How Do Producer and Songwriter Splits Work?

We record on a 8 trak tascam produce mix master ourselves cutting out all that money and time and we are going to press custom pressings of vinyl ourselves!

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm confused on producers getting royalties. Do they always?

It makes sense to me if an artist doesn't have enough to pay upfront for the producers services, but if they do and pay the Producer in full at time of recording then haven't they been paid? And the artist now owns the work?

Thank you for sharing bro

Thank you!

Lyrics question- if a poem was used to inspire lyrics - some lines in the poem are used. What is a fair %. The recording, arrangement, music, and lyrics are written by one person.

Thank you for keeping it simple without over complicating it, i finally get it 🙏🏼

“Whoever writes the song gets publishing”? So the publisher’s share and the writer’s share are the same?

This was great. What occurrences cause any of us to get paid? I am the writer and we are working on a project right now and we are trying to structure the deal so anything that you can offer will definitely help

This is gold bro 🔑 can’t thank you enough 🙏🏼🙏🏼

I have a general question. If we have a writer that helped to write a song but they did not play on the sound recording, would it make sense/be in the wise to give them just writers credit (publishing)?

You’re wrong when you say if the doesn’t help in writing the song, then he shouldn’t have the rights to publishing. The producer layering chords and making a beat is still part of song writing. So the producer is entitled to publishing share.

Great info!!

Producer/songwriter splits. = The songwriter(s) do all the real work and the producer steals a lot of money to pay for his plugin collection.

This is an awesome explanation of how this works. Other videos were confusing. Thank you for doing this video.

You didn’t mention how revenue is generated on the publishing side

Maybe artist should make their own beats. Producers don't need artists, Artists need producers!

What are “mechanical” royalties? Are they paid to whoever played on the recording? Are the hot session players, e.g., Brent Mason, able to get points, especially those whose style is crucial to the sound and success of the recording?
I’ve seen songs that list eight people as writers. Is that just the artist giving everyone a little extra taste or did each of the eight really contribute something?
Great video. I’ll definitely check out the rest.

Dude, this is the clearest and most concise video I've found on the hell-bound paper trail that is copyright. Thanks so much. I am gonna have to watch this several times for it all to sink in but it's all here. You're an absolute legend mate.

This is a great video. Thank you. I have a question about splits between musicians taking part in recording sessions. I'll give you an example. In the past I was in bands where it would be an obvious thing to split sound recording royalties equally between each band member. When it comes to publishing it would have been different because not everybody wrote the songs. Let's stay with sound recording royalties for the purpose of my question. I now write and record my own songs as a solo artist. I own all my masters and publishing. However, on occasions I may ask another musician or musicians to record an instrument for me or sing on a particular song for example. What would you recommend in terms of royalty splits in this scenario? Is there some kind of industry standard or does it all work on a case by case basis?

A lot of producers demand 50% of publishing royalties, which I find ridiculous because they didnt write any lyrics or the medley.

If I pay a producer to make a beat, does he still get royalties?

Great video!

Great video 👍.. Am a producer and do I have to register to all the distribution platforms for me to be able to get my percentages?
I’m asking cus all the artist I work with distributes their songs from different distribution platforms

how tf do i register my 25% publishing as a producer when its asking me to give everyones names songwriters publishers splits etc, i dont know none of that shit its not down to me to decide the peoples splits on the song im the producer, i just wanna claim my royalties but i dont know how to do it. This is no hate i just cant find a video that explains how a producer directly claims their royalties.

Every video talking about this ust says, register your work, but that is vaugue thats not helping me, i go to register the song on BMI and I need everyones government name i dont known nobodys splits thats not up to me.

This guy is full of shit and obviously a song writer and not a musician... a song is 50% music and 50% vocals... a song without music is what? an acapela ... music without vocals is what? An instrumental... put em both together and what do u have? A Song. Publishing and copyright is 50% for producer of music and 50% for songwriter... both are equally necessary... No qualified producer is gonna accept 25% publishing/copyright on a song. Maybe an entry level producer will but any producer that actually has produced hits? Lol nah, good luck with that...

