3.0 Territory

3.1 Overseas Exploitation

Most publishing agreements are worldwide so that the publisher will enjoy rights in the songs in question throughout the world. Most of the major publishers have affiliated companies in all of the important territories. The independent publishers have appropriate subpublishing arrangements in place throughout the world. Generally, therefore, all reputable publishers are in a position to exploit songs on a worldwide basis.

3.2 Limited Territory

Some publishing agreements are restricted to a limited territory. As we have seen in Chapter II Part II paragraph 3.0 a number of practical problems arise when recording arrangements are made on a territory by territory basis. However, those practical considerations do not arise in the case of publishing arrangements.

3.3 Pros and Cons

A UK publisher may be prepared to pay higher advances for worldwide rights than the writer is able to achieve by securing individual advances for each territory. The UK publisher would then have the protection that income from all territories throughout the world will be available for recoupment purposes (which therefore spreads the publisher’s risk). Conversely, the advantage for the writer of entering into territory by territory deals is that if there is particular success in one territory then once the advance for that territory has been recouped royalties will immediately begin to flow (i.e. those royalties will not be available to recoup advances paid for other territories). Another benefit is that the writer may expect to receive overseas royalties more quickly than if they were routed back through a UK publisher. On the other hand, if a number of deals are entered into rather than one worldwide deal this is likely to increase the legal fees payable by the writer and, of course, the writer (or his or her manager) will have to monitor and liaise with a number of different companies. In some overseas territories it is common practice to incentivise a record company by granting publishing rights to a publisher affiliated with the record company. Accordingly, if an artist controls his or her own recordings and licences these throughout the world on a territory by territory basis then it might make sense to deal with any available publishing rights in the same manner. However, generally, territory by territory publishing deals are unpopular and the typical UK writer (certainly a singer songwriter) prefers to conclude a worldwide deal with a UK publisher.