? Labels provided that infusion of cash, which resulted in a professionally-recorded commercial release.

Today, artists have a range of options to record for much lower studio rates, or record their project at home using pro-quality systems. Many artists use a blend of both, choosing to track at a professional studio, and then complete the album at home, before using a top mastering engineer to polish the final release. The net result is that many artists are recording albums for a fraction of what is used to cost. For an artist who can afford to cover this expense, it provides a strong advantage, as they don’t need a label to pay for the recording.

With a recording that is comparable in quality to what’s on the charts, you will be in a strong position to look for a deal with a label that leaves master rights ownership in your hands and saves the label the time, expense, and uncertainty regarding whether your recording will result in a quality master.

2. Master rights reversion
Let’s say you don’t have the resources to record your own album, but have a strong set of original music and interest from a label. In the process of negotiating a record deal, you can work to secure return (aka reversion) of master ownership to you after a pre-determined period of time. Unless the album or a particular master becomes a mega-hit, many albums have a product life cycle of 1-3 years before a new recording by the same artist takes center stage.

By securing a clause specifying that master ownership will revert to you after a period of time (say 2-5 years), the label would likely have earned the majority of the revenue likely to accrue from that project. Remember, if you do regain master rights ownership, it will be up to you to secure and negotiate licensing deals. The label will no longer have any interest in helping with any such deals, as they would no longer earn any money from them.

Another variation is to insert a clause that states that should the label no longer offer the master recording for sale (usually dubbed “deleting the album from their catalog”), then the rights to the master – as well as the rights to sell the recording – immediately reverts to the artist.

3. Share the revenue, not the master rights
In this option, the artist and her team of advisors has made the decision that they don’t want to be in the music licensing business, so they cut a deal to have the label act as the master licensing representative for the sound recordings. Similar to the P&D deals (Pressing and Distribution) used by savvy artists, a “master license deal” cuts the label in for 15-25% of all licensing earnings. This allows the label to secure and share in master license revenue, while allowing the artist to retain a majority revenue share and ultimate control of his or her master recordings.

Sound Exchange
One more important piece of the puzzle of earning money with your masters is joining the digital performing rights society, Sound Exchange, assuming you own your own masters. Membership is free to all master rights holders, whether it is a label or an indie artist. Featured recording artists may also join. According to their website, “the royalties that SoundExchange collects and distributes are for the featured artist and thesound recording copyright owner. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC collect and distribute royalties for the songwriter, composer and publisher.” So even if you are receiving royalties now for the use of your songs on radio or TV from ASCAP or BMI, if you also control your masters, Sound Exchange will pay you digital performance royalties for spins of your masters on satellite radio (Sirius/XM), Internet radio (Pandora, Spotify, LastFM, Rdio, etc.), webcasts, cable music channels, and other digital streams. (See SoundExchange’s FAQ page for more on how the service works.)

Final thoughts
In large part, the basis for a successful career in the music business relies on establishing predictable and stable income sources. For previous generations, this meant selling records, touring and gaining airplay for your music. Today, there are many more paths to building a successful career, to the point that Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired Magazine has suggested that if a solo artist has 1,000 true fans, they can have a viable career. This flies in the face of the view that an artist’s success relied a radio hit, and/or being backed by a major label.

One of the keys to monetizing your own creativity is to maintain control of as much of your content, or IP (intellectual property), as possible. The more you know about the music business, the more you’ll see that the smartest players always know when to retain 100% control and when to enter into some type of partnership deal, giving up some control to maximize revenue. A perfect example is the band Radiohead, who chose to use a major affiliated distributor, XL Recordings, to mass market their game changing album, In Rainbows, after they made the download available worldwide to their fans on a “pay what you want” model. The band’s true fans got it right away and paid what they felt was fair. More casual fans could shop for the CD a few weeks later at all major record retailers.

Ultimately, it’s only by retaining some or all control of your creative output that you’ll be in a position to maximize your earnings throughout your career. More and more artists are discovering that it is possible to manage their own careers and make a living, and maintaining control of their creative works is central to this new paradigm.

Image of balloon ride via ShutterStock.com.

Keith Hatschek is a contributing writer for Echoes and directs the Music Management Program at University of the Pacific. He’s also written two music industry books, How to Get a Job in the Music Industry and The Golden Moment: Recording Secrets from the Pros.

Read more: Retaining Your Music Master Rights Is Smart Business -Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/04/retaining-your-master-rights-smart-business/#ixzz2TPRhelPb

Online music PR takes patience, follow up, and a three-phase plan

For any emerging brand (yes musicians, this means you), a music PR campaign is a great way to spark new conversations, build visibility within key markets, and grow your overall influence over a long-term. The problem is, your budget may be tied up in basic costs such as recording, production, touring, rent, food, etc.

