How to pay Royality ?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by naccoachbob

I wonder how the purchase of sheet music comes into play in this.
Say I buy a sheet, and play at a nursing home or church or wedding by myself, would that constitue having paid a royalty, since the publisher pays its artist?

Bob

Publishing is a whole different system. There are performance rights, recording rights, and publishing rights. Each can be (usually is) owned and handled by a different entity and process.

For example, if you record a Beatle tune for a CD, you can go Harry Fox and fill out a mechanical license form, and pay them for the number of CDs you print. They also have provisions for internet downloads, but it's a bit murky, or at least inconvenient, last time I looked. Changing rapidly, tho.

If you want to perform that tune, the venue you perform at needs to have a BMI or ASCAP license, depending on which entity the Beatles registered the tune with.

If you want to publish the sheet music for your arrangement, you have to contact the publisher (usually Hal Leonard for Beatles tunes) and negotiate with them.

buying the sheet music means the person who published it got paid, but has nothing to do with the other 2 rights organizations.

This is all US. Other countries have different systems and different rules, which is another reason the internet stuff gets messy fast.

[naccoachbob]

Thanks, Doug. It's a kinda goulash there ain't it? lol
Well, I mostly play behind shut doors in my office/computer/gutar room at home, so I'm legal.
I just play along with .mp3's that I bought.
For now.

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by naccoachbob

I wonder how the purchase of sheet music comes into play in this.
Say I buy a sheet, and play at a nursing home or church or wedding by myself, would that constitue having paid a royalty, since the publisher pays its artist?
I'm guessing that's how it works, 'cause I ain't really got a clue.
Just another wrench to throw into the engine.
Bob

Two different licenses here. You bought the sheets, from a publisher that, presumably, was licensed to reproduce it. But you performed the material, and that's something different altogether. The venue usually pays the performance rights (it's a blanket license, usually). ASCAP and BMI won't pursue you though for the nursing home or church or wedding ... rest easy.

[lw216316]

OK- a post in the FRETKILLER topic has answered a lot of my questions

http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/es...-politics.html


I had no idea it was so complicated.

- Larry

[rosewoodsteel]

Drop me a PM and I'll send you my contact information.
If you perfer, I can provide you with my bank account information and we can make arrangements to have the money wired.

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Publishing is a whole different system. There are performance rights, recording rights, and publishing rights. Each can be (usually is) owned and handled by a different entity and process............

Close but no cigar. In most cases the publisher:

Owns and administers the copyright.
Can and often assigns the print rights to someone else, such as Hal Leonard.
Has 1st recording rights but once any recording is allowed and published anyone else can record the material provided they pay the statutory mechanical license fees. Hence the term, "mandatory mechanical license."
Registers the material with a PRO for collection of performance royalties.
Registers the material with Harry Fox for collection of mechanical royalties.

Eventually the publisher receives the lions share of any and all royalties from any and all sources and then distributes 50% of that amount to the credited writers and composers.

[Doug Young]

Thanks for the detail, Rick, I was sort of coming at it from the perspective of someone who wants to know where to go to pay for the appropriate rights, which ends up being handled by each of these separate places, rather than following the money back to the ultimate source. "Owned" wasn't the right word, maybe "administers" is closer to what I was trying to say.