�鶹Լ�� Music Introducing Feed

Copyright, deals and royalties in the music industry

2013-04-23T09:44:32+00:00

A few weeks ago we featured a blog post on making the most of touring by Generator's Joe Frankland. For this post we hand over the blog to another industry expert, Alex Mann, regional officer for the Musicians' Union. Read his guide to copyright, publishing deals and royalties.

What is copyright?
Copyright is basically the right to prevent copying of intellectual property - in this case music, lyrics and sound recordings - so the copyright owner can protect their work and control how it’s used. It’s worth noting that copyright doesn’t exist until an idea is written down, recorded onto a tape or disc, onto a computer. The copyright owner can be the author of the work, or anyone else they’ve assigned the rights to. Copyright exists separately in recordings and songs, which means that recording owners (usually record companies) and publishers can use the rights in different ways.

With songs, the composer of the music and the writer of the lyrics are the first owners of copyright, and the copyright in musical works lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Copyright in a recording is slightly different in that the owner of the recording is the person who arranges for the recording to be made. Often this is whoever books and pays for the studio where the recording takes place, so this could be a record company or it could be the band themselves. Copyright in a recording lasts for 50 years from the end of the first year of release, although this term will be extended to 70 years by November 2013.

How do record and publishing deals work?
Throughout their careers artists and songwriters have to make important decisions about how the copyright in their recordings and songs will be exploited, and this often means entering into complex and sometimes long term deals with record companies and publishers. Record companies pay artists either on the basis of a royalty from record sales, or via a split-profit arrangement. If the contract is long term, a cash advance on account of the artist’s future royalties should be paid which at least allows them a reasonable living wage until initial costs are met and royalties are being received. It’s wise to try and secure some control over things like budgets, producers and choice of material in your contract too.

Music publishers seek out music and composers whose works may generate an income and their role is generally to promote their catalogue of works to potential music users including in film, TV and advertising. Publishers may for a smaller share of income offer an administration only deal, which involves collecting royalties due to their writers and identifying income streams that might have been missed. A publishing contract can be just for one song, or cover everything you write for a number of years in which case there may be a ‘minimum commitment’ stipulated which a songwriter would have to meet in order to fulfill their side of the deal.

It’s not always necessary to assign copyright in your songs for the full life of copyright, or at all, and a shorter term may be preferable as it allows the writer to extricate themselves from the agreement should the publisher not generate as much income as hoped. Like record companies, publishers will often pay a writer an annual advance on account of future royalties, which again should ideally be enough to live on.

How are royalties paid to musicians and artists?
Musicians and artists receive royalties through different ’streams’ depending on their musical activities and involvement in the creation or exploitation of musical works and recordings. It’s important to know which streams might apply to you, and especially which collection societies you may need to join in order to receive royalties. PRS for Music represents songwriters and publishers, collecting and distributing licence fees when member’s music has been performed or broadcast. MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society), which is now part of PRS for Music, collects and distributes licence fees to writers and publishers when their music is released or sold on CD or as a download. PPL collect and distribute royalties from recorded music to recording owners and performers when it’s either broadcast or played in public.

Artists signed to recording companies receive a separate royalty stream direct from their record company. This can be between 12-18% of the Published Price to Dealers, which is basically the price at which record companies sell the CD to retailers; alternatively this can be between 8-12% of the Retail Selling Price. Alternatively, the profit share model generally means that both artist and record company share profits 50/50 once costs are recouped – this model is quite common with independent labels.

For published songwriters, royalty income is split between the writer and publisher, often with 70% in favour of the writer. The writer’s share can be as low as 50% in some cases but The MU advises its members to aim for more than that.

Ultimately, the deals that musicians and artists sign can impact on their careers forever, so contracts should always be checked out by a solicitor before signing.

For more advice on this subject, head to the Musicians' Union website.
There's also more information on getting the right deal for you in our own advice section.

Other useful links:

PRS for Music

PPL website

What advice do you need to make that next step?

2013-01-22T10:57:49+00:00

Over the coming months, we are looking to move our older Advice pages into the new website template and we are really keen for your input.

Our current pages contain a broad range of information for music makers containing everything from recording tips to getting the right deal for you. We've also posted plenty of posts on this blog to help provide the advice you need and, of course, there's highlight from our Masterclass sessions in 2012 and 2011.

Yet, there's always room for more, which is where you come in.

Towards the end of 2012, we held a series of audience research groups in London, Belfast and Norwich. This gave us some great insight into some of the issues at the top of the agenda for unsigned and undiscovered artists. Themes raised included more business advice, extra support (financial and musical) for musicians and tips for building a brand and gaining extra promotion.

But what's missing? Have a look through our Advice pages and let us know what information you'd like to help you make that next step, or maybe it's your first. Is there a particular industry specialist you'd like to hear from? Or maybe it's a musician or band who you admire for doing things differently. All suggestions are welcome.

