{"id":168235,"date":"2011-12-02T20:37:26","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T20:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/socan-academy\/hip-hop-music-publishing\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:29:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:29:52","slug":"hip-hop-music-publishing","status":"publish","type":"socan-academy","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/socan-academy\/hip-hop-music-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-hop music publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tony Tobias has worked in the cultural industries in Canada for more than 35 years, in the fields of music and media rights management, among others. His publishing company is Pangaea Media & Music Inc., and he’s a member of SOCAN’s Board of Directors. Saukrates is a veteran, Juno-nominated Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer who co-founded Capitol Hill Music, and sings in the group Big Black Lincoln. He’s also a member of Redman’s Gilla House collective, and has worked with K-os and Nelly Furtado. Here, they discuss publishing in hip-hop music.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tony Tobias:<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re a hip-hop songwriter, you should be concerned about what you own of the copyright, which translates into multiple potential revenue streams. Some hip-hop producers don\u2019t have a great handle on what music publishing is. The producer contributes to the master track, but the recording is a different entity to the song, so we have to differentiate \u2013 they\u2019re separate as far as copyright is concerned.<\/p>\n

There are also different types of producers. The producer-as-investor tells the artist, \u201cI didn\u2019t write the song, but because you can\u2019t pay me, I\u2019m proposing that you put me on the song as a co-writer, so I can benefit from airplay \u2013 that might be my only revenue.\u201d Here, the artist retains copyright, as he or she does when working with the producer-as-arranger \u2013 or beat-maker \u2013 who comes up with beats for the song the artist has created. As an artist, don\u2019t let that producer convince you that they have now co-written a song. The producer-as-composer actually has ideas as a musician and collaborates with the artist on the actual writing of the music, with a clear understanding that they are co-writing and sharing copyright.<\/p>\n

In a writing-room situation, before you start, say, \u201cOK, everybody in the room is cool with the fact that this is a collaboration\/co-songwriting thing here, and before we leave the room we\u2019ll agree about who contributed what, and here\u2019s the sheet that we\u2019ll all sign, basically accepting the percentage that we agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saukrates:<\/strong>
\nThese days the lines get blurred between beat-makers and producers. The more talented beat-makers play a huge role in putting a song through the roof. They can take some of the producer credit, or share it, because they have taken it that far.<\/p>\n

A lot of times, new beat-makers get opportunities on a mixtape, which nowadays is just putting your music out there so people can get a feel for what you do. So in that case they might say, \u201cYou can use it for a minimal amount, but it\u2019s non-exclusive\u201d \u2013 and they\u2019ll retain their publishing, and reap the long-term benefit. Two years later, you call the beat-maker again, and it\u2019s not the same: you can\u2019t use this piece of music for nothing, non-exclusively or exclusively. It\u2019s a battle. It\u2019s war out there!
\nUp-and-comers don\u2019t even think about the red tape before they go in the studio. That\u2019s something for all veterans to take note of, to keep it loose and be free with it and deal with it all afterwards. If it don\u2019t fly, you find a way to change it, to replace the sample or said musician. The sky\u2019s the limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":111232,"template":"","academy_category":[1138,1140,1139],"academy_tag":[],"class_list":["post-168235","socan-academy","type-socan-academy","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","academy_category-academie-socan","academy_category-conseils-des-membres","academy_category-developpement-de-carriere"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/socan-academy\/168235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/socan-academy"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/socan-academy"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"academy_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academy_category?post=168235"},{"taxonomy":"academy_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academy_tag?post=168235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}