Month: May 2019

The New Retitle Publishing Approach

A friend and cowriter of mine recently sent me a link to a site that was interested in pitching our song for film and television.  All well and good.  But this proposition had a twist:

  • They would give our song a new title
  • They would have ownership rights to the retitled version
  • We would keep all rights to our original title

In every other respect, this was a standard publishing contract.

Why would a company do that?

The publishing industry has changed dramatically in the digital era. The two largest sources of income for published songs are broadcast performance royalties (radio, television) and film and television licenses (synchronization fees).  It’s practically impossible to crack this field as an individual.  Given the wide range of musical material needed for film cues, you have to have a large library of music in all styles in order to compete.  So in addition to the usual large traditional exclusive publishing  companies going after this business, there are also companies that employ member crowdsourcing (TAXI) and still others that troll searchable sound sites like Soundclick to quickly build up a catalog of material by working out retitle deals with the owners of the music.

In our case, I thought it was a win-win for everybody.  Our song had been written for a specific movie use and was not selected.  We had nowhere else to pitch it, so it sat dormant for a year.  The way this deal was structured left us free to continue to pitch our original title any way we wished, AND we had the benefit of the alternate title being actively pitched by a publishing company with film contacts.

As I did more research, I discovered that there are some drawbacks.

Because the content is identical, and only the ‘wrapper’ changes, it means in effect that the retitle publishing company does not have exclusive rights to the song.  As a matter of fact, we could find another retitle publisher and work out a similar deal, giving us our original and two retitled versions pitched by two different companies.  This can create confusion and ownership questions when the film company receives the same song with two different titles from two different companies at two different licensing rates.

Another area of concern is automatic song identification.  ASCAP and BMI have both employed ‘fingerprinting’ services that can identify a title by its sonic characteristics, reducing  the need for broadcast station playlists and streamlining the logging process.  This is extensively used for song identification with streaming internet radio.  If you have your original version recorded and released for airplay at the same time your retitled version becomes popular from inclusion in a film, who gets the airplay royalties?

Also, consider the possibility of future interest from a traditional exclusive publisher.  They would not be interested in signing a song that already exists in the marketplace under a different title.

Lastly, why retitle the song when there is the option of placing it with a company that does in effect the same thing (pitch the title to film and television) but they don’t retitle the song and there is no long term contract (musicsupervisor.com).

So it’s a mixed bag.  Retitling makes sense if:

  • Your song has not been previously released
  • You are not actively pitching the song
  • You don’t have the option of placing it with an exclusive publisher
  • You don’t have the option of placing it with a licensing company that doesn’t retitle
  • You sign it to only one non-exclusive retitle publisher
  • You are comfortable with the fact that the retitled version, if successfully placed, will be the version of the song that will be recognized and identified, not the original

If you do decide to pursue a retitle publishing deal, remember that this IS a  publishing contract.  As with any publishing deal, you’ll want to make sure you agree on the money splits, that there is some kind of reversion term where you get the song back after a period of time if no placement is secured, and that the publisher is someone you feel comfortable about staying in contact with since you have, in effect, entered into a partnership agreement.

WHERE’S MY MONEY?

Let’s talk money. All forms of income from music stem from the protection offered by the existing copyright laws.  The monies that are generated by a song’s copyright are usually split evenly between the writer(s) and the publisher(s).  If you are the sole writer of a song and haven’t signed an agreement with a music publisher, YOU are in effect both the writer AND the publisher.  If you are an artist with a song somewhere on the internet and you haven’t entered into an agreement with a recording company, YOU ARE the recording company as well.

Unless you are negotiating directly with someone for the use of your music, another company is collecting these royalties for you (and for everyone else like you).  If you don’t register with them, the money they collect for you goes into a big pile and gets distributed to the ones who HAVE registered.

So, getting down to it, in the copyright law passed in 1976, your rights were:

RIGHT DESCRIPTION WHO PAYS?
Public Performance Concerts, radio and TV broadcasts,nightclubs, etc Broadcasters pay the performing rights societies: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC.  They in turn pay both the publisher and the writer.
Mechanical Rights Any form requiring a mechanical device for playback: cassettes, CDs, MP3s Recording companies  (Sony, UMG, your indie label) pay the publishers or publisher representatives (Harry Fox Agency).  The publisher then pays the writer according to their agreement.
Synchronization Synchronizing music with video – whether TV or film or commercial. This is usually a negotiated one-time fee. The publisher of the song negotiates directly with the film or TV or advertising company, then pays the writer according to their agreement.
Print Sheet music, TAB transcriptions, etc. The print publisher pays the song publisher, who then pays the writer according to their agreement.
Grand Rights The use of the song as the basis for another art form, such as film or book.  This is, again, usually a one-time fee. The publisher negotiates the fee directly, and pays the writer according to their agreement.

