A music publisher is your royalty collector and your copyright administrator. A publisher exploits your copyrights and collects and pays all your royalties (except for performance income). It does this by obtaining ownership and administrative rights to some or all of your copyrights. Thus, a music publisher is basically a company that takes care of your music business, allowing you (the song writer/artist) to concentrate on your creative aspirations and goals. The artist’s strength generally lie in the creative domain, and the publisher’s specializes is administrating your catalouge, collecting royalty monies, plugging your songs, making copyright deals and paying you your royalties from all sources of income.
(Reprinted with permission from Ruben Salazar, Esq. )