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2021 Prediction: The United States Music Publishing Market Continues To Grow And Fragment, Creating More Silos For Unpaid “Black Box” Royalties — DIY Musicians Hit The Hardest
As the U.S. music publishing industry grows (in terms of revenue, volume of copyrights, and number of income participants), the rights administration and licensing sector becomes ever-more fragmented; giving way to cracks in its foundation through which royalties fall into the so-called “black box” — the industry name for the unmatched and unpaid royalties earned against unidentified works or unidentified or unreachable income participants that accrue in escrow only to be later forfeited and disbursed to entities to which the funds do not belong; primarily major music conglomerates and those acquiring catalogs of copyrights to expand their market share position.
Black Box Royalties Myths, Common Misconceptions Debunked at Music Biz 2018
A picture of a white board illustrating the growth and fragmentation of the US Music Publishing Market, specifically the music licensing and royalty ecosystem, drawn during Dae Bogan’s lecture in his class, “Music Industry Entrepreneurship and Innovation” at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Winter Quarter 2019
In 1909, when the first federal copyright law that protected music creators and rights-holders was enacted, there were no massive music rights organizations as we’ve come to know them today. Although unions had existed — the American Federation of Musicians was founded 13 years earlier in 1896, but focused more on work conditions than collective bargaining, as it does today — ASCAP was formed in 1914 to license the performing rights of composers, authors, and publishers.
Fast forward to 2021 when the newly formed Mechanical Licensing Collective will issue its first blanket digital streaming mechanical license to the likes of Spotify, Google, and Apple. There will be over a dozen music rights and royalty collection organizations issuing thousands of licenses, administering millions of pieces of copyrights, and processing billions of micro-penny transactions.
The music licensing and royalty ecosystem in 1909: Individual music composers, aristocrats who financed or commissioned works, and sheet music publishers.
The music licensing and royalty ecosystem in 2021: Traditional non-profit and private music rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Global Music Rights, PRO Music Rights, SoundExchange, Mechanical Licensing Collective), royalty funds (AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, Alliance for Artists and Record Companies, Film Musician’s Secondary Market Fund, Sound Recording Special Payments Fund), unions engaged in collective bargaining (SAG-AFTRA, American Federation of Musicians), licensing clearing houses and agents (e.g. Music Reports, Harry Fox Agency).
If I wrote a popular commercial song that is exploited to the fullest extent — released on a commercial recording; performed live in concert; licensed for use in film or television; placed in a commercial; earns viral success on user generated content platforms and social music apps; covered many times; embodied in a music video; lyrics printed and sold on merchandise; used for a live broadcast sporting event; added to Spotify and Apple playlists where it takes off; picked up on terrestrial, Internet, satellite, and cable radio; etc. — I would need to ensure that my work is registered at all of the places where the royalties earned from the uses I’ve described are paid; the music licensing and royalty ecosystem. If I do not, then my royalties will leak into the black box.
The black box is estimated at over $2 billion — and growing — of which much of it is due to independent music creators, small music rights-holders, and the estates of deceased authors and performers who do not have the access, power, know-how or market share to navigate the web of black boxes; for which there are many.
When entities charged with maintaining these black boxes distribute the funds in market share distributions, the major labels and publishers win and the independent and DIY creators lose. It is unfair and unethical. But what are we going to do about it?
Some artists, knowing that they do not know exactly how this all works, have found creative business ways to “make up” for potential lost royalties. But for the rest — the majority — of DIY musicians, they’re generally left out of the discussion and left to fend for themselves, even when they think they’re doing everything right.
As the industry charges forward with new energy fueled by the growth of music streaming, we have to consider how the continued fragmentation of the music licensing ecosystem affects the most vulnerable — DIY musicians. Major labels have direct deals with DSPs and digital services that pay them advances and account to and pay them royalties. DIY musicians rely on music rights organizations, who are often disproportionately influenced by the majors, to handle these things for them.
I founded TuneRegistry to help DIY musicians be their own advocate, to demystify the music licensing and royalty ecosystem by aggregating the fragmented world of rights administration into one economical platform. To this end, our team has helped hundreds of small to medium-sized music rights-holders and DIY musicians unlock thousands of dollars in new found royalties and to register their works to ensure that they are identified and accounted to in the future. Not all music rights organization have joined our network, but we will continue to advocate and fight for the rights and entitlements of DIY music creators as long as we can.
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Dae Bogan To Provide Mentorship To Music Makers And Tech Founders At The Rattle Los Angeles
RattleCCPitch2018 from The Rattle on Vimeo.
How To Apply For A Harry Fox Agency Online Account As A DIY Musician – A Step By Step Guide.
