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I thought about making this installment of music publishing 101 part of my last email, but in the spirit of keeping things bite-sized, I decided to make it a separate Liner Notes topic.

But first, I have some news about The Unstarving Musician podcast.

As the podcast got closer and closer to 300 episodes, I decided to episode 300 the last. The final four episodes will be solo episodes discussing some of the topics I've written about you and the other Liner Notes subscribers.

The podcast has been a life-changing experience. It afforded me the opportunity to speak with and learn from hundreds of talented and inspiring musicians and music industry professionals. My decision to stop producing new episodes is purely a time thing. I'm ready to focus on new projects, including my own music.

This newsletter and The Unstarving Musician blog will continue, and I have a number of ideas for new ways of sharing all the knowledge I garnered from the many interviews conducted for the podcast. More on that soon.

On to the next topic of music publishing –royalties.

Royalties overview

Composition (song) owners earn money by renting songs to radio, TV, and other entities to generate royalties and licensing fees. The most common royalty types are performance royalties, mechanical royalties, and synchronization fees.

Performance royalties

Compositions played in public generate performance royalties. Common examples include:

• A song played on the radio
• A song in a TV show, movie, or commercial
• A song played live at a concert, by the original artist or another artist
• A band playing an acoustic cover of a song on the radio
• A song playing in public settings like restaurants, bars, dental offices, etc.

Performing Rights Organizations

This is a murky area for many new songwriters. PROs (Performing Rights Organizations) such as BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC grant licenses to bars, concert venues, radio stations, and most other places that play music publicly. They then collect licensing fees and pay portions of the revenue to the composition owners. This fees collection allows songwriters to get paid when their songs are broadcasted or performed publicly.

Mechanical royalties

Reproductions of compositions generate mechanical royalties, such as when a copy is permanently created or streamed. Most of this income comes from the sale of a recorded song. Regardless of the medium-of-sale or who recorded the song, the writer gets a royalty. The collection of this money is typically handled by the publisher, by the writers themselves if they do not have a publisher, or by a third-party agency specializing in mechanical licensing like the Harry Fox Agency.

Synchronization (sync) fees occur when a work appears alongside a visual medium. A sync fee is money earned when your work is in a movie, an ad, TV show, or other video production. Sync fees are usually paid out by the production company using the composition. These fees are also the easiest to collect because, unlike performance and mechanical royalties, whoever uses your works must have your direct permission.

The primary income sources for a master recording are performance, mechanical, and sync. Performance royalties for master recordings do not result with every public performance. Most master recordings will only see performance revenue from digital services like streaming and satellite radio, such as services like Pandora, Spotify, and Sirius XM. However, only the composition owner earns money when their song gets radio airplay. Master recordings usually make around five times more per stream than the composition that it embeds. Musicians and parts of the music industry have begun efforts to establish more equitable compensation and are doing so on multiple fronts. I am somewhat out of the loop on the latest legal actions, but will watch for future updates and calls for action.

This money is tracked and collected, for the most part, by a company called SoundExchange. A master recording owner must sign up with SoundExchange to receive their performance royalties. It's also the master owner's responsibility to sign up with a PRO.

The creation of a new permanent master recording copy generates mechanical royalties. New permanent master recording copies include vinyl, CD, digital download, and streaming. Collecting mechanical royalties for master recordings is primarily done by distributors. If you are an independent artist, you are the distributor.

The process for sync licensing is nearly identical for composition and master recording owners. The company that wishes to use the song will contact the master recording owner, and the license fee will (usually) be the same as the fee for the composition.

PROs & songwriter/publisher royalties

PROs pay royalties to songwriters and publishers at a 50/50 split. If you do not have a publisher or a publishing administrator, you must register with the PRO twice—once as a songwriter and once as a publisher—to collect both shares. Otherwise, the PRO will keep the publishers share, which is 50% of the performance royalties owed to you.

Further reading:

Shout out the following websites for the great articles used as sources for this issue of Liner Notes!

​https://splice.com/blog/performing-rights-organizations-guide/​

​https://mastering.com/license-music/​

​https://www.reprtoir.com/blog/masters​

​https://mastering.com/music-publishing/​

​https://blog.songtrust.com/taylor-swift-copyright-ownership-discussion​

​https://bit.ly/3UPoOOq​

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Shout-out to Bandzoogle

Thank you to Bandzoogle and Unstarving Musician community members who have used the Unstarving Musician discount code to try it out. It helps support the podcast.

​My music website is on Bandzoogle and I almost never worry about it working as it should. Bandzoogle really has everything you need to promote and sell your music, keep your supporters informed, and sell merch. Bandzoogle also has EPK templates, crowd funding templates, email and social features for staying connecting with fans, and more.

If you haven't yet looked into it, visit Bandzoogle.com and use promo-code R O B O N Z O to get 15% off your first year!

Peace, love and more green smoothies,
Robonzo
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