Yamassee Muskogee Publishing a Native American Company 2011

THE FIRST THING NEVER DONE

BY ARTIST MAJOR LABELS BANK ON!

MAXIMIZE AND INSURE ALL YOUR PROFITS FOR YOUR MUSIC BUSINESS WITH ONE SIMPLE STEP
Music Millionaire's Club Training

SEKHU GENTLE
2006, 2011 by SEKHU GENTLE All Rights Reserved
Published by Yamassee Muskogee Publishing,Federal Registry # 334: 7921 Endive Avenue, Tampa, Fl 33619 USA. 2011 by Sekhu Gentle All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval System, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Sekhu Gentle. These works were manufactured on a Native American Settlement inside the United States of America.

NOTE: This book is not published or endorsed by Any Major or Indie Label. Every effort has been made to ensure the facts and technical elements are accurate. But on the Internet, progress is Fast & swift, so some details may have changed by the time you read this.

Dedicated to All my Children, your sacrifice is Priceless, My sacrifice was All for You!
Special Thank you to My Creator Brenda Red Crow Thunderbird Webb (My Mother) for correcting my Grammar and Editing!!!

Contents
The Decision to Become a Musician.. 5 The Day Has Come. 5 Your New Career. 5 What should be my Reality?. 6 This Is a Business. 6 Know Your Business. 6 IRS. 7 Telephone Assistance for Individuals: 7 Telephone Assistance for Businesses: 7 IRS website: 7 LEARN FROM OTHER'S MISTAKES.. 7 THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO.. 8 CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU.. 9 ASCAP vs. BMI. 9 When should I sign up?. 10 Links to get you started. 10 Final Thoughts before your Adventure Begins. 10 Tha PieceMakerz official site. 11 Our Myspace Page. 11 MUSIC Resources. 12

The Decision to Become a Musician

The Day Has Come
Well the day has come that you have decided to become a multi platinum (hopefully) songwriter, producer or just an artist. Now whatever your reason is for becoming a musician doesn't really matter, whether it is for the fame, glory, or maybe like me & my brother, your family background! It's a decision that has to be taken seriously like any other decision in your life. You could have easily became a Nurse, Fireman joined Law Enforcement or even the military. Maybe you are in one of those fields now, but have made the choice to change your job title! As so, like any of those jobs that are mentioned above, there is training involved. You don't just get a needle as a doctor or nurse and start poking people - do you? And they definitely don't just give anyone a gun and let people police the city do they? Even though it may feel that away for some of us, the point that I am trying to make is that there is training involved with anything you do, and that training involves EDUCATINGYOURSELF!

Your New Career

The hope is that you become the best at your new career with what you have learned and continue to learn! For you, my only job, right now, is to give you the best information I have, at being the best at your Music Career. Too many times, my brother (Sly Pyper Jordan) and myself, have ran across many of thousands (literally) of some of the Hottest Rappers, Singers, Pop, Country, & even Heavy Metal Musicians in the World. Even the Best of the Worst (you know the ones that sound good only to themselves). We have found that one thing that always stand true, and that which is universal, is the lack of knowledge they possess of the music business. It has hindered many of HOT projects on our behalf to know that we can't even finish or have a project put out because they didn't have the bare essentials that we knew would insure that we received some form of payment even if their business side wasn't all together personally! The problem has been that if they decided to put out any music or Hooks that we had done, we wouldn't have gotten paid for it because of ONE SIMPLE STEP they Had Never Taken! The question for us always is WHAT IF this song takes off and is Number 1 on Radio and we miss out on thousands maybe even MILLIONS? Isnt that a scary to think about? Okay so real quickly, let me help you overcome the most important obstacle. By Continuing to Read the info in this book!

What should be my Reality?

The answer to this question is as follow: Your reality is to treat this as a BUSINESS! Plain and simple! Too many times artist and producers in every Genre forget that this is a legitimate business that generates BILLIONS of dollars for those of us owning our business. But then we get mad at those that we felt had our best INTEREST in mind. Notice that I used the word interest. Its the same as a commercial statement or banking statement! Something is given that has monetary value, and there is a return on that item with Interest, also known as a PROFIT! That is what your Music is, a business, which operates and generates a PROFIT! Thats what you are, a PRODUCT being sold, whether its your image, music, or musical skills, whatever it may be! You expect your Music to provide a return dont you? Well we hope thats you want, along with providing really good music. But far too many times no one puts in the research to make sure that their business is in compliance with not only laws, but in compliance with Natures number One rule! SELF PRESERVATION through being able to live off your labor, which is energy being burned off and transformed to your final product, and being able to sustain not only your Career but your Life! Hopefully this book will help with just that!

This Is a Business
I covered a lot in the last Chapter about your business, but really didn't cover what exactly determines a legitimate business. Having a MySpace page doesn't make you a Legal Entity or business! What it does do is get you lots of friends you really don't know (Bots can Become so Friendly can't they?) and makes you Public. This is good; because its part of the most important thing your business needs which is Marketing.

