Understanding publishing agreements
Molly Bales avatar
Written by Molly Bales
Updated over a week ago

When you credit a writer on a song, you can also add a publishing agreement to add more detailed information about the writer and their publishers.

Publishing agreements help you manage information related to contractual relationships between songwriters, publishers, and publishing administrators. This type of information is important to how music is registered and licensed and how royalties are paid out.

Publishing agreements are set up to be flexible and allow even the most advanced music publishers to keep catalog data up-to-date as contracts with writers and publishers change or expire.

But don't worry - if you're just looking to reference basic publishing information for yourself or the people you write with, they'll work for you too.

Anatomy of a publishing agreement

To view the details view of an agreement, first go to the Rights info tab of a song project. Click the down arrow below the writer's name to show the agreements associated with that writer. Then click the Details icon of the agreement you'd like to view:

You will then see three sections: Details & Publishers, Song List, and Settings.

Agreement Details & Publishers

This section gives an overview, including information like the date range under which this agreement is active, the writer's legal name, their Custom ID, their IPI, their PRO affiliation, and a description of the agreement.

Note: If there are publishers or administrators associated with an agreement they will be listed here.

Song List

The song list lets you know which songs within your catalog use this particular agreement. This is useful if a writer has multiple agreements and you're trying to track down the songs that use a specific agreement (perhaps a Schedule A, a contract option, etc.).

Settings

Agreement settings let you know who has ownership of or edit access to the agreement.

To learn how to add a new publishing agreement, click here.

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