Explained: What Is Music Publishing?

This article was posted September 9, 2025 and updated on March 10, 2026

Ever wonder who gets paid when an artist covers a song? Or how movies and TV shows get permission to use music in their soundtracks? Or perhaps you’re an independent artist looking for a way to collect additional royalty revenue from your music.

The answer to all of these questions is music publishing.

Music publishing is the business of ensuring songwriters and rights holders get paid when their compositions are used, performed, streamed, or licensed. Yet many artists don’t fully understand how it works or how much royalty revenue they may be missing by not having a publishing solution.

In this guide, we’ll explain what music publishing is, how music publishing works, the types of royalties your music generates overall, and how you can collect this revenue as a songwriter. 

What is music publishing?

From Songtrust, Music publishing is “the business of acquiring, protecting, and promoting song (composition) copyrights and collecting the royalties those copyrights generate.”

There’s a lot at work in that definition, which the rest of this post will clearly explain. But here’s a primer. Music publishing hinges on the composition copyright of a song. Anytime that composition copyright is used — for example, another musician covers the song or a movie uses it for a soundtrack — the songwriter is owed compensation in the form of music royalties. Various uses of the composition generate different kinds of royalties that the songwriter must take the proper steps to collect.

That’s where music publishing comes in – helping artists manage their composition copyright and collect royalties anytime it is used.

Why does music publishing matter?

Publishing can be a major revenue source for independent artists — and you don’t need a song in a major motion picture to make it worthwhile. Even if your music is simply gathering streams, you’re generating additional publishing revenue that you’re leaving behind if you’re not registered.

We’ll break down these royalties later, but here’s another primer. Your distributor pays you streaming royalties when fans listen to your music on digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify or Apple Music. Your music also generates mechanical and performance royalties, which you’ll need a music publishing solution to collect.

And that’s just streaming. If you’re playing concerts, selling physical copies of your music, allowing fans to use your music in social media posts, or licensing your songs for other uses, those activities can also generate additional royalties tied to the composition itself. 

All of this can add up into valuable revenue you can reinvest into your music. 

Music copyright 101

Before we dive into how music publishing works, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of music copyright that the business rests on.

Every song has two forms of copyright: the composition and the recording. The composition is the underlying musical components, lyrics, and melody that comprise the song. The recording is the particular recorded performance of the song, stored on a digital or physical file, also known as a “phonorecord.”

You own a song (and are by default its publisher) as soon as you create it in a fixed, tangible form. That means as soon as you record it on your phone, write it down on sheet music, or send a video of it to a friend, the song is yours. In these instances, you own the rights to both the song’s composition and the particular recording.

But other musicians can perform a cover of your song and own their unique recording of it, while you retain ownership of the song’s composition. That’s why you’ll both earn royalties anytime that cover song is used.

Music royalties 101

Music royalties are payments owed to rights holders anytime their works are reproduced, distributed, performed, or otherwise exploited. 

Royalties have different types that stem from the two forms of copyright on a song. 

There are four common types of royalties that your music composition and recording can produce according to the ways in which they are used.

• Recording revenues (streaming royalties): Generated anytime your music is streamed on digital streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music or otherwise downloaded and sold. Your distributor collects these royalties and pays them out to you in installments.
• Digital performance royalties: Generated when your recording is played on a non-interactive streaming radio like Pandora.
• Mechanical royalties: Generated when your musical compositions are physically or digitally reproduced (including streaming) and collected in the U.S. by The Mechanical Licensing Collective.
• Performance royalties: Earned when your music is played or performed in a public setting. All performance royalties are collected and distributed by collection societies such as performing rights organizations (PROs) to the relevant rightsholders.

There are two other types of royalties that arise from particular uses of your music: syncing to visual media and printing for music sheets. 

• Sync and “micro-sync” royalties: Generated when your music is synchronized to videos on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube or in movies, shows, and video games. You can earn both performance and mechanical royalties, depending on the licenses each platform has in place.
• Print royalties: The oldest form of publishing, printing and selling sheet music generates print royalties. 

Remember, as the business of managing songwriter’s rights, music publishing focuses on the composition and is concerned with collecting performance and mechanical royalties. 

On the recording side, your distributor pays you recording royalties while a neighboring rights organization like SoundExchange (for those in the U.S.) can help you collect digital performance royalties.

How to collect royalties

As mentioned, CD Baby automatically pays you recording royalties from your streaming activity. You can collect mechanical and digital performance royalties with CD Baby’s CDB Boost, which registers your music with The Mechanical Licensing Collective and SoundExchange. 

You can also collect micro-sync royalties with CD Baby by opting into Social Media Monetization when signing up your release.

Separately, we recommend registering with a performing rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP or BMI to collect your performance royalties (different from digital performance royalties).

The chart below breaks down how to collect music royalties from disparate sources.

Metadata necessary for royalty collection

Music metadata is the essential information about your music — such as the song title, songwriter(s), genre, and identification codes. This data allows your music to be identified, tracked, and processed across the industry, ensuring streams, ownership information, and payments follow it wherever it’s used.

You’ll need to provide key metadata to effectively register your music with a music publisher or publishing administrator. 

Here’s are some of the essentials:

• Song title: Ensure your song title matches the way it appears on streaming platforms and include any alternate spellings.
• Confirmed splits: Submit the songwriting splits you agreed on with any collaborators to prevent payment delays. Publishers will withhold funds until disputes are solved. 
• Songwriter Name(s): Include the name(s) of the songwriter(s).
• Interested Parties Information Number (IPI): This is a number uniquely identifying a songwriter or publisher.
• International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC): This is the standard code assigned to the composition of your song. Each composition can only have one ISWC.
• International Standard Recording Code (ISRC): This is the code assigned to an individual recording. There can be multiple ISRCs to account for multiple recordings of a single ISWC (composition). 

Getting started with music publishing

That’s everything you need to know to get started with music publishing. From the fundamentals of music copyright and metadata to the types of royalties and how to collect them, you’re ready to start earning more from your songs.

Step one? Sign up with CD Baby and add CDB Boost to your next release to start collecting the revenue you’re owed.

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