Music Royalties and Publishing | How Top Bands Split Money

Should the songwriter get all the songwriting royalties? Or split it with the band? Does the drummer get something for setting the tempo? Did the bassist add anything deserving of owning a piece of the song?
Tim from Underoath, Biggie from Good Fight Management, Brian from Metal Blade Records, Mike from 10th St Entertainment, and Tim from Sound Talent Group discuss music royalties and publishing in the context of sustaining a career in the music business.
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[@OuterloopGroup]

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[@roamsy]

It's crazy thinking that this Christian band from Ocala that I remember being in a scene with in the 90's has outlasted most bands from Florida. What an accomplishment. I do not play hardcore anymore but am forming another band and this is all great information.

[@Inherit_Drums]

I think with my new band. We’re gonna stay independent, and because we all work normal jobs atm, us 5 would put $20 each a week into a band account, $100 a week and use that as our merch funding, extra gear, instrument replacement ect. You gotta spend money to make money.

[@CliffConway]

I'm a little confused and was wondering if anyone can help me. If a song is created by a band trio, do all three members of the band sign up with ASCAP or BMI? Or should all three members have their own publishing company? For example, my band has three independently released albums in the last decade, but they're all registered under the singer's publishing company he made up called Resonant Music. I never questioned it as I told him it was ok to put under his since I didn't have one and wasn't sure how it worked. Is there anything wrong in this situation? Should all three of us (drummer and bassist as well) have created our own "publishing companies" and also registered the same songs under ours? Or should we all just use the one company "Resonant Music"? Does it allow you to split up between multiple people even if you use one single company name on ASCAP or BMI? All of our releases are through Tunecore which pays to one account anyway which we all share. So far our band has made very little in streams or sales so there hasn't been any kind of issue at all. Please someone help me with this if you happen to know this type of situation! Thank you for your time!

[@GregoryGuay]

(I'm not super experienced in the legal/royalty side, but) I think you should each sign up with one of the PROs. Otherwise, you'd have one person getting a check and responsible for paying the other artists, sort of a management role. I THINK. Someone please correct me if I am wrong! Interesting side note, although Keith/Jagger are credited for most of The Rolling Stones songs, there was a period that they shared credit under the whole band: Nanker Phelge (a.k.a. Nanker/Phelge) was a collective pseudonym used between 1963 and 1965 for several Rolling Stones group compositions. [from Wiki]. I presume their management got a check and paid each member individually. The benefit of also being signed up individual, is that, if the sing writes a complete song/music and the band plays it.....well certain scenarios make it wiser to register that as one songwriter. Of course, there's band drama in some parts of the world.....

[@CliffConway]

@@GregoryGuay thank you! Great response/answer!

[@GregoryGuay]

@@CliffConway also, I - as probably your singer- am registered with ASCAP as a 1) songwriter 2) self- publisher So, Resonant Music must be his ‘Publishing’ alias as you suggested, so he would’ve registered the actual composer credits, as: 1) under just his name 2) or under the band name 3) I really organized considerate person should have taken the time to speak with the band and clarify “ do you want me just to claim compose your credit as the band name, and I will represent the band? Or, does each band member want to register them selves individually under ASCAP and each claim 33.33%?” ---- I’ve been in this situation, and the bandleader did not take the time to discuss, and I found out later. He simply did a copyright under the band name, so no where was my name under any of the songs, which was really frustrating, because at least two of the songs, I completely broke all the music and lyrics before I even joined the band. Stuff like this leads to a lot of frustration, and as you probably know often over very little money, or split pennies to worry about. I would probably assume he was just overwhelmed with figuring out the logistics of it all, rather than thinking he was being a selfish deviant music industry scum lol. So for the future, you guys can have the conversation about crediting each song as “Tom, Dick and Harry“ instead of under just his or the band name. If it’s under the band name, that seems a little complicated as I imagine the band name needs to legally be defined And then there would still be someone responsible for paying out to co-writers.

[@CliffConway]

@@GregoryGuay thanks again man, great info

[@rufus231]

Roger Waters