Distribution and IP rights management

Jumping right in. How long have you been in the game?

More professionally for the last 10 years. I remember taking classical piano lessons for about sixteen years. And while I was being taught piano, I was also in the choir. I sang at several school talent shows. When I went to boarding school was when I honed in on my love for wanting to be a musician. And then, I went off to college in New York and the rest is history.

A while ago, your song [Bornday's] Intro was featured on the hit HBO show, “I May Destroy You.” Let’s explore that a little. How exactly was the deal structured? Did you have to sign away your rights to the music? Was it a temporary thing? Was it time-bound? Can someone else use the same song now? Do you still even own the song?

I still own the song. Licensing synchronization agreements all have different types of parameters. Some might ask for you to sign your rights away, and then they own the song. Some may relinquish a certain percentage per person. So I'm given an upfront payment, but then obviously the song is then playlisted with their different providers. And so I was put into the official “I May Destroy You playlist,” which means that my song being put on that playlist got extra plays, and those royalties come to me.

So not only was I paid outright for the use of my song, I still collect royalties off of the song right now. And they don't own my song, it's mine and I'm still able to make money off my song.

Would you be willing to share how much you made? No pressure at all.

I can give you like a ballpark. Let's say it was between £3000 and £5000.

What other lessons did you learn from that experience with HBO?

The biggest lesson was to not undervalue myself as an artist. Yeah, that's like the biggest. But I think the second is to also get my contract game up, you know, read more about what goes into creating a good licensing agreement, what goes into any type of contract and agreement.

Interesting, so while we’re still on the subject of contracts, imagine I'm completely clueless about how royalties work, which I am. Would you kindly explain the concept to me? And what are some mistakes you've seen Ghanaian and African musicians make when it comes to royalties?

So first what are royalties? We hear this all the time. Royalties are kind of the money that an artist will make off of a particular song or project that they've been on.

Now, just because I've made a song does not mean that I'm entitled to 100% of the cashback on it. And so when you're about to work on a project and you're working with different collaborators, you then have to have something called a Split Sheet, where you're able to sort of attribute certain percentages of whatever the project makes, towards each of the different contributors on that project.

One of the biggest mistakes is not really enforcing better business practices when it comes to making sure that everybody's getting their fair due when it comes to projects, EPs, singles, et cetera. There are so many people with hit songs that aren’t collecting any of their royalties. Maybe they haven't signed up for publishing, which is another aspect.

You have to sign up for publishing, especially if you're a songwriter because then, you're entitled to even more anywhere your song is used; whether it's in an advert, whether somebody does a cover, you are entitled to a cut of that.

I like that you touched on publishing. Would you mind going a little deeper into that? And what would you say are some best practices when it comes to publishing?

First of all, I have to preface with, “If you're a songwriter, please, I beg you, sign up for music publishing, I beg you.” Because even if you didn't put out the song but you gave the song to somebody, you're still the songwriter and you're entitled to money off of that.

Now, publishing essentially is making sure that everybody in the world is aware that I wrote this piece of work. And so no matter how many iterations of that are found elsewhere, I'll be able to recoup something off of that.

Publishing is like putting a watermark on all your creations, and making sure that publishing companies like ASCAP, and PRS, are tracking the use of that intellectual property for you such that you're able to make money. It's sort of like royalties but from the songwriting perspective.

Interesting, how do you sign up for publishing? Like, how does that work exactly?

There are several different publishing companies around the world. One that's really popular is called PRS, they're based in the UK. And there's ASCAP, which is the association of songwriters in the United States. And pretty much any artist from anywhere in the world can sign up to either of these music publishing services. They do come at a fee. For PRS, I know it's £100, I'm not quite sure what ASCAP charges.

Is that a flat fee?

Yes, it's a flat fee. You pay to register to become part of pretty much this musician's union, so to speak. If you really want to take this seriously, and you want this to be your career and a business, you sign up for music publishing. That £100 will come back to you tenfold, trust me.

All right. So let's talk about distribution a little bit. You've had success getting your music onto a number of Spotify playlists. How does that work exactly?

I use a distribution service called TuneCore, although there are other services such as Ditto Music or DistroKid. They all act as distribution, especially for independent artists that might not be signed to a major label.

So what happens is for each release you might pay a particular amount and then they'll distribute your songs to all digital stores. The beauty of Spotify and Apple Music is that if you are to put your song out two months in advance, they're able to then help you pitch your song to different playlists.

Spotify actually does that really well. “All artists please download Spotify for Artists on your phone, if you haven't already, and Apple Music for Artists if you haven't already,” because they’ll also send you a lot of information on how you can pitch depending on the type of release you have. And they're really, really good at also educating us as Artists to know what we should be doing to maximize the scope of our releases.

All right, still on distribution. Let's talk about getting gigs. Gist on the streets - I assume, of Accra is that you are booked solid for the entire year, how do you do it? How does that work?

I have to say that when I first moved back to Accra in 2017, I wasn't as booked and busy as I am now. When I first got back here, I reached out to the owners of Serallio - which is a nice open-air space. They had started doing something called Serallio Sundays, and I kept being like, “Yo, I really want to do one.” And so I did, and not only did I do that, but I also built my own stage. I turned the whole venue into this really cool, kind of otherworldly, Cat Mama universe.

After that performance, I started getting booked more and more because once people came to the live performance, I think they really enjoyed it. That was how I first started getting booked, it was through word of mouth like "I just saw Ria Boss performing and it was amazing."

All right, where can people find you? What‘s your social? Everything! Just plug it.

You can pretty much find me at everything Ria Boss. On Instagram it’s @theriaboss, on Twitter, it’s @theriaboss as well. In terms of all my music, I’m on Apple Music and Spotify. I’m on Bandcamp as well. And you can also purchase my music! Please, mama wants a percentage of her royalties?

Apart from that, you can follow the initiative Black Girls Glow, which is an initiative that fosters collaboration between women creatives here in Ghana. I am their creative team lead and workshop facilitator.

Thank you so much Ria, It was such a blast having you on the show today. You’re absolutely amazing.

Thank you so, so much for having me.

Awesome. All right, folks, that's all we have for you today until I come your way next time.

Take care and bye bye.