Michele Clark's Sunset Sessions, A New Alternative for the Independent Artist

The 15th annual Michele Clark’s Sunset Sessions was held on February 16^th-19^th, 2012 at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, Rancho Bernardo, CA. For those independent artists not yet discovered or for those former major label artists looking for a fresh start, Sunset Sessions is the place for you. Michele has brought industry movers and shakers to pair with Radio industry movers and shakers with a common goal of helping to break new artists. Sky Daniels, Program Director KCSN/Los Angeles said it best. "One of the great frustrations of the music business is the failure to eliminate 'silos', and bring all influential segments together to create an effective community. Sunset Sessions is bringing together opinion leaders from radio, Film and TV music supervisors, record labels and New Talent to share insight. It's most important goal is to remind all of us of our love for music. True artist development finds daylight every year at the Sunset Sessions."

Keynotes were conducted by Warner Brothers Music Group’s Co-president Livia Tortella and Cumulus Triple A KFOG/San Francisco’s director of programming Denise Constantine. Mr. Constantine was interviewed by industry legend Ben Fong Torres. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres (born Fong Kwok Seung), changed his surname to Torres and posed as a Filipino in order to emigrate to the United States. His family later adopted the hyphenated surname, Fong-Torres.  He is the brother of the late Shirley Fong-Torres. Ben was portrayed in the 2000 film Almost Famous by actor Terry Chen.  The fictional version of Fong-Torres was character William Miller’s editor at Rolling Stone.

In real life, Fong-Torres, who graduated from San Francisco State University in 1966 with a B.A. in radio-TV-film, was a writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone from almost the magazine's inception. He conducted interviews for Rolling Stone of entertainment figures including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, comedian Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt’s first cover story in 1975. He also profiled Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney and Rodney Dangerfield. A Fong-Torres interview with Ray Charles was awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. 

Fordham University’s Triple A WFUV/New York MD Rita Houston moderated the Music Meeting panel; All Media Guide Group founder and Lifetime Network’s music supervisor Marianne Goode and California State University Northridge’s Triple A KCSN/Los Angeles PD Sky Daniels co-moderated the music supervisors/radio round table town hall meeting. Industry icon Danny Goldberg moderated the Moguls of the New World Panel. They all did a fantastic job keeping the discussions positive and fluent. 

There were several outstanding acts that performed for us during the two day summit. Some of those acts were Jimmy Cliff, EVERLAST, Eve 6, BUSHWALLA, Tyrone Wells, Yuna, Sara Milonovich & DaisyCutter, The Villains, Brothers of Brazil, SLATR, Laura Bell Bundy, Rebecca Pidgeon, The Makepeace Brothers, Milow, Ariele Verninis, Arlan, Feiles, Laura Warshauer, The Dirt Drifters, Chris Shinn, Marit Larsen and the annual Warner Brothers Late Night Lounge. Reverend Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith of the Agape Media  International gave an inspirational speech on The Transformational Power of Music. Dr. Beckwith encourages listers to be aware of the soundtrack of their own lives. I applaud Michele and kristy for a job well done. I'm sure that Sunset Sessions 2013 will be bigger, better, and even more inspirational.

This years event was sponsored by ALL MEDIA MUSIC GROUP And KCSN.

For more, visit sunsetsessions.org.

Some Basic Steps In Social Media For Performing Artists

Over the past 25 years, I’ve had a love affair with the music industry. When I was out performing and touring ages ago, we didn’t have the luxury of social media marketing sites. We did it the old school way; going out a week before the gigs passing out flyers, conducting reconnaissance of the venue and surrounding areas for the hot spots in music entertainment. Nowadays you reach more fans without having to leave you region or local area, not that you wouldn’t want to. I have picked up quite a few tips on this “New Game” of social media marketing.

Step One: Understand the Game

Social media is different from sales and other types of marketing. This isn’t the place to do a hard-sell, “just for you, just today” kind of selling tactic. Successful artists have quickly learned how to marry marketing and socializing on these types of sites and if you want to be effective, you need to do the same. Social media begins and ends with … being social! Let people get to know the real you — let all the best aspects of your personality shine through. Make sure in each interaction that you are pleasant, informed and helpful. Know that you need to let a little bit of your “real life” shine through, but keep in mind, a little bit goes a long way.

Step Two: Complete a Full and Thorough Profile Page

Here is where you can add info about your business and your personal interests. Make sure for each profile you include contact information- at least in the form of a link to your website or blog. Facebook allows you to share links to just about anything you choose, so if you have content on YouTube or other sites, include it here. Join groups that express a little bit about both your professional and your personal interests, but stay middle of the road. When you are using social media for your branding as an artist, it is best to avoid anything too political or too religious or you may alienate people, unless of course either one of these subjects are integral to your brand. Fill out your profile information as completely as possible- this is one area where more is definitely more!

