Glossary · Publishing
Catalog
A catalog is the body of songs or recordings a person or company owns. In publishing it means the compositions; on the recording side it means the masters. Catalogs generate income indefinitely and can be sold, valued as a multiple of annual earnings.
A catalog is an asset, and thinking of it that way changes how you treat registrations. Every composition you write and every master you own keeps earning as long as it is used and as long as it is correctly registered. A song written in 2016 that gets placed in a show in 2030 pays on 2030's usage. The catalog is the thing that accumulates while individual releases come and go.
Catalogs are bought and sold, and the pricing convention is a multiple of net publisher's share or annual net earnings — the buyer is purchasing a stream of future royalties and paying some number of years' worth up front. Independent artists rarely sell catalogs, but the same logic drives distributor advances and royalty-funding offers, which are catalog purchases in miniature.
The practical consequence for an independent artist is unglamorous: catalog value is destroyed by bad data far more often than by bad music. A composition with no ISWC, no MLC registration and no PRO filing earns nothing no matter how much it is played, and it is worth nothing to a buyer because nothing can be verified. A recording with a mistyped ISRC accumulates plays against a work nobody can trace.
The misunderstanding is treating the catalog as history. It is inventory. Every few months it is worth opening The MLC's public search and your PRO's repertory search and checking that the older material is still attached to you, particularly anything released before you understood the registration side. I found gaps five years back doing exactly that.
Artist's view of an asset most of us underestimate — not financial advice.
Related terms
- Music publisherA music publisher is a company that owns or controls copyright shares in musical compositions and exploits them — registering…
- AdvanceAn advance is money paid to an artist or songwriter up front against royalties they are expected to earn later.
- Sound recordingA sound recording is the fixed capture of a performance — the master — protected as its own copyright separate from the…
- Musical compositionA musical composition is the song itself — the melody, harmony, structure and lyrics — protected as its own copyright separate…
Answers that use this term
- What Music Platforms Actually Pay Per Play — 42 Million Plays of My Own Royalty DataAcross seven years, 45,894 royalty lines and 41.98 million plays of my own catalog, the spread between platforms is far wider…
- DistroKid vs TuneCore vs CD Baby: The Real Five-Year CostDistroKid Musician and TuneCore Rising Artist both cost $24.99 a year for unlimited releases and take no commission.
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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