Music
Business
Take your music career one step further by getting guidance throughout your journey in the music industry for brand development, graphics and logo creation, merch coordination, accounts establishment and management, music distribution, collecting royalties, creating press releases, releasing music, booking shows, obtaining legal protections for your music and company, and more.
Release Strategy
When releasing music, you want every release to enhance and reinforce your brands messaging.
How does this single help tell more of your artist story?
What message does the single give the audience about you?
How will the launch of this single enhance your relationship with your audience?
Is this song aligned with your brands messaging and brand essence?
How are you going to attract listeners, encourage streams, and drive downloads?
Can this single inspire listeners to make videos of their own (such as TikTok challenges, dance contests, caption contests, duets, response videos, and other hashtag-driven community engagement)?
Playlists
If you want to make your singles more likely to get placed on playlists, you should be aware of these music trends:
No long intros and outros - People are impatient and can skip songs very easily. Don’t tempt them. Get to the goods.
Put the hook of your song at the beginning - Lead with the hook or chorus.
Keep your songs under 4 minutes - It’s best to keep your songs between 2-4 minutes long. Under 3 minutes would be the goal for maximum playlist-ability.
Watch the expletives - Explicit language can limit the kinds of playlists you could appear on.
Music Distributors
Independent Digital Music Distributors are responsible for putting music onto Digital Service Providers (DSP) such as an online store (iTunes or AmazonMusic) or a streaming service (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music).
Some Independent Music Distributors include:
Distrokid
Ditto Music
TuneCore
CDBaby
LANDR
Amuse
AWAL
The Mechanics of Music Distribution SoundCharts
Digital Service Providers (DSPs) Explained SongTrust
Register Songs
There are many organizations you will want to register both yourself as an artist, writer (and publisher if you are self-publishing) AND your music to ensure you are collecting royalties and ensure your music is included in databases (or you can hire a publishing administration company).
Below is a list of organizations, societies or agencies to consider registering with:
Independent Digital Music Distributors
Copyright
Performance Rights Organizations
The MLC
Harry Fox Agency
SoundExchange
ISRC Code *may be automatically generated by your Distributor
ALLMusic
Lyrics
Gracenote
Copyright
Copyright is a form of intellectual property law and protects original works of authorship. Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Copyright registration is not required however you will have to register if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. Copyright registrations can be submitted online through the U.S. Copyright Office.
There are two types of Copyrights for musicians:
Publishing Rights
Belong to the owner of the actual music composition
Composition is the notes, melodies, chords, rhythms, lyrics, and any other piece of original music
A musical work is a song’s underlying composition
Composers and lyricists are both songwriters
Owned by the songwriters of the actual composition
Master Rights
Belong to the owner of a master sound recording
Sound Recording is the recording of an original song or sound used for reproduction and distribution
Original Song is the series of musical, spoken, or other sounds created by the performer who is being recorded, the record producer who processes and fixes the sounds
Typically owned by performers, artists, record label, recording studio, or typically any other party who financed the recording
Sound Recordings include the audio files exported from your digital audio workstation (DAW)
Copyright law allows the exclusive rights to:
reproduce the work (copying an MP3, etc)
prepare derivative works (sampling, remixing, licensing, etc)
distribute copies of the work (selling or giving away downloads to the public)
perform the work (performing your song in a venue or having your song played on the radio)
publicly display the work (displaying your lyrics online)
synchronizing music in audiovisual works
Owners of sound recordings do not have all of these rights. Sound recordings have no public display right and the public performance right for sound recordings in the United States is limited to digital audio transmission (on internet streaming services or on satellite or cable radio.)
COPYRIGHT BASICS (PDF)
COPYRIGHT STANDARD APPLICATION TUTORIAL (VIDEO)
COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION PORTAL
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS SECTION 802
SOUND RECORDINGS SECTION 803
Copyright Registration for Sound Recordings CIRC 56
Musical Works, Sound Recordings & Copyright (PDF)
Performance Rights Organizations
Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) are designed to collect performance royalties and pay performance royalties to composers and music publishers. The job of a Performance Rights Organization is to issue licenses to anyone who uses live music, track performances and broadcastings of music nationwide, collect licensing fees from broadcasters, venues, and streaming services, and calculate songwriting performance royalties to distribute payment to songwriters or music publishers.
