Publishing deals - how to get one?

ZV Yoda

The “artist development thread” prompted me to post this… it’s not music production related, but sounds like some folks may have some experience in this area too… mods feel free to move if you think it's better suited to another forum.

Like the title says, any advise/suggestions/thoughts on how to go about getting a music publishing deal? The songwriting forum seems to be fairly quiet on the subject. I’ve read up a fair bit on this & I get the part about targeting your market, don’t send trash metal songs to Cliff Richard’s agent etc, but I was wondering about actual routes into these publishing houses. Most advice seems to suggest that nobody accepts unsolicited material, so how do we go about getting a foot in the door? We've just set up our website & have 6 or 7 tunes on there.

We’ve a catalogue of 50 or 60 songs that we’re currently in the process of recording in our home studios. Our ultimate objective is to get these songs commercially released. We’re pragmatic enough to realise that whether we like it or not, our best chance of actually making some revenue from the music is to get an established artist to record & release them (as opposed to us releasing them ourselves). Also, we’re not a gigging band, and none of really want to go down that road (been there before during the last recession… so probably giving my age away there).

So, any thoughts/comments/suggestions?

Cheers!

Neurojazz

If a track sells pretty much any publisher will pick it up.

If you've previously sold music, this may help you get advances etc... (as there is a customer base)

I deal with IMG in the uk (chaired by Ellis Rich) - they are a large publishing house and will take anything that sells.

You just approach publishers *after* releases etc.. or at least liaise with one just before and make a non-exclusive agreement with them if you feel you really need one for the kick off from release (if you have promotional campaigns in place etc...) - or just wait until you have fanbase/sales and then go for the advance and exclusive publishing deal.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

would it be possible to publish you music yourself ?

as far as im aware publishers have a 50% stake in each song - is this correct ?

Neurojazz

Probably yes - but imagine the paperwork and time involved for collecting all those revenue streams... The publishers take a teeny cut - so not really worth bothering to do it yourself as they have the infrastructure in place to collect.

It's like saying 'Yes you can build the Empire state building yourself' - just takes a lot of your time/man hours.

No, they don't take 50% - it's negotiable - and a lot less than 50%. There are many publishers out there - lots of them are SUB-PUBLISHERS - they will take lionshare, find a bonafida source publisher and go there.

ZV Yoda

Neurojazz wrote: »

If a track sells pretty much any publisher will pick it up.

If you've previously sold music, this may help you get advances etc... (as there is a customer base)

I deal with IMG in the uk (chaired by Ellis Rich) - they are a large publishing house and will take anything that sells.

You just approach publishers *after* releases etc.. or at least liaise with one just before and make a non-exclusive agreement with them if you feel you really need one for the kick off from release (if you have promotional campaigns in place etc...) - or just wait until you have fanbase/sales and then go for the advance and exclusive publishing deal.

Neurojazz... I know this may be different things for different genres how do you go about selling a track in the first place?

Maybe I should clarify our position here - we're not a gigging band (and don't intend to start again - jobs, families, mortgages etc) but we'd really like to see if we get others to exploit (in the best sense of the word) our music. Granted, I'm not happy to sign up to a 50% split for a publisher, but having said that, I'd rather be getting 50% of something than 100% of zippo.

Also, I thought the role of the publisher was to exploit your music for mutual benefit?... i.e. if you don't write good songs & they don't link your music to good artists, then nobody makes (or loses) any money?

DaDumTish wrote: »

would it be possible to publish you music yourself ?

as far as im aware publishers have a 50% stake in each song - is this correct ?

Yip DaDumTish - that was my understanding too... I've read the blurb from IMRO etc & they say that deals cannot exceed 50% for the publisher, but beyond that it's whatever you can negotiate yourself. Naturally, for an established act, they are in a better position to take the lion's share.

Neurojazz

Publishers can take music for others to use, get a package up together and present it too them - then you'd get feedback on what's going to work or isn't.

They do exploit the material on your behalf, and probably would take a larger share as they are going out of their way to 'sell' your music to another artist... you are probably better going to labels themselves and talking to them (like majors) - they have the acts and you could make a better deal with them direct.