Copyright Registration

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Once your music-publishing company is set up, you'll want to protect all the songs currently in your catalog from potential copyright infringement before making any preexisting demos broadly available for other people to hear. Protecting your songs entails establishing a creation date for each with an unaffiliated third party. One way to do this is to register your songs with the Copyright office.

Registration forms can be downloaded for free (www.copyright.gov/forms). Use form PA (Performing Arts) for registering sheet music with the Copyright Office. You can use form SR (Sound Recording) to register both an audio recording of the song and the underlying composition--melody, lyrics and arrangement--at once. The recording needn't be the fully produced version of the song; it only has to clearly convey the music and lyrics in order to protect the underlying song.

When you register your new songs with the Copyright Office, make sure you list your publishing company (not yourself) as the copyright owner, noting in the appropriate section of the registration form "transfer of all rights by the author(s)" as the means by which your company procured copyright ownership from the songwriter(s). By registering your company as the copyright owner, you give it the authority to issue licenses and collect revenues for the song's use by others.

You'll also want to transfer to your publishing company any songs previously copyrighted under your name. You may record this transfer with the Copyright Office, but it's an expensive way to go. The only practical reason to record copyright transfers with the Copyright Office, however, is to protect yourself from conflicting transfers (that is, someone else claiming that the song's copyright was transferred to them and not to you). This is moot if you're the only author of the song, as nobody can register a conflicting transfer unless you gave them your contractual consent to do so.

A valid, no-cost solution for transferring a song written solely by yourself to your publishing company is to draw up a simple document--signed by you and listing the title of the song being transferred--that agrees to the transfer (see online bonus material "From Me To Me" at emusician.com). You may then freely substitute the name of your publishing company in lieu of your personal name on all copyright notices for the song, such as on CD's and lyric sheets.

More Saving Strategies tomorrow...

Flyin High Again

Ozzy Osbourne via last.fm

Conventional wisdom is musicians are fungible. If one dies or quits, you just get another. But players are not like cars, which you crash and then replace, they're not like workers on an assembly line, in the best cases they're unique, which is why we love them so, which is why their legends live on long past their deaths, which is why when bands pick up and go on without them, they're oftentimes missing a crucial element.

Ozzy Osbourne's album with Zakk Wylde, "No More Tears", is almost a masterpiece. The last worthwhile thing the Ozzman has done, it's listenable from start to finish. But after that, nada.

But, before that...

Ozzy was seen as washed-up. A fat joke.

And then he hooked up with Randy Rhoads.

Mr. Rhoads had played with Quiet Riot, which had only managed success in Japan. This was years before "Cum On Feel The Noize". Randy bolted from the initial incarnation along with Rudy Sarzo and joined Ozzy's backup band. And you couldn't pass a Saturday night in Los Angeles without hearing "Flying High Again" on the radio.

Ozzy's vocal is enticing. But it's Randy's buzzsaw guitar that shreds your brain, makes you jump like a snake chopped into bits, across the room, to drop the needle on the track once again.

They say today's acts are just as good as the classics. I won't say it's an impossibility. But just because you top the charts, you're not as great, as talented, as endearing as those who came before. That would be like equating "The Da Vinci Code" with "Anna Karenina".

But it's not only Mr. Rhoads. A man I never knew and have no personal affinity for. It's also Keith Moon.

Like "Flying High Again", I heard "The Real Me" on shuffle on my iPod.

Let me start with John Entwistle. The Ox who never moved on stage. He stood stock still. But his fingers positively danced over his bass strings. Up and down. He was channeling sounds we were unaware of, transmitting them to the audience. He was such a virtuoso, hit the notes so effortlessly, that he never got the credit he was due.

Sure, Daltrey could sing. And Pete not only wrote those songs, he came up with the riffs. But the underpinning was Entwistle. And Moon.

Did you ever see him?

