Every Musician Must Know These Music Publishing Gossary

 

360 Deals

360 Deals are exclusive recording artist contracts that entitle a record label to a percentage of earnings from all of an artist's revenue streams, rather than just recorded music sales. These revenues could include publishing royalties, live concert revenue, merchandise sales, endorsement deals, book and movie deals, ringtones, and more. 

Advance

In this context, the payment a songwriter receives when signing a contract with a publishing company. Advances are typically recoupable, which means that the publishing company collects and keeps the songwriter’s royalty income until the amount of the advance has been repaid. 

Arrangement

A type of adaptation of a musical composition that updates the way instruments, sounds, and voices are used in presenting the composition. Often the arranger will receive songwriting credit for the new arrangement, in agreement with an alongside the original songwriters. When a composer creates a new arrangement of a public domain work, they are entitled to songwriting credit for the new version. 

Catalog

A collection of works controlled by a songwriter or publisher.

 

Songwriter

A songwriter is anyone who creates any part of a musical composition - whether it's the lyrics, beat, underlying melody, chorus, hook, or other element. 

Composer

A name denoting anyone who writes or collaborates on the writing of music. Colloquially, it's most often used for the writers of classical music and film or video game scores.

Producer

In this case, the "producer" of a song oversees the performers, mixing, and arrangement of a song and/or a specific recording of a song. They often own the studio and will retain session performers and other subcontractors. Producers often collaborate in the songwriting process and therefore are part of the song's overall share picture. In this case, the producer is a songwriter and is generating songwriting royalties which they can collect. 

Author

The creator of an artistic, literary, musical or dramatic work. 

Collection Society

Collection societies are organizations that protect, register, license, and collect royalties for their members' works. The most commonly known types of collection societies are PROs (performing rights organizations), CMOs (collective management organization), and MROs (mechanical rights organization). When you join a collection society, you are giving them the right and responsibility to track the usage of your works for their rights types, account for them, and pay you accordingly. Collection societies are a key pay source, but not all pay sources are collection societies. 

Copyright

The rights granted by law to the creator of an original work. A creator (e.g., a songwriter or author) is entitled to the right to copy, distribute, and adapt their work. Under U.S. copyright law, as soon as you make a tangible copy of a work, you own its copyright. Put another way, if you imagine a song in your head, you have no copyright—but once you write the song down or record it, you are its copyright holder. 

Copyright Act

The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States law spelling out the basic rights of copyright holders. It codifies the doctrine of “fair use,” and adopts for most new copyrights a unitary term based on the date of the author’s death rather than the prior scheme of fixed initial and renewal terms. It protects musical works including songs and any accompanying words as well as orchestral works, librettos, and other musical compositions. A separate copyright protects individual recordings of musical compositions. 

Fair Use

An exception to the exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder of a creative work. If something falls under the doctrine of “fair use,” another party can use the copyrighted material in a limited way without acquiring permission from the rights holder. In certain situations, parody, commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving, and scholarship may be considered fair use.

Grand Rights

The legal rights necessary to stage any staged production using musical works. 

Intellectual Property (IP)

Any conceptual product that has commercial value. This includes any form of creative expression and knowledge (such as symbols, names, and images), whether copyrighted or not. Intellectual property can be protected through copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets laws. For example, Nike’s signature checkmark logo is protected through trademark, and Coca-Cola’s secret recipe for Coke is protected through trade secrets law. Visit the World Intellectual Property Organization website (www.wipo.int) for more information. 

Interested Parties Information (IPI)

A nine-digit number used to uniquely identify a songwriter or publisher. The IPI database replaced the CAE database as the industry standard in 2001, but the two are often used interchangeably. There are a few CMOs that assign their songwriters both an IPI and a CAE - but you'll know if you're a member of one of these. Rights holders are assigned IPI numbers when they are granted membership to a PRO. Your IPI number is not the same as your collection society account or member number.

International Standard Recording Code (ISRC)

A 12-character alphanumeric code used to identify a unique sound recording. One song can have multiple ISRCs if more than one recording of the song has been released - like live, acoustic, or cover versions. Publishers, collection societies, and music services use ISRCs to match specific recordings to the underlying compositions. ISRCs are typically assigned by labels or distributors. An ISRC looks like this: USS1Z9900001. 

