How Streaming Royalties Work: Master, Publishing and Who Pays What

Every stream of your song generates two kinds of money. Recording (master) royalties pay whoever owns the recording and reach you through your distributor or label. Publishing royalties pay the songwriters and publishers and reach you through collection societies and publishers. If you wrote and recorded your own song, you're owed both, and you need to be set up to collect both.

This guide explains where each royalty comes from, who collects it, why "per-stream rates" vary so much and why statements always arrive after the streams.

Two copyrights in every song

A released song involves two separate rights:

1. The master (sound recording). The specific recording you hear. It's owned by whoever paid for or made the recording: you as an independent artist, or your label.
2. The composition (the song as written). The melody and lyrics. It's owned by the songwriters and, if they have one, their publishers.

A cover version is a good example: the band covering the song owns their recording, but the composition still belongs to the original songwriters.

Each right earns its own royalties, collected by different organizations.

Recording royalties: through your distributor

Streaming services pay a large share of their revenue to the owners of recordings. For independent artists, that money flows like this:

1. A fan streams your song on a service.
2. The service calculates what your recordings earned for the period and reports it to your distributor.
3. Your distributor matches the report to your releases and adds it to your statement.
4. You're paid according to your agreement with the distributor.

If you're signed to a label, the distributor pays the label, and the label pays you according to your record contract.

Radio-style digital performances

In some countries, recordings also earn performance royalties when they're played on radio, TV, in public places or on non-interactive digital radio. In the US, SoundExchange collects for non-interactive digital radio like satellite and internet radio. Outside the US, neighboring rights organizations collect similar money. This is separate from your distributor's streaming income, so check whether you need to register.

Publishing royalties: through PROs, CMOs and mechanical collectors

The composition side earns two main types of royalties from streaming:

Performance royalties

When a song is streamed, it's treated as a public performance of the composition. Performance rights organizations (PROs) and collective management organizations (CMOs) collect this and pay songwriters and publishers. Examples include ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the US, PRS in the UK, SOCAN in Canada and GEMA in Germany. As a songwriter, you normally join one in your country and register your songs.

Mechanical royalties

Streaming also involves reproducing the composition, which generates mechanical royalties. In the US, The MLC collects mechanical royalties from on-demand streaming services under a blanket license. In many other countries, mechanical rights are handled by the local society or a mechanical rights agency.

How you collect publishing

• Register as a songwriter with a PRO or CMO and register every song you write, with accurate splits.
• Collect mechanicals directly (for example, register with The MLC in the US) or through a publisher or publishing administrator, who can also register your songs worldwide.

Songs are identified on this side by the composition and its ISWC, and linked to recordings by ISRC. See ISRC and UPC codes explained.

Why per-stream rates vary

You'll see articles claiming Spotify pays a precise fraction of a cent per stream. In reality, there isn't a fixed rate. Most major services use a model where revenue is pooled and shared out based on each recording's share of total streams. So what a stream is worth depends on:

• Country. Subscription prices differ widely between markets.
• Free vs paid listeners. Ad-supported streams usually generate less than premium streams.
• The total number of streams on the service in that period and market.
• The service. Each one has its own business model and agreements.
• Your deal. What your distributor or label keeps under your agreement.
• Platform policies. For example, Spotify has introduced a minimum number of yearly streams a track needs before it earns recording royalties. Policies like this change, so check each service's current rules.

That's why two songs with the same number of streams can earn different amounts, and why your own "per-stream average" moves from month to month.

Why statements lag behind streams

Royalties don't arrive in real time. Services close their accounting periods, calculate what's owed and send reports to distributors after a delay. Distributors then process those reports and publish statements. Collection societies usually take even longer, since they process data from many services and territories.

In practice:

• Streams you see today in Spotify for Artists will show up in a statement later, often a few months later. Plan your cash flow around that, and around your release timeline.
• A statement for a given month reflects streams from an earlier period, not that month.
• Numbers in artist dashboards and in statements won't match exactly. Dashboards count plays; statements count what services reported and paid.

Splits between collaborators

When several people make a song, agree on splits before you release it, in writing:

• Master splits: who owns what share of the recording (artists, producers, whoever paid for the session). Producers often get a share of master royalties or a fee.
• Publishing splits: who wrote what share of the composition. Every songwriter registers the same agreed percentages with their own PRO or publisher.

A short split sheet signed by everyone, listing each person's name, role and percentage, prevents most disputes. Registering matching splits everywhere helps money reach the right people faster.

Key takeaways

• Every stream earns master royalties (via your distributor or label) and publishing royalties (via PROs, CMOs, mechanical collectors and publishers).
• If you write your own songs, register as a songwriter and register your songs, or you'll leave money uncollected.
• There's no fixed per-stream rate; it depends on country, subscription type, service and your deal.
• Statements lag behind streams, often by months.
• Agree on and document splits before release.

Royalties at Stillmore Group

When you distribute through Stillmore Group, your recording royalties arrive as statements in your workspace, alongside your catalog and release status. For publishing, you'll still need to register your songs with the relevant organizations. Artists and labels also compare notes on royalties in the Stillmore Group community. For the release side, see how to get your music on Spotify, Apple Music and every other store.