by Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan
September 30, 2009
Practical advice to earn you twice the royalties you think you’re owed
No musician can afford to miss out on a potential source of income. So if you’re a songwriter, and not a member of a Performance Rights Organizations (PRO) like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or SOCAN (Canada), you could be leaving money on the table. It’s not difficult to join one of these organizations, and as an independent, there are ways to enroll that allow you to maximize your royalties and double what you might think you’re eligible for.
Unfortunately, to understand PROs and what they can do for you, it’s important to understand how copyright works for music. So even though “brief” and “copyright” should probably never go into the same sentence, an overview to explain why PROs exist, how they pay songwriters, and how they are different from other organizations that collect money for musicians (like Harry Fox) is necessary. Read more…
by Terry Hart
August 18, 2009
Publishing.
This one word has caused more musicians to pull their hair out than any other word in the music business. It’s a tricky and confusing subject – confusion that’s aided by the unintuitive nature of copyright law, the use of archaic terms left over from the history of music publishing, and the general craziness of the music business.
But music publishing is one of the most important aspects of the music business. Every musician wishing to earn money from their music needs to have at least a general understanding of publishing.
If you’ve been following the Music Business 101 series on GrindEFX, you should have a leg up on copyright and licensing, which form the basis for music publishing. Read more…
