What's the Deal with Music Publishing?

Music publishing is incredibly similar to the big record labels. Aside from royalties, licensing deals and administrating copyrights, music publishing involves the recording and selling of songs, just like record labels do. So what's the deal with music publishing? Simply, the business of recording music is getting weaker as the music publishing business is becoming stronger. A revenue collecting company for songwriters called SongTrust states that the importance of music publishing has increased during recent years. The Internet has made an abundant amount of music distribution methods. The digital media has caused a much wider audience to be reached, and the payments from these audiences increase the publishing revenues.

Chris Horvath, a successful songwriter, shares his experiences in an article:

“Back when I was producing tons of indie artists that you’ve never heard of, I got an interesting call from a major publishing company. It seems they had acquired the publishing rights of a very well-known blues/rock artist and were working hard to get his music placed in film & TV. The problem was that every time they got a potential drop it was thwarted because the artist had spent his career on a major label who owned the master recording rights and wanted to charge far more than the potential buyers were willing to pay (FYI - it’s customary that the master recording rights and synch rights are about the same). The publisher was getting potential drops for $40,000 and the label wanted $50,000 for the master rights alone. Hmmmm.

So the publisher called me and asked if I would be interested in recording versions of the artists catalog that were almost sound-a-likes of the originals. Of course I had to make them sound different enough that there would be no copyright infringement on the original recordings but still with the same vibe and feel. After some creative thinking and a lot of fun in the studio with great musicians it turned out to be pretty easy.

The publisher now had in their hands versions of the songs that respected the artist’s sound and vibe but were legally clean and ready to go. The record label found themselves completely cut out of any film & tv placements. And because the publisher owned these versions outright, they would make all the money, not just half. Good business move on their part, eh?”

A good one indeed. Music publishing is a business of buying a song and selling it for a profit. A music publisher can directly exploit and collect money for the songs of the songwriter. Often music publishers pay for the old and new songs, and even pay advances for the material of the songwriter. Income from the sold songs are generally split half and half between the publisher and songwriter.

In recent entertainment industry news, SONY proposed to purchase EMI Publishing, the world’s leading music publishing. According to HYPEBOT.com, European commissioners did not seem to approve, fearing that SONY would be grated “excessive power”. However, at the end SONY did purchase it, and the combined publishing company became larger.

Other news in music publishing in this industry include former Village People member Victor Willis trying to regain his copyrights to songs such as Y.M.C.A., In the Navy and Go West. Willis is in a legal battle with Scorpio Music who is the publisher of these songs. Another article discusses how Dolly Parton has made over 6 million in royalties since Whitney Houston’s smash hit I Will Always Love You.

These are just small examples of the importance and vital role publishing plays in the music industry.