Every word the handbook uses, in two plain sentences

The nine chapters use words a working musician hears every week and almost nobody is ever handed a plain meaning for. Here they all are, in groups, each one pointing back to the chapter it comes up in. Nothing here needs an account, and if a word is missing, say so on the Board and it gets added.

Six groups. Type to narrow them, or scroll.

The two halves of a song

Every song is two pieces of property with two owners and two separate hundred percents. Most of the handbook follows from that.

12 words

Composition: The song itself: the melody and the lyrics, owned by whoever wrote them. It earns its own money, through your PRO and The MLC, whoever made the recording. 1. Where the money comes from 4. The details that decide if you get paid
Master: One specific recording of a composition, owned by whoever paid for it or made it. Its streams and downloads pay whoever owns it, usually through a distributor, and putting it in a film or an advert needs that owner's licence. 1. Where the money comes from 5. Before you sign anything
Copyright: The legal ownership of a song or a recording, which exists from the moment it is written down or recorded. In the United States it usually lasts the author's whole life plus seventy years, which is why a share given away "for the life of the copyright" is, in practice, gone for good. 1. Where the money comes from 5. Before you sign anything
Publishing: The business side of the composition: registering it, licensing it and collecting what it earns. "Your publishing" means the composition's share of the money, and a share of it assigned to somebody else in a contract is usually theirs for the life of the copyright. 1. Where the money comes from 5. Before you sign anything
Writer's share and publisher's share: The composition's income is split in two by convention, half to the writer and half to the publisher. If you have no publisher the publisher's share is still yours, but it is often only paid to a registered publishing entity, which is why the handbook says to register as both. 3. Every registration
Publisher (publishing entity): A company, or a name you register, that holds the publisher's share of a composition. Many independent writers set one up only so the publisher's half of their own money has somewhere to go. 3. Every registration
Rights holder: Whoever owns a piece of a song, the composition or the master, and is owed money when it is used. The streaming services pay rights holders, not artists as such, which is why who owns what decides who is paid. 2. What a stream is worth
Featured artist: The performer a recording is released under, as against a session player or a backing vocalist. SoundExchange pays the featured artist a share of its own, separate from the share paid to whoever owns the master. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Points: Percentage points of the master's income, the way a producer's cut is often written: "three points". A point is one percent of whatever the agreement says it is a percent of, so read that part. 5. Before you sign anything
Split: The percentage of a song each person owns, agreed and written down. There are two separate splits, one for the composition and one for the master, and each must add up to one hundred on its own. 4. The details that decide if you get paid 9. If you only do five things
Split sheet: The one-page document that records the splits, with each person's legal name, role, share and PRO details. It is written on the day of the session, because afterwards everybody remembers the version that favours them. 4. The details that decide if you get paid
Sample: A piece of somebody else's recording used inside yours, which needs permission from whoever owns that recording and whoever owns the song in it. Content ID can also misfire on a track with a sample in it, claiming other people's videos that use the same original. 1. Where the money comes from

Who collects it

Four organisations, a distributor and a few people in the middle. None of them talks to the others, and most will never contact you.

13 words

PRO (performing rights organisation): The society that collects performance royalties for compositions when they are played in public or broadcast. In the United States that is ASCAP, BMI or SESAC: you join one, and your songs are registered with the one you joined. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
ASCAP, BMI and SESAC: The three US performing rights organisations. BMI is free to join as a writer, ASCAP charges fifty dollars once, and SESAC is by invitation. 3. Every registration
Distribution (a society's payout): A collecting society's payout round, when the money it took in for a period is divided among the people it matched. It has nothing to do with your distributor, and a mistake in one can only be disputed for a limited time: nine months at ASCAP and BMI. 1. Where the money comes from
The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective): The organisation that collects US mechanical royalties for compositions on interactive streaming, free to join. It is a different organisation from your distributor and your PRO, and it pays a different cheque for the same stream. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
SoundExchange: The US organisation that collects neighbouring rights, the money from non-interactive digital radio such as SiriusXM and Pandora's radio mode. It pays the performer and the master owner, so an artist who owns their recording has two claims to register. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Distributor: The company that puts your recording on Spotify, Apple Music and the rest and passes back the master's share of the money, for a yearly fee or a percentage. That covers one of the eight kinds of income, or two if you also switch on the Content ID it usually offers for a cut. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Content ID: YouTube's system for recognising your recording inside other people's videos and paying you for the views, with equivalents on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. It is usually switched on through your distributor, who takes a cut. 1. Where the money comes from
Publishing administrator: A company that registers your compositions with societies at home and abroad and collects what they earn, for a percentage. Worth it for international collection, which is hard to do alone; the domestic registrations it charges for are free to do yourself. 1. Where the money comes from 8. What you are sold that is free
Foreign societies and reciprocal agreements: Every country has its own collecting societies, and your home PRO has agreements with them to pass money across borders. Collection across borders is imperfect, and some territories pay out only to somebody representing you locally. 1. Where the money comes from
Music supervisor: The person who chooses and clears the music for a television show, a film, an advert or a game. They work to deadlines, and a song whose owners cannot be reached quickly is passed over for one whose owners can. 6. Sync, honestly
Music library: A company that holds a catalogue of tracks and offers them to supervisors and producers, taking a share of each placement. A library that charges you to be in it is paid whether or not you are ever placed. 6. Sync, honestly 8. What you are sold that is free
Spotify for Artists: Spotify's free dashboard for the people behind a release, with its numbers and the form for pitching an unreleased song to the editorial playlists. The pitch is the only kind of playlist consideration that carries weight, and it costs nothing. 8. What you are sold that is free
Curator: Somebody who runs a playlist. Editorial curators work for the services and are pitched through Spotify for Artists; independent curators worth reaching take submissions directly and free, and paid placement is against the services' rules. 8. What you are sold that is free

