Ways to get paid: How do musicians do it?

While the process is important, many people who make music have one bigger goal in mind — to get paid.

There are numerous ways to make that bread through music, and WordPlay T. Jay has broken it all down for anyone wondering all the different avenues to cashing a check.

Starting with the basics, an artist, songwriter or producer must create a sound recording, which can contain any mix of instrumentals and/or lyrics, and is developed into a master recording.

Once the master recording is available, there are numerous places it can go to produce royalties.

Sound recording performance royalties

Songs can be used on television, played over radio airwaves, put into jukeboxes or otherwise released into the world through rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the U.S.

Music may also be played through digital radio, royalties from which are generally paid through SoundExchange.

Performance royalties are also paid to musicians and producers for these plays through PROs.

Download sales and interactive streaming revenue

Apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Shazam, Pandora, etc., pay through distribution companies or record labels.

PROs will also pay musicians and producers for plays on streaming sites.

Master use

Recordings used in TV shows, movies, commercials, video games or other media are paid through sync licensing companies or record labels.

Sync licensing companies or publishing companies also pay musicians and producers sync royalties for use in TV shows, movies, commercials, video games or other media.

Union commercials

TV commercial residuals through use in advertising are also paid out, typically by SAG-AFTRA.

Mechanical rights

Mechanical royalties are paid through publishing companies and PROs, or directly to record labels or artists, as well as money from downloads on sites like iTunes.

Further breakdown

Distribution companies, like DistroKid, TuneCore and CDBaby, pay record labels or artists when they send music to a retailer after the artist or publishing administration company uploads to the distribution service.

PROs pay songwriters (that create lyrics or music), publishers and performers after issuing the licenses for the music to be used publicly. When registered with a PRO, a writer, publisher or performer is assigned an IPI number. A database keeps track of when songs are played or used through metadata, which includes information like the artist name, performer name, title of the song, length of the song, etc., then attached to the IPI number for royalties.

Artists may think they upload recordings to the PRO, but that is not the case. It is the metadata PROs track to determine royalty distribution.

Digital rights agencies, mainly SoundExchange, pay performers, featured artist(s) and rights owners after issuing licensing for music to be used on internet radio stations like Pandora, Music Choice or Sirius XM. Performers and rights owner sign up with SoundExchange and register their metadata in a database to be identified when songs are played.

Content ID services also make payments to rights owners and songwriters/publishers after adding original music to YouTube’s Content ID system. The system combs YouTube for when a song is used and distributes payment accordingly. An artist with his/her own channel can also whitelist that channel to prevent the system from flagging when they are using their own recordings.

Publishing administrators will pay rights owners and songwriters/publishers when royalties come in, taking a usual 15 percent cut for managing the owner/writer/publisher catalog and sending registrations to various agencies that make royalty payments.

For some handy flow charts and explanations of payments, check out the video below!