Although most independent artists are only just discovering Music Publishing, the collection of compositional royalties has been around for centuries. How we listen to, own and distribute music has changed dramatically over the decades. With streaming becoming the number one way to listen to our music, the music industry has had to make some changes. This was to make sure that everyone had access to all the royalties that were available to them when physical media was more prominent. Music Distribution and the collection of Sound Recording Royalties transitioned to streaming smoothly, however ..read more

You can earn different Publishing Royalties in many ways and we’re going to take you through what your composition can earn you! Performance Royalties: Whether a composition is a performance on TV, broadcast on the radio, a background playlist streamed at a restaurant, a jukebox in a waiting room or a live performance. If you hear music when you’re out and about, it’s generating royalties to collect. Mechanical Royalties: When a composition is reproduced in any form, a Mechanical Royalty is generated. This means you can earn more whenever your composition is purchased from stores like Amazon o ..read more

Image credit: Alexander Grey As Digital Music Publishing refines and tools at royalty collectors’ disposal grow increasingly accurate, we continue to see more publishing earnings reach artists. The British Performance Rights Organisation ‘PRS for Music’ have reported their largest quarter ever with the distribution of £239 million to rightsholders (a 13% increase from October 2022). It is their largest royalty payment since they began in 1914. Along with this, the American Mechanical Rights Organisation ‘The MLC’ announced that they have paid out over $1.5 billion since their launch in 2018. W ..read more

Musicians are making more money than ever from music publishing, and YouTube is no exception – especially if you have Content ID enabled. Along with your sound recording royalties, you can make three different types of publishing royalty through monetized YouTube videos. They generate performance royalties, mechanical royalties and YouTube synchronisation royalties. Performance royalties are generated when a composition is performed, recorded, played or streamed in public. Mechanical royalties are generated whenever a composition is reproduced in any form, whether through stream or purchase. Y ..read more

Now that more and more people are using AI as a creative tool, Music Publishers are proposing the guidelines to ethical AI use. Following the recent popularity of AI generated songs that imitate artists, the Independent Music Publishers International Forum (IMPF) have provided guidelines for AI developers on how AI can be used without infringing on the rights of artists. This was to ensure that artificial intelligence continues to be a tool that empowers artists rather than replace humanities contribution. As the current discourse on the ethics of AI continues to swarm all creative industries ..read more

Within the entirety of the digital music landscape, these are issues that all distributors and music stores have to tackle. However, tracking down a dodgy composition claim is a lot tougher than removing a sound recording. Over the summer, there has been a spotlight on a popular music publishing administrator and if the content they are claiming on is all legitimate, resulting in frozen payments and disturbed revenue flows for writers who use their service. Collecting your publishing royalties can be difficult at the best of times, so as an independent songwriter – this is the last thing you n ..read more

Understanding performance royalties can be a slog at the best of times. So once you throw neighbouring rights in the mix, it can all get a bit complicated. Neighbouring rights are there to be collected by any artist or performer who has made an audible contribution to a song (whether that’s an original composition or a cover). Although neighbouring rights are put under the same umbrella of publishing royalties, they are their own type of royalty that ‘neighbour’ performance royalties. Instead of just focusing on the writer of a composition, they make sure the performers and record owners are b ..read more

Music publishing can often be a tidal wave of acronyms and royalty types – so we’re going to explain exactly what a PRO is and why independent musicians should be signed up to them. A Performance Rights Organisation (usually referred to as a PRO) are the organisations who collect a music publishing royalty known as a ‘Performance Royalty’. Whether your composition is a performance on TV, broadcast on the radio, a background playlist streamed at a restaurant, or a live performance – If you hear music when you’re out and about, it’s generating performance royalties for you to collect. For exampl ..read more

Image Credit: The Pact Why should artists get paid for songs they didn’t even write? The Pact, a group of major US songwriters, is fighting back. Making a song a hit takes an army. So shouldn’t everyone involved get fair credit? Songwriters are taking a stand against the culture of “bullying” that leads to artists getting a large credit on songs they didn’t actually write, and against what they see as the subsequent erosion of the publishing royalties which songwriters rely upon for income. A group calling itself The Pact first posted anonymously on Instagram, calling for action. Now an open l ..read more

Once you’ve finished the hard work and created your music, relax as RouteNote collects royalties on your behalf. Learn all about how music publishing with us works right here. Creating music is a true labour of love. From the conception of an idea to the countless hours spent writing, recording, editing, and honing. It makes sense, then, that you would want to collect as many royalties for it as possible. That’s where music publishing comes in. The RouteNote Publishing team is here to ensure that royalties for any streams and downloads of your music are immediately collected. But, there’s a l ..read more