Music Beat: Publishing can be a money-maker

Recently, one of my music industry students shared the happy news that he had been offered a record deal with a respected independent record company. While congratulating him on his good fortune, I heard one of his classmates say, "Don't let the record company take your publishing."
What is music publishing, and why is it so valuable?
Most of us think of publishing as something that happens when words and music are printed on paper, but in the music business, a song can be published without ever having appeared in a printed version.
A song is considered to have been published when it has been made available to the public for sale or other transfer of ownership.
In the pop music world, this can be accomplished in many ways, but the most common way is to include the song on a commercially released recording.
Who has the right to publish a song? The owner of the song has the right to publish it, and the first owner is usually the composer. The owner can decide who can make the first commercial recording of the song, as well as whether a song can be used in a commercial or movie or with a video game. Each new use of the song has the potential to earn money, of course.
People in the music business have known for a long time about the potential to make money through song publishing.
In 1992, singer Whitney Houston recorded a song called "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard," a movie in which she shared star billing with actor Kevin Costner. Houston earned money as an artist from album sales, but country singer Dolly Parton must have been smiling whenever she heard the song on the radio or saw the album sales soar. Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1974 and she collects publishing income for every album sale and radio broadcast of the song, no matter who sings it.
Singer Michael Jackson's income as a singer/dancer has certainly dropped in recent years, but he was able to maintain his wealthy lifestyle in large part because he purchased the publishing rights to nearly 200 of The Beatles' songs for $47.5 million in 1985.
The publishing for those same songs is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion today, so Jackson made a smart move when he bought the rights to the songs nearly 25 years ago.
Forbes Magazine recently identified Madonna as the "cash queen of music," saying she was the richest female musician in the world. She earned $72 million from publishing, touring, merchandising and fashion.
How does music publishing earn so much money and to whom is publishing income paid?
The composer of a song is the first owner of the song (unless it's a work for hire). The composer owns all the rights to the song, and can license the song for commercial exploitation including use in movies, commercials and for performance and recording by other musicians.
But how can you convince movie-makers and others to use the song so it can earn money? Often, composers will give up ownership of their songs to publishers so the publishers can "exploit" the song by convincing other people to pay for the privilege of using the song commercially.
How much money can a song earn?
The music business is known as a "penny business," because most royalties are calculated in pennies. The royalty rate for putting one song on an album is 9.1 cents, but if 100,000 albums are sold, the publisher has earned $9,100.
And if the publisher has 10 songs on that album, the publisher has earned $91,000. If the song is played on the radio, more royalties are generated, and if the song is placed in a movie, commercial or other audio or visual use, even more royalties are earned. Some songs, like The Beatles' songs, continue to earn money for many years.
Songs are protected by copyright for the entire life of the composer, plus 70 years after the death of that composer. As long as a song is protected by copyright, the composer and publisher can earn money from that song. The next time you request a song to be played on the radio, you'll be earning money for the publisher of that song.
If you've ever thought about writing music, this might be a good time to get started. Publishing your music takes hard work, but it can certainly be worth the effort.
Dr. Janet Nepkie is a member of the music industry faculty in the music department of the State University College at Oneonta.

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