Ask Grooves Anything (About Business)

[DerpyGrooves]

Technically, I am a business consultant IRL. Need help with promotion, marketing, kickstarter, bandcamp, etsy, intellectual property, whatever? Ask your questions here.

[ExoBassTix]

How does Bandcamp's function to sell CDs work? A bit of a vague question, I know, but I don't really know how else to word it, so I hope you understand it :S

[DerpyGrooves]

How does Bandcamp's function to sell CDs work? A bit of a vague question, I know, but I don't really know how else to word it, so I hope you understand it :S

Here's a quick overview.

Here's how to do it.

Essentially, bandcamp does not STORE nor SHIP merch- they are not a fulfillment service. That said, there's nothing stopping you from delegating the task of printing and shipping CDs to someone like Kunaki by doing something like this. I hope this gets you pointed in the right direction?

[ExoBassTix]

Yea that's exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks!

[CDPP]

What exactly does a copyright license do?

[DerpyGrooves]

What exactly does a copyright license do?

Uh, there's a couple different flavors, but generally a copyright license is a legal device that gives the holder the rights to copy, as well as to be credited for a given original work. It also gives you the rights over adaptations, performance, and over who may benefit from said work.

[S.P.P]

What exactly does a copyright license do?

Ontop of what Grooves said, they're what earns a musician their money. Copyrights (authorial rights) means the writer is entitled to royalties for their works provided they are registered with a relevant collection agency. For example, if you are a member of PRS for Music, you are entitled to royalty payments whenever your material is played in ANY public forum (including playing your own stuff live).

That's a really basic explanation, but the whole thing is kinda complicated. I hope between me and Grooves you get the idea. If not you've got my Skype. :3

[Coloriot]

What's some good places to promote your work other than EQD?

[JSynth]

OK, I have a question about a hypothetical scenario.

Lets say, in a few years from now, I become successful enough to make music my full time career. I set up a "company" where all the money that I make from what I do (youtube videos, album and merch sales, etc.) is sent to. The "company" then pays me a flat salary. I would be the only member of this company.

My question is: If all my personal income came from the "company", would I technically be self employed?

[DerpyGrooves]

What's some good places to promote your work other than EQD?

Reddit is really nice? If you can find the appropriate subreddits, they're normally super receptive to self-promotion?

Other than that, whatever social networks you happen to be into. Tumblr, Twitter, maybe even facebook? I'm sure there are others, but developing an upvote brigade and exploiting reddit has been great for me personally. I'm sure a lot of other people have other resources they would like to mention?

That said, the best way to promote your music is to do the following:

1. Be prolific. (MAKE A LOT OF MUSIC.)
2. Be gregarious. (MAKE A LOT OF FRIENDS.)
3. Be sincere. (DON'T DO IT JUST FOR THE MONEY.)

OK, I have a question about a hypothetical scenario.

Lets say, in a few years from now, I become successful enough to make music my full time career. I set up a "company" where all the money that I make from what I do (youtube videos, album and merch sales, etc.) is sent to. The "company" then pays me a flat salary. I would be the only member of this company.

My question is: If all my personal income came from the "company", would I technically be self employed?

If you are employed by a company of which you are the head, you are indeed self-employed.

[DerpyGrooves]

Don't trust record labels. There's nothing a label can do that you can't do for yourself. Collectives for the sake of convenience? Yes. Bands for the sake of collaboration? Yes. Guilds for the sake of protection? Absolutely.

Labels? Absolutely not. In this day and age, there's no reason for record labels to exist and moreover, there's literally zero reason you should ever give up the publishing rights to your music.

This is obviously a little bit of a rant, but record labels are seriously evil, insidious, music-killing entities, and you should never, ever ever ever, ever sell your soul to one.

For a good alternative to corporate record labels, check this out.

[the4thImpulse]

I disagree with most everything you say about labels. There is no doubt that some labels are 'evil entities' but so say each and everyone one of them is evil is completely incorrect.

There are many, many smaller labels that are truly in it for the music and the musicians. They also have the connections to have your music featured/sold on the websites you want you music featured/sold on. Labels are also where I go to find music tailored to my own tastes, they help keep things organized and efficient. It's the artists, and/or their lawyers, job to settle on the right contract with a label. If the contact has bad intentions then there is always another label with a better offer, with modern day technology there are far more labels to choose from.

[DerpyGrooves]

I disagree with most everything you say about labels. There is no doubt that some labels are 'evil entities' but so say each and everyone one of them is evil is completely incorrect.

There are many, many smaller labels that are truly in it for the music and the musicians. They also have the connections to have your music featured/sold on the websites you want you music featured/sold on. Labels are also where I go to find music tailored to my own tastes, they help keep things organized and efficient. It's the artists, and/or their lawyers, job to settle on the right contract with a label. If the contact has bad intentions then there is always another label with a better offer, with modern day technology there are far more labels to choose from.

I think everything you're talking about is more effectively handled by a musical collective? A musical collective features many of the trappings of a label- Connections to media outlets/websites, cross-promotion, as well as stylistic unity, without the need of any given member to revoke his or her publishing rights. A lot of these organizations style themselves "labels", but work in a different way from a functional standpoint than corporate megapublishers like EMI or Universal Music Group.