You’ve written your song, want it to be blasted worldwide, and you’re ready for the money to start rolling in. Outside of doing shows, touring and the music “hustle,” how does a musician maximize their earning potential? Queue the entry and importance of music publishing.
PUBLISHING OVERVIEW
Publishing is the commercial exploitation (i.e. to receive profit) of what’s known as a musical composition, and not the recording of a musical work. What exactly is the difference between a musical composition and a recording? According to the United States Copyright Office, a musical composition “consists of music, including any accompanying words, and is normally registered as a work of performing arts. The author of a musical composition is generally the composer and the lyricist, if any. A musical composition may be in the form of a notated copy (for example, sheet music) or in the form of a phonorecord (for example, cassette tape, LP, or CD).” On the other hand, they’ve defined a sound recording as the result of “the fixation of a series of musical, spoken or other sounds.” In its most fundamental sense, a musical composition is the individual song itself that’s composed or is accompanied by lyrics (i.e. written), while the sound recording is the recording of a song performed by an artist.
HOW THE MONEY COMES IN (PUBLISHING INCOME)
Royalties earned by way of performing a musical work are categorized as Public Performance Royalties. A performance occurs when a musical composition is “broadcasted” or “performed” in public by way of playing on the radio, music streaming services, commercials, performances in live venues, and any other means a musical composition can be “performed.” For songwriters and publishers to capitalize on making money from this royalty, Performing Rights Organizations (PRO) are commonly used to collect monies that are generated through this royalty stream. Some that are commonly used include the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), and Society of European Stage Authors (SESAC).
On the other hand, mechanical royalties are a form of music publishing income that benefits the writer of a song. The benefit to the songwriter comes by way of receiving a statutory mechanical royalty rate set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), This Board is a system that consists of three copyright royalty judges who set the rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and determine the distribution of statutory license royalties. Currently, the rate is set at 9.1 cents. Any time a song has been written and is manufactured to be sold in a compact disc (CD), streamed on a music streaming service, or downloaded from iTunes or any other retail digital music website, or any other avenue applicable to mechanical royalties, the songwriter is owed 9.1 cents for each usage of the given musical composition. (ex. 100 CD’s manufactured = $9.10 owed)
Synchronization fees are another form of income that falls under the realm of publishing. Synchronization involves the integration of a musical composition into an audiovisual work such as a movie, television show, visual advertisement, video game, and any other format that combines a musical composition and an audiovisual work.
Lastly, and one of the more outdated sources of music publishing income, is sheet music. This kind of music primarily involves music printed or handwritten using musical symbols, but has since evolved to also include digital media.
WHAT A PUBLISHER DOES
Now one may ask: what does a publisher exactly do? Simply put, it’s a company that gathers and collects the income generated from the work of a songwriter. Some of the top music publishers include Kobalt, Warner/Chappell, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), Universal, and Sony ATV.
Now don’t miss out on this small note as well: publishers collect on behalf of themselves too. After all, everyone’s looking for their cut of the pie when providing a service of any sort. Normally, publishers receive 25 percent to 50 percent of the writer’s generated income. The percentage a publisher receives could depend on the terms of the agreement that have been agreed upon, what the songwriter requires from the publisher, the notoriety of the songwriter and if they’re a well known artist, and a variety of other factors that may impact the publisher’s collection percentage of the income.
Although collection of the almighty dollar on both sides is incredibly important, music publishers provide certain accesses to commercially exploit your music nationally, as well as internationally with foreign agencies and affiliates they may work with. These accesses include relationships with producers and artists, whereas publishers can influence and encourage them to re-record a writer’s song. This is what’s well-known as creating a “cover” which can lead to the creation of additional revenue for the writer of the song in the form of mechanical royalties, and further commercialize a musical composition. Furthermore, publishers leverage and maintain relationships with organizations with the film industry, television networks, advertising agencies, and any other entity that falls within the umbrella of the entertainment world. This allows for placements within those arenas, which would only occur with the publisher’s assistance, since it is unlikely that one individual who is not well established in the music can muscle up all those resources to maximize the usage of their musical composition.
Publishers also do the administrative heavy lifting a songwriter may not want to be bothered with. This includes registering songs with the United States Copyright Office and the various royalty collection agencies that exist in the United States and globally. In addition, their ability to negotiate more favorable terms and fees is far stronger than any one person or small group by way of their existing relationships and familiarity with the fees associated with certain projects, songs, common norms within the film/television, advertising, sporting and other industries. Collecting monies is another service publishers will offer to ease the weight off of the songwriter or artists shoulders. This is primarily helpful because if musicians did not have this option, they would become more of a debt collector instead of focusing on their artistic craft.
Advances (i.e. – money upfront prior to performing a service) may also be used as a form of “bait” for publishers to persuade songwriters to give up their right to exploit their songs or provide others with the license to do so. This may be done in an effort to capitalize financially on a musical composition(s) that are already receiving great attention or have the potential to perform well and at the same time prove to be a profitable opportunity for the publisher.
MUSIC PUBLISHING’S OVERALL BENEFIT
All in all, when seeking widespread placement of music in order to maximize the earning power of a musical work, enlisting a quality publisher that can cover a global base and maintains solid business relationships within a variety of industries is definitely a leg-up. That advantage will afford additional exposure, having music heard on a variety entertainment platforms, and can provide alternative income streams outside of some of the traditional avenues of music song and album sales, touring and merchandising.
