Broad music industry knowledge for independent artists — from understanding rights to starting a label.
9 articles
Independent artists typically own two sets of rights: the master rights (copyright in the sound recording) and the publishing rights (copyright in the underlying composition and lyrics). Both generate separate royalty streams. Artists who record their own songs own both, giving them access to performance, mechanical, neighbouring rights, and sync royalties.
The most common reasons are: works not registered with a PRO, missing or incorrect metadata (no ISRC, wrong IPI), no publisher representative to claim the publisher share, no neighbouring rights registration with PPL, and uncollected international royalties. Each gap represents money sitting in a black box waiting to be claimed.
Master rights belong to whoever owns the sound recording — usually the artist or label that funded the recording. Publishing rights belong to the songwriter(s). Each set of rights is licensed separately and generates different royalty streams. Many independent artists own both, but must register and administer them separately.
Register a company at Companies House, choose a trading name and check it does not conflict with existing labels, open a business bank account, join PPL as a record company to register your recordings and collect neighbouring rights, and set up distribution through a digital distributor or label services provider. You will also need standard artist and producer agreements.
A royalty statement is a periodic report from your distributor, PRO, or label showing income earned across different income sources — streaming, downloads, broadcast, sync. Key figures to check are: gross revenue, deductions (distribution fees, advances recouped), net payable, and the accounting period covered. Discrepancies should be queried in writing within the dispute window stated in your agreement.
