What is Music Publishing? A Music Creator’s Guide to Royalties

If you’re an artist receiving payments (or “royalties”) from streaming platforms, those payments are for the use of your sound recordings — essentially, your recorded performances. A recording is a type of creative work protected by copyright. The recording royalties will usually be paid to you by your distributor or record label. 

But, there is another crucial royalty stream – known as music publishing royalties – flowing from the songs (or underlying musical compositions/lyrics) that you performed in those recordings. We’ll use the term “composition”, which is another type of creative work protected by copyright. 

Understanding the Difference: Recording vs. Music Publishing Royalties

Let’s break it down with an example. Take Oasis: the band (i.e. artist) gets sound recording royalties whenever their albums or individual tracks are sold or streamed. However, Noel Gallagher, who wrote many of the band's hits, is entitled to the music publishing royalties because he owns the rights to the compositions that the band performed and recorded. (He also gets a share of the recording royalties, as a member of the band.)

Even if another artist records a cover version of an Oasis song – for example, Rod Stewart’s version of Cigarettes and Alcohol – Noel would still earn the publishing royalties, while the covering artist (Rod Stewart, here) would receive recording royalties for the recorded performance of the song.

This distinction is essential. Recording royalties reward artists (the ones performing on recordings), while publishing royalties reward the songwriters and composers. This is the same for rock music, electronic dance music and everything in between. 

Even where the artist and songwriter happen to be the same person! So, when you create original music on a digital audio workstation (DAW), like Logic or Ableton, bounce down the finished project as an audio file, and then distribute the mastered version to streaming platforms for people to listen to, you have actually written a composition, and created a recording of you (the artist) performing that composition. You are entitled to any recording royalties and any publishing royalties that are generated.    

What is Music Publishing?

Following this distinction, there is the recorded music business (record labels, distributors, artists, etc.), and the music publishing business, which is centred around the management, licensing, administration, and monetisation of compositions. In other words, generating income for the writers (or subsequent owners) of compositions in various ways, including:

• Performance Royalties: payments for when your composition is played in or to the public. Includes broadcast radio and TV, in live venues, and digital streaming.

• Mechanical Royalties: payments for when your composition is reproduced (i.e. a copy is made of it) physically (e.g. vinyl, CDs) or digitally (e.g. downloads, to enable streams).

• Sync Licensing Fees: payments for when your composition is used in visual media, such as TV, films, video games, and commercials.

“Sync” is an abbreviation of the term “synchronisation”. When music is used within, say, a film or commercial, it is played in timed relation with the moving images – it is synchronised. 

Don’t Ignore This Vital Income Stream

For creators who are dedicated songwriters or composers, publishing royalties may already be their most lucrative source of money, offering a steady flow of income from various sources, including streaming, sync licensing, and radio play. Producers who contribute to the songwriting of the music they work on are also likely to be focused on ensuring they collect all of the money that is generated for them on the publishing side. Many artists, however, are so laser-focused on recording royalties that they miss out on the significant income generated from their songwriting.

By focusing on publishing (as well), you’re securing a lasting income from every instance your composition is used, whether it’s a remix, cover version, a sync deal, or an international performance.

The Traditional Licensing Model - CMO's: PRO's and collecting societies

Historically, songwriters and composers had to rely entirely on collective management organisations (CMOs) to license their rights and collect all their royalties for them. CMOs include US performing rights organisations (PROs), such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR as well as collecting societies around the world, such as PRS (United Kingdom), SACEM (France), and APRA (Australia). 

CMOs performed their role via blanket licensing schemes: the CMO in each country would grant music users in that country only (e.g. national radio stations, TV channels, concert venues, and bars) licences to use “all compositions” – i.e. the users were covered by a full “blanket”, without any holes in it. The CMOs felt comfortable doing this because they agreed to license each other’s compositions in their respective countries. So, for example, the UK CMO would agree to license compositions by writers from France, Italy, Canada, etc., as long as the CMOs from France, Italy, Canada, etc. would license UK writers’ compositions in their countries. They would pass a portion of the blanket licence fees they collected to the other countries’ CMOs, which were then responsible for distributing the money to their songwriter and composer members.   

This was not a perfect system by any means. It ignored the fact that many songwriters and composers were not members of a CMO, so these writers were (purportedly) having their music “licensed” by organisations that they had no relationship with, and had no way of getting paid for that usage. Equally, because the CMOs were always simply licensing “all compositions”, they had no economic reason or incentive to properly track which music was actually being used, or how much. They used proxy formulas, often based on what was played during sample time periods on the radio, or at bars, and then extrapolated out, in order to decide how much to pay to whom. And, even in a best-case scenario, money would take an extraordinarily long time to filter back to the “home” CMO and, then, its member writers. 

