During the early years of the music industry, the most popular way of getting a new song to the public involved printing sheet music of the tune and selling it. The publishing industry in today's music business, however, involves itself with more than just making printed copies available. Music publishing today involves getting a songwriter's material to the public at large in as many ways possible, such as being recorded on CDs; used in TV, film projects and commercials; and placed as background music in video games.

When a songwriter composes a tune, the process to make it into a commercial product usually starts with the music publisher. According to US copyright law, a composer of an "original work of art" enjoys immediate protection of the piece once it has been created. That protection has 5 exclusive rights to it: the right to reproduce the work; the right to distribute the work; the right to make derivatives based on the work; the right to perform the work publicly; and the right to display the work. The only exception to this is when the work of art has come about as a "work for hire".

A "work for hire" is when someone has commissioned someone else to create a work of art on their behalf. The work of art then becomes the property of the person commissioning it. For example, when a candy company hires an ad agency to create cartoon characters to help promote a new line of candy bars, those characters become the property of the candy company and not the agency since the agency was hired under a "work for hire" situation. The candy company is now recognized legally as the owner of the work, although it did not create the characters.

Once a song has been written and a songwriter decides to become involved with one of the many publishers in the industry, the writer must assign some of his exclusive rights to a publisher so as to allow that publisher the right to exploit it. One of the first two rights assigned to a publisher is the right to make copies of the song and to distribute it. These, obviously, are so that the publisher can send copies of the tunes to record companies with the hope that one of the artists connected to the label would possibly record it. If a deal is reached with the record label, the song becomes a recorded product and the publisher and writer split the money received by the record label--called "mechanicals"-- usually in an equitable sharing of 50/50. Mechanical fees are also collected from every other label that "covers" or re-records the tune, which makes every song recorded today a potential goldmine due to all the different recordings that can come out of one song.

A music publisher will also approach TV and film companies about including their songwriter's material in a TV program or movie that is currently under production. In order to have a songwriter's material used in a movie or TV show, the publisher must have the writer assign to it another set of rights beyond those covered under copyright law: synchronization rights. Synchronization rights derive their name from the process of combining moving images with recorded sound, and having the two synchronized in time together so that the sound matches the picture perfectly.

The term itself comes from the early days of the movie industry when "talkies" or sound movies were beginning to displace the silent features of the day. Since the moving picture was recorded separately from the sound, a process was devised so as to allow a seamless integration of the two. When music began to be used in movies, film producers had to get permission from the music publishers who held the copyright to that music. This permission was called a "synchronization license" since it gave the film producers the right to merge the music with the film. In any visual presentation--TV, CD-ROMs, the internet, etc.--a synchronization license is needed before music can be legally used.

In addition, a synchronization license--unlike the mechanical license which has a rate set by law-- is negotiated for whatever price the market will bear, meaning that the publisher can charge one TV producer of a low rated program $500 dollar for the right to use a song, but charge the makers of a big-budget blockbuster film $500,000 for the exact same song. As with mechanical fees, the publisher and the songwriter usually split the proceeds from synchronization licenses 50/50.

Although music publishing garners the majority of its revenue from the record industry, there is still a very viable market for sheet music. Sheet music of a song is usually sold after a song has reached a certain position on the sales charts such as the top 40 or better. Sheet music is usually sold in music retail stores that cater to the amateur musician, the semi-pro, and even the professional who desire transcriptions of the latest and most popular tunes. Sheet music of popular tunes is also included when new instruments are bought by consumers, usually in an easy-to-read version to get the aspiring musician started. Professionals also use sheet music to get the exact arrangements of a tune to be performed, eliminating the need for them to try and decipher the chord and tonal structure themselves. Sheet music revenue is also shared equally by the publisher and songwriter.

To further understand how, when, and why a publisher operates, please contact ASCAP (www.ascap.com), BMI (www.BMI.com), or SESAC (www.sesac.com), three of the major performing rights organizations (PROs) that handle many affairs involving music publishers. The National Music Publisher's Association (NMPA), an organization which advocates on behalf of its member publishers, is also a good source of information. This organization is also involved with the Harry Fox Agency, the agency which collects and distributes the mechanical fees from record labels that reproduce members' music.