This week on OffKey, we’re turning to a big topic for any songwriter looking to build and sustain a career in music: royalty collections. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mike McCarty and Holly Fagan-Lacoste from SOCAN and Rebecca Webster from CMRRA to learn how the songwriter gets paid when their songs are played. We discussed how royalty rates are determined, how usage data is collected, and why these organizations are so important to songwriters. I hope you enjoy our conversations and that this episode is helpful to any music creators out there looking to make money from their music!

The Songwriter’s Royalty Collections

As we’ve followed the Songwriter’s path throughout this season, we’ve learned about their rights and the various players on their team. This week, we’re moving on to the next essential component of building a career in the music industry: getting paid when your music is played. Thinking about how a music creator gets paid for the use of their work brings us back to the concept of the copyright.

Copyright is created from the moment an original piece of work — whether it’s a painting, novel, or song — is created. In a song, there is a bundle of copyrights made up of two distinct parts: the copyright in the composition, held by songwriters and music publishers, and the copyright in a sound recording, held by the master rights holders such as the recording artist or label. When a song first comes into existence, the songwriter or songwriters control and own the copyright over that song; however, they can choose to assign their copyright to other players who may then take on ownership and capitalize on the songwriter’s copyright. For example, as we discussed in the episode on publishing deals, when a songwriter signs with a publisher, they assign the copyright of their composition to the publishing company, who then licenses the composition to be used in TV and films or for a recording artists’ new album and splits the profit with the songwriter according to the split laid out in the contract.

In order for a songwriter to collect royalties, they assign their rights to a collections society who then administers and represents the rights of songwriters to collect royalties on the use of their compositions. The primary income-generating rights for songwriters that these societies represent are: the performing right and the reproduction or “mechanical” right. The performing right is the right to perform a song in public — e.g. background music in a restaurant or bar, live in a concert, on the radio or on TV. This right generates “public performance royalties” for songwriters when they authorize the use of their songs to be performed in public. The reproduction right, or “mechanical” right, is the right to authorize the reproduction of their work in CDs, records, and digital media.

To collect royalties from these rights, every country has their own system of collections. In Canada, the key organization for collecting public performance royalties is the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). While SOCAN is now branching out into mechanical collections after absorbing the organization SODRAC, for publishers and self-publishing songwriters, the key collections organization for reproduction or mechanical royalties is the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA).

First, let’s learn more about the performance rights side from SOCAN. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mike McCarty & Holly Fagan-Lacoste from SOCAN to learn more about what the organization does, how to register, and how songwriters make money. Here’s what I learned:

• SOCAN offers many programs to support songwriters’ creative development including educational workshops and songwriting camps.
• For collecting usage data, SOCAN is one of the global leaders in techniques and technological innovation. Tracking usage data down with people and computers, SOCAN accounts for millions of performances every day of songs in their repertoire.
• Once data is collected, there are various royalty rates for different types of usage of a song. These tariffs are set by the Copyright Board of Canada, and change according to negotiations with organizations like SOCAN and the Songwriters Association of Canada.

SOCAN is Canada’s Performance Rights Organization or PRO and/ they collect primarily for songwriter’s performance rights. But what about reproduction rights? While SOCAN is branching out into mechanical rights, the primary organization for collections on these rights is CMRRA. I spoke with Rebecca Webster from CMRRA to learn more about the agency. Here’s what I learned:

• CMRRA collects royalties for music publishers and self-publishing songwriters and represents 95% of the market for reproduction rights in Canada.
• CMRRA negotiates royalty rates independently of the Copyright Board of Canada, which means they can advocate for better rates with companies directly.
• The agency has started a very helpful initiative called the Unclaimed Works Portal, where songwriters and publishers can match recordings to musical works in the database and provide any missing information in order to collect all the royalties owed to them.

Getting paid for the songs you write is absolutely crucial, and organizations like SOCAN and CMRRA are here for that very purpose. In such a highly competitive industry, it’s important for songwriters to register with these organizations to earn money, and also to take advantage of the other resources and educational workshops they offer to support your professional development as a music creator.

Thank you to Mike McCarty and Holly Fagan-Lacoste from SOCAN and Rebecca Webster from CMRRA for their contributions!

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

Resources for more information:

• Join Now
• Our Services
• Creators' Toolbox
• Unclaimed Works Portal for Online Music Services

Listen to OffKey at…

‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey
• Google Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey Podcast | Free Listening on Podbean App

OffKey Season 3 Episode 7: The Songwriter’s Royalty Collections was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week on OffKey, we’re looking at the various players on the Recording Artist’s team. Our guests this week include: Brian Hetherman, founder of Curve Music and Cerberus Artist Management; Byron Pascoe, an entertainment lawyer at Edwards Creative Law; Jonathan Simkin, founder of 604 Records; Savannah Wellman from Tiny Kingdom Music; and Jeff Wolpert, an engineer and producer at Desert Fish Studios and educator at the University of Toronto. We discussed when to assemble a team, the role of the personal manager, what to be aware of in recording agreements, and 360 deals.

The Recording Artist’s Team

Just like the songwriter, getting an artist’s music out there is crucial in order to make money from their work. And to make this happen, there is often a whole team of people working behind the scenes to develop, distribute, and promote an artist’s work.

When an artist is ready to take on team-members, a key player is to consider is the personal manager. Put simply, the personal manager’s job is to build the artist’s career and take it from one level to the next. For example, this could include determining which jobs the artist should take and ensuring that the artist’s social media reflects what they’re trying to present professionally. The role of the manager is broad and difficult to define, as it can take many forms depending on the artist’s needs.

