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Songwriting Royalties Explained: How Songwriters Get Paid

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Performance, mechanical, sync and print royalties explained: who collects each in the US, UK and Canada, the writer and publisher share, and how to start.

Songwriter at a kitchen table reviewing printed music royalty statements with a highlighter, a guitar case in the background

A recorded song earns money through two separate copyrights: the composition (the words and music) and the master (the recording). The composition earns four kinds of royalties: performance royalties when it is played in public, broadcast or streamed; mechanical royalties when it is reproduced as a stream, download, CD or vinyl; sync fees when it is licensed for film, TV, ads or games; and print royalties from sheet music. In the US, ASCAP, BMI or SESAC collect performance royalties, The MLC collects streaming and download mechanicals, and your distributor pays you for the master. Performance royalties are split into a writer’s share and a publisher’s share, equal halves by convention. This guide follows official sources as of September 2026; it is not legal advice.

RoyaltyEarned whenCollected by (US · UK · Canada)Paid to
PerformanceRadio, TV, live venues, bars and shops, streamingASCAP, BMI, SESAC · PRS · SOCANWriters and publishers
MechanicalStreams, downloads, CDs and vinylThe MLC for streaming and downloads · MCPS · SOCANPublishers, administrators or self-administered writers
SyncFilm, TV, ads, games, online videoNegotiated by the publisher, or by youPer the license
PrintSheet musicThe publisherPer the publishing deal
MasterStreams, downloads, sales, radioDistributor or label; SoundExchange · PPL · Re:SoundArtist, label and performers

The two copyrights in a recorded song

The guide to copyrighting and registering a song explains why the composition and the recording are two separate works with their own owners. This guide follows the money each one earns.

The example used throughout: Rosa and Dev co-write “Motel Pool” and sign a 50/50 split sheet. Rosa sings it, records it at home, pays for everything and releases it through a distributor, with no label and no publisher. Rosa is with ASCAP, Dev with BMI. The song belongs to both; the master to Rosa alone. So every stream starts two payments: one for the master, which reaches Rosa through her distributor, and one for the composition, which reaches Rosa and Dev through their PROs and The MLC, if the song is registered there.

The four royalties a composition earns

  1. Performance royalties. Earned whenever the song is performed or communicated to the public: radio, TV, live venues, bars and shops, and streaming services. The MLC describes PROs, such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, as the organizations that collect them from radio stations, night clubs and digital services and pay songwriters and publishers.
  2. Mechanical royalties. Earned when the song is reproduced: on-demand streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl. In the US, The MLC collects digital audio mechanicals from streaming and download services under the blanket license of section 115 of the Copyright Act. For CDs, vinyl and downloads, the 2026 statutory rate is 13.1 cents per song (or 2.52 cents per minute, if larger), and BMI notes that record companies pay it directly to the copyright owner, usually the publisher. For on-demand streaming, the headline rate is a percentage of the service’s revenue (15.3% in 2026), with performance royalties subtracted to leave the mechanical, so it never becomes a fixed amount per stream.
  3. Sync fees. Putting a song on picture (a film, a TV scene, an ad, a game) needs a synchronization license, negotiated case by case. BMI explains that sync fees are paid by film and TV producers directly to the copyright owner, not through the PRO. A second license, for the master, comes from whoever owns the recording. When the film or show airs, it then earns performance royalties.
  4. Print royalties. Sheet music and printed lyrics. BMI’s FAQ notes that for sheet music, royalties are paid by the publisher to the composer.

For an independent songwriter, the first two are most of the money, and both depend on registering the song.

Writer’s share and publisher’s share: the 50/50 convention

At a US PRO, performance royalties for a song are divided into two halves:

  • The writer’s share (50%), paid to the songwriters. ASCAP says writers typically receive their writer’s share of performance income directly from ASCAP.
  • The publisher’s share (50%), paid to whoever holds the publishing: a publisher, or you, if you publish yourself. ASCAP puts it simply: when it distributes royalties for a performance, 50% goes to the writers and 50% to the publishers.

The convention is the same at ASCAP and BMI; what changes is what happens when there is no publisher:

  • ASCAP: to collect your publisher’s share, you need a publishing company with ASCAP. You can set one up as an individual or sole proprietor, and ASCAP currently waives the publisher application fee if you join as a writer and publisher at the same time. If you publish your own works, you receive both shares.
  • BMI: its Royalty Policy Manual counts the song as a single 200% unit, 100% for writers and 100% for publishers. Where no performing rights have been assigned to a publisher, the writers receive the entire 200% in proportion to their writer shares.

Canada has a similar rule: SOCAN requires at least 50% of the performing-right shares of a registered work to go to the writers.

