Episode # 12
I can understand that many artists fail to understand intellectual property or are not willing to spend a lot of time on something that they feel is not theirs. That is why I have created this series of exclusive content to explain to you in small capsules and in the simplest way how it works so that you finally feel that you have understood it and make the best decisions.
Intellectual property is legally protected by the constitution, therefore, when you register a creation you have all the protection of the law on it. The natural question for an artist, or producer, would be: in practice, how are these rights managed so that they pay me these royalties? And if you are a restaurant, hotel, bar or any type of business that uses music as part of its business, you will also understand why there are companies that come to your door for charges.
Here we go!
One side of the coin is royalties and the other side is royalties. There are no royalties to pay if there are no duly registered rights. That is a good start. It is important to speak appropriately so as not to generate confusion since as more variables enter the equation, the more specific you have to be so that there is no confusion and you do not live with a question mark on your face on this topic.
Rights over a composition
A composition is the combination of lyrics and music or just music. It is not necessarily officially recorded. You can have a composition that is only written on the score or that is only recorded on guitar and voice on your cell phone. This can already be registered and benefit from its copyright. Therefore, these rights do not include the artist who is going to sing that composition, nor does it include the record company that is going to put the studio, the musicians, producers and arrangers. Only the composer (s).
When this creation is born, you first register it with the public governmental entity of your country or to speak in general terms in the United States, which would be to enter www.copyright.gov, create your id and register the song. They are not going to collect your royalties, they are just going to generate your right to royalties as a songwriter. Royalties are collected from you by a collection society, the main ones in the United States being ASCAP and BMI.
You can join the one you prefer, it is only important that you know that ASCAP is a society directed by composers, producers, record labels and BMI is rather directed by its counterpart, content transmission companies. Depending on what gives you the best options and the most confidence, you can register with anyone.
Once you become a member or partner of one of these societies, you are going to request that, with the proper copyright registration of your compositions, they collect the royalties. These royalties are collected around the world because these companies are in turn associated with hundreds of companies in other countries and once you register in one, you receive the collection service of all of them, of course they charge a percentage for this service.
These societies grant a public performance license to the hotel, restaurant, bar, concert, radio, or whatever it is so that they use the catalog of songs of affiliated authors and then they distribute it to the composers who have participated. In an upcoming episode, I am going to explain to you one by one the types of rights, royalties and licenses that exist, because not only does the one of public execution exist, but let's continue with our business for now, to understand step by step.
Let's see a practical example, if we are in a bar and a song you composed is playing, that bar paid its license to the society of authors and composers and they pay you. But it turns out that the song composed is yours, but the version you recorded is not playing. Because another artist recorded your song and you do not have the performance or recording rights of that version. Then there the magic begins.
Derechos sobre una grabación
Hay un segundo registro vital y es el de música grabada. En Estados Unidos existe Sound Exchange. Esta es organización designada por el gobierno de Estados Unidos para recolectar regalías de ejecución pública de grabaciones o master recordings. Osea viene a hacer básicamente lo mismo que ASCAP o BMI pero sobre las grabaciones. Por tanto, ese bar no pagó una sola licencia, pagó dos. Una a la sociedad de autores y compositores y otra a la sociedad de recolección de regalías al fonograma. Porque imagínate que en ese bar suena 20 versiones distintas de la misma composición.
Cuando registras tu versión grabada en Sound Exchange entonces ellos recolectan tus regalías por el máster que está sonando, cobran su comisión y pagan por tus derechos. Esa regalía se reparte así 50% al dueño del máster que puede ser la disquera o el artista, el 45% al artista principal o a través de una carta de instrucción en el contrato, también al artista de featuring que participa y el 5% final a los artistas secundarios que participan en el master. Podrían ser músicos afiliados a la sociedad.
Si estás en Ecuador te traduzco las entidades: copyright es el IEPI (allí registras), ASCAP O BMI es la sociedad que otorga licencias a ejecución pública para recolectar tus regalías como compositor, Sound Exchange es Soprofón (sociedad que otorga licencias a ejecución pública para recolectar regalías sobre la grabación)
Hasta allí vamos a quedarnos en este episodio. Sigue conectado, que estoy seguro que vas a entender todo a la perfección si escuchas con atención y no pierdes esta serie de propiedad intelectual para músicos.