Matt...With all due respect you have a lot of wrong info based on what you just posted.

Perhaps a few insights might help you with your problem of not really undertanding the whole picture.I hope it helps in a positive manner.

After I left MCA I started my own publishing company on unemployent checks. Within one year I was making 6 figures. I had maybe 20 songs in my so called little catalog. I went up against the monster publishing companies. They had millions sometimes less but way big bucks, I had a few 100 bucks.I got songs cut with Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Stephanie Mills,etc.Then ended up repping ABBA owned publishing co in the U.S. .These acts were still very viable at that time.

You can publish yourself for a few bucks. But that does not really make you a publisher, only in name. You have to know how to do it , and collect your money . It isnt all automatic. But there is no money to collect if you are not selling anything. hmmm...

BMI is not a publisher.They are a performing rights org. If you happen to get any airplay it is how you get paid.

You always respond to someone elses "snap" even if it is your own. You cannot do a gig, or sell your own CDs without other people. Doing the biz, Is that "snap"? You want to do jingles and film...Wow that is a world of "SNAP" and right now...Way big "snap".I have done plenty of both
Lets address the "small timers" your words, who have other jobs. Guess what , where do you think most of those songwriters come from? Every artist and writer Ive known had a real job,before they were able to make a living in the biz..
I was working with an act as they had a song racing up the charts and were finishing up painting a house, thats what they did until they hit. that song went number one. and they never looked back
I will relate something here . When I went to work for Dawnbreaker music , a Seals And Crofts owned company at the time, they paid me a whopping 100 bucks a week . that was 1972. In 72 that was no money. I was married, had 3 kids owned my own home etc. I took the gig.
Daytime I had a little office and saw writers and pitched songs all over the place, did demos etc.Conducted biz .
At night I went to work on the docks and loaded freight for Yellow Truck lines. At the time almost no one knew I was doing this, cuz I was a bigshot publisher, yeah right!
I would get home at 3 am, sleep and then be in the office at 9am, and do it all over again.
I did that for a year, until I started getting cuts and they paid me a lot more money.

So "little" people all have jobs , I dont see what is wrong with that. And it is not just about finding a publisher. Taxi for instance pitches directly to the act, most of the time. Right to the producer. The publishing is "open", so you could end up with a cut and still have your publishing.
Sometimes the listing is for a "publisher" but the other pitches far outway that situation.

This part of the biz is all on "spec", publishers do not get paid until the CD sells, gets airplay, it happens or not etc....Im not going to go into it all here.

The other side of the coin is doing your own "small thing." There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with writing and playing songs just for your friends or small groups. If that is what one wishes to do, then you do not need a Taxi or this forum because none of it applies to you.

Sometimes writers would come into my office and tell me he didnt write "commercial songs" I would stand up and say " this meeting is over". I need commercial songs. All it really means is that more peeps( a million say) like your song over 10 peeeps in a club.
In the so called "mainstream" it is a different competition. Many writers shy away from it because you are putting your ass on the line in the bigtime world of the music biz, and everyone will know if you fail.
Some just cannot do it. So they chose another route.
Failing? thats okay because you tried. Without trying you will never know.
I have two clients right now who are older men. One is 65 and one is 79. They are both excellent writers. They were afraid to try for years, and gave every excuse for not doing so. They are now both on the way to a major cuts. The cool thing about being a writer or a publisher is no cares how old you are.

I signed writers songs in the past who were all just guys trying to get a recording , they knew no one. Some of them ended up with great careers.

Using the term "musician" to "publisher" ratio", what ever number you want to punch in , means what? I do not follow what you are getting at, as it makes no sense in the world of music publishing, or getting a song recorded.

I kind of rambled a bit here but I hope it makes some sensr to you. And helps a bit.

Dude

http://www.songconsultant.com

Last edited by Dude McLean; 08/18/08 01:20 AM.