TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 1

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Ras LidjBecome a friend and fan of this band that bring you the original, rawest and freshest conscious Roots Dancehall Reggae music linked with a DC Go-Go Pocket beat... aka Regg’Go!

Table of Contents• The 3 Most Common Music Publishing Deals for Songwriters -- 4• Anwan “Big G” Glover Releases Statement -- 7• How To Earn More Music Publishing Royalties -- 8• Finding The Right Publicist For Your Band -- 10

I remember back around 1995-96 when I was working for this company called NAA (News-paper Association of America), and in the same building was another journalist association call NABJ (National Association of Black Journalist). It was fun-ny... because it was like on one side of the building was majority white aspect of journalism, and the other side of the building was the majority black aspect of journalism.

I remember how badly I wanted to work for NABJ, mainly because I thought that was exactly where I was supposed to be at that time... especially since it was during the same time that I first started TMOTTGoGo. I saw it as my avenue to be able to network and function within all the different black journalist across that county. I honestly felt that the reason God had me at NAA was so that I could work my way into NABJ. Basically my avenue of officially becoming one of them.

I mean... I was so passionate and engulfed in wanting to work for and be part of NABJ, that I used to always hang around their end of the building (on my free time) hoping that they would eventually give me the opportu-nity to be one of them. And I would always be the first to apply whenever that had an opening. But unfortunately... it never happened. But what I did learn from that experience was the understanding of the passion a person could have in wanting to be a part of something. And I never forgot that feeling.

So that is one of the reasons why basically whatever direction that I ever took TMOTTGoGo in, I would always have an open door to basically anyone who wanted to be part of that and therefore use it as an avenue to help build their own individual platforms. And to this day, that has always been the way that I have operated. Was it the right or wrong thing to do? I don’t know. But it always felt comfortable to me.

-Kato Hammond

From Th

e Publilsher’s Desk

TMOTTGoGo Magazinewww.tmottgogo.com

Emaill: info@tmottgogo.comPO Box 1849

Leesburg, Virginia 20177

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 4

The

3 M

ost C

omm

on M

usic

Pu

blis

hing

Dea

ls fo

r Son

gwrit

ers Here’s a story you’ve prob-

ably heard before: band makes it big, everybody gets rich, the songwriter gets richer.

Why does the s o n g w r i t e r make more money? Mu-sic publishing!

If you’re a s o n g w r i t e r, you could make huge amounts of money from your songs… IF you have a deal with a publishing company.

By performing a number tasks that are often too difficult (or time consuming) for songwriters to do on their own, music publishers can help open up lucrative op-portunities for your songs.

But what do the different kinds of pub-lishing deals that are out there look like? And what are the pros and cons of each?

Ken Consor from Songtrust wrote an article called “The Three Most Com-mon Publishing Deals — Learn Your Options!” which provides a nice sum-mary of this topic. In that piece, he says:

The moment you decide that a song you have been working on for weeks is finally finished, you own a copyright and 100% of your publishing. This 100% is divided into two very import-ant sections – The Publisher’s Share (50%) and The Songwriter’s Share

(50%). It is imperative to understand that most publishing agreements only take a percentage of ownership of your Publisher’s share (50%). Unless you sign a work for hire agreement (See

Below), you will never lose any owner-ship of your Songwriter’s share. He then goes into a description of the three kinds of publishing deals you’re likely to encounter in the today’s music industry.They are:

Administration Agreements

In an administration agreement, you the songwriter keep 100% ownership of your copyright and gives away only 5-20% of your publisher’s share for a term of usually 1- 3 years. Administra-tion agreements typically do not include any creative services and focus solely on properly registering your songs with collection societies around the world as well as collecting royalties on your behalf.

CD Baby Pro provides this exact ser-vice, and is a great way to start collect-ing your publishing royalties worldwide without getting locked into a long-term publishing agreement.

The next most common kind of publish-

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 5

ing agreement, according to Consor, is…

Co- Publishing Agreements

A co-publishing agreement is the most common publishing deal for major songwriters today. As songwriter, you typically give away 50% ownership of your publisher’s share (hence “co-pub-lishing”) to the publisher you sign with. In doing so, you retain 100% of your songwriter’s share and 50% of your publisher’s share so 75% of your over-all publishing royalties. In this deal, because the publisher takes partial ownership over the works, they have much more of an incentive to exploit the songs and generate royalties from them. The ways in which your songs can be exploited are predominantly through synchronizations in Television and Film as well as being recorded and released by major artists – these are

things the creative teams at any reputable music publisher will actively do for you on a daily basis. Many music publishing com-panies will offer you generous advances to entice you to sign with them. Remember however, that these advances will need to be recouped in full once your songs start to generate income.

And the last kind of common music pub-lishing agreement is…

Work For Hire

In a work for hire agreement, for a flat fee, you will give up all ownership and admin-istration rights for your works for the life of copyright. These agreements are most common in film and advertising when the film studio or production company wishes to own and control all aspects of the pro-duction.

