Royalties for CD

[cvs2kids]

This is probably a good Brent question.

How are the royalties on a cd distributed? Do the performers get anything on future sales (say compilation CD's), or just song writers, or none of the above?

[brent]

All of that is agreed upon by the people involved. Once the original deal has been fulfilled, the one who owns the publishing rights (Bob in the case of Petra) gets paid when there is a re-issue. Everyone else was likely paid for their services on the front side, etc.

How sales are tracked is another matter. If one releases a CD, DVD, etc, a form is submitted with the UPC bar code to Neilson SoundScan. They are a subscription service that reports sales sold. These sales do not always include merch table sales and internet sales. Generally, points are almost meaningless when it comes to internet download sales. Honesty and reporting is an issue. Unless bands sell in the hundreds of thousands, artists generally don't break even or get anything from it compared to selling physical discs. ASCAP/BMI, etc pay the owner of the publishing for mechanicals, etc.