In this chapter:
- What is music publishing?
- Different departments within music publishing
- Types of music publishing companies
- Getting in the door
- Sheet music publishers
What Is Music Publishing?
Take a look inside the sleeve of the last CD you bought. After each track title there’s probably a surname in brackets. It might be the name of the artist themselves, or someone you’ve never heard of. Whoever it is, they are the songwriter. If you’re reading this chapter it’s unlikely you aspire to be the penner of hits yourself, but would like to work with them - that’s where the music publisher comes in.
Music publishing’s golden years were in the days of Tin Pan Alley in the 1940s when famous songwriters were the pop stars of the day and their publishers would sell hundreds of printed copies of their songs for people to take home and play themselves on the piano. In those
, few artists wrote their own material, so the publishers were extremely powerful and could decide which performer should be given a particular new song first.
It’s not quite like that nowadays. Music publishers still look after the songs themselves, as opposed to the artists or bands who perform them. They gather together vast catalogues of songs by discovering, signing up and developing songwriters (or songwriting teams) or looking after catalogues of old material from artists now dead or no longer writing.
Confusingly, many artists write their own songs, so they then have to sign two different deals: one with a record company as an artist and the other with a publisher as a songwriter. Today, however, cannier songwriters retain their publishing rights and set up their own little publishing arm just for themselves there’s more money in it for them this way.
The publisher pays the songwriter an advance for the song. The publisher then pays the songwriter a percentage of earnings from their music traditionally 50 per cent and then sells rights to record companies (to make records), sheet music publishers (to make songbooks or sell printed music over the internet) and to the makers of films and adverts (synch). Publishing companies are still powerful within the industry but are not as influential as they were in the past.
Musical Copyright
The concept of ‘owning’ a song is a tricky one music is just something you can hear, not a concrete object you can hold in your hand (written down it is, but
music is another matter, see the end of this chapter for more details). What we’re talking about, when we talk about owning songs, is
copyright. A copyright is the legal right to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic or musical material. As soon as a songwriter fixes a song in tangible form e.g. by writing it down, or just singing or playing it onto tape it is copyrightable. It must also be original.
The difference between the copyright in a ‘musical work’ (the song itself, as owned by a music publisher) and a ‘master sound’ (e.g. a recording of that song by a band for a record company) can be a tricky concept to get your head around, but is central to the music business. The industry revolves around the buying, selling and licensing of these two rights, and the two rights are always dealt with separately (i.e. by record companies and by music publishers) because they are
not the same thing at all.
Money from ‘musical works’/songs is generated in four different ways:
1.Mechanical Royalties
When a record is sold, a percentage, or royalty, goes to the publisher. This is known as
mechanical royalties. Most music publishers are represented for issuing mechanical rights by a ‘collection society’ called the
MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society).
2.Performance Royalties
When a song is performed live at a concert, say, or played on the radio, this is known as
performance royalties, and
fees are collected by another collection society, the
PRS (Performing Rights Society). Because keeping track of every single time a song is played on the radio or in a shop would be a bureaucratic nightmare, radio and TV stations, concert venues and shops, pubs and restaurants that play music each pay a blanket fee to the PRS for the broadcast/performance of songs from PRS’s clients (virtually every publisher in possession of at least ten published or recorded works).
3. Licensing
When a producer obtains a license from the publisher to use a piece of music on a CD compilation, this is known as licensing. On an audio-visual production such as a TV show, film or advert, computer game or corporate video, this is known as synchronisation. You may remember these terms from Chapter 3 about record companies.
It works in a similar way in music publishing: when a particular recording of a song (or ‘a master sound recording of a musical work’ to use the jargon we’ve just learnt) is proposed for licensing or synchronisation, the producer of the production must secure separate licenses to use the musical work (i.e. the song) and the sound recording (i.e. the recording of said song), usually for a fee. The fee is usually the same for master sound recording and musical work.
If a TV/film/advert/game producer wants to make a new recording of a song for a production they need only obtain a license from the publisher, because they become the owners of the new sound recording they have produced.
Even when rights in a musical work and master sound recording belong to the same person there are two separate contracts or one contract with two distinct parts.
Hang on in there - that’s the hardest bit dealt with!
4. Sheet Music
Sheet music is printed music in the form of single songs, songbooks (the ‘Favourite Acoustic Guitar Songs’ type of thing) or paid-for internet download (see separate section below).
(NB: There is also the issue of downloading music and generating income from MP3s - this is still in discussion among music publishers and societies everywhere.)
What Do Music Publishers Actually Do?
A & R/Creative/Promotion Department
This involves:
- Seeking out songwriting talent. In the main they do this by receiving tip-offs from people they trust and following these up by listening to demos and attending gigs and concerts. Eventually they will sign publishing deals with songwriters. It is rare that unsolicited demos or invitations to gigs from bands result in a deal. If a deal is struck with a hot new artist who’s just signed a record deal, this will generate a lot of press coverage (artists are signed up to publishing deals even if they have never written a song in their life - on the off chance they may do one day, and also to enable them to ‘co-write’ songs, i.e. suggest lyrics).
- Matching songwriters/composers with lyricists/librettists (if applicable).
