New Music From Nashville

Tim McGraw via last.fm

NEW VIDEO! Tim McGraw "Still"
See the exclusive world premiere of Tim McGraw new music video, "Still," only at CMT.com.
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Tim McGraw | Tim McGraw Videos | New Country Songs

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NEW VIDEO! Carrie Underwood, "Undo It"
See the exclusive world premiere of Carrie Underwood’s new music video, “Undo It,” only at CMT and CMT.com.
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NEW VIDEO! Lee Brice "Love Like Crazy"
Check out the World Premiere music video from Lee Brice, "Love Like Crazy," at CMT.com.

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NEW VIDEO! LoCash Cowboys "Here Comes Summer"
Check out the new music video from LoCash Cowboys, "Here Comes Summer," at CMT.com.

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NEW ALBUM LEAK! Lonestar: Party Heard Around the World
Check out the new album from Lonestar: Party Heard Around the World. Hear it before you can buy it, at CMT.com.

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NEW ALBUM LEAK! Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Age of Miracles
Check out the new album from Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Age of Miracles. Hear it before you can buy it, at CMT.com.

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NEW VIDEO! Brad Paisley "Water"
Check out the new music video from Brad Paisley, "Water," at CMT.com.

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NEW VIDEO! Laura Bell Bundy "Drop On By"
Check out the World Premiere music video from Laura Bell Bundy, "Drop On By," at CMT.com.

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Setting Up Your Own Music Publishing Company

Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps the most commom career oriented question unsigned songwriters ask me is, "How can I get my songs published?" Many of those same writers have only a vague notion of what it means to be published. If you've already sold recordings of your songs to the public, you are a published songwriter. The federal 1976 Copyright Act defines publication (the act of publishing as "the distribution of copies of phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease or lending." Phonorecords are defined as "material objects in which sounds...are fixed."

There are a lot of ways to make money from the use of one of your songs than just selling your recording of it. Other ay cut, or record, the song. It might be used in a movie, a movie trailer, a TV series, a TV special, a music video, a videogame, for consumer advertising, for a ringtone, or for a myriad of other uses. Promoting, licensing, and getting paid for such song uses is the job of a music publisher.

Many unsigned songwriters would love to hand off business oriented tasks to a music publisher so they can focus on the creative task of writing songs. Unfortunately, the moment you sign on the dotted line with a music publisher, you give away your copyrights and half the revenues the songs covered in the contract will earn. For these and other reasons, many songwriters choose to keep all the profits and self-publish their songs.

This article will explain the basics of how to set up and operate your own music-publishing company. To keep this article to a manageable length, my focus will be on publishing your own songs. Before I get to the nuts and bolts of becoming a music publisher, let's examine the benefits and drwbacks of doing so.

Over the next week, we wil discuss this topic at great length. If you have songwriter friends, this will be the place to get the information the way that it will best apply to you.

Tip sheets are an essential, subscriber based service for music publishers. Here are a few for country music, which include the label, artist, producer(s), contact person(s) and recording schedule for each project.

Pitch This Country Music Tip Sheet (www.pitchthismusic.com) is the most comprehensive listing of current projects for major-label and second-tier (prominent indie and joint venture) companies. Published monthly, this tip sheet is generated by successful, Nashville based song pluggers, and often includes difficult-to-obtain details on what specific types of material are being sought for each project listed (for example, "Soulful, real-life lyrics with range and attitude"). Check this site out, determine if it has value to your objectives and bookmark this page.

More tomorrow.

Garth Brooks via last.fm

I guess they don't have Internet down in Oklahoma.

Or maybe Garth Brooks is still on dialup, or is too busy taking his kids to school to know what's really going on.

Apple destroyed the music business. Apple must be stopped.

Isn't that like fighting in Afghanistan when Al-Qaeda is in Pakistan?

Oops!

But this is the same government Mr. Brooks wants to protect and save the music business.

