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Music Publishing: Long Essay

6/05/2015
Word Count: 2289

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Copyright can be defined as the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a
literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, visual ect. (Dictionary.com, n.d) It also
gives the right to issue, lend, or rent copies to the public, perform or show the music in public, and
communicate music to the public via tv, radio etc. Copyright began at the time of the printing press.
It was a reaction to the monopoly that printers held in the 18th Century over the distribution of
work. King Charles II became increasingly worried about the unregulated copying of works, and
thus created the Licensing of Press Act 1662. The first real copyright act that came into law was the
Statute of Anne 1710. This gave individual authors a right to income, authorship, and integrity of
their work. It also gave the authors these rights for a fixed period of time (14 years for new prints,
and 21 years for books that had already been printed). Another important advancement in copyright
came with the establishment of the Berne Convention in 1886. This allowed for copyright law to be
recognised worldwide. The Convention was important as it stated that copyright for creative work
didn't need to be declared, it was automatically fixed at creation of the work. It also meant that
authors didn't need to apply for copyright, copyright was given as soon as a tangible form of the
idea was made, and was fixed until the copyright period either ran out, or the author disowned the
work. Although the U.K signed the act in 1887, much of its laws weren't implemented until the
signing of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. The USA didn't sign the convention until
1989, and the majority of copyright law in Ireland didn't come into effect until the Copyright and
Related Rights Act 2000.
Intellectual property is the intangilbe creation of the human mind, expressed as a tangible form. It
is a product of the intellect that has commercial value. I.P law recognises that IP represents
ownership. It gives the author an exclusive right to use, manufacture, or reproduce a unique idea. It
also gives the creator of a unique product a temporary monopoly on its use. IP law is the most
important element to the music publishing business, because if there was no IP law, there would be
no music publishing business. For example, worldwide music industry revenues for 2011 were

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$67.6 billion, of that, worldwide music publishing revenues for 2011 were $9.4 billion. The music
publisher looks after the copyright in intellectual property, in a songwriters case this would be the
songs. This is where the business of music publishing comes into play. Music publishers are
responsible for acquiring, promoting, and protecting songs. They also collect royalties (fees earned
from songs through performance i.e radio/tv play, or live show performance, or fees earned from
other income streams such as printed sheet music sales or licensing fees) on the copyright holders
behalf and distribute them accordingly. The payment for such tasks is commonly split 75/25
between the artist (copyright owner) and the publishing company. Traditionally, artists assign the
rights of their songs to music publishers, who in return would give the artist an advance (pre
payment of a percentage of the gross income of future earnings, artists do not have to pay this
back). Publishers would collect income from percentage shares of the following;

Performance income is the money generated from live performances of songs, radio play or
tv play. This is usually collected by IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organization), PRS
(Performing Rights Society) in the UK, and BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) or ASCAP
(American Society for Composers Artists and Publishers) in the US. It is then sent to the
publishers who then distribute the royalties to the artists.

Mechanical income is the money generated from physical sales i.e CD, DVD, Music
downloads etc. This is collected by MCPSI (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society
Ireland) or MCPS in the UK. It is then distributed by the publisher to the artist.

Publishers would also distribute sheet/print music, i.e manuscript/songbooks. This would
then be split and the publisher and copyright holder would each get a percentage of the
sales.

Synchronization and licensing fees also generate income for the publishers/copyright
holders by syncing songs to picture i.e tv/game/film.

dramatically, and the majority of changes are in favour of songwriters and artists. Companies such as Kobalt are allowing artists to retain control over of their own career, while sites such as Soundcloud and Spotify are allowing artists to create their own careers. Along with new laws such as The Rome Convention, the music industry seems to be heading towards a more positive change for songwriters and artists.

