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Welcome to Just Plain Notes
Just Plain Notes: Volume 1.170, June 30, 2008
Written by Brian Austin Whitney
Visit the Website: www.jpfolks.com
Mail CD's @ 5327 Kit Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46237
Copyright 2008 Just Plain Folks Productions.
Just Plain Folks Member Population: 51,578
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Would you like to join the JPF message boards? It's quick and
easy. Just click this link and choose a password and user name
and you'll be posting in no time! We'd love to hear from and
about you. Once you register, say hi on the boards and get involved!
To register: (It's separate from JPF membership):
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?action=agree
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Just Plain Quotes:
"Think of how stupid the average person
is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." -George
Carlin
"I don't have hobbies; hobbies cost money.
Interests are quite free." -George Carlin
"It's never just a game when you're winning."
-George Carlin
"Everybody dies, but not everybody lives
the life they want. Have you?" -Brian Austin Whitney
My Take:
When NBC commentator Tim Russert passed away
a few weeks ago, one of the most interesting stories I heard
about him in the coverage came from his old boss Jack Welch.
Jack said that when Tim was negotiating his last contract,
he did so without an agent, which was unheard of. His only
concern in the negotiation was that he could keep doing his job
for at least 12 more years, which would represent 3 full US Election
styles. He was so passionate about his work that the money
didn't matter to him, only the comfort of knowing he could keep
doing what he loves no matter what. On the day he died, he was
in the sound booth doing exactly that. Though it's really sad
that he's gone (he was a great fair minded journalist) isn't
it great that his priorities were in the right place. A big
contract will never be paid out. But he got to do what he loved
up until the last moment. We should all be so lucky right?
We've always strived to provide our members
with some motivation and support to pursue real world success.
To me that means learning to write better songs, learning to
perform better and learning how to make enough progress in your
passion to keep doing it. That might mean an extra gig here
or there to cover the cost of the babysitter needed to give you
time to play. That might mean learning how to sell 10 more CD's
at a gig so you can quit the part time job that takes you away
from playing. That might mean getting a placement for one of
your songs on a TV show or movie so you can make enough money
to go to a songwriters workshop to improve your craft. You
get the drift. Sure, we've been very fortunate to boost and
then cheer on many JPF members who have crossed over into mainstream
popularity and success, but we all know the truth is that out
of our 52K members, most of you simply won't reach the pinnacle
of success in the music industry. But so what? Our goal is
to help you be like Tim Russert and keep doing what you love
for as long as you possibly can.
Just Plain Folks has been around now for 10
years. We started with 60 people in a chat room on AOL and
now have over 50,000 members in over 150 countries around the
world. Like Tim, I've never done this for the money. I work
hard to find enough sponsors (several of which we feature today
in the newsletter) to give us enough funding to do the amazing
things we do and keep it all free for you. Our awards passed
the half million song mark this year and getting to do that program
is like Tim covering a presidential election. Like Tim, I always
want to make sure I can keep doing this as it's my true passion
in life. My goal has never been to die rich, but rather to
live the richest life I can while I am alive. Everybody dies,
but not everybody lives the life they want. Have you? If not,
I bet you still have time to do it.
If you love to make and perform music, I hope
you'll get even more involved with Just Plain Folks as we enter
our second decade. We'll do everything we can to educate you
(or find the answers when we don't know them) and point you in
the right direction. All our volunteers do this for the same
reason. We love being facilitators as much (or maybe even more)
than you love writing and performing music. The more involved
each of you are, the more likely we'll also get to keep doing
this. I'm game if you're game!
Here's to our second decade of JPF and rest
in peace Tim and George. You guys certainly lived the way you
wanted and left the world a better place for it.
Learn, Succeed, Thrive. We're All In This
Together!
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Just Plain Notes Table of Contents:
A special welcome to all the new JPF members
who joined us via CD Baby last month! As always our newsletter
is long, but you can quickly find what interests you with the
table below and your scroll bar!
01. 2008/9 JPF Music Awards Sponsors: Please
check out the folks who make it possible!
02. 3 Consecutive JPF Members Win $5000 Grand Prize at Ourstage!
Will YOU be next?
03. Article: How To Fix The PRO/Venue/Songwriter Conflict by
Brian Austin Whitney
04. Disc Makers Offers JPF Members $50 Discount PLUS lots of
valuable career guides!
04. 2008/2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Update
06. TAXI: Want to see some real world success stories? Check
this out.
05. Free JPF Mentor Song/Lyric Critique Program
06. JPF Member MySpace Database and CD Baby Gallery
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2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Sponsors!
The following JPF Community Partners (plus
OurStage, Disc Makers and TAXI who are listed in later articles)
are sponsoring our 2008/9 Music Awards:
CDBaby: The best place to sell your CD's or
music files on line. They also have the best on-line hosting
service called Hostbaby. Nobody else even comes close. See
them at www.CDBaby.com and www.Hostbaby.com.
BMI: Broadcast Music, Inc.(BMI) is an American
performing right organization that represents more than 375,000
songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of
music and more than 6.5 million works. BMIs most recent
financial results, $839 million in performing right collections
for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, were the highest for
any copyright organization in the world. BMI has represented
the most popular and beloved music from around the world for
over 65 years. The non-profit-making U.S. corporation collects
license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes
as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it
represents. Visit them at www.BMI.com
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Ourstage Starts July Contests and pays 3 JPF members $5000 each!
I want to remind you that our newest Just
Plain Folks Community Partner Ourstage's July contest is about
to begin and over the last 3 months since JPF partnered with
them, one of our members has won the $5000 dollar Grand Prize.
Ourstage Grand Prize Winners: (All JPF Members!)
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March: Jillian Goldin: (World)
April: SGX: (Techno)
May: Cobalt and the Hired Guns (Singer-Songwriter)
June: (We have over a dozen members in the running for today's
finals!)
In addition, tons of our members have been
finalists and won the $100 dollar genre prizes. We also submitted
3 JPF member names for a shot at performing at the Newport Folk
Festival. They are adding several brand new genres to the current
50+ they already have (Rumor has it that it includes Bluegrass/Roots,
Spoken Word, Industrial, Ska and some others). It's all free
to enter and participate and it's a great tool to gauge what
people think of your songs compared to the others in your genre.
And for those who think it's just musicians
and their fans voting for their own stuff, I checked out their
site stats and found that they have 1.2 million unique visitors
each month. Even if all 50K of their artists visited and voted
that's only a tiny percentage of their visitors. Their largest
segment is in the prime 12-17 age group which are the people
driving the commercial music industry. They also have amazingly
cool performance opportunities at most of the major music festivals
for people who do well in the rankings. I strongly recommend
even the top full time professionals reading this to get involved.
It's really worth the effort and once you're loaded up, you
really don't have to do anything else. Just register, post a
song in any genre that meets your style and see what happens.
If you finish in the top 50% they will automatically re-enter
you the next month. The earlier you enter, the better chance
you have to move up during the month.
JPF members get special consideration due
to our partnership for all the performance opportunities. So
make sure you register with the official JPF link so they will
know you're eligible:
Click this link to Register:
http://www.ourstage.com/go/jpf
Once you register, upload your songs into
any channels you like. They will sit there until the July voting
starts and they'll be in the starting blocks at the begging of
the race. You can track how you're doing almost up to the minute
at any time during the month.
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Brian Solves The Music Industries Problems: (Well... at least
he's trying)
In the USA, we're having a raucous election
season which just got more intense with the recent skyrocketing
prices of gasoline here. (About 20% of our members live outside
the USA in case anyone is wondering why I am explaining the obvious).
