Music Artist Resources

Welcome to a truly unique resource page. The links you’ll find here have been investigated and certified "Moses Approves®." Meaning, that they are "artist friendly" do not infringe on copyrights and provide honest valuable services for music biz professionals. While many of these links carry the Moses Approves seal, no specific agreement to trade links with these sites has been made as a condition of their placement here.

Information & News

Education
Industry
Sites

Resources
and Services

Search
Engines, Databases & Portals

Musician’s Junction Connect with musicians, songwriters, producers, anywhere in the country via this outstanding easy to use data base powered by TAXI.

IDN: Music Industry Database
The name says it all. A real nice job of it too. Everything from guitar strings to promotion companies.

NMPA – National Music Publishers Association
Great data base for finding over 2 million songs and getting a compulsory license to record a cover song through Harry Fox’s Songfile. A great free service.

SongScope
World’s first on-line independent songwriter’s song shopping engine. This site gives writers a tool for submitting material that is directly accessible to "proven music industry professionals." Confidentiality is assured. (Reasonable fee required). These guys seem to have something here.

RainMusic.com’s Free Sheet Music Guide
Features a search engine for finding any sheet music on the Internet. Presented by David Nevue author of How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet, a guide to Internet music promotion that
he updates quarterly. Excellent resource!

[back to top]

Consulting:

I compete with these folks for market share, but I still think they’re pretty cool. Hey, I don’t have time for everyone.

$10 A Question My own bargain basement consultation service. Any question on the biz– 10 bucks. Can’t beat it with a stick. Useful for those "I always wondered about" questions, and those "Am I being screwed if…?" questions or just settling bets.

Open All Nite Productions Steve Belkin, cool dude who does a lot of the same things I do but specializes in the Jazz arena. Tell him I referred you.

Music Business Solutions
Education, essays and consultations.
Hosted by the Berkley School of Music Career Development Director, Peter Spellman, author of The Self-Promoting Musician:
Strategies for Independent Music Success.
A worthy competitor of mine.

Goodnight Kiss Specializing in music supervision. This site also features information on songwriting and how to become a published writer, and how to find a career in music.

Music Biz Academy Courses on web marketing tailored to the music crowd. Caution about the "news" articles on the site. I know for a certainty that they re-publish without checking all their facts.

Medialoper Bloger Kirk Biglione has many gifted insights into digital media and its future.

The Music Bridge Music Licensing made easy.

Music Data Tracking If you think you’re owed some royalties check out this site. They charge a hefty fee but hey, it’s found money. I offer a similar service for a reduced fee, but I don’t specialize in the area like these guys do.

[back to top]

Networking:

TAXI
International resource that connects A&R (and other companies seeking music) with songwriters. Also includes a membership convention called the Taxi Road Rally. I’ve been. Pretty good. (Annual fee)

ShowBizJobs.Com
Find a job, or just pretend that you’re looking for one.
This site provides postings of opportunities in the entertainment industry.

The Velvet Rope
Once the oh-so-hip, insiders-only place to talk shit about people in the biz.
It’s still a good "exclusive" resource but, much like other velvet ropes,
eventually, everyone gets in. Powered by StarPolish Management.

[back to top]

Information & News:

Mi2N Music Industry News Network A clearing house for news about the industry.
It’s easier than combing the news groups and well written.
Includes an executive turntable; good for keeping track of who
still has a job and who’s just pretending.

They syndicate my work.

Inside Digital Media Phil Liegh’s fantastic resource. News and interviews with both Tech and music industry shakers. He claims to be two years ahead of the main stream news. Believe it.

CMJ – College Music Journal What stared out 20 years ago as a magazine, CMJ, has built itself into a mini empire. They offer a suite of tools for independent artists including, distribution, monitoring college radio stations, personalized domain names and websites for members.

POLLSTAR – The Concert Hotwire Research live events via the engine, Concert HotWire.
Great news clips as well. Widely distributed to managers and A&R.
Covertly linked to the RIAA, and therefore supports its perspective.
Pollstar is a weekly media magazine geared for the concert industry.
Also publishes several industry directories: Artist Tour Histories and Mailing Labels as well as directories on disk for a fee.

Music Law Updates The name says it all. Good resource. Stories are from around the globe, with cool little flags that tell you what’s going on where.

Kings of A&R Info on albums sales and other facts. Cool blogs too.

[back to top]

Education:

Music Schools Home page A search engine generated listing of music schools both matriculated and non matriculated. This is only a link to a search engine page, each school is not necessarily Moses Approves. Some you will recognize and others not. Powered by CNET Search.com.

