Running your own Publishing Company

You may be like some bands and actually be interested in starting up your own publishing company to handle all of the copyrights and money that your band will be receiving. This could allow you to make more money from your music, and also allow you to maintain complete ownership of your songs. Starting your own publishing company isn't too complicated, running one is a different story.

Let's start with the basics. A publishing company is basically a company that is hired, by the songwriter or song owner to collect money on their behalf whenever their song is played or bought. They have a few other responsibilities, but essentially, that's what a publishing company does. That being said, they need to have some kind of control or ownership of the song in order to collect the fees for you. Also, part of the money that you will be receiving for these sales will be kept by the publishing company as a fee for their services.

Because most of the income that a band actually makes isn't collected by the publishing company, but by the performance rights societies things become a little easier for you to act as your own publishing company. What you as the publishing company would have to do is to submit the paperwork for each song that the band writes and plays. This would not only have to be done for each song, but for each band member. Also, since there are three different societies that your band members could be a part of, you will have to submit the paperwork for each song to each of the societies that your members are affiliated with. Included in this paper work will be the percentage that each member is suppose to receive. Once the performing rights societies start collecting the money from the different songs and performances, they will pass it on to the publishing company who then distributes the money out to the band members. When you create your own publishing company, then the money will go through one fewer pair of hands and more money will make it into yours.

Another way that the band will make money and thus involves the publishing company is through royalties. This is essentially the sale of their song, whether on CD or electronically. The band will always receive a portion of that money. This is also an area where the publishing company is required to collect that money and distribute it to the band. Like the performing rights societies, however, there is the Harry Fox Agency. This agency will actually ask your publishing company (or you, if you are your own publishing company) to fill out forms detailing the song and the copyrights. Once this is done, Harry Fox will actually collect all of the money from those sales for you. They will then be brought to you as your publishing company to be given to the band. Again, this makes one more area of work for you, but also more money in your pocket.

Harry Fox does other things as well. One of these would be the option of a synchronization license. They will actually negotiate a fee for you when television commercials want to use your song or movie producers want to add it to their soundtrack. You will be charged a small fee by the Harry Fox Agency, but it will still avoid having to deal with an outside publishing company.

You will have to recognize that you are probably going to have to have some help from another company of some kind at some point however. This is mostly because your music won't stay local, especially if you start to deal with the internet and online sales. Once your music goes world-wide it will become difficult for you to keep tabs on it. That said, it is possible that you will have to take on a sub-publishing company to assist you with these types of issues.

As stated at the beginning of this article, there are other things that a publishing company does for you and your band, but these are the largest perks. With that in mind, starting your own publishing company really could make a lot of sense for you and your band. However, if your band makes very little, or no money outside of live performances in your area, there may not be a need for a publishing company at all. If that is the case you should not go through the hassle, nor the money to start one on your own. Simply retain the knowledge, grow your band and take on that responsibility as the need arises.