The Controlled Composition Clause

In this www.artistshousemusic.org video, Wallace Collins, an entertainment attorney based in New York, explains the two-copyright arrangement that runs the music business (ie the song itself, and a specific performance of that song) and how the Controlled Composition Clause of the copyright code allows record labels to reduce the royalty rate paid to artists in instances where the artist is also the songwriter and therefore is in theory entitled to royalties for both copyrights. He also discusses how the Controlled Composition Clause can really work against an artist’s bottom line when choosing songs to put on album.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

“The Whip” (1930) Bass Voice Sung by Noah Beery Accompanied by the Vitaphone Orchestra From the Talkie: “Golden Dawn” Brunsiwck Panatrope 4824 In the middle of 1930, Warner Brothers was riding high with the profits from the numerous expensive musicals it had produced, many of them entirely in Technicolor. As part of a plan to make even more money, they decided to buy up one of the biggest sheet music firms and, along with that, one of the biggest phonograph record companies, ie Brunswick. The acquisition of Brunswick Records resulted in a number of odd records by actors such as this one. Most of them, however, were never released. A few months later, the ambitions plans of Warner Brothers were broken. Late in 1930, the public began to feel the effects of the Great Depression which had just began and they grew sour on musicals of any kind. The reaction was so strong that the Warner Brothers were forced to cut all musical numbers of a number of their films. In 1931, they were forced to buy out the contracts of a host of musical stars that had been hired in anticipation of a big musical season in 1931. Brunswick and the music publishing firm they had brought were also quickly sold off.