Treated Like Royalties

I’m not THAT sorry!

Yesterday’s Bonus Round: Nanci Griffith’s cover of the 1976 song written by Ralph McTell “From Clare To Here” on her 1993 album “Other Voices, Other Rooms” tells the story of Irish emigrés in other countries longing for home.

We’ve talked about copyrighting your music as a writer or co-writer, and independent publisher, and separately copyrighting a Master Recording of your work. Also - affiliating with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) such as ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, creating a business entity such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) to be your own independent “publisher”, either as a single member, or in partnership with your co-writers, and joining a publishing administration service (such as Songtrust or others), and a distributor such as Distrokid or CD Baby (or others - note CD Baby has an affiliated publishing admin business).

Why? The bottom line answer is: money!

Money in this instance takes the form of royalties (except for the US Copyright Office, but they take their share upfront as the cost of registering a work), and all of the entities other than the copyright office get a piece of your work in some form or another. That’s not a bad thing, because their efforts to place your songs pretty much everywhere and collect royalties on your behalf is a fair trade, especially considering the time and effort involved in trying to do it yourself. You do have an absolute right to expect competence and honest, fair dealing with you in the process.

What are “royalties”? In their theoretically simple form, they are money in exchange for using work you own rights to (or an arrangement of that work) in a performance.of some sort. How does the person or band performing (“covering”) your work - be it a live performance at a coffee shop, bar, lounge, local festival, concert, or any other live performance know who to pay? PROs collect royalties for live performances via a “cue sheet” - a listing of the songs performed. Making sure your music is adequately identifiable through the metadata you provide is crucial to getting paid.

There are a number of royalty sources besides live performances, as you might expect, and these may make up the bulk of your royalties. Before streaming services, sales of singles (45s!), LPs, cassette tapes, and CDs were a likely source of royalties, along with radio plays. In those days, record labels were the primary promoters of these sources, the writers and performers got a share. Now, with streaming services like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, and many others, streaming royalties are a source, but an individual stream results in very little actual return, so artists must try for large numbers of streams per song. Easier said than done. Having your song on a “curated playlist” by a popular “influencer” is a big help, but again, easier said than done. Consequently, self promotion on social media and an artist website is a must. There are a number of businesses that can help with promotional services, but this is an area I haven’t looked into much, so I’m no help here.

YouTube royalties are a separate source, as are royalties from the use of your song in television, films and advertising, under a licensing scheme known as a “sync license”.

One recent, and huge development is the creation of an entity known as the Mechanical Licensing Collective. It’s kinda complex, but this article takes some of the mystery out of it. Pay special attention to what the MLC “doesn’t” collect. MLC

At the risk of repeating myself (I’ll risk it!) - all of the above depends on accurate and complete metadata!!!!

At some point in your journey, in addition to an accountant, you may (should) have at least a discussion with a lawyer familiar with Intellectual Property (IP) law. Make sure your lawyer is knowledgeable and conversant in all the terms we’ve used in this series. It’s going to cost some money, but it’s well spent if the attorney you select speaks your language of music, and you are able to understand (make them explain!!) their language of IP law.

There are probably other streams of royalty and sales income. In the “Link To An Expert” this week, I provide a link to a very helpful video on what happens to (maybe your) money if there is not enough metadata to connect your song and rights to a royalty stream. Black Boxes are scary things!

Please comment with questions if I haven’t covered any aspect of this important topic in this 3 part series (hit the archive in my profile for the previous 2 parts if you’ve missed them) that is important to you. I’ll try to find an answer or direct you to where you can!

Link To An Expert:

Another Link To An Expert: Barre Chords

I’ve been kinda whining around about playing barre chords, this is a pretty good tutorial about them.

Bonus Round: A classic by “the joker” (not the Batman nemesis)

As always the clue is in the subtitle!!

Cheers, and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic