Music Publishing: Everything You Need to Know

This is a question that can be explained in a few sentences, or in a 5,000-word-long essay. Let’s start with the former.

Music publishing is, essentially, the management of music copyrights in any commercial manner. The entire field is based on taking creative works, in this case, songs, and finding ways to use them commercially. It is also about ensuring that when songs are used in some way and money is owed, it’s properly accounted for, collected, and dispensed to copyright owners in a timely manner.

The definition makes it seem fairly simple, and at its heart, music publishing is easy to understand. It’s one person writing a song, and another using it in a movie, playing it at a bar, or streaming it on Spotify. Then, a company tracks all that usage, collects the money owed for using that tune, and pays the creator.

Diving into the subject is when it quickly becomes a bit more confusing, but it can all be understood with a bit of time and patience.

It all begins with the art itself. When someone sits down and writes a song, they own that copyright immediately, as long as they can prove they came up with it first. If it was penned by one person, they own it outright, but if it was a collaboration between several artists, they all can claim ownership, and it must be figured out how much each person put in (as it’s not always equal).

When a musician goes into a studio and records that song, things get a bit more complicated. If they pay for that time and the services themselves, everything belongs to them. If it’s funded by a record label, one of the copyrights goes to the company. I’ll dive into that more just below.

While it’s true that the minute a person puts pen to paper or their voice to a memo in their phone, they own that creation, it’s best to take the time to actually register copyrights properly.

There’s a process that takes place with a government agency that allows anyone to register a copyright for intellectual property (something original a person created), which is much easier to prove in a court of law, should there ever be any arguments about ownership or theft. This article explains how to do this.

There are two different types of musical copyrights. Music publishing deals with both and it’s imperative that every musician understands that they are and the difference between them.

The composition is the music and the lyrics, and that can be copyrighted separately. If a musician writes a song and puts it to music, either on paper or in any other form, they can claim ownership over that creation, as long as it’s original.

The sound recording copyright is connected, but different. When a band goes into a studio and puts instruments and their voice together and makes that composition come alive, that’s a sound recording, and that can be copyrighted and owned as well. This is what is typically controlled by a record label, as those companies often foot the bill for larger acts to make music.

If a song is covered in any way, that constitutes a different sound recording, and it is one that can also be owned as well, but by different parties.

Here’s an example of how this all works:

Leonard Cohen wrote the song “Hallelujah” in 1984. He was responsible for the composition of that track. When it’s covered by another act, such as Jeff Buckley or Rufus Wainwright, both of whom have found major success in doing so, Cohen still controlled the composition, since it’s his words, but those newer acts (or their labels) own the sound recording, since they’re new.

Music publishing is all about the money, and there is certainly a lot of it in this field. The cash made from publishing is referred to as a royalty, and there are two main forms—mechanical and performance royalties—as well as a few others—licenses for synchronization, licenses for sampling and printing rights for sheet music—that can still be lucrative, but which don’t make up the bulk of revenue.

Mechanical royalties are perhaps the most important of all royalties, and they are oddly rooted in old-school music industry practices (though the business has caught up in many ways). The idea is that every time a composition written by one musician is copied (or reproduced), that artist is owed a mechanical royalty. That means whenever a track is pressed onto a new CD, purchased from a store like iTunes, or even streamed (though that comes with a different rate).

This form of royalty deals with whenever people actually hear a composition. There are countless examples of performance royalties being generated, such as when compositions are spun on radio (either traditional or satellite, like SiriusXM), streamed on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music (yes, this appears twice), performed at a venue, or even used in a commercial or movie.

Anyone who benefits from using that composition—Spotify, the local radio station, the TV network, etc.—all owe a performance royalty when they’ve broadcast the track in some form.

While both mechanical and performance royalties are where any musician will likely make the lion’s share of their money when it comes to music publishing, there are other ways to monetize (or exploit, which is the proper lingo) a composition or sound recording to bring in more cash.

Syncs are when tunes are used in visual media, like a movie, TV show or video game. They can be very valuable to musicians, and sometimes companies will pay top dollar for a hit that works perfectly in a new film or in the pivotal scene in a program. Whenever a song is synced and used, a royalty is paid to both the owner of the composition and the sound recording, making it a real moneymaker.

Sampling has become incredibly popular over the years, and it’s now common to hear snippets of other tracks, perhaps hits, in new releases. A musician must secure the right to do this when composing a new piece, and when it’s performed (streamed, played on radio, etc.), a royalty is generated for both the Songwriters and the owner of the recording actually being sampled.

That is, unless only the lyrics are being utilized in a new fashion, in which case only the composition copyright owned gets a payday.

Composers and Songwriters also receive money when sheet music of their work is printed, though that’s not as common today as it once was.

Music publishing companies are the ones who will typically help their clients get syncs in major media and collect mechanical royalties. That firm takes a cut of that money, sometimes up to half, because it can be complicated tracking down all the times a song was streamed or a TV show episode featuring a tune was played in reruns.

Performance royalties are collected by performance rights organizations, or PROs, and here’s a bit more on those groups.

Usually referred to simply as PROs, these organizations are the ones responsible for collecting a royalty anytime a sound recording from one of their clients is played on satellite radio, traditional radio, used in a commercial, aired on TV or even played in a music venue. 

There are three major PROs in the U.S. which a majority of well-known figures (and smaller bands) work with, and they are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. There are benefits and drawbacks to each one, and it’s up to each and every musician to decide which works best for them.

So now that a lot of names and technical terms have been thrown out there, let’s recap on how music publishing actually works.

A Songwriter and musician create an original piece, and then they record it. That artist then copyrights the lyrics and music, as well as the actual recording, if they’re smart. Once that track is out in the world, radio stations begin playing it, fans stream it, diehard followers buy it and it finds its way into movies and TV.

Publishing companies and PROs then track its use, employing a variety of means, and collect both mechanical and performance royalties from those who benefited from using the music. Then, after taking their cut, that money is eventually paid to the original creators.