What does a publishing administrator do?

It registers your songs with societies and collectors around the world, collects the money, and pays you, keeping a fee. You keep your copyright.

What is a typical admin fee?

Commonly 10% to 25% of what is collected, depending on the service and the size of your catalogue.

What is the difference between co-publishing and full publishing?

In co-publishing you keep part of the publisher's share and the writer's share. In a full publishing deal you assign the publisher's share entirely, and often the copyright for a term.

Do I keep my copyright with an admin deal?

Normally yes. An admin deal gives the administrator the right to collect for a period, not ownership. Check the term and the exit terms.

Do I need a publisher at all?

Not necessarily, but someone has to collect the publisher's half of the income. Without a publisher or an administrator registered, that half is often never claimed.

(Free tool)

Publishing admin fee calculator: admin, co-pub or full deal?

Enter what your songs earn and see what you would take home under four ways of handling publishing. The calculator also shows how much more an administrator has to collect before its fee is worth paying.

Your publishing income

Think of everything your songs could earn in publishing royalties in a year if every last payment was collected.

Full yearly publishing income

Writer's share and publisher's share together.

Currency

How much gets collected

This is the biggest swing factor, and the one people guess wrong. Unregistered songs, wrong splits and missing foreign payments all leak money.

You collect, on your own70%

Songs registered with one society and one collector, no one chasing the rest.

A professional collects95%

Registered in every territory, with errors chased up. Even the best never reach 100%.

The deal terms

Typical figures are filled in. Change them to match the offer you are looking at.

Admin fee15%

Administrators commonly charge 10% to 25% of what they collect.

Co-publisher's slice of the publisher's share50%

50% is the usual split, which means the co-publisher ends up with a quarter of the total.

Full publisher's slice of the publisher's share100%

100% means they take the whole publisher's half. Some deals leave you part of it.

What you take home each year

Self-publishing $7,000
70% of the full pool. You own everything and keep all of what you collect. The risk is the money you never register or claim. You keep ownership.
Admin deal Most money$8,075
81% of the full pool. You keep ownership. The administrator registers your songs and collects worldwide for a fee. You keep ownership.
Co-publishing deal $7,125
71% of the full pool. The publisher owns part of the publisher's share. You usually get an advance and more promotion. You give up part of the ownership.
Full publishing deal $4,750
48% of the full pool. You assign the publisher's share (and often the copyright, for a term). Typically the biggest advance. You give up part of the ownership.

Is an admin worth the fee?

At a 15% fee, an administrator must collect about 17.6% more than you do alone just to break even. With you collecting 70%, that means they need to collect at least 82.4%. They collect 95% in your settings, so on these numbers an admin deal comes out ahead.

Advances are not included

Co-publishing and full deals often come with an advance. That money is paid back out of your share before you see another payment, so a bigger advance is a loan against your own royalties, not extra income.

A simple model to compare structures, not an offer or advice. Real deals vary a lot in term, territory and what is included. Have any contract checked by a music lawyer before signing. See our guides for how admin, co-publishing and full deals differ.

Publishing deals are sold on percentages that hide the real trade

A publisher offers an advance and a split, an administrator offers a lower fee and you keep your copyright, and doing it yourself costs nothing. Each sounds sensible on its own. Put side by side, they are hard to compare, because each takes a different slice of a different pie.

The most overlooked number is how much actually gets collected. A writer who registers songs alone might collect most of what is owed, or well under it. A 15% fee on money you would never have collected is a bargain. A 15% fee on money you were already collecting is not.

One model, four structures, and the break-even point

Enter your full yearly publishing income, then how much you think you collect alone and how much a professional would. The calculator applies the admin fee, the co-publisher's slice, or the full publisher's slice, and shows what you keep under each, with a bar so the gap is obvious.

It then does the sum most people skip: how much more an administrator has to collect than you do for its fee to pay for itself, and whether your numbers clear that bar.

Self-publishing, admin, co-publishing and full deals compared
Sliders for collection rates, fee and each party's slice
A break-even check for the admin fee
Clear note on what you give up in each structure
Reminder about advances and what recoupment means

How to compare publishing deals

1
Estimate the full yearly publishing income your songs could earn.
2
Set what you collect alone, and what a professional would collect.
3
Enter the admin fee, or the slices in the deal you have been offered.
4
Compare what you keep and whether you keep ownership.
5
Read the break-even check before deciding on an administrator.

A model, not a quote

The model splits publishing income into a writer's half and a publisher's half, which is how the industry normally describes it. Admin deals take a fee on money collected. A typical co-publishing deal gives the publisher half of the publisher's half, and a full deal gives them the whole of it.

Real contracts differ on term, territory, advances and reversion rights, and none of that is in the numbers. Use this to understand the trade, then have any contract checked by a music lawyer.

Last checked: 8 November 2026

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Questions about the publishing admin fee calculator

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Keep 100% of your copyright

Our administration keeps ownership with you. We register, collect worldwide and show every payment in clear statements.

Publishing admin fee calculator: admin, co-pub or full deal?

Your publishing income

How much gets collected

The deal terms

What you take home each year

Is an admin worth the fee?

Publishing deals are sold on percentages that hide the real trade

One model, four structures, and the break-even point

How to compare publishing deals

A model, not a quote

Questions about the publishing admin fee calculator

What does a publishing administrator do?

What is a typical admin fee?

What is the difference between co-publishing and full publishing?

Do I keep my copyright with an admin deal?

Do I need a publisher at all?

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Keep 100% of your copyright

Your publishing income

How much gets collected

The deal terms

What you take home each year

Is an admin worth the fee?