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Chapter 4

Music Publishing · Part 1

What a publisher is, how the industry evolved, and how the back-office and front-office work together to serve composers

What Does a Music Publisher Actually Do?

A music publisher (muziekuitgever) represents authors — composers and lyricists. It is often described as an agency or a 'music broker': a professional partner that manages the commercial and legal life of your catalogue on your behalf. The publisher's two core tasks are:

📋 Back-office (Administrative)

Registering all works with CMOs (e.g. Buma/Stemra), monitoring and collecting all income, verifying royalty statements, and handling the financial flow between CMOs, users, and the author.

🎯 Front-office (Creative & Commercial)

Discovering and developing talent, arranging co-writes, pitching songs to artists and media, negotiating sync deals, and actively generating as many successful exploitation opportunities as possible.

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Print & Distribution

Producing and distributing sheet music — physical copies and digital PDFs — to musicians, orchestras, and retailers worldwide. Modern publishers increasingly use print-on-demand (POD) systems, meaning your score is always available without large upfront print runs.

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Royalty Collection (Back-office)

Working with CMOs, sub-publishers, and licensees to collect and distribute performance, mechanical, and synchronisation royalties. The publisher registers all works, monitors income, and performs income tracking to ensure nothing is missed.

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Promotion & Marketing (Front-office)

Promoting your catalogue through websites, catalogues, recordings, festivals, press releases, and relationships with programmers. A good publisher actively places your music with ensembles, conductors, and festivals.

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Rights Administration

Handling every licence request — from a student wanting to arrange a piece to a major film studio requesting a sync licence. The publisher evaluates, negotiates, and manages these deals on your behalf.

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Grand Rights Deals

Negotiating directly with opera houses, ballet companies, and theatres for dramatic performance rights. These are large, complex deals that benefit enormously from professional publisher expertise and established venue relationships.

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Synchronisation (Sync)

Licensing your music for film, television, advertising, and video games. These licences — where music is placed 'under image' — can be among the most financially significant deals a publisher arranges.

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Archive & Preservation

Maintaining and preserving scores, recordings, and documentation of your work for future generations. Publishers like Donemus maintain physical and digital archives of enormous cultural value.

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Sub-Publishing Network

Establishing agreements with partner publishers in foreign territories to administer your catalogue locally — collecting royalties, placing music with local ensembles, and providing local expertise.

Publisher vs. CMO: What's the Difference?

A CMO (like Buma/Stemra) is a collective organisation managing certain rights for all its members via blanket licensing. A publisher is your individual professional partner, working specifically on your catalogue. Publishers interact with CMOs on your behalf, but they do much more: they actively promote your music, negotiate individual deals, and invest in your career. The two work alongside each other — not instead of each other.

The Origins of Music Publishing

The history of music publishing stretches back to the 15th century, when the first techniques for printing music were developed. Understanding this evolution helps explain why publishers exist, what copyright is, and how the global industry is organised today.

1465

First printed liturgical songbook published in Europe.

~1500s

Ottaviano Petrucci (Venice) becomes the first publisher to hold a monopoly on printed music, publishing 'Musices Odhecaton' with 96 polyphonic compositions.

1520

John Rastell (England) pioneers multi-element music printing — combining words, notes, and staff lines on one page. Widely adopted by Pierre Attaingnant (France).

1777

Pierre de Beaumarchais (France) founds the Bureau de Legislation Dramatique — precursor to SACEM — launching the fight for performance rights.

1851

SACEM founded in France — the world's first organisation for collecting performance royalties.

1882–1913

Performance rights societies founded across Europe: SIAE (Italy, 1882), SGAE (Spain, 1899), GEMA (Germany, 1903/1915), BUMA (Netherlands, 1913).

1719–1793

The great German music publishers emerge: Breitkopf & Härtel (Leipzig, 1719/1745), Schott (Mainz, 1770), Simrock (Bonn, 1793) — publishing Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Wagner.

1880s

US publishers develop 'plugging' (active song promotion). New York's 28th Street becomes 'Tin Pan Alley' — the hub of the popular music industry.

1893

'After The Ball' sells 1 million sheet music copies — demonstrating the commercial power of popular song publishing.

1914

Victor Herbert founds ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to enforce copyright in the US. BMI follows in 1939.

Three Pioneer Countries

England led in developing copyright law. France pioneered performance rights (SACEM, 1851). Germany became the home of the great classical music publishers — Breitkopf & Härtel, Schott, and Simrock — publishing the foundational works of the Western canon.