Ever since I wrote the article “How To Get A Facebook, Instagram and Oculus Direct License For DIY Musicians & Indie Publishers” for the TuneRegistry blog, musicians who own their publishing have flooded my inbox with questions regarding the Harry Fox Agency Online Account application process.
The Harry Fox Agency represents the reproduction rights in songs for thousands of publishers in the United States and issues millions of direct and complusory mechanical licenses to music users on behalf of its HFA affiliate publisher members. In addition, its Rumblefish division performs an array of licensing and administrative (e.g. royalty accounting) responsibilities for dozens of digital service providers, start-up music apps/websites, and other digital music clients. In a word, HFA issues licenses, collects royalties, and make payments to rights-holders to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
An HFA Online Account enables publishing rights-holders who are not eligible to become an HFA affiliate (e.g. DIY musicians) to still receive and enter into some direct licenses for the use of their songs in the products and services of HFA/Rumblefish clients. This includes powerhouses like Spotify, Facebook/Instagram and LyricFind, among many others. Once you’ve entered into a license, you must give HFA a list of your songs with proper metadata. You can remit your catalog of license-ready songs to HFA, and other music rights organizations and rights clearance houses, via directly from within your TuneRegistry account.
Admitingly, I did not go into much detail in the Facebook license blog in regards to how to apply for an HFA Online Account (although, I did include the HFA client services email for additional questions). Having reviewed the application form, I can see how a DIY musician could become confused. The form was designed for publishers and administrators, so a DIY musician who wears the hat as his/her own music publisher may get easily confused.
Download my free ebook, The DIY Musician’s Starter Guide To Being Your Own Label & Publisher here.
To aid in providing clarity to DIY musicians, I have written instructions for each question/field on the application form in the order as it appears. This should clarify the questions that I often receive regarding the application form.
[Note: In writing this article, I sought feedback from John Raso, VP of Client Services at Harry Fox Agency, who verified and approved my field instructions/comments and added his own notes as needed. Where applicable, I have included additional notes from John below.]
Form completion instructions for an HFA Online Account publisher application for DIY musicians who own and control their publishing and do not have a publishing deal or an applicable publishing administration deal:
1. Publisher Name: If you have a publisher or have hired a publishing administrator, stop here. Your publisher should be handling licensing with HFA. You can contact your publishing representative for clarification. If you do not have a publisher, then enter your publishing entity name as used with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. If you have not created a publishing company and joined ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC enter your full legal name.
2. HFA Account P#: Skip, unless you’ve received correspondence from HFA with an HFA Account P#.
3. Administrator Title: Enter “Self” if you are representing yourself. Enter the title of your representative if you’re giving them authority to oversee your HFA Online Account (e.g “Manager”, “Attorney”).
4. Administrator Name: Enter your full legal name if you are representing yourself or enter the full name of your authorized representative who will be overseeing your HFA Online Account. This is just who should be contacted aout your catalog.
5. Administrator Mailing Address: Enter the contact information of the individual identified in #4. Where should HFA mail things to?
6. Administrator Settings: This is where much of the confusion arises. Here are some scenarios:
- If you are applying as an individual self-published songwriter with no publishing entity, then select “Individual/Sole proprietor”, enter your tax ID (SSN or ITIN), and enter the name that should appear on tax documents (generally, your legal name).
- If you are applying as an individual self-published songwriter who has hired a publishing administrator, then you should not complete this application in the first place. Contact your publishing administrator.
- If you are applying as an individual self-published songwriter who has setup a business entity for the purpose of administering your own publishing with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC and you have input this publishing entity in #1, then select the business entity structure that you have setup to form your company. For example, if your entity is a Limited Liability Company, then select “Limited Liability Company”. If it is a DBA, then select “Individual/Sole proprietor.” Enter the tax ID for the entity (this may be your personal SSN/ITIN if you are a sole proprietor or it may be your EIN if you’ve applied for one with the IRS for your LLC, Corporation, or Partnership). Enter the name on tax return that matches the entity type that you’ve selected.
- Note from John Raso, VP of Client Services at HFA: “We run the tax ID and payee name provided (“Name on Tax Return”) against the IRS database. If it doesn’t match, we cannot pay this person (or we will get fined). We hold any royalties until we get a proper name/tax ID match (we reach out several times a year to people we are holding royalties for this reason).“
For additional questions or to check on the status of an HFA application, contact clientservices@harryfox.com.
Was this article helpful? I am considering writing more like it for other music rights organizations’ application processes. Let me know in the comments.
5 Tips For Making, Marketing And Monetizing Holiday Music This Season
Happy October! It’s officially holiday season. Over the next few months thousands of holiday songs will be streamed and downloaded by millions of consumers around the world; especially in Washington D.C., but not so much in Idaho.
