What Is the Difference Between a Record Company and a Music Publisher?

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Music publishers and record companies play very different roles in the music industry, even though both help artists and songwriters earn money from their work.

Music Publishers

• Work with songwriters and composers

• Focus on the composition (the lyrics and melody)

• Collect and manage publishing royalties when a song is used, performed, or recorded by someone else

Record Companies

• Work with recording artists

• Focus on the master recordings (the actual sound recordings of songs)

• Collect and manage royalties from sales and streams of those recordings

Not all songwriters are recording artists, and not all recording artists write their own songs. Because of this, publishing royalties and master recording royalties are collected separately.

For Example,

Bruno Mars co-writes many of his own songs but also writes for other artists, like Natasha Bedingfield. He earns publishing royalties for the songs he writes (even if he doesn’t record them himself) and recording royalties for the songs he performs and releases.

Some of his co-writers, like Ari Levine, may not record music themselves, so their income comes entirely from publishing royalties.