Music Publishing & Songwriting

Does anyone actually enjoy networking?

Everyone, even people with even a minimal knowledge of the entertainment business, seems to understand the necessity of it. In show business, “it’s not what you know– it’s who you know”, or at least that’s what the old adage says. Most songwriters who’ve actually started to try to make a business out of writing music have quickly learned the need for a circle of contacts and connections. But do most writers enjoy the process of “networking”– trying to meet new people, collecting business cards, hanging out at industry events, persuading friends to introduce you to their contacts? Probably not. It’s not exactly why you got into writing songs, right?

Probably because we spent too many of our formative years locked away in solitude– listening to records, practicing an instrument, or penning heart-wrenching poems of love and longing– most songwriters tend to be loners. Networking is not something that comes naturally. Of course, most of us are perfectly happy hanging out with our friends. That’s something else entirely. Unfortunately, most of us don’t understand that hanging out with our friends can often be the best form of networking that we do.

When I first moved to New York in the 1980’s to become a songwriter and producer, I had the good fortune to come into contact with a small group of other songwriters who were also in the process of launching their careers– the group included Alexandra Forbes (who wrote “Don’t Rush Me” for Taylor Dane),
Shelly Peiken (”Bitch for Meredith Brooks, and “What A Girl Wants” for Christina Aguilera), Jeff Franzel (who has written for everyone from NSYNC to Placido Domingo) and Barbara Jordan (former Berklee faculty and founder of Heavy Hitters Publishing). While none of us were in exactly the same musical style, we were all primarily oriented toward writing the sort of mainstream pop material in vogue at that time.

We all initially got to know each other through what we called “song parties”. We would meet at each other’s apartments and trade leads about who was looking for material, listen to and critique each other’s songs, and of course, trade industry gossip and horror stories. These get-togethers inevitably led to collaborations and friendships, and an ever-expanding network of other writers, musicians, singers, engineers, and record executives.

Before long, a fledgling musical community was thriving. If there were an A&R person that I hadn’t met yet, inevitably an introduction would come through someone else in the group. If someone else needed a recommendation for a demo singer, or some help with an arrangement, I might be able to lend a hand. This doesn’t feel like networking. It’s just what friends do.

Of course, we were all competitors– all chasing after the same cuts, working on the same projects, and cultivating relationships with the same industry contacts. This too is part of being in a community—competition inevitably makes everyone else raise their game.

How well did it work? Interestingly, out of a core group of ten people, at least eight are still working in the industry today. All of those people have had Top Ten hits some have had several. That’s a remarkably high percentage for a group of songwriters chosen at random. And yet, I suspect the averages would be about the same for many of the songwriting groups run by NSAI or others. It’s not that this was such a talented group of people. It’s the fact that when talented people get together, rather than trying to go it alone, it opens up opportunities for all of them. In fact, the song party worked so well that most of us who were part of it remember it as one of the key elements in the development of our careers.

The good news is “song party” is about to get a new twist. Partly at the suggestion of Shelly Peiken, music business veteran Suzan Koc, one of the top publishers in the industry, has launched a new venture, called “Songwriters Rendez-vous”, inspired in part by the “song party” and what it did for that small group of writers in NYC. This time around, the program is based in Los Angeles, and as it’s an actual business (there is a fee to attend), it’s considerably more organized. There are critiques, counseling, industry guests, and more– it’s a 6-week mentoring session, in groups of 12 participants. Check out the website:

As valuable as the technical knowledge is, don’t miss the real point. This is the way networking is done. By meeting 12 other songwriters, you are suddenly part of a songwriting community. You’ll be challenged, helped, inspired and educated by others who are doing similar things, and facing similar obstacles. If you’re lucky, you’ll find some collaborators. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find some friends.

Last night, I went to a party for a friend who was having one of those milestone birthdays. That friend is a very successful writer/producer, and was another of the original “song party” crew. Not surprisingly, the rest of the room was filled with people that I had known for more than 25 years. Despite all the ups and downs of this crazy business, everyone was happy (as much as songwriters or musicians can be), successful, and still making music in one way or another, more than two decades later. Whether or not you know it now, this is the goal.