Working with an established, professional publicity or marketing firm might be the ideal, as they will have a proven process and a network of strong media connections, but unless you have a few thousand dollars available in your budget, you may need to design your own publicity campaign.

A self-propelled music PR campaign can absolutely be effective if executed properly, which means you’re effective at managing the three key phases:

1. Pre-PR phase: Planning
2. During-PR phase: Pitching
3. Post-PR phase: The Eagle Has Landed

Unfortunately for those new to digital publicity (and even for those with experience) there are several pitfalls that can derail the success of a campaign.

I’ve outlined several mistakes that must be avoided in each of the three phases so that your time and efforts are maximized.

Music PR Phase 1: Planning

Ineffective (or unrealistic) goal setting
PR is meant to do three things for you:
1. Build conversations with potential fans
2. Increase overall visibility with a target market
3. Establish influence within a market

Will success in these three things lead to sales in some way? Hopefully. Is the purpose of PR to increase your bottom line? No.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that PR will lead to an increase in sales, as the feature placements (blog features, podcast features, magazine features, etc.) only guarantee that you are being seen by more people who could potentially become your fans. These placements are only the beginning of a much bigger sales funnel.

With that said, setting unrealistic goals will kill ANY PR campaign, as it sets a campaign up for failure from the get-go. Setting effective goals is a critical staple to Pre-PR planning!

Underdeveloped Branding
As a full-time digital publicist, I receive inquires on a daily basis from independent artists who would like us to do their PR. When exploring each artist to decide if we are the right fit for them, we look at the music (obviously), but we also take a look at their overall branding with almost equal weight. This includes the messaging in their bio and the assets that they have available for the promotional work, such as photos, videos, and the look and feel of their website and social networks.

From my experience, the music must be good, but so must the branding. An artist can have great music, but when it comes to a music PR campaign, if the photos don’t pop, the bio doesn’t weave a compelling story, and the videos look under-baked, getting media makers to sign on for a feature becomes incredibly difficult. Each of these components is an extension of your online brand and will do just as much to help (or harm) you as does the quality of your music.

Lack of Targeting
Far too often I see artists compile their target list of media makers to reach out to, and it is just a list of the biggest 1% of blogs in the world (i.e. Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, Gorilla Vs. Bear, NPR), along with blogs in the wrong genre and even worse, blogs that focus on the hyper-local (and they are not in that location).

It is very important to understand that the type of music you play (specifically the music you are promoting NOW), where you are from, how old you are, how big your fan base is and what passions drive the influence of your music dictate which blogs you should, and should NEVER be targeting.

Music PR Phase 2: Pitching

A Bad Elevator Pitch
The purpose of an elevator pitch is to create a quick description in a sentence or two of your sound that not only gives people a frame of reference (who might you may sound like), but also to paint a strong, compelling picture of your sound that is so intriguing they want to go check out your music: "The raw power of Led Zeppelin meets the danceability of Lady Gaga."

On the other hand, a bad pitch gives no frame of reference and isn’t at all compelling: "Eclectic Pop."

And a word to the wise, using obscure artists is fine if you are SURE that your intended audience will know who it is. If they have to ask "Who?" once you’ve given your pitch, you’ve already lost them…

CCing (or BCCing) everyone pitched
This is a HUGE no-no if you are trying to get any media maker to work with you. Besides the fact that CCing dozens of people at once shows an utter disregard for respecting privacy, it actually goes against US anti-spam laws. BCCing people, although respecting people’s privacy, is still considered spam.

Another major issue with BCCing people is that it leave no opportunity for you to personally address each media makers, which can play a critical role in establishing new long-term relationships with media makers.

If you are going to pitch media makers you don’t know, it is always best to check their website for a submission guideline, and then email each one directly with a personalized introduction and sign off to the email.

Poor Timing
Timing is everything when it comes to PR, because the hot topic at any given moment within an industry (or around the world) can dictate how relevant your story will be to a media maker’s audience.

SXSW is a great example of how music PR efforts can be affected by timing. For a week or two in mid-March, much of the music blogosphere has its eyes on Austin to see who the best up-and-coming acts are. Unfortunately for those NOT heading down to Austin, it means a lack of interest from many media makers. If you’re not going to play SXSW, don’t schedule your PR efforts during this time.

