What's an average sold song fee?

[jiml]

For instance, you 'sell' a song and a prominent band/artist records it and it goes on their album (doesn't have to be a 'hit').As the songwriter, what is an average percentage/$$ amount you would get per year or month? Is it really worth trying to pitch a song if the $$ reward isn't there?-Jim

[hummingbird]

May 17, 2009, 5:08am, jiml wrote:For instance, you 'sell' a song and a prominent band/artist records it and it goes on their album (doesn't have to be a 'hit').As the songwriter, what is an average percentage/$$ amount you would get per year or month? Is it really worth trying to pitch a song if the $$ reward isn't there?-Jimif you 'sell' a song, you sell it outright (i.e. as a work for hire). You need to set the price to make up for any possible royalties, etc that you might have earned in the future. Most songwriters do not 'sell' songs. They licence them.with licencing-you get pd from three sources:- mechanical licencing - a set licence fee per CD printed - last time I looked it was $.09 per unit. So if they have a print run of 10,000 CDs, the writer would get $900 up front.- royalties - songwriter paid through their PRO for plays on commercial radio, in concerts, etc. PROs typically pay about 9 months after cue sheets are filed- digital distribution - the writer would likely get a small % of digital sales of the song, details would be in the agreement(and if the song was used in film/tv - the writer would likely get a % of the synch/royalties)In addition, once the song has been recorded and published commercially.... if anyone else wants to record that song they have to get a compulsory licence, and the writer receives a set price/# of CDs printed, up front.Suggested resource - John Braheny's "The Craft and the Business of Songwriting"

[jiml]

Thanks!-Jim

[Casey H]

I'm assuming you are talking about an artist recording your song, not an outright sale of all rights for other use. A song that is not a "hit" isn't likely to earn much money (if it could get cut at all). A sizable portion of what the songwriter would earn is from performance royalties (radio play) and a non-hit would get little or no play. Also, the odds of an unknown writer getting a song cut are 1 in 50,000-100,000 under the best circumstances. The odds of an unknown writer getting interest in a song that does not have hit potential are virtually nil. No one needs album tracks from new writers-- they have plenty of the ones that the inside writers wrote but weren't the "hit" to choose from. So, it's either write a killer song with hit potential or don't bother.Interestingly the amount of money a hit song earns for a songwriter is not what some think. It a song makes it to Billboard #1, it's a pretty nice chunk of change, but it drops dramatically as the top Billboard spot decreases.This article is from 2001. I'm assuming some adjustment for inflation is needed...http://www.caseysongs.com/whatahitsongearns.docHTH Casey

[simonparker]

May 17, 2009, 6:40pm, hurowitz wrote:I'm assuming you are talking about an artist recording your song, not an outright sale of all rights for other use. A song that is not a "hit" isn't likely to earn much money (if it could get cut at all). A sizable portion of what the songwriter would earn is from performance royalties (radio play) and a non-hit would get little or no play. I need to add to Casey's post with another circumstance you need to be aware of. If YOU or another artist has commercially released your song (i.e. Itunes) prior to this new artist covering it, they can record and sell your tune without your permission under the compulsory mechanical license clauses under Copyright Law. In those circumstances, the first 2,500 units of mechanical royalties are at .091 rate currently, meaning, if you are the sole writer and publisher, the artist that covered your tune is required by law to pay you $227.50.

[mojobone]

After which, they must pay the full statutory rate, which is rather like statutory rape, but differs by one letter and the amount of pleasure involved for the recipient.

[suzdoyle]

(chuckling) Clever wordplay, Mojo . . . And Simon, thanks for mentioning the compulsory license issue. Important info! I licensed numeral cover songs for an album once via Harry Fox, but found the compulsory license option helpful when one song had an co-author/ co-publisher who could not be tracked down. The compulsory license option helped me keep things in integrity and pay for the use of the song when unable to track down one of the copyright holders.Suz