Publishers, relevant?

Anyone here ever worked with/as/b2b a publisher? I thought that labels were supposed to be doing what I read publishers do, but apparently not.

I held the belief that labels were supposed to promote your work. I learned the hard way that the label I was signed to did not promote my work at all and kept the small amount of profit there was. I let my contract expire. I'm lucky it was only a one year contract. That label was essentially just a publisher.

Okay so I did some reading up on publishers/labels and I've only confused myself more on the matter. I've been thinking about contacting a small label for a while, but to be honest all I'm really looking for is a bit more exposure, would I be better avoiding publishers all together then?

It's a per tune type deal and they take a smaller cut than the label so I guess I'll try it out, no harm done if the tune doesn't go anywhere.