Music Publishing Companies?
Question by ooO DanceLukeDance Ooo: Music Publishing Companies?
and their roles in:
•FINDING SONGWRITERS/COMPOSERS
•A&R
•PROMOTION
HELP!
Best answer:
Answer by cat
There are RECORDING CONTRACTS that artists sign with record companies and there are PUBLISHING CONTRACTS that are signed with publishing companies. They are totally SEPARATE contracts and SHOULD BE with two totally different companies. So as an artist you could have your record contract with Capitol records but your publishing contract could be with warner/chappel.
A LOT of record companies want you to sign BOTH contracts with them, but you should never (EVER!) do this=very bad idea.(GET a lawyer and let them handle it!!!) Some will refuse to sign you at all if you dont agree but the thing to bear in mind is if that record company is interested enough to offer you a contract, the others will be willing to also. Always separate (RULE!)(Some even demand merchandising rights= the profits from your tour t shirts etc which they have NO RIGHT to=100% yours!)
Okay, A&R is a department at the record company. Their role is:
1. Keep an ear out for what is happening in the world. Know what is CURRENT, what the public is BUYING and what acts are popular and why.
2. Locate and review new acts that the company may be interested in signing. “The buzz on the street” will attract them to attend gigs in secret and listen to the act perform. If they see potential they will act on it. (But they dont make the final decision, they have to submit their “opinion” to the higher ups at the company and await their decision.)
3. The day to day arrangements for artists that are already signed to the company. A&R stands for Arists and Repetoire. This is the artist part. They make the arrangements to book the recording studio that they will use, the producer and the engineer that they will have, when they will go on tour, who with, for how long, and what promoter they will use etc…
4. They also arrange for REPETOIRE (The word means repeat performance) for artists that they have signed to them who need material= singers that dont have writers. People like Celine Dion etc…
5. A&R contact the publishing company to see what material they have on hand that may suit their client. Music must suit the performers style. Or they may ask for specific music be written for that performer from one of the clients of the publishing company.
Record companies are contracted to take care of the artist (Recording artist and the material they use) Publishing companies have the rights to the song and the written materials (Sheetmusic books etc) they sign a contract with the record company for the RIGHTS to use the song in a recording.
(This has nothing to do with copyright=that remains solely exclusive to the original writer of the song=they sign an agreement to give the publisher publishing rights and the record company mechanical (recorded) rights to the song (SEPARATE CONTRACTS))
promotion of song material is done by the publisher in sheetmusic and book form, and by the record company in the recorded form.
I gather your real question is how do you as a songwriter get the attention of a publisher to get your material out there….
The answer is it is just as difficult to have your material viewed by a publishing company as it is for musicians to have their demo reviewed by a record company.
The best answer is to SELF PUBLISH.
go here and read a LOT
http://www.ehow.com
/search.aspx?s=
self+publish+music
&Options=0
But a serious word of warning and I do mean SERIOUS so read this carefully…
There are companies on the web who offer to do this for you. DONT DO IT!!! Because they dont do anything for you that you cant do yourself. A little study and research and you can do everything yourself (AND keep all the profits!) But they will do it for you, and charge you.
If your song is finished (and I mean finished) I could launch it for you on iTUNES myself (because I know how to do it (Go to iTUNES and read their pages on how to upload etc…) and then you’ll know how to do it too! They just know things you dont, and they make a fortune off it!
One of the biggest misnomers in this industry is to think you need a record company and a publisher company to do anything. It isnt true. You dont need either. You can self publish any time you like.
Just make sure that before you do, you have studied up on promoting your material (lots of searches for information)
If you get “noticed” and youre listed as unsigned, someone will contact you at your webpage (Make sure your performer name and your web page have the EXACT SAME NAME (you’d hate it if people were looking for you to sign but just couldnt find you…)
(I work as a songwriter)
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!