I am just curious as to how much some of the top songwriters in Nasvhille make. How do they get paid? Does it depend on who the singer is? Does it depend on the popularity of the song? Numbers and Facts would be appreciated! www.dianewarren.com had about five songs in play a few years back. Aerosmith, Leann Rimes, Trisha Yearwood, Mark Chestnut, others, all had one hit each. She had five. Her site will tell you all the play her songs are getting. A songwriter owns 100% of the songwriting royalties, and 100% of the publishing royalties. Royalties are the fees radio and tv and other income generating venues pay for the privilege of using the songwriter's intellectual property. Sometimes they let the artist have a percentage of the songwriting royalty. They often let the publisher have 50% of the publishing royalties to pitch the song and get it cut, recorded, and released to the market where it can earn. Warren bought David Geffen's house for $70 million and did a $25 million remodel as I recall. Yes, there's gold in them there songs. I get on www.songwriter101.com and www.tunesmith.com and, when it doesn't bind up my computer, www.justplainfolks.com where people talk about songwriting and consult on lyrics and music. Michael Jackson bought the Beatles' catalog for multi-millions of dollars so there's more evidence of the value of a song. There's always a demand for the next hit. There's always another song to be written, drawn from the inexhaustible magic purse of music. You might as well be the one to write that next song, and maybe that hit.
Oh, Performing Rights Organizations (PRO) collect royalties for their members. www.bmi.com www.ascap.com www.sesac.com in the USA. You can also get a synchronization license for placement of a song in a tv show or movie. And, once a song is released, anyone can record it by buying a mechanical license through www.harryfoxagency.com who pay the owners. A single song on a million selling CD could earn $69,000. for the songwriter. If it was the hit, getting lots of airplay, it could earn millions. CD sales are down by 20% in the quarter ending June 2007, and continuing to decrease. Downloads seem to be the way more folks want to buy these days, increasing by millions. Good luck. It depends. Some songs are given away and some cost an arm and a leg, depends on who writes and who performs, and what stage of the careers. It is more difficult to break into the songwriting business than it is to break into the artist business, as tough as that is. As an artist, you can be independent and form your own label and get FM college radio play, etc., based on your work.
As a songwriter, you can't find anyone to even listen to your songs, much less record them. So it is easier to get somewhere as an artist than as an author.
That being said, songwriters typically get paid through royalties. For every time their song is played on commercial radio, they collect a royalty from their licensing group, such as ASCAP or BMI. They also collect publishing/authorship royalties based on record sales. Gary has some great info.
I'll add this. Nashville publishing houses have replaced New York's Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building as far as staff writers are concerned. A staff writer is someone signed to a publishing firm, or very rarely, to a label. They are paid a regular salary against future royalties. This is deducted from their royalty payments, if they get any. On the other hand, if they aren't getting any songs placed with artists, they don't keep they're jobs for long. Royalties are based on sales and airplay (two different types of royalty-sales are called mechanical royalties). What percentage they get depends on many factors, namely their publishing contracts. The publisher gets a percentage also. This is why you see so many publishers names listed in song credits. Established artists/writers set up their own publishing so they can get a bigger share of royalties. Bug music is a popular company because they are not a traditional publishing company, they only "administrate" royaties and charge less. Obviously, a hit single makes more money than a regular cut on a record.
Finally, it is a popular misconception that performance royalties are based on the number of times a song is played on the radio/stage/etc. It would be too much trouble to track every station, record store, restaurant, etc. They are calculated using algorithms, kind of like a poll. When they say 40% of Americans say this or buy that, they haven't asked all Americans. Same thing with royalties. They are estimating airplay/performance based on surveys. |
