The Musician's Guide to Publishing & Performing Rights

Learn how publishing evolved from sheet music to licensing and monetizing music, and why every musician needs a publisher to manage licensing and getting paid.

Explore how music publishing works by analyzing album credits, identifying publishers and co-publishers, and showing how artists can form their own publishing company to capture publishing royalties.

Explore how co-writers become co-publishers and why songwriter credits align with publishing credits, illustrated by Benjamin Gibbard, Yoko Ono, and Dave Debre across multiple publishing firms.

Explore the core music rights—performing, mechanical, dramatic (grand), and synchronization—and learn how publishing and a publisher matter for managing these rights and licensing them with performing rights organizations.

discover how the first performing rights organization emerged to collect royalties for composers, from the 1917 restaurant incident to ASCAP and a global pro system.

Identify how performing rights organizations ensure songwriters and publishers are paid for public use by collecting royalties on behalf of the rights owner; explore what counts as public use.

Public means performances in venues or broadcasts like radio or TV; the pro collects royalties from venues and pays songwriters for covers, live performances, and recordings when applicable.

Explore how venues pay performance rights organizations to license music, enabling cover songs and performances, and how royalties flow from those licenses to artists like Bob Dylan.

Discover how a pro like ASCAP tracks your songs, ensures payment when performed, and how writers and performers align with one pro and licensing venues.

Explore the three major performance rights organizations—ASCAP, BMI, and CISAC—and how venues license these rights to play music across the United States and internationally.

Explore how performance royalties are paid through ASCAP, BMI, and ASKAP, with polling and extrapolation to estimate payments. Understand why payouts are unpredictable, sometimes like a lotto ticket.

Learn why music publishers receive 50 percent of royalties and how to set up a publisher account with ASCAP or BMI to secure your full share.

Register your work with ASCAP using the registration form. Track credits and royalty splits, with writers and publishers sharing 50/50, and licensing through licensing houses.

Navigate publishing and performing rights with a Death Cab for Cutie example, learn about publishers, BMI and ASCAP licensing, and the basics of mechanical licenses and CISAC.

Explore how the player piano illustrates mechanical licenses, the right to record, and the shift from mechanical to digital licensing in music publishing.

Unlock how mechanical rights let writers permit or restrict others to record and sell songs, with publishers handling these licenses and covers like Stairway to Heaven illustrating the process.

Learn two license paths for recording a version of Stairway to Heaven: direct from the publisher or through the Harry Fox Agency for mechanical licenses at statutory rates.

Explore how the Harry Fox Agency uses song file and Rumblefish to license songs for publishing and performing rights, including searching catalogs and purchasing licenses.

Learn how publishing and performing rights rates vary by format, with nine point one cents per unit under five minutes and one point seventy five cents per minute over five.

Learn how writers register with Harry Fox to grant mechanical licenses, enabling others to record songs, either through a private deal or via Harry Fox licensing, a publisher's traditional duty.

Explore how silent films used live music and how the synchronization right governs using music with film today, including licenses for film, TV, games, ads, and music videos.

Negotiate directly with the publisher or artist to obtain a sync license, as there is no compulsory license, no clearinghouse, and no statutory rate.

Identify dramatic rights, also known as grand rights, for staging music in theater with props and costumes. These rights involve negotiation with the publisher or writer, with no compulsory license.

Explore how multiple rights—mechanical, performing, dramatic, and sync rights—act together when a song like Hallelujah is used in film, cover versions, or theater.

Set up a publishing limited liability company (llc) to cash checks from your publishing company and use it as your digital record label when releasing music.

Publishers administer licenses, often requiring full copyright assignment so they can grant licenses quickly, pay royalties, and promote the music, while offering warranties and approvals in deals.

Learn why publishers take about a 50 percent cut to promote songs, how they actively seek licensing opportunities, and how creators can balance writing with promotion.

Identify licensing opportunities through licensing houses and publishers who keep your publisher cut, then consider taxi for curated gigs, joining only with 10–20 strong, well-recorded songs to justify the cost.

Explore band partnerships, royalties and rights, and the band agreement; learn how record labels work, how to read a record contract, and how distribution and taxes affect artists.

Thank you for watching and participating in the musician's guide to publishing and performing rights; this online experience was enjoyable, and we look forward to offering another class soon.