Why should independent artists work with a music publishing administrator?
Fancy maintaining ownership of the copyrights for your music whilst cashing in on your publishing royalties? We don’t blame you, so here’s why and how you should and can!
Bursting in through the door of your band’s practice space and proudly announcing that you have a music publishing administrator might not sound as exciting or sexy as yelling, “We have a publishing deal!” But allow us to explain why it could be a better option for you as an independent songwriter.
Music Publisher vs Music Publishing Administrator
First things first, let’s clear up exactly what a music publisher does, and compare that to a music publishing administrator. This one’s critical to making an informed decision between the two. They may sound alike, but they offer very different deals.
Of course, you may still want to aim for working with a music publisher. This can be a very wise thing to do, depending on what stage of your songwriting career you find yourself. Music publishers tend to be comprehensive operations, covering numerous aspects of your career. In the meantime, though, you could be making the most of a music publishing administrator.
Music publisher
What does a music publisher do? Quite a lot, it turns out. We could talk all day about the various responsibilities taken on by music publishers, as well as the ways they offer artists support. But, we don’t have all day, and we’re sure you don’t either.
- Copyright management: A music publisher protects your song’s copyrights, ensuring legal registration and safeguarding your intellectual property. A key thing to note here is that music publishers can OWN your music’s copyright.
- Licensing & royalties: They handle licensing for media (TV, films, ads) and collect royalties, making sure you’re paid when your music is used.
- Promotion: Publishers actively pitch your songs for opportunities, like sync placements or covers by other artists.
- Creative support: They may offer creative guidance, help set you up in writers’ rooms, set up collaborations, or help with career development.
Music publishing administrator
A music publishing administrator focuses solely on the royalties side of things, collecting revenue generated by your compositions and giving it to you. You might be thinking, “But, I want all the other stuff a publisher does too…”
Well, we’re not saying you can’t have that too, but it’s not so simple getting a publishing deal. However, it is much more straightforward to work with a publishing administrator. Plus, this means that you don’t miss out on collecting your publishing royalties whilst you’re waiting for that dream publishing deal to land.
Why work with a music publishing administrator?
To impress upon you why you should work with a music pub admin, we’re going to break down just how many royalties you could be missing out on by not doing so.
Collect publishing royalties for your compositions
- Performance royalties: this royalty is generated any time your composition is performed publicly, either live or on TV, broadcast on the radio, even streamed in a café or waiting room.
- Mechanical royalties: This royalty is generated whenever your composition is recreated, be it through a cover, or the purchase of a physical copy like a CD or vinyl.
- Micro sync royalties: Like a sync royalty (generated when a composition accompanies a moving visual), micro sync royalties are just one royalty generated when your composition is used in a YouTube video and comes from ad revenue. This type of royalty is only applicable to monetized videos in the US currently.
If you don’t have a publishing deal, or you don’t work with music pub admin, you’re potentially missing out on all these royalties. That could be the money that makes the difference between you recording your next EP DIY or in a kitted out studio. Those royalties could pay for that slightly nicer van for your next tour.
Greater royalty share
If you use a music publisher to collect your publishing royalties, you won’t get more than 50% of your royalties. This is because publishers tend to take a 50% cut for themselves. Since performing rights organizations (PROs), collect performance royalties, a cut is taken by them initially as well.
Opt for a music publishing administrator, however, and you get a much bigger piece of the performance royalties pie. As long as you’re a member of a PRO like PRS in the UK or ASCAP in the US, you can collect 50% of your performance royalties directly from them, while a music pub admin collects the other 50% for you.
How to work with a music publishing administrator
If you’re now realizing there’s a host of publishing royalties you’ve not been collecting for compositions you have written, now’s the time to take action!
Working with a music pub admin is easier than you probably think, and we’re about to explain it all to you…
If you’re eligible to collect publishing rights – so if you’re the composer of an original musical work, have your compositional name registered, and are signed up to a PRO – all you need to do is contact publishing@routenote.com. The RouteNote Publishing team will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about their publishing admin service, and get you started on the way to collecting more royalties.
Bet that was easier than you thought, hey.
What’s great is that RouteNote only keeps 15% of the performance royalties collected from PROs. That means you collect 50% from the PRO, and receive another 35% from RouteNote Publishing.
Summing Up
If you are a songwriter who has released their compositions into the world, you could be missing out on valuable publishing royalties. Whether you’re aiming to land a publishing deal or not, working with a music publishing administrator in the meantime helps you unlock multiple publishing royalties. It’s much easier than you think, and definitely worth it for a independent artist and songwriter trying to further their career!