HTML Site::Resources:: Music industry dictionary and terminology

3GP

'Third Generation Presence' is the term for the integrated online management of an artist or celebrity, covering all aspects of their professional and personal online publicity and security. It combines together websites, email security, collaboration, global accessibility and brand control to allow an artist to manage their virtual identity as completely as possible.

AARC

Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies : A subdivision of the RIAA that handles the collection of DART fees.

ADI

Area of Dominant Influence : The geographical area of a broadcaster such as a TV or radio station. Used in licencing to establish the potential size of an audience.

A&R

'Artists and Repertoire' is the term for an individual or company that seeks to place new talent with a recording label and then find possible hits for them to perform. Historically, A&R bought and sold songs from songwriters for artists to perform, but now with most artists self-writing, they tend to work within record labels, and in essence get paid to make sure the record label sells hits. They can be thought of as a level of 'talent scout' for the industry, but are not the same as 'Agents'.

AFM

American Federation of Musicians : A union that, amongst other things, provides standardized rates for live performances and session work.

Agent

A promoter who seeks to find outlets for an artist (both in terms of live performances and recording contracts). Also known as a Talent Agent or Bookings Agent. They also usually act as business managers for an artist, handling the legal and financial aspects of signing the artist to a label, promoting and protecting their identity and material. It is usually vital to obtain an agent in order to enter the business, as many venues and record labels will insist on dealing only with an agent.

Ancilliary Rights

The rights and fees from associated revenue - income from merchandising, endorsement, public appearances and so on.

Artist Royalties

Income paid to the performers of a recording, no matter who wrote it (see also Publishing Royalties).

Banner

A self-contained graphical element used in e-promo and usually issued as a website image or animation.

Black Box Fees

'Black Box Income' is monies collected by mechanical collection agencies (see Mechanical Fees) that have not yet been collected by the publisher or artist. Usually the result of foreign sales where the collection agency has not contacted the publisher with information on revenue.

Blanket License

A license issued by a PRS that authorizes the public performance of all the songs in the society’s catalog. Paid annually, it allows a customer to perform any of the works on the database of a particular PRS as many times as they want without filing individual requests. Often taken by music schools, theater companies and so on.

Business Manager

A financial and legal manager for an artist, often one and the same as the Agent, though larger artists will have their own in-house business manager. They specifically concentrate on the financial and contractual aspects of the artist's work, including associated revenue such as merchandising, sponsorship and endorsement.

Compulsory Mechanical License

An exception to the copyright holder's exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution that allows anyone to record and distribute any commercially-released, non-dramatic song as long as the mechanical license rates established by copyright law are paid to the copyright owner of the song. In other words, provided you are paid the required royalties anyone can record and distribute your work provided it has been sold commercially in the past.

Club sales

Sales of records through record clubs (BMG, Columbia etc) often have a different royalty rate to 'public' sales, typically 50% of the usual rate. The rates are set in the contract the artist and label sign.

Copyright

A group of rights granted by law to the creator of an original literary, artistic, or intellectual work and prohibiting certain exploitation (such as unlicenced sales). Copyright in the USA and Europe is implied - the physical creation of an original work is enough to create the copyright precedence. For more information see our Copyright InfoCenter.

Note that you cannot patent or trademark a piece of music, only copyright it.

Corporation

Many bands form a corporation - a legal entity where every band member is a shareholder and one or more are listed as directors. This is then used as the LOC in contracts between the band and a producer or record label. The advantage is that the liability of a corporation is limited to the value of the shares, so personal assets of the artists are not in danger if things go horribly wrong. However, setting up and trading through a corporation has serious implications on the artists' tax affairs so must be planned with vast amounts of legal and financial advice.

Cross-collateralization

A right assigned to the record label, allowing them to take monies from the sale of a record in order to fund the advance on another. This keeps the balance on the record label's books lower but can have implications on the artists' income. In particular, watch for attempts to cross-collateralize publishing income against record sales - where the label takes money from the sales account to fund the physical production of another record.

Cue Sheet

Either a note for stage musicians showing the order of songs, or a regular database collected by a PRS showing every performance of a piece of work on TV, radio or film for the purposes of collecting royalties.

DART Fees

DART Income is collected by the AARC, and is a US-only tax on blank audio tapes, created to offset losses artists and record labels suffer from home-taping and copying of work.

Definitive Point of Contact (DPC)

A single information source acting for or on behalf of an artist and responsible for providing guaranteed and unambiguous responses to stories, queries and rumors.

Demo deal

A label will often fund the production of a demo pressing when they are deciding on signing a new artist. Usually the rights to the demo are retained by the label, so the artist cannot use it to hawk around other labels even if the first decides not to run with them - unless the artist buys the rights back.

Derivative Work

A new work based on or derived from one or more pre-existing works, such as a remix of a song, acoustic version, a song based on a poem or so on. For a derivative work the original copyright holders will have a claim in the new version even if they are not the creators of the derivative.

Distribution Licence

A record label often sub-licences the sale and distribution of a record overseas. The agreement on royalties and fees paid to the main label and then on to the artist is defined in a Record Distribution Licence (RDL).

