Most independent artists collect only part of what they are owed. Royalty Router maps your specific setup — what you write, what you perform on, what you own, and where you are based — then shows which income streams are already reaching you and which are leaking money.
Earned when your song is streamed or played in public, collected through a performing rights organisation such as PRS for Music, ASCAP, BMI, GEMA, SACEM or APRA AMCOS.
The publisher's half of performance income and most foreign mechanical royalties are collected separately from your PRO. Without a publisher or a publishing administrator this is the largest silent gap for most self-releasing writers.
Streaming in the United States generates a mechanical royalty paid through the MLC. Registration is free and open to songwriters anywhere in the world, not only US-based writers.
When a recording you performed on is broadcast on radio or television, or played in public, you are owed a performer royalty. This is entirely separate from streaming income, and it belongs to you personally even if you are signed to a label.
If you own your master recordings you are also owed the rights-owner share whenever those recordings are broadcast or publicly performed.
Home collecting societies mainly collect domestically. Reaching royalties held in other territories requires an international mandate, either through your own society or through a neighbouring-rights agent.
United Kingdom: PRS for Music and PPL. United States: ASCAP or BMI, the MLC, and SoundExchange. Canada: SOCAN, with Panorama via the Octave portal for rights owners and MROC, ACTRA RACS or ARTISTI for performers. Germany: GEMA and GVL. France: SACEM, with ADAMI or SPEDIDAM for performers and SPPF or SCPP for producers. Australia: APRA AMCOS and PPCA. Also covers Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan, Norway and more than thirty further territories.
Royalties earned when a sound recording is played on radio, television or in public. They split into a performer share and a rights-owner share, and they are separate from both streaming income and songwriter royalties.
No. US terrestrial AM and FM radio pays nothing on the sound recording side. Only songwriters and publishers are paid for US radio airplay. Recording owners and performers are only paid for US digital transmissions such as SiriusXM, Pandora and internet radio, collected by SoundExchange.
Usually yes. Your PRO collects the writer's share of performance royalties. The publisher's share and most foreign mechanicals are collected separately, through a publisher or a publishing administrator such as Songtrust, Sentric or Kosign.
SoundExchange collects US digital performance royalties and offers international mandates that reach foreign neighbouring rights through bilateral agreements. A mandate does not change eligibility, however: US artists remain blocked from the terrestrial rights-owner share in territories applying reciprocity rules.
Royalty Router is a free tool from Admiration Media, a music industry consultancy specialising in royalty collection and neighbouring rights administration.