Not necessarily, and if you don't know about them there could be a great benefit to google it, a benefit to everyone involved in the making of a song, including you most likely. These rights organizations are there for our sake, to help us and support us in the game of fairness.
Speaking about fairness, this site could be a good start: http://www.fairnessrocks.com/
Making a song is complicated, with a lot of parts that enhance each other, and of course the system of rights gets a bit complicated too. But to mention two of them: the copyright and the performance right. The copyright goes to the writers of the song (lyrics and melody). Session musicians don't touch that right (unless they actually contributed to the writing of the song), but they do have a performance right, that is, when the recorded song is performed in public (radio, restaurant, gym etc.) the musician will get payed. (As well as the writers of the song will get payed from their organization.)
Writers: PRO (Performing Rights Organization, sends their own bills)
Musicians: CMO (Collective Management Organization, sends their own bills)
No, the producer doesn’t get a bill from a CMO, they don't have to worry about that. CMO sends the bills to the radio, the restaurant and the gym, and they pay. And the money goes to those who contributed to the recorded song. Easy said, if you bring other people to the song, the rights get splitted.
-But the session musicians are already payed, at the session, now they want more?! Well, they are, by law in many countries, entitled to that. All European countries, and many outside, has agreed to this law. It should be noted that the performers’ right to equitable remuneration is valid irrespective of the existence of an organization in that specific country – as long as the country has ratified the relevant international treaties/agreements (mainly the Rome Convention from 1961 and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty from 1996).
Good for you? Here you can find a list of CMO's and which country they are operating in: https://www.sami.se/wpcontent/uploads/2020/01/Utvaxlingsavtal-200129.pdf
This right is there automatically, and are generally considered as non-transferable, which means that they remain in the hands of the performers concerned, regardless of the provisions of the contracts with e.g. the producer/record label.
To enable a CMO to identify titles / performer contributions it is very important that the producer/label/artist provide information on released tracks.
That's it, pretty much. The producer fills in a list to a CMO, with information about every contributor to the recorded song, and that's it! No need to be worried about later court nightmares if the song turns out to be a great hit!
In the USA they have a custom of doing things a little different, and I think many misconceptions about this come from that. Labels use to engage session musicians on a "work-for-hire"-basis, that is the musician is given a flat fee and then it's thank you and good bye. Only, the "work for hire"-thing is not liable for recordings. It's pretty good explained here: https://artistiklicense.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/sessionmusicians/
As for me, I'm affiliated with SAMI, the Swedish organization representing performers in the music field. When I made my first record I had a guy playing guitar on one of the songs, and of course I added him to the list I reported to SAMI. Now the song has not really hit the radio or earned any money to come this way, so in a way you could say that it was useless formalities. But IF it would have become a hit, I know I have done the right thing from the start.
One common theme in songs use to be love, peace and understanding, you know, that better world type of thing. But if we musicians don't even respect our own rights, then why should anyone else care about our songs about a fair world? Just a thought…
Thank you Martina Andersson at SAMI for the help with this text!
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I am running a sole proprietorship, Harpkonst, and that means I need to know if you are a natural person or act as a corporation to be able to do my bookkeeping right. Also, if you are a natural person in EU, 6% VAT needs to be added to the price.
And I think that was all the important things I had to say! I hope this leaves you a lot wiser, and has given you enough information to let you decide whether I'm the right musician for you!
Photographers: Kenneth Friberg and Mia Westlund
