MB422-Assignement01-LaiHuiMin

Couldnt be better for a record label to own its own music publishing company, but not
every label has one due to the lack of prowess, knowledge or the time to deal with it and it may lead
to a big loss to the company.

In the music industry, the role of music publisher involves administer, manoeuvre and
collect royalties for copyright holder.

Administration includes registering the works to all appropriate agencies, licensing the use
of music, collecting royalties, deciding the share for the songwriter and co-publisher. There are
several rights that a music publisher controls such as Public Performance Rights to collect
performance royalties from the societies such as BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC by paying from radio
station, television and other places such as restaurant, pub and hotels where there is a broadcast of
recorded songs. Mechanical Rights which by getting the royalties from the sale of recorded music
such as digital download copy or CD which is a compulsory license set by The Copyright Act.
Synchronisation Rights define as when a film or television producers are interested of having the
songwriters work as the movie soundtracks on the production or commercials so here brings the
synchronisation license for the copyright to be used, Print/Digital Print Rights, traditionally,
music publisher supervise the sheet music which require actual printing of the copyrights, as time
goes by, digital printing going viral, it has become a addition to the previous four. Digital printing
right includes MIDI files, or as digital representations of printed sheet music, such as Adobe
Acrobat PDF files.

Furthermore, a music publisher is also responsible for monitoring and tracking the copyright
to ensure the the payment is made and for those who are using the music without necessary licence
by taking litigation on copyright infringements, misuse and abuse if song usage from the agreed
contract for protecting the songwriters right. As mention before, printing right and more likely to
replace by digital printing right so music publisher also has the responsibility to counter on the new
licensing opportunities that derived from the technological development.

Besides from all the licensing and royalties that is managed by music publishers, they also
have the obligation to expand the market of the songwriter by approaching their music to any
interested parties, both nationally and internationally for example, opening up new expose platform
for songwriter by publishing in RingBackTones, Online Music Retailing, Online Music Streaming,
Online Radio, Online Song Registration Services and P2P Connection with direct Clients.
Otherwise, producing demo recordings, promotional materials such as sampler CDs, sheet scores
and brochures to whomever interested can find out the work more directly and easily.

Finding new talented songwriters and composers or developing additional skills for the
songwriter is also part of the music publishers job by expose the songwriters to multiple posts in
the creative industry like audio engineering and song arrangement. The cultivation of talents will
also be profitable for the publishers but by encouraging their development on skills, publisher has to
support them whether thorough helping in financial on living expenses, facilities to produce music
or offering advice and giving them guidance in writing. In order to do that, music publishers has to
do the research and market analysis on current and new trends for music direction.

After all the investment made in songwriters and composers, music publishers get their
profit returns from the licensing fees and royalties. In common, publishers and songwriters get a
50/50 split of profits. Through publishing contract, music publishers and songwriters will be able to
sort out each others rights, composers will usually assign a 50% of ownership to the publishers
in return to promote, protect and enhance the music.

In addition, there are different types of publishing companies such as major publishers
which include Warner-Chappell, EMI, Universal Publishing Group and Sony/ATV and known as
the Big Four. Major affiliated publishers which are the independent publishing companies accord
with the Big Four. Furthermore, the independent publishing company handles the administration in-
house and lastly the writer publisher who handles their own publishing.

There are several copyright bodies such as MACP, ASCAP,BMI and SESAC. MACP is the
Music Authors Copyright Protection Berhad which is a non-profit organisation to license music
users that are broadcast or perform in public in order to pay for songwriter and publisher. MACP is
one of the affiliated societies under CISAC (international Confederation of Societies of Authors and
Composers). CISAC is a head for copyright societies of authors and creators around the world, it
not only protect the rights of musical works but also in dramas, literatures and visual arts.

There are other organisation which exist in Malaysia other than MACP. As what was
mentioned before, MACP is for the protection of singer songwriter. PRISM,RPM and PPM is more
to toward collecting royalties on behalf of record labels and performing artists. Recording
Performers Malaysia Berhad (RPM) which launched by Sheila Majid as she sets up a brand new
body for royalty collection and distribution as she was not satisfied with the royalty payment that
she got from PRISM.

Issues and implication faced by todays music publishers and copyright bodies include the
lack of a licensing framework and lead to the decrease in profit and the infringement problem for
the copyright work. According to billboard.com on November 11, 2013, NMPA Targets Unlicensed
Lyrics Sites, the National Music Publishers Association issues take down notice to 50 lyrics
websites which profit from advertisement-generated revenue but no compensation receive but the
songwriters. If the website that have illegal behaviour of providing lyrics online without a license
might resulting in copyright infringement lawsuit. In 2012, Warner Chappell Music, Peermusic and
Bug Music won a $6.6 million lawsuit against LiveUniverse which operated unlicensed lyrics sites
as well as in 2010, the NMPA also won a lawsuit against Motive Force, a company that operated
LyricWiki.

In this digital era, everyone can promote themselves through social media, there is no doubt
that Youtube and Facebook are the biggest platform for the singer/songwriter to approach to others,
for all of its advantages, Youtube is something of a double-edge sword. It enables anyone to post
video or music on that platform which means a lot of Youtube user might use all the copyright work
without permission and paying royalties, songwriters wont receive any compensation. In 2011,
NMPA has resolved its copyright infringement lawsuit with Youtube as to fight for the fair share for
the music publishers to receive royalties from Youtube by getting advance payment from a
synchronisation royalty rate of 15% of net advertising revenue.

Publishing is a huge responsibility and require a lot of time and experience to deal with the
amount of workload, not only to manage the licensing and royalty but also about exploit work and
find new talents for the scene.
References

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September 2015, from http://www.asiaiplaw.com/article/4/1493/

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Billboard,. (2015). NMPA Targets Unlicensed Lyric Sites, Rap Genius Among 50 Sent Take-Down
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Staff, S. (2015). Repost ASCAP, BMI & SESAC: Whats The Difference?. Songtrust. Retrieved
25 September 2015, from http://blog.songtrust.com/songwriting-tips/pros-whats-the-difference/

Theodoramichaels.com,. (2015). What Does A Music Publisher Do, Anyway?. Retrieved 24

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