About a year ago I contacted a small coffee shop in Puyallup regarding me singing there. Everything was cool and then they referred me to their music policy. It stated that the licensing fee to play music affiliated and licensed through BMI and ASCAP was outrageous and they weren't going to pay for one. So, long story short, if you're a musician who wanted to sing at their coffee shop you couldn't sing any song licensed through BMI or ASCAP. Now if that wasn't enough they also insisted that if it was a song you wrote it couldn't be copyrighted either.
Well as far as me singing there I was out on all three counts. First, I'd never sing one of my songs that wasn't copyrighted. Second, I'm an ASCAP publisher and a few of the songs I sing, and have recorded, are licensed through ASCAP. And third, I'm a BMI publisher and songwriter, so, most of the songs I sing are licensed through BMI.
Now just recently I've been contacted by an establishment willing to book me so they referred me to their music policy. They are licensed ONLY through ASCAP and can't have any BMI songs performed there.
Does this make me frustrated, not a chance. I became a BMI songwriter in 1981 and ever since then BMI has rallied congress and the world, just as ASCAP has, for my rights as an affiliated member. Every song that I've licensed through BMI, that I've recorded, cost me more money than I'll probably make on them. The gear involved in recording the song, manufacturing the CD, setting up internet distribution costs money.
I've heard from establishments that claim buying a license to play live, or recorded, ASCAP and BMI music is too high. I won't tell you the absurdly low price I've heard establishments pay, because they did some research. I'll just say that if I don't play another gig again because my songs are licensed through a performance organization designed to protect my rights and collect money due me, then I'll be happy to never sing another gig again.
I was 22 years old when I walked into a professional recording studio in Denver Colorado, Soundmark, and set up a 3 hour recording spot to record a demo. After we recorded I went back to pick up the mixed songs on cassette and was told by Rich Sanders that they wanted my group to record an album. It was truly a Record Deal and at the time I didn't realize how successful my music career was going. That album led to a Publishing deal and two songs from the album going on a 45-LP record. That led to radio interviews, more concerts and me becoming a BMI songwriter.
I mention that because I recently received a contract in the mail from Tate Music Group. Before Tate it was Incubator Creative Group and before them it was Hollywood Records and Top Hat Records. For example, in the days before the Internet I would receive contracts from so called, Publishing Companies and Record Companies, wanting to publish and or record one or more of my songs. I had been out of the business of music for some years and when I started sending out my demos again I started getting these contracts.
At first I was elated. My heart would pound and I was rejuvenated with the idea that someone out there like my song. It was the late 80's when I got that first contract from Hollywood Records and at first I thought it was a sincere contract. As I started reading it over and thinking about it for a few weeks I then received another contract from Top Hat Records. Back then you couldn't jump on the Internet and check things out you had to call on the phone or physically mail letters and wait. Hollywood Records said they loved my song "Where is your Heart" and said it would be a hit and that they wanted to publish it. The next page they said that it would need to be recorded and that I should send them $750.00 to help cover the expense. Then Top Hat Records sent the same letter on different letter head but their price to record the song was $550.00. The first thing to tip me off about both was I'd never sent either of them my song "Where is your Heart". Then I noticed the mailing address for both was in the same building in Hollywood, Ca.
I remembered clearly that phone call in 1980 when Mr. Bollman called me up and told me he wanted to publish two of my songs, have them pressed on a 45-LP and his is price was $00.00 for doing that. He knew that if the song caught on and the 45's sold he would make money. He wasn't interested in getting money from me as an artist or songwriter. He was interested in making money from my songs. That's how it works, or is suppose to. Here's the song from side "A" called King of Kings.
Then in around 1995 I sent a demo, not a very good one, to a company called Incubator Records. Now the name would certainly suggest they were a Record company. Again, the Internet wasn't an option as a way of checking them out so it had to be by snail mail and phone. The reason the demo wasn't very good was because at the time I didn't have very good recording equipment but mostly because they had solicited me. They got my name from some place and suggested I send them a demo with songs. I sent them a few songs I had recorded but they were NOT very good songs. Sure enough a week later I got that call telling me they loved the songs and wanted to publish them and sign me up as an artist.
