How to Self-Publish Your Music Compositions

GROW as a composer: www.saadnhadda...
Welcome to my channel! I’m Saad Haddad, a conservatory-trained composer and the founder of "The Composer’s Brain," an online collective dedicated to advancing the craft of serious composers. Here’s a bit about my journey:
Age 7: Inspired by a book about Mozart, I knew I wanted to become a composer.
Age 15: Joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program, mentored by Steven Stucky.
Age 22: Earned my B.M. in Composition from USC, studying under Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Frank Ticheli, and Bruce Broughton.
Age 24: Completed my M.M. at Juilliard under John Corigliano.
Age 29: Named Composer-in-Residence at the California Symphony.
Age 30: Graduated with a D.M.A. from Columbia University and joined their faculty.
Age 31: Premiered “Aysheen” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Today, I have a growing catalog of over 50 compositions that have been performed in China, Brazil, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea, Austria, Sweden, Canada, and the United States. These works include pieces for orchestra, chamber ensemble, vocalists, soloists, and electronics.
It took me 25 years to get to where I am today. Loving music is not enough. It takes doing the work that no one sees in the hopes of attaining an outcome that is not guaranteed.
If you love to compose as much as I do, then you’ll never stop doing it.
Let's go compose,
Saad
Timestamps:
00:13 What is publishing?
01:45 Why should you self-publish?
02:47 Traditional publisher pros and cons
03:15 How should you self-publish your music?
03:34 Step 1
04:29 Step 2
04:41 Step 3
06:00 Performing rights organization overview
06:22 My ASCAP writer royalty breakdown (2016-2022)
07:29 Additional considerations for self-publishing
08:23 Choose to master a few things first
FULL DISCLOSURE
I make content to attract like-minded composers that want to grow as artists under my mentorship. Nothing is more satisfying to me than seeing composers grow under my watch, no matter what aesthetic they're writing in.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Self-publishing your music can seem like a daunting task, but it’s really not as difficult as you might initially think. In this video, I go over what self-publishing your music actually means and why you don’t need to wait to be “found by a publisher” to have your music published.

[@hannahehmusic]

I learned all of this over 4 years of music university. You do so well at simplifying this! I even learned some new tips and tricks as a composer! Thank you so much 🎶

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I’m glad to hear :)

[@majdkhaled6838]

Hi Saad! Just wanted to express my gratitude for the valuable help in understanding how to publish musical compositions. I'm Majd Khaled, a student from Lebanon currently studying music composition. Your guidance has been a huge help. Appreciate the tips on music publishing, and I'm grateful for the support you've provided. Excited to continue my journey in this field and looking forward to sharing more creative work. Thanks again, and wishing you all the best!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I appreciate your kind words Majd and good luck on your journey. It is tough but it has been rewarding!

[@SimonDHooghe]

Very useful and to the point; thanks a lot for this valuable shared knowledge! Cheers

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I’m glad it’s useful!

[@jamesmulligan1077]

Thanks for making this video. I have 2 questions: 1. You define self-publishing as a business. But it's not a publishing company though. Can you address the differences? Are there any legal requirements to self-publishing? To open a publishing company requires a license and fees and a DBA name. The type of businesss you are describing in this video does not, correct? 2. You mentioned sending a performance brochure to PRO. How do you find out who performs your music? You sell your sheet music, and it's probably being played in college recitals, but you don't know. You can't ask your customers at the point of purchase: "Oh, BTW please don't forget to send me a brochure of your performance so I can send it to my PRO". Thanks în advance for your answers.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

1. Basically you can sell your own music as a solo proprietor which doesn’t require any documentation. When you start dealing with PRO’s that’s usually when they require some kind of DBA which I do have for my “business”: Dib press

[@saadhaddadmusic]

2. I do google search’s of my name every single Monday. Kind of tedious but I heard David Lang’s people do that for him. So I learned from that and do it myself. Occassionally I find performances of my stuff online, screenshot them, then send them to ASCAP. Very much worth it IMHO. Thanks for your detailed questions.

[@rayericphillips]

As a song writer and composer I am in PRS and GISC in the UK as well as they carry out the ASCAP check for me.. The only place I put my music on is here on KZbin so I am thinking it is a lot less hassle joining a publishing company but the process of locking all work I do including future songs is not appealing. With the incredible feedback on my songs Im sure they would sell so Om between a rock and a hard place at the moment !!!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I’m sure they would sell just great too :)

[@rayericphillips]

Thank you. Im gradually placing them on Bandcamp for digital download !!!