OK, that’s the ‘what.’  How much money are we talking about, and how does it get paid?

ROYALTY TYPE HOW IS THE FEE PAID?
Radio & television Stations pay a blanket license to the performing rights societies for the right to play ANY song in their catalog.  The fee is based on the size of their listenership. Generally, this is the lion’s share of income received by a songwriter or writer/artist.
Nightclubs Clubs also pay a blanket license for the right to play music in their clubs for their patrons, based on their capacity.
CD sales Record companies pay a per song rate to the publisher or a publisher representative such as the Harry Fox Agency. Congress has established a minimum rate (statutory rate – currently 9.1 cents) that is reviewed every few years. FYI, record companies will generally submit a separate agreement to the writer(s) prior to a CD release for a sub-statutory rate. Gotcha!
Synch License (Film), Grand Rights The film production company pays the negotiated fee for synchronization to the publisher directly.   This is normally a one-time fee ranging from free (for exposure) to thousands of dollars.
Advertising The advertising agency negotiates either a one-time fee (buyout) or a residual fee with the publisher.  Many factors determine the amount paid: the number of markets in which the ads will air, artist name recognition, lyric changes, etc.
Print The print publisher pays the song publisher a percentage of the wholesale price as a royalty. Traditionally this has been between 10%-12.5%.  Also, traditionally, this is not split 50/50 (a holdover from the days of print), but that is changing.

In 1998, the Digital Milennium Copyright Act was passed which expanded the 1976 law into the digital realm of the internet.  It also criminalized attempts to circumvent digital rights management and heightens penalties for copyright infringement. There’s a great article from back in 2007 written by Dina LaPolt that goes into great detail about the various ways artists and writers are paid for digital streaming and downloads.  Click here to read it in its entirety.  Here are the highlights:

RIGHT DESCRIPTION WHO PAYS?
Digital Downloads Treated as a form of mechanical license, these are files downloaded for a fee from sites such as iTunes or Amazon. The download site pays the recording company or administrator such as CDbaby, who then pays the song publisher a percentage of the fee.
Interactive Webast The consumer interacts with the website to hear music of their choosing as either custom playlists (Grooveshark, Rhapsody) or random automatic selections based on preference (Pandora). The web site owner pays the recording company, since this is not a broadcast situation. They in turn pay the song publisher a percentage of their fee.
Internet Radio (Master Recording License) XM Radio, internet versions of terrestrial radio, cable music stations such as Music Choice. The Master Recording license is the fee paid for the right to stream the sound recording. Soundexchange collects streaming royalties on behalf of the owner of the master recording (usually the record company). 50% goes to the label, 45% to the featured artist, and 5% to the non-featured musicians and vocalists.
Internet Radio (Broadcast performance license) XM Radio, etc. as above.  This is the fee paid because it fits the legal definition of a broadcast. These fees are collected by the performing rights societies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) and are paid to both the publisher and the songwriter.
Video Games X-Box, Wii, online games, mobile apps Publisher negotiates the fee directly – usually a ‘buyout’ (one-time fee for unlimited use)
Ring Tones Treated as a mechanical license, these are short portions master recordings used to identify callers musically. Carrier keeps half the money, record label gets the other half, and pays the statutory rate (24 cents) to the publisher.

So now you know.

A Lyric Writing Approach to Consider

The three cornerstones of good songwriting are:

  • The purpose of a song is to convey an emotion
  • Lyrically a song is about one moment in time from an emotional point of view
  • Musically a song is a balance of repetition and surprise

This post digs a little deeper into the lyric writing aspect.

I am primarily a musician. That comes easily to me. I had to work at writing effective lyrics.

