Music Revenue Streams and Understanding your Rights as a Performing Artist or Composer

We often hear how musical artists don’t earn enough money, but nobody explains how they earn money. Seems obvious — live shows and streaming. But it’s actually more complicated than that.

Here’s a quick overview.

A song is made up of two parts

You write words and notes on a page. Without it being played or heard, you are now a composer and have the right to earn money from the copyright in your composition.

A publisher is someone who represents and sells the use of your composition.

Someone who sings or plays music is known as a performer.

When they perform your song and it gets recorded, they have created a Recording. They have the right to earn money when that recording is used.

This performer is often know as the performing artist, or just artist.

A label is a person or company that assists with creating and monetising the recording and shares in the revenues it generates.

Now we understand the what and the who, let’s look at the how. The main revenue streams for a song are:

*You’re thinking “what about concerts?” — The performer gets paid for their appearance, not because a particular song is used. The composer is compensated for the public performance of their song.

Next time you hear someone talking about earning money for music, you’ll now be able to think about what role they’re playing and therefore what their potential revenue streams will be.

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