Garry Velletri is Senior Vice President of Bug Music. He has been with Bug since 1985 and is based in New York.

Music Publishing Terminology

The ownership and management of exploited music copyrights by licensing and registering certain rights and the collection of the resulting royalties and fees including mechanical royalties, performance royalties and synch fees.

Huh?

The world of music publishing is littered with obscure, misleading, and archaic terms; some of which have more than one meaning depending on the context. No wonder it all sounds confusing if not downright intimidating. Understanding the meaning of these terms and phrases will provide a useful base for understanding music publishing in general.

Copyright

Is it copyright or “copywrite”? Yes you wrote a song; but a copyright is never, ever referred to as a copywrite. There are two general rights covered in a music copyright: the authorship of a song and the ownership of a song. According to Copyright Law, you are the natural owner of every song you write until you assign the ownership to someone else. Every song is made up of two equal parts; not the lyrics and the melody but the writer share and the publisher share.

The writer share is semi-sacred. It represents the authorship of the song. While a copyright can change hands many times; the writer share remains the property of the author.

The other fifty percent, the publisher share, is the equitable share. It is what you can sell or buy. In this context it is known as the “copyright”. When a publisher acquires a copyright, it is acquiring the publisher share.

Control

The Publisher controls the writers share. The publisher licenses mechanical , print and synch rights on behalf of itself and the writer. These royalties and fees are collected by the publisher (the owner of the copyright) for both the publisher share and the writer share. It is the publisher’s responsibility to pay the writer. Performance royalties are the only royalty type where the writer can collect his writer royalties directly from the performing rights organization. Control means the publisher has the right to negotiate and execute all licenses.

Royalties

Ongoing earnings of licensed songs from each sale or broadcast.

Exploitation

In music publishing, exploitation is a good term. You want your songs to be exploited. Landing a song in a film or television show is an exploitation; somebody recording your song is an exploitation; releasing a record is an exploitation. When one of those songs from your record becomes part of a greatest hits package down the line - that's an exploitation. An exploited song that is licensed and registered opens revenue streams.

Royalties don’t just magically show up in your mailbox; It is the result of the publisher executing licenses and filing the proper registrations.

Registration

You or your music publisher registers your songs with a performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI or SESAC) to get the song details in their database so the correct percentages of performance royalties can be attributed and paid to the correct party.

Your music publisher registers your songs with a ‘local’ publisher in a foreign territory so they can, in turn, register the songs with their local mechanical and performing rights societies (society being a fancy term for foreign mechanical and performing rights organizations) so the correct percentages of foreign mechanical royalties and the publishers side of performance royalties are attributed and paid to the correct party.

Licensing

The music publisher doesn’t sell songs to another artist to record or to be used on a TV show or film- they license it. There are four primary rights to license:

Mechanical rights — Back in the early twentieth century, there were two methods of distributing music: sheet music and player piano rolls. To differentiate between the two, early copyright law defined the royalties generated by the sale of these player-piano rolls a “mechanical” royalty for which you needed a mechanical license; after all, piano rolls were a mechanical contraption. The definition of Mechanicals through time went on to include Edison rolls, 78 rpm vinyl records,45 rpm records, 33 1/3 rpm long play records, cassettes, 8track tapes, cds and now digital downloads. It’s like calling your iPod a Victrola but the term stuck. A good way to think of it is mechanical royalties are for the sale of music.

Performing rights — Think broadcast. There are three performing rights organizations in the United States: BMI, ASCAP and SESAC. They are not music publishers or administrators. These “PRO”s have blanket licenses with radio stations, television stations, clubs, restaurants, stores, digital streaming services like Napster and so on. You should belong to one if you have any exploited songs. For the price of these blanket licenses (which vary depending on the size of the broadcaster) the broadcaster can play all the BMI, ASCAP or SESAC songs ‘til their heart’s content for a measured period of time. These ‘plays’ are tracked and the pool of blanket license money is divvied up proportionate to the number of plays and the value of plays. In other words, for example, a play on a major radio station is worth more than a play on a college radio station. Another example: a featured play on a television program is worth more than a background play on the same program. Performance royalties are generated from the broadcast of music.

