Ask the Expert: The Music Industry

Ian Nelson, experienced Music Business professional answers your questions:

The information given below expresses the opinion of the author, an experienced professional within the music industry and does not represent the views of CIDA or CIDA's partners.

1.  What is Copyright?
Mike Taylor, York

UK Copyright law gives composers and songwriters (as well as the creators of other artistic works) rights to control the ways in which their material may be used. Amongst other art forms it covers song lyrics, music, recordings and computer programs. Copyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or company creates a work. To qualify, a work should be regarded as original, and exhibit a degree of labour, skill or judgement. In the UK the current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. International conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws.

2.  Can Copyright be attributed to more than one person?
Steven Robinson, Wakefield

Copyright on a work can be attributed to one person, a team, or a band or group. Normally the individual or collective who authored the work will exclusively own the copyright. However, if a work is produced as part of employment then it belongs to the person/company who hired the individual. Freelance or commissioned work usually belongs to the author of the work, unless there is a separate agreement. The rights covered include broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, and renting copies to the public.

3.  How do I protect the copyright on my songs?
Siobhan Murphy, Honley

There are some simple steps you can take to protect your copyright:
1. Ensure any work you release publicly is properly marked with a copyright notice e.g. on cassettes, CDs, and on accompanying booklets or sleeves. Mark the body of the work as well as the cover. If you place your work on a website, a copyright notice should also appear with it. The notice should include the actual word copyright, the copyright symbol ©, the year, and the copyright owner’s name e.g. Copyright © 2005 Fred Bloggs. To copyright sound recordings you should also include a phonogram rights notice for the recording itself, using the phonogram symbol to denote the copyright of the recording. e.g. Copyright © 2005 Fred Bloggs/  2005 Fred Bloggs. You may also want to include a copyright statement e.g. All rights reserved.

2. Register your work. There are a number of agencies and organisations who can help you to do this. Some have minimum conditions for membership (e.g. number of sales or works commercially available); some may charge a fee. There is rather too much information to present in detail here, but you may find the following links useful if you want to find out more about registering copyright:

The Patent Office, London www.patent.gov.uk
Performing Rights Society (PRS) www.prs.co.uk
MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) www.mcps.co.uk
UK Copyright Service www.copyrightservice.co.uk
Protect My Work www.protectmywork.com

If circumstances require you to enforce the copyright on your work, you will need to be able to prove that it was actually created by you. Obviously step 1. (above) may deter breach of copyright, as it states that the work is protected under law, but you may also need to provide evidence that you held the copyright before any infringement occurred.

4.  How else can I prove that my work is my own?
Siobhan Murphy, Honley

The most important factor in establishing your claim in any dispute is having verifiable proof of date and content for your work. If the work is not registered, then you will need to demonstrate this in some other way. This might include evidence of sales, radio performances, development work (showing that the work is original rather than being copied from somewhere else), and footprints or watermarking (evidence inserted into finished documents that identifies the author). Registration is obviously the best way to make certain you have established your copyright, but you should also try to make sure that you keep or register supporting evidence. Another way to establish copyright on your work is by having it published by a commercial publisher.

5.  Should I sign a publishing contract?
Dan, Barnsley

Not necessarily. In fact, you should always think very carefully before you sign any agreement that gives a third party rights over your work, and never sign any sort of contract without taking independent legal advice. There may be advantages, at an appropriate time, to entering into an agreement with a publisher. However, some publishing deals can prove to be of little real short-term benefit, and there can also be significant drawbacks in the longer term.

6.  What does a publisher do?
Ian, Huddersfield

Publishers help you to enforce the copyright on your work and collect royalties from sales, public performances and plays on the radio, television, video, jukeboxes and the Internet etc. This can be important if you are lucky enough to have your work released in lots of places, as tracking what is going on in different territories and collecting royalties can be a huge task. Some of the bigger publishers can also help to promote your work, broker relationships with record companies etc, pay for demos, provide legal services (e.g. to help you defend your work against claims of plagiarism) and may even offer you cash advances against future royalties. Of course, they don't do this for free; they charge a percentage of the royalties they collect on your behalf. The size of the cut they take is negotiable, and will probably depend on your status, commercial potential and how keen the publisher is to sign you up.

Some artists sign a world-wide deal with a single publisher; others opt for negotiating separate deals in different countries (or 'territories'). There are pros and cons to both approaches. In some cases, a single territory (e.g. the UK) may be all that's on offer.

7.  When is the best time to sign a publishing contract?
Andrew Greenan, Leeds

Some artists think that as soon as their work is released commercially they should sign a publishing contract. This is not necessarily correct. In the early days of a writer's career, their work may not be that widely available and there may not be that many royalties to collect. In which case, why do you need a publisher? As already discussed, the copyright on original work is protected by law. There are ways and means of identifying and collecting royalties (for example, broadcasters, PRS registered promoters and venues are legally obliged to log and declare public performances or other use of copyrighted material). Monitoring this yourself may time-consuming, but it is possible and you get to keep more of the money you have earned. Of course, the more successful you become, the more difficult it is to keep track of, and sooner or later you may need to contract with a publisher, but at least by then you will have your pick of companies and be in a better position to negotiate terms.

8.  Is it always best to sign with a publisher?
Chris, Leeds 

If you are thinking about signing with a publisher, always consider how this will benefit you or your career. Smaller, less established companies may have insufficient resources to promote your work, pay advances or help you in other ways. So what are the advantages?  If you do decide to enter into a publishing agreement, make sure that it is not too restrictive. There should be limits set on the time period of the deal and the work it covers. Never, ever, as a little-known artist sign an agreement that grants rights to everything you ever write. Signing this away is the equivalent of giving away the family silver! You may be jeopardising your chances of potentially lucrative deals in the future, for instance, some record labels may be only interested in signing you as a recording artist if they can also acquire your publishing.  Even deals for one song can be a problem if it later turns out to be a best seller

Finally, as above, never under any circumstances sign any sort of contract without first taking independent legal advice.

N.B. Remember that nothing can ever provide a 100% guarantee, and registering or publishing your work will not necessarily protect you from claims of copying or plagiarising other people's work, so make sure that you acknowledge anything that you have used which is not your own, and obtain permission before you use anyone else's work. For instance, the copyright on any samples you use in a piece of music belong to the original author.