Music and Song Production

Writing a good song or piece of music is the core challenge for both beginners and professionals alike. While the creative process is different for everyone, it’s important to give the material the best possible chance at success.

Having a fresh set of ears listen to your ideas, a musician to make suggestions on melody and chords, or a vocal coach to help you get the best out of your performance, are things every artist should consider.

Craig has worked with some of Australia’s most prominent singers, songwriters and composers and has helped bring countless songs into the world. Whether it be writing a song from scratch or polishing up a developed work, Craig can jump in where needed.

With a well equipped music production suite and recording studio, Paxus provides a convenient one stop shop to help get your song from concept, to a mixed and mastered recording.

The Process

1. Chat

We invite you into the studio (if practical) to discuss what you would like us to do. We make sure we are on the same page, and have the same vision of the outcome. We discuss budget and timeframes. We can also listen to other song references and any song demos or roughs you might have. Once we are all happy we understand the scope of the work, we will ask you to leave it with us to work on.

3. Record

We invite you back to record on the new production. This includes any live instruments and backing singers we agree are needed to complete the track.

2. Refine

When we have a draft of the music track ready for you to hear, we send it to you via email for your feedback and approval. This is when you have more opportunities to hone the track into what you want. It’s much easier to do this when there is an actual track to work with. Most production budgets have an allowance for 3 or 4 changes, and this will be established up front.

4. Edit, Mix and Master

Once everything is recorded, we ask you again to leave it with us, as we put together all the elements and get the track finished. When the mix is nearing completion, we will send it to you via email for your feedback and approval, before we do a final master.

Final Steps

The steps below are intended as a guide for artists residing in Australia. If you are reading this from another country, check your local laws pertaining to music rights

APRA: (Australasian Performing Right Association)

If you haven’t already registered the songs, you should. This protects your rights as the writer of the song.

If the song lyrics and melody are a collaboration between you and others (including Paxus), a percentage split needs to be agreed before you register. Normally, Paxus will only require a percentage if we have contributed to the lyrics, melody and chords. In some instances, we can negotiate this if the music production plays a key role in the song’s identity (eg; signature sounds or themes used in pop releases). But if we have only contributed music accompaniment to a pre-existing song for example, and or provided recording and mixing services, 100% would be credited to you and any other collaborators.

PPCA: (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia)

As the producer/creator of the sound recording, Paxus is licensor of any masters we make, and as a paying client, you are granted license to exploit the tracks however you want (ie sale, broadcast etc)

If/when you upload the master tracks to the streaming sites via DistroKid, TuneCore etc, you must let us know the following details so we can register them with PPCA:

  • Title of song (Exactly as presented when uploaded)

  • Date of Release

  • Your name (Exactly as presented when uploaded)

  • ISRC Number (Provided automatically when track is uploaded to DistroKid or similar)

PPCA pay a royalty when the audio track is played publicly (radio or in a venue etc). Featured artists in the recording are entitled to 50% of this (This is over and above the royalties paid by APRA for the use of your song and revenue from sales). Just sign up as an artist with PPCA and you can access that. 

Distribution (Distrokid or similar)

Unless we have agreed on a ‘buyout’ deal upfront for the recordings, we usually propose a percentage split of revenue of the tracks. This enables us to offer affordable upfront rates for our production services. This would be established with you at the beginning of the work. Applying the split is easily done within most of the distribution services like Distrokid. You just need to follow the instructions in the "Splits" menus, and use the email address paxusproductions@gmail.com to allocate the agreed percentage.

Credit

And lastly, if you plan to promote the track, we ask to be credited as producer…. Something like ‘Music produced by Craig Bryant at Paxus Productions’. Also if you tag Paxus Productions in any relevant social media post, We can help promotion by sending it through our channels too.