Music Sales have been Declining
In recent years, music sales have been declining, and 2009 is no different. Album sales dropped 12.7%, marking this as the eighth time in nine years that a decline has occurred. Unfortunately for the music business, this is a new low since ratings started being published in 1991.
However, this does not necessarily mean that certain artists were not successful. The death of the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, in July helped him to become the top selling artist of the year. Similarly, artists like Taylor Swift and The Beatles also had top selling albums even though they did not release anything new in the past year. Swift’s 2008 album, Fearless, was the top-selling album of the year, followed by Britain’s Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle, whose album was titled I Dreamed a Dream.
Music reps attribute this decline in album sales to the increased volume of internet music piracy and also the increased popularity of using sites such as iTunes instead of buying the album. In addition, it seems as though the general population has focused its attention more on movies and live music events rather than on album music in the past year. The failure of music stores like the Virgin Megastore and Circuit City have not helped matters, either.
Booking Agency Contract
It is often the case that agents do not have written contracts with the artists they represent. They prefer to work on trust, they tell the artists tour manager to sort out things such as the riders. The risk of an agent in not having a contract is not as great as for a manager. A manager who has no written contract may find it difficult to claim that they should be entitled to comission on that tour. Agents have no interest in ongoing record or publishing royalties or in merchandising or sponsorship income. That said even though some agents don’t bother with written contracts, most booking agents like to have them to keep things clear and to give them some certainty so that they can plan what is to happen in future. In many ways the booking agency contract is very similar to a management contract. They are several parts of the contract that are common to all booking agency contracts.
Exclusivity
Your booking agent will be looking for an exclusive arrangement. They won’t want to be competing for your work with other agents. Your arrangement with your booking agency sits alongside your management agreement. Indeed your manager may be very involved in the appointment of the booking agent. Your management contract will usually give you the right to approve the identity of any booking agent that your manager appoints on your behalf. Your manager looks after all other aspects of touring other that the actual booking of the concerts. There is a danger of an overlap in the comission arrangements. You don’t want to be paying a booking agent and your manager out of gross income. The management contract will usually say that the manager takes his comission after any comission to a booking agent has been deducted. The management contract will usually give you approval over the term son which your agent is appointed if they want to charge more that the industry norm of 15-20%. Your booking agent’s fee should be deducted from the gross income first and manager’s comission should be calculated on the net amount that is left after the agency comission and any other deductions agreed in the management contract.
The Band Name
The name a band chooses is a vital part of its identity. A potential problem is that you might decide on a name not knowing someone else has already claimed it. You may invest a lot of time and maybe some money in developing the name.
The best way to check if someone else is already using the name is to google it or to go to a beg record store like HMV to check if their catalogue for the name. If both these searches don’t bring any similar names, then you are halfway there. It is still possible to have registered a name without publishing any music or releasing a single or a record as yet.
You can also apply to register or search for the band with the Band Register. The Band Register is a commercial operation and many record companies, A&R Managers and lawyers subscribe to it as a means of searching for band names on behalf of their clients.
Music Copyright and the Internet
Big Subject, contributions welcome. The way I see it, the music industry as we know it is in its final lap. There will very little money to be made in the recording industry in the coming decade. Live Music will be the only form of music that will bring financial returns. The Radio industry will keep it going for sometime but that will not be able to sustain the industry in its present form. The large publishers and record companies will not be able to sustain themselves in the present form. Most hit songs and number ones will be independent and will most likey come out from bedrooms of musicians by 2020.
How the British Music Industry fits into the Copyright System
How is copyright law is applied by the creators of a work to be exploited, by promoters? How is it applied by promoters between themselves?
1. THE WRITER AND THE COMPOSER
They can avoid assigning their rights to publishers especially when they have a long experience in the business, but this is quite rare. Most of the time, the copyright is licensed or assigned to them.
a. IN THE ABSENCE OF PUBLISHERS
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Performing rights.
Writers and composers can licence their copyright in musical and literary work to a radio station or a TV program so they can play sounds recordings of their work, which is the only good way to promote it. Advertising companies can also be licensed the copyright.
Where does the money come from? It comes from the royalties due to authors for the exploitation of their musical and literary works, more precisely of their performing rights. Every diffusion of the works on TV, radio or public places makes the authors of the copyrights eligible to be paid royalties, which are first, negotiated. Before it comes to the writer and the composer, the money is collected by the Performing Rights Society (PRS). This, indeed, cannot be effectively done by the authors especially when the income is generated from overseas use of the work. Authors generally receive at least 6/12 of all the income generated from the exploitation of performing rights
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Mechanical rights. The right to copy and manufacture the literary and musical work emanating directly from copyright is commonly called mechanical copyright and the exploitation of this right by other people than the author gives right to the payment of royalties to the author. The latter usually license these rights to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), so this society can collect the mechanical royalties and authorise TV, radio, advertising agencies, and film agencies to use the recording of the music and the lyrics .
b. WHEN THEY LICENSE OR ASSIGN THEIR COPYRIGHT TO A PUBLISHER
When a publishing company is a copyright assignee or licensee, it can make use of its mechanical right and therefore receive the royalties collected by the MCPS. The authors usually receive 70% of the mechanical royalties. Publishers also receive income from the sale of the sheet music they make, and give the authors 10% to 15% of the retail selling price (Musicians Union website). They tend to ask for a copyright assignment for a length of time to be negotiated.
2. PRODUCERS OF A SOUND RECORDING
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Producers employed by a record company :
They are paid a basic salary and may be paid for each record produced. However, a famous producer may also be paid a royalty on the sales of the records produced. In this case, the royalty has to be paid by the artist or by the record company
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Independent producers
As mentioned in the first part, they look for a record company so the performer sign an agreement with it. Once the contract is signed, they assign or license their copyright in the sound recording to a record company. Then, the performer pays them royalties out of his/her own royalties coming from the sales of the records. The average rate is 4% but it varies according to the producers reputation .
3. THE PERFORMERS
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Sound recordings:
Performers are in direct contact with record companies. Generally, records companies require to be assigned or licensed:
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the copyright in the sound recording of the studio performance if they dont already have it and
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the recording rights of the live performances there can be.
Once they have these rights, record companies are entitled to:
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receive the income coming from the public performance of recordings through background music (hotels, restaurants, airlines) or its inclusion in a film or a soundtrack.
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receive the income coming from the reproduction of the sound recording that they authorise to those who want to exploit it (in order to sale it for example).
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Receive the income emanating from the reproduction and sale of the sound recording of a live performance.
The performer is paid a royalty, which corresponds to 8% to 12% the retail selling price of records. This money can be collected by the phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) before it goes to record companies. PPL can also control and licence broadcasting and public use of the recordings and issue licenses.
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Films:
Record companies often produce promotional videos and therefore own the copyright in the film. They can either keep it or licence or assign it to the Video Performance Ltd (VPL), which can control and license the broadcasting and public performances of these videos and collect the money emanating from that. When records companies receive the money directly or through the VPL, they use 50% of the performers royalties to recoup the cost of the making of the video .
