Ne-Yo is one of the most prolific song writers of the 2000’s but has little to show for it- songwriters make almost nothing, especially compared to the people who perform their songs. The hugely successful R&B singer, along with other musicians, recently lobbied in D.C. to change the laws for songwriters. Songwriting falls under musical composition copyrights and the people who lobbied in D.C. are primarily concerned with the mechanical license aspect of this copyright, which determines a flat rate of how much companies need to pay for these copyrights. Basically, they need a governmental agency to change the rate to allow them to make more money, and they are proposing this be done with the Songwriter’s Equity Act. This law will give more power to the songwriters to ask for more money from companies, especially streaming music companies. Because the way it stands for songwriters, it doesn’t look good. “Right now, for example, 1 million streams of a song on Pandora only earns a songwriter $90 on average. And that then has to be split with publishers too,” NeYo told Fusion’s website. “Even if you write a hit song that’s streamed millions of times, you’re still not going to earn enough to pay the rent from streaming. And that’s where the entire industry is moving.” Songwriters, like Ne-Yo, are hoping to fight back and change the inequity between what the performers and songwriters make. If laws don’t change, many songwriters might consider their career a “no-go.”
Check out the full article here: 1 million streams = $90? NeYo reveals the truth about how songwriters get paid
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