How You Get Paid
Streaming does not pay you from one bucket — it pays from several, and each one has its own door you have to walk through to collect. Miss a door, miss the money.
The short answer: your song earns on two sides — the recording and the composition — and each side pays through different channels. To actually collect, you generally need to be with a distributor (recording money), registered with a PRO (performance money), and signed up with SoundExchange (digital-radio money). Register everywhere, or money just sits unclaimed.
The two sides, again — because this is where money hides
Master (recording) royalties. When your track is streamed or sold, the recording earns. If you are independent, this usually flows through your distributor (the service that puts you on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.).
Publishing (composition) royalties. The song underneath earns separately. This splits into a couple of streams that most artists never fully collect:
- Mechanical royalties — paid when your song is reproduced, including on-demand streams. In the U.S., a body exists specifically to collect digital mechanicals for songwriters.
- Performance royalties — paid when your song is publicly performed or streamed, collected through a PRO (in the U.S., ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC). You must affiliate and register your songs, or this money is never routed to you.
The check most people leave on the table: SoundExchange
When your recording plays on non-interactive digital radio — things like internet and satellite radio — a separate royalty is owed to the performers and the master owner. It is collected by SoundExchange, and it does not come through your distributor or your PRO. If you have never signed up, that money has been piling up unclaimed. This is one of the most common "free money" misses for independent artists.
The registration checklist
Being "on Spotify" is only the first door. The others do not open automatically — you have to knock on each one.
This is general education, not legal advice — Done Deal Digital is not a law firm. The right move always depends on your exact deal, your state, and the wording in front of you. Before you sign anything, run it past a qualified music attorney.
That's the short version
Collect from every door, not just the one you know about
The full chapter in What’s Legal & What’s Not gives you the complete money map — every royalty type, exactly who collects it, and the step-by-step to register so nothing keeps piling up in someone else’s account.
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