Music Publishing Assesment
Ever since Rachel Hacken was young, she always dreamed of having her own independent music publishing company. With such successful companies like EMI and Sony, she realized that she wouldn’t be content being just another employee, she want be the employer. With her growing knowledge on music publishing, she believes that she is ready to launch my own independent music publishing company called Glenwood Music along with the help of her business partner, Allahna Bruefach.
Below is the step-by-step on how they plan to make Glenwood Music a successful music publishing company by touching on subjects such as the business structure, financing and funding, personnel,roles and departments, 1. Business Structure: Glenwood Music will be run as a partnership between Rachel Hacken and Allahna Bruefach. The location of the Glenwood Music office will be in New York City in the Financial district on Ceder Street. Within this office they will have four main departments and have approximately thirty to forty employees.
In order to start Glenwood Music, Rachel Hacken and Allahna Bruefach must file Glenwood Music to their local government offices to obtain a business permit (in this case NYC City Hall) (McCay). Glenwood Music then will apply to a performance rights organization of their choice, which will most likely be ASCAP (since the company is located in the United States), by submitting an application and fee of about $35. The application can be found at http://www. ascap. com/join/. ? 2. Financing and Funding: Glenwood Music plans on being funded without loans or grants, since interest fees are on the rise.
Rachel Hacken and Allahna Bruefach plan on using the money from their trust funds to pay for the business’ start up costs. The cost for renting the office space is $1,250 a month. Other start-up expenses not included in the rent are furnishing, supplies, paying staff, taxes, applying for a performance rights organization(ASCAP in this case), legal fees, demo costs, promotion, etc.? If Glenwood Music does not generate enough income for Hacken and Bruefach to breakeven, then they will look into adding a backer that will receive half or what Hacken and Bruefach will make. 3.
Personnel,Roles and Departments: Glenwood Music plans on having four different departments. The first key department is the A&R/ Creative/ Promotion department. The job description includes this worker to find new songwriting talent by listening to demos, going to shows, word of mouth from other key players in the industry that they trust ,etc. This is an extremely important department because without it, there would be no company. In order to keep a fresh and current catalog with potentially big money making hits, Glenwood Music will need to have the best up and coming songwriters at all times.
Other jobs within the department include matching up songwriters or composers with lyricists if needed and to get the songs used in as many different ventures as possible through record companies, performers and broadcasters. (Britten)? Glenwood Music will generally work with bands where one or more members is the songwriter to the band, however, in the case we sign a songwriter to Glenwood Music, this department with try to get that songwriters work to be used by major artists. This department can also set up songwriters and lyricists together, preferably ones both signed to Glenwood Music so the split up of royalties will be easier. Another department that would be part of Glenwood Music is accounts and royalties department. This department is essential for Glenwood Music to have because it handles the income as well as distribution of money. Accounts and royalties will take care of number crunching, keeping track of song usage to collect royalties and handle all monies owed. If songwriters want their work to be expanded to other forms of media, then this department would be in contact with the accounts departments of record labels, TV, film and advertising companies. Lastly, accounts and royalties will be in charge of dealing with PRS and MCPS.? Another essential department that Glenwood Music plans on having is the copyright/ legal department. This department will be in charge of writing agreements between the publisher and writers. For an explanation on Glenwood’s publisher-songwriter contract please go to the Legal section. This department will also handle licensing and synchronization, registering new works to PRS and MCPS, dealing with copyright infringement by taking legal action, and anything else relating to legal or copyright issues.? Another department that would be part of Glenwood Music is a social media department.
This will only have a few employees, however, is an important part of the company. With many consumers using the Internet as ways to find and download new music, Glenwood Music finds it would be important to showcase online recorded works from its catalog. More on this topic can be found in the Technology section. Glenwood Music would also hire several song pluggers to get unrecorded songs on Glenwood Music’s catalog recorded. Other staff personnel will include assistants, receptionists and interns.? 4. Strategy and Services- including details on opportunities, threats and trading partners:
Publishers at Glenwood Music will be a threat to other current publishers. Chosen for having a well rounded resume and a university education, publishers are Glenwood will have top notch experience for this new company. Publishers at Glenwood Music will specialize in A&R to help bring a full catalog of new up and coming songwriters. They will also strive to find new media outlets to connect the songwriters music with as many people as possible. Publishers will be push their clients career to their fullest potential, whether it be indie or mainstream focused. Glenwood Music will offer three main services for our clients.
One service they offer is Creative Services. Glenwood Music’s creative service will help bring together different songwriters on the growing catalog to help expand the songwriters abilities to their fullest potentials. Another service they offer is administration services which will handle the different areas of revenue possibly available for the songwriters work. Along with recording EPs and LPs, Glenwood Music will produce demo’s for up and coming songwriters without record deals. Glenwood Music believes that demos are essential for songwriters looking to be signed.
For these songwriters, Glenwood suggests that typically the demo will run about three to four songs. These demos will be protected with copyrights and will not be for sale. Income for Glenwood’s songwriters will be collected through mechanical royalties, synchronization royalties, print royalties, performance royalties. Mechanical royalties allows a record company or any other party the right to record or reproduce one of the songwriters works. Songwriters are paid for every record the record company manufactures and distributes that is sold. In the U.
K, the MCPS sets the price for how much the songwriter will make per song, but in the U. S the rate is based on a fixed rate either at the full statutory rate or as a reduced percentage of the statutory rate. Composition clauses are now currently 75% of the fixed rate. The MCPS normally issues mechanical licenses for publishers. Income from mechanical royalties will be split 50/50 between the publisher and the songwriter. Performance royalties or public performance rights are paid to the songwriter and publisher when others seek to play the song on the radio, in venues, on television, at live concerts,etc.