When you dive into your pitching, make sure that you do some research in the surrounding area, look at industry-news, and check the calendar for any significant holidays or events.

Overly Hyped
I can think of nothing that will damage a PR campaign more than when an artist is overly hyped. Not only do most media makers not care, but most often they won’t even believe you when you say that you sound like "nothing they have ever heard before." Especially because, if you’re being honest, it probably isn’t true.

With the exception of the biggest blogs in the world (i.e. the Pitchfork’s of the world) most media makers are ONLY doing so because it is their passion. Most don’t make any money at all from it. It is always more effective to approach media makers genuinely with a story that is not only honest and compelling, but speaks to creating value for THEM and THEIR audience.

Not Following Up
PR is a process and the results are in no way immediate. Once an initial pitch is sent out, it may sit for days in the abyss of the recipient’s inbox before it is seen, if it is ever seen at all.

Very often I’ll hear back from media makers that I have pitched three weeks later saying they were so glad I followed up because they had missed my other emails.

And that right there is your problem. By not following up, you are leaving your pitch up to the unknown. People may see it and respond, or they may delete it, or maybe they just missed it entirely. Without following up, how will you ever know?

From my own personal experience, the only way to make an effective pitch is if you follow up on a weekly basis for a few weeks (typically three or four weeks after the pitch is sent).

Music PR Phase 3: The Eagle Has Landed

Not Building Relationships With Your Supporters
Any feature can be a one time thing if you let it be that way. However, if you take the time to build a relationship with the media maker, there is no end to how often and how long they may continue to support you.

If you leverage each feature you get into a relationship, the promotion for each project you release in the future becomes that much easier to execute (not to mention the results of which will be far greater). On the other hand, if you DON’T leverage each feature, you’ll have to start from square one every time you release a new project…

Here are a few great ways to turn a one time feature into a new relationship with a valuable supporter:

1. Follow up with the media maker and thank them for featuring you
2. Share the feature on all of your social networks and tag the media maker whenever possible
3. Include the media maker in a #FF (Follow Friday) tweet
4. Share OTHER features theirs on a regular basis

Not maintaining a presence where you are featured
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of PR is to build new conversations with potential fans. Believe it or not, but the features themselves (i.e. a blogger writing about your music) are often not enough to get a conversation stated.

You need to maintain an active presence on any and every place you are featured so you can directly interact with anyone willing to join the conversation. THIS is how these conversations will eventually be turned into more fans — and down the line, into more sales!

Not monitoring the virality of your features
Quite often, media makers will be involved with a network of other media makers either in a similar niche or similar location and they will support each other. This can lead to posts being mentioned in other places, or even fully re-published on other websites.

By not monitoring the virality of a feature, in other words not monitoring where ELSE people are talking about you because of a single feature, you are once again missing critical opportunities to build your fan base.

A great way to do this is to set up Google Alerts for yourself so that any time your name (or your name + your single, or your name + your music video title) is mentioned online, you will be notified via email.

Note: Unfortunately Google Alerts will be retired as of July 1, 2014, so I suggest Mention.Net as a fantastic alternative. However, if you have any other Google Alert alternatives, please leave your suggestion below in the form of a comment!

PR Puzzle image via ShutterStock.com.

Jon Ostrow is the Campaigns Director for Cyber PR. Follow him on Twitter @jon_ostrow.

Read more: Critical Mistakes That Can Destroy Your Music PR -Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/04/critical-mistakes-that-can-destroy-your-music-pr-campaign/#ixzz2TPQKL7tf

Veteran vocal coach Cari Cole shares five singing tips to make your voice sound better

This post originally appeared on Cari Cole’s “Standing in the Spotlight” blog. Reprinted with permission.

As one of the top vocal coaches in the country, I’m frequently asked, “What are your top singing tips for vocalists?” Well, I could rattle off a long list, and yammer on for hours. I’m a nerd’s nerd when it comes to vocals, and I have a long list of favorite tricks up my sleeve from more than 20 years of coaching singers… But I love a challenge – so I pretended I had only five minutes to tell you my best singing tips, and I wracked my brain to come up with the Top 5.

First, one of the things I am constantly teaching my private clients is that the voice is an instrument inside your body and you have to learn how to use it to get the most out of it. It’s very “physical” on the foundational level.

To have a strong voice and to have vocal consistency there are certain things you have to know and do, and there are some really simple methods you can use, right now, to get a great sound out of your instrument.

And the truth is most singers, even professionals, unless they’ve trained, don’t know this stuff. I’m going to give these singing tips to you as if I were actually giving you a voice lesson: right here, right now.

