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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 171
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OP
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 171 |
I belong to BMI. I was told that it is a good idea to contact BMI, set up an appointment with your rep, allow him/her to hear your music. If they like what they hear, they can open doors for you. Anyone have any experience with this? I contacted them month's ago and haven't heard a word back.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 10,233 Likes: 30
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Hi Donna, Not sure how much help you'll receive from ASCAP or BMI. Their primary purpose is to collect and distribute royalties. I’m told SESAC has a working relationship with their members though. You’ll probably find more doors opening through a publisher (or music library). Good luck, John
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 5,427 Likes: 16
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Donna,
While having a face to face sit down meeting and relationship with anyone you are trying to be in business with, I would first ask what you hope to achieve by doing it? What are your expectations and looking for them to do for you?
As has been discussed here and on another thread, "I've joined SESAC, now what?" Many people have the wrong impressions on what PRO's do.
They are COLLECTION AGENCIES, and if you have songs that are getting terrestrial radio airplay in multiple markets, are involved with artists who are doing shows, selling product, getting attention and airplay, they well might want to sit down with you. But they are NOT publishers, film or television libraries, repositories for music. They don't make publisher or co-writing appointments. They don't provide introductions until after they know you, your music for a while. And that goes back to working with established writers, active artists, business entities they can plug into in a mutually beneficial way. If you are doing that, they are interested in meeting with you.
If you are not, you might be wasting time seeking an appointment. Many who have done so have reached a good deal of dissappointment. Most of those appointments consist of sitting down, them giving you their speech about "how hard they are trying to work for songwriters, the difficulties of the current music business, the downturn in profits for the industry, and the dismal state of it all." Then often asking who "YOU ARE WRITING WITH, WHO KNOWS YOU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON YOUR OWN?"
Writers are expected to be doing many things on their own now. The old days of "getting to a publisher, getting songs pitched, are long gone. Now writers are expected to be working with up coming artists, have songs on CD's, and web sites and have tangible activity going on. They will try to point you in the direction of songwriter related activities, the writers nights and open mics to meet other writers and artists. They will suggest NSAI as a resource since that is the organization that does more in the direction of "writer training." They will make suggestions you attend writers events and showcases and meet as many people as you can.
They will suggest you become very active in your local area's music scene. As one BMI rep once told me, " They expect to come suit up with the professionals in this town, yet haven't mastered their own local areas first."
Everyone has to keep in mind the enormous amount of people trying to do this in this town alone. Over 100 people A DAY, move to Nashville to try music. All of those are seeking the same thing and a visit to a PRO is one of the most desired things. A friend of mine is BMI Vice President David Preston, who told me a few months ago that he personally gets over 150 calls, emails, messages requesting appointments. Multiply that by all their reps and you can easily imagine 1000 plus people seeking help each day. There is simply no physical way to see all those people. So having a system of referrals is one of the ways they weed through those people.
If you have a lot of activity going on, writing with many inside the town, being known by many that THEY know, then an appointment may be warranted. Until then, you might want to work a little harder on your personal relationships.
So is it a good idea to see a Rep? Absolutely. But you first need to know what you are seeing them FOR.
MAB
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 4,195 Likes: 30
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Top 100 Poster
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MAB...I have no experience with it, but your post sure looks like reality. And nothing other than what you stated makes any sense, given what I have been able to read and glimpse of the music business myself.. TFP. The "light of day" is rare on forums.
Martin
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 5,427 Likes: 16
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Top 50 Poster
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Martin,
Truth kind of sucks sometimes but it is what it is. There is one thing wrong with my post. My friend at SESAC is not DENNIS MORGAN. That is a publisher friend of mine. It is DENNIS LORD. I saw him the other day and realized my mistake. But I do have friends at all three PRO's and they have talked about some of the issues they go through in trying to help writers, artists, publishers, etc. So that is what I bring to it. Whenever I read where someone is wanting to involve themselves in all of this, I try to give them the "other side of the desk" perspective so they can think through what their needs and expectations are in regard to music and the business. Always two sides to every story.
MAB
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