The 50/50 is not how co-writers split the song; that is the split sheet, and the split sheet guide shows how the same 60/40 is written at ASCAP and at BMI. And it only applies to performance royalties: The MLC pays mechanicals to whoever controls each share of the song, whether a publisher, an administrator or a self-administered songwriter.

With a publisher, the arithmetic depends on the deal. In a traditional deal, the publisher keeps the publisher’s share. In a co-publishing deal, you keep part of it: split evenly, that is your 50% writer’s share plus 25%, or 75% of the performance income. In an administration deal, you keep ownership and pay a commission for registering and collecting. In the UK, PRS will not accept a writer-publisher agreement in which the publisher’s performance share is more than 50%.

Who collects what: the money map

The path of one stream of “Motel Pool” on an on-demand service in the US:

  1. The master: the service pays Rosa’s distributor, which pays her under its terms.
  2. The composition, performance: ASCAP and BMI collect from the service and pay the writer’s shares to Rosa and Dev, and the publisher’s shares to Rosa’s publishing company and, at BMI, to Dev.
  3. The composition, mechanical: The MLC collects from the service, matches the stream to the registered song and pays Rosa and Dev as self-administered songwriters, or their administrator.
Use of “Motel Pool”CompositionMaster
On-demand stream in the USPerformance: ASCAP and BMI. Mechanical: The MLCDistributor
Satellite or internet radio (SiriusXM, Pandora radio)Performance: ASCAP and BMISoundExchange: 50% to the owner, 45% to the featured artist, 5% to a fund for non-featured artists
Rosa plays it live in a barPerformance: ASCAP and BMI, once the setlist is reportedNothing: no recording is used
An indie film uses itSync fee agreed with Rosa and DevMaster use fee agreed with Rosa
Streams and radio in the UKPRS (performance) and MCPS (mechanical)Distributor for streams; PPL when the recording is broadcast or played in public
Streams and radio in CanadaSOCAN (performance and reproduction)Distributor; Re:Sound for artists and record companies

SoundExchange says it does not collect royalties for songwriters or publishers; register there only if, like Rosa, you are the featured artist or own the recording.

What your distributor collects, and what it doesn’t

A distributor (DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and the rest) delivers your recording to the services and pays you the master’s share of what it earns. It does not register your composition with a PRO or The MLC, and by default it does not collect your songwriting royalties. DistroKid’s help center is explicit: it can collect composition royalties only if you sign up for its separate DistroKid Publishing service, because composition royalties can only be collected by publishers, publishing administrators or the songwriter. The music distribution guide covers choosing a distributor.

Between you and the collecting organizations, two kinds of company can sit:

  • A music publisher owns or co-owns your share under the deal, collects the publisher’s share and works the song: syncs, covers, foreign collection.
  • A publishing administrator does not take ownership. The MLC defines an administrator as an entity that carries out many of the administrative tasks a music publisher would, on behalf of its publisher and songwriter clients. In practice, it registers your songs with societies worldwide and collects the publisher side for a commission. Songtrust, for example, describes its service as music publishing administration that lets you collect worldwide without losing your rights.

Neither is required. You can join a PRO and The MLC yourself. An administrator is mostly worth it when your songs earn abroad or you have more songs than you can register by hand; read the term, the territory and the commission before signing.

Why nobody can give you a per-stream rate

Online tables promising “X cents per stream” don’t hold up, and the services say so. Spotify’s royalty page says it does not pay artist royalties according to a per-play or per-stream rate: after taxes and fees, each rightsholder’s share of net revenue is set by streamshare, the proportion of that month’s streams that went to music it controls, and Spotify calculates separate royalty pools for each of its markets.

What “Motel Pool” earns for 1,000 streams depends on:

  • The country, and the subscription price there.
  • The tier: ad-supported or premium.
  • Your share of all streams on the service that month.
  • Your contracts: the distributor’s terms on the master side, and on the composition side the PRO’s rules, the mechanical rate and the splits.

Thresholds matter too. Since April 2024, a track on Spotify needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be included in the recorded royalty pool. Spotify says this applies only to recording royalties, not publishing royalties.

The only reliable number is your own: take a statement, divide the amount by the streams, service by service and country by country. That is your average for that period, and it will move with the next statement. Compare it with your own statements, not with someone else’s.

