Do you want to work in the music industry and become a music publisher? Here is all the information you need to pursue this career:
What are the duties of a music publisher?
Originally, the job consisted of editing, printing and selling sheet music; today the publisher is sometimes nicknamed "the banker of music", in the sense that their mission is notably to discover and invest in new creations by talented artists, in order to develop the catalogs of works they administer and market.
Thus, they oversee the registration and protection of works, and the collection and redistribution of royalty payments. More broadly, they are a true partner and point of contact for artists and their managers, defining with them their creation and exploitation strategy.
What Skills Are Required to Become a Music Publisher?
The publisher must have a good musical background in all styles in order to identify the potential of the works presented to them and sharpen their instinct for determining the editorial strategy. They must therefore have a sense of marketing and rights commercialization. A good command of intellectual property law is necessary, and reading sheet music is a real plus.
What Program Should You Take to Become a Music Publisher?
2 programs offered by IESA arts&culture give you access to the Manager profession:
- Master in Music ManagementAdmission after Bac+3
- Contemporary Music Production ManagerAdmission based on professional experience
What type of company hires a music publisher?
Publishers are employed by music publishing companies of varying sizes: while most are very small businesses, some large companies have more than a hundred employees.
What career progression is there for a music publisher?
Juniors start as assistant publishers and handle rights administration, then may move into a catalog manager position, and later take on artistic recruitment responsibilities; they are then often called A&R director, that is, "Artists and Repertoire".
What Is the Salary of a Music Publisher?
A publisher’s salary varies widely: it generally starts at minimum wage and can rise quickly if they end up managing catalogs of titles whose success they build. A music publisher can thus earn a very high salary, made up of a variable portion corresponding to the new exploitation they have helped generate.