When a co-writer hands you their PRO number for the split sheet, most writers fill it in without knowing what it actually does. The PRO collects performance royalties, one of two types of income that come out of owning a song. The other type, mechanical royalties, comes from a different place entirely. Both flow from publishing rights. Most songwriters have never had those three things explained in the same sentence, and it’s the thing I get asked to untangle more than almost anything else.
The two types of publishing royalties
Publishing rights generate two separate income streams. Performance royalties are collected by PROs (APRA, ASCAP, SESAC, BMI) every time the song is performed, broadcast, or streamed. They go after radio stations, streaming platforms, and TV networks, then distribute what they collect to registered writers and publishers. Mechanical royalties are triggered when someone reproduces the song: pressing vinyl, distributing a stream, licensing a download. In the US, mechanicals from streaming are collected through the MLC. In other territories, a single collection society often handles both.
The split matters because streaming generates both types at once. A Spotify stream pays a performance royalty (via your PRO, if you’re registered) and a mechanical royalty (via the MLC or equivalent). If you’re not registered for one of those, you’re not collecting it, and it doesn’t wait for you. Understanding why the per-stream rate keeps declining explains the pool-based mechanics; the more immediate point is that registration determines whether you collect anything at all. The same applies to sync: how sync licensing generates a one-time mechanical fee is a separate payment stream again, one that bypasses streaming entirely.
What a publisher actually does
Traditionally, a publisher takes 50% of publishing rights, called the “publisher’s share,” in exchange for: pitching the song to artists and supervisors, chasing royalties internationally across territories your PRO doesn’t cover, registering the work where needed, and licensing the track for sync and other commercial uses. The writer keeps their 50%, called the “writer’s share.” These are separate buckets: a publisher takes their half of publishing income, not a cut of master revenue or anything else.
Whether that 50% is worth it depends entirely on what the publisher is doing. A publisher with an active sync pipeline can return several times their cut through placements that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Understanding what a music supervisor needs before they can place a track makes clear why having someone who already has those relationships matters. A publisher who does nothing except collect half your income is just overhead. The deal is only as good as the activity behind it.
Self-publishing — what it means and what it costs
Self-publishing means registering a publishing entity with your PRO and assigning your own songs to it. In most territories the cost is zero or a small one-time admin fee. The result: you collect both the publisher’s share and the writer’s share: 100% of publishing income rather than 50%.
The tradeoff is administration. You register each song yourself, follow up on missing royalties yourself, and handle any licensing requests directly. For most independent songwriters, this is the right default, especially before there’s meaningful income to share. A co-publishing or admin deal later, when a publisher has specific value to offer, is straightforward to enter. Recovering rights you’ve already signed away is considerably harder.
The publishing setup is also the layer that makes what the split sheet sets in motion actually pay out. When a co-written song earns royalties, each writer’s percentage flows through their own PRO registration and publishing arrangement. That’s why the split sheet, the PRO registration, and the publishing entity all need to exist before the song starts earning. Note that this is entirely separate from distribution. Distribution handles the master recording side, not the composition. The two systems run in parallel and pay out independently.
If you’re sorting out your publishing setup or working on songs that need to earn, that’s worth a conversation.
It depends what you mean by “published.” The phrase covers three different things: getting a song released onto streaming services, which is actually distribution rather than publishing; signing a publishing deal where a publisher administers your rights for a share of the income; or self-publishing, where you register your own compositions with a PRO and collect everything yourself. For most independent artists, getting music out into the world is a release and distribution question, while “publishing” in the rights sense means self-publishing so you keep 100% of what your songs earn.
A distributor handles the master recording: getting it to Spotify, Apple Music, and the rest, and collecting master royalties. A publisher handles the composition (the melody and lyrics): registering with PROs, collecting mechanical and performance royalties, and licensing the work. You can use both simultaneously; they operate on entirely separate rights.
Publishing royalties are split 50/50 between the “publisher’s share” and the “writer’s share” by industry convention. A publisher who signs your song takes the publisher’s share (50%) and you keep the writer’s share (50%). If you self-publish, you collect both, and 100% of publishing income flows to you.
Yes. PROs only distribute to registered members. If a song you wrote gets streamed or broadcast and you’re not registered, those royalties either go uncollected or get redistributed to other members. Registration is free or low-cost in most territories and should happen before you release anything.
When the publisher has specific relationships that will generate more income than their cut: a sync pipeline, a major A&R network, or international collection infrastructure you can’t replicate yourself. Early-career or self-releasing artists rarely benefit; the value a publisher adds needs to exceed what a 50% publishing cut actually costs at your volume.
Each writer’s percentage (recorded on the split sheet) applies to the whole publishing income of that song. If you own 50% of the composition, you receive 50% of all publishing royalties: performance, mechanical, and sync. Each writer registers their share independently with their own PRO and publishing setup.