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Music publishing is all you need to say to inspire
groans of confusion or knowing smiles. Music publishing is tedious, detail
oriented, and (some would say) boring; but it also happens to be the
single most enduring source of income in an ever-changing industry.
But why is that? Why is publishing considered the holy grail of income
streams? After all, it's CD sales that Billboard charts; CDs that go gold
and platinum. How come there aren't music publishing charts if publishing
is so important?
Perhaps one reason is that publishing income is harder to track, because
it comes from so many different places, over such a long period of time.
The Billboard charts deal with fixed CDs, each with its own product code.
But music publishing deals with the songs on the CDs: The actual
copyrights, also known as intellectual property - a much more nebulous
beast, altogether. And while a hit CD might have an average sales life
span of anywhere from six weeks to six months, or even longer as a
catalogue title (if you're lucky), the copyrights go on... and on... and
on. Until 70 years past the death of the author - which, if you write a
song when you're young and live to a ripe old age - can translate to over
a century of earning power.
Of course, a copyright doesn't just sit there and generate income - it
needs to be promoted so that it will be used. Further, it must be
protected against misuse. This is what music publishing is all about: The
promotion and protection of - and if it's done well - the profiting from,
copyrights.
Steps can be taken to ensure that your copyrights are properly
administered and exploited. This information is vital to everyone working
in the music industry - after all,
music publishing deals with the very basis of the music business: the
songs. Without the songs, we might as well be selling shoes or shampoo. It
is only by knowing exactly how music publishing works that you can become
an effective publisher.
Speaking of which, who exactly are these mysterious music publishers?
For starters, they are every songwriter who has ever put notes on paper or
melodies on tape. By law, until and unless a songwriter assigns the rights
of their songs - the rights associated with music publishing - to someone
else (i.e., a music publisher), that songwriter is his or her own music
publisher. But that doesn't mean that a songwriter is necessarily an
effective music publisher. Music publishing is hard, time-consuming work-
and not every songwriter wants to spend their creative energy chasing the
pennies, as publishing is sometimes called.
Similarly not every record company that releases CDs should attempt to be
a music publisher. If you have a record company and are thinking about
signing your artists' publishing just to have it-- Don't! Unless you are
prepared to make the investment of creating a
staffed, fully-functional publishing branch, you will only do writers a
disservice. Music publishing requires expertise and extra amounts of
patience and provided you're prepared to hire the staff, do the legwork,
and the additional work such as the follow-ups: essentially start a whole
new business. Music publishing can be a great way to make a lot of
money... after a while. If you're not, you would do much better referring
your artists to an established, reputable music publisher who will work
with you to promote your artists' copyrights, which means that the
publisher will also promote the CDs those copyrights appear on and
ultimately the artists themselves.
Whether you are a writer, a record company a publisher - or all
three - you should be aware of music publishing basics, and exactly how
music publishing generates income.
Sarah-Chanderia, is founder and president of Hacate Entertainment Group, a
music publishing, production and licensing company based in New York City
which represents music worldwide. Sarah is co-songwriter and lead singer
of the critically acclaimed band The Hush; she also teaches music
composition and music business at the State University of New York. In
addition, she is' a frequent speaker at domestic and international music
conferences and works with music organizations to protect the rights of
artists and writers worldwide.
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