- Getting songs used in as many places as possible: record companies, broadcasters, performers. Getting one of your writers’ songs onto a big album, a Robbie Williams or Madonna album for example, would be a major coup. When artists are looking for material for a new album their record company issues a style ‘brief for potential songwriters. An A & R or creative manager will liaise between the artist’s record company and the songwriter to come up with a song that will suit the artist in question and hopefully bag them a hit record.
Production/Editorial Department
This involves:
- Proofreading/editing/revising/rewriting music in manuscript form, then converting it into ‘proper’ printed sheet music by liaising with designers and printers.
- Commissioning new work and overseeing the catalogue.
Rights Administration - Copyright/Legal/Business Affairs Department
This deals with:
- The contractual side of publishing - drawing up agreements between publisher and songwriter.
- Licensing and synchronisation (see above).
- Registering new works with the MCPS and PRS (known collectively as the MCPS-PRS Alliance).
- Liaising with foreign sub-publishers and overseas collection societies so they know about new releases - it’s crucial that songs are available, known of and made money from all over the world and that this is monitored in the correct fashion.
- Taking legal action when copyrights are infringed. This is a common occurrence in a climate where samples are so prevalent in pop music. In 2002 the rapper Dr Dre was ordered to pay $1.5 million damages after he lost a legal dispute over the use of a Fatback Band bass line on his song ‘Let’s Get High’. He argued that a bass line cannot be protected. He was wrong.
Sales And Marketing/Hire/Distribution Department
This is involved in the promotion and sale of printed sheet music (often a separate company - see below), as well as the hire of works to performers (e.g. a full set of ‘Oklahoma’ songbooks for the National Theatre production).
Accounts/Royalties Department
This involves a lot of number crunching, tracking the use of songs and collecting in all the money owed - dealing with the accounts departments of record companies, TV, film and advertising companies plus collection societies the MCPS and PRS. They then make payments to songwriters.
In a major publishing company (or even a small one handling a famous catalogue of work) requests will stream in every day from across the world to perform or record cover versions of old songs. You can be certain the copyright manager for the Lennon/McCartney back
will have earned his or her hot bath by the end of the day (‘Yesterday’ has been recorded about 2,000 times since 1965 and counting . . .).
Know Your Songwriters
You’ve hopefully already heard of legendary songwriting names from the 1940s70s like
Leiber and Stoller,
Bach-arach and David and
Irving Berlin. In addition, the names
Stock, Aitken and Waterman (SAW) ought to ring a bell with anyone who remembers the 80s. You’ll also be aware of those current artists who possess teetering mountains of their own hand-written ditties, e.g.
Paul McCartney.
But here are a few more names that you would do well to be aware of if seeking a job in this arena celebrated, contemporary songwriters who have written some of the biggest hits of the last few years.
Diane Warren the diva’s fave and American queen of the schmaltzy, big-budget love ballad.
Brian Rawling (and his company Xenomania) the only songwriter named in
Music Week’s ‘Most Influential People in UK Music’ and responsible for hits by Enrique Inglesias and Cher.
Cathy Dennis eighties UK pop singer turned songwriter, who arguably made Kylie a megastar with ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ and writes pop hits for numerous artists.
Brian Higgins this UK writer has written hits for Girls Aloud amongst others.
Steve Robson UK songwriter who has successfully broken through both here and across the Atlantic with acts including Westlife, Atomic Kitten, Busted and Wynonna Judd.
Read the songwriting credits on your records or on the
Music Week weekly charts. Are there any names that keep cropping up?
Different Typesof Music Publishing Companies
Majors: Warner Chappell, EMI, BMG, Universal, Sony/ATV (see Useful Addresses).
Independents: there are hundreds, some of the best-known including Windswept, Chrysalis, Carlin, Boosey and Hawkes, Mute Song, Notting Hill, Big Life, Minder and IMG.
Writer-publishers: these are famous songwriters who don’t need a publisher to represent them because they are so famous that record companies come begging to them.
There are specialist publishers for every genre of music you can imagine. Obviously the company ethos and office vibe will differ from one to another, so do your research.
The Highs And Lows Of Working In Music Publishing
HighsPublishing is the more ‘academic’ side of the music industry, and as such hugely rewarding to anyone fascinated by the idea of intellectual property and/or the art
songcraft. A friendlier, more welcoming atmosphere tends to prevail here than in many other areas.
Lows
Long hours, stress and often brain-numbing tedium at the lower levels. And sadly, while the experience, knowledge and friendships earned in entry-level publishing jobs are priceless, the pay is peanuts as little as £13k in some cases resulting in many young people in the field doing extra jobs just to keep themselves clothed and able to pay their mobile phone bill . . .
Getting In The Door
See
Chapter 2 for further suggestions on getting a job.
An invaluable resource to anyone interested in music publishing, the UK
Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) operates a useful website (
www.mpaonline.org.uk) which also operates a Jobseekers’ List which is circulated to MPA members (i.e. publishing houses) for recruitment purposes. Enter your details online and keep your fingers crossed.
The good news is that the MCPS, PRS and MPA are all excellent places to begin a career in music publishing and many who are now in top jobs began their working lives toiling here. There are many entry-level positions within the MCPS-PRS Alliance and jobs in these organisations are like an education in themselves, to the extent that one music publisher has dubbed the Alliance a ‘recruitment pool’. Time spent working at the MCPS-PRS Alliance is a very valuable asset to have on a CV, providing you with a definite advantage over other candidates.
So a great way to start would be to send a CV and covering letter to the human resources departments of these organisations requesting information about job vacancies or work placements.
An entry-level job might be something like a copyright clerk at the MCPS - receiving song registration sheets and cross-referencing and updating the database. A similar job at the PRS might involve assessing live events or broadcast works, categorising the events/shows/transmissions and inputting them on the PRS database to be cross-referenced with sample dates, song info, info from overseas, etc.
Once you get a foot in the door at these organisations it’s easy to move up within the company. They are ‘investors in people’ and you are constantly being offered classes to sharpen your skills and improve your knowledge, and make you more employable when you are ready to move on to a publishing company. If you can make it through the initial tedious role, then the second job you get (within the company or not) will be more challenging, with more lateral thinking and artist/publisher liaison.
Case Study: Angela Penhaligon, Mute Song
‘I have always known that I wanted to be involved with music as a career but I was too practical to say, “When I grow up, I wanna be a rock star” so was grateful for the security of a day job when it came along. Having studied music from the age of four all the way through university, it just seemed natural to work in the field of music in some capacity.’
‘My first music industry job in the UK was through a temp agency as a copyright clerk at the MCPS - it wasn’t glamorous and it certainly wasn’t what I had in mind. I was drawn to it initially because it had something to do with music, and the issue of intellectual property always interested me. Being a copyrighter was a bit like being a glorified data inputter, there was the odd occasion where I’d help an artist with their forms or resolve a sample clearance, or deal with the foreign societies; that was a bit more interesting.’
‘When I left that job I realised I had actually learned a lot more than I thought and I made a fair few friends who’d moved on to do similar jobs to what I do now - they were useful contacts, and we still help each other out now when we can. While working at the MCPS I started writing a column for a website that specialised in music
of the norm it was a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening in new music while doing the nine-to-five thing.’
‘I then went to work at PRS in member services. This was great experience because answering people’s questions is the best way to learn, and the queries were always varied and required research. The pay was peanuts, so I promoted gigs in Camden and played in a band to make extra money on the side. I then went to do royalties for the BBC, which was horrible I was over-worked, constantly facing impossible deadlines, departmental morale was at a real low. I had to get out, so applied for the Mute Song job advertised at the back of Music Week. They were specifically looking for someone with experience at both MCPS and PRS, and my extra activities outside work was what set me apart from the other applicants (I’m told), because it showed a passion for what I do and why I do it. That passion interested them as much as having the relevant experience.’
‘I am now a music publishing assistant at Mute Song. Because there are only five of us, we all have to do a bit of everything. I do a lot of artist liaison, helping them with their queries, I am A & R coordinator, I assist the general manager, do a bit of royalty inputting which is a bit like data inputting twice a year, and register new tracks. I also keep in touch with our foreign sub-publishers, assist with licensing tracks for film and television, do mail-outs of new products there’s never a dull moment.’
‘I love feeling like I’m helping the artist. I enjoy A & R-ing a new and exciting band, but I hate writing rejection letters to the hundreds of people that send us their material so I try to make it as polite as possible.’
‘As for the kind of person you need to be, I think one needs to find music publishing interesting in the first place. If the idea of copyright or licensing sounds painfully dull, don’t go into publishing. The A & R bits are fun, taking bands out to dinner and going to record launch parties that’s good too, but the majority of the job is not about that stuff. A genuine interest in music and caring about the artists you work
is important, too. One should have an inquisitive mind and enjoy investigating things; you need to do a lot of lateral thinking and understand relationships within the music industry.’
‘It’s hard to get a job at a music publisher straight away, so be willing to do some of the grunt work, bide your time, learn about how the bureaucratic cogs of the publishing industry work, because the knowledge will come in handy later.’
Sheet Music Publishers
Another source of income to the music publisher, and the songwriters they represent, is in printed music, or ‘sheet music’. Back in the days of Tin Pan Alley, music publishing was not just about matching performers and songwriters for the purpose of records, but also very much about sheet music. Now the sheet music aspect has dwindled and publishing’s more a question of copyrights, synchs and intellectual property.
Nonetheless, music publishers continue to strike deals with sheet music publishers who then are granted limited rights to make sheet music products for them: i.e. the music written out in a stave with bars, treble clefs, etc. and sold to people like your 11-year-old niece for her piano lessons, or your Uncle Len for his blues cover band. You can buy single songs or whole songbooks.
The two biggest sheet music publishers are International Music Publications (IMP) and Music Sales (see Useful Addresses). Jobs within these companies range from production/editorial (see above) to publisher relations (persuading music publishers to let you print sheet music for them) and sales/marketing.
Increasingly, sheet music is available over the internet, as paid-for downloads (e.g.
www.sheetmusicdirect.com ) so this might be another area worth considering.