Another key player to consider in building a team is the label. Record labels can encompass many other players as well, as most established labels generally have marketing teams, press teams, radio pluggers, accounts departments, etc. — essentially, the infrastructure to support the various components of an artist’s business. In the past few decades, there has been debate about the role of labels in the music industry, given their contentious history of having disproportionate control over the artist’s career. Today, labels are widely varied in the services they provide and the proportion of royalties that they claim — a shift that has occurred alongside the growing prominence of independent labels, which usually give artists greater control and ownership over their work. There’s now even a certain amount of prestige to the term “independent”, as high profile artists have voiced their support such as Chance the Rapper who won a grammy for his album Colouring Book as an independent artist.

Now, I think it’s important to discuss the term “independent” because there’s no clear definition. Some artists view it as funding their projects out of their own pocket without the investment of a label. Others view it more broadly, as not being signed to any of the 3 major labels, which are Sony, Warner, and Universal.

From what I can gather, the term “independent” can be somewhat misleading and perhaps isn’t particularly useful. Artists who are “independent” are usually backed by a team covering the key business components that a label would also handle. Given that there’s so much to manage as an artist grows, it’s unlikely that any one person would be able to handle all of the business components alongside creating music. I think it’s more relevant to think about the artist’s team as an entity that can be formed either through signing with a label, or through other types of deals with distributors, promoters, booking agents, etc. Basically, as an artist, you should be aware of these different parts of building your business so you can negotiate the best deal for you, whether you go with a label or another type of service provider.

Whether you’re an indie artist signing a distribution deal or an artist considering a record deal with a label, negotiating and signing any contract brings another team player into the picture: the entertainment lawyer. Legal documents can be hard to understand, so getting a lawyer to look over any agreement you’re considering is very important.

While there are all kinds of agreements an artist can sign, recording agreements are an important type of contract for an artist to understand and be prepared to negotiate when faced with an offer. There is no single type of record deal, and with a rapidly changing industry, it’s hard to say what a typical recording agreement might look like. But there are some key things to be aware of when you’re presented with an offer, including the term of the contract and the number of albums required.

As the music industry has evolved alongside capitalist consumerism, an artist’s “brand” has always been an important part of making money. But “branding” has taken on a new meaning in recent years. Artists are now able to earn money through non-music related revenue streams, such as merchandise and brand partnerships, and many major artists are now being sponsored by brands to endorse non-music products such as clothing, cell phones, and even vodka. You can see these partnerships all over instagram, such as Lady Gaga’s partnership with Tiffany & Co and 50 Cent’s partnership with EFFEN vodka. These partnerships are a key component of 360 deals, which give the label greater control over not only music-related aspects of an artist’s career but also merchandise, endorsements, appearances in movies, etc. 360 deals have been a topic of debate, as the deals have been seen by some to give the label an unfair opportunity to capitalize on more and more streams of the artist’s income.

Overall, building a team is something to consider when you feel like you need help developing, distributing, and promoting your music. A lot of this process is about being aware and proactive in negotiating clear agreements with various team players so that your relationship is beneficial to your career as an artist.

Thank you so much to Brian Hetherman, Byron Pascoe, Jonathan Simkin, Savannah Wellman, and Jeff Wolpert for their contributions to this episode!

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

Listen to OffKey at…

• ‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts
• OffKey
• OffKey
• OffKey
• Google Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey Podcast | Free Listening on Podbean App

Learning resources on the topics covered in this episode:

• Creating a Winning Team to Support Your Artist or Band - Smart Band Management
• An Indie Music Expert Explains Why Artists Are Turning Away From Record Deals
• You Ask, We Answer: What Exactly Is A 360 Deal?
• Recording Contracts | Different Types of Deals Explained + Bad 360 Deals

OffKey Season 3 Episode 7: The Recording Artist’s Team was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week on OffKey, we’re looking at a key player on the Songwriter’s Team: the Music Publisher. Featured in this episode are the insights and expertise of: Norman Arnold, a composer and producer based in LA with experience working for Warner Bros., Disney, NBC, CNN, and more; Mark Jowett, the co-founder of Nettwerk Music Group and head of A&R and Publishing; Karen Kosowski, songwriter and producer based in Nashville; and Byron Pascoe, an entertainment lawyer at Edwards Creative Law. We discussed the role of music publishers, opportunities for songwriters in sync, and what to look out for in publishing deals.

Publishers & Publishing Agreements

If a songwriter wants to make money from their work, they need to get it out into the world and there are some key players that help to make this happen. As we discussed in the episode on the Songwriter, many songwriters write on their own; however, co-writing is very important to songwriting in the industry these days, especially in popular music and for film and TV. We all know some great co-writing teams such as Paul McCartney and John Lennon or Elton John and Bernie Taupin, but the co-writing I’m referring to is less about exclusive long-term writing relationships and more about bringing various skilled songwriters together into a room to write great songs to be placed with a particular artist or in a particular film or TV show. A key player on the songwriter’s team that is instrumental in bringing songwriters together and finding these placements is the music publisher, which is the primary team player we’ll focus on in this episode.

As the Canadian Music Publishers Association puts it, the publisher can be understood as the “manager of songs” or the “place where songwriters and artists connect”.

Along with setting up co-writing sessions, music publishers play a role in finding placements for songwriters’ songs in movies or TV shows. Synchronization placements or “sync” are great opportunities to to make money on the composition side.

Another key player on the songwriter’s team is the entertainment lawyer. Songwriters and artists are essentially small businesses, and in order to understand the business side of a creative industry like music, the lawyer is an extremely helpful resource. Any creator starting out should be aware of the risks of signing a contract that they do not fully understand — and when legal lingo is involved, agreements can be challenging to unpack.