[@PianoturtleX]

Great video, very informative! Thank you. I am a pianist and I transcribed major piano concertos by Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Brahms, etc I have explored publishers and the whole 90% thing really bugs me. Thank you again for this video. I am looking into self publishing now. Any tips in addition to this video would be greatly appreciated as I don’t even know the right questions to ask at this time. Lol

[@saadhaddadmusic]

That’s amazing!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

If there's anything more you want to know about self-publishing, let me know here in the comments!

[@samiseifcomposer]

Great video Saad! I was wondering how you go about pricing?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@samiseifcomposer what I usually do is compare prices for similar instrumentation and duration with the major publishers actually! My go to is usually PSNY’s website. Could be an interesting very short video topic…

[@AlexeyKurkdjian]

Very useful, as usual! I'd like to know how do you go about recording your pieces? In therms of studio and musicians fees!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@AlexeyKurkdjian in early November I’m recording 2 new solo works in New York at a recording studio - I’ll remember your comment for this video! I don’t usually like to record pieces myself. I usually find it more reasonable to hire someone else.

[@GBN_01]

Hi Saad, many thanks for these videos, I’m enjoying your content tremendously. I’d like to ask how do you negotiate rental of parts for your works and your average price or how do you price them? I write music myself and also work as an engraver for other composers and often times I have to deal directly with orchestras to exchange parts. Normally there isn’t much fuss since the composer has signed a contract that includes all costs, but some times orchestras will ask me directly for a quota. I really do not know how much to price and everyone I ask cannot give me very helpful tips. Much apreciated, keep the great work!

[@ewink2]

Thank you for this video. I’ve been a composer most of my life, but finally hoping to publish some of my compositions. One question, do you have to submit your compositions to your local copyright office in order to be able to claim it as yours? I understand you can’t receive performance royalties unless you do submit it, but am not sure if anyone could claim it’s their composition if you haven’t submitted it? I’m in the US.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

By copyright office, I’m assuming you mean the library of congress (the answer is no, not necessarily, and I don’t personally do this either). To receive performance royalties, you need to sign up for ascap or bmi and submit performances through them. I have a lot of videos on that topic as well.

[@christophertaylor4715]

Looking to self publish a larger work, for full symphony. Any thoughts? Great video!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I think that's great!

[@thelifeofryan8683]

In the event that a local music store wants to sell your sheet music, how do you get a bar code for the sheet music so they can sell it at their shop?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

i would assume that they would handle that?

[@Sploinky_doinky]

I’ve been looking into self publishing my compositions but I don’t know if your supposed to be a certain age to self publish

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Age = just a number :)

[@Sploinky_doinky]

@@saadhaddadmusic yay

[@jorgefpramos]

Hey Saad, how do you calculate the $ for the purchase of each work?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Mostly by looking at publishers’ websites.

[@michaelpianoorgan]

Hey Saad what do I have to do to sell my arrangements that are under copyright? I know musicnotes for example takes care of all of that but therefore you share is quite insignificant…Also do you you know a good video somebody explaining to build your own shop on your website like you did? Many thanks!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Maybe others know? I’m not quite sure as I don’t do either of these things.

[@tonimcguire8588]

What are your thoughts on websites that offer a place to put music scores for sale on?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Anecdotally, I haven’t heard of anyone having success with this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Has anyone here had any level of success with this?

[@BernardoBernalMusic]

It is necessary have a personal website to sell sheet music? because I don't have it 😔

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I have a video about this in a few weeks sit tight 🙏🏽 - long story short, not really but it doesn’t hurt to have one

[@iamchannelll]

if i work with a publishing company but than choose to become self publishing what are the implications of this ? . do i keep my masters ect ?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Not sure, I don’t know your exact situation.

[@WayneRayChavis]

💕🎶💕

[@saadhaddadmusic]

🙏🏽 right back at you

[@LeonardoGraham-fg4pp]

What if you don't score? What if you play by ear?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Reminds me of Philip glass’ 1+1 if you look up the interview he did online about that piece

[@andrewnguyen1890]

Can young age composers do this

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Why not? I started when I was around 18

[@andrewnguyen1890]

I was 14 when i composed my first opus, now I know that young age can self publishing

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@andrewnguyen1890 Mozart was like 5 when he started writing 🤣

[@andrewnguyen1890]

Totally make sense