Your Gateway to Success in the New Music Industry
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 42 Different Ways That Artists Can Earn MoneyBy Paul Resnikoff Songwriter & Composer Revenue
Performer & Recording Artist Revenue
Session Musician Revenue
Knowledge of Craft: Teaching & Producing
Brand-Related Revenue
Fan, Corporate, & Foundation Funding
Other Sources of Revenue
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Welcome back ASCAP members and future ASCAP members. Now that we have Writing and publishing out of the way (See Guru Sessions #1 and #2) we can focus on what gets us money n the first place… The MUSIC!
TITLE REGISTRATION
Probably the #1 reason why music makers don’t make any ASCAP royalties even if they are getting substantial radio and TV play: You didn’t register any titles… It’s a sad world we live in sometimes… It’s like winning the lottery and you threw out the ticket.
“How do I register titles?”. Don’t laugh, you’d be surprised how many times I hear this daily… I shouldn’t get any more calls on this either… Link to Title Registration – for current members only: http://www.ascap.com/cwrreg/login.asp
YOU WILL NEED YOUR MEMBER ID (aka Member Code, Member Number, Card Number etc) to register titles. If you have never done this before click on Create Your Account
“But I’m a member already” – Yea no $h&%… create a password so you can get into title registration…
Once on that part of the site ad your password is set up, you will need to enter the following things:
Title of the song
Who are the writers
Who are the publishers
How much is everybody getting?
9 Title Registration Commandments
“Follow these rules you’ll have mad bread to break up” – that is if these songs are actually being played substantially. Don’t go calling ASCAP all angry because you didn’t get your royalties for your video that played for 5 seconds on public access.
This concludes the ASCAP knowledge for now…
Check the ASCAP Expo which is right around the corner, Quincy Jones, Just Blaze, Bill Withers, Dre and Vidal, plus 100s more will be in the building. Get to know your fellow ASCAP members!
ASCAP I Create Music Expo in LA April 22.-24 http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/
Producers, you can also submit for the iStandard Producer Showcase at the ASCAP Expo http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/2010/istandard.aspx
Can’t make it to LA? Submit beats to be in the iStandard Producer Showcase in NYC, PHI, CHI, LA, MIA, Boston or the city near you.
http://www.istandardproducers.com/index.php?t=show_submit
Hit me on twitter @RhythmJ for any ASCAP Guru questions you may have.
Rhythm J
What’s up music self educators? You are making this industry better each day you learn something. Previously on my last ASCAP Guru Session, we touched upon the importance of publishing and why EVERY songwriter, whether they are signed or not signed to a publishing deal, should have both a writing and publishing account with ASCAP. Knowing that, the first question that needs to be answered is: (and you would be surprised how much I’m asked this). What is writing and publishing as far as ASCAP is concerned? After you read below…I shouldn’t get any more calls like this:
WRITING AND PUBLISHING DEFINED – FINALLY
Writer – The person/people who create the music… this includes songwriters, producers, instrumentation, hooks, verses, the dude in the background who came up with that funny ass phrase in the second verse, etc.
Publisher - The person or party that takes the creative material (songs or instrumentals) and works to get that music placed on radio, tv, film etc. If YOU are that person or party that is pushing the material then YOU are the publisher. Therefore, YOU must make up a publishing name and register it with ASCAP
“Do I have to start an LLC or Corporation?” No.
“Do I need a tax ID?” No.
“How much?” 35?
“That’s it?” Yup.
“What’s the catch?”. Make sure the name on the check says YOUR name, not your publishing name and you’re good – this change can be made any time…. Preferably before you receive any money.
