C7.2

Introduction:

I'm going to discuss the things involved in music creation, music publishing and studio recording as well as comparing how they work together. I'm also going to explain different successes and shortcomings of the two sectors of the music industry, giving real life case studies. 

Music Creation:

Music creation is where the original idea for the song is conceived by the songwriter. Quite often, there are also cowriters who help to develop the original idea and add to it to make it a full track. Typically, artists will often work very closely with the engineers and producers of the track in order for the original song idea to persist through to the finished product. This shows how important collaboration but, despite this, it can be difficult to make sure that each party is able to give their ideas and they're considered equally. There's a lot of different contracts involved in music creation but some main ones include a Recording Contract (more commonly known as a "Record Deal"), a Publishing Contract and a Performance Contract. A Record Deal is an agreement between an artist and a record label where the record label provides funding for everything (recording, producing, promotion, marketing etc.) and the artist is required to deliver a certain number of songs or albums by a deadline. The contract will also include details about ownership of the content and the royalties. A Publishing Contract is between an artist and a music publisher and is simply where the music publisher is entitled to partial or full ownership of the content in exchange for the advantage given to the artist by the publisher's knowledge in promotion (TV, radio etc.) and monetisation. Finally, a Performance Contract is rather different as it's between an artist and a company/individual for playing music. An example of this would be a pub and a singer/songwriter and the contract would state how much the pub is required to pay the artist and how many songs/long a set the artist needs to play and how many times. All of these contracts will also included the consequences of one party not keeping up with their end of the contract. 

Music Publishing: 

Music publishing is monetising and promoting music ready for release. Music publishers tend to be companies rather than individuals due to the many roles involved in music publishing due to a music publishing company being similar to a record label except that you record your own music and they just help to promote and and monetise it for you. The idea of a music publisher comes from similar origins to book publishers as the way they'd sell music would be to sell copies of the sheet music. Since this changed to physical records, copyright has come to say who's allowed to reproduce these records and this has also lead to managing the protection of the ownership of pieces of music (copyright). This then leads to newer types of publishing in film and television publishers who sync music to television and advertising. The publisher here has to manage the use of the composition online through MCPS-PRS Alliance (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society - Performing Rights Society). There are many advantages to having a publisher but you need to be wary as to who your publisher is as some do very little other than simply publish and then give the artist the money after months with little pay out. A good publisher works to advantage the artist and publish compositions securely in order to help them with covers, films and video game synchronisations. Another advantage is that some publishers pay the artist in advance so that they're able pay bills and buy food to keep themselves sustainable whilst still writing and producing music. They'll also help the artist to find a record deal to aid their career. 

I found an example of a publishing contract on The Musician's Union website: PDF Publishing Contract

There are many parts to a publishing contract including the period of time that the publisher owns the copyright to the music as many (not all) publishers will only take a limited time to have a the rights and be able to collect royalties for the music. This is known as the "Rights Period" or the "retention period". This is something that differs between publishing and recording as a record label will almost always own the copyright for the entirety of how long the copyright lasts on the product. The contract also states the "contract periods" which are agreements made between the publisher and artist to say what's expected of the artist and how long they have to do this (as well as vice versa for the publisher). It also includes provisions for the event of the artist not delivering the agreed product; for example, if the artist agreed to deliver a ready-to-release album written by themselves but then deliver an album that has been co-written by them and also a third party, this will lead to them having less access to royalties as they have to be further split. This does, however, depend on the original agreement between the two original parties. 

An example of this is Taylor Swift with her current publisher which is Universal Music Publishing Group who she signed with in 2018 once also signing with her current record label (Republic Records) who provide her with the equipment and deadlines and management for writing and recording her music. The way in which a publishing deal differs from a record deal is in how much control they have over your music. Typically, you get your music to a music publisher somehow (promoting yourself, spreading your demos/tracks to them and to people involved in the industry) and then they decided whether or not they like it and either publish and promote it or turn you down. A record deal will choose you (through finding you through your own promotion) and they can have more control over the music you write, if they let you write the music at all. This is why it can be difficult with the relationship between an artist and their publisher as they publisher has less control over telling the artist what music to make and why. 

Studio Recording:

Studio recording is arranging, recording and producing the final product of a piece of music. Important people involved in studio recording are the audio engineers and producers (who also are closely linked in with the music creation). The audio engineer is responsible for the technical aspects of capturing and manipulating sound such as setting up all of the equipment, balancing the volume and ensure the quality of the recording is good in order for mixing and mastering. They do this by having the proper equipment (not always their responsibility but can be) as well as making sure that the microphones are the correct type for the instrument and that they're the correct distance away from one another as this makes a big impact on the final sound (e.g., the 3:1 microphone placement - placing a microphone three times the distance away from the other in relation to the instrument (nearest microphone = one foot, second microphone = 3 feet)). A producer oversees the music process and guides it which is why they typically work very closely with the artists as well as the engineers - they also understand important decisions to make in order to achieve the intended musical vision. This can include things such as directing session musicians in the way to play their instruments to reach the desired sound or they might advise the audio engineers to place the microphones in a specific way in order to get a unique sound for the music. There's a place for a producer in every aspect of making music (recording, mixing, mastering, writing etc.). Some of the contracts involved in studio recording include a contract for a session musician, mixer contract, producer contract and a split sheet. A session musician is someone brought in specifically to play one or more parts for the music and the contract is typically a freelance one in which states how much the session musician will be payed, what's expected of them and their playing as well as the understanding that the employer (record label, artist, producer etc.) has complete ownership over the composition and can use it in whichever way they please. A mixer contract is very simple, it is between the mixer and the employer and states how much the mixer will be payed and how much work they need to get done and by a certain deadline. A producer contract includes what is expected of the producer and also how they're payed (typically, as a percentage of the royalties) as well as the ownership of the finished piece. Finally, a split sheet is used throughout many sectors of the music industry as it is used in most of the contracts already mentioned as it splits the track into different percentages and states how big of a percentage each person will receive in royalties in comparison to their contribution. 