Step Three: Connect!

Start adding friends and followers. Look for people you already know as well as people you want to know. Add colleagues and leaders in your industry and those who are likely looking for your solutions. Ask your friends to recommend you to their friends. Send out an email to those in your network, sharing the links to your profiles. Be sure to add your profile links to your email signature block and to your website. Remember, your goal is to build a QUALITY list of connections.  You’re not just going for numbers you want to steadily build strong credibility and high quality relationships in an unforgiving business.

Step Four: Start Posting!

Now the fun begins. Start making a few posts about joining the social media site. Let people know you are new and are looking to connect with them. Share insightful tips – and make them good ones – that will be genuinely useful to your readers. Tell your audience how to save time, save money or ease stress in a way that incorporates your expertise, without asking for their business. Now, rinse and repeat. Mix up your posts with useful information and fun trivia, inspirational quotes, personal information and links to other people’s content. Link to respected people in your sphere of influence that helps you provide expert advice to your followers. Link to websites and blogs you follow and other fun and helpful information.

Step Five: Work this into your daily routine

Spend a small amount of time on a regular basis – about 30 minutes a sitting – at least several times a week. Don’t let yourself get sucked in to wasting hours of time, but schedule time to build your presence.

There it is, a very basic social media plan to get you started on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Of course, you can use the same basic ideas for any social media site, but these three tend to be extremely popular for small business networking.

“Are you willing to risk who you are for who you can become?” ~John Calwile Vinestreet

What Is Creative Commons Licensing and How Does It Work?

Creative Commons licenses give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights—such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work. They do not give you the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright—including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing—nor do they give you the ability to control anything that is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas.

Creative Commons licenses attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it consistent with the license. This means that if Bob has a copy of your Creative Commons-licensed work, Bob can give a copy to Carol and Carol will be authorized to use the work consistent with the Creative Commons license. You then have a license agreement separately with both Bob and Carol.

You should be aware that Creative Commons licenses only affect your rights under copyright. You are not licensing your trademark or patent rights, if any, when you apply a CC license to your work.

Creative Commons licenses are expressed in three different formats: the Commons Deed (human-readable code), the Legal Code (lawyer-readable code); and the metadata (machine readable code). You don’t need to sign anything to get a Creative Commons license—just go to http://www.creativecommons.org/choose/

One final thing you should understand about Creative Commons licenses is that they are all non-exclusive. This means that you can permit the general public to use your work under a Creative Commons license and then enter into a separate and different non-exclusive license with someone else, for example, in exchange for money. For more information on Creative Commons license go to www.creativecommons.org/about.

Mechanical Licensing: Copyright for a Commercially Released Song-

A legal fact:

Once a song has been commercially released by an artist, that artist's song may be re-recorded and released by anyone who chooses to do so. This holds true, provided that the melody or lyric is not substantially altered in the "cover" version, and that the person or persons covering the song pay proper fees and or royalties directly to the song's copyright holder. But...know this, if you release a disc with cover songs on it, then try to obtain proper licensing after the fact, you're no longer eligible and possibly subject to penalties and prosecution for copyright infringement. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to secure proper legal advice from an entertainment attorney.
To research copyright ownership, the publishers of the copyright may be found through the following performing rights agencies.

BMI (www.bmi.com)
ASCAP (www.ascap.com)

SESAC (http://www.sesac.com/)

(NOTE: Outside the US., similar Performance Rights organizations exist for Canada, the UK, Europe and elsewhere.)

John Calwile Vinestreet is a music industry consultant with over 25 years of experience performing, touring, managing and teaching artist development in Hollywood, California. John has performed all over the world with some of the biggest names in the business. He is currently avalible for panels, workshops, one on ones, seminars, and vocal performance clinics.

His specialized categories include but are not limited to: Media relations, Vocal health while touring, Venue selection and reconnaissance, Physical and Online marketing, and the importance of Social Media networking.

For more information contact:

John Calwile Vinestreet
CEO/Vinestreet Music Consulting, LLC
1762 Orchid Avenue, Ste. 104
Hollywood, CA 90028-4316
323.403.7069 (Office)
323.378.6792 (Fax)
john@vinestreetmusicconsulting.com
http://www.vinestreetmusicconsulting.com/

John Calwile Vinestreet

2010 HMMA-Jim DeCicco on the red carpet.

Mixing "I Believe I Can Fly"