  • One moment in time
    That one moment is usually now. If the singer is remembering something, it’s in the context of what’s going on now. If the singer is thinking ahead, he’s still planted in the reality of now.
  • Say one thing
    Each verse should basically say one thing. When you plan your song, come up with an outline of the entire song something like this:
    V1 – one thing
    CHORUS
    V2 – one thing
    CHORUS
    V3 or BRIDGE – one thing
    CHORUSEach time the chorus comes back, it should have a slightly different meaning because of the new context of the verse that sets it up.
  • Punch lines
    There are always two planes of thought in a well written song: the logical plane and the emotional plane. Each couplet should be written with the two planes of thought intersecting at the last word (the link word). in other words, write it like a joke. A joke is also the intersection of two different planes of thought. The listener is led along the logical line of thought until the last word, which introduces a completely different plane of thought.Here’s a pun to illustrate the point – My last job was working in a muffler factory, but I had to quit. It was too exhausting.   “Exhaust” is the link word – joining the logical reason for quitting with the physical function of a muffler.Construct the last line of your couplet from the thought generated by the last word (the link), then work backwards. Come up with your setup rhyme word and write the lead-in line that ends with that word. That way you always write to the strong word.
  • Bridges
    My rule of thumb for bridges is this. If you’ve written two verses and choruses and still feel that you haven’t made your point, then you need to write a lyric bridge. Lyric bridges can go two directions. They can be universal, as if to say everyone feels this way or this is the way the world goes. They can also go inward, as if to say this is how I truly feel in my heart. Either way, when you write your bridge, forget about your rhyme scheme or your lyric rhythm. Get right to the heart of the matter and just blurt out what it is that you are trying to say. Once you have that bit of prose, then you can let it lead you as to what to do musically with it.

I hope this helps you when you hit a lyric wall.

Breaking Down The Dividing Line

I’ve stated before that I think the key to effective live performance is to break down the barrier between who’s the performer and who’s the audience.  I give the example of my friend, Skip Folse, who performed at a club here in Atlanta.

At one part of the evening he would start the “naked conga line.”  The club had two entrances and people would form a line in front of the stage, dance out one door into the parking lot, return through the other door, and when they reached the front of the stage the ladies would lift their tops and the men would turn and drop their trousers.  Skip performed with one hand on the keyboard and one hand holding a digital camera, which he used to snap a picture as the action happened.  He would meet the people on his break, find out their story, edit the pictures with ‘stars’ to cover the naughty parts, and upload them to his website before going to bed after the gig.  Everyone knew that if they were part of the naked conga line, they would be ‘famous’ by morning.

The Kaiser Chiefs did a similar thing with a new album release. Fans could go to their website and listen to 20 new songs by the Chiefs.  They could then pick their favorite 10 songs, arrange them in any order they wish, and design their custom album cover from pre-selected art.  Next they were given their own personalized web page to sell their version of the album.  For every copy they sold, they received £1 via PayPal.

Each of those were a twist on the normal roles we play. I encourage you to think outside the box this way and incorporate your own ideas into your music.

Creating Emphasis

The meaning of your lyric depends on which word gets the emphasis.  For example, the phrase “I’m going to the store” could mean:

  • I’M going to the store    (not you, me)
  • I’m GOING to the store  (in motion, on the move)
  • I’m going TO the store    (not away from it)
  • I’m going to THE store   (the only one, the most important one)
  • I’m going to the STORE  (not the office)

As a songwriter, you have two ways of creating emphasis: pitch and rhythm.

PITCH

“Pitch” is how high or how low a note is.  There are always exceptions, but as a rule high notes get more emphasis than low notes.  For example, the old nursery song “Row Row Row Your Boat” begins with a low pitch on the word “row” and rises to a higher pitch on the word “boat.”  In this case, “boat” would get the emphasis in the phrase.

RHYTHM

Rhythm is concerned with the beat or the flow of the melody. In general, longer notes get more emphasis than shorter notes, and remember – space counts.  If you sing a note and wait a while before singing the next note, it has the same effect as holding the note out. There are three ways to emphasize a melody note with rhythm:

  1. Start the note at the usual place and hold it longer
  2. Start the note earlier and release it at the usual place
  3. Wait a little longer before singing the next note.

In addition to these two ways of creating emphasis, singers have one more tool: 

TONE

Tone can be changed in a number of ways.  For example,

  • If you’ve been properly singing every line and then you speak a couple of words, the spoken words will stand out and get emphasis.
  • If you’ve sung a line in a normal tone and then sing from the back of your throat for a couple of words, those will stand out.
  • If you “growl” on a few words, those will stand out and get emphasis.

