Q: You have recently written about he importance of managers and agents in an artist's career. I have heard that entertainment lawyers are the best way to get your record heard by the people that can make a difference in my career. Who is the best person to get me noticed?

A: It is true that entertainment attorneys can play an important role in enhancing an artist's career, and getting doors opened. However, this is because entertainment attorneys work with producers, record labels, agents, promoters, managers, venues, other artists, other attorneys, film and other video producers, and even business clients who have money to invest in projects. They work with these people on a regular basis, and therefore develop and maintain a network of relationships that can potentially provide introductions of the right people to the right people. This is not, however, the exclusive domain of the entertainment attorney. Any one of the above-listed parties can be a potential connection to the others in the entertainment community, and therefore your entrée into a relationship that might otherwise be unavailable to you alone. People who work in the industry in which you are interested are all an opportunity to you as an artist. It is important to keep this in mind. I see so many people damage their relationships with certain players in the close-knit company of an artistic business community, thinking that somehow a relationship with certain others will pull them through the bad reputation they have developed for themselves. Wrong. Everyone works together in this business. No one relationship can help you where you have already hurt yourself. Remember everyone is a potential ally, unless you do something to damage that potential. Another related mistake I often see, is an artist believing that if one lawyer (or agent, or manager, or label, etc.) doesn't agree to open a door for them, that person can't do anything for them. Wrong again. Many times a person confronted with an artist with a "what can you do for me" attitude is taking note of the attitude, and doesn't want to pass such "goodness" on to one of their respected colleagues. Credibility, like virginity, can only be lost once. If someone risks their relationship with a label by passing through a bad talent, that relationship is lost. Credibility is lost, and can't be reclaimed. Artists and the people trying to get them to the next level need to understand that not everyone deserves an introduction to everyone else in someone's Rolodex. Someone who deserves it must earn that benefit. Sometimes even someone who deserves it more that anyone else must just have to wait for the timing of the introduction to be just right. Many people need to appreciate the opportunities that are available to them, and the number of people who are noticing them, without comment. Bottom line, the best person to get you noticed, is you. Remember to be noticed for the right reasons.

Q: What is a performing rights society? Do I need one, and if so, when? Which one is best?

Good questions, all of them. A performing rights society, or performing rights organization, is the assistant you need if you have recorded music being played in public, and you would like to get paid for those performances. A whole column could be written about what they do, and how, (and probably will be, too) but for our purposes at the moment, I will simplify. A writer who has her or his music publicly performed is entitled to royalties for all public performances. This includes radio play, live gigs, cover gigs, television performances, and even music performed in some theaters and on the Internet. The royalties earned for each play, let's say of one specific song, vary, depending upon the size of the venue or broadcasting range, the type of use, the number of uses, etc. It would be impossible to negotiate each individual license for each use, let alone finding out about each use. So what's a writer to do? Get a little help from a performance rights society. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are acronyms for the three performance rights societies (companies) administering United States writers' performance uses. Registering with one of these companies, and then advising them of all of your writings that are or may be performed, allows them to go out on you behalf to negotiate licenses with the various users of performed music, in order to pay that money back to you. They do this for literally millions of people, and probably secure licenses with as many venues. It is a complex and convoluted process, but if your songs are registered with a performance rights society and they are being performed live, you will have someone looking out for your interests, and paying you the royalties you deserve. Do you need one? Only if you music is being performed publicly and you want to earn more than a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Which one is better? Personal preferences dictate the answer to that decision. Could I presume to tell you which genre of music is better? Go to their websites, all of which are very informative, and make you own personal decisions on that one.