I've been hearing a TON of cover tunes on the radio in the past 4 years and am considering putting a cover on my next CD. I know you pay the royalties to the songwriter in advance through agencies such as HarryFox.com. My question is, how do *I* collect royalties as the performer and owner of the copyright of the sound recording? I know SoundExchange.com collects them on my behalf from Internet and satellite radio stations. But, how do I get paid if my cover song gets regular radio airplay? What if I get a film or TV placement with it? Thanks for your time in answering!"

Julian
http://www.lynnjulian.com
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Understanding royalties tends to be a bit complex for most artists, primarily, due to their breakdown and distribution. And, understanding royalties due on cover tunes may be even more complex. However, it is fairly simple in itself.

One way to look at the earnings of a song, is that there are two parts of it...the publishing portion and the writer portion, which can be earned by two separate entities, or they can be received by one entity if that entity serves as both publisher and writer. Additionally, there can be multiple writers on any given song, which breaks down and divides the writing portion even more.

As for the actual creation and composition of a song, there are only three elements that are due royalties...the lyricist (words), the composer (music) and the publisher, which can be separate individuals or one individual.

If you are *not* the lyricist, nor the composer, regardless of the expense you incur in producing, recording, marketing, promoting or publicizing a song that has been written by another artist and published previously, you are not entitled to and cannot earn any writing income.

Likewise, if you are not the publisher, you cannot earn publishing royalties either. These particular royalties are exclusive to the writer and the publisher.

The exception is when a sub-publishing situation occurs, but this normally involves foreign licensing, whereby, a foreign record company makes a deal with a domestic record label to distribute and sell the domestic label's music units in the foreign label's domain and market areas.

"Cover artists" (or their record labels) must also pay the original writer and publisher either an agreed upon one-time fee or the current statutory rate.

As for your earning royalties from a cover song on a release, which is referred to as a "mechanical" royalty, this is a situation that would only occur if you were signed to an outside record label as opposed to releasing your music on your own independent label.

In releasing a cover song on your own independent label, the only money that you would be entitled to is from unit sales.

Note: If I am off base on any portion of this article, please feel free to contact and correct me on it, and I will note and publish the correction in an updated edition of The B# Newsletter.

Also, to listen to our January 19, 2005 radio show ("Think About It") that includes guest Danica Mathes, an entertainment attorney discussing a bit on copyrights, please visit the website link at:http://www.MuBiz.com/radioshow.html then click on the "Listen to Our Shows" link.

As always, I welcome your comments regarding the and subject matter of this particular article. Please feel free to send them to me at kennylove@MuBiz.com

If you, too, have questions regarding any aspect of the Music industry and its related business, please feel free to forward them to me for consideration of publication in an upcoming B# Newsletter issue.

Additionally, I will post your website link in both the newsletter, as well as to approximately 100 music promotional lists, message boards and forums.