Songwriters do not get a distributor statement. That is the problem.
A songwriter who does not own the master sees none of their income on a distributor dashboard, because none of it arrives there. Everything a songwriter earns comes through the publishing side: performance royalties from a PRO, mechanical royalties from a mechanical rights body, and sync fees. Those are three separate systems, and each one needs its own registration.
What a songwriter actually earns from
- Performance royalties (writer's share)
- Paid by your PRO whenever the composition is streamed, broadcast, or performed in public. Performance income is conventionally divided into a writer's share and a publisher's share, roughly half each.
- The publisher's share
- The other half of that same performance royalty. If you have no publisher, no administrator, and no publishing entity of your own registered, this half can go uncollected entirely — the most common structural gap for unsigned songwriters.
- Mechanical royalties
- Generated every time the composition is reproduced, which includes every single stream. Your PRO does not collect these in every territory. In the US they come from The MLC; across much of Europe one society collects both, but confirm that for your own society rather than assuming it.
- Sync fees
- Paid when the composition is licensed into film, TV, games or advertising. Negotiated per placement rather than collected automatically — though once that placement is broadcast, it generates performance royalties on top.
Registered with a PRO, invisible to the mechanical side
The most common songwriter gap is not a missing PRO membership. It is a songwriter who joined a PRO, reasonably assumed that covered the songwriting, and never registered the same works with a mechanical rights body. Streaming generates a mechanical royalty on every play, and in the US that money sits at The MLC waiting for a matched, registered claim. A catalogue can accumulate years of unclaimed mechanicals while its performance royalties pay out perfectly normally — which is exactly why nobody notices.
What to do about it
- Join a PRO as a writer and register every composition, including works you only part-wrote.
- Register a publishing entity, or appoint a publishing administrator, so the publisher's share has somewhere to be paid.
- Register those same works for mechanicals, separately. In the US that is The MLC, and it is free.
- Make every collaborator's splits match across all registrations. Two co-writers filing conflicting splits puts the work into dispute and stops payment for everyone on it.
- Keep a signed split sheet for every session, dated before release rather than after a problem.
Questions songwriters ask
Do I need a publisher to collect songwriting royalties?
No, but you do need something standing in the publisher's position. Performance royalties are paid out as a writer's share and a publisher's share. Without a publisher, an administrator, or your own registered publishing entity, the publisher's share may simply never reach you. Self-publishing here is a registration, not a record deal.
What is the difference between a PRO and The MLC?
A PRO collects performance royalties — money generated when your composition is played publicly or streamed. The MLC collects mechanical royalties in the United States — money generated by the reproduction of your composition, including on every stream. They are separate organisations collecting separate money, and joining one does not register you with the other.
How far back can I claim royalties on works I never registered?
It depends on the society, and the windows are shorter than most writers expect — commonly somewhere in the three-to-six-year range, with different rules for money that was matched to a work at the time and money that was not. Some unclaimed royalties are redistributed rather than held. Register first, then pursue back-claims.
The royalty types this covers
Where to register
Last reviewed 2026-08-28. Registration rules, royalty splits and claim windows vary by society and by territory — this is a starting point for your own checks, not legal or financial advice.
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