One type of agreement that is important for songwriters to be aware of is the publishing deal. When a songwriter signs a contract with a publisher, they grant the company the sole right to publish their songs during the term specified in the contract. The publishing company then takes a percentage of royalties from the sales of the song, which varies depending on the contract.
As we’ve learned, any contract can be totally different from the next and one should always unpack the fine print. However, there are a few general things to look out for when considering an agreement, including the term of the contract, the royalty splits, and the ownership of the songs.

If you’re a songwriter starting out, your songwriting process may be simply you with your notebook, keyboard, or laptop creating music on your own. However, as you build your career, the team members that you take on — whether they’re cowriters, producers, publishers, music supervisors, etc. — will likely be instrumental in finding opportunities and taking your career as a songwriter to the next level.

Thank you to Norman Arnold, Mark Jowett, Karen Kosowski, and Byron Pascoe for their contributions to this episode!

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

Listen to OffKey at…

• ‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts
• OffKey
• OffKey
• OffKey
• Google Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey Podcast | Free Listening on Podbean App

Learning resources on the topics covered in this episode:

• Creators' Toolbox
• Music Copyright & Publishing FAQ
• How To Get Your Music Placed in TV, Movies, & More: Sync Licensing 101
• Sound Advice: Publishing Agreements - SOCAN Words and Music

OffKey Season 3 Episode 6: The Songwriter’s Team was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week on OffKey, we’re looking at our next character in the storyline of the creation of music: the Recording Artist. In this episode, we learned from the expertise of: Andrew Karis from ACTRA-RACS; Byron Pascoe, an entertainment lawyer at Edwards Law; Jeff Wolpert, an engineer and producer at Desert Fish Studios and educator at the University of Toronto; Mateo Palmisano, composer and producer at Xitmuse; and Matt Craig from MROC. We explored what the recording process looks like and who is involved, how session work and studio culture have changed over the years, and how performers make money from the recordings they contribute to.

The Recording Artist

The terms “Performer” and “Recording Artist” can be used somewhat interchangeably, referring broadly to someone that performs and records in the studio or on stage. For clarity’s sake, we’ll start to think of them as separate characters in our storyline when we unpack the recording and live performance sides of the music industry. Although these two roles commonly overlap, they represent very different ways of earning money, or at least very different revenue streams. So we should differentiate between earning money for your recordings, e.g. through streaming or selling vinyl records, versus earning money for your live performances on stage.

For now though, let’s focus on understanding the role of the Recording Artist in the process of recording. A dictionary definition of a recording artist is “a person who performs music for recordings”. More specifically, this would include instrumentalists and backup singers (known as session players), band-members, and the artists that the public knows — A.K.A. the name on the cover of the CD or that you search for on Spotify. While these artists are the people we primarily associate with any given recording, there are usually at least a few other performers in the background that contribute to the recording.

Session musicians have historically been very important to the recording process, providing the instrumentation that sometimes came to define the songs by solo featured artists. For example, Frank Sinatra has become known not only for his vocal performance, but also for Quincy Jones’ unique arrangements and the many session musicians’ skillful performances on Sinatra recordings. Similarly, the Funk Brothers at Motown Records played on more number one hits than the Beatles, including recordings for Diana Ross, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder. Another group of session musicians that came to be known as “The Wrecking Crew” performed on hundreds of Top 40 hits in the 60s and 70s by the Mamas & Papas, Sonny & Cher, and Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Sometimes, they even acted as “ghost players” on songs credited to bands like The Beach Boys and The Monkeez. In the 1960s, session vocalists such as Darlene Love recorded lead vocals for songs that were then credited to other artists. Overall, session musicians were generally not publicly recognized for their work while they were active, but recently there has been more attention brought to their important contributions to many recordings we love through documentaries like The Wrecking Crew, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and 20 Feet from Stardom.

Today, session players are less active, primarily because of technological innovation. With a computer, keyboard, and voice, a person can create a recording with a full range of software instruments and stacked vocal tracks. Session musicians still play a small role in the modern music industry, particularly in film scoring, but overall, the recording culture has shifted significantly in the past few decades.

The Recording Process

Although studio culture has seen a dramatic shift with technological innovation, recording studios remain an important part of creating music, especially when artists are ready to turn demo tracks into a fully produced EP or album. So, what does the recording process look like and who is involved?

The Role of the Producer

One of the major players in the recording process is the producer. The producer’s role is challenging to define, because it can take on many different forms, ranging from technical to more directorial expertise. The cost of hiring a producer also varies greatly depending on each particular agreement.

The Recording Artist’s Rights & Royalties

As we discussed in the first episode where we introduced the recording artist and the songwriter, recording artists hold sound recording or master rights over a musical work. Pop stars like Britney Spears or Justin Bieber, along with their labels, have master rights over the recordings they perform on, which is one way they earn their riches. But what about the rights of other performers on a recording like session players? How does this compare to the featured recording artist?

In a recording, various performers are classified as either “featured” performers or “non-featured” performers, which is important to determining royalty splits. Featured performers would typically be the person whose name is associated with the recording, whereas non-featured performers would be those who perform in the background such as background singers or musicians. Using the song “thank u, next” as an example, Ariana Grande would be the featured performer and Victoria Monet and Tayla Parx, would be the non-featured performers as they sing background vocals on the recording.

Each country has different regulations on recording artists’ rights and royalties. In Canada, the Recording Artists’ Collecting Society (ACTRA-RACS) and Musicians’ Rights Organization of Canada (MROC), represent performers’ rights and advocate for equitable remuneration for all recording artists. In 1997, the Copyright Act of Canada was amended to recognize recording artists’ essential contributions to the creation of recordings. Up until then, performers were largely unable to capture a share of the royalties from the use of recordings they performed on, although Canadian songwriters and publishers had been collecting royalties from those recordings for many years. This type of right is called a “neighbouring right,” reflecting how recording artists’ performing rights are the “neighbour” or equivalent to the performing rights of songwriters.

