Identify the talent or artist you want to manage in your record label, approach the artist and give them an offer to record and manage their talent within the music industry. Work out the best deal for both parties and try to agree on a fair price, it’s important to make sure that your artist understands the nature of your agreement. After this phase has been positively achieved look at the following:

1. Identify the producers of the album
2. Identify suitable studios
3. MUSIC RECORDING

AFTER SIGNING THE ARTIST TO THE LABEL YOU HAVE TO LOOK INTO THE RECORDING OF THE ALBUM, WHICH INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:

• GENRE
• BUDGET
• IDENTIFY PRODUCERS
• IDENTIFY MUSIC STUDIO

2. AFTER THE RECORDING

AFTER THE RECORDING OF THE ALBUM, THE RECORD LABEL TOGETHER WITH ARTIST AND ASSOCIATE

REPRESENTAVES, HAVE TO SIT DOWN AND IDENTIFY THE TARGET MARKET AND PRODUCT PLACEMENT.PLAN A WHOLE WORKSHOP AROUND THE ARTIST AND DEFINE THE FOLLOWING:

• ARTIST SELLING STRENGTH.
• ARTIST’S SOCIAL RELATION TO HIS MARKET.
• WEAKNESS
• BACKGROUND
• THE BRAND
• GOALS
• STRENGHTS ARE COMPARED WITH MARKET DEMANDS
• EVALUATE SELECTED PROMOTION

What is copyright?

Copyright is the exclusive right in relation to a work embodying the results of intellectual activity to control the commercial exploitation of that work. It is important to note that it is not the idea incorporated in the work that is afforded protection, but rather its material expression.

What sort of works enjoy copyright protection?

Literary, musical and artistic works, computer programs, broadcasts, sound recordings and cinematograph films, programme carrying signals and published editions are protected by the law of copyright. Copyright in these other works cannot be registered and it arises automatically upon the creation of the work provided certain conditions are met. Only copyright in films can be registered but such registration does not create the copyright; it merely provides a simple means of proving subsistence and ownership of copyright. Who owns the copyright?

Generally, the person who creates a work, such as an artistic or literary work, owns the copyright to that work. However, there are certain exceptions to this general rule.

For example, if the person who creates the work creates it during the course and scope of his employment, his employer will own the copyright of that work; a person who commissions the taking of a photograph, the painting or drawing of a portrait, the making of a sound recording or the making of a film owns the copyright of that work.

The ownership of copyright can be transferred or assigned by means of a written document.

When is the copyright infringed?

The copyright in a work is infringed when an act, such as reproduction, falling within the scope of that copyright is performed in respect of the work or any substantial part of it without the permission of the copyright owner. Infringement by way of reproduction only takes place where the protected work is actually copied. That is to say, even if a second work is identical to the protected work there is no infringement of the copyright in the protected work if the second work was produced without copying it, whether directly or indirectly or by copying a derivation of it.

Specifically, in the industrial field copyright in a drawing can be infringed if an unauthorised three-dimensional

reproduction of that drawing is made provided that the three-dimensional reproduction is made by copying the drawing of the product, and not the product itself. It is not an infringement of copyright to “reverse engineer” a product if that product primarily has a utilitarian purpose and is made by an industrial process.

Collective Rights Management

Collective Rights Management refers to the management of copyright on a collective basis. Organizations, usually known as collecting societies, are granted by rights holders (whether by way of agency mandate or assignment of rights) the right to license the use of copyright-protected works on a

collective basis (i.e. the user has access to all the works controlled by the collecting society by virtue of the one licence). The benefit of collective rights management is that it significantly reduces the administrative burden for both rights holders and users that is associated with direct licensing.

In South Africa, the following collecting societies exist:

• CAPASSO (Composers, Authors and Publishers Association)

CAPASSO, operating on an agency basis, is the mechanical rights collecting society in South Africa and licenses this right in the musical work. Before its incorporation, SAMRO and NORM were involved in the licensing of mechanical rights in the South African territory but both of these organizations have since pulled out of the business of licensing mechanical rights. SAMRO’s primary focus is now on its performing rights operations and NORM now operates as a music publishers’ association, concerned with industry matters affected music publishers.

• SAMRO (Southern African Music Rights Organization)

SAMRO licenses the public performance right in a musical work and is the biggest collecting society on the African continent.

SAMRO is a member of The International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC).