“Where do I go to do this?” http://www.ascap.com/about/howjoin.asp
“Thanks Rhythm J” That’s why I’m here…
DO IT ON YOUR OWN PUBLISHING VS. GETTING SIGNED WITH ONE
For those of you that have an agreement with a major/independent label, management or publishing company, be sure that you fully understand the terms of your contract. A company you have an agreement with that did not write any part of the music should NEVER receive writing royalties. EVER. If they suggest that… they are robbing you. This doesn’t mean avoid all publishing deals at all costs. Depending on how effective your company is on getting your music placed on radio stations, TV shows, or films, it may not hurt you so much to have a deal with that company.
50% of something – a 50/50 publishing deal for example…is better than…
100% of nothing – working on your own unsuccessfully with your own publishing account and placing 0 songs.
One common mistake I always see is when people call and say “yea I’m getting 50% percent of my publishing,” when in reality they are getting just their writing (50% of total royalties) and NO publishing (the other 50%). See Guru Session 1 for more details on this. Songwriters need to clearly know if the split of the agreed “publishing” percentage is based on either ALL of their performance royalties (writing + publishing) or based on publishing only (essentially half the total royalty). Read that part again if you need to… it’s important.
Bottom line: If you have a publisher getting placements for you – it may worth it to give them a piece of the publishing half if they are working connects you don’t have and are putting the time in to make placements happen for you. It’s really a judgment call. Just be sure to read your contracts carefully.
That just about does it for this Guru Session, catch me next week as I’ll be breaking down the all important details to letting ASCAP know what songs you have written so you can earn the money for your placements.
The ASCAP Expo is right around the corner, Quincy Jones, Just Blaze, Bill Withers, Dre and Vidal, plus 100s more will be in the building. Get to know your fellow ASCAP members!
ASCAP I Create Music Expo in LA April 22.-24 http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/
Producers, you can also submit for the iStandard Producer Showcase at the ASCAP Expo http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/2010/istandard.aspx
Can’t make it to LA? Submit beats to be in the iStandard Producer Showcase in NYC, PHI, CHI, LA, MIA, Boston or the city near you.
http://www.istandardproducers.com/index.php?t=show_submit
Hit me on twitter @RhythmJ for any ASCAP Guru questions you may have.
Rhythm J
In the world of music rights and commercial or in-public music use, there are a lot of terms and expressions that may be confusing to non-musicians. In fact, some of these are confusing even to musicians. In this article I will try to explain some of these terms and what they mean.
Copyright Free Music
This is a frequently misused term. There is extremely little “copyright free” music around, if any. As soon as a composer has composed a piece of music, it is automatically copyrighted to him/her, regardless of whether the composer actually takes any practical steps to “copyright” the music. If the composer gives somebody permission to use the music in a project, that doesn’t mean the music is copyright free. Even music that you obtain from free music web sites, from a music library, from a royalty-free music source, etc., none of this means that the music is “copyright free”. You should never assume that a piece of music is “copyright free”, because it almost certainly is not, even if somebody tries to tell you that it is.
Music Library
A Music Library, aka Stock Music Library, is simply a “collection of existing music”. People who are in a hurry to obtain music for a project will often use a Music Library because the music is already composed and immediately available. This term says nothing about what costs are involved with using the music. It may be subject to a one-time license payment, a monthly license payment, a per-sale royalty payment, or a combination of these. All this term means, really, is that the music already exists and will not be composed especially for you.
Royalty-Free Music
Royalty Free music (or Royaltyfree Music) means that you will only pay a one-time fee to use the music, and you will not pay a per-use or a per-sale royalty to the composer and/or publisher.
License Free Music
This is a bad term, because it actually means that the music doesn’t need a License for use. This is never the case, though, so when people say “License Free”, usually what they really mean is “Royalty-Free”.
Buyout Music
Buyout Music (or Buy Out music) is a term that usually describes when a company or person pays the composer, producer and/or publisher a one-off sum of money, and then obtains all rights to that music. A lot of the time, music buyout is misused or misplaced. For example, a company might think that they need a total buyout of the music, but all they really need is a License to use the music for whatever puposes they want, forever. This would serve the exact same purpose, but leave the composer with his basic rights intact. If you are looking to obtain buyout music, most likely you are really looking for Royalty-Free music.
