From: katelyn
2008-08-28 10:56:18
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To: katelyn
2008-08-26 15:14:00
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| - | <p class="MsoNormal">If you think your songs will be performed on the radio re-read the first section that talks about the realities of pay-for-play radio. After you’ve read that, if you still think your songs will be played on the radio or if you think your music will be used in commercials, TV shows, sports events, or otherwise performed without you doing the performing, then you should register them at a performance society. As with anything in life, if you think there’s the remotest chance it may be performed, then you probably should do it. And, as with everything in life, there’s a small fee involved.</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">If you think your songs will be performed on the radio re-read the first section that talks about the realities of pay-for-play radio. After you’ve read that, if you still think your songs will be played on the radio or if you think your music will be used in commercials, TV shows, sports events, or otherwise performed without you doing the performing, then you should register them at a performance society. As with anything in life, if you think there’s the remotest chance it may be performed, then you probably should do it. And, as with everything in life, there’s a small fee involved. </p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">Why? Because as the copyright owner, every time your song is played, or performed, you should be paid. This &quot;performance right&quot; is simply just one of the many copyrights a copyright owner has. The law is written such that no one can stop anyone from performing someone else’s music. However, once performed, the owner is entitled to get compensation. </p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">Why? Because as the copyright owner, every time your song is played, or performed, you should be paid. This &quot;performance right&quot; is simply just one of the many copyrights a copyright owner has. The law is written such that no one can stop anyone from performing someone else’s music. However, once performed, the owner is entitled to get compensation.</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">So, how do you make sure you are paid? There's a lot of history behind the answer to that question, so the result might seem a little strange, but the short answer is that there are musician collectives that collect money from every place that performs music as a general fee for playing music registered with them. These are known as &quot;performance societies.&quot; </p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">In the United States, the three societies you can register with are: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. These societies catalog and keep track of all the songs played everywhere and then pay you for each time your register song or songs are performed (e.g. on the radio, in a movie, played live by other bands.) Well, at least that’s the theory. </p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">So, how do you make sure you are paid? There's a lot of history behind the answer to that question, so the result might seem a little strange, but the short answer is that there are musician collectives that collect money from every place that performs music as a general fee for playing music registered with them. These are known as &quot;performance societies.&quot;</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">Each of these societies collect money and a list of songs that have been played from music venues, radio stations, and other public performance sites and then pay the people who wrote the songs that were played accordingly (after taking a percentage for themselves as operating costs, of course.) In other words, they protect your performance rights by collecting licensing fees from the users of your music (e.g. bars, radio, jukeboxes) and then distribute the royalties owed to you. So if your registered song is played on the radio, and if they somehow catalog this fact, then the performance society will pay you. Without these societies, you’d have to track each performance of your song, locate the place of performance, and then negotiate and collect the license fee owed to you from each of these establishments.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">You can only become a member at ONE society, so choose wisely although they’re pretty much all the same. You’ll have to pay a yearly fee to be a member, although this amount may be somewhat negligible (ASCAP charges a one-time fee to join for instance.) Your membership allows you to register songs (typically electronically through the web.) Your membership also gives you certain benefits (such as discounts at chain music /music instrument stores) and pertinent and important <a href="http://www.ascap.com/musicbiz/movingtips.html"><b>career advice for the independent musician</b></a>.*</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">In the United States, the three societies you can register with are: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. These societies catalog and keep track of all the songs played everywhere and then pay you for each time your register song or songs are performed (e.g. on the radio, in a movie, played live by other bands.) Well, at least that’s the theory.</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">[*This is sarcasm.]