The music industry relies on royalties, and Bush’s income from owning the rights has increased substantially. All factors in receiving these royalty payments-and thus all profits-from licencing, brand deals, and other income streams. She owns her label, owns the master rights to her work, and is classed as an independent artist. What makes this revival so interesting to us is she’s notoriously guarded with her material. When it comes to royalty payments, Kate Bush isn’t exactly your average case. Does This Royalty Success Look The Same For Everyone? Whether they are selling royalty shares or keeping the rights, these cases are generating new royalty income for the different copyright owners. Since the release of these artists’ tracks, the music consumption landscape has changed. But when an artist like Kate Bush retains ownership of her music, she does so because she wants to be able to decide how her songs will be used. Now whenever those records are streamed or played, BMG makes money. But this doesn’t always mean that keeping the masters is the right decision for every legacy artist.Īfter “Dreams”, the 1977 song went viral, the value of Fleetwood Mac’s songs and recordings rocketed, and BMG even snapped up Mick Fleetwood’s share of future royalties in over 300 recordings. Giving them a fresh lease on life and helping them earn royalties long after they’ve stopped making new music-as long as they own the masters. “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” is a great example that when an older track goes viral, it can boost an artist’s catalogue value. Recently, with historic balances, we’ve seen a sea change where the majors write off these balances to create a more artist-friendly environment. In fact, this could still be the case 20 years later. And if there is an unrecouped balance, royalties will not be credited to an artist’s account. This financing is usually recoupable from any future record royalties until the investment is paid back. When an artist signs a major record deal, they typically assign the copyright to the label to receive an advance. The owner of master recordings will earn royalties when a song is played or reproduced, and depending on the contract terms and length, this could be either the artist or label. And in the music industry, we all know that master royalty income is a big deal. Master recordings and music copyright are key to earning royalty income. Not to mention the royalties that “Running Up That Hill” could have earned on other streaming platforms like Apple Music or Pandora. And with Kate owning the entire recording royalties, and taking that higher amount, that one track almost certainly generated upwards of £250,000 (GBP) from the recorded music royalties. Which got 57 million global streams in the first week of June.Īnd as an illustration of that one format, the rights holder can receive between $0.003 – $0.005 per stream on average. If we concentrate on the Spotify streaming royalties for “Running Up That Hill”, something that wasn’t around when the track was originally released 37 years ago. Not the roughly 90% Kate Bush, an independent artist, may receive for her distribution deal. The artist may receive a percentage of that – after recoupables – depending on the agreement between the label and the artist. This could be the label if an artist is signed to a major. With interactive streaming services like Spotify, which pay rightsholders based on stream share through agreements with record labels or distributors for songs, these master royalties are paid to the party who owns the copyright. On a standard distribution deal, our best guess is that Bush is probably earning around 90% of recorded music royalties generated by the masters, or distribution fees less label share commission, or 50% or greater. But Kate Bush 100% wrote, produced, and owns the entire recording copyright of the song (amongst others), through Fish People label, owned by her company Noble and Brite Ltd. Originally released by EMI in ‘85, the hit is now distributed by Warner Music Group via its Rhino UK division. All generating that new royalty income, but who for? Why Owning The Masters Has Been Important For Kate Bush’s Streaming Royalties It’s been used in 2.1 million videos on TikTok, and with the viral boost comes radio plays, the various digital streams, covers and samples. But setting aside the sync earned from the Netflix show, the song was successively prevalent elsewhere too and opened her music to a whole new generation. The enchanted track quickly became a fan favourite and propelled to the top of the charts in many countries. In June and July, Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” experienced a huge new royalties resurgence thanks to its pivotal sync in Season 4 of Netflix’s Stranger Things.
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