Publishing administration: what 15% actually buys

62 · 2026-09-30 · 23 min read · Español

A publishing administrator registers your songs with collecting societies and collects the publisher’s share of what those societies pay, for a commission and, usually, a one-time fee: at Songtrust $100 and 15 per cent of performance royalties and 20 per cent of mechanicals, at TuneCore $75 and 20 per cent, under CD Baby’s legacy agreement 15 per cent. It takes no copyright, it never touches your writer’s share, which your PRO keeps paying you directly, and it collects nothing the recording earns. What the percentage buys is registration at societies you cannot join yourself and the collection of publishing royalties from outside your own country, which would otherwise reach you late, in part, or not at all. Whether that is worth 15 or 20 per cent depends on where your songs are played, because at home the doors are already open: both PRO shares, US streaming mechanicals from The MLC at no cost, Canadian ones through CMRRA with no up-front fee.

• The commission is charged on the publisher’s share of performance royalties and on all mechanical royalties the administrator collects. The writer’s share is paid to you directly by your PRO and is not commissioned; Songtrust, TuneCore and CD Baby each say so on their own pages.
• Songtrust charges $100 once, then 15 per cent of performance royalties and 20 per cent of mechanicals. TuneCore charges $75 once and 20 per cent, and 50 per cent of sync fees if you opt into its sync pitching. CD Baby’s legacy agreement takes 15 per cent of gross receipts, less costs. Sentric runs a 28-day rolling contract at 20 per cent.
• An administration agreement takes no share of the copyright. It grants the exclusive right to register and collect for a term — one year at each of the three US-facing services, then cancellable — with a further year of collection after cancellation for royalties earned during the term.
• At home, the free doors already exist: a US writer with no publisher receives both shares from the PRO and streaming mechanicals from The MLC at no cost; a Canadian writer receives both from SOCAN, Canadian mechanicals from CMRRA with no up-front fee, and US and European digital mechanicals through CMRRA at 5 per cent.
• Abroad, PROs collect performance royalties through reciprocal agreements, in one to two years by BMI’s figure. Mechanical royalties abroad have no society door for a US self-administered writer, and that is the money an administrator’s percentage is genuinely buying.

What does a publishing administrator actually do?

A publishing administrator registers your songs with societies, collects the publisher’s share and the mechanicals they pay, keeps a commission, and pays you the rest. The societies are PROs, mechanical societies, The MLC and, on the composition side, YouTube.

The clearest definition is the one an administrator writes about itself. Songtrust’s help centre: “In an administration agreement, you — the songwriter — maintain creative control of your copyright and pay usually about 10% to 25% of your publisher’s share in the form of an administrative fee. Publishing administrators do not own your copyright at any point during or after the term of the agreement.” And the sentence after it, which is the whole difference between this and a publishing deal: “Administration agreements do not include creative services.” Nobody is pitching your songs. Somebody is filing them.

Filing where is the service. Songtrust says it registers with 65 pay sources in 244 countries and territories, its figures; TuneCore says “thousands of income sources worldwide,” its phrase; CD Baby’s Boost add-on registers you with The MLC through CD Baby for $39.99 a release. The MLC’s own FAQ describes the arrangement from the collector’s side: “Generally, if you have an agreement with a publishing administration service, the service will register your musical works (songs) with The MLC and collect your share of royalties on your behalf.” Songtrust adds the composition side of YouTube — delivering your songs to Content ID and claiming the videos that use them — which is the one door on this list no society opens for you.

Two things it is not. It is not a distributor: a distributor handles the recording, and a distribution account is not publishing administration, however the checkout bundles them. And it is not a publisher in the sense the song side of the line uses the word — the ownership section below has both definitions side by side. Everything it collects sits in the song’s half of the map, and only some of that half; the PRO keeps paying you the rest.

What is the 15 per cent a percentage of?

The commission is charged on the publisher’s share of performance royalties and on all mechanical royalties collected; the writer’s share is not commissioned. Your PRO pays you the writer’s share directly, as it did before.

Every one of the three says this in its own words, and it is the fact the pricing page leaves for the help centre. Songtrust: the commission “only applies to the global performance, mechanical, and micro-sync royalties we collect on your behalf. This includes the publisher’s share of performance and all mechanical royalties.” TuneCore: “TuneCore only collects the publisher’s share, the writer’s share is paid directly by your local Performing Rights Organization (“PRO”).” CD Baby, with the halves numbered: “CD Baby Pro Publishing Administration receives and pays out the publisher’s share of your royalties (50%). The songwriter’s share (50%) will be sent directly to you from your Performance Rights Organization.”