</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">If your registered song or songs are performed during the year, you will receive a royalty check. The royalties are set by the statute and amount to pennies on the dollar. </p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">Each of these societies collect money and a list of songs that have been played from music venues, radio stations, and other public performance sites and then pay the people who wrote the songs that were played accordingly (after taking a percentage for themselves as operating costs, of course.) In other words, they protect your performance rights by collecting licensing fees from the users of your music (e.g. bars, radio, jukeboxes) and then distribute the royalties owed to you. So if your registered song is played on the radio, and if they somehow catalog this fact, then the performance society will pay you. Without these societies, you’d have to track each performance of your song, locate the place of performance, and then negotiate and collect the license fee owed to you from each of these establishments.</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">How do they track songs? State-of-the-art computers, of course.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">BMI explains…</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">You can only become a member at ONE society, so choose wisely although they’re pretty much all the same. You’ll have to pay a yearly fee to be a member, although this amount may be somewhat negligible (ASCAP charges a one-time fee to join for instance.) Your membership allows you to register songs (typically electronically through the web.) Your membership also gives you certain benefits (such as discounts at chain music /music instrument stores) and pertinent and important <a href="http://www.ascap.com/musicbiz/movingtips.html"><b>career advice for the independent musician</b></a>.*</p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">[*This is sarcasm.]</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">If your registered song or songs are performed during the year, you will receive a royalty check. The royalties are set by the statute and amount to pennies on the dollar.</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">How do they track songs? State-of-the-art computers, of course.</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">BMI explains…</p> | + | |
| | <p style="margin-left:.5in;" class="MsoNormal"><i>&quot;Over the course of each year virtually every radio station in America provides BMI with airplay information, amounting to a total of over 500,000 hours annually. These lists (known as logs) are put through a state-of-the-art computer system that multiplies each performance by the ratio of the number of hours of airtime in a sample to the total number of hours of airtime on radio stations in America licensed by BMI, which gives a statistical approximation of the actual number of performances on U.S. radio.&quot; (See </i><a href="http://www.bmi.com/songwriter/about/performance.asp"><b><i>BMI Site</i></b></a><i>) </i></p> | | <p style="margin-left:.5in;" class="MsoNormal"><i>&quot;Over the course of each year virtually every radio station in America provides BMI with airplay information, amounting to a total of over 500,000 hours annually. These lists (known as logs) are put through a state-of-the-art computer system that multiplies each performance by the ratio of the number of hours of airtime in a sample to the total number of hours of airtime on radio stations in America licensed by BMI, which gives a statistical approximation of the actual number of performances on U.S. radio.&quot; (See </i><a href="http://www.bmi.com/songwriter/about/performance.asp"><b><i>BMI Site</i></b></a><i>) </i></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">In other words, if your registered song is played a helluva lot of times and rises to a level of statistical significance, you can expect a check to come in. Ironically, when you play your <b><i>own </i></b>original songs at a bar, you are supposed to get compensated for it. In Europe, they actually keep track of your playlists at venues and you will get some credit for playing your own music. Unfortunately, the US does not do this. Here's what one experienced musician, Janis Ian, had to say about this:</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">In other words, if your registered song is played a helluva lot of times and rises to a level of statistical significance, you can expect a check to come in. Ironically, when you play your <b><i>own </i></b>original songs at a bar, you are supposed to get compensated for it. In Europe, they actually keep track of your playlists at venues and you will get some credit for playing your own music. Unfortunately, the US does not do this. Here's what one experienced musician, Janis Ian, had to say about this:</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">&quot;...America is the only country I am aware of that pays no live performance royalties to songwriters. In Europe, Japan, Australia, when you finish a show, you turn your set list in to the promoter, who files it with the appropriate organization, and then pays a small royalty per song to the writer. It costs the singer nothing, the rates are based on venue size, and it ensures that writers whose songs no longer get airplay, but are still performed widely, can continue receiving the benefit from those songs.&quot;</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">&quot;...America is the only country I am aware of that pays no live performance royalties to songwriters. In Europe, Japan, Australia, when you finish a show, you turn your set list in to the promoter, who files it with the appropriate organization, and then pays a small royalty per song to the writer. It costs the singer nothing, the rates are based on venue size, and it ensures that writers whose songs no longer get airplay, but are still performed widely, can continue receiving the benefit from those songs.&quot;</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal"> -Janis Ian</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal"> -Janis Ian</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">Mostly, you’ll only get a letter stating that their sampling showed that none of your songs were performed during the year (despite the fact your own band probably performed a bunch of those songs publicly…).