Hey
Taking a gamble on if you still respond to comments a year after you released this video.
Ive worked with a dope producer and he's asking for 50/50. Im not saying that's not fair but I did pay him for the engineering time (aka studio sessions) and then paid him extra separately to make the beat (which he was also kind enough to work with me on price). Is it fair for me to question how much he's asking being that I paid him for all things separately?
If anyone can respond with info that would be great.

So to be clear. If you are with Distrokid on the splits on streams etc. Artist gets 80% and the producer gets 20%?

So as an artist who is not signed, I would get a lot of points/royalties bcuz there’s no label to pay/to recoup? 🤔 I would only have to pay the producer of my songs their royalties, correct?

Also, what if i co-produced my song? Is it fair to credit myself as a co-producer in the credits? Would the producer mind? Does that take away from them in anyway?

But how does the master split change if the artist signs a deal?

How does actually " owning " part of the master copyright differ from getting a " backend royalty split" ?

insightful as always team <3

hello bro! sono jackson morka from italy. can i pls ask you a question? i’m a singer songwriter and i do my record, then send for mix & mast in one of the higher recording studio. my friend make the beat for me like cooperation! we just make our first release! the question is: how many percent should we divide the profits for in case the song make success?

Awesome video bro, very informative. I'm a bass player and if I record bass on a song, what kind of royalties do I get and how many percentage do you think I should get?

Str8 to the point. Just got a sub 🎉

Hey, I'm a beatmaker, what if the artist is the one that distributes the song on streaming platforms? I have no control and it's up to them to split royalties or not? They can say that they'll split but maybe they don't, what should I do?

This is a very informative video, thank you for sharing! I like the way you talk with your hands ☺

One thing that always confuses me when I’m talking to or listening to non-hiphop guys talk about music is your use of the word “producer.” Because 99.999% of the time in my experience over the last 20 years in hiphop when we say producer we’re talking about who made the beat. When rock guys say producer, to me it sounds more like you’re describing the role of maybe an executive producer or even a recording engineer sometimes. Does anybody else notice this or can someone give some insight on that? Thanks 🙏🏽

Bro, im still coonfused on how to split the SPOTIFY MONEY, if a friend of mine wrotea song for me, and i record it and upload it, and we make 1.000 usd, how much do i get and how much do my friend get?

So if I purchase a beat and have full ownership is it normal that I spilt publishing with the producer

Oh dude, you just broke my mind with all of this things 🤯😄 But thank you!

I didn't understand one thing sir?

In pop . Say If i produced a beat or a main melody of the song for a major artist signed to some major label will i get publishing right ? I'm not involved in the song writing process.

The producer wouldn’t be who made the beat right they refer to themselves as composers in the agreements where would the engineer that actually recorded you stand?

here is what confuses me the most, these day we use distrokid, almost all of upcoming artists or even bigger indie artists, so you said there is master royalties and publishing royalties, i noticed beatstars licenses says the artists and producers split 50/50 of the publishing, but how the hell do i know which amount of money is the publishing and which is the master, do i just take the total amount of money i made from the song, split it 50 50 and half of it is masters and the other half is publishing? and then i split that half into another half

im confused even more just trying to ask this question

When it comes to splitting the publishing royalties, I can go with Songtrust which is awesome. But is there anyway to automate and let my distributor know the splits for the Master royalties? Apparantly Cdbaby doesn't do that. Do any of the distributors split the master royalties so I don't have to manually figure out what I made and pay a cowriter manually? (Publishing splits are automatic conversely)

Thanks a lot I learnt a ton from this video. I just sold an instrumental and d artist asked how much royalty I want and I was confused 😖

Bro I’m looking to buy a hip hop beat but I read the agreement and this dude is asking for 50 percent

What does “writing the song” entail? What if you take a song that you’ve written on an instrument to a producer?

I know it's a year later. The webinar link doesn't work. :( LOL

Ari What if someone releases an album… and there’s different producers on different songs. How would the Masters split if one producer only work on 1 song?

Show me the money!