Accounting Season Alert!

Hey guys! We just wanted to give both the labels and the stores a reminder that accounting season is again upon us. So, STORES: If you haven't made payment or delivered a report yet, we need you to go ahead and take care of both right away. LABELS: Please be patient. Your reports are coming at the end of this month. Thanks!

GrooveMedia Group

New Info on Mechanicals, Pricing and more from Beatport

"Dear Label Partners,

In January, Beatport will celebrate its five year anniversary. Along with our business planning for 2009, Beatport is announcing some enhancements to our business that better reflect the needs of both our label partners as well as our loyal customers. These changes are in response to the issues brought to us by our labels partners and customers over the past few weeks.
Changes for Labels:

Mechanical Royalties: In the past weeks Beatport has heard concerns raised by our labels about music publishing monies. These labels were concerned that Beatport would seek repayment from them as Beatport itself has been forced to make retroactive payments by the music publishing rights societies on downloads made since Beatport.com was launched. In response to these concerns and in the spirit of unity and a sign of good faith, Beatport is announcing that it will relieve our label partners from all mechanical royalty back-payment liabilities prior to Q3 2008 for the territory of the world excluding the United States. For all labels, this represents an average bonus of about 10% of the total sales price generated by track downloads. Even though the legal responsibilities have always been clearly defined in our existing contracts, we understand that the practical impact of potential back payment liabilities would be time consuming and chaotic for many labels.
Commencing with the period Q3 2008, for sales throughout the world, excluding the US, Beatport will deduct the music publishing royalties payable on downloads from all labels and remit it to the applicable music publishing rights collection society. For sales within the US, Labels will still be responsible for paying all music publishing royalties to the appropriate parties as is contemplated in the Beatport content contract.
Standard Label Agreements: As an additional concession towards our label partners, Beatport has decided to dispose of the allowable expenses charge starting Q2 of 2009. These changes will be stated in a new agreement, which will need to be signed by all label partners prior to that start of Q2 of 2009 in order for this change to be effective.
Exclusive Label Agreements: For our exclusive label partners, we will be offering a more flexible time frame for the sale of exclusive content on Beatport. As with the Standard Label Agreement, the Exclusive Label Agreement will also have any provision for allowable expenses removed and the current higher split of Net Revenues shall remain in place regardless of the agreed exclusivity time frames. Further details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Changes for Customers:

New Pricing: In an effort to stay ahead of the changing global economy, Beatport is making proactive adjustments to its content pricing strategy in the European and UK markets. The new prices are a reflection of the rapidly changing digital environment and the greater economic challenges our customers are facing. Effective Wednesday December 03, 2008, prices will be as follows:
Exclusive Classic / New Release General
USD $2.49 $1.99 $1.49
GBP £1.73 £1.30 £1.12
EUR €2.17 €1.56 €1.30

Lastly, while there may be tough economic conditions worldwide, Beatport will continue to defend the value of your music against market forces that benefit from discounting or stealing your content. Beatport is continuously monitoring unusual shopping behavior, blacklisting customers who purchase to upload music for free downloads and processing take down notices with music blog sites worldwide on a weekly basis.
As always, we are grateful for your partnership and continued support in our efforts to support electronic music around the world.
Beatport Management "

A Statement from Beatport on Witheld Mechanical and Performance Royalties

We will keep you posted on how this specifically affects GrooveSource artists. Right now we anticipate no change in terms of the way your statement works, as all this takes place prior to reaching us. But we'll let you know how it all plays out.

Thanks,
Team Groove

"Dear Labels, Artists, and Songwriters

Under the threat of litigation from various European music publishing rights
organizations (PRO’s), Beatport must begin to withhold mechanical and performance
royalties from the payments made to Labels and make those payments directly to the
PROs. These withholdings will begin on Beatport’s next quarterly payout Q4 2008 in
connection with sales made in Q3 2008 on Beatport.com. The amount withheld from the
labels next payout will be determined by:

1) The territory in which a track was purchased, and
2) The percentage of the sales price that the particular PRO charges in connections
with sales into that territory

These music publishing royalties will be held in escrow until the appropriate PRO’s have determined which songwriters and tracks are represented by them. Even if you are not a member of a PRO, the PRO must audit the sales data and determine based on their database which songwriters are members of their societies.

