FINAL (The Business Of Music)
What is the Net Cost?
- "Grand" Total or cost after tax, discounts or deductions
What is the Gross Cost?
- "Sub" Total or the cost before tax, discounts or deductions
When was ASCAP founded?
- 1914
When was BMI founded?
- 1939
What is the Mechanical Royalty Rate currently set by?
- 9.1 cents - Set by The Copyright Royalty Board
What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA")?
- A 1988 law updating the copyright law with the digital age
What is the Digital Performance Right In Sound Recordings Act (DPRSRA)?
- A United States Copyright law that grants owners of a copyright in sound recordings an exclusive right "to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission."
What is a Sample Library?
- A collection of different sound recordings known as samples used by film composers (and many other musical roles)
What is a Songwriter Agreement?
- A contract that includes a piece of the "publisher's share - Also known as a co-publishing agreement
What is a Sequel?
- A film that starts where the last one left off
What is the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)?
- A formal agreement between an employer and a union, regulating working conditions such as wages, benefits, grievance procedures, and rights to participate in workplace decisions.
What is The American Federation of Musicians (AFM)?
- A labor union representing professional instrumental musicians in the United States and Canada - Sets minimum costs for recording the musicians in the studio - Founded in 1896 and has a headquarters location in New York
What is Dilution?
- A law that says using a famous name in another area dilutes the value of the original trademark. - Example: Even though the Beatles don't have a record label under that name, you wouldn't get away with a company called Beatles Records because of this law
What is a Consent Decree?
- A legal limitation consented to by both ASCAP and BMI that sets rules to follow business practices
What is Copyright?
- A limited duration monopoly
What are Package Deals?
- A lump sum that covers both the fee and recording costs
What is a Trademark?
- A name used for goods (like Heinz ketchup, Kleenex tissues, etc)
What is a Servicemark?
- A name used for services (like Delta Air Lines, Tommy's Dry Cleaners, etc)
What is the Mechanical License Collective (MLC)?
- A new organization funded by the DSPs that has the authority to collect all the mechanical rights money from the streaming providers (DSPs)
What is Tin Pan Alley?
- A nickname for a NYC street where songwriters were housed in offices during the 1900s - Eventually came to represent the whole popular music industry
What is the Certificate Of Authorship (C of A)?
- A one-page document that says they own everything you do for the film or project
What is the Secondary Market (in regards to touring tickets)?
- A place where tickets are resold after their first sale. - Examples: StubHub!, SeatGeek
What is a Statutory Rate?
- A rate that is fixed by statute, or law
What is a Virtual Instrument?
- A synthesized or sampled instrument used on a computer to make music
What are Performance Royalties?
- A type of publishing royalty that relates to the performance of a song in public
What are the non-profit PRO's?
- ASCAP - BMI
What are Kickers?
- Additional money to big name songwriters based on the success of the film
What is a Option album?
- Albums that a company can require later on, but is not committed to. - "Their" option, NOT yours.
What is a Firm album?
- Albums to which company is committed to
What does Title 3 of the Music Modernization Act address?
- Allows music producers, mixers, or sound engineers to receive royalties collected for uses of sound recordings under the section 114 statutory license - Producer Royalties
What does ASCAP stand for?
- American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
What are Hall Fees?
- Amount charged by the building for selling merchandise - Percentage of gross sales - Agents are responsible for negotiating these fees - Covers the cost of hiring people to actually sell merch plus the venue's profit
What is a Song Album?
- An album of songs by major artists, often a combination of preexisting songs and songs written for the film
What is Striping mean (in orchestral terms)
- An industry term for when sections of the orchestra are recorded separately from one another
What are the two types of recordings that are included in the definition of the Record?
- Audio Visual - Audio Only
What are Bots?
- Automated computer programs that buy tickets before people.
What is an Agent?
- Books live personal appearances (concerts). - Involved in commercials, endorsements, tour sponsorship, television specials, and other areas
What does Title 2 of the Music Modernization Act address?
- Brings pre-1972 sound recordings partially into the federal copyright system
What does BMI stand for?
- Broadcast Music Inc.
What are the types of Compulsory Licenses?
- Cable television rebroadcast. - Public Broadcasting System (PBS) - Jukeboxes - Digital performance of records. - The use of non-dramatic musical compositions in streaming, digital downloads, and phonorecords.
What are Re-use fees or new-use fees?
