New York 2006

Briefly explain the current music industry
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.A song is divided into lyrics and music copyright and music copyright.

The copyright of lyrics and music is easy to understand. Generally, it belongs to the songwriter or the company, or it is bought by the company and belongs to the company.

Just like Luo Ji's songwriting copyright, he can sell it.It is estimated that it can be sold for a lot of money. In reality, Bieber sold his copyright to lyrics and music.

This is what Sony/ATV does.Michael Jackson had a stake in it.For commercial covers, you need to find these songwriters or music publishing companies.

Music copyright refers to the music recorded by the singer, and the copyright belongs to the record company.

Before 2000, record publishers automatically owned 50% of music copyrights. However, with the decline of the music industry and the rise of independent music, competition among music publishers has become increasingly fierce.

This rule is gradually disappearing, and independent record companies can own 100% of the music copyright.Just like Big Machine Records did not give Universal Music the music rights.

Taylor's previous heated copyright dispute was about music copyright.

The copyright of her lyrics and music still belongs to her and has not been sold, so she can cover it and sell it again 20 years later.

Now, the three major music record companies rely on music copyrights and songwriting copyrights to make money.These copyrights were acquired through acquisitions one after another.

As for music distribution companies, only 4% of the music is distributed by the three major record companies (including their subsidiaries and affiliates), and the rest are independently distributed.

Of course, the publishing company can't make much money now.There is generally an annual fee.Or only 10% commission.But they have big data, which is worth a lot of money.

In 2022, independent music's revenue share will reach 34.6%, already exceeding Universal Music's 29.5%.

(End of this chapter)