At this point, Ginger Baker was seen as the best drummer in rock. After all, he played with Eric! But the Who was always one step behind. They peaked after not only Cream, but the Beatles and Hendrix too. With "Tommy". Which they performed in its entirety twice, at the Fillmore East, in the spring and fall of 1969.

To watch Keith Moon was better than any Disney ride. He didn't seem human. He locked on to some vibration. And then he hit the drums in sequence, crossing his arms, positively scrambling like a spaghetti-limbed automaton. More powerful than anybody, louder than anybody, and more inventive, more CREATIVE than anybody.

The band's apotheosis is "Who Next". A better album cannot be named. But if you want to hear great playing, check out "Quadrophenia". Where the instruments exist in their own spheres, air between them, yet come together to render a delicious whole.

The Who, like Ozzy, is still on the road. Give credit to the musicians for carrying on. But both acts are missing something. The players that made them great, that cemented their reputations.

And that's sad. But although we can no longer see these legends live, we can listen to the records. And that's why they still sell, are still stolen, are so desirable today. Because listeners can hear that undefinable genius.

Anybody can play, but not anybody can be great.

Anybody can learn scales, technique, but that doesn't mean they add to the canon, that they transcend what became before, that their work burns itself into our brains and never leaves.

This music used to be the most important cultural element. TV was a joke. Movies a collaborative effort that simulated reality. But when these players, these great bands, took the stage, it was life itself!

That's what sold the records. That's what sold the tickets. You couldn't even get in the building. Desire was just that great. To see these twentysomethings testing limits, having honed their skills in basements and clubs when few were paying attention, only to get so good that they transcended everybody else. Sure, they wanted money, chicks, but the music was an end unto itself. There was no big media machine. Only the high of playing with your bros on stage, for an adoring audience, which could never get enough.

Baby Steps

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An in-depth discussion of the legal requirements and tax consequences of starting your own music-publishing company is beyond the scope of this writing, so I'll only briefly summarize them here. As is the case when starting any other business, you should first choose a legal business structure (such as a sole proprietorship, limited liability company or corporation) and business name. A sole proprietor may conduct business under its own name or use an assumed or fictitious business name (otherwise known as "doing business as" name or "dba"). If you want to use an assumed name, check your state's business registry database to see whether it's available or has already been taken by someone else.

You may also need to apply to the Internal Revenue Service for a federal tax identification number (EIN). Go to www.irs.gov for a list of circumstances that require an EIN. Also, find out from your state and local agencies what the business-license requirements are for your area. I recommend you consult with a CPA (certified public accountant) for help with all decisions--and their tax consequences--related to starting your new business. State and local governments also offer helpful online resources for do-it-yourselfers.

You'll also need to affiliate your new company--and yourself separately as a songwriter-with a PRO. The PRO's operating in the United States are ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; www.ascap.com), BMI (Broadcast Music Inc; www.bmi.com) and SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors & Composers; www.sesac.com). They collect and disburse to their publisher and songwriter affiliates (or "members" in ASCAP parlance) performance royalties. These are revenues earned from the uses of a song in radio and Internet broadcasts, TV programs and commercials, and movies played in theaters outside the United States. Put another way, PRO's are essentially clearinghouses for licensing the performances of a good song as opposed to licensing the sale of physical copies or downloads, the synchronization of the song to picture in films on TV, and other uses. If you don't belong to a PRO, you'll have to individually license, keep track of, and collect payments for performances of your songs everywhere in the world--an impossible task for widely used songs.

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC all have different requirements for joining and use different payment schedules. You can belong to only one PRO at a time, but you can switch from one to another when your contract with your present PRO is up for renewal. ASCAP and BMI have a much bigger presence in the United States compared with SESAC, a fact that may have a bearing on the size of an affiliates royalties for a hit in this country.