- Charges to re-use an existing recording in a different way (a new use) - The union (AFM) charges this fee because re-using previously recorded music means you get out of re-hiring the singers/musicians needed to re-create the song
What does BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, and GMR handle?
- Collect digital, terrestrial and live performance royalties. - PRO for composition and songwriter/composer who wrote song
What does "Settling the box office" or "the settlement" mean in terms of touring?
- Collecting the money after shows and reviewing the promoter's accounting on the night of the show - Tour or Personal managers (if you don't have a tour manager) are responsible for this
What is the Harry Fox Agency?
- Collects Mechanical Royalties
What does SoundExchange handle?
- Collects digital royalties only - PRO for sound recording and the "artist" who performed/recorded the song
What is Interstate Commerce?
- Commerce between two states --------------------------------------------------------- - To get federal protection for a group name, you will have to use your name under this (which is easy regarding just putting your music out in the internet nowadays)
What is Active Interest?
- Company both has a control of rights and receives a share of money.
What is Passive Interest?
- Company has no control of rights, just receives a share of money.
What is Net Profit?
- Company's total revenue after all expenses have been paid
What is the Gross Profit?
- Company's total revenue before paying costs of business
What is a Record?
- Contract definition includes both audio-only and audiovisual recordings. - Definition includes any device now or hereafter known.
What is a Sunset Clause?
- Contract term that ends the time window for commissions - Important leverage in negotiations with manage - EXAMPLE : The manager gets paid only on records recorded and released during the term (and not on any others)
What is a Music Supervisor?
- Coordinates the music for a film or TV series
What is a Mixer?
- Create a mix for original release of a record and also do remixes for later versions. - Earns a fee
What are Print Royalties?
- Derived from the sale of printed music materials
What is Exclusivity in a contract?
- During the term of the agreement, you can't make records for anybody else
What does eCO stand for and what is it?
- Electronic Copyright Office - The Copyright Office's electronic system that allows for online filing of applications for copyright registration
What is a Score Album?
- Entirely made up of underscore (i.e. with no songs)
What are DSPs?
- Facilitate streams of your music - Stands for Digital Service Provider - Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
What is a Prequel?
- Films that take place in time before the film for which the song is licensed
What are Spinoffs?
- Films with the same characters in different adventures
What is a Creative Staff Person?
- Finds and works with writers
What is a Song Plugger?
- Finds song placements (especially Film/TV)
What is the Copyright Act?
- Forms the basis of copyright law in the United States today
What are the for-profit PRO's?
- GMR - SESAC
What does GMR stand for?
- Global Music Rights
What are Guarantee Deals?
- Guaranteed money for set number of concerts - Example: Receiving 1 million to play 20 shows
What does a Music Publisher do?
- Handles the administration rights of a songwriter
What is a Production Coordinator?
- Handles the mechanical aspects of administration
What is the Promoter?
- Hires the performing artist or musician, rents the venue, and advertises the event
What is a Term?
- How long the record company keeps you under an exclusive agreement. - I.e. the structure of your contract overtime
What is a Pre-Sale?
- Idea of getting tickets to fans before public sale.
What is Net Income?
- Income after all expenses are deducted
What is Gross Income?
- Income before expenses are deducted - Also known as Net Sums
What is a Blanket License?
- It grants the music user wishing to license music the right to use any song from the catalogue of the associated PRO for the duration of the license
According to Donald Passman, what is the definition of a Compulsory License?
- It means that you must issue a license to someone who wants to use your work,whether you like it or not
What is Goodwill?
- Legal name for public association of the name with you - Example: People feel good vibes when they hear your name because it makes them think of you
What is a Transcription License?
- License for radio commercials and other audio like podcasts
What is a Subpublisher?
- Local publishers in each global territory that collect on behalf of domestic publishers.
What is an Attorney?
- Looks over contracts, advising clients about the law, and structuring deals. - Consider a lawyer's clout when evaluating a hire.
What is a Single Card Credit?
- Meaning no other credit is on the screen at the same time as yours - Or at least shared only with the songwriter
What is Net Royalty?
- Meaning the record company pays everyone else and you get to keep everything they pay you, but it will be lower.
What is the Final Cut of a film?
- Meaning there wouldn't be any more changes
What are Distress Sales (also called Dumping)?
- Meaning they can't sell your goods at super-low prices just to get rid of them.
What is a Co-Administration Agreement?
- Means everyone each takes care of their share of a song. - Not typically signed as a formal contract. Informally agreed upon in written form (email, letter, etc).
