Answers/Glossary/Songwriter split
Glossary · Contracts
Songwriter split
A songwriter split is each writer's percentage ownership of a musical composition. The percentages must total 100% and are what The MLC, ASCAP and BMI use to divide performance and mechanical royalties among the writers of a song.
A songwriter split divides the composition, and only the composition. It is separate from ownership of the recording, which can land completely differently on the same song. Get those two confused and the arithmetic on a royalty statement will never make sense.
There is no legal default and no industry rule. US copyright law's default for a joint work is equal shares among the joint authors, but writers are free to agree anything, and what they agree governs. Common conventions exist — an equal split among everyone in the room, or a division that separates music from lyrics — but a convention is a starting point for a conversation, not a percentage you are violating by departing from.
The split has to be recorded in three places to work. On a signed split sheet, so it is evidence. In the work registration at The MLC, so mechanical royalties are divided correctly. And in the work registration at ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR, so performance royalties are. If the numbers disagree between systems, or if the total exceeds 100%, the money freezes into the unmatched pool while the conflict is investigated.
Producers are the recurring flashpoint. A producer who supplied the instrumental the whole song was written over has usually contributed original expression to the composition and is frequently treated as a co-writer, while a producer who mixed a finished song generally is not. Neither position is automatic, and neither is settled by the size of the fee paid.
The misunderstanding: believing the fee paid settles the split. It does not. Paying someone for a session and agreeing their composition share are two separate deals, and both need to be in writing.
I document splits at the session now, having learned the alternative. Not legal advice.
Related terms
- Split sheetA split sheet is a signed document recording each contributor's ownership percentage of a musical composition, along with their…
- Writer shareThe writer share is the half of a composition's performance royalties that belongs to the songwriters.
- Producer pointsProducer points are a producer's percentage share of the sound recording's income, expressed in points where one point equals one…
- Musical compositionA musical composition is the song itself — the melody, harmony, structure and lyrics — protected as its own copyright separate…
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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