The following information is regarding TuneCore's Publishing Administration service
There are multiple royalties not collected by your local PRO including Mechanical, Print, Sync and Micro-Sync. If you are US-based, the mechanical royalties due from streams, downloads, and physical sales are not collected by performance societies like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. For many songwriters nowadays, this makes up the majority of their publishing income. The publisher’s share of your performance income may also not be paid by your local PRO despite it being collected. Some examples of this revenue include:
Mechanical
- Interactive streaming (when someone chooses to listen to your song e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer etc.)
- Digital Downloads (from iTunes, Amazon)
- Physical product such as vinyl, CD’s and cassettes
- Ringtones / ringbacks available from AT&T, T Mobile
- Cover versions of your songs (when someone else records your song)
- Sample (when someone samples your song you take a piece of ownership in the new song)
- Karaoke (when someone makes a new recording of your song for Karaoke purposes)
- Greeting Cards
- On demand jukebox (such as TouchTunes)
- Physical and digital sheet music
- Lyric reprints physical such as liner notes
- Lyric reprints digital such as on Spotify or on MusixMatch/Instagram
- Guitar tablature
Sync
- TV shows
- TV commercials
- Films
- Film trailers
- TV promos
- Video games
- Mobile applications
- DVD/Blu Ray
Micro-Sync
YouTube, Tik Tok etc It is very important to note that a micro-sync revenue on a platform such as YouTube generates both mechanical and performance royalties.
Performance (publisher’s share)
- Interactive streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer etc.)
- Radio (AM/FM)
- Internet radio (such as BBC, KEXP, KCRW)
- Satellite radio/non-interactive streaming (such as Pandora, Sirius XM)
- TV (broadcast royalties paid by the broadcaster of a television show, film of advertisement – not to be conflated with the synchronization fee which is a one off license fee paid for the synchronization of music to moving image)
- Restaurants
- Bars
- Gyms
- Live concert venues
- Supermarkets
- Retail outlets
- Small businesses
- Samples (when someone samples your song you take a piece of ownership in the new song)
Further notes
Some further notes on collections:
- TuneCore Publishing Administration registers your information with the global mechanical rights societies and digital sources so you get paid.
- If you are NOT US-based, the writer share of some of these mechanical royalties may be collected and paid to you as a writer member depending on which society you are affiliated with. TuneCore Publishing Administration will register your works worldwide so that you can get paid the mechanical royalties due to you.
- In certain territories, especially in Europe and South America, synchronization fees for use in most TV shows are licensed by mechanical rights societies under a so-called “blanket agreement” whereby broadcasters and independent producers can use all music registered at the society at a predetermined rate. TuneCore Publishing Administration would collect these fees on your behalf. Some publishers and writer members of societies can opt out of this “blanket agreement” but this is typically only reserved for very big writers and artists such as Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Bob Dylan , for example.
For more information, please read the blog post: How Do My Songs Make Money