Songwriters are in an exceptionally bad position in the music industry.
- Songwriters are vulnerable, especially in the early stages of their careers.
- Songwriters say that the competition is fierce, which drives talented people out of the music industry.
- In recent years, attempts have been made to improve the position of songwriters.
The music industry is a huge business that supports a large number of people both in Finland and abroad. Despite this, the industry includes a key group of professionals who are basically not paid for their work at all.
These are the songwriters, i.e. the ones whose songs are sung on business trips and at weddings, bring strength at the Olympics and birthing rooms, and comfort at funerals and at the time of separation.
Iltalehti interviewed three domestic songwriters, who talk about non-existent rewards, breaking glass ceilings and future prospects.
Uncertain livelihood
– The biggest problem is the beginning of the career. It’s tricky, songwriter Called Salokorpi tells.
Salokorpi has been composing and writing songs for 15 years. He has made songs for numerous top artists. The songs made by Salokorvi include, for example, Teflon Brothers Maradona and Elastic Superpowers.
During his career, Kyösti Salokorpi has made numerous hit songs for Finland’s top artists. Hanna Salokorpi
Salokorpi says that young songwriters are in a particularly challenging position. The goal is to write with good artists and producers, but the road there is long and rocky.
– Even if you could get a couple of hits played on the radio and do so well that you would earn, for example, 8,000 euros, that would still not be enough as an annual income.
According to Salokorven, the challenges are especially related to the income of the songwriters.
– In practice, the income consists entirely of copyright income. It means that they focus on the hits played on the radio.
Copyright income or Teosto income works so that the music industry copyright organization Teosto collects compensation for the use of music.
– That is, every time the song is played on the radio, the radio channel pays copyright compensation, or if the artist plays it on a big stage in Ruisrock, for example, the event organizer pays Teosto for it. The same applies to television, Salokorpi elaborates.
The compensations paid for the use of the songs are added up and paid to the customer.
– But compensation is often not credited to the author’s account until a year or two later after the song was made.
Free work
Before you can wait for copyright income, you should first get the song published and played on the radio, TV or at concerts.
Lyricist Sana Mustonen says that the process is very uncertain and often contains a lot of free work.
Sana Mustonen has been writing songs for over ten years. In 2019, he switched from a publisher to a freelance lyricist. Sana Mustonen
– When you make a song, there’s no guarantee that it will ever be played anywhere, or that you’ll even get ten bucks for it as a reward. Until now, it has not been customary to pay composers and lyricists any remuneration for a commissioned song.
Mustonen says that he still makes free songs, but mostly for well-known artists.
He asks for compensation from unknown artists, because the chances of the song’s success are significantly lower.
– I’m a professional lyricist, and I don’t do any other work, so it would be a bit strange if I didn’t get anything out of it.
Mustonen has worked as a lyricist since 2008. He has written lyrics for example Summer of Steel Neck Perfect life -song and Robin’s Frontside Ollie’s.
He says that sometimes people even get offended and threaten to switch to another author when he tells them that they have to pay for the song’s lyrics.
– I tell them to take it from somewhere else, Mustonen laughs.
Gatekeepers
For Maiju Lindellwhose stage name is Bambi L, the operating culture of the music industry has become very familiar in recent years.
Lindell started his professional career in 2018. For the past two years, he has worked under Warner Music Finland. In addition to his own music, Lindell has made songs for, among others, the German Jungle Jungle and the Estonian Karl Killing.
Maiju Lindell has aspired to an international career as an artist. Maiju Lindell’s home album
He describes how challenging it is to get songs up to release.
– Before publication, the song must please the creator’s publisher, the artist in question and their A&R person, whose subjective opinion about what is “good”, i.e. commercial enough, is decisive.
Lindell says that the so-called “gatekeepers”, i.e. the people who decide on the selection and release of songs, are often white, middle-aged men.
Because of the gendered structure, it is often challenging for young women in particular to carve out a career for themselves.
– Representatives of a certain group of people identify more easily with people like themselves and the songs they write. That’s why there is an urgent need for diversity in the gatekeepers and leadership positions in the music industry, so that all kinds of stories and musical styles can really be heard, he specifies.
Support money and handy work
Only very few songwriters are able to do their job full-time. Kyösti Salokorpi belongs to this rare group.
– When you’ve been making songs for a longer time, it starts to be like a catalog of songs that are still playing on the radio and the situation gets better.
However, a long career does not always guarantee a living. For example, Mustonen is currently working with a working grant.
– It’s nothing if there are hits, but they come so rarely. The competition is fierce and the songs keep coming.
Many songwriters have to do more work or live on benefits.
Maiju Lindell says that she supported herself during her music career with, for example, unemployment benefits, and by working as a Wolt customer service and school attendance assistant.
– Along with writing for others, chores and financial stress, I tried to pursue the most important thing for myself, my own international artist career, but I just didn’t have enough energy and time for it and exhaustion became an obstacle. Black had been sucked out of all the benefits.
According to Kyösti Salokorven, a lot of potential is wasted precisely because of the uncertainty of the industry.
– I would personally like to prevent talented guys from quitting because their livelihood is so uncertain that they end up drifting into other jobs.
In his opinion, record companies should invest in the future by offering songwriters at least some kind of compensation for song-making sessions.
– Even one hundredth is already important. It would already pay part of the rent or go to the store to pick up food for the week. It’s a win-win for all parties if we have guys making good songs.
An unfair position
One might think that the dependence on copyright income affects many workers in the music industry. In reality, however, the songwriters are the only ones in the process who are constantly left without other compensation.
Kyösti Salokorpi describes that making a single song may involve, for example, a producer, mixer, mastering artist, graphic artists and photographers, as well as promotion. All of the above receive some kind of one-time compensation for their work.
– You can’t say to a graphic artist making a single cover that if this song plays well on the radio, then you’ll get money, but there is still a certain income.
Maiju Lindell, on the other hand, reminds us that with the help of songs, for example, a part of the salaries of record company employees is also paid.
– This is a really absurd and blatant flaw in the industry. The most important people in the industry, i.e. the songwriters, are not paid, even though all the other workers in the industry and the bosses of record companies and publishers benefit from them.
Winds of change
However, slow change can be observed in the field. According to Sana Mustonen, certain parties already automatically pay for song creation these days.
– In my opinion, colleagues in the field also dare to price their work more often and say that this pays.
Solutions have also been sought at the organizational level.
– Such a model of ECSA, i.e. the umbrella organization of European music makers, has been proposed, where there are many different points, Salokorpi says.
The model includes, for example, proposals for paying a lump sum when a song is published or reserved for a certain artist.
With the help of ECSA’s ideas, it would be possible to better guarantee that song creators would receive a reward for their work. Resources would be freed up to do creative work instead of financial stress.
– After all, the situation can only go in a better direction, because at the moment there is no compensation in addition to copyright income. It is simply important that this is talked about and that discussion has now been opened, Salokorpi sums up.