Music Online: Alex Jones

An important, and sometimes overlooked, aspect of the music industry is that of the music publisher.

The most common role of a music publisher is to work with composers and songwriters and to find suitable recording artists for them to work with. They will also deal with ensuring that they receive the correct royalties and credits for their work, and are responsible for handling copyright registration and tracking where and when the artist’s music is being played, ensuring that their work is not being used without the correct authorisation.

Another role of the music publisher is to get the compositions or tracks placed so that they’re heard by the right people; they are the key to the development of new artists. This may be introducing the artist to record companies and getting them airplay on the right stations and on television shows. They may also need to prepare the promotional materials and CD’s to send out to them.

Along with this, they would also be responsible for getting an artists cong or composition placed in suitable adverts or in the soundtrack to a film or television programme, by suggesting them to producers and individuals within the industry. Again this helps in the development of the artist as the music begins to be heard in more places by people with an interest for it, and in a context whereby it becomes familiar.

In many cases the publishers make a deal whereby they receive half of the profits generated and are then credited as owning half of the copyright, and the writer receives the other half; however this varies depending on the type of contract, size of the company and success of the music. For example, once a writer has sold a share of their song to a publisher, the publisher is then able to go about making money from the song by selling rights to advertisers and film makers etc. However the songwriter cannot gain any profit until the publisher has made up the amount which they paid for their share in the song.

An artist could then again chose to hire a publisher merely for them to administer their copyright, for just fifteen percent, rather than hiring them to track the usage of the song as well. Publishers are also known to go further and undertake other roles within the industry, such as the artist’s manager or a music producer.

Useful Links:

http://www.mpaonline.org.uk/faqs/what_is_pub.html

http://www.allmusicindustrycontacts.com/music-publisher.htm