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.
Everything here was written for somebody in the middle of a problem. Four problems account for most of them.
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.
77 · · 18 min read
A death or a disappearance changes who signs, not who owns. Who acts for an estate, how a dead writer’s royalties keep paying, the account a release sits on, and what you can do while someone is missing.
38 · · 13 min read
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.
26 · · 13 min read
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.
22 · · 16 min read
Three instruments, two copyrights. Which one records, which one moves the rights, and why the choice decides whether you can ever get them back.
21 · · 13 min read
One document, one job. What the sheet leaves unallocated, from the recording to the licence, and which agreement covers each of them.
20 · · 12 min read
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.
19 · · 13 min read
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.
18 · · 11 min read
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.
17 · · 10 min read
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.
06 · · 7 min read
Agreement first, then the same numbers everywhere the old ones live. What moves, what will not, and where the money freezes.
04 · · 6 min read
Fill it in, print it, sign it. Every field explained. No email form, no download gate, nothing sent anywhere.
02 · · 11 min read
The law already split the song for you. What it decided, what a co-writer can do with it, and where it actually breaks.
57 · · 19 min read
A society registers the song, every writer has an IPI, and the code arrives. Why there is no form, what blocks it, where it shows up, and what to do with it.
46 · · 15 min read
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.
35 · · 15 min read
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.
33 · · 13 min read
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.
16 · · 9 min read
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.
15 · · 14 min read
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.
14 · · 13 min read
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.
13 · · 12 min read
One recording, two codes, and both of them valid. Which one survives, what the standard makes you do, and what does not come back.
10 · · 11 min read
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.
01 · · 8 min read
An ISRC cannot be edited or reused. What that leaves you, and the order it has to be done in.
76 · · 19 min read
What a label owes each artist, and when: the seven terms to copy from every contract, a running balance per artist, the statement and its objection clock, everyone else the records pay, and the forms each payment creates.
75 · · 17 min read
Leaving is a second delivery, not a cancellation. What has to match, which goes first and where the three distributors disagree, what the cancel button really does, why Content ID runs the other way, and when the old account can close.
74 · · 15 min read
What a buyer checks before paying for your songs: what they ask for, song by song, how they trace who owns each right, how they test the income, what can stop the money, and what you promise when you sign.
73 · · 14 min read
How a buyer turns your royalty statements into a price: the net income that gets multiplied, why the age of the money moves the multiple, what the discount rate does, and what makes a buyer pay less.
72 · · 21 min read
What signing a lawyer’s engagement letter binds you to: who the client is, what the job is, what you pay besides the fee, where a deposit sits, and how to challenge the bill.
71 · · 18 min read
A lawyer handles the documents that move your rights, a manager the career, a business manager the money, an administrator the songs. Which jobs need a licence, how each is paid, and who should be checking whom.
70 · · 23 min read
Seven clauses decide what a distributor gets, and the three agreements most self-releasing artists sign answer them differently. The grant, the term, the codes, the money and the audit right, the fraud fee, the warranty, and the forum.
69 · · 19 min read
Four things, in this order: the codes, the paper, the registrations and the access. What each one unblocks, which societies publish a way to grant a manager a login of their own, and the one account that cannot.
68 · · 21 min read
The majors’ own figure is 20 to 25 per cent of a base the contract defines, and the advance comes out of that share alone. Profit split against royalty, what a licence and a 360 clause take, and the clause that reaches the song.
67 · · 20 min read
Twenty-one columns, two dates and a total that is not what reaches your bank. What each column means, why lines read zero or negative, and what comes off before the payout.
66 · · 20 min read
A manager needs access and authority, and neither one is ownership. Which role to keep on every register, what the agreement lets them sign, where the money runs, and how to take it all back.
65 · · 19 min read
A catalogue is three kinds of thing, so the sheet is three tables. Which columns another system asks for or pays on, where each value is copied from, and what a register must never hold.
64 · · 23 min read
A remix is a derivative work of the recording and of the song, so nobody owns it outright. What the remixer owns, what the master’s owner keeps, what the writers keep, and the one sentence that moves it.
63 · · 21 min read
A sample copies two copyrights and needs two licences from two owners, neither compulsory. Who to ask, what replaying changes, why no length is free, what the paper says, and what to do if it is already out.
