intellectual property

Intellectual Property for Song Writers

*Written by Tony Joett - a celebrated Tanzanian vocal coach and newspaper columnist. His "Letters From A Vocal Coach" column is published in Business Times every Friday. He also offers Tutorial Video Clips on YouTube, and recommends High Quality Vocal Improvement Products on the Joett Music Blog,

If you are a musician or songwriter, and you think you've got what it takes to write great songs for the international market, then it's about time you consider investing in intellectual property. This article will not only aim to expound on the term intellectual property, it will also elaborate on the three reasons why creating music is a perfectly viable business proposition in itself. And then I will tie all of that in with the advantages of learning the basics of singing to expand your musical horizons. So let's begin.

You will probably be wondering why I specifically mentioned 'international market'. The reason is pretty simple. It is for the copyright laws in place that protect your work, and performing rights societies that pay you royalties on your works. That is reason number one for you to, especially, target creating music for markets that protect your musical work and by so doing, your bread and butter. The second reason why intellectual property is key to your success in the music business--even when you do not perform your own songs--is because you get to earn residual income. 

One of the big sources of publishing revenue you'll earn as a songwriter is performance royalties. But an even bigger income stream comes from music publishing in mechanical royalties. In other words, every time a song you've written is manufactured to be sold on CD, downloaded from a digital music retail site, given radio airplay, streamed through services like Spotify, television, film and even played in bars and clubs, you are owed a mechanical royalty.

So how does all of this tie-in with the advantages of voice training for songwriters? 

Being a trained singer myself, I can tell you this for nothing: with a trained voice your ability to craft the songs you envision becomes a whole lot easier and helps bring your imagination to life in dimensions way beyond your wildest dreams. I suppose the simplest way to put this is to say, if the magic is in you and your vocal instrument is able to deliver your vision, the sky truly is the limit. An even more brilliant way to explain this is to compare an artist who can only imagine beautiful images but is unable to draw that on canvas, with one who can.

And now here's the third reason for songwriters to invest in intellectual property. Not everybody is of the ideal age or visual appearance to make it as an artist, but that doesn't mean you should give up on your dreams. Writing great songs for other artists is another, perhaps more subtle way, to a splendid income doing what you love best, creating music. I hope this article has helped shed light on what else you can do to achieve your dreams in the music business.

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