There are many different types of music publishing contracts, depending on a number of factors. Co-publishing contracts are often commonly used by songwriters and record labels. Co-publishing contracts allow artists and publishers to share both the copyrights and the profits from the songs written by an artist. The publisher agrees to distribute and sell the artist's work in exchange for a share of the rights and profits. Thus artists and publishers become co-owners of the recorded music. music publishing contracts may also be exclusive song writer contracts, where a song writer is hired by a record company to write songs, usually for other artists. The song writer becomes in effect a contracted employee, and may be paid a salary or a lump sum for the songs written under the terms of the contract. In this case, the copyrights to the songs usually belong to the record company and not to the song writer. The company has the right to do whatever they wish with the contracted songs, and the song writer often does not have control over who ultimately sings and records the songs.