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 6

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 7

Anw

an “Big G” G

lover’s Release Statem

ent

“As many of you are aware, I was involved in an incident last night. While supporting another band, at their show, I was involved in an alterca-tion with some unknown people. While defending myself, I was stabbed. I was hospitalized and have been released. I am not a stranger to adversi-ty and when shown hate, I’m going to spread love. I am recovering and will be back soon. My flesh may be stabbed but my spirit is

unbreakable. I want to thank all of my fans, followers and friends for their inquiries, well wishes, prayers and love. I love you all back and I’m always going to love my city. - G

FYI - I lost my phone and will get my new one tomorrow. -Much love Anwan Big G Glover”

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 8

How

To Earn More M

usic Publishing RoyaltiesIf you write original

songs then you stand to earn music publishing rev-enue, most of it in the form of mechanical royalties, performance royalties, and sync licensing fees.

That’s right, someone owes you money every time your music is played on the radio, streamed on-line, performed in a venue, downloaded internationally, or used on television. With CD Baby Pro, they’ll make sure you get paid every-thing you’re owed — world-wide.

Lots of artists ask, though, once they’ve signed up for CD Baby Pro, “What now?

How can I earn more music publishing royalties?” Here is a list of things you should do to increase the publishing royalties you earn

1. Pursue sync opportuni-ties for the usage of your music in film, TV, games, commercials, and more.

2. Sell your songs as sheet music, the original form of “music publishing.”

3. Submit your music to Pandora.

4. Log all your live perfor-mances with BMI or AS-CAP.

5. Get your music played on the radio (including col-lege, community, satellite, and internet radio).

6. Encourage other artists to legally cover or sample your music.

7. Register with SoundEx-change. The kind of digital performance royalty that SoundExchange collects isn’t technically a publish-ing royalty (since it’s re-lated to the usage of the master recording of a song, NOT the underlying com-position) — but you should register all the same, espe-cially if your music is get-ting played online.

That’s right, someone owes you money every time your music is played on the radio, streamed online, per-formed in a venue, downloaded internationally, or used on television. With CD Baby Pro, they’ll make sure you get paid everything you’re owed — worldwide.

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 9

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 10

Finding The Right Publicist For Your Band

Like many aspects of the music industry, effective publicity is about teamwork and good communica-tion. There are many great music publicists out there (and many more not-so-great ones) who’ll work inde-pendent releases, but that doesn’t mean just any publicist will do. You’ve got to find the one that feels like the right fit for your goals, bud-get, genre, and more.Here’s a list of things to consider

when you’re trying to find the right publicist for your next album or tour

1. Budget — Can you pay them the fee they’re asking? Even if you only hire a pub-licist for 3 months or so, it’s probably going to cost you thousands, so think about your band finances first. Then find the publicist who fits your budget.

2. Track record — Have they had good re-sults doing PR for other acts? What mag-azines and blogs have they gotten other bands positively featured in? You want to make sure you’re hiring someone who has already established solid relationships with writers, editors, and media producers in the music press.

3. Genre exper-tise — Just be-cause a publicist has a network of contacts doesn’t mean they’re the right contacts for your music. A jazz publicist is proba-bly not the person you want to hire to help you get press

for your latest folk-rock project. Just be-cause a publicist got their last client on the cover of a Metal magazine doesn’t mean they’ll be able to get you featured on a Hip Hop blog.

4. Referrals — Have you heard good things about a publicist from other mu-sicians you know? That’s a pretty good indicator of quality publicity, especially since those musicians will have paid this person lots of money; they’ll need to have seen real results in order to walk away feeling like the person’s PR services were worth the cost.

5. Clear communication — Are they forthcoming with info about fees, schedules, etc? If they use industry jargon or genre lingo, are they making their meaning clear? Now’s not the time for mystery.

6. Love for your music — You don’t just want to be a publicist’s client. You want them to be a fan of your music, or at the very least, believe that you have the ability to turn thousands or millions of other people into fans. That belief and enthusiasm will shine through when your publicist communicates with the press.

7. Responsiveness — When you first approach a publicist about working to-gether, is she prompt in her respons-es? If you write him an email with three

You don’t just want to be a pub-licist’s client. You want them to

be a fan of your music.

TMOTTGoGo Magazine | September 2014 | Page 11

questions, does he respond to each of them thoroughly? This attention to detail and directness will be key when you’re both busy in the middle of a PR campaign.

8. Setting expectations — Will your publicist work for you for the life of the

record? Only for 3 months surround-ing the release? Will they handle tour press? Is it a local, regional, national, or international campaign? How quickly do you need to respond to your publicist in order to secure interview opportunities? Setting expectations goes both ways: you BOTH need to know what you’re getting into and what’s required.

9. The size of the publicist’s current client roster — Hopefully they’re work-ing with a few other bands right now. You want to be sure they’re employed, of course, since that’s another sign of their effectiveness as a publicist. How-ever, you probably don’t want to start working with someone who is in the middle of 25 other campaigns. They’ll be stretched way too thin to give your music the attention it deserves.

10. You’re “on the same page” as peo-ple — You don’t need to love the same sports teams or have read the same books, but can you relate as individu-als on a level outside of your music/PR partnership? That’s a plus.