Ame one Loves You

Last night before I went to bed I got a couple of emails from BMI. One was my application approval and the other was from Lisa Jacquet. Lisa Jacquet email explained to me that it is BMI’s policy for all artists who reside abroad to fill out a W8 form. At this point I was feeling like things are finally getting done. Since it was late and I was tired, I figured that I would take care of setting up my account and filling out that form and send it in. I went to bed a happy camper

This morning I get up check my mail, and there is also a message from Laura Smith that says pretty much the same thing about BMI policy. No big deal because there are 2 people working on my application. After reading that I go setup my account on the BMI website. Then I decide that I’ll go write on my website about how everything has been resolved and that I am no longer irritated with BMI because things finally got done in a quick manner even though it took a little over a month.

When I logged in to write my post I found a comment waiting to be moderated. How odd I thought, because no one ever leaves comments. Usually these are just spam comments that slipped by the spam catcher. In fact I didn’t think many people actually read anything here outside of the Kontakt and Logic information.

To my surprise the comment was for the previous post BMI Part 2. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Here’s the comment:

Dude really…why are you being such a big baby….they are asking u to fill out one paper…regardless of what your friends tell you…if this woman is telling you what they need you to send them in order to proceed with the application process then just do it. Clearly she knows for what purposes it is needed so who cares what paper your friend tells u you need to fill out your friend doesnt work for the company now do they?

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reply to it or not. As I mulled it over, I decided to go check my web stats. I’m such a big statistic junkie for my site. I mostly view the logs so I can add content that caters to what people are searching for and to see what is popular amongst my posts. I noticed that the BMI posts were getting most of its views from the same ip address range. In fact the comment came from the same IP range. I then did a reverse DNS lookup of that IP and behold to my astonishment, the IP of the comment and majority of the views of my BMI posts are coming from the BMI.com IP address range. After seeing that my new feeling of happiness with BMI has vanished.

At this juncture in time, I’m really considering canceling my BMI account. This overall experience has left me wondering what kind of things should I expect from BMI in regards to future treatment.

Hi guys and girls at BMI, thanks for reading. Remember Ame one loves you!

If you read the previous post about BMI you would know that I am irritated with them at the way my application process is being handled. This morning, I finally get a response from Laura Smith. Actually two responses.

In the first response she tells me that I need to fill out the attached W8-BEN tax form and mail or fax it to her. Sounds reasonable, just got to fill out form and fax it over and my application will be taken care of promptly. However, it’s not that easy. United Stated citizens do not need to fill out a W8 form. That form is for foreign nationals and other foreign entities. It even says at the top of the form, “Do not use this form for: A U.S. Citizen….” The irony about this is that a few weeks ago I had asked my accountant friend about whether I needed to fill out a W-8 form or a W-9 form for the Sound Exchange application. His reply was fill out a W-9 because you are not a foreign citizen.

The second response was that she forwarded my email to a co-worker who is working on my application.

After reading those two emails this morning I responded saying that I do not need to fill out that tax form because I’m not a foreign citizen. I’m just a citizen living abroad.

Be sure to read the next and maybe final chapter of this story: BMI Part 3: The Conclusion

Recently I have had the pleasure at getting annoyed with BMI. Before I get into it, let me provide some background to it.

At SIQ Records, we are asking all the artists to sign up with a Performance Right’s Organization (PRO). The reason is we are hoping to start licensing music out and for publishing. After reviewing the three main PRO’s, in America (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), we recommended that the artists sign up with BMI. The main reason is because it is free to sign up with BMI. Some of the artists on SIQ are kind of in bad financial shape. It was felt that the free signup of BMI would be best and not be any financial burden to the most impoverished of artists. ASCAP requires a one time fee of $25 and SESAC is selective in who they choose to represent. Also from what I understand ASCAP and BMI are non-profit and have an agreement with the United States Government. BMI sounded like the best choice for a poor struggling musician.

Now, on with the story. After harassing many of the artists to sign with a PRO, I decided I needed to get off my butt and do it to so that I can say I did it. After all I am an SIQ artist and I also wanted to get it accomplished so that I could answer any questions that the artists might have when applying and registering their music.

