Music Entrepreneurism Test 2

Who are the team members of a touring team?

Personal manager, agent, business manager, tour manager, and promoter.

What nine things does the personal manager do?

1. Books the tour

2. Oversees rehearsals, hires band members, watches the finances with your business manager

3. Hires the crew and makes sure they do their jobs

4. Transports people and equipment, books flights, hotels, trucks, buses, etc.

5. Collects money on the road

6. Coordinates advertising, marketing, and radio and internet promotions

7. Handles day-of-show activities

8. Puts out whatever fires appear

9. Deals with illness, cancellations, and other assorted disasters

What does the agent do?

The agent, with your manager, books the tour by making deals with the promotors.

What do agents put together with two or more artists playing in the same show?

Packages

What are some of the things an agent does?

Makes your itinerary, manages your image, decides when to put the tickets on sale, prices the tickets, and collects deposits

What is scaling tickets?

Setting ticket prices so that up-front seats are more expensive than the back of the house so that all their fans can afford to come

What are some examples of secondary markets?

StubHub, SeatGeek, and Vivid Seats

What is a verified fan program used to do?

Allows fans to show that they are a real fan so they get a code that puts them ahead in the line to buy tickets

What is pre-sale?

Fans getting tickets ahead of the public sale

What are the monies paid by the promoters prior to your show?

Deposits

What do you never want to put on sale without a deposit?

Your tickets

What does the business manager do?

They are in charge of all financial aspects of the tour

What does the tour manager do?

They are responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly on the road

If you do not have a tour manager, who takes on that role?

Your personal manager

What is a promoter?

The people in each market who hire you for the evening and are responsible for marketing your show and maximizing your ticket sales?

What are venues buying shows themselves?

Venue deals

What is your goal as a new artist in personal appearance deals?

To play as a headliner in clubs, be an opening act on a tour, get booked at a festival

What is a split of the gate?

A share of the money charged for admission

If your band is the biggest draw, what does that mean?

You could ask for a bigger percentage of the split

Does touring make you money?

NO

For superstar touring, instead of being paid a flat fee, they get what?

A guarantee against a percentage of the net profits or gross of the show

How does a guarantee work?

If you don’t make any profits, you still keep the guarantee. If you do make profits, the promoter deducts the guarantee and pays you the excess

What are net profits?

The amount of money you make after all expenses are subtracted

What are gross receipts?

Gross monies from ticket sales, less selling costs, taxes, and facilities charges

What is the amount charged by the building for selling merchandise and its a percentage of the gross sales?

House fee

What is a rider?

An addendum that rides on top of another contract

What are the major points covered in your rider?

Expenses, free tickets, billing, recording, merchandising, interviews/promos, catering, technical, and legal

What is papering the house?

When the promotor gives away as many tickets as humanly possible to make the house look full

Why is it important to have a limit on comp tickets and to have a say in where they sit?

So you do not lose a lot of money in the ticket sales and you do not want a bunch of zombies who are not there to see you play sitting front row at your concerts

How do you line your pockets with more gold?

Spend less

What are some areas to spend less?

1. Salaries - think about how essential each member of your team is, and do not overpay them

2. Stage, sound, and lights - make sure your show is already engaging so that your audience does not just stay for your theatrics

3. Start-up costs - rehearse in small venues before you go on tour

4. Travel - travel light and do not hub (basing yourself in a central location while you play venues within a short flight from that city)

5. Catering - don’t be lavish with your catering

6. Just watch it - be wise with your money

What is selling products that use your name, logo, or likeness called?

Merchandising

What are the three different flavors of merch rights?

1. Tour merchandising

2. Retail merchandising

3. D2C - direct to consumer

What is D2C?

Online sales that deliver goods directly into the consumer’s hands, rather than going through a retail store

What is a merchandiser responsible for?

Manufacturing the goods, overseeing the sales at your concerts, and paying you a royalty for each sale

What is a hall fee?

From the money that is turned over from that night’s sales, the venue takes a percentage

What is a standard hall fee?

20-25% of the gross monies collected for the merchandise

What is hard merchandise?

CDs, vinyl, or program sales

What is soft merchandise?

T-shirts and other fabrics

What is the problem with bootleggers?

They, without any authority, manufacture merchandise with your name and/or likeness on it and sell it outside the venues meaning you do not get paid for your merchandise and when the consumer complains about their shirt shrinking, they blame you.

What is it called when a merch company first licenses your name and likeness rights and then, under that license, re-licenses them to someone else?

Sub-licensing

What is important to know about royalties for retail merch compared to tour deals?

They are not a percentage

What are some examples of D2C?

Started with wearable goods but has grown to include things like concert tickets, and VIP experiences

What are fan clubs like now?

They offer early access to tickets, or maybe streaming a record ahead of release, or a chance to win an exclusive experience with the artist.

Why are fan clubs not as popular as they were in the past?

Because of social media, your life is on display for all your fans so they do not need to pay for exclusive clips of your life

What do traditional classical music recordings not make?

