Publishing isn’t a problem until it’s a crisis. Here is why most artists miss the foundation until the house is already shaking.
For most artists, the first lesson in publishing isn’t a lecture: it’s a lost royalty. It isn’t a choice; it’s a missed opportunity.
Most artists do not ignore publishing because they are careless. They ignore it because no one explains it at the right time.
Publishing rarely enters the conversation when music is being created. It usually appears much later, after a song has travelled further than expected, or after money feels inconsistent, or after someone asks a question the artist cannot confidently answer.
- Who owns this?
- Who controls this?
- Who gets paid when this is used?
By the time those questions arrive, the damage is often already done.
The Early Career Blind Spot
In the early stages, focus is naturally on the visible things. Writing better songs. Recording. Releasing. Building an audience. Getting noticed. These are tangible milestones and they feel urgent.
Publishing does not feel urgent at that stage. It feels abstract. Administrative. Something to deal with later. And because nothing appears to be broken, it is easy to assume nothing is wrong.
But publishing is not a problem that announces itself early. It is a foundation that quietly decides how far your work can travel without friction.
Why Publishing Feels Invisible Until It Isn’t
Publishing sits behind the scenes. You do not hear it. You do not see it on streaming dashboards. You do not feel it when a song is released.
You feel it only when your work starts being used, presenting itself as a sudden, pressing need for an answer you do not have.
- A song gets covered.
- A track is performed live abroad.
- A reel travels faster than expected.
- A sync opportunity appears.
- A platform asks for clarity before moving forward.
That is when publishing stops being theoretical and starts being very real. Unfortunately, that is also when most artists realise they do not fully understand what they own, what they have assigned, or what they have never registered at all.
The Cost of Arriving Late
Discovering publishing late does not mean you earn zero. It means you earn unpredictably.
- Leakage: Money is generated, but it has no path back to you.
- Friction: A sync supervisor wants your song for a Netflix show, but they can’t find the split sheet. They move to the next artist.
- The Momentum Tax: You spend your “breakout year” cleaning up legal messes instead of writing your next hit.
In many cases, the music is doing its job. The system around it is not. This is where careers quietly lose momentum. Not because of talent. Not because of effort. But because the backend was never designed to support growth.
Publishing Is Not About Control. It Is About Clarity.
There is a common fear that publishing means giving something away or locking yourself into rigid structures. In reality, good publishing does the opposite.
It gives clarity on ownership. It creates traceability across territories. It ensures credit travels with the work. It allows money to find its way back, even when usage happens far from where the song was created.
Publishing is not about restriction. It is about readiness.
Why This Keeps Repeating
The reason artists keep discovering publishing late is structural.
- Education focuses on creation, not exploitation.
- Platforms reward speed, not preparation.
- Early income masks long term leakage.
- Success often arrives before systems do.
By the time publishing feels important, artists are already running. Stopping to fix foundations feels risky, even though not fixing them is far riskier.
A Better Moment to Start Thinking
The best time to understand publishing is not after a hit. It is not after a deal. It is not after a dispute. It is when nothing feels urgent yet.
- When you still have space to make decisions calmly.
- When ownership conversations are simpler.
- When registrations are clean.
- When future growth will not stress test weak structures.
Publishing is easiest to set up before momentum arrives. It is hardest to repair once momentum exposes the gaps.
A Closing Thought
Most artists do not discover publishing too late because they failed to care. They discover it too late because the industry taught them to care about it last.
But careers that last are rarely built by doing everything louder. They are built by quietly putting the right systems in place early enough.
The first step out of this cycle is not a complex contract. It is a simple audit.
Day 1: Open a document. List your songs. For each one, write down:
- Who wrote it?
- Who owns the recording?
- Is it registered with a performance rights society?
The gaps in that list are your starting point.
If you are an artist, songwriter, or label thinking about the long term life of your catalog, this is the moment to pause and look at the foundations.
I work with creators and rights holders to bring clarity to ownership, publishing, and backend systems before growth exposes the gaps.
Start with structure. Build with intention.
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