When you’re younger, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to leapfrog over your peers, or finding that industry “power-player” that will open all the important doors. As you get older, you realize that the best part of surviving or thriving in the industry is the friendships that endure over what is inevitably a journey filled with highs and lows.

Networking won’t make you very many friends. But things like “song party” will– and they’ll give you a network too. There’s strength in numbers, and there’s company and support as well. Don’t miss opportunities like “Songwriters Rendez-vous”, if you want to find your way into the creative community.

I was recently speaking on a panel, when one of the other panelists asked the audience, “How many of you are songwriters?” Not surprisingly, a show of hands indicated that almost everyone was a member of that not-so-exclusive club.

I followed up with another question: “How many of you are music publishers?” Now, the crowd hesitated. One… maybe two hands were raised. I couldn’t let it go at that. “How many of you need a music publisher?” Once again, unanimity prevailed. Every songwriter had decided that he or she needed a music publisher. That’s when I broke them the news:

If you’re a songwriter, you already have a music publisher. You’ve had one for quite some time. In fact, your publisher is your greatest untapped resource, ready to take your assets (that’s your songs) and put them into action (placing them somewhere where they can earn…) to yield income (which is the goal, last I checked).

Newsflash to Songwriters: Your music publisher is… you.

From the minute that you finished your first song, you became not only a songwriter, but also a music publisher. When you write a song, you control the rights to that song and are able to license those rights (which is what a publisher does), until the time when or if you decide to assign your publishing share to someone else.

Every song is divided into a writer share and a publisher share. If you, Joe Songwriter, have written the entire song on your own, then the writer share belongs entirely to you. If you have not made a publishing deal for your share of the song, then the publishing share belongs to Joe Songwriter Music, or whatever you choose to name your publishing entity. When a songwriter asks me how to find a good publisher, I usually say, “Become one.”

That of course, is a little bit trickier. That means work. It means research. Above all it means figuring out the answer to a question that perplexes even many people with years of experience in the music industry: What does a music publisher do?

Music publishers turn music into money. Did that get your attention?

It often takes songwriters by surprise when I point out that songwriting is not, in fact, a business. It’s just something that songwriters do. In the actual course of writing a song, there’s no money changing hands, nor is anything bought or sold. Hours are spent, lunch is ordered, ideas are exchanged and at the end of the day, something exists that never existed before. But it will take someone else to turn that new song into something that generates income. This is the role of the music publisher.

When I titled my book about music publishing “Making Music Make Money”, it was with this fundamental purpose in mind. The basic role of a music publisher is to find every possible opportunity to place the song somewhere it can make money, which is known as “exploitation”. Music publishers control the rights to a song, which means that anyone seeking to use that song in any way, anywhere in the world, must obtain the permission from the music publisher—that permission or “license” usually comes with a price. Publishers make their money not by creating a physical product, as record companies do. Publishers create income for themselves and the writers they represent, by granting “licenses” for the use of the song. Those “licenses” create several different kinds of income streams:

Mechanical Income: From CD sales, digital downloads and other sales from physical product.

Performance Income: Collected through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for any public performance of the song– on the radio, television, a website or a sports arena, a hotel lobby, an elevator, or a shopping mall.

Sync Income: For any use of music “in synchronization” with a moving picture. That’s old-fashioned lawyer-speak to describe songs that are used in motion pictures, advertisements, television shows, or video games.

Other Income: This includes “reproduction” rights, which includes the right to print sheet music, or lyrics from a song—it also includes everything from uses in greeting cards to toys to karaoke machines.

Anytime you hear or see a song being used, there should be at least one, and often several licenses that have been granted, and which are now generating income for both the publisher and the songwriter.

If all that seems like a good business to you, you’re not the only one. While even major companies like BMG seem to be fleeing the record business, new publishers are sprouting like spring flowers—many of them with seed money from investment banks, hedge funds, and financial institutions. If you’re a wealthy investor, buying a publishing catalogue has become akin to acquiring an Old Master painting.

But there are plenty of opportunities in music publishing for people other than Wall Street financiers. Managers, record labels, studio owners, booking agents or other music entrepreneurs—anyone who has relationships with songwriters and the ability to recognize new talent—should be thinking about starting a publishing entity as a part of their business structure. Given the explosion in music use for ring-tones, YouTube videos, and electronic games, even in the face of falling CD sales, it doesn’t take an economist to figure out that a music publisher is a good thing to be.

Of course, if you’re a songwriter, you already are a publisher. Now, the challenge is learning to be a good one. Education is part of it. Experience is a part of it as well. But the all-important first step is simply understanding and accepting your role, as the one who will create a business out of your own songs. Who needs a music publisher? You do. And now you know where to start looking.

Want to read more about becoming your own music publisher? Click the my book below to read more about it:

Having just attended the BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles, an event so unique and thrilling it’s rivaled only by the ASCAP Pop Awards three weeks before it, and the SESAC Awards, sandwiched in between those two, I couldn’t help but look around the room at the award-winning writers assembled and wonder:

What do they know that the masses of struggling songwriters do not? Why can one writer create four or five BMI-award winning songs, awards that recognize the top-earning songs of the year, while most are hoping just to write one song that someday gets played on the radio?

This is the same question that lies behind my upcoming book, “Hits Only, Please”. I’ve spent the past year interviewing writers, publishers, radio programmers, music marketers and others, trying to understand “What makes a hit song?” and even more importantly, “What makes a hit songwriter?”. What is the key that allows certain songwriters to consistently create “hits”, and to show up on that BMI or ASCAP stage, again and again…

Of course, if I had discovered the magic formula, mine would be a very expensive book. But in interviewing a number of top songwriters, I have found several pretty good hints as to what’s needed to make it to the top of the charts. Here’s just one quick observation to start with:

Hit songwriters WANT to write hits.

Doesn’t everyone? No. In my experience, I’ve found that the majority of songwriters might like to have one of their songs become hits, but most do not actually WANT to write hits. Most songwriters want to write what they want to write, in the way that they want to write it. They are not interested in writing what radio wants or the audience wants. Many of them don’t even think about how their song might fit into a radio format, or which group of people might like their music, or what kind of things appeal to that particular audience. Everything is left entirely to chance, and to the desire for creative expression.

As a songwriter, at some point in your career you must decide what motivates your creativity. Is it a desire for personal expression? Or is it a desire to communicate? They are not the same thing. Expression is an easily attainable goal, and utterly impossible to judge or critique. If you feel you’ve expressed what you want to express, who am I to inform you otherwise? Only you can determine the success of your own personal expression.

However, if your goal is to communicate, you’ve taken on a much larger endeavor. You’ve also attempted something that is considerably more objective. You may feel that you’ve communicated an idea or an emotion quite clearly. But in the end, someone else will be the judge. If I, the listener, don’t understand what you’re saying, or relate to it, then the message was not communicated with success. Like beauty, communication is largely in the eye of the beholder, not the creator.

By and large, hit songs are created by those who have an intense desire to communicate. Hit songwriters have a desire not just to express themselves, but to communicate those ideas to an audience– to reach them, to touch them emotionally, and to entertain them. To that end, they are willing to make their music fit into radio formats and marketing plans. They keep up on trends and fashions to stay one step ahead of their audience. They edit relentlessly, to make sure that only their best work is put forward, and that every second of a song engages the listener with something new. They listen to feedback– from the industry, from their peers, and most importantly from their audience. If something isn’t working, they change it. Hit songwriters want to win.

