Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

Hi,

Just thought I would ask what you all think about this:

Is having a publishing administration company collect mechanicals for you worth losing the 15% [typlically] of your publishing share of performance royalties that you would otherwise collect directly from your PRO?

Wondering about this. Your thoughts?


Best,

mightyduck

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

Ari Herstand seems to be the leading expert (or perhaps the only one I have seen who is willing to share his knowledge) on this subject, he has tried most if not all of the distribution companies. If you haven’t read it yet, he has an online post about the subject here:

https://aristake.com/post/cd-baby-tu...es-zimbalam-or

He also has a book for sale on amazon, and a lot of other interesting information on his site.

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

I've been looking at his stuff while researching these issues. He does have a lot to say.

I saw a thread on another forum that had some pretty convincing challenges of Songtrust, which is apparently used by CD Baby Pro also. The argument being that using Songtrust, or any music publishing administrator means that you are giving up another 15% [typically] of your domestic publishing performance royalties that you would otherwise be collecting directly from ASCAP or BMI [US]. In other words, they take a commission on all of your publishing royalties, not just the foreign mechanicals that ASCAP or BMI don't collect for you.

So, if you are not selling a bunch internationally, and pulling in enough foreign performance and mechanical royalties to offset the fact that you are giving up 15% of your domestic performance royalties, then ...................
Discuss!!!


Best,

mightyduck

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

I've been told foreign mechanicals can be five times as much as inside the U.S. provided they are properly administrated. The keyword is "properly."

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

Hi Bob,

Thanks for sharing that, man. Do you recall who you heard it from. Sounds plausible, btw, at least if you have a lot of international sales. Or, I guess iTunes is all international, or something, right?

Also, any suggestions on how you feel it’s best to get them “properly” administrated? Who’s good at it?

Best always,

mightyduck

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

The first person I heard it from was the publishing manager at Motown and it was confirmed by numerous other people I met over the years. It is about all to change but it remains to be seen what that will look like.

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

Thanks. When you say "It is all about to change", what are you referring to?

I've been looking into this stuff lately and there appears to be a lot of smoke and mirrors. I'm trying to drill down to see what's worth what as far as joining, because I have and own a whole bunch of unreleased stuff from over the years [all kinds of stuff, from instrumental fusion stuff to full blown pop productions with high production value]. I would like to get it all "out there" and, hopefully, generating whatever revenue it can.

What do you think of the difference between using Songtrust vs CDBaby Pro. It seems to me that, with a lot of material, it would be less onerous to just use CDBaby as a distributor and using Songtrust separately rather than as some sort of "silent partner" to CDbaby. Just pay the $100.00 to Songtrust rather than get upcharged for every single release by CDBaby Pro, right?

IMO this stuff could all be simplified, and should be.

OH, I found this article regarding Songtrust, and it says they say you need to have racked up about 150k streams across all platforms for it to make sense to join Songtrust as that is about the point at which you would break even on the "setup fee" and commission they take.

https://passivepromotion.com/what-ar...bout-songtrust


Best,

mightduck

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

The recent changes to the copyright act involve setting up a database that will co-ordinate all rights information. I understand that isn't in place yet but should be soon. Your PRO will have information about it.

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

You're talking about the Music Moderization Act, I believe. I'm not so sure it co-ordinates ALL rights information though. It appears to contemplate mechanicals only.

This stuff is going to be interesting. Hopefully it does what it is supposed to do.

I'm not sure how I feel about the AMP Act. I wonder how they are set to field the volume of claims that may be made by people only tangentially involved. I'm not against Producers obtaining royalties, of course. But where the lines are drawn could get tricky, and it seems to me that such royalties could / should be a separate royalty, not deducted from someone else's royalty.

Best,

mghtyduck

Re: Is Publishing Admin. worth it?
 

Producers' royalties have always been deducted from artists' royalties unless the producer was to pay the artist royalty. Most contracts call for the entity paying the royalty to pay the contract producer and/or engineer directly rather than making them collect it from the artist.