Synch rights — short for synchronization this is the licensed right for a film or other audiovisual medium to use your song, to synchronize your music to recorded visuals, in an audio-visual product. It can be a commercial, a videogame, a film, a TV show or a website. A synch license usually produces a negotiated fee for certain rights depending on the usage. Yes, we are talking about rights within rights. For example, say it’s your lucky day and Mitsubishi wants to use your song in their new car commercial. With your approval your music publisher negotiates a synch fee with the music supervisor for the Mitsubishi spot which will allow them to use your song for, say, one year for national television plays for one flat fee. If they still want to use it after the one year or if they want to run it internationally or stream it on their website or put it on a promotional DVD for give-away, all of these uses are rights within the basic right and should most likely carry additional fees. (Since the Mitsubishi spot is broadcast it also produces a performance royalty)

Print rights — Sheet music, song folios: it’s pretty self-explanatory — but be careful-the term ‘publish’ has a few different meanings depending on how it’s used. Once a song is released or exploited in some way it is considered ‘published.' Once a song is filed with the Library of Congress for copyright it is considered published, it does not necessarily mean the song‘s notation and lyrics are published in print form. However, if the song’s written notation and lyrics are published in print or digital form for purchase, it will earn print royalties from the print license your publisher negotiated.

Functions of a Music Publisher

So now that you are armed with a basic understanding of these terms, you will see that a Music Publisher performs the following:

Administration

Secures copyrights, controls copyrights, executes a variety of licenses, causes songs to be registered with a variety of organizations and societies world-wide, collects royalties, disburses royalties, and more.

Creative Services

The Creative exploitation of copyrights or causing songs to be exploited by pitching songs to other artists and securing placements in Film, TV and commercials; networking and promoting its writers (further explanation invites a whole blog topic in itself)

Publishers are often able to provide critical funding in the form of advances against your future royalties and by covering the costs of recording demos of your songs.

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer and drummer based in Seattle, Washington. Having worked on over three hundred albums, Loren has also worked on numerous television, film, video game and radio productions, from New York to Los Angeles, Boston to Seattle. Loren is the founder of Brain Grenade Entertainment LLC , and the author of the Freedom Solutions Recording Plan. Loren has also written The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business, a book to help independent musicians achieve self sufficient and sustainable success coming in early 2010.

Seriously. It's time for some artists to get a clue about social networking sites, specifically MySpace and play counts, page views and friends. It has gone from ridiculous to completely freaking insane.

For those of you who might not be aware, there are a number of artists out there that actually spend money on “marketing firms,” as they have been calling themselves, to get more Myspace hits, friends and plays. This is foolish. This does nothing positive for these artists' careers. 

In fact, it hurts them. Now while a few people might think they look cool because they have hundreds of thousands of friends, the industry as a whole is recognizing it for what it is: an artist who is wasting time trying to present a false fan base and a presence that truly does not exist.

Yes, at one time lots of hits, friends and play counts on MySpace had a small level of significance. These factors stood as something that people paid attention to some four or more years back when MySpace was new and these “add or play bots” did not exist. As MySpace was in the forefront and more artists were joining, there was a large and wide differentiation of who was being looked at and who was not.

These were contributing factors to some artists even receiving deals, but only contributing factors. NO ONE--repeating here--NO ONE has gotten a record deal or contract based solely on the amount of friends and plays they have on MySpace. Yes, the stories are out there, but at most it was only one small factor that added to a number of other factors and justifications that got the artist a deal.

Getting a deal just based on Myspace stats sounds much cooler though, doesn’t it?  Just not true though. Think about it: who with the money, the means, the understanding of the industry and the resources would sign an artist off of just those facts alone? NO ONE.