Typically there are three types of publishing agreements a songwriter can be offered. The first

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agreement, and the most common, would be an ESA (exclusive songwriting agreement a.k.a
exclusive publishing deal), this means that the publisher owns and controls all output as a
songwriter during the contract. A songwriter may be offered a single song agreement if for example,
a song was featured on another artists album. In this case the publisher of the other artist may offer
a single song agreement for the song. A songwriter or copyright holder may also be offered a Tv
'Writing Admin' Deal. This deal is usually required for a catalogue of songs that have already been
written, rather than a new artist writing new songs. This is also known as a collection deal. It may
be offered for the 'Beach Boys' catalogue of songs for example. This deal is slightly different than
the previous two mentioned as it is not an assignment of rights, but it gives the publisher license to
admin songs. This means that the publisher can register with collection companies for example, and
license 3rd parties to use the songs.
There are many benefits to signing with a publishing company, it is a good way to get finance,
ensure that your royalties are collected worldwide, and it is a good way to exploit your songs. As I
mentioned above this was the traditional way in which music publishing worked with artists and
generated income. However, there are new models of publishing coming to the forefront. These new
models provide label services as well as publishing services, allow the artist to retain copyright, and
also allow the artist to retain higher revenues after costs.
Kobalt was a boutique publisher, with main offices in London and New York, and a great network
of international sub publishers. The company then bought AWAL (UK-based digital distribution and
label services company, founded in 1997 by Denzyl Feigelson) in 2012, established Kobalt Label
Services, and quickly signed Prince, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Pet Shop Boys. This meant
that there was now an availability of music publishing and a music label under the same company.
Since then Kobalt has grown astronomically, representing over 5,000 artists and songwriters,
600,000 songs, and 500 publishing companies. Its services include global licensing management,
works and rights distribution, royalty collection and processing, sync and brand partnerships, record

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release management and marketing, among many others. Kobalt is the first company of its kind to
offer 'flexible contracts'. This means that artists and writers have more control over their work
and their future. With no commitment to deliver a minimum number of recordings and no lock-in,
clients are free to make the artistic choices that are right for them. (Kobaltmusic.com, n.d) Some
examples of how Kobalts contracts differ to that of traditional contracts are; The term agreed at the
beginning of a contract was typically 7 years life of copyright, Kobalt now offer 3 year contracts.
Rates were usually 75% to the label, with multiple deductions, Kobalt's rates are now 30% across
all revenue streams, including streaming. Traditionally, the rights owner gave up ownership and
control over their recordings, Kobalt ensure that the rights owner retains ownership and control over
their recordings, the artist also receives the majority of revenue after recoupment. Importantly, there
is no 'lock-in' agreement with Kobalt. Instead of agreeing to an exclusive recording agreement, with
further album options, artists now have the option to make a deal for specified recordings only, with
no mandatory future options. (Kobaltmusic.com, n.d)
Kobalt also offers 'transparent' accounting, With Kobalt, you have access to all your data, at any
time. Our industry-defining Kobalt Portal provides full transparency with real-time updates,
powerful reporting, and user-friendly analysis tools that make it easy to review and understand all
your income streams, from physical sales to downloads, and streaming to Synch.. This means that
the artist can personally review their accounts and account activity, this would usually not be
available as accounts would be managed in-house, with very little information given to the artist.
As the artist retains the mastering rights to their music, the artist may also make income from
'neighbouring rights'. You can think of neighboring rights in the same way as public performance
rights, with the difference that while public performance rights compensate the writer of the song
when his/her music is publicly performed, neighboring rights compensate the master holder
(typically, the label) and the performer when music is publicly performed (George Howard, 2012)
The Rome Convention in 1961 established Neighbouring Rights for performance artists and record

