Music Licensing: Mechanical Royalties Explained

Mechanical royalties are a royalty paid to a songwriter whenever a copy of one of their songs is made. For instance, when a record label presses a CD of your song, you are due a mechanical royalty. That is the basic story, but it gets a little more complicated.

Music Licensing, Sesac, Music Distribution, Performing Rights Organization, soundexchange, entertainment law, harry fox agency, sync licensing

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[TheModernMusician]

Like & Share this video and help us spread the word to other musicians struggling to make a living from their music!

Let us know in the comments what subjects would you want us to cover in future videos!

[solielbrissett]

I get so much more watching these 4 minvideos than the long ones great job thanks.

[saftheartist]

Clear and right to the point explanation, thank you!

[CoffeeWithSugars]

Really good video. Very well explained. Thank you.

[headthenorth]

My new favorite channel.. thank you so much!

[_jahwarrior]

You guys are doing the Lord's work. 🙏🏽❤️

[RuxiEDM-CN]

Super simple & helpful with the summary and the example! Thank you so much :)

[iiBleedMusic]

Perfect explanation! Could you give an example for streams? And does YouTube count as streams?

[yemisiaderuku]

FESPACO February '25
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

Thank you so much

[RonVelvet]

Hi! Say my producer and I are homies and we create a song and split everything down the middle (publishing & master). If I eventually become a YouTube partner and my music video blows up and I get say $2, 000 in Adsense money from views on that video, am I obligated to pay my producer $1000 based off our split? Or is YouTube revenue from views/adsence, etc different than the royalties mentioned in your video? And if in fact I do owe money to my producer, does a PRO like ASCAP take care of that?

[calumbrooknicolson]

I'm planning to do some copyrighted music in my career, so I was wanting to learn about something like this.

[GregoryGuay]

Aha ! Non-interactive is PERFORMANCE ROYALTY and Interactive is MECHANICAL royalty. How about members in the band that split ownership of the sound recording masters? They do not get royalty or mechanical? What is that called?

[turner]

Theres an article that states that performance royalties are split with publishers while mechanicals royalties are only paid to publishers? This video seems to contradict that article?

[davidcottrell]

Mechanical royalties are paid to the publishers, NOT the songwriter, unless the songwriter is self-published. The rate is now 12 cents per song per cd, etc...

[fuzzupuzzu]

how do record labels and independent producers collect mechanical royalties? or they should not worry about it at all ?

[jambassguitar]

Hi, I produce beats and have since been working with other artists to make a full song. As the sole beatmaker who arranged the instrumental, am I considered a songwriter? If so, am I then entitled to mechanical royalties, regardless of the percentage? Thanks!

[georgeesteban]

Hey there, love your videos! Quick question, if i have songs out on spotify, and get streaming royalties thru distrokid should i still register to get mechanical royalties? and if so could i just stream myself abunch of times after the fact and just collected all those royalties??

[victoratlanticaviation]

Hi, please tell me: Do those youtube channels who post 3 hours of "calm music", "study music", "Christmas music", (some of them even post well know music like Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Martin Garrix) do they pay royalties. If so, what type of royalties? Thanks

[jessicaevariana]

Can songwriters/composer forbid a singer from singing their songs commercially at concerts/cafes even though they have paid royalties to a collective management agency / PRO (performance right organization like ASCAP or BMI?

Do singers have to ask permission from the songwriter/composer before using their songs commercially even though they have paid royalties to the collective management agency/ PRO (performance right organization like ASCAP/BMI) ?

[lisawhite]

If I want to post a cover song to YouTube (no plans to make money), do I only need the Sync license, or would I also need the mechanical license? Do you also have videos on how to best go about moving through the process, and how to know what is a reasonable cost to do so?