That damn Apple, allowing people to BUY single tracks! Things were much better prior to the iTunes Store, when listeners just STOLE THEM! Hell, why don't we wipe out not only iTunes, but Amazon, let's forgo licensing any Internet distribution, that'll solve the problem! I hate this crap. I write for a living and I think I am entitled to be paid for that.

As for half a day of silence... Only an old fart residing in the nineties would believe that radio still has that kind of power, that everybody's still listening. Under the first sale doctrine, we own our music, and we're listening on our iPods without worrying about what the broadcasters are purveying in between the twenty two minutes of commercials per hour.

Well, we've got to ban the iPod too!

But didn't the RIAA already try that? Suing to stop its predecessor, the Diamond Rio? They didn't win that one...

I sympathize with where Mr. Brooks is coming from. Creators should be compensated. Then again, how much? Just because you're a musician, are you entitled to be rich, to fly on a private jet?

Tell that to every other industry that's been mauled by the Internet...

No more online travel booking! You can't use Orbitz, you must go to a travel agent!

And while you're at it, no more Internet news. You've got to buy the aged news in the newspaper every morning. Or worse, listen to the inane talking heads on TV. Less information is better!

Funny how those who used to have power don't like the Internet flashlight, that sends a beam into the nooks and crannies of the power elite's business.

While we're at it, why don't we bring back Tommy Mottola! And J. Lo! You can't watch videos online, you've got to sit endlessly in front of the television, waiting for them to come up on MTV! And if you like a niche act, not a superstar like Mr. Brooks, if you like Steve Earle more than Brad Paisley, you never get to see him at all! Tough noogies!

Vegas is the right place for you Garth. It's where all the has-beens go.

I don't mind a conflicting opinion. It's ignorance I abhor.

You've got to start with the facts. People can steal music at will. How do you create a better mousetrap, that allows everyone to partake whilst paying? That's the Spotify model, that's the MOG model, that's the future we're working towards.

But you'd rather jet us back to the past.

It's like Michael J. Fox sitting at home watching reruns of "Family Ties", doomed to endure the terrible effects of Parkinson's disease. Mr. Fox didn't ask to get sick. Just like the Internet was not founded to allow people to steal music. But rather than accept his fate and stay in the past, Mr. Fox has established a foundation, he's fighting Parkinson's, he wants to go back to the FUTURE! Where he's no longer twenty, but he's older and disease free.

You get to a better place not by quelling rebellions, by denying technology, but by starting in the present and working towards the future. Isn't that the model you employed Garth? Seeing KISS and recasting their success in country music?

I've seen you perform. You're phenomenal.

But like the progenitors, your inspiration, the men in make-up, you're a has-been. And few want your new music. The way you earn our trust is making it less about you, and more about us. Hey, isn't that what the Net's about? Stop talking horseshit about retirement and truly get in the game. Create some great new material. Start tweeting, employ Facebook to get the message out. See what it's really like out there before you start running your mouth, commenting when you're clueless.

http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1624496/nashville-skyline-garth-brooks-goes-back-to-work.jhtml

Image by midnightglory via Flickr

That's why I'm here. In Nashville. I'm speaking at the International Entertainment Buyers Association. Or, I just did. You missed it!

What a fascinating crew. So many of the buyers are from fairs.

I just got a long lecture on the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. A bunch of 'ropin and 'tyin and then live entertainment, twenty nights straight! They've had Rascal Flatts, ZZ Top, the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift...

In other words, there's a whole 'nother world out there between L.A. and New York. Which might want to see people like Phil Vassar. Who performed just before me in the ballroom. I'm a fan. But he looks like a guy you'd be sippin' a beer with down on the dock. No harm meant, it's just that I expected some wiry guy who barely ever saw daylight. Or maybe it's just that it's a disconnect to experience someone so talented, who can sing and write, who looks completely normal. It's a beautiful thing.

The way the band plays. The way Phil works the audience.

