Some of the biggest concerns in the music industry are the issues around copyright. Everyone is nervous. Bands and artists are worried that someone is going to steal their songs.
Well relax, because for the most part, these fears are unfounded.
There are so many good songs that are unencumbered by copyright; record publishers don’t want to bother with trying to “steal” a song. If you send a CD to a record publisher or label, they won’t even open it unless it’s solicited by a lawyer. They don’t want to take the chance that your song might sound like a song that comes out on their label. Why would they risk a lawsuit from a band they know nothing about?
So don’t let the fear of theft hold you back from writing and releasing songs. Of course you do want to copyright and publish them. But the real reason for doing so is because, at some point, you’ll want to interface with businesses that make money from songs. Copyrighting and publishing is the only way for the money to flow properly to the label and the artist.
So how does this work?
Once you have written and recorded a song, you send the recording and a SR form to the Library of Congress. On the form, they ask you for the authors of the song. This is where it can get tricky! If you are a member of a band that helps with the song writing and arranging, you need to have a discussion about percentages.
For example, let’s say you are the guitar player and singer. You wrote the lyrics and the basic chords for the song. You have a good argument for taking 100% of the songwriting copyright. But this might not sit very well with the drummer and the bassist! If you are paying them to rehearse and gig with you, then your argument improves. But if, as is likely, they are your friends who practice with you twice a week, you gig together and share the meager profits, then you should consider giving them part of the copyright. Most likely the bass and drum parts add to your song and you appreciate the creative input of your friends. So, have a conversation with them. Tell them you intend to keep the majority of the songwriting copyright, but you would like to know what they think is fair. In a scenario like this, giving 5-25% to the other band members is reasonable. You can put percentages in the SR form, but it is not required. The Library of Congress just wants to know the contributors and the percentages agreement can be drawn up separately, at some point by a lawyer, but in the beginning it can be as simple as an email exchange. In my opinion, an oral agreement is not enough though. It’s funny how people start to remember things differently once the money starts flowing!
If you are ready to copyright your songs, you can go to copyrightregistry-online-form.com/apply/ and take care of it online. It’s really simple.
So now your songs are all protected and you and your band mates are clear about songwriting profit. Hopefully, now your music starts to get some radio airplay. Maybe one of your songs is being played at the local football arena before games or your YouTube video is taking off. These are all very good reasons to get your publishing locked down.
The first thing you need to do is choose is a monitoring organization. In America, you can choose from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. They all do the same thing. I’m a member of ASCAP. I chose them because I knew other bands that used them. However my research showed that the monitoring organizations are all very similar. They are non-profits and shenanigans seem to be at a minimum. Do your own research and find the one that is best for you.
ASCAP (or BMI or SESAC) monitor radio stations, venues and anywhere else your song can be heard in public. They collect fees from these organizations/venues. Then they distribute the fees back to the artists, based on how many times a song was played and in what venue (approximately $.06-$.12. per play). Your business identity can be as simple as your social security number and your name. At some point, you may want to form a separate publishing company to keep your business and personal worlds separate but it is not necessary and not important in the beginning because there is not a lot of liability associated with writing songs (unless you intend borrowing money against incoming royalties). Each member of your band should register with a song monitoring organization. This is where you will need to be clear about the percentages. ASCAP finds out how many times your song was played, then distributes the royalties based on the songwriting percentages.
The business of songwriting is very cut and dry but you have to be willing to put a number on it. 15% for the bass player might seem like a lot when you are in your rehearsal space, but when a song hits and the singer becomes three times as rich as the bass player and the drummer, bad vibes can infiltrate the band. So you have to be willing to live with the number you negotiated. You have to make peace with the rationality of an irrational trade.
Any imbalance can be re-balanced by other profit sources in the music business though. Recording and playing live is typically split evenly among band members. Half of publishing income is songwriting and half is recording. Many bands record other people’s songs because half of the publishing money comes to the band who recorded the song. So the bass player and the drummer can make some real cash, even if they are not contributing to the songwriting.
Some bands are organized in a play for hire manner. For example, Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi owns the band. Even Richie Sambora was a hired hand, before he was fired. Sambora gets some of the songwriting money, but a lot of his income was based on recording royalties and playing live with the band. I don’t know exactly how Bon Jovi divides their touring money. But I would guess that the players get an almost even percentage from the profit of every gig. Jon gets most of the songwriting publishing money and he decides who gets paid and how much. I’m sure he tries to be fair. He needs his band to be happy just as much as any small time garage band.
If you’re just starting a band, don’t worry about all of this for a while. Concentrate on writing good songs and having fun. If you’re lucky enough and work hard enough there will come a time when all of this gets very important and serious. When that happens don’t wait too long to have the songwriting conversation. It’s much easier to do this when money is not an issue. It get’s sticky when there is a real offer on the table and the singer is the only one who is likely to benefit. And this happens all the time.
We as musicians and entertainers often live in a fantasy world. Something captured our imagination somewhere along the way. For me it was Kiss, at just 7 years old, I was completely taken away by their makeup, the fire and the blood. However, we live in a world where everything is about making money. We can either continue living in our fantasy or deal with reality and get on with making music. So have those hard conversations as soon as possible.
Never underestimate how important band morale is. If you’re the leader of your band, you need to do everything in your power to keep your band energized and motivated. That means keeping your own ego in check and treating your band members with humility and respect. You can stay humble even while you’re writing hits. Music might be a slimy business, but you have the power to run your business with integrity, truth and maturity.
