Discussion:
Are broadcast mechanical royalties the same as public performance royalties? i.e. are these the royalties a songwriter receives for airplay of their song?
Also, I'm hearing there's a 'new' stream of royalty income payable to artist's for the performance and broadcast of songs they've performed on, but it's only payable to U.K., European Union and Canadian performers. Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks!
Answer:
I am not an attorney, but you might try visiting the Harry Fox
(licensing) Agency's web site, and contact someone in their
organization:
"The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA) was established in 1927 by
NMPA to provide an information source, clearinghouse and
monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights. For seventy
years, HFA has provided efficient and convenient service for
publisher clients (who need not be members of NMPA) and for a
broad spectrum of music users.
The Agency now represents more than 27,000 American music
publishers and licenses a large percentage of the uses of music
in the United States on records, tapes, CDs and imported
phonorecords."
Another site you may want to visit belongs to the European
Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations:
"************** Subjects on which EBLIDA concentrates are European information society issues, including copyright & licensing, **************"
Answer:
No, mechanical royalties stem from sales of records while performance income stem from revenues from radio and TV airplay. Performance royalties in the U.S. are collected by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC and distributed quarterly to each writer . There are also performance rights societies in other countries, like Canada.