You might also consider joining the Harry Fox Agency (HFA; www.harryfox.com). The HFA is a licensing clearing house and royalty compliance watchdog for the use of your songs in phonorecords and digital services, including downloads and on-demand streaming. The HFA does not issue synchronization and master use licenses (for film and TV placement), provide sample clearance, or license performance and print (sheet music) rights. It charges an annual membership fee and service commissions per license issued, so many start up companies choose to do their own mechanical and streaming licensing until their level of success justifies the added expense of joining the HFA.

More tommorrow...IMPORTANT...Copyright Registration

More Horse****

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That's HORSESHIT!

No, I'm not afraid of putting that in the title. It's just that if I do, this missive won't pass through your spam filters. Hell, for those of you working at companies hyping supposedly limit-testing acts, it probably won't pass through your company filters now that I've actually spelled the word out in this missive. Because that's how afraid of plain English this country is. And if you are protected from reality, how can you know the truth?

And speaking of the truth...

Every time I write about Taylor Swift, and let's be clear, I've foamed at the mouth plenty, I get e-mail from people, true pros, people I know, with big jobs, that she's auto-tuned to death, not only on record, but live. Sour grapes? None of these people are involved with Ms. Swift.

But now I know they're right.

Because I just caught Ms. Swift's opening monologue, a song, on SNL.

Holy shit, she can't sing a lick.

It's like when you're in the car and someone pipes up, singing along to the song on the radio, and you start to cringe, and ultimately need to say something, telling them to shut up, because their voice is so bad.

Believe me, I know I've got a bad voice. But I don't try to be a professional singer.

And we're not talking Bob Dylan here. Forget about the goose farts on his Christmas album (notice how now that it's dropped no one is saying a word...it's just that bad), Dylan was a student of the art, and in his heyday could sing rings around Ms. Swift. Ms. Swift couldn't even make the high school glee club. Not even the junior high version. Hell, I know, I made it once then got kicked off.

What were they thinking here?

I could blame Ms. Swift, but she's not old enough to know better.

But her handlers are.

Why reveal the truth? They almost even had me faked out. But watching this execrable performance I'm questioning the entire product. She can't sing, there are co-writers... Sure, she's got pure desire, but how much is real underneath?

Believe me, the albums are great. But what kind of screwed up world do we live in where to make it as an act, you don't even have to sing well?

I mean it's one thing if you're doing comedy.

Then again, My Son The Nut, Allan Sherman, had a better voice than Ms. Swift.

But the handlers got too greedy, they didn't know their limits. Like Master P, trying to play professional basketball. Worse, Michael Jordan trying to play professional baseball. But at least Mr. Jordan was a professional athlete.

This is the greatest case for preserving mystery in the Internet era. Hell, you didn't see J. Lo singing on SNL. Why deflate the golden goose? Do you really need this victory lap?

Call it hubris.

Not the first time we've seen this in the music business.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/107502/saturday-night-live-taylor-swift-monologue

Widespread Panic At The Orpheum

Britney Spears via last.fm

Are you catching the Britney brouhaha Down Under? Turns out she MIMES!

She's got to. In order to deliver on the audience's expectations. She's got to be the Britney from TV. Perfect in every way. Dazzling them with her dance moves. And it's almost impossible to dance like that and sing. Have you ever talked to one of those jerks who calls you when he's on the treadmill? You wonder if they're going to have a heart attack during the conversation!

But what does the audience expect? A show, a tightly choreographed presentation, something you watch and ooh and ahh to? Or a musical performance, that penetrates your body and mind?

Last time I checked, I didn't see Widespread Panic on TV. Look at MediaBase, they're not in the Top Forty either. By nineties standards, they don't exist. But it's 2010.

In the MTV-era, you had to look good. Your video had to be visually interesting. To the point where in the nineties, they wouldn't trust so-called "artists" with creative issues, too much money was at stake. Write with the usual suspects, the pros, to create something we know we can sell. And we'll employ one of the usual suspect directors to create a sleek clip. Hell, if we don't get it right, we'll scrap it and redo it! You only get one chance to make an impression. If it's not exactly right, you're toast. Kind of like the new album by Mariah Carey and the pushed-back opus by Alicia Keys. The initial singles stiffed, and the labels wanted to whip up a frenzy in order to sell a hundred thousand albums right away! Thus, the release delay. If you're phenomenally lucky, you can ultimately sell a million. Still, you might mean nothing on the road. Is this a game you want to play?

