Music Business Jargon

Custom Record refers to a Physical Record manufactured specifically for a consumer who selects the individual recordings to be embodied on the Physical Record. This manufacturing process may be in the form of a vending machine. Cutouts refer to Physical Records that are distributed for retail sale on a non-returnable basis.

Typically, the Physical Record will be defaced in some manner e. No Artist Royalties are payable under a recording agreement for cutouts. The following is a typically definition: Demo Deal refers to an agreement between a Label and an artist pursuant to which the Label agrees to advance the costs of a certain number of demo recordings. The Label is typically given for some period of time an exclusive Right of First Negotiation to negotiate an exclusive recording agreement with the artist.

If the Label has exercised its Right of First Negotiation , but the parties do not enter into a recording agreement, then the artist will have the right to enter into a recording agreement with another Label. However, the Label who funded the demos may also have a Matching Right. If the artist enters into a recording agreement with a Label other than the company who funded the demos, the artist will typically be required to reimburse the company who funded the demos for the costs of the demos.

Under this type of agreement, the Licensor e. The Licensor retains ownership of the Record s and the Co-Publishing Agreement is a Publishing Agreement pursuant to which the songwriter or his publishing company agrees to share his copyrights in one or more songs with another Publisher , who, in addition to getting a portion of the copyrights, is granted exclusive Administration Rights for the entire song s.

Distributor s are often granted the right to distribute Record s by Digital Transmission , but this is not always the case. Distribution Agreements are usually limited to a specific territory e. Also, the Licensor would be obligated to pay all third parties e. Depending on the volume of sales and other costs incurred by the Licensor e. Distributor refers to an Independent Distributor or to a branch distributor operated under one of the major record company groups currently, Warner Bros.

Congress granted public performance rights in digital audio transmissions in Prior to that no pubic performance rights were ascribed to Sound Recordings. The DMCA revised these rights to provide for compulsory licensing for digital audio transmissions over non-interactive websites. See Mechanical Royalties and SoundExchange. Double Commission is used in connection with a clause in a contract that prohibits a party from, in effect, from collecting more than one commission from the same income.

For example, a Talent Agent may have multiple agreements with an artist. However, with respect to a particular payment, the Talent Agent can be paid a commission only under one of those agreements for a particular payment. Downloads refer to the Digital Transmission of a Sound Recording that creates a permanent copy that can be thereafter accessed and played by the end user. In the music and entertainment industry, this term applies to an insurance policy that protects the policyholder from third party claims.

Music business terminology – Disc Makers

If a claim covered under the policy is made, the insurance company will pay for the costs of defending the claim as well as any award granted to the claimant, subject to a deductible and a maximum limit of liability expressed as a dollar amount. Firm Album refers to an album a that the Label is contractually obligated to allow the artist to record under his recording agreement and b for which the Label is contractually obligated to pay Recording Costs. Note that this obligation is most likely subject to a Pay or Play clause. First Use refers to the right of a Copyright owner to determine who will be the first artist to record a particular song.

For example, if a lawyer agrees to negotiate a contract for a specific amount of money e. Free Goods refer to the following groups of Physical Records. What these groups all share in common is that no Artist Royalties and no or only a portion of Mechanical Royalties are payable by the Label for free goods under a recoding agreement.

Historically, artists have tried to protect themselves from excess free goods. For example, the recording agreement may state that no free goods may be distributed to promote the sale of Record s by any other artist. Also, free goods may be limited to a maximum percentage or amount for example, no more than 15 album free goods for every 85 albums sold. This can best be illustrated by an example. When an album sells , copies i. Hall Management refers to the company that manages and controls a Venue.

A major advantage for many small Publisher s is that Harry Fox periodically conducts audits of the record companies and engages in industry wide negotiations e. The costs of a record company audit by a small Publisher may be cost prohibitive. Holdback refers to a period of time during which a Record cannot be released. Record Company A may be willing to waive its exclusive rights to the artist so that the artist is permitted to record the Soundtrack Master, provided that Record Company A has the right to include the Soundtrack Master on a subsequent artist album to be released by Record Company A for example, a greatest hits album.

