Can songwriters do their own publishing administration?

Published in

Creatrclub

6 min readMay 7, 2021

Music publishing is earning revenue from use of the song copyright. This really means increasing the number of song uses, and efficiently collecting any subsequent revenue. Can writers self-administer their own copyrights? If forgoing a partner to proactively push their songs, can writers collect any passive income themselves? It depends on if the songs are being used, how, and how those uses are paid for.

Are the songs being performed live?

Revenue from live performances is collected through local performing rights societies (PROs). In the UK it’s a one-off £100 to join PRS. This could be earned back from playing a setlist of self-written songs in a handful of headline gigs in small, club-sized venues. Becoming a PRO member is the only way to collect these kinds of royalties, and as a mechanism to protect songwriters PROs pay 50% of income direct to them. This is revenue that cannot be accessed by publishers. If writers are not members this revenue accrues with the society and is redistributed after an arbitrary length of time (i.e. it’s lost), whether they have a publisher or not.

Becoming a PRO member is a crucial step to being paid as a songwriter- let alone because ‘performance’ revenue also comes from sources beyond live gigs and concerts (see below). As PRO members, writers can earn income without needing a publisher if they stay on top of their song and metadata registrations.

International revenue collection is another ball game. PROs have reciprocal agreements with one another to cover licencing internationally. They license repertoire registered with another (foreign) PRO in their own (local) territory. This revenue is then exchanged between PROs so it can make its way back to the songwriter via the PRO they’re signed up to.

Sounds confusing, right? Put simply- each society can collect revenue in their territory for songs registered in other territories. Typically this means songwriters are only a member of one society, and they only tell that one society directly about new songs they write. This information is then exchanged with all other societies on their behalf.

However, the system is far from perfect. The mass of song and usage data globally is now overwhelming this network, which is reliant on frequent and efficient data exchange between foreign (often substandard) tech infrastructures. This is where music publishers can make a huge difference- through their blend of direct society memberships and foreign sub-publishers.

Have the songs been recorded and released?

If recordings are being ‘sold’ (including streamed) they will be generating mechanical royalties- owed by the record label (whoever owns/released the recordings) to the songwriters. These are typically collected through a mechanical rights society- in the UK it’s also £100 to join MCPS as a writer. International collection works in the same way as for performance revenue (and is slave to the same issues)- societies share usage and ownership data through reciprocal agreements.¹

For the manufacturing of physical albums the record label pays the mechanical society through a blanket license mechanism. In the UK the statutory rate is 8.5% of the physical products dealer price². For digital sales such as through iTunes, Amazon, etc. the stores pay the mechanical society directly before the net revenue is passed onto the label.

Streaming and downloads comprise both a performance and mechanical royalty, so copyright holders need to sign-up to both societies. In some territories however there is one body that handles both rights (e.g. TEOSTO in Finland).

Are the songs played on Radio/TV?

Every broadcast (radio and TV) generates a royalty, also paid through the local PRO. A single Radio 1 play in the UK is worth ~£60 for the writers, though as mentioned above they need to be society members to unlock this revenue. Writers can reports usages from smaller stations directly with their PRO, who will chase the income- whether locally or internationally. PROs use a balance of direct reporting from larger scale broadcasters and sample days/analogies for the smaller scale. This can mean some specific songs uses, particularly on smaller channels, go unregistered. It’s always worth writers notifying PROs of any smaller scale uses to ensure coverage.

PROs often have an unclaimed royalties list- where the usage is known but not the party who owns the copyright (and hence should be paid). Checking these regularly can unlock royalties by correctly associating the usage with the correct writer(s).

Other uses

Physical print forms are usually initiated by the book publisher getting in touch to request a license- though this is often encouraged/sought after by a music publisher pushing for it. It’s up to the copyright owner where the lyrics/chords/melody can be reproduced and for what rate. Is it a good marketing opportunity? Will it build the profile of the song? Will it cause an increase in other uses of the song? The negotiation and subsequent payment is managed directly between the parties- in much the same way as a synch placement.

We haven’t touched on synch here, as it’s also typically a ‘proactive’ royalty channel- one that requires attention to deliver returns. There are certainly back-end ‘mailbox’ royalties that occur when the placement is broadcast (as above), but the upfront part of the licencing deals are usually sourced and negotiated by copyright holders actively rather than in response.

Songs performed live as ‘acts of worship’ are excluded for licensing through PROs. However (as with the reproduction of music in print), the reproduction of any lyrics does need to be licensed- including projection and printing. This is dealt with by CCLI internationally, who collect royalties from churches projecting and printing lyrics- including schools in the UK.

So… can songwriters do it themselves?

Irrespective of having a publisher, songwriters need to join a PRO. This unlocks the 50% of performance revenue due to them directly as well as giving them line of sight to their data registrations. There is, however, significant scope for publishers to improve the efficiency of song administration- though they are also slave to international complexities and inefficiencies. Finding, negotiating and landing direct licensing deals is where publishers can also add significant value, alongside facilitating writing sessions.

Publishers shoulder the burden of copyright registration and revenue collection alongside these proactive activities. The administration tasks grow exponentially as a song catalogue grows- maintaining correct song registrations in 300+ global databases is no mean feat. They monitor for revenue blockages in those databases, which can occur from any given sources within that territory (digital, broadcast, physical… there’s an almost endless list).

In conclusion, on the face of it, it seems simple to self-manage a song catalogue by just registering works with a PRO. Beyond the obvious time taken to ensure these works are up to date (and not duplicated or in conflict), it is the international collection that becomes painfully tricky. The copyright management work is duplicated for every territory, hence the inefficiencies and errors that particularly affect smaller scale usage in the long-tail are exacerbated. With global digital stores like Spotify spreading usage out across territories it has become difficult to reconcile local data with international usage across borders. As Joe Conyers III (cofounder of Songtrust) puts it- “Music is global, copyright law is local”.

Writers rely too heavily on their local PRO, with the international exchange network of data and royalties proving too fragile for efficient management on an individual basis. There is a new wave of disruptive and accessible publishing administrators working in this exact space (e.g. Sentric, Songtrust), but there still exists trust and transparency issues with data for any party to efficiently manage international collection at scale.

[1] It’s worth noting that the US has historically not had a mechanical society, though this changed with the Music Modernisation Act (2018) mandating the creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). Licences were previously handled on an ad-hoc basis, and often facilitated by the Harry Fox Agency. For self-releasing artists, aggregators included specific wording accompanying royalties to the effect of “be aware: mechanical royalties haven’t been taken off by stores in US/Mexico”, but the creation of the MLC will bring the US into line with equivalent European blanket mechanical licensing to resolve this.

[2] Manufacturers shouldn’t let labels (or self-releasing artists) press CDs/vinyl without a mechanical licence in place (AP-2 in the UK). Mechanical societies can also provide exemptions for the recording owner (the licensee) if they are also the song copyright owner (the licensor). If a songwriter self-releases an album of entirely their own work this negates a license payment travelling to the mechanical society and back again minus the admin fee.