Performing Rights Royalties Performing rights royalties are earned when a music piece is performed publicly. This can mean it is sung or played via recording or in person. Performance royalties are earned when a song is played on the radio, television, internet or performed at a live concert. Even when[…]
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Thinking beyond the musical composition and lyric writing stages of creating music can sometimes be overlooked but it important to think about what will happen to your music once it is out in the musical world for people to listen to, copy, and possible use for their projects. That is[…]
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When you set out to create a composition, write a set of lyrics, and assemble an entire musical piece, it is important to not only think about the creative steps but how you can protect your music once you have your finished product. One of the most important steps to[…]
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This year MIDEM will be celebrating its 50th anniversary on June 3-6 in Cannes, France. MIDEM is an annual tradeshow that brings together the biggest names in the music industry for four days of conferences, networking events and concerts. It is an essential relationship broker of the music industry, providing[…]
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Video-sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo have made the distribution of video and musical content available to the masses. These sites offer considerable opportunities for independent artists looking for a venue for their work and help foster discussion about various topics. However, the benefits these services bring are contrasted by[…]
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Presuming you can pre-clear your songs and recordings, you will want to get them to music supervisors and music libraries. Music libraries acquire a tremendous amount of their material from independent songwriters and composers (meaning writers who are not signed to publishing deals) and from artists who produce their own[…]
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You paid for the studio, the engineer, the musicians, and the vocalists—so now you own the finished recording, and have the right to license it for inclusion in TV and films—right? Not necessarily. If you recorded the song in your home studio, played or programmed all the instruments, and sang[…]
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Two different rights must be granted for a song to be included in a television show or movie: A synchronization license(typically called a sync license) is issued to grant permission to use the underlying song. This license is issued by the song’s publisher. • A master uselicense is issued by the owner of[…]
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Music libraries (sometimes referred to as production music libraries) are essentially music publishers, but instead of pitching songs to recording artists, they pitch and license songs and instrumental pieces for television shows, movies, commercials, and video games. The top music libraries have catalogs comprised of tens of thousands of songs and instrumental[…]
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The music supervisor meets with the director to identify where songs might augment and underscore the emotion of the scenes, as well as to identify the source music that is needed, such as songs coming from a car radio or a jukebox. Then his or her job is to find songs[…]
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