Record Company B may agree to this so long as Record Company A does not release an album containing the Soundtrack Master until a certain period of time has transpired after the date the soundtrack album is released by Record Company B for example, 12 months. There are two types of independent distributors, i. An Inducement Letter typically includes the following terms: Institutional Sales are referred to in recording agreements and mean Record sales to educational and other governmental institutions such as libraries , which may or may not include PX Sales.

Most recording agreements state that the Artist Royalty rate for institutional sales are substantially less than the Artist Royalty rate for the sale of Top-Line Records. Intra-Company Rate refers to the royalty rate that is paid by a foreign Distributor who is affiliated to the domestic Label. For example, if an artist is signed to Warner Bros. Records in the United States, then Warner Bros. Records in the United States is considered the domestic Label. When a foreign affiliate of the domestic Label for example, Warner Bros.

Records in Australia will pay a royalty computed at the intra-company rate to Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The reverse would be true when Warner Bros. J-Card refers to the paper sleeve inside the Jewel Box that forms the outside artwork packaging of a compact disc. Jewel Box refers to the plastic case that contains a compact disc s.

Joint Recording means a recording that features more than one artist e. In other words, the songwriter of the lyrics of the original song will own a portion of the Copyright in the new song, even though none of his lyrics were used in the new song. In the United States, each joint owner of Copyright has the right, in the absence of an agreement between the joint owners, to license the entire Copyright to a third party. This is based on the rationale that a Copyright owner cannot infringe his own Copyright. Further, any joint owner can issue a Synchronization License for the entire song so long as the license does not extend beyond the United States.

In this regard, it may be quite distressing for an artist to find out that his song is being used in a television commercial without his consent or knowledge. Unlike the United States, in many foreign territories, all of the joint owners would need to issue a single or multiple licenses in order for a Licensee to use a joint work. Key Man Clause refers to a clause in a contract that entitles a party to terminate the term of the contract if a particular person no longer works for the other contracting party.

For example, a key man clause in a recording agreement would give the artist the right to terminate the recording agreement if a particular person e. It would be very, very unusual for a major Label to agree to this type of clause. In Billboard and other music charts, the name of the Artist Label generally precedes the name of the Label who provides the financing and distribution. Lead Sheet is a written piece of paper containing the lyrics and music of a song. The songwriter is often obligated to deliver lead sheets under a Songwriter Agreement.

For example, a Leaving Member Provision may state that the Label will have the right to no less than two 2 albums from the Leaving Member , even though the group may only owe the Label one more album at the time the Leaving Member left the group.

Library Music refers to a company that owns a variety of music recorded by artists relatively unknown to the public e. Licensee refers to the recipient of enumerated rights under any type of licensing agreement. Licensor refers to the grantor of enumerated rights under any type of licensing agreement. This is a company i.

Many Loan-Out Companies are formed by artists in order to take advantage of more favorable tax results e. Many Label s hire independent marketing companies to fulfill this function. Masters and Master Recordings are is almost always used in contracts in the music industry to refer to finished Sound Recording s and audiovisual recordings , and are also used to refer to Phonorecords and, especially, Digital Delivery Phonorecords.

Master Use License is a license that is the equivalent of a Synchronization License , except that the Licensor is granting the right to reproduce and distribute a Sound Recording , rather than a song. Matching Folio refers to a printed book containing Sheet Music of the songs on a particular album almost always including photos and biographical information of or concerning the artist. A party to an agreement who is entitled to match the terms of a third party offer is said to have a matching right. The Original Record Company will have the right, for a limited period of time, to enter into a recording agreement with the artist upon the terms of a third party offer.

In other words, the artist will have the right to enter into a recording agreement with the third party only if the Original Record Company fails within a stated time period to accept the terms being offered by the third party. Mechanical License is a license between a Publisher or its agent, e. The position and length of the perforation determines the note played on the piano. When a perforation passes over the hole, the note sounds.

Piano rolls were in continuous mass production from around to Stated more practically, anyone can Cover a song once it has been commercially released on a Phonorecord or Digital Phonorecord Delivery. The Copyright Royalty Board promulgates the. Mechanical Royalties refer to the royalties payable under a Mechanical License that the Label pays to the Publisher s for the reproduction and distribution of the underlying song contained in a Phonorecord or Digital Phonorecord Delivery.

