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Frequently Asked Questions
(and Terms of Agreement)


Here you`ll find answers to most of the questions which might come to your mind, before you decide to put us in charge of the music production for your demos: still, due to the beautiful but unstable nature of our artistic business, please feel free to email us at info@musicdemoproducer.com,
should your doubts remain unsolved.


Q. 1) How do I make sure that you are going to choose the right sound for my own music?
A. 1) As soon as you contact us, we`ll ask you to describe your idea of sound as best as you can, in order for us to get as close as possible to your own "vision" of the arrangement. If you don`t have one, we`ll suggest our own: after all, that`s why you hired us! When you decide to try our services, right after we receive your material, we will contact you (email is preferred, but phone is fine, too) in order to discuss the sound, after we hear your scratch song. Then, BEFORE asking for any form of payment, we will start working on it, in order to give it some "shape", and we will create a dedicated web page just for you on our server (unlinked to others), usually named
http://musicdemoproducer.com/YOURNAME.htm
where we will upload an mp3 version of the first attempt of our arrangement. That will just be a TEMPORARY arrangement of a short section of whatever you gave us, with NO VOCALS and most probably some missing elements, just so you can download it and have an idea of how we would start it: at this point, you should definitely be able and tell if you want to work with us or not. If you, after you submit your feedback, we will make changes (if required), in order to accommodate your comments and refine the sound some more: this can happen TWICE at the most (otherwise our affordable prices would become time-ineffective for us!), and would require you to pay close attention to major elements of the arrangement such as KEY (tonality), SPEED and GENERAL SOUND MATTERS (e.g. you don`t like strummed guitars, or you`d rather use percussions instead of drum sounds...). Please note that, since these above mentioned elements are not easy to change after the song is already defined, we ask you to commit to your decision from this point on, otherwise the price shall be re-negotiated. After we update the mp3 version of the arrangement, we will finally require you to send us a payment for half of the total amount, which obviously varies, according to the package you choose.

Q. 2) How do I know what is the right key and speed for my song?
A. 2) We MUST make sure that the song is in the proper key and speed for you, BEFORE you or someone else records it: after our first or second attempt of arrangement, we will ask you to pay close attention to those major variables of the arrangement. If you are the person who is going to sing it ultimately, we suggest you try and sing along with our background track, while if you want us to hire a session singer to perform it, we`ll help you decide, depending on the featured singer.
We will try and guide you through the process, but in general if the key of the song is too high or too low you`ll easily realize you can`t sing certain sections of it, while if the speed is too slow, you might hear it "dragging" or "boring" (too much space in between the lines), while if it`s too fast you`ll feel "rushed".

Q. 3) When am I required to make payments, and how? And how are your prices?
A. 3) You can find our prices at
http://musicdemoproducer.com/packages-prices.html
After we make the changes to our FIRST version (IF needed, and 2 attempts at the most) and update the mp3 online, we will notify and require you to send us a payment for half of the total amount of the package you choose.
The second half (along with the shipping costs, please read below) is required after the mp3 of the FINAL mix is uploaded. After that final balance is taken care of, you`ll receive an audio CD with the finished result, at full quality (44.1 kHz, Stereo at 16 bit resolution). In the case of packages #1b, 2b or 3b, you`ll find one mix of the whole song, along with one of the background track only, in the same CD.
After the final mix is approved, the balance is paid and the CD is delivered, the deal for each individual song is considered CLOSED, and any further action is usually considered extra work, to be calculated at the rate $100 per hour.
As payment options, we accept personal checks and money orders.
Also, you can pay using a major credit cards, wherever the service Pay Pal is accepted. You can visit
https://www.paypal.com
for more detailed information and a list of countries where the service is accepted, but it is a quite simple process: basically we send you a "money request" email through Pay Pal, then you just need to follow the steps...

Q. 4) Who pays for the shipping, and how much is that?
A. 4) The client (YOU!) is in charge of the shipping costs.
The prices obviously vary, depending on the service you use. For a single CD with United States Postal Services and regular mail, the price is around $5.00 including the padded envelope; different options are available and can be easily discussed. We ask you to take care of those shipping expenses together with the final balance.

Q. 5) How long does it take to have one song done?
A. 5) We usually deliver the first, temporary arrangement within 3 days from the moment when we hear the song, while the full process usually takes 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes less. These times, though, may vary according to the kind of production required, and are related to work delivered through the internet. Therefore, they do not include shipping times through regular mail.

