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Mar

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The Writer/Publisher Relationship

Music publishing is always a partnership between the publisher and the songwriter. The publisher acquires the copyrights, grants licenses, and collects the money, and the songwriter creates the songs and is their original owner. A publisher is a middleman, delivering the songs from the writer to the larger media businesses that sell or use music. The financial relationship between writer and publisher can take several forms:

The Full-Publishing Agreement

In general, the income collected by a publisher for a particular song is split equally between writer and publisher. For every dollar received, 50 cents is deemed the “writer’s share,” and 50 cents is the “publisher’s share.” It is very unusual for the publisher to ever keep more than half of the income collected.

Full-publishing agreements remain the most straightforward of the three, but are becoming less common—they are most appropriate for writers who are not well established, or who generate relatively small amounts of income.

The Co-Publishing Agreement

In this instance, the writer continues to receive half of the entire income as the “writer’s share,” but the writer also receives half of the “publisher’s share.” For every dollar the publisher receives, the writer receives 50 cents (writer’s share) and another 25 cents (co-publisher’s share). The publisher keeps the remaining 25 cents, as the other half of the “publisher’s share.”

Co-publishing agreements seem to be the industry standard now—most experienced writers will insist on keeping at least some of the publisher’s share of the money.

The Administration Agreement

In an administration agreement, the writer does not grant the copyrights to the publisher. Instead, the writer continues to own the copyrights, and simply employs the publisher to administer the licenses and collect the money. In exchange, the publisher receives an administration fee, usually around 10 percent of the income collected. So for every dollar of income, the writer gets 90 cents, and the publisher keeps 10 cents.

Administration deals are usually done only with extremely successful writers. Keeping only 10 or 15 percent of the income is not a worthwhile venture for most publishers.

Mar

History of Music Publishing

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Filled in: Publishing

A Quick History of Music Publishing

It all started with the Copyright.

is the principle on which music publishing is based. When you write a song, that work belongs to

you. Anyone wishing to use it must gain permission from you, and it’s presumed that you will

require a payment of some kind in exchange. The important point here: the songwriter owns his

or her “copyright” upon creation of the song. This is why, in principle, you are already a publisher

as soon as you finish your first song. In week 12 of this course, we will have a whole lesson

dedicated to copyright protection issues.

The actual business of music publishing goes back to the nineteenth century, when songs began

to appear for sale in the form of sheet music. A composer would take a song to a publisher–who

would print the sheet music, sell it, and then split the money with the writer. As technology

developed, the phonograph record, radio, television, and the compact disc displaced sheet music,

but the principle of music publishing remains the same. A songwriter sells his or her

“copyright” (the “right to copy” the song) to a music publisher. The music publisher then grants

licenses (for a fee) to whoever wants to use the song, whether it’s a record company, a radio or

television broadcast, a film company, or an advertiser. If all goes well, the publisher then splits

whatever money is derived from those licenses with the songwriter.

The term itself is derived from “the right to copy”—and this

Sep

How to present your request for a license to a music publisher

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Filled in: Publishing

The music publisher is going to want to know as much information about your product or service as possible in order to determine whether they want to grant a license and if so, under what terms. The more accurate and complete your request letter is, the sooner you should get a response from the publisher. The following is a list of the items and descriptions that should be included in your request letter:

The song title, songwriter & publisher name.
The name of the product or service you plan to market.
The name of the distributor or producer of the product.
The retail selling price and the wholesale selling price or in the case of an Internet site, the projected income (from advertising and/or user fees) of the site.
The territory you would like to have covered in your license.
The term of the license (the number of years you would like to have permission).
The total number of units you plan on initially manufacturing.
The medium you plan on releasing (video, Internet, CD, DVD, etc.) and the number of units you plan on initially manufacturing in each medium.
The total number of copyrighted songs you are attempting to license.
The timing of the music use and nature of the use. (Is it background or visual, instrumental or vocal?)
Detailed description of how the music is used and in the case of multimedia, how the user interacts with the product with regard to music. (Can you print lyrics, can you listen to music, can you copy the music and send it to someone else, and can you change elements of the music?)
Is all the music in your product used in the same way? If not, how are the other musical elements used?

The following are TIPS for successfully negotiating music licenses:

Make sure you are only asking for rights that you really plan on using. Do not ask for permission for the world if you do not plan on distributing product to the world. Many people mistakenly believe it is better to try and obtain very broad rights, e.g., permission for the world in perpetuity. A quote for a license that has limited terms e.g., a five year license for the United States only, and one that asks for everything under the sun can differ substantially.
Be very clear in your request letter in describing exactly how you plan on using the music you wish to license. This is especially true when it comes to any kind of multimedia or Internet licensing. If your music use is used in a multimedia format but does not allow for interactivity you should specify so. You will have an easier time clearing rights for a product that is non-interactive.
Make sure you are prepared with substitutions if the song you want is denied permission. Also, substitutions may be necessary because the song you wish to license is too expensive for your budget. Music publishers are always trying to exploit their entire catalog. If you are unable to secure the #1 hit song maybe the #5 hit song is standing in the wings ready for easy access licensing.
Leave plenty of time for clearing music licenses. It is a time-consuming procedure so you need to start early if you intend on using music. This is the number one mistake that new music licensees make regarding music licensing. They generally wait until the end of the production process without appropriately budgeting for music. Music can drive a product like no other type of content so it is worth planning your music uses early.