Right now lots of people are offering up some extreme solutions
to this problem which always go a lot farther than what either
parties candidates are really willing to consider. The reason
is obvious, both parties benefit a great deal from contributions
from those who make a lot of profits in this environment. So
they don't want to bite the hand that is feeding them. Nonetheless,
I joined the fray of those with radical ideas to fix the US energy
problem and posted it on my blog last week. (I won't re-run
it, but here's a link if you're curious: http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/624893/page/1#Post624893
So it occurred to me last night that perhaps
we need to offer up some similarly radical ideas to fix our own
backyard, the music industry. Before I offer up the first idea,
I want to say that I welcome responses and feedback with one
caveat: It's always easy to pick apart ANY plan, no matter how
good it is. So rather than simply telling me how I am nuts and
it would never work (which I am sure some of you will conclude),
I ask you to ALSO suggest an idea to fix it that you think is
better. After all, if you don't have a better idea, then mine
must be the best one available, no matter how flawed. See where
I am going here? Okay. So let's start with an easy one. If
this experiment has some interest, then we'll try another one
next month.
Problem: PRO's (Performing Rights Organizations:
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), Music Venues and Songwriters all seem to
have a problem with the way Performance Royalties are collected
and distributed. The PRO's are always battling to get venues
who use live or recorded music in their venues to pay for it.
Venues are always frustrated because they think they are being
overcharged (many don't want to pay anything at all) and they
are frustrated that there are 3 different PRO's in the US who
might bill them (though I rarely hear about SESAC billing anyone),
and that the process itself feels more like a random shake down
than a specific program with open criteria for who must pay what.
The songwriters are frustrated because none of the PRO's in
the US actually monitor and pay based on what is played in the
venues. Instead they pay based on radio airplay and extrapolate
that venues must be playing the same selection of music. Most
active performing artist/writers know that's not remotely the
case. Most cover songs fall towards the classic rock or standards
(i.e. "oldies" for lack of a better term) and the rest
are usually a handful of predictable bar or wedding songs that
also aren't getting a lot of current radio play. Then there's
the original music performed across the country that almost never
sees a penny of PRO money. We've all heard of bands who play
6 nights a week in venues and do 100% original music and they
never see a dime of the license monies paid by the venues.
My Radical Solution:
First: We standardize the licensing costs
to include all sizes and types of venues, all types and varieties
of music usage and we combine ALL 3 PRO's into the fee structure
based on their market share. (In other words, out of every dollar
of license fee, each PRO gets the percentage of their catalogs
based on the songs in their catalogs and the airplay involved).
This would result in 1 single bill paid by each venue and later
divided by the PRO's after the fact.
Second: We standardize the collection process
by making it a federal license which has to be maintained in
the same way as any other business license. Since the federal
government determines that we must allow others to use our music
under a statutory rate system, they should also put their muscle
(thus avoiding local interference) into the licensing process.
So instead of a sort of random process of venues getting billed
(i.e. we all know venues around the country that get charged
and others that don't for no apparent reason), every venue will
get billed based on publicly available criteria making it all
fair and up front and predictable. Thus, if you want to open
a coffee shop, you know beforehand that you must pay X amount
of dollars if you plan to include live or recorded music as part
of your atmosphere and appeal. If you choose not to license
and are later found to be using live or recorded music to enhance
your business, then you'd be fined in the same way you'd be fined
for not having a business license in the first place. With 100%
of venues using music paying the license fees, it's likely the
fees would actually be lower for everyone who's been paying,
and the PRO's would actually bring in more money to pay to their
writer members. Everyone wins in a far more fair and transparent
system. With the government enforcing the license, we'd also
end the claims that representatives from PRO's are shaking down
small venues.
Third: Tracking all the songs individually
performed at every venue is not a productive or cost effective
chore for the PRO's. Let's be realistic about it. However,
I have a solution. Each PRO would pay out based on their current
model (which is radio Airplay) with this exception: Their members
who perform live would be able to post play lists on a database
which is available to all 3 PRO's. They'd list the songs performed
if they wanted their own work to be registered as having had
airplay. They'd list the name of the licensed venue and that
information would allow the PRO's to credit an appropriate value
to that song being performed at that venue. Since we know many
musicians, especially those playing ONLY covers, may not bother
to register their play lists, the PRO would simply use their
current model, minus the registered play list values to make
payment. They could also set a minimum agreed to and voted
by their members (let's say $20 dollars a month) where they wouldn't
make payment if it was below that total.
