Module 00 · Introduction & The Royalty Roadmap
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The Royalty Roadmap — How money actually flows
Before any details, here's the big picture. Every dollar a song earns flows through one of these stops:
- Master recording → owned by you (or your label).
- Composition → owned by writers / publishers.
- PRO (BMI / ASCAP / SESAC) → collects performance royalties from radio, venues, streamers.
- SoundExchange → collects performance royalties for the master from satellite + non-interactive radio.
- Distributor (Distrokid / Tunecore / CD Baby) → delivers to DSPs, collects streaming royalties.
- DSPs (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Amazon, Deezer) → where listeners actually play it.
- Songtrust / publishing admin → collects international + mechanical royalties you'd otherwise miss.
- Sync libraries → place your music in TV, ads, film, games.
The rest of this course walks each stop in detail. By the end, every song you release will have a complete royalty pipeline pointed at it.