Music Publishing Royalties

By Mark G. Quail

Does music publishing confuse you? Don't feel bad. It confuses experienced music veterans too. Music publishing is about making money from the creative act of songwriting. Let's break it down like this: once you've finished writing a song that people want to hear it can earn money in several different ways, the main ones being when someone records it and sells records of it, when it is sold as sheet music, when it is played on the radio and when it is used as part of movie or a TV show.

Don't confuse publishing royalties with record royalties. The person who performs the song gets royalties from the sale of records. The person who wrote the song gets publishing royalties. The two types of royalties are separate because the copyright in the record and the copyright in the song are two separate things.

Publishing royalties break down into several categories. These include: "mechanical royalties" earned from the sale of records, "print royalties" earned from the sale of sheet music, "synchronization royalties" earned when the song is placed in film or TV productions, and "public performance royalties" earned when the song is played in public such as on the radio or TV or in a live concert setting. There are also categories that earn substantially smaller royalties such as website usage, audio greeting cards, tariffs from the sale of digital audio recorders and karaoke licenses but taken together these can add up.

These different royalty categories have their sources in the payments made by the user of the song. The record company making the CDs pays the mechanical royalties. The company that supervises the printing of the sheet music pays the print royalties. The synchronization payments originate with the production company behind the TV show or film and the public performance royalties are derived from the radio and TV stations, restaurants, night clubs and concert halls that pay for the right to broadcast or perform the songs to the public.