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View Full Version : Live Recordings & Retailing Compilations - Legalities and Feasabilities?



exnihilo
08-18-2007, 12:35 PM
Well first of all, hello everyone. This is actually my first post, but I've always found everyone here infinitely resourceful while lurking as a guest.

A little primer about myself: I'm a 23-year old sidelined college student from the Central Georgia area. I'm part owner and vice-president of an entertainment company that owns a recording studio that I manage from day to day. The studio offers the usual recording and production packages, with in-house CD Duplication/Packaging services.

Another function of the entertainment company is holding contracts with a host of local artists and producers, who receive incentives at the recording studio for belonging to the company's label.

Now, the last year or two I've been doing a lot of venue rentals for those artists and bands. At first the rentals were just run of the mill concerts around town, but soon I began coupling the performances with judged talent shows. I usually offered free recording and production packages as prizes, 10-hour lockouts and such valued north of $500.

Went on to start doing venue sales, went on to gain interest in reporting venue sales to Soundscan, went on to renting venues to host private parties for any number of reasons.

Anyway, I'm young, inexperienced and I'm no booking agent nor promoter, but I've gone from venue renting to opening a club.

I have a 6,000 sq. ft. building divided into two floors; the building was previously a sports bar (bottom level)/dance club (top level). The top level features a decent stage with a rear DJ room/enclosure, and pretty spacious dance floor.

I point out the stage because, most competition in my area are booked solid with live performances; but they're all trendy restaurants with international cuisine that have to practically rearrange their entire floorplan to accommodate performances, and/or utilize portable stages. So having a venue built for the purpose could be advantageous.

Now, naturally all the concepts I've come up with to establish as premises for the upcoming business plan have been steeped in what I already know about; recording and publishing.

A core idea of mine to hinge the club upon was to record the audio and video of booked talent and do the following things:

--Offer unmixed audio and raw footage of performances as a sort of plus on the general companion website for the club.

--Stream the syndicated content on wall-mounted televisions during more idle operating hours.

--Create seasonal or volume based compilations of the club's best live performances in both CD and DVD form. The benefits over free web content would be mixed and mastered audio, and higher quality edited video.


Now, the latter most idea would serve as more than making a buck for the business. I'm used to working with compilation contracts, and I figured offering royalties to different acts would both aide in attracting local talent and increasing visibility of the venue in town.

So, on to my questions based on the above.

1. Assuming all content recorded, published and sold are entirely original, are there any legal considerations one can think of outside a general recording contract the performed single? If there's no cover performances or sampling involved, I can't think of needing any outside licensing.

2. What're your opinions on the idea when it comes to creating promotions for the club? I feel it would attract local talent, and a competitive "battle of bands" atmosphere if guest spots on compilations were regularly rewarded and put out seasonly.



Sorry if I'm being vague, I could tell you more about my situation (and I plan to), but I didn't want to spam up my first post. So I'll start with this.

teenclub
08-18-2007, 11:44 PM
if their music is copyrwritten and they are affiliated with a Performance Rights Organization or even an indie label you have other things to consider

mechanical rights on the cds and performance rights for the streams



you are dealing with several issues...including sync rights on the video DVDS and web broadcasts.

make sure your contracts are clear, a group can START to get big, sign with a sharp indie or actually get big, and later come after you for all the publishing liability your creating.

And thats if its 100% original...add ONE copyrighted song, and its a new can of worms


side note: out of nothing...gap theory?

exnihilo
08-19-2007, 10:06 AM
All right, thanks for the input. I plan to use an entertainment lawyer as always when the time actually comes for the contract specifics, but right now I just wanted some foresight to see if there'd be any major hurdles. Right now it seems like at most, I'll be on the other end of ASCAP/BMI, which I'll have to be anyway. That and dealing with licensing and copyrights from other local labels, but that's fine.

Now, a little more about my situation. The building I have is deadsmack in the middle of many "clubs". Most are really just restaurants, very very good trendy restaurants with all sorts of international cuisines. On my single block alone there's two pizzerias, a Japanese restaurant, an Italian restaurant, bistros with banquet catering force, sidewalk cafes, etc. It's ugly for any new restaurant in the area.

Now, in my city, sales of alcohol on a Sunday are prohibited without a Sunday sales permit. To qualify for one, a business has to reap 50% of it's revenue from prepared meals. So what we have is a bunch of "clubs" actually being full blown restaurants and other clubs shutdown on Sundays. (actually what we have is a lot of clubs lying about how much food they're selling in their public accountant reports, but I suppose that'll catch up with them)

There's no way my club will be able to reap 50% of it's revenue from prepared meals if it's serving alcohol, coin-op billiards/darts and asking for cover charges. So "food" is something I can't compete with, although I plan to offer light, quickly prepared finger foods to contrast the heavier, slower prepared utensil-based dining experiences of surrounding restaurants.

As far as coming up with a market niche to base my business plan around, I figure I could already have one considering what a lot of event planners go through in order to host live events on my street. A lot of these clubs/restaurants are forced to rearrange their entire dining room floorplans and bring out portable stages, or use no stage at all. Yet they pack their spots consistently.

I figured a music venue skewed towards a dedicated stage and floor for an audience would facilitate a market that's into live entertainment.

Additionally to create a positive contrast from surrounding businesses. A lot of 'em have been in business a long time, and brand themselves with "est. 19##". With that comes an attitude of not having to change or adapt. So a lot of the clubs barely have, or don't have at all a website.

There is an internet generation upon us, no? Defined by forums like these, and of course social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook.

It's just when I walk into a neighboring club that may have had an amazing show the night before; it's weird to see The Sopranos on television and not future promos for the club or syndicated performances. Or for that same club to have nothing on it's website but a menu of outdated prices, rather than photo galleries and videos.

So I may have a market niche in appealing to those that might not necessarily want to "disconnect" after a show. Who'd appreciate viewing syndicated performances both during early operations of the club and within their very home.

Anyone who has had any experiences with this, good or bad, I'd love to hear from you.

Otherwise though, I'm open to any advice towards appealing to a market of college students (nearby university) and city workers (a big chunk of which in the service industry themselves), without drawing any make-or-break direct competition and comparisons with surrounding restaurants. That's really what this post is about, identifying market niches not obvious to me that aren't reliant upon food and competition on Sundays.

exnihilo
08-19-2007, 10:10 AM
side note: out of nothing...gap theory?

Gap theory is based on "out of nothing", but the phrase is general to every theology.

Personally, it's just a modus operandi. More latin!

teenclub
08-19-2007, 08:27 PM
i would stay away from the broadcasting of music etc...but up to you

you are dead on about this generation...use these to your advantage

Video
Text Messaging
Myspace
Website
Email
social bookmarking and networking
internet street teams

if you integrate this with live music in your venue...you will take the college kids...but you have to be intuned to what they WANT, not just what the others are not doing

immerse yourself in college culture, and bring undergrads on staff so you know how and when to speak to them.

AtlPeach FCO
10-28-2007, 08:29 PM
:o Hello, As I was reading your thread, wow your vision is really close to a concept that I am currently putting together for a venue spot in the Metro Atlanta area. Willing to help you out with any assistance you may need regarding ideas for your club. It is very much needed, many blessings to you and your project.

AtlPeach FCO
Future Club Owner