The woman on the other end had no idea that seconds after she told me they loved my songs and wanted to record them and me, that I knew I was being pitched. I could tell she was reading a script but I played along. She made it clear they would be publishing my songs for free but that they needed me to pay an ARTIST DEVELOPMENT fee. Not a one time fee mind you but a monthly fee. She continued to congratulate me for making the cut but that I was still in the early stages of the audition. They were, and are today, still very good, by calling the process an audition makes it sound like it wasn't a sales pitch.
Around that time I got info back from the Library of Congress on Incubator Records copyrights and for their publishing companies. Along with info from BMI and ASCAP. At that time I could find nothing. If they were a real Record Company then they would have filed SR copyrights on albums they had released but there were none. Incubator Records has no copyrights on file. Their other label Cheshire Records has 3. Two are from 1989 and another is from 2006. My search on ASCAP for Incubator Music Publishing company led me to Natan Sakany who has 4 titles in the ASCAP database.
Incubator has an artist search on their web site where you can search for an Incubator Artist. However, it's purpose seems to be a way of gathering information for them. You, the one searching, has to know who you're searching for in their so called artist database. There is no list of artists. This tells me that when you search for an artist, any artists name, it gives Incubator information regarding artists that they can try to solicit for their now called Incubator Creative Group.
Now this takes me to Tate Music Group. My ASCAP publishing company was started in 2005 and that puts it at 5 years old and my IPI number with ASCAP is 435038965, Incubator Music Publishing's IPI number is 334109395 which means it was registered before mine and Tate Music Publishing's IPI number is 446339248 which puts it younger than mine. As far as copyrights I looked through the Library of Congress under every variation of Tate Music Group I could find and nothing came up. I'll explain why later.
I was searching the Internet a month ago and came across Tate Music Publishing. Their site has a tab "Submit" so I clicked it and it said that if I wanted to be considered as a Tate Music Group Artist I could submit an mp3 to them. So what the heck I uploaded a song and didn't hear from them. I had forgotten all about them and was working when my wife got a call from an Acquisitions Associate. They said they wanted to sign me as an artist on their label. I got home and she told me and I couldn't remember who they were. They are back east and because I was working I didn't have time to call them during their working hours. Finally I get an email telling me they want to send me a contract. By this time I've done my Internet search and things don't look to good.
Searching under "Tate Music Group" I found over 140,000 hits. As I finally found sites that gave a positive light on Tate I looked at their numbers regarding web hits and they were low. It indicates to me that the vast majority of them were started around the same time. Some artists had 1000 hits, some 800 and others below 300 on sites like Myspace.com. Overall the artists linked to Tate had sites that the rest of us "Indie-Artists" can have for free.
So UPS delivers the contract and I open it already knowing what it's going to say based on my web research. Tate Music Group will produce, market and distribute my work with their investment in resources being equivalent to $35,339.00. Wow, what a deal and all I have to do as an artist is send them a refundable Artist participation investment of $1,985.50. What's the 50 cents for? Now I like numbers so let's do some numbers. If 10 artist send them $1,985.50 that's $19,855.00, if 100 send the money that's $198,550.00 and if 1000 artists per year sent in the $1,985.50 that's $1,985,500.00 a year. Tate has over 485 CD's available for sale in their web store and makes 85% of the sale with the artist making 15%. Not to mention that when I tried playing a wide variety of artists clips they either wouldn't play at all or played so badly I didn't want to keep listening.
So here's my 2 cents regarding Tate Music Group and even Incubator Creative Group. If you have the money to pay them to do what they say they will do, and it's not going to bankrupt you or cause you to not pay bills or get behind on your house or apartment payments then go ahead. If you're just starting out and you have no clue how to get into the music business and market yourself then investing your money into companies like these may help you. Perhaps you don't want to be bothered at all with marketing and can afford to pay someone to do that for you. Maybe you don't mind paying a company that's going to take another large percentage of your album money. I discovered that the reason Tate and Incubator don't have copyrights in the Library of Congress is because they allow the songwriter/artist to take care of that. In other words the artist is responsible for everything except paying these companies to do what they say they will do.
Now, if you ask me, "If I have to file all of my own copyrights under my name, and still get my music published by someone, why don't I do it myself?" If you own the copyright why would you allow someone to take 85% of the money for your song. Why don't I start my own FREE shoutlife, myspace, facebook, and the list goes on, site myself. If I'm going to pay a record label $1,985.50 and then Lord knows how much more to record my CD why not do it myself and then get all the money minus distribution fees. I checked out Tate recording studio on the web and it's as elaborate as any home studio. What they excel at promoting is Tate Music Group.