Sure, there are old warhorses like Ms. Carey, but most of the acts are brand new. Thrown up against the wall and then discarded. They all have one thing in common. They want to be FAMOUS! They're no different than the idiots on reality TV. They want to appear on TMZ and Perez. Then they'll think they've made it. But that making it is very different from the old paradigm.

In the old days you played music to get out of the mines, to get away from having a boss, so you didn't have to wear a suit and tie to work. Shit, you ultimately have more freedom going to college and learning how to code than subjecting yourself to the starmaking machinery today. Look at Justin Timberlake. He sacrificed Janet Jackson. He couldn't admit he was complicit in Boobiegate and that it was no big deal. He issued a lame mea culpa the same way a truant student tells a principal what he wants to hear. Whereas the rock stars of yore had a foolproof reaction to bullshit, to the system...THE MIDDLE FINGER!

Hell, John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus and didn't bother apologizing. He tried to explain, but the media wasn't listening, because it was too dumb. Whereas in the sixties, before the Born Again conflagration, there was no doubt the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. But you can't speak the truth. Hell, you still can't speak the truth! Just look at our inane political system!

Let me ask you...

If I told you you could wear whatever you wanted, your jeans, your favorite shirt, hit the stage to adoring fans whenever you played and get all the dope and sex you wanted, would you say yes?

This was the equation back in the golden era of classic rock. And it was all centered on the music. If you were good enough, you could rape and pillage across the world, for years, in the case of Robert Plant and Mick Jagger, FOREVER! Just by being yourself, you earned the keys to the kingdom, you lived in an alternative universe, even better than the real one.

Widespread Panic lives in an alternative universe. One where everything the dying media says is important is irrelevant. They hold the record for sell-outs at Red Rocks (with 32). They've been at it for twenty plus years, and they're bigger than ever.

Twenty plus years... Many of the Top Forty idiots aren't even that old. Do we really think they know how to play? That they've got something to say?

Now I won't say the Panic show was without visuals. There was a giant disc behind the band that featured geometric shapes, turning and twisting like at the Fillmore. And there was a plethora of animated spotlights. But the attraction was the music, plain and simple.

Nobody dressed up for the gig. The audience looked just like me. Wearing jeans. Getting psyched up for the gig had nothing to do with makeup, nothing to do with outfits, it was about head space. Were you willing to show up, relax your mind and float downstream?

Aided by substances both legal and illegal?

Sure, everybody seemed high, whether each and every one of them was or not. You see, they wanted to be set free. That's what the music used to do, that's what you're missing at the Britney show. Britney's delivering a movie, Widespread Panic is delivering a dream.

There was a drummer and a percussionist. A keyboardist dropping in delicious fills. Dave Schools held down the bottom like he had a monopoly on mud in the delta. But what was most fascinating was the guitar interplay between John Bell and Jimmy Herring.

Jimmy's amps said "Fuchs" and "Tone Tubby". This was not generic, the equipment had been hand-selected, to deliver this exact tone.

There was no click track, nothing was prerecorded. But the band instantly found a groove and laid down in it, pulling the entire audience along. And the electricity was palpable. It was like every attendee was plugged into a socket, causing them to twist and turn, jump and groove to the music.

Music. That's what's been sacrificed. You didn't used to go to the show to hear the expected, but the unexpected. The band was good enough to pull you along whether you knew the material or not. It was an ADVENTURE!

That started at 8:15 and ended at midnight. You couldn't complain you didn't get your money's worth.

