Music Business

Music Business

Music Business Exam Number One

Question 1.

The music publishing industry at a glance would seem to be those who print sheet music, method books, lead sheets, and all of the texts or notated music that musicians (and those aspiring to be musicians) use. Years ago, this was what most music publishers did, but as the industry has evolved the process that become much more complex. Music is not just ink and paper, intellectual material and property to the individual who writes it. Therefore the song does not become "a song" when it is written down. This is not an easy concept to grasp because the song by itself has no physical makeup. A song could exist once it is played for the first time, and songs can even exist inside the mind of a songwriter. This concept is why the publishing business can be so complex; we are dealing with intellectual property.

The heart of the music publishing business lies in the rights to the original music. After the music is successful enough to financially support itself the music is printed in mass quantities in a variety of ways. This could be everything from guitar tabs to choral arrangements for a junior high choir. The publisher's main source of income is through record royalties, performance royalties received from companies like the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) for performances of music copyrighted by the publisher. These royalties could be from many different types of performances but most are though radio and songs on television. The success of a songwriter lies in the greatly in the hands of his/her publisher. Normally we ...

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Minimum wage from gainful employment must be sufficient to pay all necessary costs for life, shelter, and health care in the proportion of 100% for 40 hours weekly invested and directly proportional for fewer hours. This investment of time includes, in addition to hours of actual live performance, those hours spent in practice, rehearsal, preparation, post-production and (when required by the employer) promotion of the event. In absolutely no instance shall this total work investment be compensated for less than federally mandated minimum wages.

We can see that union protects and serves the musicians and gives them freedom to pursue their own careers in the performing arts. These organizations create stability for the pursuit of full-time jobs in many different areas of the arts, not only in music but also in the world of theatre and visual arts.