You can get in contact by posting a comment on this blog, heading to our Facebook page, sending us a Tweet or emailing us through our contact pages.

Annie Nightingale's advice for �鶹Լ�� Introducing artists

2012-11-20T16:53:51+00:00

In September, our �鶹Լ�� Introducing teams from across the country were asked to submit tracks and artists that they felt were suitable for Annie Nightingale's �鶹Լ�� Radio 1 show. It was a chance to show Annie and her team the vast array of talent that uses the �鶹Լ�� Introducing Uploader and for Annie to pass on her advice and wealth of experience in the industry.

When it started we thought Annie would choose one artist - in the end she picked three; rapper English from London, DJ and Producer Elliot Berger from Kent and Hereford and Worcester's Kamos, who regularly works with rapper Tripbuk.

A couple of weeks ago, the artists visited Annie at �鶹Լ�� Radio 1. Here's what happened:

The tracks featured in the video are:

Elliot Berger (feat. Fred Clark) - Fate
English - Magic
Kamos & Tripbuk - Leaving Them Dead

What do you make of Annie's advice? Perhaps you have some words of wisdom of your own for our three artists. Let us know in the comments below and feel free to get in touch by Facebook or Twitter if there's a burning question about the music industry you want answered.

Tips on how to write a band biography

2012-11-13T10:18:06+00:00

Most normal human beings find writing about themselves excruciatingly painful - whether it's a CV, job application or a band biog. Which is why many emerging artists avoid writing anything about themselves at all. Time and time again I fall in love with particular tunes, decide to play them on the radio - and then find the artist's Facebook or Soundcloud contains no information whatsoever.

Imagine someone sending you music on a plain unmarked CD. Or emailing you an MP3 with the words "check us out" and nothing else. And now imagine a hundred people doing that. Every week. Well, luckily they don't. When record companies and pluggers send us records they understand how helpful it is to set the music in some kind of context, and even the simplest story can catch people's interest:

*Here's an early demo by David Bowie before he got famous. *This is the latest underground hit with clubgoers in Mumbai. *This was written by a Scottish 13 year old in her bedroom and has had 50,000 plays on YouTube... that sort of thing.

But since writing about ourselves is so hard, many bands type something like "four-piece indie trash from the UK" and leave it at that. After all, the thinking goes, our music's so great it can speak for itself. The trouble is, you're not the only great band out there.

Every week thousands of artists are vying for the attention of fans, managers, bookers, bloggers, journalists, record companies and radio stations. We're spolt for choice: and if you don't tell us clearly and loudly what's special / interesting / different / funny / loveable / unique about your particular group, we'll click away in seconds to some other artist who does.

Some bands fill the "about" section on their website with reviews, imagining they've then got a biog. But think about it: these quotes are just descriptions of your music. They don't tell us anything about who made it, or where, or when, or why. If you've gone to the trouble of making wonderful music, then why not take the trouble to give us some backstory to that music. The easiest way is to provide a few basic facts:

This is my first bedroom demo. This is the lead track on our forthcoming EP. This got used on a VW commercial in Latvia last year. The whole band are still at school. Three of us are retired jazz musicians. We're based in Rotherham. We formed in early 2012. This is the title track of our EP released in May. Here's the tracklist. Here's a list of our upcoming gigs. We've just released our first album in 9 years. It's on heavyweight vinyl and available from...

Some bands - and some low-budget publicists - imagine that having "a story" means loads of pretentious waffle about said band's wonderful music. See my original blog post about this at Fresh On The Net for a few outstanding examples. But what's the point? We only need to click "play" to hear for ourselves how wonderful - or otherwise - your music actually is.

As interactivity guru Steve Lawson puts it: 'Don't tell us how great you are - tell us how interesting you are.' Is one of you a bilingual Bengali bellydancer, a part-time piano tuner, or a forty-something Danish quantity surveyor? Are you collectively on a mission from God, plotting to end to capitalism as we know it - or just hoping to get rich, famous and laid as quickly as possible?

And do bear in mind that something being true isn't the same thing as it being interesting - nobody wants to read every tedious detail of how and when you all first met. In his memoir, Christopher Isherwood claimed that 'anything you choose to invent about yourself is part of your personal myth and therefore, in a sense, true'. As an artist you have full license to exaggerate or even rewrite the facts if it'll make for a more interesting story.

Personally I'd much rather read out a load of entertaining lies on the radio than a series of dull, boring facts. So long as your early Bowie demo sounds great, who cares if it later turns out to have been made by that Scottish 13 year old after all?

Needless to say this blog post is entire my own invention and no warrenty is offered as to its factual accuracy. Decide for yourself how much of it is interesting, helpful or even true.

A version of this post first appeared on Tom's Fresh On The Net blog. Click here to read the original post and see some of Tom's favourite and least favourite band bios. Don't forget to download his �鶹Լ�� Introducing Mixtape too.