Table of Contents
What Is Publishing (and What a Song Actually Is)
Publishing is the business of protecting and paying the people who wrote the song itself.
To really understand publishing, you have to start with what a song actually is — not emotionally or creatively, but legally.
A song is made up of two different things:
- The composition – the idea of the song: the melody, lyrics, and chords.
- The master recording – the specific version that was recorded and released.
The law treats those as completely separate works. Every time a song earns money, there are two checks being written — one for the recording, and one for the composition.
Your distributor (like DistroKid, TuneCore, The Orchard, or 360Promo) pays you the money that comes from the master recording — streams, downloads, YouTube revenue, and so on. That’s the artist side.
But the composition also earns its own money. Even if someone else covers your song, that recording is still based on your composition. You’re owed money for that use, and publishing is the system that makes sure that money finds you.
Publishing exists because, a long time ago, singers didn’t write songs. Professional songwriters did. They licensed their songs to performers, and those songs needed a legal identity — like a book that could be printed or covered by anyone. Publishing made that possible.
Today, most artists write their own songs, and the internet created endless new ways for music to make money — streaming, YouTube, TikTok, sync, live performances. Publishing is still the same basic idea: if your song shows up anywhere in the world, you deserve your share of what it earned.
In short:
- The recording makes you money as an artist.
- The song (composition) makes you money as a writer.
Publishing is how the writer side gets tracked and paid.
How Publishing Money Gets Made (and Who Actually Finds It)
Every time your song leaves your laptop and hits the world, it makes money somewhere. The problem is that every kind of use — streaming, radio, YouTube, live shows — has its own kind of royalty and its own company that collects it.
Before the chart, you need to know who these people actually are.
The Collectors (in plain English)
- PROs (Performance Rights Organizations) – They collect money when your song is played in public — radio, TV, venues, or streaming. In the U.S. the main ones are ASCAP and BMI. Elsewhere: PRS for Music (UK), SOCAN (Canada), APRA (Australia/NZ). If you write music, you need one of these writer accounts.
- MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) – Think of it as the streaming accountant for songwriters. When your track plays on Spotify, Apple, or Amazon, your distributor collects for the recording. The MLC collects for the song. If no one registers, that money just sits there. Sign up yourself or let your publishing admin do it for you.
- HFA (Harry Fox Agency) – They handle mechanical royalties from physical copies and merch-related uses — CDs, vinyl, downloads, karaoke discs, anything that reproduces your song. If merch is a big deal for you, HFA is a big deal for you. They also supply data to the MLC.
- Publishing Administrators – Companies like Songtrust, TuneCore Publishing, CD Baby Pro, and 360 Publishing Admin. They plug into all the systems above so you don’t have to — registering songs, collecting, and paying you quarterly.
- Audiam / Orfium – Specialists that chase YouTube and user-generated video royalties when you have massive activity across thousands of videos.
- Music Supervisors – People who handle sync licensing for TV, film, and ads. They negotiate those one-off placements and fees.
Where the Money Comes From
| Where your song shows up | Plain-English name | Legal name | Who actually finds the money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radio, TV, live shows, bars | Getting played in public | Performance royalty | Your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, PRS, etc.) |
| Spotify, Apple, Amazon | Getting streamed | Mechanical royalty | The MLC (for songwriters; distributors handle the recording) |
| YouTube, TikTok, Instagram | Used in short videos | Micro-sync | Your publishing admin or a specialist like Audiam |
| Film, TV, commercials, games | Licensed for visual media | Sync fee + sync royalty | A music supervisor or publisher who negotiates it |
| CDs, vinyl, downloads, merch | Copies or reproductions sold | Mechanical royalty | HFA (or your publishing admin) |
Why this matters: Every one of these companies only pays people who are properly registered with them or connected through an administrator. If you’re not in the system, your share just sits there doing nothing.
Deciding Who to Sign Up With
- Join one PRO – ASCAP, BMI, PRS, SOCAN, or APRA. That’s how you get your writer share of performance money.
- Use one publishing administrator – they handle the rest: mechanicals, YouTube, and foreign royalties.
- You don’t need to sign up separately with the MLC or HFA; your admin already talks to them.
What You Need Before You Sign Up
- Catalog control – a spreadsheet of every song you’ve written or released.
- Splits – agreed percentages with every co-writer or producer.
- Correct codes – ISRC for the recording, ISWC for the composition.
- No duplicates – one PRO writer account only; duplicates cause payment conflicts.
How and Where to Register Your Songs
If you use a publishing administrator like Songtrust, you only register your songs once — inside your Songtrust dashboard. Don’t re-register the same songs inside your PRO’s publisher account. Doing that will only create duplicates and delay payment.
