16: PUBLISHING

More.....2

What is a Publisher?

Publishers are people who sign up songwriters, attempt to get the songs into a position where they will be used in broadcasting and onto records, then collect the royalties and take a cut.

The Copyright Principle

Songwriters get royalties from MCPS and PRS (assuming they are members!) as they collect what's due from the various uses made of their copyright material. For example, a radio station plays a song; they then owe the songwriter some royalties - PRS monitors the radio stations and collects the royalties accrued and distributes it to the songwriters. Or; if someone makes loads of copies of a song they owe the songwriter about 8.5% of the dealer price - MCPS collects it and distributes it to the writer.

The effects of this copyright principle differ according to whether a writer is published or not - the differences are discussed below.

The methods and advantages

a. Unpublished work.
A songwriter can remain unpublished in the sense that they have no publisher. If they get songs released and/or played on the radio or TV their royalties wil be paid to them by the relevant protection societies, such as PRS and MCPS. This works so long as the writer is a member of these organisations. They generally pay out twice a year. The songwriter gets to keep all of the royalties due.

b. Published work
The consequences of being published are manifold. First of all its worth noting that the publisher will take a cut of the royalties accrued from the use of a song. But the roles they perform can be seen to justify this.

Being signed to a publisher, in theory, means that a songwriter will have someone with some good contacts and knowledge of the industry working with the songs in order to get them used by other artistes, get record deals for the songwriter, get music in films, etc. These tasks are much more difficult for the songwriter working alone.

Do you need a publisher?

Sometimes it is of no advantage to you having a publisher. But there are many situations where one would be very useful. If you want to write songs with a view to playing in a band with no big ambition to be a world wide success - just to play live for the sheer enjoyment of it, you won't need a publisher.

Unknown Artistes

If you are an unknown artiste a publisher could help with the following:

• Paying for the recording of a demo to promote your music. The songs would be promoted to producers, other artistes (more famous ones hopefully), band leaders, film makers, etc - all with a view to your music being used by one of them. The point being if someone uses a song and it gets abundant airplay or several copies produced there is money due to the writer. Because the publisher usually has better contacts and experience, these things are arguably more likely to happen.
  
  
• Helping to get a record deal. Publishers are much more likely than unknown artistes to have contacts with record companies, and they have experience of how good songs actually need to be in order to attract the attention they deserve. It is more likely that a publisher can help to get a record deal if the writer is also an artiste and performer.

How do you get a Publisher

Once decided you want to work with a publisher it is important to target the right ones. If you write pop songs it would be no use trying to get a publisher who specialises in 'serious' or classical music.

It will be in your interest when trying to attract the attention of publisher to make sure the presentationof your work is professional looking and organised. Scores should be legible and tapes should be clearly labelled and look good. This gives the impression of being reasonably business like and cooperative so that publisher have the confidence in you that they need.

Attracting the attention of a publisher is much the same as attracting the attention of anyone in the industry. Quality material and a good head for reliability and professionalism are needed for progress generally, publishers are no different.

More.....2