What's the difference between publishing and master royalties?
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In the music industry, every track has two separate sets of copyrights: the 'Master' (the specific audio recording) and the 'Composition' (the underlying song, lyrics, and melody). Master royalties are paid to the owners of the recording, while publishing royalties are paid to the songwriters and their publishers.
- 1.Assign the 'Master Rights' to the owner of the specific sound recording (usually the label or the artist who paid for the studio time).
- 2.Assign the 'Publishing Rights' to the songwriters and composers who wrote the underlying melody and lyrics.
- 3.Collect Master royalties via digital distributors and SoundExchange whenever the record is streamed or bought.
- 4.Collect Publishing royalties via Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) and Mechanical Licensing Collectives (MLCs) whenever the song is performed, broadcast, or streamed.
- ×Registering with a PRO (ASCAP/BMI) does NOT collect your master royalties.
- ×If you record a cover song, you own the master, but you do not own the publishing.
- ×Sampling another record requires permission from both the master owner and the publisher.
Even if you are a solo artist, you own both sides. To collect everything, you must register the song with a PRO (like ASCAP/BMI) for publishing AND a distributor (like DistroKid) plus SoundExchange for the master.
Based on AI training data — may not reflect current information.
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