ASCAP(the US version of PRS ), since given the right to license performing rights to all of Glenwood Music’s songwriters, will make deals with whoever wants to use the songs in their media outlet ,collect the fees owed, then divide up the pay between the songwriter and publisher. Anyone who wants to use songs from Glenwood Music’s songwriters will have to pay a blanket license, which covers all works from Glenwood Music’s catalog as well as any other publishing companies under ASCAP. The Broadcast Data Service will be used to keep track of songwriter’s work on the radio. ASCAP will pay the songwriters directly( pg 251,Passman),
Synchronization royalties allow the usage of works in visual media outlets like commercials, television, movies, computer games, etc. Income from these types of royalties range depending on where the work of the songwriter is being used. With major motion pictures, the income generated depends on where in the movie the song is being used. Songs used in the main title normally range between$50,000 to $250,000, in ending credits between $35,000 to $100,000, and out of context usage of the songwriters song( using the song differently then used in films) generate anywhere between $25,000 to $250,000.
Instrumental cues in movies will get around $20,000. With television in the UK, a blanket license is the source of a songwriters income, however in the US it is completely different. Income from television in the US runs typically $10,000-$50,000+ depending on if the work is unknown or super popular. Songs in commercials can range anywhere between $50,000 to $200,000 for one-year national usage in the United States( pg 262 All You Need to Know About The Music Business. ) For video/computer games, songwriters get paid a flat fee for the song usage which is generally from$8,000 to $10,000.
The only video games that pay royalties are in music-based games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Print music royalties are paid from the sheet music’s manufacturer to the songwriter for each unit sold. In the UK, royalty for single-song sheet music ranges between 10%-15% while in the US the standard rate is 20% for single sheet music and 10% to 12. 5% for folios (songbooks). As an up and coming music publishing company, Glenwood Music would have the fresh start opportunity. We have are not in debt, not being sued and not currently trying to be bought out by a larger company.
Being a new partnership allows Glenwood Music to build from the ground up a modern catalog, and will hopefully become a threat to current giants in music publishing. Along with having a “clean slate” comes the opportunity to network without having a bad record against the company. There is opportunity to learn about the changing music industry and adapt with it. Glenwood Music, being located in New York City, also has many opportunities to meet with many songwriters from New York City and elsewhere. New York City is home to many different record labels, word renowned recording studios, and fresh talent.
One threat that Glenwood Music will have to overcome is other established publishing companies. Songwriters who are looking to put their trust into someone to get their songs published, recorded and eventually make them money, seek out publishers with experience. Although Glenwood Music has a lot to offer, songwriters may look to music publishing companies with a good track record. In order to get over this phase, Glenwood Music will have to “break the ice” with signing a successful songwriter to show other songwriters we are a trustworthy company.
Glenwood Music’s main customers are songwriters who are also established artists. Glenwood Music doesn’t focus primarily on mainstream artists, but at the same time strives to get songs on the catalog into as many different media outlets as possible. Glenwood Music looks to sign songwriter/musicians who are willing to collaborate with other artists and /or put their works in other forms of media than just purely music. Songwriters/ artists on Glenwood Music’s current catalog include Sonny Moore/ Skrillex, 3OH! , Andy Samburg, This Love, Nicki Minaj and Kina Grannis. Glenwood’s account department will collect revenue from all outlets the song is used. All songwriters will be paid their royalties at different times depending on what it is. ASCAP will pay songwriters directly for their performance based royalties. 7. Legal When it comes to contracts, Glenwood Music will try to construct a contract that is both suitable for the songwriter/composer as well as the publisher. Glenwood Music will offer two different contracts.
To new songwriters not looking to go mainstream with their music, they will be issued the co-publshing agreement. This is where the songwriter receives 50% of income listed and the publisher receives the other 50%. Glenwood would also offer an exclusive writer deal to songwriters with a history of making hits. This is where they would control the entire output of works of the songwriter under the Term, promising exclusivity to Glenwood Music. Songwriters with Glenwood will not share monies collected from performance royalties.
In this contract, Glenwood Music will seek the exclusive rights to all original musical compositions and copyrights (which includes the copyright registration and protection) from the songwriter. The transfer of these copyrights allow Glenwood Music to reproduce the work, distribute copies of work, have work performed publicly, and make a derivative of work. Performances of the songwriters work are allowed in all forms of media, whether for a profit or nonprofit(Exclusive Songwriter Agreement). Glenwood Music will be allowed to make master recordings of all works of the publisher.
In return, Glenwood Music will protect all works from any copyright infringement from another songwriter/composer/publisher by getting all works a copyright notice. If there is an issue with copyright infringement, Glenwood Music will get an injunction and try to either get the fair market value, recover the infringer’s profits, or recover statutory damages. The fair market value is if the song is worth a certain amount and is stolen from the songwriter, then the songwriter will receive that exact amount of money that the song is worth.
If Glenwood Music seeks to recover the infringer’s profit then Glenwood can recover all the infringer’s profits. If Glenwood chooses to recover statutory damages then if won, the court will reward Glenwood with money for damages. 8. IT/ Digital: The developments in the digital world may seem like a struggle to some companies, however Glenwood Music plans to use it to their advantage. Glenwood Music set up a youtube account where they would allow “Ad-World” to have ads on their videos, which will generate income everytime the video for that songwriter is played.
Also, Youtube’s Content ID system allows the songs copyright holders to receive profit from any infringement use of their songs(Van Buskirk) Glenwood Music will use social media outlets to its advantage. Social media sites include but are not limited to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Purevolume and more to promote and exposes the songwriter’s works. Through Glenwood’s social media department, their employee’s will find ways to get Glenwood’s songwriters work exposed through music blogs, both known and unknown.
