Before going any further, for the sake of those of you who are new to this site and buddahead, here is a little about me. I am older than the Jonas brothers and I am the kind of artist that Simon Cowell would probably hate – I am old and unmoldable. Still, I have my hair, I shit like a swiss train, and I am writing better music than ever before. I have had the record deals, I still have the money, and I pretty much know everyone. In other words, I have the beans and have nothing to lose, so i might as well spill them.

(On a side note: I am not really old. If I was an actor I would be considered young enough to play a superhero like Batman. For what is worth, Batman and I, or I should say Christian Bale and I are the same age…but this is the music industry).

So, what the hell is music publishing anyway?

According to Wikipedia: The primary job of the music publisher is to link up new songs by songwriters with suitable recording artists to record them, with the intent of creating a hit record and generating large numbers of sales and airplay.

Honestly, that is not what publishers do unless you live in Nashville and have the luck to bump into a Scott Gunter type! A Scott Gunter type, named after the real life Scott Gunter, is a traditional song man. The real Gunter has discovered a great number of the most successful country writers of our time. Gunters’ are music’s cupids searching to match the beautiful music of an ugly writer to the beautiful voice of an uninspired star. When a real band or a real artist walks in the room with music written without any intent of being covered by Faith Hill, the Gunter type is confused.

I remember when the real Gunter told me his thoughts about my song “When I fall”,

“Now Raymon”, he began in speaking in a southern drawl, words drooling out as slowly as molases, “I gotta tell you; I really gotta tell you; I just love this song; I mean it is a great song; this is a great song and I know that. I mean I just love the way you hold those long notes over the chorus and all, but heck, I have to admit, I just can’t figure out what the hell you are talking about”.

Just to clarify the mystique here is said chorus:

“When I fall, When I lose my head, you’re the one I call; when I fall, when I bleed, the one I need, the one I want, you’re the one I call” – Not exactly James Joyce now is it?

Listen to When I Fall

Gunter did his part for Buddahead. He tried anyway. He arranged thirty minutes for me to write a song with Craig Wiseman, one of the most successful country writers of all time. Craig is a cuddly bear of a man who travels with a goody bag his wife packs for him every time he leaves the house. Craig has the undisputable quality know by the French as Joie De Vivre (the joy of life). That afternoon, in castle in France, owned by Sting’s manager Miles Copeland, Craig and me met to construct the mother of all ballads. Craig broke the ice by saying, “I love your song When I fall, I really do, that is great. So dude, I have an idea for you, check it out.”

He then got his acoustic guitar out and started to strum the C chord, followed by an E minor, and then started to sing, “Shafts of moonlight beaming through my bedroom window”.

“HOLD IT SCRUMPY PUMPY”, I cried, ” I’m from London. I wrote most of the songs in a shitty room over looking a railway line in the pouring rain. There are no shafts of fucking moonlight beaming through my dreams even, let alone my bedroom window. Maybe a wandering hobo, but no moonlight.”

(Okay – that is not exactly what I said but needless to say, we did not finish writing about shafts of moonllght)

The point of this story is if you are a cool artist, and you write your own cool shit, you don’t need a publisher to hook you up with cheesy pop and country writers. Keep the rights to your own songs, join ASCAP or BMI, and keep all the money. So, WHY DID YOU DO IT RAMAN? One name: James Dewar.

(yeah I know, he looks just like James Blunt but trust me he is not nearly as whiney)

Hi, my name is James. I started work at Island Records in the warehouse in 1990 and progressed into A&R department where i found my true vocation. Moved to MCA Records for a year in 1992, before landing a job at independant publisher, Rondor Music in 1993 where i remained for 11 years signing such artists as William Orbit, Kaiser Cheifs and dEUS. Left Rondor after the company was swallowed up by Universal and took a sabbatical for a year traveling round the world and started at SonyATV publishing in 2005.

That is something James wrote about himself that I found on a social network I found him on.

Yes – it is true he started in the warehouse at Island.

Yes – it is true that he was at Rondor for 11 years where he signed loads of cool bands and artists including William Orbit.

Yes – he is passionate !!! about music, russian women, guitars, rock, the devil’s dandruff, Audi TTs, garlic, and traveling to the desert. He fights for you when he believes in you, will sign you for a nickel but gives you mad studio time and he will never put you on hold when you call him. He will always call you back about 2 hours later.