Dramatic Rights

Dramatic or Grand Rights licence the performance of a piece of work as part of a dramatic production. The defintion of what makes a performance 'dramatic' can vary but in essence if the work is used to assist in the telling of a story (for example using a song as part of a musical play or opera) then it is dramatic. Non-dramatic performances, where the work is played in isolation and not as part of a story, are licenced by a PRS, but a Dramatic Licence (aka a Grand Licence) must be obtained directly from the copyright holder.

DRM

'Digital Rights Management' is a web-based licencing system for audio and video files. The creator of a DRM-controlled media file also creates a license object that is registered via a special Media Licence Server and is required by anyone trying to play the file on their PC. By restricting access to the licence, you also restrict the ability of users to share and copy the media file itself - since it cannot be played without the licence. DRM is the basis of the Apple iTunes system and the Microsoft Media Player 9 DRM system due for launch later this year.

e-Media

Electronic Media - the distribution and promotion of work and artists via email, the Internet, websites and other non-mechanical means.

e-Promo

Electronic Promotion - advertising methods using non-mechanical electronic routes such as the Internet and email.

e-Team

A semi-informal group of fans, usually unpaid but provided with some free merchandising, who act to promote an artist via a distributed e-promo campaign. See also Street Teams and subverts.

e-Vert

Electronic Advert - an advertisement device (such as a banner) distributed by a non-mechanical route such as email or websites. Also associated terms of 'evertising' and 'evertisment'. Some people call these 'webverts'.

Endorsement

Promotion of a product or brand by an artist (usually of celebrity status) for a fee. Can also involve access to products and services at reduced or zero cost, such as instruments or cothing.

Exclusive Rights

The legal privileges that only a copryight owner has with respect to their copyrighted work. These are the basis of agreements such as royalty and licencing fees. Whilst you can licence your work to another organisation or individual for whatever purpose(s) you choose, you always retain claim to the original copyright.

Exploitation

The business of selling licences and rights to perform, reproduce or broadcast a piece of work for the purpose of making money.

Harry Fox Agency

A NY-based MRCS agency that handles issuing of mechanical licences for most US-based music publishers and agents.

Independent Labels

Small companies that specialize in 'low-volume' sales or one particular genre of music. Many so-called 'Indie' labels are actually owned by the majors but trade as if they were independent - this gives them the right 'image' but allows access to the resources of the parent label when needed (such as fleets of expensive lawyers).

Loan-out Company

An LOC is a company set up by an artist and used as their 'business front' when selling their services. By trading through an LOC, the artist can keep some of their personal details out of publicly-available contracts and agreements. Almost every major artist uses an LOC, both for the legal protection it can provide and as a means of privacy.

Majors

The 'Major Labels' are the production and distribution arms of the top international media corporations such as Sony, EMI, Polygram etc.

Master

The original copy of a recording, used as the basis for a pressing, or production run. In the old days a Master was literally a steel plate used to press the records, now a Master is a mixed digital file. Under almost every record label contract the Master is owned by the label, not the artist.

Mechanical Fees

Also called 'mechanicals' - fees paid to a songwriter from the sale of recordings on physical media. In the USA there is a defined scale of payments (7.55¢ per song), Collection of fees is on a per-country basis via an MRCS. Mechanicals are NOT generated by a public performance or broadcast - they only apply to physical over-the-counter sales of tapes, CDs, disks, videos and so on. A record label can impose a clause in the contract (called a 'controlled compositions' clause) that reduces the mechanical fee by a fixed percentage.

Mechanical Rights Collection Society (MRCS)

A national organization (sometimes State-controlled) that collects mechanical fees in a particular country and pays the royalties back to the producers or artists. In the USA the main MRCS is the Harry Fox Agency.

Mechanical License

A legal contract from an artist or record label to permit the creation and sale of recordings (in the legal definition 'phonorecords') of a piece of work. The recordings must not include synchronized images, so a DVD or video is excluded and must have a synchronization licence instead.

Musical Work

A melody and/or accompanying lyrics; more commonly referred to as a musical composition or a song, but in legal terms referred to as a 'piece of work', since the terms 'song' and 'tune' have issues of definition in court.

Override

A fee paid by a new record label to an artist's old label when they sign them, to buy the artist out of their old contracts. Often this is a sequence of payments based on sales or success rather than a single check.

Performing Rights Society (PRS)

The associations or companies that issue performing rights licenses, track public performances, collect performing license revenues and distribute those revenues to songwriters and publishers. The main performing rights societies in the United States are ASCAP (American Socisety of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast music Inc.) and SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers). When an artist registers with them, the PRS collates cue sheets, listing every performance of a work and who is responsible for paying for it.

Performing Rights License (PRL)

Authorization for the public performance of a song by someone other than the copyright holder ( you do not need a PRL to perform your own work!) or for the broadcast of a piece of work, such as via radio. Frequently granted by a PRS through a blanket license. Note the difference with mechanicals - a PRL applies to a performance, a mechanical licence applies to manufacture of CDs, tapes etc.

Per Program Licence

Similar to a Blanket Licence, but limited to works performed in a specific radio or television program. Cheaper!