Know Your Business

1. Do you or have you filed an LLC or Incorporated yet? 2. Have you filed for a Fictitious Name? 3. Opened a Bank account yet for your Artist name or production company! And I'm not talking about your personal account either! Well let me ask you this. Have you even applied for a FREE EIN (Employee Identification Number) number from IRS? Thats right! 100% Free which gets you started on your Quest of being Legal. If you havent done Any or actually ALL of these things yet, you're considered a Pirate business. Now don't get scared there isn't a Pirate Business Police force that I know Of Yet! You still have time,

and if you need help email me because I will later cover this in another Book. But until you get my book on setting up your Music Business, call IRS to get a free EIN number. It has to be done!

IRS Telephone Assistance for Individuals:

Toll-Free, 1-800-829-1040 Hours of Operation: Monday Friday, 7:00 a.m. 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follows Pacific Time).

Telephone Assistance for Businesses:

Toll-Free, 1-800-829-4933 Hours of Operation: Monday Friday, 7:00 a.m. 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follows Pacific Time).

IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98350,00.html

LEARN FROM OTHER'S MISTAKES

Most of us in the music business have experienced or heard, somewhere or somehow of the most horrific stories that could be told! Examples of this are: Bad management Accounting Record company rip offs Bad publishing deals etc. Now I'm not going to sit here and lie and say some of those aren't a necessary evil, for a couple of reasons: IT Weeds out those who think its easy to do this Business we call music! A lot of pretend and even HOT artist go into this business thinking that Oh I have the hottest Sh&t out right now and should get paid a signing bonus of 1 mill. REALITY Most Popular Artist dont even get that!

HOLD On did I say Most? I meant A LOT & THE MAJORITY of Artist that you see every day on your TV Still isnt making that! If they did, why collaborate with a Major Label, and For What Reason? (REALITY CHECK) Heres another question: How many artist have you met, dont think that theyre the HOTTEST thing the Creator Made? Not saying you shouldn't have confidence and believe in yourself, But c'mon. If you aren't born into Money, do you expect to honestly sell a Million with No help, no promotion, no nothing, Off the Back in one day? Oh, but you expect a Signing bonus with No experience RIGHT? Better Yet, you get a job and expect to get MANGER salary with No proof that you can even do the job! Now if youre one of the few who has their business together and have shown and proven yourself Cool! Get it Like Drak as we say in The South. And Congratulations is Deserved! Another Way to also look at this is from a business stand point! Who could afford to pay their entire artist a million with no experience or even proof they will get their money back? But Im losing sight! My Point is, if you position yourself & business to cover all the grounds and listen to the mistakes of others and their gripes, you (if youre not Hard Headed) can avoid the down falls others have been through, Including Us! Not that all gripes are legitimate as I showed you in the beginning of this chapter! But stories of royalties, publishing & copyrighting issues Fall Solely on You! Knowing Your Business! No matter how you look at it, you always have enough time to research any field that you would hire someone for! You should know that part of the business even if you have to hire someone, because its your job to know! Reality for you is I CAN'T DO Every Job! But I should know it anyway or at least enough not to be taken advantage of over something simple! My favorite thing to say to People is Yeah Everyone knows Bill Gates Own and Started Microsoft, but does he answer all the phones, every sales Question, technical question? NO, but he has learned his business well enough to know when something isn't right! And that Alone has made him Powerful enough to be Labeled one of the Wealthiest men in the World! So learn from Others mistakes!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO

Sign up for a Performing Rights Organization! Performing Rights Organizations, What's That? ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Performers) and BMI (Broadcast Musicians Incorporated) are performing rights organizations. When you own a copyright you have certain rights, one of which is the right to perform your music publicly. In essence, it allows you to forbid anyone else from playing your songs in public. Any time you hear a song, it is being performed publicly; whether on the radio, on television, in a bar or restaurant or even on an elevator. As a copyright owner, you can forbid them from playing your songs. However, if you want to sell your music, you will want these places to play your music. Therefore, you would grant a license (for a fee) to all these places allowing them to play your song. Needless to say, it would be impossible for you to negotiate a license with every radio station, every nightclub, etc In addition, it would be difficult for you to enforce your rights by suing those places who played your music without paying a license fee.

This is where BMI and ASCAP fit in. When you join (technically you do not join BMI or ASCAP, you "affiliate") with one of these organizations, you grant them the right to negotiate licenses for your songs with all the places music is performed publicly. By affiliating with ASCAP or BMI, you grant them the right to negotiate a license on your behalf, to collect and distribute revenue and to sue and enforce your performance copyright. 95% of all commercially released music is covered by one of these two organizations. Just as you could not negotiate a fee for each song you own, neither does BMI or ASCAP negotiate an individual fee for each song. Instead, they grant a blanket license. BMI and ASCAP go to each radio station and make a proposition: "We have the rights to millions of songs that you want to play. For a flat fee of $X, you can play all of our songs." In this way, by buying a license from BMI and ASCAP, radio stations can play 95% of all the music ever written. Each of these performing rights organizations negotiate a separate fee for each place where music will be performed publicly. The fees vary depending on the number of songs that will be played, i.e. a bar which plays lounge music from 8 P.M. to midnight would pay less than an elevator which plays music 24 hours per day. The size of the audience also affects the amount of the fee, i.e. a large commercial radio station would pay more than a college station. BMI and ASCAP collect enormous amounts of money through license fees. Over $638 million dollars in performance royalties were collected in 1992. First, the two groups take all the revenue and pay their expenses. Both are not-for-profit companies. Next, they divide the money up between all their members. Both ASCAP and BMI keep track of what music is played and how frequently. Radio stations must keep log books reporting every song they play. BMI and ASCAP then compile all these reports and apportion the revenue they collect among the songs which were performed publicly. In this way, a Top 40 song which is played every 2 hours will get more performance royalties than a song which is only played once a week. In order to join BMI, call (212) 586-2000 and to join ASCAP, call (212) 621-6000. Ask for a writer application packet. Both organizations represent music publishers as well, but that is beyond the scope of this column. The fee for a writer to affiliate with ASCAP is $10 while there is no fee for writer affiliation with BMI. Finally, you can only join one organization since they both require an exclusive agreement with a songwriter.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU ASCAP vs. BMI.

