Publishing deals explained: admin, co-pub and full publishing, and what each costs you

Every song you write is two things at once: a piece of music and a copyright that earns money. A publishing deal decides who owns part of that copyright, who does the paperwork that turns plays into payments, and for how long. The three common shapes are administration ("admin"), co-publishing ("co-pub") and full publishing. They are often talked about as rungs on a career ladder, but they are really different prices for different services.

This is a general explainer, not legal advice. The figures below are worked examples, not a rate card.

The split underneath every deal

Start with how songwriting money is divided before any deal is signed. ASCAP's membership FAQ puts it plainly: when it pays for a performance of your music, 50% goes to the writer(s) and 50% to the publisher(s). That is the "writer's share" and the "publisher's share". The US Copyright Office's 2015 music report notes that, by longstanding practice, the writer's share is paid to songwriters directly by the PROs and does not flow through the publisher.

Here is the part many independent writers miss. ASCAP says a writer who has not assigned their publishing rights to anyone can take out a publisher membership and collect the publisher's share themselves. If you are registered only as a writer, with no publisher anywhere, you may be leaving half of your performance money uncollected.

The three deals

Admin. You keep 100% of your copyright. An administrator registers your songs with the collecting bodies, collects what they pay and takes a fee. Songtrust's published pricing, as one example, is a $100 one-time fee per songwriter plus 15% of performance royalties and 20% of non-performance (worldwide mechanical) royalties, and it says copyright ownership stays with you. In our reading, an admin deal is mostly paperwork done at scale: don't expect creative work or a big cheque from one.

Full publishing. This is the classic deal. The Copyright Office report describes it like this: the publisher may pay an advance against future royalties, promotes and licenses your songs and collects on your behalf, and in exchange you assign "a portion of the copyright" in the songs you write during the term, "traditionally 50%, but sometimes less". Put that next to the 50/50 PRO split and the usual result, in our reading, is that the publisher takes the publisher's share of the income and you keep your writer's share. The advance is not free money: it is recouped from your royalties, the same way a label advance is (see our recoupment explainer).

Co-pub. A middle ground. You and the publisher co-own the publisher's side, usually through your own publishing entity. Expect the publisher to want to administer both halves. Work through the arithmetic on a 50/50 co-pub of the publisher's share. You keep the writer's 50% of the income plus half of the publisher's 50%, so roughly 75% of the song's income reaches you and 25% stays with the publisher, before any admin fee written into the contract. That is our worked example; the contract's definitions of "income" and "fees" decide what you actually get.

Term, options and reversion

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) looked at songwriter contracts in its 2022 music and streaming report (paragraphs 5.130 to 5.132). It found three things that matter to writers:

• The term is an initial period plus options, and the publisher decides whether to take up each option. Each period usually lasts until you deliver a set amount of work (for example, one album's worth), with a longstop cut-off that is often two to three years. Three option periods count as fairly short for a major deal; four or five are more common.
• The rights stay away after the term ends. Publishers' rights can run anywhere from five to twenty-five years after the contract finishes. One independent publisher told the CMA that standard deals involve 10 to 13 years of copyright.
• Reversion is contractual. Unlike labels, which often take recordings for the life of copyright, some publishers want an assignment only for a limited "retention period". When it ends, the songs come back to you.

In the US there is also a statutory backstop. Section 203 lets an author terminate a grant made on or after 1 January 1978, in a five-year window that opens 35 years after the grant. It doesn't apply to works made for hire, which is why that clause matters (see our work-for-hire explainer).

Who does the registrations

In an admin, co-pub or full deal, the publisher or administrator registers your songs and collects for them. If you self-administer, you do it. The MLC says anyone entitled to collect US digital audio mechanical royalties should become a member, and lists self-administered songwriters (people who "register your songs yourself and collect your own royalties") separately from publishers and administrators. Writers who have a publisher can still use The MLC's Songwriter Hub to see what is registered in their name and suggest matches. We cover what happens to unmatched money in our Music Modernization Act explainer, and the codes that make matching work in our ISRC/ISWC guide.

What 2026's catalogue sales change

Two big deals closed this summer. Music Business Worldwide reports that Primary Wave's acquisition of Kobalt closed on 7 July, at around $1.5 billion. The deal announcement describes Kobalt as aiming to be "the industry's premier tech-driven publishing administrator", says it will stay a stand-alone company under CEO Laurent Hubert, and says the sale includes Kobalt's own catalogue of owned copyrights. On 15 July, MBW reported that Sony Music Publishing had completed its purchase of Recognition Music Group's catalogue of more than 45,000 songs from funds managed by Blackstone. The price wasn't disclosed; Bloomberg had put it at $3.5 billion to $4 billion. Sony was already administering the catalogue before it bought it.

The lesson is about what moves in a sale. Any share of a copyright you assign to a publisher is an asset on its balance sheet, and it goes wherever that publisher, or the publisher's owner, sells it. The administrators are changing hands too: Songtrust's own site describes it as "A Virgin Music Group Company". An admin deal doesn't stop your service provider being bought. It does mean your songs aren't part of what is sold.

What we think

For most independent writers without a co-writing career or sync team behind them, admin is the right default, and a self-administered publisher registration at your PRO is the step to take before even that. A full or co-pub deal is worth signing only for what the publisher adds: an advance you need, real creative and sync work, introductions to co-writers. If a publisher offers mostly collection, you are paying with ownership for something an administrator sells for a percentage.

The CMA saw the same trade-off: it noted that some songwriters give up an advance to keep control, and quoted the Ivors Academy saying publishers compete on "admin shares of royalties retained". The fee is negotiable, so negotiate it.

The 2026 sales sharpen this. A co-pub share you sign away at 24 can be resold several times before it comes back to you. If you do sign an ownership deal, price the retention period as hard as the advance: a deal with a short retention period and a smaller advance can be worth more over a career than a larger cheque with a long tail.

Before you sign: a checklist

• Are you registered with your PRO as a publisher as well as a writer? If not, check what you're missing first.
• Does the deal take ownership (co-pub or full), or only the right to administer (admin)?
• What is the fee or split on each income type: performance, mechanical, sync, print? What counts as "income"?
• How long is the initial period, how many options are there, who decides whether to take them up, and what is the delivery requirement?
• How long is the retention period after the term, and do songs revert automatically when it ends?
• Is the advance recoupable from all income, or only some types?
• Who registers your songs with the PRO, The MLC and overseas societies, and can you see the registrations?
• If the publisher or administrator is sold, can it assign your contract, and can you leave?
• Get a music lawyer to read anything that takes a share of your copyright.