Kid Rock will take a “pay cut” this summer, or at least risk one, by structuring a deal that allows for a $20 ticket price across the board at amphitheaters, and working with promoter Live Nation to lower prices on everything from beer to parking to merchandise for every show in every city. Kid Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker Band will tour with a combination of ZZ Top, Uncle Kracker and Kool & the Gang on various dates, beginning June 28 in Bristow, Va., through Sept. 15 in Tampa. The tour, promoted by Live Nation, includes three shows at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Kid Rock’s hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Tickets go on sale to the public in select markets beginning April 12th on LiveNation.com. Click here for dates.

This is a model Rock says he has been working on for a long time. “It’s always going to come down to price, but I think [from the fan’s perspective] it’s more the service charges, the fees, getting in there and not knowing what beers will cost, what they’ll hit you for parking,” he says. “Every little thing they nickel and dime you, and it’s not just music, it’s sports, it’s going to the movies. Artists demand so much money, and you have to set ticket prices at [a certain level]. Everyone’s fighting the system, and it’s really been all of our faults. We’re all fortunate to make as much money as we do, and I can surely take a pay cut and help out in these hard times.” Beyond just a deal structured based on volume, in effect, Rock says he is becoming a partner with Live Nation on the tour. “If people show up, I’ll get paid on that, and we’ll become partners: partners on beer, partners on parking, partners on my T-shirts, partners on everything, and we’ll take the money and split it at the end of the night,” he says. “And we pass those savings on to our fans, which is what we really need to be thinking about. Even if the volume comes out, we’re going to make less money, but I’ve got enough money to where it’s not going to kill my lifestyle. And who doesn’t want to play to a packed house every night?”

The shows will offer $4 12-oz. beers, value food packages, cheaper parking, and special $20 merchandise will be available. In a move geared toward fighting secondary market reselling, or “scalping,” Kid Rock will be releasing 1,000 tickets from each show directly to Platinum Tickets via Ticketmaster. “Rather than fight Ticketmaster, fight Live Nation, it’s about how do we get together, and be transparent with everything,” Rock says. “The scalpers have been a nightmare, as everybody knows, so we’re gonna scalp our own tickets. We’re gonna scalp 1,000 a night, and be transparent about it, let people know there’s a market that demands this, and when we see tickets out there being scalped, we’re going to under-cut their prices and send [fans] to a spot you can buy them and know you’re getting a real ticket and the money’s gonna go in our pocket.”

Rock says (where possible) the show will go paperless for the first 20 rows, and the first two rows won’t be sold prior to the event.  “We’re gonna upgrade people we see around the venue, based on whatever we want to do,” he says. “You can pick out the hard core fans, I’m gonna send a few people around the venue to have conversations with people, get a feel for ‘em, and say, ‘hey, these people deserve to be up front.’” That’s not a bad job for the guys that are humpin’ amps every night or doing something like that, either.” Rock would like to see other artists structure similar deals. “I know managers and booking agents are gonna hate me,” he laughs. “[Live Nation CEO] Michael Rapino said, ‘you’re one of the only artists I have conversations with, none of the managers or booking agencies want me to talk to their artists.’”

There will still be a $5 service fee on tickets purchased at ticketmaster.com. “I’m not happy about that, that’s 25% of my ticket price, that’s ridiculous,” he says. “I think they should go to 10% a ticket across the board. But we were able to work out something with Walmart, where you can go in there and $20, buy a ticket, parking and everything. If you go to Walmart, try to go early and get tickets for $20, take a friend with you. Have your shopping list, have someone go shop, you wait in line and get tickets, kill two birds with one stone.” In the venue, $4 for 12 oz. at every stand, “if you look at what ballparks are selling beers for, that’s fair,” says Rock, adding that he also tries to keep his merchandise reasonably priced. “A few tours back, we were selling shirts for $35-$40—which everybody is—and I’m like, ‘this is highway robbery,’ especially after owning a t-shirt business here in Michigan, Made In Detroit and really knowing what the prices are for us to buy ‘em,” he says. “Understandably, you’ve got to pay somebody to hump ‘em around, and there are costs involved, but not to justify that. So I slashed our t-shirt prices to $20 and $25 and we made the same amount of per cap selling more shirts every night. I said, ‘why can’t we do this with beer in select markets?’ and Rapino tried it, and, lo and behold it worked. So that was the spark for saying, ‘let’s go all the way.’”

