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23-735: Alfred Music is an American music publishing company. Founded in New York in 1922, it is headquartered in Van Nuys, California , with additional branches in Miami , New York , Germany , Singapore , and the United Kingdom . In New York City's Tin Pan Alley in 1922, Sam Manus, a violinist and importer of mood music for silent films, started a music publishing company and named it Manus Music. The company published primarily popular sheet music. In 1930, Sam acquired

46-690: A central role in managing this vital asset. Successful songwriters and composers have a relationship with a publishing company defined by a publishing contract. Publishers also sometimes provide substantial advances against future income. In return, the publishing company receives a percentage, which can be as high as 50% and varies for different kinds of royalty. There are several types of royalty: Publishers also work to link up new songs by songwriters with suitable recording artists to record them and to place writers' songs in other media such as movie soundtracks and commercials . They will typically also handle copyright registration and "ownership" matters for

69-719: A fraction of what it was worth – or earned in the following years. A large factor in the Beatles' breakup was when their publisher Dick James sold his share of Northern Songs , the company they'd formed with him in 1963 (then taken public in 1967, with shares trading on the London Stock Exchange ), to Britain's Associated TeleVision (ATV) in 1969. Neither the Beatles nor managers Lee Eastman and Allen Klein were able to prevent ATV from becoming majority stockholders in Northern Songs, whose assets included virtually all

92-474: A given artist or writer, financially and emotionally. R&B legend Little Richard was largely cheated on his music publishing and copyrights, as were many performers. Brian Wilson and Mike Love of The Beach Boys were crushed to learn that Murry Wilson (father to three of the Beach Boys, Love's uncle, and the band's music publisher) had sold their company Sea of Tunes to A&M Records during 1969 for

115-427: A registration, or a refusal of registration, is required before an infringement suit may be filed in a US court and registration is required for claiming statutory damages in most cases. It is a common misconception to confuse copyright registration with the granting of copyright. Copyright in most countries today is automatic on "fixation" – it applies as soon as the work is fixed in some tangible medium. This standard

138-446: Is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music . Music publishers originally published sheet music . When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellectual property of composers. The term music publisher originally referred to publishers who issued hand-copied or printed sheet music. Examples (who are actively in business as of June 2019 ) include: In

161-578: Is established internationally by the Berne Convention (1886), which most countries have signed onto since. Registration may be required by countries before joining Berne. For instance, the US required registration of copyrighted works before it signed onto the Berne Convention in 1989; at that point, registration was no longer required for works to be copyrighted in the US. The observation that registration

184-467: Is not required in the United States, however, has been described as misleading. This is partly because registration remains a prerequisite to filing an infringement suit, and also because important remedies depend on prompt registration—such as attorneys fees and statutory damages . At least one commentator has questioned whether the conditioning of legal recourse on registration is inconsistent with

207-470: The music industry , a music publisher or publishing company is responsible for ensuring the songwriters and composers receive payment when their compositions are used commercially. Through an agreement called a publishing contract , a songwriter or composer "assigns" the copyright of their composition to a publishing company. In return, the company licenses compositions, helps monitor where compositions are used, collects royalties and distributes them to

230-413: The United States' obligations under the Berne Convention regarding "formalities". Some scholars and policy advocates (such as law professor and activist Lawrence Lessig and U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren ) have called for returning to a system of registration requirements and possibly other formalities such as copyright notice . The system of automatic copyright on fixation has been cited as one of

253-404: The act of publication with notice of copyright or by registration of an unpublished work. This has now been largely superseded by international conventions, principally the Berne Convention , which provide rights harmonized at an international level without a requirement for national registration. However, the U.S. still provides legal advantages for registering works of U.S. origin. For example,

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276-626: The benefits that formalities promise for a more efficient and focused copyright law, without the problems that led us to do away with them in the first place." All United States copyright registrations and renewals registered since 1978 have been published online at the Copyright Office website . Registrations and renewals prior to 1978 were published in semi-annual softcover Copyright Catalogs . For films from 1894 to 1969, inclusive, Library of Congress published hardcover Cumulative Copyright Catalogs , each covering ten or more years. Please see

