What is Music Publishing?

I am sure this questing is asked a lot by emerging artist. In this blog I will try to give brief definitions of what publishing is. According to Music Publishers Association, “music publishing is concerned with developing, protecting and valuing music. The business is diverse and demands a variety of skills.”

There are four types of publishing deals that a composer/songwriter can find him in. They include single song, long-term, co-publishing, administration and self-publishing deals. For the purpose of this blog I will only discuss a few of these.

Self-Publishing is when the songwriter independently markets his material and keep 100% of the returns. Aggregators like CD Baby and Tunecore offer these services for a fee and let the songwriter keep the full amount. Two types of royalties are covered in a publishing deal, mechanical royalties and performance royalties. For the fee charged CD Baby will affiliate you to two performances rights organization as a songwriter, your song will also be registered with these PRO’s and they will collect your royalties and pay them directly to you.

Even when artists decided to self publish their material, they should seek professional help in order to get the best result. Recently reggae artist Christopher Martin inked a deal with VP Records, which will cover touring and publishing. There are no specific details on the negotiations, however we could assume that this could be an administration deal. This type of deal will see Martin retaining the copyright to his songs, while VP will handle administrative functions. These functions will include printing and distribution, areas where VP is good at handling.

As mentioned before publishing covers mechanical royalties, so if a person decided to      cover your original works, he/she needs to be cleared by mechanical licenses to have the legal right to cover your work. Mechanical rights give us for CDs, DVDs, videos, games, webcasting, etc.