The kinds of money

Eight separate incomes from one song, and the words the services use for how they pay them.

19 words

Royalty: Money paid to the owner of a song or a recording each time it is used, rather than once up front. Nearly everything in the handbook is a royalty of one kind or another. 1. Where the money comes from
Recording royalty: The master's share of a stream or a download, paid by the service to your distributor and on to you. For most independent artists it is the only cheque that arrives on its own. 1. Where the money comes from
Mechanical royalty: The composition's share of a stream, a download or a physical copy, paid for the reproduction of the song. The MLC collects it for streams and downloads in the United States, and it is free to claim and widely unclaimed. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Performance royalty: The composition's share when a song is played in public or broadcast: radio, a venue, a shop, television, and part of every stream. Your PRO collects it, and generally only from the date you registered the work. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Surveyed performance: A play a performing rights organisation actually counted. Nobody can log every play of every song everywhere, so for many kinds of use the societies count a sample and pay everyone from what it shows. 1. Where the money comes from
Neighbouring rights: Money for the use of the recording itself on non-interactive digital radio, paid to the performer and the master owner rather than the writer. SoundExchange collects it in the United States. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Sync fee: A one-off fee for the right to use a song with picture: a show, a film, an advert, a game, a trailer. Each placement needs a licence for the master and one for the composition, and a single placement can be worth more than a year of streaming. 6. Sync, honestly 1. Where the money comes from
User-generated content (UGC): Videos other people make with your song in them, on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook. The views can pay you, but only if the recording has been fingerprinted into Content ID or its equivalents. 1. Where the money comes from
Live performance royalties: The share of a venue's PRO licence fee that goes to the writers of the songs played there, claimed by reporting your setlists. It is separate from what the venue pays you to play, and almost nobody files it. 1. Where the money comes from
Pro-rata pool: How the big services pay: all the money for a territory goes into one pool, the service keeps its share, and the rest is divided among rights holders by their share of total streams. Nobody is paid a fixed amount for a stream. 2. What a stream is worth
Territory: The country or region a licence, a deal or a pool of money covers. Streaming money is pooled and divided territory by territory, so where your listeners are changes what a stream pays. 2. What a stream is worth 1. Where the money comes from
Per-stream rate: What one stream turned out to be worth after the pool was divided: an average worked out afterwards, not a price anybody set. Every honest figure is a range for that reason. 2. What a stream is worth
Interactive and non-interactive streaming: Interactive means the listener chooses the song, as on Spotify or Apple Music; non-interactive means a station or a radio mode chooses it, as on SiriusXM or Pandora radio. They pay through different organisations and at different rates. 2. What a stream is worth 1. Where the money comes from
Subscription tier and free tier: Whether a listener pays a monthly fee or hears adverts. A stream from a paying subscriber is worth roughly two and a half to three times one from the free tier. 2. What a stream is worth
Unmatched royalties (the black box): Money that was collected for streams or plays but could not be matched to the person owed it, usually because the song was never registered or the names did not line up. Registering a work is what lets what is sitting against it be paid to you. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Accrued royalties: Money your music has already earned that has not been paid out yet, because payments run months behind the plays. When you leave a distributor or end a deal, what happens to it is a line worth finding in the agreement. 1. Where the money comes from 5. Before you sign anything
Statutory rate: A royalty rate set by law rather than negotiated, in the United States by the Copyright Royalty Board. The mechanical rate for streaming is one, which is why the handbook can quote it as a hard number. 2. What a stream is worth
Statutory split: A division of money set by law rather than by a contract. SoundExchange's is the one the handbook means: about half to the owner of the recording, about forty-five percent to the featured artist, and the rest to funds for session musicians and backing vocalists. 1. Where the money comes from 3. Every registration
Copyright Royalty Board and Phonorecords IV: The CRB is the panel that sets US statutory rates; Phonorecords IV is its ruling on what interactive streaming pays songwriters from 2023 to 2027. It puts the all-in songwriter rate at 15.3 percent of service revenue in 2026. 2. What a stream is worth

The codes and the paperwork

Royalties are matched by machines comparing text and numbers. These are the numbers, and the filing that gets them to you.

