FRS 002X - Sec. 001 - (2 units) - CRN 93107 - T 3:10-5:00pm - 203 Music

Be Your Own Publisher

Instructor: Jonathan Elkus, Department of Music, College of Letters and Science

Description: This seminar will appeal to students whose participation in the music and entertainment industry may range from the perspective of an interested consumer to the artistic and/or financial involvement of a professional or aspiring professional. The seminar will explore the structuring of artist rights, collaboration, copyright protection, licensing, performing rights organizations, publishers, and legal issues of the digital/cyber age.

Cost to student: $30.00 for textbook, This Business of Music (New York: Billboard Publications, 2003); this 526-page hardcover desk manual includes related business procedures for text and graphics within its larger discussion of the music business. Also, $30.00 for the student’s U.S. copyright registration fee. Total: $60.00.

Format: Weekly mini-lecture, with handouts, defining and describing the step to be completed for presentation at the next meeting; weekly presentations and discussions of students’ projects in progress; weekly discussion of ethical issues hinging on the concept of intellectual property that may be raised by members of the seminar, or through the textbook and the daily press. (An example of the latter is “Court rules against DVD copying” in last Tuesday’s San Francisco Chronicle—a legal benchmark in the tussle between Freedom of Speech and California’s Trade Secrets law.) An actual copyrighted publication of original music, and/or text, and/or graphic will be accomplished by each student or team of collaborators/contributors in seven weekly stages. The published result and steps toward it may be presented in hard copy or easily accessed electronic format. The music category will require an original song of over three minutes’ duration, and of any description; text will require an original song lyric, a poem, a story, an essay, liner notes, a piece of technical writing, etc.; graphic will require any work of original visual art, such as a drawing, photograph, or cover design. Students will be guided toward the fulfillment of their own paralegal work. Grading: Discussion showing preparation-based consideration, 50%; meeting scheduled deadlines with work reflective of best effort, 50%. (The instructor will not pass judgment on the artistic or intellectual merit of a student’s work—however, he is experienced at perceiving a student’s honesty and care.)

About the Instructor: Since 1983 managing owner of Overland Music Distributors, a publishing group representing twenty-five ASCAP, BMI, and independent writers/composers. Executive producer of the two-CD album Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts by Elinor Armer and Ursula K. Le Guin (Koch International Classics, 1996). Music licensing consultant to Pow Pow Productions (Vail and San Antonio). Editor, researcher, and writer of reviews and liner notes. Lifelong teacher.