Publishing
Songwriters have the right and means to protect their songs in addition to the copyright laws and registration: publishing.
There are many avenues of getting a song published. Many Publishing Companies are already established, most of them having large catalogs of songs. Most of these companies exist to maintain ownership of songs written by a writer or set of writers that work for those companies. Other publishers house only those songs performed by a particular artist or group of artists after they had the first chance to record each of those songs. Still other publishers are the legal publishing names of particular writers who own their own songs.
Songs that are published have a couple of extra benefits on top of the Copyright protection. They can be:
listed in a catalog of songs that can be offered to artists to perform and record for royalties.
tracked by a Performance Rights Organization to remit payments of royalties based on radio play and other such performances.
Publishers typically buy the rights to songs they publish from the writer. Ideally they would have a contract signed by both parties (songwriter and publisher) that shows the writer's permission for the song's copyright to be transmitted to the publisher. This is not entirely without benefit to the songwriter, however. In exchange for rights to the song, the publisher usually offers:
An upfront payment for all rights to the song,
A contract agreement to share a percentage (typically 50%) of all royalties received with the writer.
Of course, there are a variety of ways that songs can be published, but this is the most common. The main benefit of getting a song published is that the experienced publishing company takes control of all the legwork and other processes required to get a song to recording artists and, ultimately, to the point of bringing in royalties.
LeviSamJuno Services
80 Township Road 1404
South Point, OH 45680
(304) 437-1694