New Live Performance Income for Songwiters

Here’s some potentially good news for independent touring artists.  After operating somewhat under the radar, both BMI and ASCAP have made a big push in allowing songwriter artists to collect income from live performance of their work.  While income from live public performance is of course implicit in the rights that BMI, ASCAP and SESAC collect, as a practical matter the organizations historically only have only paid  this income to major artists performing at major venues.  According to an article in the Tennessean a week or so ago, technological innovations now allow the performing rights organizations to direct some of this income to smaller acts who report their performances correctly.  

            The BMI system is called BMI Live, ASCAP’s is called Onstage and SESAC has a program called Live Performance Notification System. 

            I don’t think there is any data  on how much a small or mid-range artist could generate from these programs, but it would be foolish not to investigate them.  One doesn’t want to leave money on the table.  It is great to see technology being used to assist songwriters and performers for once.

Kickstarter: The New Patronage Model

A few weeks ago the manager of my office building asked if I could please leave work early one evening because a production company would be filming on my floor. I was happy to have an excuse to leave early, so I readily obliged.

The next day I was pleasantly surprised to see Steve Taylor filming with a crew on my floor. I don’t know Steve all that well, but I know of him as a sort of renaissance guy: musician (he was an amazing front-man in the band Chagall Guevera), writer, record company exec, producer, video director, and now apparently filmmaker.

I later learned that the film Steve was making is an adaptation of Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz. I just read an article in the Nashville Scene about the financing of the film.
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And here is where it gets interesting. Apparently the original funding for the film fell through and the producers turned to the online service Kickstarter to raise money for the production. According to the article, they raised $345,992 in one month making it “the largest crowd funded creative project in American history,” according to the Scene.

I have heard of other amazing stories about Kickstarter. Coincidentally, I have a client who raised $14,000 to record an album in one month through approximately 155 donors (that averages around $121 each). Kickstarter keeps 10% of the money raised (5% for itself and 5% for Amazon for handling the transaction).

I have always been wary of most patronage type arrangements but this seems to be emerging as a significant new model. Any artist with a devoted fan base can look to their fans for actual support. This is a very direct way for an artist to connect with their audience and is yet another way that technology is supporting the independent artist.