Publishing
Publishing is weird, because it seemes to me, it is really not necessary. Originally, back in the days of Vaudeville, publishing houses had hundreds of writers working for them, and put out tons of published, printed music.
Today, publishers don't do printed music much anymore, except for classical music, and those stupid popular songbooks you see in the back of your local music store. Basically the Publisher is for songwriters, not bands, not anything else. Here's how it's suppsed to work: Joe Blow wrote a song called "I'll Blow for You" but Joe Blow isn't in a band, and can barely play the piano, much less any other instrument, so Joe Blow goes to his friend, who sez to go to Festering Hole Music, a local publisher, after helping him record it on his 4 track.
So Joe Blow takes his demo to Jonny Bigwig, the Repitoire manager of Festering Hole Music, and plays it for him, along with showing him the chord chart and lyric sheet. Johnny Bigwig likes the song, and gives Joe an advance of $500 dollars, agaist future royalties earned, and a contract to handle the copyright and royalties of the song.
Joe Blow isn't as dumb as your average horned toad, so he takes the contract to a lawer he found out of a phone book Jimmy Legalese, who for a fee reads the contract, and gives it to Joe in English, telling him, this is a fair contract for a first time songwriter. So Joe signs the contract, cashes the check, and pays Jimmy, and goes home, waiting for stardom.
Meanwhile Jonny Bigwig hires some studio musicians, and takes "I'll Blow for You" into the studio, and records it again, this time, again a rough demo, but with better quality, polishing a turd, as it were...
A freind of Jonny Bogwig, in the Artist relations department of Festering Hole Music Barry Buttkisser has heard that Neil Diamond, and Kenny Rogers are both looking for new songs to put on their next records, so Jonny Bigwig gives the newly completed demo to Barry Buttkisser, who sends the tapes to Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers, who both decide not to use it, deciding it's not quite they're style.
However while Neil Diamond was in the studio, his old freind Barbara Streisand stopped by, because they were talking about doing a duet for her next record, and heard "I'll Blow for You" She loves it and wants to put it on her next record, and tells her agent to get permission to use it.
Jonny Bigwig of course gives Barbara permission to use it, and then negotiates the royalties he and Joe Blow will get from the record sales. Joe Blow hates Barbara Streisand, and tells Jonny Bigwig that he would rather eat shit from a pigs ass than let her use his song. Jonny calmly reminds him that he signed over his rights to Festering Hole music, and he doesn't have a say in who performes his song, but Jonny shows him the projected sales of Barbara's next record, and his share of the Royalties, and gives in.
The song is a smash hit, and Black and Decker decide they want to use the song for they're new paint drying machine The Blowmaster 3000 deluxe. Again Joe has no authority to say no, because it wasn't in his contract, but he's making shitloads of money from it, while staying in relative anonymity, though he heard he might be nominated for a Grammy.
Meanwhile at Stinky Pole Music, they decide Joe Blow must be a writing Genius, and want to hire him to write a song for Keifer Sutherland's new movie "Shoot, Smell and Go!" Well Joe Blow loves Keifer, much better than Donald, and wants to do it. He is however signed to a contract with Festering Hole Music, and askes them to be released from his contract
Well of course Jonny Bigwig says no, he's not going to release his number one songwriter at the peak of his popularity, but he does tell Stinky Pole that they would be happy to do a co- publishing agreement for this movie. Stinky Pole agrees, and gives Joe Blow $10,000 for his song, the title track of "Shoot Smell and Go!".
The movie is a smash hit, and both Festering Hole, and Stinky Pole make a wagonload of cash from the sale of the soundtrack, but Joe Blow hasn't seen a dime from the movie beyond his advance. So he calls Jonny Bigwig.
Jonny Bigwig tells him that he was paid already, his 10 grand, and that's it. Festering Hole and Stinky Pole music hired him to write the song, and the song "Shoot, Smell and Go!" is a Work- for-Hire, and they are the ones who are the legal authors of the song.
Joe Blow gets really pissed off, and goes back to Jimmy Legalese, who tells him that Jonny Bigwig is right, and there's nothing he could do, but write songs, and hope the publicity of the movie gets him a better job, and next time to bring the contract, and every other contract after that to him.
So Joe goes to the press, who doesn't care what the publisher did to him, until he tells them that he's gay, and the song Barbara Streisand sings is about sucking dick, and the National Enquirer gives him $15,000 for his story.....The End Of course this is only a story, and it doesn't always happen like this, and sometimes you may keep certain rights to say no...this is basicly how it works...for more info, again consult This Business of Music a great tome of info, and The Songwriter's Guide to Music Publishing. Lata....=:-!