Money

How does classical music stay afloat?

Rich donors

Why do orchestras make recordings if they know that they won’t make any money?

It shows that they are still relevant

What is the problem with streaming classical music?

You are paid per play of the song so when one classical piece is like 20 minutes, you only get paid for that one play

What is an advantage about classical recordings?

The recording costs are relatively cheap because it only takes one take

What are the eight people that deals will be made with when a song goes into a film?

1. The performer (singer/instrumentalist)

2. The record company to which the performer is signed

3. The record producer

4. The songwriter

5. The publisher to whom the songwriter is signed

6. The owner of a recording that’s being licensed into the film or sampled in a song

7. The record company putting out the soundtrack album

What are the two catergories that film music rights fall into?

Acquisition of rights for the picture and licenses of rights from the picture company to others

Who are deals made with an acquisition of rights for the picture (putting music in the film)?

1. Performing artists

2. Songwriters and composers

3. Record producers

4. Record companies, for the right to (a) use existing recordings or samples, and/or (b) allow one of their exclusive recording artists to create something new for the film

5. Publishers, for the right to (a) license an existing song into the film, (b) interpolate an existing song into a new song or the score, or (c) allow one or more of their writers to compose songs for the film company

Once the film company acquires the music rights, it makes deals to license that music to what other people?

1. A deal with a record company to release a soundtrack album

2. Licensing film clips for music videos

3. Possibly a publishing administration deal

4. Possibly a co-promotion deal

What is one of the most important things to do BEFORE you start negotiating with film companies?

Clear the deal with your record company

What are the things to consider when a film company wants to use your song in advertising and marketing the film?

If you have a big song out at the same time, you might not want another of your songs in the ads for the film. Or if the film looks to be massive, having your song associated with it will help both the song and your career

When film companies use your recording in sequels, prequels, remakes, spin-offs, advertising, trailers, co-promotions, and out-of-context uses, what do you want?

Credit

What are co-promotions?

Where the film company ties into an advertiser to hype up the film

What are kickers?

Getting more money based on how well the film does

What are step deals?

Deals done over a series of steps

What is on spec?

Writing the song without a commitment form the film company to pay a full fee

What is music written for films always treated as?

Work for hire

In traditional film deals where they require you to transfer the entire copyright ownership to the film studio, what percentage do you get?

50% of the song’s earnings

What is a score?

The music underneath the dialogue, action, transitions, etc., that you’re not supposed to notices.

What is another name for the score?

Underscore

When can you get some of the publishing for a song you write for a studio?

(1) The music and lyrics constitute a “real song,” with its own title, and (2) the lyricist is getting a piece of the publishing on that song

What are tentpole pictures?

Massive releases like Jurassic Park and Avengers

What are the pros and cons of package deals?

Pros:

It is easier to manage the film’s budget

Cons:

The cost of recording live musicians are paid by the studio on top of the package fee

What is it when the composer and director determine precisely which “spots” need music, as well as the exact length of each piece needed?

Spotting

What is it important to make sure you have a non-exclusive deal when composing music for a studio?

So that you can take other work and not drown in debt and eat only ramen. But the studio will probably want you to make them first priority.

What is a Certificate of Authorship (C of A)?

A one-page document that says the studio own everything you do

What is the problem with a C of A?

You are giving up ownership without having the deal fully negotiated

What does the payment plan look like if you get your fees in thirds?

Paid 1/3 on spotting, 1/3 on commencement of recording, and 1/3 on completion of services

Fourths?

¼ on spotting, ¼ on commencement of recording, ¼ on completion of recording, the rest on completion of services

What is an orchestrator?

Someone who writes out the parts for the individual instruments

What is the fee called when an orchestrator gets paid to hang out in the recording studio’s control booth while the session is being recorded, in case the score needs some last-minute surgery

Booth monitor fee

If the studio decides to record in a cheaper place, what should you negotiate for?

Reimbursement of your travel expenses

If you go to a foreign country, your per diem should be in what currency?

In the local currency

Composers who usually do package deals do not have as many what?

Real life musicians. They usually use synths

What are the exclusions in a package deal?

Licensing of outside music - do not let the studio have you pay for an outside song they want to use

Recording cost of outside music - if sessions for outside music can’t be scheduled during the normal scoring sessions, their costs shouldn’t be included in the package

Re-use fees

Re-scoring - if the director changes his mind, you should not have to pay for the director’s mistake

Lyricist expenses - if the studio wants a lyricist to write words to your music, it should be on their nickel

Music editor fee- should be a film cost, not a music cost

Prerecords - the music recorded before shooting, to be lip-synced and/or danced to in the film

How do television composers compare to film composers?

TV composers compose and deliver in a shorter period of time and TV shows have a lower budget so the composer can’t do as much as a film composer. Except for premium streaming services where it will take a while for a project to be finished.

TV main titile themes are usually done in what type of deal?

Package deals

What is unique about video game composers?

They have to compose a lot more music and the music needs to be for DLC which means downloadable content that comes after the game’s release as an add-on to the game