At the ASCAP Awards, the songwriter of the year, Timbaland, was notably absent, but sent a message to be read on his behalf. He apologized for missing the event, but explained that he was in the studio mixing a new record. Then he threw down the gauntlet. After winning a record-setting 9 ASCAP awards over the past year, he said that he was looking forward to the upcoming year, and winning 10.

The next day, I saw my friends Mikkel and Tor from Stargate, the production team that has been dominating the charts for the past year with hits like “Irreplaceable” and “Please Don’t Stop The Music”. They had been at the awards and had heard Timbaland’s message– and at breakfast the next morning, they were already raring to get back to the studio. “Timbaland made the challenge last night” they laughed. “Now next year, we have to beat him.”

Writing hit songs is never easy. But you won’t win until you decide to get in the game. Congratulations to the all the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC award-winning songwriters in 2008. I look forward to seeing you there next year!

ASCAP
BMI
SESAC

Mark it down in the calendar folks…. we WON this time! Like a team emerging from a five-year losing streak, publishers and songwriters are heaving a sigh of relief, jumping for joy, and for the first time in several years actually looking ahead to the future with some small glimmer of hope. Isn’t it interesting what $100 million can do?

In case you missed the big occasion, last week a federal court judge ruled that AOL, RealNetworks and Yahoo! must pay licensing fees to ASCAP for the streaming of music on their sites.

Visit this Link to the catch up on the Full Story:

I know—the idea of a company having to pay for the use of music shouldn’t really be all that surprising. But over the past several years, creators and publishers have watched whole enterprises emerge, all based on the free use of music. The cyber-gurus told us “information wants to be free”—that the whole idea of copyright is a vestige from another era no longer beneficial to our wired way of life. The theory seems to have been that while a single unlicensed use by a film company or record label would never be tolerated, violations done on a mass scale would force licensors and even the courts to rewrite the old rulebook. Turns out that it just isn’t so or at least not yet.

For now, the digital world is going to have to ante-up and pay the bill, not only for the music they’re using now, but also the music they’ve been using as far back as July 1, 2002. Web-based companies that utilize music-streaming will need to obtain a non-exclusive blanket license, in the same way that radio stations, television stations, bars, restaurants, performing halls and others have for decades, from the performing rights societies, i.e. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. The fee for the license will be 2.5% of the service’s “music-use-adjusted revenue”. That rather clumsy terminology is short-hand for a formula that takes into account the amount of revenue generated by the business, the advertising and promotional costs for that business, the total number of hours that music is streamed, and the total hours that the web service is used. If you’re trying to do the math at home, don’t bother.

The people that have done the math say the number owed by the Big Three under this decision could be over $100 million. Of course, now that legal precedent has been set, and the courts have established that the basic performance licensing system is appropriate and applicable to these web-based services, it shouldn’t be long before BMI and SESAC step up to get their piece as well. After that, they’ll be moving on to all of the other music-streaming sites. Needless to say, there’s a lot of money in them hills.

The problem is, there may not be as much as there needs to be. Clearly, some of these services, maybe even some of the most prominent, will never be able to cope with the costly invoice now sitting on their desk. Many of them have hardly figured out how to effectively monetize their own businesses. We’ll undoubtedly hear many heart-wrenching stories of financial ruin and laments about how the licensing organizations are choking the business, standing in the way of progress, and violating the American public’s right to unlimited, unfettered, uninterrupted entertainment.

Too bad. Happily, the courts have reaffirmed once again that there really is no free lunch. This is good, since songwriters and publishers have had to pay for their lunch all this time, and will for the foreseeable future. Kudos to ASCAP for fighting the good fight. Credit goes to the court for making the right call. Here’s to a victory that’s all the sweeter for the long road it took to get there. Some things are worth waiting for.

$100 million is one of them.

I just can’t stop making you money. First, I tipped you off about Sound Exchange, and the money that is being set aside to pay performance royalties to artists whose work is used in the digital domain. Then I clued you into the importance of registering your songs at Harry Fox and MCPS/PRS in order to avoid other people collecting your lost income. Next, I told you to get in the game, and suggested that there was an important new income source in video games. And now it’s time to go to church.

