Anyone ever started a music publishing company?

[Bilbo]

Just curious whether anyone has ever started a music publishing company to protect their own compositions. Several of us are posting our own stuff here without protection (I don't care now but what if....) and it occured to me that setting up ones own company could be a way of protecting our interests.

Has anyone ever gone down this route or know of any resource that tells you how to do it?

[flyfisher]

Doesn't putting original stuff online actually help protect the author?

I realise it won't stop anyone pinching the stuff, but if it suddenly became huge then the original writer would be able to more easily prove their ownership than if they had only ever played it down the pub and someone had pinched the idea from there instead.

After all, isn't copyright protection completely automatic? You don't have to 'claim' copyright on original works, but of course you do need to be able to prove it somehow if there was ever a dispute.

Or have I got this all wrong?

[Bilbo]

I kinda knew that but was wondering where this leads if you want something more formal?

[flyfisher]

I've heard of people posting stuff to themselves and keeping the postmarked envelope sealed, presumably to be opened in the presence of legal witnesses should the need ever arise.

But for really formal protection I'd guess it's best to take formal legal/IPR advice.

Incidentally, I've also read about crowdsourcing being used to try to uncover previously unknown prior art, which can then be used to dispute issued patents. The world of IPR is a minefield - a nice little earner for the professionals involved but a nightmare for the creatives. No wonder many tech companies woudl rather spend money on continual innovation to stay ahead of the competition rather than disclose all their secrets in a patent and rely on the courts for financial protection, which can cost more than it's worth.

Just found this example of this sort of thing: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/10/07/revolutionizing-prior-art-research-how-crowdsourcing-could-save-the-angry-birds/id=19588/

There's also increasing support for 'first-to-file' IP protection, so potentially someone could steal IP and then get it protected in their name!
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/20/will-first-to-file-hurt-small-inventors/

[Big_Stu]

I'm no IT expert so couldn't tell you if it's possible to modify a digital file's creation date but I would have thought that was a way of possibly proving who made what first.
It worked for me once when proving ownership of a design that I made a few years ago - but that was then & it was only the once.

[BigRedX]

I would suppose that starting a music publishing company is as simple as starting any other small business. You then register your publishing company with the PRS and MCPS and sign yourself to the company.

However I would question why you would want to do that. You can register works with the PRS/MCPS without having a publishing deal simply by becoming a writer member. Bilbo, with your musical background I would imagine that you did this a long time ago. Historically music publishers existed to get writers' (who generally weren't also performers) songs out to artists who would then preform/record them which would generate royalties for the writers and publisher.

However with the rise of artist writing their own songs to perform in the 60s the role of the music publisher changed. For a lot of bands signing a publishing deal would be a springboard to getting a recording contract, but after that for a lot of writer members of bands there was little point in having a publishing contract. Unless there were other artists wanting to cover your songs, all that happened was that the publishing company took approximately a third of the performance royalties without actually doing anything.

That changed from the mid 80s onwards as pop songs started to appear in film and TV soundtracks, to the present day where pretty much any genre of music can crop up in the background of a TV soap or the latest blockbuster. I would suggest that now (for the songwriters in a band at least) a good publishing deal is probably more valuable that a recording contract. A good publisher will be working their contacts in the film and TV production companies as well as anywhere else that uses recorded music to get your songs in there.

Personally I can't see the point of starting your own music publishing company. It doesn't give your compositions any extra protection over what is already available to you a writer anyway, and unless you have a great list of up-to-date industry contacts who'll give you the time of day it won't be able to do any of the things that a "real" music publisher can.

[lowdown]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1353952816' post='1880208']
You can register works with the PRS/MCPS without having a publishing deal simply by becoming a writer member.

from the mid 80s onwards as pop songs started to appear in film and TV soundtracks, to the present day where pretty much any genre of music can crop up in the background of a TV soap or the latest blockbuster. I would suggest that now (for the songwriters in a band at least) a good publishing deal is probably more valuable that a recording contract. A good publisher will be working their contacts in the film and TV production companies as well as anywhere else that uses recorded music to get your songs in there.

Personally I can't see the point of starting your own music publishing company. It doesn't give your compositions any extra protection over what is already available to you a writer anyway, and unless you have a great list of up-to-date industry contacts who'll give you the time of day it won't be able to do any of the things that a "real" music publisher can.
[/quote]

This.

Also if you are involved with any worth while Library/Production company they would publish your material.
If you are just putting up tracks on websites and feel concerned, just join PRS/MCPS and register your tracks.

Garry