[Dixielandjazz] The Business of Music

[Steve Barbone]

When most of us talk about ASCAP - BMI and song licensing or performance
fees, we are nickel and diming. The below article, not about OKOM but about
performance and/or licensing fees is an eye opener. Note especially the
following quote from the body of the article: "A big label with a strong
catalog can generate as much as $20 million a year from licensing its
recordings before paying the artists their share, music executives
estimate." One has to ask; With all this big money available, why are BMI,
ASCAP et al nickel and diming those small venues that offer live OKOM?

Perhaps because in some instances the artists are by passing them and
negotiating directly with radio/TV licensing execs?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


NY TIMES - JEFF LEEDS - April 18, 2007

In 1986, the pop band Wang Chung released the ludicrous but catchy party
anthem ³Everybody Have Fun Tonight.² Now two of the musicians behind the
band have hatched a plan that might seem even more absurd than the lyric
³everybody Wang Chung tonight.² More than two decades after the song became
a smash hit, they are recording it again.

But they have their reasons. In the decade and a half since Wang Chung
dissolved, the licensing of music to advertisers, television and movies has
become more acceptable ‹ and much more lucrative ‹ for performers from the
past. And by remaking their own hits, these artists can keep a much bigger
share of the proceeds. ³To re-record our back catalog is a way of empowering
ourselves,² said Nick Feldman of Wang Chung. ³We can be much more selective
about where these songs end up and how much we charge for them.²

Under the typical record contract, money paid to license a song is split
between the record label that owns the recording and the artist who
performed it. But if a band remakes the song after it has ended its
contract, it can retain ownership of the new version and license it itself
without having to share the rewards with the record label. (Music executives
typically insist on contract provisions that prohibit artists from
re-recording their work for up to five years after their deal expires.)

Recently, a number of aging pop and rock stars has returned to the studio to
recreate their signature tunes and pitch them to Madison Avenue and
Hollywood. Attentive fans may notice remakes by bands including Twisted
Sister, Foreigner and Simply Red in commercials, movie trailers and
television programs.

But for some singers, recapturing the flair of their younger selves is no
easy trick. ³It¹s 22 years on,² said Jack Hues of Wang Chung. ³My voice is
really quite different. You have to almost get into character, which is an
interesting experience.² His partner, Mr. Feldman, wondered, ³Should we just
mimic and do a literal replica, or should we go for that spirited
performance that reflects how we are now?²

In the case of Twisted Sister, a loose plan to recut some songs from the
band¹s 1984 breakthrough album ³Stay Hungry² and package them with a DVD
turned into a more serious affair. The band re-recorded the entire album,
said the co-founder and guitarist Jay Jay French.

Since 2004 several advertisers, including 7Up and Wendy¹s, have licensed the
new versions, he said. In one instance, a television program paid $10,000 to
use 10 seconds of a musical bridge from one of the newly recorded versions.
Licenses for full Twisted Sister songs can be in the ³six-figure² range, he
said.

While the concept of musicians re-recording their hits is not new, there has
been something of a gold rush unfolding in the licensing world since the
mid-1990s. Pop songs have replaced jingles or musical scores as the
preferred backdrop for commercials and TV shows, particularly those
appealing to savvy young adults and baby boomers.

That trend has coincided with a shift in the way some artists view the
licensing of their music. While many still consider using their songs to
sell products as compromising, a number of rock legends, including Led
Zeppelin, have allowed their work to be used in recent years. Indeed, the
recent surge of re-recorded hits may have been presaged in 1999 by
Aerosmith, which offered a newly re-made version of ³Sweet Emotion² for a
General Motors ad. 

Such efforts spell more trouble for big music companies, which stand to lose
licensing money if more artists recreate their best-known songs. These days,
the issue of when superstars can begin to re-record their catalog is
becoming a frequent bone of contention in contract negotiations. Donald S.
Passman, a music lawyer, said that some music companies are trying to
rewrite the terms to, in effect, block an artist from any re-recording that
sounds similar to the original; other deal-makers say artists are trying to
shave years off the usual moratorium on re-making their songs.

That sort of fight is becoming more important as traditional CD sales
continue their lengthy slide. A big label with a strong catalog can generate
as much as $20 million a year from licensing its recordings before paying
the artists their share, music executives estimate.

Recently, some artists¹ plans to re-record have been encouraged by music
publishers, who represent songwriters and who control separate copyrights
that must be licensed when an advertiser or TV show wants to use a
particular tune. Publishers say they can strike deals more efficiently when
they can represent songwriters with their own recordings and avoid waiting
for an advertiser to negotiate separately with the label that controls the
original.

Still, advertisers caution that they are wary of shoddy attempts at
recapturing the past. ³I¹ve heard a lot of really bad re-creations on the
air. It just makes my hair stand up,² said Ira Antelis, director of music
for the ad agency Leo Burnett.

At the other end of the spectrum are solo artists who produced their own
original recordings. Prince, for example, has re-recorded significant
portions of his catalog that ‹ thanks partly to technological advances ‹ may
rival the original versions, according to one person close to him. A handful
of artists have tried to package their new versions as a CD, in effect
competing against their old record label and their own songs. Twisted
Sister¹s ³Still Hungry,² a re-recording of 1984¹s ³Stay Hungry,² has sold an
estimated 25,000 copies since it came out three years ago, according to
Nielsen SoundScan data.

Irving Azoff, the talent manager behind bands like the Eagles and Earth,
Wind & Fire, said he is encouraging clients to recreate their biggest hits
and perhaps sell the new versions directly to retail chains. Mr. Azoff said
that in many cases, these bands ³play these songs differently, and I think
better, than the original² versions. For fans, the old hits form ³the fabric
of their memories. These songs have stood the test of time.²