Chris Gough of Mana Music and Native Tongue is a music publisher - a sometimes mysterious profession to the uninitiated. Gough has a long history of promoting New Zealand songwriting including the first incarnations of Split Enz members. He signed Phil Judd in the late '80s and has just signed The Datsuns.

He talks to The Big Idea's Isaac Davison...Chris Gough of Mana Music and Native Tongue is a music publisher - a sometimes mysterious profession to the uninitiated. Gough has a long history of promoting New Zealand songwriting including the first incarnations of Split Enz members. He signed Phil Judd in the late '80s and has just signed The Datsuns.

He talks to The Big Idea's Isaac Davison...Isaac Davison: Tell us about the origins of Mana Music or Native Tongue -
I have been involved in Mana Music for 20 years, a company which does music supervision and licensing in Australia and New Zealand. It started as a music production company, and we managed and produced a couple of bands in the late 1980s - The Makers and Schnell Fenster, both of which included members of Split Enz.

In 1991 we were asked to do music supervision for a film a friend was making, called Rikki and Pete. Phil Judd from Schnell Fenster wrote six original songs, as one of the lead characters in the film was a singer; and Eddie Rayner from The Makers wrote the score.

From this experience we began to branch out into film composition. Phil has since become a respected composer in film and TV.

In Mana Music we were working with many composers, some of whom didn't have publishing and wanted their publishing looked after. Over 10 years we signed five or six people, including Don McGlashan who we met through An Angel at My Table. In 2003 we formed Native Tongue, deciding we needed to get serious about publishing. Up until then we had an external administration - Warner and then later Festival Music.

In the past few years we have set up an international network of sub-publishers, and signed several Australian and Kiwi writers.

So how would you describe what a music publisher does?
If you look at a record there are two distinct copyrights. One is the recording that the artist makes, and the other is the actual music itself. We deal exclusively in the music. It has the same revenue streams as the recording does, but there are many more streams in publishing.

Our interest is not necessarily in the artist, but in the writer of a song. On occasion they are intertwined, such as with Don McGlashan. We first signed him when Blam Blam Blam split up, and since then he has featured in The Front Lawn, The Muttonbirds, as well as having a solo career, and writing several film scores. Out interest is in the writer as a composer, more than as an artist.

So what is the difference between a publishing contract and a recording contract?
Publishing is concerned with the song - where a song can be used in different ways - as opposed to the recording company's emphasis on the career of the artist, the recording of their music, and the distribution of records.

Publishers have very different collection regimes. Some of our income is collected for us by APRA and comparative societies globally. They collect money for us from the broadcast of songs on radio and TV, in public places, live performances, hairdressing salons, garages, shops and so forth.

Also, when a song is copied from one format to another, there is a fee payable to the writer. For example, if a news segment needs a song, there is a fee for its transfer from CD to the screen.

Has the ratio of income from publishing increased ahead of - or in line with - record sales in terms of the musicians cut?
The deals are more favourable for writers than ten years ago. The income streams available for writers are much broader and more sophisticated than the record industry.

For example, in karaoke the publishers are paid because the music is being used, but the actual recording artist does not because it's the person in the pub singing it. If a New Zealand band has a successful song, and it is recycled in karaoke, on NZ Idol, in cover versions, the writers benefit.

However, record sales are the starting point for any income. It is the success of the record that determines how popular the song is going to be into the future. If a song survives in the long term, it opens greater possibilities for the publishers. The Beatles got paid for the original recording of "Yesterday", but Lennon and McCartney (who wrote it) get paid for every recording of the song thereafter.

How much does the new regulated online environment generate income possibilities?
It opens up numerous opportunities which didn't exist even a few years ago. It is changing by the day too. The iTunes model may be obsolete or non-existent in a few years. The industry is changing so fast.

Several music companies have arrangements with websites in which their music is downloaded for free, but they acquire a share of the site's advertising revenue. That is a completely new business model, and no one has any idea if it will work. But the basis of music publishing is that whenever music is paid for, the writers are paid.

Do New Zealand publishing companies work to find international publishing opportunities for Kiwi artists or do you co-operate with companies in other territories?
We work to find international exposure through sub-publishers in most major territories overseas. We also work very closely with music supervisors, particularly in New York and Los Angeles.

We have just had our third Pitch Black track on CSI; and a local band called The Bads have had a couple of tracks played on a new CBS series The Unit. We try and stimulate sales wherever we can.

So you have a few award winning acts on your books including Don McGlashan in this year's Silver Scrolls. What do you look for in a musician?
Essentially we look for career songwriters: people we know who will be writing songs for the rest of their lives, and to whom music comes naturally. The songwriter might go through various bands or permutations before they realise their potential.

Native Tongue does not want to be a massive catalogue - our emphasis is on quality control, and moving to international networks.

24/10/06