Admins And Distributors and Labels - Oh, My!!!

No Bonus Round 🥲

Yesterday’s Bonus Round: The subtitle clue was “How long will she wait?” - Answer: “Long, Long Time" is a song written by Gary White. The song was a hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1970 on her album “Silk Purse”. Credit: Wikipedia

Last week we began to talk about the question: “I’ve written a song, now what?” and there is a whole list of answers to that. But, first, my disclaimer: “What follows is just my opinion, and NOT legal or professional advice of any kind, but I would urge you to always keep in mind you’re about to enter into the music industry, which is brutally driven by, wait for it……money.”

For me, copyrighting your lyrics is at the top of the list. You will own the rights to the arrangement of your lyrics when you do and the right to rearrange your song any way you want in performance. A copyright does not give you the right to prohibit anyone from “covering” your song, that is, recording, performing, streaming, or otherwise using an arrangement of your song, but it does give you a right to be compensated through a portion of the royalties generated by another artist’s or entity’s performance, sale or other use (for example in an advertisement, film, television or streaming service show). I was watching something sponsored by Amazon a few weeks ago and their ad started with someone, I assume Cleopatra, being carried across a desert landscape in a royal chair, when the absolutely unmistakable opening riff of “Driver’s Seat” began.

"Driver's Seat" is a 1978 song by the British band Sniff 'n' the Tears that appears on their debut album, Fickle Heart. The band is considered a one-hit wonder as "Driver's Seat" was their only hit, except in the Netherlands, where they had a second hit. Credit: Wikipedia

That song is one of only a couple that I can recall exactly where I was when I first heard it (on the freeway driving to work a graveyard shift in a Honda Civic). I hope Paul Roberts (Sniff ‘n’ the Tears vocalist) made a few bucks off of it.

A story I heard, possibly apocryphal, whose provenance I don’t recall and authenticity I can’t vouch for, was that Roberts and the band got into some sort of dispute with their label and that was pretty much the end of their success. Dunno. Also, I don’t know if UK copyright laws are similar or vastly different from US copyright laws. Might have made a difference.

The lesson here is own your “composition” copyright - both sides of it (writer is one side, publisher- your business entity, is the other). Then own your “master recording” copyright - an audio or video recording that clearly demonstrates your arrangement, melody, and lyrics. Register the composition with your Performing Rights Organization and include metadata and copyright information on every lyric sheet, chord chart, sheet music, anything. Here’s the template I use right now for metadata on my songs:

(Your Song Title) (Time Signature) (Tempo) (Key)

Writer/Composer (Your name and co-writer’s names, if any)

ASCAP IPI (Number)

ASCAP Work Registration (Number) Date (Date)

Revised Registration (Number and Date)

ISWC (Letter/Number combination)

US Composition Copyright Writer (Your name and co-writers)

US Composition Copyright Publisher (Your business entity and those of co-writers/co-publishers)

US Composition Copyright Date (Date)

US Composition Copyright Number/identifier (Number)

US Master Recording Copyright Holder (Your name, business entity name, UBI, and your co-owners, if any)

US Master Recording Copyright Number (Number)

US Master Recording Copyright Date (Date)

ISRC (Code)

My PRO (Performing Rights Organization) is ASCAP. BMI or SESAC or other PROs will give you an IPI (Interested Person Identifier) of some sort, but since I don’t know what their other information requirements are, I used ASCAP. Not an endorsement, just the one I went with.

An ISWC is an International Standard Musical Work Code:

International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) is a unique identifier for musical works, similar to ISBN for books. It is adopted as international standard ISO 15707. The ISO subcommittee with responsibility for the standard is TC 46/SC 9. Credit: Wikipedia

It links back to your PRO information and is important to getting paid. It does not substitute for a copyright. Your PRO will assign it.

An ISRC is an International Standard Recording Code:

The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. The code was developed by the recording industry in conjunction with the ISO technical committee 46, subcommittee 9 (TC 46/SC 9), which codified the standard as ISO 3901 in 1986, and updated it in 2001. Credit: Wikipedia

Same idea as a work code, but for audio and music video recordings. It’s for your Master Recording copyright, but doesn’t substitute for it. I don’t have any yet, but they are probably assigned by your publishing admin or distributor, which we’re about to get to.

A publishing administrator is a company that, as in the name, administers your publishing rights, and may hold the rights in trust for you while they collect royalties on your behalf from the various sources of royalties. There are a lot of those sources. Your PRO will collect for live performances of your songs, your publishing admin from others. Some of those sources are: The Mechanical Licensing Collective:

The Mechanical Licensing Collective

The Mechanical Licensing Collective is a non-profit service organization that serves songwriters from every genre. Credit: Wikipedia.

The MLC collects royalties when your songs are user selected on streaming services or on CDs, vinyl, other recorded media. If your song is part of a playlist that is curated by someone on a streaming service, someone else collects royalties.

YouTube royalties are separately collected, as are “sync licensed” royalties from your song used in television or films. This gets really complicated in a hurry and this isn’t nearly a complete list. I’ll include a “Link From An Expert” in a future newsletter.

I chose Songtrust for my Publishing Admin because they have a lot of resources for songwriters. Not an endorsement, there are many others and I urge you to research them before committing.

Next, a distributor. A distributor places your songs with streaming services and other sources for you and may provide some promotional services. The 2 “bigs” are Distrokid and CD Baby. I haven’t chosen one yet, and there are many others. Research wisely before choosing.

Finally, record labels. Record labels are the antithesis of independent, self publishing artists and songwriters. They are definitely the “BIGS”. My admittedly sparse insight is that a record label gives an advance to an artist and holds the copyright and exclusive publishing and distribution rights until the advance is repaid. I have no idea what happens after that, but if you’re considering an offer from a record label (and in my opinion, before registering songs as an independent writer/publisher with a publishing admin and distributor) you need to consult both an attorney and and accountant/accounting firm first. And often.

Just my opinion.

See today’s “Link From An Expert” below for some further insight.

Link From An Expert: Copyright and Contracts American Songwriter

No Bonus Round today! As a reminder, next Thursday and Friday’s post will be the two parts of my email interview with Brad Kyle from bradkyle.substack.com:

Cheers, and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic