You’ve done it! You have reached the end of this course – well done for completing it! We hope you now feel you have a comprehensive understanding of the publishing industry and its set-up. This lesson continues with a glossary, which you can reference to get a quick definition for many of the terms we have learned about in this course.
ACK - The file a collection society returns once a CWR file has been delivered, to acknowledge which works have been succesfully registered and detail the reasons why others have not been registered.
Acknowledgement - Term used by collection societies to acknowledge a work registration. See also: ACK
Ad-Supported Streaming - A transmission of audio that is made available to users without charge of any kind, directly or indirectly (i.e. not on a subscription basis or any other business model). The user will be seeing/hearing ads whilst using the service, to generate income for the platform
Adapter - A type of composer who has adapted an existing work
Administrator - A person or company responsible for carrying out the administration of a business or organisation. In publishing, an admin publishing deal between publishers grants one publisher the admin rights to the catalogue of the other publisher
Advance - A payment made ahead of any revenues being generated, to be deducted from future royalties due
Agreement Number - A unique identifier a society assigns to an agreement between a writer and publisher, or between two publishing entities.
Anglo-American Society - Anglo-American performance societies are APRA, ASCAP, BMI, IMRO, PRS, SAMRO, SESAC, SOCAN. Anglo-American mechanical societies are MCPS, AMCOS, CAPASSO, FOX or CMRRA. Also catalogue written by songwriters who are not a member of a society generally falls under the Anglo-American rules.
Arranger - An arranger is a musician who arranges music by other composers, either for particular instruments or voices, or for a particular performance. Arrangers are sometimes granted a share of the copyright in a work.
Artist Portal - A portal for artists and/or writers to log in to and retrieve their statements as well as potential other datasets
At Source - The amount due to a rightsholder before any commissions or fees have been subtracted
Audit - A royalty or licensing audit is when you examine your third-party licensee(s) to determine whether you are collecting all the royalty income you are contractually owed. A client can also audit their label or publisher to determine whether they have paid through the royalties due to the payee.
Author - The writer of a work. In music publishing this is the writer of a musical work, also called a writer or composer. In relation to CWR, In CWR terms, an author refers to someone who writes lyrics whilst a composer relates to someone who writes the composition?
Back Catalogue - An artist's back catalogue is the music they recorded and released in the past, rather than their latest recordings. The same logic applies to writers and the works they have written.
Black Box - A pool of revenue where the copyright owners of the content generating the revenue cannot be traced. Societies might pay this money out as a pro-rated lumpsum instead
Blanket License - A license which allows the music user to use any or all of the millions of works in a society's catalogue. The license covers the usage for all works under one flat fee. Blanket licenses are often given to TV and Radio stations for certain forms of use
CAE Number - Unique identifier assigned to a writer or publisher, replaced by the IPI number system in 2001
Chain of Title - See also: IP Chain. Chain of rightsholders on a work
CISAC - The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, responsible for industry-wide formats such as IPI and CRD
Closing Balance - The final balance on a payee's account after calculating all their royalties, costs and other payments
CMO (Collective Management Organisation) - A collection society that collects both Performance and Mechanical income. Example: SACEM
Co-Publishing - To share the publishing with someone else (whether an individual or a company).
Collected Performance/Mechanical - Performance royalties are paid for the right to play a composition in public, mechanical royalties are paid for the right to reproduce a composition through the process of recording, manufacturing, and distributing the work.
Collection Period - A contractually agreed upon period in which the publisher is allowed to collect any income for works previously controlled through their publishing agreement, after the contract (and if relevant, retention period) have ended. The publisher is only allowed to collect residual income, not actively claim a share in the works or exploit them in any way,
Collection Society - An organisation that collects music rights and has the responsibility to track the usage of your works, account for them, and pay you accordingly
Commission - A fee taken by a third party before paying out income. For example, a society takes a commission before paying their right holders
Composer - Someone who composes music, usually refering to the melody and not to the lyrics. The term is often used interchangably with 'writer' and sometimes 'author'
Composite Type - Type of composite work (see composite work) that needs to be specified in CWR deliveries to certain societies. The types are Composite of Samples, Potpourri, Medley or Unspecified Composite
Composite Work - A work that consists of various other combined works. Composite works and their composite type need to be specified in work deliveries to certain societies
Composition - A piece of music, the art of creating music, or the finished product.
Compulsary License - A compulsory license enables one to use another’s intellectual property without having to obtain the owner’s permission, though availability of the license may be conditioned on the user’s compliance with statutory formalities such as provision of notice and payment of a set fee.
Continental European Society - Societies based on mainland Europe. These societies generally have different rules, as opposed to the Anglo-American Societies.