You see in country music, being able to play is not enough. You've got to entertain! You've got to sing for your supper. Or, as Chubby Checker said last night, it's all about the audience. Yes, he was angling for gigs, but it was fascinating to see him work this inside crowd. He got 'em up on stage twisting, singing along, laughing, having a good time. And a good time is what it's all about, right?

Well, I'm not sure it's about a good time anymore.

Is it a good time buying a car? It's so expensive. You're afraid of being ripped off. If you make a mistake, you're not going to be back in the market for years. Kind of like buying concert tickets. Huh?

I just had a fascinating conversation with gentlemen who run an amphitheatre in Virginia. They spoke of the problems outside the metropolis.

They have a deal with Ticketmaster because so many of their customers pay cash. Ticketmaster has outlets, where they take cash. Yup, you may hate the ticket fees, but Ticketmaster is not always the bastard.

Then again, like Live Nation in New Jersey, these promoters charge a parking fee on every ticket. A buck. It's a pass through, goes straight to the city, for cops, other infrastructure. So when customers arrive, they don't have to pay, they just park.

But getting customers is not that easy. Because people just don't know about the gig!

That's their number one problem, getting the word out.

And they said that radio, newspapers and TV don't work.

In other words, they've got a marketing budget, they just don't know where to spend the money!

The days of tying in with a radio station and having the word get out are done. Now we're in the murky land of social media.

Yup, these guys have been FORCED to employ Facebook and Twitter. Because that's where the people are. No one's paying attention to old media.

You've got to have someone under twenty five working all these angles. He could be your number one employee!

And then there's pricing.

They talked about a Coldplay show, not theirs, where lawn tickets were ultimately blown out cheaply. People complained. Sure, they were mad at Live Nation, but they were really mad at the act!

Ticketmaster may have shielded the artists for a while, the public may have been too stupid to know performers have been scalping their own tickets, but the artists are now taking the hit for discount tickets. If you paid thirty dollars to sit on the lawn and somebody else paid ten, you're pissed! You may never want to see Coldplay again.

So who's going to fix this problem?

It's got to start with the acts. The days of exorbitant guarantees are done. The acts can't afford the blowback. I can't get the tickets I want, they never went on sale, and now someone paying less than me is sitting closer than me? Huh?

So far, promoters have been taking the hit. Live Nation is selling discounted tickets to fill their buildings while the artist has sat on the sideline and laughed. No longer.

That's the story of 2009. How the act suddenly has less power.

Kind of like the movie business. The $20 million paydays are through. There's just not enough money left. DVD sales have tanked. If Live Nation, if no promoter can survive, who is going to pay all these acts?

We don't have a promoter crisis, we've got an act crisis!

Sure, the promoters have issues, but the acts are not immune. They've got to give promoters tools to work with. Like lower guarantees and a share of the upside.

The major problem is getting people in the building.

Some day there might be a site telling everybody who's in town. But so far, no Internet location has broken through. Because every listing site is about money first and the customer last. Too much advertising, too much focus on profit. The Google way used to be the music business way. Build it first, figure out how to monetize it last. Be a great band first, figure out how to make all the dough last.

Speaking of dough, these Virginia promoters had multiple jobs. The days of grand slams in concert promotion are done. The margins are too thin. One of these guys is both a promoter and a manager!

The glory days of the music business are history. They'll only return when the glory days of music come back. That's in process. But it's going to take a very long time, especially if the usual suspects have their way...baby boomers who focus on getting rich first and care about the consumer last, if at all.

The Choice Is Yours

Queen via last.fm

I have focused this site mostly on the business side of my journey, the motivational, inspiration and leadership skills that seem to have placed me in the top of the league among my piers in both the music business and real estate endeavors.

Most of you know that I have always been accused of being direct. No grey in this guy's life...its either black or white, no in between. Some have even said they would either love me or hate me, but either way, they would know where they stand. I have found over the years that more people than less, actually respect that part of me.

So in that light, today I want to talk about wimps. You know, the ones that sit around and complain about everything and take no action to change the situation and make our world a better place.