With ZZ Top, Kool & the Gang and Uncle Kracker joining Rock and band, the artist believes he’s offering great value. “I’ve been doing the math, if you buy ticket with service charge, that’s $25, you have three beers, you buy a t-shirt, you’re under $70 for a t-shirt, having a some beers, seeing a concert and parking,” he says. “I don’t think you can beat that. I think people will be pleasantly surprised. Who knows they may spend the same amount of money, but they’ll feel good about doing it.”

Read More At: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1556609/kid-rock-takes-pay-cut-with-20-tickets-on-summer-tour

Everyone asks for songwriting tips. I recently bought a book about songwriting tips and it had some great advice. You know what the best songwriting tip is? It’s from an ad jingle…..just do it. Just write songs. I know it sounds simple, but the best thing you can do is just write. In fact writing songs is no greater than imitating what you hear. A really good songwriter is the person who is able to HEAR a great song and THEN imitate it. 90% of songs on the radio don’t qualify as ‘good’ songs. You must first understand what makes a good song. However, if you’re after the cash and not the credit then you’ll quickly learn to 1) give in and write mediocre songs (and be a GREAT salesman), 2) carefully balance musical greatness with commercial music, or 3) just become a great song writer. Of course you will always continue working on your songwriting technique as you grow. Consider taking various songwriting classes, attending songwriting workshops and songwriting camp.

Now that you know the greatest songwriting tip (just write songs), one question remains. How do you make money with music and songwriting?

Royalties
Royalties are your songwriting money. You get paid from the use of your song. There are four types of royalties earned from songs - mechanical, performance, synchronization and print. The publisher of your song (whether it’s you or someone else) collects the mechanical, synchronization and print royalties, and the performing rights organizations such as BMI, ASCAP and SESAC (or SOCAN in Canada) distribute royalty checks for performances a few times a year.

Mechanical Royalties

Mechanical royalties are what you call the money you make from sales of physical records, tapes, CDs, DVD’s, etc. There is a fixed rate per song that you will get paid. For example, at the time of writing the rate is 8 cents. Let’s say you have one song on a CD and it sells 100,000 copies then you’ll make $8000. If you wrote 10 songs on that CD, you would have $80,000. Unless you self publish it is traditional to split that 50% with the publisher. So quickly learn about publishing and become your own publisher!

Now let’s say you wrote one song on an album that sold a million copies - $80,000 in mechanical royalties. Then they released a CD single of your song and it sold 100,000 copies (not to mention hit the airwaves for performance royalties - discussed below). The CD single contained the original version of the song plus 4 dance remixes. That’s 8 cents for every remix version of that song on every album sold - another 8 cents times by 5 versions = 40 cents x 100,000 copies = $40,000. You can see how this can add up fast. It’s compounded for each song you have on that album or single and this continues as long as the song is selling albums, years down the road. At the end of the year some merchandiser like Time Life does a ‘Best of 200x’ CD, advertises it all over television and in comes more money. Five years down the line someone covers your song, or it crosses over to country, or it winds up on a tv show or ad commercial. Big money my friend. It is to your advantage to work on your songwriting technique and introduce yourself into the songwriting market fast. Check out some of the recommended books found on this site.

Performance Royalties

Here’s another big one. This is a major source of money for any writer. This typically pertains to the money you will earn from radio airplay, television, jukeboxes, music services and live performances.

Radio and television stations pay yearly license fees to the performing rights organizations and are typically negotiated as a percentage of their advertising revenue. Performance royalties can include cable tv, concerts, health clubs, museums, airlines, music on hold, restaurants, trade shows, internet radio, and anyone else required to pay fees to play music.

