Dollars and Sense! :)

[evanmcgill]

OK, so I'm really more curious than anything. Maybe someone out there could please answer these questions.

What does a songwriter generate (on average) for a Top 40 hit?

What does a songwriter generate (on average) for an ALBUM CUT for a major artist?

I'm sure the figures can vary based on numerous factors, but I'm really curious what some of these writers are making. Thanks!

[mojobone]

It's pretty much impossible to say, in today's environment, but there was a time when a nationwide #1 pop hit was worth a couple hundred thousand US dollars to the writer, in terms of the gross. However, if the song reached #1, there likely were one or more agents, a publisher, and at least two managers involved, (not to mention various and sundry lawyers), and at least one record company, so the net was substantially less.

[simonparker]

RE: Top 40, it depends. How many writers? How many plays on the radio? A song like Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" is probably multi-million. A song, like Britney's "3" which became a hit fast and fell off the charts just as fast, probably not as much. Really depends on downloads/album sales (9.1 cents per unit) as well as air play (as well as film/TV licensing, commericals, etc.)


RE: Album cut- A TON LESS.....one writer i've worked with got a cut on Justin Bieber's My World release but still lives at home with his parents (ok, he's like 21, but come on now).

Do the math on this cut - Bieber's one of the bigger sellers out there, and he still got squat despite a cut...figure this... you get 9.1 cents for every "unit" sold (physical or downloaded). Figure 1,000,000 units for an album cut and say another 50K in downloads for the single that doesn't really generate any airplay on a top 40 station. That's what, 95K. There are 5 writers on his song, so take that 95K and divide by 5. That's $19K per person. He's signed to a publisher that takes 50% of that. That's $9,500 he's gotten. Add in the taxes due, and he's down to about $7,500 - less the lawyers, accountants, studio costs to record the original demo, etc.

[evanmcgill]

Is that 9.1 cents per album OR per single? In others words, does he get 9.1 cents whether the song alone gets downloaded as a "single" or the album gets purchased via download or music store? Thanks!

[mazz]

The writers that make a lot of money typically have fairly large catalogs, it seems. A person has to be either incredibly lucky or has to write a lot of songs to get a cut. The upside of writing a lot is that 1. you get a lot of practice writing, which is guaranteed to make you a better writer, and 2. you have a lot of material that may be suitable for licensing so you can potentially generate some royalties while you're waiting for those big ones to come along.

My sincere wish is that you can quit your day job!!

[simonparker]

either/or..... if a kid downloads the song as a single, the writer gets 9.1 cents (unless the writer is also the performer or producer, in which case with major labels, there's a "adjusted" formula that comes into play). If a kid buys the entire "CD" or downloads the entire release, each "release"/"song" is subject to the compulsory 9.1 cents to the songwriter(s). This would be what's called the "mechanical royalty". As given in my example above, unless you've written several songs on a million plus selling CD or unless your song is a big hit, you're not going to receive the gazillions of dollars you've dreamed of when getting a "cut" on a major artist record. Now, with ITunes allowing you to selectively buy songs from an album or Rhapsody, which allows you for $15 a month to listen to any song you want as many times as you want (without ever owning it), the money in an "album cut" doesn't really exist.

[evanmcgill]

Great information. Very informative. Thanks for taking the time to write that.

Is 9.1 an industry standard fee and does it adjust yearly for inflation?

[simonparker]

The writers that make a lot of money typically have fairly large catalogs, it seems. A person has to be either incredibly lucky or has to write a lot of songs to get a cut. The upside of writing a lot is that 1. you get a lot of practice writing, which is guaranteed to make you a better writer, and 2. you have a lot of material that may be suitable for licensing so you can potentially generate some royalties while you're waiting for those big ones to come along.

My sincere wish is that you can quit your day job!!

There is always a benefit with having a large catalog. When I produce a song or two for an artist, I always have a few songs "on hand" on top of what we're working on, to "showcase" in hopes that maybe this artist will pick up one of them. But the reality is you have to be fairly lucky. The ones that are making the "money" are the producers with track records out there - we're talking Dr Luke/Max Martin/Jonathan Rotem/Jim Jonsin/David Guetta and a few songwriters with track records (i.e Claude Kelly). For the rest of us, we have to get lucky (at least twice) before we can quit the day job.

[simonparker]

Great information. Very informative. Thanks for taking the time to write that.

Is 9.1 an industry standard fee and does it adjust yearly for inflation?

It gets adjusted for inflation, but I don't believe it's yearly or even every other year.

[evanmcgill]

The writers that make a lot of money typically have fairly large catalogs, it seems. A person has to be either incredibly lucky or has to write a lot of songs to get a cut. The upside of writing a lot is that 1. you get a lot of practice writing, which is guaranteed to make you a better writer, and 2. you have a lot of material that may be suitable for licensing so you can potentially generate some royalties while you're waiting for those big ones to come along.

My sincere wish is that you can quit your day job!!

There is always a benefit with having a large catalog. When I produce a song or two for an artist, I always have a few songs "on hand" on top of what we're working on, to "showcase" in hopes that maybe this artist will pick up one of them. But the reality is you have to be fairly lucky. The ones that are making the "money" are the producers with track records out there - we're talking Dr Luke/Max Martin/Jonathan Rotem/Jim Jonsin/David Guetta and a few songwriters with track records (i.e Claude Kelly). For the rest of us, we have to get lucky (at least twice) before we can quit the day job.

Yeah there is some luck involved, although I still say Max Martin created Teen Pop (some will argue that). Dr. Luke was a product of some talent and knowing EVERYBODY from SNL. I don't know JR's deal. I do love my day job though