Some web sites or music libraries claim to sell Buyout Music, but what they are really selling is royalty-free music. If what they really sold was Buyout Music, then they would sell the music to you, then delete it from their own harddisk, never use it for any other purpose or sell it to anybody else — they they would sign the copyright of the tracks over to you and retract it from anybody else they have ever given the track to in the past. That is a buyout. So really, what they are selling isn’t buyout music, but royalty-free music, or other forms of non-exclusive music licences.
Podcast Safe Music
Podcasts are audio recordings made available for individual downloads or subscriptions. Some podcasts are pay-to-listen but most podcasts today are free. Podcasts are a great way to download audio recordings made by other people, because you can “subscribe” to them so they are automatically downloaded to your computer or iPod, without you having to download each programme/episode individually. Podcasts can include talk shows, reports, music shows, news bulletins and basically anything that can be delivered as an audio file.
Lately, Video Podcasts are also on the rise – which is the same thing but includes video as well as audio.
Podcast Safe Music means music that you can safely and legally use in your Podcast, without having to worry about being sued by the music copyright holders. Bands and artists may give their music for free to use in Podcasts, just in return for some promotion in the hope of getting some new fans. More often, Podcast Safe Music is found in music libraries such as the Shockwave-Sound.Com stock music library.
YouTube Safe Music
Just like Podcast Safe Music is music that you can legally use in Podcasts, YouTube Safe Music is music that you can safely and legally use in your own videos that you post to youTube (and similar services such as Google Video, Metacafe, etc) for the whole world to see. Again, such legal YouTube music can be obtained by visiting a good Stock Music Library.
Work For Hire
A special arrangement governs music that was composed whilst the composer is an employee and composes music for his/her employer. The exact relationship between the employee and the employer will depend on their individual work contract, but in most cases (and if no particular contract exists) the composer will retain the actual copyright to the music, but the employer will have “free use” of the music without payment.
Moral Rights
Even when a composer has given (or sold) the master rights and publishing rights to a music publisher, he/she will always retain “moral rights” to his/her compositions. This enables the composer stop his/her music being used for particular projects on moral, political or religious grounds. For example, a composer who is strongly against smoking may have the right to reject having his music used in a cigarette commercial, even if all the other rights to the music has been signed away to a publishing company.
Mechanical Rights
In the rather complex world of music rights and copyrights, the various rights that exist in a music recording is often divided into three different classes: Synchronization Rights, Mechanical Rights and Performance Rights.
Mechanical Rights are the rights to produce physical items carrying the music, or a film that contains the music. For example, if you have made a film and you would like to manufacture 1,000 DVD’s with that film. The film includes a few seconds of music. You need to obtain the mechanical rights to that music, before you’re allowed to manufacture the physical DVD’s that contain the film which contains the music.
Synchronization Rights
When you buy a CD in the record store, or you download a piece of music from iTunes, you are really only buying a license to listen to this music in your home, in your car and in your own personal music player. You may not use the music in conjunction with any other media. If you want to put that music to a film or any other visual media, you need the “Synchronization Rights”, or the “Sync License”. The term comes from the word Synchronize, as in, you’re Synchronizing the audio to video. If you want to buy the Sync rights to a piece of music, you need to contact the copyright holder directly, or buy music from a Production Music Library such as this one.
Performance rights
In short, Performance Rights mean the rights to legally perform a piece of music in public, or broadcast it on radio, TV or over the internet. Basically, if you are playing music in such a way that other people can hear it and enjoy it, you need to obtain the Performance Rights to that music. Performance Rights are often administered by Performance Rights Organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS, GEMA and similar.
Performance Rights are normally not obtained per-song. Instead, a music broadcaster such as a TV station or a radio station simply pays an annual license fee to ASCAP, BMI or similar. That annual license gives them the rights to play all the music they want in public, for a whole year.
