The Songwriter

The Songwriter - Feb 09

How do I get my songs published? What should I expect from a publisher? And, how much will it cost? These are common questions raised by new writers. And quite frankly, there is no one answer that is correct for every writer.

The first question you need to ask is whether or not you need a publisher at all. At the moment your song is created, you are the writer, copyright owner, and publisher of the song. You own all the rights to it. Many recording artists in Pop and Country, and even in Contemporary Christian music, do not deal with outside publishers. It is very easy to go online and set up your own publishing company with BMI, SESAC, or ASCAP.

If you are an established artist, you may not want to sign the copyright ownership away to an outside publisher. Most often a new artist will assign their publishing to a record company to help sweeten the deal for the record company, in order for them to make a commitment to the artist. That is a very common practice. But when an artist/writer is already established then the publishing usually comes off the negotiating table. In Southern Gospel music an example of this would be the Rambos and Dottie Rambo's publishing rights. When the Rambos first signed with the Benson Company in the mid 1960's, their recording agreement included Dottie's publishing. Then in later years as old contracts expired and new one's were signed, the publishing was gone from the agreement. The Rambos started Rambo Music and self published all of their own songs.
The Benson Company still kept the Rambos on their label because they were selling enough records that the company wouldn't need Dottie's publishing earnings to make a profit.

A more recent example of this is Rodney Griffin of Greater Vision. As Greater Vision's artist popularity grew, their need for a publisher deminished. Gerald and Rodney now own their own publishing company named, Songs of Greater Vision. They are able to keep the publishing and writers share of every song in their catalogue.

Artists like the Rambos, and Greater Vision are very confident in acting as a self publisher, because they know that each year they are going to record a top selling album with their own songs. Any song in their catalogue that is recorded by anyone else is just icing on the cake.

The second question is also a very valid one. What should you expect from a publisher? You should expect your publisher to record professional quality demos at the publisher's expense. You should expect them to exploit your song in every way they can. That means pitching the song to artists, producers, record companies, choral arrangers and anywhere else that your song may earn income. The publisher must take responsibility in doing all the legal paper work, including registering the song as a published work with the Library of Congress, administration of copyright, and collection of royalties. If you have a large catalog of songs, this can become a full time job real fast. Many new writers and artist/writers just don't have the expertise to carry off all of these tasks effectivley. If you are new to the business, you probably have not established the required contacts to get your songs heard, like a major publisher in the industry already has done.

How much will it cost the writer to have a publisher do this work for you? That's the easiest question to answer. It will cost the writer half of whatever the song earns in royalties. 50% is standard in most publishing contracts. Now that may seem a little steep to a new writer, but think about it for a moment. The publisher is the one putting hours of working the song. They are paying for studio time, musicians, singers and engineers to make a professional demo. The publisher immediately puts a financial investment into the song. This is why publishing companies are so selective in the material they choose to publish. They have to really believe in the song's financial earning potential. The writer usually has no more invested than the time it took to write the song. So a 50/50 split is really quite reasonable.

Now, as I said earlier, if you are an established artist and you know that you are going to record ten of your songs this year on your new project, then you may want to bypass the demo costs, and the pitching process altogether. At that point the publishing becomes just a matter of keeping up with the paper work. That is why many artist take their publishing in house.

No matter where you are in this journey of songwriting, the publishing of your song is important. Perhaps you have the skills to be a great writer and a great publisher. If so, then you should keep your publishing to yourself. But more often than not, great writers are more talented in artistic creation than they are deskwork. If that is where you are, then you should consider signing your copyrights to an established publishing company.

Until next time, keep on writing!

Daryl Williams
http://www.darylwilliamstrio.net