Songwriters Say Piracy Eats Into Their Pay — a look at another constituency that’s working to get heard, and is positioning itself alongside the RIAA. Plus a call for compulsory licensing from the EFF’s Wendy Seltzer.

Writers can receive as much as 8.5 cents for each song that appears on an album, each time a copy of that album is sold.

In practice, however, many songwriters receive less, since royalties are typically split with their publishers, leaving them with 4 cents. If a song is co-written, that 4 cents is split again, so the total can amount to just 2 cents. Songwriters also receive royalties of varying amounts when a song is played on the radio, or is used in movies or television.

“Eight cents is nothing; it’s cheap,” said Carey Ramos, a lawyer for the National Music Publishers’ Association, which represents music publishers and their songwriters.

But “a penny here, a penny there - they add up,” he said. “In the aggregate, it’s a big difference in the paycheck of a songwriter.”

[...] [The EFF's Wendy] Seltzer cited the sluggish economy and consolidation among record labels and radio companies as other reasons that record sales had fallen sharply over the last four years. She argued that, assuming the downloading is authorized, online music distribution actually lowered costs and increased exposure for songwriters and artists.

Songwriters “will have to learn how to adapt to the new technology,” Ms. Seltzer said. “The buggy manufacturer doesn’t have a place in the world of automobiles.”

She suggested that the music publishing industry adapt for the recording business a model similar to one used in radio, where broadcasters pay blanket fees for rights to play songs and the money is split among the songwriters.