Question regarding publishing rights with SIDs

[tomsk]

After the recent announcement from Chris Abbot :
"At the moment it looks like I'll be partnering with "Sound of Games" to sub-licence the publishing rights and C64Audio CD remix albums, so there will still be a place to clear publishing rights, and Sound Of Games themselves seem to have some nice plans. Of course, that might come to nothing, but it seems promising."
What is the current deal with regard to publishing SID music ? One of the reasons I ask if that I stumbled across this album and wondered who was getting paid, either in rights publishing or musicians for using their original music. I see Chris Abbot has been involved (writing the sleeve notes) so I take it all appropriate permissions were granted, but are the original artists being paid, and is the new partnership with Sound of Games now getting a cut of any sales. Just curious to learn if and how things may have changed.
I can't ever recall this album being mentioned on the forum, but I don't log in as much nowadays so maybe it was.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... -4%3C/a%3E

[trace]

I guess random ppl can make compilations like this and make money out of it...

[Chris Abbott]

With that one, all the composers on it who I represent got paid some money, eventually. It was only a small release, so it wasn't a huge amount.

Sound of Games had nothing to do with that recording though, and do not take a cut. They will generally now take a cut of licencing deals and products they create or negotiate, or a cut of residual sales of the remix CDs on iTunes. In general, Sound of Games job is to publicise and otherwise big up C64 music to generate more activity.

Chris

[Chris Abbott]

Annoying that the label made so many mistakes on the actual sleeve though.

[Chris Abbott]

Technically, anyone could make a SID remix album and release it, as long as they declared the songs properly and bought a pressing licence (And didn't use any of the original SID).

Chris

[tomsk]

Okay - thanks for clearing up my question. The tracks are available on various downloadable sites (itunes, amazon, etc). Each track is £0.99 to download (although cheaper on some other sites). So someone makes a downloadable Mp3 and physical CD, gets permissions (presumably from yourself and the original artist?). Can I be cheeky and ask what percentage each of the parties would receive ? From what I deduce you would have :
The permissions/copyright holder (presumably you Chris)
The original artist
The hosting site (i.e. Itunes / Amazon, etc)
and finally the label/person who made and released the album.

Of course there may be some other factors here - I don't know as I don't publish music. Hopefully you'll know at least the permissions value and original artist. Then we can see what's left for the hosting site and label between them.

Tomsk

[Chris Abbott]

I'm bound to confidentiality about specifics, but aggregators generally pass on between 70% and 95% of the amount they receive from iTunes after tax. But yes, all those parties get a small slice.