Artists: Internet Radio Station-- Wutz Hood Radio and Magazine!!!

Release Date
February 10, 2011

About
The hottest station that plays 100% indie Hip Hop / R&B, with a few major favorites mixed in. Submit your music to airplaywutzhood@gmail.com for playlist consideration. They break artists.

Description
They play 100% independent Hip Hop / Rap and R&B, and we will be adding other version of the genre, such as Neo-Soul and Pop to their stations format in 2012.
They are certified by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange and pay royalties to these organizations.

Website
http://www.wutzhoodradio.com

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/WutzHoodRadio

Cognito Followed Me On Twitter

He followed me earlier this month like the 11th or so. I can't remember the exact day! Pretty dope!

Were both Raiders fans.

Be sure to follow him @therealCognito and follow me @UGLYBEATS

Producers: How To Clear Sampled Beats

If you’re a record producer and you ever want to make any real money on those tracks you created from your Dad’s old vinyl collection (that you can keep in anyway), then at some point you’re going to have to get clearances for the samples used in your works.
Here’s some very helpful information I pulled from a few noted resources.

Record the song. The copyright owners will want to hear how you’re using the work, and how much of it you’re using.
Find the Copyright Owners. This means you’ll need to get in touch with the copyright owners of the works you sampled. You’ll need to find the owner of the song itself, as well as the owner of the masters. This usually is a music publisher and record company respectively.

Help is available. You can solicit the assistance of sampling consultants who can take you through the process and help you track down the necessary parties. They’re familiar with the procedures, and may also be able to advise on ballpark price estimates.

Expect to spend money. The owners and publishers can basically charge you whatever they want. Expect to pay an advance plus royalties on sales. Most indie and unknown acts may have to pay up front in order to convince them to provide clearances.

Be prepared to share. The publisher may require partial copyright ownership plus royalties for the original songwriters.
Sample, submit request, repeat. If you sampled multiple songs in your one work, you’re going to have to repeat this process for each song you’ve sampled, paying out for each sample.

Plan, plot, and strategize. Samples aren’t subject to compulsory licenses, so use of the sample can be denied by either the publisher or the owner of the master. Sample clearing can also take too much time, or cost too much money for you to work out an agreement. Have a backup plan, like recreating the sample by playing it yourself or hiring musicians. You’ll only need permission from the publisher if you go that route.

How To Copyright Your Music

There is a TON of misinformation out there about this topic. The good news is that the answer is simple. As soon as you fix an original song to a fixed, tangible medium, you automatically are the owner of its copyright. What this means is that when you come up with a song that is original, and doesn't have any samples of other people's songs in it, all you have to do is record the song, or write down the lyrics and music (you can just write out the chords and melody), and you are the exclusive and sole copyright holder. You now have all the rights that go along with being the copyright owner.


It's important to note however, that if you write with someone else, or with an entire band, you must determine the fractional ownership of the song. Many people split it 50/50 between the person who writes the music and the person who writes the lyrics, but you can divide it any way you like. R.E.M., for example, when they had four band members divided all of their songs four ways (25% each), no matter who wrote what.


Even though you have copyright simply by fixing an original work in a tangible medium, there are some other things you should do to protect this work in case there is a dispute. The best way to protect the work is register your songs with the library of congress. Following this link will take you to the site where you can download the necessary forms: http://www.copyright.gov/.


Additionally, you should submit your work to the performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) with whom you are affiliated. For more information on performing rights organizations, check out the resources on the Artists House site. Registering with the Library of Congress, and submitting your song(s) to a PRO gives you great security that if someone claims to have written your song, that you will win in the dispute.


This leads me to my next point. You might have heard of people mailing themselves a song. This is called "Poor Man's Copyright," (I used to do this!) and the reason people do it is because it sets a date of creation. In other words, if you write a song and mail it to yourself, as long as you don't open the envelope, you have some form of proof - because of the postmark date - of when you created the song. This way, if someone claims to have written it before you, you can just pull out your unopened envelope and prove your date of creation. Of course, with laser printers being what they are it's certainly possible to forge postmarks, so, the best way to establish the date of creation is by registering with the Library of Congress.

How To Build A Home Studio On A Budget

Today I'll be telling you what you need to set up a home studio on a budget.  We'll start off with the computer. You can either go with a laptop or standard, most people should have one already. Next you'll need a sound card, you can go either external for laptop or internal for desktop, both are very cheap these days. I would recommend you go to www.maudio.com. They carry good quality equipment at a good price.

Next well look at microphones. Now you can get a standard stage mic, everyone goes with the Shure SM58 (my first mic was a Shure Sm78) for that. Should be around $100.00. If you can afford one or two more, it is really worth it to get whats called a 'condenser' microphone, all the major studios have one. That will improve your sound dramatically!
  

Now if you want to make beats, I would also recommend going to m-audio and getting whats called a midi keyboard. You can get one for a couple hundred, then link it with a program like Pro-Tools and trigger sounds that way.

Now for recording software. Of course you've heard everyone and their homies has Pro-Tools. They now have an Mbox you can get for a few hundred. Pro-Tools is so cheap now. I would highly recommend that. (Even though I personally have used Adobe Audition since it was Cool Edit 96!)


You can build up how you want as your budget allows from this point, such as monitors, a better keyboard like a Triton or XP, an MPC is also a must, mix board and turntable(s)...


You REALLY can set up a good sounding studio for under $500.


So get your music career started, what are you waiting for!!!