Who Makes What in Music Publishing

Should you have any dreams about becoming rich as a composer, it might be helpful to know who makes what in the music publishing business.   Now mind you, I’m not saying you can’t make a living composing music (that’s a subject for a later post), but its surprising how often students, teachers, and aspiring composers don’t know how much a composer makes on each piece of music!  Of course, more established composers may have a bit more bargaining power than the free-lance composer, but I think most composers these days operate on a free-lance basis.  Though there are many variations, here is a basic model of how the money is distributed in the print music industry.

1. Percentages

Publishing company: 50% of the price of the item (of course they have the bulk of the expense, while the composer has the bulk of the initial time in the project.

Retailer: 40% of the price of the item

Composer: 10% of the price if they are lucky.  This is actually a high figure in pedagogical music believe it or not. So, for the piece of sheet music that you buy at $3.50, the composer gets 35 cents! For the book that costs $6.95, the composer gets 70 cents. Sometimes royalties are as low as 3-5%.  In my experience, the smaller publishing companies (especially the sacred ones I have dealt with) are good about paying the composer 10%.

2. Discounts:  Discounts made by retailers do not hurt the composer’s royalties. The retailer can usually afford those discounts because they purchase the music wholesale at 40% off. 

3.  Complimentary Copies: Composers are not paid any royalties for music that is given away at conferences or are part of complimentary packets at clinics.  So, if you want to help a composer, please use those complimentary copies as reference copies, and then purchase the music at the music store.  

4. Arrangements:  Composers who arrange pop music are typically not paid royalties, but rather have contracted with the publisher to write the pieces for a certain price. Compared to the volume of sales that are made on pop books, this price is usually very low. 

5. Pro-rata share.  If the composer’s work is a part of a collection of original pieces, the 10% royalty is divided by the number of pieces in the book or amongst the contributing composers.  So, if I write 2 pieces in a book that has 8 pieces in it and the price is $6.95, then my share is  $0.18 per book that is sold (25% of .70).  Sometimes the 10% is divided among the number of authors, not based on the number of pieces that each has contributed.  So, for a book in which there are 4 composers, and I write 3 pieces, then my share will still be $0.18 (the $0.70 divided by 4).

In summary, though the composer is one of the main players that enables the publishing company to exist, they get a very small percentage of the sales made. It is easy to get discouraged in the industry when you see all of your time and effort and little payment.  

If there were one thing I would suggest to teachers that would help composers remain in the industry (to keep them from being so discouraged they quit and therefore new music disappears!), I would encourage them to refuse to copy music!  Every time music is copied, that means less royalties are paid to the composer.  Those royalties can really add up and make a difference to a struggling composer.  In addition, when a publisher is looking at which composer’s works are popular to give and want to give a new job to a popular composer, than the number of pieces that are sold (rather than copied) make a difference.    

To future composers, I hope this is not discouraging.  However, I think you should enter the publishing business knowing the facts.  I’ll write about how some composers “make it” in the business in a later post.

Hope this sheds a little light on the industry!  If you are a composer who has different contractual arrangements than the ones mentioned, please let me know so that I can make this post as thorough as possible.