Admin Deal vs Co-Publishing Deal vs Full Publishing Deal: What Each Actually Costs You
An admin deal takes 10 to 20% of collected royalties and zero copyright. A co-publishing deal hands the publisher 25% of your total income and half the publisher's share, often for good. A full deal gives away 50% and the copyright itself, sometimes forever. Admin rights revert at term end. Co-pub rights frequently do not.
What is the difference between an admin deal, a co-publishing deal, and a full publishing deal?
If a publisher is courting you, the first question isn't how big the advance is. It's what you're handing over to get it, and whether you ever get it back. These three deal types sit on a spectrum from "you keep everything and rent out the paperwork" to "you sign the song over and keep a cut." The numbers matter, but the part most people miss is reversion: whether the rights come home when the deal ends.
I'll lay out exactly what each one costs in ownership and in royalty split, where the money goes, and the one clause that separates an admin deal from the other two.
An administration deal collects your royalties for a fee and never touches your copyright. A co-publishing deal hands the publisher 25% of your total income and half of the publisher's share. A full publishing deal transfers the entire publisher's copyright, leaving you with the writer's share, half of the song's total royalties.
Every song carries two copyright layers: the sound recording (the master) and the underlying composition, which is the melody, lyrics, and structure (US Copyright Office). Publishing deals are about that composition. Inside the composition, royalties split into a writer's share and a publisher's share, each worth 50% of the song's total. Who controls the publisher's share, and who owns the copyright behind it, is the whole negotiation.
Admin fee on collected royalties
Co-pub share of total income to the publisher
Full deal share of total income to the publisher
Copyright transferred in an admin deal
How much of your money and copyright does each deal take?
Side by side, the admin deal is the cheapest and the only one that leaves your copyright untouched. A co-publishing deal costs you a quarter of your total income and a permanent stake in your catalog. A full deal costs half of everything and the song itself.
| Admin | Co-pub / Full | |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright ownership | You keep 100% | Co-pub: publisher takes 50% of the publisher's share. Full: publisher takes 100% of the publisher's copyright |
| Your slice of total royalties | You keep 80 to 90% after the fee | Co-pub: roughly 75% (full writer's share plus half the publisher's share). Full: 50% (writer's share only) |
| What the partner keeps | A 10 to 20% fee on what they collect | Co-pub: 25% of total income. Full: 50% of total income |
| Advance | None | Co-pub: yes, in exchange for active exploitation. Full: yes, typically the largest |
| Active sync pitching | Limited or none, varies by service | Co-pub: yes. Full: full-service |
| Term | Usually 1 to 3 years, up to 5 in traditional deals | Multi-year with rights often surviving the term |
Sourcing for the splits: full deal leaves you the writer's share at 50% (ASCAP, Music Business 101); co-pub keeps you at roughly 75% with the publisher taking 25% (ASCAP, Co-Publishing and Admin Deals); admin fees run 10 to 20% with no ownership transfer (Scene7, Seven Deal Terms).
One thing to flag for co-pub specifically: you typically need to own a publishing company to hold your co-pub stake. That's setup work before you even sign.
Do the rights come back when the deal ends?
This is the clause that should drive your decision. In an administration deal, your rights revert fully when the term ends, because you never gave up ownership in the first place. In a co-publishing or full deal, rights to songs written during the term often stay with the publisher long after the deal is over, sometimes permanently.
That asymmetry is easy to miss when you're staring at an advance. An admin deal is a service contract with an end date. A co-pub or full deal transfers part of your catalog that may never come home. ASCAP puts it plainly for co-pub: rights to songs written during the term often remain with the publisher long after the deal ends, sometimes permanently (ASCAP, Co-Publishing and Admin Deals). For full deals, the copyright may never revert at all (ASCAP, Music Business 101).
| Admin deal | Co-pub or full deal | |
|---|---|---|
| What you transfer | Nothing, you keep 100% copyright | Part or all of the publisher's copyright |
| At term end | Rights revert fully | Rights to term-written songs often stay with the publisher, sometimes forever |
| Post-term collection | Some contracts let the admin collect royalties earned during the term after it ends, negotiate this clause | The publisher's stake in those songs typically continues regardless |
The advance is the thing you can see. Reversion is the thing that decides what you actually own in ten years.
On the admin side, watch the post-term collection language. Rights revert when the term ends, but some contracts allow the admin to keep collecting on royalties earned during the term. That can be reasonable, but it's a clause to read and negotiate, not assume (Scene7, Seven Deal Terms).