On June 3, 2008, I applied online with BMI. When the application process is finished it displays a message saying please wait 3-5 business days to receive an email confirmation about your application. I wait for 5 days and nothing arrives in my email box from BMI.

June 8th, five days after initially applying, I decided that I should email BMI to find out what is going on with my application. Also, I was getting some questions, from SIQ artists who already joined BMI, about song registration. Two days later I get a response from BMI. It wasn’t quite the response I was looking for, but it didn’t bother me. It turns out I emailed the wrong department. I emailed the “Online Services Registration” department. I was not sure who to email because on the “contact us” page of BMI.com, in the list of choices there were email addresses for “Online Services Registration” and “Online Works Registration.” I made my choice on what I thought was relevant. The response I got on June 10th from the “Online Services Registration” was that I emailed the wrong department and that the were forwarding my message to the correct department which is the “Writer Administration” department. There was nothing on their contact page about that department nor was there any way to find it unless you went to the online application page.

Three days later I get a reply from Laura Smith from the “Writer Administration” department about my inquiry. She asks me to provide some information or my BMI account number and she will check on my application. There’s some irony, I don’t have a BMI account number because I never got my confirmation email with the BMI account number. At this point I’m pretty happy things seem to be moving along. I respond to her with the requested information.

After that email I was patient. I was thinking that BMI is a big organization membership wise, so they must be busy, so it might take a couple of days. So fast forward to June 27th, I decided to email Laura Smith again to see why there was no response. Once again no response.

Yesterday I decided to search about online application registration problems for BMI and somehow ended up on the online application page. They completely changed the look of that page. So I decided to try to apply again, maybe my application got messed up during the website change. After I fill out the form and press the submit button, it gives me a message saying that because I live in Japan, I have to download an application and mail it to them. They could have at least put a notice on the application web page somewhere saying that.

At this point in time I’m pretty irritated about BMI. Especially that this whole thing could of been taken care of a couple of weeks ago. Laura Smith could of responded to my email and said something along the lines of that because I’m in Japan I need to send in a paper application or that there was a problem with my application and a way to correct is by sending in a paper application.

Now, I’m questioning whether BMI is a good choice? Should I sign with them? Was it a good idea to recommend the SIQ artists to sign with them? I really don’t know the answer to those questions. However, I’m considering my other options for PRO representation. My choices are ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors & Composers) or JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers).

So in the end, I found BMI to be not very helpful.

Update: See BMI Part 2: Response From Smith for the next exciting chapter in this saga.

Yesterday I was walking around Umeda in the underground in the ekimae building area. I the basements of those buildings there are some used record stores. They actually have a lot of good stuff, but a little pricey. Records are sold at their value. I guess I’m just used to the days of going to Jelly’s and picking up records at a great bargain. Going to these records store, raised a question. What is the difference between downloading an mp3 and buying a used record/cd/tape?

If you buy a record from a used CD store, you are giving your money to the store. It’s not going to the artist because it was already purchased once. The used music market profits off of artists, but the artists don’t profit off it. All profit from a used album, belongs to the store.

Now what about downloading an MP3? If you buy it from an online digital music store, the artists gets some sort of money from it. If you download it through other means, then the artist is not getting anything. This is the part it gets fuzzy for me. I’m in no way advocating digital music piracy, but if you follow the logic, of the physical used music market, both are not contributing anything to the artist. That leaves the question what is the difference? Actually to me it sounds like buying used music is worse than downloading it. The main reason is that money going to the second purchase is going to someone other than the artist.

So now in this argument we are at a point where it appears the used physical music market sounds like more of a detriment to the artist. Is that really the case? Some questions about digital music piracy needs to be addressed before we can make a decision on which is worse for the artist. Is there money in digital music piracy? Are these pirate groups and individual profiting from it? Off hand I would say no. I have never heard of anyone making money off it. There is money in illegal physical duplication of music. It is probably the case that majority of the music in that arena is downloaded illegally. Although it’s a valid argument to use, I am ignoring it because it would require us to look in to black market economics.

