Everything starts with the song yet music publishers have often been the last part of the digital equation.  Relative insulation from the effects of declining music sales have enabled publishers to have a far less digital centric worldview than record labels.   Streaming is now acting as a catalyst for great publisher engagement in the digital marketplace.  Historically music publishers have enjoyed a highly diversified revenue base with clearly demarcated rights.  But these analogue era delineations are being tested, often to breaking point, by new emerging digital use cases.  This, coupled with songwriter dissatisfaction and calls for greater transparency, mean that the outlook for music publishing is much less straight forward than it was five years ago.

Companies mentioned in this report: Sony ATV, Warner Chappel, Universal Music Publishing, Kobalt, BMG, Round Hill Music, PRS for Music, Spotify