I know this all sounds really complicated, but it’s not. Well, except for that dang pass-
word deal. Have a few variations ready to copy and paste from a word processor and save
the username and password. Did I mention to save your username and password? Trust
me, doing so will get you out of a jam. I keep roughly 500 passwords and usernames for
me and my clients. Most are in my head, but they’re also in a spreadsheet. You’ll get busy
doing stuff and, at some point, you’ll forget it. It happens. So save the darn stuff.
Selling Your Lyrics ... Or Not
When it comes to selling your lyrics, you don’t really sell them. Well ... you can sell
them, or rather the copyright, but, traditionally, lyricists get paid for play-time. In other
words, you get paid when they’re recorded, played on the radio and sold as CDs. It’s typi-
cally a whopping 9.2¢ for each copy sold and that’s a 50/50 split between you and your
publisher. Naturally, since you’re just the lyricist ... the creator of the work ... the royalty
check goes to your publisher. I guess they think we creative types can’t be trusted with
money. Your publisher will, or at least is supposed to send you a check, typically each
quarter. In the biz, they call this mechanical income. More on mechanical rights and in-
come a bit later.
Most of the royalties come from radio and T.V. play. To help ensure things stay legit
and you do get paid, there are a few organizations that track song plays. BMI, SESAC
and ASCAP are the majors and really the only ones worth their salt. These folks have af-
filiates all over the planet that track when your song is played. All over the world that is,
except for Russia and China that don’t honor copyright. Gee, what a big surprise.