Royalties
How Much Are Loretta Lynn’s Royalties Worth?
Loretta Lynn, who died Tuesday at 90, has long been one of country music’s queens, with 16 No. 1s and 51 top 10s on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart throughout her six-decade long career. All told, the singer and songwriter’s catalog — best known now for “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” and “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” — generates about $1.62 million annually, according to a Billboard estimate. Lynn’s recordings — which are largely owned by Universal Music Group through deals she struck with Decca and MCA, before leaving to work with a variety of labels in the 1990s and onward — generated about $1.18 million in revenue last year, based on Billboard’s estimates. Those recordings bring in about $440,000 in publishing revenue. Am...
YouTube’s New Creator Music Program Is Its Solution to Copyright Strikes and TikTok
Uploading a video to YouTube is like bracing for impact. You never know when their Content ID system is going to hit you with a copyright strike. But YouTube’s newly unveiled Creator Music program aims to be the solution the company and its creators have longed for. The program is currently in beta testing, but it will add a large catalog of licensable music for creators to use in their videos. Users will be able to search, browse and purchase these tracks and agree to terms that aren’t bogged down by legal jargon. The way YouTube currently functions is through a very robust Content ID system. Creators can utilize YouTube’s stock music, but the library is limited and its song don’t always fit their content. Video creators have tried to use music ou...
Defected Records Sets 30% Minimum Royalty Rate for Recording Artists and Producers
Defected Records‘ new royalty rate is all but defective. Shortly after Defected announced Wez Saunders as the company’s new CEO, it’s making moves that aim to set a new royalty rate standard for artists and music producers around the world. Saunders has set the tone for the industry with Defected’s minimum 30% royalty rate for any recording artist and producer signed to the label, Music Week reports. A majority of the label’s roster is already locked into the rate and Defected will also provide quarterly royalty reports to all of its producers, artists and songwriters in an effort to add transparency. Defected Records CEO Wez Saunders. Gavin Mills Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles In addition to the heightened royalty rate, Defected has reportedly w...
Can YouTube Catch Spotify to Become Music’s Top Royalty Stream?
Spotify is the king of music streaming — but its lead is dwindling. YouTube generated over $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months ended June 2022, the company announced Tuesday (Sept. 13). That was a 50% increase from the last figure YouTube reported, $4 billion over a 12-month period, in June 2020. Reaching the $6 billion milestone raises the question of when — if at all — YouTube might surpass Spotify in terms of value to rights holders and creators. “We want our twin engine of ads and subscriptions to be the #1 contributor of revenue to the industry by 2025,” wrote Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, in a blog post on Tuesday. That won’t be easy, but it isn’t impossible. Consider how fast YouTube has grown since Cohen joined the company from Warner Music Group (where ...
Music Industry Author-Activist Dorothy Carvello Tests Her Power As Shareholder With Letter to WMG
A lawyer for author, social activist, public relations consultant and former music industry A&R executive Dorothy Carvello has sent a letter to board members of the Warner Music Group requesting records relating to the company’s investigations into previously-reported sexual misconduct claims and royalties accounting at the label, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Billboard. In the letter, which references several previously–reported allegations of misconduct against Warner executives, Carvello’s lawyer writes that Carvello has “concerns that WMG’s management is not doing enough to investigate and act upon allegations of sexual misconduct at the company, and not monitoring the distribution of artist royalties in a manner that ensures sound accounting and payment. Both issue...
Minimal Oversight and Few Obvious Repercussions Leave YouTube’s Royalty System Ripe for Abuse
Louis Armstrong released “What a Wonderful World” in 1967, and the track eventually made its way to YouTube, like nearly every other recording, where it earns royalties for the single’s owner as well as its songwriters. For roughly a month in 2017, however, about $468 of the song’s publishing royalties made its way to the company Create Music Group, despite the fact that Create did not represent any of the parties involved in the song. Create later said that its claim on Armstrong’s classic, made through YouTube’s online rights management portal, was the result of an error, according to emails shared with Billboard. The mistake was subsequently rectified with a payment to the proper entity. Publishing rights are infamously complicated, and sources from around the music business say YouTube...
