RECOVERY GUIDE
DIY vs publishing admin — decide honestly
A publishing administrator (Songtrust, Sentric, and others) registers your songs with collection societies worldwide and takes a cut — typically 15–20% of publishing income, sometimes with a signup fee. Whether that’s a rip-off or a bargain depends entirely on where your streams come from. This guide gives you the honest decision, not a sales pitch.
01
First: collect the free US money yourself
MLC + your PRO + SoundExchange are free and cover the bulk of US income. Do these regardless — an admin’s 20% should never be paid on money you could have collected with an evening of setup.
02
Check your international listener share
Open your distributor’s analytics and look at streams by country. Under ~20% international and the math rarely favors an admin; heavily international (or syncs airing abroad) and there is real money DIY cannot reach.
03
Know what DIY genuinely can’t collect
Foreign mechanicals (each country’s societies, no direct indie path), and YouTube composition royalties at scale (Content ID for compositions is gated to partners). These two are the honest case for an admin — not “they register your songs,” which you can do yourself.
04
If yes: compare the two real contenders
Songtrust: $100 one-time per writer, ~15% commission, keeps no sync rights, US-strong. Sentric: no upfront, ~20% commission, 28-day rolling exit, EU-strong, takes non-exclusive sync rights. Read the current terms yourself — both change.
05
Whatever you choose: never assign your copyrights for admin
Administration deals license the right to collect, for a term. If a contract wants ownership of your compositions in exchange for “publishing services,” that is a different (and usually worse) deal. Walk.