The holiday season is pretty much the only time of year when arrangements of public domain works are highly rotated in commercial music. Cover songs are also very popular as music consumers enjoy classic and updated renditions of their favorite holiday tunes from their childhood. And for the most creative among us, original new holiday songs can also have a huge impact this season.
Whether you decide to release a rock version of Silent Night, an R&B cover of Silver Bells, or an original new pumpkin spice rap record, here are a few tips to help you along the way:
1. Song Selection – From a legal standpoint, there are three options when it comes to song selection: original song, public domain song, or cover song. If you plan to write and record a completely original song — original music, melody, and lyrics — then you will own the copyright in all of its components and can release it just like any of your other original song. If you want to create your own arrangement of a public domain song (e.g. Jingle Bells), you will own the copyright in your sound recording, but not in the underlying composition (unless you create a completely original arrangement; in which case you could own the copyright in the arrangement). However, you do not need to secure a mechanical license to record and distribute the public domain song, nor do you need to secure a synchronization license to use the song in a video that you would upload on YouTube. Public domain songs have fallen out of copyright protection and are freely available to perform and monetize by anyone without seeking permission and paying royalties to the original author(s) of the public domain song.
5 Royalty Streams Every Indie Artist Should Know
Cover songs (e.g. Feliz Navidad) are new versions of songs that are still under copyright protection. Therefore, you must obtain a mechanical license in order to record and distribute the song and you are limited in how much you can alter the song lyrically and stylistically. If your performance of the song you’re covering is drastically dissimilar from the original, you begin to navigate into the realm of derivative works and your mechanical license would be in jeopardy. You’d have to get permission from the copyright owner instead of being able to utilize the compulsory mechanical licensing process, which does not require permission per se, but rather a notice and payment of royalties. You would also need to get a synchronization license directly from the copyright owner (e.g. publisher) to use the song in a video to upload to YouTube, or risk having your cover version taken down.
How To Legally Record And Sell A Cover Song In 3 Steps
Whichever you choose, make sure to know what obligations you have for your song. CD Baby put together this awesome quick-read on public domain vs. cover songs.
2. Release – Depending on your song selection, you will be required to complete several or few steps before you’re able to release, as far as securing proper licenses. Once you’re cleared to release, create a single release campaign. In addition to the release, consider giving the song away to friends and family as a holiday gift. I like that CD Baby now offers physical on-demand. This may be a good way to get physical CDs with nice artwork available without the upfront cost of having to get them pressed up on your own dime.
10 Steps To Building A Single Release Campaign
3. Marketing & Promotion – If your holiday song is great, it could land on a holiday playlist on Spotify or Apple Music or, if submitted in a timely manner, it could end up on a Pandora channel or Music Choice holiday channel. I personally like to listen to a holiday channels on Pandora from November 1st through December 31st.
R&B/Pop Holiday Radio on Pandora
There’s also placement on retail radio. Hundreds of millions of shoppers will hit their local shopping center and mall this season; especially during the weeks leading up to and immediately following Black Friday (Black Friday is a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas, it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Wikipedia). Background music and in-store music video networks are good opportunities for exposure; especially if you’ve delivered your song to Shazaam and SoundHound. When I owned my in-store music video network, I programmed holiday music for 150 youth-targeted retail stores. Every major retail chain plays holiday music, so submit as soon as possible to services such as PlayNetwork and Mood Media.
4. Performing – Performing small live shows can be an income-generator during the holiday season. Coffee shops, shopping centers and malls, hotel lobbies, retail stores, restaurants, and other non-traditional venues could be great to perform for a small talent fee plus tips. Many communities organize community events during the holiday season. Reach out now to your local city council’s office regarding performance opportunities. The exposure on their event posters, newsletters, website, and social media could be good for you locally and add to your electronic press kit going into 2018. (Tip: If you are performing original songs, make sure to submit your set list to your PRO — ASCAP, BMI, SESAC — to potentially earn performance royalties in addition to your talent fee and tips). You may also wish to host online concerts via YouTube or Facebook Live; or a platform that enables tipping, like YouNow.
5. Merchandise – Consider hiring an graphic artist to make a really good cover art for your song, then use a made-on-demand merchandise service such as CafePress or Merchify to sell coffee mugs, tote bags, postcards, and more with your cover art. Because there is very little upfront cost besides the designer fee, this additional component to your holiday campaign could add significant extra income. (Tip: Make sure to have your designer sign a work made for hire agreement and transfer the copyright ownership in the artwork to you OR give them a royalty on merch sales to reduce your upfront design cost.)
In conclusion, the holiday season is a great time to create and release music that makes people feel good. Whether you select a recognizable favorite or choose to explore your hand at writing holiday music, if done well, you just might make the Billboard Holiday 100 charts while making some money along the way.
