Answers/Splits and ownership
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Splits and ownership
Who owns what when more than one person touched the song — split sheets, producer shares, beat sales, and the two copyrights.
- 12Answers
- 113Questions answered
- When Should You Do a Split Sheet — and What Goes On It?Do the split sheet the day the song is made, while everyone is still in the room and nobody thinks it is worth anything.
- What Percentage Does a Producer Get on a Song?There is no legally fixed producer split. A producer who wrote the underlying music commonly takes a share of the composition, conventionally somewhere between a fifth and a half depending on how much of the…
- What Is the Difference Between Master Rights and Publishing?Every song is two separate copyrights. The master is the sound recording - the specific audio file from your session.
- Do You Need to Register Copyright on a Song You Already Own?You own copyright in your song automatically the moment you fix it in a tangible form — recording it is enough. Registering with the US Copyright Office is a separate, optional step that does something…
- Can You Copyright a Beat?Yes. An original instrumental is a musical work under US copyright law, and the specific recording of it is a separate sound recording copyright, so a beat carries both copyrights exactly like a song with…
- Who Owns the Song When You Buy a Beat?Buying a beat buys you a licence, not a song. Unless a signed agreement says the producer assigns the composition, the producer remains a writer on everything recorded over that beat — including on an…
- Do You Need a Music Publisher, or Just a Publisher Account?"Publisher" means three different things and beginners are usually sold the wrong one. It is the publisher SHARE — roughly half of every performance royalty.
- What Does a Publishing Administrator Actually Do?A publishing administrator registers your compositions with collection societies worldwide, claims the publisher share of the royalties those societies hold, and pays it to you minus a commission — without…
- What Is Sub-Publishing in Music, and Do You Need It?A sub-publisher is a company engaged by a rights holder to license and administer its works in one specific territory — a German company handling a US catalog inside Germany, for example.
- What Is a Master Use License (And Why You Always Need Two)A master use licence is permission from whoever owns the sound recording to use that specific recording in something else — a film, an ad, a game, a YouTube video. It never travels alone.
- What Is a Co-Publishing Deal, and What Do You Actually Keep?In a co-publishing deal you assign half of the publisher's share of your compositions to a publisher, usually in exchange for a recoupable advance.
- Writer's Share vs Publisher Share: The Two Halves of Every CompositionEvery performance royalty on a composition is divided into two halves — a writer's share and a publisher share. ASCAP states it on its own application: royalties are split 50/50 between writers and publishers.
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