CactusJackSentYa

6y

S***posting aside, respect the work you put in on this. Been a goat poster since KTT1

MLI

6y

Amazing thread OP

okaa

6y

@safe can you go into how publishing works i aint really get that.

safe

6y

a publisher is licensed by the artist to enforce copyright on the composition of the song - not the master (the exact recording)

it gets a lot more complicated when you're involving multiple people so for an example think of an artist who makes a song entirely themselves, they write record and produce it

essentially the publishing is the copyright on the song itself - the lyrics and the melodies - the songwriting basically. its not specific to that recording of the track in that way by that artist - thats the master. publishers collect money from publishing royalties which can come in mechanical royalties (sales and streams), or usage royalties (think a tv company using a song or the beat of a song in an ad).

usually when it comes to something like streaming the publishing is much smaller than the masters - look at that image in OP for an e.g. this publishing goes through an agency (BMI is one you might know) and they take a cut and then your publisher takes a cut of 50% (usually half of the 50% so 25% total) of this and then the songwriter gets the rest

its a little weird but essentially imagine that for the most part you have the two parts of the song - the master (the actual recording) and the composition (the songwriting)
publishing only deals with revenue relating to the songwriting - a little bit of this comes from streaming and sales and a little of this comes from people using the song for their own purposes or playing it in public venues

sorry that was definitely longer than it needed to be but hopefully it clears it up a bit - its a weird concept and id be lying if I said I entirely understood it

TTC

6y

@safe you got a list of independent artists?

safe

6y

I dont have a list no but you have two types - artists signed to independent labels and artists who dont have a label

to find some artists on independent labels look at XL, Dirty Hit, 10k Projects, R&S, Brainfeeder, Mind of a Genius, Jagjaguwar, 4AD, Warp

Some of the artists on these labels: Jai Paul, Thundercat, James Blake, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Grimes, Gallant

In terms of more conventionally independent
Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, Heems, Nipsey was independent for a while and then a ton of much smaller artists

theres a lot of hype rn around being independent but I will say that there are few if any big artists doing it without some support from a label
Frank does distribution deals with XL and publishing with Warner Chappell
Chance had an apple deal
Nipsey signed with Atlantic

for all the flack chance gets for being a plant or whatever he's genuinely independent for the most part and has succeeded in doing so

TTC

6y

Gotcha. Why do these independent artists need the help of labels tho

safe

6y

Distribution is a big one - they need people to get their music out there
Getting it onto Apple Music iTunes youtube etc is easy but artists need companies to help with stuff like CDs and Vinyl

Marketing is another one - labels can invest a hell of a lot of money in getting you interviews, getting you on Rap Caviar, getting you billboards etc

And then also just general costs. Features and production are expensive and when labels have a lot of artists under contract you’re gonna have to shell out to get features. Live shows are difficult. Merch can be hard. Essentially labels make it so artists can just go do the music and not worry about the other s***

It’s absolutely possible to make it as an independent artist it’s just tough

Personally if I was an artist I’d be trying to go the way of independent labels - best of both worlds and you can always go major or full independent later

TTC

6y

Isn’t distribution solved through services like distrokid and tunecore? I can see for marketing but if an artist could raise enough money for their album costs / marketing wouldn’t they not need A label?

safe

6y

For streaming ya but CDs and vinyl are a lot more expensive to try figure out

Absolutely though - once an artist is established a label is pretty unnecessary
The problem is that artists get locked into long long contracts - that’s why Jay Z particularly has been advocating for artists to own their masters and to make good decisions when it comes to labels

Labels are most useful for smaller artists

Retired Artist

6y

You will need a label to help create a team for an artist, that includes:

a promoter, lawyers, accountants, pr, easy access to exclusive radio stations and/or playlists etc.

There's a reason why there's no one (that is unsigned) that makes it to #1 in the billboard hot 100.

safe

6y

For sure but if you’re a popular artist with money you can be a lot more profitable organizing this on your own

But yea tryna be a smaller artist and do all of this is pretty damn hard

I think the model we’ll see in the future is bigger more established artists like frank going independent after being a major label artist for a while

safe

6y

For sure but if you’re a popular artist with money you can be a lot more profitable organizing this on your own

But yea tryna be a smaller artist and do all of this is pretty damn hard

I think the model we’ll see in the future is bigger more established artists like frank going independent after being a major label artist for a while

Americana 2

6y

can you explain the roles of an A&R and how it relates to management, talent scouting, creative direction, etc? love this man

safe

6y

For streaming ya but CDs and vinyl are a lot more expensive to try figure out

Absolutely though - once an artist is established a label is pretty unnecessary
The problem is that artists get locked into long long contracts - that’s why Jay Z particularly has been advocating for artists to own their masters and to make good decisions when it comes to labels

Labels are most useful for smaller artists