Top Music Publishers

In my previous post I talked about famous artists and their managers and the responsibilities that fall under the scope of being a "manager". In this post I will be talking about another big part of the industry, ‘publishing’. This topic will be split into two posts, and in this post I will discuss who some of the major music publishers are and explain what publishing really means.

Before the print media and Internet revolution took place, music publishers made their money selling sheet music. “Today, music publishers are concerned with administering copyrights, licensing songs to record companies and others, and collecting royalties on behalf of the songwriter,” (Korn). One big thing to remember about music publishers is that they are not as concerned with the sound or quality of the work as they are with the money that could potentially be made from selling it.

Some of you may be familiar with a lot of these names but for those of you who are not, these are some of the biggest music publishers in the United States and maybe even the world. Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is a unit of Universal Music Group, who are the world leaders in areas of Production music, Christian/Gospel and Classical. Another publishing conglomerate is Sony, who as of 2012 became the largest music publisher in the world, with its acquisition of EMI Music Publishing. After Sony’s acquisition of EMI, Sony/ATV, Sony’s existing publishing business, now controls more than two million copyrights including 251 Beatles songs. Another publishing giant is Warner Music Group. Warner Music Group’s music publishing business includes Warner/Chappell Music, whose catalog house more than one million songs from 65,000 songwriters.

Indie (independent) artists looking at the above list should not be intimidated as there is also the music publishing company known as Imagen, which is the world’s largest independent music publisher. Imagen has been around since 2008 and offers a diverse range in genres and is dedicated to setting ambitious new standards. This would be a great company for upcoming bands or acts to get a publishing deal with as they would probably get more time and attention with Imagen than from one of the other big named publishers.

In this post I wanted to briefly highlight what music publishing really is and who some of the ‘big dogs’ are in the industry. For aspiring music professionals, it is very important to know about the publishing giants in the industry, as they will either be allies or competitors and as the saying goes “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” Knowing company biographies is also a great way to get in with executives especially if the opportunity were to present itself.

In my next post I will delve deeper into this topic, but will approach it from a different angle i.e. ‘Ways to get your music published'.