We anticipate this initial audit with the various PROs to take roughly two quarters. Once the PRO’s have determined which songwriters they represent, Beatport will payout in one of two ways:

1) For tracks cleared of any society involvement, Beatport will release the full
amount of the funds to the labels, in their next quarterly payment, as usual.
2) For tracks where the PROs have claimed songwriter representation, the funds will
be released to your PRO immediately upon notification. To determine when you
(the songwriter or music publisher) will receive your portion of the payment you
will need to contact your PRO directly (typically 12 to 18 months).

Any payments made to the PRO’s will be fully documented within Baseware. If a label or songwriter disagrees with a PRO’s songwriter claim, they will need to address this directly with the PRO in question. Beatport is in no way affiliated with any of these PROs and cannot negotiate on your behalf.

Moving forward, Beatport will be extremely proactive to capture publisher and
songwriter information when the tracks are delivered to Beatport. This will let Beatport better serve our label partners and the PRO’s to make sure that the music publishing royalties get back to the proper songwriters and music publishers. Additionally, once these initial audits are complete, retrieving additional information on track delivery should let us move towards releasing funds to non-PRO songwriters in a much more timely manner.

Also, please note that the end result of these payments to the PROs is that with respect to the tracks and the sales into those countries where Beatport has paid the PRO, the Labels will not be required to pay the music publishers and songwriters as Labels have been required to do in the past.

This message is a public announcement, so please forward this to all your songwriters/artists so they are aware of Beatport’s plan to comply with the PRO’s requests.

For more information on PROs and societies, please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_rights_organisation"

Invoicing and Tax reminder...Important!

HEY LABELS!

If you haven't sent your q2 invoice in and you are owed an available amount over 150.00, now is the time. Don't delay your payment any longer.

Send your invoice to labels@groovemediagroup.com

Here's what your invoice should look like more or less...



If you are a US payee getting paid for the first time, make sure that we also have a W9 on file for you.

If you are an overseas payee getting paid for the first time, make sure that we have a W8BEN on file for you.

If you are unsure about how any of this works or whether or not you have all the correct paperwork on file with us, email labels@groovemediagroup.com

Marea and Chuck

LABEL FAQ: Moving from phone support to EMAIL ONLY support

Dearest Labels,
Because you are rocking this quarter and giving us more and better content than ever, GrooveSource is getting some extra help around the office to field your questions, assist with scheduling, accounting etc. Instead of having just one label manager to help, you will be assisted by several staffers (including Marea and Chuck) via the labels@groovemediagroup.comaddress with all your basic day to day questions.

The new protocol should dramatically improve our ability to respond to your questions, concerns and notices as the associated workload will be broken across several staffers instead of just one label manager. Email-only support and provides continuing tracking of recurrent issues and trends in your support needs. With one label manager, 1 phone and 75 labels, we acknowledge that it has been hard to get through at times. We appreciate your patience as we have all grown by leaps and bounds together since 2007. We will remain vigilant as we continue to grow, making sure to listen closely for your feedback so that we can adjust our processes to meet your changing needs.

With that in mind, we are happy to announce that the labels@groovemediagroup.com email address will be staffed FULL TIME, even when one or both of us are traveling. When you email the labels@groovemediagroup.com email address you will immediately receive an acknowledgment of your message and an expected response time, which will typically be within 1 business day of receipt. Consolidating communication into one method will help prevent things like overlooked uploads or missing invoices etc.

This is the IMPORTANT PART: labels@groovemediagroup.com is going to be the method that you will use for all basic correspondence from now on. Instead of calling or IM’ing, please just email the above address. If you call the office or instant message a representative looking for support on one of the below issues, you will be redirected to llabels@groovemediagroup.com.

Email labels@groovemediagroup.com about these topics from now on:

New Release Scheduling
New content notification
Takedown requests
Changes to releases on sale with a retailer
Missing releases or missed release dates
Accounting and/or invoicing
Technical Issues of any kind
Lost FTP Passwords


Again thanks to all of you for such a great quarter! We love you guys are so incredibly proud of all that you have done! GO TEAM GROOVE!