Merchandising Agreement refers to an agreement where Merchandising Rights are granted, either in general or for a limited channel of distribution e. Merchandising Rights refer to the right to reproduce and distribute merchandise e. Mixed Folio refers to a printed book containing sheet music of songs by different songwriters. In the past, Sound Recording s were recorded on large, multi-track tapes for example, a 48 track tape with each sound e.

Now, the tracks are generally digitally recorded, but the concept is the same. Mixers are usually paid a flat fee for their services, but in some cases , they may have negotiated a royalty as well as a fee. For example, a Synchronization License could state that the fee payable to the Publisher i. Multiple Album originated with an album package that included more than one vinyl disc for a single price. Today, this term includes a compact disc package with more than one compact disc. The reasons multiple albums are referred to in recording agreements are two-fold.

First, Label s generally do not want the artist to Deliver a multiple album, because multiple albums, which bear a higher price in order to offset the higher manufacturing costs, do not usually sell as many units as a single-disc album. Therefore, in most recording agreements, a multiple album can only be Deliver ed by the artist with the consent of the recording company. Second, recording agreements typically contain the following reduced Artist Royalty rate formula for multiple albums: Music Supervisor is the person hired by a motion picture or television program producer to consult with the producer and the director of a motion picture or television program and recommend what music should be contained in the soundtrack of the picture or program, in addition to the music created by the film composer.

For example, the music supervisor may recommend a particular artist to record new music specifically for a film and may recommend a Master that has already been released on a Record to be in the film. Music supervisors often get directly involved with negotiating the terms for the use of the music in the motion picture or television program. When someone wants to buy a publishing Catalog i. The NPS means the gross income collected or credited to the Publisher who controls the Catalog less songwriter royalties and royalties paid by the Publisher to any co-publishers.

Net Receipts is typically defined in a recording agreement as follows: Net Sales mean Record s sold by the Label or its Distributor to independent third parties for whom payment has been paid or credited, less Returns and Reserves against Returns. New Technology Records is a term is usually found in recording agreements and refers to all forms of Record s, whether utilizing technology existing as of the date of the applicable agreement or devised thereafter, which do not, as of the date of the agreement, constitute a substantial portion of the Record s currently being sold to the public in the United States, for example, DAT, DCC, and DVD Audio Records.

Label s almost always insist on paying a reduced Artist Royalty with respect to New Technology Records , at least , until the format becomes a significant percentage of sales in the United States. Record s sold through Digital Transmission have for years been deemed New Technology Records, but this is no longer the case for most Label s. Under most recording agreements, only these types of Physical Record sales and Top-Line Records sold as Downloads are accorded the full, non-reduced Artist Royalty rate.

Orchestration refers to sheet music for each of the members of the orchestra or other musical group. Override typically refers to a royalty to someone other than an artist, Producer or Mixer. This deduction of a packaging charge was merely a way to reduce the effective penny rate payable to the artist. Note that the effective penny rate for Artist Royalties is further reduced by Free Goods. One could rationalize that the artist should get paid an Artist Royalty only for the Record , but not for the package.

When compact discs were introduced in , they were more expensive to manufacture than cassette tapes records, which were, at the time, the most popular Record configuration. This higher expense was because in the early s there were very few manufacturing facilities for compact discs. Paid Attendees is typically used in Merchandising Agreement s as a reference to persons who attended a concert with a purchased ticket.

In this regard, in a Merchandising Agreement , the artist may be subject to a minimum guaranteed number of paid attendees, e. The Agency Form Agreement is usually printed on the front and back of a single piece of paper whereas the Performance Rider may well be in excess of ten pages.

The Technical Rider is usually an addendum to the Performance Rider and contains the power and stage specifications, security specifications, and catering and backstage amenities. The Technical Agreement needs to be shared by a number of different people involved in the production of the concert; therefore, its is usually contained in separate agreement that can be distributed separate and apart from the main Performance Rider.

