Royalties and licensing fees…what's the difference?

[stevelemaire]

I know that licensing fees are collected by the publisher and back end royalties are collected and distributed by PROS but what is the difference in what the music is actually used for?
Would having music placed in trailer be sync licensing fee? Then if the trailer is played on tv would it be a back-end royalty?
Payments from my PRO always come with a statement but sometimes I get a payment from a library and I have no idea what it’s for….I feel like I should at least understand the difference haha.

Thanks, -s

[Mark_Petrie]

If you get a payment from your library, then it’s probably a cut of a license fee or from sales to the public (iTunes etc). I also occasionally get mechanical royalties from a big library, I guess that’s when the library gets paid for something like DVDs or a toy that uses the music.

[stevelemaire]

What’s the difference between a synchronisation royalty and a mechanical royalty?

[Mark_Petrie]

sync – a fee for ‘synching’ a piece of music up with a project, like advertising, TV, movie etc.

mechanical – you get 9.1 cents every time your piece of music is reproduced mechanically in the US (which used to mean records, CDs, but now also covers digital downloads and ring tones – where you get 24 cents). The interesting thing about that is you are supposed to get paid even if the physically printed ‘units’ (CDs etc) don’t sell.

FYI a lot of libraries, especially RF ones, grant a mechanical license along with the sync license when a customer pays for the music.

I honestly don’t know much about that side of things because this is more the domain of the record business, so I did some digging. Here are some interesting articles:

What is a Mechanical Royalty? Music Publishing Unlocked

http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/Understanding_Mechanical_Royalties
https://www.harryfox.com/license_music/what_is_mechanical_license.html

Music Licensing Secrets Revealed

That last article is great for covering the basics for anyone new to the business.

[Kubed]

Thanks for posting the links Mark.
I was just looking to get some info of how the mechanical royalties are distributed to artists,some very helpful links here.
From what i understand,HarryFox collects the mechanical royalties only in the US.Is there an agency that collects mechanical royalties from worldwide distribution of your album/music?
If a song of yours end up in another artist’s record,who will collect and distribute to you the mechanical royalties?Is it the label that released the record or you have to be a member of an agency like HarryFox?

[stevelemaire]

So music placed in a trailer would generate a sync licensing fee to be collected by the publisher?

[Author]

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