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This page: Goals; Nuts & Bolts; Lessons for Young Artists
'You have your three or four labels that control the world. [United Musicians] will do what we can, playing shows and selling records at the clubs.' -- Michael Penn
Goals
Michael Penn
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According to Michael Penn, the thought of a collective has been brewing in his mind since 1993, when he and singer Victoria Williams were talking about the state of the Musician's Union. "The Musician's Union is completely limp," he reports. "They don't have any power and they don't have a medical plan." So he and Williams, who had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, opted to take the reins themselves and start the Sweet Relief organization.
That type of organization, he says wryly, is in the Penn genes. "My dad was blacklisted. He was a union supporter, went to few meetings and got labeled a communist," Penn explains. "He spent years of his life being unable to work."
United Musicians, he adds, is more like an announcement. "It's just saying, 'There's safety and power and solace in numbers.' Here's the two of us and we're going to create this umbrella company," he explains. "Under this umbrella of United Musicians we'll put albums out on the Internet, we'll do whatever distribution we can through independent distributors and say, 'Fine, you have your three or four labels that control the world, and we'll do what we can, playing Acoustic Vaudeville shows and selling records at the clubs and whatever else.'"
As Hausman explains it, the goal of UM is a tad more pragmatic. "Let's figure out a way to provide the services that artists need without having to sign over the rights to their masters and sign long-term contracts. I started to think about staffing a record company for Aimee. We hire somebody to do publicity, somebody for marketing and sales and radio. Are they going to work one record a year? One record every 16 months? It seemed to make sense to get some other artists involved. That's where the idea of getting a bunch of people together came, because it really doesn't make sense to do it completely on your own."
Nuts & Bolts
'You can get all your friends' bands together, hire a couple of people, and run a little collective record company.' -- Michael Hausman
United Musicians is not a record label in the traditional definition. UM is a place where an established artist, who has masters in hand, can come and benefit from the collective's pool of business talents. UM will be collecting a distribution fee, plus a percentage for whatever services it provides.
"It's not a situation that's right for everybody, because it really is up to the artist to do a lot of the work themselves," Hausman explains. "At this point they have to be able to produce their own masters, tour without tour support, and get press."
Newer artists, he believes, won't fit well into the UM mold. "I think it will work only for artists who have a fan base that is identifiable and is fairly easy market to," Hausman says. "We're not set up to promote and market that way, unless everybody had an extremely modest sales goals."
Though it's not quite the proper home for them yet, Hausman hopes that UM will become a model for younger musicians. "I really hope that, if nothing else, that's what happens," he says. "I hope people realize that you can get all your friends' bands together, hire a couple of people to work for you, and you run a little collective record company. I really think that would be a great thing to come out of this. At the same time that all the major labels are consolidating and it's harder and harder for young bands to get noticed, there are these opportunities for them and what they really need is just a few people to help them out."
'Do all things on a small scale, because you're eventually going to do them on a bigger scale. If it's not going to work in your backyard, why's it going to work anywhere else?' -- Michael Hausman
United Musicians: Lessons for Young Artists
Not surprisingly, Hausman strongly cautions artists to think carefully before signing over the rights to their masters. "Figure out a way to produce your own records and a way to pay for your own masters. Then at the point that somebody wants to exploit them, license the masters to them for a specific reason," he explains. "If it's for distribution on records, license the tracks for that. If it's for use in a film, license it specifically for that. Try not to give away any broad rights, because I think that takes a lot of the power away from the artist."
Before that, though, he suggests that young bands make it happen for themselves. "I think you have to start locally," he says. "If you're a band that's not signed, then get gigs in your local town. Publicize those gigs and build a following locally. A lot of people don't think they can get a lot done close to home and you really can. It's almost like, 'If it's not going to work in your backyard, why's it going to work anywhere else?'
"Do all the things on a small scale, because you're eventually going to do them all on a bigger scale," he continues. "If you can't find a publicist, do your own publicity, do your own marketing, be diligent about who your fans are and keeping track of them. Try to make every show a really special event and make whatever music you put out the best you can."
In the end, he adds, "You just can't be lazy about it and you can't expect someone to come along and make it happen for you."
Next Page: Major To Minor; Finding a Better Label; Lessons Learned....
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