Okay, I realize this isn’t for everyone. If your catalogue of songs is predominately death metal anthems or songs about getting “low”, church is probably not the place for you. Clearly, Christian music, whether it’s traditional hymns, Christian rock, CCM pop, or gospel, is not for everyone. But it’s for more people than you might think. If you’re not in the industry, it might surprise you how big these markets are. But what might really surprise you is what a big business it can be.

I remember the first trip I made to Nashville—I was working for a large publisher based in New York, and headed off to meet my colleagues in the Country music office (based in Nashville) and in the Christian music office (located in the center of that industry, in the suburb of Franklin). Like most offices in the country music industry, our Nashville office was located in a small family house along Music Row. It was charming and cozy, but by New Yorker skyscraper standards, not overly impressive.

With that in mind, I headed off to the Franklin office of our Christian Music division, expecting an even smaller office somewhere in a suburban office park. After all, country music is a much bigger business than the Christian business, right?

What I found was a six or seven story glass tower devoted entirely to the business of Christian music—a record label, publishing company, printing company and recording studio. “How can the CCM business be generating this kind of income?” It didn’t seem to correspond in any way to the level of CCM record sales. Turns out.. it doesn’t need to .

The Christian music industry is one segment that learned early on that there is more to making money in music than record sales. A huge portion of the income in Christian music is generated by print music, an area that has been largely ignored in the secular business. Print music is key in the CCM market because of the sale of praise and worship music, choral arrangements, youth choir arrangements and other songbooks that are marketed directly to churches and Christian bookstores. For those writers fortunate enough to write a praise and worship favorite, the money can flow in year after year—from the publishing rights, not the record royalties.

So for those of you who are actively involved in the Christian or Gospel business, it’s essential to learn how to collect the money for these worship service uses. This past week, Billboard writer Susan Butler , in her column “The Publisher’s Place”, highlighted a very important organization:

Christian Copyright Licensing International

This company, based in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, licenses and collects royalties from churches for reproductions, reprintings or other copying of songs to be used in their worship services, choir shows, etc. Churches are not required to pay performance royalties (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) for their services. But they are required to license, and pay for reproductions like bulletin inserts, songbooks, or visual projections of the songs. What does that really mean to publishers? About $172 million over the past 19 years!

CCLI is not only responsible for collecting the money, and distributing it to the publishers and writers, but also for helping church choir leaders, ministers and others to understand their obligations under the law, and the importance of licensing the music they use. It even has an online service called SongSelect that works with nearly 60,000 subscribers, giving them access to a library of almost 200,000 songs available for download. The organization licenses 145,000 churches, offering a “church copyright license” with scaled annual fees based on the number of church members. From those church licenses, CCLI distributed more than $15 million to publishers last year.

Please be clear. This is not a religious message. But if you’ve watched the election results on Tuesday, and seen the surprising strength of Mike Huckabee, you’ve seen that the power and size of the evangelical movement should not be underestimated. I’m not preaching to anyone here.

I’m talking business—and reminding you that if you are involved in the CCM or Gospel industry, you need to be familiar with CCLI. There is real money there—money that can help you to sustain your business, spread your message, and get your music heard. When people lift every voice and sing, someone’s getting paid. Let it be you.

I’m not big on scare tactics.

But every once in a while, it’s not bad to get a sudden glimpse of the darkside– just enough to jolt you from the stupor of complacency with the sudden realization that “Hey, it’s a jungle out here!” Yup. Always was, always will be.

In the middle of the flurry of holiday merry-making that constitutes the last month of work (?) in the music industry calendar year, I received one of those jolts of reality– from a songwriter friend of mine just recently returned from a sudden plunge into the abyss. As we caught up on the year’s activities at the BMI Holiday party, he recounted to me a horror tale that served to remind me that some of those music business weasels surrounding us that evening, as charming and harmless as they might appear (which was not all that charming or harmless really), were still predatory and dangerous beasts.