• SAMPRA (South African Music Performance Rights Association)-SAMPRA is the collecting society of copyright owners of music sound recordings and is the accredited society to license users for Needle time Rights and distribute royalties to member of the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA).
• POSA (Performers Organization of South Africa)-POSA is a Trust established to administer Needle time Rights on behalf of recording artists/musicians who have assigned their Needle time Rights to SAMRO. SAMRO is the collecting society accredited to distribute Needle time royalties to recording artists.

Licensing royalties fall into four general categories:

1. Performance royalties:

Performance royalties are paid to songwriters under a blanket license when a song is played on radio, TV or performed live. The organization that deals with performance royalties in South Africa is called Samro (South African music rights organization).

2. Synchronization royalties:

This form of royalties is payable when an audio recording is synchronized or merged with visuals and a license is needed to reproduce onto a television program, film, video and TV commercials.

3. Mechanical license royalties:

When a copyright protected song or music is been manufactured for public distribution in any type or form (e.g. cassette tape, CD and more) a mechanical royalty is payable to songwriters through their publishers.

A marketing plan will help you in understanding the manner in which you are going to sell your products. This marketing is focused on a marketing plan for a company or a corporation but when you are creating a marketing plan for your album, be more creative, look at the same outline but package it in a creative way and change the titles (outline) and use more urban or interesting words.

Executive Summary

A summary outlining the content of the marketing plan and all the main issues is preferably ½ a page in length. Whoever reads the marketing plan must be able to get a clear understanding of your marketing plan.

Mission

State what your mission is, what is it that you want to do or change in the music industry. It’s very important to have a mission as this will guide in your quest for success. A lot of Record companies have no mission or purpose in the music industry they are just making music for the sake of making music.

The Market

Describe your market and in this case it’s the music industry. But you still need describe it by your genre and consumer behavior. Therefore you must know your consumers and prospects, where they are and what they are and what they spend their money on. How they make decisions when purchasing a product. Market Analysis

Take a good look at your market and break it down by segments, explain the value, consumers, competitors, products and your position in the market. This will help you when strategizing your industry approach or penetration Market Trends

This is where you identify the recent activities in the market, what consumers are into, what other companies are offering or products they are introducing to the consumers.

Market Growth

How is the market growth in your industry?  Currently in the music industry the market growth has be very slow or none existent due to music piracy. With all the Peer to peer file sharing, other illegal downloads and copying of music. People no longer buy music as much as they use to back in the day.

This has caused the market growth in the music industry to decrease. When talking market growth we mostly focus on the financial aspects of the industry.

Target Market Segment Strategy

If you are a record label that deals with a lot of music genre for example gospel, jazz, hip hop and kwaito it’s important that you define your target market by segments.

When defining your market segments show how you are going to penetrate these different markets.

Note:

That you can add to these outlines but try to keep it short and precise.

Marketing/Promotion

Before you begin pressing your albums/CDs and distributing them, you must first sort out your marketing and promotion roadmap. You must plan your roll-out plan months before the launch of your album.

Work out strategies that will drive consumers to purchasing your album when it reaches the shelves. Most bands create a fanbase through their live performances and word of mouth from their peers but not everyone is this lucky, especially in South Africa where we don’t have a lot of live music activities taking place because of lack live venues. Prior to releasing your album try using the following steps:

First Phase

• Identify your market (the people who like your music)
• Find where they hang and who they hang with
• Find out what they like from websites, clubs, clothes, magazines and plan on targeting those.

Second phase

• Get them (identified market) to listen to your music; this is a way for you to test your market.
• Invite them to your next gig and get them to invite their friends.
• Give them exclusive previews and excess to VIP at your gigs

Third Phase

• Make them part of your street team
• Get them to promote you at college and all their hang outs
• Give them free t-shirts and more

Keep doing this for at least 1 year or more until you fell you’ve build enough fanbase for you to release a commercial album. Note that not all your fans are going to buy your album but I can guarantee you that most of them will, so it’s very important that you consider this when you manufacture your albums. If this is your debut album do not manufacture a huge number of CDs, start with a small number and test the market, see their response. If the response/demand is good then you can print more but if it’s not good then you can re-strategies and you won’t have lots of stock lying around your offices or garage. Try keeping your album prices low. In addition to the marketing steps above look at the following:

• Public appearances
• Set up effective distribution channels

KINDS OF ARTIST MANAGERS

Artist management is a very important service in the life of an artist/musician and the music industry as a whole, the South African music industry lacks in this regard. We don’t have a lot of good and professional managers. Artist managers are responsible for everything that an artist is unable or too busy to handle. A good manager must have in-depth understanding of all the aspects of the music industry, lots of contacts and understanding of his artist. A manager also has to guide an artist’s career and help the artist manage his time, exploit the artist’s potential and help the artist make lots of money.

