Randall Wixen Wixen Music Publishing founder Randall Wixen on the pitfalls of selling your publishing too soon. I started Wixen Music Publishing in 1978, long before music publishing became a "sexy" business to investors and bankers, and have dedicated my entire professional life to protecting songwriters, careers and legacies. Over more than 40 years I've never had anyone say to me, "I sure am glad I sold my publishing when I did. It was the best thing I ever did." But I couldn't begin to estimate the number of times that folks like Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Steve Lukather, Tom Johnston, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison and Donald Fagen have told me that selling their songwriting catalogs was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made.