So, stand in front of a mirror, because I’m going to ask you to watch your jaw and your head position to control movement as you sing.

Cari’s Top 5 Singing Tips

1. The “instant fix”
This is a quick trick that makes you sound better instantly, so I call it the “Instant Fix.” Say A-E-I-O-U (watch your jaw movement in the mirror). Did your jaw close on any of the vowels? 

Chances are your jaw closed on the “E” and the “U” – and most likely on others too, if not all of them. Take your first two fingers and pull your jaw down two inches – or even better, use a plastic bottle cap or a wine cork to prop your jaw open. Now speak the vowels again. And repeat again (we’re trying to re-program muscle memory – so the more the better).

Now sing the vowels on one pitch. A-E-I-O-U. Your goal is to keep your jaw open (long not wide) without closing for all of your vowels. Repeat until you can do it. Now sing a phrase of one of your songs – and make sure your jaw opens to the same position on all of your vowels. You have to practice this a bunch before it becomes natural – but the more you do, the sooner this new movement is programmed into your muscle memory.

And you might be one of those lucky ones who notice the improvement in the sound right away (it will sound louder and more resonant with less vocal strain). If you don’t, don’t sweat it, you will. It just takes a little practice. You might have some unwanted tension in your neck, jaw and throat muscles – try loosening them up and try it again. The next time you perform open your jaw more on your vowels, it’s one of my quick singing tips that makes you sound better instantly!

2. “Think down” for high notes
When you sing a scale, try thinking of the way an elevator works: a heavy weight is attached to a pulley, and as the weight pulls down, the elevator goes up to the higher floors. So, the highest floor is reached when the weight is the heaviest. Similarly, you should use the most “weight” on your highest notes.

3. More power without strain
Who doesn’t want more power without strain? This is one of those simple singing tips that’s easy to apply – easier than the one above. All you have to do is to keep your chin pointed slightly down and your pectoral muscles slightly flexed (sometimes it’s a lot flexed) when you go for more power. Most singers reach forward or lift their chin up to sing with more power. While it may temporarily work, it causes vocal problems. Tipping your chin down not only works better and saves your voice, it actually SOUNDS better!

Stand in front of the good ‘ol mirror. Sing an “ah” scale up and down in one phrase (1-2-3-4-3-2-1). Press your chin slightly in (point your chin towards the floor), usually only 1 inch or so. Don’t let your head bob up as you raise pitch – keep it firmly in place. Go all the way up the scale of your voice keeping this position. Notice how the chin wants to move up as you raise pitch. Keep it planted. This will give you more power and control and eliminate strain. Practice it until it becomes natural!

4. Vibrato
Here’s a quick tip to get your vibrato working. Stand in front of a mirror; press on your chest with both hands, then raise your chest higher than normal. Take a breath in and then exhale, but don’t drop your chest. Sing one note and hold it as long as possible with your chest raised. Press on your chest halfway through the note (press kind of hard and raise your chest to meet the pressure). Relax the back of your neck and keep your jaw open as you’re singing “ahhh.” Imagine the air spinning around in your mouth while keeping your chin tucked down a bit and your chest raised. Keep in mind, overuse of vibrato is not a good thing in contemporary singing (pop, rock and R&B). At the same time, no vibrato is also not a good thing. So, try ending phrases with straight tone, then into a little bit of vibrato. The bottom line is to do what’s best for you.

5. HearFones®
A good vocal tone is not established by singing loudly, it’s established at medium volume. Good tone happens when vocal folds are strong enough to have a good closure but not touch.

Releasing too much air creates a “breathy” tone and releasing too little air creates a “nasal” tone. Unless you’re really going for breathy or nasal as a stylistic choice, somewhere right in between the two is the perfect balance. HearFones allow you to really hear yourself and work on your tone at medium volumes.

Image of vocalist vis ShutterStock.com.

Cari Cole is a singer and vocal instructor with over 25 years’ experience working with independent artists and A-list performers. Cari’s website offers tools and materials for serious vocalists, and her “Standing in the Spotlight” blog is a great resource for vocal and music industry info.

Read more: Singing Tips – How to Sing Better Right Now -Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/05/singing-tips-sing-better-right-now/#ixzz2TPOh7nEY

Practical advice and gear tips for integrating a MIDI controller into your studio set up

The technical nuts and bolts that go into making a modern recording have changed dramatically over the last two decades. Customizable, affordable studio gear allows musicians to make records in their home studios that can often rival the quality of the professional recordings made in the past, and using a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller has become increasingly more commonplace for home recording enthusiast.

