Five Must Read Books on Music Publishing

The Musicians Guide to World Domination contains a good overview on music publishing and how to earn royalties from having your music featured in films, adverts and games, but there are many advanced books on music publishing that I recommend to musicians who are serious about getting involved in music publishing (and getting ahead of other musicians!)

Here are five of my favourites that I recommend.

Music Publishing: The Real Road to Music Business Success

Buy now from Amazon

This book is my favourite on music publishing – it contains lots of really great information on the publishing industry, copyrights, licensing, marketing, contracts and how to run a publishing business. I recommend this book for anyone who has already read a basic guide on music publishing OR is looking to gain a very comprehensive understanding on music publishing.

Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing

Buy now from Amazon

This one is a nice overview or starting point if you’re new to music publishing – it goes through all the different types of copyright laws and royalties and explains the process of how musicians get paid when their music is used by a third party.

New Songwriters Guide to Music Publishing

Buy now from Amazon

Although this one was written in 2006 it contains some great do’s and dont’s to help you get involved in music publishing and working with music publishers without stumbling over many of the usual road blocks.

Music Publishing

Buy now from Amazon

This book is goes into a good depth of detail about the different kinds of licence deals and revenue streams that a composer can make, as well as a very good overview on the different copyright laws and royalty types.

Making Music Make Money

Buy now from Amazon

This book contains a lot of actionable approaches to monetize a music career and as you might expect, a lot of those approaches involve music publishing. Although not strictly a guide on music publishing, it does contain more examples of what you can do to earn a living from your music than some of the other books in this post.

For a list of more books that I recommend musicians reading check out this page of recommend books for musicians.

Image Credit: Patrick Gage

Tags:Music Business Books, Music Industry Books