Audiomack ARTIST GUIDE
Artists 101
Why should I sign to a publisher?
Music publishing refers to the rights of songwriters and the royalties they’re earning from compositions—one of two main copyrights baked into every song. Royalties are paid out whenever your copyright (your music) is used by another entity. At some point in your career, you may be approached to sign to a Performing Rights Organization (PRO), which are collective management organizations that represent songwriters, licensing their works and collecting the revenue generated by public performance opportunities. There are four PROs in the United States (ASCAP and BMI operate subject to special US law and are open to all songwriters, while GMR and SESAC are private companies with invitation-only membership); outside the US, PROs are government agencies. Signing to a publisher is appealing because of the large sum of money you can get upfront, as well as the extra streams of revenue that are opened up to you. That said, it’s not for every type of artist, and it’s important for your team to weigh in and for you to consider all your options before signing.
“It’s not an either-or. When it comes to publishing, it’s the area of the industry that is the most opaque and seems the most upsetting. It’s a very complex and totally masterable part of the industry. A label deal or a distributor deal, that’s very obvious. But the [publishing deal] result is you register your stuff somewhere, and then you start getting money. This doesn’t change your streams or marketing; it’s not on the front-end. But it’s a very important source of revenue.”
—Anna Bond, Head of Creative and Partnerships, Songtrust
“An important distinction between the music publishing business and the record business involves the ease with which revenues are collected. Even without a record deal, your distribution partner or aggregator probably has the ability to collect all the master-side money owed to you. However, in music publishing, many collective management organizations, especially mechanical rights societies, do not work with self-published or self-administered songwriters. As a result, signing a publishing deal is a way to ensure you can collect royalties that would be off-limits otherwise.”
—Mark Tavern, Music Industry Educator
“It really depends. It’s not necessary for the baby artist that writes all their own music and controls their own publishing. There’s more important relationships to form at the early stages. It’s something your manager and lawyer would weigh in on.”
—Greg Norman, Major Label Attorney
“The money all at once—the upfront payment. Ideally, because these companies are putting up all this money, they wanna see you be successful, they wanna be making their money back. They’ll be putting you in studios and sessions, and stuff like that.”
—Adam Freedman, Entertainment Lawyer