What is Registration (when having a name for a group)?
- Means filing a public notice in the USPTO (The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office) - In the United States, your rights come from using the name, not from registering it. The lone exception is called Intent to Use
What is a Step Deal?
- Means money comes in steps and preset fees that are triggered by successful film releases
What does a Fee mean?
- Means not recoupable from royalties
What does it mean when a sample is "Cleared" or "Clearance?"
- Means properly licensed.
What does Advance mean?
- Means recoupable from royalties
What are Producer Royalties (also known as Record one royalties)?
- Means royalties that are paid from the first record ("record one") that the company sells
What does Non-Interactive Audio Streaming mean?
- Means someone else decides what you hear (as opposed to you choosing the music yourself) - Example: Pandora and Sirius XM
What does Lean Back mean?
- Means someone is listening to their own playlist (or a DSP-created playlist)
What does Spotting mean (in terms of film composition)?
- Means the composer and director determine precisely which "spots" need music, along with length of each piece of music needed
What is Conflict Of Interest?
- Means the lawyer represents two clients whose interests are adverse to each other. ------------------------------------------------------------ - Lawyers must check internally for conflicts of interest with other clients (Typically after consultation, before formal hiring process)
What is the Score or Underscore?
- Means the orchestral score composed by the film composer. - The music underneath the dialogue, action, and transitions that you are not supposed to notice
What does Reversion of Copyright mean?
- Means the publisher must give you back your song at some point in the future - Contractual provision that's specifically negotiated
What does Hard Ticket mean?
- Means they come to the show just for you (the artist)
What does Lean In mean?
- Means they're actively searching for new music
What is Term Songwriter Agreement?
- Means you agree to give publisher all songs you write during a specific period of time
What is Interactive Streaming?
- Means you can listen to any songs in a DSP's database at any time with ability to pause, skip, rewind, and create playlists
What does Non-Exclusive mean?
- Means you can take other work
What does Soft Ticket mean?
- Means you come to the show for other reasons
What is Tour Merchandising?
- Merch that is sold at concert venue. - High price and proof of attendance.
What is Minimum Delivery Requirement (MDR)?
- Minimum number of songs required per period by publisher.
What are Deposits (in terms of touring)?
- Money paid by the promoters prior to your show. - A way of minimizing risk by the promoter paying a portion up front in case a show is cancelled
Where is Tin Pan Alley located?
- New York City
What is an Independent Record Company?
- Not owned by major label and fully functioning record company on its own.
When did the Music Modernization Act (MMA) take effect?
- October 11, 2018
What are your Public Performance Rights?
- One of your exclusive rights within a copyright to perform your composition in public.
What is Direct To Consumer (D2C)?
- Online sales delivered directly to consumer
What are the Company rights is a band member (key member or not) decides to leave the band?
- Option to get services of leaving member - Option to keep non-leaving members - Option to terminate non-leaving members - Option to reinstate deal for band reunion within 5 years
What is the Master?
- Original "Sound Recording" of a song. (SR copyright) - Not the song in terms of lyrics and chords, but performance on recording
What are Venues?
- Owners of the physical buildings
What is a Booth Monitor Fee?
- Payment to stand by in recording studio control booth while session is being recorded for last minute adjustments
What are Film Composers?
- People who write the underscore or score
What are the two types of Copyright that are discussed in class so far?
- Performing Arts Copyright (PA Copyright) - Sound Recording Copyright (SR Copyright)
What does PRO stand for?
- Performing Rights Organization
What is a Performance License?
- Permission granted to perform live on broadcast music
What is a Synchronization License?
- Permission granted to reproduce music on TV, film, or commercials - The right to synchronize a song or piece of music with a visual image. - This must be obtained from the copyright owner of the music. (PA Copyright)
What is a Mechanical License?
- Permission granted to reproduce music or some type of medium (Retailers, Distributors, and Streaming services)
What is the Key Man Clause?
- Person who is manager must personally act as manager or you can terminate deal.
What is a Mechandiser?
- Person with license for the right to use your name and likeness in a merch deal. - Manufactures goods, oversees sales and payment to you.
What are the Main Players to an Advisory Team?
- Personal manager (Songs, image, bookings) - Attorney (Less time, more music shop.) - Business manager (Collects $$$, writes checks, oversees investments and they could be an Accountant in beginning) - Agency
What is a Administration Agreement?
