If you want to make money in the music business, an understanding of music publishing will be very helpful. Publishing is one of the areas of the music industry where you will actually be able to make money, so it is important that any aspiring musician or songwriter understand the process.

There are more areas affected by music publishing than you might realize. Besides your own CDs, there are TV shows, commercials, the radio, video games, and more places where music is used every day. If you hear a song, the band/songwriter is getting a royalty check. Different performers’ rights associations collect payments for their members. That means, if your song is played somewhere other than in your own live performance, you should be getting paid.

How much you will actually get paid varies, since royalties vary. Your local college’s radio station will not pay as much as a commercial radio station. Not to mention that your song may get played more at one location than another depending on how popular it is. It also takes time in most cases for you to actually see the money, so do not expect to get huge paychecks the week after a song comes out.

There is more than one place that you can start getting your music published. Before, musicians were limited to local acts and pitches to radio labels and programmers that might have only been looking for a specific sound or song type. If musicians could not get into this group, then they were often limited to trying to get a contract by the major music publishing companies — which could be an elusive task at best.

Luckily for musicians, the internet has changed the face of music publishing. There are online sites and services where musicians can apply for membership, and once accepted they can have the offers sent to their mailbox or email. The process is much simpler, and today’s musician just has to find the right listing for his or her songs and make sure they get channeled through the right requesting companies for review.

Other services may only have you mail them a CD and they will review it. If they like the song or your sound, they will let you know and then post samples to their licensing system. This will allow people who are interested in licensing you to try out your music and even purchase it through a download.

No matter what process you decide will work best for you, you will want to enlist the help of a lawyer. Have the lawyer review all contracts so that you understand exactly what you are agreeing to when you sign, and how much money you will be making in advancements and royalties.

At the same time you are trying to get your music published, it is also important to get it copyrighted. Again, you can download all the forms that you need online. Copyrighting your work will help protect you in the long run from being ripped off, so make sure you take care of this step early on.

By making sure you understand all of the steps of the music publishing process, you will know all the secrets of how to make money in the music business. The more informed you are, the better you can launch your career, and the more potential your music will have.

Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on music and songwriting have appeared on many websites. You can find more of these at http://www.songwritersguide.com

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