Songtrust vs TuneCore Publishing vs Sentric: Which Publishing Admin Fits Independent Artists

Which publishing admin should an independent artist use?

If you've decided a publishing admin is worth the cut, the three names you'll keep running into are Songtrust, TuneCore Publishing, and Sentric. They do roughly the same job: register your compositions with collection societies around the world and chase down royalties you can't easily collect yourself. The difference is in the fees, the contract length, and the reach.

One thing almost nobody mentions up front: TuneCore Publishing is administered by Sentric. So two of your three options are running on the same back end. That matters when you're weighing them, and we'll come back to it.

I'll lay out the numbers plainly. Velveteen does distribution, not publishing admin, so I'm not steering you toward any of these. I just want you to pick the right one for your catalog instead of the one with the loudest ad.

What does each publishing admin charge?

Here are the hard numbers. Songtrust costs the most to start and splits its commission by royalty type. TuneCore and Sentric both take a flat 20%, but Sentric charges nothing upfront and locks you in for the shortest term.

Read the commission line carefully, because it's where the real money lives. Songtrust's split looks cheaper on performance royalties (15% versus 20%), but its mechanical rate went up to 20% on January 1, 2025, so for the streaming-mechanical share it now matches the others. Whether the blended rate works out lower for you depends on how your income splits between performance and mechanical royalties.

Is TuneCore Publishing just Sentric with a different label?

Mostly, yes. TuneCore Publishing is administered by Sentric, so the collection machinery behind both is the same. The commission is identical too, at 20%. The practical difference is integration and price of entry. TuneCore Publishing charges a $75 one-time setup fee and slots into the TuneCore distribution dashboard, so if you already release music through TuneCore, your publishing sits in the same place. Sentric charges nothing upfront and runs as its own service with a 28-day rolling contract.

So the honest framing: if you already distribute through TuneCore and want one login, TuneCore Publishing is the convenient pick. If you want the same back-end collection with no setup fee and the shortest exit, go straight to Sentric. You're choosing the wrapper, not the engine.

One more thing worth saying plainly: CD Baby Pro, which used to be a common publishing-admin option for independent artists, shut down in August 2023. If an older guide points you there, it's out of date.

Which one reaches the most countries?

Songtrust has the widest published reach of the three, collecting across 240 territories. That breadth is the main reason to take on its higher commission and $100 setup fee. International collection is the part you genuinely can't replicate on your own, because registering with foreign mechanical societies one by one (PRS, STIM, GEMA, JASRAC, and the rest) isn't realistic for a working artist.

This is the lever that decides whether any admin is worth it. A song that only charts at home gets less out of a global admin than a song streamed in 30-plus countries. If your listeners are concentrated in one market, the territory count matters less and you might be better off self-collecting. If your streams are scattered across the world, reach is exactly what you're paying for.

If you want the full math on when that 15% to 20% cut actually pays for itself, our sibling guide on when the publishing admin fee makes sense walks through the breakeven by income level.

Estimate your blended commission before you commit →

Who is each service actually best for?

There's no single winner. Each one fits a different artist.

Songtrust suits you if international royalties are a real part of your income and you want the widest reach in one place. You're paying $100 up front and a higher blended commission for that breadth. Go in knowing the customer support has a rough reputation, so don't count on hand-holding.

TuneCore Publishing suits you if you already distribute through TuneCore and want your publishing in the same dashboard. The $75 setup is modest, the 20% commission is standard, and the convenience is the selling point. You're getting Sentric's collection with TuneCore's integration.

Sentric suits you if you want to keep costs and commitment low. No upfront fee, the same 20% as TuneCore, and a 28-day rolling contract means you can leave fast if it's not working. The setlist tool is a genuine plus if you play live and want to capture performance royalties from your shows.

The fourth option, the one these services would rather you forget: for purely domestic income, you can often self-collect. A free PRO membership covers performance royalties, and free registration with The MLC in the US (or CMRRA in Canada) covers streaming mechanicals at 0% commission. That route leaves international mechanicals on the table, which is the gap an admin fills. Our self-publisher setup guide covers exactly how to do that.

A note for Canadian artists

If you're in Canada, your performance royalties run through SOCAN, and these admins are built to work alongside it rather than replace it. With Songtrust, your writer's share keeps flowing directly from SOCAN to you, while Songtrust handles the publisher-side global collection. So joining an admin doesn't mean leaving SOCAN.

Worth knowing how the Canadian side fits before you pay anyone: if you're a SOCAN writer member with no registered publisher, SOCAN already pays you 100% of your performance royalties, both the writer and publisher share, with no separate publisher entity required. For Canadian streaming mechanicals you'd register with CMRRA or SOCAN RR. An admin earns its cut here on the international collection, not the domestic basics you can already get for free.

If publishing royalties feel like a black box, the place to start is understanding how the underlying streaming money is calculated in the first place. Our Spotify royalties guide breaks that down before you decide who should be collecting it.

When you're ready to get your releases out and your metadata clean so those royalties can actually reach you, create a free Velveteen account. We handle the distribution side. Publishing admin stays your call.