hey folks, daniel here again. i will keep this one short. i am putting this out into the world to help other artists who are doing it themselves from day one.
the con: in 2013 i signed a publishing deal before releasing any music. this deal cost us money and it came at the promise that my music could be featured in film and tv shows to build profit for my work and beyond it promised. this deal was terrible. it was a deal that has not served my music in any way whatsoever. it served the publisher greatly. i was a lot younger and there was a buzz surrounding my demos and it was humbling to get the chance to sign a deal for my music to reach better heights. my music deserves radio play, tv play and movie soundtracking.
roll on 6 years and my music has not been pitched to one brand, tv show or film company. its been sat in a limbo. to add to that, due to an internal server issue from my publisher i have sadly received no royalties for my album ‘wired for heartbreak’. this record contains my most popular song ‘reflection’. we estimate hundreds of dollars that are missing from our income that we are entitled too from 3 types of royalties alone for this song and hundreds of more dollars for the whole album in royalties. i will state that this did not impact ‘sales’ - we received all sales, just royalties.
the fix and the future: in 2019 i released ‘act I’ and it was released under this same publisher. however i had reached my patience threshold and was already looking at ways of finally fixing this issue. so i took a big step and i have parted ways with the publisher as of 2019, sadly this means that ‘act I’ had to be removed from a few stores and re-released with our new publisher. the new publishing deal has been well researched and recommended and we are very happy with the service they have offered us so far. we get to pitch the music to a media network ourselves my music is already being featured in a film due for release in 2020/21. the deal also means that i have been assured as an artist i will be entered for over 20 awards for best soundtrack. this is amazing. especially if we win one.
at the time of this post ‘act I’ has been removed from a few stores and will be back once the stores verify a few details. this does include spotify. its possible that spotify can block ‘act I’ on their platform due to us not being able to have two exact same albums in the same system. the decision is days away and hopefully spotify will stand behind the artist and allow us to rerelease the ep. (UPDATE: Spotify HAS decided to rerelease ACT I)
moving forward the new publisher is securing licenses for a cover song we are trying to release and one way or the other, my music is safe and ready to get what it deserves.
for artists who aren’t aware of the landscape, i suggest you work with distributors and publishers who are highly recommended by stores themselves. don’t fall for false promises and never accept a deal where you have to front your own money up front without making sure you get 100% of the royalties and sales.
the future is brighter than ever for my music. i am excited for the future. take on me.
