DIY Diary on Royalties

If ya ask me,...royalties are a joke. If you don't know, sometime during Brrapp's heyday, I started working in the video game industry. I'm now what you'd call a "game industry vet". I don't know how many times I've been promised royalties for a game. What I do know is that I've received exactly ZERO royalty checks. And so it goes...

Anyhoo, royalties work the same in the game industry (where everything is usually "work for hire") as they do in the music industry. And that's what this one was about...

Royalties

So you've found a band, you paid for them to go into the studio, and they made a record. You've mastered it, and sent it to the duplicators. Now what?

First off, wait. No matter what the manufacturer tells you, he'll be late. He could tell you he'll have it for you in a week, a year, a month...he'll be late...I once told this to a guy who was running a pretty big label (I won't mention any names) He had all these plans for January, when the record was supposed to be out, and I said, "It'll be late." He fixed his gaze on me and said, "I don't know about you guys, but they're NOT late for me." looking kind of insulted that I even brought up that the manufacturer would be late.

Well guess what? The record was not only late, but it was late by 3 months. Sheesh!! So, remember even if you're Capitol Records an shit...the record maker will be late!

Okay, so now that you've waited longer than you expected, after the band has kept calling you up and screaming at you for the record not being out yet, you finally get it...what about royalties? How should you pay the band? I mean it's they're music. don't you owe them something?

Well, yes, yes you do. but not the way you think. technically any record that is put out needs to have a publisher, preferably one associated with BMI, ASCAP, or one of the other agency places. And you owe the publisher, not the band..so it works like this...for every record you sell (it's usally after you recoup your costs) you owe the publisher money. (whatever is worked out between you and the publisher, standard rate is 4 !/2 cents per record sold)...the publisher then keeps his half, and pays the songwriter(s) the money they deserve. (notice the word SONGWRITER, not band!). this sort of accounting is annyong, confusing, and a general pain in the ass, and frankly I've never seen an indie label who does this...(But then I've never signed to Lookout! or Epitaph, either).

So, instead of hiring a trigenometry major to figure out that you owe your band $100 for every pressing you sell out of, there's a much easier way that has been running through the indie world...ahem...(In big legalese voice) In Lieu of royalty paments, the band will be paid in merchandise amounting to 10% of each pressing for the first 1000 records, and 15% for any records pressed thereafter. Okay, so this means that instead of using that evil math formula to figure out what you owe your band for however many records, you just give them records. so if you press 100 records your first time, then you give them 10 records, after you press 1000 records, the next 100 you press, you give the band 15 records that they can sell, give away or whatever they want to do with them...you should realize, though that this doesn't mean that you let the band put the record in stores all across the country, or send them to radio statoins, or whatever. those promotions are your job. Basically, these free records are for them to take to shows to sell to make some money, and get their music out. (by the way, if the band sells their free records, they usually end up making way more money this way, than if you paid them royalties).

Now if the band has a publisher, well if the songwriter has a publisher, that isn't the band, what you pay them is something you'll have to work out with them. I havn't had to deal with a publisher like that yet, so I can't give you any tips there.

so anyway, until next time, remember to help out the little guy.

=:-!