As an artist you should concentrate on the creative aspects of your career, therefore its very helpful for the artist to identify a team of professional individuals to assist in managing your career, managers are responsible for the following:

• Negotiations
• Publicity and promotion
• Dealing with accountants, lawyers, booking agents and other
• Managing artist’s schedule
• Organizing promotional tours

Most managers want to earn from all aspects of the artist’s career. Managers can earn anything from 15—25% of the artist netrevenue depending on the amount of work they putting in, so its important to outline the manager’s roles from the beginning of the relationship and note that artist are usually exclusive to their managers, meaning the artist can only have one manager, so this needs to be clarified from the beginning. You must be careful when choosing a manager; a good manager has the following qualities:

• Trust worthy
• Honest
• Transparent
• Hardworking

Though in South Africa artists usually have one manager handling all the aspects of the artist, its important to understand the different kinds of managers:

PERSONAL MANAGERS

Usually referred to as the personal assistant in the corporate world, the personal manager is responsible for the management of the artist’s day to day personal business. This role is usual played by someone very close to the artist, like a brother, sister or

best friend.It’s important to understand that not every artist needs a personal manager, only when your are as busy as Madonna or Jay z.

BUSINESS MANAGERS

A business manager helps the artist make money, as business manager you are responsible for directing or planning the work of others in order to run the artist’s business efficiently. You should have working knowledge of the following aspects of the music industry and may be a specialist in one or more of sales, marketing, and public relations;  production management; finance; accounting, auditing, tax, and budgeting; conceptualizing. The business manager usually becomes the artist’s business partner in most cases.

Intellectual property law and its applications are frequently misunderstood, plagued by the notion that ‘big business’ is trying to bar access in an age where freedom of access to information is paramount. But the truth of the matter is that the fundamental goal of intellectual property is to encourage the creation of new material, by providing authors, composers, recording artists and the like with an incentive to create, usually in the form of royalties, and by balancing the interests of various stakeholders.

The importance of intellectual property cannot be understated in a country such as South Africa, where the development of the cultural industries is so closely entwined with the success of our social and economic development. One particular industry identified by government is that of the music industry, which has a vital role to play in nation building. As was highlighted by the Music Industry Task Team (MITT), key to the success of the local music industry is the implementation of legislation that protects musicians and other industry stakeholders, in part by ensuring they are adequately rewarded for their work.

The Southern African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO), an organization dedicated to protecting the intellectual property rights of the country’s composers and authors, is an accredited Needle time Rights collecting society. Needle time, also known as ‘pay per play’, supplements the existing Performing Rights royalties by providing for recording artists and their record companies to be paid for each public performance of a recorded work. Where Performing Rights ensure that a creator of a musical work is remunerated for the public performance of their work, Needle time Rights require entities such as radio stations, restaurants and bars to pay those responsible for a recorded work for the use of their product.

The Performers’ Organization of South Africa Trust (POSA) is a Trust established to administer Needle time Rights on behalf of recording artists/musicians who have assigned their Needle time Rights to SAMRO. POSA represents more than seven thousand (7000) recording artists. These are artists who have assigned their Needle time Rights to SAMRO.

As Pfanani Lishivha, POSA’s Executive General Manager, explains, ‘We are very happy to be able to assist musicians in reaping the full benefits brought about by the introduction of Needletime to South Africa.’

The good news for South Africa’s musicians is that Needletime offers them an additional revenue stream beyond that of live performances and royalties paid by record companies, without infringing on or detracting from the rights of composers and authors. In essence, Needletime Rights activate the fundamental goals of intellectual property by enabling musicians to make a living from their music. In order to access these rights, musicians need only register with and thereby authorize SAMRO to administer these royalties on their behalf.

Recording artists are urged to assign their Needletime Rights to SAMRO and to contact POSA on needletime@posatrust.org.za or 011 712 8000.