The
professional music publishing industry has existed since the mid-15th
century, when it’s main purpose was to provide for the printing of music, the
concept of copyrighting music and the enforcement of artists’ performing rights
when their product is used commercially. Nowadays, the industry has realized
that there are certain problems associated with publishing online music because of streaming music, diminishing revenue growth rates of online music, and bands
or singer/songwriters writing and publishing their own music online.
Streaming
Music
The
first problems in this discussion that publishing companies have is through the
streaming of music online. It is more convenient to be able to tap your finger across
a track pad or click a computer mouse in order to obtain music than it is to
walk to your neighborhood record store and purchase CDs’. Streaming services
such as Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora allow users to download a large selection
of music thru the Internet free of charge or by subscription. Although this
might seem to allow for a large number of activities, according to David Kusek
(2012), Industry Consultant with digital media analysis company Digital
Cowboy, online music is a still a small percentage of the overall market.
Michael
Robertson (2012), CEO and founder of MP3tunes.com writes, “With most other sbusinesses,
if a supplier makes unreasonable demands, a retailer can turn to other
providers. Since copyright law gives record labels and publishers a
government-granted monopoly, no such option is possible...” It has become fact
that the industry has to except the laws, or they will not be able to add songs
to their library. Pandora has succeeded in obtaining such a license from
Congress that was specifically designed for online radio services. This
practice certainly prevents publishing companies from controlling how music is
presented to the public but the publishing companies, according to an article
written Greg Sandoval (2013), have decided to fight this practice by taking
back their digital rights from performing rights organization such as BMI and
ASCAP. Again, it’s a matter of economics and how the profits are shared across
the board thru all parties involved.
Streaming
has also introduced the practice of online piracy when music can be swapped via
peer-to-peer networks like Napster. Again, this is a practice that removes
control and revenues from established publishing companies.
Diminishing
Revenue Growth Rates
Another
problem the music publishing companies encounter is the diminished revenue
growth rate because of an increase in royalty revenue from online music
services. According to The Wall Street Journal (2012), during the period
from 2010 to 2011 online streaming player such as Spotify and Pandora grew
revenues 140 percent with a paid-subscription base of 4 million users. According
to Greg Sandoval (2013), in his article published in The Verge magazine,
“Revenue sales from – in the double-digit percentages for most of the past
decade - increased last year by 6 percent”. This has certainly taken a large
percent of profit from publishing companies. Independent music labels, independent
music publishers, and artists themselves have certain terms in their favor such
as minimum payments, per-play costs, and percent of total company revenues. Music
publishers have always represented the composers and songwriters who make their
royalties from CD and download sales, but these formats have begun to decline
in sales. According to Kusek (2012), negotiating deals on a global scale is
extremely hard.
In the
past you could find yourself spending on average $100 a month buying CDs’ and
digital downloads. Nowadays you can buy the same amount of tunes for an average
of $10 a month. Pretty much anything can be downloaded over the web for free or
at a very low cost. Another example is
the 2007 online music provider called “LALA”, who allows people to pay $.99 to
download one song or $.10 for a web-hosted song that can be accessed from any
Web-connected PC. This practice diminishes the amount of profits publishing
companies take in. In the world of online music the majority of revenue
collected has come thru advertising, subscription, purchases of download
ringtones, ticket sales and merchandising sales. Most streaming services pay an
extremely small amount to record companies and publishers each time a song is
played.
Bands
and Singer/Songwriters writing and publishing their own music
The
fact that bands and singer/songwriters are writing and publishing their own
music creates another problem for the professional music publishing industry.
Too many separate interests are fighting for a piece of the publishing pie. For
most bands writing their own songs and publishing them is where the money is. The
only requirement being that the person who wrote the song must be the copyright
owner and the band must be aware of such issues as synchronization and print
licenses. Although these licenses will bring in less money, they will bring in
something. According to Ben Sisario (2013), in his article posted in the New
York Times, “…as the companies behind these digital services swell into
multibillion-dollar enterprises, the trickle of money that has made it’s way to
artists is causing anxiety at every level of the business”. This practice of
licensing eliminates the publishing company’s ability to control and collect its
profits from the artistic work of bands and singer/songwriters. Most publishing
companies access a large fee, which means that anytime the song is played the
publishing company can receive up to half of the profit. The fact that the
bands now have the ability to collect 100 per cent of their profit should be a
concern to the publishing companies.
In
conclusion, the professional music publishing companies will have to re-think their
values as to whether the real issues are a desire to make music played from venues
such as computers and mobile phones, more accessible to the public computer
users while still being able to collect a respectable amount of revenue, while
at the same time the publishing companies must respecting the artistic value and
desire for individual control of the music created by the bands and or
singer/songwriters.
During my time teaching in England,
I received a grant to form a community music group, under the direction of world-renowned
saxophonist
Andy Hamilton (Member of the Order of the British Empire) called
"The Notebenders". This group was comprised of community members
that range in age from 10 to over 50 years of age who want to learn to read
music and perform in an ensemble setting in front of live audiences. The group
is still in existence as of today.
This
research into this topic is valuable to me as a professional musician who wants
to function as a songwriter, bandleader, music creator and provider of music
that will be used by the community to enrich the cultural life of the community
and its participants. In my opinion it proves that there is still a long way to
go before all participants, the music publishers, bands, singer/songwriters
come to an agreement that will make providing music to the consumer relatively
inexpensive, so that most fans will find any digital medium relatively easy to
obtain and enjoy.
