The songwriter's path
Every song walks the same road. Most of the money falls off it.
Four steps take a songwriter's royalties from the first play to the exit chute. Two of them can be avoided entirely.
The road in four steps
From first play to exit chute
- 01
Your song earns money — and a report arrives
A stream, spin, sync or venue license sends usage data to a society. The society collects the money first and asks questions later: it tries to match each report to a registered musical work. If your song is registered, the match usually happens on its own — and matched money flows out on the normal payment schedule.
- 02
Not registered or not matched: it drops into the box
Usage that can't be linked to a work, shares nobody claimed, payees who can't be found, money held over disputes — four compartments, none of which pays you yet. Every compartment runs a holding clock of roughly 2.5–3 years, and the start point varies by society.
Compare the holding clocks → - 03
The clock expires
When the holding period ends, the money is declared non-distributable and leaves through an exit chute: redistributed to other members by market share, cultural and social funds, governance decisions, credited back to record companies, or escheated to the state.
Not one chute sends the money to the songwriter who was never found.
- 04
Gone — but not destroyed
Redistributed isn't extinguished: the money is just paid to someone else, and the records that could lead back to you are usually gone. Only some societies accept late claims, and only sometimes.
Two chances
Where you can still turn the road around
Register the work with every society that collects for you. A registered song matches automatically and never enters the box. BeatStars Publishing does this for you in 100+ countries.
Some societies accept late claims. Most don't — and once the money has left through a chute, the records that could lead back to you are usually gone. Don't rely on this window.
Stay off the road entirely.
Register before your first play. A song that's registered from day one never drops into the box.
BeatStars Publishing is a partner of this guide. The research elsewhere on this site is independent.