There’s a lot of hard work that goes into being a professional musician. Not only do you have to master the technique of your instrument or voice, there’s a whole slew of skills to learn and refine: composing, recording and producing music, memorizing repertoire, nailing your performances, knowing music theory, keeping up with social media, handling email after email, networking and making every opportunity count…The list is never ending.
However, one thing that often remains overlooked until it’s too late is learning the business side of the industry. Despite being master artisans in our medium, we are oftentimes put in a scenario where it’s difficult to quantify our work to the outside world. Sometimes that can look like school degrees, awards, or maybe even popularity on social media platforms. But in the real world, we have to put on our best business hat and make sure we understand the industry we’re involved in, the contracts we sign, and the people we allow to use our work.
In order to quantify what we do in the real world, we have to establish ourselves as creators who want to earn from what we create. We will be placed in situations where other people might want to use our creations. Therefore, let’s talk about ownership of the works (ie, music we make) and particularly what it means to own a song.
It is generally understood that a creative work, such as a piece of music, is copyrighted to the person who created it the moment it’s been created and physically documented in some way (though every country has their own nuanced copyright laws). If you wrote your composition on a piece of paper or made a recording and it’s an original work, you automatically own the copyright to it. You’re more than welcome to register it with the copyright office, but you don’t technically have to. (Although it’s probably a safe move to have documentation and accompanied sheet music, especially if you’re planning on it being distributed widely.) Copyright law automatically protects your work if it was conceived from your mind and is in a tangible form. Obviously, it’s a bit more detailed than this, and there are some things you can’t copyright, such as a set of chord changes. But in general, if you composed a melody, lyrics, or both, and this composition exists materially, it’s yours.
Clearly defined copyright/ownership helps establish claim and legal rights, meaning royalties can be paid out correctly according to agreements when the time comes. Some songs might be written by more than one person, resulting in a shared copyright. Because of that, songs are oftentimes divided into what’s known as “splits” or “points” or “percentages”. A split agreement allows for everyone to get the piece of the pie they own when royalties are cashed out in the future. As songwriting and publishing are two separate streams of revenue, songwriting percentages equal to 100% and publishing percentages equal to another 100%, meaning 200% of royalties are at stake. Split agreements should be made before a song’s release or use, otherwise you’re in for a headache or a serious legal battle.
To clarify, let’s describe the roles that people might play in creating a song, or rather the musical composition. This does not necessarily include the recording of the song. The musical composition is the piece of music itself, which may include written sheet music. A songwriter is someone who contributes to the composition, whether it’s a musical device or lyrics, and they can be credited as a composer. A music producer is someone who creates and designs the sounds on a recording, oftentimes also performing instrumental parts as well. They may also receive composing credits depending on their involvement. A producer is someone who advises the musical process in the studio with the artist or other songwriters such as choosing what to keep or what to take out, coaching the performance of a piece, or giving direction to the music producer. They’re one of the leaders of the project and depending on their role and responsibilities, such as if they’re also the music producer or the artist and creative director, or part of the label or management, they can be credited accordingly. A sound recording is the recorded performance of the composition and will require a separate copyright. (More on that later).
Now, depending on the situation and contracts signed between parties (possibly including labels), all of the people participating can have some stake in both the songwriting and the publishing splits. For example, a music producer who already has a deal with a label might earn money for creating the track as an upfront fee, then collect royalties later after the label makes back the initial fee paid. Maybe the music producer had a premade beat that gets the copyright bought out for a lump sum and has no more stakes in the royalties. Or maybe the label licensed the track from the producer and gave them royalties. Maybe the music producer and artist wrote the song under a label with no flat fee but their contract gives them all the songwriting percentages and a couple of publishing points on top of that. Maybe there’s no label involved and the music producer, artist, and one other songwriter wrote and published the whole song, meaning they decided to split the percentages however they felt comfortable. These are all potentially complicated scenarios that need to be identified ahead of time.
The situations described above only cover the song-writing and publishing process. What comes next is the ownership of copyright held to a specific recording known as master rights. Typically, master rights are owned by whoever financed the recording, such as the label or yourself if you independently funded all aspects of creating the sound recording. The sound recording is just the sound recording – that’s why it has its own set of royalty rules. Writing and publishing ownership is different from ownership of the recording of a specific track. If you’re an artist who is not independent, and didn’t write the music, but performed in the recording, it’s possible that this may be where you earn your percentage depending on your agreement with the label. Every artist who performed a song has their own set of performers’ rights. (This is a whole other conversation so we’ll keep it to here for now).
Now that we’ve discussed roles and percentages, we can start to describe why those percentages are necessary. Let’s begin with this: if there were no percentage points, anyone could steal another artist’s work for any purpose that they wanted and get away with it. Now, it’s obvious that we all know there is a huge issue with copyright infringement out there. But the point is that honesty is the key to equity, and it would be wonderful if everyone involved in these agreements operate from an understanding that everyone deserves their fair share. If you have a great song, and a super popular television show wants to use it, you’d want to be protected, covered, and paid! There is a giant machine out there with many moving mechanisms. Being informed can make all the difference.
Some of these scenarios may or may not seem fair to you. All that truly matters is that you don’t get exploited and that you get what you deserve! You are your greatest advocate!! Do more research and build the right connections, and everyone can figure out a way to achieve financial fairness.
Coming up in part two, we’re going to go over different types of music licenses, why they’re important, and the scenarios in which your music can pop up in the different avenues of entertainment. ‘Til next time!
Here are some links for further reading on copyright!
US Copyright Office:
https://www.copyright.gov/
EU Copyright Rules:
https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/running-business/intellectual-property/copyright/index_en.htm
Copyright Alliance
https://copyrightalliance.org/
The contents of this article should not be construed as, and should not be relied upon for legal advice.
