Where’s Your Money?

Published in: G.U.M.M. — October 2026 / Blueprint Sankofa

Also in this issue — Story 12 of 14.

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Mechanical royalties may still be waiting.

“I registered the song with my PRO.”

Good.

That still does not necessarily mean every songwriter royalty has been handled.

The problem is that musicians often use the word royalties as though it describes one payment.

It does not.

A commercial recording can involve master-side revenue and composition-side revenue. On the composition side alone, performance and mechanical royalties travel through different systems.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective administers the U.S. blanket mechanical license for eligible streaming and download services. Digital services send usage data and royalties to The MLC, which matches those uses to registered musical works and distributes eligible mechanical royalties to members.

That is different from what a performing-rights organization such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC primarily does.

If you are a self-administered songwriter—meaning you control your own publishing and are responsible for registering your own compositions—The MLC says you should become a member if you are entitled to collect U.S. digital audio mechanical royalties.

Membership itself is free.

But there is still work involved.

Your songs have to be represented accurately. Titles, writers, ownership shares and related information need to match. The sound recording has to connect to the right composition. If the metadata is incomplete, inconsistent or missing, identifying the correct rightsholder becomes harder.

This is one reason independent artists can have music performing reasonably well while the money map still feels confusing.

Different rights are being paid through different channels.

A simple way to think about one U.S. interactive stream is:

The recording generates master-side revenue.

The composition may generate performance royalties.

The composition may also generate mechanical royalties.

Then contracts determine who ultimately receives each portion.

That is why distribution is not publishing administration.

A distributor getting your master onto Spotify does not automatically mean your composition-side registrations are complete.

And registering a song with a PRO does not automatically mean the U.S. digital mechanical side is complete either.

Before opening another royalty account, first determine whether you already have a publisher or publishing administrator handling this work. You do not want duplicate claims.

But if you are truly self-administered, understand the responsibilities that come with that control.

G.U.M.M. Move: Pick one released song and trace it from master ownership through publishing, PRO registration and mechanical administration. If you cannot identify who handles each layer, start there.

Sources

• The Mechanical Licensing Collective
• The MLC membership guidance