A MIDI controller can come in many forms, and can serve a wide range of purposes – for live performances and for recording applications. It’s worth mentioning that a MIDI controller doesn’t actually produce any musical sound on its own, but rather triggers bits of MIDI data from its output to either a computer using a DAW (digital audio workstation), soft synth (software based synthesizer), or analog synthesizer module.

MIDI data protocol was invented by synthesizer manufactures in the early 80’s to create an industry standard that would allow multiple brands to be used in the same musicians’ setup, since the keyboard portion of a synthesizer could communicate with another brand’s sound module.

A more recent rack of sound modules controlled by a MIDI keyboard controller. (Photo courtesy of Blurred Ren.)

Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman with various analog keyboards and synths in the pre-MIDI era

As the home studio has evolved, so too has the MIDI controller to fit the needs of the musician and the software that has become a part of the studio arsenal. Controllers now have moved well beyond acting as a keyboard for module synths and enhance any musician’s DAW and SoftSynth, enabling one to retain a tactile experience in an environment that seems to require more and longer use of the computer keyboard and mouse.

Bringing your DAW mixer to life with MIDI

One of the components that will expand your home studio’s functionality and flexibility is a controller to handle the mixing functions of your DAW. For the beginner or occasional home studio user, this may not seem like an essential purchase, but there are definite benefits to doing so, especially when you start doing a lot of tracking and mixing.

Mix board controllers can range widely in price and design with some looking more like a traditional analog mixer that you may find in a professional studio and others looking and functioning more like a hybrid DJ/studio mixer. Each knob and slider on this type of controller is assignable and can be programmed to control one or more parameters on the screen within a DAW. (We’ve opted to describe linear controls as “sliders” rather than the analog term “faders” for this article.) Even though some of the more high-end controllers look much like the analog desks mentioned above, they actually replicate a great many of a DAW’s most used functions without the need to be a slave to your mouse and keyboard.

The Behringer BCF 2000 is a good choice for an entry level MIDI controller.

The Novation ZeRO SL MkII provides more control options but a steeper learning curve than some basic models.

In the $200 – $350 range there are several cost-effective options that provide a lot of control for the dollar. The Behringer BCF 2000 is a very sturdy controller that offers the basics for a simple home studio setup. A very intuitive layout and motorized controllers make this product a good choice for someone who is looking to just plug and play. There are eight 100mm sliders in the controllers that give the user a great range of motion. With the “bank” feature, you can control as many tracks as you want, and assignable knobs up top give another level of control of the board to the user.

The Novation ZeRO SL MkII will give you a little more control of you DAW’s mixing functions than the BCF 2000, but may take longer to get used to as it has a slightly steeper learning curve. The design of this controller departs from traditional layout of a studio mixer somewhat, and its innovative design allows for Novation to pack more control into less space on its surface. In addition to the eight faders, the Novation has 32 buttons, eight encoders, eight knobs, and eight drum pads. This controller offers a tremendous amount of control in the $300 price range.

A close-up of the APC 40's smart knobs. The LED rings make adjustments a snap on a darkened stage or in the studio.

The AKAI APC 40 is a perfect complement to the Ableton Live DAW program.

The BCF 2000 and ZeRO SL MkII are geared more towards tracking-oriented DAWs such as Pro Tools or Logic, but if you’re an Ableton Live user, the Akai APC 40 is the must-have controller. Built specifically for Ableton Live, the APC 40 takes everything on the screen and gives you eight sliders, a dedicated bank of eight “smart” knobs for sends and pans, and another set of eight more “smart” knobs surrounded by LED rings, that adjust parameters to whatever Ableton effect is selected. These “smart” knobs auto update in real time as you select and adjust different features while you see it on your computer screen and hear the difference. All of this is pre-mapped and will work immediately out of the box, so all one has to do is literally plug-and-play. In addition to the mixer/effect controls there is a grid of buttons that control Ableton’s loop clips and give it the ability to be a solid live performance controller as well. It’s a great value and available for $300.

For the musician with a bigger budget there are more elaborate MIDI controllers that more accurately duplicate the functions of an analog desk. Why is that helpful? Because it allows you to spend less time manipulating your DAW with the keyboard and mouse, and achieve a real studio feel by doing everything directly on the board. Controllers at this mid-level will usually range between $900-$1,300, but the added investment will significantly improve your mixing workflow. Being able to mix on a physical layout frees you to use your ear more, and to rely less on pointing and clicking on everything that is laid out on the DAW screen.

Mackie's MCU Universal Control allows you to abandon the mouse and keyboard to take control of your session needs from the console.

