What is Music Publishing?

Music publishing is a complex part of the music industry and can be confusing for songwriters. Rod and Reel Music Publishing is here to make music publishing simple.

MUSIC PUBLISHING RIGHTS EXPLAINED

Rod and Reel Music looks after the composition of your song in three key areas:

• Song Administration
• Royalty Collection
• Creative Licensing

When you record and release a song, there are two types of copyright within it. These are the composition and the sound recording.

Your publisher would deal with the copyright within your composition. The sound recording would typically be handled by the record label or whoever has paid for the recording of the song.

If you are writing or composing melodies and/or lyrics, it’s important that you understand the nuances of music publishing. More importantly, how you can earn money from the songs that you write as music publishing emerges as one of the most important revenue streams for independent artists.

Your song is generating revenue whenever it’s:

• Radio
• Live Performance
• Reproduced on Vinyl, CD, DVD, etc
• Streamed on a Digital Service (Spotify, Apple Music, etc)
• Placed within a Film, TV Show, Advert or Video Game

Not sure how to collect royalties?

Rod and Reel Music Publishing liaises with collection societies across the world to ensure that your songs are registered and your royalties are collected. This leaves you to concentrate on what you do best, writing great music.

As a songwriter, there are multiple ways in which you can earn money for the songs that you write. If you want to seriously make a living out of being a writer, it’s important that you not only understand what these revenue streams are but know how to make the most out of them.

So, what are the different revenue streams available?

Performing Rights

As a writer, you are entitled to royalties each time your song or composition is played or performed in public. Had your song played on the radio or on television? Yes this counts! What about all of those gigs and festivals you have performed at? You guessed it, you can earn performance royalties from these too. This is also the same if the song is played in a public space for example a shop or restaurant.

It’s not enough to know what performing rights are, though. You also need to make sure you’re actually collecting them! In all of these instances, these royalties are collected by the collection society for the country in which the performance occurred. For example, in the US this is ASCAP and BMI.

Don’t worry if the performance occurred outside of your home country though, as most collection societies have reciprocal agreements with their foreign counterparts in order to transfer the royalties to the writer. However, it is paramount that you register yourself with your local collection society else they won’t know who to pay.

Mechanical Income

When your song is embodied in a sound recording, this is where mechanical income comes into play.

Mechanical rights differ from performing rights as they are paid to the writer when their composition is reproduced onto a physical product. This could be CD, vinyl, or even tape. In today’s digital world, mechanical royalties are also due whenever the sound recording that contains your composition is downloaded or streamed.

These royalties are collected by your mechanical rights society. You should check who your local mechanical society is to ensure that you are paid these royalties too.

Synchronisation

Synchronisation (or sync) has seen huge growth within the music industry in recent years. Some artists are even seeing bigger pay cheques from having their song(s) featured in a TV show than from record sales. So what is sync? This is basically whenever your song is placed within visual media including film, television, advertisements, and video games. You can read more about sync on our Sync page.

Print Rights

Often put to the back of people’s minds, but don’t underestimate the humble piece of sheet music. Again, in today’s society, these can now be both physical and digital. Each time this is reproduced and sold you’re entitled to royalties. This is the only revenue stream we’re going to discuss that doesn’t involve a collection society. Instead, the royalties go from the publisher of the sheet music straight to the songwriter or composer. If you have a music publisher, the royalties will flow to them first before they pass them to you.

Make sure that you fully understand the different ways in which your songs can earn you money.

Get exposure for your songs Having music publishing representation by Rod and Reel Music Publishing also means you have an ally pitching your songs to sync opportunities worldwide. We have relationships with music supervisors across film, television, advertisements, trailers, and games who trust us as a source of great music to suit their individual needs.