What is Music Publishing?
“Music Publishing” is the owning and exploiting of musical copyrights. There are many types of “rights” within a “copyright” that can be exploited. One can license the reproduction of sound recordings such as CDs, tapes and records. One can license public performance of a song. Songs may be “synchronized” with visual images in movies and television shows. They can be incorporated into advertising, karaoke programs, ringtones, samples for other songs, greeting cards, toys, video games, internet uses and more. And of course, songs can also be exploited and sold as written sheet music.
The music publisher controls all of these rights with respect to a given use. In short, music publishers are really “rights holders and licensors” and not primarily people with printing presses.
What is a Master Recording?
Master Recordings are also known as “sound recordings” is the actual recorded piece of music. A master license differs from a sync license in that a sync license gives the license holder the right to re-record a song for use in a media project, while a master license gives the license holder the right to use a pre-existing recording of that song in a media project. A sync license, from the publisher or rights owner, is usually required in conjunction with a master license to use a pre-existing version of a song with a visual project.
What is a Copyright?
Copyright is a form of legal protection that grants to artist, authors, musicians, and others certain rights in their original creations. This includes literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures, sound recordings, and architectural works. Copyright only protects original forms of written or recorded expression, it does not protect ideas or concepts.
Copyright generally belongs to the “author” of the work, which was be more than one individual. Two or more songwriters who collaborated on a work will co-own the copyright in the song.
Under United States Copyright law, a musical work is protected by law and inures to the benefit of the authors once it has been “fixed in a tangible medium from which it may be reproduced.” What this means, is that once a writer “records” the work into a media from which it can be reproduced in his absence, it is copyrighted. Examples of this “fixing” would be writing down words and notes on a piece of paper, or even singing a melody and into a recorder.
The filing of a completed copyright form along with a copy of the work fixed in a “tangible media” with the U.S. Copyright Office is a formality with many significant benefits. But the failure to do so does not mean that an author does not own the copyright and the rights attendant thereto. Your copyright exists from the instant you “fix it,” from the moment you put it onto paper, tape, sticks, etc.
There is no time limit after creation when a work can be registered. So if you wrote a song 25 years ago and never registered it with the copyright office, and someone just got a tape of it and put it in a film without your permission, you could presently register the song, and then sue for infringement. But if your evil brother-in-law Smedley copyrighted the song 20 years ago without your knowledge, listing himself as the owner and writer, then you’d have a hard (but not necessarily impossible) time convincing a court that you are the rightful owner and claimant, and entitled to damages and other compensation from the film company.
Songs are registered in the copyright office on what is called a PA form. “PA” stands for “performing arts,” and includes not only musical works, but also dramatic works, motion pictures and other audio-visual works. The charge for a PA copyright is currently $30, and also requires a deposit be made of the work as fixed in its tangible media.
There exists another type of copyright, an SR copyright, which is used to copyright sound recordings. According to the copyright office: “Sound recordings are ‘works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work.’
Links:
How to Register A Copyright:
Copright.Gov
Music Publishing Income Types
Mechanical Income
•Mechanical rights are the rights to include a composition in a sound recording. Usually this involves CD uses.
•As of January 1, 2012, the statutory rate is 9.1 cents per composition or 1.75 cents per minute for songs over 5 minutes.
Digital Income
•The use of a composition in a permanent digital download is recognized as a mechanical right. The Copyright Royalty Board has established that the current statutory rate for the mechanical reproduction of a composition in a permanent digital download is 9.1 cents per composition or 1.75 cents per minute for compositions over 5 minutes in length (the same statutory rate that applies to mechanical reproduction in physical CD’s).
•The use of a composition in a ringtone is recognized as a mechanical right. The Copyright Royalty Board has established that the current statutory rate for the mechanical reproduction of a composition in a ringtone is 24 cents.
Synchronization Income
•Synchronization (“synch”) rights are the rights to include the composition in an audio-visual production, such as a motion picture, television program, television commercial, home video, and DVD.
•Fees are generally in the form of one-time payments, although the arrangement can be a “stepped” deal (e.g., one fee for motion picture use and an additional payment for video rights).
Performance Income
•Performance income includes performances of compositions over television, radio, and other electronic devices; online transmissions; and non-dramatic live performances.
•Performance rights are administered by the performing rights societies. In the United States, these societies are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.