# Music publishing

Also known as: Music publisher, Publishing

> Music publishing is the business of owning or administering the copyrights in compositions. A publisher registers a songwriter's works with collecting societies, licenses them for recordings, performances, film and print, and collects the resulting royalties, keeping a share under the terms of a publishing, co-publishing or administration deal.

Source: https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/music-publishing · Category: Rights and licensing · Last reviewed: 2026-10-02 · License: CC BY 4.0

## Key facts

- **Rights managed:** The musical work (composition)
- **Income streams:** Performance, mechanical, sync and print
- **Common deals:** Full publishing, co-publishing, administration
- **Identifier:** [ISWC](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/iswc)
- **Separate from:** [The master recording](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/master-recording)

## What a publisher does

A publisher's work is administrative and commercial. It **registers** each composition, with its writers and their shares, with [performing rights organizations](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/performing-rights-organization) and mechanical collectives such as the [MLC](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/mechanical-licensing-collective); it **licenses** the works — [mechanical licenses](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/mechanical-license) for recordings, [sync licenses](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/synchronization-license) for film and advertising, print licenses for sheet music; it **collects** the resulting income worldwide; and it **pitches** songs to artists, supervisors and brands.

## The writer's share and the publisher's share

Publishing income is conventionally divided into two halves. The **writer's share** is paid directly to songwriters by their performing rights organization and cannot be assigned to a publisher. The **publisher's share** is paid to whoever owns or administers the publishing. A writer with no publisher can collect the publisher's share themselves by registering a publishing entity — otherwise part of their performance income may go uncollected.[1]

## Types of publishing deal

| Deal | Who owns the copyright | Publisher's take |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Full publishing | The publisher, by assignment | Typically the whole publisher's share |
| Co-publishing | Writer and publisher, jointly | Typically half of the publisher's share |
| Administration | The writer | A fee, commonly a percentage of income, for a fixed term |

Terms vary widely; the percentages above describe the usual shape of each deal rather than a standard rate.

## In practice at SNVRKOTICS

SNVRKOTICS records a publishing split on every work, with each writer's share and publisher, separate from the master split on each recording.

## Questions

### Do I need a publisher to get paid for my songs?

No, but someone must register your works and collect the publisher's share. You can do this yourself by setting up your own publishing entity, or hire an administrator to do it for a fee.

### What is the difference between a publisher and a PRO?

A performing rights organization licenses and collects performance royalties only. A publisher manages all of a song's rights and income, including registering the song with the PRO.

### What is a publishing administration deal?

An agreement in which the writer keeps ownership of their copyrights and a company registers, licenses and collects on their behalf for a percentage fee over a fixed term.

## References

1. ASCAP. "ASCAP — American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers." https://www.ascap.com/

## Related

- [International Standard Musical Work Code](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/iswc): The ISWC is an ISO 15707 identifier for a musical work — the composition itself, independent of any recording of it.
- [Performing rights organization](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/performing-rights-organization): A performing rights organization licenses the public performance of songs and pays the royalties to their songwriters and publishers.
- [Mechanical license](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/mechanical-license): A mechanical license permits the reproduction and distribution of a composition in recordings — physical copies, downloads and interactive streams.
- [Synchronization license](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/synchronization-license): A synchronization license permits music to be paired with moving images — film, television, advertising, games and online video.
- [Split sheet](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/split-sheet): A split sheet is a signed record of who owns what percentage of a song or recording, agreed by every contributor and totaling 100%.
- [Music royalties](https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/music-royalties): Music royalties are payments to rights holders each time a song or recording is sold, streamed, performed, licensed or broadcast.

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Cite as: "Music publishing." SNVRKOTICS Wiki, 2026-10-02. https://wiki.snvrkotics.com/music-publishing