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Hi, This is Matthew Ricks, and for over twenty five years,
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my life's work and passion has been helping you the
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artist in the music industry. I started at the age
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of sixteen years old at Jive Records being a regional
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promotions coordinator, went onto marketing. I've done an ar for
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a few separate record labels at different times. I've toured
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with bands as a road manager, as merchandise. I've been
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a consultant since twenty fourteen. I started doing the Matrics Minute,
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which you can listen to on Spotify, Apple Music YouTube
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over twenty five million streams and it's just been me
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about ninety seconds talking to you about the music industry,
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whether it be touring, record labels or any of that stuff.
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And I get emails from artists at Matthewricks dot com
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that want me to answer their question and give them
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some advice whatever. So what we're going to do now
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is talk about it on YouTube and if you're listening
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to it in podcast form, because I feel like a
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lot of times with artists, you might feel like your
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situation is so unique. We all think like we're gondless,
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We've got problems in our lives, are working or whatever.
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We all think, well, my situation is so unique, but really,
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when you talk to people, you find out that it's
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not that unique or it's not that scary. That people
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have maybe made worse mistakes than you, or they might
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be have journeyed further along the road than you when
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it comes to understanding the music industry or being an
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emerging artist. I think at times we feel like our
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situation is so unique. But what I want to do
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with this is, you know, you submit your question because
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not only will you get the answer, I'll give you
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the best answer I possibly can, but you might be
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helping another artist somewhere around the world who's going through
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the exact same thing. So we got this email today.
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This situation might not be a normal one. That's why
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we're gonna start off with this one. This person is
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a listener of the Matrics Minute. We're gonna go ahead
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and call him Bob. As I answer a lot of
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your questions, We're gonna have a lot of bobs just
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what it is. It's just weird. A lot of bobs
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in the world, and I think his questions is a
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unique one. So let's dive in to this and once again,
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if you have a question that you want answered on
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the music, about the music industry or the music business,
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just go to Matthewicks dot com. Here's the email. He says.
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Hi'm Matthew, my name is Bob, And before anything else,
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I just want to say I am a huge fan
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of the Matrics Minute. I've been following it for a
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few years now and I appreciate all that you put
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into it. Thanks Bob. That means a lot, actually means
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more than you know. The Matrics Minute was created to
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pour back into artists and not have them be scammed
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or have to pay, you know, five hundred dollars for
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information that is readily available to those in the music industry.
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And I feel like the music industry is one of
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those things that we constantly If you're in the music industry,
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you constantly feel like you got to be worried about
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someone stealing your ideas or you know, trying to best
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you or any of that stuff. And when I started
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the Matrics Minute, I just really didn't care, like I
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was just going to give you everything I got because
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I also know that this is a really a industry
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and even ten years ago, what it was ten years
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ago is not what it is today. Let's jump into
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this question. He said recently, I stepped into something brand
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new for me, making Christian music. Christian music is cool.
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I love a lot of Christian music, depending on what
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it is. I think Christian music is having a serious
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moment right now in the industry, with artists like Forrest Frank,
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artists like Lacree, artists like Brandon Lake. I think that
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Christian music is not what it was twenty years ago
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or longer, where it was pretty lame. To be honest
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with you, I think that. I mean, I'll be honest
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with you. I think Christian hip hop is better than
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general market hip hop is these days. I think it's
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more creative. I shout out to, you know, the La craze,
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the indie tribes of Tory Deshaun's, the Jay Whiteheads like
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I just think that these guys are absolutely out there
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crushing it and making better music than the general market.
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Bob goes out and say, I never made music before,
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but I felt a pull to start writing. What I've
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been doing is writing lyrics and putting them into instrumentals
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of songs I already love and know, and so does
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everyone else. So we have a parody situation happen here.
