if you release music do you have to use your real name?
wow thanks allot to both of you! If anyone else has info on this I am very curious. I feel that in a way this is a new era where there is less of a focus on the personality and image and more on the music (at least in the world f the experimental stuff), so I really see no reason why more artists should not be as anonymous as they choose. Im thinking about burial and boards of canada here where they make some of the best music ever and yet they can probably live lives and walk around their local area and be just random dudes.
Re: if you release music do you have to use your real name?
Not necessarily. It would depend on the type of release really i.e. commercial or free, digital or physical. If you want to earn money from your work, you could sell on bandcamp or similar service providers, who let you stay completely anonymous besides an E-Mail for signing up. If you want to perform for an audience, the host will probably want to know your name and some form of contact info.
If you want royalties (your track played publicly on radio stations, TV, etc.) you will want to hook up with a PRO (Public Performance Organization), the biggest for the US are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. If you live in another country, here in Germany we have the GEMA and the GVL, who basically collect money from airplay for you. Releasing physical albums, admitting your real name to the record label is mandatory, it doesn't have to appear on the release (booklet etc.) though.
You do have the option to found a company, which can act as your strawman, thus concealing your true identity, which is common practice in the music industry.
So, long story short, you can be pretty anonymous for the public, but as soon as money starts to flow, organizations will need to know your real name for tax purposes.
Re: if you release music do you have to use your real name?
that's what they want you to believe. better for you to adhere to it... because you really don't want to be taken away for awareness training like the other ones. stay awake at all times
Re: if you release music do you have to use your real name?
I've been using my name since, well, 2 years after I started so..so far 8 years. Sometimes I write Mario D. if I'm not to proud of a song.
Why? Why not. I wanna be known.
Re: if you release music do you have to use your real name?
I do, but only because I couldn't come up with an original name I liked that was easy to find. If you google me, I come up in the first page of results. I'm the top result under my real name on Soundcloud versus somewhere on the 3rd page for my old alias (forum name). So yeah, it works for me.
Plus I fancy myself a handsome gentleman, so I figure hiding behind a mask is more of a hindrance than a help
Re: if you release music do you have to use your real name?
I used to have my real name on releases, posters and social media, but because of a critical comment I made online about the quality of the local hip hop scene, I ended up being stalked by a group of roid-raging Arab Immigrants who threatened both me and my family.
Luckily I didn't have my home address available anywhere, so in the end they were unable to find my house. But I know they tried pretty hard, and that it went on for about a month (at least).
So I stopped using both my real name and the band name I had been using up to that point. I had to get a new phone-number and new email addresses as well, - since they basically tried to destroy me online by spamming and signing me up for all kinds of shit.
I guess I just don't want to be killed by insane bodybuilders if I can avoid it.
Last edited by Iyashi Sound; 21-09-2017 at 03:33 PM..
