Today I bring you a ultra-quick blog post in which I put the turbo so that you understand everything you need to know in this copyright jungle we have in the music industry, so that your level of survival in music is comparable to that of Frank Cuesta in the Amazon jungle.
First of all:
What are music royalties?
Easy: songwriters, publishers, singers, bass players… can make money from third party uses of their music. These uses are converted into small percentages that are passed on to you if you are the author of that music.
What types of royalties are there?
1. Mechanical
Composers and publishers are paid for reproductions of the musical work. Nowadays they are generated by the click on each track.
2. By public development
These are generated by the reproduction of the music of a certain author(s) in a public way and by third parties. This can range from a nightclub to any cover at concerts via streaming or fake live FB, Instagram TV, etc.
3. For payments to record holders
These are the royalties generated by the master, i.e. by the recording and mastering of the music in the studios and record labels. They correspond to the professional or team of professionals who have been in charge of recording, mixing and mastering your music.
In the case of my work, as normally all rights are assigned to the artist (this is one of the benefits I grant as a music producer), all royalties and monetisation of each artist’s music go into their pocket.
How much do I charge for each click on the different services?
The estimates for the most popular sites are as follows:
- Napster: 0,01900
- Tidal: 0,01250
- Apple Music: 0,00735
- Google Play: 0,00676
- Deezer: 0,00640
- Spotify: 0,00437
What do I need to generate royalties?
Usually a contract, either implicit, as in the cases of Amazon music, Spotify, Apple music, etc, or explicit, with a record label, publishing house, or with another artist by featuring them on vevo or whatever. In the latter case, there are downloadable online contract templates where you can fill in the details..
Attention! The percentages are not always preset as is often thought. Depending on the possibilities of your material, your relationship with the other artists involved in the musical product and your role in the overall authorship of the product, you can claim different percentages as you wish, as long as the other artists in the contract agree to the percentage.
I leave here a model (preset) of this kind of editable contract, so that you know what they look like and you can even use it if you need to!
Example contract: https://www.iberley.es/formularios/formulario-contrato-produccion-musical-entre-productor-artista-90848
In case you have very specific doubts, I also leave you a link to a Youtube channel (Protege Tu Música TV) that informs you in a simple and clear way about the contracts. I also leave you their website, where they inform you about the different possibilities of royalties, not only in the world of streaming, but also in more classical systems. In addition, the lawyer who runs the company tells very funny and morbid anecdotes about well-known artists and their investigations into royalties, copyright lawsuits, etc.! If you need more extensive advice on royalties and contracts, this is the best option.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClDygowyu2D457XC_c4uk0Q
Website: https://www.protegetumusicatv.com/
The million-dollar question: How can I make a living from my music?
That’s the most complicated of all, but as this is a blog more focused on you developing tools at the speed of light, I’ll sum it up in 3 concepts that I explain much better in my blog Why my music doesn’t succeed:
Freshness (novelty), fiction (create your character, create brand image) and exhibition (organic, through direct contact with the real and potential public, and artificial, or through the RRSS, newsletters, etc).
And now I’m not going to tell you to go out there and succeed. This is not a Hollywood movie. What I will recommend is that you go out there and give it your all. The road to making a living from music is hard, but if you have talent and sweat it out you will make it and you will give something good to the world, I’m sure of it!
That’s all, I hope you enjoyed this blog. I leave you some similar ones in case you might be interested! Remember that you can ask me for custom instrumentals as well as mixing and mastering for your song/s.
Remember that you can buy trap, rap, dembow, uk drill, reggaeton,pop, r&b…instrumentals!
