In the music business world billions of dollars are generated annually. The percentage of these billions that wind up in the pockets of the people in the music business who created these billions is mere pocket change. However, there is a way to make more money.
Nashville, Tennessee USA- In the business world of music billions of dollars are generated annually. The percentage of these billions that wind up in the pockets of the people in the music business that created it is mere pocket change. Do composers,lyricists and publishers get what they deserve? Is it really a fair and a bi-lateral agreement between the parties? Are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, etc., doing their real job of collecting what is due? I will attempt to explain to you how to protect (copyright) your material, show you how your money is collected and who will collect it.
I am attempting right now to set up a live interview with a representative from the Harry Fox Agency which I will report here possibly in Part 2 or Part 3 of this series. You will discover who HFA is and what they do and how they can be your best friends if you write music. I will show you other links on the internet that will help you get your original material to A&R people at the major labels and an endless list of links that will help anyone just starting out in this wonderful world of music.
This can be a wonderfully rewarding business so long as you are aware of the "business of music" and the music of the business". In other words,...if your going to write the song you should know how the song is written and if your song is used by others for profit you should also know how much you should be getting paid for use of it, in what media it's being used and where to collect all this money from. Your song could become your largest and longest running annuity for the rest of your life. It could be the one-(1) revenue you generate from your creative talent that will pay your rent, put your children through college and much, much more. There is a voluminous number of books you could read to help you fully understand this "music business" and the "business of music".
I will try to lead you to the proper links where you will find invaluable information that you just don't find out there on the street or in many cases never learn at all. Information that will make your money for you, After all, your entitled to compensation for your creative talent just as much as Quincy Jones gets his checks in the mail and publishing companies get their services in this area are available to you on a consultation basis at http://www.harplandmusic.com/services.html.
At this site I will personally help with the information for you. You will find that from the inception of your creative new song there are a number of "middlemen" that get their cut of your money before it finally gets down to you, which would you believe somewhere in the less than 5% area and even less than that? There are ways to beat this and make more but we will discuss this later because the latter is most popular and what I call the "community standard". Be sure to bookmark this site http://www.bizwiz.com and stop by frequently and check out the Access Business Online Daily Newspaper for these articles and this complete series. Feel free to print them out as you see them (with the permission, of course of BizWiz) and keep them in your files for future reference.
It will make life a whole lot easier for you when you need information on how to acquire a mechanical license to use another writer's material, how to be a good licensee and licensor and make money at it. It will tell you who to go to, pay them a small fee and they will do all the paperwork for you, how much of a percentage you will have to pay for licenses for various uses you may need for the same piece of music. And, if you're a music marketer like me, you will learn what your responsibilities are with respect to using other people's creative material for one reason or another.
In marketing you will find that you must pay a royalty to a number of organizations for the use of another's song. For your television commercial, which is called video/ television synchronization rights you must get a license from the owner, publisher and/or The Harry Fox Agency who most likely will be the agent for the composer and/ or the publisher of this work. This fee will most likely be higher than 6.95% you will pay for the mechanical license.
Let's produce an album: All these fees that you will pay out must be figured in and placed into your budget for the project you're working on. For example; if your working on the production and release of an album with four(4) public Domain tunes and six(6), what we call "copy" tunes, ( tunes that belong to others), then you acquire your mechanical license (giving you permission to use it on your album), which will cost you 6.95 cents per song, perunit sold plus that extra fee for synchronization of you wish to use that particular tune in your television ad to promote the entire album.