Entering and

Maintaining a Career in
Music Publishing
Administration
RIM 4800, UNDERSTAND THE NASHVILLE MUSIC BUSINESS,
SPRING 2018 – APRIL 1, 2018
BY: KENNEDY JANE MURAKAMI
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A music publisher is tasked with finding users for songs, issuing licenses, collecting

money and paying songwriters (Passman 235). Music publishing administration is the behind-

the-scenes of those tasks. There are individuals who are good at pitching songs and selling

product and often times those are the people who get the glory of deals made throughout the

industry. However, the backbone to everything that happens in the music industry are the

administration workers who ensure that the contracts, paperwork and databases are up to date

and ready for royalty distribution, which in the end is every person within a publishing

company’s goal. While there are a few moving parts to a publishing company, the

administrators are the ones who take care of registering copyrights, issuing licenses, collecting

money and paying writers and co-publishers (Passman 238).

To further expand insight into a publishing administrator’s day-to-day tasks I interviewed

two women in the industry who have had impressive careers in this vocation. Allison Wood is

the Associate Director of Global Copyright at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the world’s largest

publisher. It is very important to view the music industry on a global level and Allison has those

insights available. I was able to interview Allison in Sony/ATV’s administrative office on March

14, 2018 in Nashville, TN. I also had the pleasure of speaking with Lisa Stutts who is the

Director of Licensing at Capitol CMG Publishing, a smaller but very involved publishing

company. Lisa focuses on film and TV as well as synchronization license placements.

Synchronization licenses are a very valuable license for publishers as they often bring in large

amounts of revenue if pitched and licensed correctly. I was able to speak with Lisa at MTSU’s

James Walker Library in Murfreesboro, TN on March 26, 2018.

Although there are a lot of differences between the two types of publishing

administration that is done by each of the individuals I was able to interview, there was a
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common theme: be a go-getter and make yourself an asset to your company. Administration

work is very demanding at times and can be daunting to some. However, the go-getter, or the

individual who is always willing to learn and take on more projects is going to be the employee

that will make lasting impressions and move forward within a company. According to Allison, a

typical day includes wearing many hats. One of the main jobs that are handled by an

administrator is mediating between two parties. For Allison this specifically means mediating

between foreign affiliates and her team of coordinators who enter all of the data for each territory

Sony/ATV operates in across the globe. For Lisa this means mediating between someone

requesting a license from a client and the client or the client’s management team.

An administrative director is also tasked with focusing on even the smallest details.

Attention to detail is key in ensuring that things run smoothly administratively. For example a

Canadian affiliate once recognized that there was a sample in a song by “The Fuji’s” that wasn’t

being accounted for and was not listed in Sony’s database. This deal is not in Canada’s radar

because it is a U.S./UK deal, but because the administrators were paying attention and had an

idea of the repertory of it’s affiliates, they were able to inform Allison who then fixed the error in

the database. This in turn allowed a lot of unpaid royalties to then be paid out to the songwriters

as well as Sony being able to collect it’s net publishers share from that deal. This was a big break

because it lowered the money being held up due to calculation error and increased paid out

money to both the songwriters and publishers involved with the sample. Another example of this

is when a clearance company wants to license a song that is not wholly owned by Capitol CMG

contacts Lisa Stutts. Lisa will go out of her way to help the requestor find who owns the other

portions of the song. This can be a daunting task, as many songwriters do not have their catalogs

administered by a major company. However, this small attention to detail and willingness to help
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has caused her to constantly be applauded by the clientele that she interacts with and ultimately

helps her ensure that the catalog she works with is bing exploited well because people know that

when they use a license from her, the process will be smooth.

In music publishing administration the career ladder is very straightforward. The entry-

level position for this career is a coordinator position in whichever department you are entering

into. From there the ladder continues to senior coordinator, analyst, senior analyst, manager,

associate director, director, and so on. Although this is the typical ladder, it is possible to receive

double promotions as Allison Wood saw in 2007 when she was promoted directly to analyst

from coordinator. As stated before, an individual should focus on putting in the hours and always

being the person who says “yes.” Both directors agree that the best way to progress through the

career ladder as a music publishing administrator is to work hard and enjoy the work being done

in the present rather than how to get to the next step in the future.

Publishing is often described as an evergreen industry because the economics behind

music publishing are “the songs in the catalog are, in a sense, promoted by the publishing

company’s own customers” (Halloran 139). This phenomenon is due to the fact that record

companies and other companies who need licenses for songs dedicate funds to promoting the

products that they sell. These products encompass what the publisher’s are selling, so therefore

in order to fulfill their goals, they must first pay the publisher (Halloran 139). Overall, publishing

is a low-cost production due to the lack of marketing and promotion that a music publisher needs

to do. Over the years music publishing catalogs have continued to grow in value, with many

catalogs selling for up to fifteen times their average annual income. I believe that moving

forward this increase in revenue will only continue to grow. As the income and demand for

music continues to grow, publishing administrator position demands will continue to grow as
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well. As companies grow, more employees are required to continue administering the mass

amounts of property that the company owns. This means that publishing administrators will

always be necessary and the job market will continue to grow.

As for change, I think that publishing administration is only going to become a more

demanding career path. With technology advancing faster than legislation for licensing can be

passed, publishing administrators are constantly having to change their systems or find new and

innovative ways to be sure that their writers and the company itself is being paid when their

music is used. For example, streaming was a huge phenomenon in the industry, but it caused a

lot of issues for royalty calculation and distribution throughout publishing companies. Another

future technology that is being toyed with right now is virtual reality. Currently, MelodyVR is

getting ready to launch in the United States and has been working with the major publishers for a

few years in order to obtain necessary licenses. This new revenue will have to be administered

differently than a typical mechanical or synch license and publishing administrators are going to

have to develop a system that works for this new revenue. These are things that always have to

be considered by music publishers. The future industry changes very quickly and the

administrators, especially in publishing, must be aware of the changes and able to adapt quickly.

In conclusion, music publishing administration is a very interesting and viable career

option. In order to do well you must be able to wear many hats and have a keen eye for detail,

but if you work hard and impress your colleagues with a good work ethic you will be able to go

far in this vocation. I believe that music publishing administration is a lifelong career that will be

necessary as long as the music industry stands. Through various interviews and research I found

that this career is very open for people that wish to pursue it due to it’s various departments and

would make an excellent career choice for a business-minded individual with drive and passion.
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Works Cited

Halloran, Mark. The Musician's Business And Legal Guide. Fourth ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ,

Pearson, 2008, pp. 135-41.

Passman, Donald S. All You Need to Know About the Music Business. Ninth ed., New York, New

York, Simon & Schuster, 2015, pp. 235-40.

Stutts, Lisa. Personal interview. 26 Mar. 2018.

Wood, Allison. Personal interview. 14 Mar. 2018.