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  • Part Four. How Your Songwriting Generates Income.


    In this Part four of this blog series on songwriting revenue, I discuss synchronization, print, and foreign licenses.


    Synchronization Licenses


    Through a synchronization license, you authorize someone to use your song with visual images. The visual images might be from a
    commercial, film, video, television show or other audiovisual production. Synchronization fees are subject to negotiation and vary according
    to the popularity of the song and the importance of the song in the visual piece. For example, the synchronization fee to use an entire song
    in a major motion picture might be in the $50,000 to $75,000 range while the synchronization fee for use of a song as background music in a
    television show might range from $1,000 to $2,000.


    Print Licenses


    A print license authorizes the sale of your song in printed form. Printed music is sold as single song sheet music or as part of a folio, which
    is a book containing a collection of songs by one or more songwriters. Print licenses are generally issued to a company that manufactures and
    distributes printed music. The manufacturer then pays a royalty to the songwriter or his music publisher for each unit of sheet music and each folio
    that is sold.


    Foreign Licenses


    The same licenses discussed in this blog series – mechanical, performance, synchronization and print – are also issued in foreign countries.
    Songwriters or their music publishers typically retain an agent located in each of the foreign countries where the song is exploited. These
    sub-publishers – as they are frequently called -collect royalties generated in their country, retain about 15-25% as their fee, and pass the
    remainder along to the songwriter or U.S. music publisher.

  • Part One. How Your Songwriting Generates Income.

    As a songwriter, you earn money by licensing your songs for various uses, and collecting the corresponding license income. This process of generating income from your songwriting is music publishing. To understand music publishing, you should understand the distinction between a song and a sound recording. You should also understand the exclusive rights a copyright owner holds in his songs and sound recordings. I discuss these issues in the blog posting, "What Exactly Is a Music Copyright?"

    While some songwriters choose to handle their own music publishing by forming their own music publishing company, many songwriters work with a music publishing company. Music publishing companies are important in at least three areas. Naturally, their most important function is marketing and promoting your songs. Second, the music publishing company handles all the administrative paperwork involved with copyrighting, licensing and collecting royalties for your songs.

    Finally, a music publishing company may help you develop as a songwriter by finding other songwriters and lyricists with whom you can collaborate. In return for its services, the music publishing company generally receives 50% of all songwriting revenue. The most significant revenue for the typical songwriter comes from issuing the following licenses:

    • Mechanical Licenses
    • Performing Rights Licenses
    • Synchronization Licenses
    • Print Licenses
    • Foreign Licenses

    In my next blog postings, I’ll discuss each one of these licenses.

  • Rodgers & Hammerstein $200M Catalog Purchase Shows That “Artists Have Flash While Songwriters Get Cash”

    Recent events in the music industry emphasize the maxim – while hit recording artists may have the flash, hit songwriters get the cash. At least, the parties who ultimately control the songs get the cash. That’s not always the songwriter because many songwriters eventually transfer or sell their song catalogs to music publishing companies.

    Song Revenue Versus Recording Revenue

    Songwriters and their music publishers have multiple music licensing opportunities and can often live on royalties from hit songs for decades. In contrast, a recording artist’s royalties may dry up just a few years after release of a hit CD. That’s why in this age of rampant music recording piracy, recording artists are scouting for additional source of revenue. Songwriting revenue seems better insulated from the effects of piracy than recording revenue.

    The Rodgers & Hammerstein Catalog Purchase

    Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote most of their song classics – for Broadway musicals such as The Sound of Music, South Pacific, and The King and I – in the 1940’s and 1950s. Fifty years later, their catalog of songs has sold to Imagem Music Group, a music publisher owned by a Dutch pension fund. While Imagem did not disclose the purchase price, Wall Street Journal reporter Ethan Smith reports it to be as much as $200 Million.

  • Upcoming Compulsory Mechanical License Rates

    The Copyright Royalty Board recently released recommendations for compulsory mechanical license rates for the period 2008 through 2012.  The recommendations were the result of a proceeding that has been ongoing all year.

     

    What Is the Compulsory Mechanical License?

     

    Once a recording of a non-dramatic song has been commercially released with the authorization of the copyright owner, anyone may make another recording of the song and sell copies of their recorded version.  You do not need the permission of the copyright owner in order to obtain a compulsory mechanical license.  Your only obligations to the copyright holder of the song are providing notice and periodic accountings and paying the mechanical license fee set forth in the statute.  The compulsory mechanical license rate is periodically adjusted.

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  • Determining Songwriters’ Livelihood with a New Mechanical Royalty Rate


    In previous posts, I’ve commented that while recording artists get the glamour, it is songwriting and the ownership of songs that generate greater revenue within the music industry.


    Songwriters have multiple music licensing opportunities and can often live on royalties from hit songs for decades.  One of the songwriter’s primary sources of revenue – the mechanical royalty – is facing a
    challenge.  Last month, the Copyright Royalty Board began a proceeding to determine the new mechanical royalty rates for songs.

    What’s at Stake?


    The current mechanical license rate is 9.1 cents.  A record label pays mechanical license fees for each copy of a song it distributes.  Cover artists who re-record and distribute previously released songs also pay mechanical license fees.  For a brief introduction to mechanical licenses and how songs generate revenue, see my article Music Publishing: How Your Songwriting Generates Income

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