What is Music Publishing?

I am sure this questing is asked a lot by emerging artist. In this blog I will try to give brief definitions of what publishing is. According to Music Publishers Association, “music publishing is concerned with developing, protecting and valuing music. The business is diverse and demands a variety of skills.”

There are four types of publishing deals that a composer/songwriter can find him in. They include single song, long-term, co-publishing, administration and self-publishing deals. For the purpose of this blog I will only discuss a few of these.

Self-Publishing is when the songwriter independently markets his material and keep 100% of the returns. Aggregators like CD Baby and Tunecore offer these services for a fee and let the songwriter keep the full amount. Two types of royalties are covered in a publishing deal, mechanical royalties and performance royalties. For the fee charged CD Baby will affiliate you to two performances rights organization as a songwriter, your song will also be registered with these PRO’s and they will collect your royalties and pay them directly to you.

Even when artists decided to self publish their material, they should seek professional help in order to get the best result. Recently reggae artist Christopher Martin inked a deal with VP Records, which will cover touring and publishing. There are no specific details on the negotiations, however we could assume that this could be an administration deal. This type of deal will see Martin retaining the copyright to his songs, while VP will handle administrative functions. These functions will include printing and distribution, areas where VP is good at handling.

As mentioned before publishing covers mechanical royalties, so if a person decided to      cover your original works, he/she needs to be cleared by mechanical licenses to have the legal right to cover your work. Mechanical rights give us for CDs, DVDs, videos, games, webcasting, etc.

Publishing!! What Is That?

Ask many emerging reggae artists, what is a publishing deal and I am sure I few will wonder what the hell you are talking about. For the more seasoned artists that’s a different story. There has been many stories of reggae artists been ripped off of the publishing. Just recently a prospective client presented me with a copy of what seems to be a publishing agreement. At a brief glance I knew some was wrong here, on the last page I saw names and percentage figures, which again, didn’t look right.

My advise to artists, is when in doubt seek professional help. Do not be “penny wise and pound foolish.” The money you try to save today, tomorrow you may have to spend thousands of dollars to correct. According to an article on www.BashmentVibes.com, ‘record labels and so-called collection societies have deprived reggae artists of millions in publishing and royalty revenues.” According to famous Jamaican producer Edward ‘Bunny’ Lee, record labels robbed them themselves, as at the time (back in the early days of reggae) they knew nothing about publishing and were given blank contract to sign. Little did they know they were signing away the rights to their music forever. Labels like Virgin, Universal Records and Trojan Records are accused of this practice. However they are not the only one who has robbed singer/songwriter of their royalties and the rights to their material.

Going back to my prospective client, how can a producer acquire 50% of a song that he never co-wrote? JamDung Entertainment will seek to educate our clients of their right as it concerns all facets of the music business. Bear in mind that a publishing deal has two components to it, the writer’s share and the publisher’s share. In a fair society the writer’s share should always be greater than the publishers share, however there are instances where this is the opposite.

Entertainment Industry Liabilities

The business world is filled with many liabilities and the entertainment industry is no exception. One of the biggest liabilities that affect the entertainment industry is Intellectual Property (IP) liability. IP is broken into four components copyright, trademark, patent and trade secrets. Of the four components copyright infringement is the one that plagues the entertainment industry the most.

       We all have to obey the copyright laws. According to Keith Winstein’s analogy, for the most part libraries are committing copyright infringement. However, libraries have been given a special exemption by congress, provided they display the copyright notice.

The entertainment industry has fixed or tangible products in the form of sound recording and lyrics when written on paper (tangible form). If a person needs to use the original works legally, then they must seek the author’s permission in order to reproduce the work. For example, if a CD is bought and used in the comfort of your home or car no permission is need, however, if that sais CD is used in a commercial environment the author needs to give permission and be paid royalties.

According to Professor Beckerman-Rodau, the copyright law does not protect all copyrights. He also mentioned that that copyright laws protects artistic works, which includes music composition. Copyright law, trademark law and trade secrets law will mainly protect JamDung Entertainment, as a business. Copyright law protects artistic works, which includes musical composition and is protected for the author’s life plus seventy years after his or her death. Trademark law will protect the “JamDung” name, logo and image, which is associated with the entertainment industry. Bear in mind that there are two types of patent law, utility and design. JamDung Entertainment could easily fall in both categories, based on the nature of the business operations. Trade secrets law will protect how JamDung Entertainment operates its business and the methods used and prevent anyone from using the tactics used in developing business strategies