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join PRS costs £30, MCPS £50. PPL is free to join. Chris Foster expands: “PRS, MCPS and PPL are all pretty straightforward to set up and definitely worth it if you have self- written or trad arr material.”
A
Sophie Parkes had problems dealing with the PROs, but found a solution via a music publishing service: “In the end, we used Sentric Music, and they’ve been fabu- lous. Many musicians might balk, as they take a cut, but they sorted everything out for us, helped us with our back claims and have even managed to place our tunes on television.” While Sentric does take a cut, any publisher will do the same. The differ- ence is that Sentric has no gatekeeper: they’ll let anyone in, so it’s a solution for those who do not wish to manage their own publishing and royalties.
“Publishers are entitled to take up to 50 percent of royalties,” Andrew Cron- shaw warns, “just for filling in some forms and having a bank account. Determined artists can keep their own publishing, usu- ally setting up their own publishing com- pany. It’s easy – think of a name, join MCPS and PRS [as a publisher], register material, receive the money.”
But beware: if you join the MCPS as a
writer member you may then find yourself having to pay them mechanical royalties on your own copyrights when you press your CD, as recently happened to our Edi- tor. “There’s a waiver system but it requires the label’s bank manager or lawyer to certify that you are the owner,” explains Ian A. “If you don’t have a label and therefore no label bank account or lawyer, you then hit a wall of MCPS bureaucracy. Theoretically you’d eventual- ly get it all back – minus their commis- sion – but this is clearly a nonsense.”
Worth the work?
Cronshaw believes so. “In the past, going through record labels had value for me – not so much financial as in terms of becom- ing established. Now I prefer to do things myself. It’s quite a lot of work but I can decide everything – how I record, how it’s publicised, how it’s sold – and keep track of everything. It doesn’t make me rich but I can reckon on at least recouping the costs of recording, design and manufacture. And I own everything. None of it will disappear when a record company disappears.”
Sproatly Smith – Ian Smith third from right
rtists writing or arranging material that’s performed publicly in any way – live or recorded – should join all three. As a writer-member to
But given the difficulties attracting
attention, isn’t it a case of getting a bigger portion of a much smaller pie?
“Yes, I think it is,” Steven Collins agrees. “Even within DIY, there are proba- bly people that are doing it on a much big- ger scale than I ever have, but generally I would say we just about break even. The second Owl Service album sold about 2,000 units, which I think in DIY terms is probably very good really. That was able to fund a lot of the things that didn’t make any money.”
Jason Steel agrees. “Everyone involved [with Rif Mountain] has day jobs so it’s not the be all and end all of putting bread on the table. But if you can shift 200 copies of something direct, with the money straight back to you and your costs covered, then that’s immense.”
For Nigel Spencer, commercial consid-
erations don’t even come into it at Folk Police. “Running my own label means if I want to release albums that sound like they were recorded in Bill Leader’s kitchen in 1966 I can. I wouldn’t work with some- one whose music I didn’t like, no matter how potentially commercial their work was. On the other hand, I do wish more of the people I worked with played live more often. Albums don’t sell themselves!”
“We certainly don’t run as a business,” Ian Smith says of Sproatly Smith. “All income from downloads goes onto a PayPal account, which pays for more instruments.”
It is, however, not always essential to keep the day job, particularly if you enjoy adventure. Katie Rose is self- employed and thinks that, when it comes to making a living, DIY artists get out of it what they put in.
“Basically it’s essential to go about cul- tivating the skills necessary to run a small business. The bad news is that filing your tax return, keeping accounts, writing web pages and leaflet copy, replying to numer- ous emails and managing your database takes up time and can be far less enjoyable than playing music. The good news is that if you can play guitar in an obscure tuning or sing a trill or two you are likely to be more than intelligent enough to learn the skills on the job.”
“The ebb and flow of self-employed life,” she warns, “is perhaps not for the faint-hearted. After fainting a few times, you do build up stamina. Be prepared to be flexible and to use other skills to keep your boat afloat. There are so many won- derful applications of music, such as teaching or music therapy, that can also generate income.”
For Sarah McQuaid, given her invest- ment, selling 200 copies isn’t an option. “Because I’ve spent so much money on recording, production and mastering, I have to sell an awful lot of albums before I show a profit.” Extensive gigging and pro- motion is essential in this case.
What becomes clear is that there is no one right way. But whatever your own approach, Steven Collins urges people not to wait around for a record deal: “Just get out there and do it. You’ll do things wrong and learn how to do them better next time.”
Meanwhile, Spencer is keen not to oversell the micro label as a solution. “When it comes to getting a better finan- cial deal, people are far better releasing their own stuff than coming to a micro label like mine. My advice to anyone think- ing of bringing an album out is do it your- self. You don’t need record labels, not even Folk Police.”
But before we write off the music industry and go it alone, it’s worth remem- bering that any industry – however ques- tionable its model – is staffed by real, tal- ented and dedicated people. Reducing the team to just yourself is not without its drawbacks. Producers, engineers, man- agers, A&R people and, yes, even record company accountants, don’t just do the job on their business card and take your money. Aside from capital, they offer experience, advice, support, quality con- trol and a discerning buffer between your wildest self-indulgent ideas and the reali- ties of the market. In short, these profes- sionals can save you making irreversible mistakes. One of the great lessons of the DIY adventure is understanding just how much work some of these people do on your behalf. Without them, you may need to put something else in place.
Katie Rose has this to say: “If you’re going down the DIY route, it’s really important to get the right support team around you – an inner circle of handpicked supporters who have expertise, skills, experience, advice and supportive action to offer. Well-chosen industry profession- als could well be part of that support team. Don’t be frightened to aim high and choose some of your heroes or heroines. I am now working with several of mine!”
Richard Lewis is the author of The Magic Spring – My Year Learning To Be English (Atlantic Books, 2005) and runs micro label Louba Reve Records, along with content marketing firm Delevine Media –
www.delevine.co
Andrew Cronshaw
F
Photo: Judith Burrows
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