These variations become especially useful when you’re singing a song demo.  Remember that musically your song should be a balance of repetition and surprise.  Too much repetition and the listener is bored.  Too much surprise and the listener is confused. If you’ve sung the chorus the same way twice, it’s time to make a change for the third time.  If you’ve already sung the first verse straight, you have the freedom to give the second verse a little more expression. Take note of where you want to create your emphasis , try each method – pitch, rhythm, and tone, and use what works best.

Songwriting – the big picture

I’ve given a course on songwriting and presented a few talks on aspects of it to various groups. While I haven’t published anything formally, I wanted to use this blog to at least give the main points of my approach. Whenever a songwriter comes in the studio with a song that may need a bit of work, I always use these principles to guide my suggestions on improvement.

  1. The purpose of a song is to convey an emotion to the listener.
    Ask yourself what emotion you want someone to feel after hearing your song. If you get that emotion back from your listener, you have succeeded as a songwriter. I’m not talking about deep, heavy emotions necessarily. It may be that all you want someone to feel is light and carefree. Maybe you want them to be amused. There is a huge range of feeling and emotion between happy and sad, so try to be as specific as you can.
  2. Lyrically, a song should be about one moment in time from an emotional point of view.
    Without getting into a lot of lyric writing technique, this principle alone should keep you on target. This is not to say you can’t change scenes and go from one point in your life to another in one song. It’s that, if you do, each of those scenes should still be about the same moment, even though they occurred at different points in time.
  3. Musically, a song should have a balance of repetition and surprise.
    Too much repetition creates boredom. Too much surprise creates confusion. We need repetition to remember the song after it’s over. We need surprise to create a pleasant excitement for our ears.

Remember, there are no rules in songwriting, only expectations. We are used to hearing things presented in a certain way; however, the three-minute verse-chorus song is not the only way that a song can be done. No matter how you choose to write your song, if you adhere to these three overriding principles, you should be able to keep your listeners’ interest, deliver the emotion you were feeling when you wrote it, and connect.

Errors and Such

I’m going to talk about audio CD’s, even though it’s becoming less and less common to use a mechanical device to play music.

Whenever someone finishes a project with me and needs somthing on disc, they get a data DVD as well as the audio CD master. The data DVD contains all of the files of the session – all tracks, no edits, all starting from the beginning of the project. Also included in separate folders are the WAV mixes and the WAV masters. This is not just so that you can return to the studio at a later time and be able to pull up the project to change a vocal line, although that’s handy. It’s also not just to have the tracks in case you want to take them to another studio on another audio platform, although that’s handy, too. It’s also about avoiding errors.

When you burn an audio CD on your computer, you also burn errors onto the disc. It’s unavoidable. The faster your burn speed, the more errors you introduce onto your audio CD. The only reason we are even able to play an audio CD is because the players have error correction circuitry built into the device. Some are better than others. That’s why your CD will play on your stereo at home but stutters when you put it in your car.

Copying data from a CD or DVD is another thing entirely.  Error correction is built into the process.  So if you take the data DVD I’ve given you, navigate to the Master folder, and copy the mastered WAV files that you find there over to your computer, they will be bit for bit identical to what was on the disc and what was on my computer.  That means when you burn a CD using those WAV files, you are starting with the best quality of data you have available.

If you are selling CD’s that you’re burning from your home computer, this should go a long way towards preventing returns on CD’s that won’t play.

The gist of my “music is free” speech

Anyone who’s recorded with me has heard this. But in case you should need a refresher course, here it is.

In the mind of the public, music is free. There are many reasons to record and publish music that don’t have anything to do with making money, but IMO if you want to make money with music you must package your music with something of value that cannot be reproduced digitally.

There. That’s the gist of it.

The History

Until the late 1960’s the only form of recorded music was the phonograph record. It was not portable. It could not be reproduced by the ordinary listener. Then the cassette tape was invented. At first the sound quality was inferior to the phonograph record so the music industry ignored it. But soon the quality DID improve and the fact that it allowed the user to compile a tape of their favorite music from different sources and carry it around made it more popular than the phonograph in a matter of a few years.

The music industry got legislation passed that allowed an addition of a royalty to the price of blank cassette tape as a form of compensation for the sales lost due to consumer home taping. The money generated from this went into a big pool that was distributed according to the record label/artist’s sales of real product. The more popular labels/artists got more of the pool.