When you enter a song in Songtrust — title, writers, splits, and ISRC — they deliver that data to ASCAP (or BMI), the MLC, HFA, YouTube, and all the foreign societies in their network. When ASCAP receives the data, it creates an official work record and assigns an ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code). That code may appear in your Songtrust dashboard later, but it’s issued by ASCAP, not by Songtrust itself.
Inside ASCAP’s system, the work will show your writer share under your name, and the publisher share under “Songtrust” or “Downtown Music Publishing.” It won’t appear in your personal ASCAP publisher account because Songtrust is the publisher of record for administrative purposes.
If You’re a Self-Releasing Songwriter
- Join a PRO like ASCAP or BMI as a writer. That’s how you get your 50% writer share paid directly to you.
- Register the song once inside Songtrust — they’ll handle the publisher share everywhere else.
- Your PRO will pay your writer half directly; Songtrust will collect and pay your publisher half.
If You Control a Catalog You Didn’t Write
- You can still register those works in Songtrust under your publishing entity.
- You’ll collect the publisher share for each song you control.
- The songwriters themselves must have PRO writer accounts to receive their writer shares. If they don’t, their writer money stays parked at the PRO until they join.
In short: Songtrust handles all publisher-side registrations and reporting for you. The only thing writers need to do separately is make sure they each have a writer account with a PRO. Everything else flows automatically from there.
Micro-sync: Small Videos, Small Money
Micro-sync means your song is used in short videos — TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube clips, ads, stories. For the average indie, your publishing administrator already has agreements with YouTube and the big social platforms, so those plays get counted. If you’ve got huge YouTube UGC activity, or you’re running a label, hire a specialist like Audiam or Orfium that focuses solely on video royalties.
SoundExchange: Not Publishing, But Still Money
SoundExchange gets confused with publishing because it’s another hidden stream of money, but it handles recordings, not songs. It collects digital performance royalties for sound recordings on non-interactive digital radio like SiriusXM and Pandora.
Split:
- 50 % to the featured artist (performer)
- 45 % to the owner of the master (label or self-released artist)
- 5 % to background musicians and session players (through unions)
How to get it: sign up free at soundexchange.com, register your recordings (artist, track, ISRC), and start collecting. The Orchard often registers clients automatically; DistroKid and TuneCore do not.
When It’s Time for a Real Publishing Deal
A “real” publishing deal means signing with a professional publishing company that isn’t yours. They take a cut (10–50 %), but they actively find money and opportunities — pitching your songs, chasing unclaimed royalties worldwide, and landing placements.
You’re ready when:
- Your songs earn steady income or chart internationally.
- You’re getting major placements, co-writes, or radio play that create royalties overseas.
- You don’t have time to handle admin anymore.
Until then, a publishing administrator is plenty. When you’re consistently seeing thousands a quarter from your PRO or admin, that’s when a real publisher starts to make sense — they’ll find more than they take.
If You’re Not an American Artist
Every country has its own version of a PRO and mechanical society. Start there — that’s your default.
| Country | Main PRO | Mechanical / CMO |
|---|---|---|
| UK | PRS for Music | MCPS |
| Canada | SOCAN | CMRRA |
| Australia / NZ | APRA | AMCOS |
| Germany | GEMA | GVL |
| France | SACEM | SDRM |
| Japan | JASRAC | NexTone |
Join your local PRO first — they’ll handle performance royalties and have reciprocal deals with ASCAP, BMI, and others. Then, for global reach, sign up with a publishing admin like Songtrust, TuneCore Publishing, or 360 Publishing Admin so your songs are registered worldwide.
The Shortcut Version (and the Real TL;DR)
- Get your splits in writing. Know who owns what percentage of the song.
- Create a writer account on a PRO (ASCAP / BMI / PRS / SOCAN / APRA).
- Join a publishing administrator and add your songs (360 Publishing Admin, Songtrust, or TuneCore Publishing).
- Keep your catalog organized. That means titles, splits, ISRCs, and collaborator info all in one place.
- Get your ISWCs. Those are the official IDs for your songs, assigned by your PRO once the registration goes through.
Once those steps are done, you’re covered. Everything else — the MLC, HFA, SoundExchange, and international societies — gets handled automatically through those two accounts. All the money that used to slip through the cracks finally knows where to go.
Bottom Line
Publishing can look complicated, but it’s really just tracking how your songs travel through the world. Once your writer account and publishing admin are in place, the rest of the system finally knows who to pay.
If you’re ready to take action on this kind of strategy, check out our campaigns and services that address just this issue — 360 Promo Publishing Admin.
360 Promo is a full-service music marketing, promotion, distribution and admin company. Learn more about us and what we do at 360 Promo, follow us on Instagram and contact us to tailor a plan that works for you.