So here's the part where you tell me what Widespread Panic is missing, how it can be changed into a Goliath, a household word. But the band DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK! Don't you get it? THEY'RE DOING IT THEIR WAY!

And their way is pretty good, better than yours, because almost a quarter of a century in, they can still work, they can still live the lifestyle, they can still feel the rush of the audience's applause.

You can play the old game. But it doesn't pay the dividends it used to. Rihanna may be big in the mainstream, but more people want to see Widespread Panic. If not today, definitely tomorrow.

We're rebuilding. And we're starting with music.

It's a much slower build. Flash, explosions, sexuality get instant attention. But do you really care who won the third season of "Survivor"? "Big Brother"? The endless string of one hit wonders run together. Those who make music first and foremost, who follow their instincts, their creativity, are the ones who stand for ages.

You may get screams at a Britney show, but you don't get the passion you experience at a Widespread Panic gig. At a Panic show fans feel the music. They want to get closer. They don't want to watch, they want to be a part of it!

And listeners are key. Great performers feed off the energy of their audience. How can you do that when your entire act is on hard drive?

Publishing "ALL BY MYSELF"

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There are many reasons to self-publish your songs. Keeping 100% of the royalties and one-time fees a song earns is just one reason. You also retain greater control over how your songs may be used and what those uses will pay. And assuming that you're highly motivated, nobody will promote your songs more than you. If, on the other hand, you were signed to a large music-publishing company with dozens of writers on staff, your songs might get lost in the crowd and never get the promotion they need to get cut. Furthermore, most song-publishing contracts specify that the music publisher keeps all copyrights to songs covered in the contract--even after the term of the contract expires and regardless of whether or not the company ever secures a cut for your songs.

Still, many songwriters sign with a music publisher for good reasons. It is extremely difficult and very time-consuming to make the required industry contacts with record-label A & R (artist ans repertoire) staffers, music producers, recording artists, music supervisors, and film and TV studios--contacts that major publishers already have. Being your own publisher also means taking on the financial onus, which includes demo production and replication, potential attorneys' fees, inventory, postage, phone bills, printing and more. And while all that money is going out, you've got to find a way to have some coming in to pay foir all that overhead. A songwriter signed to staff-writer deal with a publisher typically receives a monthly stipend to keep the credit hounds at bay. Even before (or despite never) getting their first cut, the staff writer earns a loving doing what they love the most--writing songs.

An experienced music publisher might also secure revenue-generating uses of your songs that you might not have thought of on your own, includingh sheet music, karaoke, video jukeboxes and musical greeting cards. They probably already have the contacts you lack with print publishers and subpublishers. The latter collect mechanical royalties for record sales and synchronization fees for the use of songs in TV shows and films abroad. (I'll discuss licensing for various uses of songs in more detail as we move along in this series.) Many successful publishers hire influencial song-pluggers to pitch the songs in their catalog, greatly increasing the chance of getting a cut. And many a fruitful collaboration between songwriters has been facilitated by major publishers having strong networks throughout the creative community.

You might be thinking at this point, "Screw the do-it-yourself approach. Give me publishing contract." Unfortunately, it's not that easy. As a highly successful producer and friend recently explained to me, the big publishing companies are interested in signing only songwriters who already have a track record of writing hits. Yet it's "lmost impossible" (in his words to get your first song cut--even if you have high-level industry contacts listening--without an influencial publisher or song plugger pitching you song. It's a catch-22.

Despite the sobering realities of independent song plugging, I love the business side of music publishing. I find managing my own music-publishing company to be exciting and self-empowering. But as you'll learn, it's also a lot of work...and it WILL distract you from your creative process. Find what you do the best and do it. Find what you do the worse and get with someone that is good at what you are not good at, team up with them and just get it done. It takes a lifetime to gain a ton of knowledge, and even then you may not get the results. As in a band, team work is EVERYTHING. Name one thing in your life, you do, can do or have done by yourself.

More tomorrow...Baby Steps to take.

Setting Up Your Own Music Publishing Company

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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.

