The Vana Room

Christianne Kinney is a music attorney based in Los Angeles, CA. She represents artists, celebrities, intellectual property owners, and tech companies in the entertainment space. She is a Billboard Top Music Attorney and one of the Top Women Attorneys in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. In this conversation, Christianne, Monique, and Lennon discuss AI, NFTs, Web3, Metaverse, and ho...

Sound Royalties is a financial services company that works with creatives to fund their businesses and endeavors. For musicians, this means Sound Royalties can analyze your various revenue streams and determine how much money you "qualify" for as an advance. Sound Royalties keeps the process simple and highly transparent. Monique and Lennon speak with Sound Royalties' CEO, Alex Heic...

Davey Jay is an Orlando, Florida-based entertainment attorney. In this episode, which is part of our contract series, Davey, Monique, and Lennon discuss the inner workings of an admin publishing deal. Davey discusses the differences between and admin publishing deal versus a traditional publishing deal. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GPqQjvLzg3k Follow Jamvana: Website: https://jamvana.com/ Fa...

Bruno Guez is the founder, CEO and futurist at Revelator, the leading tech company powering the music industry. He founded Revelator to provide the technology infrastructure to move & manage the digital distribution business. He is the former Director on the Board of Merlin Network, the leading music rights agency. Guez brings over 30 years of experience as a seasoned digital music executive w...

Chris Jay is an RIAA-Certified Platinum recording, mixing, and mastering engineer based in Orlando, Florida. Over the course of his nearly two-decade career he has worked with artists and groups like Outkast, Missy Elliot, and The Beach Boys. He has also worked in the audio department on a number of films, TV shows, and video games. Monique, Lennon, and Chris dive deep into how and why artists sho...

Welcome to season two of The Vana Room podcast! Our first guest is Davey Jay, an intellectual property attorney and partner at Meehle & Jay in Orlando, Florida. Davey, Monique, and Lennon talk about publishing agreements in this episode. Davey highlights the red flags in contracts (you don't need to be an attorney to spot them), various clauses that music publishing agreements include, an...

Big name artists and musicians like Stevie Nicks and Bruce Springsteen are selling their music publishing catalogs to companies like Hipgnosis and Primary Wave, among others. Why are musicians selling their catalogs and rights? There are a variety of reasons why a musician may sell their catalog, and Lennon, Davey, and Monique go over them in this episode. Davey shares some practical advice to con...

Mental health in the music industry has quite often been pushed to the side. Musicians and various music professionals fail to recognize its importance. However, the stigma around mental health is beginning to dwindle which is huge because music professionals are in one of the most grueling industries out there. Since mental health is so important, Monique and Lennon discuss a few things that they...

Keith Kirk is a metadata specialist based in the UK. He has worked with a number of artists and major record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, BMG, Kobalt, and many more. In this episode, Monique and Lennon chat with Keith about UPCs, ISRCs, ISNIs, and more. Keith goes over the importance of metadata, how to accurately keep track of it, and when you should begin keeping track of...

Building your team as a musician will be one of the best things you can do for your career. If you're not sure of how to approach or do something, there are music professionals out there who will help you. They include artist managers, publicists, sync agents, tour managers, and more. In this episode, Monique and Lennon discuss what this team looks like and how you can reach out to various mu...

Why do so many artists release music on Friday? Should independent musicians release music on a Friday? There are a few reasons why you may want to consider releasing this day of the week and why you may not. Monique and Lennon briefly discuss why music is commonly released on Fridays, as well as how you can tie this into your music marketing plan. Follow Jamvana: Website: https://jamvana.com/ You...

Did you know there are ways you can sell your band/artist merch for free? It doesn't cost you anything. The printing company will simply take a percentage of your sales. They'll even handle customer support and shipping! There is no excuse for not having merch for your music. Monique and Lennon dive into how you can start selling your merch for free, some ideas for merch, and some import...

Education in any professional workspace is critical in order to continue advancing in your career. There are a number of resources that are available for you to learn for free, at a really affordable price, or expensive, such as a higher education institution. But do you need to go to college to succeed in the music business? Monique and Lennon tackle this question in this episode. Lennon and Moni...

The MLC, which stands for Mechanical Licensing Collective, was established in 2018 under the Music Modernization Act. The MLC's responsibility is to collect the blanket mechanical royalties that is paid by the digital service providers (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc). At the time of this episode's publishing, the MLC has paid out more than $500 million in mechanical royalties....

What royalties are earned when someone streams your music on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music? Who collects those royalties? Where do you sign up? These are the most common questions for musicians looking to collect their royalties. Your music distributor does NOT collect all of them for you! In this episode, Monique and Lennon discuss the various types of royalties, specifically mechanical,...

The music industry can seem like a desolate void, but there are so many really strong organizations that offer a number of things to its members. For example, joining a PRO like ASCAP or BMI will not only get you on track to collect your performance royalties, but these organizations also offer various webinars, networking events, and even discounts to services and products. With so many good orga...

Music marketing has changed drastically over the past decade. The days of uploading your music to your distributor, like Jamvana, and hoping for the best are long gone. There is an extensive process that needs to take place after you upload your music to your aggregator and before the music is released publicly. It can be costly, but it doesn't have to be. In this episode, Monique and Robert...

A music distribution service, like Jamvana, is a company that will distribute your music to all of the major digital service providers, like Apple Music, Spotify, TIDAL, and more. Every music distribution company operates very differently, so you should always conduct in-depth research before making a decision. In this episode, Monique and Robert discuss what types of questions you should ask your...

Playlisting is a fun way to curate music that you love and share with friends and family or maybe just yourself. However, since the boom of music streaming it has turned into a business as well. There are a number of ways creatives use playlists to "game" the algorithms. And not all of them are legitimate. In fact, if a curator says that they'll add your track to their most popular...

In this episode, hosts Monique and Lennon sit down with Orlando, Florida-based intellectual property and entertainment attorney Davey Jay to discuss copyright registrations, scammy third party copyright registration sites, and how to get proper permissions when using someone else's work. Davey Jay is an intellectual property and entertainment lawyer at Meehle & Jay in Orlando, Florida. Sh...

SMART goals are an extremely effective way to set yourself up for success. They stand for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. They are career-changing if they're implemented correctly. So, in this episode, Lennon and Monique discuss what SMART goals are, how to set them, who should set them, and how you can hold yourself accountable. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/...

The SWOT Analysis is set up for business owners, professionals, and even those who want to improve their personal lives to analyze what their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are. Every musician should complete one so they can remove unnecessary and mundane tasks from their day-to-day routines. In this episode, Monique and Lennon do a deep dive into the SWOT analysis, how to condu...

A stage plot is essentially a map of what the stage will look like when you're on stage. It goes to the production team at the venue so they understand how to set everything up to your liking. The stage plot goes hand-in-hand with your technical rider and hospitality riders. In this episode, Monique and Lennon discuss how to craft an effective stage plot and the types of things to include on...

The most memorable live shows you've been to are probably ones that had the best experience. Now as an artist you don't need to spend $500k on every show to make it memorable for your attendees, but there certainly are things to think about so your show stands tall amongst the pond of live performances that are returning. Take a minute to think about all of the shows you've been to....

YouTube is one of the best places to make your music available on. It's owned by Google and is a go-to place for people who are looking for new music, tutorials, and much more. But getting your music into the YouTube ecosystem correctly can be difficult. In this episode, Rob and Lennon talk about the two main ways music is uploaded to YouTube: through a distributor (like Jamvana), and directl...