Plain-English definitions of the music industry vocabulary Music Intel works with day-to-day. Identifiers, royalty types, collecting societies, and the core concepts behind them. Cross-linked to the relevant Field Notes where the topic has been written up in depth.
A unique 12-character identifier for a sound recording (a master). Issued by national agencies, formatted as country code + registrant + year + designator.
Why it matters. Where most royalty questions begin. If two streams of the "same" track carry different ISRCs, the system treats them as different recordings. Mismatches between ISRC and ISWC are the single biggest cause of unmatched royalty pools.
A unique identifier for a musical composition (a song), independent of any specific recording. Issued by CISAC and administered by national societies.
Why it matters. A song is one thing. Its recordings are many. ISWC names the song; ISRC names each recording. The link between ISWC and ISRC is what tells a society who wrote the underlying composition behind a stream.
A unique identifier for a person or organisation involved in a musical work (writer, composer, publisher, sub-publisher). Maintained by SUISA on behalf of CISAC.
Why it matters. IPI numbers travel with works through the global rights chain. A song has an ISWC; the people credited on it have IPI numbers. Royalty distribution depends on getting both right.
The international file format used to register and exchange musical works between publishers and societies. A CISAC standard, originally 1999, periodically revised.
Why it matters. A composition is registered to a society by uploading a CWR file. Errors in CWR registration (missing IPI, wrong split, malformed line) silently break royalty distribution. Field Notes covers this in detail; CWR-breaking is the single most fixable cause of unmatched royalties.
A royalty paid for the reproduction of a musical work onto a fixed medium (vinyl, CD, MP3, streaming download, interactive stream). Owed to the songwriter and publisher of the underlying composition.
Why it matters. In the US, the MLC collects mechanicals from streaming services. In the UK, MCPS (operated by PRS) does. Mechanicals are distinct from performance royalties even though both pay the writer side - a stream generates both.
A royalty paid when a musical work is performed in public - on radio, on TV, in a venue, on streaming services. Owed to the writer-publisher side, collected by Performing Rights Organisations (PROs).
Why it matters. A single stream typically generates a mechanical and a performance royalty plus a master royalty - three distinct money flows from one play, collected by different bodies, paid to different parties.
A licence fee paid for the use of music in synchronisation with visual media: film, TV, advertising, video games, streaming visual content. Negotiated per use, not collected by societies.
Why it matters. Sync income is one-off and lumpy compared to streaming royalties. For catalogue funds and publishers, it can be the highest-value royalty stream per use, but pursuing it requires direct relationships with music supervisors and ad agencies.
Royalties paid to performers and master-recording owners (rather than the writer side) when a recording is publicly performed - radio, public venues, TV background. Distinct from performance royalties on the composition.
Why it matters. A recording artist who did not write the song still earns from radio play through neighbouring rights. PPL collects in the UK, SoundExchange collects digital performance equivalent in the US. Field Notes 024 covers why these are the most systematically underclaimed income stream in recorded music.
A recorded track has two underlying copyright layers. Master rights cover the specific recording (owned typically by the label or artist). Publishing rights cover the underlying composition (owned by the songwriter and publisher).
Why it matters. A label can own the master without owning the publishing. A publisher can own the song without owning any recording of it. Royalty flows are calculated against both layers separately and can have completely different ownership chains.
The global federation of authors and composers societies. Represents around 240 societies in over 120 countries. Sets technical standards (ISWC, IPI, CWR), publishes annual global collections data.
Why it matters. CISAC numbers are the closest thing to an authoritative global view of writer-side royalty collections. Annual figures often cited in policy debates and Field Notes pieces.
The US blanket-licence administrator for digital audio mechanical royalties from streaming services. Created by the Music Modernization Act 2018, operational from 2021.
Why it matters. The MLC holds the headline "$561M unclaimed" figure that defines the US conversation about black-box royalties. One country, one rights type, one collection body - and the global total is many multiples of it.
The UK collecting society for performance royalties on the writer-publisher side. PRS for Music. MCPS, the mechanical-royalty arm, operates alongside under the same umbrella.
Why it matters. If a song is played in the UK - on radio, in a pub, on a streaming service, on TV - PRS collects the writer-side performance share and distributes it to the registered writers and publishers via CWR data.
The UK collecting society for neighbouring rights on the performer-master side. Collects equitable remuneration when a recording is publicly performed.
Why it matters. PPL pays performers and rights-owners of the recording, where PRS pays writers and publishers of the composition. Both are triggered by the same play. A complete UK royalty picture for a single artist needs both.
One of the three primary US Performing Rights Organisations (alongside BMI and SESAC). Collects performance royalties on the writer-publisher side from radio, TV, venues, streaming services.
Why it matters. A US writer typically affiliates with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC - not all three - and that affiliation determines who collects on their behalf. Catalogues bought across affiliations require coordinated administration.
The second of the major US PROs. Collects performance royalties on the writer-publisher side. Largest by repertoire as of recent CISAC reporting.
Why it matters. Until 2024 BMI was a non-profit. It was acquired by the New Mountain Capital private equity group, which has reshaped how the US PRO market is read. Catalogue funds doing US due diligence track this closely.
The US collecting society for digital-performance neighbouring rights. Distributes royalties to performers and master-rights owners when their recordings are streamed on non-interactive services (US-licensed satellite, webcaster, simulcast).
Why it matters. SoundExchange is the closest US equivalent of UK PPL for digital performance, though the licensing scope is narrower than PPL's broadcast-and-public-place reach.
Royalty income collected by a society or distributor but not yet attributed to a specific rights-holder due to incomplete or mismatched registration data. Held in suspense pools, eventually distributed pro-rata to known members or written off.
Why it matters. The single largest cause of writer-side income leakage. Field Notes 012 quantifies the US picture (the much-cited $561M MLC number); Field Notes 021 extrapolates the global figure. Recovering black-box money requires forensic ISWC, IPI, and CWR work.
A streaming or digital download service that pays royalties to rights-holders. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, and similar services are DSPs.
Why it matters. DSP-level royalty data is the modern equivalent of monthly statements. The fragmentation of payment formats and reporting cycles across DSPs is one of the biggest practical obstacles to a unified rights view.
A structured forensic review of a music catalogue (typically by a publisher, label, or rights-investment fund) to identify missing royalty streams, registration gaps, and recoverable income.
Why it matters. Used in two contexts. Pre-acquisition due diligence: validating projected income before a fund buys a catalogue. Post-acquisition recovery: finding what the previous owner missed. Field Notes 025 walks through what an audit actually finds.
The process of matching, validating, and de-duplicating identifiers across systems - typically ISRC, ISWC, IPI, artist name, and rights-holder records - to produce a single coherent catalogue view.
Why it matters. Nearly every royalty problem reduces to a metadata problem. Reconciliation is what turns a pile of incomplete statements from multiple DSPs and societies into a structured catalogue view that can be audited, valued, or reported on.