Media Music Blog

I have been in many discussions about the role of PRS I have been asked the following question numerous times by new composers and bands.

When should I join PRS?

In short I would say it is a judgement call on your part. In my experience, there are certain old school managers / music industry advisers that will have you believe it is the first thing you need to do in order to get paid. This is not strictly true!

PRS collect money from performances and broadcasts of your musical works. However, due to the huge task of monitoring this, PRS use a system of census that actually means that your music can be played yet missed by the census.

I think PRS do a great job for many composers / artists, but I do not think joining up should be the first thing you consider doing. In my opinion, I think it is worthwhile paying the admin fee and joining if you know that your works are being broadcast on major Terrestrial TV channels. If you are just being played on local radio for a few weeks a year, it is extremely unlikely that you will get any revenue. If you do it probably won’t recoup your admin fee.

So, in short, don’t join because somebody that apparently knows the industry tells you to.

Do some research, get the facts and join only when you think you will benefit financially.

Resources

• www.prs.co.uk - Performance royalty collecting society UK

This guy knows what he is talking about and has a detailed article about royalties.

• http://www.bemuso.com/musicbiz/collectionsocieties.html

Also, I have a two part article about copyright and licensing

• http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/mediamusicarticles/Copyright-Licensing/

This is cut and paste from the www.prs.co.uk…

Methods of using performance data for royalty distribution

census – full returns of all music played.

Where revenue is sufficient, PRS will distribute it to all the works performed. While it is the Society’s desire for this to be applied to all performances, at present it is only achieved for national terrestrial broadcast performances and certain major concerts.

sample – a subset of returns of all the music played.

In many cases the cost of collecting and processing details of all performances would be more than the revenue available. In these cases PRS collects information about some of the performances and uses that to represent all of them. These samples might be certain days in a broadcasters schedule, or certain concert events and are selected at random to reflect their overall value.

projection – returns of music from one source used to distribute another source

There are many uses of music, such as CDs and tapes for background music in shops and restaurants, where the actual value of each performance is probably only a few pence. In these cases it is too costly to create an effective sample. Instead PRS creates a statistical calculation of other music data based on a small survey of actual performances.

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Love it or Loathe it, websites are becoming more media focused and music is becoming more common on the web. As broadband speeds increase, the web is becoming alive with the sound of music, glossy images and streaming video. Welcome to the online future!

Tip 1 – Enhance it!

Have music or sound if you feel it will enhance your users’ experience. Good music placement can enhance a visitors experience and provide the right atmosphere for browsing and purchasing. Don’t use music for the sake of it or because you mates band has produced a recording!

Tip 2 – The Off Button

Always, always have an off button in a highly visible place. Not everybody wants music, especially if they are at work. People are more likely to mute the music if it is inappropriate to the site subject matter.

Tip 3 – Be Legal

Always get the appropriate licensing, without it you could end up in serious trouble. Don’t assume that you are covered always check the small print.

Tip 4 – Audio

Use quality digital audio. Don’t use midi based music, this is now seen as old fashioned and the resulting sound quality is out of your control as it is dependent on the quality of the visitors sound card.

Tip 5 – Compliment Your Site

Music that is complimentary to the subject of your site or business is likely to be accepted by your visitor. Instrumental music is said to be best as vocals can be distracting if you are trying to read. Don’t use inappropriate music, better to use none at all than use a piece that is potentially turning your visitors away.

Tip 6 – Don’t Start Too Loud

Consider the volume and structure of the music. If the music starts off loud and dramatically, it is an idea to reduce the overall volume of the audio file. This way the music will play slightly lower than the default volume settings of the visitors system. Loud starts can cause people to scramble for the close button. It is better that they have to turn it up a bit!

Tip 7 – Ease Me In!

Letting music fade in is a good way to ease you listener into your audio. They will be less likely to hit the off button if you give them a few seconds to accept the fact that music is starting to play.

