Onboarding for Publishing Catalogs

Since we currently don't have an API connection to a publishing database similar to our connection for the master (recording) side, publishing catalogs must be created manually.

As the naming conventions of IC objects tends to align with master-side nomenclature, our system does not differentiate between Artists and Writers in the software so writer (composer) names will need to be represented in the system as Artists.

We also don't differentiate between master-side tracks and publishing works in the software. Our best practice is to create publishing works as individual Tracks within a "Publishing" Release for each writer Artist in IC, so that Publishing work titles are clearly broken out by Track on statements, just like on standard Publishing statements.

Set Up Your Publishing Works

As mentioned above, publishing works should be setup in the system prior to importing data, and this can be done in the Catalog Manager (Catalog -> Manager) or by following Catalog Import processes detailed here or bulk import workflows detailed here.

Publishing works should be set up in the system with the Primary Writer as the Artist, a "Publishing" Release, and each composition as a Track in the "Publishing" Release, as shown in the example below:

If you prefer, you can also enter multiple writer names in the Artist field to represent works with multiple writer configurations. This is entirely optional, as it is the contract assigned to each publishing work (composition) itself that determines to whom and at what share the publishing royalties in the system are accounted to.

Import Cleanup

Once the publishing catalog has been built, you can begin importing publishing data. As the publishing works have been built as Tracks in the catalog, our system should begin to recommend Track matches in the Import Cleanup module as shown below:

If the Artist (Publishing-side Writer) and Track Name (Publishing Work) match, you can assign to our system's match (Actions -> Assign to Match). If the match is incorrect, you'll want to navigate to Actions -> Assign to Track and assign the Item to the correct Track (Publishing Work) in the Publishing Release for the corresponding Artist (Publishing-side Writer).

Assigning Contracts

Contracts for Publishing works should be assigned at the Track-level from within the Publishing Release Edit screen with each writer and their corresponding split listed, unless the splits are the same across all Publishing works for a single writer (in this case, the contract can be set on the Publishing Release alone and all of the Publishing works (Tracks) will inherit this Release-level contract).

If there are different splits dependent upon Publishing Format (i.e. different splits for sync, mechanical, performance) - use the Item-level contract workflows detailed in the Split Items for Region and Format Specific Contracts doc.