major labels only on smooth operations?

Subject: RE: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 09:58 AM

Needle time disappeared long before needles did- when did you last change the needle in your iPod, by the way?
That was the limit on the amount of recorded music broadcast during the day. It was the reason for current chart hits being performed on the lunchtime show, by Vince Hill and the Northern Dance Orchestra during the early Sixties.
What the BBC do pay is royalties, which is paid per minute of broadcast. They have to keep records of every track played, and these are used to distribute the royalties to the copyright owners.
This is mosly done automatically by means of the encoded song information on a CD (or MP3) these days.
A label has to be very small indeed- or hoplessly naiive- to make a record without this information. It is probably more trouble that it is worth to play home produced and home copied tracks that do not have the codes- on the one occasion I have done it, I had to sign a release form renouncing any right to royalties for that track.
The accountancy would have been disproportionately large to pay royalties to an individual.
If the track had been allocated a code number, we could have earned nearly a pound!
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 06:06 PM

I can imagine the BBC bureaucrats making it difficult. I believe they pay an amount of needle time money for each recording played, and I'm sure they don't want to deal with piffling small amounts to tiny labels, or people with their own label. But is Pure Records (Kate Rusby) a major label? Or No Masters? I think not. It may be more to do with distributors.

Perhaps if 'minor' labels had an agreement with the BBC that they didn't want paying for needle time, being happy with the exposure they are getting, that might ease the situation. I hope that someone with actual knowledge might be able to pass on more information.

Subject: RE: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: CharleyO'Neill
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:26 PM

Bring back Jim Lloyd !!

Subject: RE: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: treewind
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:26 PM

You have to be pretty much a TV celebrity to get airplay on Radio 2 unless you're very lucky.

They get hundreds of CDs a week and don't have time to listen to all of them - they have to focus on the labels they recognise or they'd never get the job done. They could be a little more adventurous though....

It seems as if Mike Harding gets a very small quota of "own choice" as opposed to "company policy" needle time - maybe one track a week if you're lucky, but there's an awful lot of competition for that slot.

There's a much better chance on Radio 3's Late Junction - four nights a week 1h:45 of eclectic music where British folk gets on an even keel with the rest of the world and the cult of celebrity plays little part. Kershaw on Sunday night too.

Anahata

Subject: RE: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:17 PM

I can only speak for what I know, I havent done a survey. I play with the Boat Band, and our most recent CD had a track played on the Mike harding show. We are with Harbourtown Records, which is definitely not what you would call a major label. Respectable minor label, maybe? We are available via Proper Distribution, however, which is apparently quite OK in these circles. So I am not sure if we are evidence for or gainst your assertion.
    The CD, I may add, was recorded by me on a Yamaha studio in my sitting room, so it is certainly not true to suggest that big money needs to be spent to get on Radio 2.
    There are, of course, huge controversies ongoing about the Radio 2 Folk Awards and the unbelievably peculiar voting results thrown up, which have yet to be adequately explained by the BBC; but that's another story. I believe another phase of that will be on Feedback on radio 4 tomorrow, 1.30PM(Fri).
    But, keeping to the topic of this thread, it is perfectly possible to get played without being signed to a "major label" (whatever that means in folk circles, I am not sure).

Subject: major labels only on smooth operations?
From: david from cleckhuddisfax
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:06 PM

Is it true as i have heard many say that an aspiring artist cannot get played on Smooth operations radio 2 folk unless they are signed to a major label /independant distributor.does this smack of control or a darker nepotism?