The Mackie MCU Pro Control, which retails for $1,100, is among this class of desktop MIDI consoles, and is a very versatile controller. The system works with all of the major DAWs, which is not always the case with these types of controllers; other controllers may be built exclusively for Pro-Tools or Logic, so be sure any product you are shopping will be compatible with your programs. These controllers have dynamic encoders (meaning they are infinitely variable) on each channel strip that can easily be switched between several control features, allowing you to tweak pan, plug-in parameters, effects sends and returns, and EQ points, without having to be preprogrammed to do so. They typically will include other features such as jog wheels, sturdier construction, weighted/motorized sliders, zoom keys, and all of the function keys from a traditional computer keyboard, all of which keep your workflow concise and eliminate the need for the mouse and keyboard while tracking and mixing (other than to type track and song names).

While it’s beyond the scope of this article to look at even higher end MIDI controllers, Avid and Solid State Logic are just two of the designers that make more elaborate control systems costing tens of thousands of dollars should you happen to win the lottery.

MIDI for guitarists/bassists

Digital audio tools continue to impact the recording world, and evolving from that technology came VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plug-ins that are now integrated into all DAWs. Such programs allow for audio manipulation of thousands of virtual instruments and effects from hundreds of companies, all controllable by MIDI. For any guitarist or bassist recording at home, they’re a great alternative to collecting several head and cab combos, along with stomp boxes, in the quest to get the ultimate tone.

Guitar Rig 5 is the latest edition of the virtual collection of guitar and bass amps, cabinets, and mic set ups that cover nearly every type of gear.

Some of the major players in the amp-modeling world are Waves GTR3, IK Multimedia’s Amplitube and Line 6’s Gear Box, each of which offers an ever-increasing range of sound options as they have evolved. If you want the Mercedes-Benz of this product category, jump right to the Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5, which for $199, models 17 amps, 27 cabinets, 16 mics and 54 effects. All of these modeling software applications can also be manipulated with MIDI controllers (more on that below), while producing sounds so realistic that they are often indistinguishable from the actual amplifier recordings, not to mention they will set you back a tiny fraction of the price of collecting and maintaining the various vintage amps, heads and stomp boxes they emulate.

Guitarists, being the finicky bunch that we are, may complain about playing squeaky clean notes and chords straight into an audio interface and then adding all the tone and color by clicking away on a computer; and really who could blame anyone for that? If you’ve ever stood in front of a half stack and held out a long note with some sustain and feedback, it’s a lot of fun! But if you live in an apartment or your kids are sleeping on a week night, you may have to rethink that option. 

Thankfully, utilizing a combination of amp-modeling software and MIDI controllers give guitarists, bassists, keyboard players, and even vocalists a range of possibilities from traditional stomp box type setups to out of this world effect manipulation and flexibility that is unheard of for analog setups. Just add a modeled Big Muff-type distortion effect plus ultimate phase shifter with a dash of ring modulation for a weird and wild touch of modeled sonic spice!

The Behringer FCB 1010 is built for the studio.

The Roland FC-300 is sturdy enough for the stage.

In order to get the most out of these VST amp-modelers, one should consider adding a MIDI foot controller, so that just like with analog pedals, a guitarist or bassist can have all of their effects at the tip of their toe. Some foot controllers to consider incorporating into your studio or live performance set up that could replace traditional pedal boards are the Behringer FCB 1010, which retails in the $150 range and the Roland FC-300, in the $450 range. Both of these offer strikingly similar features when it comes to functionality; the major difference is that the Roland is made with metal pedals and built to take a beating if you take it on the road or have a heavy gigging schedule.

Both pedal boards contain MIDI in/out ports in the back, amp channel controls jack, and power supply sources. To incorporate the pedal board into your setup you’re going to need an audio interface that has a MIDI-in port to connect from the back of the pedal board. In your DAW or VST plug-in program, there will be a place to configure the MIDI routing to make sure that your computer is getting the signal. If you’re having difficulty configuring your MIDI pedal board, don’t stress, it’s likely that someone on YouTube already has done it and will gladly show you how. Once you have a connection going you should be able to assign each pedal to a different parameter within your DAW or VST modeler and use it to turn effects on and off just like an analog setup. An advantage to using a MIDI pedal board is the ability to use banks on the board, which could allow you to have more freedom – instantaneously changing tones, amps and cabinets for different songs and styles (especially handy in a cover band that may have a lot of styles and eras in a particular set.)

Keith McMillen Instruments has a reputation for thinking outside the box with their innovative products.