Likewise, a dental surgery which keeps the radio playing, thus entertaining their customers with music from the radio, also need such a license. Again, they don’t buy this “per song played”, but rather buy an annual license.
When you buy “royalty-free music” from an online music library, you normally do not get the Performance Rights with your purchase. But then, most likely you don’t need it either. You only need the Performance Rights if you are actually going to broadcast the music through a broadcasting company that don’t already have an annual license — which is highly unlikely.
Bespoke Music
This just means custom made music, written especially for the project.
So after this four part series about publishing, I figured that maybe I needed to actually to back track with all the technical stuff and go back to basics and look at filling out a basic publishing split sheet. I can not explain the importance of filling out publishing split sheets. I am going to break this down to the most basics levels so please forgive me if you feel like I am treating you like idiots, but again I can not express how important this actually is in making money in the publishing business.
What happens is that everyone gets in a studio and creates a hit record and it is not released for several months after it was recorded. The label will not start sending publishing statements for an estimated 9months after the commercial release of the song so it could be as many as 18 months since the songs was recorded. At this point everyone involved will not really remember who did what that night in the studio cause everybody was throwing out ideas and maybe even drinking or smoking. So it is hard to go back and complete songs sheets, hence the reason I say complete them during the recording session so everyone agrees.
A song is broken down into a 100%. This one hundred percent represents the percentage that is going to be split between all writers of lyrics and often melodies and a composer/producer or group of composers who created the music whether it is original or sampled.
Then the publishers share is also equal to 100% which is broken down between all the writers and composer/producers publishing companies.
So let’s look at the first basic split of 200% which would be one writer and one composer with no samples. You would divide the song evenly down the middle 50/50 %. Now the percentage would be further broken down between writers and publishers but still equaling 100% for the writers and composers/producers and 100% for the publishers. Lets assume in this case that neither writers (lyrics and music) have a publishing deal and have created there own publishing company.
Example#1:
Tom Williams wrote the lyrics and has his own publishing company (Williams Publishing Group)
Steve Jones wrote the music and has his own publishing company (Jones Music Group)
This is what the splits would look like:
Song Title: TBD
Writers:
Tom Williams -50%
Steve Jones -50%
Publishers:
Williams Publishing Group -50%
Jones Music Group -50%
Total of 200%
Example #2
Tom Williams wrote the lyrics and has his own publishing company (Williams Publishing Group)
Steve Jones wrote the music with his partner Mike Jones, but they have joint ownership in the publishing company (Jones Music Group) This is what the splits would look like:
Song Title: TBD
Writers:
Tom Williams – 50%
Steve Jones – 25%
Mike Jones – 25%
Publishers:
Williams Publishing Group – 50%
Jones Music Group – 50%
Total of 200%
Example #3
Tom Williams wrote the lyrics for the verses of the song and has his own publishing company (Williams Publishing Group) but the hook was written by David Frost who has his own publishing company (Frost Bite Music)
Steve Jones wrote the music with his partner Mike Jones, but they have joint ownership in the publishing company (Jones Music Group) This is what the splits would look like:
Song Title: TBD
Writers:
Tom Williams – 37.5%
David Frost – 12.5%
Steve Jones – 25%
Mike Jones – 25%
Publishers:
Williams Publishing Group – 37.5%
Frost Bite Music – 12.5%
Jones Music Group – 50%
Total of 200%
Now this scenario could always have minor changes because Tom Williams and David Frost need to agree on the percentages that they both feel represented there equal share of what the other person wrote on the song. Some people break the songs percentage down by how many bars you wrote; others split percentages equally no matter what. Some writers feel that he hook is the main part of the song and want a larger percentage. This can also be true with the composer/producers because depending on who did what instrumentation on the song. Maybe one of the composers only did a horn section and would mean a lesser percent if any at all cause they could be a work for hire. So again this is something that needs to be determined while everyone involved in the song creation is present cause as I mentioned above it gets really difficult to remember 18 months later.
