If there’s one thing I’ve learned after more than fifteen years in the sync licensing world, it’s this. Most musicians work incredibly hard on their craft, but many of them lose money simply because their rights, registrations and metadata aren’t set up correctly. And it’s not because they’re careless. The system itself is confusing. It’s scattered across dozens of organizations, each with its own rules, databases and processes. Nothing about it was designed with today’s artist in mind.
 

I’ve talked to so many musicians over the years and the same problems show up again and again. Artists upload their track through a distributor, register with a PRO and assume everything else will fall into place. They trust the system to handle the rest. But the truth is that almost none of it is automatic. If you don’t understand how royalties get tracked, matched and paid, you’ll lose money without ever knowing where it went.
 

This guide exists to help you understand the parts of the system that matter most. It’s not the full book. That’s coming soon. But this will give you the clarity you need to stop leaving money on the table and start collecting all the income your music actually earns.

Why Musicians Lose Money Without Realizing It
Most artists think of their music as one thing. They upload a song and expect one stream of royalties. The reality is that your music splits into two separate legal assets the moment you create it. The master recording and the composition. Each one earns different royalties. Each one has to be registered in different places. And each part can fail even if the other is set up correctly.

Your distributor only handles the money tied to the master recording. Streams, downloads, YouTube monetization and other recording revenue. But the composition earns performance royalties, mechanical royalties and international royalties. None of these flow through your distributor. They require separate registrations with your PRO, a publishing administrator and foreign societies that don’t communicate with one another unless your metadata matches perfectly.

There are also additional royalty streams that don’t go through your distributor or your PRO. SoundExchange royalties from non interactive digital streaming and neighboring rights royalties from foreign territories fall into this category. Most musicians lose that money simply because they don’t know those royalties exist.

If your catalog isn’t registered correctly, you’ll never know anything was missing.

What PROs Actually Do
Most artists assume their PRO collects all their publishing royalties. That isn’t how the system works. A PRO only collects performance royalties. These include radio plays, TV broadcasts, venues, live concerts and the performance side of streaming income. PROs don’t collect mechanical royalties from streaming. They don’t collect sync fees. They don’t collect digital performance royalties for sound recordings. They don’t collect neighboring rights.
 

Their job is important but limited. And they rely entirely on clean metadata. If the title your PRO has on file doesn’t match the title you uploaded through your distributor, the system might not connect the dots. If your collaborators submit different splits, payouts can freeze. Nothing about this process is automatic.
 

Why Publishing Administration Matters More Than Ever
Many musicians hear the word publisher and immediately think of someone taking half their copyright. A publishing administrator is different. They don’t own your songs. They simply collect royalties you can’t access without them.

Their most important job is registering your compositions around the world. Without those global registrations, the mechanical royalties you earn overseas remain unclaimed. Every country has its own mechanical society. If your song isn’t registered in that territory, they can’t match your work to the royalties it generated. That money sits in holding accounts and eventually gets redistributed, usually to major publishers.
 

A publishing administrator also fixes conflicts, cleans metadata, retrieves retroactive royalties and makes sure your catalog is findable in every territory where your music is used. In the streaming era, nearly every independent songwriter needs publishing administration.
 

The Royalties Most Musicians Don’t Know They’re Missing
There are two major royalty streams that sit outside your PRO and your distributor. These are the ones almost every independent musician overlooks.
 

Digital performance royalties from non interactive streaming
Platforms like Pandora Radio, SiriusXM and digital broadcast radio pay royalties for the performance of sound recordings. These aren’t collected by distributors or PROs. They’re collected by SoundExchange. If your catalog isn’t registered there as both a featured artist and a rights holder, the money never reaches you. It’s one of the biggest blind spots in the modern music economy.
 

Neighboring rights royalties outside the United States
Most countries pay royalties for the public performance of sound recordings. The United States doesn’t pay this category for terrestrial radio, but the rest of the world does. These royalties go to performers and rights holders. They don’t go through your PRO. They don’t go through your distributor. To collect them, you need a neighboring rights administrator. Without that registration, the royalties eventually get reassigned to major labels and major artists.
 

For many musicians, these two categories add up to real money over time.
 

How Sync Royalties Actually Work
When a song is licensed for TV or film, most musicians focus on the upfront sync fee. But a sync placement usually pays twice. The sync fee itself is split between the master owner and the publisher. That isn’t collected by your PRO and it doesn’t touch your distributor.
 

The real long term money comes from backend royalties. Every broadcast generates a performance royalty. If your PRO registration is incomplete or your cue sheet info doesn’t match your composition data, you’ll never get that backend. I’ve had clients earn more from backend royalties than from the sync fee itself, sometimes years after the placement aired.
 

Sync can be one of the most powerful income streams in music, but only if your registrations are correct.
 

The Metadata Problem Nobody Warns You About
Musicians hate dealing with metadata, but metadata is the backbone of getting paid. It’s how the system knows who you are, what you wrote and who should receive the income. Even tiny inconsistencies can break everything. A slightly different title on your distributor compared to your PRO can cause the system to treat them as two unrelated works. A collaborator using a nickname instead of a legal name can break the match. Writer splits that don’t line up across registrations can freeze payments entirely.
 

Even small inconsistencies in your artist name can confuse foreign societies. When a distributor upload doesn’t match a PRO registration, the system struggles to connect the dots.
 

These issues create unmatched royalties that never reach you. They sit in holding accounts and eventually get redistributed to major publishers. Almost all of this is preventable with clean metadata.
 

The Biggest Lesson I Wish I Could Give Every Musician
If I could go back fifteen years and give myself one message, it would be this. Never assume anything in the royalty system is automatic. Don’t assume your distributor collects everything. Don’t assume your PRO handles your mechanicals. Don’t assume your metadata is clean. Don’t assume foreign societies will find your songs. Don’t assume someone else will fix your registrations.
 

Your music can pay you for decades, but only if the system can recognize every part of what you created. Once your registrations, metadata and global administration are in order, your royalty income becomes long term and predictable.
 

Want A Complete System For Sync And Royalties That Actually Works?
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If you want a real path forward in sync licensing and you want to stop leaving royalty money unclaimed, this is where to start.

To your success,
Aaron Davison
The Sync Lab