Blog··9 min read·By Nitzan Gribetz
Music Publishing Deal Types: What You Give Up
A music publishing deal is one of three things: an admin deal, a co-publishing deal, or a full deal. What each takes, what you keep, and how to read the term.
A music publishing deal is one of three things, and the three are not variations on a theme. An administration deal takes no ownership and charges a fee on the money it collects, commonly 10 to 25%. A co-publishing deal takes half the publisher's share, which leaves you roughly 75 cents of every dollar the song earns. A full publishing deal takes the publisher's share outright and leaves you the writer's half. Everything else in the contract is detail on top of that one choice: how much of the copyright leaves your hands, and for how long it stays gone.
The percentage is the number every writer compares and the one that matters least. Two deals at identical splits can end up five figures apart because one stops collecting when the term closes and the other keeps collecting for decades. Here is how to read all three.
The three structures, side by side
| Administration deal | Co-publishing deal | Full publishing deal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the copyright | You, entirely | You and the publisher, split | The publisher holds the publisher's share |
| What you keep per dollar | 100% less the fee on collections | About 75 cents | About 50 cents, before any negotiated rate |
| Typical fee or split | 10 to 25% of what is collected | Publisher keeps 25% of all income | Publisher keeps the publisher's half |
| Advance | Usually none | Usually yes, recoupable | Usually yes, larger, recoupable |
| Creative services | Rarely | Expected | Expected |
| Term | 1 to 3 years, often rolling | 1 to 3 years plus options | Longer, plus options |
| Collection after the term | Ends at a defined cutoff | Often continues for years | Often for the life of the copyright |
The structural numbers are long-settled rather than new. ASCAP's own career guidance, written by a working publisher, has described the same two mainstream shapes since 2013: administration at roughly 10 to 15% on domestic income and 15 to 20% on foreign, and co-publishing at an assignment of half your publishing. Treat those as the shape of the market, not as this week's rate card, and get the actual figures from the actual contract.
The arithmetic, in cents
US publishing income is conventionally cut in half. One half is the writer's share and the other is the publisher's share, and those are two routes for payment rather than two pieces of ownership, which is the single thing most writers have backwards. The difference between the publisher's share and the writer's share is worth ten minutes before you read any offer, because every percentage you are quoted is a percentage of one half, not of the song.
Work a dollar through each deal:
- Administration deal. You keep both halves and pay a fee on what the administrator recovers. At 15% of performance income you keep about 92.5 cents of a performance dollar, because the fee lands on the publisher's half only.
- Co-publishing deal. You keep your 50-cent writer's share in full, plus half of the 50-cent publisher's share. That is 75 cents, and the publisher takes 25. Michael Eames put it bluntly in that ASCAP piece: a co-publishing deal is "essentially a bank loan with 25% interest."
- Full publishing deal. The publisher's half goes to the publisher, and you keep the writer's half. Whether you see any of the other half back depends entirely on a royalty rate negotiated in the contract, which is where a "full deal" can quietly become better or worse than the headline.
The asymmetry nobody mentions is between performance income and mechanicals. Your PRO pays the writer's share directly to you, so a publishing grant touches performance money on one side only. Mechanicals have no such protection: The MLC does not split writer and publisher shares at all, so whoever is named as publisher on the work receives the whole mechanical and owes you your cut by contract rather than by society rule. For a catalog living on streaming, that is the half of the deal worth re-reading.
The number that actually decides the deal
Term and retention are two different clauses and they are routinely confused. The term is how long the company signs new songs. The retention period is how long it keeps collecting on songs already signed after the term ends.
An administration deal typically runs a defined collection window after the term closes, often twelve months, and then stops. A co-publishing or full deal often does not stop, and the reason is simple: the company bought a piece of the copyright, and a piece of a copyright does not expire because a contract did. Plenty of co-publishing agreements retain for the life of the copyright, which for a song written today means roughly the rest of your life plus 70 years.
This is what a sunset clause is for, and it is the clause to negotiate hardest. A sunset steps the company's share down over a few years after the term and then stops it. Without one, you are not signing a three-year deal. You are signing a permanent one with a three-year signing window, and the brochure will still call it three years.
Our view, and we will be straight that we sell one of these three products: an advance is the only good reason to hand over publishing. The advance is real money today against royalties you have not earned, and for a writer who needs to quit a day job to finish a record, that trade can be worth 25 cents on the dollar for a long time. What is not worth it is signing a co-publishing deal with no advance, no sync team actually pitching you and no sunset, because that is an administration deal with a worse exit and a longer memory. If a company wants a piece of the copyright, it should be paying for the piece.
Advances are loans, and the interest is the split
An advance is recoupable. You receive money now, and the company keeps your royalties until the advance is paid back out of your share. Nothing arrives in your bank account in between.
Two clauses change how long "in between" lasts:
- Cross-collateralization. This lets the company recoup one advance out of income from a different agreement or a later option period. One unrecouped advance can then hold up money from songs that had nothing to do with it.
- Minimum delivery commitment. Most co-publishing deals require a minimum number of fully-written songs per contract year, and a co-write counts only in the share you retain. Two 50% co-writes make one song. Miss the commitment and the company usually will not exercise its option, which sounds like freedom and is not: you stay inside the current contract year until the commitment is met.
