Publishing 101: Taking Back Creative Control
Thanks to the internet, getting your music out there has never been easier. Just like you, tens of thousands of producers are out there trying to make a living from their music.
But time and time again, they fail to capture any value (read: make money) from their music. Even when the music is fantastic, worth of grammy nominations, they still end up making a fraction of what the music is actually worth.
Because of pirating and the decline in revenue from music sales, publishing has become more important than ever. But what exactly is publishing? And how can you generate alternative revenue streams through it?
In this article, we’ll go over the fundamentals of how copyright and publishing work together and how you can benefit from knowing how to use it for your own good. Let’s break down the definitions of each first.
Copyright
A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for “original works of authorship”, including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations.
(www.copyright.com/help/faq/definitions.html)
In other words, it is a means to protect creatives from having their work be plagiarized and exploited.
Whenever you create music, two types of copyrights are granted upon creation.
1) The Underlying Composition: this is the actual structure, notation, rhythm, cadence and more of the song. The ingredients so to speak.
2) Sound Recording Copyright: the actual final recording of the song. This is called the “Master”.
Music Publishing
Music publishing is the owning and exploiting of songs in the form of musical copyrights.
-Randall Wixen, The Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing
Publishing happens when you exploit a musical copyright (a song you own) by generating revenue through commercial usage.
If you walk away reading this article having only learned one thing, it should be this:
Publishing is the most important, long term form of revenue for musicians/producers.
You may peak and your career as a performer may end, but royalties from older works may last long, long after you pass. That’s what we are aiming to do here. Legacy.
A song is automatically granted its copyright upon creation, but it helps (a lot) to have your works registered with the US Copyright Office, in the case you need to provide evidence to prove ownership. When it comes to music publishing, you can transfer your copyright to a publishing company.
You may either transfer the sound recording copyright, the musical composition copyright, or both. In exchange, publishers will go to work looking for opportunities to generate revenue from your song.
Deals are made and agreements usually vary between 30–50% of total revenue generated. This would mean that if the publishing company representing your work managed to get your song synched (read: placed) in a film and generated $10,000 for the deal, they would keep anywhere between $3,000-$5,000 while you remain with the rest. There’s always new media being created, so you can see how publishing can become a very lucrative business.
It’s very important to never sign away full control over your works permanently. This is a big no no when it comes to do doing business in the industry. Without ownership over your own work, you have absolutely no leverage in any context within the music industry. So wise up.
There are different ways you can generate revenue from exploiting your works through commercial usage. Here are some of the following:
- Artist Royalties
- Mechanicals
- Public Performances
- Digital Performances
- Synchronizations
Our focus lies on point number 5 as this provides your music with biggest possible chance for exposure and financial gains. What is synchronization?
Synchronization is the usage of music together with visual output; commercial, video games, movies, tv shows, trailers, and more.
Lessees will typically pay a “synch” fee for both the license to synchronize your song into their audiovisual work and a master use license from the owner of the actual sound recording (the master). This is when having a great publishing company representing your works will come in handy, as their network alone may be enough to leverage your music to expose it to a much larger fan base.
Label’s sometimes use synchronization as their main strategy when it comes to breaking a song. When X Ambassadors signed with Interscope Records back in 2013, it wasn’t until Seth Kallen, the band’s manager, leveraged a deal with Interscope and Jeep to launch their now famous song “Renegades”. The band had their song placed in the Jeep Renegade’s latest ad and were even featured in it as well.
The band had a great foundation to jump off of, but when the commercial aired, the band went global. They were receiving play from all over the globe including more obscure countries like Kyrgyzstan. You can see how much exposure a well placed synchronization can offer. This is why it’s important to transfer your copyright to a reputable publishing company, one that is well connected and willing to do the work on your behalf. Keep that in mind when seeking any type of publishing deals in general.
When it comes to leasing your own instrumentals to artists, make sure that all your deals are non-exclusive UNLESS there is a hefty sum being paid for exclusive rights. Otherwise, you will never be able to generate revenue from your one production outside of your deal with the one artists.
There is much, much more to publishing and copyrights than we just discussed, but we believe this is a good primer to begin with. You should now have a very fundamental understanding of how to leverage publishing to gain more exposure and higher gains. We’ll go into further detail on later articles, but for now this should be enough to get you started. For a visual understanding of how copyright + publishing works, take a look at the infographic below.
BeatThread is the new home for music producers. Get real feedback. Get more placements. Sign up to our Beta waitlist now and we’ll let you know when we launch!