So do the arithmetic on the convention the PRO piece quotes, where a work is 200 per cent, 100 to the writers and 100 to the publishers. The administrator sees the publisher’s 100 and none of the writer’s. Fifteen per cent of that half is 7.5 per cent of the performance money the song earned. On mechanicals the percentage is the percentage: The MLC pays no separate writer and publisher shares, so 20 per cent of mechanicals is 20 per cent of all of them. This is the only pricing page in music where the number gets smaller when you read the fine print.

Your PRO’s records will not look like 7.5 per cent, and the help centre explains why before anyone asks. Songtrust, under a heading that is the question itself: “When your PRO lists us as your publisher — controlling 100% of your publisher’s share rather than just 15% — it’s merely reflecting the fact that Songtrust handles collection for 100% of your publishing royalties. This does not mean we now own your publishing.” And: “We can’t register your work without Songtrust being listed as your publisher.” The registration is how the society knows where to send the publisher’s share. It is not a statement about who owns the song, and the section on ownership says what is.

One more word from the one administration contract published in full. CD Baby’s addendum charges its fee on “Gross Receipts” and pays you “Net Income,” defined as the gross “less the Administration Fee applicable to such Gross Receipts, and less all actual and reasonable non-overhead costs or expenses paid or incurred by or on behalf of CD Baby in connection with the administration and exploitation of the Compositions, the performance of this Agreement and the collection of income, including, without limitation audit fees, collection expenses, and any taxes required to be deducted.” Read the percentage as the floor on the deduction, not the whole of it, and read your own agreement for the clause that says which.

Doesn’t your PRO already collect your foreign royalties?

For performance royalties, yes: BMI and SOCAN collect foreign performances through reciprocal agreements, and pay a writer with no publisher both shares. The agreement is with the society in each country, and that society collects first.

BMI’s FAQ describes the machine: “While BMI’s license agreements are restricted to the United States, our reciprocal agreements with Copyright Societies in other countries allow us to collect royalties for foreign performances. Each society partner is responsible for monitoring activity in their represented territory. Royalties earned from these performances must first be collected by the partner society, and then remitted to BMI for distribution to our affiliates. This process can take 12-18 months depending on the country of origin.” And the figure a writer can plan around: “Most payments are distributed to BMI writers and publishers between one and two years after the performance occurs in a foreign country.” By the time it reaches your statement, a play on a radio station in Madrid is starlight.

SOCAN was asked this exact question by its own members, and its FAQ carries the answer under a heading about being contacted by a third-party administrator: “If you are a SOCAN member or client and have registered your works with SOCAN we will collect ALL performing and/or reproduction rights royalties owed to you. We do this on your behalf through our reciprocal agreements with other Music Rights Organizations around the world.” It even explains how a foreign society finds a song nobody sub-published: it consults CIS-Net, where SOCAN posts “the relevant details of all shareholders (names, IP numbers, share splits, etc.),” and where that fails, “they would use title and performer information to identify an associated society and contact them to request a fiche.”

Now the sales sentence, which is the reason this section exists. Songtrust’s FAQ: “Your PRO only collects half of what your song earns, often in just one territory or country.” Set it beside Songtrust’s own help centre, four clicks away: “Writer’s share royalties are delivered to the writer directly by their Performing Rights Organization (PRO). If you don’t have a publisher, your PRO will also collect your publisher share.” Both sentences are true. They are about different writers. The first describes a writer who has assigned the publisher’s share to somebody — a publisher, a sub-publisher, an administrator — so that the PRO pays half and the somebody collects the rest. The second describes you, today, before you sign, and it agrees with BMI’s own rule that a writer with no publisher receives the entire 200 per cent. Signing is what makes the first sentence true of you.

What an administrator changes, then, is the route the publisher’s share takes home, and BMI describes the route it replaces. Under a sub-publishing deal, “The society in each territory collects the royalties and distributes the writer’s share to BMI on your behalf, while the publisher’s share of royalties is paid to the local sub-publisher who then pays through the royalties to your publisher less an agreed administration fee. BMI is only entitled to collect your publisher performance royalties if you have not assigned your performing rights to a publisher in another territory.” An administrator with its own society relationships is offering to be that local party in every country at once, and Songtrust says its route delivers your foreign royalties “without additional cuts, delays, or lost revenue.” That is its claim. Nobody publishes what a foreign society deducts before it remits under a reciprocal, or what arrives sooner by the direct route, so there is no figure on either side to check it against. The lag is published, and it is the same lag either way: the money is collected where the play happened, by that country’s society, on that society’s calendar.

