Your'e A Song Writer.......Wanna Get Paid?

CaptainMoto

Blues Voyager
I've written hundreds of songs, recorded about 50% of them and posted some here and on many streaming platforms.

I have no expectation of becoming wealthy from my songs but, It sure would be nice to collect the royalties due me and that's where it gets complicated.

I've been trying to educate myself on the world of royalties and to say the least, It is a very complex and tedious process.

I've learned quite a bit and in fact, I am collecting some tiny royalties which gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I'm sure many of you may know a lot more than I do about this subject.

For those you are starting your journey, you may find some of this informative:

I'm attaching a Guide I downloaded from an organization called SongTrust.

Their Link : SongTrust



Of course they are pitching their services but, the guide is a great overview of the complexity of royalty collection.
I hope you find it helpful.

Check out the attached file.
 

Attachments

  • The Modern Guide to Music Publishing [Oct].pdf
    2.6 MB · Views: 3
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blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
I had not heard of that one in paticular, but there are ton's of them out there as you well know, All of them are offering the same thing..
As to wether they are capable of doing what they say they can do?---I don't think so. There are so many LOOP HOLES in the copywrite laws
it is pitiful...
Last winter in a pm---I told you about seeing a insurance company commercial that had this line in---"it don't rain like it use too" and it showed a flood scene---There is not one thing you can do about that---but somebody--I THINK (jmop) someone heard your song then used your line in a commercial. and probably made a pretty good $ out of it. But like I said---ain't one thing you can do about it....what goes on, is, they steal your punch line then tweak it enough to get past the copy write laws.---I have already put a couple of stories on here about what I felt my copywriters were violated but---it is no big deal it is what it is. It is nice to hear you made a $ :whistle::LOL:---
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CaptainMoto

Blues Voyager
If you go through the guide and read carefully you'll see there are two qualifiers to generate royalties.
- You wrote the song
- You recorded the song
If it's your own song you did both and can claim royalties for both writer and performer.

Where and or how a song is made available to an audience makes a big difference on what royalties might be available to collect.
- Radio plays generate lower rates than streaming, same for elevator music.
- If somebody streams your song on a free version of Spotify it pays less than streams by premium subscribers
- Countries have various laws and rates so, the same number of listeners in one country can generate less than equal listens in an other country

After a song is played and qualifies for royalties, somebody has to collect them and then they have to know who to pay.
-You could have a song go viral but if you don't have the correct data attached to your song you can't get paid.
-Even if your data is correct, you have to sign up to an organization and/or service to collect the royalties.
-Writers (composers) have to belong to different organizations that artists (performers)
-You could get paid to perform your own song in a venue and simultaneously qualify for royalties for that performance.
-Somebody can use your song on a YouTube Video and if you follow the rules, you could claim all the royalties even though it was their video.

Here's a real kicker.
Lets say one of your songs goes viral but, you haven't taken all the right steps to claim your royalties, the money goes into a black hole and is eventually paid to other people based upon share or market.
In other words, Taylor Swift gets royalties from many songs she has nothing to do with because her songs are popular an others didn't know how to properly register their ownership.

As soon as you write a song it's automatically copyrighted so you own the rights.
However, unless you register your song with the Gov. Copyright Office you'll be more likely to lose a court battle against somebody who takes your song and makes millions.

If you're serious about your songs you need to get yourself well informed.
 
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blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
Sounds like you have done your homework on this...What has always got me --is what organisation has the capability to monitor everything?
I can see You Tube--Spotify--Amazon; so on and so on that all goes through the beast. How in the world can they track your song being played by other means for instance by other people in--Denmark..
I never heard of the "Black Hole Fund" before. I wonder who is in charge of the distribution of that. That's the job I want. ;)
 
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