I have just come through, to say the very least, a brutal week, but I am going to share with you, exactly what I did about it to bury the emotion, pick up the pieces and just plain move on...and remember as you read this "Love Never Fails" and there are countless references to the subject...pay attention!!!

On September 24 I lost a dear friend that I have written so many songs with, Tommi Jordan who took her life by an overdose of sleeping pills. There is the mystery of why, but then, why go there? She flat crashed under pressure. Now I don't want you to think I am hardcore and not sensitive. There are but a few very close to me, that I confide in, who truly know of the war between my music and the women in my life. One in particular I shared this message of death with in Salt Lake City, UT comes along and says "God is surrounding you with angels to help you with your own music, ever think of that?" So I'm thinking I have spent all of my life in service to others producing concert tours, artist careers and records etc.,and so maybe it's so. I am weak, sad and I mean, I am seriously crying over Tommi, TJ as we all called her. But who is this mystery woman with such great wisdom and why all of a sudden is it so strong, afterall we met 5 years ago but she was just a baby then, now she has blossomed and matured beyaond any mans wildest imagination? Maybe later. Damn man, it feels like Sleepless In Seatle only it's Salt Lake City.

So I am bracing to get ready for the course ahead without TJ, just minding my own damn business on September 25th. Yeah, I could of even be pouting, been emotional, maybe even a little disfunctional for the day, and...then, I get this call. I pick up the call with an attitude. Could be a good or a bad call, be positive right? So it's my daughter-in-law Brenda. Now I am smiling right cause I love her to death...wrong! She will comfort me right? She did for a minute expressing her sorrow about TJ, but then...comes the message that my step-son took his life today, "took a gun to his head, pulled the trigger, now he's dead" as Queen would say. Now I am really ready to lose it. Talk about a punch in the face. I am speechless, call Jenna my daughter and ravish through some thought after a fight with another woman and again, my mystery woman pulls me through the journey in a subliminal way with her compasionate words. She is treading lightly now, because she, as I, are completely unable to understand the nature of this part of the journey, but she is there and I am out in lala land by now. My first question to her, "Do you believe in God?" She says, "of course I do, you know that." "I am very concerned about this person we call God", I say to her. "Why" she asks. He says to me all the time, "Just keep going", says God. And I'm like "sure, it's easy for you to say, why don't you try going through this?" When all of a sudden I realize God is not only going through it with me, He is driving the car...so I get a glimpse of hope because He brought me her to help me through...Who would have ever known? She comforts with words, she utters the words of truth and love, displays the meaning of the word beauty...she is drop dead gorgious.

So I run away, jet off to Clonakilty, Ireland for the weekend to hideaway in my my favorite place in the world, escape from my emotions, figure out the new mystery woman's role of wisdom in my world, write a bucnh of songs and yeah...flat ass run away. Who wouldn't? I go here because it's peaceful, sits on the water in the south part of Cork County and, pretty much I can just say FU to the world. On the plane ride over, I get this melody rolling around in my head, team it up with some lyrics I had written for the mystery woman weeks ago with TJ and start charting what I am going to do when I get another session in a studio somewhere...thinking somewhere in Ireland would be nice, where they really get country music, where the feel is real, the roots are strong and people don't just screw with commercialized bullshit words to fit and meter to a particular groove in an awesome melody...kind of like a man and a woman truly in love, in the heat of a heightened love session...you know the kind...the feeling of oneness with each other, but I am here for a reading. Man I want that sometime in this life...a woman that will just take me for who I am and not what I do. "Suddenly" is the feeling that I get as I get into Ireland. Everything that is happening is happening "Suddenly." Quick !!! Attitude adjustment, it can be cool, be a drag or I could even consider following these special folks in my life that chose to just check out. Yeah, just for one minute, I go there. You would too, don't lie to me or yourself, its a normal thought.