8 words

ISRC: The code that identifies one specific recording, given free by your distributor. A remix, a radio edit and the album version are three recordings and need three codes; reusing one merges their income. 4. The details that decide if you get paid
UPC or EAN: The barcode number that identifies one release, given free by your distributor. A single, an EP and an album are three releases, so each needs its own. 4. The details that decide if you get paid
ISWC: The code that identifies one composition whatever recording it is on, assigned by your PRO after you register the work. It is how the societies know two recordings are the same song. 4. The details that decide if you get paid
IPI or CAE number: Your own number as a writer or a publisher, given by your PRO when you join. It is the number a split sheet needs, because names are spelt differently and numbers are not. 4. The details that decide if you get paid 3. Every registration
Metadata: The text and numbers attached to a recording or a composition: titles, names, codes, dates, splits. Royalties are matched by machines comparing it, and when it does not match the money goes somewhere else quietly. 4. The details that decide if you get paid
Back catalogue: Everything you have already released. Registration works forward from the date you file, so register the back catalogue too, and today rather than next month. 3. Every registration 9. If you only do five things
Affiliation: Joining a PRO as a writer, which is what lets it pay you. BMI pays only for performances after you affiliated; ASCAP can credit some earlier surveyed performances if you ask. 1. Where the money comes from
Registration: Telling the organisation that collects a kind of money which songs are yours, so it can match plays to you. Most registrations are free and the whole list takes about an evening. 3. Every registration

Words in a contract

None of this is legal advice. It is what the words mean, so the hour with a lawyer is spent on the agreement and not the vocabulary.

19 words

Licence: Permission from an owner to use their song, recording, beat or photo on stated terms: for how long, where, and for what. Granting a licence is not selling the thing itself, and most music money is a licence fee by another name. 5. Before you sign anything 6. Sync, honestly
Term: How long an agreement lasts. A defined end, or a way to leave, is the difference between a deal and a transfer. 5. Before you sign anything
In perpetuity: Forever, with no way back. When a contract grants rights in perpetuity, look beside it for a term limit or a reversion clause, because without one the grant never ends. 5. Before you sign anything
Reversion: Rights coming back to you after a period, or if the other side does not do what it promised, such as releasing the record. A library holding an unplaced track forever is doing you no good, and reversion is the clause that ends that. 5. Before you sign anything 6. Sync, honestly
Advance: Money paid to you up front that is really a loan against your own future royalties. You see no further royalties until it is recouped, and what counts as an expense decides how long that takes. 5. Before you sign anything
Recoupment: The other side paying itself back out of your royalties for the advance and whatever costs the agreement lets it charge. Undefined "expenses" let an advance keep growing after you have spent it. 5. Before you sign anything
Cross-collateralisation: Losses on one project being recouped from the earnings of another, so a record that does well can pay you nothing while one that did not is paid off. Watch for it reaching across kinds of income, such as recording costs taken from touring. 5. Before you sign anything
Gross and net: Gross is everything that came in; net is what is left after deductions. A percentage of net after undefined deductions is a different deal from the same percentage of gross, at the same headline number. 5. Before you sign anything
Net receipts: Gross receipts less costs, in whatever way the agreement defines costs. Fifty percent of net receipts can mean very little if "all costs incurred" is open-ended. 5. Before you sign anything
Assignment: The other party's right to hand the contract to somebody else, often without asking you. Companies are sold, so the normal ask is notice, or consent that cannot be unreasonably withheld. 5. Before you sign anything
Exclusivity: What you are prevented from doing elsewhere while the agreement runs, and for how long. Exclusivity that covers features, production for others or a whole genre quietly ends a career's worth of side income. 5. Before you sign anything
Option: The other side's right to extend or renew on terms already set, usually theirs alone to exercise. Mutual renewal is far friendlier than an option or an automatic renewal, though all three read the same at a glance. 5. Before you sign anything
Commission: The percentage a manager, an agent or a label takes of your income. The question is always commission on what: recording income is standard, income from deals signed before they arrived is not. 5. Before you sign anything
Sunset clause: How a manager's commission winds down after the deal ends: for how long, on what, and at what declining rate. No sunset means paying somebody forever for work they are no longer doing. 5. Before you sign anything
360 deal: A label deal that takes a share of income beyond recordings: touring, merchandise, brand deals, sometimes publishing. It is not automatically bad, if the share is matched by real work in each of those areas. 5. Before you sign anything
Beat licence (lease): The right to use a producer's beat on your song for a set number of plays or sales, while the producer keeps selling the same beat to others. An exclusive upgrade stops that, and the publishing share the producer keeps is the thing to check hardest. 5. Before you sign anything
Producer agreement: The paper between you and the person who made the beat or produced the record: a flat fee, or a reduced fee in exchange for master points and a publishing share. It belongs in writing before the session, not negotiated after the song turns out well. 5. Before you sign anything
Takedown: Removing a release from the streaming services, which a distributor does when you leave or when a track is flagged. How long takedowns take, and whether your codes and numbers survive a move, are the things to read in a distribution agreement. 5. Before you sign anything
Countersign: A second signature a licence needs, such as a producer's on a sync deal for a song that uses their beat. A cheap beat with an unreachable producer attached is a song you can never place. 5. Before you sign anything 6. Sync, honestly

