OffKey Season 3 Episode 1: The Songwriter & Recording Artist
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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