You can avoid charge-back - double your mechanical royalties - retain 100% control of your Masters - retain 100% control of what to record and how to record it - and retain 100% control over your career - by being your own Executive Producer! - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

And, being your own Executive Producer avoids being paid LESS for your own music and being CHARGED EXTRA to use somebody else's! That's one of the big traps in record contracts - If you use your own compositions, the record company pays you less than if someone else were to record your songs - if you use somebody else's compositions, the record company deducts the full mechanical royalty and all the administrative costs to deduct and disburse it PLUS THE INTEREST from your already reduced rate royalties! The only record companies that don't do that are those affiliated with VANDOR MUSIC GROUP! - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

But before you blast off on some half-cocked emotional tangent - and blow your budget right down the commode - read the article hyperlinked below and learn how to produce a commercially acceptable record. It's raw, it's rough, and it's intended to be. Recorded Music is a raw and rough Industry, and neither the weak-kneed, namby-pambys, mealy-mouths, industry ignorants or paranoids can survive it, let alone profit in it. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

You need to make a record! You don't need to go to Nashville, New York or Hollywood to do it. Anyone with more brains than a brick - and their stupidity on hold - can make a commercially acceptable recording. Read the article PRODUCTION, DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! and you'll learn all you really need to know except the electronics. Before you record one solitary note: You'll need an Executive Producers Record Release Agreement! Before you spend any money other than a practice-session demo for the Record Company to hear you, get that ExP agreement. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

You can make a perfectly acceptable demo in your living room, at any practice or live-play session - you do not need a studio demo - unless there's simply no other way to get one! Nothing is more ignorant than going to a studio to make a demo to send to a record company to send you to a studio to make a record! And NEVER confuse a tape-recorder operator with being a Record Producer! - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

You'll need good industry advice to make a commercially acceptable record, and it's free from the Record Company once you're ready to do business. You'll know what to do, what to avoid, and the what-won't-works, by just reading through the links of this site. Make sure you read it all, study it all, and if you have legitimate questions, the Licenser or Label Representative will be glad to answer them. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

DO NOT MANUFACTURE YOUR FINISHED RECORDING UNDER ANY CONDITIONS! That blows the anti-counterfeiting all to hell and you've destroyed any protection against the counterfeiters cleaning your clock should you come up with a good selling record! The Record Company will do all the anti-counterfeiting and manufacturing - and everything else that needs doing. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

Being your own Executive Producer (ExP) will double your royalties because you'll be paid for being both ExP and Artist, and give you 100% control over your music and your career. If you're an ExP and produce someone else as an Artist, you can deduct all your costs from just the Artist's earnings, including interest, before you have to pay them one red cent! It's done all the time, and especially by labels who 'front' any money. However, even if an Artist earns enough to pay all the bills in full - they still won't own the masters! Whoever paid for them originally still owns them. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

It takes time to do all the preparation, manufacture and delivery, so don't call the Record Company every hour on the hour with your paranoia intact! The time they squander humoring your stupidity is time they can't spend handling your product - so be patient - your Executive will keep you up to date. And know from minute one: only ONE record out of EIGHT ever sells any copies at all! So don't go spending the money until after the checks clear. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!

This is the Kindergarten Course. Linked below is the Ph.D. 909, so don't audit the class get neck deep in it! It does not cover booking, concert tours, artist management, etcetera, as that would fill another entire library. Suffice it to say, don't sign ANY contracts, management or otherwise until you need those services and expertise! By then you should have some idea of what constitutes an Idiot Element and what it takes to make money with your chosen profession. - The damned lies of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC notwithstanding!