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But props to you for starting something. Most people would
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love to start writing music or recording music, and it's
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it's one of the it's what I like to call
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the one of these days. It's it's the Hawaii postcard
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that sits on so many people's refrigerators that one day
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I'm going to make it to Hawaii and then they
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just you know, they end up dead and they never
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went to Hawaii. So props to you, Bob, for starting
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to do something and be creative and not just sit
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there and talk about it one day. A lot of
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people dream of making music, but you actually took the
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step and began writing, and that's a huge deal. So
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I do want to call you out for that. His
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email says, now I'm at the stage where I'd like
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to start recording, but I've run into what feels like
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a pretty big roadblock. Most if not all, of these
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songs would require derivative license. Yeah, I mean, if you're
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going to pull the music from a Bruno Mars song,
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or you're gonna pull a Paul McCartney song and use
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their music and put Christian lyrics on it, it does fall
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under derivative works. And the and I mean, the simple
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reality is that publishers for big songs are big artists,
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aren't handing those those out to just anybody who contacts them,
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especially when you're a brand new artist, because they're gonna
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protect that brand more than anything. Even if you were
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able to break through and get get on someone's radar
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to get a derivative license, I think the cost is
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going to be maybe your salary for a year. So
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I definitely would tell you not to put your energy
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there because I think that you're not You're gonna get ignored.
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You're gonna get ignored by everybody. But if you do
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happen to have somebody squeak through and contact, you know,
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reply to you, the cost is going to be more
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than you're willing or that you should be willing to spend.
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He goes on to say, maybe I could attempt a
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fair use or paroity argument, kind of like what whered
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L does well. Whered L also gets permission from the
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artist that he does parody. Well. As a follower of
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Jesus myself, I'd be very careful of claiming you're writing
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worship music and putting it under the parody genre. He says,
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except mine would be worship instead of humor parody. Worship.
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That's a new genre, never heard of that one. I
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do get a lot of emails at times from artists
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who are basically want to rip off somebody else's work
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and they want to use it under the parody umbrella.
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But parity production protection under fair use is very specific.
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It only works when you're poking fun at the original artist.
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Worship rewrites don't qualify for that, So that's not a
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safe path unless you want to get sued, unless you
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want to get a takedown notice from wherever you distribute
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these songs. He goes out and say, my other option
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is to collaborate with musicians to create original instrumentals and
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turn my lyrics into fully original songs. Bob, now you're talking,
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and the reason being is because as a Christian, what
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is what are the first few lines in the Bible
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in the beginning? God created? God is the creator of everything.
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The first thing he ever did was create. He didn't parody,
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he didn't steal. He created. And you want to make
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music to glorify God. I think the best thing to
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do is be original and be creative today, also using
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your own original ideas. You don't have to worry about lawsuits,
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you don't have to worry about anybody saying you're ripping
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off Paul McCartney or you know. Also, you don't have
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to go around telling people you do parody worship music,
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which I don't know a lot of churches that would
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even welcome that idea. You'd have full ownership, no permission needed,
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no takedown notices to be worried about, and you get
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to flex your creative juices. Basically, what you're trying to
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do right now is maybe you're a singer, you're a
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great singer, but you know you have chat GPT write
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your worship songs for you, Like you're kind of halfway
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to the dance, but you're not fully going there now.
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You love these songs and you want to honor the
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Lord with your songs. You can always take inspiration from
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those songs. Take inspiration from the songs you love. Let
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them inspire you to create something bigger and better. But
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build something new that's original, Build something that is that
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is your voice, not Paul McCartney, not pit Bull or
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who whoever you plan on ripping off. Because of the
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end of the day, even wear it Out is ripping
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off these artists, but now you want to do it
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without the millions of dollars that Wear Itel uses the publicity.
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I mean, a lot of artists do let Wardel use
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the songs because they make a lot of money from it.
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You're not gonna be able to offer them that. So anyways, Bob,
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thanks for sending in the email. I hope that helps
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not only you, but others who might be stuck in
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that same crossroads, which I hope there's not a lot
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of artists who are looking to become the next generation's
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Wear it Out, but hey, I've seen weirder things happen
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for anyone else watching. If you have a question on
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the music industry and want me to answer it on camera,
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for not only you, but for the rest of the world,
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maybe you can help some other artists in the journey
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that you're in. Just go to Matthew Rigs dot com
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and click submit your question. Make it two to five
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paragraphs so it's not too long, but it's also not
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too short. We'll respond as soon as we possibly can.
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I am Matthew Ricks and until next time, I will
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talk to you later. H
