38 · · 13 min read
Split sheets, completely
A split sheet sits in the middle of the job: it cannot decide who wrote, and it files nothing. Every step in order, and what waiting costs at each stage.
The part nobody explains.
The business of an independent music career: metadata, splits, royalties, and the agreements underneath them. And everything else that comes with it, long after the music is finished.
01Start here
Everything here was written for somebody in the middle of a problem. Four problems account for most of them.
- A code is wrong, duplicated, or somebody else’s. An ISRC cannot be edited or reused, so the repair has an order — and if one recording ended up with two codes, the standard decides which one survives.
- Nobody signed anything. The law already split the song without asking — this is what it decided, and this is what you can do when a collaborator will not sign.
- The money came in short. Six causes, and most of them are not errors. If a producer is owed points, the base they are calculated on is the whole deal.
- You are not certain what you own. Self-releasing is not the same as owning all of it, and the producer clause is usually why.
Three of these are documents rather than reading — a split sheet template, a catalogue audit checklist and a session musician assignment. All three are free, none asks for an email address, and nothing you type into any of them leaves your browser.
02Pieces
Splits and split sheets
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26 · · 13 min read
Splitting a song three ways: what to do with the rounding
One hundred does not divide by three. Which numbers to write, who takes the extra hundredth, and why the rounding is not what stops the money.
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22 · · 16 min read
Split sheet, work for hire, or producer agreement
Three instruments, two copyrights. Which one records, which one moves the rights, and why the choice decides whether you can ever get them back.
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21 · · 13 min read
What a split sheet does not cover, and which agreement does
One document, one job. What the sheet leaves unallocated, from the recording to the licence, and which agreement covers each of them.
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20 · · 12 min read
How to reconstruct a split sheet, five years later
You cannot recreate a document nobody signed. What still counts as evidence, what the registers already say, and why the date on it is today.
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19 · · 13 min read
Who counts as a songwriter?
Two things make a co-writer, and the second one decides most arguments. What the courts actually weigh, and what to settle in the room.
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18 · · 11 min read
Is a split sheet legally binding?
A contract, not a magic document. What a signature has to do, why a typed name in a box is not one, and the four failures that actually sink one.
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17 · · 10 min read
What to do when a collaborator won’t sign
Three refusals look alike and are not. What the law already decided, what you can do without the signature, and the filing that freezes the money.
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06 · · 7 min read
How to change a split after the song is released
Agreement first, then the same numbers everywhere the old ones live. What moves, what will not, and where the money freezes.
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04 · · 6 min read
Split sheet template
Fill it in, print it, sign it. Every field explained. No email form, no download gate, nothing sent anywhere.
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02 · · 11 min read
What happens if you never signed a split sheet
The law already split the song for you. What it decided, what a co-writer can do with it, and where it actually breaks.
Codes and identifiers
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46 · · 15 min read
What an IPI number is, and why your PRO keeps asking for it
The eleven digits that identify you rather than the song. Which of your numbers goes on the form, where yours is, how to get a co-writer’s, and what a blank one costs.
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35 · · 15 min read
ISRC, ISWC, UPC, IPI — which code is which
Four codes, four different kinds of thing — a recording, a song, a release and a person. What each one identifies, who issues it, and which of your questions it can answer.
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33 · · 13 min read
What a UPC does that an ISRC doesn’t
The same recording keeps the same ISRC on the single and on the album, so the code cannot say which one sold. The standard itself puts that question outside its scope.
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16 · · 9 min read
What happens when your ISRC prefix isn’t yours anymore
The codes survive the switch; the prefix was never the asset. What you collect before leaving, and the two mistakes that turn a move into damage.
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15 · · 14 min read
How to find the ISRC of a track already on streaming
It travels in the metadata, not on the page. Four routes to the code, what each one costs in setup, and why none of them is the last word.
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14 · · 13 min read
How to get an ISRC without a distributor
The codes are free and the prefix is what anybody sells. Three routes, what each one costs, and which of them makes you the registrant.
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13 · · 12 min read
Two ISRCs on one recording: what breaks, and how to merge
One recording, two codes, and both of them valid. Which one survives, what the standard makes you do, and what does not come back.
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10 · · 11 min read
Does a remaster, edit, or remix need a new ISRC?
A straight remaster keeps its code; a remix or an edit takes a new one. The Handbook’s actual rules, clause by clause, in one table.
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01 · · 8 min read
Fixing a wrong ISRC after a track is already live
An ISRC cannot be edited or reused. What that leaves you, and the order it has to be done in.
Ownership and money
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37 · · 14 min read
Producer points: off the top, or off your share
Off the top and off your share are the same number until somebody else is on the artist side. The arithmetic, and the two systems that already chose opposite answers.
