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YouTube Accrued Royalties

The following information is regarding TuneCore's Publishing Administration service

What is this campaign?

TuneCore, along with many other music publishers entered into a settlement agreement with YouTube for unclaimed accrued royalties from 2021. As part of this settlement, music publishers are now entitled to claim unclaimed works for this period only until April 15th, 2023. Therefore, if you do not make a claim now, you may never be able to collect unclaimed accrued amounts unless you pursue your own legal action.

Every year YouTube opens its accrued royalties pool so publishers can claim on behalf of their writers. Please note that these are domestic (US-based) Youtube mechanical reproduction royalties. 

Shouldn't you already be collecting my royalties because I have YTSR?

TuneCore is monetizing the sound recording asset and paying through 100% of those royalties. However, there are two Copyrights to be considered here; the sound recording and the composition. There are additional royalties to be collected from the activity related to the underlying composition of your sound recording on YouTube. By signing up for TuneCore Publishing administration, we will ensure that not only is this accrued YouTube income collected but any potential monies from other services such as Spotify and Apple Music, for example. You will also ensure publishing royalties are collected on a go-forward basis so that you leave no money on the table. 

When should I expect to get paid these royalties?

Royalties are expected to be distributed around November 15th, 2023! Please read this article to learn more about our payment schedule.

I already have a Publishing administrator, are they not collecting these royalties for me? 

If you are concerned that you have royalties that are not being collected on your behalf please contact your publisher immediately! 

How much in royalties are unclaimed/how much should I expect?

Unfortunately, we don't know the specific dollar amounts tied to the usage as YouTube does not share that information with us until royalties are released. We anticipate royalties will be included in the November royalty distribution. Generally, how much you can expect in royalty payments is dependent upon how many times your composition was viewed. You can learn more about how your composition collects royalties here: Do I get Paid When my Composition is Streamed? 

How do I register these works?

Once you sign up your works should automatically populate within your composition manager. If you have any non-Tunecore distributed works, please use the following method to register them in your composition manager.

  1. Log into your TuneCore Account and click on “Publishing Administration”
  2. You can then click into your composition manager
  3. Once in your composition manager click on “Add Compositions” on the top right-hand corner of the screen. 
  4. Add all required information (optional information ensures a more complete registration picture). The required information is as follows:
    1. Song Title
    2. Performing Artist
    3. Percent share you are claiming ownership of
    4. You can add co-writers' information by clicking "List Co-writers," but please note that adding a co-writer will not automatically opt that writer into receiving income from TuneCore Publishing Administration.  They must sign up for their own TuneCore account in order to collect any outstanding income for the song.
    5. Hit Register 

I have already registered those splits/songs with my PRO (BMI, ASCAP, etc).

BMI and ASCAP are performing rights organizations and collect performance royalties only. They’re not a publishing administrator and have nothing to do with the mechanical reproduction royalty stream that you’re currently missing out on. When you register those works with TuneCore it’s a one-time thing. We will take over the registrations at your PRO as well as register them with hundreds of other societies worldwide. By doing this you will be maximizing the writer’s share of your performance royalties at your local PRO as well as ensuring you are not leaving any money on the table. We will ensure that not only is this accrued YouTube income collected but any potential mechanical (from DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music) Print, Sync, Micro sync, and performance royalties(publisher share) are collected for you. 

A lot of the information is already pre-populated for you based on the information from the songs you’ve distributed through TuneCore. You just have to let us know your share/split. Once the works are registered with us, we can collect the income you’re due. As a reminder, we need those splits by 4/15 to make that claim for you. 

For more information on the difference between a PRO and a publishing administrator please click here.

You can learn more about the type of royalties TuneCore Publishing collects in relation to your PRO here: What royalties do you collect in addition to what the PROs/performing rights societies collect? 

 

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