Stands for Artists and Repertoire. Record labels have A&R departments that select and deal with new artists, songs and records.

The supervising for a fee (generally a percentage of income), usually by a major music publisher, of a smaller music publisher’s financial and copyright matters regarding one or more songs or an entire catalog. The administrator does not necessarily own a share of the copyright, although one co-publisher could administer another co-publisher’s share.

The payment in advance of royalties to be earned in the future, and recouped by offsetting those future earned royalties against the money advanced. Advances are usually non-refundable.

The transfer of ownership of a copyright from one party to another, which must be in writing to be effective.

That portion of the Copyright Act (ß1001-1010) that provides for royalties to be paid to songwriters, music publishers, recording companies and recording artists for the importation or manufacture of digital audio recording devices (e.g., digital tape players) or media (e.g., CDs and tapes).

An industry term for film, television or any other visual production.

An important clause in any agreement between a songwriter and a publisher, or any business agent, that allows the songwriter the right to have access to the publisher’s books and records (usually once a year), so that the songwriter can determine the accuracy of the publisher’s accounting practices.

The creator of “Intellectual Property” such as literary, musical and dramatic works; choreography; pictorial, graphic and sculptural works; audio/visual works and sound recordings. Therefore, the word author can denote composer, lyricist, record producer, choreographer, artist, photographer, writer or other creator (see “Work for Hire").

Works originally copyrighted between 1964 and 1977 are granted an automatic renewal term (See EXTENDED RENEWAL TERM) by the Copyright Act, without the necessity of the writer having to file a renewal registration form in order to preserve copyright protection, as was the case for earlier copyrights. However, filing a Form RE (along with payment of the appropriate fee) for automatically renewed works is recommended in order to obtain certain statutory benefits

Music used (other than as feature or theme music) that creates mood and supports the spoken dialogue of a radio program or visual action of an audio/visual work.