Following are a few industry terms relating to music publishing described for someone relatively new to the world of music publishing:

"Music Publisher" - A music publisher is your royalty collector and copyright administrator. A publisher exploits your copyrights and collects and pays all your royalties excluding performance income. It does this by obtaining ownership and administrative rights to some or all of your copyrights. Thus, a music publisher is basically a company that takes care of your music business, allowing you (the songwriter) to concentrate on your creative aspirations and goals. A songwriter's strength generally is being creative and the publisher's specializes in administrating your catalog, collecting royalty monies, plugging your songs, making copyright deals and paying you your royalties from the derived income.

"License" - Licensing is in simple terms the process by which the publisher negotiates fees for the use of your songs. These licenses allow others to use your songs in a variety of ways such as releasing them on a recorded device (i.e. a phonograph record or CD) on something like a compilation or perhaps as background music in a scene in a movie. A license is given for each specific use and the publisher negotiates the fee for what each specific license may be worth.

"Song-plugging" - There are some publishers (such as 56 Red) that play the traditional role of exploiting songs through "song plugging." This process involves the publisher utilizing its contacts throughout the entertainment industry to seek out those that may possibly use your song. For example, a "song-plugger" may contact an A&R person at a label and seek out and negotiate a soundtrack deal with the record company which includes your songs with movies and other artists on compilations. Or, music supervisors or film production companies may be contacted to put your song into films or soundtracks. A TV ad agency may also be contacted to get your songs placed on TV commercials. "Song pluggers" have evolved into what is been described as "professional managers" or "creative representatives." Unlike 56 Red, there are many publishing companies that do not aggressively work the songs in their catalog.