Today’s music industry landscape and new technology have allowed artists and musicians to find success completely independently, from recording to distribution to promotion. Until recently, however, independent songwriters (including artists, bands, and producers who write their own songs), labels, managers, lawyers, and others could not collect the music publishing royalties their compositions earned without a publishing deal. We’ll walk through the benefits of being your own publisher and the resources independent songwriters and their agents can utilize to make it happen.
We’ll briefly discuss the basics of music publishing and the different types of royalties and sources of revenue songwriters should exploit. Then we’ll dive deeper into what a songwriter needs to do to make sure they’re set up to collect everything they are owed, and how exactly a service like Songtrust, CD Baby Pro and others can help. Then we’ll discuss ways that independent songwriters can get the coveted “creative services” they want, without giving up creative control to a publishing company.
