Writers Versus Publishers

Video Transcript

"ANITONIO NEAL: Hey, this is Antonio Neal with Artistic Soul Entertainment on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're going to talk about copywriting a song and also publishing the song. Now, let's talk about the difference between a writer and a publisher, and both. Now, you're going to find out by going through these websites I talked about early, bmi.com or ascap.com, you're going to be some places on your phone. They're going to ask you if you are a writer or a publisher because why is that important? Well, this is important because of this. You could be a writer and not be a publisher, and you could be a publisher and not be a writer. And you say, "Antonio, you're confusing me, man, Come on. Slow down, bro. Help me out!" Okay, let me help you. A writer is simply that you're a person that writes the song. That's it. You wrote the song. But also, you can be the writer and the publisher meaning you own the right. It's just like your home. A person that rents a home, they aren't the publisher. So, let's just take a song, and then renting a home. If you are renting a home, you live there, right? Yeah, but you don't own the deed of the home meaning that person can come pretty much any time they want as they follow the laws of that state and ask you to move out of the house. Well, that's what a publisher is. They own that copyright. They control it. They decide where the song goes, who hears the song, who can cut the song, and they also do monetary deals that deal with the copyright of the song. So, you can be a writer and actually own that. There are publishing companies out here who actually don't write songs, but these publishing companies are set up for two things. It can be more of--what I'm saying two things that are really important. They exchange for you to signing to these companies, they pay you a salary or a draw, and they get the right to, number one, control your songs and also exploit your songs."