Controlled - A term used to indicate whether a publisher has a share in a work: if a publisher has a contract with a writer, that writer is controlled. The works written by this writer and included in the contracted are also controlled
Copyright - The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.
There are two types of copyright in music: master and composition.
Copyright Control - Used to indicate that a work/recording is self-published
Copyright Date - It referrs to the date on which the item was copyrighted.
CRD - Common Royalty Distribution - a royalty reporting format created by CISAC for societies to report their royalties to their rights holders in a structured, standardized manner
Cue Sheet - List of all the works used in a TV show or Film, needed by collection societies to pay royalties for these shows and films correctly. Usually provided to societies by the producer of the show or film
CWR - Common Work Registration - a format to register works with collection societies
DSPs (Digital Service Providers) - These are all music stores such as Spotify, Beatport etc.
Ephemeral Use - The legal temporary use of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright user and without payment of a synchronization fee. This is legal only as long as certain specific criteria are met.
Escalation - Refers to a clause in a contract that details that when a certain threshold is reached, the rates applied to the income will change. For example, mechanical rates are 80% when fewer than 5000 units have been sold, but escalate to 85% when more than 5000 units have been sold
Exclusive licence - Under an exclusive license, no person or company other than the named licensee can exploit the relevant intellectual property rights. Exclusive licenses can be for a specific time set, after which the exclusivity stops.
Fingerprinting - Term used to describe the usage of music recognition technology to recognise which songs were played on TV and radio, and in some instances in clubs and at events
First Use - When obtaining copyright for a new original work, that party is granted the right of first use. This right provides the copyright owner with the authority to decide on which party will be granted the right of the first commercial release of the song and under which terms.
Grand Rights - The license to perform a song in a dramatic work such as a theater production or ballet
Independent Publisher - Used to describe publishers that operate independently from one of the three major publishing businesses (Universal, Sony and Warner).
IP Chain - Also referred to as Chain of Title. The chain of rightsholders on a work
IPI Number - Unique identifier assigned to every writer and publisher when they first join a society. Used in work registrations to ensure the correct party is assigned to a work as a rightsholder. Replaced the CAE number in 2001
ISRC - The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a unique, permanent and internationally recognized reference number for the identification of a recording
ISWC - The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is a unique, permanent and internationally recognized reference number for the identification of a musical composition
Label Copy - The correct way of displaying the licensee information when giving describing the rightsholders for a work including the writer, their publisher and often the publisher's Anglo-American Society affiliation (for example, printed on a booklet in a cd). An example: Written by Anne Hathacoin, published by Royalties 101 Publishing (ASCAP).
Library Music - Library music is often called production music or stock music. Library music is created by work-for-hire writers and artists, written for music libraries to license for synch purposes.
Life Of Copyright - A legal term to describe the period a work is copyrighted and therefore exploitable. In most countries, life of copyright means 70 years after the last author's death, but there are exceptions
Lyrics - The words to a song
Majors - A term commonly used to refer to the three big recording and publishing companies in the music industry (Universal, Sony and Warner).
Master - The official, original recording of a song. This refers to the first recording for that specific version of a song - a cover version of a song has its own individual master recording, as does the original song. Master recordings have so called master rights attached to them - the right holders for a master recording have the right to collect certain royalties
Mechanical - Refers to the right to reproduce a piece of music onto CDs, DVDs, records or tapes.
Metadata - Metadata usually refers to the song credits including all the information tied to a released song such as titles, songwriter and producer names, the publisher(s), the record label etc. Music services such as Spotify provide access to some meta data for its consumers by showing the song credits
MFN (Most Favored Nation) - This clause is used in synch negotiations and entitles a rightsholder to the same (pro-rated) share as the other rightsholders on the song (across masters and publishing) in case another rightsholder negotiates a higher fee.
MRO (Mechanical Rights Organisation) - A collection society that collects Mechanical income. Example: MCPS
MRT (Music Recognition Technology) - A recognition device installed in venues that recognises the music played by a DJ and sends this information on to the collection society
Music Libraries - Companies that represent a large catalog of music for the purposes of securing synch licenses for these songs
Neighbouring Rights - Neighbouring Rights are royalties due to right holders of a sound recording when that recording is performed in public. The right holders are the musicians on the song and the master owners
Net Receipts - The money received by the publisher/label after any third parties have taken their cut
NFT - An NFT, or non-fungible token, essentially allows its buyer to say they own the original copy of a digital file in the same way you might own the original copy of a piece of physical art
Non-Controlled - A term used to indicate a publisher doesn't have an interest in something: when a publisher does not have a contract with a certain writer on a work, that writer is non-controlled. If a publisher has no controlled writers on a work, the work is non-controlled (by that publisher)
Non-Exclusive Rights - A copyright non exclusive license occurs when the owner retains ownership of the copyright and/or may license the same right to others, meaning that it is not limited to only one person or organization, or to one group of people or organizations
On-Demand Streaming - Listening to or watching of a product whenever you want to, not as part of a live broadcast
Opening Balance - The balance on a payee's account at the start of a period, before any royalty calculations, costs and payments have been applied
Owned Performance/Mechanical - The share of rights that a rightsholder owns. This can be a different number from the share they collect
Pan-European Licence - A license by a collection society on behalf of their rights holder that doesn't just include usage for their own territory, but for other territories as well. Collection societies license income from DSP's across various European territories on behalf of their direct members through these licenses.