Now, this is my personal opinion, not because of my affiliation, but I "believe" ASCAP to be the better choice. My reason for this is that ASCAP was founded and is still run by the composers, authors and publishers which make up its membership. BMI, on the other hand, is run by broadcasters, and are generally the same people that don't want to pay for use of music (broadcasters make money through advertising, and the more of it they can keep, the better). This seems, to me anyway, to be a conflict of interest. I would rather have people on my side, helping me to make a living from my music. As a writer, you can only belong to one of the 3 performing rights organizations. As a publisher, you can belong to all 3, which is important if you want to publish other writers' works. If you are going to

self publish, please bear in mind that a publisher can only publish songs owned by a member of that organization. Both ASCAP and BMI fight for the top spot in the music industry. They both want to be known as being the best, and paying their members the most money. Which pays more? Well, from what I heard lately, BMI seems to pay out bigger in the beginning, adding bonuses to members that getting their songs into the mainstream quickly, but then the money tapers off. ASCAP seems to pay at a steadier rate over the long haul and (usually) a better income over time. This is all subjective though because it relies on so many factors including where the song is on the charts and how the competition is doing. There are never any 2 songs doing exactly the same thing on the charts and also getting the most cover recordings and other performing rights. The best way to tell how each organization pays its members is for a song to be owned by an ASCAP writer and publisher (50%) and a BMI writer and publisher (50%) and then compare the income. I have not seen the two sides in writing, so it is hard to make a clear distinction as to who really pays more. IF you are with B.M.I and disagree with what I researched, please feel free to email me!

When should I sign up?

As soon as you have a release date or when you submit your music to any website or radio or TV station thats going to play it! Even if you have already submitted it and currently getting radio play, or TV promotion, do it, do it NOW! It's never too late to have them re-present you!

Links to get you started

http://www.ascap.com/ http://www.mi.com/ http://www.sesac.com/ http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98350,00.html

Final Thoughts before your Adventure Begins

NO matter what you decide from this point. One thing that will stand true is Your Education in any field of business or job you decide, determines your success! Please make sure you don't waste your own time, not knowing what you need in order to make your dreams come true. Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you on the next issue we put out! Now Get Busy RESEARCHING! Sekhu (SG-1) Gentle Tha PieceMakerz On behalf of my Brother and Friend SLY (PYPER)

Another Special Thanks to the Aftermath and Shady Family, Stat Quo, Eminem and the rest of the Crew for a Beautiful experience in Detroit & Special Thanks to, Big Brother Dr. Dre for Allowing me to get Educated from his life experiences he shared, and also to record the Only Footage of the Making of the Detox that has been Recorded, and he (Dre) Said it is about us and that Brotherly bond, not him, WE are the future, So What is your part , for those of You READING THIS ?

(Andre Young a.k.a Dr. Dre & Sekhu (SG-1) Gentle Location : Shady Records Private Studio Detroit, Michigan ) Special Thanks to: Jeremy Berry (Profit) for all he helped do and the Video Taping, and his creative GENIUS ! Chris Noxx for joining the Team Briss (Hot Box) Toxic for China White Production Ms. Blue Dj Nakail Dr. Dre Security Mark & Claose for Protecting me and my family while on the Road with Big Brother! Big Brother Michael Keith (112) for his teaching on video for the MM Club. 112 is coming back MOST IMPORTANT MUM TERRI HARLOW for the Web SEO and Design , Your experience will make it succeed... And ALL the PEOPLE who no matter how much you try to help, they still have something NEGATIVE to say !

Other resources by Sekhu Gentle:

Tha PieceMakerz official site:

http://www.thapiecemakerz.com
Social networking sites MUSIC Resources: http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/thapiecemakerz http://www.myxer.com/artist/747120/ http://payplay.fm/piecemakerz Facebook http://www.facebook.com/people/Tha-Piecemakerz/1156279691 http://www.thuglifearmy.com/news/?id=3724 I don't Endorse to many People, but Google Bob Baker, he has excellent information for Musicians! For More Information on Tha PieceMakerz Google Us! : ) Email us at: musicmillionaires@gmail.com or media@yamasseenation.org