So, if recording artists hold neighbouring rights, what are the main revenue streams they can make money from?

Decline in musicians’ wages and opportunities to work

Along with the decrease in performers’ income from the shift towards streaming, musicians’ pay has decreased significantly and session work is increasingly done overseas, thus leaving many musicians without work or with work that’s underpaid.

Although the industry has changed dramatically and the majority of musicians’ incomes have faced a steep decline, as Matt and Andrew pointed out, performers’ rights and royalties are always being renegotiated as the industry evolves.

For now, the most important take away for any Canadian Recording Artist or performer listening to this is to register with a collections society such as ACTRA-RACS or MROC so you’ll will be able to collect royalties on the songs they performed on, and hopefully be set up to collect more as these organizations push for a greater share of royalties from revenue streams like streaming.

Thank you to Jeff Wolpert, Andrew Karis, Matt Craig, Byron Pascoe, and Mateo Palmisano for their contributions to this episode!

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

Listen to OffKey at…

• ‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts
• OffKey
• OffKey
• OffKey
• Google Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey Podcast | Free Listening on Podbean App

Learning resources on the topics covered in this episode:

• FAQ | RACS
• ROYALTIES
• These musicians are taking a stand against Spotify
• Canadian Airplay Database | RACS
• Column: How the rise of streaming could turn Hollywood musicians into an endangered species

OffKey Season 3 Episode 4: The Recording Artist was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week on OffKey, we’re looking at our first character in the storyline of the creation of music: the Songwriter. Featured in this episode are the insights of: Kathryn Calder, of The New Pornographers, Frontperson, and Oscar St. Records; Karen Kosowski, songwriter and producer based in Nashville; Mateo Palmisano, composer and producer of Xitmuse; Jonathan Simkin, founder of 604 Records; and Mike McCarty & Holly Fagan from SOCAN. We discussed how the Songwriter starts building a career, connecting with collaborators, sorting out composition credits, and making money.

The Songwriter

As with anything in music, there is no single definition for “Songwriter”. The role can vary, depending on whether they write independently, with co-writers, or are signed to a publisher. Sometimes, the Songwriter is also the performer of their own songs, such as Ed Sheeran or Adele. But oftentimes, the Songwriter is working behind the scenes, writing songs for Recording Artists who then release the songs under their own names. If we look at the songs that top the billboard hot 100 each year, the majority of them were written by 4 or 5 songwriters, many of whom the general public has never heard of.

Featured performers, on the other hand, are usually front and centre. The first thing one generally sees on the cover of a CD or single is their name in bold. However, one has to take extra steps to find information about songwriters, making them appear less central to the musical work.

Last week, we touched on the history of songwriting in popular music, going back to New York’s “Tin Pan Alley”, where music publishers set up shop in Manhattan’s flower district in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Tin Pan publishing houses were a meeting point for composers, lyricists, Broadway performers, and musicians to plug, purchase, and publish sheet music for the songs of American popular music’s Golden Age. Although this shifted during the singer-songwriter era of the 1960s and 70s with artists like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, the Tin Pan Alley days of exchanging songs between writers and artists is largely how pop music functions today.

As discussed last week, while the role of the songwriter has evolved throughout history, the separation between recording artist and songwriter remains relevant today, and for clarity’s sake, I’ll refer to the Songwriter as separate from the recording artist.

So what does the role of the Songwriter entail? What does the writing process look like? How do they get their songs to Recording Artists who might want to record them? How do they make money from the songs they write? In this episode, we’ll get started on answering these questions and go deeper in episodes to come.

First off, let’s learn about getting started building one’s career as a songwriter.

The Songwriting Process

Probably the most simple way to imagine the songwriting process is one person sitting at a piano, with a guitar, or making a beat on a Digital Audio Work station, and coming up with a chord progression, melody hook, lyrics, etc. This more independent process is definitely how a lot of songwriting is done, and with the innovation of the past few decades, there are many technological tools at the solo songwriter’s disposal.

Oftentimes, songwriting involves multiple writers, who connect with one another either on their own initiative or through a record label or publisher. Publishers are important players on the Songwriting side of music, who play a key role in connecting Songwriters with one another and getting their songs to the right recording artists. We’ll get into this more later on when we look at the songwriter’s team and the role of the publisher in more depth. Karen Kosowski shared her experience collaborating with other songwriters in Nashville and explained how the Nashville songwriting community is a lively place where music publishers are very active in connecting songwriters and getting songs to the right artists.

Another interesting way of collaborating with other songwriters is songwriting camps. SOCAN facilitates camps both abroad and locally at their offices across Canada and they’ve started a program called Song Camp Mondays, which aims to bring the camp experience to as many SOCAN members as possible.

Dividing Composition Credits

Beyond the creative process, my question with regards to the business side of all of this collaborative songwriting is: how is ownership of the song divided between co-writers? What determines an equal split vs. dividing composition rights proportionally? Or are the splits predetermined, based on the regulations in the city or country you are writing in?

Connected to songwriting splits is the topic of sampling. When you use someone else’s musical work in a new musical work of your own, getting permission and figuring out the songwriting split is crucial.

Overall, sorting out songwriting splits are crucial to determining what proportion of royalties you are entitled to.

The Songwriter’s Royalties

How does the Songwriter make money? Going back to the first episode, royalties are determined by certain rights. To songwriters, the primary rights are the reproduction right and the performing right, which result in mechanical, public performance, and synch royalties.

