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Types of deals
There are four basic types of deal: the administration deal, the sub-publishing deal, the exclusive song deal - known as the single song assignment - and the exclusive publishing deal.
The administration deal
This suits you if you're a songwriter with a collection of songs that could potentially earn a lot of money, and you don't have a lot of time or energy to self-publish by registering with the collecting societies and tracking your royalties yourself.
Under an administration agreement, the publisher receives the right, or licence, to administer a composition or group of compositions (not the same as copyright). They can license the use of songs in recordings, tapes, CDs, television series, motion pictures, DVDs, commercials and video productions, and collect royalties from all music users. This is for a specified period of time, usually between three and five years. In return for its services, the publisher usually receives an "administration fee" usually ranging from 10% to 15% of the gross income earned during the term of the agreement.
With this deal you don't get up-front advances. You will have more control over your songs and won't be under pressure from the publishers to write more songs.
In an administration deal you won't assign your copyright to the publisher, and unless there is a very good reason for it, an administration deal shouldn't include an assignment of rights.
As part of the licence deal you can ask to be consulted on any controversial use of your songs, for instance on a violent computer game or an inappropriate advert.
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It can vary but around 90% of our writers are on the basis of advance and royalty split.
Catherine Bell, Chrysalis Music Ltd
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The sub-publishing deal
This kind of deal is a halfway house between the exclusive deal and the administrative deal. In this case the songwriter doesn't want to assign all copyright but does want the publisher to look for new ways of earning income from their songs.
There is some transfer of ownership of copyright in this deal, but decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. There may be no advance, or the songwriter can negotiate an advance depending on how much of the rights are being assigned to the publisher. However, any advance would be small since the reduced assignment of rights in this kind of contract will not earn as much money for the publisher as in an exclusive deal.
Sub-publishing deals are also favoured by smaller publishers who want to operate abroad but don't want to set up a company overseas. Here, the publishers keep the rights they have but grant the overseas company the right to use some or all of those rights in the foreign country.
Single song assignment
Here, the rights of a song are assigned to the publisher and the publisher is able to find as many uses for the song as possible. There may be an advance, but it's likely to be small. With this deal, all the usual accounting and licencing tasks are carried out as well as actively exploiting the song's earning potential. You may assign the copyright for life or you can negotiate a rights period. Your amount of control over the song may be small so that the publisher isn't hindered in making earnings from the song, but you would get a reasonable level of control - such as the right to approve any changes to the lyrics or approval for use in a commercial.
Exclusive publishing deal
Under the exclusive agreement, the songwriter agrees to assign the rights to all compositions written during a specified period of time (or term). For example, two years from 1 January, or one year with four options. There is a guaranteed percentage share of the income earned on songs and usually a proviso for weekly or monthly payments.
All weekly or monthly payments made to the writer are treated as advances, recoupable from the future royalties of the writer. For example, if a writer is being paid £400 per week in advances, £20,800 will have been advanced in the first contract year.
These monies will be deducted from any royalties that become due from record sales, downloads, sheet music, commercials, home video, television and motion picture synchronisation fees, as well as from any other source of income that the publisher controls.
One of the values of such an exclusive relationship with a publisher is that the writer is guaranteed a steady income, much like a salary, to meet normal, day-to-day financial needs and living expenses while pursuing a career. In addition, since royalties from record sales and performances take from six months to years to reach the writer, the weekly or monthly advance payments (sometimes referred to as a "writer's draw") can lend a great deal of financial and emotional security while the writer is waiting for royalties to be collected and processed.
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