Music Business 101 - Publishing

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Every musician wishing to earn money from their music needs to have at least a general understanding of publishing.

word...

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If you recall, the law recognizes two separate copyrightable works in the music world: musical compositions and sound recordings.

who owns the sound recording copyright? the person that pays for the studio time (label), or the person that actually hits "record" on the D.A.W. (engineer)???

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you become your own publisher when you create a musical composition. Again, don’t let the word trip you up - all this means is that, as with any other work, you are able to do anything you want with your song, including licensing it to other people to help make money from it.

So, if you’ve created a song, congratulations! Not only are you the owner of a copyright, but you are also officially a publisher. But simply being a publisher won’t make you money - you have to act as a publisher, or find someone else to do it for you.

awesome clarification!

[[F_or_DEAF]]

Music publishers and songwriters began licensing their songs to piano-roll manufacturers, creating a lucrative new revenue stream. The “mechanical license” was born - a license of a musical composition to the manufacturer of a mechanical device that plays that musical composition.

And while piano rolls have fallen off the map, the mechanical license remains. It now refers to the licensing of a musical composition for any phonorecord - from albums to digital files and even ringtones.

that shyt makes perfect sense...

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• Sync licenses - use of the song in movies, television, television commercials - as the name suggests, any use of music synced to visuals (including video games)

does that mean that youtube is payin' artists for the music videos that it plays of them?

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does anybody get paid "publishing" on mixtapes (where copyright infringement runs rampant)?

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Giving up your copyright to get 50% of a lot of money that a well-established publisher can generate from your song is a lot better than getting 100% of nothing on your own.

so...

giving up your "publishing" is the same thing as giving up your "copyright"...right?

[newuser1]

very informative. thank you.

[Guilty J]

Bumping until the Music Business forum comes back lol.

[galacticboy]

who owns the sound recording copyright? the person that pays for the studio time (label), or the person that actually hits "record" on the D.A.W. (engineer)???

As a rule, record labels will claim ownership in the sound recording, it's a standard clause in an artist's record deal to give that up.

Absent that, it's the person or people who had substantial involvement in the creation of the sound recording - usually that means the recording artists, though it can encompass anyone who had creative input - including producer or engineer - making it a joint authorship situation. Yeah, things can get tricky if things aren't figured out beforehand and there's a dispute.

does that mean that youtube is payin' artists for the music videos that it plays of them?

Since Youtube isn't doing the actual syncing or creating the content on its site, it doesn't have to pay for licenses, just like a television station wouldn't pay for the sync licenses for songs used in commercials (the ad company that makes them does that). It does pay public performance royalties to songwriters though.

does anybody get paid "publishing" on mixtapes (where copyright infringement runs rampant)?

If someone is selling mixtapes, which are considered 'phonorecords', then they would need to pay out mechanical licenses for the musical compositions on them. I'd imagine there's not much of that going on, probably through the songwriter's own choice.

giving up your "publishing" is the same thing as giving up your "copyright"...right?

No, sorry if I was a little unclear. "Publishing" only refers to the practice of exploiting (in the good sense) a musical composition copyright. When people talk about giving up their publishing, or half their publishing, they mean letting someone else exploit their copyright in exchange for that percentage of the income it generates. It doesn't involve giving up copyright, the intellectual property itself. A publishing deal could involve a transfer or assignment of part or all of a copyright, but not necessarily.