Music industry glossary

A reference glossary of music industry terms for producers, songwriters, and rights holders. Maintained by Producer Tour.

• Advance — An advance is an upfront payment from a publisher (or label) to a songwriter (or artist), recouped against future royalties the publisher/label collects on the recipient's behalf.
• IPI — IPI (Interested Party Information) — also called CAE (Compositeur, Auteur, Éditeur) — is the unique 9-11 digit number that identifies a songwriter or publisher across all PROs and CMOs globally.
• ISRC — ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the unique 12-character global identifier for a specific recording of a song.
• ISWC — ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is the unique 10-character global identifier for a musical work — i.
• Mechanical royalty — A mechanical royalty is the payment owed to a songwriter and music publisher each time a song is reproduced or distributed, including streams, downloads, CD/vinyl sales, and ringtones.
• MLC — The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is the US non-profit established by the Music Modernization Act of 2018 to collect and distribute mechanical royalties from digital streaming services to songwriters and music publishers.
• Performance royalty — A performance royalty is the payment owed to a songwriter and music publisher when their song is performed publicly — on terrestrial radio, in venues, on TV, in films, or on interactive digital streaming services.
• PRO — A Performing Rights Organization (PRO) is a non-profit or for-profit entity that licenses and collects public performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and music publishers.
• Publisher share — The publisher share is the 50% of publishing royalties that a music publisher can claim in exchange for administering, exploiting, and sometimes advancing the songwriter's catalog.
• Publishing administration — Publishing administration is the service of registering songs with PROs and CMOs, collecting royalties globally, issuing licenses, and accounting to the songwriter — typically for a 15-25% commission, without taking ownership of the copyright.
• Recoupment — Recoupment is the process by which a publisher (or label) recovers a paid advance from a songwriter's (or artist's) future royalties before the writer receives any further payouts beyond the original advance.
• Songwriter share — The songwriter share is the 50% of publishing royalties that goes directly to the songwriter (or co-writers) and cannot be claimed by a music publisher under standard publishing deals.
• SoundExchange — SoundExchange is the US non-profit that collects digital performance royalties for non-interactive digital audio transmissions — such as satellite radio (SiriusXM), internet radio (Pandora's non-interactive tier), and webcasts — and pays them to recording artists, master rights holders, and featured performers.
• Sync license — A sync license (synchronization license) is the agreement that permits a song to be paired with visual media — films, TV, ads, video games, social media — in exchange for an upfront fee plus performance royalties.
• Work registration — Work registration is the process of formally registering a musical composition with PROs, The MLC, and foreign CMOs so that royalties earned by the work can be matched and paid to its writers and publishers.

For more in-depth guides, see the how-to library. To collect every royalty your music earns globally, apply to the Producer Tour writer program — full publishing administration at 20% of recovered royalties, no monthly fee.