Here’s a little treat: Durand Bernarr‘s Silver Bells (2015)
Featured photo by leonie wise on Unsplash
Apply To Perform At SXSW 2018 – Applications Open Today
SXSW is by far my favorite music industry event. I’ve been honored to join the SXSW community as a mentor for the past three years. One of the many amazing things about SXSW is its hosting hundreds of artists, bands, and ensembles from around the world. Showcasing artists perform at dozens of venues for an entire week bringing together an array of musical experiences for everyone to enjoy, no matter their tastes. I’ve discovered new and up-and-coming artists, experienced interesting musical styles and performances, and have been awed by undiscovered talent.
SXSW organizers also highlight the impact showcasing has on many artists’ careers:
SXSW Showcasing Artists benefit from career changing exposure and publicity provided by the amazing mix of influential participants who attend SXSW every year. Showcasing at SXSW means performing in one of the many venues located in famous downtown Austin for industry reps, media members, and thousands of fans and fellow musicians from all over the world.
If you’ve ever thought about showcasing at SXSW, now is the time to working towards that goal. Today, SXSW Showcasing Artists applications open at SXSW.com. The deadline for early entry is Friday, September 8, 2017.
For full details, visit https://www.sxsw.com/apply-to-participate/showcase-applications/
Spotify Moves Spotify Ad Studio Into Beta – Opens Up To Indie Artists & Managers
I’ve been hearing that Spotify is rolling out their BETA for their new Spotify Ad Studio, which they are comparing to Google Adwords and Facebook. Some artist managers I’ve spoken with are already in the beta and using it to run ad campaigns on Spotify.
One manager posted in a group that I’m in:
Everyone go to adstudio.spotify.com and check it out for yourselves. Apparently I already have access. The targeting doesn’t get as fine as Facebook, for example, and there’s a $250 minimum spend which gets about 10,000 airings at $0.025 each. There’s also a $5,000 maximum, I presume per campaign, and above that you’re getting into their Spotify For Brands territory which has a $25,000 campaign minimum spend.
They also specify that they don’t currently support driving traffic to songs or playlists. Their ad objectives are ‘Announce an event,’ ‘Raise brand awareness,’ ‘Drive people to my website,’ and ‘Other.’
If you’re interested in advertising content, they encourage you to email adstudio@spotify.com
Want to learn more, here’s a Google Doc with FAQs:
GRAMMY Showcase Call for Entries!
CALL FOR ENTRIES!
Entry Deadline: April 21, 2017
Showcase: June 8, 2017
CLICK HERE TO ENTER
GRAMMY Showcases have built a successful track record of exposing new emerging talent to industry professionals and fans. This is your opportunity to perform live at the Los Angeles GRAMMY Showcase.
To enter and for a complete list of rules and regulations, click here.
The event is open to unsigned artists and/or artists without major label distribution
Music Industry Announcements
A few music industry announcements:
1. I am giving a talk and mini-workshop on Saturday, August 13th at 11am at the Indie Entertainment Summit titled “Music Metadata Matters: How Metadata Impacts Your Income & Opportunities” followed by speaking on a panel on YouTube video monetization for DIY indie artists and bands. Get deats and tickets at http://www.IESfest.com.
2. I am organizing and hosting the Southern California Music Industry Professionals’ August Music Industry Mixer on Thursday, August 18th form 6pm to 9pm at The Federal Bar. We have a special guest speaker, Tiamo Vettori De Vettori, Founder/CEO of Musicpreneur Academy and a Music Success Coach (www.TiamoMusic.com), will give a talk “Secret High Paying Gigs: 5 Lucrative Markets for Musicians in the NEW Music Industry.” This event is FREE. Join SCMIP at http://www.meetup.com/SCMIPonline and RSVP for the mixer at http://www.SCMIP-August.eventbrite.com.
3. I have a panel submitted for SXSW 2017 on music rights and metadata in the ever evolving digital music space featuring panelists from Music Reports, BuzzAngle, TuneRegistry, and Crunch Digital. Vote for the panel and leave comments at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/62361.
4. I am now the full-time CEO of TuneRegistry, an easy-to-use music catalog and metadata management platform with built-in music administration tools for the independent music community. TuneRegistry helps music creators and rights-holders organize their music catalog and streamline administrative tasks such as registering with rights organizations. Our goal is to have 1,000 music creators and rights-holders using TuneRegistry by the end of 2016. Please tell your music industry friends and send them to http://www.tuneregistry.com for details.
To stay up-to-date about my projects, work, involvements, and my upcoming appearences subscribe to my blog at http://www.daeboganmusic.com, follow me on Twitter @daeboganmusic, and like my Facebook page Dae Bogan Music.
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