Audio Recording

I know of a performance right society called “SoundExchange” which I read first from a book. The unique thing about this organization is that it will collect royalties to artist and sound recording copyright owners.

This works similarly with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC that collects royalties for songwriters and music publishers. As a background, take note that the music you hear from the radio and in your mp3 players is copyrightable in two forms:

a.) Copyright of music and lyrics
b.) Copyright of Sound Recording

Sound Recording Copyright Ownership and SoundExchange

It starts with the songwriter/musician creating the song and assigning lyrics/melodies. The songwriters themselves are the first owner of the work thus they possess the copyright of music and lyrics. When the songwriters sign-up with a music publishers; there is a transfer of copyright ownership from the writers to the publishers.

What will happen next is that these music publishers shop their songs to recording labels, recording producers or recording artists that are looking for songs for their album/single project. Supposing a certain artist/producer would license a specific song from the music publisher. The artist would then start recording the tracks (vocals, guitars, bass, piano, drums, etc.) until and fully complete sound recording of the song has been made.

This sound recording of the song is not anymore owned by the songwriter or the music publisher but this is owned by the creator which is the artist/producer in this example. The artist producer can then register the song sound recording to copyright office for official registration.

Since the artist/producer would be using this sound recording of the song in marketing and promotions. These sound recording can end up in the playlist of various digital radios, internet radios, etc.

Organizations like SoundExchange monitor the performance of sound recording copyright played in different mediums such as in radio and in the Internet. The monitored performance can then be reported back to their members and then be paid with royalties. This royalty money comes from the SoundExchange licensee which would legally perform sound recordings in any of the discussed broadcasting mediums.
Read the rest of this entry »

The following below are the simple steps to find the song copyright owners or publishers. As a background, you need to perform a copyright search to get the following information:

a.) Copyright owner/songwriter of the song.
b.) Music publisher of the song

The reason why most music consumers are performing a copyright search is that they would like to ask for permission to use a certain song in their projects. Asking permission also means that you are asking license from the music publisher.

One important information that you need to know is that if the song is not represented by a major music publisher or any music publisher, the songwriter automatically acts in behalf as the music publisher and can issue licenses or grant you permissions.

Otherwise if the songwriter is signed to a music publisher, then you need to get permission from the music publisher representing the songwriter.

Searching this information can be daunting at times. And the steps illustrated in this tutorial are one of the simplest methods you can employ without hiring or spending anything in your copyright search.

The major steps in the Copyright Search

Read the rest of this entry »

Music will not earn an income unless it is well marketed. No matter how good you are at songwriting, composing music, playing instruments and everything on the creative side of music; you will never earn income without marketing it to your customers.

According to this definition:

http://www.cim.co.uk/resources/understandingmarket/definitionmkting.aspx

Marketing is defined as “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably“.

The good news is – the word marketing is not always associated with the word “promotion”. But, marketing is more of a “planning” on how to:

a. Identify customer requirements
b. Anticipate customer requirements
c. Satisfy the customer with the requirements

Let’s tackle each of those 3 components in marketing and apply it on the online business world in formulating an effective marketing plan for your music.
Read the rest of this entry »