You want friends? Plays? Hits? Then earn them. Personally add a few people a day to your Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc.  Add a message and market yourself by reaching out to people and groups on these sites. Take the right and professional path to truly get people to hear you.

Sometimes, and those times are few and far between, these bots and programs can cause a few real people to find out about you and create new honest friends and download sales.  Most of the time, however, it is not like that. Instead of real fans, bots and programs play your songs, ping your site and push to spam up your friend count. Some of these spam additions are people that will just approve and never even check you out. That makes it a worthless contact and nothing that is helping you at all.

Now, let's really do the math.

Yesterday, I was on a Myspace site of a really shady artist I came across and had never heard of before.  I found this artist while searching a genre and a few keywords. This artist had 765,781 page views, even though the pages was very weak and the music weaker. Yet every song had over 100,000 plays. RED FLAG ONE! All the songs had over one hundred thousand plays? So over one hundred thousand people decided to listen to every single song on their page?

BULLSHIT.

Let's add to the equation that they have almost six thousand friends. But if every person checking out this artist also listened to every single song and added the artist as a friend, wouldn't the artist have a lot more friends? For the 765,781 visits that of course must have been from all different people, only on person, that’s right, Houston, one person in every 127 decided to add this artist as a friend?

Umm, uhh, let's see here...and NO.

And then it gets even worse!  The industry is completely aware of these bots and programs to add friends. The people you want to listen to you often do not have that much time. So, when they immediately see the traits of someone faking popularity, instead of impressing, you are immediately discrediting yourself. Think about this when writing your press kits as well. Do not highlight friend counts, page visits or song plays. Highlight the things that matter, like show attendance and  sales. Highlight your logo, your professionalism, your music and how you are ready to go to the next level based on your efforts and achievements, not your contrived appearance.

Also… Stop using quotes from Facebook, MySpace and other online sites where any one can review. It may good a good review but at the same time, you could have written it.

It takes more time to professionally and honestly achieve your goals.  It is more challenging, but it is worth it to appear strong and solid in front of your fans and industry professionals alike.  You will shine brighter than most others.

Conclusion

Spend the cash on advertising on MySpace or Facebook. Spend the money with the pay-per-click advertisements or the small localized marketing ads. They are worlds more effective. Keep track of your actual sales instead of hits in order to show potential labels, managers, and talent buyers your viability and profitability.

Take the steps to appear as professional as possible to leave a lasting impression on those you are really trying to impact. It will help you move forward productively and effectively, while also bringing you more exposure, creating a better buzz and, hopefully, deriving profit.

You are an intelligent person.  Act like it. Spend your money on things that will actually help your career and not things that give the appearance that your career is more than it really is. 

© 2009 Loren Weisman

www.braingrenademusic.com

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s book “The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming soon.

John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde. Click here to check out John Doe's new release with The Sadies, Country Club.

A Question from Michael in Brooklyn:

Mr. Doe,

I stopped in to ask a familiar question. I was in a contract agreement with a manager and he said he didn’t want to be my manager because we had an argument over him canceling a show because he didn’t trust the producer’s ear (mixing). The manager didn’t come to the studio for a month and didn’t hear the music we recorded. See the manager did hear the music before he cancelled the show. But now he’s not my manager and all the music I recorded is on his computer.  The producer made the majority of the beats, does he only get the producers fee of 2%? He didn’t write but one verse on one song. Does he get publishing or writer’s rights besides that one song?

Peace,

Michael

What Would John Doe Do?

Hey Michael,

Give all the songs new titles & re-record them w/ someone that you trust (maybe leave out the one w/ the verse written by the "producer").  Never sign manager agreements before you actually have something to manage.  Those "managers" are just trying to take advantage of you & yr art.  In this ridiculously litigious society people need to keep their music on their own hard drives, a very sad but true situation.
onwards & upwards
 thanks for writing,
Jd  

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com .