Marea and Chuck

LABEL FAQ: Accounting

1. How often do I get paid?
Once quarterly. A quarter is every three months starting in January. DO NOT ask to be paid early. DO NOT ask for a report outside of the quarterly report. DO NOT ask how you are doing. Your label manager does not hat information.

2. How do I get paid?
You will be issued a statement 60 days after the end of the quarter. Your statement should never be late, but in the event that the 60th day has arrived. We would appreciate a voluntary grace period of up 48 hours within the time that the statement is due to accommodate the inconsistencies that are a regular facet of dealing with a tremendous number of vendors. The grace period is not required but is appreciated as a rarely exercised courtesy.

3. When do I get my statement?
Within sixty (60) days of the quarterly accounting periods ending March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 20 of each calendar year provided that all sales occurring between December 21 and December 31. You will receive your statement via email. Please check and make sure that the correct email address is on file with your label manager at labels@groovemediagroup.com if you have any reason to suspect that the statement might go to another address.

4. Why is there a difference between the total and payable royalties?
When dealing with a large number of vendors, there are several regular reasons that they may delay in getting payment to us within the time allotted by the quarter. The most common of these is a delay in transfer of funds from our foreign exchange service. If the funds are delayed past the quarter they will be forwarded to your next check.

5. What does my invoice need to look like and how do I send it to you?
See the sample invoice at the bottom of this post. Make something that looks like that and email it to labels@groovemediagroup.com.

6. How long will it take to receive my money after I have invoiced you?
Up to 30 days. Do not email your label manager to ask to get it early. In many case you will receive it earlier than 21 days. But processing hundreds of invoices takes time, care and attention to detail. Be patient. We want these paid too.

7. Why is the period of collections after the quarter so long?
Because we deal with a large number of vendors, each with a different standard term associated with their statements, invoicing and payout. We can’t pay you if they don’t pay us.

8. Why don’t you offer real time reporting?
Because only a handful of vendors offer it to us. Any distributor that claims to offer accurate real time reporting suffers from one of 2 problems: either they only distribute to a handful of vendors (which you could do yourself for free) or they aren’t giving you a truly accurate or complete report.

9. What tax forms do you require and when do you need them?
Your contract states this pretty well: Payment of royalties under this Agreement shall be subject to all applicable withholding tax regulations. Payments cannot be made until the relevant tax form has been completed and returned to GrooveSource (Form W9 for U.S. artists/labels and Form W8BEN for all non-U.S. artists/labels).

10. What is the minimum amount I must earn to invoice GrooveSource?
150.00 USD

11. Why is there a minimum amount to invoice GrooveSource?
Because we pay hundreds of people every quarter we cannot issue hundreds of checks for tiny amounts. Additionally, this term ultimately reflects the contractual terms of minimum payments that are often in place between GrooveSource and its vendors.

12. What happens to my money if I don’t meet the minimum to invoice?
The money is rolled over to the check from the next quarter and accrues like that until you have reached the minimum,

13. I see a column for royalties in collection on my statement. What is it?
Remember those pesky foreign exchanges that we mentioned in number 4 of this section: ”When dealing with a large number of vendors, there are several regular reasons that they may delay in getting payment to us within the time allotted by the quarter. The most common of these is a delay in transfer of funds from our foreign exchange service. If the funds are delayed past the quarter they will be forwarded to your next check.” The royalties in collection column shows what we are still collecting or waiting for. This could also describe money from a store that had been reported to us in a statement, but for whatever reason had not been paid to GrooveSource yet directly from the store. In any case, in the interest of transparent accounting, we want you to know what is out there.

14. How will I receive the royalties that are in collections?
As we mentioned before, If the funds are delayed past the quarter they will be forwarded to your next check.

15. Why weren’t my sales higher?
There are a number of factors that can cause low sales. These include but are not limited to oversaturation of the market and other factors that you can’t change, BUT the first place we would look for an answer to this question is THE MIRROR. About half of the top selling digital releases come from unknown acts. What made them sell? Nine times out of ten the answer is hard work. They promoted. They sent out digi-whitelabels to hot producers, they emailed their tracks to radio stations. In short, they worked their asses off. And if your sales are lagging, we suggest that you ask your label manager about some of the special promotions that they can assist you with, but more importantly, get off your butt and work your material.