International Standard Work Code (ISWC)

An 11-character alphanumeric code used to identify a unique musical composition. A song only has one ISWC, but arrangements, adaptations, and translations should receive their own unique ISWCs, as they represent new works and often have new songwriter share splits. ISWCs are issued by collection societies upon work registration. An ISWC looks like this: T-123.456.789-Z. 

Mechanical Royalties

Royalties earned through the reproduction of copyrighted works in digital and physical formats. Songwriters are paid mechanical royalties per song sold, downloaded, and streamed via "on-demand" streaming services. 

Music Distribution

Distribution is the way that recorded music gets into the hands of consumers, whether in the form of physical product shipping to brick and mortar storefronts, or digital files being uploaded to Digital Service Providers for download and stream. Because digital music is much less expensive to produce and distribute than in the physical product era, the once-inaccessible distribution aspect of releasing music is now widely available to creators via platforms like CD Baby and DistroKid.  

Performance Royalties

Royalties collected when a composition is broadcast (e.g. on the radio) or publicly performed (e.g. live in concert or over the speakers at a nightclub). Performance royalties are collected by performing rights organizations such as ASCAP in the U.S., and by PROs or collective management organizations, such as SACEM in France.  

Performing Rights Organizations (PRO)

PROs are responsible for collecting income on behalf of songwriters and music publishers when a song is publicly broadcast or performed. Public performances can include play on television or radio, in clubs and restaurants, on websites, or on other broadcasting systems. PROs collect license fees for this usage which they pay to their registered songwriters after taking a small fee.  

Publisher Share

The publisher share, or "publisher's share of performance," is the portion of performance royalties that is paid over to a publisher, publishing administrator, or to the songwriter if they are self-published. It is distinguished in this way from the writer share. 

Royalties

Payments made on a per-use or blanket basis as established by a license agreement. In the context of music publishing, royalties refer to the income earned through the use of a song. This can include album sales, digital downloads, streams, radio airplay, and a host of other forms through which songs earn income for songwriters and music publishers. 

Sampling

The act of taking material from a previously existing sound recording and incorporating it into an entirely new sound recording and composition. Sampling began as a technique used by experimental composers but became a popular production technique in early hip-hop, and was later adopted by almost all other popular music genres. In order to use a sample legally, you must come to a legal agreement with the composition owner as well as the sound recording owner. 

Split Sheet

A signed document that outlines the shares of an individual musical work each co-writer will control. A split agreement should be finalized between collaborators before it is exploited commercially in any way, including commercial release to streaming services. 

Sync Agreement

An agreement for the use of music in an audiovisual project. Sync (short for "synchronization") licenses must be obtained from both the composition rights holder and the recording rights holder to clear a usage.

Synchronization License

A license granting permission to synchronize a song with moving images on a screen - generally in television, film, or advertisements. Sync licenses are required from both the recording owner and the composition owner when a song is used, and they are most often paid as a one-time up-front fee. In addition to the upfront fee, songs earn a performance royalty (payable to songwriters/publishers) when the program containing their song is broadcast or streamed. 

Unallocated Royalties

Sometimes called "black box" royalties, these are royalties for which a publisher or writer is named but cannot be traced by a pay source. Writers who earn royalties for usage but cannot be found are often referred to as “lost” writers. After an established waiting period, these royalties are no longer payable and are generally distributed by top earners by market share. 

Work-For-Hire

In this context, an agreement in which a songwriter composes a musical work within the scope of their employment for another entity and does not retain copyright or publishing ownership over the work. Work-for-hire agreements are common in film, TV, and advertising, in which production companies often hire composers to create music specifically for their projects. Instead of receiving an initial fee and subsequent royalties, a work-for-hire creator receives only a one-time up-front fee for their work. 

Writer Share

The writer share, or "writer's share of performance," is the portion of performance royalties that is paid directly to a songwriter, whether or not they have a publisher. It is distinguished in this way from the publisher share.