In my prior blogs, I gave you some tips on finding an entertainment attorney, tips on selecting an entertainment attorney, told you about the benefits of having an entertainment attorney, and even gave you tips on firing an entertainment attorney. Also in prior blogs, I gave you tips on how to save money and make the most of your music money. Now I wanna help you save on entertainment attorney fees! Yes, you can save yourself a lot of money in entertainment attorney fees. Again, before I do that, let me put my disclaimer here: These pages are created to inform and educate the public only. They are not and should not be considered legal opinions or advice. You do not and cannot have any client-attorney relationship with me based on these blogs. You should not act upon legal advice found here but are instead advised to seek professional counsel before taking any action based upon information found on this blog.
Okay, with that being said, here's how you can save money on entertainment attorney fees:
1. Educate yourself!!!!!!! Read some of these books on the legal side of music business that I've recommended. Click here to see my list of recommended books.
2. Select the right entertainment attorney! Again, read my blog on how to select the right entertainment attorney. Selecting the right entertainment attorney will save you money from having to fire the attorney and then start all over again with a new entertainment attorney who will likely bill you for the time it takes him or her to become familiar with everything your prior attorney did or needed to do.
3. Ask the right questions! If you educate yourself on the business, you won't spend time asking your attorney questions that you should know, such as what is a copyright? what is a trademark? Sure you can pay an entertainment attorney by calling him or her with these same questions but why when you don't have to?
4. Do it yourself! While I do highly, highly, highly recommend getting an entertainment attorney's advice, there are some things that simply do not require an attorney's help. The Internet has made it so that you can do some things just by researching them on the Internet and filling out the paperwork yourself. For instance, you can fill out a copyright form yourself. You can find and fill out split sheets yourself. If you wanna know some of the things that I'd suggest you get an entertainment attorney, click here!
5. Go to music conferences! I stress over and over in my blogs that I go to music conferences. Some conferences have a whole panel with entertainment lawyers or at least have one or two entertainment attorneys on a panel who provide their legal advice just to the attendees. At the recent ASCAP I Create Expo, there was a whole panel just on that. The entertainment lawyers told attendees that for that one hour panel discussion, they had saved themselves $1,500 in attorney fees! For a complete list of 2008 music conferences, click here or here!
6. Do things right the first time! Lawyers and attorneys are brought in sometimes when the problem is big. By that time, you have to spend a lot of money in attorney fees fixing a problem. If you know you are struggling with doing things yourself, I'd suggest you SAVE money by hiring an entertainment attorney and avoiding a lot of back end legal fees. For example, it's a lot cheaper to start or fight a copyright infringement suit with a registered copyright form in place than without one. Another common scenario: At a recent conference I went to, some entertainment attorneys told the story of one of their clients who didn't find out if the name he used was registered as a trademark, the client used the name, the name became popular because of the client, and then suddenly when the name became popular, someone in a distant city in another state noticed that someone was infringing his trademarked name and prohibited the client from using the name! Moral of the story: do it right the first time.
I want to caution you though that cheaper isn't always better. So really weigh all that I've said in my prior posts on when to get an entertainment attorney and this post on when you don't need an entertainment attorney. Google this issue some more and then make your final decision!
Much success!
Thedy B, Attorney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
myspace.com/hitsamillionllc
interviewed.blogspot.com - contains interviews of top producers, songwriters, & music execs
globalmusicbusiness.blogspot.com -helping you go global with your music
musicpanels.blogspot.com -missed a music conference, find some clips of it here
mobilemusicbusiness.blogspot.com -go mobile with your music, find ways to do mobile marketing
musiclabels.blogspot.com - find out information on new record labels recently launched
hitsamillion.ning.com - network with other producers, singers, songwriters, and beatmakers
Showing posts with label music money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music money. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Creative Uses of Your Music Money
As I mentioned in my last blog, when I attended Patchwerk Studio's Music University IV, Coach K, Snake, and Melinda Dancil all stated that artists and artist managers need to be creative with their money. In other words, artists and we as songwriters must be smart with our money. You might not have agreed with me that paying $75 for people to attend Patchwerk's Music University IV was relatively expensive for a one-day conference. Some of you may not have even hesitated to spend the money. That's great. But I've decided to be more conservative, i.e. smart or creative, with my time and money. And I heard this said also from DJ Tony Neal at the Southeastern Music Awards in January 2008. At that event, he cautioned the indie artists about looking better than the major label artists who have deals, especially when the indie artists aren't working and do not have a deal but have wrapped vans, bling, designer clothes, and other expensive items to promote themselves. In other words, make sure you are getting your money legally, first! Then next stay within your budget and use your money for things that are really going to enhance and further your career. So some things just simply aren't worth my money.