</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">As an independent band, or even one on a small label, you can’t expect much of an income from these societies, if any. Because most music that is performed is owned by the major labels, these three performance societies are pretty much in bed with the labels despite the fact they claim to be for the artist. Even if you know that your songs are getting played and can prove the times and dates, unless it gets caught in their state-of-the-art computer algorithms, you are likely to not get anything. And, if somehow you do, it may not make up for the application fee.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">Mostly, you’ll only get a letter stating that their sampling showed that none of your songs were performed during the year (despite the fact your own band probably performed a bunch of those songs publicly…).</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">If you need to save money, this is definitely one of the steps you could avoid – at least until:</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· They get an accurate sampling method that can actually track the few times when an independent musician’s song has been played.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">As an independent band, or even one on a small label, you can’t expect much of an income from these societies, if any. Because most music that is performed is owned by the major labels, these three performance societies are pretty much in bed with the labels despite the fact they claim to be for the artist. Even if you know that your songs are getting played and can prove the times and dates, unless it gets caught in their state-of-the-art computer algorithms, you are likely to not get anything. And, if somehow you do, it may not make up for the application fee.</p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· They begin paying bands for performing their own copyrighted songs in public.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You secure a license deal and you know your music definitely will be used on TV or radio (in which case you would be foolish not to register as you'd have advance knowledge that your music will be performed and possibly caught in their state-of-the-art computer systems. That's what finally motivated us.)</p><p></p> |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">If you need to save money, this is definitely one of the steps you could avoid – at least until:</p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You become quite established and garner a lot of radio play on your own.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p> </p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You sign a major or minor record deal.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· They get an accurate sampling method that can actually track the few times when an independent musician’s song has been played.</p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You &quot;just want to be sure&quot; and can't stand the fact that you might, just might, miss out on the few cents that may be owed to you.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· They begin paying bands for performing their own copyrighted songs in public.</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">Otherwise, these performance societies are unlikely to be as productive as a website, for example, in terms of getting people interested in your band and directly contributing to your band income.</p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You secure a license deal and you know your music definitely will be used on TV or radio (in which case you would be foolish not to register as you'd have advance knowledge that your music will be performed and possibly caught in their state-of-the-art computer systems. That's what finally motivated us.)</p> | + | <p class="MsoNormal">Details as to how to register go beyond the scope of this section of The Survival Guide. However, you can find the pertinent information and weigh each society’s benefits at each of their websites:</p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You become quite established and garner a lot of radio play on your own.</p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.ascap.com/"><b>ASCAP</b></a> (The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)</p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You sign a major or minor record deal.</p> | + | |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· You &quot;just want to be sure&quot; and can't stand the fact that you might, just might, miss out on the few cents that may be owed to you.</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">Otherwise, these performance societies are unlikely to be as productive as a website, for example, in terms of getting people interested in your band and directly contributing to your band income.</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p class="MsoNormal">Details as to how to register go beyond the scope of this section of The Survival Guide. However, you can find the pertinent information and weigh each society’s benefits at each of their websites:</p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.ascap.com/"><b>ASCAP</b></a> (The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)</p> | + | |
| | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.bmi.com/"><b>BMI</b></a></p> | | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.bmi.com/"><b>BMI</b></a></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.sesac.com/"><b>SESAC</b></a></p> | + | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal">· <a href="http://www.sesac.com/"><b>SESAC</b></a><a></a></p><p></p> |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> | + | |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> | + | |
| - | <p style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;text-align:right;" class="MsoNormal"><a href="../../../../wiki/page/Copyright_for_Cover_Songs_and_Loops">Next: Copyright, Cover Songs, and Loops</a></p> | + | |
| - | <p> </p> | + | |