Then the CD came out and we were back in the days of the phonograph. It could not be reproduced by the listener, could hold more music, sounded cleaner, and could last longer. But the invention of the CD burner changed things again. Now the consumer could make digital copies of their favorite music again, just like the cassette days. And just like the cassette days, the labels got legislation passed that allowed an additional royalty to a certain type of blank CD called the “music CD.” (The truth is that except for a header that identifies the disc as a music disc, there was no difference between this type of CDR and a data CDR except that some standalone disc burners would not burn to a data CDR. They were crippled by their manufacturer.)

Today

The internet and the MP3 changed things again. Again we have an inferior format (MP3) that is more widely used than the higher quality CD because of its portability. We think nothing of sending entire songs via email, downloading hundreds of our favorites to our hard drives and MP3 players, listening to customized internet radio, etc. So for the time being, because of the ease of digital copying, the value of recorded music is approaching zero.

On the other hand, people still pay real money for things they need like clothing, food, shelter, gasoline. So it follows that by packaging your music with something of value that cannot be reproduced digitally, you can make some money. What kinds of things am I talking about? Here are a few examples.

  • Your live performance. It exists at a point in time that will never happen exactly the same again. In order to have a memory of the performance, people will buy a physical item like a CD, tee shirt, hat, etc.
  • Trademark your hook If your song has a trademark-able hook, take advantage of it. Example – “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet spawned an industry of items for him. Not only was the song popular, but in the decades following its publication, there are now Margaritaville restaurants, bar supplies, clothing lines, retirement communities and more. Why? Because the title identified a lifestyle.
  • Niche markets like specialized groups and charitable causes are places where your music can be considered a rallying cry or an anthem for the cause. People will support the cause by purchasing your music outright. But if you can add to that with something physical, it will mean even more. One example is the song, “A Song For My Son” written and published by a mother of the groom because there were no wedding songs with that subject. She packaged the CD with a small booklet that could be signed by friends and family and kept as a keepsake.

These are just a few suggestions. I’m sure that people will not stop making music just because consumers feel they have the right to copy and distribute it without paying for it. I’m sure that at some point there will again be just compensation for creators. But for the time being, in this transitory stage, digital goods bring attention, and real goods bring real money.

Buzzsonic

If you have never heard of this site, I can understand. Just know that it is a HUGE resource for some great information.

Click here for the main blog page. The curated blog page is a list of over 250 posts going back over 10 years. Some of the topics may be dated, but many are still relevant even today.

Production and Copyright – Don’t Give It Away

I have talked to many of my clients about the line between music production and cowriting. You probably all know my views on this, but I wanted to put my rant into a blog as a reference. Hopefully this will help someone from making a bad mistake.

A lot of my clients have songs in their head and they don’t play an instrument.  They sing the melody to me, I record the raw version, and we go to work from there.  Their melody implies a rhythm. We talk about the tempo and the beat and I show them some examples. They decide what it was that was closest to what they were hearing in their head.

Their melody also implies harmony – chords. I’ll try some simple ideas suggested by the melody and again, they will tell me what is closest to what they were hearing. I see my part in this as a sort of musical detective – trying to uncover the rest of the music that wasn’t heard in the raw recording. I am NOT acting as a cowriter, but as an interpreter of sorts.

Sometimes I’ll hear something that the writer didn’t hear. I’ll play that, too, and if they like it better we’ll use it instead. Now, that is treading on the line, IMO. But they didn’t come into the studio looking for a cowriter and I don’t look at what I’ve contributed as earning me a part of the song even if it makes a drastic difference in the way the final product is perceived by listeners.

Some producers think differently. Afraid that they’ll miss out on a piece of the pie or some recognition, they feel that any contribution they make that isn’t specifically spelled out is cause for them to be a part writer in the song. I feel this is wrong, but at the same time there is nothing stopping the uninformed or timid writer from making a bad decision at this point and giving up part of their copyright.

No matter how the law may be written to protect your rights, if you enter into an agreement that is not to your advantage, you must live with the consequences. Case in point – when my song “Taking Our Own Sweet Time” was recorded by the Kinleys back in the 90’s, the record label sent me a form that stated I would agree to being paid a sub-statutory rate on my royalties. The choice for me was whether to sign an agreement that earned me less money than what I was entitled to, or not sign and be excluded from the album. I signed. I got paid. I’m OK with it, but I still don’t like being another victim of record label leverage.

So, understand your rights. But also be aware of your situation and what kind of leverage you may have. You may be able to negotiate and keep more of what’s yours in the first place.