Creative Artist Management groups, I'll call them, such as the ones I've mentioned would be just fine if they simply came out and said, "Look, for $1,985.50 will do the work of promoting you. We'll teach you how to copyright your songs, guide you in recording your own CD, place you on social networks, etc. But they don't do that. You end up paying them and then paying them more and then do most of the work. If you've got almost $2,000.00 to invest in your music then I can think of 100 other ways to do that and get the same results Tate and other will get. Pay yourself not others. Don't be lazy. Research what you have to do to get where you need to go and start doing it.
There are companies out there who were started by frustrated songwriters/artists who couldn't make a go at their music. They were burned somewhere along the way and realized they could do the same thing except by making it a little bit more legitimate by offering a service. The service they offered is perfect because in the world of the music business nothing is a sure thing. You can blame the failure of the artist, when things don't work out, on the artist's lack of commitment, talent, etc.
If you're a struggling artist remember that there are legitimate companies out there. The legitimate ones simply want to see a track record of your music, your fans, your sales. They will pay you to sign with them. There are legitimate record companies that won't pay you anything to sign but will pick up the tab for everything else, because, their small. That's okay too. They'll do that because they see that you have something to sell that will make them money. They will sign you based on your track record for example. If you are able to book yourself 10 times a month and can show you sell 100 CD's every time you perform then they'll want to talk. Why would they want you to pay them almost $2,000 when in reality that doesn't even cover 10 hours of studio time, which doesn't include producers, engineers, musicians, etc.
I have a brand new CD "I'm Not Dead Yet" that was released in April 2010. Why didn't Tate Music Group say, "We want to sign your CD "I'm Not Dead Yet" to our label. Is it because they don't think it's very good? I doubt that. In fact I'm sure they didn't even listen to it. There's no indication they went to this web site to check me out. To them I'm just another artist who is hoping for a record deal. They didn't want to sign my new CD because they want there $1,985.50 from me so they can record in their studio. Yep they'll record, for 3 days, my album. Wow, what a production that's going to be, NOT!
Well this is the longest blog I've written but I had to vent. I'm tired of so called Christians taking advantage of others in the name of Christ or the ministry. It's okay to pay for a service when trying to advance your music career. But don't pay for something you're not really getting. And just because someone in the music business wants you to pay them for their service that doesn't mean their not legitimate, it means that's what they do for a living.
Well to start off with it was an absolutely glorious and beautiful day. The sun was shinning and there was a gentle breeze. It was my first time at Magnuson Park in Seattle and the stage was in a perfect location. We didn't think of bringing any chairs to sit on and the closest place to sit, besides the ground, was about 200 yards away on a bench. You couldn't see the people on the stage that well but the distance seemed to mix the sound perfectly. I started out with a melody of "Come to Praise the Lord" & "This little Light of Mine".
I didn't know at the time but Brent Rakestraw & Bob Jorgenson of God's Truck, the sound stage you see in the picture, were recording the event and gave me a copy before we had to take off. They did a great job recording and left the mix dry so when I got home I put a little mix to it for ambiance. I was the first to take the stage at around 1:15 and did a 30 minute set and was able to debut two songs going on my next CD. The first was "I saw Jesus walk on water".
The next song was "I'm not dead yet". Both songs are very raw cuts but I like the simple recording so I decided to post them to see what you think of them.
I really enjoyed the no non-sense sermon pastor DJ Rabe from The House Lake Stevens gave. He's a very gifted speaker and used props that helped drive home his message of being a hypocrite in the Church.
I sang at the Monroe Minimum Security Unit or (MSU) yesterday August 8th for Prisoners for Christ Ministries. I can't begin to tell you how blessed I feel each time I sing at one of the many sites Prisoners for Christ sends me.
After we minister in word and in song I always get a bunch of men coming up to me and expressing their feelings about many of my songs. They understand homelessness, divorce, despair and hopelessness as I did when I wrote the songs I sing to them. They seem to get the feeling that I'm not just a songwriter who sat back and made up a song about those things. They know from the words that I truly lived what I wrote about. They receive a deeper meaning in understanding what Christ did and who he was, and is, for their life.
