Area 3: Music Publishing Companies

Music Publishing has had to adapt a lot over the years. As the name suggests, traditionally music publishing dealt with the sale of sheet music. When the printing press came along, sheet music became susceptible to piracy. When records were commercially available, people didn't really have a need for sheet music as much because, instead of playing the music themselves, they could listen to an actual recording of the music in their own home. When radio became popular, publishing companies at first didn't know how to adapt because they thought that people wouldn't need to buy records anymore. After quite a long transitional process, nowadays music publishing companies make money from the use of music [1].

As a songwriter, music publishing companies can be of huge benefit to you. If you got a phone call every single time any radio station, tv channel, band, movie etc wanted to use your song, it would become impossible to manage and you would have no free time to get on with writing music. This is where music publishing comes in. In short, their job is to generate as much money as possible when others use your songs.

Music publishing companies are entirely separate entities from record labels but in some respects they work similarly. Music publishing companies have A&R people who go out to gigs in the evenings looking for artists who they think have good songs they could use in the same way record labels do. Music publishing deals also look very similar to record deals [2]:

• Length of Contract
• Assignment of Copyright: The company will have copyright of your songs.
• Advances: Money the company will initially give you which you need to pay back before you start earning royalties.
• Royalties: Money paid to you for the use of your music
• Accounting: Set percentages and prices in the contract
• Statements: Terms and conditions that the songwriter must agree with

You might be asking yourself  "Why would I want to give the rights of my music to a publisher?". It's a valid question but there are many positives to signing a publishing contract:

• Advances
• Administration and collection: (as mentioned earlier, the company will deal with the logistics of all the money you receive and they'll be the ones picking up the phone when people request the use of your music)
• Promotional Assistance
• Record Deals: often times it can be advantageous to get a publishing deal first and then, with the aid of the publisher, you can look for a record deal.
• Films, TV & Commercials: Not only is this possible extra publicity of your music but you'll also be earning money for its use.

I'm going to try and go into more detail now on exactly how a music publishing company makes a songwriter money. This diagram shows where a songwriters royalties come from and how they are dealt with [3]:

This might look pretty daunting and complicated but it's actually fairly straightforward. There are 2 main ways in which your music can be used. It can be played or it can be copied. When it's played, it's dealt with by the PRS (Performing Rights Society) and when the record is being copied it's dealt with by the MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society). The MCPS for instance makes sure that the songwriter is given 8.5% of the sales of every CD made [4].

When bands are involved, songwriter's royalties are often split between members and percentages can vary based on how much they contributed. This can often cause conflict between band members later on [4].