Real Estate 101

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This is “THE PLACE” for real estate investors seeking financial success and independence through real estate investing! It’s “The Place” where truly smart, progressive, and aggressive real estate investors with a love for financial success, a sincere desire to get rich and richer (with no apologies for doing so), and an optimistic, forward looking attitude to succeed in real estate ‘gather’ to exchange ideas and share timely information about “what’s working today” in the real estate market.

Waiting for the recession to end is a death sentence. Waiting for the real estate market to recover, for homebuyers and investors to return in mass, for real estate financing to be easy again, waiting for anything? Wait and starve. The idea that “this too shall pass” is a death sentence. It’s not going to pass, in a few years, in a decade. Maybe ever. This is a comprehensive, fundamental change that you better get used to! Are you getting it? You better get very busy finding opportunities you can exploit now, as things are now, and as things promise to be in the foreseeable future. You better not wait for good news. You’d better make your own good fortune and news. This is what Successful Real Estate is all about… making money with real estate in today’s real estate market!

Even in a recession no other investing vehicle offers the ability for fast profits with little or no money down, appreciation, depreciation, cash flow, leverage, and controlled risk. If you are a new investor be sure to get my real estate investing guide, Real Estate Magic 101 – How To Get Rich In Real Estate Even If You Are Dead Broke. This real estate investing book covers home buying, investing in real estate, bank foreclosures, foreclosure homes, homes for sale by owner, short sales, lease options, flipping home/real estate, and buying houses subject to the existing financing. A must read for investors of all levels. If you purchase only one real estate investing book ever make sure it is the book above.

View our resources, check out our articles, and sign up for our free online real estate investing course. I’m not asking you to stick around… I’m challenging you to stand up for yourself, do a little kick ass real estate, and take control of your financial future.

People begin to be successful the minute they decide to be!

The Quincy Jones Music Consortium

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Q told me he had to go to Israel, to meet with Putin and other heads of state. He had to fix the Palestinian crisis before he died.

Anybody else tells you a story like this and your eyes roll into the back of your head. But Quincy's on an airplane seemingly more than he's home. He's trying to exact change. And people listen to him.

He hopes they listen to him about music education. He thinks we need it. That everywhere he goes people are listening to American music, but those in our country are woefully uninformed as to our heritage. He believes this has got to change.

Thus, the Quincy Jones Music Consortium.

Actually, he's not the only driving force. There's this guy Jeffrey Walker. A money man, presently a teacher at Harvard Business School. When he strode onto the dais and began speaking I was enthralled. Some people have a way of drawing you in and closing you, wrapping a net around you when you thought you were standing on the outside.

That's why I was in New York. For the second meeting of the Quincy Jones Music Consortium. Mostly those in music education. And Marty Albertson, CEO of Guitar Center, and Herbie Hancock, and me...

There's this organization, DonorsChoose.org Talk about the power of one.

Charles Best was a social studies teacher in the Bronx. Confronted with the challenges of the public school system. Where you've got the will, but very few of the tools. So, he created a site where teachers could put up their needs in plain English, and raise funds from the general public, seemingly instantly. It was easy to ask for the money, and usually it came rolling in. This is not a secret, Charles has been on Oprah, but watching him tell the story was inspirational. He wasn't about charisma, he wasn't about self-aggrandization, he was about results. (http://www.donorschoose.org/)

Wow. A teacher needs crayons, art supplies? Maybe only a couple of hundred dollars total? Who wouldn't give a couple of bucks. It's us helping us, in a world where there's gridlock in D.C. and those with the big bucks seemingly want a pound of flesh for the cash. Or require you to fill out so many forms and jump through so many hoops, you can't bother. Do you know how busy teachers are already?

