App Building Contracts, Musicians And Producers

Probably one of the best ways to ensure that you have a mediocre app is to tackle all the jobs yourself. Unless of course you are a modern day renaissance kind of app builder who can manage graphics, music, building, marketing, lunch lady, mail boy etc . . . Here are some more tips from the not-so-geekish girl app developers, otherwise known as Wickedly Sisters (Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz) creators of the App iNovel Spoon and the Moon (www.spoon-and-the-moon.com).

Today, people expect to see quality work when they buy a product. Yes, you can put out a second-rate app and make some quick money. However, if you are really looking for long-term sales and repeat business, you need to give your customer a great product. While building our app, we were confident with our dynamic art and storyline. Nevertheless, we still wanted the same caliber of music. We set our sites on a dynamic soundtrack that would further enhance our app.

Where should we start? Well, at first we checked out bands and singer-songwriters on YouTube. Once we settled on a genre of music, (jazzy/indie/blues) we began contacting musicians. Getting in touch with musicians proved a bit tricky, some musicians had links on YouTube to a website where we their found contact information, Batta bing batta boomsimple! However, other musicians had their contact information buried in a giant music publishers website. On those sites, at best, we could only contact a producer and hope they were interested enough to pass along our request. We must say some very talented musicians missed a fantastic opportunity to be on our app, merely because they were unreachable. However, we continued to hunt some of the musicians down on Facebook, twitter, Google, even through fan sites. Bingo!

Due to all that detective work, we ended up with some dynamic, original music for a low cost. We arranged to pay a small licensing fee for each song, and then settled on a few cents per app download. Of course, an entertainment attorney drew up a contract. Some of the points covered in that document were; possible plagiarism (if the song was plagiarized we would not be held responsible) and payment details. We also offered each band an opportunity for a link to the website of their choosinga place where audiences could buy their music directly. This offer helped sweeten the deal, further convincing folks to let us use their music.

Finally, the last tip for dealing with busy, talented musicians was to stay on them. We kept sending queries and contracts until we were satisfieddont expect that contacting them once is going to work. Most musicians are working very hard, frequently traveling, and many times, it can be quite difficult to stay in touch. However, it is well worth the effort. We even found a fabulously talented signer-songwriter to develop our theme song, Hey Diddle Diddle www.jenrosemusic.com .

In addition, our app, Spoon and the Moon, required some special sounds affects that we could not find online in sound effect libraries. We particularly liked the collection of sound effect from Audio Micro, although there are other choices. In addition, we needed some audio processing for various animations. We were fortunate to find Phillip Crowther and Lisa Wilbanks, of Muse Works Unlimited (www.MuseWorksUnlimited.com). Phillip has a long and impressive pedigree as a composer, music producer, musician and songwriter. As a musician, Lisa also has great ears and creative ideas. The team loves to create atmospheric music and is enthusiastically solution-orientated to provide exactly what the project needed. They also mixed and mastered the title track, Hey Diddle Diddle.

The music sounded wonderful in its original form, but after Phil worked his magic, it became spectacular! Last tip, hiring a real music producer is well worth your time and dime. In many ways, we have considered producing a spectacular, cutting-edge app a great privilege. It is quite fortunate to be born at a time when a completely new type of art form is beginning. All that said, although we have worked as creative professionals for 25 years, this has most certainly been the most taxing and at times most vexing project we have ever done. Stop by again next week, well be sharing some tips for dividing up your profits, and hopefully hanging onto the lions shareafter all, with the work youve put in, you deserve it!