National Association of Music Education – Home Page Interested in checking out which school is for you? The NAME ensures the
advancement of music education as a profession. Good people.

[back to top]

Industry Sites

When we speak of "the music industry," aside from the 35 or so major labels, who exactly are we talking about? Take a look below. These companies are key sycophants to the Big Four. Wanna make a living in pop recording? Get to know them.

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America)
The PR/lobby machine of all major labels. They’re the ones who issue gold and platinum record certifications and, well, sue 13 year old girls and their grandmothers for file sharing. A great resource for understanding how the big labels "think." Also keeps you updated on war between content companies and hi-tech.

NARAS (The National Academy For Recording Arts and Sciences) Not an Academy for science, recording or anything else really, they are owners of the Grammys®. Although they host seminars with top notch industry professionals, essentially they are self-perpetuated fund raising machine. One thing they own is MusiCares, a "non-profit" organization that holds super-expensive fundraising events honoring big recording stars and gives some portion of the money to musicians in need of health care services. NARAS keeps much of donations for "overhead."

Billboard Charts
Who’s selling and who’s dwelling.
A page-at-a-glance access to all Billboard Charts.

HFA (The Harry Fox Agency)
Want to put a cover tune on your CD? You’ll need a license from the
publisher. The HFA issues "mechanical licenses" for over 90% of the
available titles in the music market.

AFM (American Federation of Musicians)
Home page of the musician’s union, outlines their "benefits" and local
chapters. How to find a union lawyer etc. The AFM boasts over 120,000
members. They are a musician’s rights advocacy group and claim to be
the largest entertainment company in the world.

[back to top]

US Performing Rights Organizations (PROs)

PROs collect the cash earned by songwriters from having their music performed in public places such as: theaters, radio play, concert halls, clubs and restaurants and distributes the money to their members. There are three of them in the United States.

To do this they claim they have to spend about $100,000,000 each year! In the 3rd Edition of Confessions of a Record Producer, there is the only side-by-side analysis in print of who pays more. Check it out.

Their data bases are a great resource for finding out who publishes what song.

One interesting piece of data, is that ASCAP and BMI both claim to be "not-for-profit" companies. Neither is, although they do a lot of philanthropic work through their "foundations."

BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) The collection agency allegedly preferred by pop-song writers because that’s what BMI tells everyone at their huge parties. They are owned by media conglomerates which casts an eerie, dark shadow over their allegiances.

ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) The collection agency allegedly preferred by score and jingle writers because that’s what BMI tells everyone at their huge parties. (smiles). Unlike BMI, ASCAP is controlled by its members.

SESAC The RC Cola of PROs in the US. Nowhere on the site does it tell you what
SESAC stands for. Interesting. (RC stands for Royal Crown Cola, BTW.)

Read the full report on these companies. (coming)

[back to top]

Tools For Selling Your Music
Internet Distribution

Think Snocap is too expensive? I’ll bet you didn’t know that you had a choice.

MySongStore.com This is a small privately owned company that offers a tool that attaches to your website and turns it into a download store.

Musicane Take your amateur videos and make them available for sale (as well as anything else you can upload and keep about 80% of the revenue.

Digital Distributors CD Baby, Orchard, IODA, TuneCore, DRA, IRIS, AWAL. All are reviewed at this link.

Snocap The web-based device used by MySpace for selling downloads off your MySpace page. Contract has some iffy points. Let us help with this one.

[back to top]

Marketing, Promotion & Publicity

So you made a great record. Now what? You need to let everyone know about you and your scene. Get in touch with these people.

Annex Projetk Creative Maximize your MySpace page and get people going to your gigs with viral marketing campaigns by these guys. Great rates.

The Muse’s Muse – Songwriting Tips & Tools Affordable promotion and marketing solutions as well as website promotion and a resource for songwriters. An outstanding multi-award winning site.

Indiespace.com A plethora of internet music promotion resources. Specializing in music biz web hosting and gaming.

Sonicbids Tired of printing expensive press kits that end up in the recycling bin? This site offers EPK, Electronic Press Kits that are accessible by any booking agency, club or contest. Reasonably priced.

Other Resources

Inquire-Inc.com Want to find out if the producer/manager seducing you has a criminal record? This information brokerage service taps public records to find dirt on the people you’re thinking about doing business with. Reasonable and reliable.

[back to top]

Free Advice

The fact that these are listed here means that the advice they give is
useful, but is not an endorsement for their advice itself. Ultimately, you
have to use your own judgment.

The Copyright Website
An easy way to get answers to copyright questions, register your work on-line (fee required). The site is hosted by intellectual property attorney, Benidect O’Mahoney.

