Music Publishing
A lot of songwriters are mystified by the world of music publishing. Publishing is a very important part of creating music. First of all Publishers administer the rights to a song, including collecting performance royalties. Secondly, Publishers work to commodify the song by finding new uses for it to be heard and get into the marketplace, thereby potentially generating new revenue streams for the songwriter. Here are some sites to help clear things up!
In the
music industry, a
music publisher (or
publishing company) is responsible for ensuring the
songwriters and
composers receive payment when their
compositions are used commercially. Through an agreement called a
publishing contract, a songwriter or composer "assigns" the
copyright of their composition to a publishing company. In return, the company
licenses compositions, helps monitor where compositions are used, collects
royalties and distributes them to the composers. They also secure commissions for music and promote existing compositions to
recording artists,
film and
television.
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