Resources
Publishing glossary
The words you meet in music publishing, in plain language: royalties, societies, identifiers and how money moves from a play to your statement.
- Acknowledgement (ACK)
- A society’s reply to a registration file: for each work, whether it was accepted, rejected or needs a correction, often with the society’s own work number.
- See also: CWR (Common Works Registration), Registration status
- Advance
- Money paid to a writer ahead of royalties. It is recouped: paid back out of the writer’s future royalties before more is paid out. An advance is not a promise of future earnings.
- See also: Recoupment
- Allocation
- Splitting the money on a royalty statement between a work’s writers according to their shares, after the agreed commission.
- See also: Matching, Split (share), Commission
- Arranger, adapter and translator
- Roles for people who change an existing work: an arranger reworks the music, an adapter the lyrics, and a translator puts the lyrics into another language. Societies treat these shares by their own rules.
- See also: Songwriter, composer and lyricist
- Collecting society(PRO, CMO)
- An organisation that licenses people who use music (broadcasters, venues, streaming services) and pays the royalties to the songwriters and publishers it represents. Examples are PRS for Music in the UK, ASCAP and BMI in the US, and SAMRO in South Africa. Each society covers its own territory and rights.
- See also: Performance royalties, Mechanical royalties, IPI number
- Commission
- The percentage of royalties a publisher or administrator keeps for its work, as set in the writer’s agreement. The rest goes to the writer.
- See also: Publishing administration
- Composition and recording
- Every released song has two copyrights: the composition (the melody and lyrics, owned by its writers and publishers) and the recording (the master, owned by the artist or label). Publishing royalties are earned by the composition.
- See also: Publishing royalties, Master royalties
- CWR (Common Works Registration)
- The standard file format publishers use to register works with collecting societies: titles, writers, IPI numbers, roles and shares, territory by territory.
- See also: Acknowledgement (ACK), Registration
- IPI number
- The Interested Party Information number societies use to identify a songwriter or publisher. You get one when you join a collecting society; it makes sure royalties reach the right person even when names are spelled differently.
- See also: Collecting society
- ISRC
- The International Standard Recording Code: 12 characters that identify one recording, for example NGA1B2600001. The recording’s owner or distributor assigns it. One song can have many recordings, each with its own ISRC.
- See also: ISWC, Composition and recording
- ISWC
- The International Standard Musical Work Code: it identifies the composition itself and looks like T-123.456.789-0. It is usually assigned once a society registers the work.
- See also: ISRC, Registration
- Master royalties
- Money earned by a recording, paid to whoever owns it (the artist or label), usually through a distributor. They are separate from publishing royalties, which the song’s writers earn.
- See also: Composition and recording, Publishing royalties
- Matching
- Linking each line of a royalty statement to the right work, by its title, writers, ISWC or ISRC. Lines that can’t be matched are held until someone confirms them.
- See also: Royalty statement, Allocation
- Mechanical royalties
- Royalties for copying a song: streams and downloads in many countries, and CDs and vinyl. In the US, The MLC collects mechanical royalties from streaming services; elsewhere a mechanical rights society or the collecting society does.
- See also: Performance royalties, Collecting society
- Neighbouring rights
- Royalties for a recording’s performers and owners when it is broadcast or played in public. They belong to the recording, not the song, so they are not publishing royalties.
- See also: Master royalties
- Payout
- Moving your balance to your bank account or wallet. Payouts follow the minimums and checks in your agreement, and only royalties already received and allocated can be paid.
- See also: Royalty statement
- Performance royalties
- Royalties earned when a song is played in public: on radio and TV, in venues, shops and clubs, and on streaming services. Collecting societies collect and pay them.
- See also: Mechanical royalties, Collecting society
- Publisher
- A company that owns or controls a share of a songwriter’s rights, registers the songs and collects the royalties. A sub-publisher does the same for a publisher in another country.
- See also: Publishing administration, Sub-publisher
- Publishing administration
- Registering a writer’s songs and collecting their publishing royalties for an agreed commission, while the writer keeps ownership of their rights.
- See also: Publisher, Commission
- Publishing royalties
- Money earned by the composition: performance, mechanical and sync royalties, shared between the song’s writers and publishers.
- See also: Performance royalties, Mechanical royalties, Sync licence
- Recoupment
- Paying back an advance from royalties as they come in. Until an advance is recouped, the royalties it covers go towards it instead of being paid out.
- See also: Advance
- Registration
- Telling a collecting society that a work exists, who wrote it and their shares, so the society can pay for it. Each society registers a work separately, and it counts as registered only once every society it was sent to has accepted it.
- See also: Registration status, Territory, CWR (Common Works Registration)
- Registration status
- Where a song’s registration stands. In your account a song shows as Approved once it has been checked, then Registered once every society it was sent to has accepted it.
- See also: Registration, Acknowledgement (ACK)
- Reversion
- Rights going back to the writer when an agreement ends or its term runs out, as the agreement sets out.
- See also: Publishing administration
- Royalty statement
- A report from a society or service listing what each work earned in a period, where and how. A writer statement shows your share of what was allocated, the commission and your balance.
- See also: Matching, Allocation
- Songwriter, composer and lyricist
- The people who write a song. A composer writes the music, a lyricist the words; many writers do both. Producers who wrote part of the melody or lyrics are songwriters too.
- See also: Split (share), Arranger, adapter and translator
- Split (share)
- Each writer’s percentage of a song. For each right, all writers’ shares add up to 100%. Splits are agreed between the writers, ideally on a split sheet before release.
- See also: Split sheet, Allocation
- Split sheet
- A short agreement co-writers sign that records who wrote a song and each person’s share. It prevents disputes and is the evidence societies and publishers rely on.
- See also: Split (share)
- Sub-publisher
- A publisher in another country that registers and collects locally for a publisher, usually for a share of what it collects there.
- See also: Publisher
- Sync licence(synchronisation)
- Permission to use a song with pictures: in a film, series, advert, game or online video. The fee is agreed for each use, and the recording’s owner must agree too.
- See also: Publishing royalties, Composition and recording
- Territory
- The country or region a right is registered or collected in. A society usually covers its own territory and works with societies elsewhere.
- See also: Registration, Collecting society
- Unclaimed royalties(black box)
- Money a society holds because it can’t match it to a registered work or owner. Registering works correctly, with IPI numbers and ISWCs, is the way to claim it before the society’s time limit.
- See also: Registration, Matching