- Publisher only receives the right to administer your songs for a specific period of time - No copyright ownership is involved.
What is a "Pay-or-Play" Provision?
- Record company's option to either allow you to "play" or "pay" you off. -------------------------------------------------------------- - In other words ,instead of recording an album ,the company can pay you a sum of money equal to minimum union scale (which means the minimum amount a union requires everyone to pay its members) for an album or a negotiated amount (the highest you can get).
According to Donald Pass man, what does the term "Mechanical Royalties" or "Mechanicals" refers to?
- Refers to the payments for devices "serving to mechanically reproduce sound"
What is an Administrator?
- Registers copyrights, issues licenses, collects money, and pays writers and co-publishers
What is an Intent To Use?
- Registration with genuine intent to use name in near future.
What does Title 1 of the Music Modernization Act address?
- Replaces the existing song-by-song compulsory licensing structure with a blanket licensing system for digital music providers to make and distribute digital phonorecord deliveries (e.g., permanent downloads, limited downloads, or interactive streams).
What are Merch Rights?
- Right to have name on merch and sell at concerts, stores, etc.
What are Residuals?
- Royalties that studios pay to union members when a film is used on TV and streaming
What is a Mixed Service Bundle?
- Sale of a music product with non-music service (Amazon Prime Subscription)
What is Retail Merchandising?
- Same as Tour Merchandising except it's sold at physical store or through store website
What is Most Favored Nations (MFN)?
- Same fee is paid to the publisher for every song on the show
According to Donald Passman, when you have a Copyright, where are the exclusive rights listed that you get "at no extra charge"?
- Section 106 of the Copyright Act
What is the "Key Member" concept?
- Selected person(s) in a group or band trigger breach of record deal
What is Merchandising (Merch)?
- Selling products that use your name, logo, or likeness - Examples: T-shirts, posters, hoodies, hats
What are Multi-Show Deals?
- Set number of shows with dates and locations worked out in the future.
What does "Split Of The Gate" mean in terms of touring?
- Share of money charged for admission
What is the Publisher's Share?
- Share of money kept by the publisher from each dollar
What is the Writer's Share?
- Share of money kept by the writer from each dollar
What does the term "Packages" means in terms of Touring?
- Shows with two or more artists playing together.
What are Composer Agreements?
- Similar to songwriter agreements, except the composer almost never gets any share of the publishing
What is EUTM Registration?
- Single registration that covers all 28 countries of the European Union. - Note: You'll have to file separately in the UK once Brexit completes transition.
What is a Crawl?
- Smaller credits at the end of the film
What is a Record Producer?
- Someone who is responsible for bringing the creative product into tangible form (a recording)
What is the First To File Rule?
- Someone who's never used the name could file ahead of you in a particular territory (notably the EU and Japan) and stop you from performing there.
What are the contributing factors that define the fee for a Master Use License?
- Song (Hit or obscure song, the importance of it) - Artist (How popular is the artist) - Usage (How is the song used in the project)
What is the Main Title Song?
- Song at the beginning of the film
What is the End Title Song?
- Song at the end of the film immediately before the credits
What are Title Songs?
- Songs played over the opening or closing credits. - These pay better than background music.
What are Co-writes?
- Songs written by two or more writers - Also known as collaborative songwriter agreements.
What does A&R do?
- Stands for Artists and Repertoire - Traditionally finds and nurtures new talent. - Nowadays, also utilizes big data to find emerging music that is beginning to trend
What is ARPU?
- Stands for Average Rate Per User - Means the average amount of money that the streaming service gets from each user
What is an Inducement Letter?
- States that if your company doesn't deliver your recordings, then you will deliver them personally to record label and that you have ultimate financial responsibility
What are Earnouts?
- Term of deal continues until money is "earned" back.
What does Publishing ensure?
- That the music of composers and songwriters gets maximum revenue in the marketplace
What is the most important asset of the group
- The Group Name
What is GMS and what does it stand for?
- The Guild of Music Supervisors - A non profit organization with the mission to promote the craft of music supervision for the mutual benefit of all media stakeholders in film,television, games, advertising, trailers, and emerging media
What is the SCL and what does it stand for?
- The Society Of Film Composers - An organization consisting of Hollywood's professional motion picture, television, and multimedia music composers, songwriters and lyricists.
What is Sampling?
- The art of taking any sound and making a digital copy, which you incorporate into a new song.
What are Conversion Costs?
- The costs of converting a film recording to a master that can be used in a record
What is Metatdata?