When does giving up ownership actually make sense?
Trade ownership for what only a full or co-pub publisher provides: a real advance, active sync pitching, and co-write relationships. If you mostly need someone to register your songs worldwide and collect what's owed, that's an admin function, and there's no reason to give up copyright to get it.
A full publishing deal buys you advances, sync pitching, co-writing introductions, and full-service promotion in exchange for the publisher's copyright and 50% of total royalties (ASCAP, Music Business 101). A co-pub deal keeps you at roughly 75% but still costs you a permanent 25% stake in exchange for advances and active exploitation (ASCAP, Co-Publishing and Admin Deals).
An admin deal does not include sync pitching
An admin deal does not include active sync pitching as a rule. The admin registers your songs and issues licenses when asked, but going out and landing placements is a separate function. A sync agent typically takes 25 to 50% of the placement fee on deals they procure (Sentric, Sync Commission Rates). So if sync is the reason you're considering a co-pub or full deal, price that against hiring a sync agent on top of an admin.
Once you've sorted what you actually need from a partner, the next question is whether even an admin's 10 to 20% fee pays for itself. That comes down to how much you earn and how international your streams are, which is its own decision. See when the publishing admin fee makes financial sense.
If you want a clear view of where you sit before any publisher gets your signature, create a free Velveteen account and start with the full picture of your catalog. And if you're trying to understand where this publishing money even comes from, our royalties guide breaks down the streams a publisher collects against. For the registration side of going it alone, see how to set yourself up as your own publisher of record.
Frequently asked questions
Is an admin deal better than a co-publishing deal for an independent songwriter?+
For most independent songwriters, an admin deal carries less long-term cost. You keep 100% of your copyright and pay a 10 to 20% fee on collected royalties, and the rights revert fully when the term ends. A co-publishing deal hands the publisher 25% of your total income and half the publisher's copyright share, and those rights to songs written during the term often stay with the publisher permanently. The co-pub trade only makes sense if you genuinely need the advance, the active sync pitching, and the co-write relationships a publisher provides.
What percentage of royalties do you keep in each publishing deal?+
In a full publishing deal you keep the writer's share, which is 50% of the song's total royalties, and the publisher keeps the other 50%. In a co-publishing deal you keep your full writer's share plus half the publisher's share, leaving you with roughly 75% of total royalties. In an administration deal you keep 100% of your royalties minus the admin's fee, which typically runs 10 to 20%, so you hold onto 80 to 90% of what's collected.
Do you give up your copyright in a music publishing admin deal?+
No. An administration deal does not transfer any copyright. The admin registers your compositions with PROs, mechanical societies, and international collection bodies, collects your royalties, and takes a fee for that service, but ownership stays entirely with you. That's the core line between an admin deal and a publishing deal: a traditional publisher owns your copyright outright in a full deal, or co-owns part of it in a co-publishing deal, while an admin never acquires ownership at all.
Do publishing rights revert back to the songwriter after a deal ends?+
It depends on the deal type. In an admin deal, your rights revert fully when the term ends because you never gave up ownership. In a co-publishing or full publishing deal, the rights to songs written during the term often remain with the publisher long after the deal is over, and in a full deal the copyright may never revert at all. This reversion difference is one of the most important terms to check before signing anything beyond an admin deal.
Does a music publishing admin deal include sync licensing pitching?+
Usually not, or only in a limited form. An admin will register your songs and issue a sync license if a buyer comes asking, but actively pitching your music for placements in TV, film, ads, and games is a separate job. That work is typically handled by a sync agent who takes 25 to 50% of the placement fee on deals they procure. If sync income is your main goal, factor the cost of a sync agent into your comparison rather than assuming an admin or even a publisher will chase placements for you.
Keep reading
Pillar guide
Music Publishing Administration
Publishing administration registers your songs with collection societies worldwide and collects four royalty streams from your compositions.
Related guide
How to Set Yourself Up as
Join a PRO as both writer and publisher (ASCAP or BMI in the US, SOCAN in Canada), register your songs with The MLC for US streaming mechanicals, and sign up with SoundExchange for your recordings.
Related guide
Songtrust vs TuneCore Publishing vs Sentric
Songtrust charges $100 upfront plus 15% on performance and 20% on mechanicals.
Free tool · no signup
Run your own streaming math
Plug in your streams and a payout range to see gross revenue, your share after the distributor fee and splits, and how many streams it takes to recoup a budget.