Put simply: in order for songwriters to make money, they need to register with a collection society. In Canada, this would be SOCAN, while in the U.S., it would be ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. Every country has their own system of royalty collections, and we’ll get into this deeper later on in the season when we look at collection societies. Canadian songwriters should register with SOCAN as soon as they can, so that they’re set up to earn money when their musical creations are reproduced and performed.

Building a career as a songwriter is a multifaceted and gradual process, and I hope the insights shared in this episode have been helpful. Here’s some final advice for songwriters starting out in the industry:

Thank you to Kathryn Calder, Karen Kosowski, Mateo Palmisano, Jonathan Simkin, Mike McCarty and Holly Fagan for their contributions to this episode!

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

Listen to OffKey at…

• ‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts
• OffKey
• OffKey
• OffKey
• Google Podcasts

• OffKey
• OffKey Podcast | Free Listening on Podbean App

Learning resources on the topics covered in this episode:

• Nashville Songwriters React to Town Hall on CRB Streaming Rate Appeal: 'We Just Want to Be Paid Fairly'
• 8 Songwriters on the Line Between Inspiration and Theft
• Creators' Toolbox

OffKey Season 3 Episode 3: The Songwriter was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

OffKey’s third season will be turning down a new path, moving on from the “who” question towards the “how-to,” with the goal of creating an educational resource for industry newcomers like myself. Join me as I explore the ins-and-outs of the music industry from the perspective of two key players in the creation of music: the Songwriter & Recording Artist. This week, I had the privilege of speaking with and learning from: Götz Bühler, Senior Label and Product Manager at Membran Entertainment Group; Kathryn Calder, member of the Canadian band The New Pornographers and owner of Oscar St Records; and Byron Pascoe, an entertainment lawyer at Edwards Law. We explored the basics of Songwriters’ and Recording Artists’ roles, rights, and royalties and set the foundation for what’s to follow this season.

The Songwriter & Recording Artist

In the creation of music, the Songwriter and Recording Artist represent two distinct parts of a musical work. There seems to be some grey area in the general public’s understanding of these roles, as they often are assumed to be one and the same. I’ve definitely made this assumption myself, often realizing later on that the work by an artist I love often involved many more people in the creation process. The terms “artist” or “musician” are commonly used to refer to a range of music creators, including people who write songs, people who perform songs written by other people, and people who perform songs they wrote themselves. Wikipedia defines “musician” as “anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music” — a definition which reflects the vagueness of the term.

Now, it is not inaccurate to refer to either a songwriter or performer as an “artist” or “musician”. However, in thinking about music, it’s important to understand the two distinct components of a musical work: the composition, created by the Songwriter, and the sound recording, created by the Recording Artist. While someone may be both Songwriter and Recording Artist, and thus carry the rights of both roles, these are two distinct fields in the industry with different revenue streams. In the pop world, many Songwriters work behind the scenes writing songs for Recording Artists. For example, Max Martin, a songwriter behind some of the biggest hits in pop music over the past 2 decades, has written or co-written songs from Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” to The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” While Max Martin is the Songwriter, Britney Spears and The Weeknd are the Recording Artists.

To learn more about the differences between songwriters and recording artists, I spoke with Götz Bühler, a Senior Product and Label Manager at Membran Entertainment Group, and Kathryn Calder, an artist and member of the Canadian band The New Pornographers and owner of Oscar St Records. Here’s what they had to say:

The Rights of the Songwriter & Recording Artist

For clarity’s sake, we’ll think of the Songwriter & the Recording Artist as the two key characters in the storyline of a song’s creation. And along with each role comes a distinct set of rights. In music, “rights” can be understood as entitlements that determine what exactly can be done with a piece of music and who should be compensated.

So, what rights do songwriters hold? What are session musicians’ rights? What rights does a record label hold over a recording?

These are all important questions and the starting point for answering them is to understand the two main types of rights over a musical work. The songwriter (or songwriters) and the music publisher hold composition or publishing rights. The recording artist and often the record label hold sound recording or master rights.

Along with Kathryn and Götz, I spoke with Byron Pascoe, a music lawyer at Edwards Creative Law, to get more clarity on composition and master rights.

Copyrights

Just like human rights, rights in music are only guaranteed if certain laws are in place to protect them. In Canada, music creators’ rights are protected under the federal Copyright Act, which covers all provinces and territories. Canada has also ratified many international agreements relating to copyright, meaning that Canadian citizens are granted copyright protection in all participating nations. In reality, copyright cases that cross borders can be pretty complex, given that each country has their own laws, but we’ll get into this more later on in the season. For now, we’ll just focus on understanding what exactly a copyright is in music. A copyright ensures the exclusive legal right of a creator to control and be compensated for the use, reproduction, and performance of their intellectual property.

Rights & Royalties

Registration of copyrights is key for any creator to get royalties. In Canada, Songwriters should register with SOCAN or CMRRA, which collect royalties for public performance and reproduction of compositions in their catalog. Performers and master rights owners should register with the Recording Artists’ Collecting Society or Connect Music Licensing, which collect royalties for public performance of sound recordings in their catalog.

Understanding what rights you hold over your music is important for you to be able to protect and control its use. But knowing your rights is also important because rights equal royalties. So if you’re looking to make money as a songwriter or recording artist, the rights you hold will determine what money you make.

So, what are the various rights that generate income for songwriters? And what about those for recording artists?

Rolling Stone Magazine explains “royalties” as: the amounts of money paid to rights-holders when their creations are sold, distributed, used in other media or monetized in any other way. There are 3 main types of income-generating rights for both Songwriters and Recording Artists and associated rights-holders on their team:

1. Mechanical rights, which refer to the right to mechanically reproduce a song. This would include the pressing of a song on records, cassettes, CDs, or digital downloads.
2. Public performance rights, which relate to the right to play a song on the radio or stream online in bars and restaurants — basically any time a song is played in a public setting.
3. Synchronization rights, which involve the right to use a song in a video format, such as a film or TV show.