Performing Rights Society refers to organization with Publisher members and songwriter members who are granted the authority to license the public performance of songs to Licensee s, such as radio stations terrestrial and satellite , television stations and networks, webcasters and any website that performs music, whether on the Internet or over mobile technologies, and Venue s where recorded or live music is performed. These licenses are in the form of Blanket Licenses. Either you or your publisher must license these events directly.

The performing rights societies in the United State do not issue Mechanical Licenses. A songwriter in the United States cannot concurrently be a member of more than one performing rights society. Personal Manager is usually thought of as the alter ego of the artist. Contractually, under a personal management agreement, a personal manager is engaged by the artist to give the artist professional advice.

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In California, personal managers are not contractually obligated to secure employment or engagements for any artist , unless they are a licensed Talent Agent , which very few are. However, many personal managers, in fact, spend a lot of their time securing employments and engagements for their artist clients. Some artists let their manager interface with everyone else in their professional life and sometimes their personal life , while other artists take a more hands-on approach to dealing with the other people in their lives.

Examples of currently existing Physical Records are vinyl discs and pre-recorded analog tape cassettes, compact discs, videocassettes, and DVDs. When an album sells 1,, copies i. To illustrate, assume that the recording agreement obligates the Label to pay the Recording Costs of one or more albums. In the initial draft of a recording agreement, this payment may be as little as the payment of Union Scale for the unrecorded masters.

TAXI’s Music Industry Glossary

The rationale is why should the artist end up with more of the Recording Fund in his pocket than the net amount the artist would have received if the album had been recorded? Premium Record is a Record manufactured by or for a third party company in large part to promote the third party company. Historically, almost all of the Label s would give the artist prior approval over all premium records.

However, in the light of the current need for the Label s to generate income from whatever sources may be available, Label s are starting to push back on this approval right. Producer refers to the person who is in charge of the recording process in the recording studio. With some artists, the producer controls all aspects of the recording process, and the artist merely comes into the studio to sing his vocals. For established artists, the producer may merely be acting as a sounding board for the artist during the recording process.

In the early years of the music industry, the Label hired the Producer. Starting in the s, Label s started requiring the artist to hire the Producer. Therefore, a producer agreement is almost always an agreement between the Producer and the artist. Often, the Label refuses to sign its own letter of direction, and the Producer does not have the right to sue the Label if the Label refuses to abide by the terms of the letter of direction. Producer s are usually subject to a Re-Recording Restriction. Production Agreement or Production Deal: In other words, the production company does not have distribution with a Distributor at the time the Production Agreement is signed.

The production company may be agreeing to finance a certain number of demos or Master Recordings. A key point for an artist to obtain in a production deal is the right for the artist to terminate the term of the production agreement if the production company is unable to get distribution through a recognized Distributor within some period of time.

If the production company is able to obtain what is in essence a recording agreement with a Label for the artist, that agreement will be between the Label and the production company, but, as part of the deal, the Label will require the artist to sign an Inducement Letter. Promoter is the person who contracts with an artist for a live performance. The artist would typically use a Talent Agent to negotiate with the Promoter. Vendors hired by the Promoter could include companies that provide security, backstage caterers, lighting operators, and stagehands.

A prorated royalty arises when an artist, Producer , Mixer or other royalty recipient is not entitled to receive a royalty for all of the recordings on a Record. For example, the Artist Royalty for a Compilation Album will be prorated by multiplying the otherwise applicable Artist Royalty rate by a fraction, the numerator of which will be the number of recordings on the Compilation Album that feature the artist and the denominator of which will be the total number of recordings on the Compilation Album.

If you are looking to secure work as a composer or looking to hire a composer, Music Gateway's marketplace can help you with your project, both sourcing the right composer matched to your musical needs and budget requirements. To learn more, simply sign up here or get in touch. This basically means that a person is working on a project speculatively and won't receive a fee unless the client agrees and is happy to license or buyout the recording.

Some clients will pay a demo fee regardless of whether they fully commission the recording or not. It's a risk working On Spec as of course, there's no guarantee of a fee, however it can help provide opportunity to up and coming composers and producers and an opportunity to secure specific work.

