In this introductory video of the Inspiration 2021 series, Wendy Day emphasizes that consistency and momentum are the key drivers of attention and income for rappers and artists in 2021. She frames the series as a practical guide for musicians who already have great music and want to monetize it. Day points viewers to her earlier article, “The 10 Things You Need to Do Before You Put Out Music,” and highlights the most critical step: registering with performance‑rights organizations (ASCAP or BMI), the digital‑performance collection agency SoundExchange, and the newly launched Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) for master licensing. She explains how to choose between ASCAP and BMI, the importance of entering split‑sheet information (including ASCAP/BMI numbers) when registering, and the role of split sheets in tracking ownership. Day also recommends using a publishing administration service (Songtrust) to streamline BMI registration and save publisher fees, and she outlines how SoundExchange pays for internet radio and satellite plays, suggesting the use of Digital Radio Tracker to verify spins and claim missing royalties. Throughout, she encourages artists to seek investors rather than traditional record deals, and she provides URLs and platform references for each resource. The video concludes with a recap and a call to action to register with the mentioned entities and to consult the 10‑step article.
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Hi guys, welcome to Inspiration 2021. Yay, I'm so excited to be doing this. So for the first one, um, I want to kick it off by saying that the things that I see bringing the most attention and income to rappers and artists is consistency and momentum. So they're my buzzwords for this year, for 2021. And the whole goal of this series is to inspire you, to give you inspiration to do this yourself, put out your music and make money with your music. And, um, the preface of all of these over the next few months is that you put out great music. So this is going to assume that you're already making great music. If you're not, you want to get up to speed as quickly as possible. You want to have the best production that you can get exclusively to you, and you want to put as much money behind yourself as you possibly can. So if you don't have an investor, it's probably going to behoove you to find one. And I know that that's not easy, but it sure is a lot easier than finding a record deal. So let me start off Inspiration 2021 by telling you that last year I wrote an article, um, called The 10 Things You Need to Do Before You Put Out Music. And because I don't want to take 10 videos to explain that, I'm going to tell you to go research it. And if you're watching this on Instagram Live, um, you're going to have to go to either my blog, which is industryreport.com, to find it, or the good folks at djbooth.net were kind enough to print it sometime last year, uh, the fall— not this past fall, but the fall prior, I think around Christmas time. But it's there on their platform. And then if you're watching this on my YouTube channel, which is youtube.com/thisiswendyday, the link is going to be below this video. So definitely go check that out because you need to do all 10 of those things before you even get started. But the most important one on that list— and again, please go read that list— but the most important one on that list, um, is signing up with ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange, and now you've also got the, um, brand new MLC, which is where you license masters. So, or list your masters. So Go do the research. Go look up ASCAP.com, BMI.com, SoundExchange.com, and the MLC.com. Again, on YouTube, the links will all be below. Um, if you're watching this on my Instagram, you're probably gonna have to Google to find the new site for, um, the MLC because I can't remember if it's the MLC.com. Actually, I might have it here. It is, it's portal.dmlc.com. So now you don't have to Google. Um, do the research, figure out whether you want to be affiliated with ASCAP or BMI. They each pay you based on radio play. So if your song is spun on terrestrial radio, ASCAP and BMI will pick it up. But the one thing that you're going to want to do when you start putting music out into the marketplace, you're going to want to list everything at ASCAP and BMI with your splits, with the numbers. As you record music, you're going to do split sheets, and we're going to talk about that a little bit later and explain what it is. But on that split sheet, you're going to want to put your ASCAP and your BMI numbers. So definitely register as a writer and a publisher at ASCAP and BMI. And then do the same thing at soundexchange.com. Um, SoundExchange is the same type of registry, only it's for, um, internet music. So if you're played on an internet radio station or Sirius, or I think Pandora even pays 50% through SoundExchange and then the other 50% through your distributor. But definitely sign up for those sites because because that's how you're going to get paid as your music begins to circulate, as you begin to get it out there. So, um, I also recommend SoundTrust, which is a publishing administration company, and I'm going to talk about them at length as well later on in this series. But if you choose BMI to register, you can set up through Sound— excuse me, through Songtrust to register at BMI for you. So that's just a little tip. It'll save you $150, although it's going to cost you $100 to register at Songtrust, but it will save you that publisher's fee that you're going to register. You still have to sign up for your writers yourself, but that's just a little heads up if you're going to use a company to administer you. That's who I use for my clients. So I hope today was helpful. It was a little bit basic. It was a little more basic than I like to be. You can also use Digital Radio Tracker along with SoundExchange to help you get paid at SoundExchange. Digitalradiotracker.com is a place where you can go up and go and sign up for a free account, and then you can do a search to see if any of your music has been played at digital radio. And then they sell reports so you can figure out how many spins you got, where you got spun. And then as your SoundExchange checks come in, if they don't list everything that's listed at Digital Radio Tracker, it gives you a way to come back to SoundExchange to get some of the money that's owed to you. So that's a little, um, 201 level. Um, I don't want to go too much into detail because I want to keep this basic and then build up as we go, just you would do when you're putting out music. So again, to recap, go find the article, 10 Things You Need to Do Before Putting Out Your Music, and then definitely research ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange, and the MLC, and sign up where you need to sign up, and let's get 'er done. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. This will appear tomorrow at youtube.com/thisiswendyday. Inspiration 2021, we're back!
