Music Publishing Podcast

Emily Bookwalter is a violist, the Director of External Affairs for the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and the Executive Director of New Amsterdam Records. In short, Emily does all the things. This is a fantastic conversation where we riff on marketing, storytelling, the dargers/usefulness of -isms, community, musical citizenship, and how the viola is the best instrument. Soap-boxes abound. And then Google Hangouts lost the last six minutes of the broadcast. Seriously. Fortunately, I was talking for most of those six minutes, so very little of import was lost.  Links: Emily Bookwalter String Orchestra of Brooklyn New Amsterdam Records

Kathleen Supové is an excellent pianist with a flair for the theatrical and a deep love for new music. Although she studied within the classical tradition, she feels the need to forge new paths and create new traditions for new music. We spoke a few days before The Debussy Effect, Kathleen's latest album of works written for her, was released on New Focus Records. During our conversation, we talked about: Virtuosity Curation Marathon concerts: the good and the not so good Having long-term relationships with composers and other colleagues Recording projects The Debussy Effect Recreational listening Links: Kathleen Supové Kathleen Supové & The Exploding Piano on Facebook The Debussy Effect

Seth Hanes is Philadelphia-based horn player and entrepreneur, and runs the excellent website The Musician's Guide to Hustling, where he helps musicians get more gigs and create more – and more rewarding – connections with other musicians. I met Seth when he invited me to come on his site to talk about the differences between traditional publishing and self publishing, and I was impressed with his level of knowledge on marketing and effective promotion. Seth just released his first book, Break into the Scene: A Musician's Guide to Making Connections, Creating Opportunities, and Launching a Career, today, and I think that it's a great addition to the library of any musician who wants clear, actionable advice on how to improve their career. In the course of our conversation, we covered: Freelancing Having a versatile skillset Scarcity vs abundance Reaching out Connecting with contractors Marketing fundamentals Considering the challenges of your prospective collaborators Breaking into the Scene Links Seth Hanes

In June 2005, my composition teacher at the time, <a href="http://www.daronhagen.com/" target="_blank">Daron Hagen</a>, told me that he was having his <em>Pianos Variations</em> premiered by a pianist named Marc Peloquin at the Bloomingdale School of Music, and that if I was interested, I should go. I arrived rather early, met Marc, and ended up helping him to set up chairs for the recital. The concert was wonderful, and in addition to Daron's <em>Variations</em>, included some works by Virgil Thomson and David Del Tredici. Afterward, I was invited to a post-concert dinner a few blocks away with Marc and his partner (now husband) Seth, Chester Biscardi, and David Del Tredici, and the five of us have been good friends ever since. (I like to tell the story of how I only ordered french fries, claiming that I had eaten before the concert, when in fact french fries were all I could afford at the time. The life of a young artist!) Nine months after that concert and dinner, Marc a

For this week's episode, I sat down with Scott Winship, the Director of Grantmaking at New Music USA to talk about the organization's Project Grants, and answer a few listener questions. It was a great conversation with a lot of really great tips for making your application the best it can be. Some of the things we talked about were: The American Music Center & Meet the Composer merger, which created New Music USA How the NMUSA are a reaction to the ways that artists make their art today The grant application process The panel process The general breakdown of the awards Effective work samples Making use of collaborator profiles Narratives & project descriptions Giving yourself time to put together a compelling application Getting feedback Question: When is the music "not enough"? Your budget The private description Question: Why does it seem like the "usual suspects" seem to get awarded every round? Question: Is there a weight to individual, ensemble, or organization applications? The new grant deadl

Recently declared by Opera News to be a "game changing" company that is redefining American opera, New York City-based Rhymes With Opera started just like most new music ensembles – as a handful of like-minded friends who just wanted to do good work – and have become a well-established, well-respected organization creating a whole new set of operatic repertoire for the 21st century. I was thrilled to sit down with all five of the founding members to talk about the company's successes and growing pains, and their advice for new music ensembles that are just starting out. During the course of the conversation, we talked about: The history and mission of Rhymes With Opera Deciding your path as an organization Not over-extending your ensemble Finding organizational stability Rhyme With Opera's beginning steps and missteps The importance of forming a solid Board of Directors Limiting your organizational activities to core competencies Surrounding yourself with talent Outsourcing effectively Taking incremental ste

Rose Marshack is a professor of Arts Technology and Music Business at Illinois State University (my alma mater), as well as the bass player for the indie rock band Poster Children. I met Rose when I spoke to her Music Business students for the first time in 2013, and immediately loved her enthusiasm for giving her students the skills they need to survive post-graduation. During the course of our conversation, we talked about: Giving back Maintaining connections with your alma mater "Band Karma" The different approaches to teaching music business Different ways to make a living as a musician Teaching as a form of learning Surrounding yourself with talent Links: Poster Children André Gide: The Counterfeiters The Smarter Artist: What Do You Mean by DVD Extras? Self-Publishing Podcast: Forging Unbreakable Bonds with Readers Who Love You

In addition to being a talented composer, Daniel Gilliam is the Director of Programming for WUOL Classical 90.5 in Louisville, KY. We got to know one another a number of years ago on Twitter, and finally met in "meatspace", along with Dale Trumbore, over drinks at the 2012 Chorus America conference in Minneapolis, MN. During the course of our conversation we touched on: The responsibilities of a classical radio Program Director Having a day job outside of academia How your paycheck doesn't define you as an artist – your art does Building relationships Being able to talk about your music with non-musicians Neil deGrasse Tyson as an ambassador of science An overview of classical radio Audience, data and fulfilling mission Defining the audience for classical radio How most new music performers aren't the target audience for classical radio Submitting recordings to classical stations The quality of your materials Follow-up techniques Doing your research The importance of having a broad and deep knowledge of the

Garrett Hope is a composer, entrepreneur, and business coach, as well as the podcaster behind The Portfolio Composer (originally titled Composer on Fire). Like me, he loves helping other composers to navigate their careers, and he's currently putting together an online course, which will launch in September, to teach composers how to market their works more effectively. During our wide-ranging conversation, we talked about: The Portfolio Composer (née Composer on Fire) "Done is better than perfect" Believing in yourself and having the courage to go out and pursue your dreams "What does it mean to market and sell yourself?" Thinking like a small business owner Some basic marketing principles and advice How your art becomes a product after you've finished creating it No matter what kind of music you write, there is a market for it Garrett's Marketing for Composers course How marketing doesn't have to lead to financial benefit – it can just help to secure more performances Legacy "Know your why" Surrounding you

Three months after his first appearance on the show, entertainment/copyright lawyer and MPP Superfriend Marc Ostrow is back to talk some more about Fair Use, with me supplying a few hypothetical situations. But more importantly, Marc lays out the Department of Justice's recent and unexpected ruling that PROs must abandon 70+ years of established industry practice and adopt a 100% Licensing regime, and what that means for you. During the conversation, we covered: A history of ASCAP, BMI, and their consent decrees Rate courts and "reasonable rates" How consent decrees allow new streaming services to operate without paying for a license The differences between the ASCAP & BMI consent decrees How the PROs want their consent decrees to be relaxed to allow for sync and mechanical licensing How the Department of Justice ruled on 100% Licensing rather than addressing long-standing industry concerns An explanation of 100% Licensing vs. Fractional Licensing Who owns what in a collaborative effort "Absent a written

Megan Ihnen is a Des Moines, IA-based mezzo-soprano and "tireless promoter of contemporary classical music for the voice." For this week's episode, we sat down to talk about building community, being generous, and writing for the voice. Throughout the conversation we covered: Getting inspiration from other fields Building a career outside of NYC Building local music communities Megan's mission statement of building relationships in concentric circles Entrepreneurship & generosity Being a part of the larger community Starting new music ensembles with close colleagues Fostering the works of living composers as a lynchpin to your career How singers work with text (and subtext) Close collaboration between composers and performers Getting to know your collaborator's particular strengths Some pointers on writing for the voice Sending music to vocalists How Megan finds music to perform Finding and fostering your tribe Links: Megan Ihnen Megan on Twitter Megan on Istagram The Sybaritic Singer 29 Days to Diva Av

Thomas Deneuville is another musician whose friendship I owe to Twitter, which is only fitting considering his affinity to and facility with social media. Thomas is the founder of the online new music magazine I Care If You Listen, which he created in December 2010, and has since grown to includeICareIfYouListen.tv, a fully-fledged media platform dedicated to user-generated new music videos. A testament to his ingenuity and love of the world of new music, Thomas and I Care If You Listen won the 45th Annual ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor Media Award in 2013. Outside of ICIYL, Thomas teaches, consults, and speaks about web design, email marketing, social media, and analyzing online metrics, as they pertain to musicians and other artists. He is also the digital content manager for Cornell University. During the course of this week's episode, we talked about: I Care If You Listen The quarterly ICIYL Mix Tape Curating a collection of other people's recordings Creating an online community Having an effective social

In November 2015, Dale Trumbore recommended that Kurt Knecht and I talk about me joining MusicSpoke, an online retailer of self-published scores run by Kurt and his wife Jennifer Rosenblatt. I've been a MusicSpoke composer ever since, and have a number of my scores available for sale there. Because Kurt &amp; Jennifer run MusicSpoke with such dedication, zeal, and transparency, I wanted to highlight their business, which does so much for the composers involved, and for the community in general, and to talk about digital distribution in general. In the course of our conversation, we covered: <ul> <li>The wall that traditional publishers represent between composers and score purchasers</li> <li>The monetary difference between traditional publishing and distribution deals</li> <li>Reading sessions at conferences</li> <li>Curating lists of works</li> <li>Making use of connections in your own state</li> <li>Using physical scores to make di

