Type of Rights in Music Publishing

These are the four main royalties in music publishing:

1 - Performance Royalties

Performance rights refer to compositions (songs) being publicly performed ej : Live performances, airplay on radio or TV, and even streaming,...Performance royalties are managed by performance collection societies in each territory, also commonly referred to as Performing Rights Organisations (PROs). These organisations are government-mandated to manage the performance royalties within their borders, and reciprocal agreements between these PROs mean all catalogue is globally represented and royalties are collected and paid. PROs pay the publisher and the writers directly, essentially splitting the royalty due between these parties. The common split is 50/50, but some PROs have their own splits, which usually lean in favour of the writers. 

2 - Mechanical Royalties

Mechanical royalties are due whenever a song is reproduced, whether that's on a vinyl, CD or even in a stream. Each territory has mandated mechanical collection societies that collect mechanical royalties on their members’ behalf. As a publisher, you might receive your royalties from different parties: in some territories, labels pay these royalties directly to the publishers, but in others, the labels pay the royalties to the collection society, which then pays the publisher. Each territory can have its own calculation basis and rate for mechanical royalties. 

3 - Synch Royalties

Synch royalties are for the synchronisation of music and (moving) picture, such as film, TV shows, adverts and games. When music is used in any of these media, a synchronisation fee needs to be negotiated. These fees are decided between the producers of the images, often with the help of a music supervisor (internal or external) who will find the music, negotiate the fee, and the rightsholders. When music is used in a sync project, a deal will need to be made with both the master and publishing rights holders, and the resulting royalty is payable directly to them. Because these royalties are payable directly from the producers to the rightsholders, there often aren't any royalty files associated with the fee. 

4 - Print Music Royalties

Print music royalties encompass any ‘print’ form of music. This can include traditional scores as well as modern digital reproductions. If you ever sing along to songs using Spotify's lyrics feature, for example, that's technically a print reproduction! Less obvious examples of print royalties include merchandise with lyrics on them or the use of lyrics in a book.