It touches my heart beyond words to hear them tell me how much "Kingdom of Grace" and "The Rock" spoke to their hearts. I debuted "Son's of Men" & "I'm not dead yet" and received the same response with those songs as I have with "Comfort in You", "Can you see through the sin" and others I've mentioned. As a songwriter that does my heart good.
Today I feel just as my new song says, "I'm not dead yet" there's more for me to do.
Congratulations go out to my wife Elizabeth "Liv". She now has her first song Published and registered with BMI and is officially a BMI songwriter.
Around the time I was in the studio recording my "Grandfather Moon" CD my wife showed me some lyrics she'd been working on with the title "I don't think about you much". I loved a lot of the words and really liked the theme and idea of the song. Unfortunitly I already had all the songs for the CD. I worked on it a little, put more words and wrote the music to it but it wasn't until about two or three months ago we were able to finish it.
I'm really looking forward to recording the song some day.
The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC), defined by ISO 3901, is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. IFPI has been appointed by ISO as registration authority for this standard. The ISO technical committee 46, subcommittee 9 (TC 46/SC 9) is responsible for the standard. Note that an ISRC code identifies a particular recording, not the song itself. Therefore, different recordings, edits and remixes of the same song will each have their own ISRC code. Songs are identified by analogous ISWC codes.
You may be interested in this information regarding ISWC codes. If you have your music on a web site out there on the Internet does it have the unique codes to insure you get the credits?
If you're a BMI or ASCAP Songwriter you may have noticed a different ISWC number for each of your published works. Click on the link and read more about it. Be an informed songwriter.
I remember being asked in a radio interview, a few years ago, how many songs I had written. I don't recall the number at the time but I answered the question with the exact amount. The person giving the interview was surprised that I knew the exact amount and I was surprised that he would think otherwise.
In 1977, after Navy Boot camp, I went to a Naval Train School in Florida. One of the first thinks I had to learn was how to type. Back then it was state of the art IBM ball typewriters and I got pretty fast too. As a way of practicing I remember going through all my songs, which at the time we're mostly hand written, and started typing them out nice and neat.
It was at that time that I realized I had no Alphabetical or Chronological list for my songs. At that time I was 18 and had written 61 songs. I can tell you exactly how many songs I had because I started cataloging them and made a lists.
It's really become quite fascinating. It's, in many ways, a time capsule of my life. Each time I finish a song I type it up, now on my computer. I go to my Chronological list and enter it. As I look at songs that came before the new one I've just entered I can remember where I was when I wrote the previous songs.
About 20 years ago I started putting my songs in books. Each book has 50 songs and the songs are printed and put in plastic sheet covers so they can be taken out and copied. Keep in mind I started doing this before I used a computer. I've realized lately that a great deal of my songs aren't in my computer. Over the years songs were typed out on a typewriter, word processor or a computer with a very old and no longer used program. So lately I've been going through each book and enter them into Word so they're all on the same program. Plus, they're all uniform with the same font and look.
As I've been entering songs I've found periods of writing when I wrote Sad, Joyous, Praise, Funny, Love and Thankful songs. Periods of mellow piano and periods of Rock guitar. But, I think most importantly for me, I find that I wrote songs to cleanse my soul. I discovered that I didn't write a vast majority of my songs because I was trying to write a hit song. I wrote them because it was a way, my way, of dealing with what I was going through in my life at the time. I even recall as I'm entering them in the computer what I was thinking at the time I wrote the song. I'm talking years ago.
I recently came across 7 or 8 songs in a row that dealt with a painful breakup I went through in a relationship years ago. Toward the end of the string of songs is a song called "I'm sad today". It's been a habit through the years to record each song I write and send it go my best friend Kevin Mannarino and I'll never forget what he said about that song. He had written back and told me that I should have had a disclaimer on "I'm Sad Today" so he could have read it before listening to it. The said the disclaimer should read, "Remove all sharp implements and guns from the room before listening to this song". Kevin went on to say it was the sadist and most depressing song he'd ever heard. He said anyone who listens to the song will want to do themselves in. Of course he was saying this in his own hilarious way but after hearing what he said I realized more clearly the power of a song
In any case my point is this. Managing you music is one of the first and very important things a songwriter must do. It's, for one thing, good business sense but for another it's good for you as a songwriter to in a way chronicle your life and your work. At the bottom of each song I've developed a box for important information regarding the song. In the box are 24 sections for information to impute. ISWC number, BMI and or ASCAP numbers, PA & SR numbers, and the list goes on. Many of the songs won't have that info because they may never be recorded. Some quite frankly are too bad to record. But, they still need to be cataloged with at least when and who wrote them and co-wrote them.