Who collects your mechanicals outside your own country?

At home, a society you can join yourself: The MLC in the United States at no cost, CMRRA in Canada with no up-front fee. Abroad, a self-administered writer in either country has no society door of their own, and that gap is what an administrator sells into.

The United States first. The MLC’s FAQ: “There is no cost to become a Member of The MLC,” and a writer with no publisher joins “because that person is essentially acting as a music publisher or administrator on their own behalf, not because they are a writer of a musical work.” The boundary of what it pays, and who should not join, is its own piece; what matters here is the price, which is nothing, against a percentage, which is 20.

Canada has the same door with a different name, and a second door most writers have not heard of. CMRRA’s affiliation page lists who may join, and the third category is “Self-Published Songwriters/Composers who administer their own publishing: If you’re a songwriter who hasn’t assigned your songs (sometimes called copyrights, catalogue, or ‘publishing’) to a publisher, administrator, or third-party service, you are considered the publisher.” You affiliate under your own name. Then its International Collections service, which has existed since 2021 and is the sentence to write down: through The MLC for US streaming mechanicals and through IMPEL for the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and beyond, and “The administration fee for International Collections from IMPEL and MLC is 5% of the royalties collected. There are no up-front costs to affiliating with CMRRA.” Five, on the same money the administrators charge 15 and 20 on. Its Canadian commission is in the affiliation agreement rather than on the page, and the page says only that it keeps its fees low. SOCAN says it collects reproduction royalties abroad for its members too, and CMRRA’s own page says a writer signed up with SOCAN for international collections should not sign up with CMRRA for the same thing.

A US writer has no CMRRA. BMI says so in the gentlest possible way, under a question about a release going overseas: “If you expect to receive performance royalties, all you have to do is make sure your work is registered with BMI. However, this does not mean that your mechanical rights are registered. You should contact The Harry Fox Agency if you have questions in this regard.” HFA publishes no affiliation fee on the pages a writer can reach. A society abroad that collects a mechanical royalty for your song pays it to the publisher registered with it, or to a partner society, and when it has neither it holds the money — which is its own subject, with its own page. This is the money the percentage is honestly for: not the half the PRO already sends you, but the streams in Mexico City and Manchester whose song-side mechanicals have no address in the United States unless somebody files one.

Does an administrator own any of your song?

No; an administration agreement grants the right to register and collect for a term, and takes no share of the copyright. That is the difference between it and a publishing or co-publishing deal.

The companies say it plainly. Songtrust: “Publishing administrators do not own your copyright at any point during or after the term of the agreement.” CD Baby: “CD Baby does not take ownership of your publishing. Instead, we retain a 15% administrative fee from the royalties we collect on your behalf.” And the thing they are not, in SOCAN’s words: a publisher is a business partner where “Typically, a publisher enters into an agreement with the songwriter, whereby the songwriter assigns partial ownership and control of their songs to the publisher, in exchange for a percentage of the income derived from the exploitation of them.” Partial ownership on one side of the line, a commission on the other. The song and the recording are two works, and an administrator holds a licence over the first and nothing over the second.

Now read what the grant actually says, because the contract uses different words from the pricing page. CD Baby’s addendum, clause 1: “you hereby grant to CD Baby, its successors, licensees and assigns, the sole and exclusive rights of administration, promotion and collection throughout the world (the ‘Territory’) with respect to one hundred percent (100%) of all of your right, title and interest (‘Writer’s Interest’) in and to the musical compositions you submit to CD Baby.” Sync is carved out; physical copies are non-exclusive; everything else — registering, licensing performances, licensing reproductions, collecting — is exclusive to the administrator for the term. That is not ownership. It is an exclusive licence, limited in time, over the rights that make the copyright worth anything.

