Whew. I caused quite a stir on social media for my “Don’t cut your drummer into publishing” video.
Don’t go hunting for it. I took it down. It was going viral for the wrong reasons. 50K views in a day with hundreds of comments. Drummers were beginning to revolt. And I learned years ago, never piss off a drummer.
The full statement was: “Don’t cut your drummer into publishing unless they helped write the song.”
This was directed at Artists and Singer/Songwriters hiring session musicians. I just used “drummer” for illustration, but could have said harmonica player, or flutist. But figured drummer was more relatable. And it was actually inspired by a real-life scenario where a singer/songwriter friend cut their session musicians into publishing in addition to paying them a session fee because he wanted to be generous. And they were all friends at the time. This came to bite him in the ass years later when he lost out on a $30K sync because he couldn’t get the drummer to sign off on the license in time.
+How To Get Your Music Synced on Film and TV
Reading through the comments on the posts, I realized a common theme: Most people don’t actually understand what publishing is. Or how rights and royalties work.
The most common refrain was: “if they wrote the drum parts they co-wrote the song.” I chatted with a drummer in a grunge band who was adamant about this. I asked him why he thought Dave Grohl wasn’t credited with co-writing “Lithium” on Nirvana’s Nevermind even though he wrote the drum parts. The guy responded “that’s because Kurt Cobain wrote the song by himself.” Err.
I think most people just couldn’t get past their rage at the thought that I was suggesting that bands should pay their drummers less. Or that drummers are not important. This was not my intention. And instead of allowing a garbled message to go viral, I halted the momentum. The last thing I want to do is spread harmful information.
For the record, bands should make their own decisions on what is best for band harmony.
Some bands split everything equally no matter who wrote what. Like what Coldplay does. Some don’t. Like what Nirvana did. Or what the 1975 does. No judgements. Do what you think is best.
And to speed up the process so this nightmare sync scenario never happens to you or your band, make sure every co-writer signs a “one stop” agreement giving one person (or agency) the rights to license the song on everyone’s behalf. But, if you’re an Artist hiring session musicians, never cut them into publishing unless they helped write the song.
Remember publishing = songwriting = composing = lyrics & melody.
When you register the “musical work” copyright with the US Copyright office, it’s lyrics and melody. Also known as the composition.
It’s not production. It’s not arrangement. It’s lyrics and melody.
For instance, if your band covers “Mr. Tambourine Man” with the most incredible production of all time, an insane drum part, a hooky guitar riff that’s an instant ear worm, and a vocal for the ages, it doesn’t mean that you are now a co-writer with Bob Dylan.
Get it?
Yes, every part is important. Yes, drums can make or break a recording. I agree! I’m obsessed with drums. Hell, half the shows I go to I pay closest attention to the drummer. I could pick ?uestlove, Anderson .Paak, Dave King, Darren King, Carter Beauford, Bernard Purdie, Steve Jordan, John Bonham out of an audio lineup. Unmistakable sounds. Unmistakable grooves. Undeniable pockets.
But if they didn’t help write the lyrics and the melody, they aren’t cut into publishing (check the credits of virtually every record these cats have played on).
So, how does this all work? What are you supposed to do?
If you want to be generous with your session musicians, pay them a respectable session fee and cut them into master royalties. Master royalties is not publishing.
There are different legal implications for the songwriters (publishing) than there are for simply sharing master royalties. Not to mention equity in a project.
The royalty splitting feature in the backend of many distributors, only deals with master royalties. Some people give like 1% to each session musician that played on the record. Hell, neighboring rights pay around 5% (collectively) to session musicians for radio royalties.
There’s too much ignorance in the music industry. But I don’t blame the ignorant. The music industry is the most confusing industry on the planet. I’d argue it was set up that way intentionally so that artists got taken advantage of. But also, many of the laws and business practices were created 100 years ago and have not been seriously updated since.
All this to say, if you want to get a handle on your business, understand how all of this works, how to register everything properly, how to collect 100% of your royalties wherever they exist around the world and how to treat every musician fairly when it comes to this kind of stuff, I’d encourage you to join our Registration, Royalties, and Release + Streaming Growth Ari’s Take Academy course. The royalties we will help you find will cover the cost of admission.
We only open up registration twice a year for a few weeks so we can focus on our current students. You can learn more and enroll at: https://aristakeacademy.com/
