Songtrust: This Online Solution Makes Music Publishing Accessible to the Indies

SOHO, MANHATTAN:One by one, the Internet tools for music career management are coming alive. In a digital music world where almost everything can potentially be managed better via the Web, the only wait that artists, songwriters and labels have to endure these days isn’t for the technology – that’s arrived. It’s for the idea.

Online tools for indie artists evolve yet again with Songtrust.

When NYC-based Songtrust launched in December, 2010, its adept founders had surveyed the artist empowerment landscape and saw something important was missing: an automated solution for music publishing. Although other critical aspects of a music creator’s aspect were being handled – distribution, promotion, merchandising, touring – all had an army of online support, the potentially mind-bending world of music publishing had yet to be suitably simplified.

A year into business and with the member list fast reaching the 1,000 mark, it’s no wonder that Songtrust is taking off. The parent is Downtown Music, a forward-thinking concern which operates one of the top 10 US publishing companies, and seems to bang out big new ideas like NASA launches rockets. With billions of dollars in worldwide performance and mechanical royalties paid out yearly, but only a relatively few artists backed by a pro team to fully collect them, Downtown’s brain trust saw an opportunity to expand the DIY universe yet again.

With a vast amount of digital streaming and download possibilities available to the consumer, and an equally tantalizing spread of synch opportunities potentially bolstering artists’ revenue streams, Songtrust appears to do something even more useful than demystify the process of cashing in – for an affordable fee, they simply take care of it for their users.

SonicScoop went in-depth with Jeremy Yohai, Director of Writer Relations for Downtown Music Publishing/Songtrust, to learn more about how this New York startup is assisting indie music creators.

When you meet someone for the first time, how do you describe what Songtrust does?

Songtrust is the first online music publishing administration company for DIY/ Indie songwriters. We are the easiest way to collect royalties. Our songwriters maintain 100% ownership over their songs, they can leave Songtrust at any time and get paid 100% of their royalties.

Personally, I contributed to the building and development of the site. Currently I’m working on Songtrust’s writer relations, operations and partnership opportunities.

SongTrust has its roots in an experienced and successful group of music industry pros via Downtown Music. What made SongTrust’s founders feel like this was an essential venture to build out?

Songtrust was co-founded by Justin Kalifowitz and Josh Deutsch. Justin is the President of Downtown Music Publishing, one of the top 10 music publishers in the United States. Josh is the Chairman/CEO of Downtown Music LLC, Co-Founder of RCRD LBL, and an established songwriter and producer.

With Josh and Justin having long successful careers in music publishing, songwriting and in the digital music world, they realized that there was a need and now a way to help independent songwriters get what is owed to them. Both of them are very involved in the day-to-day business of Songtrust, since the company is based in the same SoHo office as the other Downtown Music properties — Downtown Records, Downtown Music Publishing and RCRD LBL.

Songtrust’s Jeremy Yohai understands the direction of music publishing.

That’s a solid brain trust to start with! Songtrust says that its major goal is to “level the field” for songwriters. In what ways is the field currently not level when it comes to music publishing, and how will songwriters benefit when it is leveled for them via Songtrust?

Before Songtrust the only way a songwriter was able to get all their publishing royalties was to enter into a deal with a traditional publishing company. If a writer couldn’t get a deal, they were left out in the cold, and most likely would miss out on some of their royalties. Well, now Songtrust empowers all songwriters to take control of their music publishing.

Anyone can join, whether you’re a songwriter that earns $50 a year in royalties or $5,000, you can now get what’s yours.  Traditionally writers that earned less than five digits in royalties wouldn’t get a deal. So that left a lot of songwriters unable to get their royalties — this was a main premise for the building of Songtrust.

So beyond royalty collection, what are some of the other ways you help songwriters?

There are certain steps that someone should take after writing a song, regardless of what their ambitions are, whether it’s just playing at the local club or at Madison Square Garden. We can assist with these very first steps.

We’ll help get a writer affiliated with a Performance Right Organization (PRO) (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), and we’ll register the songs correctly with all the collection agencies in the US , including Harry Fox and Music Reports, since the PRO’s only collect performance royalties.

There’s also an educational aspect to the site. We post useful info everyday on music publishing, songwriting and the music business in general. The world of music publishing can be very confusing. We break it down and speak to songwriters in a language they understand.

We also offer some creative services — Songtrust is a partner with DMS.FM, the premier synch licensing company, which helps create synch opportunities for our bands and songwriters.

With that kind of 360 offering, what kind of membership are you currently attracting? Is Songtrust just for songwriters, or also for indie labels, publishers and other entities?  

Basically Songtrust is right for any songwriter that wants to take control of their music publishing regardless of income.

We have some great indie bands that have been gigging around locally, producers and songwriters who have had cuts with rappers and pop artists, and emerging film/TV composers. We also have some established artists that were signed to major publishers in the past.

Aside from working with artists/writers directly, there are managers, lawyers, and indie publishers using our site to as a royalty administration tool to manage the songs written by artists/songwriters that they look after.

Who are some artists who are using Songtrust, and what’s an example of what their “signal flow” would be?

Like I said before, we have a bunch of indie artists/songwriters that are with us. Some of the bigger writers are Kenna, who released albums on Interscope and Columbia, and Sam Jayne who was signed to Sub Pop and has written songs for Beck. We recently started working with this great indie band from Hawaii called The Green, that were charting a few weeks ago on the iTunes charts, and one of our younger songwriters Sarah Solovayhas had numerous placements on TV shows.

Kenna is online with Songtrust.

Each one of these writers was at a different point in their career when they came to Songtrust. For some of the guys in The Green, we had to help them with the very first steps in getting their publishing sorted. With an artist like Kenna, we basically step in and make sure that everything that was previously set up was done correctly.

Like any traditional music publisher, the key information we need is song title and writer information and then we get to work.

It sounds like a good start. Have you had some challenges in growing a startup like Songtrust?

The main challenge for us is stressing to songwriters that there could be royalties out there for them, it might be $50, but it’s theirs and they now have the ability to get it. If you are touring, selling your music, have music played on TV/radio or streaming on the Internet you could be owed royalties.

The US royalty collection agencies are collecting more money now than ever before and it’s not all owed to the artists/writers that are on top of the charts. There are indie artists/songwriters that could be earning a few hundred dollars a year, but they’re just not aware of it.

On the flipside, what’s made this a rewarding effort to be a part of?

What makes this rewarding is that our site empowers songwriters to take control of something that in the past was not available to them. Music publishing was only for the few lucky and some talented songwriters that had publishing deals.

We have conversations everyday with our writers and they feel like they’ve been invited into the private party now. Maybe they haven’t written a #1 song yet but at least they’re in the game, so if they do have a YouTube or Spotify stream they can get what could be owed to them.

You’re operating all this from the heart of SoHo. Why is NYC the right HQ for you?

All of our staff is based in NYC. The whole project, from the very first discussions on to our launch, was worked on from our office in SoHo.  NYC is a great place to be based — not only is the music industry here, but there are tons of creative songwriters/artists running around these streets.

— David Weiss

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