Income
How To Do Taxes as a Self-Employed Musician
Once you've decided to officially become a professional musician, you are faced with a problem that every working American has to face - you need to file a tax return.
This fact alone is enough to dissuade some very talented...
Income
Few Points About BMI Music Royalties for Songwriters and Publishers
If you’re a songwriter or publisher with BMI, or you’re thinking of joining BMI, this post is for you. Just for clarity, BMI is actually not a publisher. It simply collects royalties for publishers and songwriters.
Income
Musicians Tax Guide: 11 Common Mistakes Musicians Make on their Taxes
In 2009, after working in music and venue marketing for 10 years, I started answering the phones at a busy tax prep firm in Chicago. It was supposed to be a temporary gig, but before long, my musician friends...
Image
Songtradr Review: Everything You Need to Know
If you are reading this, you probably already know about "sync licensing." If you don't, then head over to this amazing podcast with Vo Williams: "Hip Hop Artist with over 1,000 TV, Film and Video Game placements." Listening to the podcast...
Royalties
YouTube Content ID is a Scam
YouTube and the major labels and publishers are in cahoots. YouTube knows its Content ID claiming system is far from perfect, but it’s the best we got.
Income
The MLC is Sitting On $423 Million, How Songwriters Can Claim It
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) came out of the Music Modernization Act (MMA).
Wow there were a lot of buzz words and phrases you may have never heard of in that first sentence. To not get into the weeds of how...
Income
NFTs for Music Explained (in Musician Terms)
I have a new album coming out April 9th. No, I'm not about to pimp another album NFT (more on this in a bit). This is only for reference to say I'm A) a working musician and B) I...
Royalties
How Much Each Distributor Pays For Spotify and Apple Music
All streams are not treated equally.
How much Spotify and Apple Music pay for a stream varies on many factors. There are around 800 different pay rates for each stream on Spotify. Some of the variables include: Country/Territory of the listener
...
Income
Songtrust vs. Sentric vs. TuneCore Publishing
Which admin publishing company will work best for you: Sentric, TuneCore Publishing, or Songtrust?
Resources
Teespring vs. Printify vs. Gooten vs. Printful vs. Teelaunch: Best Print On-Demand Merch Companies for Musicians
Which print on-demand merch company is best for musicians: Gooten, Printful, Printify, Teelaunch, or Teespring?
Latest News
Mixing SZA, Engineering Bob Dylan, Collaborating with Rick Rubin
This week, Ari is joined by grammy nominated engineer and producer Dana Nielsen, to discuss his career journey, collaborating with award winning artists, and making it as a mix engineer.