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Music vocabulary · The Music Industry

Music publishing

Meaning in music, with examples

nounCommon term

In music, music publishing means: The business of managing songs as compositions: registering them, licensing them, collecting the royalties they earn and finding new uses for them, such as in films and adverts.

In Turkish: müzik yayıncılığı, eser yayıncılığı

How it is used

Songwriters sign a 'publishing deal' with a music publisher, who takes a share of the income. People talk about 'publishing rights', 'publishing income' and 'sync licensing' (putting songs in films, series, games and adverts).

Example sentences

  1. Her music publishing company placed one of her songs in a Netflix series.

  2. Before you sign a music publishing deal, check how long the publisher keeps the rights.

Common collocations

  • publishing deal
  • music publisher
  • publishing rights
  • publishing income
  • sync licensing
  • copyrightThe legal right that protects original creative work and lets its owners decide how it is copied, performed, recorded, adapted or shared.
  • royaltiesPayments made to songwriters, composers, performers and rights owners each time their music is sold, streamed, broadcast, performed in public or used in media.
  • record labelA company that finances, releases, distributes and promotes recordings, usually in exchange for ownership of the recordings or a share of their income.
  • composeTo create an original piece of music, especially instrumental or classical music, film music or music written down in notation.
  • lyricsThe words of a song. The person who writes them is a lyricist, and the words are protected by copyright just like the music.

More terms: The Music Industry

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