ROYALTIES
	c.2002 McClure & Trowbridge Publishing Ltd
	  Nashville TN 
	All rights reserved. Any use is in violation
	of Federal Law. 

Airplay and Performance Royalties

Performance royalties are collected by Performing 
Rights Organizations (PRO's) like Broadcast Music,
Inc. (BMI);  the American Society of Composers And 
Publishers (ASCAP); and PRS (England) STIM (Sweden)
SGAE (Spain) SIAE (Italy) JASRAC (Japan) SOCAN 
(Canada) SESAC (U.S.) and so on. 

The PRO pays the writer and publisher directly, for 
airplay and live performance.  Where does the money 
come from?  BMI and ASCAP collect annual fees from 
restaurants, clubs, casinos, radio stations, and 
Internet webcasters.  These fees are distributed 
among writers and publishers represented by the PRO's.

BMI has signed licensing collection agreements with 
the majority of nations on the planet and now collects 
over 60% of the world's performance royalties. ASCAP 
has similar agreements in place. 


Mechanical Royalties

Mechanicals are earned for mechanical copies of 
a song, also referred to as a 'work'.  Mechanicals 
are earned for CD, cassette, sheet music, printing 
in books, CD ROM, vinyl, and all "hard copy" forms 
of your song.  The mechanical rate is stipulated 
by the U.S. Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 
and changes from time to time. The rate as of the 
writing of this article is $0.08 per unit.  This 
is split following the contract you signed with 
your publisher.

The manufacturer of the medium pays the royalty 
to your publisher, who distributes it to the 
writers of the work.


Synchronization Royalties

Synchronization royalties are paid for "synch licenses"
for use of music in video, DVD ROM, movies, and news 
tracks.  Some jingles are licensed in synchronization.

There is no set statutory synchronization royalty rate;
they are negotiated individually.  The Harry Fox 
Agency discontinued their handling of synch licenses 
this year 2002. 

Synch licenses are also negotiated for live media 
(plays and live theatre) and new media (mp3, wav, and 
DVD ROM.)  Obviously this is an emerging and evolving 
area of licensing and royalty earnings, and the law 
is being decided now.


Compulsory Licenses

There is a class of songs for which mechanical licenses 
are required and the copyright holder may not refuse 
to grant license.  These are compulsory licenses, and 
always follow the statutory rate set by the U.S. Library
of Congress. 


Recording Licenses

The recorded interpretation or version of a song is 
intellectual property too.  The sound recording is 
licensable with a recording license.  This is
completely separate from ownership of the song.  


c.2002 McClure & Trowbridge Publishing Ltd
	  Nashville TN 
	All rights reserved. Any use is in violation
	of Federal Law.