- The embedded information that tells the name of the song, artist, album, who to pay, etc - Handled by Sales department of record company
What is a Personal Manager?
- The general manager of your business. - Handles Songs, image, and bookings - Also could oversee your touring life and ensure that your agent is bringing you the best opportunities for your career in terms of specific tours, deals and logistics
According to the "Business Law News" article, what is the Music Modernization Act (MMA)?
- The most extensive revision of the Copyright Act since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA")
What is an "At Source" Deal?
- The percentage you must get must be based on the earnings in the country where they are earned, which is the source - Example, if you get an 85/15 deal in Germany and $1 is earned there, you get 85 cents
What is a Leaving Member?
- The person leaving the group
What is a Business Manager?
- The person who handles your money and finances. - Tax returns, investments, etc.
What does On Spec (or On Speculation) mean?
- The songwriter writes the song without a commitment from the film company to pay a full fee - Deal could be completely based on this
What is Competitive Pricing (or Dynamic Ticketing)?
- The theory that the true value of prime tickets isn't from face value, but rather from what someone is willing to pay for the ticket in the secondary market (like StubHub!) - Setting prices based on demand.
What is the term Compulsory Mechanical License (Post-MMA)?
- The use of non-dramatic musical compositions in streaming, digital downloads, and phonorecords
What are Merchandising Advances?
- They are returnable which means you may have to pay back some or all of the merch advance. - Many artists use their this advance to pay for the start-up costs of a tour (equipment, rental cost, crew, set construction, dancers, etc)
What is a Master Use License?
- This is the right to reproduce a specific recording of a song in your film. - License to use the "Master Recording" rather than only the song itself - You clear this right with the record label who owns the specific recording you'd like to use. (SR Copyright)m
Why is it important that a royalty is based on Gross sales rather than Net sales?
- This would be desirable because the merchandiser doesn't deduct costs from your portion. - As a result, your profit is greater.
What does TLD stand for?
- Top Level Domian - Example: .com, .net, .org, etc.
What is a Music Bundle?
- Two or more music-only products together
What are the "Big Three" record labels?
- Universal (Owns Interscope, Republic, Capitol, etc) - Sony (Owns Columbia,RCA,Epic,etc) - Warner (Owns Atlantic, Warner, Elektra, etc)
What does URL stand for?
- Universal Resource Locator - Full name of each website
What is a Loan-out company?
- When a company (not you) enters into the deals and "loans" your services to others. - The benefit of this is for liability and protecting your various money sources
What is the Public Domain?
- When a copyright has expired, it becomes a "public domain" work, meaning anyone can use it for free
What does Bleed mean (in terms of recording)?
- When a microphone picks up other audio sources
What is an All-In Fee Deal?
- When an artist negotiates a fee to record and deliver a completed track with the film company
What are Venue Deals?
- When the building owners contract directly with the artists (acting as promoters themselves).
What is a Co-Promotion?
- When the film company partners with an advertiser. - Example: Jurassic Park with McDonalds
What is a Joint Venture (or JV/Profit Share agreement)?
- When the production entity and the distributing record company share profits from the masters ----------------------------------------------------------- - Basically a profit share agreement where the production entity doesn't get royalties, but rather shares profits with the distributing record company from the masters - They take all of the income that comes in (the gross proceeds from streams, downloads, licensing income, etc.) and combine into a total.
When do you have a copyright?
- When you have a tangible copy of something or something you can touch
What is a Work For Hire?
- When you hire someone else to create the music for you. - In other words, the employer becomes the author of the work.
What is the Primary Ticket MArket?
- Where concert tickets are first sold - Examples: Ticketmaster, Box Office, and Official Artist Website
What are Main Titles?
- Where the director, writer, and stars are credited.
What is the Orchestraor?
- Writes out the parts for the orchestra
What are Re-Recording Restrictions?
- You can't re-record any song for a certain period after the term
What is a 360 Deal?
-When the record company gets a share in the artist's total income.
What are the Four steps to set up a Publishing Company according to Donald Passman?
1. Affiliate your company with a PRO (like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or GMR) 2. Make Fictitious Business name or a DBA (Does Business As...) 3. Copyright Registration of Songs 4. PRO Registration of Songs
According to Donald Passman, what are these exclusive rights that comes with your copyright?
1. Reproduce the work 2. Distribute copies of the work 3. Perform the work publicly 4. Make a derivative work 5. Display the work publicly