Mechanical rights, public performance rights, and synch rights all generate income for both Songwriters and Recording Artists when such rights are sold or licensed. The ways that royalties and rights are divided depends on the agreements in place between songwriters, publishers, recording artists, labels, producers, etc.

Why are rights important?

Although unpacking your rights and the rights of all the various people you work with can be challenging, it is crucial to understanding through what means and how much you should be paid each time your song gets played.

Thank you to Götz Bühler, Kathryn Calder, and Byron Pascoe for sharing their their contributions to this episode! Join me in two weeks for our next episode exploring the role and rights of the Songwriter.

If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw

Enjoy this episode of OffKey? Consider subscribing or leaving us a rating and review on iTunes! They really help us to improve and create the best content possible for our listeners.

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Learning resources on the topics covered in this episode:

• Music Business Foundations
• Creators' Toolbox
• How Musicians Make Money - Or Don't at All - in 2018
• Copyright Act
• Canadian Music Royalties Explained

OffKey Season 3 Episode 1: The Songwriter & Recording Artist was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome to the first episode of OffKey’s new segment, we call it Newscast. This will be a very short segment that I produce whenever there’s some interesting news in the atmosphere of Music and Tech that I feel like talking about.

In this episode I dive into Spotify’s continued foray into Podcasts. Specifically it’s acquisitions of Podcasting companies and the launch of new features geared toward podcasters & podcasting. I also discuss some of the motivations and potential strategic components around why Spotify is making a play for podcasts.

Soundtrap for Storytellers

Most recently, Music Business Worldwide had a story titled:

“Spotify Launches Cloud-based Podcast Studio, Soundtrap for Storytellers”

What is Soundtrap for Storytellers?

It’s an online tool for recording and editing podcasts. This is a paid tool costing just over $14 U.S. if you pay annually, and a little more if you prefer to be non-commital and pay monthly.

One of Soundtrap for Storytellers’ main features is that it automatically transcribes your audio after you’ve recorded. And actually let’s you edit your podcast as if its a document. So if you delete a piece of transcribed text, it removes the corresponding audio for you. I haven’t tried this myself, but it sure looks nifty.

Another feature is remote interviews, and not restricted to just one guest. Similar to tools like Zencastr, Soundtrap for Storytellers let’s you share a conference call style link with your guest where your conversation takes place and is recorded.

It also includes other tools like a library of audio resources and sound effects from FreeSound.Org, and it lets you upload directly to Spotify. This is interesting and I will touch on it in a minute.

So why am I telling you about Soundtrap for Storytellers?

Spotify’s makes moves in podcasting

Well not too long ago, Spotify’s founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, said that

“over time, more than 20% of all Spotify listening will be non-music content.”

From what I can tell, he’s expecting a chunk of that to be in the form of Podcasts and Soundtrap is just the tip of the iceberg.

In October last year, Spotify launched “Spotify for Podcasters” in beta. In Q1 2019, Spotify said that “more than 20,000 podcast teams are now using the platform on a monthly basis”. Also in Q1 Spotify launched 15 originals and exclusives along with a daily news podcast in Brazil.

Earlier this year Spotify made two major acquisitions buying up Gimlet Media, a podcast production company, and Anchor, a podcast recording and distribution platform, spending €300 Million Euros for the pair. And said that it would likely spend another $400 — $500 Million on Podcast acquisitions in 2019.

That was in February. In March Spotify announced another acquisition, that of Parcast, another Podcast content studio

Then early this month we learned that Spotify was testing placing podcasts into personalized playlists and alongside music recommendations.

And again this month, Spotify posted “Do you need your own podcast” a blog post encouraging artists to create their own podcast.

I think it’s really interesting to speculate on Spotify’s motives here. And I don’t think they’re that hard to see. I’m not going to go super deep here, so if anyone is interested in discussing this in more detail, please reach out.

Three Key Strategic Take-aways.

The first piece which I’ve seen a lot of people pick up on is related to costs. At the moment Spotify pays a portion of its revenues to labels, artists, and distributors based on how much that music gets played relative to other content. But until now, pretty much all time spent listening on Spotify meant listening to music. So 100% of that pool of funds was going to those music industry suppliers (Artists, labels, and distributors). Now, if Spotify can provide other content that they own or that is less costly — in the case of Podcasts, often free — then that portion of listener time and therefore listener revenue, does not have to get paid out and stays in Spotify’s pocket. This is not the place to talk about whether this is right or wrong or for who it’s right or wrong, but it sure is interesting.

Another piece of the puzzle is on the revenue side. If Spotify can provide more reason for people to spend time on the platform, even if it’s for free content, maybe they are more likely to then upgrade to a paid subscription to get the ad-free music. Or by having content and features that other platforms don’t have (aka. Podcasts), perhaps they can move subscribers over from Apple, Deezer, Tidal and Spotify’s other competitors. Spotify knows people are spending time listening to something, the majority of that time is music, podcasts, and some audio books. So if Spotify can be a single platform where you can get more of the things you want to listen to, this becomes an attractive proposition rather than having to switch between apps.

And finally, Podcasts provide a nice low-cost testing ground for Spotify. I first came across this idea from Denisha Kuhlor who wrote a really great Medium post titled “The Record Label of The Future is no Record Label at All”. You can search for it, and I’ll link in the show notes, but I highly recommend it.

