How To Get Your Music Published

Getting your music published is usually one of the first goals an artist looks to accomplish in a developing music career. However, lots of up and coming musicians are lost in the dark when it comes to understanding how to get their music, instrumentals and beats published. What we decided to do for those who are in need of this information, is layout the basics of getting your music published in today’s music industry.

First and foremost, you will need actual recorded music to make this whole thing possible, so if you’re not at that stage in your career, that’s going to be the first thing you need to complete. Once you have recorded music the next logical step is making sure those recordings are protected from copyright infringements by registering them with the library of congress. This step protects your recordings for basically your entire life plus 70 years, so make sure you don’t miss this step.

Once you have your music, instrumentals and beats protected by the library of congress, you’ll want to then create a spreadsheet where you can add in all of the music publishers that you’re going to be researching. Once you have the spreadsheet created, the next step is going to be researching music publishers who work with your style of music, instrumentals and beats. When researching publishers for your music it’s important to note things like non exclusive or exclusive deals that they offer to their artist. This is a very important step that you don’t want to miss because it can possibly have a major effect on what you would like to do with your music in the future. Ideally, finding more non-exclusive deals is the best possible option for most new independent artists.

When you have your spreadsheet filled up with at least 100 music publishers, you’ll need to create an email template that you can send to all the companies listed on your sheet. Make sure the first email you send is somewhat short and to the point. All you should try to accomplish on your first email is permission to send another email with an MP3 attached or a link to your music for them to consider for their roster addition. As you start getting responses back, make sure you’re noting them on your spreadsheet and also responding back with all of the information that they are asking you for. In some cases, they’re going to request you send them a physical CD. If you have one, send it. If you don’t, just be honest and let them know that you only have digital recordings of the songs that they’re requesting, however you have no problem getting them on a physical CD if needed.

One thing to keep in mind is that as long as the music publishing deals you’re signing are non-exclusive, you can always look for and work with more publishers for those same songs. However, if the deal is exclusive, it’s going to be a guarantee that the publisher you signed the contract with is going to be the only one who can work with the songs that you signed with them.

Once you get this down, the only thing left is to repeat this process over and over as often as possible. Like most things, with more people out there that are working your songs the more likely you’re going to start getting placements on a consistent basis.
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