ustxtxb_obs_1978_04_14_50_00026-00000_000.pdf

RECORD COMPANIES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FOREIGN PUBLISHERS Illustration by Bill Narum RECORDING ARTISTS FILM & TV PRODUCERS BMI & ASCAP 1 Information for Historians, Researchers, Nostalgia Buffs, & Observer Fans Bound Volumes: The 1977 bound issues of The Texas Observer are now ready. In maroon, washable binding, the price is $15. Also available at $15 each are volumes for the years 1963 through 1976. Cumulative Index: The’clothbound cumulative edition of The Texas Observer Index covering the years 1954-1970 may be obtained for $12. Index Supplements: The 1971 through 1977 paperback supplements are provided at no additional charge to those who purchase the cumulative index at $12. Subscribers who do not want the cumulative index may purchase any of the supplements separately. The price is 500 for each year. Back Issues: Issues dated January 10, 1963, to the present are available at 500 per issue. Earlier issues are out of stock, but photocopies of articles from issues dated December 13, 1954, through December 27, 1962, will be provided at 500 per article. Microfilm: The complete backfile scription to the microfilm edition is $15. To order, or to obtain additional information regarding the 35mm microfilm editions, please write to Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. server Business Office. Texas residents please add the 5% sales tax to ‘our remittance. Materials will he sent postpaid. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 600 W. 7 ST. AUSTIN 78701 41=111111=1111111111111111111111. 25 APRIL 14,1978 The American Society of Composers Music, Inc. the two major organizations collecting performing rights royalties for composers and publishers, list 2,514 songwriter and 959 music publisher affiliates with Texas addresses. Many publisher affiliates are companies owned in whole or in part by a songwriter who has set up on his own to oversee the licensing of his copyrights. Most publishing companiesin Texas and elsewhereare built around the catalogs of two or three prolific and successful writers who typically are also musicians and recording artists. Few companies function as full-service publishing entities actively on the look-out for new material, with staffs working to bring along new writers and get songs recorded. The list of well-known songwriters from Texas would stretch a mile, but a few who still call Texas home include Willie Nelson, Mickey Gilley, Jerry Jeff Walker, Freddie Fender, Charlie Pride, Ray Price, Delbert McClinton, Floyd Tillman, Red Stegall, Cindy Walker, Billy Gibbons, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Gary Nunn, Willis Alan Ramsey and Doug Sahm. Most of these retain some degree of control over their songs through self-owned music publishing companies. For the unknown songwriter, it is nearly an impossible task to get a song recorded. Where does one begin? The traditional route takes the songwriter to a music capitalLos Angeles, New York or Nashvillewhere he stands in line outside some publisher’s office. If a publisher likes his material and takes him on, the writer transfers to him his copyright claims. In exchange, the publisher promises to do his best to exploit the songwriter’s material, issue periodic royalty statements, and pay any royalties due. The assessment of a particular publisher’s ability to do any of this, while crucial, is usually a difficult and subjective process.’ Today a great many new songs are first recorded by their authors themselves or by the bands they play with. This is particularly true of rock music writers, many of whom conclude that the support services they need are purely administrativemost learn to keep control of their copyrights through arrange Songwriter-publisher deals