September 5, 2003

For your consideration

Once we've uploaded our Audio Clips you'll be able to stop by, download the clips, and live with them for awhile. Songs from our catalog will be labeled as "released" or with an asterisk "*" for "right of first release available." Should you, your producer, co-publisher, management, group member, or record label feel positive about including one or more songs from our catalog on an upcoming record, we'll begin our relationship simply with a phone call or an email.

Next, we'll discuss your plans and develop a common-sense schedule that works for both of us. If the song or songs you're interested in have previously been released you'll want to contact Harry Fox, New York and CMRRA, Toronto, Canada. If the song or songs include the right of first release, we'll fax you both a permissions document and a "holding period" agreement.

Once we've come this far, you'll want to be able to enter our password-protected area for instructions and links in order to download a rough mix of any of our unreleased music. We'll provide you with a temporary password, and direct you to the most efficient directory where you can download the music, depending on your internet connection, and where you'll be when you want to complete the download. In some cases you may simply need an attachment to an email. In that event, we'll create a temporary mailbox for you, and fax the necessary login information to you. Internet security measures are still in development (and always will be), but our throughway should prove to be quite flexible.

Working in the Real World

Often it helps everyone if we can virtually be together at certain times. During the next few months, we'll finish testing and begin using Apple's iSight video/audio conferencing with iChat. You may want to hold a video and/or audio conference concerning schedules, lyric modifications, legal questions (for referral to those folks who bill us both), as well as studio arrangements and performance ideas. Because most of our unreleased music was written and performed by the owner, John Woodle (for copyright registration and/or pre-master demos, thus the "rough mix"), he may come in handy during the recording process should you have any musical questions or be looking for the right approach to a song and simply be stymied. The conference could be conducted from the recording studio, post-production facility, your home, your office, or just about anywhere you can haul a G4, G5, or other Mac using OS X (or Web compatible setup) and an iSight (or other camera) and find a broadband connection. While never wishing to intrude on your or your producer's process, and knowing full well that we'll be sending our "babies" out into the world with a wholly new attitude, we offer you any involvement in your project that you feel comfortable with. And don't worry, our feelings aren't easily hurt. We encourage you to speak your mind at all times. We've been involved in so many varied situations and dealt with so many clients in several areas of music and radio, that we know when we're wanted and when we're not, when we can help you get the best out of our music, and when to step back and watch you work.

Making the Final Cut

Once you've both recorded your master of our music, and decided to include it on your next release (within the "holding period" of course) we'll assist in any way we can with your label to ensure the accuracy of things like your "hard times," our correct publisher info, the correct lyrics (should they be included in the sleeve), as well as any interesting outtakes from our conferences you might want to include, should they be in character with your record's personality.

Online Strategies

Although the smoke certainly has not begun to clear concerning digital licensing, copyright law, and the ever-growing demand for flexible listening platforms, some folks like Apple's iTunes have solved a lot of the end-user problems, and we'll be more than happy to share with you any information or ideas we might have.

Staying in Touch

We're a micro-music publishing firm, and that allows us to spend more time and care with any interested parties we do business with. Once you've recorded and released any of the songs from our catalog (many of which are not yet listed), we encourage you to stay in touch with us, whether it concerns more music from our firm or any other areas of interest you care to discuss. Building and maintaining an honest relationship in this industry is hard enough as it is, and truly creative souls need to stick together through the battles, losses, and victories. "Impersonal" is not a term you'll hear when asking about Jaded Bum Music, the illustrious music publisher with the "self-esteem" problem...JW

p.s. the same care and attention will apply to songwriters seeking to submit their work to Jaded Bum Music.