So how do they know when your song is played? It varies based on the performing rights society. I used to work in radio and every three months we were asked to log every song we played for a certain period of time, usually one week. Luckily we were already computer generated so we just printed off the play list hour by hour, marked songs they were interested in, noted the song, artist and society responsible for the copyright, and then fill in by hand any information that got played manually, like request shows. The performing rights society then used this information as a ‘sampling’ of what was being played in similar markets. Then they apply statistical formulas to determine how much money each songwriter that was played during that period received. Keep in mind that this assumes what was played during that sampling week was the same thing played for the entire 3 month quarter!

Radio Airplay Secrets

As an artist, a good thing to do after writing your own songs, working on your songwriting technique, and getting a good understanding of the music business, is becoming friendly with the music directors at some radio stations, and make sure your song is getting played in regular rotation during a reporting period. It’s not unheard of for a nobody artist with two turntables and a microphone to get a $300 check from airplay at one college station during a reporting period. That money can buy a fancy new microphone…..and the publicity gained is probably enough to capture a few gigs. Multiply that by a few songs over time, a few radio stations, bigger markets that pay more fees to the performing rights societies, etc.

Live ‘in studio’ appearances for local radio shows during a reporting period is another great earner. Let’s say you know a DJ who features local bands. You’ve got a CD. Find out when the reporting period is and have him interview you during his 60 min show and play a few cuts off your CD. Maybe he will go on vacation and replay that interview tape during the next reporting period. Money in the bank.

As time goes on, there are systems being put into place that will capture each song played and therefore give a more accurate royalty payout for those artists that deserve it, instead of just those getting aired during the sampling period. In which case ANY airplay you get is as good as cash.

Synchronization Royalties

Synch royalties can be substantial but they are a little different from the others. Synch typically means licensing the right to record the music or songs in synch with the pictures of film or TV movies. How much you get for this is usually negotiated between the publisher and the producer of the flick.

If cranking out instrumental music is your thing then this may be a market for you to break into. Background music in a movie would be a good example (not necessarily film scoring). Unless you have a previously popular song there’s a good chance that you’ll work for a flat fee plus screen credit, foregoing the synch royalties for the chance to do it again.

Songwriting Craft and Business
Even if you only intend on being a singer or band member, by participating in songwriting and getting your name at least as a co-writer you will increase the money you make in music. If you are seeking a record deal this information will help you in negotiating rights to your music.

To delve further into how to get paid for songwriting, or other lucrative career options that we won’t go into here (like print music options, religious music or children’s music), I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Craft and Business of Songwriting, Third Edition by John Braheny. That’s my songwriting tip to you. The book is FULL of great songwriting tips, and is split about 50/50 on songwriting technique and the business of songwriting. I don’t think any other book covers as much pertinent information to your songwriting success as this one. He also has some great stories and examples from his friends in the industry and from his time spent in the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase. Although I have many music books on my shelf, this is the one that I refer to most and I recommend it as the book you both start and finish with.

http://www.moneyinmusic.com/song-writing.html

Ok, we’ve all heard about this “poor man’s copyright” technique, right?

We’ll explain it once again, for those who have been living in caves, but before we do, you should know right off, IT DOES NOT WORK!

NO COURT HAS EVER ACCEPTED THIS METHOD AS LEGAL PROOF OF COPYRIGHT, so don’t waste your time. But here’s what it’s supposed to do (and why it doesn’t work).

The poor man’s copyright (not copywrite) is when you mail either a CD, or sheet music, or some other physical form of your music, to yourself (or a friend) by regular, or certified mail.

The concept sounds reasonable:   A few days later, when you get your songs or music back in the mail, you DON’T open the envelope. You just hide it away somewhere, in a drawer, a safety deposit box, with your underwear, and just wait until someday when someone tries stealing your songs or music.

Then you whip out your sealed envelope, bring it to Court during your copyright infringement lawsuit, and let the Judge open it.

