Monks Jazz Club
Musicians Need To Be More Informed
RECEIVED Mon., July 21, 2008
Dear Editor,
Kudos to you all for your coverage on the Live Music Task Force, “Rockin' Solutions: A Four-Piece Combo” [News, July 18]. I am a local folk singer-songwriter, and an aspiring personal manager who majored in commercial music management at Austin Community College, a very prestigious program taught by music industry professionals. And yes, "musicians desperately need savvy, professional career management" in "the Live Music Capital of the World.”
The last artist I courted to sign a management agreement, Star de Azlan, moved to Nashville and signed a huge record deal with Curb Records. My pet peeve is how recording studio owners have been completely reluctant to sign any work-for-hire agreements that insure songwriters retain 100% of their intellectual property rights in any digital content created in these studios. Especially when these studio operators can download an artist's material at the click of a button, and be selling this material on some music website out in cyberspace … and the artist doesn't even know that they are being ripped off!
Musicians that I have counseled are completely clueless (i.e. lack of professionalism) when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid concerning artists' rights and ownership in the "termination and renewal provisions" of the Copyright Act!
Many artists in Austin are having their intellectual property rights compromised due to ignorance of the copyright laws! Artists are unwittingly being ripped off by unscrupulous studio owners, and in turn, losing control of their intellectual property rights, as well as vast sums of money in the music business.
ACC is churning out ethical personal managers like me, but getting an artist in this town to sign a management agreement is like trying to pull teeth from some studio owner. Musicians won't sign these contracts … and I won't do a bunch of free grunt work for them without this agreement in place.
P.S. To all the dummy, know-nothing musicians in Austin, a booking agent books you gigs at 10% … a personal manager is a career counselor, and we generally earn a 20%-25% commission fee. You'd be surprised how many dumbass musicians in Austin don't know the differences between a booking agent and a personal manager! "I wonder if you'd think I'd flipped … if I went to Nashville … via Omaha!"
Kudos to you all for your coverage on the Live Music Task Force, “Rockin' Solutions: A Four-Piece Combo” [News, July 18]. I am a local folk singer-songwriter, and an aspiring personal manager who majored in commercial music management at Austin Community College, a very prestigious program taught by music industry professionals. And yes, "musicians desperately need savvy, professional career management" in "the Live Music Capital of the World.”
The last artist I courted to sign a management agreement, Star de Azlan, moved to Nashville and signed a huge record deal with Curb Records. My pet peeve is how recording studio owners have been completely reluctant to sign any work-for-hire agreements that insure songwriters retain 100% of their intellectual property rights in any digital content created in these studios. Especially when these studio operators can download an artist's material at the click of a button, and be selling this material on some music website out in cyberspace … and the artist doesn't even know that they are being ripped off!
Musicians that I have counseled are completely clueless (i.e. lack of professionalism) when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid concerning artists' rights and ownership in the "termination and renewal provisions" of the Copyright Act!
Many artists in Austin are having their intellectual property rights compromised due to ignorance of the copyright laws! Artists are unwittingly being ripped off by unscrupulous studio owners, and in turn, losing control of their intellectual property rights, as well as vast sums of money in the music business.
ACC is churning out ethical personal managers like me, but getting an artist in this town to sign a management agreement is like trying to pull teeth from some studio owner. Musicians won't sign these contracts … and I won't do a bunch of free grunt work for them without this agreement in place.
P.S. To all the dummy, know-nothing musicians in Austin, a booking agent books you gigs at 10% … a personal manager is a career counselor, and we generally earn a 20%-25% commission fee. You'd be surprised how many dumbass musicians in Austin don't know the differences between a booking agent and a personal manager! "I wonder if you'd think I'd flipped … if I went to Nashville … via Omaha!"
Hank Startrain
San Marcos
San Marcos
