Music publishers are the industry players that are lesser known to the public, but play a valuable role in the functioning of the business. Artists and songwriters alike have a very close relationship to the publishing entities they work with, and those partnerships allow their careers to excel at a much faster rate than they would without.
Independent artists would benefit from working with a publisher for a number of reasons, but most notably to sign a writing (publishing) deal, pitch music for sync placements, and collect royalties. Here is a list of the many publishers you can submit music to directly through the Groover platform worldwide.
EXAMPLE PITCH BELOW
What Publishers Do
In the simplest of terms, publishers (either a person or organization) are focused on maximizing the 1) opportunities and 2) earnings of the writers they represent. Their work focuses solely on the writing, aka publishing, portion of songs – publishers do not handle the sound recording side. Publishing and sound recording are the two categories of royalties that are generated from songs.
Maximizing opportunities for writers means that publishers try to connect writers with people (producers, artists, other writers) who will make a song as successful as possible. If you have written a great song and your publisher believes it could be a hit, they’ll try their best to get a popular and trending artist to record and release it. They can also put writers in the rooms necessary to co-write and collaborate with others, as most charting songs these days are written by a handful of people.
Maximizing earnings for writers means that publishers are responsible for overseeing the collection of royalties and making sure everyone gets paid on time and in full. This means registering a writer’s work with royalty collection agencies (CMOs) and ensuring that all financial affairs are handled properly. It also means pitching the music across the industry for use and sync licenses. Thus, a publisher’s job is both promotional and administrative.
What Happens If a Publisher Likes Your Music?
Whether you reach out to a publisher or they reach out to you, one of the first discussions will be about what you’re looking for in terms of support and what they can provide for you. We mentioned their responsibilities in the previous section, but let’s go into them a bit further.
Signing a Publishing Deal
None of the services you’ll read about below can be carried out without some sort of contract, so being offered a publishing deal is a likely outcome if a publisher takes interest in you. There exist 3 main types of publishing deals, and each covers the services to different degrees.
- A full-publishing deal, common for newer writers, means the writer hands over 100% of their publishing rights to their publisher in exchange for all services possible.
- A co-publishing deal, common for mid-level writers, splits the publishing rights between a writer’s own micro-company and the publisher in exchange for all services, allowing the writer to retain a larger share of their royalties.
- An administrative deal, common for bigger writers, means the publisher’s sole service is to collect and manage royalties for the writer in exchange for a small percentage of publishing royalties.
Pitching and Promoting Your Music
Publishers want to maximize profits as much as possible, which requires a song’s frequent use – this will generate license fees and royalties that will keep the earnings coming. Thus, they will pitch a song across the industry for use in performances (ex: singing competitions), professional covers (ex: Whitney Houston covering “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton), and samples (ex: Flo Rida sampling Etta James in “Good Feeling”), amongst other things.
For songs that have yet to be released, publishers work hard to get them in the hands of big artists who might want to use them for themselves (ex: Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco writing “Love Yourself” that was eventually released by Justin Bieber) by pitching them to labels. They also help writers collaborate with others on projects; this could mean contracting a writer to come up with a song’s hook while other sections of the song are being written by other contracted writers, for example.
Collecting Royalties
Royalty collection and the administrative duties that come with it are extremely tedious and unbelievably important to get right. Publishers make sure all songs are registered with royalty collection agencies around the world and that writers are being paid as close to 100% of what they’re owed as possible. When payments are being withheld, publishers are there to contest any claims that don’t belong and represent their writers in any disputes.
Offering Guidance
If a publishing company likes your music but believes you aren’t fully cooked yet, they will likely offer you feedback and keep tabs on you and your progress. Though this may not be the outcome you initially hope for, it’s invaluable insight into what you can work on and what to direction to point your music towards to open more doors.
If you do end up signing a deal, guidance is one of the biggest things you’ll be offered – they will be able to tell you what type of music they think will get you the most opportunities and highlight your strengths and weaknesses. Having a trusted outside opinion who sees your work objectively can be extremely beneficial to your career and development as a writer.
How to Find a Publisher
There are quite a few ways to track down publishing companies to potentially pitch yourself to. Online databases are the first place we recommend – BMI and ASCAP have collaborated on Songview, for example, which is a directory that combines the two agencies’ catalogues and displays all song metadata for any of their works, and it’s completely open to the public. There, you’ll find a list of all the publishers involved with any song you search.
Here’s what comes up after a quick search of “Love Yourself”:
You can also look at album and song credits, either online or on physical CDs and vinyl sleeves. Spotify displays label and publisher information on the bottom of album pages under the tracklist. Use this to find the publishing companies of the artists you think you are similar to. If they’ve worked with someone like you, it may be a good fit.
A quick Google search never hurt no one! Searching for publishers that specialize in your genre is only a click away. “Indie Rock music publisher” or “Pop song licensing” will certainly give you a list of websites and services to choose from.
What to Say in Your Message
Once you’ve found who you want to submit your music to, you’ll need to craft a message that is both professional and friendly.
Start by briefly introducing yourself, ideally including what where you’re based and what type of music you write. Go on to explain why you’re reaching out. Make it clear that you are submitting music for consideration and explain why your songs would fit the roster they currently represent.
Now focus on the track. Include the title, a brief description, and why you think they should listen to it. Do not go overboard in hyping it up – simply explain why you believe in it. To close the message, thank them for their time and include links to your music, ideally with a private SoundCloud or YouTube link. Avoid sending attachments as it may clutter their email and disappear in their downloads.
Important Reminders
- Use hyperlinks
- To make things easier and keep your email clean looking, use hyperlinks throughout your message on top of sending a list at the end. When you mention your track’s title, make the words a direct link to the platform you want them to listen on.
- Be picky about what you send
- Publishers receive tons of submissions, so only send music that you believe is your very best work. Make sure they are polished and representative of your talent.
- First impressions are everything
- In music, if a demo sounds rough or unprofessional, it’ll be skipped within seconds. Get your demos mixed and mastered before submitting them.
- Less is more
- It’s better to send two killer songs than ten mediocre ones, so choose only your strongest material to represent you in the eyes of your potential publisher.
- Get help to write your message
- Sometimes we get so invested in our music, we are incapable of describing it in just a few sentences to really get our message across. Ask trusted peers and friends to help get an objective read on your message before sending it off. Does it come off as professional and straightforward?
Example Pitch
If you’re struggling to write your pitch, it’s ok to get inspiration from those who came before you and research examples online. You can even use AI to get a sample message and better understand the structure that you’re going for. Here’s what we got when we asked ChatGPT to come up with a message to send to a publisher based on the points mentioned above – maybe it’ll help you:
“Dear [Publisher Name] Team,
Hi, my name is Alex, and I’m an independent singer-songwriter based in Nashville. I specialize in acoustic pop with heartfelt lyrics. I came across your work with [Artist/Project] and I think my song “Stay” would align well with the types of songs you represent.
“Stay” is a mid-tempo acoustic pop track with a strong chorus and lyrics about resilience and love. It has been well received at live performances, and I’d love for you to hear it.Thank you for considering my music! You can listen to “Stay” here: [link]. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.”
Of course, you should not use an AI generated message as your final pitch. Write something that is in your own voice, using AI as a tool for inspiration only.
Now that you know what to do, pitch away!
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