I'm in the process of starting a record label and wondering what route I should go down concerning publishing.
I do understand what a publishing company does but I'm not bothered about owning the songwritters songs at this stage in the game. This leaves me thinking if there really is any point in starting my own publishing alongside the label... and if not, would the artist have to 'start their own'?
When adding a track to my repertoire 'publisher name' is a mandatory field but as there is no publishers involved, how can I fill this in?
Strictly speaking it is not necessary to have a publisher affiliation though in some territories (e.g US IIRC) you (or the artist) may be missing out on the publisher share of performance royalties without it.
If you have the intention of creating a viable stand-alone music business, then I would have thought that composition performance royalties would be a useful part of the mix. It would also simplify the process as regard sync licenses (a useful source of label income) as you would control both composition and master.
In the absence of a publisher, you may be able to register works simply as 'copyright controlled'.
I understand all those added extras of having publisher rights, but I'm in a position where I'm working on short term recording contracts and I'm willing to let the songs go with the artist should they move labels. When I have a good grasp on the record label industry, I think I'll look into controlling publishing too.
So in the 'publisher name' field I should maybe just write 'copyright controlled'?
I've no experience of registering works from a label's POV but I would think that Copyright Control is reasonable. Failing that, why not just ask them?
SOS Forum member, Feline is our resident PPL expert !!