Here's 6 tips on how to be creative with your music money (more will follow in future blogs):
1. Instead of continuously buying studio time, consider investing in a home recording studio. You can go to outlet stores, Guitar Center, and other music gear retail stores and buy music recording software (such as Pro Tools, Logic, Cake Walk, Fruity Loops, Nuendo, etc.) and equipment (mics, cords, headphones, speakers, mixer, and compressor) for approximately $2,500 - $3,500 depending upon the brand of the equipment.
2. Instead of buying cheap music equipment, be smart with your money: invest in quality equipment.
3. Want quality recordings? Invest in plug-ins. Invest in yourself to learn to use it or build a relationship with a studio engineer or a place that will mix and master your records.
4. If you a ghost songwriter and you have an okay voice and you pay to have other singers sing your songs for you, consider investing in a vocal coach instead. Yes, they can charge on average $25/hr to $100/hr. But again, you will recoup that money over time when you don't have to wait for an artist to fit your demo work into their time, when you don't have to pay anyone else to sing your songs, when you can sing the song exactly how you want it sung without having to spend time with vocal production having to teach the song to someone else, and when you save time.
5. If you press up a lot of CDs, it may be smart to purchase a CD/DVD burner instead of continuously using a CD duplication service.
6. Even smarter, purchase jump drives to store your music and to pass out to people. It holds more music than a CD/DVD. It won't skip and you won't have problems with scratches. However, because jump drives are so small, I do recommend buying something like a key chain or lanyard (if your jump drives doesn't come with one) to help you and whoever you give the jump drive to, to keep up with your jump drive.
Thedy B, Attoprney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
http://myspace.com/hitsamillionllc
http://hitsamillion.ning.com/
Here's 6 tips on how to be creative with your music money (more will follow in future blogs):
1. Instead of continuously buying studio time, consider investing in a home recording studio. You can go to outlet stores, Guitar Center, and other music gear retail stores and buy music recording software (such as Pro Tools, Logic, Cake Walk, Fruity Loops, Nuendo, etc.) and equipment (mics, cords, headphones, speakers, mixer, and compressor) for approximately $2,500 - $3,500 depending upon the brand of the equipment.
2. Instead of buying cheap music equipment, be smart with your money: invest in quality equipment.
3. Want quality recordings? Invest in plug-ins. Invest in yourself to learn to use it or build a relationship with a studio engineer or a place that will mix and master your records.
4. If you a ghost songwriter and you have an okay voice and you pay to have other singers sing your songs for you, consider investing in a vocal coach instead. Yes, they can charge on average $25/hr to $100/hr. But again, you will recoup that money over time when you don't have to wait for an artist to fit your demo work into their time, when you don't have to pay anyone else to sing your songs, when you can sing the song exactly how you want it sung without having to spend time with vocal production having to teach the song to someone else, and when you save time.
5. If you press up a lot of CDs, it may be smart to purchase a CD/DVD burner instead of continuously using a CD duplication service.
6. Even smarter, purchase jump drives to store your music and to pass out to people. It holds more music than a CD/DVD. It won't skip and you won't have problems with scratches. However, because jump drives are so small, I do recommend buying something like a key chain or lanyard (if your jump drives doesn't come with one) to help you and whoever you give the jump drive to, to keep up with your jump drive.
Thedy B, Attoprney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
http://myspace.com/hitsamillionllc
http://hitsamillion.ning.com/
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