Big Jon Platt: The Power of Publishing

By Laura Turner

He’s the only music publisher Jay-Z has ever known. His clients include Beyonce, Kanye West, Ludacris and more. As the president of West Coast Creative and head of EMI Publishing–Urban, Big Jon Platt knows how to forge successful, lasting business relationships. With such mega deals in his portfolio as Jay’s $150 million Roc Nation deal and LA Reid’s newest publishing venture, Big Jon fully understands his business and where it’s headed. Read on as Mr. Platt explains the significance of publishing in the music industry.

J’Adore: We know that it is important for an artist to understand what publishing is and how it works. Exactly what is publishing for those who do not have a clear understanding of what its significance?
Big Jon Platt: We manage all of the songwriter’s songs: administratively and/or creatively along with the songwriter. We collect all the royalties that are due to them. There are so many different revenue streams when it comes to music publishing. If you have a record deal and you’re recording an album, you get your record royalties and that’s it pretty much in regards to your music. In publishing, we collect:

• Mechanical Royalties: royalties collected from the sale of a song
• Performance Royalties: royalties collected from the song being played on the radio
• Synchronization Royalties: royalties collected from the song being played in a movie or television show
• Ringtone Royalties: royalties collected from the sale of ringtones

Music publishing for years didn’t get the attention from songwriters and artists because music publishing is known as the ‘Penny’s Business.’ For example, if you have a song you wrote yourself 100 percent on your album, when it’s released the rate you’re supposed to be paid is 9.1 cents for that song for every album that is sold. At 9 cents, it may not be much to get them excited, but when you sell a million records its $91,000. If you’ve got almost 10 songs on an album, that’s almost $1MIL in royalties. It’s like the crumbs business. You keep scraping enough crumbs together and eventually you’ll have a loaf of bread. We create and manage a lot of those opportunities, so that’s what we do.

You have signed some of today’s hottest artists such as Jay Z, Beyonce, Ludacris, Kanye West and more. All have very successful careers in the music industry and beyond. What are you looking for when considering someone for a publishing deal?
My background is that I was a DJ so I just know great music for my taste when I hear it. For instance when you mention a Jay-Z, Usher, or a Kanye, I signed those guys at the very beginning of their careers. They just had great music and for me they had this passion to succeed. I connected with that along with their music. That’s what I look for. I don’t go into every day thinking I’ve got to sign writers. I’ll hear something amazing and it inspires me creatively to want to work with that writer and help that writer take their songs to the world.

How has the new digital age affected music publishing today as we know it?
There’s more opportunity out there. We have iTunes now so you have people selling millions of singles. That was revenue that really wasn’t there seven or eight years ago. So there are a lot of positives with it as well. A lot of the challenge with the digital age is the industry is still trying to define ways to monetize it.

With the artists that are coming out today, do you feel the changes in publishing have a direct effect on how artists are writing their music?
I don’t know if I would say we have an effect in how artists are writing their music. I would say that record companies aren’t really allowed to be creative anymore. In music publishing, we can still be creative. We can still sign someone in the beginning and nurture them like I did with Chrisette Michelle. Our business is going to continue to be challenged on the recording side until the labels finally realize they’re going to have to sacrifice and start developing more stars again. It takes time to develop a star.

So then you believe that labels need to go back to the way it used to be done when they were doing artist development?
Absolutely! Everyone has their view on what can save and/or help our business grow; the one consistent thing you will hear people say is artist development needs to happen. People have to understand with artist development you must have patience.