Yes – basically James Dewar made a shit load of money for the company he worked for and still Universal Music fired him when they bought Rondor.

But…the rumor is that James Dewar could not get another job in the industry because he passed on signing one of the greatest (not) rock bands of all time. This is why even with all his success he had to start as part-timer at Sony Publishing. The douchie von douchie pants band we are talking about is: The Darkness.

Hello industry! The man was right. Did you hear Darkness’s latest album? No? No worries, nor did anyone else. Give James his Audi back goddamn it! James Dewar fought for me. He gave me studio time, some money, introduced me to tons of cool people, spread my music, and eventually got me a record deal with Interscope Records. But there is only one James Dewar, try him: [Insert email] but if he doesn’t sign you…plan B is your only way to survive.

Plan B: So if you want to survive the music publishing industry my advice to you is this: If you are a song writer and want to write with other song writers and have other singers sing your songs then move to Nashville, get your music to Scott Gunter or some other Gunter type, and if he or they likes your music, you most likely will be made. On the other hand, if you are a an artist and you write your own songs then join ASCAP or BMI, keep your own publishing, get a licensing person to license your music out to TV, Film, Ads or whatever, and keep all the money and all the rights to everything you write. There is no need for you to sign a publishing deal. These days the money is not that good (the terms and conditions have never been good) and keep the right to your own songs.

Tags: ASCAP, ashes, Batman, BMI, Buddahead, Christian Bale, Craig Wiseman, dEUS, Faith Hill, Island records, James Blunt, James Dewar, James Joyce, Jonas Brothers, kaiser chiefs, MCA, Miles Copeland, music industry, music industry dirt bags, Music Publishing, Nashville, Navigating shark filled waters, record deals, Robbie Williams, rondor music publishing, sales and airplay, Scott Gunter, shark, shark filled waters, Simon Cowell, songs, songwriters, SonyATV publishing, Sting, successful country writers, superhero, swiss train, The Darkness, truth about music industry, truth essays, When I fall, wikipedia, William orbit
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Navigating Shark Filled Waters (filled with crap) will be an ongoing series of truth essays – the truth about music industry dirt bags and heroes and how to survive it all. Part 1 is about Music Publishers!

Before going any further, for the sake of those of you who are new to this site and buddahead, here is a little about me. I am older than the Jonas brothers and I am the kind of artist that Simon Cowell would probably hate – I am old and unmoldable. Still, I have my hair, I shit like a swiss train, and I am writing better music than ever before. I have had the record deals, I still have the money, and I pretty much know everyone. In other words, I have the beans and have nothing to lose, so i might as well spill them.

(On a side note: I am not really old. If I was an actor I would be considered young enough to play a superhero like Batman. For what is worth, Batman and I, or I should say Christian Bale and I are the same age…but this is the music industry).

So, what the hell is music publishing anyway?

According to Wikipedia: The primary job of the music publisher is to link up new songs by songwriters with suitable recording artists to record them, with the intent of creating a hit record and generating large numbers of sales and airplay.

Honestly, that is not what publishers do unless you live in Nashville and have the luck to bump into a Scott Gunter type! A Scott Gunter type, named after the real life Scott Gunter, is a traditional song man. The real Gunter has discovered a great number of the most successful country writers of our time. Gunters’ are music’s cupids searching to match the beautiful music of an ugly writer to the beautiful voice of an uninspired star. When a real band or a real artist walks in the room with music written without any intent of being covered by Faith Hill, the Gunter type is confused.

I remember when the real Gunter told me his thoughts about my song “When I fall”,

“Now Raymon”, he began in speaking in a southern drawl, words drooling out as slowly as molases, “I gotta tell you; I really gotta tell you; I just love this song; I mean it is a great song; this is a great song and I know that. I mean I just love the way you hold those long notes over the chorus and all, but heck, I have to admit, I just can’t figure out what the hell you are talking about”.

Just to clarify the mystique here is said chorus:

“When I fall, When I lose my head, you’re the one I call; when I fall, when I bleed, the one I need, the one I want, you’re the one I call” – Not exactly James Joyce now is it?

