Whenever a song is aired in a television broadcast the song, assuming it is properly registered with a Performing Rights Organization, generates what is
called a Performance Royalty. The Performance Royalty consists of two halves, one half is called the writer's share and the other half is called the publisher's share. If you have not assigned your publishing rights to a separate publisher and the song is aired on television you would receive both halves, or in other words 100% of the performance royalty. If, on the other hand, your song was placed through a separate publisher to whom you have given your publishing rights to, you would receive half of the total performance royalty and your
publisher would receive the other half, the publisher's share.
It´s important to point out that music publishers who work in the music licensing industry typically only keep publishing for songs within the context of TV, Films,Video Games, Advertising, etc. In other words, within the niches they are pitching your songs to. Additionally, when you assign your publishing rights to a music publisher working in the licensing business, you are usually only assigning them the publishing rights as they apply to the specific recording of the song that you are entering into a publishing agreement for. This is what´s called a Master Sync License. If you´re song ended up being re-recorded and released on an album, or even if it was the exact same version of the song for that matter, you´re TV/Film music publisher would not be entitled to publishing rights for this song for either radio airplay or CD sales under normal circumstances. Of course, if you signed a contract that stipulated that your publisher was entitled to these rights then they would be, but this is not common practice for music publishers who specialize in TV and Film placements.
Hopefully this helps clear up the publishing issue a bit. For some reason publishers seem to get a bad rap. I think this probably is related to horror stories we´ve all heard about famous musicians entering into bad deals where they unknowingly signed away huge portions of their income. In my experience though, I´ve actually had the most success working with publishers who already have the necessary relationships established within the industry. And at the end of the day, music publishers, just like you and I, want to get paid. Fair enough.
What Happens When You Sign A Deal With A Music Publisher
So, you've done your homework and you've researched numerous places to submit your music to. Let's suppose that all your hardwork pays off and you land
a deal with a publisher, for example, who wants to represent your music.
What happens next?
Well the first thing that is going to happen is you will be presented with a contract that grants the rights to your new publisher to "shop" your song to
various outlets on your behalf. There are different types of deals. The first deal I signed granted my publisher exclusive rights to pitch any songs I licensed to her within the TV and Film industry for perpetuity. In other words my publisher is
the only publisher that represents the songs I signed to her and any money that is made as a result of these songs being broadcast in either Television or Film my publisher gets a piece of - forever. I still own the copyright, but my publisher gets a piece of any royalties generated within the context of TV and Film placements. At the time I felt like this was a fair trade off, since I had NO contacts within the music business worth speaking of. And I'm actually still fine with the arrangement. My publisher simply has many more contacts than I do.
But I am careful about signing similiar agreements with some of my newer songs. There are other companies that are fine with representing your music on a non exclusive basis so it's ultimately up to you to use your discretion and make deals that make sense to you. Just be aware that both types of arrangements exist.
What happens after you've signed a deal with a publisher? Well, then you sit back and wait and hope they place your material for you. Not everything gets placed though, so keep that in mind. Some of my songs have been picked up right away, some have been picked up more than a year after I've signed them and some have never been used at all.
Self Publishing Your Music
If you don´t assign your publishing rights to someone else, you, the songwriter, are by default the publisher of the song. If you place your music without the aid of a separate publisher you will be entitled to the entire performance royalty that the song generates, which includes both the writer´s share and the publisher´s share. This sounds good in theory, but in my experience it is a lot harder to place music without the aid of an established publisher with the necessary relationships in place within the music business.
If you are going to go the route of self publishing your music it is important to know that if you use ASCAP to collect your performance royalties you will also need to have a publishing company established through ASCAP in order to ensure that you get paid for the songs that you place. When songs are
registered with ASCAP there needs to be both a writer and publisher listed for
each song. If you are functioning as the song's publisher you will need to also
set up a publishing company through ASCAP in order to list yourself as the
publisher. This is easy to do. Just fill out the publisher application online at
If you are a BMI member you are allowed to list yourself as the song's publisher without actually having a publishing company established. Additionally there are a growing number of libraries that will place your music, Music Supervisor.com for example, that don´t take any publishing royalties and only keep a percentage of the licensing fees they are able to generate on behalf of the songwriters they work with. I encourage songwriters to pursue these opportunities as well. The more seeds you can plant the better. But with that said, I have personally had more success working with more hands on publishers that do keep the publishing share of royalties that my songs generate for placements they make on my behalf.
Until Next Time.... Happy Songwriting!
Aaron Davison