While the Roland and Behringer offer great alternatives to the traditional analog stomp boxes and accompanying pedal boards that most guitarists are used to, Keith McMillen Instruments have created a pedal board MIDI controller, called the SoftStep, that embraces the fact it’s a MIDI device, and isn’t trying to virtually recreate analog setups. The SoftStep controller does not require being routed through an audio interface like the other controllers; it can be plugged directly into your computer using a USB cable. This controller can be used similarly to the Behringer or Roland pedal boards since it can trigger virtual pedals and effects on your computer, but it does much more. The SoftStep does not have pedals on its board, they feel more like drum pads and have a flexible and rubbery feeling to them. These pads not only detect on and off, but also are sensitive to where your foot is putting pressure on the pad in relation to an imaginary X/Y axis, similar to the way a laptop track pad works. Pressure along either the X- or Y-axis of the controller sends different MIDI data out into whatever is receiving your MIDI information, such as your DAW program, so you can use each pad as an expression pedal if you wish and map it to multiple parameters.

This can be used in a wide variety of ways including controlling LFO rates, chorus intensity, distortion amount, DJ filter sweep type effects, and nearly anything else you can imagine. A controller with as many options as the SoftStep would require a bit more practice for someone who is new to it since there is no analog equivalent, but once it has been incorporated into your set, it allows you to “play” the MIDI controller more like an instrument, as opposed to being a row of on/off switches. Check out this video demo.

Read more: Using a MIDI Controller in Your Home Studio -Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/05/midi-controller-in-your-home-studio/#ixzz2TPNeF3O5

When launching a PR campaign for music publicity, knowing what to expect is key

by JON OSTROW

As an independent musician, digital publicity can be a fantastic way to build the necessary online foundation to set yourself on a path towards success. But like much of digital marketing and music publicity, the process and subsequent results can feel a bit nebulous if proper goals aren’t set in place.

Setting goals for an upcoming digital publicity campaign can help you to do two things that are critical to success:

1. Hire the right kind of publicist 
There are many different types of digital publicists, each of whom have a specialty and defined approach to music publicity and PR. Tour publicity, niche publicity, long-tail publicity, short-tail (aka short head or fat head) publicity, and more. Exploring and defining your goals will help you to better determine the right kind of publicist for you.

2. Understand the value of the work
Without understanding what it actually means to receive digital music publicity (again, from the right kind of publicist), each feature that you receive – an album review, interview, internet radio spin, tour coverage, etc. – won’t ever truly satisfy you.

A good way to look a PR is to understand that each feature you receive is simply a step in the right direction. But without understanding where you are going, these steps might not feel like success. By setting the proper goals for your music publicity efforts, you will be able to truly understand the value, and thus the return on investment (ROI) of each feature.

But setting goals needs to be done properly. Certain goals will take more time to accomplish than others, and of course some goals are just completely unrealistic (often the result of insufficient market research and/or lacking music industry knowledge).

Unrealistic goals

Before we dive in to setting realistic goals, let’s look at some unrealistic goals that can lead to the wrong expectations of what is likely to happen from a successful digital publicity campaign.

1. Expecting unrealistic tangible results, e.g. producing a viral video, selling one million albums.

2. Presuming you can establish a self-sustaining career in music from PR alone.

3. Expecting feature placements from industry-leading tastemakers that are far beyond your reach, e.g. a brand new indie artist expecting coverage on Pitchfork or Rolling Stone.

4. Expecting feature placements that just don’t make sense, e.g. coverage from blogs that don’t cover music, your style of music, or who cover national topics and celebrities exclusively.

So now that we’ve covered some of the unrealistic goals, let’s take a dive into what can be a good goal for you to focus on in your music publicity. The goals below are broken down into 3 different time frames:

- Short Term (2 – 3 months)

- Medium Term (3 – 6 months)

- Long Term (6 months – 1 year)

This is critical for not only understanding how long it may take for you to achieve certain goals but setting a time-frame around a goal is an important part of actually achieving it. If you were to set a goal of ‘I want 1,000 fans’ with no time-frame around when you hope to achieve that, how do you know you are on the right path?

So let’s dive into the goals below and explore several effective goals for all three time-frames that will help you to approach your digital PR campaign with manageable expectations and understanding of the work.

Short term goals

The theme surrounding your short term goals should be to build conversation. This can be an instantaneous goal, a great short term focus, because the conversation can start to build even after just one feature.

1. Land features that lead to the right kind of conversations.
In order to ensure that the conversations that occur with new and existing fans and tastemakers are the right conversations, it is critical that you think about what kind of features you are hoping to achieve. Again this goes back to the idea that there are several types of digital PR, and each one can lead to different types of features.

