Has anyone any idea how royalties are paid.For example how much does Pete Townshend of the Who get paid for 'Who are You' every time the theme to CSI :Crime Scene Investigation is played anywhere throughout the world.It must be worth a bob or two.....:-)
There is an article on royalties on wikipedia which might answer your question.I would think that CSI's producers would have bought a licence to the song rather than paying royalties.
The tv companies have to submit music cue sheets for each and every programme to PRSfor music and they calculate the royalties for each composer, depending on how long the music was played for.
So composers who have their music played regularly like the news theme and most popular programme themes
are rolling in it.
Funnygirl's right. It's probably not very much each time, but the money is totted up and cheques paid to to the writer/artist on a periodical basis. A friend of mine is a songwriter. She's not really a household name but has penned and recorded a fair bit of stuff over the years. These days she holds down a full-time job in arts education, but still gets a tidy little cheque from PRS every six months or so.
We paid to use a track (one time use only) in the documentary I produced. Unknown band over here but it still cost a pretty penny. However, we found a better track and negotiated a better deal with an unsigned uk band. We still have an open lease on the paid track and may use it in the future.
All of this is why musicians etc get the hump when you download off p2p sites. They get squat diddly!