Why Publishing Your Music Matters, and what is the right deal for you?

Hi there,

My name is Linda and I am a music industry professional with over 20 years experience of being a musician and music consultant. I have worked for labels, management companies, and hundreds of artists and bands of all ages, genres, and statuses. One thing many emerging artists find a grey area is that of Music Publishing…

Today I am going to delve into Publishing in the simplest way that I can. If you want a detailed deep dive please feel free to follow this link, as they go into a whole lot of layers whereas I am just lightly touching the surface here.

Learning about music publishing is probably one of the most helpful things you can do for your career if you write your own songs or co-write them with others.

Music publishing is, by far, the most confusing aspect of the music industry and perhaps the one with the most consistent paperwork! It is the subject of countless blank stares when I explain it to my clients who are at the starting stages of their careers and have a catalog of songs ready to be shopped around.

In an effort to reduce confusion and blank stares, I’ve put together this introduction and need-to-know blog post on Music Publishing, I hope it allows you to understand that it isn’t as complex as it may at first seem.

First things first we need to chat about Music Publishing Revenue:

Let’s say you are after writing an awesome song, congrats! You have hired a Music PR agency and it is getting some great traction on the radio. You switch on the tv and hear other bands and artists' music being played in the background and you want that too. You are eager to add your new song to your catalog of songs and you feel you are ready to start pitching the set list of songs you have to a publisher to see if they feel they can help you get your music out there. After all, it is time you got someone to ensure that you receive royalties for your compositions, and music publishers generate opportunities for compositions to be performed and reproduced. Maybe you can hear your music on tv! How exciting! But where do you start? and how do you split your songs with a publisher?

Let’s go:

Each song’s music publishing revenue is split into two halves: The publisher’s Share and the Writer’s Share.

In the pie chart, I have added below, is the total music publishing pie for a single song. As a writer, the Writer’s Share belongs to you, and it cannot be assigned or sold. In the event that you don’t sign a music publishing deal of any kind, you’ll retain 100% of the music publishing revenue and ownership of your songs. Meaning that you own the ‘whole pie’.

A publisher’s share, or the left half of the pie, is given up when you sign a music publishing agreement.

Here are a few ways that might happen in the 3 main types of music publishing agreements that you need to be aware of:

1) Publishing Administration Agreement

In many cases, artists wish to retain ownership of their music publishing but hire a third party to exploit the songs they have created (through film/tv placements, etc.). In addition, an experienced music publishing administrator helps to ensure that your catalog of songs is being paid and collected in the right amount and at the right place around the world in order to guarantee that you are earning the right amount. Music writers are rarely compensated when their songs are used in commercials, films, or video games. A music publisher administrator can be your best friend, by ensuring that your songs generate as much revenue as possible worldwide.

By signing a Pub Admin contract, the administrator does not acquire ownership of your song rights, but administers them for a fee (ranging from 10–25%). In exchange for giving up a percentage of your music publishing revenue, you hope the administrator will help your songs generate more revenue. A 20% pub admin deal is illustrated in the diagram below. Publishers’ shares are only 20% of sales. The Writers’ shares are untouchable; therefore, 20% is 20% of 50% or 10% of the Artist’s overall publishing revenue. It is the Artist who retains the full ownership pie, but the Pub Admin company gets 10% of the total revenue from music publishing.

2) Co-Publishing Agreement

In the industry today, the Co-Pub deal is the norm. It is the music publisher that administers the copyrights to the musical works. Copyrights in the works are owned jointly by the publisher and the writer. The term is often longer than Admin Deals…often equal to the life of the copyrights (which is equal to the author’s life plus 50 years!). Music publishing advances are normal in exchange for the Artist’s deepened commitment. Generally, half of the publisher’s share goes to the publisher, so we’d have a 75/25 split between the artist and the publisher (i.e. 50% of the publisher’s share is given away, or 25% overall):

3) Buy-Out Agreement or a “Full” Publishing Agreement

These days, buyout deals are less common than in the past, and they are usually offered in conjunction with a significant advance for the writer’s catalog. All copyrights in the musical works are owned by the Publisher, and the Publisher has sole administration rights. Music publishing revenue is split 50/50, and the Writer receives only the Writer’ Share from performances.

What Does a Music Publisher Do?

A music publisher administers, promotes, exploits, and protects your catalog of songs globally. Mechanical royalties (royalty earned from the ‘mechanical’ reproduction of the music) and performance royalties (royalty earned from the public performance of the music) are the two primary revenue streams for music publishers.

Publishers are responsible for collecting ‘music publishing revenue’ for artists whenever a song is heard on the radio, at a retail store, in a supermarket, at a football game, or when it appears in a video game etc. Although some slip through the cracks, as there are millions in unclaimed revenue that remain uncollected on behalf of many artists. Therefore, make sure you work with a competent publisher who is proficient at their job!

Publishers were primarily responsible for administering printed music until the 20th century. However, as with the ever-changing times within the world of technology and the many platforms that an artist’s music can appear on, in the late 20th century, as we advanced, the role of publishers grew to include the licensing of music for radio, television, films, concerts, tapes, compact discs, satellite, and cable distribution, karaoke, video games, computer software, and other forms of multimedia as well. The list is vast. But it is great as it means your music can exponentially reach far more than your predecessors 50 years ago.

It is also possible for publishers to pitch songs to other (more well-known) artists to record or to plug songs to radio, TV, and film.

What is Sub-Publishing?

After signing with a music publisher, they will often hire other publishers around the world to help monetize your songs. Sub-publishers are these other publishers. You will often find that your publisher has pre-existing agreements with sub-publishers in every territory.

Sub-publishing offers many advantages: the foreign publisher has the contacts necessary to expose the work to the target territory and the administrative skills to collect royalties. The job of securing covers is part of the task, but having a sub-publisher ensures that a catalog is properly registered, licensed, and documented. A sub-publisher may be able to collect and distribute income generated by a recording through membership in a local mechanical or performing rights society. Subpublishers are not usually required by major publishers with offices worldwide.

Now that you know a little bit more about how Publishing works, what should you do?

Is it a good idea to sign a publishing contract for your music? The answer is not straightforward and it all narrows down to good timing. Artists are increasingly moving away from Pub and Co-Pub deals and opting for Pub Admin deals instead. There are often fewer advances, but flexibility and independence appeal to many artists. And it allows the artist to retain more revenue. Remember, in many cases, artists wish to retain ownership of their music publishing but hire a third party to exploit the songs they have created (through film/tv placements, etc.) A Pub Admin deal is designed to cater to that. It also might work better for you if you are at the stage where you have a manager that has a good contact network for music supervisors and agencies that they can pitch your music directly to, without having to use any other publisher deal.

To conclude, the answer depends on the publisher’s reputation, your career status, the team you have built around you along with the manager, and of course — the offer you are presented with.

As an Artist/band, your career will be shaped by three big decisions: choosing a manager, record label, and music publisher. Basically: this is not an easy decision! And is often a chicken and egg thing as I have seen many bands who have had huge film or tv/ad/sync placements who don’t have a manager, but their status lifts due to the sync and they sign a publisher deal first then later comes the manager. Or vice versa. There is no straight-up way this goes.

Whenever you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. You can book a consultation by clicking here.