Music Copyrights
All musicians should know every Recorded Track are broken down into two main copyrights represented by their publisher and label.
Songwriters
Recording Artists
50%
50%
COPYRIGHTS
MASTER RIGHTS
25% Songwriters - For writing the lyrics and music
25% Publisher/Administrator
25% Recording Artists - Producing the lyrics and music together into a master recording
25% Record Label
Songwriter - Copyrights
Spotify's Publishing
When you create a song, by default you are both the songwriter and publisher. Automatically becoming the rights owner of your song, you inherit at least 6 copyrights which can be administered to issue licenses for using of your song, register ownership rights with music societies or collect royalties generated from license fees or your songs usage.
The bulk of digital royalties generated online are allocated to your distributor and to the relevant rights societies in the country where your music is streamed or used. Which is why it is essential to affiliate as a songwriter with your local PRO.
Blanket Licenses: A license that blankets all songwriters or artists within a specific region or territory that Right Society controls eg. BMI and ASCAP for the United States.
To collect music royalties as a Songwriter you must affiliate with your local Performing Rights Organization before you are able to claim these royalties. However this ONLY accounts for royalties generated within your region or country and not for royalties generated in countries outside of your PROs controlled territory. This is where Songwriter needs a publisher or and administrator to have these royalties also collected.
Music Rights Societies issue automatic "Blanket Licenses" to online platforms where mandatory royalties are then paid. These royalties get paid to rights societies from all over the world, generated from the date your music was first used online, meaning you could also potentially be missing royalties unclaimed back dating years.
Music Rights Societies
Performing Rights Organizations (PRO)
Mechanical Rights Organizations (MRO)
Collective Management Organization (CMO)
Neighboring Rights Organizations (NRO)
Sound Recording Organizations (SRO)
Types of Music Rights Societies
A Songwriter can ONLY collect just for half of the Performing Rights to their Song. However it is Industry Standards the rest of the Songs rights are collected by their Publisher.
Performing Rights Organizations split royalties payments between the Songwriter and Publisher
Administrator - Publishing Rights
The role of the publisher is to manage music copyrights and register your works with your local PRO. They administer ownership claims on your music and correct and inaccurate or missing metadata. Publishers also track and monitor the usage of your music collecting royalties generated from those uses and issue music licenses to businesses and other paid sources across various mediums.
To collect international royalties outside of your societies controlled territory you would need to have a sub-publisher for each country they control the music rights in. An administrator has the same role as a publisher, but provides it as a service instead of negotiating ownership terms to your music rights and not just for a single country but for the entire world.
For a Songwriters Copyrights, 6 types of rights are commonly generated from a single written Song.
Want to protect your music assets and track missing or unclaimed royalties? Apply for our free publishing administration services..
In most co-publishing agreements, 50% of the song’s copyright is assigned to the publisher, in some cases for an indefinite term. Meutone offers publishing administration where songwriters retain 100% ownership of their songs copyright but instead taking partial commission from all royalties we collect on your behalf. Our mission is to ensure rights owners and music creators are fully compensated properly for their craft, offering an administerial service rather than negotiating music rights and taking ownership of your music assets.
For a Recording Artists owning the Masters could depend on several things, like if you are the Executive Producer, studio time is financed by your Label or if the Producer is conducting the entire recording session.
Recording Artists owns the Master Rights are for the Sound Recording. The word Masters derives from the term Master Recording. It is the final produced audio file or is the original recording to what is known in the industry as "Owning Your Masters" or to be an owner of the Master Copyright to a Sound Recording.