Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights from Music Executives and Artists for aspiring and emerging music managers, executives and artists on how to navigate the music industry. This newsletter is brought to you by Mauricio Ruiz.

THE MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK PODCAST

(FEAT. Jacob Paul)

There’s a brutal truth that too many artists and managers learn after the screenshot numbers stop feeling fun:

You can hit 100K, a million, 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify and still collect $0 in publishing.

Not because Spotify is “robbing” you. Not because your distributor is asleep at the wheel. Not because your manager is a bad person.

Simply because publishing is not an automatic payout. There’s no pop-up or warning label.

It’s on you to raise your hand.

And that’s the part I want to talk about this week, because if you’re an independent artist or an aspiring manager trying to build something real, you don’t just need better content. You don’t just need better hooks. You need a better backend. You need systems. You need the boring stuff handled so the creative stuff can actually win.

Because what’s the point of building momentum if your business is leaking silently the entire time?

Let me make this plain:

The music industry has two versions of “success.”

The public one is loud; streams, followers, sold-out shows, brand deals, the comments section acting like you’re the second coming.

The private one is quiet; registrations, splits, identifiers, statements, territories, collection chains.

Most people are obsessed with the loud one and ignore the quiet one then act surprised when their “career” still feels like living gig to gig. And I don’t say that with judgment. I say it because it’s common.

It’s almost designed that way.

Jacob Paul, who works across Kobalt and Kosign, said something in our conversation that should honestly be printed on a billboard right next to every “Upload Your Song” button on earth:

If you wrote songs, those songwriting royalties are your money, but you don’t get paid by default. You have to go unlock it.

Now here’s where it gets spicy.

There’s a thing in publishing called the black box.

Sounds like a cool sci-fi accessory. It is not cool. It’s more like the industry’s lost-and-found bin except the items in the bin are stacks of cash with your name on them, and after a certain window, somebody else gets to decide what happens to it.

The simplified version: if royalties are generated but nobody properly claims them, because the song wasn’t registered correctly, the splits aren’t matched, the metadata’s a mess, or you just didn’t know you had to do any of this. money can sit “unallocated” until it’s liquidated into these black box pools. And then it gets distributed elsewhere.

Translation: your song can earn, and you can still lose.

That’s why Jacob called it a ticking clock. That’s why he kept repeating “don’t wait.” Not because he’s trying to scare you for sport, but because the system doesn’t care how hard you worked on that record. It cares whether the paperwork exists.

And before you start spiralling: no, this isn’t a “publishing is evil” rant. Publishing is not the villain. Confusion is the villain. Neglect is the villain. The assumption that “someone will handle it” is the villain.

Managers, this part is for you.

If you’re reading this and you’re trying to build a real roster, here’s one of the biggest mindset shifts you can make:

Your job is not only to help the artist grow. Your job is to build the machine that makes growth sustainable.

Content strategy is great. Growth strategy is essential. But if your business foundations are weak, growth just increases the speed at which you bleed.

The backend is what funds the front end.

Publishing is literally one of the cleanest examples of that. You’re out here stressing about how to post three times a day, but you haven’t even confirmed whether the songs are registered correctly worldwide. You’re debating cover art revisions, but the catalog isn’t set up to compound.

You’re trying to “build a team,” but the first team member you actually need might be someone who makes sure the money shows up where it’s supposed to.

And speaking of worldwide, we need to talk about international royalties.

Because here’s another trap: you might be registered with your PRO and feel like you “handled publishing.” That’s a great start, seriously. But your audience isn’t local anymore.

Your Spotify for Artists doesn’t stop at your home country, and neither do your royalties. If your song starts moving in Mexico, Germany, France, Brazil, the UK, whatever, the publishing chain gets global fast. And global is where money goes missing the easiest, because now you’re dealing with different societies, different rules, different timelines, different collection paths.

So when I say “publishing isn’t automatic,” I’m not being dramatic. I’m being literal. The system doesn’t reward good intentions. It rewards good infrastructure.

That’s why publishing administrators exist in the first place. Not because artists need “more deals” to feel important, but because doing global publishing collection alone can become a full-time job (and it can cost you real money just in setup, even before you’ve collected a dime).

If you’re an artist, your job is to make records and build culture. If you’re a manager, your job is to make sure the records and the culture don’t get exploited by disorganization.

Here’s the punchline: a lot of artists don’t need more streams. They need fewer leaks.

And I promise you, the feeling of closing a leak is better than the feeling of a viral moment, because viral is unpredictable. Leaks are optional.

So what do you do with this, today, without turning into an accountant?

You start acting like a business with one simple habit: every time a song comes out, you treat registration like you treat distribution. Automatic in your process, not automatic in the system. You make “splits confirmed and registrations submitted” part of the release ritual, not a “we’ll get to it later” task that lives in a dusty notes app beside old tour setlists.

If you’re a manager, assign ownership. Somebody needs to be responsible for making sure songs are registered correctly and quickly, that splits are documented, that the right entities are connected, and that international isn’t treated like a “future problem.” If you don’t have a team yet, congrats, you just found one of the first lanes where “team” actually matters.

Because the worst version of this story isn’t “we didn’t know.”

The worst version is “we knew, we were too busy chasing optics, and we still didn’t do it.”

Don’t be that story.

The industry will always tempt you to prioritize what looks good over what works. Publishing is one of those quiet disciplines that makes the whole game louder later, when you can reinvest, hire, plan, and stop treating your career like a month-to-month hustle.

Keep it moving.

Watch Episode 56 with Jacob Paul LIVE NOW

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Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the host and creator of The Manager’s Playbook podcast, dedicated to demystifying the world of music management, and Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Skratch Bastid and more.

I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard and the NBA.

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