🎵 Tin Pan Alley and the Commercial Revolution

From 1880, New York publishers developed 'plugging' — actively promoting songs to get them performed and purchased. By the early 20th century, around 25,000 songs per year were being published in the US. The song 'After The Ball' (1893) sold over 1 million sheet music copies. This era established the commercial music publishing industry as we know it today.

The Back-Office: Administrative Publisher

The back-office is the administrative backbone of a music publisher. Its core job is to ensure every use of every work in the catalogue is registered, tracked, and paid for.

📝 Copyright Registration

The publisher's copyright department registers all works with the relevant CMOs — in the Netherlands: Buma/Stemra. Registration includes submitting audio 'soundfiles' for fingerprinting systems so that uses across radio, TV, and online platforms can be automatically detected.

• Buma (Bureau voor Muziek-Auteursrechten): collects for public performance — radio/TV, hospitality, cinema, live concerts
• Stemra (Stichting tot Exploitatie van Mechanische Reproductie-rechten voor Auteurs): collects for mechanical reproductions — syncs, downloads, streams, CDs

💶 Royalty Distribution: The 1/3–1/3–1/3 Model

In the Netherlands, Buma/Stemra uses a standardised split for CMO-collected royalties:

1/3

Composer

1/3

Lyricist

1/3

Publisher

If a work has multiple composers or lyricists, shares are divided pro-rata. For international sub-publishing, the split is typically 50/50 between the original publisher and the sub-publisher.

📊 Income Tracking & Royalty Statements

The publisher receives CMO statements multiple times per year (following the CMO's annual distribution schedule). The back-office:

• Checks all statements for accuracy (income tracking)
• Claims any missing payments (na-incasso)
• Passes the author's share to the composer via half-yearly statements
• Also collects directly — for sync licences, sheet music sales, and sub-publisher income

What is 'Fingerprinting'?

When you register a work, the publisher submits an audio file alongside the metadata. CMOs use this to 'fingerprint' the recording — creating a unique sonic signature. Automated monitoring systems scan broadcast and online content, matching it against these fingerprints to detect uses and trigger royalty payments. This is why submitting a clear, complete audio file with every registration matters.

The Front-Office: Creative Publisher

The front-office is the heart of a music publisher — where new talent is discovered and existing catalogues are actively exploited. The front-office typically consists of three areas: management, creative/A&R, and the sync department.

🎯 Creative Managers (A&R)

In publishing, the term 'A&R' (Artists & Repertoire — borrowed from record labels) refers to creative managers who discover, develop, and guide authors. They:

• Maintain daily contact with their authors, advising on works and career moves
• Scout new talent at studios, concerts, festivals, academies, and talent competitions
• Arrange co-writes — pairing composers with lyricists or other composers to develop new works
• Organise (Song)Writer Camps — intensive group writing sessions with a specific commercial goal

🎤 Song Pitching

Once a work exists, the publisher actively seeks markets for it. Common pitching targets include:

• Performing artists looking for new repertoire (direct or via their management/label)
• Record labels interested in releasing the work
• Advertising agencies — for use in commercials (synchronisation)
• Film and TV production companies

🎬 Synchronisation (Sync)

Sync refers to music placed 'under image' — used in audiovisual productions such as commercials, films, TV series, and online video. Sync is one of the highest-value revenue streams in publishing. Every sync requires:

Clearance — explicit permission from the rightsholder (author + publisher)
Sync fee — paid for the licence, determined by: song fame, licence duration, clip length, number of countries, media type (TV/Cinema/Online), and usage context

Note: If using the original recording, the user must also clear the 'master' with the record label in addition to the publishing rights. Using a new ('cover') recording only requires publishing clearance.

🎵 Production Music / Library Music

Production music (also called library music or stock music) is music composed specifically for use in audiovisual productions. Its most common use is in commercials — think of the upbeat instrumental track behind a car advertisement, the warm acoustic guitar under a food brand's TV spot, or the dramatic build-up in a cinema trailer. An advertising agency needs a ready-made track today, not a six-week negotiation to licence a pop hit — so they turn to production music libraries. Unlike hit repertoire:

• All rights are pre-cleared — available immediately with no negotiation delay
• Works are often owned directly by the publisher
• Sync fees are much lower than for hit repertoire — but use volume is far higher
• Publishers maintain searchable online databases (filtered by mood, tempo, genre)

⚠️ Beware of so-called 'royalty-free' music services (e.g. Epidemic Sound). No music is truly 'rights-free'. These platforms simply operate outside collective CMO systems — meaning you lose CMO protection. Consider carefully before signing with such services.