That said, you can understand how, in a world before the internet and digital music use cases, this was the most practical solution available. The real problem is that it is completely impractical in the always-online world in which we live now; where “digital” is the largest revenue source for the industry, and music can be distributed globally at the push of a button. Yet, fundamentally, it is still the framework on which songwriters and composers have to rely to license their rights and collect their royalties.   

Even the biggest publishing companies, including Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, Universal Music Publishing and Kobalt, use CMOs to  collect royalties for their clients. But, the blanket licence model has largely gone away, which means that CMOs (and any other entities doing the job) are expected to be precise about what exactly they are licensing, on whose behalf, and in which territory(ies). In theory, that is a great development for songwriters, because it means they should now get paid (for digital anyway) based on how much their music was actually listened to or used. Guesstimates are no longer viable. 

However, with the exponential increase in music users, the huge volumes of data that many of those users (e.g. streaming services) report, and the fact that CMOs - almost all of which are non-profit - were never set up to perform this kind of technology role, it is unrealistic to expect them to adapt seamlessly to what is now required of them. Equally, while some CMOs have tried hard to grapple with the new reality, and have brought open minds to changes that could have huge benefits for their members, others have actively resisted the shift towards data and accuracy. 

So, songwriters are largely still burdened with a slow, fragmented, and complicated system that commonly  makes them wait many months to see their earnings, which are eaten away at significantly by intermediaries en route.  And, they often don’t get paid anything at all, because the data required to license their composition shares with specificity - and thus, collect the money actually generated by them - is either not provided to music users at all, or is in conflict with data provided by others (e.g. more than 100% of a composition is claimed on a streaming service, so that service doesn’t know which parties to pay).

There are also downstream consequences for sync, because anyone who wants to place music in their show, ad, app, or social media post, for example, must navigate the fragmented rights labyrinth in order to ensure that the music is properly licensed for online use, and they don’t have any legal risk. For many, the time and money cost of doing that is overwhelming, and just cannot be justified, so they turn, instead, to so-called “royalty-free” music options that have solutions for all budgets and, most importantly, are efficient and low-friction. Increasingly, they will be able to summon up AI-generated music, and even if the quality of that music is seen by many as materially lower, it will be deemed “good enough” for high-volume use-cases. 

In both cases, commercial artists and songwriters lose out. The traditional licensing model means that their music - no matter how good - cannot compete with these other options on efficiency and user experience. 

ReRight Simplifies Publishing to Help You Maximise Your Royalties

ReRight is modernising music publishing and giving music creators an alternative option to the traditional licensing model for digital royalties and sync. By managing the rights outside of the fragmented CMO system, ReRight can license music users directly, on a global basis and eliminate unnecessary intermediaries from the process. This means ReRight delivers significantly more money to songwriters and composers as a matter of course, and that it can do so fast - the money doesn’t have to trickle through numerous other entities just to get to ReRight. And, ReRight pays creators at least monthly.  

There are fewer opportunities for data issues to arise - ReRight doesn’t have to register the same composition data with scores of other entities, and then hope for the best. Creators can input and verify their composition shares to ReRight in seconds, and that data can then be used directly by ReRight for licensing immediately. If any issues or conflicts do arise, ReRight can proactively work to resolve them with the songwriter or composer. This also means less money goes “missing”, and more money ends up in creators’ pockets. 

By enabling commercial artists, songwriters and composers to keep their rights together, as one usable bundle - rather than carving them up by territory, and into sub-rights - ReRight empowers these creators to seize opportunities and take advantage of new revenue streams. It becomes easy for anyone who wants to use their music in a show, ad, app, or social media post to do so, without the headache and complexity of the traditional system. There’s no longer any need for users to choose between quality and efficiency, because they can now get both. Again, more money in creators’ pockets.  ReRight specialises in managing global publishing rights for digital usage and ensuring all types of music creators get paid more money, faster. We help you navigate the world of music publishing with ease, from performance royalties to sync licensing opportunities. Our partnerships with platforms like TikTok and Discord allow us to leverage global licensing deals, so your music gets in front of more audiences, regardless of its performance on traditional streaming platforms, such as Spotify.

How to Start Earning More From Your Compositions

• Sign up with ReRight: Use ReRight’s technology to manage your digital rights directly, without a CMO (i.e. PRO or collecting society). If you’d like to work with a CMO for non-digital rights, we can help you determine which one might be best for your needs.

• Monetise Your Music Globally: Whether through streaming or sync deals, ensure your music is working for you everywhere online.

• Simplify Your Royalties: With ReRight , you no longer need to track down different royalty sources manually. We handle it for you.

The Future of Music Publishing is Here

Music publishing used to be slow and complicated, but with ReRight it is fast and simple. By choosing ReRight as your partner, you can focus on creating, while we take care of managing your rights and collecting your royalties. Join ReRight today and maximise your earning potential in the modern music industry.