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Digital Era Causes Shifts in Roles of Record Labels and Music Publishers
The digital-music era has resulted in many shifts in the music business. A major one has been the creative and economic repositioning of record labels and music publishers. In the following interview, coordinated by Entertainment Law & Finance Editor-in-Chief Stan Soocher, Keith C. Hauprich and Bob Donnelly discuss this repositioning and related issues from the publisher's and artist attorney's perspectives. Hauprich is Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs for Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co. Inc. New York attorney Donnelly is a partner with the law firm of Lommen, Abdo, Cole, King & Stageberg P.A., with whom he recently merged his practice after serving as a sole practitioner specializing in music matters for 30 years.
EL&F: As the music industry continues to experience the traumas and triumphs of moving into the digital age, the future of music publishing is seen as more robust than that of record labels. What are some of the reasons for this observation?
Hauprich: Historically, record labels have developed and promoted artists through financing the creation and distribution of artists' recordings, while music publishers have exploited the rights in, and to, musical compositions. Given the precipitous decline in sales of prerecorded music, the rules of engagement have changed. Entities like record labels that rely on one form of distribution and high-profit margins such as from CDs will have to re-think their business model or disappear. Unlike labels, music publishers aren't beholden to the sale of prerecorded music and are better suited to handle the changing ways in which consumers choose to get their music. Music publishers collect revenue from sources that include public performance, synchronization of songs (in connection with audiovisual works), so-called 'print rights' and mechanical reproduction of songs on CDs and by means of digital downloads.
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