Should You Self-Publish or Work with a Music Publisher?

Let’s say you are a busy performer or college professor who has a knack for composing and arranging music. You have performed your own works or have friends and colleagues who have performed them. You know they are good; people have been asking you, “Can I buy that from you?”

But maybe the parts are not quite ready, or you are unsure of the copyright situation with your arrangement. You look around and see that other composers and arrangers are putting up websites to sell their wares. Maybe you could do that, too, but… All it takes is time and money, both of which may be in short supply. Then there are the legal concerns about infringing someone else’s copyright.

Music publishers handle these issues every day. Publishers take what you do best—your composing and arranging—and take care of the myriad of tasks that come with bringing your music to the world.

Notes on the page

In the earliest days of the music publishing business, transforming a composer’s scratching of notes onto parchment with a quill pen into published notation was the first job of the publisher. Now, of course, a couple of hundred dollars for engraving software and a decent printer can make you a self-publisher. But Dorico, Finale, or Sibelius can’t do everything automatically. It takes deep software skills and a trained eye to make the printed music easily readable and beautiful to see. Catching notation, spelling, and format errors require special skills. Music publishers use professional engravers and editors to accomplish these tasks.

Who owns the rights?

Sorting through the confusing set of laws regarding copyright can be boring, time consuming, mind-numbing, and legally scary. Music publishers have experts in this field to turn to with these kinds of questions. For example, I recently came across a piece by Jean Sibelius that had been written in the 1870s. A friend had made an arrangement that made perfect sense, and I thought, surely the underlying work is in the public domain. But no! I consulted my intellectual property attorney and learned that, because the original work had not been published until the 1990s, the new arrangement was under the original copyright. A self-publisher might have stepped into an expensive trap.

Let everyone know about it!

Your perfect composition has little chance of marketing itself into widespread popularity. Letting the right people know about your work is one of the toughest and most confounding aspects of being a composer or arranger. A music publisher’s number one objective is to find out where the audience for your music is and to let them know about it. Music publishers make it their business to find and expand their networks of performers and institutions that are the primary sources of consumers for the music they sell.

Royalties? What royalties?

When you sign your work over to a publisher, one of the first things you need to think about is which Performing Rights Organization (PRO) you want to belong to. Whether ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or other such national and international organizations, PROs pay you for performances of your music. Music publishers make sure that your work is listed with the PRO so you can get your share of performance royalties.

An associated task is when a broadcaster or commercial operation wants to use your music to sell or enhance their products. The publisher handles all requests for arrangements, adaptations, or other special permissions to use your music. If someone wants to record your music, the publisher handles the mechanical licenses required. If your music is used in a televised show or a movie, the publisher will take care of the required synchronization licenses and master use licenses.

If you sign an agreement with a publisher to sell your music, you also get sales royalties—a percentage of the sales price that, for certain kinds of music, like educational or church music, are the only kind of royalties you may ever receive. Keeping track of your share and making sure you get paid are part of a music publisher’s job.

Time and money…and stress

If all these things you have to think about to get your music in front of the public are making your head spin, then perhaps you need a music publisher. Choosing to work with a publisher can be a game-changer for composers and arrangers. The benefits—time savings, expertise, distribution, marketing, and financial management—far outweigh the challenges of managing everything alone. If you want your music to reach a wider audience and generate sustainable income, partnering with a publisher can be a smart investment in your career. 

Do you have experience working with a publisher, or have you considered self-publishing? Share your thoughts in the comments!