MUSIC PUBLISHING (PART TWO): THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

In this article which is Part Two of our initial article titled Music Publishing (Part One): The Most Important Player In The Music Industry, we will highlight the various ways in which royalties can be collected.

Basically, a collection society is any organization with the sole purpose of retrieving royalties from the use, reproduction, re-broadcast, sampling and performance of registered music on behalf of the composer. These collection societies can be further broken down into:

1. Collective Management Organizations (CMOs)
2. Performing Rights Organizations (PROs)
3. Mechanical Rights Organizations (MROs)

Each of these entities is in charge of tracking and collecting publishing royalties and other types of royalties. Each country or territory can have one or more of each kind of organization and sometimes, they can be combined as one.

However, there are many different income sources that these home collection societies do not collect. We know by now that a song accrues when it gets streamed, purchased, publicly performed and broadcast. These royalties are held by the different collection societies; based on where your song is listened to or being played and they can be collected by you or anyone authorized by you.