Music Publishing 101
So often I come in contact with artists that dont understand publishing, royalties, splits, or just simply how to get paid off of their music. I get it! It’s a very complicated subject and without guidance it’s very difficult to grasp.
What I hope to accomplish in this blog series is to walk you step by step through all of the most important concepts about publishing you should be aware of before releasing any music. So save this post, keep it close and reference back to it when you are unsure about something.
What is Music Publishing
Music publishing became a thing when the copyright of music became legally protected. A publisher is simply the person or entity who is in control of the Songwriting Copyright. Music publishing companies enter into a contract with music composers to manage that copyright.
Through an agreement called a publishing contract, a songwriter or composer “assigns” a portion or all of the copyright of their composition to a publishing company, sometimes for a recoupable advance payment. The publishing company then manages the licensing of the compositions, helps promote the compositions to record labels, recording artists, film and television, monitors where compositions are used commercially, collects royalties and distributes them to the composers.
If you are an independent songwriter and don’t have a publishing company, you are in charge of your own music publishing and can collect publishing royalties yourself if you register with a performing rights organization like ASCAP, BMI as both a publisher and a songwriter
A song can be thought of as being split into two halves: the master (the sound recording itself) and the composition (the underlying music— lyrics and notes).
One Song, Two Different Types of Publishing Rights
To understand where the money is in the music it is vitally important to understand that a song is more than just one copyrightable piece of intellectual property. A song can be thought of as being split into two halves: the master (the sound recording itself) and the composition (the underlying song— lyrics and notes).
Songwriting Copyright
The songwriting copyright side of music refers to the notes, melodies, chords, rhythms, lyrics, and any other piece of original music. Before an artist or record label can create a master sound recording of a song they first need to get permission (mechanical license) to use the music and lyrics if they did not write it themselves. There is intellectual property contained in the beat and lyrics and this copyright is owned by the writers or owners of this content if purchased from the songwriter.
Every time the work or a derivative work is sold, streamed, or performed a mechanical and performance royalty payment is owed to the songwriters. These royalties are split 50/50 between the music publisher and the songwriter. If a songwriter published there own music they are paid 100% of of these royalties but must register as both a publisher and a songwriter with a Performing Rights Organization to collect the publishing portion of these royalties.
The Master Recording Copyright
A master recording or “the sound recording” can come together in many different ways and generate interests from many different parties who were involved with the creation of this record. To simplify the understanding of the master recording it is the final recording of the performance of the song that is mixed and mastered in final form. It is the recording of the performance of the music and lyrics into its own combined finished recording and is normally owned by the person, people or company who financed the creation of the recording.
In a traditional record deal the master recording is normally owned in full or in part by the record label who signed the performing artists, paid for studio time, beats from producers, performances from musicians, lyrics from songwriters, and services of engineers.
If an independent performing artist is financing the record then they would own the master recording or share ownership with others who contributed to the creation of the song which could include the producer, other songwriters and or the engineer/studio depending on the agreement.
Ownership of Master Recording
When it comes to the songwriters copyright there is no confusion of who owns that, “the songwriters” but when it comes to the master recording its much more complicated. As you make your songs it is important to know and come to an agreement on who owns what in regards to the copyrights on both sides of the song.
Traditionally publishers controlled the songwriting copyright (beat/lyrics) while record labels controlled the recording copyright (the master recording). They gained this control through the advances they paid and contracts they signed with recording artists and songwriters.
If you are completely independent, 100% financing the recording and not working with a distributor or label, you would own the master. If you are signed to an independent label, you are likely splitting the master 50/50. If you are signed to a major label, you could receiving 10% to 18% of your master recording, maybe more maybe less depending on your popularity.
It is important to remember that any money the label advances to you must be recouped before you receive any money from the master recording payout. Because of this, most artists never even recoup. This also includes advances paid to producers, other expenses promoting your brand. Producers also normally get points on a master recording, thus some of that 10% to 18% will be given to your producers if they negotiate and warrant a percentage. Another thing to remember is that you often sign your copyright to the master recording away and sometimes even your songwriters publishing in a major label deal. You should always try to keep as much of the master as you can.
Why Its Important To Pay For Your Records
As a music artist its not only about being creative and making music. As an artist especially a independent artist you are running a business. Every successful business has paperwork. You cant run a successful business with no paper work or not understanding what is in the paperwork you sign. Its just not possible.
The ownership of the master recording normally belongs to the person who financed the recording but really it depends on the agreement between parties of those who contribute to the creation of the song. If you want to own the master recording with no confusion or debate you need to pay for every service and input that contributed to the creation of the song through a “work for hire” agreement or some other type of agreement. These agreements need to be signed with the studio you are recording at, producers, other songwriters, session musicians, and any other person who contributed and important contribution to the song. This should be put in writing throughout the process of creating the song with signatures. The fees paid for these services are negotiable, and can even be free if that is what is agreed to in the agreement.
Split Sheet
To avoid fighting over money if you co-write a song with other parties who claim some ownership in either of these two copyright components of the song you should write up and sign a split sheet to clarify who wrote what right after the song is completed. That will determine who owns what and how each of you will get paid. The information in this split sheet is what will be used when registering the songs with PRO’s.
Click here for a breakdown of the different kind of royalties you can collect on your songs.