Getting Started: Music Registration and Royalties for Songwriters
In 2019, I decided I wanted to focus more intently on songwriting. I felt that to do this well, I needed to understand all that I could about every possible income avenue. At the heart of everything was music publishing.
I have a blog article coming soon that will run through song copyrights in more detail, along with a breakdown of the different royalty types. You’ll want to understand the different royalty types so that you don’t have any royalties missing.
It’s common for new songwriters to dismiss the importance of proper music registration. But even the majors can get it wrong. An article I refer people to often, is this article from synchtank.com. This article is a reminder of how important it is to make sure your music registration is complete, but also to comb through the music databases (PRO, MLC, etc) and make sure that your music registration is accurate.
What happened?
Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” was listed in HFA as “unknown writer/copyright control” resulting in lost, unpaid royalties.
Read the full Synchtank here.
Later, there will be another article that explains how to comb the databases, after your song is registered, to make sure your music royalties don’t go missing.
This article will focus on getting started with music registration and will list a few resources that are available to you.
1.Split Sheets and Catalog Management
Clean catalog management and organization is a MUST if you’re going to manage your own publishing.
I have a templated folder that I duplicate every time I write a new song. This folder holds:
a spreadsheet of song expenses (so I can track how much I’ve spent on each song)
a song release checklist
lyrics
audio versions (instrumental, final master, etc.)
producer/audio notes sheet
work for hire paperwork
a split sheet (or song submittal form)
marketing plans, graphics/artwork
press releases, etc.
The most important document in here is your Split Sheet. The split sheet tracks how much each songwriter owns of the writer’s share and the publisher’s share. If you decide to write music with other songwriters or bandmates, you and your cowriters should agree on your splits before the music goes out. You’ll need this in order to collect royalties.
Even if you’re not co-writing music with any one else, a split sheet is still a helpful way to catalog your song details. In place of a split sheet, I use a song submittal form. Which might be more helpful to you if you are the sole owner of the song.
The Song Submittal Form details: the genre, the bpm, date of recording, writer’s copyright info and percentages, publisher information and percentages, song description, keywords, and other information i’d want to store in the song’s metdata/id3 tag. All of this information helps speed the process up if I pitch the song, register the song or submit the song for distribution for streaming.
Quick shoutout to Jon Bonci, my Publishing mentor who was a Creative Manager and Publisher at Warner Chappell. The Song Submittal form was actually his and the importance of file organization is thanks to his teachings.
2. Register your Performance Royalties with a PRO
PRO: Performance Royalty Organization. The three in the US are SESAC, BMI, ASCAP. Most indie writers will work with ASCAP or BMI, since SESAC is by invite only.
I suggest to most songwriters to go with BMI since BMI automatically assigns the publishing to you if you don’t have a publisher assigned or set up. Although, if you’re going to write a lot of music, I’d recommend getting registered with BMI or ASCAP as a publisher as well.
The PRO collects royalties collected on your song from public performance. This includes radio, TV, internet, and venue. You can read more details in the article mentioned previously, “——————.”
To register your song with a PRO, you’ll need to know:
your writer and publisher percentage splits. It most total 100% across all writers and publishers!
your publisher name and IPI (if you’re not the publisher)
the writer IPI and name of all of your cowriters (if applicable)
For non-US residents, you’ll have your home country will have its own PROs for you to register with.
Two additional tips:
You’ll want to set up direct deposit with your PRO
One thing that artists may not be aware of, when you play your original music at a venue, submit your setlist to your PRO. ASCAP’s submission platform is called OnStage and BMI’s is called BMI LIVE.
3. Mechanical royalties
HFA (Harry Fox Agency) and the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective).
Harry Fox will pay your royalties any time a song is purchased via CD, vinyl, or sheet music. HFA also is still the go-to for granting mechanical reprints of songs you wanted to cover from other artists.
The MLC will pay any mechanicals from digital downloads and/or on-demand (interactive) streaming. Interactive streaming is when the song is selected to play by the listener (Spotify). Non-interactive is closer to a radio experience (Pandora) and is only covered under performance royalties. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of each of these types of royalties from Songtrust.
Songwriter Sherry Lynne Lee also has a really fantastic breakdown of mechanical payments on your blog article titled, “The sync songwriter & the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), PROs, SoundExchange, Harry Fox Agency & more.“
If you are a self-publisher or an indie publisher repping a songwriter, you will need to register the work(s) on the MLC portal.
Songtrust As A Shortcut:
You can bypass steps 1 and 2 by registering everything through Songtrust. But Songtrust will not collect royalties on the next sections…
While I love the idea of Songtrust, I personally have found the service to be slow and ended up self-registering copyrights. But they might still be valuable for collection/admin.
Part two coming…