Today, publishers don't do printed music much anymore, except for classical music, and those stupid popular songbooks you see in the back of your local music store. Basically the Publisher is for songwriters, not bands, not anything else. Here's how it's suppsed to work: Joe Blow wrote a song called "I'll Blow for You" but Joe Blow isn't in a band, and can barely play the piano, much less any other instrument, so Joe Blow goes to his friend, who sez to go to Festering Hole Music, a local publisher, after helping him record it on his 4 track.
So Joe Blow takes his demo to Jonny Bigwig, the Repitoire manager of Festering Hole Music, and plays it for him, along with showing him the chord chart and lyric sheet. Johnny Bigwig likes the song, and gives Joe an advance of $500 dollars, agaist future royalties earned, and a contract to handle the copyright and royalties of the song.
Joe Blow isn't as dumb as your average horned toad, so he takes the contract to a lawer he found out of a phone book Jimmy Legalese, who for a fee reads the contract, and gives it to Joe in English, telling him, this is a fair contract for a first time songwriter. So Joe signs the contract, cashes the check, and pays Jimmy, and goes home, waiting for stardom.
Meanwhile Jonny Bigwig hires some studio musicians, and takes "I'll Blow for You" into the studio, and records it again, this time, again a rough demo, but with better quality, polishing a turd, as it were...
A freind of Jonny Bogwig, in the Artist relations department of Festering Hole Music Barry Buttkisser has heard that Neil Diamond, and Kenny Rogers are both looking for new songs to put on their next records, so Jonny Bigwig gives the newly completed demo to Barry Buttkisser, who sends the tapes to Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers, who both decide not to use it, deciding it's not quite they're style.
However while Neil Diamond was in the studio, his old freind Barbara Streisand stopped by, because they were talking about doing a duet for her next record, and heard "I'll Blow for You" She loves it and wants to put it on her next record, and tells her agent to get permission to use it.
Jonny Bigwig of course gives Barbara permission to use it, and then negotiates the royalties he and Joe Blow will get from the record sales. Joe Blow hates Barbara Streisand, and tells Jonny Bigwig that he would rather eat shit from a pigs ass than let her use his song. Jonny calmly reminds him that he signed over his rights to Festering Hole music, and he doesn't have a say in who performes his song, but Jonny shows him the projected sales of Barbara's next record, and his share of the Royalties, and gives in.
The song is a smash hit, and Black and Decker decide they want to use the song for they're new paint drying machine The Blowmaster 3000 deluxe. Again Joe has no authority to say no, because it wasn't in his contract, but he's making shitloads of money from it, while staying in relative anonymity, though he heard he might be nominated for a Grammy.
Meanwhile at Stinky Pole Music, they decide Joe Blow must be a writing Genius, and want to hire him to write a song for Keifer Sutherland's new movie "Shoot, Smell and Go!" Well Joe Blow loves Keifer, much better than Donald, and wants to do it. He is however signed to a contract with Festering Hole Music, and askes them to be released from his contract
Well of course Jonny Bigwig says no, he's not going to release his number one songwriter at the peak of his popularity, but he does tell Stinky Pole that they would be happy to do a co- publishing agreement for this movie. Stinky Pole agrees, and gives Joe Blow $10,000 for his song, the title track of "Shoot Smell and Go!".
The movie is a smash hit, and both Festering Hole, and Stinky Pole make a wagonload of cash from the sale of the soundtrack, but Joe Blow hasn't seen a dime from the movie beyond his advance. So he calls Jonny Bigwig.
Jonny Bigwig tells him that he was paid already, his 10 grand, and that's it. Festering Hole and Stinky Pole music hired him to write the song, and the song "Shoot, Smell and Go!" is a Work- for-Hire, and they are the ones who are the legal authors of the song.
Joe Blow gets really pissed off, and goes back to Jimmy Legalese, who tells him that Jonny Bigwig is right, and there's nothing he could do, but write songs, and hope the publicity of the movie gets him a better job, and next time to bring the contract, and every other contract after that to him.
So Joe goes to the press, who doesn't care what the publisher did to him, until he tells them that he's gay, and the song Barbara Streisand sings is about sucking dick, and the National Enquirer gives him $15,000 for his story.....
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