Music Business Tips: Introduction To Music Publishing

Music publishing is the way to make your continuos income revenue in the music industry. PERIOD. Of course there's other creative ways but since we're on the topic of music publishing, we're going to talk about why music publishing is one of the most effective ways to make money in the music business. First of all, the explanation will come from George Howard which is a teacher at the Berklee Music . He was my teacher at the Music Industry Entrepreneurship class and learned a lot from him. He's a major figure in the educational system of the music and he's also a musician and producer which founded his own independent label called Slow River Records. I actually have his blog listed in the bottom left of this page under "Friends Of Sleep City Crisis". Music Publishing can be confusing to a lot of people, but I really didn't get much of a confusion on it. I'm actually learning my stuff in Music Publishing 101 as we speak. So far I've learned as many of us will learn that Music Publishing will make you a ass load of money if you're songs are selling good of course.

I want to pretty much just share one vital piece of information I learn very quickly in my learnings of the first week of this class and that's the writer/publisher relationship and it's different agreements.

The Full-Publishing Agreement

The income is collected by a publisher for a particular song and it's split equally between writer and publisher.

Example:

For every dollar received, 50 cents is deemed the “writer’s share,” and 50 cents is the “publisher's share.” It is very unusual for the publisher to ever keep more than half of the income collected.

Full-publishing agreements is usually the most common agreement of the three and they are most appropriate for writers who are not well established, or who generate relatively small amounts of income.

The Co-Publishing Agreement

The writer gets to receive half of the entire income as the “writer’s share,” but the writer also receives half of the “publisher’s share.”

Example:

For every dollar the publisher receives, the writer receives 50 cents (writer’s share) and another 25 cents (co-publisher’s share). The publisher keeps the remaining 25 cents, as the other half of the “publisher’s share.”

Co-publishing agreements are becoming the industry's most standard now and most experienced writers will be fighting to keep at least some of the publisher’s share of the money.

The Administration Agreement

In an administration agreement, the writer does not grant the copyrights to the publisher. Instead, the writer continues to own the copyrights, and simply employs the publisher to administer the licenses and collect the money. In exchange, the publisher receives an administration fee, usually around 10 percent of the income collected.

Example:

For every dollar of income, the writer gets 90 cents, and the publisher keeps 10 cents.

Administration deals are usually done only with extremely successful writers. Keeping only 10 or 15 percent of the income is not a worthwhile venture for most publishers.


I think I can appreciate for the rest of my life knowing just that piece of information. Now below I will have George Howard talk to you about the introduction of Music Publishing. This video was taken from The Artist House Music site and you will find a lot of information other than Music Publishing and other stuff related. Also please visit George Howard's Blog.