16. Why hasn’t my payment arrived?
There is no reason a payment should be late after the invoice has been received with 2 exceptions. Number one, you should double check the payment information (bank account number and routing number) that you submitted to your label manager. If you gave us the wrong info then there is nothing we can do to get you paid until you correct it.

Number two, did you fill out all tax forms with your label manager? It’s your responsibility to get your tax paperwork to us and if you fail to do so, we will not pay you until you have filed them.

We may or may not remind you that you have to take care of this material, so consider yourself warned if you have failed to handle these details.

Sample Invoice

LABEL FAQ: Problems or Questions About Releases Now on Sale

1. When will my release be live?
On the date that was scheduled by your label manager. Look over the history of emails between you and your manager and you will likely find it there.

2. Can I have a list of stores that it will be available on?
Not a complete list. Here’s why: This is a common and difficult question to answer. There’s really no way to give a comprehensive list for a few very good reasons. The most important reason that I can’t list every site that we distribute to is that I’m legally prohibited from doing so by virtue of the fact that we aggregate out to several large distributors which create 100’s of “white label” sites, each ultimately branded completely differently but originating from the same pool of content. Their success depends on the fact that each brand is differentiated and seen as separate, when in fact they are the same. The long and the short of it is that when you sign an agreement for distribution to all of their aggregate sites, you are contractually restricted from discussing or revealing even the existence of the agreement outside of any confidential environment. The most important reason however, which is that revealing a comprehensive list of our partners, numbering at over 300 vendors worldwide, would breech what is more or less a trade secret for us. I’m not going to pull a rabbit out of a hat and then show the audience where the bunny was hidden. We give you an overview of what we do, highlighting the important stuff and giving you a sense of our reach, which is wide. We cover virtually all of the major mainstream markets We do the big electronic music stores such as Beatport, 3beat in the UK, Stompy and Juno. We do ringtones throughout the US and Canada for a lot of sites like MuchMusic and Telus and we’re excited to announce that we will be going global as we have been one of only a handful of distributors chosen by the number one ringtone portal in the world. If you have a specific store you’d like to see your stuff in, we’re willing to negotiate to get in there on the fly. You tell us where you want to be. We’ve gotten the science of closing new vendors down pat.

3. Where do I get a Beatport player/ministore?
http://www.beatportplayer.com

4. Some of my releases seem to be missing from my favorite store!
In all likelihood they are still moving through the tiers of distribution. Occasionally however, a store may damage a file during download and forget to notify us. This can happen in up to 5 percent of downloads on average. Computers are not perfect. We keep hearing technology is going to make life easier but haven’t seen evidence of it yet. And believe it or not, we’ve heard rumors that on rarified occasions we here at GrooveSource actually make a mistake or two. That’s right folks, you heard it here first, we aren’t infallible like that guy in the funny hat over in the Vatican. And while we aren’t perfect, we’re perfectly willing to correct a mistake and always around to help. Just EMAIL your error politely to your label manager and they will get it fixed. And while we’re at it GrooveSource isn’t alone on the mistake-making game. We’re going to let you in on another secret: Everything in the world isn’t just exactly perfect. Every store is different and when you deal with a large number of them (many who still enter data by hand) you’re bound to catch some mistakes. Please be patient and EMAIL us at labels@groovemediagroup.com to let us know what the problem is. We’ll gladly take care of it for you right away.

5. How do I get one of those nifty banners on your Myspace?
Make sure you provide unique piece of art for your release and ask you label manager to generate it for you

6. How do I get an adspot on one of the stores?
Adspots are chosen by an editorial staff at each vendor. We pitch releases to these “deciders.” If you have a special release that you think deserves to sit at the top of the list of our pitches, tell us why. If we agree we’ll go to bat for you like Babe Ruth.

7. What can I do to increase my sales?
The people who sell well have a few factors in common. Number one, they use their networks and widen their networks. If you have Myspace, tell everyone you know about your releases. Use tools like the Beatport player and hotlinked banners. Do an email blast. Post bulletins on message boards. Send out promos to your favorite DJ’s. Oddly enough we find that the harder a label works the “luckier” they get. Talent isn’t enough. And when we see hard work and quality material we will meet it with extra effort and attention on our parts. Talk to your label manager about special promotions. We’ve got a million tricks up our sleeves but you need to have the tenacity and motivation to use them.