62 · · 23 min read
An administrator collects the publisher’s share and the mechanicals for 15 to 20 per cent, and never the writer’s share. What it registers that you cannot, what the agreement grants, and when the free doors at home are enough.
61 · · 22 min read
Two owner lists that differ are not a dispute; two records of one copyright that cannot both be true are. Which is which, which document wins, what freezes, and what does not.
60 · · 19 min read
Money a collector received for your work and cannot pay: who holds it, on what clock, what happens when the clock runs out, and how to search each list for your name.
58 · · 20 min read
Advise, draft, negotiate, represent: what the law says the job is, what the licence obliges, and the four moments that actually need the hour.
56 · · 20 min read
The service holds the licence for a stream; you hold it for every download or copy you sell, per song, per format and per territory. What it costs in the US and Canada, who sells one, what you may change, and what the upload form needs declared.
53 · · 18 min read
A distributor holds a licence, never the copyright, so a shutdown ends delivery and nothing else. What comes down in what order, where the money in the wallet goes, which royalties never touched it, and what to collect while the login works.
52 · · 16 min read
Before the first release, as the artist and as the owner, and it is free. Who SoundExchange pays, what its three-year clock does, and what nobody else registers for you.
51 · · 18 min read
A PRO licenses the public performance of the song and pays its writers and publishers, and nothing else. Which plays pay, the two shares, the live-show claim, and the list of what it never touches.
50 · · 21 min read
The recording’s own radio, satellite and webcast money, paid in two halves by SoundExchange and Re:Sound to whoever registered. Why your distributor never sees it, and what changed in Canada.
37 · · 14 min read
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.
36 · · 19 min read
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.
34 · · 17 min read
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.
29 · · 15 min read
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.
28 · · 17 min read
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.
27 · · 18 min read
Start at free and work up. The arts-law clinics, the referral services that publish a fee, and the one number nobody prints.
25 · · 14 min read
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.
24 · · 12 min read
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.
23 · · 11 min read
The rights, the fee and the credit on one page, signed before anyone plays. Every clause explained. Ungated, and nothing leaves your browser.
12 · · 9 min read
Twenty-four checks across six layers, in the order failures propagate. Printable, ungated, and every box that fails points at the fix.
11 · · 8 min read
Six causes, and most of them are not errors. Where the rest of the money actually sits, and the order to check in.
07 · · 10 min read
A point is one percent — of a number nobody names. The three bases, the real ranges, and what to write down.
03 · · 11 min read
No label took it, which is not the same as owning all of it. The producer clause is usually why.
59 · · 19 min read
Nobody typed it, it was typed wrong, or it was delivered flagged uncredited. The one person who can add it, the five lines to send them, and what each country’s law gives you when they say no.
55 · · 19 min read
The P-line is the recording’s ownership claim and the C-line is everything else’s. Whose name belongs on each, what a stage name or an imprint may stand in for, and what a wrong one does.
54 · · 19 min read
A takedown is a message, not a deletion. Which clock is the store's and which is the queue, what a listener sees afterwards, what ninety days does to the count, and whose word "permanent" is.
49 · · 17 min read
You type a credit once; the distributor delivers it; each store shows the part it supports, as sent. Why three apps show three lists, and the one door that fixes any of them.
48 · · 20 min read
Three credits, defined word for word by two bodies. No royalty stream names an engineer, and the one clause that does is about a share of somebody else’s.
47 · · 18 min read
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.
45 · · 19 min read
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.
44 · · 19 min read
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.
43 · · 17 min read
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.
42 · · 14 min read
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.
41 · · 16 min read
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.
40 · · 18 min read
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.
39 · · 15 min read
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.
32 · · 11 min read
Two of the three describe the recording. The third describes who paid for it, and none of them, by itself, pays anybody.
31 · · 13 min read
Identifier first, name second. The identifier everyone tells you to send belongs to your distributor, not to you.
30 · · 13 min read
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.
09 · · 8 min read
Two fixes with two filers — the form you can file today, the update only your distributor can send, and the identifier that ends it.
08 · · 9 min read
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.
05 · · 8 min read
The rules are the stores’ own — published, linkable, specific to the comma. The fields that fail, and why.
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