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Initials that refer to the Artists and Repertoire Department within a record label responsible for finding new talent and independent producers.
Managing and conducting the business of the exploitation of musical compositions. It includes licensing of the various rights in the songs as well as bookkeeping, registering, payment of statements and plugging the songs (getting them recorded and performed).
Advances are monies made available by a label as initial remuneration for Artist granting certain rights in an agreement. Advances are recouped out of royalties, payable to artist (as opposed to total income), earned from sales or other uses of the content. Unlike a loan, advances are not returnable/repayable by artist if not enough income is generated from the exploitation of the content.
Agents in the music industry are primarily involved in booking live performances. Music agents are sometimes involved in commercials, tour sponsorship, television engagements and other activities but they donâ??t usually get paid from income from record sales, song writing or merchandise. Agency relations in the UK are regulated by the The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, and in the US by the AFM (American Federation of Musicians) and AFTRA (American Federation of TV and Radio Artists).
The labour organisation for musicians in the United States of America. It acts as the collective bargaining agent for its members, set the rules and regulations for its signatories, set scale payments to members for performing at recording sessions, and provides pension and welfare plans for its members.
Labour organisation to which performers in the television, radio and recording industries belong. Acts for and on behalf of its members in the same way as the AFM.
One of the performing societies in the United States. ASCAP collects and distributes music performance fees on behalf of composers, authors and publishers.
Dispute resolution procedure alternative to Court Proceedings in which an independent third party considers both sides in a dispute and makes a decision that resolves the dispute. The arbitrator is impartial; this means he or she does not take sides. In most cases the arbitrator's decision is legally binding on both sides, so it is not possible to go to court if you are unhappy with the decision.
The legal term for the transfer of rights in a particular song or other property.
Used in connection with the collection of royalties or fees from a distributor or sub-publisher (usually based at a foreign territory). Under such an arrangement, an artist gets paid directly by the foreign company owing the fees; otherwise, the foreign company would pay the local company, which in turn would pay the artist thus applying a double commission to the income.
Multinational performing rights society based in Autralia that also covers New Zealand, New Guinea, Fiji, Papua, Western Samoa, and Ross Dependency. It licenses, administers, and collects and distributes revenues for the public performance of music.
One of the three performing rights societies in the United States. BMI collects and distributes music performance fees on behalf of composers, authors and publishers.
A recording sold to the customer at low cost, usually not more than 50% of its regular retail list price.
Mechanical rights society serving Canadian publishers and composers.
Contract used when two publishers own or have been assigned copyright in a composition and engage to jointly exploit the content by findings content users, issuing licenses as well as collecting income and paying the writer(s).
Collection Societies are needed to protect the rights of musicians and songwriters, to monitor the performance of musical works and to make sure musicians get paid. A publisher will grant a license for a song to be performed or recorded and radio stations must make a record of what songs have been played. Larger stations purchase a blanket license so that all material played is paid for in advance. This money is then distributed amongst the members of the appropriate collection societies. Every venue or public area in which music is performed must have a license to do so. There are two rights in every recorded track, (copyright in the musical and lyrical composition and a separate copyright in the actual sound recording) so every time a track is played in public, there are two license fees to be paid – one goes to PRS who pass the money on to the person or people who wrote the composition and the other goes to PPL who pass the money onto the people who performed on the track. If you have done both, then you can receive two royalty streams.
A mechanical license granted (pursuant to Section 115 of the Copyright Act of 1976 in the US) available to any party wishing to record and release a record containing a musical composition (subject to certain exceptions), whether or not the copyright owner wishes to grant the license. It is available once the musical composition has been recorded and distributed with the permission of the owner
A term used to indicate that a musical composition, which is owned or controlled by the artist, producer or production company, is to be assigned in whole or in part, to a designated and that a reduced mechanical license rate is to be granted to the recording label in with the connection with the records manufactured and sold containing the composition.
The Controlled Composition Clause puts a limit on how much (and on how many songs per album) a record company has to pay mechanical royalties to the songwriters for each time they ‘press’ and commercialise new copies of the controlled compositions. Because record labels do not recoup any costs from mechanical royalties (which means this money goes out before they break even) they have looked to reduce the amount of mechanicals paid to composers by introducing Controlled Composition Clauses into Recording Agreements. The limit is both expressed in how much Record label will pay (by setting out percentage of the statutory rate at which mechanical royalties will be paid) and on the number of songs they will pay (by limiting the number of songs mechanical royalties is to be paid on).
Copyright protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It allows an original work to be considered a property that is owned by somebody. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works and it gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: • To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords; • To prepare derivative works based upon the work; • To distribute copies of phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; • To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works; • To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; • In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission. Duration of copyrights for Primary Works (original compositions) is 70 years from the dead of the writer. Duration of copyrights for Secondary Works (Recordings) is 50 years from the date of release.
Cross-collateralisation refers to the practice by labels (and producers) of using income from a recouped activity to recoup, cover expenses or fund different type of activity, e.g. using record sales income to cover merchandise costs. Cross-collateralisation must be avoided in the interest of artist getting royalties sooner or even getting any royalties at all.
Information sheets indicating the length, title, composers and publishers of musical selections included on soundtracks of films, televisions programs and other public performances. Performing rights societies rely on cue sheets to determine royalties payable for public performances.
Dealer price is the price basis that record companies use to account royalties to artists and is generally the amount of money they sell each unit of the content (CDs, LPs, digital copies) to retailers or distributors.
An artist employed to create a copyright or perform music at the request of the employer who offers remuneration in exchange for the service. The employer becomes the owner of the copyright in the created work.
Generally, is a clause that defines whether a contract binds its parties exclusively or non-exclusively
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