Let me first look at it from the perspective of the Major Record Labels. At the end of the day, it is a business like any other business. Sell goods and services, and generate revenue; a lot of it by the looks of it – if you look at the staggering earnings of Apple, Faecbook, Google, Amazon etc.
So why is that a crime I ask, to scout new artists and bring their music to you, like they have been doing for decades now. Think of the how much music we would have lost were it not for them (and don’t get me started on how much we would have gained if they were not around, cause I will come to that argument in just a minute).

Yes, the schematic below shows a 63% of sales revenue going to Major Record Labels. What it conveniently misses is the huge costs associated with promoting an artist. Music videos, prime time TV slots on MTV and other channels, billboards, online marketing, concert tours.. the list is endless; and runs into Millions. So the pie is actually much smaller when you discount all of these costs, which is also why many artists have been a loss making proposition for the Record Labels, costs that Labels absorb. Yes, the bands get paid 13%, but this is a sales pittance compared to the performance fees they command, a bulk of which they keep. Take a recent instance, where F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone paid a staggering £1 million to the Black Eyed Peas for a performance at his daughter’s wedding. Still think it is a bad deal? For you and me for sure. Not for the Black Eyed Peas it ain’t.

Now let me look at it from the perspective of the artists themselves. Let’s start with a well known fact. Life is not fair. Get used to it. Second, as much as artists like to endorse indie music and cry themselves hoarse pleding allegience to the Independent movement, they would jump ship at the first opportunity of a Major Label deal. Surprised? Don’t be. Here’s why:

A lot of artists out there are making music for a living. This means that like you and me they are dependent on this “day job” to put food on their plates and a roof over their heads. And just because it is “art”, does not mean it has to be free. Most of you out there love your jobs don’t you? Sure you complain about office politics and long hours, but at the end there is something about it that you really love.. like writing that piece of code, penning that kickass news article, negotiating a sales deal or whatever else. Now would you do it for free? Sure you should cause you love the job. Just like the musicians. Only sounds fair.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and as much as I hate to say it, musicians themselves are responsible for the state of affairs. The excesses of rock stars of the 80s and 90s have made regular hard working people think hard. Why should they spend their hard earming dollar on rockers when they already have so much of it, that in despair, spend it all on booze and drugs, with an untimely kicking of the bucket like Amy Winehouse recently. So the Record Label and artist are losing their dollar, one customer at a time, to a point when this phenomenon overshadows the legitimate sales of the music. And becomes so pervasive, that it does not appear illegal any more, but rather a right to free music. Absurd but true.

Image Source: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/10/see-how-much-indie-artists-make-vs-label-artists.html

Fast forward to the current age. Musicians are bearing the brunt of this problem, with most quitting the music scene unable to sustain themselves. Is a fact. In the ocean of independent artists out there (running into millions of artists), it is just so hard to be heard above all the noise, and consumers being spoit for choice have no attention span or are just too overwhelmed to care. I remember reading a nice quote someplace that went something like this – if there is one thing that the world could use right now, it is less music.

So given the chance, any Idependent artist will jump this Indie bandwagon, and join the Majors. Just like everyone else, they too have aspirations. People working regular jobs aspire for good salaries, promotions, bonuses, the nice house, the nicer car; entrepreneurs dream of being the next success story of selling their creations for Millions. So why I ask, should musicians not aspire for the good life that Major Labels offer.. fame, exposure, their faces splashed on hoardings and on TV; a far cry from the ramshackle world they currently live in today.

Being on the Indie Bandwagon sure sounds cool. For the folks who are not on it.. Ironic.

Now over the decades Major Record Label have brought us some of the greatest music of our time. One would be hard pressed to disagree with this statement. And yes, a lot of great music might have been left out, but that is life. Ie like the argument of the galss being half full vs half empty. I prefer to take the former approach – optimism. Imagine what it would have been, were it like the scene today. We would have been overwhelmed with so much music that at the end of the day, we would just keep skipping from one track to another, just trying to sift through so much music. How many of you out there have many gigs of mp3 on your iPod and other media devides ? And how much of this music have you actually heard in the past 1 year. How much of this music have you actually heard at all.

In summary, I am not making a case for Major Record Labels, nor for Independent Labels, nor advocating the purchase of independent music just because it exists. Nor is this a proclamation of right and wrong. Far from it. It is just my perspective on this topic. If there is music you really like, whether Independent or Major Label, do support the people involved, the artists who work hard to make the music, and the people behind it (publishers, labels, distributors) who work even harder to get this music to you. Each and everyone of you out there count. Make no mistake. And if you do make it count, this is the real music to artists’ ears.

Do share this article to help spread the word. It is appreciated.

Arun Shenoy
Composer/Producer/Publisher
www.arunshenoy.com

There are 2 parts to music copyright – Song Copyright and Sound Recording Copyright.

Song Copyright

The song copyright belongs to the writer of the song and / or a publisher. The song copyright, annotated with © or “Copyright” on a CD, is accordingly divided into 2 equal parts – the writer share and the publishing share. The publisher essentially represents the writer to aggressively exploit all commercial opportunities for the music. So the writer focuses on writing the music while the publisher is like an agent sniffing out opportunities – licensing, motion pictures, TV, advertising etc. to monetize the work.

The writer share of the copyright typically stays with the writer for life while the publishing rights are assigned to a publisher for a specific time frame. For example, Universal Music Publishing has in 2009 secured the publishing rights (non-US) for the Jimi Hendrix Catalog for a period of 5 years. (A more detailed section on publishing will be covered in a subsequent chapter)

Sound Recording Copyright

The sound recording copyright represents the copyright for a “specific” recording of the song. This is normally held by the record company which has signed on an artist to record a song. It is annotated with a ℗ (“P” in a circle) on the CD.

[Geek Alert: An easy analogy for software programmers with OOPS (Object Oriented Programing). The Song Copyright "©" represents the Class. A Class can have many Instances and each Instance has an associated Sound Recording Copyright "℗" held by the creator of the instance. Sweet huh?]

So the next time you hold an audio CD case, turn it over and stuff that looked like gibberish earlier, suddenly makes perfect sense. If you want use a song commercially, you would need a clearance from all copyright holders. Very often youtube clips are removed for copyright violation. Now you know why. That beautiful background song you added to the video of your cats has a song copyright and a sound recording copyright.

Image Copyright Arun Shenoy. The album art clips used are purely for illustration and copyright of their respective owners.

Term of Copyright
A lot of folk are confused about this and classify much music as “public domain”. The reality is quite different. A copyright runs for the author’s life plus 70 years after his death. 70-year period is measured from the date of the death of the last surviving collaborator. So sorry folks, unless you plan to outlive the last member of the Beatles by 70 years, you will not be able to use the Beatles music for free. Don’t worry. Maybe I will let you use mine

Cover songs
Very often, you see famous songs covered by famous bands (and the not so famous ones too). So how does what I have explained above work? Here is a short schematic.