Two years ago, my friend had a song on an album that became a sizeable UK hit– needless to say, it promised a significant windfall for a songwriter who had achieved some success, but never quite had the good fortune to score a major US single. (Obviously, the names here have been omitted, to protect the innocent, and the not-so innocent). As he was signed to a US publishing company, my friend assumed that his publisher, obviously aware of the success of the album, would take the necessary steps to collect the money earned by the song. So he waited. And waited.

As a year went by and earnings failed to materialize, he became concerned (that’s an understatement). Finally, he began to do his own research as to what had happened to the pot of gold that was supposed to be at the end of his rainbow. It had vanished into thin air.

Well, not exactly. It had vanished into someone else’s pocket. It seems that my friend’s publisher, mired in paperwork as most publishers are, had failed to properly register the song with MCPS-PRS in the UK (their version of Harry Fox). Consequently, the money that had been earned by the writer fell into the vast pit of unclaimed earnings. That’s a big, ugly cauldron where confusion reigns supreme, and nothing and no one is safe.

How big is it? You can’t imagine. As a member of MCPS-PRS, our publishing company receives a document semi-annually that lists the unclaimed monies, with song titles and often with the names of the writers. The document is well over fifty pages long. Some titles are well-known hits, by superstar artists. The fact that a writer’s money falls into the unclaimed file doesn’t mean that the writer or the artist is obscure or unknown. It merely means that the song has not been properly registered, and therefore, the society has no place to send the money. It’s a very educational list.

Therein lies the problem. For an unscrupulous publisher, such a list is an invitation to treachery. After all, here is a list of titles, many of them recognizable from successful albums, representing money that the true writers and publishers don’t even know exists. What’s to stop another publisher from forging a contract, and claiming that money on behalf of the writer? Not much it seems. This is what seems to have happened to my friend.

But that’s stealing, right? Uh, yes. Surely one can take legal action to reclaim the money that was taken illegally. Well, sort of. My friend could have hired a lawyer in the UK (not all that easy, and definitely not cheap) to sue the other publishing company. It’s a pretty good strategy, if there’s over several hundred thousand dollars at stake. But when one calculates the costs of a two-year legal wrangle in a foreign country, it’s not a a very practical undertaking for any amount under $200,000. Keep in mind that there is no way to know exactly how much may have been stolen, until you launch an investigation, an audit, etc. More importantly, remember that most of the money on the Unclaimed Income list is money that the writer and publishers don’t even know is out there. Nine times out of ten, no one will ever find out that it’s gone.

So what’s the moral of this sordid little tale? What can a writer do to protect him or herself in the Darwinian world of the music biz? Start by obeying the first law of the jungle: Don’t leave money lying around.

1. Check your registrations. Then check them again. BMI, ASCAP, and Harry Fox all have systems that allow you to check that your song is registered correctly. Even if you’re signed to a publishing company, you still need to check and re-check those registrations. A publisher has a responsibility, but in many cases not a legal requirement to register your songs. This is not an area for blind faith. Trust, but verify.

2. Make some friends. Get to know your ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC representatives. If you do a lot of business in the UK, then make some contacts at MCPS/PRS. You need to know people, and just as importantly they need to know you. Low profile is no profile.

3. Act fast. I’m amazed at how many writers have a hit, then spend a year or two trying to decide if they want a publishing deal, who they should sign to, what society they want to affiliate with, etc. All the while, the money being earned by the song is languishing in “copyright control” or “unclaimed earnings”. If you put a $1000 on the sidewalk, would you expect it to be there a year later? Time is of the essence.

This is not a happy story. It’s unfortunate that the industry has people who will rip-off songwriters and others in the creative community. These “take the money and run” types are not the majority, but they’re not rare birds either. The reality is that they prey on the ignorance or inattention or complacency of legitimate writers and publishers. That’s the value of the wake-up call. Lost money will not find its own way home. Nor will it remain lost forever. If it’s yours, you have to go out and get it.

