Answers/Glossary/Performance royalty
Glossary · Royalties
Performance royalty
A performance royalty is the money owed when a musical composition is performed publicly — on radio, on television, in a bar, at a venue, or in a stream. In the United States it is collected by a performing rights organization: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR.
A performance royalty is generated by the public performance right in a composition, one of the exclusive rights listed in 17 U.S.C. 106. Any time a song is played to the public — a coffee shop's speakers, a college radio station, an NFL broadcast, a Spotify stream, a Twitch stream — the venue or service owes a licence fee, and that fee flows through a performing rights organization to the writers and publishers of the song.
In the United States there are four PROs: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR. ASCAP charges a $50 one-time processing fee for a writer account and $50 for a publisher account. BMI songwriter affiliation is free, and BMI charges $175 to affiliate an individual publisher, $250 for a corporation or LLC and $500 for a partnership. SESAC and GMR are invitation-only. All figures are as published by ASCAP and BMI and retrieved in August 2026.
Every performance royalty splits into two halves that are collected separately: the writer share and the publisher share. Your PRO pays the writer share to you as a songwriter member. It pays the publisher share only to a registered publisher entity. This is the part that bit me — I collected for two years without a publisher account and simply never saw the other half of my own money.
Performance royalties on the composition are entirely separate from SoundExchange, which collects the digital performance royalty on the sound recording. Different copyright, different organisation, different registration.
I am a working artist, not a lawyer — verify anything that touches a contract with someone qualified.
Related terms
- Mechanical royaltyA mechanical royalty is the money owed for reproducing a musical composition — copying the song itself, not the recording of it.
- PRO (performing rights organization)A performing rights organization licenses the public performance of musical compositions and collects performance royalties for…
- Writer shareThe writer share is the half of a composition's performance royalties that belongs to the songwriters.
- Publisher shareThe publisher share is the half of a composition's performance and mechanical royalties that belongs to the publisher of the…
Answers that use this term
- Where Does the Money From One Stream Actually Go?One stream of one song generates money in four separate places at once: the recording royalty (collected by your distributor)…
- What Is SoundExchange and Do Independent Artists Need It?SoundExchange collects the digital performance royalty on the sound recording from non-interactive services — Pandora radio…
- What Is a Performance Royalty, and Who Collects It?A performance royalty is money owed when a musical composition is performed publicly — on streaming, radio, television, in a bar…
- Do You Need a Music Publisher, or Just a Publisher Account?"Publisher" means three different things and beginners are usually sold the wrong one.
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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