Basics of music publishing

What is publishing?
In simple words, “publishing” means making information available to the public. In the past this was done mainly through issuing printed copies of documents. Now there are many more options including websites, print, e-publications, and apps.

What is music publishing?
Music publishing is the business of promotion and monetization of musical compositions and literary works. Music publishers ensure that songwriters and lyricists receive royalties for their creative works to generate opportunities for their compositions to be recorded and reproduced.

Publishing is the oldest vertical of the music business. It obviously existed long before the first recording mediums came around. In the early part of the 20th century, sheet music publishing essentially ran the music business. Publishers were in-charge of placing compositions to paper and producing songbooks, and distributing them to retail outlets, and compensating authors for the commercial use of their works.

Fast forward through early playback days such as the birth of radio, vinyl, cassette tapes, CDs, internet, download-to-own services, and, finally, streaming. A lot has changed since the songbook days, and nowadays, music publishers earn money through additional modes and mediums — but their role, in its core sense has remained more or less the same through the years.

Role of a Publisher (individual / company):
Publishers are responsible for representing composers and lyricists — the authors of the musical works — making sure that their clientele receive compensation for the commercial usage of their intellectual property. Back in the day, that meant paying them a percentage of songbook sales — today, it involves collecting royalties across the industry.

1. Publishing Administration
Registration, Collection, and Audit of royalties from collection agencies.

2. Developing Songwriters’ Careers
Many artists out there have two lives — both recording their own music and writing music for other recording artists (or for TV shows, movies, jingles, commercials, and video games). Take Ed Sheeran, for example. Everyone knows him for “Shape of You” and “Perfect”. However, even some of his most dedicated fans don’t know that Sheeran also writes songs for the biggest artists in the music business, from Justin Bieber to Major Lazor.

For instance, when Ed Sheeran wrote “Love Yourself” for Justin Bieber, Sheeran’s music label hasn’t made a single penny, but his publisher, on the other hand, has made millions from publishing royalties and for every sale of Bieber’s sound recording, performance, and playback of the song.

3. Negotiating the Music Rights
The third key function of the music publisher is to enhance the exposure of the songwriters, and maximize opportunities as songwriters in the exploitation of their talent.

The scenario in India:
Most of the world’s largest publishers not only have a presence in India, but since then – Warner/Chappell Music, Universal Music Publishing, and Sony/ATV Music [which also represents EMI Music Publishing] – have been proactive in pursuing their artiste/client interests, more so with the popularity of YouTube since its acquisition by Google in 2006. Further support for the music publishers in India – which also has several independent companies supporting both Indian interests and/or smaller International publishers, such as Turnkey Music & Publishing – was provided by the amendment of the Indian Copyright Act in 2012.

Meanwhile, referencing other collection agencies, on the public performance side, three key bodies that exist include PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited; www.pplindia.org), and its offshoot, Phonographic Digital Limited, and Novex Communications [www.novex.in] – a company floated to represent the interests of established content production houses Yash Raj Films, Zee Music, Tips Industries, and Eros International, among others.

If one includes additional bodies, there exists the Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA; isracopyright.com) – represented by former IPRS representative Sanjay Tandon.

While PPL, PDL, and IPRS have a connect with the Indian Music Industry [IMI; www.indianmi.org], another body, the South Indian Music Companies Association [SIMCA; www.simca.org.in] was set up in 1996 to oversee the common problems faced by the industry in South India. The membership of the association includes members who once belonged to the Indian Music Industry (IMI) and/or Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL); however, SIMCA is not empowered to issue any kind of licenses. Hence, in or about December 2018, SIMCA entered into an agreement for monetising its public performance rights through PPL.

About “Self-Publishing”:
One option is to sign up with a music label (who in India, have publishing companies floated too).
The other alternative now available is for songwriters to start their own music labels and register their companies with bodies like IPRS as publishers as well.

When self-publishing your music, you hold all the IP, publisher’s credit, and songwriter’s credit. You get all the royalties and full control of the compositional copyright. But, in turn, you have to take on all of the duties of a publisher as well.

Note: Globally, in value terms, publishing earns about 10% of the sound recording revenues and, hence, the main income from publishing arrives from synchronisation rights [or “sync” for short], which is a music license granted by the publisher of a particular composition, allowing the publisher to synchronize (“sync”) music with visual media (film, television shows, advertisements, video games, website content, movie trailers, etc.).

Bibliography and References:
1. Inputs by Achille Forler, Sherley Singh and Parag Kamani
2. https://soundcharts.com/