How to Collect All the Music Royalties You're Owed
Learn how to make sure you're collecting all the music royalties you're owed, including performance, mechanical, sync, and print royalties, as well as how to audit your music catalog for missing income.
Depending on how your songs are used and which rights you own, you can earn up to four different types of royalties: performance, mechanical, sync, and print.
The tricky part is that your royalty income isn't automatically deposited into your bank account. While royalties are generated when your song is streamed, downloaded, or played publicly, you have to register with the appropriate organizations to collect the money.
Additionally, even if you’ve signed up with the right organizations, there’s still room for things to go wrong. Missing registrations, incorrect metadata, and mismatched ownership information can all prevent your royalties from reaching you, even when your music is generating income.
In this article, we break down who collects each type of royalty, where to register based on the rights you own, and how to register your songs properly so you can collect all the royalty income you’re owed.
If you wrote a song or own a publishing share, you earn a performance royalty every time it plays in public. This includes radio, streaming services, TV, and businesses such as bars, restaurants, coffee shops, malls, and gyms.
To collect performance royalties, you have to sign up with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO). These organizations collect licensing fees from businesses for the right to play the songs they represent.
Businesses usually get separate licenses for each PRO, as popular playlists include songs represented by different organizations. The PROs then distribute those fees to the songwriters and publishers whose songs were played.
To collect all the performance royalties you’re entitled to, you may need to register with more than one organization:
Additionally, if your music is being played outside the U.S., your PRO will collect those royalties through agreements with international societies, such as PRS in the UK and SOCAN in Canada. Your PRO will then pay you in accordance with its distribution schedule.
Mechanical royalties are owed to songwriters and their publishers whenever a song is streamed or downloaded on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and similar platforms.
To collect mechanical royalties, you (or your publishing administrator) have to sign up with the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). It’s the only organization designated under U.S. copyright law that can collect and pay digital mechanical royalties to songwriters and publishers.
The collection process varies slightly depending on whether you're a publishing administrator or self-published.
If you’re self-published:
If you have a publishing administrator:
Synchronization royalties are payments made to songwriters and rights holders when a song gets 'synced' to picture, such as a movie, video game, TV show, or commercial.
Unlike performance and mechanical royalties, there's no ongoing payment called a 'sync royalty.' Instead, you get paid an upfront fee for the placement, then earn performance royalties every time the content airs.
To collect your ongoing performance royalties from a sync placement, follow these steps:
Note: If the song is already registered with a PRO, you're covered. Don't create a separate registration because it was used in a sync placement.
Print royalties are payments made to songwriters and rights holders when sheet music, songbooks, or other printed versions of a song are sold or licensed.
Unlike performance and mechanical royalties, print royalties are generally collected through a music publisher or licensing agreement, not a PRO.
To collect your print royalties, follow these steps:
At Royalty Exchange, we've seen it all: missing MLC claims, unregistered splits, and inconsistent metadata.
So what does this mean for you? Money you could be leaving on the table today and a catalog that may be worth less in the future. If you ever want to sell part of your royalties or get an advance, buyers look at your catalog’s earning history. Buyers can’t see royalty income you haven’t collected, so it won’t count toward your catalog’s value until you claim it.
To make sure you’re collecting all your royalties, we recommend auditing your music catalog. This process involves reviewing your songs, copyrights, ownership, registrations, agreements, and royalty history. Whether you’re preparing to sell your catalog or just want to make sure everything is in order, it helps to think about your catalog the way a buyer would.
Start with ownership. Check your split sheets, contracts, and copyright records. Then:
Once your royalties are flowing, you get to decide what to do with that income. For example, you can hold onto it, reinvest it into your career, or turn some of your future royalties into upfront cash.
If you want to explore the last option, Royalty Exchange lets creators sell a portion of their royalty income on a marketplace where qualified buyers make offers. You choose what royalties to sell, without losing ownership of your songs. You also have full control over the process, meaning the deal won’t close without your approval.
To put how this works into perspective: a songwriter listed their songwriter royalties from two Chris Brown songs, "Under The Influence" and "Lower Body," on our marketplace. After four offers, the seller accepted $233,001 upfront, and the buyer collects those royalties until they receive a fixed amount of $292,200. The seller kept ownership of the copyrights, all their other royalty income, and the option to repay the remaining balance early at any time. You can browse more past deals on our marketplace to see what other catalogs have sold for.
And if you're curious what your music catalog could be worth, start with a free valuation.
Creators get debt-free funding. Buyers earn income from royalty assets. Create a free account to explore open listings.
Create Free Account