Sync, the studio and the sales pitch

The words from a placement, a session and a quote, and the words in the offers the handbook says to refuse.

18 words

Sync (synchronisation): Music put to picture: television, film, advertising, games, trailers, corporate video. It needs a licence for the master and one for the composition, and nobody collects it for you. 6. Sync, honestly
Master use licence: Permission from the owner of the recording to use that recording with picture. The other half is the sync licence for the composition, from whoever wrote it. 6. Sync, honestly
Clearance: Getting every permission a use needs, from everybody who owns a piece of the master and of the composition. A song that clears in a day gets placed, and one that needs four people chased usually does not. 6. Sync, honestly
Instrumental and stems: The version of a song without vocals, and the separate parts (drums, bass, vocals) a mix was made from. Supervisors often need one or the other, and not having them loses the placement. 6. Sync, honestly 7. What things actually cost
Exclusive and non-exclusive: Whether a library may be the only one placing a track, often for years, or one of several. Exclusivity is only worth giving to a library that can show you what it has placed. 6. Sync, honestly
Retitling: A library registering an alternative title for your song so it can track and collect on its own placements. It is normal, with real benefits, and worth understanding for what it does to your own registrations. 6. Sync, honestly
Mixing: Balancing and shaping the recorded tracks of a song into one finished stereo recording. It commonly runs a few hundred dollars a song from an experienced freelancer, and the number of revisions included is the thing to ask. 7. What things actually cost
Mastering: The last pass on a finished mix, setting its level and tone so it plays well everywhere and matches the rest of the release. An automated online service runs about five to twenty-five dollars a song, and an engineer about fifty to two hundred. 7. What things actually cost
Revisions: Changes to a mix after the first version, so many included in the price and the rest billed. Agree the number before the work starts. 7. What things actually cost
Day rate: One price for a full day in the studio rather than an hourly one, usually cheaper per hour. Ask what is included: the engineer, the gear, the session files. 7. What things actually cost
Session files: The raw recordings and the project a session produced, which you should leave with. Without them another engineer cannot pick the song up where it was left. 7. What things actually cost
Layered source file: The artwork as the designer built it, with its layers still separate, so it can be changed and reused for every size and format. Ask for it, with written permission for commercial use. 7. What things actually cost
Publicist (PR campaign): Somebody paid to get press and radio to cover your release, commonly over six to eight weeks. It is a real job, and nobody doing it can promise coverage, so ask what the last three campaigns produced. 7. What things actually cost 8. What you are sold that is free
Editorial playlist: A playlist made by the streaming service's own staff, pitched for free through Spotify for Artists before the song comes out. It is the only kind of playlist consideration that carries any weight. 8. What you are sold that is free
Artificial streams: Plays generated by bots or paid farms rather than listeners, which paid playlist sellers often run. The service strips the streams, withholds the money and can remove the track, and the penalty lands on the artist. 8. What you are sold that is free
Recommendation systems: The software a streaming service uses to choose what to play people next, in its radio modes and personalised playlists. It learns from how real listeners react, so bought streams and followers teach it the wrong things about your music. 8. What you are sold that is free
Pay-to-play: Paying for a slot on a bill, or buying tickets up front to resell, so the promoter is paid by the artists rather than by an audience. It is usually sold as exposure, and it makes you the customer. 8. What you are sold that is free
Submission fee: A charge to have your song listened to by a label, a library, a supervisor, a blog or a curator. The business earns whether or not anything happens to you, which is the tell. 8. What you are sold that is free 6. Sync, honestly

✓

A word that is not here?

Ask on the Board and pick the chapter you met it in. It gets answered there, and it gets added here.

Where this leads

Now read the words in their place Where the money comes from → Just tell me what to do first If you only do five things →

Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice. Rates, statutory splits, platform rules and organisation fees all move, and every figure was checked in September 2026 against at least five independent sources. This is written from a United States starting point. If something is wrong, tell us on the Board and it gets fixed.