re: sensible advice on music marketing

Hi. I'd like to ask for any sensible advice from
anyone qualified or knowledgeable. A friend and I just
wrote a classical, romantic music with lyrics. It's at
least 80 to 90 minutes long, give or take a few
minutes. It's somewhat ballet, somewhat operatic. The
long term goal is to have it on stage performed as a
musical and/or opera, with live ballet or classical
dancers. From now until then, what should I do in
terms of marketing the idea, or the music? With the
exception of one small section, the music is currently
arranged for orchestra. Should I hire a singer,
preferably with his/her own recording studio, and
perhaps cutting a demo of the music, and marketing it
among appropriate radio stations? I don't know. Just
want to be pointed in the right direction. Also, I've
never read nor do I know anything about "THE NEW
ENTERTAINMENT LICENSING BILL" - what about this, in
relation to my query, should I know about, if any?
Thanks.

Joshua
sweetsingers@yahoo.com

Josh,
Ignore the licencing bill. That's only applicable when your work comes to public performance, and at that stage, the problem is for the producer/promoter/venue, not for you.

For the rest, you have various options for your order of play - you should be thinking about publishing, performance and promotion - but not necessarily in that order.
For performance, try direct approaches to likely organisations [look for amateur societies who aim to put on new works, for example, or look to drama schools].

Good Luck!

Personally, Josh, I'd advise getting it performed first. Make sure you get a half-way decent CD recording and a good video at the same time. That way you've got something to tout around.

If you're going to the publishers, take the script in double-spacing and a computer written score (not a hand-written one) plus a bunch of CD's. They're unlikely to want to see the video.

Get it all copyrighted first though!

Once it's been performed you've got something to show, and at the same time you can get a huge amount of publicity from the local press for a World Premiere.

Otherwise, see my post in the "Scripts" section, and let me read it.....

Thank you for all the suggestions thus far, and we'd like to comment on each one ...

1. If we need an agent as suggested. How much would this cost, and what guarantee, if any, would having an agent make? What is the pro-con of having an agent?Anybody have a good agent to recommend?

2. Any suggestion of any particular "amateur societies who aim to put on new works"?

3. Lastly, about "get[ting] it all copyrighted first"? Our understanding is that copyright is automatically granted or recognised as soon as writer puts music onto paper, with a witness or two who can verify that writer is indeed the writer, and that no formal copyright filing is really needed? Is this a correct understanding? If not, what should we do?

4. We're leaning toward getting it performed and video'ed in order to have something to tout about. Basically, we're an amateur songwriting duo, words and music. We currently just wrote this stage, romantic musical, but each of the songs can be sung as a stand alone, "love" song. We've decided to go professional, and are looking for a male or female singer to sing our songs. The type of singer we're looking for is someone, male or female, amateur or semi-pro, preferably but not a must with own home recording studio to make new demo, with a theatrical and/or operatic voice, willing to partner up with us. As per compensation, well, it depends how much he/she will charge; otherwise, what we had in mind was to have a singer who's already out there to promote our song, for a deferred fee. However, we're open to ideas. Again thank you for such lovely suggestions.

Regards,

Josh
sweetsingers@yahoo.com

I've dealt with Avelon Associates but they don't go much for musicals. Some agents will charge you an annual fee (from ?100 to ?300) some just take a percentage if they manage to place your script infront of a production company willing to take the project on. They can promote your script/project and they know who's (professional) door step to place it on. Stage One entertainments and Promotions (known to the Amdram site) may be a good contact that won't cost you anyting email Jai on
direct@stageoneonline.com

QUOTE (Josh @ Feb 22 2003, 1:42 PM)

2. Any suggestion of any particular "amateur societies who aim to put on new works"? 3. Lastly, about "get[ting] it all copyrighted first"? Our understanding is that copyright is automatically granted or recognised as soon as writer puts music onto paper, with a witness or two who can verify that writer is indeed the writer, and that no formal copyright filing is really needed? Is this a correct understanding? If not, what should we do?

I've a group in mind who may well be interested. They'd want to see a lib, score and hopefully a CD of it (it doesn't matter who sings on the CD, and it can all be sung by one person).

Put a copyright statement on to every page of your score, and date it - then you've got proof. And then go to the Legal section of this site and get more copyright info from Keith who minds that section.

Re a singer - stick an ad in the appropriate section of this website and you'll get loads of replies, believe me! And as long as you prepare well in advance, recording studios aren't that expensive to hire by the hour.

Agents are beyond me....!

QUOTE (Josh @ Feb 22 2003, 1:42 PM)

2. Any suggestion of any particular "amateur societies who aim to put on new works"?

Why don't you try Musical Theatre Colleges - The Arts Educational Schools, Guilford, Mountview etc are always looking for things to do - In fact 'Moby Dick - The Musical' Started life as a workshop at the Arts Educational Theatre!!
Didn't last long in the West End but it got there!!!