Inside the Playbook: Jacob Paul on Music Publishing Deals 101

The Manager's Playbook · Mar 2, 2026 · 5m

If you’re a songwriter, producer, or manager, this is the publishing conversation that saves people from “congrats on the deal” regret.

In this clip, Jacob Paul breaks down what a co-publishing (co-pub) deal really is, because a lot of creators sign one thinking they’re buying support, when they’re actually giving up catalog ownership. In a typical co-pub, the publisher collects your publishing royalties and takes a piece of the copyright, often half of the publisher’s share (commonly translating to ~25% of the total copyright), and in some deals the publisher takes the entire publisher’s…