THE MUSIK-ZONE
The Business of Music
Tutorials - Introduction 1D

Music Row: Gripe, Bitch, Moan!

Even though the sale of physical CDs, tapes and LPs is dropping, the sale of music over-all is growing ... and it's coming from online sales. Not only have listeners grown weary of the homogenization and mind games, so have the artists.

A good friend of mine over the years, Marjy Plant, who had one of her songs ("Wheels of Love") recorded by Emmylou Harris, is one of those. She reminds her fans, me among them, a lot of Patsy Cline - down and gritty, unadorned but honest. She wrote a recent song called "It's Ass-Kissing Time in Music City" which expresses the sentiments of thousands of damned good songwriters and performers.

And even Dr. Hook's old rock-n-roll classic "On the Cover of Rolling Stone" is a sly, light-hearted poke at the undue influence of the big labels. It satirized artists who were just happy to get their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone, while the record companies kept the money and the artists' lives went down in flames.

Songwriters and music publishers typically earn royalty payments from two sources: sales of music and through licensing fees paid by broadcasters, such as radio, television and, increasingly, the Internet.

While the sales side of the royalty equation may be sagging, publishing houses and the three U.S. organizations that collect payments on broadcast performances — ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, all of which maintain significant operations in Nashville — have seen revenues steadily rise in recent years.

In its last fiscal year, ASCAP reported annual royalty collections of $863 million, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, while BMI reported $839 million, a 7 percent increase.

SESAC, which has its headquarters in Nashville, does not disclose its financial results, though President and Chief Operating Officer Pat Collins said his organization has seen similar growth.

Driving the increases has been a surge of new companies that are licensing music, from cable television using songs in hit shows such as The Sopranos to satellite radio and Internet music services like Pandora.com. Those new opportunities, Collins said, have more than offset any flatness in a radio industry that has seen its playlists shrink.

Those gains have flowed to publishers as well. "We have multiple ways to sell music," said Gary Overton, executive vice president and general manager of EMI Music Publishing in Nashville. "TV, movies, radio and restaurants — anytime you hear music, we get paid. That's why we've been so healthy."

- The Tennessean, "Music Row Faces New Realities"
by Ryan Underwood, June 29, 2008

Some of the best music I've never heard before first hit my own ears from TV shows like "Numbers" or "CSI" or other popular series. But nothing compares to the treasure chest I've personally discovered on the Internet.

Whereas the big labels gave nothing away for free, anyone can now freely and legally listen to and in many cases download entire albums from independent artists all over the world, in any genre!

Still, the "traditional" music industry gripes, bitches and moans.

That the music business is finally headed for a new business model serves as cold comfort to Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, who, in speeches and presentations, is quick to lay out the same doom-and-gloom scenario he painted for a congressional subcommittee three years ago.

It goes like this: By law, a songwriter is entitled to 9.1 cents for every song sold, giving him a starting point of $91,000 if an album sells a million copies. A publishing contract eats up half of that, reducing the figure to $45,500. That sum is typically split in half again because many artists won't cut a track on their album unless they receive a co-writing credit. That money is often used to pay back the initial investment made by a record company. That now leaves the songwriter with $22,750. But included in most standard record deals is a clause that pays co-writers only 75 percent of their congressionally mandated royalties, leaving a grand total of about $17,000 in a songwriter's pocket.

That model may have been sustainable when publishing companies would bankroll a songwriter's career in the early years and when CDs sold in bigger volumes, Carnes said. But now, "professional songwriters have no future."

- The Tennessean, "Music Row Faces New Realities"
by Ryan Underwood, June 29, 2008

I would have to disagree. Professional songwriters who are on the big labels' payrolls may not have as bright a future as the up and coming Indies - not just the songwriters, but the performers and the small Indie publishers as well.

Right here in Nashville, for example, an exciting new website has emerged called Music City Unsigned, that brings a lot of Music City's best and brightest to the forefront - not with hype and sexy unclothed photographs of little Lolitas, but with plain and simple music - call it sex for the ears, if that helps any!

Instead of "eye candy" music listeners want "ear candy" ... and the Indies are there to provide it.

True, there may be a few less staff songwriting jobs in Music City and LA - but only because of the industry's own stupidity, not a lack of talent on the part of the songwriters who have, for decades, been forced to churn out formula "hits" for so long some of them may have forgotten how to write a song from the soul.

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When Going Smaller Can Mean Going Bigger