Mechanical royalties are an income source for artists who write and create their own music and it is considered an integral part of being a successful artist.
You can think of mechanical royalties as the money that is made from selling physical mediums, such as albums or singles. The payment for these sales are usually based on a per-unit figure. With the emergence of digital music distribution and streaming, this also is an integral part of the mechanical royalty concept.
What this does is give full control to the songwriter as to who can record the music, as well as those that are able to release these recordings for profit. This also includes any cover versions of songs and any sheet music that has been written by the artist. It is important to remember that as the songwriter, you are the one who has the most amount of say in this situation and therefore you have full rights to the royalties that accrue.
Why are they Called “Mechanical” Royalties?
The term mechanical is an outdated term in itself. It used to be that music compositions were only printed on physical items, such as records, cassettes & CD’s. However, as the music industry has moved toward the digital format the term has less significance. For example, many years ago when a pianist wanted to record a song, it was printed on a rolling sheet of paper known as a piano roll. The action when the pianist was playing the song was known as mechanical playing.
How do I earn Mechanical Royalties?
It is simple to find out if you are earning mechanical royalties. If you are distributing your music via any channel, such as in the digital format or even on physical products like albums and cassettes, then you should be receiving mechanical royalties. If your music is being played on platforms like Spotify and Pandora, or it is available on iTunes or Amazon, then you should be receiving royalties.
International Copyright Law differences
International copyright laws will play a significant role in receiving royalties because they have different criteria from which they base their royalty decisions. In fact, the structure in which royalties are paid is based on the location from which the digital download was procured.
These royalties help in mechanical collections in the territories that the sales originated and this means that it is more difficult to claim these earnings. To do so you must become registered within the societies that are holding the royalties and this can pose some issues.
So, when can you collect your royalties? Well, the societies that are holding the funds can choose to release the money after a certain amount of time and they can do with the money as they see fit.
You must be signed to a Publisher to collect royalties
If you are an independent musician then it can be difficult to collect international fees unless you are signed to a major record label. This is because these royalties are held by societies that will only payout on the behalf of songwriters who belong to the societies. However, affiliating with one of these mechanical collection societies is very problematic for independent artists.
Why must you be signed?
The problem with international royalties is that the governing societies will only work with large scale publishing companies as those are the companies that technically own many of the rights to the music. Therefore, if you are not signed to a major label that you could be at a loss trying to recoup any monies that you have made independently. To make the process worse, there are massive amounts of paperwork and fees to navigate before there is any chance of being paid.
Luckily for an independent artist, there are some organisations out there that are dedicated to helping musicians get back their foregone royalties. These organisations will help artists navigate the complexities of the international laws regarding mechanical royalties and will work with publishing companies to ensure that the musician is satisfied with the outcome.