Sub-Publishing
An arrangement where a publisher licenses a foreign publisher to administer and collect royalties in another territory.
What it means
Sub-publishing is an arrangement in which a music publisher (the original publisher) contracts with a publisher in a foreign territory (the sub-publisher) to administer, promote, and collect royalties for the original publisher's catalog in that territory. Music copyright and royalty collection is inherently territorial — each country has its own collection societies, legal frameworks, and business practices. A US-based publisher may be highly effective at collecting royalties domestically but lack the relationships, local registrations, and administrative infrastructure needed to collect royalties in Japan, Germany, Brazil, or dozens of other markets. Sub-publishers fill this gap by handling local registration, collection, and administration. The sub-publisher retains a negotiated percentage of the royalties collected and remits the remainder to the original publisher. For ambient and meditation music creators, sub-publishing is particularly relevant because these genres have genuinely global audiences. A meditation track created in Los Angeles might be streamed heavily in South Korea, used in a yoga app in Germany, and played on radio in Brazil. Without sub-publishing relationships or a publisher with global infrastructure, the royalties generated in these territories may go uncollected. Many modern publishing administrators (like Songtrust, CD Baby Publishing, or TuneCore Publishing) offer global administration services that function similarly to sub-publishing networks.
Technical details
Sub-publishing agreements specify the territory covered, the term (a fixed number of years, often with an option to renew), the commission retained by the sub-publisher, retention rights (the sub-publisher may retain rights to any sync deals they secure for a period after the agreement ends), the scope of rights administered (mechanical, performance, sync, print), and minimum performance obligations. Sub-publishers register works with local collection societies (PROs, mechanical rights organizations) and ensure proper metadata is in place for collection. The sub-publisher may also actively pitch works for local sync opportunities. At-source accounting means the commission is calculated on the royalties as earned in the territory, before other intermediaries take deductions. Receipts-based accounting means it is calculated on the amounts the sub-publisher actually receives. At-source terms are generally more favorable for the original publisher and its writers.
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