Topic
A publishing deal decides who owns part of your song, who registers it, and for how long. Admin deals leave ownership with you for a fee. Co-pub and full publishing deals trade a share of the copyright for an advance and a team. Here is how the money splits, how long the rights stay away, and why the catalogue sales of 2026 make ownership the part to guard.
Industryvia ASCAP
A New York federal judge has refused to let the Mechanical Licensing Collective appeal early against the ruling that Spotify Premium is a "bundle" with audiobooks, which lets Spotify pay US songwriters a lower mechanical rate. The judge also threw out Spotify's "unclean hands" defence. Songwriters now wait for the whole case to finish, even though subscription prices rose again in February.
Artist rightsvia US District Court, Southern District of New York
One stream on Spotify or one play on digital radio can owe money to four different bodies, and none of them pays you unless you have registered with it. Here is which organisation collects which royalty, plus a registration checklist for artists in India, the UK and the US.
Industryvia Spotify for Artists support
The Mechanical Licensing Collective plans to start paying out unmatched and unclaimed US streaming mechanicals by market share in 2027, beginning with January 2021 usage. Money that nobody has claimed by then goes to whoever already earns the most. Here is how to register, match and claim before it does.
Industryvia The Mechanical Licensing Collective
Sony Music Publishing has closed its purchase of Recognition Music Group's 45,000-song catalogue, the former Hipgnosis portfolio, at a price reported at $3.5 billion to $4 billion. For the writers whose shares are inside it, the songs are now with their third owner, and each sale has taken them further from the people who wrote them.
Industryvia GIC (joint press release with Sony Music Publishing and Blackstone)
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