Greg’s Tutorials on Audio Technology Located at Barry Rudolph, Recording Engineering Services site.
I get many requests for advice on making and mixing.
I send everyone here.

The Muse’s Muse – Songwriting Tips & Tools Songwriting tips, tools, interactivities and connecting with other
songwriters around the world. An outstanding multi-award winning site.

HFA’s Frequently Asked Questions Every question you might have about acquiring permission to record
popular songs licensed through The Harry Fox Agency is answered here.
Also FAQs about royalties and other related issues.

Jack Endino’s FAQ What does it take to get started as a producer? Jack Endino, a Seattle producer who worked with Nirvana, answers this common question on his FAQ.

The Chicago Music Commission Public education programs around music and its business.

Indie-Music.com e-zine with articles and releases by indie artists.

Digital Distribution FAQ Every question you could have about the subject and more.

[back to top]

Welcome to the Revolution

Reformers, rebels and ass-kickers. Opinion sites that will inspire you to quit your day job and grow a goatee
(Oh wait, that’s not hip anymore, right?).

We are The Record Industry.com Great links to on-line news services. Features the latest in the Internet/major label wars and CD/Mp3s of artists that are featured nowhere else. Solid subversive fun. The also have an industry association directory at therecordindustry.com/associations.htm

Rock and Rap Confidential Excellent revisionist point of view on music industry happenings, peppered
with an urban bend. This site features a riveting article titled: “The Hidden History of Rock and Rap.”

Zeropaid.com The Portal for all your file-sharing needs. Get it all, and get it for free. These guys mean (no) business.

MusiciansCast.com Interviews and articles about the business for others in the business.

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) Lawyers who go to DC each year and argue music related causes to our glorious government. They host an annual event called the Future of Music Policy Summit. It’s not really the peek of anything nor is policy made at it, but it’s a great way to meet people who are passionate about change. It’s worth being on their mailing list to keep up to date. (Even though we are the same side of many issues, for reasons they refuse to explain to my face, they don’t like me. It’s a mystery.)

RAC: The Recording Artists’ Coalition Started by Eagles singer Don Henley, this group is basically like the FMC described above, except that they have more powerful lawyers who actually get an audience with Congress and have a track record of getting laws changed that help recoding artists. Tough advocates.

Creative Commons Someone decided to reinvent the wheel with this one. This site offers a new system of copyright registration that would cut out the red tape in gaining permission to use other people’s music and recordings. Even though the wheel in this case may indeed need to be reinvented and their solution is intriguing, its success will be an uphill battle, mainly because it would put many lawyers who profit off of the proverbial red tape out of business.

DigitalConsumer.org A site that believes that a consumer’s rights to make copies for himself should be unlimited in scope and outweigh the record company’s right to protect its property. They advocate a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights that will positively assert a fan’s rights to fair use. It seems like these are old issues that have been argued to death already.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) This organization has turned digital rights into a religion. Their agenda, pushed to the extreme would effectively cost the record business billions a year, but that seems to be okay with these guys. I… I don’t know. You’ll have to see this for yourself. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I think they are too extreme to the left on the issues of copyrights.

Webcaster Alliance A group defending the rights of internet radio outlets. Great articles on the development of licensing of music to internet radio and anti RIAA stuff.

Boycott the RIAA Join all who think the RIAA are a bunch of a-holes.

[back to top]

Radio Radio

Internet radio is the future of this 80 year old medium. These are the
pioneers.

Live365.com – Radio Revolution Just about the best organized streaming station I’ve come across.
These guys post everything from stand up comedy to chamber music.
Customizable configurations.

Rude Radio Dizzying adds but cool edgy news with a bite that will leave a mark.

Radio Station Guide — WindowsMedia.com Lots of stations from all over the country.

Samm Brown’s FOR THE RECORD is the only weekly one-hour radio talk show in the nation that focuses exclusively on the $700 billion a year entertainment (mostly music) industry. Moses Avalon even shows up here from time to time.

[back to top]

Just for Fun

Fun as hell sites, some of which have nothing whatsoever to do with music.

Arlene’s Grocery Just a very very cool place to hang out in New York’s Lower East Side and
hear the best new music in the Apple. Home of the original Punk and Metal
Karaoke Night.

Cool Site of the Day Lots of crazy, fun links, most of which illustrate that people have way too
much time on their hands. Highly recommended.

The Storm Simulates a thunderstorm. A great head.

Escape From Neverland A role playing game where you are Michael Jackson trying to prevent young boys from escaping your ranch. Losing is almost as fun as winning. Sick. Twisted. I can’t stop playing it.

[back to top]