(UPDATED) In the modern music industry, songwriters are finding less money from album sales and more from the collection of all sorts of royalties. Bands like the Black Keys, who spent over a decade trying to break through to the mainstream, finally did so with the help of placement of their songs in commercials for TV and film.
But sync royalties from song placements for TV and film are just one of the many, many sources that songwriters can take advantage of to collect royalties and fees. In fact, there are 5 distinct types of royalties and fees that can become a big enough source of revenues for songwriters that they alone can sustain a career.
The following is a list of common sources of royalties for songwriters. Knowing which source(s) of royalties that you can be taking advantage of can help you to create proper goals and the action steps needed to achieve them, so that you can work towards actually collecting enough money from royalties to forget worrying about how many albums you need to sell in order to survive:
Performance Royalties
1. TV (royalties are paid by the TV station for the broadcast of a show, film or commercial with your music on it. This is not to be confused with the actual placement of your songs in TV, film or commercials which is a sync royalty – see below.)
2. Radio
3. Live venues
4. Restaurants
5. Bars
6. Movie theaters
7. Elevator music services
8. Supermarkets
9. Clothing stores
10. Gyms
11. When your music is sampled
12. Jukebox
Mechanical Royalties
13. Ringtones / ringbacks
14. Recorded cover songs
15. Record sales
16. Film soundtracks
17. Karaoke recordings
18. Greeting cards
Sync Licensing Fees
19. TV shows
20. TV commercials
21. Film commercials
22. Video games
23. Smartphone apps
24. DVDs / Blu-Rays
Print Royalties
25. Lyrics reprints
26. Guitar tabs
27. Music sheet books
Digital Royalties
28. Online streaming (e.g. Spotify)
29. Internet radio (e.g. Pandora)
30. Collaborative listening (e.g. Turntable)
To collect all these royalties, you need to make sure that your songs are properly registered with a Performance Rights Organization (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) as well as other US collection agencies like HFA and Music Reports.
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Written by Jon Ostrow for Songtrust – royalty collection service for all music makers.
