Ultra International Music Publishing has announced that it will be changing its name to Payday Music Publishing.
This move follows a recent court judgement in a legal case brought by Sony Music disputing ownership of the Ultra brand following the major’s acquisition of the company’s recording division in 2021.
Payday Publishing’s catalogue includes hip-hop, pop, electronic, jazz and reggae.
The newly branded Payday Publishing will continue to represent more than 70,000 copyrights. It publishes and co-publishes songs by Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, Future, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Chris Brown, Drake, Martin Garrix, Kygo, Steve Aoki, Playboi Carti and many others.
Thirteen of its songwriters were nominated across seven categories – including Album of the Year, R&B Album of the Year, and Rap Album of the Year – at the recent Grammy Awards.
The Payday Music Publishing name is a natural progression from Payday Records, Patrick Moxey’s hip-hop label, which launched in 1992 and is best known for releasing music by Jay Z, Jeru The Damaja, Antslive and many others.
Patrick Moxey, founder and CEO of Ultra International Music Publishing and Payday Publishing, said: “Throughout the entire legal process surrounding the ongoing usage of the Ultra brand we have asserted our belief that for our entirely separate and unconnected publishing division the rights should remain with us. However, the judge in the case thought otherwise, even though no damages or legal costs were awarded against us, and we will move forward with a new name.
“But, it’s important to emphasise that this is all it is – a new name. Nothing apart from the name changes, we will continue to represent our amazing songwriters and producers and we will continue serving as the custodians and protectors of the more than 70,000 copyrights we are privileged to represent. We have seen tremendous growth in recent years and will remain market leaders in independent global music publishing and we are proud to be working under our new Payday Publishing banner.”
We will remain market leaders in independent global music publishing and are proud to be working under our new Payday Publishing banner
Patrick Moxey
The company has seen multiple entries into the one billion stream club in the last few months including The Color Violet (Tory Lanez), Wait for U (Drake, Future, TEMS) and Runaway (Aurora).
Alongside No.1s across multiple US radio formats, songwriters represented by the company have contributed to several recent US No.1 albums including those by Future, Playboi Carti, Lil Baby and more.
In addition, Payday Publishing has announced a new series of international writing camps in 2025 following the 2024 collaborations with Atlantic Records in Ibiza, Virgin Records in Germany and Warner Music in Paris.
A South Korean writing camp took place in Seoul in February in association with Hybe publishing, JYP, Warner Records and SM Entertainment among others. Songwriters represented by Payday Publishing who attended this camp included Neil Ormandy, Jenson Vaughn, Lizzy Land and Kwon Close. They were joined by South Korean songwriters including 1Zone, Slow Rabbit, Jinsol, Frants, Kass, Ca$hcow, Alex Karlsson, Gyubin artists, Tim Tan, Alawn, Wutan, no2zcat, Maddox, Steven Castle and Scon.
In April, Payday Publishing will hold its eighth Coachella writing camp, held between the weekends of the Coachella festival. This camp brings together artists from the festival line-up, as well as other musicians in town for the event, to collaborate and craft new music.
This spring will also see the return of Payday Publishing’s annual sync writing camp. With a focus on trailers, this week-long event is held in May in Palm Springs, California and brings together the company’s top songwriters with major production company partners. Previous sync placements include the recent We Live In Time trailer, Max Promo, Disney 100, Grey’s Anatomy, and works for Netflix, Hulu, ABC and many others.
Patrick Moxey said: “At the heart of everything we do is the people we work with and our writing camps have always been a hugely important way of bringing creative talent together in environments that encourage collaboration. We have been hugely successful in organising these events all over the world with some amazing partners, and 2025 will see Payday Publishing continuing our aim of creating even more of these opportunities for our songwriters.”
