Ty Cohen asked:


The real question is do you know how to write music contracts from scratch or even at all? I am going to assume that your answer is no and that is why you are here. Your typical music business contracts are extremely thorough and full of jargon and terms that the average person would not be familiar with. But there is no reason to be worried because you do have options.

You have to take into consideration that there are hundreds of types of music business contracts inexistence. So, there is no possible way you could learn to write them all. That would require you taking extensive coursework and maybe even studying for years. And who has time for that? I mean think about it, there are contracts for songwriters, artists, licenses, royalties, for managers, producers, photographers…The list goes on and on.

Recording contracts and music contracts can contain all sorts of things. Licensing, Publishing, Performance, Commercials and Merchandise are only a few of the terms covered in music contracts. There is no way an inexperienced person could remember to include everything. That is why you are going to need some help. It is obvious that most people can’t afford $400 per hour for an entertainment lawyer so they have to explore a different route.

Were you aware that there templates and forms for music business contracts available? That is absolutely right. These are forms that you can edit anyway you would like. They are also available for every single genre or situation that you may encounter. It is amazing if you think about it. You no longer are forced to obtain a ridiculously expensive lawyer to write these bad boys for you. It will definitely make your life in the music industry that much easier. No more insane lawyer’s fees, no more worrying about what to include in a contract or worrying about music contracts in general.

You do need to remember that these contracts need to be industry standard, related to any genre, compatible with all computers, up to date and easy to edit. Then all you have to do is fill in the blanks with your information, print the contract and sign, just like that! Investing in these types of music business contracts will undoubtedly be one of the best investments you will ever make for yourself as a musician or your company.



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David Hooper asked:


Perhaps the best product is one that has recurring monthly fees. This is known as residual income, and is the best income to make, because you make one sale but are paid month after month.

Would you rather make one sale for a one-time $65, or one sale for a monthly subscription at $10 per month? I would rather have the monthly subscription, because after the seventh month I will have made more than the $65 from the first sale, and the money will keep coming! It is possible that you can still be making money three years down the road from one sale.

Here is another example to show you the power of residual income: You work everyday for a company. Your paycheck is dependent upon your working. If you don’t work on a given day and you are paid hourly, you will not be paid for that day. If your job is to make widgets on an assembly line, you must make those widgets to get paid.

But what if you were the one who patented the widget? Then you would receive income over and over again any time someone made or bought one of your widgets. You don’t have to make the widget anymore, but you get paid every time someone buys a widget! This is residual income: it is income that you make over and over again from working one time. There are many great affiliate programs that you can market that can bring you residual income. You can also start your own subscription or membership website.

A related concept to residual income is leveraged income. Leveraged income is similar in that it can be residual. More importantly, leveraged income is money that you make from other people’s efforts!

To use the same widgets example, if you make widgets on an assembly line for your job, you have to do that to get paid. But if you were the one who patented the widget or the technology to make the widget, you would continually receive income every time someone made or bought one of your widgets.

As this related to leveraged income, imagine that in addition to you working on the assembly line, you could train others to do the same work and make a percentage of each person’s income that you trained?

For example, you work the assembly line and earn $1000 each month. What if you could earn 10% of the income for each person you trained to do the same assembly-line work? You would do the work (training) one time and be paid over and over again (residual income that is leveraged via other people’s work).

Suppose you trained ten new people each month, for three months. Your monthly income would begin to look like this:

1st month: You make $1000 and each of the ten people you train earn $1000. In addition, you earn 10% of their monthly income (10% of $1000 = $100 x 10 people = $1000 + your $1000 = $2000 total).

2nd month: You still make your $1000, but now you have 20 people who each make $1000. Your income is thus: 10% of $1000 = $100 x 20 people = $2000 + your $1000 = $3000 total).

3rd month: You still make your $1000, but now you have 30 people who each make $1000. Your income is thus: 10% of $1000 = $100 x 30 people = $3000 + your $1000 = $4000 total).

But wait! In your third month, 10 of the thirty that you trained each trained 5 more people. Another part of your business agreement said that you would receive 5% of the income of anyone that was trained by someone you trained. So, you have 50 more people each earning $1000, and you earn 5% of that –> 5% of $1000 = $50 x 50 people = $2500 + your month 3 total of $4000 = $6500 total in month 3!

This is the beauty of leveraged and residual income! By your one act of training someone to do the work, you will get paid over and over again from their efforts, and again if they train someone else to do the work!

This specific example may not work for where you are, but look at how acts like Kiss use it. Pretty soon, this group won’t have ANY original members…they’ll just put unknown musicians in makeup and send them on tour.

But you, the average musician, can make a ton of money with a newsletter of subscription site. If you’ve been playing for any length of time, you’ve probably got tons of content, whether it be songs, pictures, or even blog entries, that members will pay for. And it wouldn’t be hard to get $5/month from fans to access this.

$5/month might not sound like a lot, but it’s $60/year and most bands are lucky to get $20/year from a fan. That’s a 300% increase income…and just think if you charge $10/month or more.

Some of the larger acts that I work with are doing membership sites and making a killing. Why aren’t you



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