Contract

[andrewscottmusic]

Quite often a listing has the following info regarding the company's offer: "This company will offer a standard exclusive deal where they will control the publishing rights of the songs they sign, the writer keeps the writer's share of the royalties, and the license fees are split between the company and the writer. "I am skeptical as to whether this is a fair deal. If the company wants 100% of the publishing and 0% of the writing royalties, is this because they believe that the publishing income will be bigger? Sometimes a company offers to split everything 50-50. This seems much fairer.Does anyone have any experience of either deal?

[nomiyah]

Legally only the writer can collect the writer's share. Publishers and libraries often take all the publishing, it gives them motivation to push your song more. Unless you will do the publishing work, you shouldn't expect to get a percentage most times. Hope that helps.Nomi

[Casey H]

Quote:Quite often a listing has the following info regarding the company's offer: "This company will offer a standard exclusive deal where they will control the publishing rights of the songs they sign, the writer keeps the writer's share of the royalties, and the license fees are split between the company and the writer. "I am skeptical as to whether this is a fair deal. If the company wants 100% of the publishing and 0% of the writing royalties, is this because they believe that the publishing income will be bigger? Sometimes a company offers to split everything 50-50. This seems much fairer.Does anyone have any experience of either deal?Actually in the scenario you describes, it is a 50/50 deal all the way. Songs generally make money in 3 ways:1) Performance Royalties: These are paid when your song is broadcast on radio or TV and are collected by PRO's such as ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Each dollar of performance royalty is split 50/50 between the writer and the publisher. So owning 100% of the publishing means 50% of the performance royalty income. The songwriter always gets the other 50%.2) Upfront License Fees for Film/TV Use: Although there is no standard, most publishers and libraries split these 50/50 with the writer.3) Mechanical Royalties: When your song gets recorded onto mechanical media such as audio CD, a royalty is paid on each copy according to the statutory rate set by law. The current rate in the U.S. is 9.1 cents per copy. Most of the time, mechanical royalties are also split 50/50 between the publisher and writer.I hope this helps. Casey

[zircon]

Dave: I don't think that's how it works... if the performance royalties owed amount to $300, then that's the dollar value that is split. The publisher in your example gets $150 and the writer gets $150 in a typical publishing deal (such as a single song agreement). $150 is 100% of the publisher's share, as well as 100% of the writer's share, in such an agreement. If there were two writers, they would each get $75 (50% of the writer's share each).

[Casey H]

This is one of those things that confuses a lot of folks. It is as Zircon described it and I tried to explain in my post. If a song earns a $300 performance royalty, $150 goes to the publisher and $150 goes to the writer. (Sorry, Dave...)The important thing (I think) is to address the original question posed by Andrew on this thread. Yes, it is a fair deal and is the same as the "split everything 50-50" Andrew mentioned. Casey

[nomiyah]

Quote:[quote author=andrewscottmusic board=general thread=1183775671 post=1183775671] A publisher can make really good money because he/she is collecting publishing royalty payments on more songs than all of us put together could write in a lifetime. Of course since we wrote the song and then just kick back and relax on the couch while it shows up on TV and generates royalty payments, our lifetime is much longer. Funny stuff, Dave!!!! And probably true...

[davewalton]

Quote:Dave: I don't think that's how it works... if the performance royalties owed amount to $300, then that's the dollar value that is split. The publisher in your example gets $150 and the writer gets $150 in a typical publishing deal (such as a single song agreement). $150 is 100% of the publisher's share, as well as 100% of the writer's share, in such an agreement. If there were two writers, they would each get $75 (50% of the writer's share each). Making a post about how confusing this is and then making it more confusing by posting the wrong stuff... talk about ironic! Another huge (but temporary) hit to the sales of "Listen To Dave Walton" t-shirts". I guess I was thinking that since the payment amounts on my recent BMI statement (the first one) were the same as the payment amounts on my publishers BMI statement for a particular song, that the "royalty" was that amount and they paid that to each of us. So it's really twice that amount and we're splitting it I guess? In essence whether the writers share and publishers share each is 100% of $300 or 50% of $600, the check amount for both is the same. As a matter of accuracy though I guess it's 50% of $600 if we're using $300 as an example of what the writer and publisher each received. Does that sound right?Anyway, thanks for not letting that go. DavePS - I deleted my original post so that misleading info wouldn't be hanging around to make a confusing subject more confusing. Plus, if anyone hesitates to buy a t-shirt, citing rumors of my original post on this, I can deny the whole thing (Post? What post?) and make another t-shirt sale.

[Casey H]

Quote:Quote:Dave: I don't think that's how it works... if the performance royalties owed amount to $300, then that's the dollar value that is split. The publisher in your example gets $150 and the writer gets $150 in a typical publishing deal (such as a single song agreement). $150 is 100% of the publisher's share, as well as 100% of the writer's share, in such an agreement. If there were two writers, they would each get $75 (50% of the writer's share each). Making a post about how confusing this is and then making it more confusing by posting the wrong stuff... talk about ironic! Another huge (but temporary) hit to the sales of "Listen To Dave Walton" t-shirts". I guess I was thinking that since the payment amounts on my recent BMI statement (the first one) were the same as the payment amounts on my publishers BMI statement for a particular song, that the "royalty" was that amount and they paid that to each of us. So it's really twice that amount and we're splitting it I guess? In essence whether the writers share and publishers share each is 100% of $300 or 50% of $600, the check amount for both is the same. As a matter of accuracy though I guess it's 50% of $600 if we're using $300 as an example of what the writer and publisher each received. Does that sound right?Anyway, thanks for not letting that go. DavePS - I deleted my original post so that misleading info wouldn't be hanging around to make a confusing subject more confusing. Plus, if anyone hesitates to buy a t-shirt, citing rumors of my original post on this, I can deny the whole thing (Post? What post?) and make another t-shirt sale. I'll forgive you if you buy a Caseysongs T-shirt...

[zircon]

Dave; OK, we're on the same page here, I think we were just looking at it from two different angles. Didn't mean to confuse anyone.

[edteja]

I looked at it from two angles and the tee shirt was still the wrong color.