Tip 8 – What Is It For?

Decide what the intended effect of the music is. Is it an introduction to your site or as background music? May be you will have both.

Tip 9 – Loops Can Make You Loopy!

If you want to loop sections of music be very careful. Short loops are proven to irritate listeners quickly. The ear is very perceptive to repetition and trickery, more so than the eye.

Tip 10 – Don’t Employ the Butcher

Combining music with graphics and video is now relatively easy to do with modern technology, however, without good audio editing skills getting the audio to fit with your animation can require some sound design or a bespoke piece to be written. This subject is an article in its self; however, I would say it is better to pay for the skills of a sound designer to get the result you need. Music that has been butchered or altered to fit can easily be spotted if it is not done properly and can spoil the entire effect.

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This is my take on it… any other opinions / knowledge on this subject are welcome.

An aggregator acts a bit like an agent, putting bands music into other people’s libraries on behalf of the artist. The aggregator takes a percentage on sales but often does not even sell from his own site.

This can be useful for an unsigned band because it means that the aggregator takes care of getting their content into all the relevant online retailers.

An aggregator has the contacts and knowledge of how to get bands / labels music into the right online retailers and can generate a revenue without having to develop and promote an eCommerce site of their own.

Aggregators tend to put a band’s / label’s music anywhere it has a chance of being sold, whether a big download store such as itunes and Tunetribe or in any of the numerous independent websites. Aggregators have been known to provide catalogue to ringtone sellers and other media industries.

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Unfortunately, explaining this subject even in basic terms requires some techno babble. I guess after reading this you will either want more detailed information or you will be reaching for the headache tablets and going for a lie down!

If you are just trying to understand the best format to use for your project I guess understanding the reason behind the sound is less important than the result. If you fall into this camp you may want to quickly read this article, listen to the examples at the end of the article and then experiment with some audio files.

CD Quality Audio – Uncompressed.

The technical bit!

In order to reproduce a digital sound accurately many measurements of that sound are required and need to be stored as digital information (0’s and 1’s). Simplistically speaking, the more measurements or samples taken per second of a sound, the higher the quality that can be reproduced.

It is generally considered that CDs reproduce high quality audio, a quality of 44.1kHz 16bit.

This means audio is sampled 44100 times per second at a bit rate of 16. Bit rate refers to the quantisation or in simple terms the accuracy of each measurement taken. For example, leaving the standard of the CD for a moment, if you were to listen to something sampled at 8 bit it world sound grainy as the low accuracy of the samples would produce audible distortion. Going the other way, 24 bit would sound finer than a CD at 16 bit as the sampling accuracies are higher.

Anyway back to the CD, the size of a music file is quite large, however, this is fine as the CD has much storage space relatively speaking. The capacity of an audio CD is up to 80 minutes of CD quality audio (44.1 Khz, 16 bit)

CD audio, as you would buy in a shop and play on your CD player is known as uncompressed audio. Uncompressed formats are AIFF (mac), WAV (PC) and CDDA (CD Audio)

Compressed Audio

Pure uncompressed audio is great to listen to, however, high quality means large file size! Whilst this is fine on your CD player it is impractical for online use or for use on many of the popular portable media devices such as the ipod.

For this reason, compressed audio formats are used. A compressed format uses code that removes unnecessary information from the audio making the file size many times smaller than uncompressed audio files. There are a number of different compressed file formats, some better than others. The basic principle is that the information about sounds that cannot be heard (sounds obscured by others) is removed to save space.

Probably the most common compressed format is mp3. There are numerous others including WMA, AAC, Ogg vorbis and Real Audio.

A good quality mp3 is about 10% of the size of the comparative CD audio file. MP3 converters enable you to adjust the quality to suit the file size you require. With MP3 it is the bit rate that controls the file size and the auible quality. As MP3s are much smaller than CDDA files the bit rate is measured in kbps.