For me it also brings order to my world and that can be important too.
From the beginning I only wanted to be a Songwriter. I wasn't interested in performing and never wanted to get involved with technical things like sound engineering, mixing and so on. My dream was to write a song, give it to a performer like Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, etc and of course they'd record it.
Looking back I realize now that what I didn't do was drop everything, grab the guitar and song books and head for L.A. or Nashville. But, after "Marriage Seed" in 1992 the music scene began to change. I was wanting to go back into music and this time give it a real go. But, looking back I knew that if I was to send demos to publishers I'd need good recordings of my songs. So, I called a local studio and booked some time.
I booked about 3 hours and recorded about 4 or 5 songs on an ADAT tape. The engineer rough mixed the songs on to a cassette and when I got home to listen to them I realized it would take a lot more time and money to produce the songs the way they were in my head. Thus began the journey to gather recording equipment.
Corelli & Mannarino
My best friend Kevin Mannarino who I've known since we were 12 years old was into the engineering side of recording, as well as lead guitar, vocal and songwriting. It was through him and his knowledge of recording gear and experience that I began the slow process of putting together my own studio. Back then since I lived in Tacoma, WA and Kevin lived in Denver, Co we would send cassette tapes back and forth to each other instead of letters. I had been working on a title for a song that I wanted to write but only had the title, "Grandfather Moon". I hadn't talked to Kevin about it but when he sent a cassette letter he had included some lyrics too. And there it was! The lyrics to 2 songs "Angels Dance" and "Grandfather Moon".
It was about 1995 or 96' that "Grandfather Moon" was written and it took until 2008 for me to record it. "Angels Dance" was recorded first on my first CD "Standing on the Rock" in 1998. I named my studio "Angels Dance Recording Studio" and Kevin's recording studio was named in memory of his father "Joe Mann", Mann Recording Studios"
I was thrilled when it worked out that Kevin did the Lead Guitar on my 2008 "Grandfather Moon" CD. But that first CD "Standing on the Rock" was something else to record.
First, I had to put together a studio with physical equipment. A Kawai electric piano with midi capabilities, an Alesis 8 Track ADAT, a DAT recorder for mixing it all down, a mixing board, reverb module, compression module and not to mention good recording mics. So here I was doing what I didn't want to do and that was sound engineering. Now around this time my cousin, Brett Helling, introduced me to the world of midi. Back in 1997 it was totally new to me. He gave me a program called "Cakewalk" that took me about 6 months to learn. In addition to the program he also did the guitar work on "The Rock". The Rock was recorded at his place in Spokane Washington. He named his Studio after his father and called it "Mert's Place Studios". The fact was that he had the same ADAT set up Kevin had in Denver and I had in Tacoma. So, when I went to Spokane to record "The Rock" Brett's set up was in his Master bedroom.
The first tracks were done as Brett doubled as sound engineer and Alesis SR16 drum machine operator. Brett found the beat we were looking for in the verses and then one for the Chorus. He started the machine and I played along with my ovation and recorded my vocal at the same time. So we laid down the drum tracks, ovation and lead vocal in about 2 or 3 takes and then he kept the ADAT to lay down the Bass guitar, electrics and Lead electric. The version here is the newer version I re-released on my "Righteous Man" CD. I wanted the strings in the song and back up vocals but couldn't do that in the first version for lack of tracks and digital midi understanding.
I write songs about homelessness, addiction and damnation. I write about the world’s only answer being Jesus Christ and that any other path is, simply put, the wrong one. I write about divorce, marriage and family relationships good and bad. My songs tell Biblical stories and paint images of Christ’s suffering on the cross for our sins and they tell of his Resurrection.
Jerry Corelli's Book for Songwriters
Jerry Corelli Songs - from Corelli's Music Box, BMI Catalog
