Q&A with T. Jay: How can I earn royalties as a producer or beat-maker?

Fans often ask questions of WordPlay T. Jay on his forums, and T. Jay took the time this week to answer one of those questions — how can music producers and beat makers collect royalties?
T. Jay said he thought at first the answer was simple, but the reality is royalties can become complex.
There are multiple types of royalties that exist, and they generally are based off of the master recording. There are lyrics royalties, usually paid to the songwriter; instrumental royalties, usually paid to a musician; publishing royalties, paid by a performing rights organization to the publisher; mechanical royalties, paid to the copyright owner; and digital rights royalties, paid to the performer and/or copyright owner.
So, how can you take advantage of all these royalties? T. Jay crafted a graph that explains in more detail, but in essence, there are five ways.
1. Works for hire — This is semi-favorable, but is a short term play, not a long-term situation. A producer or DJ may ask a musician to jump onto a track to complete it and the person is usually paid up front so person that ultimately owns the master recording can negotiate out of having to pay more royalties.
2. Partner with an artist — T. Jay’s favorite method. It follows what he and Icarus Gray do, which is collaborate on tracks and then agree on how royalties should be split, sharing revenue based on how much work each did.
3. Releasing instrumentals for a purpose — Some release music solo for people to listen to while relaxing, working out, studying, etc., and this can be beneficial because the person putting it out usually has all the rights.
4. Pitch for licensing — T. Jay admitted he is not as well-versed in this area, but said it’s easy to search for advice from people who are. When selling music to video games, TV or movies, artists can get royalties by owning the master recording.
5. Leasing and selling beats — T. Jay’s least favorite method, leasing and selling beats is an entirely short-term method. By leasing or selling, an artists does not have rights and cannot collect royalties in the long term, unless designated in a contract.
Ultimately, T. Jay said none of these options matter if artists don’t promote their work. No one gets paid royalties for music that is never heard!
For more information about how royalties work, or to see T. Jay’s chart, check out the video below.