Every time your music is streamed, performed, or placed in a film, it generates publishing income. Most artists aren't collecting all of it. Here's why that matters — and what you can do about it.
Every time your song is streamed, it generates royalties for two separate copyrights: the master recording and the composition. Your distributor handles the master. But who's handling the publishing?
That $1,000 doesn't sound like a lot — until you realize it's generated every million streams, across every song in your catalog, forever. For a writer with ten songs averaging a million streams each, that's $10,000 sitting uncollected. And that's just streaming — before you add live performance, radio, TV, and sync.
Not entirely. Your PRO collects performance royalties. But streaming generates both performance and mechanical royalties — and your PRO doesn't collect the mechanical side.
Without a publisher, you're relying on foreign collection societies — who your songs aren't even registered with — to figure out who you are, find your PRO, and send you money. It can take years. Or it may never arrive at all.
Streams happen everywhere. But collecting the publishing income from those streams across dozens of countries, each with its own collection society, is where things fall apart.
A stream generates a fraction of a cent. The publishing share is 20% of that. Then it's split between performance and mechanical. Then spread across dozens of territories. Each step creates more gaps for income to get lost.
Without a publisher, your royalties are scattered across collection societies in each country where your music was streamed — societies where your songs may not even be registered.
A good publisher centralizes your digital collection through specialist channels rather than relying on dozens of local societies to pass payments along. The result: more money, faster.
When your music is placed in a film, TV show, ad, or video game, that's a sync license. It's the fastest-growing revenue category in the music industry — and it requires a publisher.
When a film, show, or brand needs music, they don't search Spotify. They reach out to publishers and sync teams with specific briefs.
Your publisher knows your catalog and matches your tracks to opportunities. Without a publisher, your music simply isn't in the room.
A single sync placement can mean thousands upfront, plus ongoing performance royalties every time that content is broadcast. One placement can pay for years.
Publishing is complex infrastructure. A good publisher makes it invisible.
Proactively chasing conflicts, mismatches, and unclaimed income across every territory where your music is played.
Your songs registered with collection societies in 200+ territories, so royalties don't slip through the cracks.
Active pitching to music supervisors for film, TV, advertising, and gaming placements.
Clear, detailed reporting so you always know where your money is coming from and why.
Managing co-writer splits, resolving disputes, and handling sample clearances so you can focus on creating.
Partnerships with platforms like YouTube, Google, and others to reduce lost income through direct deals.
Your publishing is managed by Halo and powered by Sentric's worldwide network — giving you the best of both worlds.
At Halo, you're not one of thousands. You're one of a few.
The questions we hear most from artists and writers getting started with publishing.
Every song has two copyrights: the master recording (the actual audio file) and the composition (the lyrics, melody, and musical structure). Music publishing is the business of managing and monetizing that composition copyright. Whenever your song is streamed, played on the radio, performed live, or placed in a film or ad, the composition generates royalties — and a publisher makes sure you collect them.
Your distributor (TuneCore, DistroKid, etc.) handles the master recording side — getting your music onto streaming platforms and collecting the master royalties. But they don't touch the publishing side. Every stream generates a separate publishing royalty for the composition, and without a publisher, that money often goes uncollected. They're two different revenue streams from two different copyrights.
Partially. Your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, etc.) collects performance royalties — income generated when your song is broadcast or publicly performed. But streaming also generates mechanical royalties, and your PRO doesn't collect those. In the US, mechanical royalties from streaming are collected by the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective). Internationally, collection is even more fragmented. A publisher handles all of this for you, across every royalty type and every territory.
Mechanical royalties are paid to the songwriter whenever a composition is reproduced — whether that's a physical CD, a digital download, or a stream. Every time someone streams your song on Spotify, Apple Music, or any platform, a mechanical royalty is generated alongside the performance royalty. Without a publisher or registration with the MLC, this income often goes unclaimed.
Sync licensing is when your music is placed in visual media — films, TV shows, ads, video games, trailers. When a music supervisor needs a track, they send briefs to publishers and sync teams — not to individual artists. A publisher puts your catalog in front of these opportunities. A single placement can earn thousands upfront plus ongoing royalties.
Not with an administration deal. Under a publishing admin deal, you retain 100% ownership of your copyrights. Your publisher administers your catalog — registering your songs globally, collecting royalties, and pursuing sync opportunities — but the songs remain yours.
Once your songs are registered with collection societies worldwide, it typically takes 9–12 months before royalties begin flowing. The good news: most societies can also pay out retroactive royalties from the past 2–3 years, so income you've been missing may still be recoverable.
If you've been releasing music without a publisher, there's likely unclaimed income sitting with collection societies around the world. When you sign with a publisher, one of the first things they do is register your back catalog and begin recovering those royalties. Most societies hold unclaimed funds for 2–3 years before redistributing them.
When another artist covers your song, you earn publishing royalties — both performance and mechanical — from every stream, download, and broadcast of that cover. The artist performing the cover earns the master royalties on their recording, but the composition income always flows back to the original songwriter.
Every country has its own collection societies, and each one operates independently. Without a publisher, you're relying on dozens of foreign societies — where your songs may not even be registered — to identify your music, figure out your PRO affiliation, and route payments back to you. A publisher registers your songs directly with societies in 200+ territories and uses centralized digital collection to bypass the traditional society-to-society pipeline.
Publishing isn't optional — it's how your music earns what it's worth. Talk to us about getting set up.
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