Monday, July 14, 2008
Cream The Music Industry's New Normal
Posted by Tracy Moore on Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 11:36 AM
Here's a piece I came across about Music Row's slow-core evolution in adapting to the seismic shift toward digital sales. It's a lot of what you already know: CDs aren't sellin' like they used to, people aren't gettin' rich like they used to, new media companies are sproutin' up like toadstools and it's a new era in the biz. But hey, at least Music Row is finally ready to get with it, thanks to artists such as Taylor Swift, whose Internet-savvy marketing paid off.
But it was this little paragraph that caught my eye for its nice breakdown of the way money allocation works for songwriters (courtesy of Songwriters Guild of America prez Rick Carnes). And since everyone had a good go at The Pink Spiders' publishing hot potato recently, I thought it might be of interest:
It goes like this: By law, a songwriter is entitled to 9.1 cents for every song sold, giving him a starting point of $91,000 if an album sells a million copies. A publishing contract eats up half of that, reducing the figure to $45,500. That sum is typically split in half again because many artists won't cut a track on their album unless they receive a co-writing credit. That money is often used to pay back the initial investment made by a record company. That now leaves the songwriter with $22,750. But included in most standard record deals is a clause that pays co-writers only 75 percent of their congressionally mandated royalties, leaving a grand total of about $17,000 in a songwriter's pocket.
Comments (12)
Showing 1-12 of 12
