Music publishing is a business of pennies, and with streaming, more like fractions of pennies, but those pennies can add up, especially when you consider how long copyrights last.
How Songs Make Money
A song, or “musical composition,” as it known by the Copyright Office, is owned by its music publisher. Unless you’re a well-known songwriter with a successful track record, publishing deals are usually done in conjunction with recording deals, and if you’re lucky enough to get both kinds of deals, or a 360 deal covering your recording, publishing, touring and merchandising, you may even get an advance of money against your future songwriting income from record sales, which is known as “mechanical” royalties.
Another way to make money from a song is to have it synchronized with visual images in a film, television show, online program, webisode, video game, or advertisement/commercial. That’s known as a “synch” license, and usually the license fee is split 50-50 between the owner of the master recording of a song (usually the record label) and the owner/publisher of the musical composition of the song, who in turn pays 50% of their 50% to the songwriter(s). Sync licenses can be enormously lucrative, especially for uses such as hit TV shows, big-budget films, and national ad campaigns.
Self-Publish or Find a Publisher
If you’re not a recording artist with a recording deal and a publishing deal, then you can either self-publish your own musical compositions or find a publisher.
In a publishing deal, the publisher, as owner of a song, usually keeps 50% of the income and pays the songwriter(s) the other 50%. If you’re self-published, you get all 100%. If there are multiple writers, each writer’s 50% is divided according to the splits they’ve agreed to. Usually, splits are equal and pro-rata, but not always, depending on the stature of a writer and the relative contributions.
Why give 50% of your songwriting income to a publisher? It’s a big decision. A big reason to opt for this is that a publisher can “plug” your compositions to film and television music supervisors and advertising executives to secure those lucrative “sync” licenses. Also, publishers handle all the business paperwork: the copyright applications, the performing rights registrations, initiating disputes with competing rights claimants, copyright administration, licensing, etc.
You might conclude that, for at least the start of your songwriting career, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Then, after you’ve started to make money from your songwriting, you’ll want to start your own publishing company, so you can own 100% of your valuable compositions.
Register With a Pro As Both a Songwriter and a Publisher (if You Self-Publish)
One revenue stream from a song is from its “performance” on radio, television, and film, including streaming. You should register with a performing rights organization (PRO) as both a songwriter and a music publisher. If you don’t register as a publisher, you’ll leave 1/2 of your performance income on the table. There are 6 PROs in the U.S., ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR, SoundExchange (for digital radio) and AllTrack.
These organizations collect money on behalf of their songwriter, publisher, artist, and producer members and pay them directly for the use of their songs. ASCAP and BMI are the PROs that have been around the longest, but the newer PROs have become competitive.