The Role Of Publishers Outside Of The Music Licensing Industry
I've covered what publishers do within the context of the music licensing industry in previous newsletters. Today's newsletter will discuss what music publishers do outside of the music licensing industry. Some music "publishers" work strictly within the context of the music licensing business and focus strictly on shopping music to TV and Film projects. But traditionally music publishers focused on other means of exploiting the music they represented and generating income.
One of the primary means of generating income by what I'll call "traditional publishers" is by placing songs they represent with recording artists and getting their catalog placed on recordings. An established publisher will have established relationhips with producers, managers, A & R executives and artists. A really well connected publisher can sometimes get one song cut by multiple artists over a period of time resulting in a substantial revenue stream.
Publishers are also responsible for making sure that all of the paperwork for the songs they represent are in order. Things like filing copyright forms, registering songs with Performing Rights Organizations, auditing record companies, negotiating music licenses and verifying the correctness of royalty statments are all adminstrative duties that music publishers handle. Not having to worry about these sorts of mind numbing actitvities allows the artist more time and freedom to focus on writing and performing music.
If you're interested in submitting your music to publishers that pitch music to artists, and in many cases to film and TV opportunities to, check out the 2010 Music Publisher Directory. This directory focuses on strictly music publishers and has contact information for several hundred publishing companies in both the recording industry and licensing industry niches.