For me, this type of system means more money
for writers and the PRO's, and less hassle for the venues. It
means that someone who plays exclusively original music will
likely get a fair compensation for their original work being
performed. It means that venues will know up front the cost
of using music and they will understand what that fee is based
on. It also means that the hoards of venues paying nothing
at all right now will come into the fold. If they see no value
in having live music in their venue, they can make that choice.
But they can't use it for free any longer. No one will get
blind sided and no one will face big lawsuits that they will
always lose (a PRO has never lost in court against a venue not
paying a license fee as far as I am aware).
JPF is in an unique position in that we love
and support all 3 parties involved in this issue. We don't want
any of them to get a bad deal. BMI is one of our community
partners. We've dealt with hundreds of venues around the world
where we do our Roadtrip showcase events and our local chapter
shows. And we have over 50,000 members, many of which are songwriters
(as well as artists and music industry professionals and venue
owners etc.). This system seems to me to be 100% fair to all.
It requires less work in the end by everyone except the artist/writers
who would need to track their play lists and enter them into
a database. But they could choose not to and they'd simply not
get paid as happens today. If they took the time, they'd finally
be compensated for their work.
If you agree or disagree with this, give us
your support or your criticism AND your better solution here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/629519/page/1#Post629519
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Community Partner Disc Makers Offers JPF Member Discounts and
Career Guides
I want to remind you that our friends at
Disc Makers are also offering a JPF member discount right now.
All you have to do is tell them you're a JPF member when you
make an order and you're receive $50 dollars off your first CD
order. They also have a lot of helpful books and CD's they are
offering our members for free. Just click this JPF member link
to get their catalog of products and services and also receive:
-Sounding Your Best: Mastering Techniques
from the Pros DVD
-Achieving Success with your Music DVD
-Fast Forward Newsletter
-Making A Great Master Manual
If you call them, also ask for their brochure
on Tips to get Radio Play. There's lots of great advice there.
Here's the JPF member link to Register: http://www.discmakers.com/jpfolks
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2008/2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Update
We've received nearly 40,000 albums and over
500,000 songs already for this year's awards process. To put
it in perspective, the Grammy's usually have about 1000 albums
entered each year. We've gotten music from over 120 countries
(and counting) and we expect to have nearly 100 music genres
based on the music we've received and checked in so far.
We are about 2/3rds of the way through the
first round and we're amazed at the quality of the music this
time around. Usually there's about 30-40% at the bottom that
is poorly written, recorded and performed. That isn't the case
this time around. The grassroots music community has really
upped their game.
In addition to the genres we had last time
around:
A Cappella, African, Alternative, Ambient,
Americana, Asian, Bluegrass, Blues, Cabaret, Cajun/Zydeco, Caribbean,
Celtic, Celtic Instrumental, Children's, Children's Storytelling,
Classical Concerto, Classical Chamber, Classical Orchestral,
Classical Voice/Opera Solo, Classical Voice/Opera Choral, Classical
Soloist, College Rock, Comedy, Compilation, Contemporary, Contemporary
Christian, Country, Cover/Tribute, Dance, Educational, Electronica,
European, Experimental, Female Singer-Songwriter, Gospel, Hard
Rock, Hawaiian, Holiday, Indiana Classical, Indian Contemporary,
Industrial, Instrumental, Instrumental Jazz, Jewish, Klezmer,
Latin, Live, Male Singer-Songwriter, Metal, Middle Eastern, Modern
Rock, Native American, New Age, World, New Folk, Novelty, Polka,
Pop, Punk, R&B, Rap, Reggae, Rock, Rock Instrumental, Rockabilly,
Roots, Roots Instrumental, Salsa, Self Help/Meditation, Solo
Guitar, Solo Piano, Solo Instrumental (Non Piano/Guitar), Soundtrack,
South & Central American, Spoken Word, Storytelling, Surf,
Techno, Theater/Stage, Traditional Folk, Vocal Jazz & World
We are planning to add some or all of the
following:
Ska, Smooth Jazz, Prog Rock, Death Metal,
Flamenco, Funk and several additional variations of Jazz, Electronic,
Latin and Ethnic Music. And we're open to even more if we find
enough good stuff.
