Outcome. Name the five functions of a publisher and decide which of them you currently perform yourself.

A publisher has five functions: acquisition, administration, exploitation, collection and protection. Every one of those happens for your songs whether or not you have a publisher. The only question is who is doing it.

In a traditional deal the publisher advances money against future royalties and you assign a share of the copyright, traditionally fifty percent, sometimes less. The publisher earns a portion of the royalties in return.

Three majors, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell and Universal Music Publishing Group, control well over half the market. Below them sit midsize publishers like Kobalt and BMG, and thousands of small publishers including songwriters who publish themselves.

Once several songwriters with several publishers are on one song, deciding the splits stops being arithmetic and starts being negotiation. That is why the split sheet module exists.

What you will produce

A written answer, function by function, naming who performs each of the five for your catalog today.