SGA
President Rick Carnes recently spoke before Congress
about legislation affecting the earning potential
of songwriters. Debunking the myth that songwriters
and others associated with the music industry
are wealthy enough to survive copyright infringement
and loss of royalties from Internet and other
digital piracy, Carnes explained to congress the
reality of the financial situation of working
songwriters.
"I am reminded constantly of the perilous
existence that all of us who have chosen
songwriting as a profession labor under daily.
Let me give you the painful facts. When I
was a young songwriter, like every aspiring music
creator I dreamed of having one of my
songs on a million selling album. That, I imagined,
would be the very pinnacle of
success, assuring my financial security. A closer
look at the real numbers illustrates just
how naïve I was to place my faith in the
current system.
Under the present compulsory licensing provisions,
a songwriter is to receive 9.1 cents
per song on any CD (“phonorecord”)
manufactured and distributed, or legally
downloaded, in the United States. So, if one of
my songs appears on a million selling
album, I am theoretically due $91,000 by statute.
However, I split that money half and
half with my music publisher by contract. That
leaves me $45,500. Then I must split that
in half again with the recording artist who co-wrote
the song with me, leaving me with
$22,750. Practically every artist now co-writes
every song on his or her album with the
primary songwriter, because the record labels
have included a controlled composition
clause in every new artist's contract that makes
it financially ruinous for the artist to
record more than one or two tracks that he or
she did not co-write. The reason the record
companies do this is so they can pay the artist,
and his or her co-writer, 75% of the
statutory mechanical royalty rate. Because of
the controlled composition clause, and with
transaction costs deducted, my royalty income
is reduced by thousands more dollars.
Thus, after all is said and done, I end up making
less than $17,000 for having a song on a
million selling CD. Of course, given that the
retail charge to consumers for a CD may be
as high as $18, a million sales will generate
up to $18 million for someone."
Download complete speech,
here.