The TLDR here is that Spotify’s Acquisition and other steps in the world of Podcasting demonstrate it’s strategy to control everything audio which I mention above. However, the important bit here is captured well in a direct quote from Denisha’s article -

“Spotify is using podcasts to validate their ability to use technology to disinter-mediate the process of producing, distributing, and optimizing music in a way that is cost effective and provides the least points of friction given their current reliance on record labels.”

Did we all catch those two points? One — to disinter mediate the process. And Two — Spotify’s current reliance on record labels.

In the past, spotify ruffled some feathers with Major labels when it did direct deals with artists. So I think Denisha is spot on here.

With Podcasts, Spotify can test going directly to the source of creation and see if that’s a viable business model, without upsetting the major label apple cart. But ultimately, and here’s another quote from Denisha’s article:

“The larger play is to centralize the fragmented intermediaries creating bottlenecks in the music industry and become the sole gatekeepers to talent.”

The post contains a lot more detail and is well worth the reason.

But let’s keep these three strategies in mind, especially that of disintermediation.

Just recently, Spotify started testing a feature called Storyline.

Storyline seems a lot like Snapchat or Instagram stories, but the idea is to allow artists to insert a little story — in the form of an image overlaid with text — into the listener experience to tell them something about the song they’re currently listening to. Perhaps the artist’s motivations behind the song for example.

This isn’t entirely new. Spotify already has a feature called “Behind the Lyrics” which does something very similar but is delivered in partnership with a third-party called Genius. Whereas Storyline is Spotify’s own in-house feature.

This is a nice feature, but what’s key is that it’s another step toward disintermediation and direct Artist contact for Spotify.

Going right back to the beginning of this newscast, I talked about Spotify’s new Soundtrap for Storytellers. But listen to this wording directly from the Soundtrap website:

“With our feature interactive transcript, you can record and automatically transcribe your voice. Edit your recording as you would a text document. Then you can upload to Spotify and improve your discoverability, or just download your podcast and distribute it wherever you want.”

I’ll read it again with a bit of my own emphasis.

“Then you can upload to Spotify and improve your discoverability, OR just download your podcast and distribute it wherever you want.”

Podcasts are traditionally distributed via RSS feed. They’re a generally open and free resource. When you distribute your podcast via RSS, anyone with an RSS reader can access it.

I don’t know, but my guess is that when you choose Soundtrap’s option to “upload to Spotify and improve your discoverability”, your podcast is not then being distributed through normal RSS channels. Meaning it will then only be available on Spotify. Soundtrap, is playing a nice little word game here, because they are implying that if you upload from Soundtrap to Spotify you will get better discoverability presumably because it will also have the transcript, although they don’t say why. What they also don’t say is that if you distribute your recording through normal podcast channels, it will actually also be made available on Spotify too. I want to emphasize this point. Spotify’s version of improved discoverability means within Spotify, not in general. Because, my understanding is that if you take their improved discoverability route, you can’t be discovered on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Overcast, or other podcast platforms. BUT you have a better chance on Spotify.

Alright, I think that’s enough about Spotify for one day. Interestingly, Spotify was not the only one in the podcast slash music news sphere this week.

Sony Music is also dipping its feet into Podcasting. Sony announced that it has entered into a joint venture with Adam Davidson, the founder of NPR’s Planet Money and a contributor to This American Life, and with Laura Mayer, a producer who’s worked for Stitcher, Panoply Media, and WNYC. I’ll link to the full press release in the show notes, but here’s an intro snippet describing the project:

The joint venture will create and distribute original scripted and unscripted programming across multiple podcast genres and subject matters. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Davidson and Mayer will lead the yet-to-be-named company and focus on cultivating dynamic talent and unique storytelling using Sony Music’s expertise in content creation and supporting new technologies for monetization.

There’s not a ton of specificity there, so I’m not 100% sure what it actually means, but you can be sure I’ll be keeping my eye on it to see how it develops.

I don’t think it’s a secret that Podcasts are looking forward to continued huge growth in the near future so I wouldn’t be surprised if we keep seeing startups popping up in the space, and big incumbents looking for ways to get a piece of the pie.

Find Membran Labs & OffKey

• MembranLabs.com
• MembranLabs on Instagram
• Search OffKey everywhere podcasts are found including the places below

• ‎OffKey on Apple Podcasts
• OffKey
• OffKey

Show Links:

• Spotify launches Soundtrap for Storytellers
• Free Sound dot Org
• Spotify Q1 2019 / New Exclusives / Spotify for Podcasters
• Spotify Announces Spotify for Podcasters
• Spotify Spends €300 Million on Gimlet and Anchor
• Gimlet Media
• Anchor
• Spotify Buys Parcast
• Parcast
• Spotify to Spend $400 to $500M on Podcast Acquisitions in 2019
• Spotify Tests Placing Podcasts in Personalized Playlists
• Spotify Storyline
• Spotify Behind the Lyrics with Genius
• Spotify pushes artists to create their own podcast
• Denisha Kuhlor — 
  The Record Label Of The Future Is No Record Label At All
• Denisha Kuhlor on Twitter
• Spotify Direct Signings Makes Major Labels Nervous
• Spotify Announces “Storyline” feature
• SONY announces Podcast Partnership

Spotify’s Podcast Strategy — OffKey Newscast 19.05.19 was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“People think the Bitcoin market-cycle is every 4 years, however that’s not really the case. It seems to get longer and longer… The first bull run was 47 weeks, the next one was 129 weeks the third one was 211 weeks.

