I’ll never forget the time I found myself at a Grammy event, listening to the legendary Quincy Jones talk about his work with Michael Jackson.
When someone asked him the secret behind his success, he answered with a smile, “It’s all about the songs, my friend. A fantastic song can turn an average artist into a superstar. But even the best artist can’t make a bad song a hit.”
That really stuck with me, reinforcing the fact that everything in music starts with the attempt to craft an amazing song. But here’s the kicker: songwriters don’t get paid by artists to write songs!
Yep, you heard that right! Apart from one exception, which I’ll get to later, songwriters usually don’t see a penny upfront for their hard work. It was quite the shocker for me too when I first dipped my toes into the songwriting world.
You might be wondering, “How on earth can one make a living as a songwriter?” But trust me, just because there’s no initial payment, doesn’t mean you can’t make a decent income.
Sure, songwriting might be one of the most puzzling careers out there, but we’re about to dive in and discover how you can ride the waves in this vibrant and rewarding part of the music industry, all while building a comfortable nest egg for your retirement.
Table of Contents
5 Ways To Make Money as a Songwriter
Publishing Deals
Let’s discuss Music Publishing. Despite its seemingly bland name, it’s incredibly pivotal in the music industry.
Consider it this way: publishers are to songwriters what labels are to artists. Sound familiar? That’s because many of the big-name publishers are the same ones you recognize from the label world, like Universal, Sony, Warner, and more!
You might be thinking, “Music Publishing… so, like, writing music on a piece of sheet music and selling it in a book, right?” Well, not exactly.
Here’s the lowdown: copyright law is the superhero of writers and composers. Its mission? To prevent people from taking a piece of your song without having contributed to it, potentially for their own profit.
This superhero divides the money made from songs into two categories: the publisher’s share and the writer’s share.
Suppose you write a song all by yourself. Bam – you’ve got 50% of the publishing rights and 50% of the writer’s share. In other words, you own the whole thing, 100% of the song.
But let’s say you bring a friend on board to help with the lyrics – how do you split the ownership? Well, if they write the lyrics and you write the music, it’s usually a neat 50/50 split, and so forth with more writers.
Now, if you team up with a publishing company, you might decide to hand over 30% of your song’s publishing share in return for a substantial sum of money.
This means they’d have 30% of your publishing share, but they wouldn’t get to strut around claiming they wrote any of the song, even though they technically own a piece of it. The only writer on the credits is you.
Consider publishers as the silent partners or investors backing your songwriting career. Like record labels, they put some money upfront against future royalties.
I’ve written a detailed article on how record label deals work for artists, including this whole concept of an ‘advance’, which is essentially a loan given to an artist or songwriter that has to be repaid. Look for it alongside this one.
But here’s the kicker: repaying a publishing advance isn’t the same as repaying a record label advance. As a songwriter, you usually have a larger portion of the pie.
So, if you go into business with your publisher, keeping 70% of your publishing rights while they get 30%, you could start repaying your share pretty quickly – all it takes is a bit of success or of course, less upfront money!
Streaming and Download Sales
The phrase “if you start gaining some success” can be a bit ambiguous. How do we define success nowadays?
For instance, is reaching 1 million Spotify streams in a month a considerable success for a new artist? It might seem so, and it’s indeed impressive.
However, the reality is that for every 1 million streams, if you own the entire song, including the publishing rights, you earn about $3000 US.
Consider this: if you sign a publishing deal with an upfront advance of $100,000, for which you relinquish 30% of your publishing rights, you would need either a single song or all your songs to collectively reach 111 million streams to break even.
That’s because Publisher’s will be putting only 30% (their share) toward your account.
While this might seem like a daunting number, publishing deals are usually more lenient than record deals. You can start making money, even while you’re in debt. Here are a few ways you can do that.
Synch Licensing
You know, for most musicians, songwriters, and producers I’ve spoken with, having their music featured on TV is like striking gold!
Here’s the deal: When you secure a synch placement (a fancy term for your song being used in a TV show or movie), you’re in for a triple payday, provided you own everything.
This implies that you control your master recording, operate your own record label, and haven’t signed away any publishing.
Imagine this: A Music Supervisor from a show like ‘Ted Lasso’ approaches you with a contract, ready to pay a synch fee for your song.
This usually comes in two parts: one for the master recording and one for the publishing rights. Each of these could put a cool $10,000 directly into your pocket.
By default – if you don’t have a publishing deal, you are the publishing company. If you don’t have a record label, you own the master.
And guess what? The Music Supervisor doesn’t mind, as long as you hold all the rights to the song.
But wait, there’s more! The third enticing piece of the pie is performance royalty payments. These are paid to the song’s writer every time the episode or movie is aired.
This doesn’t come from your publishing company but from a performance rights organization like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.
This triple reward makes getting your songs on the big or small screen a dream come true. You remain the proud owner of the song and recording; they’re just renting it.
