Recording
The primary purpose of a record label
What is to market and sell records?
This is the type of IP that publishers exploit (make money off of).
What is a composition / compositional copyright?
This is when an artists plays a number of preplanned live performances, typically in different cities.
What is a tour?
This occurs when a company gives money to an artist and in exchange the artist promotes the company and/or their products.
What is a sponsorship?
This country turned mega pop artist had the highest grossing tour of 2023.
Who is Taylor Swift?
In the early days of the music industry, these were the largest drivers of recorded revenue.
What are physicals (vinyl, CDs)?
Once the sole product of a publisher, this now is one of the smallest generators of income.
What is sheet music?
Consumers buy these in order to enter or participate in live music events.
What are tickets?
This is arguably the most cited probable cause to why artists earn less overall revenue on their music alone compared to their predecessors.
What is the digitisation of music (streaming / piracy)?
As of 2024, this is the most streamed song of all time.
What is Blinding Lights by the Weekend?
This is the largest generator of revenue in the recorded sector currently.
What is streaming?
This right is only triggered when a 'copy' of a composition is created.
What is a mechanical?
CDs and TV shirts are an example of this lucrative revenue stream.
What is merchandise?
A form of earning revenue that requires a lot of trust and belief from an artists audience.
What is crowdfunding?
As of 2019, this album has the most platinum certifications in the United States.
What is Thriller by Michael Jackson?
This UK non-profit organisation collects and pays neighbouring rights royalties to labels and performers.
What is PPL?
PRS is responsible for paying these type of royalties to publishers and writers.
What are public performance royalties?
These events typically result in a higher fee for an artist and have their own 'season'.
What is a festival?
Other than the artist and writers themselves, if a brand wanted to use the lyrics to a song on their clothing, they may also need permission from this type of company.
Publisher
The artist with the most platinum records of all time
Who is Elvis Presley?
In the supply chain, these companies pay the record labels and put their 'products' in stores.
What are distributors (aggregators)?
While niche, this is a right granting the use of a composition in another live artistic medium, although it is a minor income stream along with sheet music.
What are grand rights?
This is the amount of revenue in USD that live music generated globally in 2023.
What is 33 billion?
This specific form of visual storytelling of an artists life would require numerous clearances from the publishers, master rights holders, and brand and image rights of the artist. The highest grossing one earned $910.8 million worldwide as of 2025.
What is a biopic? (The highest grossing one was Bohemian Rhapsody [2018])
They are the only artist to chart at least 300 total songs in history.
Who is Drake?