EXAMPLE #4
Rap group New Age Mafia writes a song there are three rappers (Harry Allen, Marcus Little & Paul Davis), in the group and all write there own verse and the composer/producer (Mike Jones) does the hook. The members of New Age Mafia all have publishing deals with different major publishers (Harry Allen – Universal Music Publishing, Marcus Little – Sony/ATV & Paul Davis – Bug Music). The composer/producer doesn’t use a sample and owns his owns publishing Jones Music Group. This is generally what the splits should look like.
Song Title: TBD
Writers:
Harry Allen – 12.5%
Marcus Little – 12.5%
Paul Davis – 12.5%
Mike Jones – 62.5 %
Publisher:
Universal Music Publishing – 12.5%
Sony/ATV Publishing – 12.5%
Bug Music – 12.5%
Jones Music Group – 62.5%
Total of 200%
EXAMPLE #5
Rapper Large Joe (Joe Johnson & Cartagena Music Publishing/Jellys Jam LLC) writes a record that was composed/produced by Andy Hendrick (Hendricks Music Publishing) and the song use’s a Luther Vandross sample and Mr Vandross and his publishing company (EMI April Music/Uncle Ronnie’s Music) charges 85% of the writers and publishers share of the publishing. So generally the songwriter and composer of the new song will split the percentage left over that was not taken by the original writer and publisher.. Also Joe Johnson and Luther Vandross both have major publishing deals. So the following is a break down of the publishing splits.
Writers:
Luther Vandross – 85%
Andy Hendrick – 7.5%
Joe Johnson – 7.5%
Publisher:
EMI April Music – 42.5%
Uncle Ronnie’s Music Company – 42.5%
Hendricks Music Pubishing – 7.5%
Jelly Jams LLC – 3.75%
Cartagena Music – 3.75%
Total of 200%
As you can see from the five different Publishing 101 Blogs, Publishing can be very difficult but made simple by taking a few extra minutes to fill out the proper paper work making sure everyone involved in the creation of the songs gets the correct percentages based on there pertisipation on the song.
ATTACHED ARE TWO DIFFERENT GENERAL TEMPLATES OF PUBLISHING SPLIT SHEETS
Single Song Writers Split Example
Marc Smilow
Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com
Starting your own publishing company is actually not that hard. You as a songwriter may truly benefit from setting up your “own” publishing company because not only will you be able show off your own catalog of songs you’ve written – but also you may exploit songs of other writers that you acquire material from. You will also be able to collect your money from mechanical and performance licenses direct. (Opposed to getting your money through another publisher).
Step 1
First of all – you will need to think up a few really ‘you-neek’ names for your company. I suggest trying as many combinations of words & “new” words as you can possibly think of (that you like). BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, including local government business databanks already have many of the most common names taken. So like I said – be unique. Many big name artists sometimes can’t use their established artist names because they are too close to other names that already exist. So with this being a reality – many recording artists spell their “known” names backwards. For example: ECAF Music for Babyface or ECNIRP Music for Prince.
Step 2
You will need to join a performance rights organization such as BMI, ASCAP or SESAC. Get in touch with these organizations to request the necessary information and application to join as a writer and publisher. Your company can only be an “active” member of one. There is a fee.
ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc)
SESAC
Step 3
Now you must get your company set up with the local city / county / state government to get a business license / permit to do business as a music publisher. You will need to decide in which business manner to file your company – Sole Proprietor – General Partnership – Corporation – D.B.A. (Doing Business As), etc. You will also need a Federal Tax ID to complete your applications to BMI, ASCAP or SESAC.
Step 4
Open up a Business Bank Account (read about manager loans and limits). If you’ve followed the steps above, and your credit is not TOTALLY ruined with bad checks, etc. – you should have no problem opening an account. And even if your credit is bad… there are still ways to do this.