There are several types of features you can expect to get from digital PR, along with what type of publicist to seek out:

- Niche coverage about your background and story (not just music coverage) to expand your promotional targets (Niche PR)

- High volume of coverage from genre-specific media makers to grow overall visibility (Long-Tail PR)

- Coverage from ONLY the biggest industry tastemakers (Short-Tail PR)

- Local press for upcoming events (Tour PR)

2. Establish relationships with taste-makers.
Although many digital PR campaigns will only last a few months, the value of the work can greatly outweigh the time-frame as it can help you to determine who and where you should be building relationships within target niches. No matter your focus (long-tail, niche, tour coverage, etc.) a great short-term goal to set for yourself and your digital PR campaign is to identify tastemakers so that you can continue the conversations with those who matter to your growth and success.

3. Establish new conversations with your target audiences
An obvious goal for PR is to find new fans, so a great short-term goal to set for yourself is to establish new conversations within your target market.

This will ONLY happen if you are proactive and get involved. Media makers may cover you, and this may lead to some comments and social sharing, but unless you engage these media makers and fans in a timely matter, the conversation will never get to where you need it to, which is to convert those new eyeballs to real fans who are connected with you directly on your own social networks, blog or newsletter.

4. Build awareness of your band, brand, and product.
This is the most basic short-term goal, and is a great jumping off point for any newly established artist. With just a few short months time, increasing the awareness of a new brand is easily attainable and will help to build the strong foundation needed to achieve your medium term goals.

Medium term goals

With a bit more time invested in digital PR, a great theme to focus on for your medium term goals is an increase in visibility.

1. Increase Google ranking
Although you certainly can increase your Google ranking in the short-term, it is likely you’ll need 3-4 months (or more) to really make a big enough difference to rank towards the top of key Google searches.

2. Gain incremental growth on social networks
This is the tangible goal that everyone puts in place as the “indicator of ROI” when it comes to digital PR, and with good reason. When you are starting new conversations, the idea is to acquire those fans on your social networks so you can grow the conversations and turn them into real fans.

And while you certainly will start to see some new growth on your social networks from the new conversations that are started (by achieving your short term goals), you won’t really start to see the growth happen until your overall visibility increases. This will happen when you’ve been placed on enough features to saturate your market or niche.

Again, remember that you MUST do your part in this by engaging within the new conversations in order to acquire these new fans.

3. Strengthen relationships with existing passive fans and establish a greater number of active fans

Many of the new (and existing) fans that result from your digital PR campaign will land into the “passive fan” category. This means they are aware of and interested in you, but the loyalty to you won’t be strong enough where they feel the need to engage with you on a regular basis, and ultimately purchase from you as well.

A great medium term goal to set for yourself is to build up your visibility enough, where you can engage with fans on a regular basis, allowing you to strengthen relationships ultimately converting your ‘passive fans’ to more engaged “active fans.”

Long term goals

Once you have built up conversations, and then your visibility, you’ll start to increase your overall influence within your market. This is a great theme to focus on for your long-term goals.

1. Increase in influence within target niches
After achieving you short-term goal of increased awareness and conversations, as well as your medium term goal of increased visibility, you’ll begin to get to a point where your goal should be to increase your influence within your target markets. This will be accomplished by utilizing your relationships with key niche tastemakers who are capable of increasing the prestige and value of your brand.

2. Strengthen relationships with existing active fans and establish a greater number of super fans
By focusing on offering unique content to niche tastemakers and to your existing base of “active fans,” you will be able to increase the loyalty and influence you have over your fans. This will effectively convert “active fans” to “super fans” who are the life-long, hard core, obsessive fans who will not only purchase one of everything you release, but will begin to evangelize your music and brand to others.

In other words, at this point, your fans will increase your influence for you because they will be spreading the word at a rabid level to their friends and family who may be involved in the same niche space.

3. Increase in sales
Let’s preface this by understanding that digital PR does not have a direct correlation to sales. This is especially true in a short or medium term basis. But the focus on increasing influence within a niche market over a long-term can certainly increase the level of sales that result from your new super fans and the new fans that they have created through the evangelism process.

Keep these goals and strategies in mind when you embark on any PR campaign, and your results and expectations have a good chance of being aligned.

Read more: Realistic Music Publicity Goals for Your PR Campaign -Disc Makers http://blog.discmakers.com/2013/04/realistic-music-publicity-goals-pr-campaign/#ixzz2TPK9Zahq