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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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 ...

Songtrust vs. Sentric vs. TuneCore Publishing

Which admin publishing company will work best for you: Sentric, TuneCore Publishing, or Songtrust?

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?

If Spotify Won’t Pay More, They Should Give Us More Data

I’ll say it. And I’m going to get shit for it.  The comment from the CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, “you can’t record music every 3-4 years anymore” got blown way out of proportion. I actually did a full podcast...

Session Musicians’ Money Stolen by the Union Meant to Protect Them

If you’ve ever played on a recording as a hired gun, you are entitled to more than just the check you got for the session. You are guaranteed (up to) 5% of all the performance royalties that recording ever makes....
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Latest News

How This UK Indie Label Sold 25K Records For 1 Band First Week

This week, Ari is joined by Mark Orr, founder of Lab Records, to break down modern indie label deals, marketing, and artist strategy.
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