What Are Songwriting Splits?
Songwriting splits determine how much money each person makes from a song. Every track generates royalties. You must decide how to divide these royalties before you release the music.
The Master and The Composition
Music royalties fall into two main categories.
The Master Recording
This is the actual audio file. The record label or the person who paid for the recording usually owns the master. If you are an independent, unsigned artist you probably own this side entirely.
The Composition
This covers the lyrics and the underlying melody. The songwriters and producers share the composition rights. This is where songwriting splits become vital.
How to Divide Your Songwriting Splits
There are no legal rules for exact percentages. It depends entirely on what you agree upon with your collaborators. Some examples of possible splits are below:
The 2-Way Split
A producer makes the beat and a singer writes the lyrics. They often split the composition equally at 50% each. Sometimes in collaborations, a featured artist or remixer may agree to a smaller cut so the primary artist takes the lion share and the remixer takes a lesser cut.
The 3-Way, 4-Way or more Split
You might have multiple writers or producers involved. A band with four members might split the song 25% each. Keep the math simple to avoid payout errors later. You may have many writers and engineers in the room when making a track. All collaborators need to know what they own.
How to Lock In Your Percentages
You must write down your agreement. A verbal agreement is not enough to collect royalties. You need a formal document.
A split sheet records every percentage and collaborator detail. You use this information when uploading tracks to your distributor.
We built a free tool to help you secure these details fast. You can use our music split sheet generator to create your document in under two minutes.
GENERATE A SPLIT SHEET
Next Steps for Your Release
Once your splits are set your music is ready for distribution. You need to prepare your marketing tools.
Set up a pre-save campaign using music smart links to build early momentum with Soundplate Clicks. When the song is live you can use our free platform to submit music to Spotify playlists.