What Is Music Publishing? And How Can You Make Sure Your Works Are Protected?

By: Mayenci Gomez

Image Source: Getty Images

Whenever an artist’s song blows up it suddenly hits the radio, plays at your favorite grocery store, on TV or on film, there are multiple steps to ensure these songs are protected. All the popular songs that you play go through a process before they hit streaming services and your ears – one of them being music publishing. Music publishing is an important factor to be aware of in the music industry due to its ability to protect individuals, groups, songwriters, composers and publishers with creative works. In this post, we’ll define music publishing and the different aspects of publishing that include PROs, copyright, monetization and licensing to ensure you can be more knowledgeable in the technical side of the music industry.

What exactly is music publishing? Music publishing is the business of distributing and protecting musical works to be used by films, advertisements, public spaces, television and other forms of media. With this process songwriters, composers and producers can claim a portion or entire creative works as their own while getting monetized in the process.

As a musician, it’s important to make sure any compositions are protected because it ensures no company will use any of your works without your permission or try to steal any of the works to fully profit from them. To get these works protected and profitable, you will need a performing rights organization (PRO) which collects royalties for those who own the rights to the composition. Royalties will be collected anytime a composition is played or performed in a public setting, which can vary from a playlist, the radio, digital downloads and so on.

The three main PROs available in the U.S. are BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. When someone decides to use a composition, they have the ability to get a music license from these PROs – essentially getting legal permission to use the work. After getting that permission, they get the chance to use the composition to their likings such as in a film or playlisted as background music for a Dodger’s game. Musicians benefit not only from a profit standpoint but also from getting recognition by others, which means more connections and more available clients to work with. Keep in mind that depending on where you are located in the world, the PROs available for each country will differ and the laws followed will vary case by case.

The logos of the main three PROs in the United States. Source: Live 365

Additional tips to make sure your works are protected in the publishing world is to copyright works. Copyright is the right of the author to make use of their works and allow others to use it – so whatever you create, you own. By using copyright and being the original owner of a work, you can deny or allow any publishers, creators or performers to make use of your work for a certain amount of time by U.S. law. The amount of time copyright protection lasts is the lifetime of the creator until death and then another 70 years. Copyright laws protect any musicals, lyrics, melodies, pictures, sound recordings, literary works and so on.

- It’s essential to have both copyright and music publishing as a musician

- Copyright protects the whole work itself and music publishing can own a portion of the work while earning money from it

- Keep track of the copyright records from 1978 to the present for updated copyright laws and before 1978 for statutory protection

- Follow up on any law changes from copyright to ensure there aren’t any violations being made

- What may be allowed in the past 100, 50 or five years may not be the same today

If a big record label such as Interscope Records tries to use lyrics of a small artist that has already copyrighted their lyrics, this record label can face an infringement action from the artist which can include statutory damages ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Laws like this may seem redundant, but they are necessary to make sure nobody is left without ownership or rights to what they have created. Being informed and taking these recommended steps, it will strengthen your skills as a music publisher, songwriter or composer.

Additionally, when a deal is made to publish your creative works or to be the publisher, contracts come into the picture. As a music publisher or a creative looking to get your music published, reading through all the agreements will ensure that you aren’t giving up your rights or giving too much of your creative work. Taking these steps will guarantee a professional and ethical approach to music publishing and all other aspects involved.

For more information on music publishing check out this Soundcharts article by Dmitry Pastukhov, detailing all aspects of music ownership. Did you think this blog post was informative? Let us know in the comments below!

#Copyright #PRO #Musicpublishing #Monetization #Licensing