Here’s a recipe for dissension within a band:

Four guys in a group– but only one writes the songs. Happily, one of those songs becomes a huge hit, playing daily on the radio and bringing stardom to all. But look out Johnny, there’s trouble in paradise. When the royalty accounting arrives from the record company, the band is shocked to find that they’ve earned… $0. No payments are due, as the income from record sales, while significant, are not yet enough to pay off the expenses incurred in making the record and promoting it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the one guy in the group who wrote the songs is walking out to his mailbox, where he finds a very large surprise: an envelope from BMI or ASCAP or SESAC. “Oh yeah. I remember those guys”, he thinks to himself, vaguely recalling that he signed a contract with them, but never really understood what they were supposed to do. It now appears that what they have done is to keep track of every time his band’s song was played on the radio and television. In the envelope, there is a very long statement showing the various uses. There is also a very large check, made out to him alone. Indeed, it’s so large that this lucky band member is now buying a new, much improved ranch.

Things are getting very tense on the tour bus right about now…

Here’s a similar scenario for strife within an industry:

Record company pays A&R people to find the band. Pays to make the record. Pays to promote the record. Pays ridiculous amounts of money to get the record on the radio. Then when the label finally bribes so many stations that the record is playing all around the country, the label earns… nothing. Sure it sells a few records (these days, very few). But as far as earning money off the radio play? Nada.

Meanwhile, the music publisher, having heard the finished record a few weeks before release, signs a deal with the primary songwriter in the group. The publisher pays nothing to make the record, and does nothing to promote it. The publisher does however register the song with ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, which means that once that song is playing all over the country, the publisher, like the songwriter, is earning a big, pleasantly plump check.

All of which brings us to: The Public Performance Right for Sound Recordings.

At present, labels and artists have joined forces to demand that they too receive performance royalties each time one of their songs is used on the radio or on television.They are trying to convince Congress to change the rules that require broadcasters (radio stations, television stations, etc.) to pay performance royalties to songwriters and music publishers, but exempt them from paying those same performance monies to record labels and artists.

Granted, the present set-up is a little strange. It’s odd to think that if Rihanna’s “Umbrella” is played 1 million times on pop radio stations around the US, the writers of that song will get paid for each play, but Rihanna, as the artist, will earn nothing. However, the argument has always been that Rihanna benefits from the radio play because of the exposure it offers her– it fuels record sales, concert tours, and her general, all-purpose fame. Likewise, the label benefits from the radio play to help sell albums– that’s why labels spend so much money to get things on the playlist. It’s a quandary for the music industry, for the broadcasters (who would prefer to keep more money, and forgo paying the artists), and for the lawmakers (who have a lot more ties to broadcasters than they do with rockstars or label presidents).

The interesting thing is: the performance right for artists and labels already does exist… in the digital realm. In fact, it was the 1995 Digital Performance in Sound Recording Act, that ultimately led to the current call for performance money from radio and television. In the digital world of webcasters, satellite radio, cable subscriber channels, etc., the user of music must not only pay ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, but also SoundExchange, which is the performance rights organization for artists and the sound recording owner (i.e. the label).

The fact is, SoundExchange is a pretty cool thing… if only people knew about it. Unfortunately, many labels and performers have no idea that they are earning a royalty each time their song is on satellite radio or a webcast. Consequently, much of the money is unclaimed. SoundExchange can’t find you– you have to go to it and tell them where to send your money.

Am I saying that you should be for or against the performance right for artists? I’m saying, don’t worry about it. Let the big boys fight that one out. I’m saying: GO GET THE MONEY YOU’VE ALREADY EARNED. If you are a label, an artist, a band, or a featured musician on a sound recording that has been used on satellite radio, webcasts, cable tv, or anywhere else in the digital world, go visit the website of SoundExchange today. I just hate the idea of unclaimed money. Go for yours at:

www.soundexchange.com