I was sitting in the living room yesterday enquiring into Royalty Accounting Software and I put in writing this feature.
Countless record execs have turned down the next Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Madonna, Beyonce, or Usher only to have a different exec pick them up and hit gold. If you have a tour manager (and if not, your personal manager should be doing the job), he or she is responsible for everything running smoothly on the road. They make sure that your hotel reservations are in fact there, that your airline tickets are confirmed, that the bus is where it’s supposed to be, that you are on the bus when you’re supposed to be, that only certain groupies get through security, etc. What is the extent of streaming's fake music problem? It's increasingly clear that music-streaming services aren't vulnerable only to one kind of fraud, but a cornucopia of ways that malicious actors can game the platforms for revenue, exposure, or just simple attention. You might have heard the saying that knowledge is power. This is true. The more you know about the music industry and how it works, the better your chances are of succeeding. Television composers live in a different world from film composers. The time they have to compose and deliver is shorter because, as I’m sure you know, television programs are knocked out like little pancakes right before they go on the air. Also, the budgets to produce TV shows are substantially lower than motion picture budgets. Since earning any real money from streaming recordings is difficult, many artists became resigned to giving their music away for free or allowing fans to pay whatever they wish, sometimes through crowdfunding sites.
Sound recording copyrights are typically controlled by a record label, which may promote the song, collect and distribute royalties, and provide an advance to the artist, among other things. But often artists only get a small fraction for their creations. No matter how much your fans love you, Spotify only allows you to earn fractions of a penny per stream. Your best fan pays the same as a passing, casual listener – though that fan would support you with much more if they had the opportunity. That lack of opportunity is exactly the problem with streaming services. Sometimes, as with scoring a film, the composer may not have a choice of how the working agreement is structured and compensated. The preference and budget of the film producer will indicate whether or not it makes sense to create the music as work for hire or as a product that the composer will continue to profit from. Avid fans of artists may happily fit a higher bill if they are able to get closer to the artists they love. This close communication and interaction are key both for the artists and their fans. Market leading
allows for full traceability of your world-wide music sales.
The definition of records includes any other device now or hereafter known that is capable of transmitting sound alone, or sound with visual images. Even more importantly, the current deals define records to mean any kind of delivery of your performances for consumer use, whether sound alone or with visuals. This is designed to pick up the Internet, including Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, and Vevo. Although it is becoming increasingly rare, some royalties from streaming services are still paid with a physical check that is mailed to artists. More often than not, low-income checks from low volume streams are more of a novelty for smaller musicians rather than a serious paycheck. If the business of music is business, then we need to learn how business works. Although luck is always a factor, business is not mysterious. Anyone can learn it if they are willing to apply themselves. If you can learn music, you can learn business. The streaming manager of any enterprise also seeks the funding or financing necessary to pay for a plan. All of the money streaming services currently pay goes to rights-holders, who then pass on a small share to artists. Labels and publishers currently keep the vast majority of profits. How much artists and writers earn from music streaming can easily be determined by
Music Royalty Accounting Software
nowadays.
Members of bands who serve as the manager can have an especially big challenge because of differences in personalities and expectations and the fact that human nature isn’t the same for everyone. The artist royalty is a percentage of the wholesale price. The companies also call this price the published price to dealers (PPD to its friends), or sometimes (mostly outside the U.S.) the base price to dealers (BPD). Each royalty percentage is known as a point, so if you have a 10% royalty, you have 10 points. Generally, music managers use a standard management contract includes negotiated points, which have been agreed upon by both parties. Negotiating points might include the term of the contract, options, percentage paid to the manager, and areas of management. Music royalty software allows for full traceability with your world-wide sales, automated matching, validation and checking functions for optimal efficiency in processing your ever increasing data feeds. There is virtually no aspect of the professional and personal corners of an artist’s life that a manager doesn’t encounter on a regular basis. As royalty collections are now one of the largest financial streams in the music business, artists need
to provide accurate data and information.
What do artists make on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms? It‘s not that easy to answer this question. Well, at least in theory, because even that stream share gets split up again between record labels and distribution services, artists, songwriters, and publishers. As with all new licensing avenues, there is an inherent risk in music NFTs. It’s still a relatively young industry prone to unexpected swings. It also relies on cryptocurrency which can fluctuate wildly in value. Watch carefully how much you’re paying your band and crew on a tour, and really think about how many of them you need. This is primarily your manager or tour manager’s area of expertise, and you obviously don’t want to scrimp on essential personnel. But you don’t always need to carry as many people as you think, or to pay them as much as they demand. And it’s not just salaries - it’s hotels, transportation, food, etc. While mainstream artists may not have much to complain about the royalties from streaming platforms such as Spotify, what does this mean for upcoming artists? Obviously they won't be getting major play, but what they are getting is a chance to have their music exposed to more people. There is a big debate going on in the music industry about free music, and some people believe that all music must be free and that the only way to make money is merchandise and live shows. With digital consumption and the volume of data on the rise, something as simple as
can make a real difference to a business in the music industry.
In the past if you purchase a album, that automatically counts as one sale and one sale only. This may not seem so bad in the eye of the artists, but from a consumer standpoint, this may be hard to achieve. The current stance and attention span of the average listener may not listen to certain albums a month, two months, or even a year after its release. Composers are proficient in one or many instruments and have a deep understanding of music theory and arrangement. Being a great composer means understanding the technicalities and mechanics of music on multiple levels. Composers are usually paid on a per-project basis. When an instrumental theme has been written, which may be suitable for the television, radio, audio-visual, film and advertising industries worldwide, the next step is to promote it to publishers, production companies and producers to gain interest for obtaining a music publishing deal and for use in programming, broadcasting and advertising. Musicians today must be knowledgeable about the possibilities and limitations of the most current technology, which evolves constantly. Sampling is taking the sound of a recording made by someone else and using it in your own recording. Many musicians consider it an art and like to lift beats and sounds and hooks from other people’s records to incorporate into their songs. But unless you get permission to use a copyrighted sound, you run the risk of being sued. Unauthorized sampling is copyright infringement. Something as simple as
can clarify any issues around artist’s royalties.