Setting Up Your Own Music Publishing Company

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Perhaps the most commom career oriented question unsigned songwriters ask me is, "How can I get my songs published?" Many of those same writers have only a vague notion of what it means to be published. If you've already sold recordings of your songs to the public, you are a published songwriter. The federal 1976 Copyright Act defines publication (the act of publishing as "the distribution of copies of phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease or lending." Phonorecords are defined as "material objects in which sounds...are fixed."

There are a lot of ways to make money from the use of one of your songs than just selling your recording of it. Other ay cut, or record, the song. It might be used in a movie, a movie trailer, a TV series, a TV special, a music video, a videogame, for consumer advertising, for a ringtone, or for a myriad of other uses. Promoting, licensing, and getting paid for such song uses is the job of a music publisher.

Many unsigned songwriters would love to hand off business oriented tasks to a music publisher so they can focus on the creative task of writing songs. Unfortunately, the moment you sign on the dotted line with a music publisher, you give away your copyrights and half the revenues the songs covered in the contract will earn. For these and other reasons, many songwriters choose to keep all the profits and self-publish their songs.

This article will explain the basics of how to set up and operate your own music-publishing company. To keep this article to a manageable length, my focus will be on publishing your own songs. Before I get to the nuts and bolts of becoming a music publisher, let's examine the benefits and drwbacks of doing so.

Over the next week, we wil discuss this topic at great length. If you have songwriter friends, this will be the place to get the information the way that it will best apply to you.

Tip sheets are an essential, subscriber based service for music publishers. Here are a few for country music, which include the label, artist, producer(s), contact person(s) and recording schedule for each project.

Pitch This Country Music Tip Sheet (www.pitchthismusic.com) is the most comprehensive listing of current projects for major-label and second-tier (prominent indie and joint venture) companies. Published monthly, this tip sheet is generated by successful, Nashville based song pluggers, and often includes difficult-to-obtain details on what specific types of material are being sought for each project listed (for example, "Soulful, real-life lyrics with range and attitude"). Check this site out, determine if it has value to your objectives and bookmark this page.

More tomorrow.