vanblah

Well, you can only fuck the man so far before he fucks you back.

If you control your own studio then you can submit the form SR. But again, this is not where the money is.

The money is in publishing ... form PA (basically). You'll need to set up a LEGITIMATE business called a Publishing House. It can be as simple as a DBA using your SSN. Register with a royalty house (ASCAP, BMI) as both a WRITER and a PUBLISHER. The royalty houses will only pay legitimate businesses and it makes it easier for them if you are registered as a publisher.

As far as getting your stuff on radio in REGULAR rotation ... you need PR and lots of it. You will have to PAY for this kind of PR ... usually. Sometimes, a band can achieve cult status and sort of achieve a name for themselves with little help from an agency. Ani DiFranco comes to mind ... but even she has a PR and marketing firm now.

Here's the deal: if you sell somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 CDs (depending on the style of music you do) on your own then people will take notice. The labels will come knocking. But if you can sell 30,000 CDs on your own why do you need a label? 30,000 CDs at $10/per is $300,000 minus the cost to print them (and record). I could live happily ever after on that. With iTunes you don't even need the CDs.

If you can sell 30,000 CDs before getting in regular rotation why do you need radio play? Royalties paid by radio are shit. If you're selling that many CDs television and movie people will be knocking on your door. THAT'S where the real money comes in. Licensing to TV and Film. That's why you need to have your publishing in order.

If you sell 10,000 or more CDs you will need a lawyer. You will need someone to handle your PR rather than generate PR. You don't need the huge PR firms or the big-time lawyer at first. There are affordable people out there in EVERY city. You just have to find them. Most industry people are more approachable than you think. Just don't be a cheese-dick when you talk to them. You have to make them feel like you are really interested in THEM rather than just handing them a CD and saying "sign me." And by "make them feel" I mean really be genuine with it.

Another secret to all this is longevity. You have to be PAAAAAAATIENT. Remember Uncle Tupelo and then Wilco? Jeff Tweedy wasn't really all that popular until the last three or four years but he's been at it since 89. And remember this: when you make a fan they will usually buy your BACK CATALOG too. So if you have five CDs (from the last couple of years) and you make 2 new fans at a bar one night and they just absolutely LOVE what you do then you could potentially sell 10 CDs right there. That's the reason for recording so much ... but again, the real MONEy is in licensing deals not CD sales.

Do what you love doing which is MAKING MUSIC. Forget about everything else and just produce, produce, produce. Don't look for "angles" or get-rich-quick schemes. Think about how long it took for you just to be able to play an instrument or write a song; think about how much dedication you have given it. Don't lose site of why you play music in the first place.

But I'm rambling.

EDIT: I don't mean produce,produce,produce in the sense of being a producer. I mean create music ... I should have said "create, create, create."