Songtrust Review: Can You Trust Them for Your Music Publishing Admin?

After years of sales declines and revenue attrition, the concept of fair share has finally dawned on the music industry. Today, music creators can finally breathe a sigh of relief because gone are the days when songwriters lost millions in unpaid royalties thanks to publishing administrators.

Each stream your song gets from any platform earns you royalties. These royalties are not paid through your distributor. This is something that many artists fail to understand.

This is the main reason why you need a publishing administrator. They will collect your royalties for you.

One of the leading publishing administrators today is Songtrust.

Songtrust has taken this process a step further by digitizing it and streamlining the whole thing, making it achievable and manageable by all artists across all levels.

Publishing is a complicated affair, which is why getting someone to take care of the worry for you so you can focus on your music is always a good deal for any songwriter. All you need is to get the perfect one. So, is Songtrust that perfect one?

What is Songtrust?

Born out of Downtown Music Publishing Firm in 2010, Songtrust was officially launched in 2011 by CEO Justin Kalifowitz. It recovers royalties from more than 120 different countries and 20,000 unique income sources for creators at all levels.

As of their report in 2018, Songtrust had added over 50,000 songwriters, 5,000 publishers in just under a year. Songtrust now represents over a million copyrights with a music publishing administration of over 2 million songs.

SongTrust’s clients include songwriters and producers who have cuts with Migos, Fergie, Troye Sivan, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Selena Gomez, and many more.

In fact, 37 of the current top 50 Billboard Hip-Hop tracks (as of October 2019) feature a Songtrust writer. Songtrust also provides administration services for companies like Sub Pop, The Orchard, Audiomack, CDBaby, Downtown Music Publishing, and Trap Nation.

A lot of songwriters think they’re all set once they sign up with their PRO/CMO, but that’s only part of the picture. In today’s streaming music world, a songwriter needs a publishing
administrator to collect their streaming mechanical royalties.

Once their career goes global, having an administrator with a global footprint is essential, and Songtrust has the largest global network in the industry.

Songtrust register you with a PRO (IMRO, ASCAP, BMI etc) if you’re not yet registered with any. They will then register an unlimited number of your songs to over 45 mechanical and performance collection societies. If you already have registered with one, they will pull those songs into their system as well for free.

Why I think Songtrust is special

I had been searching for the perfect music publishing administrator for quite some time before I settled for Songtrust. Well, most of the administrators I found were okay but okay was simply not good enough for me.

The number one thing I fell for about Songtrust was the ease of song registration. Filling in the required details was so fast that at first, I hadn’t realize I had completed the entire process. Connecting my music was also very easy. In the process of adding the recordings, your song data links up with Spotify automatically and tracking starts instantly.

I also found out that Songtrust covers you for sync licenses. Whether on TV, movies, video games etc, Songtrust always collects the royalties for you. This was quite different from some of the other administrators I had come across who let you deal with any extended royalties.

Even better, they don’t hold on to your copyright making it easier for music supervisors to use your song. Normally, getting a placement takes a lot of time because all the parties involved must give their permission for your song to be used. Songtrust eliminates this process.

The speed of payments is something I simply couldn’t overlook. Songtrust gives your music a delay period for your audience to grow after which you start to get your royalties. You start receiving quarterly payments after 6 months of delay since adding in the stream.

The most unusual and probably the best thing I came across is their great customer service. It has always been easy for me to reach someone almost immediately. The team gets back to you instantly and when the process delays, they will send an email within a day with the problem solved.

As a songwriter, you don’t want to be stuck on one publishing administrator for a very long time just in case someone else brings a better deal. Even as Songtrust works to ensure that every feature earns your loyalty, they also give you a short 1-year deal. This lets you decide whether to stay (which they hope you do) or get a better option.

What makes it stand out

Extensive Cover

Songtrust is one of the few publishing networks which reaches almost every music sharing platform in the world including YouTube and Spotify, for a total of over 20,000 sources. In addition, it will cover you for sync licenses.

Platform Tour

These publishing administrators maintain transparency to all their clients. Songtrust is nontraditional. They will not withhold information that can assist you to make informed business choices. The platform is self-service so you get detailed data about song usage and performance insights.

Royalty Reporting Dashboard

Tracking your royalties as well as maintaining a high level of transparency is as good as this feature makes it. Songtrust lets you follow and even predict what you might be earning in the future with this dashboard. You will receive a royalty report and either a direct deposit or check with your royalty earnings.

Youtube Monitor

Apart from stream royalties and sync licenses, Songtrust will use your song data to collect Ad revenue. YouTube monitor helps collect YouTube content ID which lets them collect royalties for each time your song is used on YouTube.

Flexible Terms

Getting into the traditional long term deals has not always ended up well for songwriters. Most deals will take a percentage ownership in exchange for work often for 3 years or more. Songtrust only asks for one year at a time.

Some publishing administrators come with a variety of requirements that will have you to pass all your songs. On the contrary, Somgtrust lets you choose which songs you want publishing to work with. You decide which song to register and Songtrust will focus on making your data better.

Keep 100% Rights

What’s the point of creating music then give all the rights to somebody else just because they manage part of it? This is the reason why Songtrust lets you keep 100% of your rights. Whether you are a starter or a veteran in the industry, all the rights remain yours.

You Only Pay Once

As a songwriter you want all your focus to be on creating good music. Songtrust’s pay option is a one-time thing. This flat-fee gives you access to the entire platform for a whole year. Worrying about regular payments should not be in your plans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7TBIlyCCD4

Price and Plans

Back in 2012, you had to pay $250 per year for royalty collection by Songtrust. For only a $100 setup fee and a 15% commission now, you can get the same trusted service they offered back then. With of course some more added over the years. You will, however, have to buy a few more cheap credits as you go to add more songs.

Pros

• Registering with Songtrust takes less than a minute. The process of filling up the required details is clear and fast. It really saves you time and your registered songs instantly start being monitored immediately you complete registration.
• Great customer support. If you have any query, you will get it solved instantly. There is always somebody on the other side of the line waiting to respond. If there is a delay, Songtrust will always notify you on Email and get back to you within a day with a solution or answer.
• Songtrust does a great job in royalty collection leaving nothing on the table. Many PROs will just get earnings from streaming and that’s it. Songtrust does not overlook the lots you should be earning even from the smallest usages.
• Fast and accurate payments. This is mainly made possible through ICE, or the International Copyright Enterprise. ICE is a collaboration between 3 societies being the first integrated licensing and processing hub. ICE helps Songtrust license Digital Service Providers like Spotify. They then claim and collect royalties from them. With ICE, this process is usually faster and more accurate with fewer fees from local firms.

Cons

For the most part, these are just my own personal takeaways so they could work just fine for somebody else:

• No notification for registration complete. When you are done registering with Songtrust, there is nothing in their interface that tells you whether the registration is complete. You will have to go through your library to confirm which song you have actually successfully registered.
• Search results are quite inaccurate. Another thing you might also find to be not so nice about Songtrust is their search results. Most of them are inappropriate and all over the place. You will have to go through a lot of results to get what you are looking for.

Verdict

Even as complicated as publishing administration could get, Soungtrust makes it look simple with the level of expertise they bring into it. Spend more energy and time perfecting on songwriting and let Songtrust worry about how your royalties get to you. They will collect all of your royalties for a flat-fee on registration and 15% commission.

In a nutshell, Songtrust is by far one of the best publishing administrators. Even with a few cons here-and-there, Songtrust is able to satisfy all the songwriters they serve.

I honestly believe that if you have been searching for a publishing administrator to help you out with your royalties, they deserve a chance to impress you.