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History of AeroScore
Early Beginnings
AeroScore Music Company has been around since the 80’s but our musical beginnings go back many years prior.
In the 60’s, the founder practiced the electric guitar “until my fingers bled, in pitch black darkness, in order to learn how to play without having to look at the fretboard. My first gig was unpaid but the audience was a few thousand. That was when I was about 14”.
Around that time, the co-owner, another guitar player, was living in Woodstock, NY. It was very artsy and popular with people like Bob Dylan and John Lennon, who went there even before the famous Woodstock Music Festival. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was a major influence.
In the 70’s, small unknown bands were able to get some pretty good gigs at clubs. It was a great time to be a musician in America. Like many, when our military obligations were over, songwriters still had lots to say about the war in VietNam. Many songs in the mid-70’s were in protest of the government which was becoming more and more Orwellian. It was also a time of resentment against fortunate sons who didn’t serve on active duty because they were born with a silver spoon and daddy pulled a few strings. A working class hero was something to be*.
Towards the end of the 70’s, music took a downhill turn with the introduction of electronic drum machines, then disco, then dj’s spinning records, then rap music. It got to the point where talented musicians who learned and practiced real music for years were being underpriced and upstaged by better promoted but untalented rhymers with a lousy sounding electronic imitation drumbeat. For reasons we will never understand, the public couldn’t get enough Mother Goose.
The founder and the co-owner continue to play and write blues that would rock your socks off, but this isn’t about promoting our musical abilities.
Study of Music Copyright Law
The study of music copyright law took about 18 months, reading the most boring analysis, chapter after chapter every night. “It was as dull as reading a phone book, but it was necessary in order to get a solid understanding of the music business”, reading and rereading every paragraph in one of the thickest books with the smallest typeset you never wanted to see. As painful as it was to read and comprehend, it was important to the beginnings of a music publishing business. The music industry had many nightmare stories of how songwriters and artists get ripped off because they signed contracts without having a clue about what they were signing.
There are three types of music business people; one who goes into the business with the intention of cheating songwriters and musicians, one who goes into the music business with the intention of doing the right thing but then succumbs to greedy temptations, and one who stays true to good ethics and always ensures the interests of the songwriters and artists are taken care of just as fervently as their own. If a music business professional wants to make sure their clients interests are upheld, they have to have a thorough understanding of copyright law, understand what is customary, and what is an optimally negotiated contract. Just having a law degree is not enough. Most lawyers will refer music copyright law cases to one who has focused their studies, if one can be found. However, many lawyers do understand contract law, so the combination of a good contract attorney, and a music business professional with focused knowledge of music business and copyright law studies, is a great team.
Understanding by Doing
With studies completed, the huge volumes of books now become reference material. The test is to understand the ins and outs of the music business by actually doing it. If you do it wrong, there is a good chance you’ll fail to collect a major portion of the money you should be entitled to, and that is why you need someone on your side who understands the biz. Write the songs, determine what is going to be copyrighted, what is going to be published, how to collect performance roylaties, who manages licensing, who you’re going to distribute to, what markets are best for your gendre. Over and over again, it comes down to how you’re going to collect the money. Lawyers study law. They don’t write songs. They are great at making sure the good contract your music business professional (usually a publisher) negotiates stays good and will be upheld. A good contract lawyer is also one who makes sure the wording of the contract allows some flexibility for getting out of a contract under certain conditions. The lawyers won’t have a clue where to begin in the creation of the music, and are not the ones to see about what songs to select to be put on a CD, or if a song sounds too much like a songs from 10 years ago. However, because lawyers are often consulted by music business professionals, they often have some excellent contacts.
* [Silver Spoon Reference Grassroots USA, Example: George W. Bush] Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival. Working Class Hero - John Lennon
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