Should Independent Musicians / Artists Need Music Public Administration?
If you are an Independent Artist and you are Recording & Distributing only Cover Songs (Songs written by someone else), then you do not have to opt-in for Publishing Services.
Music Publishing Administration is only for Original Compositions.
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Music Distribution Vs Music Publishing
What is the difference between Music Distribution & Music Publishing?
Music Distribution and Music Publishing are two different copyrights that generate entirely different royalty streams.
Music Distribution:
Artists / Musicians distribute their sound recordings to Digital Music Platforms such as Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal etc. This is usually done via a Digital Music Distributor / Aggregator such as CD Baby, Soundrop, TuneCore, Distrokid, Ditto Music etc.
Royalties:
When someone Streams, Downloads, or otherwise uses music you’ve written, or recorded, you are owed two kinds of royalties.
(1) Sound Recording / Master
For your Sound Recording. It is for the Final Audio File (Mastered Audio File) you exported from your Studio. You get these royalties when someone streams your Sound Recordings on Spotify, Deezer, Tidal etc. or someone downloads your Sound Recording on iTunes, Amazon Downloads etc. These royalties are collected by your Digital Music Distributor.
(2) Composition / Publishing
These Royalties are attributed to the Original Songwriters. So, if you are distributing your Original Songs (which means Composed / Written by you), then you are eligible to get both the Sound Recording & Composition Royalties.
Here’s the catch!
Distributors (CD Baby, Distrokid, Ditto Music etc.) handle the distribution of your music only. This means they place your music in Digital Music Stores (Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes, etc.) and pay you the royalties from your ownership of the recording which is the Sound Recording Royalty. Unless you have a publishing service, you are likely not collecting your royalties from the ownership of your composition, in other words, your Composition / Publishing royalties.
Music Publishing Administration:
Music Publishing Administration is the business of collecting royalties for Compositions (songs written). Songwriters and composers will get paid from these royalties and the money is usually collected by a publishing administrator.
How do you collect your Publishing Royalties?
PRO (Performance Rights Organisation) like BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC will handle your public performance collection. Each organisation have their sign-up procedures and terms and conditions. BMI – https://www.bmi.com/ ASCAP – https://www.ascap.com/ SESAC – https://www.sesac.com/
To collect all the royalties due to you (for your Original Composition), you will need to sign up with both a PRO (ASCAP / BMI/ SESAC) to receive your public performance royalties, as well as SoundExchange, who will pay out the Digital Public Performance Royalties.
This may sound very overwhelming especially when you have no prior experience in dealing with these organisations. Hence it is better to work with a Publishing Admin Company. These companies collect royalties when your songs are streamed, downloaded, or physically bought (CDs/vinyl records/tapes). They also work closely with PROs on your behalf of you.
Top Publishing Admin Companies in the Industry.
CD Baby Pro
CD Baby is well known as one of the biggest Music Distribution Services around. But in addition to distributing Sound Recordings, they also have an admin publishing service called CD Baby Pro.
Cost: U$29.95 per Single, U$69 per Album.
This is regardless of how many songwriters and or how many Artists. The pricing is based on Audio Tracks. They take 15% of the publishing royalties and 9% of the mechanical royalties. In addition to that CD Baby only offers Publishing Administration for Audio Distributed through them.
Services:
Worldwide publishing royalty collection.
Direct song registration with global royalty collection societies
Performing Rights Organization affiliation in the USA & Canada (with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or SOCAN).
Global YouTube publishing royalties for any video on YouTube that contains your music.
Does not offer a standalone publishing service. Your Digital Audio needs to be distributed through them
Royalties From Cover Songs. You will also get a Mechanical Royalty if someone covers your original song. CD Baby works closely with Harry Fox Agency’s ‘Songfile’.
Ditto Music Publishing
Ditto Music, one of the leading Digital Music distributors from the UK has recently started Publishing Administration Services, which is Ditto Music Publishing. Cost: U$49 per Year.
The Pricing is based on a Yearly subscription, regardless of how many songs you distribute through them. They take 10% of the publishing royalties and 0% of the sound recording royalties
Services:
Mechanical Streaming royalties whenever your music is streamed.
Mechanical Download royalties whenever your music is downloaded.
YouTube royalties when your music is used anywhere on the platform.
Performance royalties from live shows, radio, TV, & streaming services Sync royalties whenever your music is used in media.
Does not offer a standalone publishing service. Your Digital Audio needs to be distributed through them.
Sentric Music Publishing
Sentric Music Publishing is a stand-alone publishing royalty collection service. This means they are not Digital Music distributors. You can Distribute your Music via your preferred Digital Music Distributors and sign up for Publishing Administration with Sentric Music Publishing.
Cost: It’s free to sign up with Sentric. However, they will take 20% of the royalties.
Services:
Royalties For Songs You Didn’t Release Yourself (for your composition, released by someone else).
International Mechanical Royalties.
Royalties From Cover Songs. You will also get a Mechanical Royalty if someone covers your original song.
Register for past & upcoming gigs
Songtrust
Songtrust claims to be the most prominent publishing administration, working with over 100,000 songwriters. The platform is loved by artists and musicians who have just started their careers and also by many Grammy-award-winning acts. They operate as the publishing admin for CD Baby.
Cost: One-time fee of U$100 per songwriter. They also take a 15% commission.
Services:
Royalties for songs you did not release yourself (for your composition, released by someone else).
Global Registration and Collection.
Royalties From Cover Songs. You will also get a Mechanical Royalty if someone covers your original song.
TuneCore Publishing
TuneCore is a well-known digital music distribution company. They also have an admin publishing service called TuneCore Publishing.
Cost: TuneCore charges U$75 per writer. They also retain a 15% commission from the royalties that they collect on Artist’s behalf.
Services:
Royalties for songs you did not release yourself (for your composition, released by someone else).
You can use TuneCore Publishing as a standalone service. This means you can use another Music Distributor and TuneCore’s Publishing Administration Service.
International Mechanical Royalties.
Royalties From Cover Songs. You will also get a Mechanical Royalty if someone covers your original song.
Register for Unlimited Songs Worldwide. The U$75 fee is per songwriter, not per song.
Mechanical and performance royalties from Digital Music Stores.
Monetize Your Compositions on YouTube.
Sync Licensing Opportunities.
Verified Song Registrations.
Global Print Royalties.
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