AWAL does not collect royalties related to the underlying composition (see below) of your recording. In order to ensure you’re collecting all royalties due to you for your recording, including royalties associated with the Composition of your recording, you’ll need to register with a collections society or PRO (varies depending on the territory in which you’re based). We do not register your works with these societies on your behalf, so the responsibility to register your recordings will lie with you.
It is worth noting each track of recorded music that is distributed has two royalties associated with it:
- Musical Composition: this refers to the underlying song that is being performed, and the copyright owners are those who have written the music and lyrics. This copyright could potentially have multiple owners if multiple people contributed.
- Sound Recording: this refers to the recording itself as a tangible medium that can be played back. The copyright owners are those who performed the recording, those who produced/engineered it, or both. It is common for this copyright to have just one owner, which could be the artist or the label who is releasing the recording.
AWAL will only collect and pay out royalties associated with the Sound Recording from the digital services. These royalties will be accounted to you around the 15th of each month in your statements.