Step 5
Contact The Harry Fox Agency to request information and an application to join. This is so they can issue mechanical & digital licenses to collect money in your behalf – from the sales of your songs. They also can perform audits when considered necessary.
THE HARRY FOX AGENCY, INC
711 THIRD AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10017
(212) 370-5330
AMERICA’S MECHANICAL RIGHTS SOCIETY
Marc Smilow
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com
Mechanical Royalties refers to the mechanical license and has its origins in the ‘piano rolls’ on which music was recorded in the early part of the 20th Century. Although its concept is now primarily oriented to royalty income from sale of CDs, its scope is wider and covers any copyrighted audio composition that is rendered mechanically; that is, without human performers:
*tape recordings
*music videos
*ringtones
*MIDI files
*downloaded tracks
*DVDs, VHS, UMDs
*computer games
*musical toys etc.
The United States treatment of mechanical royalties is in sharp contrast to international practice.
In the United States, while the right to use copyrighted music for making records for public distribution (for private use) is an exclusive right of the composer, the Copyright Act provides that once the music is so recorded, anyone else can record the composition/song without a negotiated license but on the payment of the statutory compulsory royalty. Thus, its use by different artists could lead to several separately-owned copyrighted ‘sound recordings’.
The royalty rates in the table comprise of two elements: (i) a minimum rate applies for a duration equivalent to 5 minutes, or less, of a musical composition/song and/or a per-minute rate if the composition exceeds it, whichever is greater.
Compulsory Mechanical Royalty Rates – United States
Period Royalty Rate
01-01-1998 – 12-31-1999 7.10 cents or 1.35 cents/min
01-01-2000 – 12-31-2001 7.55 cents or 1.43 cents/min
01-01-2002 – 12-31-2003 8.00 cents or 1.55 cents/min
01-01-2004 – 12-31-2005 8.50 cents or 1.65 cents/min
01-01-2006 – 12-31-2007 9.10 cents or 1.75 cents/min
In a fair publishing agreement, every 100 units of currency that flows to the publisher gets divided as follows: 50 units go to the songwriter and 50 units to the publisher minus operating and administrative fees and applicable taxes. However, the music writer obtains a further 25 units from the publisher’s share, if the music writer retains a portion of the music publishing rights (as a co-publisher). In effect, the co-publishing agreement is a 50/50 share of royalties in favor of the songwriter if administrative costs of publishing are disregarded. This is near international practice.
When a company (recording label) records the composed music, say, on a CD master, it obtains a distinctly separate copyright to the sound recording, with all the exclusivities that flow to such copyright. The main obligation of the recording label to the songwriter and her publisher is to pay the contracted royalties on the license received.
While the compulsory rates remain unaffected, recording companies, in the US, will, typically, negotiate to pay not more than 75% of the compulsory rate where the songwriter is also the recording artist and will further (in the US) extend that to a maximum of 10 songs, even though the marketed recording may carry more than that number. This ‘reduced rate’ results from the incorporation of a “controlled composition” clause in the licensing contract since the composer as recording artist is seen to control the content of the recording.
Mechanical royalties for music produced outside of the United States are negotiated – there being no compulsory licensing – and royalty payments to the composer and her publisher for recordings are based on the wholesale, retail, or ‘suggested retail value’ of the marketed CDs.
In the US, the Harry Fox Agency, HFA, is the predominant licensor, collector and distributor for mechanical royalties, although there are several small competing organizations. For its operations, it charges about 6% as commission.
Record companies are responsible for paying royalties to those artists who have performed for a recording based on the sale of CDs by retailers.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day. I hope the information I have posted is helpful. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com
Marc Smilow
Contacts you might find useful regarding Mechanical Publishing.
HARRY FOX AGENCY
AMERICA’S MECHANICAL RIGHTS SOCIETY
Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes Blog