Q. 6) Who owns the song, after it`s done?
A. 6) In spite of a certain general confusion in the music business, the song`s copyrights obviously belong to whoever WROTE it! In other words, we will NOT claim any kind of ownership on the music, unless you expressly ask us to co-write some parts of it (as in question #7 on this page, read below). As far as our PRODUCTION work, after the deal is closed, the client owns an audio CD with the final mixes, while we own the separate tracks of the arrangements (including the vocals). We won`t be able to use ANY of the client`s vocal recordings for any other purpose, but we could possibly use some of our tracks (e.g. drum sounds, or percussion loops re-adapted...) for other future works. In other words, we own the masters of the instrumental tracks at the end of the project: in case you want to buy those, we have to negotiate that separately.

Q. 7) Do you guys also offer co-writing or songwriting services?
A. 7) Although that is not our main goal, we do consider writing and co-writing songs with our clients.
Such issue can get quite complicated, though - especially among people who don`t know each other -so here`s how we found how to make it work:
- first you have to give us a few hints, such as your favorite music genre(s), instruments you generally like,and even some examples of songs and/or singers you would like to get close to.
- then, we evaluate your suggestions and, if we decide we can try something for you, we will come up with some music idea, and upload a short lo-quality mp3 example of how we "see" a possible song, for instance a verse and a chorus, with limited arrangement elements (usually some guitars and some drum loops and/or sounds, depending on the actual music idea). Obviously, our idea would not feature any kind of vocals or lyrics, yet, maybe just some "bla-bla" as reference...
At this point, we require a payment of US$ 150: even if you do not like it and do not wish to continue, this fee is still required, in this case, as a contribution for the work we have advanced.
After a few days (generally within 3 days), we upload the mp3, so you will be able to hear it and - if you think that is close enough to the sound you`re looking for - we ask you to choose a direction for it to be arranged
(at http://musicdemoproducer.com/packages-prices.html)
and to read the question #3 on this page, which explains how to take care of our regular demo packages fees. Those fees are - once again - separated from the extra $150 we require for the "writing" service.
If you do not wish to continue, though, no further action or payment is required, on either side; if you do - but would like to change it a little bit - we can proceed with modifications.
Please note that in co-writing cases, the song would belong to YOU AND US together, as far as copyrights go, therefore we require you to take care of the US$45 copyright fee for each piece of work
(see: http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html)
and to send us a certified copy of the form.
Also, please consider we do not write lyrics, but we can hire someone to do so: the lyrics writing fee is also $150, and the copyright procedure is the same.
In case you write lyrics and you`d like to have them adapted into a song, the procedure is similar: you send us the lyrics, along with indications about what kind of song you would like to make out of it, and we can write a piece of music based on your words.
The $150 non-refundable writing fee is the same for the music, while obviously the lyrics are your part of the work, in this case: that would be a co-writing situation, where the song belongs to both, at 50 percent.
Some advantages of that could be the possibility of having our song placed by us, eventually (for instance we could submit that tune for movies and TV usage in the future and upon previous mutual agreement, so we would share the revenues) but please keep in mind there is NO guarantee for that. If that ever happens, our agreement would be to split the revenues generated by that song of ours at 50 percent, which includes writing royalties and master licensing fees.

Q. 8) I liked the result, but I would like to have the separate tracks of the individual instruments, in order to take the production further, using other people: how can I do that?
A. 8) The separate tracks with the sound files are available for the client to purchase on separate CD roms (Aiff, Sound Designer II or .Wav files at 44.1 or 48 kHz at 24 or 16 bit resolution) readable by Apple Macintosh and Windows computers), but the transfer would involve extra work for us, to be calculated at the rate of $100 per hour. We would keep track of the time required for that, send you an invoice and ship the CD roms after the payment is cleared. As a reference, usually the price for the separate tracks for one song ranges from $200 to $400, but please note that those numbers may vary.
Please note that such transaction still does not
entitle you to own the master recordings for commercial purposes - unless previously estabilished - but just to use those for mixing, editing, etc etc.

Q. 9) Can I use the songs you did, put them on a CD and sell it?
A. 9) Although what we offer is to be considered "great professional DEMOS", you are free to use them and put them in your own CD to sell independently, but in such case we should have proper credits on the CD (production and player`s, wherever available).
Moreover, if you get signed by (or work with) a record label or a management company, you`re welcome to use our work as a demonstration of your music (that is, in fact, one of the main purposes of the service we offer) but not the actual master recordings, without a prior re-negotiation of terms.
If someone else wanted to reproduce the track(s) we have worked on, that would be totally fine, and in such case we wouldn`t have any requests; if a final track ends up being very similar to the final one we had given you at its demo stage, though, it would be at least fair of you to consider some kind of "pre-production" credits and maybe shares over a certain amount of copies sold, to be negotiated separately.
But, if you plan to use the final product for strictly commercial use as it came out of our studio, or part of it (for CD sales, digital downloads, or on radios and TVs, for instance), producer`s royalties and publishing must be negotiated in advance, depending to the kind of business you plan to do. A reasonable way to put it would be to ask for 2 points on the record gross sales, for a commercial CD, for instance. Also - for radio and TV use - usually the writer keeps the writing and the publisher keeps part of the publishing, while any other revenue generated by the work should be split in three ways, among writer, publisher and producer (e.g. master licensing fees which might be paid up front by the TVs and radios for using the actual recording).