Generally speaking, If you want a small file size you can save it as a low quality audio file. High quality audio mp3s mean a larger file size. See our chart and examples below.

Format and Size VS Download speed.

So what does this mean to our ears, our storage space and our download speeds? Generally, small file sizes equal poor audio quality but quick download speed, whereas high quality audio means bigger files and a slower download time. The chart gives some examples of download speeds. You can also see how long they take to fully download into the flash player.

Sound quality is subjective so it is worth experimenting with different file sizes in order to see which is most suited to your purpose.

Have a listen to our MP3 examples, see if you can hear the difference. Whether you can hear any diiference will depend on how good your ears are and how good your speakers are.

Converting Audio

It is common practice to make larger files such as WAVs smaller in order to use them in streaming web media and numerous other multimedia projects. This involves converting them into compressed files such as mp3s and there is plenty of software out there that will do the job, however, I can personally recommend DB Power amp It is easy to use and free although there is a small license fee for MP3 conversion.

As a rule of thumb, it is never good practice to turn a compressed file back into an uncompressed format. Once the compression process removes information it can never be added back into the file. Also, it is not worth making a low quality MP3 into a higher quality one, the same principle applies.

The audio examples are on Media Music Now - Click Here >

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Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon that has been spreading the globe from around 2003. Podcasting is simply the act of producing and distributing a Podcast via the world wide web. Rather than being a fad or a trend, Podcasting has become a significant communication and marketing tool for many companies.

What is a Podcast?

Podcast is a term derived from Apple’s iPod (first introduced in October 2001). In reality, a Podcast is just an mp3 audio file that is distributed on demand via the internet. A Podcast can be listened to straight from the internet or downloaded to any mp3 player - not just an iPod! Possibly the greatest appeal of the Podcast is that it can be listened to at the convenience of the listener with many making use of commuting time.

The subject of a Podcast can be almost anything, however, Podcasts are generally in a series and enable the listener to subscribe using an RSS feed (really simple syndication) This is a real advantage for businesses as not only does your first Podcast mention your business name and its activity but it reminds your audience when a new Podcast is available, hence reinforcing your company message and identity.

Common Podcast subjects can be anything from product information delivery, help files, news reports, sports information, hobbies, comedy, tutorials, debates, interviews, company training, internal company communication, seminar recordings, client testimonials etc.

Content that gets them hooked

The key for using Podcasts effectively as a business tool is to find a subject that your target market will find useful. You are trying to get a group of regular listeners and therefore should avoid making your Podcast a blatant advert for your services.

If you provide your listener with useful content and information that is relevant to them and their industry they will happily subscribe to your Podcast. Furthermore, popular Podcasts spread more readily over the internet giving your company lots of cost effective advertising and PR.

Your Podcasts should ideally be in the form of a themed series with each Podcast episode being anywhere from 5-30 minutes in length. Having a planned format will help keep your program flowing and varied.

It is a good idea to consider making your content as timeless as possible; after all, your Podcast will potentially be around forever. Encouraging feedback and suggestions from your audience can help steer the programme into a direction that listeners want. Popular features can be interviews, “how to” guides (without giving your trade secrets away), informational content, mentioning useful industry resources, talk shows, industry news, reviews etc. There are no set rules for Podcast content so don’t be afraid to use your imagination. Trying something new or different can make you unique and stand out from others.

Audio Quality

Anyone with a PC and a microphone can record a Podcast, however, creating a professional sounding Podcast production is a different matter. If you want your company to project professionalism then you need to use one of the growing numbers of Podcast producers.

Your company’s sonic branding should be taken as seriously as your visual forms of branding. As mentioned previously, your Podcast could be around forever in cyberspace; therefore it is worth investing a little time and money into getting it right.

Remember, your Podcast has the potential to be a powerful PR and marketing channel for your business. Excessive background noise, mobile phone interference, bad microphone placement, ramblings on with long silences should have no place in your company Podcast.

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