Common Questions:
Here's a FAQ with lots more info:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=581726&page=0#Post581726
1. So when will all of this be finished?
The answer is we don't know. Remember the
final entry deadline isn't until December 31st, 2008. We will
take as long as needed to thoroughly screen all the music and
give recognition to the music that moves us most. We estimate
that we'll have the nominations out in early 2009 and the Awards
show probably 8-10 weeks after that. (So perhaps nominations
in February and the awards in April).
2. Can we enter more material?
Yes. You can send us any additional music
(for example, if you have material that wasn't on CD Baby if
you entered digitally or if you missed the deadline) up until
August 31st, 2008. See the FAQ link above for details on how
to mail in an entry.
3. If we have a release coming out AFTER August
31st, can we send that in as well?
Yes. We will accept any music released AFTER
August 31st, 2008 up until the end of the year. We can't accept
any music that was released previous to that time. The reason
is that we can't keep adding large numbers to the gigantic amount
of music we already have that late in the game. For the smaller
number of new releases however, we are prepared to handle them
as they come in until the end of the year.
4. Can we send music in digitally?
No. Our deadline for digital entries is passed.
We can only accept entries on CD mailed to us following the
instructions outlined in the FAQ linked above.
5. How will I know what is going on with the
awards?
We will always update you each month in the
newsletter or bulletin. You can also check on the message boards
for info or to discuss anything. We welcome you all to visit
the message boards. Here's the link to register: http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?action=agree
You are also always welcome to email me directly
at jpnotes@aol.com or my personal email address jpfolkspro@aol.com
with any questions. I personally read every JPF email and usually
respond within 24 hours. If I don't, please resend as I likely
missed it somehow. I've met over half of our 52K members in
person and I'd love to meet or hear from the other half of you
as well.
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TAXI: Here's some real life success stories from folks just like
you who use TAXI!
People always seem to question whether or
not TAXI members get deals, and if so, how many or how often.
I get emails all the time from our members who have gotten songs
placed in TV shows and movies and made other valuable contacts
through TAXI. They also post about them on our message boards.
But we don't really have a reason to keep track of them all.
Fortunately, TAXI themselves have collected some of those stories
for you to check out. You'll see a lot of real people, just
like you, who have used TAXI successfully.
One of the most common questions we get is "Does TAXI really
work?"
It's amazing that with just minimal research
they could get the answer to that and many more questions regarding
TAXI. Click this link to see how effective TAXI is at helping
its members get deals.
http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?board=success
Once you do that, you can also get all sorts
of great tips from Michael Laskow's (Founder of TAXI) newsletter
and get a complete info kit by visiting their site here: http://taxi.com/elisting.html
(In the box asking where you learned about TAXI, please put
"Just Plain Folks" in there so they know we all appreciate
their sponsorship.
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JPF Mentor Lyric Critique Program:
If you're a lyricist or songwriter and you'd
like to participate in a really excellent critique program with
JPF mentors Harriet Schock and Pat & Pete Luboff, visit this
special message board on the JPF site where it all takes place.
Every 2 weeks we invite members to post a lyric or a lyric and
link to a song file and a mentor chooses one to do a public critique
which will effectively teach some valuable writing lessons.
Next, our fellow members offer their own critiques of the song
and have a discussion about it. Then the mentor posts their
own detailed critique and additional discussion takes place including
the writer. Its one of the best learning tools weve
ever used and its all free to participate in. You can
read the previous 25+ weeks of critiques which are wonderful
learning tools themselves.
Heres a link to the main page:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/115
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JPF Member "MySpace" Database and "CDBaby"
Gallery
Jeff Van Devender on our message board has
created a database of any JPF members who have MySpace pages
as well as a Gallery for any of you on CD Baby. If you'd like
to be included in either or both, here are the links for each.
This is another networking opportunity
To be added to the JPF MySpace Database for
networking, post your request here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=472838&page=0&fpart=1
To be added to the JPF CD Baby Gallery, post
your request here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=162674&page=2#Post162674
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Copyright 2008 Just Plain Folks Productions |