Eddie Van Halen deconstructs his collaboration on 'Beat It'

[Gadzooks]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Frank Sinatra couldn't play an instrument and never composed music but in his vast arrogance, suggested that HE received publishing royalties, which are reserved for songwriters and composers only, because HE made the songs famous.

Unfortunately, managers and other artists picked up on this notion down the road and said "I own 50% of whatever you write and record for ME".

Paul Anka is probably the greatest victim of this sort of mentality as far as I can see. He wrote the theme for “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and was strong armed out of any royalties. They all went to Johnny…
Neil Diamond is on the opposite end of the scale where he receives royalties left and right for songs he wrote for other people where no one knows he wrote them.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Gadzooks

Paul Anka is probably the greatest victim of this sort of mentality as far as I can see. He wrote the theme for “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and was strong armed out of any royalties. They all went to Johnny…

Actually, this is false.

The Johnny Carson Show theme was an instrumental version of an Anka song called "Toot Sweet". Anka received his Writer's share of the income but it's likely that since it was used by Carson's production company, it collected the Publisher's Share.

This is standard practice. There are very few production companies that allow composers to participate in Publishing royalties at a 50% rate, let alone, 100%.

Song shares are typically distributed as follows:

50% Writer, 50% Publisher. If Johnny Carson's company published the song, they'd be entitled to 100% of the Publisher's earnings. The writer, Paul Anka, would be entitled to 100% of the Writer's share of earnings.

It's rare in Film & TV that the writer would get a percentage of the Publisher's portion but if so, the equation for royalties would be as follows:

50% Writer's Share: Anka
25% Publisher's Share: Carson
25% Publisher's Share (Anka's Publishing Company).

Originally Posted by Gadzooks

Neil Diamond is on the opposite end of the scale where he receives royalties left and right for songs he wrote for other people where no one knows he wrote them.

But that doesn't mean that he's collecting Publisher's Share. If those songs were considered "Work For Hire", he'd only be entitled on Writer's Share.

It's a really tricky, complicated business.