PROs also collect International Royalties on your behalf by working with international PROs around the world to license your works and collect fees when your music is performed outside of the United States.
PROs are not responsible for collecting mechanical royalties.
You can apply for PRO’s as a Writer, Publisher or both a Writer and a Publisher. A Writer is someone who creates a musical composition: the melody, harmony, lyrics, arrangements, beats, etc. A Publisher is a person or company that handles the business side of music.
To receive Performance Rights Royalties, you must register with a PRO. The United States has three Performance Rights Organizations:
Music Publishing
A music publisher or music publishing company ensures the songwriters and composers receive royalty payments from all revenue sources when the copyrighted compositions are used.
A music publisher or music publishing company is responsible for protecting the use of the song, creating publishing licensing agreements, registering your songs with Performance Rights Organizations, collecting royalties, and finding placements and opportunities for the music (sync licensing) in television, film, video games, ads, etc.
Music publishers can be represented by a record company, a music publishing company, an authorized third party, or can be self-published. When in contract with a music publisher, the writer of the music assigns part or all of their music copyright ownership to the publisher in exchange for the publisher's commercial exploitation of the music by finding placements for the music.
If a writer is not under contract to a music publisher, they act as their own publisher. Self-Publishing allows an artist or writer to own 100% of their publishing rights, however, self-publishing may limit the opportunities of placements your music may have. Self-Publishing requires registering two different accounts with a PRO, one as writer and one as publisher.
Songwriters can license their musical works (music and lyrics) themselves or, more commonly, assign the rights in their works to publishers. In a traditional publishing arrangement, the songwriter assigns the copyright interest in a song to the publisher, who distributes a portion of royalties to the songwriter (the “songwriter’s share”) and retains a portion as compensation (the “publisher’s share”).
WHAT IS MUSIC PUBLISHING? Music Gateway
BEST MUSIC PUBLISHING COMPANIES of 2021 Music Gateway
GLOSSARY OF MUSIC PUBLISHING TERMS AIMP
Publishing Administrator
A publishing administrator handles the management of your PRO catalog by registering your songs directly with PROs worldwide, and collecting performance and mechanical royalties (streams, downloads, and physical sales) that are generated. Publishing Administrators do not replace your Performing Rights Organization (PRO).
Publishing Administrators will collect:
Publisher Shares* of any performance royalties from your PRO
Mechanical royalties that are not collected by PROs
YouTube by claiming and monetizing user-generated content through its Content ID service
SoundCloud if you uploaded music through an eligible distributor or SoundCloud Premier
*Writer’s Share of public performance royalties will be sent to you directly by your PRO
All songwriters must be registered with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) in order to receive their Writer Share of performance royalties. Publishing Administrators will handle the Publisher’s Share.
Publishing Administrators / Royalty Collection Agencies:
Songtrust
Royalties
Music royalties are payments that go to copyright holders for the rights and licenses for others to use their intellectual property (music).
There are four main types of Royalties:
Performance
Mechanical
Synchronization
Print
Performance Royalties are fees generated when anyone publicly performs, broadcasts or streams your music in a public environment. Performance Rights are collected and distributed accordingly by Performance Rights Organizations.
Mechanical Royalties are generated when a musical composition is reproduced physically or digitally via on-demand streaming or download-to-own services. Mechanical Royalties are collected and distributed accordingly by Record Labels or Music Publishers. The MLC administers blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download DSPs in the United States, and collects the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs to pay songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.
Synchronization Royalties are generated when your song is used in a television show, movie or visual media that requires synchronized music.
Royalty Collection
There are two types of Copyrights:
Composition (the notes, melodies, chords, rhythms, lyrics)
Sound Recording (the recording of the composition)
Who owns each Copyright?
Composition (songwriters and publishers)
Sound Recording (performers, artists, record labels, recording studio, or any party who financed the recording)
If someone else records your song, they, as the recording artist, own and can collect the sound recording royalty (because it’s their recording) and you collect the mechanical royalty because you own the composition.