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36 · · 19 min read
Master versus publishing, completely
Two copyrights in one song, and the recording is a derivative of the composition. Who owns each, what each one lets you stop, where each is registered, and how long each one lasts in the US and Canada.
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34 · · 17 min read
Mechanical royalties in the US: what The MLC does not do
The MLC pays US mechanicals on downloads and interactive streams, and states what it will not touch. The boundary, the join your identifiers make, and who should not join at all.
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29 · · 15 min read
Where the money comes from: every royalty stream, named
Seven streams, two copyrights, six collectors. Which one pays for what, who holds it in the US and Canada, and where your name has to be to get it.
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28 · · 17 min read
Getting your rights back: termination and the 35-year rule
The window opens 35 years on. The deadline that actually ends it is the notice, up to ten years earlier, and no clause in the grant can waive either.
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27 · · 18 min read
How to find a music lawyer, starting from free
Start at free and work up. The arts-law clinics, the referral services that publish a fee, and the one number nobody prints.
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25 · · 14 min read
Do you own the master if you paid the producer?
Paying buys the work and a licence to release it, not the copyright. What the licence cannot do, and where Canada answers the other way.
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24 · · 12 min read
What owning your masters actually gets you
Four rights in one recording, and two the law keeps back. What you can refuse, what you cannot, and why none of it pays by itself.
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23 · · 11 min read
A session musician assignment
The rights, the fee and the credit on one page, signed before anyone plays. Every clause explained. Ungated, and nothing leaves your browser.
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12 · · 9 min read
A catalogue audit checklist
Twenty-four checks across six layers, in the order failures propagate. Printable, ungated, and every box that fails points at the fix.
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11 · · 8 min read
Why your royalty statement is short, and how to check it
Six causes, and most of them are not errors. Where the rest of the money actually sits, and the order to check in.
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07 · · 10 min read
Producer points, in plain numbers
A point is one percent — of a number nobody names. The three bases, the real ranges, and what to write down.
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03 · · 11 min read
Who owns the master when you self-release
No label took it, which is not the same as owning all of it. The producer clause is usually why.
Metadata and credits
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47 · · 18 min read
What a “featuring” credit does to your royalty split
One word in an artist field moves one royalty on its own, out of the artists’ share and not the owner’s. Which split it divides, how the default is changed, and the two it never touches.
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45 · · 19 min read
Songwriter, composer, arranger: the metadata distinction
Composer is the music, lyricist the words, songwriter both, arranger a change to a work that existed. Which word each system takes, and which of them pays.
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44 · · 19 min read
Credits, completely
A credit is a name on a role, delivered with the music and shown as it was sent. The three kinds a release carries, who reads each one, and what no credit can do.
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43 · · 17 min read
Release date, original release date, and the P-line date
The sales start date, the original release date and the year on the P-line answer three different questions. Which goes where on a new record, a reissue and a remaster, and what each one decides once the release is live.
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42 · · 14 min read
Title formatting: the casing, language and script rules
A title is judged by its own language’s casing rules. The language field, the accents, the alphabets, and the junk that gets a delivery returned.
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41 · · 16 min read
Why your cover art was rejected
Three tests hide behind one rejection: the file, the picture, and the picture against the fields. Which one failed decides whether you re-export, redesign or retype.
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40 · · 18 min read
Release metadata, field by field
Twenty-odd fields, four readers, and none of them reading the same ones. What each field is, who reads it once delivered, and which two can never be changed.
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39 · · 15 min read
Explicit, clean, and the lyrics flag
The flag is a declaration, the clean version is a second recording, and the lyrics are a third delivery. What each one changes, and where each one is fixed.
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32 · · 11 min read
Producer, co-producer, executive producer — who does what
Two of the three describe the recording. The third describes who paid for it, and none of them, by itself, pays anybody.
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31 · · 13 min read
How streaming services decide which artist page a song lands on
Identifier first, name second. The identifier everyone tells you to send belongs to your distributor, not to you.
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30 · · 13 min read
Why your release was rejected for “artist name mismatch”
Five comparisons arrive under one label. Which pair failed decides whether the fix is a field, the artwork, or a request filed with the store.
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09 · · 8 min read
How to fix a song on the wrong artist profile
Two fixes with two filers — the form you can file today, the update only your distributor can send, and the identifier that ends it.
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08 · · 9 min read
Featured, “with,” and side artist — which credit is which
The words come from two systems — display roles at the stores, payment classes in royalty law. What each credit means, and what each one pays.
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05 · · 8 min read
What metadata distributors actually reject
The rules are the stores’ own — published, linkable, specific to the comma. The fields that fail, and why.
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