Michael Hausman Interview

Michael Hausman is a musician and co-founder of ‘Til Tuesday, the New Wave outfit that hatched Aimee Mann’s career. Now Mann’s manager, Hausman also represents Angie Mattson, Suzanne Vega, Marc Cohn and Kristina Beaty, and serves on the board of Sound Exhange.

Earlier this week, The Musicians Atlas had the chance to speak with Michael: Atlas: I understand that you are on the SoundExchange board. How exactly did you secure that post?

MH: Aimee (Mann) was on the board and I sat in her place in most of the meetings. After 3 years, when her seat was up, I was voted in.

Atlas: Who else is on the board?

MH: There are 9 artists reps & 9 label reps. on the board; 50% representing the artists and 50% representing the labels. There is a larger Indie, a small Indie, all of the Major Labels, trade groups and artists: Pat Raines , who represents jazz artists, Perry Resnick, who represents the Music Managers Forum, AFTRA, RAC, AF of M, The Future of Music coalition, A2IM: It’s all listed on the SoundExchange site.

There are many issues the artists and labels agree on. Somewhere there is disagreement. Basically we are trying to figure out how to make this business work for everybody. As a manager and musician, I get SoundExchange royalties too.

http://www.soundexchange.com/about/whos_who.html

Atlas: What is preventing an equitable solution between PROs and Webcasters?

MH: There is one big issue that need to be addressed: The minimum charge per channel, for your Pandoras and other custom radio streams, There is no CAP on that $500 minimum. This issue needs to be dealt with. We’re trying to resolve this issue. We don’t want to put people out of business. We need to deal with it and figure out an equitable solution. The rate is not perfect and customized for every situation, which is part of the problem.

Atlas: Will this be resolved?

MH: I certainly hope so.

Atlas: Why are many Indie artists suspicious of SoundExchange’s motives?

MH: There is just so much misinformation out there. It’s really unfortunate. SoundExchange goes to great lengths to pay everyone. We are trying to find every single artist.We spend a lot of energy and money to find everybody. Unfortunately I think the webcasters are playing into the fear of the artists that we somehow want to take online streaming away. For some artists this is the only way their music is heard. I can sympathize. Webcasters will stoke those fires if they feel it will put pressure on the process to lower the rates. Let’s face it the rate is just another expense for them. Businesses like to keep their expenses down whenever possible. I have to believe that artists would like to see a check when their stuff is streamed online. SoundExchange operates to protect all music and all artists.

Atlas: What should artists know about their royalty rates?

MH: A lot of people don’t even realize they can get paid for their music online. There is a lot of education that needs to go on. The business is moving towards more of a performance-based model than a cd purchase model, so it’s even more important now to make sure that artists and labels get paid for their works when they are transmitted digitally.

I don’t see a lot of artists complaining about ASCAP, BMI & SECAC. SoundExhange is no different!

Artists should realize that they should get paid. The businesses that stream their music are businesses. The artists should get paid, and if they want to get paid they should sign up with SoundExchange. Right now it’s not a lot of money. The checks are small. We think they will continue to grow.

Atlas: But they’re checks, nonetheless.

MH: Exactly.

Atlas: What role do managers play in the arena of artist royalties? How accountable are managers for securing their artists royalties?

MH: Everyone involved in an artist’s career should be watching out for and advising their artists. If you know about this (performance royalties for web radio) it is your obligation to let them know and sign them up. I signed up all of my artists.

Atlas: Is podcasting the future of digital music?

MH: There are issues with Podcasting of music. That’s why a lot of podcasts don’t feature music. As a manager and artist, if someone wants to podcast my music,they are basically digitally delivering the master recording to people. So, for example, you can’t just say "Hey, I’m going to podcast the new Neil Young Live at Massey Hall record." And somehow because you call it a Podcast it’s ok. Now you could grant a gratis license so there would be no fees paid but that should be determined by whoever owns those rights.

Atlas: In your opinion, what role will labels play in the next 10 years?

MH: That’s a whole other issue. A whole different conversation altogether.