By Nathan Drake & Barry Neil Shrum Warner Music Group's ("WMG") year-end financial reports for 2010 came as little surprise when you take into account two factors: (1) the general economic downturn in the U.S. and (2) the continued piracy in the global music industry. See the report on WMG’s website here. WMG has been [...]
I have to put a plug in for my brother, C. Kim Shrum, whose collaboration with the artist, Lance Songs, Baby Be My Valentine was released this week on iTunes. You can check out the production here. My brother has been writing songs as long as I can remember, and is one of the reasons [...]
What songwriters can do to protect their ideas when submitting demo tapes to publishers Every songwriter has heard the words "sorry, we’re not accepting unsolicited material" from at least a dozen publishers. In fact, in a recent informal survey conducted by Law On the Row, two-thirds of the thirty publishing companies contacted indicated that they [...]
Beginning this Saturday, Feb. 14, legendary radio station 650 AM WSM will move its acclaimed Bluegrass Underground series to a new time slot. The program will now broadcast on WSM every Saturday night from 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. CST and stream worldwide at www.WSMonline.com. A performance by Nashville bluegrass band, The Steeldrivers, will be [...]
I have often advised my clients in the past that the new direction for independent artists is what I refer to as "guerilla" marketing, meaning finding alternative means of marketing your product. One of the most explosive methods of doing that over the past few years has been the Internet. One of the problems with [...]
What songwriters can do to improve their negotiating strength in an entertainment deal A very common theme among my songwriter and artist clients is the subject of how they were "ripped off" by their record label and/or music publisher (for purposes of this general publication, I'll refrain from using the actual, more vivid terms often [...]
