Music Publishing EXCITES me, it really does. I may be some kind of geek because I get all jazzed when I talk about copyrights and intellectual property but I truly believe that a musician who makes their business aPublishing business first is putting themselves in much greater control of their career and future than the person who wants to be an artist, producer, songwriter, or session musician.
In the past Music Publishing has been the bastard stepchild to the record business; a stodgy, un-sexy business that nobody but bean counters really paid any attention to, much less UNDERSTOOD. Why was this the case?
Simple answer; it ain’t sexy.
The RECORD business and the TOURING business are sexy and cool. Staying up all night in expensive recording studios and jetting from city to city playing for adoring fans is an easy sell to any young aspiring musician. But sitting in an office pushing paper, reading royalty statements, and cutting licensing deals just doesn’t have the same appeal for some reason, does it? Well allow me to show you a few things that may not completely change your mind but will hopefully show you that profit can be sexy, and the older you get the sexier profit looks!
With the idea of big record labels controlling the way we access our music fading with each passing hour, the Music Publishing business is growing in strength. Why? We’ll get into that in a minute but the teaser is this;
When it comes to recorded music, all barriers between the creators and the paying audience have been erased.
We don’t need a record label, we don’t need an expensive recording studio, we don’t need a record store, we don’t even really need radio, etc, etc. OK, I admit to break a song BIG you still need some of those but…
The control of the RECORDING of a song is no longer an issue because almost anyone can record a great sounding track on Logic, Pro-Tools, etc, in their bedroom that sounds as good as something recorded at Record Plant Studios in Hollywood. Then they can set up a website with some simple e-commerce to sell to their fans directly.
Let’s say you have a great song and it’s available for download on an artists website and iTunes. Plus it’s in a cool indie movie that is in small release on a few hundred US screens and headed for a respectable DVD run. What is the difference between you and a big record label?
My answer; less than you would think. In fact, almost nothing.
All you need is for people to come to the website and decide to buy it. Of course you also need to know and have access to some people in the media business that would have placed your song in the film. You’ll also need to have the infrastructure to manage the exploitation of your song and collect the money it generates but that is easier to put together than it’s ever been.
The only thing that hasn’t been replaced by technology or a changing business model; a good song (and let’s face it, that hasn’t ever been a pre-requisite for success). It all begins with the song.
And because of the erased barriers I mentioned above you can control what happens with that song and youcan make the most money from it.
When the people can access your creative output with as few intermediaries as possible you stand to make the most money. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and “Customers who bought X also bought Y” may eventually be a new way to break music. The tides are shifting in favor of those who control copyrights – it’s the new “Real Estate”.
Who Actually Needs Who?
I mentioned above that the record business is fading and the music publishing business is growing in strength, the very simple reason is this;
You can have a song without a recording but you can’t have a recording without a song.
And remember that you can have many recordings or versions of a song all making money at once. You would be hard pressed to find someone who has more passion, respect, and love for the process of recording music than me. But if I am to be totally realistic, I think that in the future recordings of music will make much less than the compositions will. With technology what it is and “virtual musicians” taking over much of the work it doesn’t look good.
Here’s a story as to why the record biz ultimately needs the publishing biz and not the other way around.
Back when I was producing tons of indie artists that you’ve never heard of, I got an interesting call from a major publishing company. It seems they had acquired the publishing rights of a very well-known blues/rock artist and were working hard to get his music placed in film & TV. The problem was that every time they got a potential drop it was thwarted because the artist had spent his career on a major label who owned the master recording rights and wanted to charge far more than the potential buyers were willing to pay (FYI - it’s customary that the master recording rights and synch rights are about the same). The publisher was getting potential drops for $40,000 and the label wanted $50,000 for the master rights alone. Hmmmm.
So the publisher called me and asked if I would be interested in recording versions of the artists catalog that were almost sound-a-likes of the originals. Of course I had to make them sound different enough that there would be no copyright infringement on the original recordings but still with the same vibe and feel. After some creative thinking and a lot of fun in the studio with great musicians it turned out to be pretty easy.
The publisher now had in their hands versions of the songs that respected the artist’s sound and vibe but were legally clean and ready to go. The record label found themselves completely cut out of any film & tv placements. And because the publisher owned these versions outright, they would make all the money, not just half. Good business move on their part, eh?
Making It “Below The Radar”
It’s also important to understand that music publishing (controlling and exploiting copyrights) extends down to the very low end of the music business and there is plenty of money to be made even there. The examples you so often hear are of seven figure sums generated by motion picture soundtrack deals, album sales, and massive performance royalty checks from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, but listen up; those examples are .0001 percent of the reality of the working music business and when you set the bar there you’re bound to be disappointed.
You can make a substantial amount of money and still be well below the radar of fame and visibility. Here’s a real life example to illustrate what I mean…
Many years ago I wrote a song on a whim for no other reason than to have fun musically and play with all the cool toys in my studio. I probably spent about 10 hours writing and recording it and though it was really nothing special it sounded good. It was something I wrote and moved on from within a day or so.
A year or so later I went through my back catalog and pulled together all the songs that I still owned and put them on a CD to send around to various networks, studios, etc. etc. Someone called me about using the above song in a tv show. I charged them a reasonable license fee and went on my way. The show got syndicated and over the years has played all over the world. This track also got licensed a few other times and to date I’ve made over $46,000 from basically 10 hours of work. Brain Surgeons don’t make that kind of money.
Now did that happen for every track I wrote? Of course not. On most tracks I’ve made nothing but on some tracks a lot more. And now after many years of writing and hundreds of titles created I get a lot of “mailbox money” that would have never appeared had I not been wise to the Music Publishing business.
As I said before – I am probably a geek. But I am a geek that makes money while I sleep. Why? Because I pay attention to the business aspects of what I do and I control my own publishing. Until you read this article you never heard my name, but you’ve probably heard my music. And if you heard it, I got paid.
So my advice to young musicians is to learn all you can about Music Publishing. It really is one of the best ways to sustain your career and really enjoy the benefits of a life spent creating music.
Copyright Navigator
A Digital Annotated Concept Map
of the Fundamentals of U.S. Copyright Law
by Lionel S. Sobel
Professor, Southwestern University School of Law
Editor, Entertainment Law Reporter
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