[based on the chart below] If we project into the future the peak of the next bull run is expected in Aug. 2023 with $140K/BTC.”— Arthur

“Typically when you’re looking at ichimoku cloud what you’re looking for is you want the cloud to be twisting green, you want price to break out of the cloud, and you also want this bullish cross — and you want lagging span, which is that green line following price to be above the cloud.”— Arthur

“Putting on my skeptic’s hat… I’m kind of undecided on how useful I think TA is. I don’t think you could ever expect it to work perfectly or algorithmically, because if it did people would exploit that and the edge would go away…

If you take a large group of people and they all just do random stuff, you’ll always be able to pick out one person who has done really well.” — Jordan

Fault Tolerant Episode #5: TA was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Block

“These days I’m a research analyst at The Block. The block was founded back in October 2018. It’s a new blockchain/crypto media and research outlet. It really strives to be as impartial as possible. Which I think is really important in this space.” — Matteo

DeFi

“I’m really thinking that decentralized finance is going to be the Trojan horse for digital money... Bitcoin has been around for 10 years now and the core product hasn’t really changed a whole lot. It’s essentially been digital gold and it still is digital gold. There has been some adoption, but if we only had Bitcoin, I don’t know how long mainstream adoption would take. I think that with decentralized finance on Ethereum we’re seeing this entire set of tools and mechanisms that support the money that is at the heart of it (Ether). I think the value that is being added to this digital money — I think that could potentially drive the adoption of digital money faster than would happen with Bitcoin.” — Jordan

Lending — Compound, Dharma, and Maker

“Compound is currently working toward v2. Under v2 different assets will have different collateralization ratios based on their risk profiles. So if I’m putting up Ether I might need to maintain 150% collateralization ratio. If I’m putting up REP or ZRX, I might need to maintain 250%.” — Matteo

“Broad money is about $90T. But the global debt market is $200T!” — Jordan

Derivatives — dYdX

“The high-end estimate for the derivatives market is $1.2 quadrillion… That’s essentially 1200 billion — no wait 1200 trillion!” — Jordan

“One question I have when it comes to platforms like dYdX, compound, and Dharma — obviously these markets are massive — question is, how do these platforms capture value? Or have they been built such that they don’t capture value? I never quite figured out how the compound team makes money, but I presume it’s from making markets themselves…” — Matteo

Sets/Baskets—Set Protocol

“When we start tokenizing real world assets, like real estate — imagine some percentage of buildings around the world are tokenized. You could then take an entire neighbourhood/area like Manhattan office space and create a set that represents those tokens. So then you could have a Set token that gives you exposure to that portion of the real estate market… You could have sets that represent regions, cities, etc. You could long Manhattan and short SF!” — Jordan

Prediction Markets— Augur and Veil

“Prediction markets are just absolutely fascinating and super exciting… I’m pretty upset that Veil is not available to US customers right now… Essentially all these prediction markets are just derivatives so it makes sense they would need to comply with regulation.” — Matteo

DEX’s — Uniswap

“100% on-chain, no token, no fees to founders… On a typical exchange there’s an order book. If I’m looking to sell I set a sell price and quantity. if I’m looking to buy I set a buy price and quantity. The order is filled directly or by a market maker and that’s how the price is determined. With Uniswap there is no order book — there’s just these piles of tokens — of ETH or whatever, and the buy/sell prices are determined algorithmically. All the users have to do is supply liquidity and they earn a portion of the fees.” — Jordan

“If I had to say what the success story has been over the last year I would go with Uniswap… AZTEC stuff is super interesting too. I think their first implementation of zero knowledge ERC20 was zkDai... Private Dai is the game changer. That really is as close as we’ve got to digital cash — truly fungible, private, stable… There is this interesting tension though between Dai and Ether when it comes to money. If Ether isn’t being used as a medium of exchange or unit of account, can it retain its monetary premium just from being used as collateral?” — Matteo

Links

The Block

Twitter: Matteo, The Block, Jordan

Compound.finance

Dharma Lever

dYdX

Uniswap

Ralph Merkle’s DAODemocracy

Our sibling podcast: OffKey

Fault Tolerant Episode #3: The Block & DeFi was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

MolochDAO

“It’s a DAO that holds a bunch of money…. The pot of money can be Ether, as well as ERC20 tokens — but essentially it has a big pot of money. And, you’ve got a bunch of members of the DAO, and the members have voting tokens. All they can do is vote to accept new members into the DAO, or they can take their voting shares and trade them 1:1 for Loot tokens which allow them to take money out of the pot — in proportion to how many Loot tokens they have.”

MolochDAICO

“Maybe you could combine the MolochDAO and the DAICO! … You could imagine a new applicant enters the DAO and we agree that they should be allowed in, so we give them all their voting shares but the available loot that they could redeem starts at zero. And it takes maybe a year to vest. After a month they could take and — let’s say they got 100 voting shares — after a month they could maybe burn 10 of them and get a portion of their endowment. And then they wait another month and burn a little more. And if we all decide they’re not on track to deliver, we could vote to kick them out and burn the rest of their Loot tokens. So, we would have only paid them, say 30% of that initial chunk we were going to give them. Rather than with the MolochDAO where they get the whole chunk at once.”

Ethereum Clients

“It’s a peer-to-peer software system. So it’s a piece of software that’s designed to go out and find other Ethereum clients running the same software and talk to them about what they have — what they see as the state of the blockchain. Then it will form a web of all the other clients it can talk to. So the idea is you have enough clients running and you form a web across the whole world.”

Stuff we talked about

Meditations on Moloch

Prysmatic labs tweet

Matteo’s post

Ameen’s Tweetstorm on MolochDAO

DAICOs

EthHub page on Ethereum clients

Ethereum wiki

Other Links

MembranLabs

Instagram: @membrangroup

Podcast Studio Rates

Jordan’s Twitter

OffKey (our other podcast)

Fault Tolerant Episode #2: MolochDAO & Ethereum Clients was originally published in Membran Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.