Composer &amp; conductor Dominick DiOrio is a supremely talented musician, and we have many friends in common who have raved about him to me over the years. He's a widely-respected choral conductor, and a huge champion of new music, so I've been interested in getting him on the show from the word "go". We have a few audio issues at the beginning of the episode, but everything smooths out nicely after a few minutes, and we have a really wonderful chat. In the course of our conversation, we talk about: <ul> <li>Wearing the dual hats of conductor and composer</li> <li>How performative pursuits can inform your writing, and vice versa</li> <li>Common score review practices for choral conductors</li> <li>Composers who have (or don't have) a vocal sensibility</li> <li>Adjudicating competitions, and what disqualifies many entries in the first round</li> <li>Recording requirements in competitions</li> <li>The evolution of choral mu

Alexandra Gardner is a great composer who, thanks in no small part to her time as an Associate Editor for NewMusicBox, knows a lot about the nuts and bolts workings of the concert music world. For this week, she and I sat down to talk about a wide range of practical considerations for composers. During our conversation, we touched on: Pricing your scores Comparing your prices to similar scores by other self-publishied composers or put out by traditional publishers Prices that reflect blood, sweat, and tears cs. those that reflect concrete costs of printing & binding Taking where you are in your career into consideration when pricing your scores Composer web sites Integrating your non-musical interests into your composer site to make it more interesting and engaging Making your site easy to navigate, and your materials/info easy to find Providing the information that performers and presenters need Information redundancies across your site Taking into account the Luddites in the concert music world when ma

After having never met Rob Deemer before in person, I had TWO conversations with him in less than a week for the podcast! Conversation No. 1 was marred by some unexpected audio issues, so we re-recorded less than a week later, and that's what you're getting this week. During Convo No. 2, we talked about: <ul><li>How side projects can boost your career</li> <li>Being able to talk about your music</li> <li>Labels as specifiers &amp; Labels as marketing</li> <li>Drawing parallels between concert music and other fields</li> <li>The ways we talk about "new music"</li> <li>Music as an Experience</li> <li>Program notes</li> <li>Social media as a serious form of professional communication</li> <li>Interacting with musicians when you (or they) live outside of a major metropolitan area</li> <li>Teaching inexperienced artists how to interact on social media</li> <li>Forming deeper relat

Dale is a composer whose career I've enjoyed following over the years. I'm always intrigued by the projects that she takes on, and I love the interesting and super-savvy ways that she tackles each one. In the course of our conversation, we talked about: How performance is the best rehearsal for recording The benefits of long-term musical relationships Taking advantage of your own enthusiasm Touring an album Kickstarting a project Using preorders to fund an album The potential dangers of Kickstarter rewards Imposing artificial deadlines on projects Hybrid publishing Using traditional publishing to boost sales of your self-published works The concept of the "loss leader" Curating a series of scores The gatekeepers of publishing: the good and the bad Taking a methodical approach to your career, and not rushing after everything at once Saying "no" to opportunities that are a poor fit Being prepared for success Accidentally oversaturating the scene Newsletters Being smart and engaging in your newsletter content U

For this week's episode, I sat down with San Jose-based composer and engraver Noah Luna to talk about the importance of having professional-quality scores and parts. He offered some great advice on some little things that composers can do to improve the look and - most importantly - the readability of their materials. In the course of the hour, we chatted about: getting a professional eye on your scores/parts leaving time for proofreading the various communities that engravers/copyists serve how high quality scores facilitate rehearsals how poor engraving can be costly to ensembles the rise of digital devices in performance trusting your software too much listening to music librarians MOLA standards for margins, staff size, page size, and page turns getting feedback from performers being consistent in your score layout leaving your compositional process on the page, and how that can negatively impact readability how sometimes you just have to use Staples or FedEx font usage page layout the idea of takin

Erin Rogers is a super-talented composer and saxophonist who I've known for a couple of years. We met for the first time over lunch many years ago while I was in the early stages of writing the Composer's Guide, where we had a wonderful conversation about publishing and composer career issues that has always stuck with me. Our paths haven't crossed much in the intervening years, so I was glad to have a reason to reconnect with Erin by inviting her on the show. And boy was I glad I did! This is the first show that I've done not just live, but in-person, as well! We attempted to broadcast as per usual, but I discovered after the fact that Google Hangouts stopped actually broadcasting after the first 20 minutes…leaving another 70 that never went out to YouTube! Fortunately, as I've learned about doing this whole podcasting thing, I've started recording the audio on my own end (and asking my guests to record theirs, as well), so the entire conversation was captured on my laptop, and wasn't lost due to the screw-u

Copyright is the bedrock of every artist's career – it secures rights and offers protections that allow us to build careers on solid ground without undue worry of our works being stolen or exploited without our knowledge or consent. The Founding Fathers of the United Stated thought it so important that they wrote it into Article I of the Constitution. Every artist should have a working knowledge of current copyright law – they should know the basic rights and protections that they're afforded, and how they can remedy any infringement on their rights. It's with this in mind that I invited my friend Marc Ostrow, an entertainment/IP lawyer and songwriter, to be on the show. In our conversation, we talked about: basic tenets of copyright the limits of what is copyrightable the Poor Man's Copyright the benefits of and incentives to registering your copyrights fighting infringements folio registrations* working with living poets vs. dead poets' estates Performing Rights Organizations selecting collecting perform