Royalties 04/07/12

        When I was going over the copyright of music and writing an application for the Copyright Office, I had a enlightening moment, more like a realization of a question, of how the profit is distributed to the singer, songwriter, and the company. The usual owner of intellectual property in the music industry is very vague. For example, the singer usually doesn't write the song but just sings what she or he has received from the company. However, the songwriter doesn't have all his right to the song because the intellectual property is owned by the company and the singer together because the songwriter made a contract with the company and the song is publicly sang by a particular singer.
        Generally, the difference between the U.S. law and Korea law of intellectual property can be seen during a television show of a concert: the songwriter and lyricist's names are shown at the beginning of a song in Korea, but not in the U.S. On the other hand, I was more curious about how is the profit split between the singer, songwriter, and the company. Therefore, I will go over the difference between Korea and US' law later on and first focus on the profit distribution.
        What I am talking about is called royalties. Royalties is the calculation for writers and publishers. These royalties are paid by the record company to the publisher and the publisher then pays the writer a share of the royalty which is usually split in half. In the United States, the royalties are based on a "statutory rate" set by the U.S. Congress and the rate is changed depending on the years Consumer Price Index. Currently, the statutory rate is $.08 for songs five minutes or less in length or $.0155 per minute for songs that are over five minutes long.
Surprisingly or not, however, there is room for negotiation. Sometimes, companies negotiate a deal to pay only 75% of the statutory rate, particularly when the writer is also the recording artist. Although there is a statutory rate, there is no law against negotiating a deal for a lower one. Sometimes it is in the best interest of all parties to agree to a lower rate.
More will be posted...