Demystifying Split Sheets
Split sheets. Music industry professionals recognize that they are a necessity, but what are split sheets, and why do we need them? Generally, a split sheet is a basic agreement between writers of a musical composition (the “Song”) to memorialize their shares in the Song. The main purpose of a split sheet is to capture data needed to register a Song for royalties. Sounds simple enough, right? In practice, standard split sheets capture the songwriters, their authorship percentages of the Song, and information about the publishers (if you’re lucky). However, in order to properly register with organizations such as performance rights organizations (e.g., ASCAP or BMI) (the “PROs”), Harry Fox Agency (“HFA”), Music Reports, Inc. (“MRI”), and The Mechanical Licensing Collective (“The MLC”), more information is often needed. Even worse, standard split sheets don’t address information concerning the master recording embodying the Song (the “Master”). Who owns the Master, and what are their shares? Who are the featured artists, and what are they entitled to? Who else collaborated on the Master? Generally, musicians won’t bother gathering Master information because record labels gather basic information about the Master and session, but what if you’re not signed to a label?
Imagine that you’re the lead singer in an indie band that recently released Our First Hit. Your band used a standard music industry split sheet to capture the songwriters, their ownership percentages in the Song, and their publishing information. The band agreed that you would own 80% of the Song because you wrote the majority of the music. After numerous disagreements, you decide to leave the band. While going through your accounting for Our First Hit, you find something curious. Your royalties from SoundExchange were split evenly between the five band members, thus leaving you with 20% of the Master. You contest this with the band and demand your 80% share as agreed in the split sheet, but your split sheet was only for the Song, not the Master. You argue that the agreement was for 80% ownership in all of the music, but without anything to the contrary in writing, the band insists that they are owed equal shares for their performances on the Master. Now you’re stuck arguing about who owns what, you might end up with less royalties than you anticipated, and you were forced to waste time that could have been spent doing what you love: creating music.
As seen in the above scenario, failure to memorialize your rights and collect information for both the Song and the Master can negatively impact your royalties and credit. Although a basic concept in theory, split sheets are the skeleton for much more complex industry concepts. Split sheets are binding once signed by the parties, but they also lay the foundation for more detailed contracts that further memorialize your rights.
Capturing all of the requisite information can be a pain. Save yourself the headache and memorialize your rights using Music Law Pro’s template Song and Master split sheet. Music Law Pro’s split sheet is a perk of our yearly membership designed to streamline the process of tracking catalogs and gathering so-called metadata for registrations in the United States. In addition to capturing basic Song information, Music Law Pro’s split sheet gathers Master information as well as additional information for both the Song and the Master to prepare you to register your music on the majority of royalty collection platforms.
Part I of Music Law Pro’s split sheet focuses on the Song. In addition to tracking the songwriters, their ownership percentages, and publisher information like a standard split sheet, Music Law Pro’s split sheet also captures recording information, Song registrations, any information for samples used, and information about the parties’ administration rights. Part II of Music Law Pro’s split sheet focuses on the Master. The Master split sheet tracks Master authorship information, ownership percentages, and session information. Part III of Music Law Pro’s split sheet captures contact information for all of the contributors to the Song and Master in one easily accessible location. Part IV provides a space for additional information for future releases of the Song and/or Master.
You may be thinking, “Woah, that seems like a lot of information. Can’t I just use a split sheet that I found online for free without all of that other information?” You can, but you’ll likely end up missing crucial information. Most split sheets only capture a portion of what Music Law Pro considers Part I of its split sheet. Moreover, split sheets that capture information about the Master, like Music Law Pro’s Part II, hardly exist at all in the music industry. Music Law Pro’s split sheet is more comprehensive to help musicians gather all of the information they’ll likely need to register with relevant music organizations for both the Song and the Master. To accomplish this, all of the fields in Music Law Pro’s split sheet correspond with fields needed to register with these music organizations. Song authorship information, such as the names of the songwriters, their authorship percentages, their respective publishers, and songwriter and publisher identification numbers, is needed to register the Song with your PRO. This allows the PROs to properly distribute public performance royalties and pay both songwriters and publishers. Recording information, such as the primary and featured artists, release date, Universal Product Code (“UPC”), and International Standard Recording Code (“ISRC”), is used to register the Song with HFA, MRI, and The MLC. HFA, MRI, and The MLC grant mechanical licenses, licenses that allow reproduction of the Song, and distribute royalties for those licenses to your publisher. Master authorship information, such as the primary artists, featured artists, and performer splits, is used by distributors to ensure that all performers are properly credited on releases, thus ensuring they receive their royalties. Master ownership percentages, the ISRC, and release information, such as release title, record label, and UPC, are used by SoundExchange to ensure performers and contributors collect royalties from non-interactive streaming services like SiriusXM. Session information, such as recording dates, recording locations, and the names of backing vocalists and engineers, helps to ensure all parties involved in creation of the Master are properly compensated and credited.
Music Law Pro’s split sheet revolutionizes current split sheets by tracking information that is necessary to compensate contributors on both the Song and the Master in one easily accessible document. Unlike standard split sheets that only provide the information needed to register with your PRO (if you’re lucky), Music Law Pro’s split sheet provides a centralized location for the information you need to register for royalties with your PRO, HFA, MRI, The MLC, and SoundExchange. Gone are the days spending hours chasing down information you might never find, and gone are the days of unorganized management of your legal documents. When you become a Music Law Pro member and use our split sheet, you gain a team of dedicated legal experts that can help you track this information, fill out the split sheet, explain fields within the split sheet, and gather all of the necessary signatures.
Don’t get overwhelmed trying to track the data needed to register your music. Let Music Law Pro guide you through the process of obtaining authoritative splits to ensure correct royalties and credits. Contact us today to become a member and receive your template split sheet and a team of music industry experts who want to see you succeed.
By: Alexandra Mayo, Esq.
DISCLAIMER: In addition to the disclaimer, for clarity: This information is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation; and please do not consider this information to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in the jurisdiction(s) relevant to your matter.