What's the difference between a publishing company and a record label?

Publishing companies and record labels are responsible for two seperate (separate) aspects of a song:

  • A publishing company exploits and administers musical compositions (i.e., this song is written by x and y).
  • A record label exploits, promotes and distributes catalogues of music recordings.
This means that several companies are usually involved when you want to clear rights for one song; each one is entitled to receive royalties for the part they own.




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