A major retail chain is about to launch a high budget national TV ad campaign which features a very prominent vocal by a great session singer....

The same singer in fact whom I hired recently to sing one of my songs, which, I am told by all who hear it, is a highly catchy mainstream daytime radio sort of hardy perennial pop song, in the wider sense (ie Magic FM, Radio 2, rather than Radio 1)..

I own ALL the rights, no samples were used, real instruments etc...so I am seeking advice on how I might exploit this ?

Ultimately, in the sadly unlikely event that the ad campaign helps him to launch a career as a recording artist, and if he and whoever ends up involved in the business side of that decide to go in the stylistic direction of your song, you can offer him half the publishing so that he has a vested interest in re-recording the song with whichever producer he's working with, and gracefully accept the changes which will erode your share a little more.

In the shorter term, if you feel that his star is on the rise you should ask him if he'd like to co-write with you. Regardless of contribution you need to split things 50 50 with him so that if and when the big guns are wheeled in for co-writes, he will be pushing to include your co-writes on the record.

Don't worry about the recording side...If the tracks you do together are amazing they might well get used, if not it doesn't really matter...The publishing is what really counts here.

If he then generates label interest, he will generate publishing interest. If they hear a bunch of stuff you've co-written, you will generate publishing interest.

J

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www.jackruston.com

Thanks for your reply Jack.

What you say seems to me the major label route...

I was wondering more if I could just release it myself, with a bit of plugging...

You could do that. You could do it regardless of the ad campaign. But unless 1. Your singer wants to become an artist, with your song as a single, and 2. The track on the ad becomes somewhat of a hit, it's hard (for me) to see how you might capitalise off this current situation.

At the end of the day, if you have a great track, you have a great track.

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www.jackruston.com

You've only got the one song. Or as the old saying goes, "One swallow does not mean that we are in a relationship."

If it's a good song, you might like to invite the artist to make the other 17 songs he/she will need for a career start.

With respect to piggy backing on the back of an ad' spot .. you've only got one chance really - that is if the spot is AMAZING and captures everyone's attention (or the right demographic group anyway) - and the song is an integral part of the super cool sexy spot.

A 'retail chain' doesn't sound super sexy.. but then again, a lot of people go nuts for John Lewis commercials.. so I guess it's very very vaguely possible.

What would need to happen is this :

Spot becomes the mos talked about spot in the country.
Track (in the commercial) becomes a No. 1 hit
Singer becomes a sensation

- everyone wants a follow up.

- Then the singer, needs to be OK with the follow up being a track which he/she only sessioned on - and is therefore not due any publishing ?

It all seems very very unlikely.. but as said above, if you've got a great song, you've got a great song.

I disagree that you necessarily need 17 others.. If it's amazing and you're a clever marketing person, with some sort of budget .. a [ ****** ] load of energy and savvy - you could get it rolling .. but you'd need to be very clever.. and you'd need 100's of 1000's of people to pick it up ..


Maybe forget the commercial, ditch the singer and get a silly frog to sing it, or something.

Thanks for your comments one and all.

It just seems to me off the cuff that national TV exposure has got to be useful somehow....

The singer is in fact a very good pop writer who fronts a band that does very attractive commercial pop, and does sessions as a sideline....

Quote Gone To Lunch:

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Thanks for your comments one and all.

It just seems to me off the cuff that national TV exposure has got to be useful somehow....

The singer is in fact a very good pop writer who fronts a band that does very attractive commercial pop, and does sessions as a sideline....

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One thing that jumps out at me here is the question of whether you can exploit his vocal recording particularly as he is an artist in his own right.

Make sure you have those rights. Some session singers are OK with their vocal being used for demo purposes (i.e pitching to artists to re-record) but not with an actual release. You should have the appropriate waivers and release paperwork.

Quote Phil O:

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One thing that jumps out at me here is the question of whether you can exploit his vocal recording particularly as he is an artist in his own right.

Make sure you have those rights. Some session singers are OK with their vocal being used for demo purposes (i.e pitching to artists to re-record) but not with an actual release. You should have the appropriate waivers and release paperwork.

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Yes. I am assuming that I have the necessary rights, as singer signed the standard M4 Musicians Union release form when paid on the day. But am I wrong here ? Would I need something more on paper, as well as the good will factor of course...

Quote Gone To Lunch:

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Thanks for your comments one and all.

It just seems to me off the cuff that national TV exposure has got to be useful somehow....

The singer is in fact a very good pop writer who fronts a band that does very attractive commercial pop, and does sessions as a sideline....

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Well it's potentially useful to the singer and his band. If the ad campaign is super cool he may be able to use that as a platform to get A&R to come to a showcase or listen to his tracks. But if it's not that cool it may actually be a nail in that coffin to mention the connection. But by and large it's not really national exposure for him as an artist. It's national exposure for the retail chain. Assuming that it IS super cool, you want to try to get yourself into a position where you're an invaluable part of the songwriting chain of whatever act then platforms off that campaign.

From the point of view of your track, it's hard to see how it could progress without him attached as an artist, as we were saying before. And again, a way to do that is to give him half the publishing. That's very common. But if it's club music of whatever genre it could.

From the point of view of a producer/engineer there's a possible scenario in which you could capitalise. That being one where the singer gets some investment off the back of the campaign to record some tracks, and him coming to you, a producer whom he knows, to work on those recordings. If he has serious interest from a record label, they will most likely cut you out somewhere along the line. That's just the way it goes if you're a small producer. If your stuff sounds amazing then perhaps not, but usually they need to cover their arses by using 'name' producers, so that if the act falls by the wayside they can justify the decisions that were made.

J

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www.jackruston.com

I had similar thoughts a few years back. Recorded a track in my home studio written by a friend that featured 'Little Boots' on backing vocals (prior to her fame).

Ultimately, due to the track being entirely uncommercial, non-representative of her pop output, and er... not my song (though arguably i own the recording rights), the thought came to nought.



Was fun though.

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Maybe get the song on iTunes, and then link to the advert when it is put on Youtube and see if you can drive some business your way?

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale