Re Chonak's comment, what are we talking about? Nowhere near the money one would receive for a pop song or commercial jingle!

I composed a hymntune which was one of the winners in a contest for new tunes for Worship III (published in 1986). I've received more than $1,000 in royalties (total) for that tune during the 25 years or so that Worship III was actively being sold. More recently, I've receive a few dollars each year from OneLicense for electronic reprints. (I've received a lot more royalties for the 2-measure "Gracious Lord, hear us, we pray.")

Thank you for helping me sort this out.

I'm still a little confused. I think your explanation relies too much on the fact that you already know what you are talking about, whereas I do not.

So, for sales of the octavo edition of Dudley-Smith's new text "Jesus is a Decent Option" ($3.00 a copy), Ben will get 5% ($0.15).

When that text and tune is put into Worship V (because Fr. K is no longer there to make sure it doesn't), a hymnal published by the publisher of the text and tune, is Ben's portion an equalist ratio of the 10%, or is it 5% of the equalist portion, or something else? Or does GIA-owned copyright royalties NOT come out of the 10%? Do al the non-GIA works get paid out of the 10%, while another 5% is divied up among all the artists in the GIA catalog?

(I've received a lot more royalties for the 2-measure "Gracious Lord, hear us, we pray.")

You're welcome. (This was one of my regular Prayer of the Faithful responses at my previous parish, and was usually printed on our worship aid.)

So if I write a hymn, and use a straight up Biblical text, do I get all the royalties assuming I write the accompaniment and all the arranging?

The Bible is still under copyright?

So, for sales of the octavo edition of Dudley-Smith's new text "Jesus is a Decent the Only Option" ($3.00 a copy), Ben will get 5% ($0.15).

Yes, Ben would get $.15 in royalties (for the music) per copy sold, and Hope Publishing would get $.15 in royalties (for the text) per copy sold, with half of that going to Timothy Dudley-Smith. If Ben published the same octavo with Hope Publishing, Timothy Dudley-Smith would get the full $.15 in royalties (for the text) per copy sold.

When that text and tune is put into Worship V (because Fr. K is no longer there to make sure it doesn't)...

Don't count on it. I may no longer be an editor for GIA, but the company may call on an oldtimer like Batastini, Chepponis, Gardner, or myself to serve on the hymnal committee for Worship V in 17 years or so - just to guard against too much happy-clappy music being included in the hymnal.

If Ben's tune is published by GIA, he will always get the full royalty share when it is included in a GIA hymnal. But he will share equally with GIA any royalties from third-party publishers should they include the tune in their hymnals.

He'll get an itemized royalty statement, dated June 30, showing:
royalties from the sale of the octavo
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - pew edition
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - choir edition
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - accompaniment edition
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - guitar edition (who says a few chords cannot be slapped onto Ben's tune?)
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - instrumental parts edition
royalties from the sale of the hymnal - CD set
royalties from the sale of other items (Ben, after all, is a prolific composer)
royalties from OneLicense, depending on how many OneLicense users reprinted the hymn tune in their worship aids

Remember, the royalty one receives from hymnal sales is a pro-rata share of the 10 percent royalty. (Very simplistically) let's say that there are 250 copyrighted texts and 250 copyrighted tunes in the pew edition of a hymnal. Those 500 items all receive an equal pro-rata share of the 10 percent royalty. On a hymnal that sells for $20.00, the total royalty payment will by $2.00, and each of those 500 items will receive $.004 for each copy sold (or $40.00 for every 1,000 copies sold).

There are actually many more than 500 copyrighted items in a typical GIA hymnal. GIA uses a ten-point system to compute pro-rata shares, with a hymn text receiving 5 points, and a hymn tune receiving 5 points. Lesser shares are given for psalm refrains, psalm tones, and other pieces of service music, sometimes based upon length (number of staves), etc. I do not remember all the breakdown for these lesser pro-rata shares.

Copyrighted scriptural and liturgical texts are also added into this mix; it's not only copyrighted music and hymn texts which share in that 10 percent royalty. It's everything that is copyrighted.

Note also that, most of the time, hymn tune harmonizations do not appear in GIA pew editions of their hymnals. So a copyrighted harmonization will only receive royalties on the sales of CHOIR editions and keyboard accompaniments.

The bottom line is that most organists will make more money improvising on CROOKED BOWTIE at weddings and funerals than Yanke will ever make for writing it.

Thank you, Ben.

Now I need to go figure out a cool pedal pattern for the alleluias at the end of CROOKED BOWTIE.

Fr K: Thank you so much for explicating all of this for me, and others. I really appreciate the details.