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Magnanimous Music Mogul Maneuvers Magnificent Marketing!

If you live on Earth, you have heard about the deal between

Country Music Legend Garth Brooks and mega super store,

Wal-Mart. Brooks, who has always proved to be a marketing

innovator, has inked a deal that is sure to set the music

industry on fire. Recently parting from his label, Capitol

Records, the deal grants sole distribution rights to Wal-Mart.

What can we learn from Garth? First, he's all about the

business, his fans, and marketing, something I speak about

repeatedly both on my weekly radio show as well as in my book,

The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money. While Brooks has

not recorded a new CD since 2001, his least successful by

Brooks's standards, this marketing genius still captures

headlines, creating urgency for his music.

How does he do it? Brooks learned from his time in the trenches,

when every label rejected him sometimes twice, it's all about

the business. Brooks took the business very seriously and

handled his contract negations with incredible savvy and skill.

One of the most important negations he made was to make sure he

owned the masters to his own music.

Because Brooks owned the music, he received a higher percentage

of the gross, which helped insure he covered the recoupable

costs the labels receive. Ultimately, whether he was still with

Capitol or not, he owned his music and that enabled him to be

able to do whatever he wanted with it.

A big mistake label seekers make when in negotiations is to let

go of their rights in order to get the "prize." If you give up

your rights and your label shelves the project and drops you,

anything you created is theirs, even if you wrote the music. You

can't take it with you unless you have a lot of money and a

really great lawyer. But even so, the label has the final say.

There is a lot we can learn from the masters and this is one

lesson I hope everyone is able to hold on to; learn the business

and always get legal advice and counsel before you go into

contract negotiations. If you don't know a really great

entertainment attorney, I have a few I would highly recommend.

Here is their contact information: Jordan Keller and Miller

Hogan of Lassiter, Tidwell and Hildebrand (615) 259-9344. To

find out more about these two lawyers go to:

http://www.lassiterlaw.com. Jordan, whose clients include the

Backstreet boys will be on my show in a few weeks, so don't miss

it! To a better day in every way ~ Jaci Rae "The Rae of Hope"

Copyright 2005 Jaci Rae

About the author:

Jaci Rae is the #1 Best Selling author of "Winning Points with

the Woman in Your Life One Touchdown at a Time" ISBN 0974622907

and "The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money" ISBN

097462294X as well as the host of the Jaci Rae show. To hear

Jaci's popular show, with some of the top behind the scenes as

well as famous bands go to: www.jacirae.com click on the weekly

show link.