A sync or synch referred to in the United States of America relates to a sync licensing placement for music in media. Synchronization of the music to visual media such as a film, TV, game or advert. It also requires a legal clearance process both for the master rights and publishing rights. This is a professional company that specialises in licensing music to clients and through Music Supervisors to their clients. They have the legal right to represent their roster of artists, bands, record labels and music publishers. These terms can be either exclusive or non-exclusive.

For example, Music Gateway is a sync agent, you can find out more here. This refers to a person or company that owns some or all the rights to specific music and songs. If you recorded the song and wrote the song, you are the sole owner of both the master rights and the publishing rights.

If a writer is signed to a Music Publisher for a publishing deal, then normally all their songs during a period of the agreement are controlled and owned by the Music Publisher. The same can be said of a record label, who is normally the company that pays for the recordings process for an artist or band. Record labels traditionally release music on behalf of the artist.

Who ever pays for the recording will normally own the master rights for those recordings. This refers to a scenario where a songwriter gets a percentage cut of the writers share publishing only on someone else's release. Normally it is the music publisher's role to help secure these cuts and pitch songs to artists, record labels and through the artist management, with an aim to getting their songs placed with established and well known pop artists.

Simply register here to get involved in our marketplace and or get in touch. An ID3 tag is a data container within an MP3 audio file stored in a prescribed format. This data commonly contains the Artist name, Song title, Year and Genre of the current audio file. We have developed tools for help our members manage their ID3 Tag data.

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You can save time by globally updating this data on your files stored within your account, within the cloud. Metadata can mean many things, but in music terms refers to the metadata contained within the ID3 Tags of the mp3 file. Metadata can be additional data about the music or song and can include rights holder information, who are the writers and their percentage share of the publishing splits.

Metadata can also be specific search criteria and information like moods, lyrics, beats per minute, era and release date for example. At Music Gateway we provide built in tools within your account and the browser to globally update your ID3 tags metadata so do check it out here. This refers to music that a company or individual professional, has pre-cleared for sync license and can solely sign off on a sync license on behalf of the rights holders. For example, Music Gateway is a sync agent and represents music from it's members, most of which is pre-cleared, one stop music ready to licence at the drop of a hat.

This refers to a process whereby a company normally a third party company such as a sync agent or a non-exclusive production library company will represent music on behalf of indie artists, bands and composers and upon them licensing music into a show, film for sync, they will register the song again to the performing rights organisation PRO and give it a new title, even though the song is already registered and it's the same piece of music.

They do this as a proceed to normally take a cut of the publishing royalty also known as the backend. We highly recommend that you do not work with companies that re-title recordings and it is commonly understood that this is bad industry practice and not recommended. This is a term that is used to describe Music Supervisors when is comes to sync licensing, as they act as a the middle people working with the clients and putting forward music creativity for placement.

Some rights holders refer to Music Supervisors as the Gatekeepers for sync. This stands for Performing Rights Organisation society. These are normally non-profit companies that collect broadcast royalties on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. There's a great list of performing rights organisations in our Music Industry resources page, which you can find in our footer below.

In sync terms, this is where an individual or company sends and presents music to a client or Music Supervisor , this is normally a playlist that is streamed online, so that the person receiving the music can listen directly without having to download the files. Pitching for sync is normally done via personal email communication and a link to the playlist. Within our platform you can pitch on daily project opportunities, where companies are looking for songs, talent, artists, productions, music for TV, Film, Games and Adverts - to access our marketplace simply start a free trial account here.

Cue sheets are the primary means by which performing rights organizations track the use of music in films and TV. Without cue sheets, it would be nearly impossible for such composers and publishers to be compensated for their work. An accurately filled out cue sheet is a log of all the music used in a TV or Film production. A cover version is a recording of an existing song other than the original that's normally recorded by an artist and or someone other than the original person that recorded the song.

The publishing rights will remain the ownership of the original writers, but a new recording will be owned master rights by the person who creates the new recording. Covers are normally of famous well known songs by major pop artists, writers and hit records. This is simply short for independent and normally refers to indie artists and indie labels, not to be confused with the indie genre, which related to mainly indie rock bands.