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Who Really Owns Music Publishing When Nothing Is in Writing?

Paying for beats and verses doesn’t erase songwriting rights. Learn the difference between masters and publishing, and get a blunt cheat sheet on who owns what.

Here’s a common scenario: an artist records a track with a producer and a couple of rappers. Money changes hands up front—beats are paid for, verses are paid for. Everyone assumes the artist now owns the song outright. But in reality, that’s only true for the master recording. The publishing is a whole different story.

What Is a Master Recording?

The master is the actual sound recording—the final audio file that gets streamed, sold, or licensed. If you pay the producer and guest artists for a work-for-hire, you own 100% of the master. That means you control how the track is distributed, sold, or licensed.

But that doesn’t mean you control the songwriting rights behind it.

What Is Music Publishing?

Publishing covers the songwriting itself—the lyrics, melodies, beats, and compositions that make up the song. Unless there’s a signed agreement, every songwriter automatically owns their share of the publishing. That includes vocalists who wrote their own lyrics and the producer who created the beat or musicians who made the music.

Writer’s Share vs Publisher’s Share

Publishing royalties are split into two equal halves:

  • Writer’s Share (50%): This always goes directly to the songwriters. It cannot be reassigned or taken away.
  • Publisher’s Share (50%): This can be assigned to a publishing company, but if there isn’t one, it just goes to the writers by default.

Here’s where artists often get confused: when a producer says “I want 50% publishing,” they usually mean 50% of the publishing pool, not 50% of all song royalties. In practice, that equals 25% of the total money the song earns.

How Publishing Splits Work

  • If only the artist and producer wrote, publishing is split 50/50. That equals 25% of the total royalties each.
  • If the artist, producer, and two rappers all contributed, publishing is split four ways at 25% each of the publishing pool—or 12.5% of total royalties each.

Who Gets Nothing?

Only songwriters get publishing (and remember, songwriters includes lyricists AND the producer). Performers who didn’t write anything—say, a vocalist who just sang what was written for them—don’t get publishing. Their compensation is whatever they were paid up front.

The Bottom Line

Paying for a beat or verse gets you the master rights, not the songwriting rights. Without split sheets, everyone who wrote something owns an equal slice of publishing.

  • You own 100% of the master if you paid for work-for-hire.
  • Publishing is shared among all writers by default.
  • Writer’s Share = 50% of publishing, locked to the songwriters.
  • Publisher’s Share = 50% of publishing, split by default unless reassigned.
  • Paperwork is the only way to change these defaults.

Blunt Cheat Sheet: Who Owns What

If you want the no-BS version to share with your team or clients, here it is:

  • Masters: If you pay for the beat/verse and it’s work-for-hire, you own the master. Period.
  • Writer’s Share: Every songwriter keeps this automatically. Cannot be waived unless in writing.
  • Publisher’s Share: This is the other half of publishing. By default, it’s split evenly between all writers.
  • Performers only: No writing credit, no publishing. Whatever they were paid up front is all they get.

Examples:

  • Artist + Producer only: Each gets 25% of total royalties (half the publishing).
  • Artist + Producer + 2 Guest Rappers: Everyone wrote something. They split the publisher’s share equally. That’s 12.5% of total royalties each.

Think of it this way: Masters = what you paid for. Publishing = what you wrote. If you wrote, you eat. If you didn’t, you don’t.

360 Promo is a full-service music marketing, promotion, distribution and admin company. Learn more about us and what we do at 360promo.fm, follow us on Instagram at @360promo and contact us to tailor a plan that works for you.