So I get off the plane in Dublin, it's just beautiful even in the dark. My friend Tomas picks me up, gives me the big Irish adda' boy, chipper up lad, let's go have a wee bit of Guiness, get some sleep and write it all down in the am, pour it out in a MIDI file like syrup on a pancake. Man I was a just a wreck. All I could do was cry and I did. I cried so much that I made myself sick, conjested with headaches, torn emotions and the like. We are in the car I'm thinking, to begin the journey to Cork, which is a long drive. He tells me a friend of his is going fly us to Cork in his personal jet and I 'm so tired now, crying in pain, I don't even give a shit. Just get me to a bed and maybe even some sleeping pills...maybe I can follow TJ and my son Rick...just for a minute...I'm ok, but human. Who wouldn't follow loved ones?

Anyway, somehow through all of this shit, I get my head screwed on straight with words of inspiration rolling around in my head from the Salt Lake City, UT mystery woman, Tomas and even TJ dropping in to say "I am sorry for leaving you."..when I realize that everything is "SUDDENLY BEAUTIFUL." Yikes, attitude adjustment. One would probably pay to see this shit in a movie. I am just one with balls enough to share this shit with you because you have told me you care over and over again. I tell Tomas what I am thinking and he says "let's record it." I'm like, "now?" He's like, "yeah, right now." We are in a plane but I have no clue that this plane belongs to some producer friend of his and is all set up with portable gear to capture ideas in the air. I am smiling now, even through the pain, music to my ears and quite honestly, everything became even more "SUDDNELY BEAUTIFUL." I got 2 deaths behind me (well 24-48 hours behind me), I am in Ireland (who wouldn't want that), I am a musician in a plane with a recording studio (beats a bad orgasm) and I got the mystery woman on my mind to have the orgasm with...shit man, what else does a guy need right? Everything is "SUDDENLY BEAUTIFUL."

By now you have to be getting it. The greatest of losses in life still carry the same formula I have shared with you for years. Point A to Point B is no farther than the distance between your ears man...Your attitude is EVERYTHING!!! Everything cool so far?

Not so fast my friend. Now I get a text message out of New York right after we record "SUDDENLY BEAUTIFUL" and land, which by the way, didn't come with that orgasm from the mystery woman...cause she wasn't there...LOL !!!

Noel Taylor, one of my good friends, a producer during my tenure as the VP at MCA Records freakin dies of an overdose of sleeping pills...fuck man, what the hell? Now I am really pissed, I might even consider taking my favorite Bible verse of the day off my damn blog. I mean what kind of God would do all this to me in one week? I am thinking, all this loss, all this confusion in my life with my mystery woman, the pshchic who is driving me nuts, the music and now, holy shit, 3 funerals in one week to look forward to.

Talk about some shit !!! Listen up and listen close. If you ALAWAYS are in control of your thoughts, you can drift in and out of space like I have done here and still achieve a great goal. The world is a better place when we "believe in angels. Mystery woman, wherever you are, you have built the foundation under my roadway to survival just by sharing one thought. Thank you, I will love you forever for this, you may even be the lost chord I have been looking for. Who would have ever thought about an umbillical chord, one cut at the gates of heaven, for the purpose of the journey to earth, only to re-unite at a most likely untimely time...all along I thought it had something to do with the theory of music, instead, it's the theory of love and life."

Always remember that I love all of you that come and go on this site, pass your love and remarks to me and never forget the words of Napolean Hill; "A Winner Never Quits And A Quitter Never Wins." Even when shit happens, the "choice" is still yours on how you look at it. So to TJ, Rick and Noel, I will always love you, I will miss you and I may even see you down the line...I will finish all the music, bring into light the mystery woman to play out the final chords and spread across the world a "message of peace", because she will finally bring peace to my life, making herself and my music "one."

I chose this attitude, I could have killed myself. The word "choice" is a simple word. It's not all that simple to accomplish but we all can. Thanks for all your emails while I was out on this emotional journey, and mystery woman, "I love you."