🔊 Sampling: Clearance is Mandatory

Using elements from existing songs in a new work (sampling) always requires prior clearance — from both the publisher (for the composition) and the record label (for the master recording). Failure to clear a sample before release can result in losing 100% of your copyright and significant legal costs. Always start the clearance process well in advance.

The Publisher's Core Value

In general, the publisher keeps the author 'shielded from business matters' — so the author can focus on what they do best: writing music. The publisher handles the rest.

Types of Publishing Rights

One of the things that surprises many composers is how many different types of rights exist — and how each one generates income through a different mechanism. Your publisher manages all of these:

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Print Rights

The right to publish and sell printed copies of the score — both traditional offset-printed editions and print-on-demand (POD) digital files. Publishers typically pay composers 10–15% of the retail price per copy sold. Contemporary scores increasingly use POD to eliminate warehousing costs while maintaining permanent availability.

💡 When a conductor in Tokyo orders your score tonight, it can be printed and shipped within 24 hours.

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Rental Rights

For large-scale works, orchestras rent rather than buy parts. The performing organisation pays a rental fee per performance. This gives the publisher ongoing control — ensuring scores are returned and every performance is tracked for CMO purposes.

💡 Rental fees for major orchestral works at prestigious venues can be substantial — often the primary publisher revenue stream for large-scale works.

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Sync Rights

Licences for music under audiovisual image. These require individual negotiation and explicit clearance. Sync fees for well-known songs used in major international campaigns can reach thousands to tens of thousands of euros per placement.

💡 A single placement in a major TV campaign can be worth more than years of ordinary performance royalties.

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Mechanical Rights

Income from recordings: CDs, downloads, and streaming (partially). In the Netherlands, Stemra handles mechanical rights for CMO members. For direct licensing (film scores, advertisements), the publisher negotiates directly.

💡 Buma and Stemra have a specific split for online streaming income — neither handles it entirely; they divide it between performance and mechanical components.

Donemus: A Publisher Built for Dutch Composers

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About Donemus Publishing

Founded 1947 · Amsterdam, Netherlands · 15,000+ works in catalogue

Donemus is the leading Dutch publisher specialising exclusively in contemporary classical music. Founded in 1947, it has grown into a complete publishing and distribution infrastructure serving composers at every career stage.

MyDonemus Platform for Composers

✓ Upload and manage your scores online
✓ Real-time overview of your royalties and statements
✓ Submit recordings for global digital distribution
✓ Share upcoming concerts and events for promotion
✓ Create and maintain your public composer profile
✓ Track which works are being rented or downloaded

Donemus Distribution Network

✓ Global print-on-demand score distribution
✓ Digital distribution to 40+ streaming services
✓ International sub-publisher partnerships
✓ Direct relationships with concert halls and orchestras worldwide
✓ Online webshop: webshop.donemus.com
✓ IAMIC network (International Music Information Centres)

How to Get Published by Donemus

Donemus reviews submissions from Dutch composers and composers with strong professional connections to the Dutch new music scene. Upon acceptance, a General Agreement is signed. Critically: you retain ownership of your copyright. Donemus acts as your exclusive agent — managing works professionally — but copyright remains yours.

Comparing Publisher Types

Type	Examples	Pros	Cons
Major Classical Publishers	Boosey & Hawkes, Schott, Universal Edition, Peters Edition	Global reach, large marketing resources, international catalogue, prestige	Extremely selective; tend to prioritise established composers; less personal attention
Mid-Size National Specialists	Donemus (NL), Faber Music (UK), Durand (FR)	Deep specialist knowledge, personal relationships, quality-driven, strong regional networks	Smaller marketing budgets than the major houses; may have more regional than global reach
Self-Publishing	ArrangeMe, MuseScore, personal websites, Bandcamp	Keep 100% of rights; full creative and commercial control; direct revenue from sales	No marketing support; limited distribution infrastructure; you handle all administration yourself
Digital-First Publishers	Shar Music, Hal Leonard Digital, Sheet Music Plus	Fast market entry; global digital distribution; straightforward process	Generally less focus on contemporary classical works; limited personal service

Self-Publishing: A Hybrid Approach

Working with a publisher is not mandatory — some authors succeed independently. A practical middle ground: work with a publisher for major works while self-publishing smaller pieces or educational material. Discuss this openly with any potential publisher from the start. As your career grows, publisher support becomes increasingly valuable for international exploitation, sync opportunities, and income tracking across multiple territories.