Recently, one of my music industry students shared the happy news that he had been offered a record deal with a respected independent record company. While congratulating him on his good fortune, I heard one of his classmates say, “Don’t let the record company take your publishing.”

What is music publishing, and why is it so valuable?

Most of us think of publishing as something that happens when words and music are printed on paper, but in the music business, a song can be published without ever having appeared in a printed version.

A song is considered to have been published when it has been made available to the public for sale or other transfer of ownership.

In the pop music world, this can be accomplished in many ways, but the most common way is to include the song on a commercially released recording.

Who has the right to publish a song? The owner of the song has the right to publish it, and the first owner is usually the composer. The owner can decide who can make the first commercial recording of the song, as well as whether a song can be used in a commercial or movie or with a video game. Each new use of the song has the potential to earn money, of course.

People in the music business have known for a long time about the potential to make money through song publishing.

In 1992, singer Whitney Houston recorded a song called “I Will Always Love You” for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” a movie in which she shared star billing with actor Kevin Costner. Houston earned money as an artist from album sales, but country singer Dolly Parton must have been smiling whenever she heard the song on the radio or saw the album sales soar. Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” in 1974 and she collects publishing income for every album sale and radio broadcast of the song, no matter who sings it.

Singer Michael Jackson’s income as a singer/dancer has certainly dropped in recent years, but he was able to maintain his wealthy lifestyle in large part because he purchased the publishing rights to nearly 200 of The Beatles’ songs for $47.5 million in 1985.

The publishing for those same songs is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion today, so Jackson made a smart move when he bought the rights to the songs nearly 25 years ago.

Forbes Magazine recently identified Madonna as the “cash queen of music,” saying she was the richest female musician in the world. She earned $72 million from publishing, touring, merchandising and fashion.

How does music publishing earn so much money and to whom is publishing income paid?

The composer of a song is the first owner of the song (unless it’s a work for hire). The composer owns all the rights to the song, and can license the song for commercial exploitation including use in movies, commercials and for performance and recording by other musicians.

But how can you convince movie-makers and others to use the song so it can earn money? Often, composers will give up ownership of their songs to publishers so the publishers can “exploit” the song by convincing other people to pay for the privilege of using the song commercially.

How much money can a song earn?

The music business is known as a “penny business,” because most royalties are calculated in pennies. The royalty rate for putting one song on an album is 9.1 cents, but if 100,000 albums are sold, the publisher has earned $9,100.

And if the publisher has 10 songs on that album, the publisher has earned $91,000. If the song is played on the radio, more royalties are generated, and if the song is placed in a movie, commercial or other audio or visual use, even more royalties are earned. Some songs, like The Beatles’ songs, continue to earn money for many years.

Songs are protected by copyright for the entire life of the composer, plus 70 years after the death of that composer. As long as a song is protected by copyright, the composer and publisher can earn money from that song. The next time you request a song to be played on the radio, you’ll be earning money for the publisher of that song.

If you’ve ever thought about writing music, this might be a good time to get started. Publishing your music takes hard work, but it can certainly be worth the effort.

Dr. Janet Nepkie is a member of the music industry faculty in the music department of the State University College at Oneonta.

Article Source: http://www.thedailystar.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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What up Playa? By now you should be getting the big picture. There ain’t no business like show business. But here’s the problem, you keep putting on the show, but you ain’t handling the business. If you are like many of the young artist coming-up in the game, you probably don’t have a strong grasp on the Music Industries many rules and regulations. You might have read an article here or there, or even picked up a book or two about the music business, but chances are that unless you’re a lawyer you probably didn’t understand it. Relax, I got your back. Look at me as sort of your music business guardian angel, here to help you add a little business to your show.

Let’s face it, the music business is a well-oiled machine designed to do one thing, and that is make money. Throughout your career you will notice that at every corner you turn there is someone who is waiting to benefit from your talent and success. Regardless to how large you may become, you will never be able to completely eliminate the middleman. Go ahead and screw up your face if you want, but if you think you can cross out the middleman then you need to close your eyes and go back to La-La-Land, ’cause homie your still dreaming. Even when you become a Hip Hop mogul like Russell Simmons or P-Diddy, you still have to answer to someone else, and they are usually making more money then you are. Alright, here is where I will stop myself because I am known for going off on a tangent about the many, many economic inequalities of the music business. So with no further delay, let’s talk about getting paid.

Get Your Money Right

Now that we have established other people are going to be making money off of your talents, lets focus on how you can begin to get your beak wet too. During the week I get a million and one emails with questions about the music business. The one question that comes up the most is, “what is Publishing and what does it have to do with me?” Publishing is quite a difficult topic; so I will explain it as simple as humanly possible. Sit down class and pay attention.

Publishing is money earned from the songs that you have written. This money comes from two separates sources.

Source #1: Mechanical Royalties – This is the money that record companies pay to the publisher for songs that have been mechanically recorded (pressed-up) on record or CD.

Source #2: Public Performance Income – Better known as performing rights, this allows others to use your music in different mediums such as; radio, t.v., movies, etc.

Pump the brakes, Playa! Your not entitled to all of the money, just a portion of it. Let me explain. All money made from music publishing is simple known as Publishing Royalties. Publishing royalties are broken down into two separate shares; publishers share and writers share. Think of the shares as a pie with two halves; the publishers side represents 50% of the pie and the writers share represents 50% of the pie, and together they represent 100% of Music Publishing Income.

The publisher is the party that collects both shares and then pays the writer’s share to the writer or writers of the song. The Publisher is the one who owns or controls the copyright of the song. This means that they have the rights to do with it as they please, such as licensing (renting) it out for movies, or sheet music. Also, granting permission to other singers to re-record it. At some point, you as a songwriter are going to have to deal with a Publisher on some level, whether you decide to self-publish or not. The main advantage to self-publishing is that your are the sole controller of your copyrights, but unless you have the time, energy, and resources to do what a publisher does, you better learn to play “Let’s Make A Deal.”

What a Publisher can do for you the Songwriter:

• Copyright your songs so your butt is covered around the world.
• Make sure your songs are used in every imaginable medium, such as: radio, video games, downloadable ring-tones, movies, etc.
• Hook up manufacturing and distribution deals for music books and sheet music of your songs.
• Register your songs with collections agencies like BMI, ASCAP, SEASAC, and the Harry Fox Agency.
• Protect you from copyright infringers trying to steal your material by sampling, file-sharing, and bootlegging.
• Develop and promote you as a writer.
• Negotiating licensing deals on your behalf

Your best bet is to set-up a co-publishing agreement with a large publisher; this way you will ensure that things will be done correctly, without you losing your mind in the process. There are far too many types of publishing agreements to get into detail, but you have to always agree to the deal you can live with. Think long-term and your money will grow, think short-term and the next song you write may be one for Food Stamps.

About Author:
Sahpreem A. King is a Multi-Platinum record producer, and book author of Gotta Get Signed: How to Become a Hip Hop Producer”, available on Schirmer Trade Books.

sahpreemking@yahoo.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: http://www.music-career-guide.com

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