8. I see my release appearing twice on some stores. Why?
If you had releases previously available digitally before joining the GrooveSource roster, and have supplied those tracks to us as well then in all likelihood we have simply done what you contracted us to do and delivered the files to our normal “paper route” so to speak. Many stores are unable to detect duplicates due to tiny variations in the way that we deliver data versus the way you originally delivered it. We suggest that you leave them the way that they are. A new release is a new release and there is a certain baseline of sales that comes with being a new release. However if you want us to take it down we begrudgingly will for neurotic organization’s sake.

9. There seems to be a damaged mp3 of mine for sale on a site. How do I fix it?
EMAIL labels@groovemediagroup.com. Do not call the office. We may ask you for a replacement file if the one you delivered is not working. They will then redeliver the file to the appropriate folks.

10. I don’t see my material live when it should be. What happened?
If you have a release date that is missed altogether EMAIL labels@groovemediagroup.com right away. There is likely an issue on the vendor’s end that they have failed to report yet.
Alert your label manager via the labels@groovemediagroup.com email address and it will be resolved.

11. There is a track missing from one of my releases!
To quote number 4: “Occasionally, a store may damage a file during download and forget to notify us. This can happen in up to 5 percent of downloads on average. Computers are not perfect. We keep hearing technology is going to make life easier but haven’t seen evidence of it yet. And believe it or not, we’ve heard rumors that on rarified occasions we here at GrooveSource actually make a mistake or two. That’s right folks, you heard it here first, we aren’t infallible like that guy in the funny hat over in the Vatican. And while we aren’t perfect, we’re perfectly willing to correct a mistake and always around to help. Just EMAIL your error politely to your label manager and they will get it fixed. And while we’re at it GrooveSource isn’t alone on the mistake-making game. We’re going to let you in on another secret: Everything in the world isn’t just exactly perfect. Every store is different and when you deal with 300 of them (many who still enter data by hand) you’re bound to catch some mistakes. Please be patient and EMAIL us to let us know what the problem is. We’ll gladly take care of it for you right away.”

12. Some piece of data for my release is incorrect on a store!
To quote number 4: “Occasionally, a store may damage a file during download and forget to notify us. This can happen in up to 5 percent of downloads on average. Computers are not perfect. We keep hearing technology is going to make life easier but haven’t seen evidence of it yet. And believe it or not, we’ve heard rumors that on rarified occasions we here at GrooveSource actually make a mistake or two. That’s right folks, you heard it here first, we aren’t infallible like that guy in the funny hat over in the Vatican. And while we aren’t perfect, we’re perfectly willing to correct a mistake and always around to help. Just EMAIL your error politely to your labels@groovemediagroup.com and they will get it fixed. And while we’re at it GrooveSource isn’t alone on the mistake-making game. We’re going to let you in on another secret: Everything in the world isn’t just exactly perfect. Every store is different and when you deal with 300 of them (many who still enter data by hand) you’re bound to catch some mistakes. Please be patient and EMAIL us at labels@groovemediagroup.comto let us know what the problem is. We’ll gladly take care of it for you right away.”

13. Why is my artwork a different color than when I delivered it to you?
On very rare occasions a vendor will use an image conversion method that causes random color issues when converting something form CMYK to RGB or the inverse. EMAIL your label manager and they will have it fixed for you. And To quote number 4: “Occasionally, a store may damage a file during download and forget to notify us. This can happen in up to 5 percent of downloads on average. Computers are not perfect. We keep hearing technology is going to make life easier but haven’t seen evidence of it yet. And believe it or not, we’ve heard rumors that on rarified occasions we here at GrooveSource actually make a mistake or two. That’s right folks, you heard it here first, we aren’t infallible like that guy in the funny hat over in the Vatican. And while we aren’t perfect, we’re perfectly willing to correct a mistake and always around to help. Just EMAIL your error politely to your label manager and they will get it fixed. And while we’re at it GrooveSource isn’t alone on the mistake-making game. We’re going to let you in on another secret: Everything in the world isn’t just exactly perfect. Every store is different and when you deal with a large number of them (many who still enter data by hand) you’re bound to catch some mistakes. Please be patient and EMAIL us at labels@groovemediagroup.com to let us know what the problem is. We’ll gladly take care of it for you right away.”

