Music Business Reading

agivens

New member
A client of mine and myself have been putting together a book about the music industry and wanted to get some input as to what topics people would like to read/learn about.

Below is a SurveyMonkey link, but any discussion is welcome on the forum.

Eleven Eleven Topics Survey

What music Industry topics would you most like to learn or read about?

Music Industry History

Tips on Negotiating Contracts

Management

Clear Definitions and examples of terms

Interviews

Does anyone think that i'd be able to get away with posting this in the Hiphop forum?
 
There are so many books available on the basics already. What I think could be helpful would be something that explains or discusses the peculiarities of publishing in the HH industry, for example (very different practices from the rest of the music business), or something that goes in-depth regarding licensing.


GJ
 
I actually know a great deal about that kind of stuff and have a ton of experience.

One of the major difference between Pop and Hiphop Publishing is that, as most of you know, in Hiphop the publishing is usually split 50/50 between the songwriter (lyricist) and the composer (usually the producer). if there are 2 producers of equal stature that split the 50% songwriter's share and if there are 3 lyricists of equal stature they split the songwriters 50% share 3 ways.

in the pop world...

Usually, any of note participating on the record (songwriters, composers, the performing artist and sometimes certain executives and managers) negotiate their share and then (usually) everyone else splits it equally. so for example,

For a Rhianna track "Birthday Cake" Birthday Cake (song) - Wikipedia there are 7 songwriters and Rhianna performing the lyrics. The dream and Rhianna would each separately negotiate their shares. This may have previously been done via a publishing deal.

The Internz would probably negotiate their share as well and the remaining songwriters (who I'm not aware of so i'm assuming they aren't as big as Rhianna, The Dream and the Internz) would split the rest equally.

so you might end up with something like this...

15% Rhianna
15% The Dream
15% The Internz
11.25% Kuk Harrel
11.25% Robyn Fenty
11.25% Marcos Palacios
11.25% Ernest Clark

maybe something closer to

20% Rhianna
20% The Dream
20% The Internz
10% Kuk Harrel
10% Robyn Fenty
10% Marcos Palacios
10% Ernest Clark

is this the kind of stuff you'd like to know more about
 
It sounds as though you may be conflating points/royalties with publishing shares, though (??)...



GJ
 
I’m not but maybe if you explain what makes it sound I am so that I can clarify and maybe get into the sales royalties which is a lot more complex and would involve going into backend points, rate of recoupment ( producer rate, artist rate and all in rate), what amount the label is allowed to recoup and what percentage of the album was produced by a specific producer
 
Exactly! ^^^^ There are differences in all of those income streams. If you’re thinking of writing a book, that’s where I’d put the energy, with up-to-date info, and probably it would be helpful to focus on the peculiarities of Hip-Hop and R&B, which are very different from most of the rest of the music business. There are so many resources for basic info on publishing, record deals, ASCAP and BMI, etc., etc., that duplicating those would probably not create a good nitch for you.

I wouldn’t put a lot of energy into hypothetical deal structures in posts here at FP, but, if you are privy to any deal specifics of agreements that you have been involved in (even if you have to change names of participants for privacy and liability reasons), by all means that would be information that could prove instructive.


GJ
 
I was confused by some of the terms used while reading your responses and explanations; however, I think I understand now. @rhythmgj has a great answer to this question. What books would you recommend as references, that might get some of us closer to understanding this side of the hip hop business? I'm far from negotiating deals like these, but they're on the way nonetheless.
 
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