Listen to When I Fall

Gunter did his part for Buddahead. He tried anyway. He arranged thirty minutes for me to write a song with Craig Wiseman, one of the most successful country writers of all time. Craig is a cuddly bear of a man who travels with a goody bag his wife packs for him every time he leaves the house. Craig has the undisputable quality know by the French as Joie De Vivre (the joy of life). That afternoon, in castle in France, owned by Sting’s manager Miles Copeland, Craig and me met to construct the mother of all ballads. Craig broke the ice by saying, “I love your song When I fall, I really do, that is great. So dude, I have an idea for you, check it out.”

He then got his acoustic guitar out and started to strum the C chord, followed by an E minor, and then started to sing, “Shafts of moonlight beaming through my bedroom window”.

“HOLD IT SCRUMPY PUMPY”, I cried, ” I’m from London. I wrote most of the songs in a shitty room over looking a railway line in the pouring rain. There are no shafts of fucking moonlight beaming through my dreams even, let alone my bedroom window. Maybe a wandering hobo, but no moonlight.”

(Okay – that is not exactly what I said but needless to say, we did not finish writing about shafts of moonllght)

The point of this story is if you are a cool artist, and you write your own cool shit, you don’t need a publisher to hook you up with cheesy pop and country writers. Keep the rights to your own songs, join ASCAP or BMI, and keep all the money. So, WHY DID YOU DO IT RAMAN? One name: James Dewar.

(yeah I know, he looks just like James Blunt but trust me he is not nearly as whiney)

Hi, my name is James. I started work at Island Records in the warehouse in 1990 and progressed into A&R department where i found my true vocation. Moved to MCA Records for a year in 1992, before landing a job at independant publisher, Rondor Music in 1993 where i remained for 11 years signing such artists as William Orbit, Kaiser Cheifs and dEUS. Left Rondor after the company was swallowed up by Universal and took a sabbatical for a year traveling round the world and started at SonyATV publishing in 2005.

That is something James wrote about himself that I found on a social network I found him on.

Yes – it is true he started in the warehouse at Island.

Yes – it is true that he was at Rondor for 11 years where he signed loads of cool bands and artists including William Orbit.

Yes – he is passionate !!! about music, russian women, guitars, rock, the devil’s dandruff, Audi TTs, garlic, and traveling to the desert. He fights for you when he believes in you, will sign you for a nickel but gives you mad studio time and he will never put you on hold when you call him. He will always call you back about 2 hours later.

Yes – basically James Dewar made a shit load of money for the company he worked for and still Universal Music fired him when they bought Rondor.

But…the rumor is that James Dewar could not get another job in the industry because he passed on signing one of the greatest (not) rock bands of all time. This is why even with all his success he had to start as part-timer at Sony Publishing. The douchie von douchie pants band we are talking about is: The Darkness.

Hello industry! The man was right. Did you hear Darkness’s latest album? No? No worries, nor did anyone else. Give James his Audi back goddamn it! James Dewar fought for me. He gave me studio time, some money, introduced me to tons of cool people, spread my music, and eventually got me a record deal with Interscope Records. But there is only one James Dewar, try him: [Insert email] but if he doesn’t sign you…plan B is your only way to survive.

Plan B: So if you want to survive the music publishing industry my advice to you is this: If you are a song writer and want to write with other song writers and have other singers sing your songs then move to Nashville, get your music to Scott Gunter or some other Gunter type, and if he or they likes your music, you most likely will be made. On the other hand, if you are a an artist and you write your own songs then join ASCAP or BMI, keep your own publishing, get a licensing person to license your music out to TV, Film, Ads or whatever, and keep all the money and all the rights to everything you write. There is no need for you to sign a publishing deal. These days the money is not that good (the terms and conditions have never been good) and keep the right to your own songs.

Tags: ASCAP, ashes, Batman, BMI, Buddahead, Christian Bale, Craig Wiseman, dEUS, Faith Hill, Island records, James Blunt, James Dewar, James Joyce, Jonas Brothers, kaiser chiefs, MCA, Miles Copeland, music industry, music industry dirt bags, Music Publishing, Nashville, Navigating shark filled waters, record deals, Robbie Williams, rondor music publishing, sales and airplay, Scott Gunter, shark, shark filled waters, Simon Cowell, songs, songwriters, SonyATV publishing, Sting, successful country writers, superhero, swiss train, The Darkness, truth about music industry, truth essays, When I fall, wikipedia, William orbit
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