What do all these names indicate?
You didn't say anything about the writing credits. Presumably, the song was written by several co-writers, all of whom had publishing deals (or self-pulbished). Sometimes deals are co-published between several publishers.
What's with all the forward slashes?
No meaning. It's just how everything was differentiated on that record sleeve instead of separate lines for each publisher.
What is the meaning behind all the acronyms within the parentheses?
ASCAP, BMI and SOCAN are performance rights societies that collect performance royalties on behalf of the songwriters and publishers. ASCAP is the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. BMI is Broadcast Music Inc. SOCAN is the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers Canada. There's another one called SESAC that is becoming increasingly popular among artists, however, unlike the others you have to be voted in based on work you submit. IMHO, SESAC is the one to join, but that's just me.
Membership in these societies by rights holders - i.e., songwriters, publishers, lyricists - is how they collect their airplay and certain other royalties. The societies each have a deal with the broadcasters and are able to track the airplay of music (including commercials). After everything is tracked during a calendar quarter, the money from the broadcast deals is divided pro rata among the members of the societies depending on the frequency and location of airplay on terrestrial radio, TV, cable, etc. The percentages vary as well, with network TV paying far more than cable, and there are different rates for songs, commercials, and other background music, say in a radio show that has background bumpers.
Songwriters and Lyricists can only belong to one society at a time, so a publisher will often have several different publishing companies so that they can publish the work of the writers of each society. (the societies want the publisher and writer to match). So you'll see something like EMI Music Publishing (ASCAP), EMI Music Publishing (SESAC), EMI Music Publishing (BMI), etc.
For a very long time, the rights societies actually employed people to sit and listen to the radio or watch TV and keep manual track of this stuff, but now it's done digitally. In the case of airplay of movies or TV, the broadcasters file cue sheets for all the background music or songs.
How can you explain the "administered by" verbiage?
Publishers are often the artists themselves. It's extremely difficult for touring and other artists to actually handle the business end of their publishing. However, record companies also need to have contact people to handle licensing requests, etc, for things like TV synchronization use, movies, commercials, and so on. In addition, the mergers and acquisitions in the industry over the past couple of decades have truly shuffled the "who publishes what" deck. So some publishers hire publishing administrators to do all that inventory and tracking of their rights.
There are times when several publishers are involved in the licensing of one song, and coordination can be very difficult. The administrators know how to handle it quickly, and yet it can still take several weeks to line up a licensing deal, because believe it or not, this stuff gets very, very busy!
I've been involved in several licensing deals where writers or publishers literally had to be tracked down in remote areas, and flown to meetings to sign off on a deal! One involved publishers in three countries. So...that's what no doubt makes publishing administration somewhat complicated.
And why are there so many publishing credits for just one song?
See my first answer. Several writers, each retaining his or her own publishing, or co-publishing. Deals between labels, especially acquisition deals where one label acquires the assets of another, complicate things.
Listing all this stuff answers for the world a few important questions:
1. Who are the rights holders, if a music license needs to be cleared?
2. Who needs to be contacted in order to use the song for a non-compulsory license?
3. Which performance rights society will be collecting royalties on behalf of the songwriter and publisher?
Etc.
In addition to all this, it lays out the copyright to the work, so that in case of a copyright infringement claim, the parties involved can prove their prior claim to the work.
All of this information is very, very important to the artist, the publisher, and the label, and in the case of hit records, it means millions of dollars. Mechanical royalties from record sales are only a part of the picture when it comes to earning money in the music business.
People rarely understand that copyrights were incorporated into the 1787 US Constitution, they are not a creature of the modern electronic era. And copyrights confer
exclusive rights on their rights holders. The co-participation of publishers, administrators, creators, rights societies and broadcasters is what makes radio and TV airplay of music possible. And synchronization rights for things like TV, movies, videos, etc., are not covered under mechanical rights like making records.
Unlike certain aspects of the internet, where people get music without paying for it, the rights holders in the broadcast world can actually profit from their creative output and respective rights.
I hope this helps.
