Your split has to add up to 100 — and read the same everywhere, or the money jams.
Two systems, one song. If your writer and publisher shares don't match across all of them, your royalties sit and wait instead of paying.
Where the split goes wrong
A split is just who wrote the song and how much of it each person owns. Two rules have to hold at the same time: every share has to total 100%, and the same true split has to read identically in every system that pays you.
The classic break is a mismatch. Your PRO shows a 50/50 writer split, but The MLC shows 100/0. Or two co-writers each claim shares that overlap past 100. The systems can't reconcile numbers that don't line up, so the royalty doesn't pay — it waits in suspense until somebody fixes the paper. Splits are also where honest disagreements and forgotten side-deals finally surface, because now the numbers have to agree in writing.
Same song, two different splits
When your PRO and The MLC disagree about who owns what, there's no version of the truth the system can pay against. It holds the money.
Put the real split into every system, identically
The fix isn't clever — it's clerical. Take the true split from your signed split sheet and make every system read the exact same numbers, adding to 100. Once they match, the money has one clear place to land.
What "matching" actually means
These aren't targets to hit — they're the mechanics. Miss any one of them and the money stalls.
A real one from our own catalog: part of the cleanup we run is reconciling split sheets across the PRO and The MLC, so the same true, agreed split reads identically in both places. No new numbers, no bigger cut — just the split you already agreed to, entered the same way everywhere, so what's owed can find you.
The true split is whatever the writers actually agreed in writing. This is lining up your own real paperwork so it reads the same everywhere — not grabbing a bigger share. Claiming shares you didn't earn is fraud, and it jams the song for everyone on it. This is admin help, not legal or financial advice, and system policies vary. If there's a genuine disagreement over who owns what, that's a dispute — take it to a music attorney, not a self-serve fix.
Do your splits add to 100 — and match?
Check whether the same true split reads identically across the systems that pay you. Two minutes, no login.
No promises about numbers. Just clean data across every system, so what you're owed can find you.