And Charles is not the only one. Watch Carmine Appice play with the kids from Little Kids Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrrldQYS3c

David Wish was a first grade teacher in the Bay Area, in an underprivileged, undernourished urban school. He was also a fanatical musician. He wanted to meld the two. So he ran around to all his guitarist friends, told them they could either pay him the money they owed him, or give him one of their guitars. And with the resultant axes, he started a school music program. Where kids played the music they wanted to. Rock, hip-hop, everything that could be performed with guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

It's a raging success. David went on about scalability. He can instruct a teacher how to teach little kids to rock very quickly. And the cost to each individual student is miniscule.

But it is about teachers. He first roped in his aforementioned music friends. They didn't show up, they made excuses. They could play, but they couldn't instruct, they let the little kids down.

David now has 45,000 kids enrolled in Little Kids Rock: http://www.littlekidsrock.org/

And it is about teachers. Marty Albertson wants to train music teachers to do what music schools do not. How to interact with the community, to raise funds, to keep their music programs alive. He's willing to put up serious Guitar Center coin for a program called "All In" that creates multi-day gatherings to help these teachers learn how to do it.

And what do we want these kids to learn?

That's Q's passion. They've created an entire curriculum. Encompassing the history of American music. Screw kids taking lessons in order to raise their math and English scores, kids need to learn music for music itself. They need to know about their culture, where they come from, how they fit in.

But there are side benefits. There was this principal from the Bronx who told about the power of music. It kept kids in school. Students come to play. Otherwise, it's hard to keep their attention, they stay home, they join gangs.

Personally, I'd follow the wedge opened by David Wish. A simple program with results that can be easily understood. Use the excitement and passion to get kids playing contemporary music in all schools and then bring in history and orchestra behind it. You've got to start with success.

But the consortium is fighting on all fronts. They want some of that government money. And Quincy opens doors.

As for ultimate success...

I heard something brilliant from a fundraising expert. She said: "You don't need leadership if you have certainty."

Voila! That's it! People are always looking for the answer. Usually, the answer comes after the start. You've got to begin in order to find out where you're going. But if you never begin, you never get to the destination.

This is what has been lacking in the music business. It has historically been run by the labels, by the RIAA. Which are about protection of their present business model as opposed to any kind of vision, any kind of leadership. I wouldn't follow Mitch Bainwol anywhere. Nor the heads of any label. Because they've got their heads up their asses. Does Daniel Ek at Spotify have the answers? I'm not sure. But he's trying to lead in this uncertain world. Even Irving Azoff and Michael Rapino too. They're in search of answers.

When things are bad, we need to be led out of the wilderness. We've got to get behind somebody. Funny, in the music industry, the acts used to be the leaders. Some still are. Trent Reznor is a prime example. He's trying to do it without sacrificing his integrity, without selling out to the man, because music, when done right, must be pure. Shawn Fanning created a platform where all people could have all music. Was it economically flawed? Of course. But if you think restricting access to copyrighted material is the answer, you're unaware of how many sites hosting copyrighted material have sprung up since the crackdown on the Pirate Bay. They're multiplying like crazy.

So, will Quincy and Jeffrey and Marty succeed in their mission?

The answer is unclear. But they're leading. They're laying down their money and their time. And that's where you start.

http://qmusiqconsortium.ning.com/

Herbie Hancock's Story

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

We're too old.

That's what Herbie Hancock said at Quincy Jones' Music Consortium.

He told a story. Of being in Japan and getting one of the original PlayStations.

Now Herbie considers himself to be technologically adept. When he got back to the States, he hooked the PlayStation up, even though the instructions were in Japanese. But he couldn't get past the first level of the one and only included video game, involving samurai warriors. After three or four hours, he gave up.

But a few weeks later, his buddy came over with his nine year old son, Ryan. When Herbie told Ryan he had a PlayStation, the kid started bouncing off the walls, he was doing cartwheels. Herbie led him to the living room, told him he'd had trouble figuring it out and to give it a go.

Half an hour later, after catching up with his bud, Herbie returned to the living room to find Ryan on level four of the samurai game. Ryan started explaining what was going on. This warrior was a force for good, this one a force for bad, this one could be both, depending on how you played.

