For the past several years, most of the music industry has been bemoaning decreased sales. Most people identify record labels and artists representative of the entire music biz. Music publishers definitely have a lower profile in the general public. It's easy to forget that their business model is completely different from the labels.
This past week i was in NYC visiting various publishers. If you were a fly on the wall, you wouldn't think that the music biz was in trouble. True, they are seeing reduced mechanical income from years of lower physical sales. But they also have many new revenue streams that were practically unknown a few years ago. I find it fascinating the widely diverse ways that publishers can make money. (Personally, I am proud to have a reputation for bringing bizarre projects to publishers.)
Some of the more successful new areas of licensing include greeting cards (very lucrative!), ringtones, e-cards, digital toys, rich media
Licensees have many options when it comes to which master recordings they can use. But they always have to clear the publishing rights. That's why music publishers are much more secure even in this changing and highly-volatile business climate. It will always good for any music business to have strong publisher relations because all roads lead ultimately lead to them.
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