Add this entry to Your Favorites | [0] Favorites
[37] Comments
Webster defines a thief as, "one who embezzles", and the definition of embezzle is, "to take money for ones own use in violation of a trust".
When you keep money that is owed to someone you are "in violation of a trust"
Some forms of thievery are obvious, like the clerk who pockets money from the cash register, or the bank robber. Some forms of thievery are more subtle. Regardless, it is still "stealing".
As Christians, many of us are taught that not paying our tithe is stealing from God. The concept of "withholding money" being the same as stealing is interesting, and accurate, in my view.
For example, I recently had some furniture delivered to my home. The two men who delivered it did a good job and I wanted to tip each of them 10 dollars, but only had a twenty dollar bill. I gave the twenty to the driver with instructions to split it with his helper. As they drove off, I wondered if he would.
In my view, if the driver keeps the helper's ten dollars, it is exactly the same as stealing a ten dollar bill from his wallet.
Providing goods and services is the method most of us use to earn a living. When someone fails to pay you for the goods or services you provided, they are stealing from you.
As Christians, we are supposed to hold ourselves to a higher standard, but apparently stealing from each other is okay.
I realized the full impact of this statement as we prepared our royalty statements. As a new company, we are trying our best to take care of business correctly, but we are far from perfect. One of our biggest problems has been getting our computer programs set up for royalties. We were way too slow on the first round and were promptly reprimanded by a writer who accused us of stealing his money. We apologized for being late and assured him his check was already on the way. He was gracious enough to call the next day when his check arrived. We are just now getting caught up and are very grateful to all
the wonderful writers who have trusted us with their songs without complaining about our tardiness. However, the process has taught me a valuable lesson. Not paying our songwriters is the same as stealing from them.
Using a writer's song without paying is essentially the same as not paying for your gas, your groceries, etc. etc…..get the idea?
It makes no difference whether you are an artist who orders your product from a manufacturer or whether you order your product from a record company, songwriters must be paid for their songs.
The current statutory rate is 9.1 cents. That means for every song you record, you owe a songwriter 9.1 cents.
Here's how it works:
Once you have selected the songs for your recording, you must request a Mechanical License for each song from the publisher of each song.
This is an agreement that gives you permission to record the song and tells you where to send the money. THE MONEY IS DUE UPON MANUFACTURE OF THE PRODUCT, NOT THE SALE OF THE PRODUCT. This means if you order 500 CDs, you owe songwriter royalties for 500 CDs. It makes no difference whether you sell them in a week or a year.
This process applies to every recording…custom…major label…minor label…no label.
Recording at "I Be Deaf" Recording Studios and getting a package deal with 500 CDs does not get you off the hook.
YOU OWE THE ROYALTIES…EVERY CD…EVERY SONG!
You can call yourself anything you want to...part-time, full-time, professional, amateur, anointed, dedicated, soul winner, minister of music, but…if you don't pay songwriter royalties your real title is…THIEF!
Consider these facts.
The average cost of a manufactured CD is around $1.00, depending on the number ordered.
Royalties on a ten song CD are $.91.
Therefore the minimum basic cost of a CD is around $2.00. If you are buying your CDs directly from the manufacturer, you are the one responsible for requesting Mechanical Licenses and paying the royalties.
If you are buying your CDs from a record label, then the label should be requesting Mechanicals and paying royalties.
If you or the company you record with doesn't have the Mechanical Licenses on file for every song you have recorded, that is a good indication that the writers were not paid. You should go to your record company and ask to see the Mechanicals for your recordings. If they don't have them, shame on you for staying with a company that steals from our songwriters.
My friends, this is a serious matter. How can we expect God to bless our industry and use us for His purpose when we are stealing from one another? I believe this is another reason we are not as effective in reaching the lost and are failing to grow as an industry.
I truly believe this is something we must get corrected if we are to succeed.
Perhaps you are an artist or a record company that has been guilty of not paying royalties. It makes no difference whether you are an amateur or a seasoned veteran, it is time to correct this situation. There is little we can do about the past, but the future is a different story. We can start right now to end this practice of stealing from our songwriters.
As an artist, you are responsible for your work. In the end it falls to you to make sure that the royalties on your recording are paid.
Record companies, you have an obligation to our industry to account correctly for every song recorded by your company. It is no small task, I will attest to that, but it must be done.
I leave you with this scripture. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17 KJV
As always, I welcome your comments.
God Bless You,
Nick Bruno
http://www.songgardenmusic.com
Reader Comments
To Kelleymik,It isn't exactly stealing. Once you have a song recorded the first time, any other artist can record it as well without your permission. No songwriter has exclusivity on the songs they write aside from giving permission to the initial artist who records each song. This is (for better or worse) unlike any other business where you can create something original, have it patented, and sue anyone who infringes on your original creation.
The assumption of the law is that every songwriter wants their song exploited as much as possible. Setting a standard rate for everyone is seen as a way of facilitating this process rather than having each songwriter and/or publisher cut their own deal with each record label on a song by song basis.
Now, if these local artists recorded your song without paying you any royalties, then that IS stealing, but they really don't have to "ask permission" since another artist has already recorded it. They ARE required by the law, though, to inform you of their intentions to record BEFORE they do it. It sounds like they failed to do that.
(For the record...I'm not a lawyer and I'm not giving you legal advice.)
To Nick...
I have a question that's somewhat related. Why do some record labels fail to indicate the name of the songwriter(s) and the copyright information on the products they produce and sale?
Every mechanical license I've ever seen has included this as a requirement. I understand it's not required by law if you approach it as a compulsory license rather than a mechanical license, but it seems to me that a record label would want to provide this info...especially the "all rights reserved" line that mechanical licenses typically require. If for nothing else, it would let people know they've paid the songwriters.
I've noticed that some of Song Garden's releases don't include songwriter/copyright notices, so that's another reason I am asking...the new Chuck Wagon Gang CD being one example.
--Making hay while the sun shines--
sgnforum@musicscribe.com - BLOG - SGHistory.com
Now Playing
Written: 06/01/2006 
Author: Nick Bruno
Category:
The Gospel Truth
Comments: 37 Favorited:
Add this entry to Your Favorites
Email this article
RSS
feeds
(What's an RSS feed?)
Recent Articles
Articles Archives
