Understanding Music Publishing Rights: A Comprehensive Guide

Unlock how to maximize earnings as an artist or songwriter with this guide to understanding music publishing rights. It breaks down everything you need to know to protect your work and profit from your creations.

Understanding Music Publishing Rights: A Comprehensive Guide

by Mike Fink via Bandzoogle

Artists earn money when listeners engage with their music, but it’s not like listeners hand their money directly to artists. Instead, they might pay for streaming services and listen that way, or they might first hear the artist’s music in TV shows or video games. 

At the same time, artists aren’t on payroll at streaming services or media companies. Instead, they receive royalties for the use of their music, and that’s where music publishing rights come into play.

So, then, what are music publishing rights, exactly? Below is a guide to this key part of music copyright law and its role in how you make money from your music. You might wind up understanding this guide better if you think of the songs you’ve written as your intellectual property.

What are music publishing rights?

Music publishing rights are the legal obligations of those using a musical composition to pay the songwriter. They ensure that artists — whether signed or unsigned — get paid. This brings up the notion of how music collaboration affects the composition and sound recording credits on a song. The short version is that all songwriters get composition credit and equal splits of the composition royalties. Producers and performers get the same share for a sound recording.

You may fare best hiring a music publisher or publishing firm to collect what you’re owed on your behalf. These entities have relationships with the hundreds of organizations across the globe that oversee royalty payments. That’s a big deal — rare is the new or established artist that can identify and collect on all royalty-qualifying uses of their music. Publishers do exactly this day in and day out.

Music publishers distribute the following three categories of royalties to musicians:

• Mechanical royalties. Through these royalties, you earn money when customers buy physical copies of your composition, such as vinyl records. These royalties also cover all your digital streams and downloads except those from non-interactive streaming services such as Pandora. Because the listener doesn’t choose to “reproduce” your songs through streams on Pandora, performance royalties govern this composition use instead.
• Performance royalties. These cover any public performance of your composition, and they’re pretty broad. A live performance of your song entitles you to performance royalties, and so does airplay on radio stations or venue and restaurant PAs. Blanket licenses from performance rights organizations (PROs) govern this use of your compositions.
• Sync licensing royalties. You get paid these publishing royalties when a TV show, video game, or ad uses your composition. Sync agreements govern them and confirm that the song’s copyright holders — its songwriters — have licensed it for use. These arrangements are the only composition use case to which songwriters and composition users directly agree in writing. 

How do music publishing rights work?

Music publishing is the realm of publishing firms, licensing companies, record labels, mechanical rights organizations (MROs), and performance rights organizations (PROs). These entities run the gamut from copyright owners (songwriters) to everyone hoping to use their music. However, publishers play a substantially different role than PROs and MROs.

Publishers collect royalties from PROs and MROs on behalf of the songwriters they represent. Similarly, licensing firms secure sync opportunities for their composers and collect and distribute the corresponding royalties. PROs and MROs, on the other hand, focus on collecting royalties from users such as streaming platforms, radio stations, and restaurants. They don’t, though, distribute royalties to songwriters — publishers oversee that.

None of this is to say that PROs and MROs are negligent when it comes to paying artists. The contracts and terms they enforce on users are a key first step in money flowing to artists. PROs such as BMI, SESAC, and ASCAP and MROs such as HFA both set the rules and act on them. They hold pools of money from, respectively, reproduced compositions and live-aired or live-performed compositions. Publishers swoop in to collect the amount of money you’re owed from these pools.

Examples of how music publishing rights affect your earnings

Suppose you release an album that receives 10,000 streams in its first day on Spotify. In this case, Spotify would owe royalties to the PRO overseeing your musical works. Spotify’s contract with your PRO would determine the amount it owes. Your publisher would then represent you in interactions with your PRO and obtain your money on your behalf. 

As another example, suppose a video advertisement uses your composition without your permission. This isn’t a hypothetical — history is rife with examples of advertisers creating soundalike versions of compositions for their own use. This amounts to copyright infringement since no licensing agreement was signed, and you could sue for the ethical breach and missed financial opportunities. You’d probably win, too — Eminem did in 2011 when he sued Audi for using a soundalike of his hit “Lose Yourself” without his consent.

Who owns music publishing rights?

Typically, all songwriters behind a musical work own its copyright. However, you may sign a music publishing deal that gives your music publishing rights to your publishing firm. This often entails that all royalties you earn be split 50/50 between the publisher and all songwriters. 

For example, let’s say Publisher XYZ owns the publishing rights to a song that you and three co-writers composed. Publisher XYZ gets 50% of the royalties, and you split the remaining 50% among yourself and your three co-writers. You thus each get 12.5% of the total royalties.

There’s also the key distinction between owning publishing rights and owning masters. The sound recording — a unique performance or production of a certain composition — is the master track. If you sign with a record label, you’ll likely cede ownership of your masters to the label. This increases the likelihood of the record label earning revenue from promoting your music. Your publisher, on the other hand, will likely own your compositions after signing with them.

Ceding ownership of a sound recording or composition can streamline your music’s physical manufacturing, digital distribution, marketing, and other considerations. It can, however, lead to your music winding up in unsavory hands. The most prominent recent example is music manager Scooter Braun acquiring Taylor Swift’s catalog upon purchasing her former record label, Big Machine Label Group. Since the label owned Swift’s masters, Braun acquired them too. In response, Swift has been re-recording and re-releasing her Big Machine albums. 

Getting paid what you deserve

What are music publishing rights if not complex? There are many entities and lots of jargon involved, and getting into the nitty-gritty of legal considerations can make any collaboration feel less pure. 

But you deserve to be paid for your musical work, and your music publishing rights enable that. That’s also where DistroKid comes into play — you can upload your music to streaming services and keep 100% of your earnings. You’ll get money from listeners’ hands right to your wallet — all without any complicated publishing deals.

Whatever route you take with your songs, we hope this guide has helped clear up the options available to you as an artist!