Glossary · Publishing
Songtrust
Songtrust is a global publishing administration service for songwriters. It registers compositions with collection societies worldwide, collects publishing royalties, and remits them for a commission, without taking ownership of the songs.
Songtrust is the best known of the self-serve publishing administrators. A songwriter signs up, adds their compositions with writers and splits, and Songtrust registers those works with collection societies across many territories, links to the writer's PRO, and collects publishing income that would otherwise require a network of relationships to reach. Songtrust charges a signup fee and a percentage commission on what it collects; check songtrust.com for current figures before signing up, since they change.
Songtrust does not take ownership of your compositions. That is the defining line between an administrator and a publisher. You keep the copyright; Songtrust collects and takes a cut of what arrives.
Where Songtrust earns its commission is outside the United States. Domestically, an independent songwriter can already reach nearly everything for very little: The MLC is free and takes no commission on US digital mechanicals, and ASCAP or BMI pays performance royalties once you hold both a writer and a publisher account. Foreign societies are the part that is genuinely hard to reach alone, and that is what an administrator's sub-publishing network provides.
Songtrust also maintains a widely referenced music publishing glossary and a collection society database, which are useful independent of whether you use the service.
The misunderstanding: signing up with Songtrust does not remove the need to be affiliated with a PRO as a songwriter, and it does not automatically undo a direct MLC registration you already made. If you use an administrator, make sure only one entity is claiming each work at The MLC — duplicate or conflicting claims are a common cause of frozen, unmatched royalties.
Practitioner notes; verify Songtrust's current fees and terms yourself before committing.
Related terms
- Publishing administratorA publishing administrator collects a songwriter's publishing royalties worldwide for a commission without taking ownership of…
- Music publisherA music publisher is a company that owns or controls copyright shares in musical compositions and exploits them — registering…
- Sub-publisherA sub-publisher is a publishing company that represents another publisher's catalogue in a specific foreign territory…
- The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective)The MLC is the non-profit organisation designated under the Music Modernization Act to administer the United States blanket…
Answers that use this term
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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