Personal Manager

A representative who assists the musician in the development and management of his music and entertainment career, and usually handles the private arrangements for an artist such as accommodation, privacy and schedules. Also known as a Personal Assistant (PA).

Pipeline Income

Monies that have been received by the record label or publishing company and which are owed to the artist but have not yet been paid. Often an artist is paid in regular blocks (every 6 months, etc) to make accounting easier.

'Phonorecord'

A legal definition in the USA used in the copyright laws to define what a 'physical recording' of a work must comprise. It is defined as 'Any material object onto which sounds, other than those on a soundtrack of an audio-visual work, can be recorded including an audiocassette, a CD, or a vinyl disc'. There are precedents set for the term to also include permanent and semipermanent computer memory devices (minidiscs).

Pressing

A term from the days of vinyl when a new record was literally 'pressed' into the hot plastic. A pressing is a single production run of a recording, on whatever format. Many works that remain on sale for many years go through multiple pressings. Each pressing is based on a master.

Pressing and Distribution Deal

A P & D deal is where an artist, their LOC or their own label pays for a record company to create and distribute a record, CD etc. - in effect buying the production and distribution as an 'off the shelf package'.

Print License

Authorization from a publisher or songwriter to reproduce and distribute a song in printed form (sheet music)

Producer

A company or individual who pays for the recording of a piece of work in return for royalties on sales. Sometimes record labels act as producers, some artists act as their own producers and many use independents.

Producer Royalties

A percentage cut taken by the producer of a recording or album. Usually a percentage of the royalties owed to the artist.

Promoter

An company or individual who organizes a live performance and handles venue, ticket and publicity management.

Publishing Royalties

Income paid to the songwriter from mechanicals or live performance fees, no matter who performs the work. See also Artist Royalties.

RIAA

Record Industry Association of America: The umbrella organization that represents the interests of record labels and producers in the USA (but they have often acted to protect their interests beynd the US borders). (in)famous for their legal action against music piracy, and as such given a somewhat unfair reputation.

Ripping

Ripping (and/or burning) refers to the creation of CD or digital copies of a piece of work, either by copying an authentic original or by downloading the file from the Internet. In almost all cases this is illegal. Some artists agree to the ripping of older material where there will be no loss of mechanical fees, as a publicity route. However, this means that if they choose to re-release the material in the future revenue will be hampered by the ripped copies.

Seeding

The creation and distribution of altered versions of a digital audio or video file, primarily as a means to reduce the illegal sharing of material on P2P networks, but also a useful marketing tool.

Simulcast

A simultaneous broadcast - usually a combination of a webcast (streaming delivery live via the Internet) and a conventional broadcast on TV or radio. Many artists use simulcasts to allow their worldwide fans to access performances and interviews only broadcast in one country or area (such as on local radio). Simulcasts must be approved by the original broadcaster as they can clash with copyright.

Streaming media

Delivery of audio or video via the Internet in a continual data stream as opposed to making a file available for download. Streaming allows the file quality to adapt to the network speed of the viewer, and in many cases it also makes it very hard for the viewer to save and redistribute a copy of the music.

Stream release

A modified version of an audio or video file specifically for Internet delivery. Usually this is a section of a music track rather than the entire file, so that copying and redistribution is made unappealing.

Street Teams

Semi-informal unpaid groups of fans who work to promote artists locally, usually by flyer distribution, contact to local radio stations, word of mouth and so on. Usually provided with some material by the artist or label to assist with their work, such as flyers. See also e-teams.

Sub-Publisher

A record label or other agency subcontracted to the main label and usually in another country. They are made responsible for the marketing and promotion of the work in that country. Usually national labels will use a worldwide label (Sony, EMI etc) as a sub-publisher when releasing music overseas since they do not have the infrastructure to handle work beyond their home country. See also Record Distribution Licence.

Subvert

Subversive Advert - an advertisement device distributed by an unvonventional route such as street teams, word of mouth, etc - but nowadays usually applied to electronic campaigns on chatrooms and forums without specific promotion of official sites or affiliations. Also associated terms of 'subvertising' and 'subvertisment'

Sunset clause

A clause in a contract with a label or manager allowing them to demand fees beyond the termination date of the contract. Usually added where there are large advance fees involved, as with a new artist.

Synchronization License (Synch Licence or Synch Ticket)

Licence granted by a publisher or songwriter to use a piece of work with visual images (as in a film, video or television program). See Mechanicals and PRL for subtle differences. In the USA, TV synch tickets usually run for a fixed period (4-6 yrs) whereas film tickets run forever.

Ticket Agent

An individual or organisation that resells tickets for live performances, usually on behalf of a promoter and venue.

Trademark

A word, logo, design or symbol that uniquely identifies and distinguishes the holder (such as a band logo, a unique style of makeup or clothing, etc.). Unlike copyright, a trademark must be registered in order to exist, and invloves fees. In the USA the US PTO handles all registrations.

Webcast

A broadcast of a piece of work via the Internet, either as a streaming media presentation or a downloadable file. Webcasting requires the site owner to obtain a pair (at least) of licences from the copyright holder and relevent PRS, no matter where the work is sourced from or delivered to.