The statute has a name for that. Section 101 of the US Copyright Act: “A ‘transfer of copyright ownership’ is an assignment, mortgage, exclusive license, or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation of a copyright or of any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, whether or not it is limited in time or place of effect, but not including a nonexclusive license.” An exclusive licence limited in time is inside that definition. The pricing page’s word ownership and the statute’s are not the same word, and both pages are telling the truth in their own vocabulary. What comes back at the end is what the agreement says comes back — Songtrust’s sentence is “100% of your publishing rights will revert back to you” — and which of these sentences governs the paper in front of you is a question for a lawyer, not for a checkout page. If the grant you are wondering about was made years ago, getting a granted right back is its own piece. There is a hell of a distance between “keep your rights” and the grant clause, and the grant clause is the one you sign.

What does the agreement commit you to?

A minimum term, usually a year; exclusivity over submitted songs; a year of collection after you cancel; and sometimes a share of sync fees. The year after is for royalties earned during the term, and the sync share applies only where you opt in.

• The term. Songtrust: “Our agreement is on a song-by-song basis, so you can add as many or as few songs with us as you’d like, and the term is one year. After that, you may cancel at any time and all rights revert back to you.” TuneCore: “Cancel anytime after 1 year.” CD Baby’s addendum: one year, then “the term will automatically renew quarterly,” and “Regardless of when you send your Cancellation Notice, termination will not be effective until the end of the Term in which the notice is sent.” Each song there has its own clock too, an Exploitation Period running to “the later of (a) the end of the Term or (b) twelve (12) months after you submit the Composition to us,” so a song added in month eleven stays administered for another year. Sentric, the UK administrator TuneCore built its current dashboard with, advertises the counter-example: “A 28-day rolling contract with an 80/20 split of royalties in your favour.”
• Exclusivity. One administrator per song. Songtrust: if you use CD Baby Pro or Boost, “you cannot also use Songtrust for the same songs. This is also the case if you are already with another publishing administrator.” CD Baby: “you grant CD Baby exclusive rights to administer your publishing worldwide.” The same exclusivity reaches The MLC — Songtrust’s pricing page says you keep your rights, and its comparison page says “you should not sign up and deliver catalog to The MLC because we do that for you.”
• The year after. Songtrust’s pricing page: “If you decide to cancel your account, we have a one year post-term collection period for any royalties that were earned while your account was active.” Its help centre gives the dates: “if you cancel on January 1, 2014, we can collect any payments that were EARNED (not necessarily paid) before that date. However, we can only collect those payments until January 1, 2015.” CD Baby’s clause 6(c) is the same year, counted from the end of each song’s Exploitation Period. The reason is structural rather than sinister, and Songtrust states it: “companies do not know who else to pay when publishing agreements are terminated.”
• Sync. Songtrust: “We do not take any sync rights, so you are free to procure sync opportunities as you see fit and keep 100% of any upfront fees you negotiate for those uses.” TuneCore: “TuneCore’s commission rate for sync licensing has been updated to 50%, effective July 1, 2023. This change only applies to the license fee itself,” and “Having us pitch your music for sync is optional.” CD Baby’s grant excludes sync outright. Read which of the three your agreement is before the first placement, not after.
• Changes. The split sheet the administrator asks you for on day one is the document that settles the writers’ shares and nothing else, and it files you under a publisher IPI of its own. Changing what you filed is slower than filing it. CD Baby’s help centre lists what it can no longer process for its legacy accounts — split changes, letters of direction, name changes, a writer’s collecting status — “because publishing updates can take over two years to process through large-scale publishers. To avoid unnecessary delays, we recommend canceling your Legacy Pro Publishing service and registering directly with your PRO if you need to make these kinds of changes.” The fastest way to update a registration through your administrator is to stop having one.
• Leaving. Ask for the letter the day you cancel. Songtrust: “A Letter of Relinquishment (LOR) acts as proof of termination from your publisher or publishing administrator so you can inform other parties they no longer control your songs,” and societies “often ask us to provide a LOR from your old publisher before we take over your songs.” The old administrator comes off your PRO’s registrations, in Songtrust’s words, “in favor of your new publisher, once they register your works” — so until somebody registers, the old name stays on the file.

When is the percentage worth paying?

When your songs earn abroad, or you want somebody else to do the registrations, the commission buys money and time that have no free door. When your plays are at home and you will do the forms yourself, the same money is available from your PRO, The MLC and CMRRA at nought to five per cent.

Put the two cases side by side and the decision is a question about your own statement. At home: a US writer with no publisher already receives both shares from the PRO, US streaming mechanicals from The MLC at no cost, and the composition side of YouTube only through an administrator or not at all. A Canadian writer receives both shares from SOCAN, Canadian mechanicals from CMRRA, and US and European digital mechanicals through CMRRA at 5 per cent. Abroad: performance royalties come back through reciprocals in one to two years, with the foreign society’s own deductions in front of them either way. Mechanical royalties abroad have no society door for a US self-administered writer, and an administrator’s registrations in those territories are the thing being bought.

