When I was six years old, and taking guitar lessons for about six months, my music school arranged a big (“giant” to a six year old) concert at a plush Long Beach Hotel around 1963. I was playing The Yellow Rose of Texas with about twenty other guitarists and assorted band members. The guitarists were to play the lead (I was a lead guitarist) until the violinist’s solo part. At that point we were supposed to stop playing…I didn’t. How did I know? Because they were recording us, and it came out on the 33 RPM vinyl album. Yep. The highlight of the song during the violinist solo was interrupted by note here and there by a six year old who played in a daze.
The interesting thing was nobody talked music royalties. Surely they were going to sell our album. It didn’t matter, all I wanted to do was play.
Sometimes musicians that I work for have the same opinion. They don’t care about music royalties very much, they just want to play their music.
You don’t have to be a music attorney to know the basics of music royalties. In addition to the web, there are a couple of books that can help you: Music Money and Success by Jeffrey and Todd Brabec, and All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald S Passman. Both these books are excellent sources in learning about the different types of music royalties like writer’s royalties and publishing royalties.
However, there are online sources that can inform you about some of the latest royalty streams like Brain Tarquin’s article at Music Connection, Get Paid, Alternative Royalties for Indie Artists. Brian discusses the different royalty streams that have emerged with later technology like satellite and cable TV. Organizations like Soundexchange, LTVSMF, and SENA are explained in his article.
I have personally dealt with SoundExchange for years and have found a reasonable royalty stream for my clients. Any possible money left on the table is worth the effort of contacting them.
SoundExchange didn’t have any royalties for me on my Yellow Rose of Texas debut. Maybe next year.