Then the Judge is supposed to think that the postmark on the envelope “proves” that the songs or music inside were in existence as of that date! So, assuming the bad guy who has stolen your music started playing your music after your postmarked date, the Judge is supposed to stand up and cheer, tell the jury you win your copyright case, award you millions in damages and you go home, record your song and win American Idol!

Only problem is… as we’ve already said, there are NO courts that have ever used a postmark from an envelope as proof in a copyright case!

Why doesn’t it work you ask?   Plenty of reasons:

In fact, there are SO many ways to tamper or manipulate the postmarked envelope, or the supposed “copyrighted” music inside, that we couldn’t fit them all on just this one page. But here’s a few quick examples:

The most obvious way to “game” this method is to just mail yourself an empty envelope and just barely seal it (or don’t seal it at all). Then when you get it back with its postmark, you just store it until you want to steal someone’s song maybe years later.

Then you stick the words and music to someone else’s song into your empty envelope with the old postmark and seal it up REAL GOOD. And, presto, now you’ve got “proof” that you created that song way back when it was postmarked — since it’s “obviously” been in that “sealed” envelope all that time!

[And if you’re really clever, you could also save some old newspaper article, with a date the same as the postmark, and stick it in with your newly-sealed song years later…]

Or even if you didn’t try to cheat, how do you plan on verifying the security of the sealed envelope? Bringing in scientific experts to verify you haven’t played with the envelope seals?  NO expert could testify to that (or when exactly the envelope was sealed or resealed)!

Or, how are you going to prove the postmark, or certified mail notice, is genuine?  Find the post office person who stamped it?  Yeh, right.

And then, of course, there’s the problem of BIAS.  Who will testify in court about preparing the envelope, sealing it, mailing it, getting it delivered back to your address, who handled it, how it was never opened, etc. etc.?   YOU? Your friends? Your relatives?   Do you see the problem with that?

YOU (and your friends and relatives) are NOT independent, unbiased witnesses. You (and people connected with you) have an obvious stake in the outcome of any copyright case which involves YOU!   Having someone who wants to win in court (or a friend) also be a witness in the same case is about the WORST thing you can do! Ask any lawyer… NO ONE WILL BELIEVE SUCH BIASED WITNESSES. When it comes to copyright issues, you always want unbiased, independent witnesses testifying!

As you can see, there are endless ways to cheat using this “poor man’s copyright” routine. So don’t waste your time since it won’t protect you or your songs.

For most composers, their songs are just too important to take such stupid chances leaving them unprotected with the farce known as the “poor man’s copyright.” Especially when you can get real protection so inexpensively, using an INDEPENDENT, UNBIASED, RELIABLE service, such as SongRegistration.com

Written By: Wray Herbert

I had the good fortune to come of age during the richest musical epoch — well, ever. The Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Dylan, Janis Joplin, Zappa. I could go on and on. The ’60s witnessed an unparalleled burst of musical creativity, ranging from Cream to CCR to Hendrix and to Neil Young and Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. There is simply no match — not before nor since — for this outpouring of enduring song. And what’s more, nobody really disputes this.

Okay, okay. I wrote all those superlatives in part to provoke a reaction. There are people who dispute this claim, and indeed some are among my own friends and family. They say that ’60s music just seems incomparable to me because I was a young man when I encountered it. If I keep going back to Leonard Cohen and The Doors even today, they say, it’s only because those melodies were seared into my neurons when I was youthful and impressionable.

It’s hard to prove, one way or the other. But my critics do have some psychological science on their side. My musical preferences could be part of what scientists call the “reminiscence bump” — a peak in personal memories, of all kinds, that consistently comes in late adolescence and early adulthood. That is, we all remember more detail, more clearly, from this stage of our development. Since music is so emotional and personal and memorable, doesn’t it make sense that it would peak the same way?

