Splits, And Other Things To Think About
Then Listen Now To What I Say...
Last week’s Bonus Round: “Summer’s End” is a song co-written by John Prine and Pat McLaughlin, and appears on Mr. Prine’s 2018 album “The Tree Of Forgiveness”.
“The Tree of Forgiveness is the eighteenth and final studio album by American country folk singer John Prine. The album was released on April 13, 2018. It is the last album released by Prine before his death on April 7, 2020.” Credit Wikipedia
“In true Prine-fashion, the legendary songwriter took the opportunity here, and across the album Tree of Forgiveness, to tell someone else’s story. Carefully, he steps into the shoes of someone longing for a lost loved one. Simple, yet transcendent instances of imagery shape a story of heartbreak. Summer’s end is around the bend just flying / The swimming suits are on the line just drying, he recites with characteristic candidness. The verses conjure up the hollowness of holidays after a loss…” " Credit: American Songwriter Magazine website: American Songwriter
Android App For SubStack is now available! - click this link to access the download link from the Google Play site (Note: you’ll probably see this announcement for another week or so as word gets out to Android users). I haven’t seen the Android interface yet, but if it offers the convenience the iOS version does, it’ll be a hit. I read a lot of other SubStacks and having new posts clearly identified, all in one place is mighty handy.
Hope you caught yesterday’s revitalized Thursday post - it’s definitely nearing summer’s end and so we’re back to 2 posts a week, Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s posts will emphasize links to articles, websites, and such, while Friday posts will be more thematic to whatever we’re exploring at the time.
I did offer one new thing, which may or may not be exciting to readers but I thought I’d try it and see if there’s any response. If you have an idea, something you’re working on, something you’ve recorded, and you just want someone to hear it, I’ll post it on here. Thinking this through a bit more from yesterday, I decided on two different formats. First, if you want to send something and remain anonymous, and just want it to be heard, and aren’t seeking feedback (good or bad), great! Send your Acapella, .mp3, .m4a, .aiff, or any other format SubStack can handle (I have no idea what all of those might be) to this “anonymized” email address with your desire to remain completely anonymous clearly indicated:
marks_forces0o@icloud.com (Note: You’ll have to cut and paste the address into your email - trying to link it just took me to Apple’s sign in page - also, I’ll see your return email address, but won’t post or identify it or you unless you specifically say I can).
I’ll post your file without comment and turn off comments for that post only (if I get a few, I may wait until I have several to post all at once), so no good comments, but no trolls either. Downside - no clear copyright protection.
On the other hand, if you have something you want heard, want feedback on, want to ensure your copyright is protected, great! Send it to the same email, but ensure you’re clear that you want feedback from readers, your copyright information (I’ll include it with the disclaimer “Used By Permission”) is valid and you want it known. I’ll put those in a separate post and leave comments turned on.
I personally won’t comment on any of them and leave that to the community, but I will deal with trolls and demeaning/disrespectful comments, if any, as best I can, including just not doing it anymore.
I have no idea if anyone is interested in this, but if you are, we’ll try it and if it’s not a disaster, maybe it’ll be kinda cool.
So we’ve been discussing, generally, songwriting and recording, both home and pro studio, and the merits of each, including having the “stems” (individual vocal and instrumental tracks in a project in your DAW) with processing (plugins and such) or not and whether to have that product professionally mastered. Short answer: yes, but if you actually know what you’re doing, maybe. If you just want a “scratch” recording (kinda like what used to be called a demo on reel to reel tape, but now taking advantage of much more advanced technology to produce a much higher quality result), either to send out to someone, or perhaps more likely, copyright as a master recording with the US Copyright Office, so you secure your rights to your arrangement, you may be able to do that on your own with some practice.
Seems Like A Good Place For A Quick Review - if you copyright your lyrics, or sheet music/lead sheet scores, you own “composer” rights, and at the same time, a business entity you own will own the “publishing rights”. If you copyright a sound or sound and video recording of the work, you will own the “master recording” rights as well. What do you actually own? The right to bring an action for copyright infringement if anyone uses your lyrics, melody, or arrangement without paying you royalties. You can’t deny the right for anyone to use your copyrighted material, so long as they pay royalties based on the rights you own, so it’s best to own all three - composer, publisher, and master recording - rights. As an independent artist, you’re in the best bargaining/rights enforcement position (but: attorney fees). If you sign with a label, you will most likely have to sign away, at least temporarily, your publishing and master recording royalty rights, but the advantage there is they’ll defend the copyright interests they own. Unless you can actually write or produce in your DAW an accurate score in the form of sheet music or a lead sheet, a master recording that conveys the melody and arrangement is the best way to secure rights to those. Chord progressions can’t be copyrighted, so a chord chart with lyrics may not be evidence of arrangement or melody, making enforcement of your copyright claims more difficult.
If you’re going to have your song either recorded, mixed, and/or mastered at a professional studio, with a professional audio engineer/producer, a conversation about costs that leads to some sort of written agreement, even if it’s just an invoice, is probably a good idea. If you’re an unknown, first time independent recording artist, the studio is likely not interested in “splits” with you. A “split” is an agreement for percentages of expected royalties between musicians performing together, or a studio mastering and producing a sound recording. A common device for memorializing the arrangement is via a “split sheet” - you can find numerous examples for free on websites after a cursory search. A split agreement is likely only if the musicians or studio/producer are confident the final product is going to generate enough royalty income via whatever percentage you’ve agreed on to exceed their flat fees for performing, or studio and mixing/mastering time and effort. As a budding artist it’s not likely you’ll have the bargaining power to “choose wisely”, but they will. You can shop around for studios/engineers/producers, but a bargain up front may mean you get exactly what you pay for, and a price cut may mean a delayed or worse, unfinished, final product. Best to pay the price to a studio (and studio musicians) with a great reputation after a consultation so everyone is clear on price, splits if any, and responsibilities from the start. “Responsibilities” don’t just fall on the studio - you’ll have an obligation to show up on time, prepared (meaning you rehearsed so you’ve got it nailed) and able to follow instructions from your engneer/producer and cooperate with fellow musicians.
So enough to think about for this week I think. Give some thought to sending a lick, a riff, a short bit, maybe just a chorus or bridge or something you’re working on to the anonymized email above and we’ll see how it goes.
Bonus Round: So you want to….
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic