Entertainment
Inside the New Royalty Split for ‘Uptown Funk’: Who Gets Paid What
“Uptown Funk!”, which features vocals by Bruno Mars (center), was released in early December
(Billboard) – Songwriting credits for “Uptown Funk!” went to four people initially: Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars, Phillip Martin Lawrence and Jeffrey Bhasker. However, before the song was even released it had gained two more: Nicholas Williams (AKA Trinidad James) and producer Devon Gallaspy, the authors of “All Gold Everything,” both receiving a share for a sampling interpolation. This credit was shared at the behest of the original songwriters/publishers; Billboard’s sources say the team behind the hit reached out to Gallaspy and Williams without prompting. Gallaspy and Williams spit a 15 percent take, leaving the original four songwriters with a 21.25 percent share each.
Downloads of “Uptown Funk!” hit sales of 5.5 million units in the U.S., while Ronson’s album scanned 95,000 units, according to Nielsen Music — about $510,000 in U.S. mechanical publishing royalties (at $0.091 per song).
YouTube uploads which feature the master “Uptown Funk!” recording and which have generated at least 10 million views — five, according to Billboard’s search — show 672,617,094 views. Assuming 40 percent of those views had ads placed against them, and using a blended rate of $0.0045 cents per view, then total revenue on YouTube, both label and publishing shares, was $2.201 million. A publishing synchronization rate of 15 percent would produce royalties of $330,000. These figures don’t take into account the many user-generated videos, where the publishing would receive a 50 percent cut of net revenue.