Successes:

Working together, the two sectors have many great successes. This is because they will often enhance each other's ideas and can be collaborative and make the sound better. A good example of this is Taylor Swift and Jack Antanoff as they've been making music together since 2013 in many different genres. I think of them as a unique example as they can often slip into one another's roles with both writing some parts of the songs and both producing some parts of the songs. An example of the variety that they produce is the stark contrast in the albums "Reputation" and "Folklore" that they both worked on together as Reputation uses a lot of brass and synths and has fast rhythms with an electropop feel whereas, folklore is a lot of acoustic instruments mainly relying on the melodies, harmonies and the storytelling of the lyrics. Another thing that is common between these two sectors is having the producer be able to create what the artist is imagining and a good example of this is Amy

Winehouse and Mark Ronson. With the song "Back to Black",  Amy Winehouse had a musical vision for it and explained it to Mark Ronson and he created it for her also making sure to add his own artistic flare by adding elements of pop to it. This shows the importance of collaboration compared to individual.

Shortcomings:

Despite the many successes in the music industry, they're are also examples of shortcomings in the music industry. Contracts can be used to exploit the artists and examples of this include Dr Dre with Death Row and Taylor Swift with Big Machine Records. Dr Dre had previously been with Ruthless Records but left due to being advised to do so by a friend who believed he wasn't properly being compensated. He co-founded Death Row along with Marion "Suge" Knight and Dick Griffey. However, he ended up leaving Death Row as well

due to a dispute about his contract that caused him to feel that Suge Knight had become corrupt and was exploiting him. What I mean by this is that the record label would only give him a short amount of time to be able to create music before he was required to record it which isn't a sustainable way to be and so he quickly avoided the damage that would've been caused on his life and, likely, his career by this. Taylor Swift was first spotted in Bluebird Cafe by Scott Borchetta (then a DreamWorks Records executive) in Nashville when she was performing in a showcase at 15. Borchetta had an idea for an independent record label in which resulted in Big Machine Records and Taylor Swift became one of the label's first artists with a recording contract that lasted 13 years. At the end of this                                     contract, Swift wanted to buy the six albums she'd recorded with them but was

only offered to be able to buy them if she signed another six album contract but she refused; as a result, the albums were sold to Scooter Braun. In retaliation, Swift then started to rerecord her old albums and it's been very successful due to her fans being known to be loyal. 

My Opinion and Judgement: 

In my opinion, I think that the collaboration of these two sectors is incredibly important to the music we have today as, without it, we'd still have good pieces of music from individuals but we'd be without the amazing creations that were made from musicians being able to bounce ideas off of each other and add their own unique mark onto each thing they do. However, I also see the importance of being able to be independent and not completely relying on others as this can lead the exploitation that Dr Dre and Taylor Swift suffered - in order to avoid this, I will make sure that any contracts I sign will be properly checked and I will make sure that I'm happy with the agreement in terms of short and long term. 

It's important to have the understanding of how these two sectors interact but it's also important to have the ability needed for your desired place in the industry. For me, I would like to be a singer/songwriter and so I think I need to develop my skills more. I can play the guitar but only at a rather basic level with basic chords, in order to become more developed, I should practice more fingerstyle things and scales as well as learning more chords. Being able to pluck the strings fluently is very relevant as I'd like to create some of my music to have a similar sound to Taylor Swift's "Folklore" which has a lot of fingerstyle on the guitar; this can also be seen in her album "Evermore". Taylor Swift also has a really

good range that she's very comfortable and confident in and, although some her voice (especially her lower range) has come in through age, I'd like to improve my vocal agility and technique by working specifically on this with my singing teacher as well as improve my confidence and be able to open my mouth more when singing to give it a much better sound and tone. I will do this by practicing in front of a mirror getting used to opening my mouth to sing notes. Adding on to this, Taylor Swift also has really good stage presence and this comes from experience and so I will do as many performances as I can as well as performing in front of a camera and giving myself constructive criticism on how I can improve. With piano, I need to improve my technique which I am currently doing with my piano teacher by doing increasingly detailed and difficult pieces and I also want to be able to chords rhythmically whilst I sing which I will look to acoustic performances Taylor Swift has done of her songs and imitate her use of the piano and

try to recreate it in my own songs. Although I have improved, there is still work to be done with my timing which I can improve by always practicing with a metronome or a drummer. Using a publisher for my own music would greatly increase the sustainability of me being able to make music into a career in my opinion due to the strong relationship between artist and publisher (important to have in order to make a future possible) causing each one to benefit accordingly. The publisher would benefit from the payment from the royalties (typically 50% of the composition in the US) and I would benefit from their connections and time to do 'admin' tasks such as registration (for PRS), Licensing (copyright, royalties), royalty collection and synchronisation (having your song on a movie/tv show/advert can be a major breakthrough for its popularity). Despite this, if I were to publish my own music, I'd use a music distributor (such as Ditto Music or Distrokid) and then promote the music myself as using social media. I would do this because music publishers are no longer just looking for potential artists in the modern day, they will now have a focus on people who are goo at their music and already have some kind of established fanbase on social media as this will ultimately make their job easier and have less chance of failing whereas choosing a complete and utter nobody could easily go either way. Due to this, I would post to social media as often as I can to try and build up a fanbase to listen to my music and therefore attempt to catch the attention of music publishers in the future as this will then greatly elevate my music career.