According to Hypebot.com there are 10 Commandments of Music 2.0:

The first Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Worship False Prophets – Neither a record deal or auto-tune are your saviors.”

Coming in at a very, very close second “Thou Shalt Worship Only One God – He (or she) is called The Fan.”

Following the first two (which, I might add, should be your daily mantra) are Commandments 5 and 6 respectively – “Thou Shalt Blog – Your flock wants to know what you’re doing, and Thou Shalt Create Profiles – Wherever your flock may go, you must be there.”

Closing out the “Holy Grail” with Commandment 9 “Thou Shalt Share Thy Bounty. Share gigs. Share ideas. Share with your fans.”

And let us not forget the final Commandment 10, “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You – You meet the same people on the way down that you did on the way up.”

Hypebot.com asks for an eleventh Commandment? “Thou shalt Twitter – tweet like you’ve never tweeted before.” Twitter is the ultimate tool in the world today which allows you to reach out and given 140 characters per tweet, you speak to your fans as though they were in the studio with you. Bonding and building your personal relationships creates a loyal fan base. Thus honoring Commandments 1 through 9 – number 10, that’s between you and your conscience.

Because it is daunting to accomplish all these tasks while trying to be creative, Pro Soul works with artists of all genres, helping them develop their music careers in a changing industry to meet the needs of the modern music lover without taking any rights or profits.

It’s amazing a guy like Timbaland wouldn’t make sure that samples are cleared before releasing an artists album, especially considering their record label would do it for them!

http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/generalarticlesynopsfullart.aspx?csid1=133&csid2=844&fid1=39275

Here’s video proof from the original songwriters/copyright owners:

If your going to use samples, have them professionally cleared before releasing music if you don’t want to be sued and forced to pull the music from the market!

This can be an extremely challenging, time consuming, and expensive process if your an indie or Do It Yourself artist. Get the assistance of professionals like Pro Soul Alliance, or a sample clearing company to do it if you aren’t signed to a label.

Over the weekend, we heard from some music supervisors from NBC Universal and other independent ‘placement’ companies that help TV, Ad and Film producers source music for their productions. Here’s a bit of what they said:

- Most music for TV is licensed from independant artists due to the affordability and simplicity of negotiating with them legally (major label contract negotiation and licensing is a nightmare made in hell that takes way too long).

- Licensing companies won’t even consider talking to artists not represented by Performing Rights Agencies (ASCAP)

- Average fee paid is around $1500 flat rate, plus public performance royalties from broadcast (Our artists get 100% of both!)

- It’s best to find out what shows supervisors work with [through show credits or IMDB], then pitch them music that would work well for those shows specifically, and mention that.

- If you send an email to them saying ‘I’ve got lots of music, let me know what your looking for’ They’ll delete your email. They are too busy, they get 1000 emails or so a week. Also, never send MP3’s via email. To anyone in the business. EVER. Use Dropio or similar.

- If you want a long term relationship with a music supervisor, your music should be ONE STOP licensing, in other words, you own all of the rights, and therefore can legally clear usage of the song. If there are any other musicians involved you haven’t signed a release with, that is not One Stop and can complicate the licensing process.

- Your songs need to be professionally produced and mastered, and available in 320 kB MP3 at minimum quality before music supervisors will want to use them! If it was all done by the guy at the studio who was engineering, it probably doesn’t count. Get it produced properly if your serious.

- It can take a lot of work to find the right music supervisor to work with, and get them to listen to your material, and earn some income, but the odds are much better than getting on a radio station, or getting a publishing deal. And you can get great exposure.

The Google owned video sharing site YouTube is blocking the UK from accessing music videos on their site after negotiations with the country’s Performing Right Society (PRS) for Music failed.  A statement from the owners of YouTube reads:

“Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we’ve been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us. There are two obstacles in these negotiations: prohibitive licensing fees and lack of transparency. We value the creativity of musicians and songwriters and have worked hard with rights-holders to generate significant online revenue for them and to respect copyright. But PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before.”

The YouTube statement continued: “The costs are simply prohibitive for us–under PRS’ proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback. In addition, PRS is unwilling to tell us what songs are included in the license they can provide so that we can identify those works on YouTube–that’s like asking a consumer to buy a blank CD without knowing what musicians are on it.”

PRS is claiming that the owners of Google are not willing to pay enough for licensing fees. In fact, PRS is outraged that the owners of Google would “neglect” artists and songwriters in this way. A report from the BBC states the changes were to take effect March 9, 2009.

YouTube pays a licence to the PRS which covers the streaming of music videos from three of the four major music labels and many independent labels.

Last week, PRS music, likely realising how many millions of dollars they are losing due to their stubborness, agreed to half their royalty rates from youtube. Smart move considering the site contributed 40 percent of PRS members’ plays!

I wonder if anyone will ever come up with an accurate analysis of just how much money artists with major representation are losing due to the lack of foresight the big music corporations have regarding the internet? It’s no wonder major artists managers are telling artists to go out on their own.