Performance - Refers to the right to perform a piece of music. A performance usage is a usage that doesn't create any kind of copy of the song, but only plays out loud
Print - A right type that refers to the printing of music or lyrics on paper, such as in songbooks.
Private Copying - Creating a copy of a copyrighted work for private use and storing it on a device. A levy is charged on 'blank' devices such as smartphones or USB sticks to account for any private copies a user might make of a song. This income essentially acts as a blanket license for that person and is pro-rated and distributed amongst rights holders by collection societies
PRO - A PRO (performing rights organization) is an agency that ensures songwriters and publishers are paid for the use of their music by collecting public performance royalties on behalf of the rights owner. (PRS is the UK PRO)
Pro Rata - Often used when talking about blackbox- or blanket license income, this means a collection society has calculated a share of income to distribute to a certain rights holder based on the size, popularity or usage of their catalogue within certain parameters.
Public Domain - Public domain music are songs and tracks that are not protected by copyright, and can be used without permission or payment. Copyright laws can protect musical composition for 50-70 years after an author's death.
Publisher - A publisher most often refers to a music publishing company. Music publishing companies own composition copyrights. If an artist does not have a publishing deal, then the songwriter(s) is/are self-published.
Publisher Share - The share of copyright for which admin rights can be attributed to a music publishing company
Reciprocal Agreement - An agreement between collection societies that gives them the right to license works on behalf of writers that are a member of their sister organisations. For example, SACEM is allowed to license for usage in France on behalf of a writer that is a GEMA member.
Recoupable - Expenses that are deducted against the artist share.
Record Label - A company that manufactures, distributes, and promotes the recordings of affiliated musicians
Reporting Frequency - The frequency a publisher or labels reports income to their payees and sends them statements. For publishers this is often quarterly or half-yearly, for labels it's often half-yearly
Retention Period - A contractually agreed upon period in which the publisher is allowed to claim any copyright over the works included in their publishing agreement, even after the contract period has ended.
Rights Type - The type of usage of a work - this is usually defined as either performance, mechanical, print, synch or other
Sample - The usage of an existing recording in a new song. Samples need to be pre-approved before the new song is released, and the writers of the original song are usually given shares on the new work
Self-Billing Invoice - A feature that allows publishers or labels to include an invoice on behalf of their artist/writer when generating statements for them
Sheet - Sheet music is a written notation of music used by musicians to record and reference the musical composition of a work. Sheet music production is licensed and generates publishing income
Society Affiliation - The collection society a writer or publisher is a member of (and therefor affiliated with)
Society Identifier - The identifier a society uses for a work and often includes in its reporting, sometimes called a Work ID or tunecode
Song - A musical composition, often consisting of an instrumental and lyrical part
Songwriter - Someone who writes music, either the lyrics and/or the composition
Sound Recording - The recording of a piece of music
Sub Author - A writer who has contributed a small part of a song. This role indicates they're not the main author of the work. A work can exist of multiple regular authors and no sub authors.
Sub-Publisher - A publisher who represents the catalogue on behalf of an original publisher in a specific territory only
Sync - A service where songs are licensed for use with moving images – film, TV series, adverts, games, trailers etc. in exchange for payment.
Transaction Date - The date a payment was made, often used to capture the date a publisher or label received a payment from a society or licensee
Translator - The person who translated lyrics from one language to another, and is sometimes given a share of the copyright on the translated work
Usage Date - The date (or period) a work was used (sold, streamed, downloaded, broadcast etc.)
WHT - Abbreviation for Withholding Tax. See Withholding Tax
Withholding Tax - A set amount of income tax that an employer withholds from an employee's paycheck and pays directly to the government in the employee's name
Work - Often used in publishing to refer to a song
Work For Hire - An agreement in which a songwriter/artist gives up their ownership and administration rights for a specific work, in exchange for a flat fee. In some countries, this agreement makes the employer the owner of the work and takes away the publishing rights from the writer
Writer - The writer of a work. In music publishing this is the writer of a musical work, also called an author or composer
Writer Share - The share of copyright attributed to the songwriter/composer, the other share of the copyright is the publisher share
