Music royalties are the payments you get when your music is streamed, sold, played on the radio, performed live or used in a film or advert. Every released song earns from two separate copyrights, and each one pays different people through different organisations. To see both sides for your streams, try the Spotify royalty calculator, which estimates the recording money and the songwriting money separately. This page is the map; the guides in our music royalties and pay guides go deeper on each type.
Two copyrights in every track
The recording (the master). The actual audio file. It’s owned by whoever paid for it: you if you release it yourself, the label if you’re signed.
The song (the composition). The melody and lyrics. It’s owned by the songwriters, and their publishers if they have one.
If you write and record your own music and release it yourself, you own both and you’re owed both sets of royalties. Most of the money independent artists miss is on the song side, because it needs separate registration.
The song gets the smaller share of streaming money. The UK competition regulator, the CMA, found it rose from 8% in 2008 to 15% in 2021, with recordings taking 53% and the services keeping 32%.
The six types of music royalties
1. Recording royalties
Paid when your recordings are streamed, downloaded or sold, through your distributor or label. Across the big services they earned an average of $3.41 per 1,000 streams in 2024, according to Duetti, and signed artists get a share of that: 23.3% on average in new UK major-label deals in 2021, says the CMA.
2. Neighbouring rights
Paid to performers and recording owners when a recording is played on the radio, on TV or in shops and bars. Session players get a share too, and neighbouring rights covers how to register.
3. Mechanical royalties
Paid to songwriters each time their song is reproduced: streamed on demand, downloaded or pressed. In the US the Copyright Royalty Board sets the on-demand streaming rate at 15.3% of a service’s revenue in 2026, and mechanical royalties has the rest.
4. Performance royalties
Paid to songwriters when their song is played in public: radio, TV, streaming, gigs, clubs, shops. The UK collects through PRS and the US through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, as performance royalties explains.
5. Sync fees
Paid when your music is synced to pictures: a film, TV show, advert or game. The recording owner and the songwriters each negotiate a fee, and broadcasts then earn performance royalties on top.
6. Print and lyrics
Paid for sheet music and licensed lyrics. It’s small for most people and goes to the songwriters through their publisher.
Who collects what
| Royalty | Who it’s for | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recording | Recording owner | Distributor or label | Distributor or label |
| Neighbouring rights | Performers and recording owner | PPL | SoundExchange (digital radio only) |
| Mechanical | Songwriters and publishers | MCPS | The MLC (streaming); publisher or admin (physical) |
| Performance | Songwriters and publishers | PRS | ASCAP, BMI, SESAC |
| Sync | Both sides | Negotiated directly | Negotiated directly |
Two things surprise people. US AM/FM radio doesn’t pay performers or recording owners at all, only songwriters. And US streaming mechanicals are collected by The MLC, which is free to join and pays monthly.
Who you need to sign up with
Your distributor covers the recording. The song side needs you to sign up yourself:
- One collecting society for performance. UK writers join PRS, which also collects from the US through the American societies. US writers choose one of ASCAP or BMI.
- Something that collects US streaming mechanicals. That’s The MLC, and it’s free. If you’re outside the US and a society or publisher already collects those for you, they handle it.
- PPL, or SoundExchange in the US, if you also perform on your recordings, for radio and public play.
- A publisher or admin company, if you want one. They chase the money the societies don’t reach. Read what a music publisher does before signing anything.
Register every song, with every co-writer and their share, before it comes out. Songs nobody registers still earn money. It just sits there unclaimed.
What to do now
- Agree the splits on the day you write, on a split sheet. Arguments get worse once a song earns.
- Join a collecting society and register each song.
- If your music streams in the US, make sure someone collects your mechanicals there.
- Keep a simple list of your songs, co-writers, shares and registration numbers.
None of this costs much, and most of it is free. Skipping it costs you every royalty the song ever earns.
Next step
Put your monthly streams into the Spotify royalty calculator and pick “I wrote or co-wrote it” to see the songwriting side. Then register your songs, starting with a performing rights society.
Where these figures come from
- UK CMA: music streaming market study final report (29 Nov 2022)
- Digital Music News: Duetti’s 2024 per-stream rates (24 Jan 2025)
- Music Business Worldwide: the CRB accepts the 2023–2027 streaming rates (30 Dec 2022)
- Hypebot: closing the radio royalty loophole (10 Feb 2025)
- The MLC: FAQs
