Spins = $$$$$

[Escuchame]

In talking to a former publicist for Sixpence None The Richer, he told me that Matt Slocum, the writer for their hit single "Kiss Me," managed to earn upwards of $6M in airplay/publishing royalties throughout the duration of the song's life span.

If I'm not mistaken, the song peaked at #2 in the pop charts.

Now... taking all of this into consideration, how much money, approximately, does the writer of a song get for one week at #1 at POP.

Just wondering.

I know things get rather confusing once the song starts crossing over to other formats or gets played in syndicated shows.

Peace out,
Andree

[Unexpected]

I wonder how much Diane Warren gets a day...

[tico]

I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say that chart peaks aren't taken into consideration unless the songwriter has something in the contract that would pay a bonus for chart performances. I would also venture to guess that since "Kiss Me" was such a successful single that the huge amount of airplay on radio and various TV shows, commercials and movies was probably more than enough for the $6 million payday.

As for Diane Warren, let's just say she's set for life.

[BlahBlahBlah]

Well the chart performance does matter considering the amount of money you get is based on the amount of spins you get. So obviously, this would mean you would earn more money if your song has more longevity.

I wonder how much money the Neptunes make considering Rhythmic and Urban stations play the hell out of their hits.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Do the Neptunes write the songs on their own or are there 50 writers per song? I wonder how that's split up?

Diane Warren doesn't look too rich. She must be the Bill Gates of songwriting!

[BlahBlahBlah]

Juan said:

Do the Neptunes write the songs on their own or are there 50 writers per song? I wonder how that's split up?

Diane Warren doesn't look too rich. She must be the Bill Gates of songwriting!

Most of the time, the songs the Neptunes produce/write are credited as (Artist Name)/Chad Hugo/Pharrell Williams. There are times when the artist isn't even involved in it (like Britney's songs). So either way, I would think they make a lot out of it.

[laguy03]

I never realized that the writers could make so much off of a song

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Makes you wonder where Celine Dion gets all of her money. She must be a dealer on the side.

[WhySoSerious?]

Lots of stuff to consider with your question, first you have to wonder if they're only considering money made from airplay which would be performance royalties. My music publishing textbook states that a #1 on the Hot 100 usually can garner between $70,000 and $100,000 from airplay alone.

But publishing royalties include much more than just royalties from radio. You get performance royalties everytime the song is played on TV, plus you get mechanical royalties on every CD/cassette sold that contains the song, plus print royalties for anytime the lyrics are re-printed (like sheet music), plus foreign royalties in all of these categories, and finally a micellaneous category that includes using music in films, commercials, karaoke, etc.

Basically publishing is where the money is in the record industry.

[Pet Shop Boy]

'Kiss Me' was a big hit around the world... combined airplay royalties from every country where it was a hit could certainly add up to 6 million....

Des'ree must have made gazillions off 'You Gotta Be' then

[WhySoSerious?]

Juan said:

Do the Neptunes write the songs on their own or are there 50 writers per song? I wonder how that's split up?

Depends on if there's a contract drafted with specifications about how royalties and rights to the song will divided. I'm sure the Neptunes arrange that stuff, but if there isn't a contract, then all royalties would be divided evenly amongst the songwriters regardless of who contributed more.

[arebomb]

I've read articles that stated Rob Thomas got about $35 million on the royalties from 'Smooth' alone.

[Rumors]

I don't know a lot on this subject but as far as the royalties go for airplay, a radio station's profitable spinning the song also plays into this. Everytime a station plays a song they must pay the songwriter (not the performer). The bigger stations earn more money from advertising etc than smaller stations. Therefore, the amount paid per song by a large radio station is more than a smaller station. A large station can pay up to and around $.05 per spin. That adds up rather quickly especially if you have an international hit.

And arebomb, I think I read the article you are quoting. I think Rob made about $35 million last year from all his songs (royalties) of which I'm sure Smooth was a large chunck (also he has to split royalties on Smooth since he was only a co-writer).

[j]

I wish someone would produce a hypothetical spreadsheet of costs and revenue, assets and liabilities for radio stations, because I'm having a hard time believing that they can make a profit if they have to pay the songwriter even $0.01 for playing the song.

[JCMF3]

Kiss Me reached #1 on pop for 2 weeks in May 1999, so I guess there is your example of a #1 pop song.

[WhySoSerious?]

Radio stations definitely have to pay. The performing rights royalties are collected by mainly two performing rights societies in the U.S. It's usually either ASCAP or BMI. There's also SESAC with less than 1% of royalties.

Radio stations don't pay based on each individual song they play though. What the do is obtain performing rights licenses from both BMI and ASCAP which give them the right to play any song in the society's repertoire. Then BMI and ASCAP track which songs are actually played so that they can divide the funds appropriately.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Ron once said on the other board that when Lifehouse's 'Hanging By A Moment' was a hit, each spin earned it an average of 12 cents, which does kinda add up.

[Ragin]

Juan said:

Ron once said on the other board that when Lifehouse's 'Hanging By A Moment' was a hit, each spin earned it an average of 12 cents, which does kinda add up.

Does it really though? Now I don't know how much of a sample the R&R panel is, so maybe it really does, but giving a song a rather generous 200,000 spins for CHR/Pop which would easily be the #1 song of the year, and being even more generous and saying you got that many spins on 5 different formats (megahit) at 12 cents a spin only gives you $120,000. Now that's big bucks to you and me, but that doesn't even come close to the millions that everyone else is talking about. So are there really that many more stations out there?

[WhySoSerious?]

There's no way to know how much a song is making per spin unless you wait until every single royalty has been collected distributed and then divide by the number of detections.

These blanket licenses granted by ASCAP and BMI are negotiated with each individual station. The larger the station and bigger the audience the more that station pays. So, one spin on a small market station makes the writer less money than a spin on a large market one.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Hmmm, well there's probably more to it than just radio airplay. Also, don't forget airplay outside of the US.