How do I sell my songs to successful artists and receive royalties?

When it comes to idea validation, get testing now. Pick a few artists from different forms of entertainment and see if you can start making them streams of revenue with your idea. If you can, great. You now have case studies to work with. You have something robust to pitch. More importantly, you'll have validated your idea and this will give you confidence to explore how you can upscale your work.

Disclaimer: I'm not an intellectual property attorney - and I am not attempting to, nor qualified to give legal advice. That said - here is what I know on the subject. Copyright was once explained to me as a bundle of sticks, where each stick was a different right. Two sticks that might be important in this situation would be: 1. Distribution Rights: Creating the sheet music in itself may be harmless, but copyright does cover right to distribute - and so your idea to distribute for profit may infringe upon this right. 2. Derivative Works: Copyright also gives the owner the right to create derivative works based on the original - so even if your version is different - it becomes an issue of "how different" - so you may also be infringing on this right. One path forward is to determine who owns these rights (the original artists or label often sell the rights) and license the right to produce and sell the sheet music. My guess is this could be cost and time prohibitive. Another would be to see who is already selling sheet music for these songs - and simply act as an affiliate, taking a portion of the revenues per sale. Consider trying the affiliate route first, to determine how many of these sales you generate from your audience, before going to the trouble of licensing the content etc. I'd be happy to discuss ways that you can validate demand within your population before you do either, and recommend doing so with or without my input. Cheers, Ryan

I would suggest spending some money and cash hanging out at bars where some of these bands perform, Also, try to find a way backstage to talk to the musicians after they perform to do your research. If you're going after well-off musicians, contact their agents or band managers. They are always looking to make or save more money.

Here's a funding route I love for all sorts of situations: Start small, and go directly to your intended audience. Use a pre-sale campaign with a tilt mechanism (one that requires crossing a certain threshold before anyone is charged - so that you can ensure you will cover your costs and not leave anyone with unfulfilled obligations). In this way - you are raising funds and marketing in a single bound - rather than dividing your efforts in two. Ultimately, if you raise funds from an investor (not sure where Chamber Music Concert Investors are to be found outside the usual patron of the arts set, but that's a different issue) you'll then need to repay that investment from the sale of tickets, boxes, memberships, packages or however you intend to charge your end audience. Happy to expand on this notion and tie it to your specific goals - I'll just need some more details.

I have a lot of background in live event promotion and also dealing with investors. Really it depends on the type and size of the event you are wanting to promote. Sometimes sponsors are enough to get you going depending on what the target market it is and if the ideal audience for the concert matches the sponsors marketing goals. In the event you want to go that route, you'd need to set up some sponsorship packages etc. (also something I've done). Finding investors can be really tricky if you've never put on a concert before. Usually, It is best to get some sort of track record first- again, I'm not sure the actual context here, but generally you have to create an investible story (i.e.- The first time we did this we only had x amount of money to start with but we accomplished y- so if you will invest Z in the next event- we'll be able to make 10x as much money. Lastly, Im not sure who the big concert promoters around Ohio State, but I'd look into maybe doing a summer internship with AEG live or AC entertainment in Nashville, or find out who the local promoters are and try and learn from them. Happy to talk more anytime- Hope that helps. JS