Publishing Contract
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A publishing contract is a legal
contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...
between a
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
and a
writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
or
author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
(or more than one), to publish original content by the writer(s) or author(s). This may involve a single written work, or a series of works. In the case of
music publishing A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectua ...
, the emphasis is not on printed or recorded works. It usually refers to the promotion of a
musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...
, or its referral to a suitable recording artist. A music publisher who does produce (or contract to issue)
sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed Book, books or Pamphlet, pamphlets ...
is known as a music print publisher. It can be used by authors, journalists, and others to promote their works.


Book publishing agreements

Some of the most essential clauses of a standard (boilerplate) book publishing contract are: Grant of Rights, Subsidiary Rights, Delivery and Acceptance, Publication, Copyright, Advance (if there is any), Royalties, and Out of Print. All of them should be taken seriously by authors since trade publishing contracts are not covered in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
by statutory requirements for fairness and may contain vague language, biased terms, and hidden future pitfalls. In the U.K., the '' Contracts Act of 1999'', the '' Digital Economy Act 2010'', and the '' Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act of 2013'' opened the door to revisions of the established practices in the area of publishing contracts which are currently underway.


Types of music publishing agreements

It is important for music authors, producers and publishers to understand the legal rights associated with publishing contracts.Petty, Shannon and Robert Graff
“A Song in my Heart, and Money in my Pocket” A Songwriter’s Primer on a Sample Publishing Contract
''Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts'', Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, 2005-2008. Accessed on 31 January 2014.
The common music publishing contracts are:


Single song agreement

A single
song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
deal is an agreement between the
writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
and the
music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...
in which the writer grants certain rights to a
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
for one or more songs. In single song deals, the writer is paid a one-time recoupable advance.Music Publishing Contracts
''Songstuff Site''. Accessed on 12 March 2025.


Exclusive song writer agreement

An exclusive
song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
writer agreement ("ESWA," "publishing deal," or "staff writer" contract), the songwriter generally grants all of the songwriter's share of the income to the music publisher. The writer's services are exclusive to the music publishers for a specified period of time. Thus, any compositions written within that period belong to the music publisher. These deals are usually offered to writers with some degree of success. Because the writer has a track record of writing hits, the publisher feels confident that it will recoup its investment. In return for signing away exclusive rights to some or all the writer's songs, the writer gets paid by the publisher a negotiated advance against future royalties. The advance amount naturally depends on the writer's bargaining power and on the competition in the marketplace, if any. Under a staff writer deal, the writer is paid on a weekly or quarterly basis. An ESWA can be either tied to a record contract, or independent of a record contract.


Co-publishing agreement

The co-publishing ("co-pub") deal is perhaps the most common publishing agreement. Under this deal, the
songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
and the music publisher are "co-owners" of the
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
s in the musical compositions. The writer becomes the "co-publisher" (i.e. co-owner) with the music publisher based on an agreed split of the royalties. The songwriter assigns an agreed percentage to the publisher, usually (but not always), a 50/50 split. Thus, the writer conveys _ of the publisher's share to the publisher, but retains all of writer's share. In a typical "75/25 co-pub deal," the writer gets 100% of the songwriter's share, and 50% of the publisher's share, or 75% of the entire copyrights, with the remaining 25% going to the publisher. Thus, when
royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...
are due and payable, the writer/co-publisher will receive 75% of the income, while the publisher will retain 25%.


Administration agreement

An administrative agreement ("admin") takes place between a songwriter/publisher and an independent administrator, or between a writer/publisher and another music publisher. In an "admin deal," the songwriter self-publishes and merely licenses songs to the music publisher for a term of years and for an agreed royalty split. Under this agreement, the music publisher simply administers and exploits the copyrights for another publisher/copyright owner. Only the most popular songwriters can even consider asking for an admin deal. Under this arrangement, ownership of the copyright is usually not transferred to the administrator. Instead, the music publisher gets 10-20% of the gross royalties received from administering and exploiting the songs for a certain period of time and for a certain territory.


Collection agreement

A collection agreement is similar to an admin deal where the writer retains the copyrights, except that the publisher does not perform exploitation functions. Like an accountant or business manager, it merely collects and disburses available royalty income.


Sub-publishing agreement

These are music publishing deals in foreign territories between US and foreign publishers. They are like admin or collection deals (with no ownership of the copyrights being transferred to the sub publisher), but limited to one or more countries outside the US. Under this publishing deal, the publisher allows the sub publisher to act on its behalf in certain foreign territories. Often, they are limited to a group of countries, such as
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
(EU), DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Latin America, etc.


Purchase agreement

Under this agreement, one music publisher acquires in whole or in part the catalog of another music publisher, somewhat like a merger of companies. In this case, a "due diligence" investigation is done to determine the value of the catalogue.


Meetings

Meetings are then often arranged to discuss the book. The agreements can often be about the percentage of the money that the publishers get. Factual MOTs are sometimes set up to bind the LASDs.


See also

*
Publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
* Music publisher (popular music)


References

{{reflist


External links


Book Contract Checklist

Sample Contract Between Author and Publisher

Sample Contract Between Composer and Publisher
Contract law