The Night Light returns by going back to basics - with a review of what a song is, in the copyright law context.
As you may know, I am an entertainment attorney, but also a musician and producer. Along with representing musical artists, I also run a small label and publishing company. Music comes in all flavors, but the laws of music apply across the board.
So when I ask, What is a Song? I get many answers. Music and lyrics? Melody and harmony? Rhythm and groove? Yes to all. But legally a song contains two distinct elements that implicate different rights, different royalties and different revenue streams. Under United States’ copyright law, the two parts of a song are: 1) the musical composition or underlying song; and 2) the recorded performance of the song.
The musical composition or underlying song is embodied by the notes on a page of written music but exists in a more metaphysical sense as the thing created by the songwriter. There can be many sound recordings of a song, but only one musical composition. For example, the song Help was written by Lennon/McCartney – they are the only songwriters and only Lennon/McCartney (or their publisher) will always own the musical composition. Every time the musical composition is performed, live on the radio, television, internet or other media, the songwriter is entitled to a royalty for the use of the musical composition, which is called a performance royalty or publishing royalty. The performance or publishing royalty is typically collected by ASCAP or BMI, usually through a music publisher who pays the songwriter.
The recorded performance of a song (sound recording) is a different copyright and different royalty. Unlike the musical composition, there can be many recorded performances of a song like Help by many bands, including the Beatles. The sound recording of a song is owned by the person performing the song, unless there is a contract giving the person paying for the recording (a music label) ownership. The music label pays the artist who records the song a royalty based on the sales of the sound recording, called a sales royalty or artist royalty.
That is just a crash course in the basics. Over the next few months, this newsletter will fill in some of the details. I believe it is important that music artists get educated in the basics of the music business. If you want music to buy your groceries, your are at least as much music business-person as music artist.
