It’s not good to sell publishing rights in a music catalogue deal – Darlington to artistes

In the ongoing conversation about the sale of music catalogues, music publisher and music rights advocate, Mark Darlington is skeptical about artistes giving up their publishing rights when negotiating deals.

Speaking during GhanaWeb’s X Space discussion on August 22, 2025, on the topic “The Business of Music Catalogue Sale,” Mark Darlington explained that while selling catalogue has become common, artistes must carefully understand what they are giving away.

According to him, selling a catalogue does not always mean giving up everything. He said an artiste can choose to sell only their rights to the master recordings, only their publishing rights, or both.

However, he noted that letting go of publishing rights is usually not in an artiste’s best interest.

“If you know the value of your works, even if you sell your catalogue, selling your publishing as well, which a lot of people do, I don’t think it is a good idea. For the master recording, the master royalties, etc, that’s fine. But for publishing, I have a bit of reservation on that.

“So just to clarify, in selling catalogues, you can sell just your rights to the masters, or your rights to publishing, or your rights to both,” Darlington said.

To make the distinction clearer, he broke down the difference between the two rights in simple terms.

Publishing, he explained, relates to the composition of a song, the lyrics and melodies that form the creative foundation.

Mastering, on the other hand, refers to the actual recordings of the songs that are released and consumed by the public.

“Publishing has to do with the composition and the masters has to do with the record that is put out, the income from the streams, anything that exploits the song is what is called the master,” he explained.