The next question I have is, where does the music online come from. Do these groups acquire the product legally to begin with? Some probably do and some probably don’t. If they do acquire it legally, the artist is getting paid. If they stole it, physically stole the album, then the loss would be relegated to the normal loss of sales due to theft. This is another tricky point. Here’s a scenario I thought about. What if someone stole a CD from a music store. Then he made copies of the CD for his friends, and they in turn made copies for their friends, and so on. Does this sound familiar? It should, it is the same principle as peer to peer sharing and it is also the way file music sharing worked before everyone started having an internet connection. In this physical copying case the winner would be the bland CD-R manufactures. They are profiting off the artists music in this scenario. Now what if the person who stole the CD decided to sell it to a used CD store after making copies for friends and personal use? Now he is gaining from the artist and as previously stated the reseller of used music is profiting from someone else’s creativity.

As I have read previously, in some article about music piracy (I read a ton of thing on digital music marketing and such), downloads of music need to be accepted as another avenue of loss. In the end it really comes down to the person. Some people will always download music, some will download some music and purchase some music, and some will just purchase and never download. Then there is the last category, although rare, some people will never buy or illegally download music. These people would be the ones content on listening to radio/ internet radio and just downloading free legal MP3s.

Today I had a very interesting and insightful conversation about the music industry. In this conversation I promoting my current standpoint that albums are not the right model for the current times. I feel that EPs and singles are the way to go. Let’s examine the 3 models and you will see that albums might not actually be completely dead but can serve a purpose, slightly redundant however.

For as long as I can remember I bought albums. The thing I loved most was opening it and looking at the cd booklet or fold out panels that were in cassettes. That was one of the things I kind of miss these days with digital music. I still love looking at liner notes but for a totally different reason. I like seeing who engineered the track and where the samples came from and all that. The reason I am against the album is because it don’t think it is cost effective any more. First off time. It takes quite a but of time to release and promote an album. When you are writing an album, your name value is declining. Meaning that people are forgetting about you and only your hardcore fans care. But even with those fans your name can decline especially if you take too long to release any new product. Essentially I find it to be a catch 22. Promoting takes time away from creating music and creating music takes time away from promoting. So if we kill off the album that leaves us with singles and EPs.

But my last line in the first paragraph says that there still is a purpose for an album. I did think of one. Its not something I really like though. Let me tell you a little story, I remember seeing greatest hit albums of bands that have been around for a long time or who have broken up. As time went on, I started to see more of these greatest hits albums coming out with younger artists. It never dawned on me until tonight why these greatest hits albums are created. The obvious reason is it creates product in a time of no product. However I think the real reason is because of the reason I hate most albums these days. The greatest hits album is an album filled with the good music that the artist produced. While their regular albums consist only of a few good songs several mediocre songs. This is where I think albums have a good role. Just to clear up when I mean album I don’t mean cd. I’m referring to what it is with the medium it is on. It’s just several songs released at one time.

In the title of this post it says EP’s are the new albums. My reasoning is that a mini release allows you some time to promote and then go back and create more. It enables you to make more product available in a shorter period and keeps lessens your name devaluation. In addition you can just put your good songs on the EP and leave out the mediocre ones. Better for everyone.

Singles seem to never die. I never really did like the single format. I always thought they were over priced for what they are. But then I guess I can attribute that to the greed of the record labels and their price fixing. Ever since I got in to djing and drum n’ bass, I been more accustomed to thinking in terms of singles. Things move so fast in the dance music world that if you take too much time you it will pass you by. This is why I like singles, more product available quicker and less promotion leaving more time to make more product.

Of these 3 formats I like the EP best it’s the nice happy medium between albums and singles. Don’t be scared to promote the idea of EP’s being the new album and praising longevity to singles.

First off happy new year to everyone. May 2008 be a better year than 2007.

Today I had the pleasure of reading an interview with Trent Reznor on wired magazine’s website. It made me realize that I’m kind of out of touch with the music world. Mostly the business part of it. So maybe I’m the last one to get on the train that music these days is free whether we like it or not. I think some of the points that he touched on were pretty good. Especially about how the way the big labels work. I really should say thanks to Mr. Reznor for opening my eyes. You should read the article, it’s great just a little boring in the viral marketing campaign section. I can not do it justice through a summarization, check the link below.