14. Why am I only on Beatport at this time?
We use the tiered system described to you by your label manager at the time you signed. We choose a store for you to work for a period of exclusivity to maximize your potential for adspots, promotions etc. In all likelihood you are still at this time in your exclusive period with whatever vendor suits your label best.

LABEL FAQ: Delivering and Scheduling Releases

1. How do I deliver my music to GrooveSource?
We currently accept a variety of formats from clients including, CD’s, ftp, file delivery services such as Yousendit and our preferred provider Mediafire, we also accept hard drives and thumb drives. If you give us a CD we prefer a data disc. If it’s an audio disk make sure you clearly and correctly label everything. We are not psychics and hate to figure out what song is what based on the vocal samples.

2. What format do I deliver my music in?
We need the files to be in a lossless format, so either WAV or AIFF is best. You may also send a CD which we can rip the files from if the origin is a lossless master.

3. What does GrooveSource require for artwork?
We need a jpeg 800x 800 at a high resolution. You may use the same logo for all your releases if you desire.

4. Will GrooveSource do my artwork for me?
No, but having said that, we are looking for reasons to run your release, not reasons to pull it. If we have a logo on file for you or some other usable artwork and all that is holding up your release is an image, we will run it unless you specifically tell us not to.

5. Will GrooveSource do my write-up for me?
We prefer that you provide your own release info. However, as with artwork, if you fail to provide it, unless otherwise instructed, we will run your release with our write up. So skip this step at your own peril, as we may decide to tell the public that you once got drunk with us in a hotel room and tried to schedule a wakeup call by dialing a remote control.

6. What is metadata?
Metadata is all the information that describes a release such as: artist, track artist, label, track time etc. All stores, ringtone companies, synch houses and compilation assemblers require all of this information in order to properly identify your music, assign credits and make sure that you get paid in the way you are supposed to.

7. How do I fill out a metadata sheet?
Most of the information is self explanatory. Here are answers to some of the more confusing headings: The artist column refers to the main artist of the release. The name of the album is the name of the EP or full length that you are submitting. Original release date is either the date that the release initially appeared as vinyl or the date you would like it to go live. Catalog number is the unique number that is assigned to each release by the label to identify it. Track artist is the name of the artist who should be credited with the individual track. For example, on a compilation or sampler with many artists, the track artist field would be used to identify the contributor of that individual track. Remixer name should only be filled in if the track has been remixed by someone other than the track artist. Additional production is the area where you list anyone such as a vocalist or an instrument player or perhaps an engineer that you would like to credit. Publishing info and affiliation is the area where you would list any registered publishing company that has control of the release in question and the publishing society (for example ASCAP or BMI) that it is affiliated with. If you don’t have a publishing company don’t list anything. If you don’t know who does your publishing, you don’t have one. It takes time and money and paperwork to set up a publishing company.

8. The metadata sheet is a windows spreadsheet and I use mac?
List the fields from the sheet in an email and send the info that way. If you need a list of the fields, ask your label manager

9. What’s the deadline for me to deliver metadata, art and music?
We require art, metadata and music 4 weeks before the date you are scheduled to go live. If you want to use the DigiWhiteLabel service, then send your release 6 weeks before your scheduled live date.

10. Can I deliver mp3’s to GrooveSource?
No.

11. Can I use an ftp to deliver my material to GrooveSource?
Yes, ask your label manager for a login

12. How does an ftp work?
http://www.ftpplanet.com/ftpresources/basics.htm

13. Is it ok to mail CD’s to GrooveSource?
Yes. We prefer data discs. But an audio disc from the master will work too. Please give ample time for the mail to reach it’s destination, as our mailing address and physical address are different. Don’t mail a CD and plan your release party for exactly 2 weeks after you drop it in the post.

14. What is your mailing address?
GrooveSource.com
5927 W. Lawrence Ave. Unit 2W, Chicago, IL 60630