But remember, it’s not always smooth sailing; securing placements can be challenging.
That’s where publishing companies can be your best ally. They have insider connections with major Music Supervisors.
So you have to weigh your options – would you rather have 70% of $10,000 or 100% of zero? That’s why some people decide to sign away their publishing rights.
One more thing to keep in mind: Music Supervisors often deal with issues from artists who don’t clear rights properly. There have been instances when a song makes it into a show, only to be removed because a producer claims they own the master, or a writer insists they weren’t credited.
This is why Music Supervisors appreciate receiving material from reliable sources like publishers, agents, and labels.
Performance Royalties
Think of performance rights catalogs as your own little retirement nest egg in the music industry. If you’ve written songs, even if you’re casually sharing them on platforms like YouTube or Instagram, or independently releasing your music, it’s super important to be affiliated with either ASCAP or BMI.
You might be surprised at the amount of money you could be leaving on the table! These organizations are like your own personal detectives, tracking performances of your music all over the globe.
Once upon a time, this was fairly simple – it was all about radio airplay or a placement in a film or TV show. But in our age of digital streaming, things have gotten a bit more complex.
But hey, that’s not a bad thing! In fact, for all you songwriters and composers out there, it means there’s more potential revenue for you to tap into from these various sources.
Picture your song featured in a popular show like Ted Lasso. It’s not just a one-time deal. If the show runs for seven seasons, each re-run is like a gift that keeps on giving.
If it gets picked up by Netflix after its HBO debut, you get another payday. Even those YouTube promos with your song in the background? Yep, you guessed it, another source of income.
And it doesn’t stop there. If Ted Lasso gets translated into Spanish and French and broadcast in countries where those languages are spoken, you can expect another paycheck. This could continue for years, even decades!
Now, imagine you’ve got hundreds of songs being played on radio, in films, and on TV. Those royalty checks, or “mailbox money” as we like to call it, that you receive every few months could potentially cover your annual living expenses.
All that without you having to lift a finger! Pretty cool, right?
And it’s not as rare as you might think. I’m no superstar, but I even get statements from Ascap with 50 pages of my songs being played worldwide.
Just think about the kind of statements top-tier producers and songwriters receive. It’s mind-blowing!
Commissioned Work (Buyouts)
Remember when I said songwriters usually don’t get an upfront payment for their songs, with just one exception?
Well, here’s that exception. It’s known as commission work or buyouts, and while it used to be pretty rare, it’s becoming more and more common these days.
Basically, someone offers you a tidy sum upfront to own it all: the master recording, the publishing, and the writer’s share. Think of it like being hired to create a masterpiece.
Here’s the great part – the fees are often pretty generous and you don’t have to part with your greatest hits. If you’re an artist, it could be a catchy tune that you whipped up just for this – a quick way to make some dough.
The cherry on top? This income isn’t included in your recoupment to repay your publisher, so it’s instant cash for a service you provide.
Buyouts usually happen with tech companies, social media, and sometimes for specific theme songs for film and TV.
Companies go for buyouts because they’re planning on using the music a lot and they’d rather not deal with the headache of constantly collecting and sending money to your publisher and ASCAP.
To save themselves a bunch of accounting hassle, they decide to write you a nice big check, take ownership of the music, and then there’s no need for any more back-and-forth.
This is super common with background music. Facebook and Instagram, for instance, are building libraries where users can pick different types of music for their videos, like a holiday montage.
Once you hit “find music”, it’s all free and you can pick whatever catches your eye (or ear!).
If Facebook had to cough up cash every time a song played on a Facebook or Instagram reel, it just wouldn’t be feasible. With the billions of plays, they simply wouldn’t be able to track and pay all those royalties, so to avoid getting sued, they came up with this solution.
Don’t worry though, your artist name can still pop up when your song is playing in the background on social media, giving you a bit of visual promotion!
Final Thoughts
I know this article has a lot to take in, but I tried my best to make it as straightforward as possible. Understanding the various ways to earn from your songwriting is super important.
It’s equally crucial to know about all these opportunities and how they operate. I’ve seen instances where unsuspecting artists fall prey to bad deals because they weren’t aware of these aspects.
They end up in painful publishing contracts filled with empty promises or situations where producers retain all the rights to their recordings. This could seriously impact them, especially in scenarios involving film and TV.
There are many informative books out there on this subject, but let’s be real, some of them can be a snooze fest (no offense to the lawyers who wrote them). So, I’d recommend a book by an actual independent artist and songwriter, Ari Herstand.
It’s called ‘How to Make It in the New Music Business‘.
Ari also runs an awesome podcast and has a super informative website.
So, even though we started this article with the alarming statement that songwriters don’t get paid upfront, songwriting is actually one of the safest and most profitable ways to have a rewarding career in the music biz.
And as the wise Quincy Jones once said, “it’s all about the song!”