299-639: The company went international. In 2002, the company partnered with Daisy Rock Girl Guitars , and in 2005 it acquired Warner Bros. Publications (including the Warner Bros. subsidiary company Belwin-Mills) from Warner Music Group . In April 2016, Alfred Music joined Peaksware Holdings LLC, parent company of MakeMusic. Gear Fisher became CEO, and Ron Manus moved from CEO to Business Development Manager. At this time, Alfred sold its sacred music catalog to Jubilate Music. Alfred's portfolio of music teaching products include: Music publishing A music publisher

322-422: The composer. Music print publishers also supervise the issue of songbooks and sheet music by their artists. Traditionally, music publishing royalties are split seventy/thirty, with thirty percent going to the publisher (as payment for their services) and the rest going to the songwriter or songwriters. Other arrangements have been made in the past, and continue to be; some better for the writers, some better for

345-408: The composers. They also secure commissions for music and promote existing compositions to recording artists , film and television. The copyrights owned and administered by publishing companies are one of the most important forms of intellectual property in the music industry. (The other is the copyright on a master recording which is typically owned by a record company ). Publishing companies play

368-532: The factors behind the growth of so-called " orphan works " in, for instance, the U.S. Copyright Office 's 2006 report on orphan works. UC Berkeley's Law School held a conference in 2013 on the question of "Reform(aliz)ing Copyright for the Internet Age?", noting that "Formalities, which in the past three decades have largely disappeared from American copyright law, may be about to stage a comeback. ... [R]ecent research on formalities suggests that we can get many of

391-465: The group's song copyrights. Losing control of the company, John Lennon and Paul McCartney elected to sell their share of Northern Songs (and thus their own copyrights), while retaining their writer's royalties. ( George Harrison and Ringo Starr retained minority holdings in the company.) Copyright registration Before 1978, in the United States , federal copyright was generally secured by

414-440: The music industry. The most unscrupulous type of music publisher is the songshark, who does little if any real "legwork" or promotion on behalf of songwriters. Songsharks make their profit not on royalties from sales, but by charging inexperienced writers for "services" (some real, such as demo recording or musical arranging , some fictional, such as "audition" or "review" fees) a legitimate publisher would provide without cost to

437-427: The music publisher, Alfred & Company, founded by Alfred Haase. Sam decided to combine the names and shortened it to Alfred Music, which the company is still known as today. Sam's son, Morty (né Morton Manus; 1926–2016), clarinetist and pianist , began working for Alfred Music in the late 1940s and met his wife Iris at the company when the bookkeeper, Rose Kopelman, brought her daughter to work one day. Inspired by

460-484: The need for quality music educational products. Morty, a clarinetist and pianist, oversaw the development of an instructional series for accordion, followed by books for guitar, piano, and recorder. Alfred Music was now more than just a sheet music publisher; the company was taking its first steps to becoming the leader in music education. In 1975, the firm moved to larger offices in Los Angeles . In 1980, with growing sales,

483-566: The publishers. Occasionally a recording artist will ask for a co-writer's credit on a song (thus sharing in both the artist and publishing royalties) in exchange for selecting it to perform, particularly if the writer is not well known. Sometimes an artist's manager or producer will expect a co-credit or share of the publishing (as with Norman Petty and Phil Spector ), and occasionally a publisher will insist on writer's credit (as Morris Levy did with several of his acts); these practices are listed in ascending order of scrupulousness , as regarded by

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506-490: The writer, as part of their job. (By comparison, a bona fide publisher who charges admission to a workshop for writers, where songs may be auditioned or reviewed, is not wrong to do so.) Rock-n-roll pioneer Buddy Holly split with longtime manager Petty over publishing matters in late 1958, as did the Buckinghams with producer James William Guercio almost a decade later. John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)

529-399: Was sued by his former publisher Saul Zaentz (who'd also served as his manager) over a later Fogerty song that sounded slightly like a CCR song Zaentz published. (Fogerty won in court.) Several bands and artists own (or later purchase) their own publishing, and start their own companies, with or without help from an outside agent. The sale or loss of publishing ownership can be devastating to

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