jgoldsmith
New member
Hey, I have been reading a book called 'A Newcomer's Guide to the Music Business' and found some interesting stuff about music publishing. Let me know your thoughts??
CHAPTER 8
ROYALTIES:
The whole issue of publishing is quite a complicated concept for an industry rookie to grasp. So the first thing to note when trying to come to terms with the complexities of music publishing is that there are two distinct properties which exist in regards to a song: a sound recording/master, and the composition/work.
The sound recording/master is usually owned by the person or company who initiated or paid for the making of the recording. So, for example, if you recorded your own cover version of the Drake song 'Hold On We're Going Home', then it is likely that you - or the record label you are signed to - would own that specific sound recording/master. But as you did not write or compose the song yourself, but covered it, the composition/work will be owned by Drake, Majid Jordan, Anthony Jefferies, Noah Shabib and the publishing companies they are signed to. This is because Drake, Majid Jordan, Anthony Jefferies and Noah Shabib are the writers and composers of the original song - and as each of them is signed to a publishing company, those companies will also have ownership rights in the composition/work.
The owners of a composition/work have the right to grant permission to others to make copies of their compositions and to commercially use their compositions, by granting what is called a license. A license is a contract giving someone the consent to reproduce, sell, broadcast, publicly perform, or publicly play a copyrighted work. Once the copyrighted work is reproduced, sold, broadcasted, publicly performed or publicly played, the songwriter, composer and publishing company (the owners of the composition/work) must be paid a publishing royalty, for the use of their work.
Publishing royalties can generally be separated into three groups: mechanical royalties, performance royalties and synchronization royalties.
CHAPTER 8
ROYALTIES:
The whole issue of publishing is quite a complicated concept for an industry rookie to grasp. So the first thing to note when trying to come to terms with the complexities of music publishing is that there are two distinct properties which exist in regards to a song: a sound recording/master, and the composition/work.
The sound recording/master is usually owned by the person or company who initiated or paid for the making of the recording. So, for example, if you recorded your own cover version of the Drake song 'Hold On We're Going Home', then it is likely that you - or the record label you are signed to - would own that specific sound recording/master. But as you did not write or compose the song yourself, but covered it, the composition/work will be owned by Drake, Majid Jordan, Anthony Jefferies, Noah Shabib and the publishing companies they are signed to. This is because Drake, Majid Jordan, Anthony Jefferies and Noah Shabib are the writers and composers of the original song - and as each of them is signed to a publishing company, those companies will also have ownership rights in the composition/work.
The owners of a composition/work have the right to grant permission to others to make copies of their compositions and to commercially use their compositions, by granting what is called a license. A license is a contract giving someone the consent to reproduce, sell, broadcast, publicly perform, or publicly play a copyrighted work. Once the copyrighted work is reproduced, sold, broadcasted, publicly performed or publicly played, the songwriter, composer and publishing company (the owners of the composition/work) must be paid a publishing royalty, for the use of their work.
Publishing royalties can generally be separated into three groups: mechanical royalties, performance royalties and synchronization royalties.