Recording - July 2015 - 57

Continued from page 50
ent business models, companies going in business,
going out of business... ASCAP, BMI, SESAC are in
a quandary about what to do about life in general.
Money is going down; everywhere I look money is
going down. It's not just Taylor Swift taking stuff off
of Spotify. The Performing Rights Organizations
are paying less money; the companies are paying
less money for license fees. This is a tough business.
Find someone that you can talk to who knows what
to do and it will help you.
Tanvi: Can I say something about that? There's a
proliferation-not just in music-licensing companies; that's been going on for years-but now
there's a proliferation of companies that are doing
these sort of Let us be your digital administrator
deals. And it's like the one click gets you all that
money out there that's worldwide, that's just sitting
in the PRO's bank, waiting to be distributed to you.
And all you have to do is click a button and you've
opted in, and you've opted into something that, if
you haven't read the contract correctly, or looked at
it closely, [you may have agreed to something that
you may not have wanted to agree to] I run into
that. I have gone up against these people, and it is
not a fun thing to deal with, and there isn't that
much money out there that you're losing by not
reading... I mean, you should be reading that contract before you click through to having a digital
administrator. It's a land-grab; it's another form of
a land-grab, and it's going on, not just in the U.S.,
it's happening in Canada. I've seen it in the U.K.
And it's another way where "the man" is taking
advantage of your inexperience and the fact that
you're not going out trying to find out what is out
there and what is really going to work for you. All
you have to do is Google some of these names, and
you will see the negative feedback that comes up as
a result.

ness, and you have to figure out if you're going to
put in the work to learn it, or are you going to pay
somebody to do the work for you. And if you have
to pay them, well, then you have to work twice as
hard, because you have to learn it, or you [need to]
make the money to pay them.
Steve: But here's the difference... And he's
absolutely right. You either pay someone or you
learn it yourself. Where is your time better spent?
Is it better spent reading contracts, or is better
spent making music? I could change the oil in my
own car if I had to. It would take me about five
hours; I would be all greasy. Or I could pay Jiffy
Lube $50 and grab a Diet Coke while I'm waiting.
Matt, what's your musician perspective on that?

Matt: I agree with that absolutely. You know, I find
it increasingly that it's better to pay people to do
things for you that you don't like to do or you're not
good at. So absolutely, that's better. But also, if it's
early in your career and you don't have any money
to spend, then maybe you can get free education, or
you can pay a little bit like I did to get education
from somebody who really knows what they're talking about. I'm not pretending that I know every
deal out there, that I could legally understand every
deal. But I understand the deals that I am offered,
and understand when there is something in there
that I don't understand, and then I go to a professional. So I agree with what Jeff said absolutely. You
have to decide. Don't think, "Yeah, I'm smart
enough. I am so smart I don't have to ask anybody."
That would be a big mistake.

Jeff: Your $5 that are missing isn't that much to
you, but they conglomerate and aggregate that, and
they get $5 from 50,000 people or something. And
that's what they prey upon, quite frankly, and then
they take a lot of rights.
But what I wanted to say is that it's all about
empowering yourself with a lawyer and getting all
this knowledge. But you are musicians, you are
artists-a lot of you are performing artists-and
you want your stuff out there. You are here because
you want to make money on it. The main thing is
that you have an ego, and your ego says, "I want this
out there. I want to be heard, and I want to make a
living doing it." You have to decide without your
ego though. No one needs to know it, but you need
to humble yourself and you have to decide, "Am I
intelligent enough to understand all this stuff, or do
I need someone else to help me?" And you have to
shed that ego in order to make money in this busi57

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