Q. 10) How do you choose the right session singer for my song? And what happens if I don`t like his/her work after I hear it done? And how about the drummer, and the other musicians?
A. 10) This is a quite crucial point: we use a few selected people we have worked with and trust already, so by our side the result is guaranteed. Plus, when you give us directions on what kind of singer and performance you`re after, we let you hear a couple examples of vocalists which would fit it, to our opinion. And, of course, we ONLY proceed after you give us the green light... BUT, the truth is, in music there are so many variables and different standpoints, you can`t possibly consider them all at all times, therefore if you end up not liking the performance of the vocalist you can ask us to try someone else, but you would need to pay $300 per extra singer, as contribution to the session expenses and studio overtime fee. A similar logic applies to the drummers and/or other instrument players we choose.

Q. 11) How good is my song going to sound?...What happens if I am not fully satisfied of the final result? Will I get my money back?
A. 11) In order to make you happy, in general, we try and accommodate all your requests as far as changes in mix
and different production options (e.g. take out a certain guitar part, use less reverb on the vocals, bring up the snare...), but obviously that can`t go on forever! You get 2 attempts of "fixing" things in the mix, after which any further action is usually considered extra work, to be calculated at the rate $100 per hour.
Due to our very affordable prices, and the way we work, we can NOT refund any fee: if we did, the risk would be too high and we would either have to raise the prices considerably, or go out of business.
With MusicDemoProducer.com, your music is going to sound real good indeed, but let us remind you that musical taste is highly subjective, plus we are still dealing with professional music DEMOS: what you`ll get is NOT going to sound like Pink Floyd (or, even better, as a friend of mine suggested, in order for you to really sound like Pink Floyd, you have to consider paying the same money Pink Floyd paid, spend the same time they spent and - last but not least - you gotta BE Pink Floyd ;-).

Q. 12) I like the overall sound, clear and defined. But when I put a CD I bought in my player, it seems to sound louder, why? Do you guys offer any mastering services?
A. 12) It is po
ssible that there is a very slight difference in the overall volume, between our productions and the ones you can hear from commercial CDs, in favor of those ones. This is mostly due to the fact that - after the mix - those products pass through a further processing stage, which is called MASTERING. In the mastering house, the final mix gets put in discussion once again, as a whole, and the mastering engineer tries and analyze its overall frequency
response and dynamics. Therefore, they can make it sound "brighter" or "punchier" and in general, they can change it one last time, in order to improve it. Keep in mind we are talking about refinements in this stage: a good mastering process is usually very expensive, and for a demo we suggest you do not go through that at ALL: just turn your volume up or down a little ;-)
Anyway, if you really feel the need to have a louder mix or you think certain frequencies disturb you, here are a couple solutions we can offer:
• We do the mastering for you, at the studio rate of $100 an hour, using our equipment. That would end up costing you about $100 per song.
• We can send it out to an external studio with more experience and credits in this matter, but still competitive. That would end up costing you about $300 per song.

Q. 13) Is it possible to use your facilities for recording my OWN vocals on top of your arrangement, basically without hiring a session singer? And how much would it cost?
A. 13) Generically speaking, yes, but some restrictions apply: first of all, we are based in Los Angeles, therefore that option is limited to people who are able to come to us. Second, the main reason why we can deliver high quality products at such low prices is that we decide when, where and how to manage our own schedules, which means that - unless it is necessary - we would rather not commit to a specific time or location to while we do our job.
The prices are as follows:
- Package 1b with your vocals: $599.00
- Package 2b with your vocals: $1349.00
- Package 3b with your vocals: $1849.00
You might have noticed that those prices are basically the same as the regular packages 1b, 2b and 3b (which would normally include a session singer), but just discounted by $50.00, because we would not have to hire professional singers, but we would have to spend more time on guiding and recording you, on the other hand.
In fact, they include a 2 hours vocal session with you (to be held at a facility we choose), plus everything else you would get in the regular packages, minus the session singer services.

Q. 14) Do you work with bands, too, or only singers?
A. 14) We definitely can work on a band production, but prices have to be negotiated differently.

Q. 15) I know I am very talented and I am extremely serious about making it, but at this point I don`t have the money to advance... Can you work a deal on spec?
A. 15) We are sorry, but unfortunately we can not work on any project where there is not money up front to cover our regular rates.


email us at info@musicdemoproducer.com

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