Types of Copyright for Indie Music

Types of Copyright for Indie Music.

In my previous articles, I have been writing about copyrighting your music and generating income from it. In this article I am going to write about types of musical copyright.

Composition Copyright

A musical composition is a piece of music, in part or in whole. The authors of music are typically the music composer and the lyricist. These authors are the owners of the musical composition copyright. Both the composer and lyricist of a track get assigned 50% of the composition’s copyright in a typical composition copyright case, unless they agree on a different split. The reason for a different percentage is mostly one party contributing more than the other.

Copyright owners have the exclusive right to determine who can produce copies of their song, for example to create records. A mechanical license can be given out to grant this right to others. This is done in exchange for a monetary payment which is called ‘mechanical royalty’. Whenever a performing artist or a record label wants to record a song that they do not own, the law requires them to get a mechanical license from the copyright owners.

It is important for indie artists to know that all decisions regarding the composition can only be made when agreed upon by all copyright owners.

As mentioned before, the ownership and control of copyright can be transferred to others. Generally, a publisher is required by songwriters to control and manage their songs. In exchange, the publisher gets a percentage of the royalty streams which they help generate. Writer – publisher splits tend to range between 50%-50% and 70%-30%, depending on the clout of the artist. As I have written in my blog Publishing Indie Music, in the initial stages of your career, you will not benefit as much from the publishing deal, as the terms are not too favourable for budding indie artists. So unless you come with a solid earning background (a million hits on YouTube), you do not enjoy much bargaining power in the deal. Considering this, the other option is to wait a little in your career, until you have earned a name and fan base, in order to get a good deal from the publishers. Sometimes the writer – publisher split is also managed by the country’s regulations.

Sound Recording Copyright

The actual final recording of a song is called ‘sound recording’. It is often referred to as ‘master’ from the old ‘master tape’ expression.

Essentially, the authors, the performing artist and record producer are the owners of this type of copyright. A small share of master rights goes to the Producers, typically up to 12.5%. Because recordings are assigned to record labels, who have negotiated deals with both the artist and producer, the labels generally make them transfer ownership of their copyright to the label in exchange for royalty payments.

It’s getting more common and easy for performing artists to record independently. In this situation, the master ownership belongs to just them, or them and the producer.

Royalty payments to performing artists are called artist royalties. Royalty payments to producers are called producer royalties.

Having understood the two different types of musical copyright, it is important for indie artists to understand the difference between the ‘writers’ of a track and the owners of the actual ‘master recording’. The writer’s composition is typically represented by a publisher. The sound recording, made by the performing artist and producer, is typically represented by a label.

Publishing

It is highly recommended that you find a publishing agent to help you with ways to use musical works and generate revenue from them. Although you can always get online and publish your work. Or you may upload it on your website. If you do not have a website for your work or band yet, there are companies like Hyper Effects that can help you connect with your target audience efficiently. Hyper Effects is one stop for your website, marketing and cyber development requirements. It helps you to create a website to display your talent or sell your indie music or indie art. Their websites are easy to navigate.

Publishers are expensive, no doubt, but indie artists need them because they are the people who will find you experts in all fields of work. These experts help indie artists in making marketable music and improving their art. They have good knowledge about different fields of work in the industry and artists can learn a lot from them and absorb as their knowledge to be used in the future. Read my blog Publishing for Indie Artists, to know learn about the importance of publishers.

I am going to write more about publishing in my next blog. Please share your experiences in the comments section and I will add them to my future posts.