Performance Royalties 101: The Basics Every Songwriter Needs to Know

As a songwriter, you pour your heart and soul into creating music. But have you ever wondered how you get paid when your songs are played in public? That's where performance royalties come in.

What Are Performance Royalties?

At its core, a performance royalty is a payment owed to a songwriter or publisher every time their musical work is performed publicly. This includes a wide range of scenarios, such as:

• Playing on the radio

• Streaming on services like Spotify or Apple Music

• Being performed live in a concert venue

• Being played as background music in a restaurant, bar, or store

• Being featured in a television show or commercial

It's important to differentiate these from other types of royalties. While mechanical royalties are paid for the physical or digital reproduction of a song (e.g., selling a CD or a digital download), and sync royalties are for when your music is synchronized to a visual medium (like a film or TV show), performance royalties specifically address the "public performance" aspect.

Why Do They Exist?

The concept of performance royalties is rooted in copyright law. It acknowledges that when a song is publicly performed, it has commercial value. The royalties ensure that the creators of the musical work are compensated for that value.

To manage and collect these royalties, songwriters and publishers register their works with Performing Rights Organizations, or PROs. The main PROs in the United States are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Each of these organizations tracks public performances of the music in their repertoire and distributes the collected royalties to the appropriate rights holders.

Is your music being performed publicly? Make sure you're registered with a PRO!