THE ROAD TO A PUBLISHING COMPANY - INSTRUCTION AND COMPLEX TERMS FOR DUMMIES
(and for myself)
If you’re a musician just starting out, chances are you’ve skipped over one critical part of the music industry puzzle: publishing. Let me guess — the term is relatively clear but when it came to a specific case, you shrugged and went back to perfecting that killer chorus. The truth is that publishing isn’t just an afterthought — it’s the golden mine where fortunes are made. Not yours, necessarily. But definitely for the sharp-eyed pros who thrive on your ignorance.
That realization hit home for my team and me, especially when we counted how many unpublished tracks we’re sitting on from our talented producers (way too many). So, after much deliberation, we’ve decided to launch our own publishing agency in 2025. Why? Because if we don’t handle this, someone else will — and they’ll take a hefty cut. But before diving into our master plan, let’s take a step back and demystify some publishing basics, complex terms, and industry quirks that make musicians (and sometimes us, managers) want to bang their heads against a wall.
Why Most Artists Get Publishing Wrong
Publishing is boring. There, I said it. It’s paperwork, spreadsheets, and jargon that feels about as exciting as a tax audit. It’s the polar opposite of the creative high you get from making music. But here’s the catch: ignore it, and you’re leaving serious money on the table. Streaming, radio plays, international royalties — publishing controls it all.
And yet, for most of us, it’s easier to hand over the reins to some middleman who promises to “handle it.” The problem? These middlemen often quietly keep significant chunks of your revenue, leaving you with leftovers. It’s a system designed to enrich everyone except the creators.
Unless you’re already at a certain level of your career, trying to DIY your publishing from scratch isn’t just daunting — it’s borderline impractical. For many beginner musicians, the most reasonable option is to use a service like Songtrust, Sentric, or one of the other readily available publishing solutions. They take care of registrations, collect royalties, and save you the hassle of navigating the bureaucratic maze.
But let me be a bit of a douchebag: these services often don’t live up to the hype. Just search Reddit, and you’ll find countless threads filled with frustrated musicians complaining about slow payouts, incomplete registrations, and a general lack of transparency. These tools can be useful, but they’re far from perfect — and they still take their cut.
Let’s dissect this and find some clarity, shall we?
The Three-Letter Acronym Party: PROs, MROs, and CMOs
Before we talk solutions, let’s untangle the alphabet soup:
PRO (Performance Rights Organization): These guys pay you for public performances — whether it’s streams, TV, or radio.
MRO (Mechanical Rights Organization): They handle royalties for physical sales and streaming mechanicals (yes, streaming pays two kinds of royalties).
CMO (Collective Management Organization): The universal term for groups managing your rights.
Here’s the problem: these organizations have two-way agreements with their counterparts worldwide. Sounds efficient, right? Wrong. These agreements often mean your songs aren’t registered properly overseas. Even when they are, fees pile up — currency exchanges, transfer costs, and administrative cuts. The result? You get the crumbs, if anything.
The Middlemen Shuffle: Losing Money, One Percent at a Time
The more layers between you and your royalties, the thinner your slice of the pie. Let’s count the ways your money disappears:
Foreign PRO/MRO Cuts: They take 10-20% before your home PRO/MRO even sees the funds.
Publishing Administrators: These services streamline the process — for a 15% fee. Sounds reasonable, but wait.
Technology Fees: Content ID and similar systems take another slice.
Managers, Distributors, Libraries: Add another 10-50% depending on the deal.
By the time the dust settles, you’re left with 60-70% — and that’s on a good day.
For smaller artists, though, all this complexity might not even matter. This publication is more about understanding how money in publishing works than attempting to build your own empire. If you’re just starting out or earning modest royalties, services like Songtrust or Sentric might be your most practical choice, even with their flaws. They take care of the messy backend and let you focus on growing your career, though, as Reddit will quickly tell you, they often fall short of expectations.
For artists who are steadily building momentum, the smarter move is to aim for a partnership with an established publisher like Kobalt, Ultra or others. But getting signed by someone like them would mean you have to show you’re worth the investment.
Why? Because it’s not just about collecting royalties — it’s about being part of the ecosystem. Big publishers organize writing camps, connect you with top-tier topliners, and offer collaborative opportunities that can skyrocket your entire career. Without their buy-in, you’re unlikely to access these essential industry activities. So, while DIY publishing might sound tempting, for most artists the goal should be to get to a place where you can knock on Kobalt’s or Ultra’s door — and have them actually answer.
DIY Publishing: A Masterclass in Complexity
Setting up a publishing company sounds glamorous, like joining the ranks of Sony Music Publishing or Warner Chappell. The reality? It’s more spreadsheets than champagne. Here’s a rough roadmap I drafted in my iPhone Notes during sleepless nights recently. From how I see it, there are 2 ways of doing it: the hardcore one from the very beginning or the step-by-step one with less gray hair in the process. Buckle up.
The way we’re choosing: partnership with home PRO (God bless Teosto).
Why it works. Most collecting societies have two-way agreements with other PROs and MROs worldwide. This means they’ll collect performance and mechanical royalties on your behalf from international streams, sales, and broadcasts. While this system isn’t perfect (see earlier complaints about gaps and delays), it’s a manageable first step for new publishers.
Do your research. Not all societies are created equal. Some are more efficient than others at collecting international royalties. Look into how your local PRO or MRO operates and their reputation for accuracy and transparency.
When this makes sense. If you’re launching a small publishing agency or just starting out, this approach saves you time and money. It gives you a foothold in the business without the overwhelming complexity of international registrations.
The HARDCORE way (or rather where we’ll be in a few years in the best-case scenario).
Step 1: Sign up with PROs and MROs globally
Tedious part. Compile a list of PROs and MROs worldwide. Apply to each one as a publisher using your DBA (“doing business as”) for that region. Keep track of their rules — they vary wildly. Some will let you cover multiple countries, others are strictly territorial.
Step 2: Avoid overlap (and mistakes)
The global music rights scene is like a messy breakup — lots of overlap and misunderstandings. Be clear about which territories each society should cover. Follow up. Double-check. Societies make mistakes, and those mistakes cost you.
Step 3: Sub-publish yourself
This is where the magic happens. List your DBAs as sub-publishers under your main publishing company. Write contracts between your entities, ensuring you retain control.
Step 4: Manage currency and metadata
Set up local bank accounts using services like Wise to avoid exchange fees. And don’t underestimate metadata. One typo can send royalties into the void. Invest in tools (or coders) to handle CWR (Common Works Registration) formatting for your catalog.
Step 5: Maintain and monitor
Now the hard part begins: maintaining it. Register new songs promptly. Periodically check that your catalog hasn’t been altered. Mistakes, intentional or otherwise, happen all the time.
While this method ensures maximum revenue capture and more exclusive representation across specific markets, it comes with significant upfront costs and ongoing administrative demands. Unless you’re already generating substantial royalties, it might be overkill. So, we’re not going there. Yet.
Final Thoughts: Should You Do This?
Here’s the truth: setting up a publishing company is a massive investment of time, money, and energy. Unless you’re already earning significant royalties or, as in our case, have a lot of unpublished music creators in your management roster, it might not make sense. But understanding the system? That’s non-negotiable. Every artist should know where their money comes from and where it’s going. Because ignorance isn’t bliss — it’s expensive.
For my team and me, this journey into publishing is about more than royalties. It’s about autonomy, sustainability, and ensuring our creators don’t get played by the system. Come 2025, we’ll have our own publishing agency. And who knows? Maybe one day, we’ll be the ones writing the rulebook.
For now, though, the only rule is this: if you don’t claim what’s yours, someone else will.