That’s the question that Cornell University psychological scientist Carol Lynne Krumhansl set out to explore — or one of the questions. She wanted to see just how our early musical memories intersect with, and shape, our other autobiographical memories. She also wanted to see how music is transmitted from generation to generation, and to explore whether this pattern may have changed along with dramatic cultural shifts of the past half century.

Read More At: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/is-the-music-of-the-60s-r_b_3007514.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

Most importantly: Every voice is different, and every song is different. That advice bears remembering, even if you’ve heard it dozens of times. When you find yourself approaching a vocal mix on auto-pilot, applying effects “because they worked last time,” consider disabling the EQ altogether to gauge just how badly the adjustments are needed.

Reasons to EQ: The 3 main reasons to filter a vocal with EQ are
 1) to help the voice sit better in the mix,
 2) to correct a specific problem, and
 3) to create a deliberate effect, like “A.M. radio voice.”

If you’ve EQ’d a vocal track for some other reason, be sure the result is improving the mix.

Gentle boosts: The “cut narrow, boost wide” guideline applies to vocals perhaps more than any instrument. Our ears have evolved remarkable sensitivity to the sound of human speech. (Consider how easily we pick up a single conversation in a crowded noisy room.) So we’re immediately, instinctively aware when a voice has been processed unnaturally.

High-pass: Most vocals – though of course not all – benefit from a low cut filter. The average fundamental frequency in an adult male voice is 125Hz, and often you can roll off up to 180Hz without affecting the sound. (If your mic or preamp has a low-cut filter, consider engaging it when recording vocals, as most subsonic audio in a vocal track consists of mic-stand noise, breath rumble, popping, and other undesirable sounds.)

Bypass: Especially with high-pass filters, it’s easy to remove too much body from a vocal, as our ears adjust so quickly to new sounds when mixing. If your EQ has a bypass option, use it periodically to make sure you haven’t gone too far with an adjustment.

Read More At: http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/07/vocal-eq-tips/

Peak normalization is an automated process that changes the level of each sample in a digital audio signal by the same amount, such that the loudest sample reaches a specified level. Traditionally, the process is used to ensure that the signal peaks at 0dBfs, the loudest level allowed in a digital system.

Normalizing is indistinguishable from moving a volume knob or fader. The entire signal changes by the same fixed amount, up or down, as required. But the process is automated: The digital audio system scans the entire signal to find the loudest peak, then adjusts each sample accordingly.

Some of the myths below reflect nothing more than a misunderstanding of this process. As usual with common misconceptions, though, some of the myths also stem from a more fundamental misunderstanding – in this case, about sound, mixing, and digital audio.

Read More At: http://www.hometracked.com/2008/04/20/10-myths-about-normalization/

A letter John Lennon wrote to Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda will be up for auction and is expected to sell for about $60,700 (£40,000), NME reports.

Written in 1971, in the wake of the Beatles’ break-up, the letter will be up for sale on May 30th as part of an online auction organized by Profiles in History. There’s no word on the actual contents of the letter.

Rejected Beatles Demo Tape Up for Auction

Last year, a draft of a 1971 letter Lennon wrote to Eric Clapton expressing his admiration for and a desire to collaborate with the guitarist was auctioned off (also by Profiles in History): “Eric, I know I can bring out something great, in fact greater in you that had been so far evident in your music,” Lennon wrote. “I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us, which I know will happen if/when we get together.”

Not all Lennon letters have sold at auction: Last year, another note to Paul and Linda – a six-page rant about the end of the Beatles and how he and Yoko Ono were treated – failed to sell at Christie’s in London after bids didn’t reach the £63,000 reserve price.

Several other items of Beatles memorabilia have been up for auction lately, including a custom-built VOX guitar played by both Lennon and George Harrison around the time of Magical Mystery Tour, signed photos of the group playing Shea Stadium, and an autographed copy of their classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/john-lennon-letter-to-paul-and-linda-mccartney-going-up-for-auction-20130329

Are you looking to expand your fan base, while keeping your existing fans interested and excited about your music? Could you use an easily-accessible page where you can list your band’s history of gigs, news, song releases, and everything else? Would you like to share more in-depth info with your fans than what you can post in a Facebook update or Tweet?