Neither is unusual. Both are negotiable, and neither will be explained to you unprompted.
The 35-year escape hatch
Here is the part that almost never appears on a page about publishing deals, and it is the most valuable thing in this one if you have already signed something you regret.
US copyright law lets authors take grants back. Under 17 U.S.C. 203, a grant of copyright "executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, otherwise than by will" may be terminated "at any time during a period of five years beginning at the end of thirty-five years from the date of execution of the grant." Where the grant covers the right of publication, the window instead opens 35 years after publication under the grant or 40 years after signing, whichever comes first. Termination runs by written notice served on the company "not less than two or more than ten years" before the date you want it to bite.
Three honest caveats. It does not reach a work made for hire. It covers the US only, so foreign rights keep running under the contract. And the filing mechanics are strict enough that this is a job for a music lawyer, not a weekend. But it is a right the contract cannot sign away, and knowing a deal has a floor under it changes how a 35-year-old grant reads.
Which one fits
| Where you are | The deal that fits |
|---|---|
| Royalties exist and are not reaching you | Administration |
| You want ownership untouched and a short exit | Administration |
| You need cash now and have leverage to price it | Co-publishing, with a sunset |
| You want a team pitching your songs for sync | Co-publishing or full, and check that the team is real |
| A company offers a piece of the song and no advance | None of them |
| You are being offered a catalog sale | A different conversation, and a tax adviser |
If you are still deciding whether you need a publisher at all rather than which deal to take, the honest answer to that question is a better place to start, and what publishing administration actually covers sets out what the cheapest of the three deals does and does not include.
How Davincii fits
We sell an administration deal, so read this section knowing that. Our terms are 15% of performance royalties and 20% of mechanicals, taken only from money we actually recover, with nothing upfront. The grant is non-exclusive and limited to the songs you submit, you keep 100% of the copyright, and collection stops at a firm cutoff after you leave rather than running on against residual income. The pricing page has the rest, and the glossary covers the vocabulary any offer you receive will assume you already know.
What we do not do is pitch your songs to music supervisors or write you an advance. If those are what you need, an administration deal is the wrong product and you should take the meeting with the co-publisher. Just read the retention clause before you sign it, and price the piece of your song they are asking for.
Whichever of the three you choose, the sequence is the same: get the works registered, then negotiate. Unregistered songs earn nothing to split, and no deal structure fixes a catalog that was never filed.
Common questions
What are the three types of music publishing deal?
An administration deal, a co-publishing deal and a full publishing deal. An administration deal takes no ownership: the company registers and collects your songs for a fee on what it recovers, commonly 10 to 25%. A co-publishing deal takes half the publisher's share, so you keep your full writer's share plus a quarter of the song, about 75 cents of every dollar. A full publishing deal takes the publisher's share outright and leaves you the writer's half. A catalog sale is a fourth thing and not really a deal: you sell the income stream rather than licensing it, and what you stop earning depends on which shares you sold.
What do you keep in a co-publishing deal?
About 75 cents of every dollar the song earns. US publishing income is conventionally halved into a writer's share and a publisher's share. In a standard co-publishing deal you keep your whole writer's share, which is 50 cents, and assign half the publisher's share, which leaves you 25 cents of the other half. The publisher takes the remaining 25 cents, and keeps taking it for as long as the retention period runs.
Is an admin deal better than a co-publishing deal?
It is cheaper and shorter, and it leaves your copyright alone, so it is the better deal if what you need is collection. A co-publishing deal is worth considering when the company is paying you an advance you could not raise otherwise, or opening doors you cannot open yourself. If no money changes hands and nobody is pitching your songs, a co-publishing deal is an administration deal with a worse exit.
How long does a music publishing deal last?
Two numbers decide that, and only one of them is the term. The term is how long the company signs new songs, often one to three years with options to extend. The retention period is how long it keeps collecting on songs already signed after the term ends, and it can run for years or for the life of the copyright. An administration deal usually ends collection shortly after the term closes. A full or co-publishing deal often does not.
Can you get out of a publishing deal you already signed?
Sometimes, and US copyright law gives authors one route that no contract can waive. Under 17 U.S.C. 203, a grant of copyright executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978 can be terminated during a five-year window that begins 35 years after the grant was signed, by serving written notice on the grantee not less than two and not more than ten years before the date you want it to take effect. It is slow, it has strict filing mechanics and it needs a lawyer, but it exists.
Do I need a publishing deal to collect my royalties?
No. You need to be registered. The publisher's share of performance income needs a publisher named on the work, and US streaming mechanicals need a registration at The MLC, but neither requires giving up ownership. An administration deal exists precisely to supply the publisher of record without taking a piece of the song.
Nitzan Gribetz
Independent songwriter publishing administration, based in Brooklyn NY.
Related reading
Letter of Relinquishment: Leaving a Publisher
A letter of relinquishment proves your old publisher released your songs. What it must say, how to get one, and what The MLC takes instead.
What Is an IPI Number, and How Do You Find Yours?
An IPI number is the ID societies use to pay a songwriter. What it is, how to find yours at ASCAP or BMI, and the one-digit mistake that blocks payment.
Do I Need to Copyright My Song?
Do I need to copyright my song? You already own it. What Copyright Office registration buys, what it costs, and the three-month deadline.
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