House Representative Rashida Tlaib Takes Aim at Music Streaming Services In New Resolution
Rashida Tlaib, House Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has introduced a resolution that seeks to establish a new royalty program. The resolution effectively continues her fight for musicians to earn a “reasonable” living from their recorded music. “Expressing the sense of Congress that it is the duty of the Federal Government to establish a new royalty program to provide income to featured and non-featured performing artists whose music or audio content is listened to on streaming music services, like Spotify,” reads the bill. Tlaib’s resolution proposes the royalty rate be administered by SoundExchange and the Copyright Royalty Board, who would calculate, collect, retain and distribute payments to the appropriate copyright ...
“Race to the Bottom”: U.S. Representative Drafts Letter to Congress for Music Streaming Royalty Reform
The hammer may soon come down on digital service providers. It’s an axiom among music industry professionals that royalties generated from streaming services are abysmal. While these companies rake in record profits and lease luxury office spaces for their employees, the musicians who constitute their userbases often bemoan their business models for practices many deem to be exploitative. Rashida Tlaib, the U.S. representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has written a letter to Congress proposing that musicians should be fairly compensated for their work distributed by digital service providers like Spotify and Apple Music. Tlaib says she has been working closely with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) to advocate for royalty reform. “W...
Enforcing Rights Just Got Much Easier for Copyright Owners
Copyrights are very expensive and timely to enforce. The United States established the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), which allows copyright owners to file disputes and resolve issues more efficiently and avoid an expensive federal court case. Comprising three members who are well-versed in copyright law, the CCB was developed from the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2020. Damages can’t exceed $30,000, which seems like a lot. If you use an attorney you can get an additional $5,000 and $2,500 if you don’t. But if you’re a musician with work that gets stolen from someone whose track ultimately goes Platinum, you could likely sue for much more in damages. “Copyrights [are] an issue for federal courts only—it’s not a state ...
Four Tet Wins Legal Battle Over Streaming Royalties Dispute
Four Tet has come out on the winning end of a legal battle against his label after around a year of litigation. The tenured electronic music producer brought a legal claim against his record label, Domino, alleging the organization had only paid him 18% of the royalty share for his music instead of the 50% rate promised in his contract. Signed in 2001, Four Tet’s agreement with Domino yielded multiple acclaimed albums, including Pause, Rounds and Everything Ecstatic. The ugly battle led to Domino temporarily removing the albums from streaming services per their legal guidance, though the music has since been restored. In filing the suit, Four Tet sought £70,000 in backpay from Domino. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles Now, Four Tet has announced that he’ll be r...
Sony Music Group Extends Program for Unrecouped Artists and Songwriters
More legacy artists and songwriters are going to be able to profit from the boom in streaming and other digital royalties after Sony Music Group expands its program for paying royalties to more artists with unrecouped royalty balances, chairman Rob Stringer announced Wednesday evening (May 25) during a presentation to Sony Corp. investors. With Artists Forward and Songwriters Forward, both launched in 2021, Sony Music decided to pay royalties to artists and songwriters who were signed before 2000 and haven’t received advance since. Sony Music didn’t wipe the slate clean by modifying contracts or adjusting the account balances. Instead, it would ignore the negative account balances of artists whose royalties earned over the previous two decades never caught up with their advance and expense...
Songwriters May Get a 32% Increase In Mechanical Royalties for Downloads and Physical Products
The Copyright Royalty Board has reportedly been asked by major rights holders and publishers to increase mechanical royalties for physical products by 32%. This increase would raise the mechanical royalty rate from 9.1 cents to 12 cents per track for physical products (CDs, vinyl), downloads, ringtone, and music bundles, per Variety. The 9.1 cents rate was set back in 2008 at the beginning of the Phono IV process, which involves royalties for both physical and digital formats. Supporters of the motion to the CRB, who requested an increase to 15 cents, included major label members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). It would mark a major win for songwri...