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labels. Similar to that of copyright royalty that is owed to songwriters and publishers when their
music is broadcast. This meant that once a record was commercially released, artists who performed
on a record that was played publicly, were entitled to payment across the EU and some other
territories. However, only the countries that signed the Rome Convention are subject to payment,
and only the performers who are a permanent resident in one of these countries (or if the record was
made in one of these countries) are entitled to payment.
The U.S enacted the Digital Performance Rights in Sounds Recordings Act in 1995. This meant that
if a performer/labels song was publicly performed via satellite radio, internet radio, or any other
form of non-interactive stream (the customer cannot pick the song, rewind, pause etc. The way they
can on Pandora for example) both the owners of the master, the featured performer, and any other
non featured performers were entitled to payment. This is usually split 50%, 45%, and 5%
respectively. SoundExchange collects and distributes these royalties on behalf of these parties.
Kobalt work with international collection societies to ensure that artists and performers are
receiving income from when their music is being played. The company pride themselves in being
able to collect 20%-30% more revenue for their artists than other labels and publishing companies.
They are able to provide this service by using their powerful tracking system to compare collection
against in-house expectations to ensure that income is being correctly accounted for. They develop
these expectations from 3rd party performance data, territory expectations from their 'predistribution health check' (the company does a qualification criteria review, which gives a detailed
understanding of expecting earnings in certain territories), and the clients income data.
Triangulating these three data sources enables Kobalt to correctly monitor collection and ensure that
all income possible is received. (Kobaltmusic.com, n.d)
As I mentioned previously, Kobalt own AWAL which is one of the worlds leading digital
distribution platforms. AWAL is one of Itunes preferred partners and is certified as Live Direct.
With Kobalt the artist retains all ownership of digital assets and metadata, and this is stored and

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managed by the Kobalt themselves. Kobalt also has a network of leading physical distribution and
licensing partners around the world. (Kobaltmusic.com, n.d). Each of these relationships are non
exclusive, which means that the right partner can be chosen for each individual case, instead of a
single partnership for every artist even though each artist differs from the next. Licensees are
approved by artists on a case-by-case basis. (Kobaltmusic.com, n.d) Some examples of Kobalts
distribution partners are, Sony Music (Canada), Alliance/Super D (USA), and Proper (UK/Ireland).
In 2014 Kobalt launched ProKlaim, which uses advanced detection technology to help collect
revenues from YouTube videos that would otherwise fly under the radar, as YouTube's detection
software wasn't strong enough to locate smaller videos. Kobalt CEO Willard Ahdritz estimates that
ProKlaim captures and claims 95% of videos using Kobalt content. (Christman, 2014) Ahdritz also
said that since integrating ProKlaim into the YouTube system they are adding millions of dollars in
payments to Kobalts clients, and roughly half a million to a million dollars into the US market
alone.
The music industry has changed dramatically in the last decade, and this is thanks in part to the
internet. Since the introduction of sites like Napster and illegal file sharing services such as
Limewire, music sales have declined.(Mulligan, 2015) However, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
As music is so readily available because of this, much more artists are able to be heard as they can
now upload their music straight onto their own sites on Soundcloud, Facebook etc. This means that
artists can be instrumental in creating their own careers, without the need of a record label.
Streaming sites such as Spotify also allow unsigned artists to upload their songs onto the site/app,
while paying artists per number of streams (plays) they get. The music industry has changed
dramatically, and the majority of changes are in favour of songwriters and artists. Companies such
as Kobalt are allowing artists to retain control over of their own career, while sites such as
Soundcloud and Spotify are allowing artists to create their own careers. Along with new laws such
as The Rome Convention, the music industry seems to be heading towards a more positive change

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for songwriters and artists.

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Bibliography:

Kobaltmusic.com,. 'Services | Kobalt'. Web. Accessed 6 May 2015. Available at:

http://www.kobaltmusic.com/page-services.php

Christman, Ed. 'Kobalt Launches Youtube Matching Tool Proklaim, Boasts 1Bn Processed
Streams Per Month'. Billboard. N.p., 2014. Web. Accessed 6 May 2015.

Available from : http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/publishing/6070400/kobalt-launchesyoutube-matching-tool-proklaim-boasts-1bn

Mulligan, Mark. Awakening: The Music Industry In The Digital Age. 1st ed. 2015.

Howard, George. 'Neighboring Rights: What They Are & Why They Matter - Tunecore
Blog'. TuneCore Blog. N.p., 2012. Web. Accessed 6 May 2015.

Available from: http://www.tunecore.com/blog/2012/07/neighboring-rights-what-they-are-whythey-matter.html

Dictionary.com,. 'The Definition Of Copyright'. Web. Accessed 6 May 2015. Available from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright