What is Publishing Info and how does it work
When creating a release, you will be asked to fill out the publishing information as part of the track's metadata. In this article we elaborate on what it actually means:
1) Writer & Publisher section
In this section, you are asked to add the songwriters who wrote the track, their role as part of writing the song, the splits that have been agreed upon between the songwriters, and the publishing status for each writer.
The songwriters' names will be shown as credits on e.g. Spotify (depending on the role). The most common role in independent music is Composer & Lyricist, as many independent artists also write their own songs and lyrics.
2) Publishing type
This field collects the publishing status of each songwriter.
- Copyright control: If you are not signed to a publisher, you use this. You in a sense act as the publisher yourself - i.e. you are self-published.
- Public domain: The song consists of any work that belongs to the public domain. This may be because it has always been in the public domain and never had a copyright or because its' copyrights have expired.
- Published: The songwriter is signed to a publisher. You'll also need to add the name of the publisher if this option is true.
3) Examples
A) You have written the song yourself, the song includes lyrics, and you are not signed to a publisher:
Writer 1 (You)
- Role: Composer & Lyricist
- Writer: First name Last name
- Share: 100%
- Publishing type: Copyright Control
B) You are not signed to a publisher but have co-written the song with another songwriter who is signed to Universal Music Publishing. You composed the musical elements, while the other writer wrote the lyrics. You agreed to split publishing 50/50:
Writer 1 (You)
- Role: Composer
- Writer: First name Last name
- Share: 50%
- Publishing type: Copyright Control
Writer 2
- Role: Lyricist
- Writer: First name Last name
- Share: 50%
- Publishing type: Published
- Publisher name: Universal Music Publishing
Watch a quick video lesson about music rights on Family in Music to learn more about the underlying concepts: Rights and Revenues Basics for Songwriters.