Why Aging Rockers Are Cashing In On Song Publishing

[jobeterob]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-young-song-publishing-1.5864807

[nativeNY63]

Point well taken. Dylan got this ball rolling. Well, if you can't do your job, then you get a new one or go to Plan B. Same for the job of athlete too. That's what we've been doing! Only our boss don't provide millions for our work! I ain't made at em!! Other musicians should follow their lead.

[nativeNY63]

Not Kanye, though. Who talks a good game. But don't seem to be delivering. Except for Kanye.

[PeaceNHarmony]

As stated previously ... who can find fault? Their work, and their choice. Plus the added benefit of not having one's estate a hot-legal-fee-suckin'-mess aka: James Brown, Aretha, Prince ...

[jobeterob]

I think I feel the same way. It's their work - they can do as they wish. It sounds like Neil, in particular, is maintaining control over how his work is used.

Many of these people are old and even if they could tour and generate their mega bucks, they might not want to do that. And they can't tour so the mega bucks from that are gone at least for a while.

But the idea of Neil Young telling you to open an account at Citibank or buy doughnuts with Heart of Gold in the background would cause gasps or snickers - but it doesn't sound like that will happen. And he sure wasn't happy about Trump using his songs.

[JM27]

The overriding reason for so many acts doing this is the diminishing income from publishing. With streaming being the norm re how people "consume" music, royalty payouts are a fraction of what they used to be. The owner of the master rights of recordings [[labels) make the most money from streaming - major labels are easily making a million per day from streaming. This can often account for 95% of Spotify payout - leaving 5% to be divided up between the songwriters and publishers.

Anyone with a fine back catalogue would be stupid not to cash out now.

[jobeterob]

The overriding reason for so many acts doing this is the diminishing income from publishing. With streaming being the norm re how people "consume" music, royalty payouts are a fraction of what they used to be. The owner of the master rights of recordings [[labels) make the most money from streaming - major labels are easily making a million per day from streaming. This can often account for 95% of Spotify payout - leaving 5% to be divided up between the songwriters and publishers.

Anyone with a fine back catalogue would be stupid not to cash out now.

That split of income is terrible and the labels make too much

[PeaceNHarmony]

I think I feel the same way. It's their work - they can do as they wish. It sounds like Neil, in particular, is maintaining control over how his work is used.

Many of these people are old and even if they could tour and generate their mega bucks, they might not want to do that. And they can't tour so the mega bucks from that are gone at least for a while.

But the idea of Neil Young telling you to open an account at Citibank or buy doughnuts with Heart of Gold in the background would cause gasps or snickers - but it doesn't sound like that will happen. And he sure wasn't happy about Trump using his songs.My personal desire would be for the music I love remain ... music I love. But good music will remain good music regardless of tasteless [[thinkin' singing raisins) use.

[ralpht]

I have said in the past that Spotify is guilty of some of the lowest royalty pay outs. As I mentioned, my Motown royalty was roughly 5 cents per single. The Spotify rate was something like .0005% per download. It was simply becoming senseless to try and survive on song royalties.

[jobeterob]

There's something really wrong with that. It smacks of of something Trump like.

[ralpht]

Trump.... trump..... trump??....Oh you mean that pain in the ass that ONCE was the president.

[nativeNY63]

Mike Fleetwood, founder of Fleetwood Mac, according to Billboard, latest to cash out.