Quote:
An average hit song on the radio today will earn the songwriter $600-800,000 in performance royalties. For example, The Black Eyed Peas song "Boom Boom Pow" has had 6.3 million single sales and 3.15 million album sales to date which equates to $860,000 in songwriting royalties. Since the song was written by all four band members, each person has earned roughly $215,000 just off performance royalties.

Synchronization rights – any time a song is used on TV, in a movie, in a commercial. Whoever owns the master copyrights of a song (typically the record company) dictates when a song is licensed and for how much. Artists can earn $300,000 if their song is used in a national commercial or film and $50,000 for a prime time television show.



that's from the story.

But when you look at the reality.... as has been said, very few songs every hit the radio that are written by one writer. Most are 2 or more. Even if the artist didn't write a single word....they still ask for a share of the writers portion. Most writers willingly agree. It's that or nothing. In the example above.... divide the gross by 4, suddenly it's not really a lot of money then after that, you have to pay the taxes..... and it shrinks even more. What's left gets spent quickly by most. A new car, a few toys and poof.... it's gone.

Synch rights.... that number is mostly fantasy for the majority of writers. If they use your song in a national TV commercial, you will be lucky to gross $50k. Same kind of story.... there's a lot of songs we're considering for this spot and while we'd really like to use yours, the money you're asking is too much. So..... unless you are a major recording artist already AND this song was a huge hit already.... you ain't getting nothing close to the numbers they are discussing in that section of the story. Fact is most TV commercial music gets under $25k for national spots and that is before taxes and fees. If you have to split it with anyone..... you might be able to pay your bills for a month or two.


I met a few folks who were (at the time) among the elite providers of the music for the big national tv talk shows. The one guy showed me his monthly BMI print out. Now understand, at the time, he was claiming to have been making over $100k a year. His printout was 4 to 5 pages long. With most of the songs paying a few dollars each. Some were in the $50 range and a few were over $100. His music was on Oprah, Dr Phil, and Dr Oz. He had close to 1000 songs and cues licensed and working.

From my own experience, there are songs that will literally pay you 5 cents. Others, a few dollars. It's when you have hundreds or thousands doing that monthly that you actually make some spending cash.

To retire comfortably as a writer, you have to be doing this for a long time and either build and maintain a current catalog of TV & Film music that's in demand, or be in a position to get your music to a major artist or artists, again, for a number of years. One hit to retirement really isn't on most folks list of accomplishments.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 05/29/20 07:32 AM.
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