Publishing for Composers/ What royalties could be out there for you?

What royalties could be out there for you?

* Royalties on Compositions:

A composition (song) is a piece of music written by a composer.

There are three main ways in which you can earn money from a composition: Performance Royalties, Mechanical Royalties and Synchronisation.

* Performance royalties

Performance royalties are generated when your song has been performed in public. This can be either live or a recorded version of your music.

There are 3 types of performance royalties:

-  from live performances, gigs, dj sets: almost all live performances generate income. Small gigs could be worth € 5 euros. The income generated depends on several factors like attendance, venue, ticket price, line-up etc. These performance fees are not being paid to you directly, but to a collectijg sciety. The money you can collect for performing at the venue comes from the license fee the venue pays the PRS for Music. EPM actively chase up these monies and collects them on your behalf.

- radio airplay (terrestrial, via the internet): When your song is played on the radio, it also generates performance income. The height of the fees paid per radio play depend largely on  the lentgh of the song, audience share of the radio station, time of day etc.

- tv exposure: Just like radio airplay – when your song is on the TV, performance royalties are generated. Again, the amount of money you receive will depend on the channel, time of day, length of the track etc.

* Mechanical royalties

Mechanicals are paid to collecting societies when you songs are being copied or used on CD's, Vinyl, Downloads or DVD's. These fees are paid for duplication of your songs. For example when a record labels wants to release one of your songs on a cd, they will have t pay a license fee for it to a collecting society. Same goes for online stores, like Itunes, who sells downloads of one of your songs.

* Synchronization

Synchronisation is the act of placing an artist’s music over a visual; be it an advert, a TV programme, a film, a video game etc.

Hear about the different types of copyright explained in 55 seconds by Chris Cooke. Courtesy of the CMU Weekly podcast: http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/podcast/

For any queries regarding the new EPM Rights management / publishing service please contact Anne on anne[at]epm-music.com