Three questions, then, before the checkout button, each with a place to find the answer. Where are the plays? Your distributor statement splits them by territory, and if nine streams in ten are at home, the free doors already cover nine tenths of the song side. Does your PRO already pay you both shares? Your own registrations answer that, and if they do not, the fix is a publisher affiliation at your PRO — BMI’s carries a one-time processing fee it does not price on its join page — not a percentage forever. What comes back, when, and what does the administrator keep collecting after you leave? The agreement answers that, and the pricing page does not.

CD Baby wrote the honest version of every checkout offer on the page for its own add-on: “If you already collect U.S. mechanicals or SoundExchange royalties independently, review whether the cost of CDB Boost is justified in your case.” Take that sentence to every administrator’s pricing page, including the ones that lead with a nine-figure number and the words black box. Unclaimed money is its own subject, with its own piece, and a self-administered writer claims from The MLC’s public search without an administrator in between. Get the three answers in writing, get the third one from the agreement, and check the registrations you already have before you pay somebody to make them again.

FAQ

Do I still need a PRO if I have a publishing administrator?

Yes; the administrator collects the publisher’s share, and your PRO pays you the writer’s share directly. Songtrust calls a PRO or CMO membership a required first step, and The MLC says its own membership does not replace a PRO either.

Should I join The MLC if I have an administrator?

Only for songs the administrator does not administer. For the songs it does, The MLC says the administrator registers them and collects your share, and Songtrust tells its members not to deliver those songs to The MLC themselves; a writer who administers some songs and not others joins for the self-administered ones and registers only those.

Is a publishing administrator the same as a publisher?

No; a publisher typically takes a share of the ownership and control of the song in exchange for a percentage of its income, and an administrator takes a commission on what it collects, for a term, and no ownership. SOCAN’s definition of a publisher and Songtrust’s definition of an administration agreement draw the line from both sides.

What happens to my registrations when I cancel?

The administrator keeps collecting royalties earned during the term for a further year, gives you a letter of relinquishment to show the next administrator or society, and is removed from your PRO’s registrations once whoever comes next registers the works. Your writer’s share is unaffected throughout, because it never ran through the administrator.