Point being kids today are born into technology, they've got a natural facility. We oldsters, as adept as we may become, will always be a step behind. With children it's instinct. The children are literally the future.

Oh, don't blast me for using the cliche. Too many people use children as an excuse for their lame behavior today. My point, Herbie's point, is that the kids will have the solutions. We can start the ball moving on music education, but the kids own the court.

Kind of like Shelly Berg, who runs the music education department at the University of Miami. He's now using YouTube for instruction, having students play along with some of the greats. You don't deny technology, you embrace it!

Great wisdom for the baby boomers now controlling media.

But more important is to note that solutions will come from this younger generation. Whilst oldsters go to lunch, play golf at the club, kids are coming up with solutions. Oldsters want a band that will be ubiquitous, that will rain down coin. It's necessary to support the purveyors' lifestyles. But kids are excited about music and the process first. The end result comes second. Or the end result doesn't have to be today, it can be tomorrow, or the day after that. Kids are still dreamers, they haven't had the optimism beaten out of them.

Today's kids are the anti-baby boomers. Rather than striving for individual achievement, what's most important is cohesion, being a member of the group. And it's groups that will birth the future. You can't have a successful act without an audience. And kids know how to grow said audience, and aren't worried if at first it's just thousands, and not millions. And kids today know how to use the new technology, how to stimulate and stay connected with these groups, that's the social networking revolution. Instead of putting up barriers, preventing the free flow of both information and copyrighted material, they see easy conduits. They don't believe information must be free, but they do believe everybody must have access to it.

So new methods of payment must be constructed. And the oldsters are penalized by their thinking, that starts with too many zeros. Kids today are interested in traction. And will jump to where the traction is on a whim, instantly, if their friends are there, if it's appealing.

In other words, it's about the audience, not marketing. Once a kid feels he's being sold to... You'd better have an incredible product, like an iPhone. Otherwise, not only are they skeptical, they bad mouth you.

So, when you construct an album of tunes written by old hacks, putting a pretty face atop it all, like a cherry, kids may consume the one hit track, but don't believe in the act and don't want any more. They're on to our game. The key is to find something they believe in, and will continue to believe in.

There are so many tools. And so many being invented every day. Usually, by these kids who learned how to code in school, or by themselves at home, out of pure desire. You might say the younger generation is too self-focused, too myopic, but I think you're missing the point. They've got incredible dedication to what they believe in. They don't have short attention spans, just an unusual ability to graze and pull out exactly what they're looking for. They'll spend hours, days with what truly interests them. Just watch kids playing Halo and tell me they've got short attention spans.

They get all this, we oldsters do not. Our role is not to put up barriers, but to enable kids. Give them tools, support and money so they can grow the future. Which is coming upon us ever faster. More rewarding for the individual as we go.

Just think about it. We used to hunt rare record shops for discontinued product. Kids today have the history of recorded music at their fingertips. Should they pay for it? Absolutely! But not at CD prices. And I dare you to say this is bad. To be able to tell someone about Frank Zappa's "Absolutely Free" and let them hear it, miles away, oceans away, in short order. I hunted for years for "Lump Gravy". Now everybody can have "Lumpy Gravy". You can say I wasted years, but times change, and we need to change with them.

Great acts will be born. They'll generate a ton of revenue. And they'll be a lot better, with greater longevity than the crap foisted upon the public in the MTV era. We sold lowest common denominator. Kids are interested in crap with train-wreck value, but they're dedicated to that with substance.

There's a generation gap miles deep. You might think your kid is your best friend, that you're aware of everything he does, what he's thinking, but you're clueless. Even if you steal his phone, check his texts and IM's, you don't know what's going on in his mind, the way he processes information, the opportunities he sees.

What's the cliche? Lead or get out of the way?

Make no mistake, the kids are the leaders. Either help them, or step aside.