Royalties, Royalties, and more Royalties

[sabalsounds]

Yeah, it's another case of tech outpacing legislation, PROs, etc.
Michael

Truth!

16 years later and the entertainment industry is still reeling from the advent of Napster (why pay for it when you can get something for free or close to free?). Ironically (?) one of the co-founders of Napster is a Spotify board member that has the same approach to paying copyright owners (per Taylor Swift who just reached 5,000,000 in sales).

[RockChild56]

Out of curiosity, what would it have paid if played on television that many times?

Paulie, for comparison, this 19-second cue on this episode played 4 times in prime time which paid $17, and played 3 times in the morning for $7.80.

If it paid at this same rate on the streaming sites I would be a rich man.

These ridiculous rates are similar with audio streaming services like Rhapsody and Spotify.

So 200,000 + people streamed the episode on Amazon correct?
So how many people (supposedly) would have seen those 3 morning episodes? 400,000 or so estimated? If you look at it that way it's about right (the math anyway).
I hope everyone here supports the "Songwriters Equity Act" before Congress at this time.
I think it has a lot to do with this exact dilemma.

I do agree Spotify, Pandora etc. are really killing the "Music Business/Industry".
I believe the way they base streaming is something along the lines of 1000 streams or whatever number they arrive at = 1 download or $0.99. Of that only 20% or so (I don't know exactly) goes to the writer.
Which is BS in the first place because I bet I have listened to Very Few Songs 1000 times If I ever have. But that is another subject.

Anyway Congrats on the placements and the Best Of Luck to us all in the Future. The way things are going We will need it.

EJB

[jonnybutter]

I do agree Spotify, Pandora etc. are really killing the "Music Business/Industry".

Apple at least is trying to make people pay, which is good (i.e. there is no advertiser sponsored/'free' version of Apple music). Don't know if that will be enough though.

Does anybody know how, say, Spotify, pays out vis a vis their 'free' service? When you hear of artists getting millions of streams and getting very little cash, does that include all of the free streams? Web advertising pays diddly these days, so does that account for it? Or is that just the paid streams? If the latter...hoo boy, what a bad deal.

[sabalsounds]

Apple is poised to make Spotify and Pandora disappear entirely but then how will a monopoly help copyright owners? Unless of course you're Taylor Swift and call them out for bad business practices by publicly shaming them.

Life was so much easier when we had physical units to sell and payola at radio.

[RockChild56]

Getting back to the original post. Remember the song usage is 19 second cue. It would not qualify as a
stream on most services or a play on Radio.
For Radio BMI calls a play 60 seconds or more. And they do not pay for the following on Radio.
*Cue, bridge or background music
*Partial performances of popular songs
*Station IDs or public service announcements
*Promotional announcements

As Michael pointed out in Television it probably has a lot to do with the Audience size.
As Russell said, Volume = $,$$$,$$$.$$. So 250,000 more like that and you'll have it made.

I found this and it helped me sort out some of it.
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ ... lties7.htm

Also, were you paid a Sync Fee? I think that would offset some of the sting of low
Performance Royalties.

It does make one wonder sometimes, WHY do we even do this.
LOL I guess it's like Leon Russel said about Drinking Booze.
Some of us has got to. And Willie Nelson replied, Else it won't get done.

[waltergrund]

Steve,

last year I ran an experiment with different streaming services to find out how much they really pay.
Spotify says 0.8 cent per stream. In reality it was a 0,1-0,001 cent. AND they just pay if your track gets played 30 sec + which is stated nowhere!!
I had over 3 Mio documented plays on rdio, but didn't see more than 19 USD.

Other streaming services did not pay at all.
One exception: XBox music did really well!!! BUT they shut down their free service.

So streaming is not worth it for musicians...although I use their service myself frequently.

Sad, but true
Walter

[Axuel]

Congrats, I think Michael made a good point about the royalties.

In my opinion a fair sync fee is important. When you really only get 5 dollars and no sync fee that would not be fair. But if you make let's say 500$+ sync fee plus a couple dollars royalties for background music thats a nice start in my opinion. When the publisher is not getting you any sync fee I would not provide them with any music. If they can get it for almost free and you support them with your music, you can't complain. When nobody would give them quality music for free they would start to pay again or go out of business.

Best Regards,
Axel

[Kolstad]

Can you collect streaming mechanicals from SoundExchenge for these type of shows in the US?

[SteveC]

Steve,

Congrats on the placement! $4.07? Up my way, that's a gallon of gas. No doubt the system needs revision. Plenty of noise on the subject but very little forward motion on the fix. All that considered, you still had a placement and that my friend, is WIN !! Continued success and lets get some zeros added to that check next time around.

[RockChild56]

Can you collect streaming mechanicals from SoundExchenge for these type of shows in the US?

I would say you are probably right. I think Steve should look into it.

Steve, You should check that out.