The Manager's Playbook The Manager’s Playbook 056: Jacob Paul - Music Publishing 101, Master vs Publishing, Mechanical Royalties, Global Royalties, Black Box Royalties & Catalog Ownership
You can build a monster Spotify audience and still collect $0 in music publishing royalties. No warning. No system message that says, “Hey, you’re leaving money behind.” That’s because publishing isn’t an automatic payout. In the music industry, master recording royalties tend to flow through distribution, but songwriter royalties only show up when the right song registrations, splits, and publishing administration systems are in place.
On this episode of The Manager’s Playbook, I’m joined by Jacob Paul (Kobalt & KOSIGN) for a straight-up Music Publishing 101 conversation for independent artists, producers, songwriters, and the managers trying to build real teams, real systems, and real financial stability. We break down master vs publishing (two copyrights, two paycheques), how performance royalties and mechanical royalties actually work in the streaming era, and why “I registered with a performing rights organization” is a starting line, not the finish line, especially when your audience goes global and international royalties enter the chat.
We also talk about the “black box;”how unclaimed royalties can become unallocated publishing royalties if metadata is wrong or registrations are late, and why moving fast matters if you want your catalog to compound like an asset instead of leaking quietly for years. If you care about artist development, music business strategy, royalty collection, publishing deals, co-publishing vs administration deals, and building an independent career that actually pays, this is the episode.
Simply put, a conversation like this doesn't come cheap.
If you’re earning publishing income, make sure you’re collecting all of it.KOSIGN, powered by Kobalt, offers direct global publishing collections and real-time royalty transparency in a flexible, artist-friendly format. It’s highly selective, but free to apply here: https://bit.ly/4b438pj
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@managersplaybook
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