Many popular artists and bands keep a running, current blog page on their websites, and if you don’t already, you should consider starting up a blog page too! A blog can be an invaluable tool not just for your fans, but for you personally as an artist/band.

Your blog can include anything and everything about you as an artist, from your official updates, news and upcoming releases, to personal thoughts and statements you’d like to share with your fans and site visitors. A blog is also a great archival tool where both your fans and you can look back and check important past information, or just reminisce on your great experiences and history as an artist.

Our friends over at Music Think Tank recently posted a great article about why your band needs to blog. They list 4 great points about how having a blog page for yourself as an artist/band can really benefit you and your fan base.

Read More At: http://jangoairplay.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-you-too-should-have-music-blog.html

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Django Reinhardt
3. Jimmy Page
4. Steve Vai
5. Prince
6. Mark Knopfler
7. Gary Moore
8. David Gilmour
9. Kurt Cobain
10. Yngwie Malmsteen
11. Frank Zappa
12. George Harrison
13. Stevie Ray Vaughan
14. Chuck Berry
15. Alex Lifeson
16. Joe Satriani
17. Randy Rhoads
18. Eddie Van Halen
19. Jerry Garcia
20. Kirk Hammett

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Read More At: http://songwriter101.com/articles/entry/Tales_From_the_Top_Van_Halens_Van_Halen_1978/

Two guys sitting in a bar having a great time and very much intoxicated, they amusingly mimic a girl singing on stage. They are very humored by this form of entertainment while completely suspended from sensibility. Next thing they know one of them is pinned to the ground and gets the beating of his life! His best friend, John Lennon, tries to defend him the best as he could and even gets his wrist broken in the process. Bludgeoned and almost covered in blood, Stuart Sutcliffe gets kicked in the head extremely hard, which many believed is what triggered the brain hemorrhage that lead to his death in 1962. The Beatles will never be the same again.

Born on the 23rd of June, 1940, Stuart Ferguson Victor Sutcliffe was a quiet, good looking, but very shy lad. He had personal charisma and looks comparable to James Dean. He would often reserve away from the female gender, but still would not have any trouble having them as companions. His passion for art was not just a hobby but more of a way of life. Every stroke of paint that he put onto a canvass was an expression of a different aspect of himself. By the age of 19, he was already considered as one of the most promising and talented students at the Liverpool College of Arts. While Sutcliffe was a gifted artist, he also had an interest with music; this was mainly influenced by his friendship with John Lennon. Stu would hang around with John’s group during gigs and rehearsals while doing his work. This almost brought a concern to his fellow artists that he might abandon his first love, painting. But nevertheless, he was still just as interested in art as he always had been.

As Stu and John’s college years progressed, they developed a remarkable friendship that would be envied almost by everyone around at that time (who wouldn’t!) they would rely on each other for anything anytime. Stu would influence John to express his creative side while John on the other hand, would tell Stu to relax a bit more and teach him how to connect with others. Both of them cherished this and became the best of friends. As Stuart further expounded his skills for art he decided to enter some of his paintings for the John Moore exhibition which was regarded as one of the best around for its type. John(Lennon) was so excited for Stu that he even brought his Aunt Mimi to the exhibit to flaunt his best friend’s work. This also caught the attention of the host (John Moore) and even bought one of Stu’s paintings for an unheard sum of 65 pounds! Having received this large sum of money, Stu didn’t exactly knew what to do with it. Sure he had a few debts here and there or maybe he should buy more painting materials to further support his craft, but instead John convinced him to buy a bass guitar (Hofner President) and join his group, Johnny & the Moondogs. Although Stu didn’t really know how to play and had to turn down John a couple of times, he finally decided to give it a go and this would turn out to be one of the most important decisions that he would make in his life. Never mind that he couldn’t play he would eventually pick it up by self-teaching and “with a little help from his friends.”

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