If you are the songwriter and the performing artist, you get to collect both the sound recording and the mechanical royalties.
Who can receive royalties for each Copyright?
Songwriter receives the writers share of the Composition
Publisher receives the publisher share of the Composition
Owner of the Sound Recording receives Sound Recording
Performers (featured artist) receives Sound Recording
Performers (non-featured vocalist) receives Sound Recording
Performers (non-featured musician) receives Sound Recording
Producers, Mixers, or Sound Engineers receives Sound Recording
There are different types of Rights which generate Royalties:
Performance (public performances and public broadcasts)
Digital Performance (non-interactive digital streaming services)
Mechanical (interactive streaming services and purchased downloads)
Synchronization (television show, movie or visual media)
Neighbouring Rights (not recognized in the United States)
Who collects and distributes each Royalty?
Performance. Performance Rights Organizations collect and distribute performance rights royalties evenly between the songwriter, composer and publisher
Digital Performance. SoundExchange collects and distributes royalties for the featured artist and the sound recording copyright owner when music is played on a non-interactive digital source.
Mechanical. Mechanical Royalties are collected and distributed accordingly by The MLC, Distributors, Record Labels or Music Publishers. Independent Digital Music Distributors pass down recording royalties from music sales on digital stores and streams from streaming services back to the Sound Recording Rights Owners.
Synchronization
Publishing Administrators collect publishing royalties from global performance and mechanical societies
International Royalties. Performance Rights Organizations collect International Royalties by working with international PROs to license your works and collect fees when your music is performed outside of the United States
Who gets paid for each Royalty Type?
Performance (songwriters, composers and publishers)
Digital Performance (featured artist and Sound Recording Copyright Owner)
Mechanical
Synchronization
How do they get paid?
Songwriter through PRO and The MLC
Publisher through PRO and The MLC
Performer through Record Label or Distributor
Performer (Featured Artists) register with SoundExchange and directs SoundExchange to pay a portion of their royalties to the producer, mixer, or engineer via a “letter of direction”
Performer (Non-Featured Artist) register with the AFM and SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund
Producers, Mixers, or Sound Engineers through SoundExchange
How Songwriters, Composers, and Performers Get Paid Copyright.gov
How Music Royalties Work SoundCharts
Mechanical Royalties SoundCharts
Digital Performance Royalties SoundCharts
Royalty Distribution: Who Collects What For Who? Royalty Exchange
Mechanical Licensing Collective and Royalties SongTrust
GLOBAL STREAMING COLLECTION SOURCES Songtrust
Trademark
Trademarks are a word, phrase, symbol, or design that are legally registered by use as representing a company or product, and identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. Applications can be filed through USPTO for the application fee of $225 or $275, or you can hire a service to file the application for you.
Business Structures
The most common business structures are the Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, Corporation, and S Corporation. When choosing the form of your business, numerous considerations come into play including personal liability, ownership and management and taxation. A
Sole Proprietor is an individual who owns a business. Sole proprietors are liable for the business’s liabilities, debt, and losses, putting your personal assets at risk, and sole proprietors include both their business expenses and personal income on their personal tax return.
A Partnership is the relationship between two or more people to do trade or business where each person contributes money, property, labor or skill, and shares in the profits and losses of the business.
A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a flexible business structures in which, depending on elections made by the LLC and the number of members, the IRS will treat an LLC as either a corporation, partnership, or as part of the LLC’s owner’s personal tax return. Forming an LLC separates business and personal liabilities, and provides that LLC owners are not liable for their business’s debts.
A Corporation is is separate from its owners and is recognized as an independent legal entity. Corporations are double-taxed, meaning you pay income taxes twice on the same source of earned income as the company is taxed as a business entity and each shareholder’s personal income is taxed. A corporation is formed when prospective shareholders exchange money, property, or both, for the corporation's capital stock.
S Corporations are corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes, meaning, shareholders of S corporations report the flow-through of income and losses on their personal tax returns and are assessed tax at their individual income tax rates.