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Register your music yourself or through a Publishing Company?

FabTramp

New Member
Hey VI-C People!!

As I mentioned in another thread I am about to register to PRS (UK PRO) and release my first Soundtrack Album of a short film I have scored.

The producer has a partnership with an UK music publishing company and she suggesting me to let them deal with the registration of the music as they could potentially helping with promoting my music and give me more opportunity in the future. They will also get 50% of the royalties collected.

Or

I could register the album and submit the cue sheet for the film soundtrack myself and have 100% royalties.

We're talking about pennies royalties to be honest so I wonder if I should let a publisher deal with all of this and actually give me more opportunity to find more work promoting my music to more film makers.

Is this making sense? What would you suggest me to do?

THANKS!! :emoji_pray:
 
As the Publishing Company is very unlikely to do anything, other than collect, and keep half of your Royalties, I would suggest that you don't go 50/50. They are taking absolutely no risks, and contributing nothing. Either you get a much larger percentage, or they give you a guarantee of extra income, which they have to pay themselves, if they fail.

Be upfront. Ask them how much they are going to make for you. Ask them what they are going to be doing for getting half of your money. Remember, so far, all that will happens is that you've given away half of your potential income. They have no skin in the game. They have no financial stake in the music. Why should they bother putting any effort in, when they're already ahead, just by registering a few cues?

What's their distribution network? Do they have their own search engine? Who are their clients? What placements have they achieved in the past? These are all questions that they must be able to answer.
 
Hey Daryl, thanks for your reply!

This all sound a bit scary! I'm definitely going to get in touch with them and ask these questions you suggested to me, thank you!

Though, I hope that a decent Publishing Company would actually be helpful for a Composer in terms of promotion?! I mean, why are there Publishing Companies in the first place? Do the BIG ONES, the professionals, have got a Publisher? Or do they do it themselves? In their cases, 50/50, we are talking about a serious amount of money so I am assuming they don't have a publishing company as it would be silly to lose 50% of those big money if they don't actually do anything for you.

Thank you!!!
 
Though, I hope that a decent Publishing Company would actually be helpful for a Composer in terms of promotion?!
That's not always the case, particularly with companies who Publish film music. Often they only do a soundtrack release in order to cover themselves legally, whereas all they are interested is in collecting the Broadcast Royalties when the film is shown on TV. if they have paid for the recordings, then they are entitled to something. if they haven't, they are entitled to nothing, but will take 50% anyway.
I mean, why are there Publishing Companies in the first place? Do the BIG ONES, the professionals, have got a Publisher? Or do they do it themselves? In their cases, 50/50, we are talking about a serious amount of money so I am assuming they don't have a publishing company as it would be silly to lose 50% of those big money if they don't actually do anything for you.
Thank you!!!
Often on films there is no choice. Cut up rusty about the Publishing, and the film magically gets given to someone else.
 
Thanks again Dary for all your advice.

I have been reading lots of stuff about Publishing Company and I am less and less interested to join one to be honest!


Often on films there is no choice. Cut up rusty about the Publishing, and the film magically gets given to someone else.

Sorry I didn't quite understand what you mean with this!

Also, could it be that the BIG ONES set up their own Publishing Company?

In any case what I am realizing is that I am able to register the soundtrack album myself to PRS and so to fill out the Cue Sheet and submitted to them. I will also distribute my music through Distrokid to all streaming platforms and self promote myself going to Film Network Events. Also, as a film composer, my music will always be published after it has been used into a project already. If I was a pop songwriter perhaps I could see a sense of joining a publishing company as they could help finding contacts and try to sell my music!

So I think I am deciding to go on myself, keeping the 100% of royalties and dealing with my own promotion! Is this a good approach?

Thank you!!!
 
Thanks again Dary for all your advice.

I have been reading lots of stuff about Publishing Company and I am less and less interested to join one to be honest!




Sorry I didn't quite understand what you mean with this!

Also, could it be that the BIG ONES set up their own Publishing Company?

In any case what I am realizing is that I am able to register the soundtrack album myself to PRS and so to fill out the Cue Sheet and submitted to them. I will also distribute my music through Distrokid to all streaming platforms and self promote myself going to Film Network Events. Also, as a film composer, my music will always be published after it has been used into a project already. If I was a pop songwriter perhaps I could see a sense of joining a publishing company as they could help finding contacts and try to sell my music!

So I think I am deciding to go on myself, keeping the 100% of royalties and dealing with my own promotion! Is this a good approach?

Thank you!!!

What I meant was with film you often don't get a choice of whether or not you can keep the Publishing. There are many instances I know of where a composer was old point blank that if they wanted to keep the Publishing, they wouldn't get the film scoring job.

I still think you need to investigate the prospective Publishing company, because I may be wrong, and they may be able to make you £££££££££££££. However, the reality is probably that you're better off self-Publishing on this one.
 
What I meant was with film you often don't get a choice of whether or not you can keep the Publishing. There are many instances I know of where a composer was old point blank that if they wanted to keep the Publishing, they wouldn't get the film scoring job.

I still think you need to investigate the prospective Publishing company, because I may be wrong, and they may be able to make you £££££££££££££. However, the reality is probably that you're better off self-Publishing on this one.

This is more the case with studio projects - you will likely not get publishing on a studio project, unless it is partial publishing for a song. Studios want to own and control everything. But, independent projects you can often negotiated to keep publishing and masters and just license to the producers/project in perpetuity and have it be assignable. Budgets aren't what they used to be, so we, as composers, are essentially being asked to invest our time, skills, resources, etc into their project beyond the compensation we receive up front. On Indie films I ask for a point or so in the film, as well, and usually get it.

I can't think of a project I've done in the last 15 years where I didn't get publishing and masters, unless it was for a studio or a big video game. Even if someone like Sony ends up distributing an indie film and they're in on the ground floor, you can negotiate to keep masters and 90% of publishing. They'll want 10% of publishing to administer it and have it as part of their catalogue for licensing, etc.
 
What I meant was with film you often don't get a choice of whether or not you can keep the Publishing. There are many instances I know of where a composer was old point blank that if they wanted to keep the Publishing, they wouldn't get the film scoring job.

This ^. I've never had the choice of keeping the publishing rights. For the few feature length's I've done, it was "work for hire", they keep all publishing rights to the music (they basically own it).
 
This ^. I've never had the choice of keeping the publishing rights. For the few feature length's I've done, it was "work for hire", they keep all publishing rights to the music (they basically own it).
What happens if you later on decide to perform your music live with an orchestra? Or if people want to buy sheet music of your music?
 
What happens if you later on decide to perform your music live with an orchestra? Or if people want to buy sheet music of your music?

Not sure why I would want to do that, once I finish a "work for hire" project like this I basically close the door and forget about it. I would assume the request would need to be directed to the film production company in that case, as they hold the reproduction rights.
 
Not sure why I would want to do that, once I finish a "work for hire" project like this I basically close the door and forget about it. I would assume the request would need to be directed to the film production company in that case, as they hold the reproduction rights.
I guess it depends per project. I think it's a good thing to talk about beforehand as 'Selfinflicted' stated.
 
What happens if you later on decide to perform your music live with an orchestra? Or if people want to buy sheet music of your music?
You contact the Publisher, pay the hire fees for the orchestral material (unless you own it) and then the venue pays the Performance Royalties.
 
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