How to start collecting as an independent songwriter

In the US:

  1. Sign a split sheet on the day you write: legal names, what each writer did and the percentages. The free split sheet template checks that the total is 100%.
  2. Join a PRO. ASCAP and BMI are free for writers; SESAC is invitation-only. The registration guide walks through each sign-up.
  3. Sort out the publisher’s share. At ASCAP, set up a publisher membership in your name if you have no publisher. At BMI, with no publisher, you receive both halves.
  4. Register every song before release, with every writer and the same splits as the signed sheet.
  5. Join The MLC as a self-administered songwriter (free), register or claim your songs and use its matching tool to link your recordings; or let a publisher or administrator do it for you.
  6. Give your distributor the right data: the songwriters’ legal names and an ISRC for each track.
  7. Register with SoundExchange if you are the featured artist or own the master.
  8. Report your live shows. ASCAP writer members submit setlists through ASCAP OnStage, no later than three months after the end of the quarter of the show; BMI Live takes concerts and setlists generally up to nine months after the show. The free setlist maker gets the song list ready.
  9. Read every statement. Check that each song appears with the right shares, and query anything missing.

In the UK, join PRS (and MCPS for mechanicals), register each work and report gigs in the Setlist app of your PRS account: within a year for small venues, three years for international and large UK shows. PPL, free to join, pays performers and recording owners. In Canada, join SOCAN and its reproduction rights service, submit a Notification of Live Performance within a year of each gig, and look at Re:Sound for the master.

ISRC and ISWC: the two codes that connect the money

  • ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) identifies a recording. The International ISRC Registration Authority says it lets sound recordings and music videos be uniquely and permanently identified. It has 12 characters, any creator of recordings can assign one, and many distributors assign it when you upload. A remix, an acoustic take and the music video each get their own.
  • ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) identifies the composition, as “a unique, permanent and internationally recognised reference number for the identification of musical works”. It looks like T-034.524.680-1. You don’t apply for it: new works get an ISWC automatically when they are registered with a registration agency, typically a collecting society such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, MCPS or SOCAN, as long as the metadata includes every writer’s IPI number and role.

One ISWC can sit behind ten ISRCs: the studio version, the acoustic version, the remix, another band’s cover. When the two codes are linked in the databases, the money from each recording finds the right song and the right writers.

Common mistakes

  • Not registering the song. ASCAP says it does not set aside money for unregistered or unidentified shares of a work. Register before release.
  • Wrong or mismatched splits. 60/40 on the split sheet and 50/50 at the PRO holds up payment. Copy the signed numbers everywhere.
  • Not joining The MLC. A PRO membership does not collect US streaming mechanicals; you need The MLC, directly or through an administrator.
  • Confusing your distributor with a publisher. The distributor pays the master. Songwriting royalties come from the PRO and The MLC, or through a publisher or administrator.
  • Missing or unlinked ISRCs and ISWCs. Streams of a recording may not be matched to the song.
  • Forgetting live shows. No setlist, no live royalties.
  • Signing a publishing deal unread. It sets the publisher’s share, the term and the territory; have a music lawyer look at it.

Where Zoundroom fits: every song’s royalty data in one project

Registering a song, filling in a distributor’s form or answering a publisher all ask for the same details. In Zoundroom, each song is a project that holds its recordings, lyrics, notes and files, with the same account on iOS, Android and the web. For “Motel Pool”, Rosa keeps the final master and the final lyric in the project, plus a credits note with who wrote what, both PROs, the IPI numbers, the ISRC of the single and the ISWC once it is assigned. The signed split sheet with Dev and the registration confirmations go in as files. Dev, invited to the project, sees the same versions and the same numbers. When a statement looks short, everything needed to query it is already there. Zoundroom does not collect royalties: it is not a PRO, a publisher or a distributor, and it does not register songs for you. See how to organize music projects in Zoundroom.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a songwriter make per stream?

There is no fixed rate. Services pay a share of revenue by streamshare, market by market, and the composition’s part is split again between performance and mechanical royalties, publishers and co-writers. To know your own figure, divide what your statements pay by the number of streams, per service and country.

Do I need a publisher to get songwriting royalties?

No. Join a PRO and The MLC and register your songs. At ASCAP, set up your own publisher membership to collect the publisher’s share; at BMI, writers without a publisher receive both shares. A publisher earns its share by working the song: syncs, covers, foreign collection.

What is the difference between a PRO and a distributor?

A distributor puts your recording on streaming services and stores and pays you for the master. A PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, SOCAN) licenses the composition to broadcasters, venues and services, and pays performance royalties to writers and publishers. You need both, plus The MLC in the US for streaming mechanicals.

How long does it take to get paid royalties?

It depends on the source. ASCAP says it usually pays domestic royalties about six to nine months after a performance; its October 2026 writer distribution covers January to March 2026. BMI distributes quarterly, in February, May, August and November. The MLC pays monthly, about 75 days after the end of each month. PRS makes four main distributions a year (April, July, October and December), with monthly payments for online streaming and from MCPS. SOCAN pays quarterly from February 15. Money from abroad takes longer: BMI says one to two years.

Sources

All pages checked on September 27, 2026.