Performance Royalties
The royalty paid to songwriters when their composition is performed publicly, including radio, live shows, and some streaming plays.
Why this matters
What is it?
A performance royalty is paid to the songwriter (and publisher) whenever their composition is performed publicly. 'Publicly' is broader than it sounds: it includes radio play, a bar playing music over speakers, a DJ performing your song at a club, live cover performances, and streaming platforms too, since streaming a song publicly is legally treated as a kind of performance.
These royalties are collected by organizations called PROs, performing rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC in the US. Businesses that play music publicly (radio stations, venues, streaming services, restaurants) pay licensing fees to PROs, and the PROs distribute that money to the songwriters whose music got played, based on reported or sampled usage.
You have to join a PRO and register each song with them yourself; nothing happens automatically. This is separate from mechanical royalties and separate from anything your distributor pays you for the recording.
A simple example
Why you should care
When you'll use it
Common mistakes
- Waiting until a song is already popular to join a PRO, missing royalties from the early plays.
- Registering as a songwriter but not also as your own publisher, which means missing the publisher's half of the performance royalty.
- Picking a PRO without realizing you can typically only belong to one for a given writer role at a time.
Join a PRO as early as possible, it's usually free or low-cost, and register every song the same week it releases.
Keep reading
A unique numeric code assigned to an entire release (single, EP, or album) that identifies it across stores and streaming platforms, similar to a barcode on a physical product.
A unique identifier assigned to a specific recording of a song, used to track plays, streams, and royalties for that exact version, distinct from the song's UPC.
The set of text information attached to your release, like song title, artist name, genre, and release date, that DSPs use to display and organize your music correctly.
A promotional tool that lets fans save an upcoming release to their streaming library or playlist before it's even out, so it appears automatically on release day.
A running list of every task that needs to happen before a song can go live, used to make sure nothing gets missed.
The recurring payments you earn every time your song gets streamed, sold, played on the radio, or used somewhere else.
The royalty paid to songwriters whenever their composition is reproduced, including every stream and download.
The business of owning, registering, and collecting income from the songwriting side of your music, separate from the recording.
A simple written document that records who wrote what percentage of a song, signed before disputes can happen.
The organizations, like ASCAP and BMI, that collect performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and pay them out.
The company that takes your finished song and delivers it to Spotify, Apple Music, and every other store or streaming service.
DSP stands for Digital Service Provider, the industry term for streaming platforms and download stores like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
A widely used digital distributor known for its subscription-based pricing and fast turnaround from upload to release across DSPs.
One of the earliest and longest-running digital music distributors, offering artists a one-time payment model with no subscription required.
A long-established digital distributor offering distribution, publishing administration, and other artist services, historically priced per release.
The specific day (and often time) you choose for your music to go live on streaming platforms and stores, set in advance through your distributor.
The full schedule of everything that needs to happen between now and release day, and after it, laid out with dates.
Playlist pitching is the process of submitting your song to curators, whether that is Spotify itself or independent playlist owners, hoping to get added.
Editorial playlists are playlists curated by a streaming platform's own staff, like Spotify's 'New Music Friday,' rather than by an individual listener.
An EPK is a one-page digital packet with your bio, photos, music links, and contact info, built so anyone from a journalist to a booker can learn about you fast.
How and roughly how much artists actually get paid for streams, and why the amount per stream varies so much between platforms.
The number of unique people who played at least one of your songs on Spotify in the last 28 days, shown on your artist profile.
The final audio polish applied to a finished mix, making it loud, consistent, and ready for release across all platforms.
The square image that represents your song or album everywhere it's sold or streamed.
Put this into a real release plan
Diamond Release turns terms like this into dated steps for your single, EP, or album — with the full 160-article Encyclopedia inside.