Sources

• Songtrust, Pricing — the $100 one-time fee per songwriter; 15 per cent of performance royalties and 20 per cent of worldwide mechanical royalties collected; songs delivered in the first 365 days; the one-year post-term collection period; and that copyright ownership and creative control stay with the writer.
• Songtrust, Frequently Asked Questions — that a PRO only collects half of what a song earns, often in one territory; the incompatibility with CD Baby Pro or Boost and with another administrator for the same songs; nine to twelve months to a first payment; the $25 quarterly minimum.
• Songtrust, Songtrust vs. the competition — the 65 pay sources and 244 countries and territories; that a PRO or CMO membership is a required first step; and that a member should not deliver catalogue to The MLC directly.
• Songtrust Help Center, What’s the Difference Between the Writer’s Share and Publisher’s Share? — the two shares, both inherently the writer’s; administration rights transferred so the publisher’s share can be collected; the “without additional cuts, delays, or lost revenue” claim; and that a PRO pays the writer’s share directly and, where there is no publisher, the publisher’s share too.
• Songtrust Help Center, Does Songtrust’s Commission Apply to All Of My Royalties? — the commission’s scope: the publisher’s share of performance and all mechanical royalties.
• Songtrust Help Center, Why Is Songtrust Listed as Controlling All of My Publishing? — the PRO’s 100 per cent listing and what it reflects; that a work cannot be registered without the administrator listed as publisher; and reversion on termination once the new publisher registers.
• Songtrust Help Center, What Exactly Is an Administration Agreement? — the definition: creative control kept, 10 to 25 per cent of the publisher’s share as a fee, no ownership during or after the term, no creative services.
• Songtrust Help Center, What is Songtrust? — the song-by-song one-year term with cancellation after; that it takes no sync rights; the 20 per cent mechanical rate from 2025-01-01; and Content ID delivery.
• Songtrust Help Center, How Do Payments Work After Cancellation? — the post-term year with worked dates, and why companies keep paying the old administrator.
• Songtrust Help Center, What is a Letter of Relinquishment (LOR)? — the letter as proof of termination, and that societies ask for one before a new administrator takes over.
• TuneCore, How much does TuneCore Publishing cost? (support article, updated 2026-09-10) — the $75 per writer; the 20 per cent commission; that only the publisher’s share is collected and the PRO pays the writer’s share directly; 50 per cent on sync.
• TuneCore, What is the commission for synchronization licenses? — 50 per cent from 2023-07-01, on the licence fee only, and that sync pitching is optional.
• TuneCore, Why should I choose TuneCore to be my Publishing Administrator? — “thousands of income sources worldwide”; 100 per cent ownership kept; cancel any time after one year; and the comparison table.
• CD Baby Help Center, What are the terms of the CD Baby Pro Publishing administration agreement? — exclusive worldwide administration; the one-year minimum then quarterly renewal; the post-term year; no ownership taken and the 15 per cent fee; that an unsigned writer is their own publisher; and the service’s discontinuation on 2023-08-08 for new releases.
• CD Baby, Publishing Administration Addendum (last updated 2024-10-22) — clause 1, the grant of sole and exclusive rights of administration, promotion and collection over 100 per cent of the writer’s interest, sync excluded; clause 4(c), the 15 per cent of gross receipts; clause 5(a), net income less the fee and costs; clause 6, the term, the Exploitation Period and the year after.
• CD Baby Help Center, How do I collect performance royalties? — registering as a publisher at the PRO to receive 100 per cent directly; the legacy changes CD Baby no longer processes; and the recommendation to cancel and register directly.
• CD Baby Help Center, How much can I earn from publishing royalties? When do they pay out? — the publisher’s share (50%) paid through CD Baby and the songwriter’s share (50%) paid by the PRO.
• CD Baby Help Center, What is CDB Boost? — the $39.99 per release; MLC registration through CD Baby; and the sentence advising a writer who already collects independently to review whether the cost is justified.
• Sentric Music, home page — the 28-day rolling contract and the 80/20 split.
• The MLC, Frequently Asked Questions — Connect to Collect — that membership costs nothing and replaces no PRO membership; that an administrator registers and collects for the songs it administers; the definition of self-administered; that a self-administered writer joins as their own publisher; and that a writer registers only the songs nobody else administers.
• BMI, Creators FAQ — Royalties — the reciprocal agreements and the 12–18 months; the one-to-two-year figure; the sub-publishing chain and the administration fee inside it; that BMI collects the publisher share only where it has not been assigned abroad; and that a BMI registration does not register mechanical rights.
• SOCAN, Frequently Asked Questions — the answer to a third-party administrator’s pitch: all performing and reproduction royalties collected through reciprocal agreements; how a foreign society finds an unsub-published song through CIS-Net; and the definition of a publisher as a partner who takes partial ownership and control.
• CMRRA, Affiliate With CMRRA — self-published songwriters as the third category who may affiliate, under their own name or a company name.
• CMRRA, International Collections — collection through The MLC and IMPEL since 2021; IMPEL’s territories; the 5 per cent fee and no up-front costs; and the instructions for direct MLC members and SOCAN international-collections members.
• 17 U.S.C. § 101 (Cornell LII) — the definition of a transfer of copyright ownership, including an exclusive licence limited in time.

Every page cited here was read on the date at the top of this piece. Prices, rates and terms change on the companies’ own schedules — Songtrust’s mechanical rate changed on 2025-01-01, CD Baby closed its Pro Publishing service to new releases on 2023-08-08, and TuneCore’s support articles disagreed with each other about its rate for two years — so each figure above carries its page and its date, and the current one is on the page. CD Baby’s addendum governs legacy accounts and is quoted because it is the one administration agreement published in full. Nothing here is legal advice about your agreement: the statute is quoted with its own words, the grant clause with its own, and a lawyer is the person who says which governs yours.

Keeping the register

The list an administrator asks for on the first day — every title, its ISRC and ISWC, every co-writer with an IPI and a PRO, the publishing split — is the list you need back on the last day, when the next administrator or your own society asks who filed what, and under which name. CatalogTracker keeps it: per-track publishing splits that must sum to 100, parties with their IPI and PRO beside the name, the codes on every track, and the agreement and the letter of relinquishment uploaded against the songs they cover, with a warning when a split changes after a document was signed. It registers nothing with anybody, collects nothing, and holds no royalty amount. It is the copy you hand over, and the copy you check them against. In development for iPhone.