Mechanical Rights & Publishing Royalties
Understand mechanical royalties, publisher's share of performance royalties, YouTube composition royalties, and international publishing royalties — and how DIMBER actively recovers publishing income most artists never see
Mechanical rights pay the songwriting side of your music, and knowing how they work helps you understand what money should be reaching you.
If you write, co-write, or control publishing for your songs, mechanical royalties are part of your income chain. Understand what mechanical rights are, who earns them, why they often go uncollected, and how DIMBER actively recovers them so that money does not stay lost in collection systems you never see.
What Are Mechanical Rights?
Mechanical rights pay the songwriter, composer, or publisher when a composition is reproduced. That includes streams, downloads, and physical formats such as vinyl or CDs.
Every time someone streams or downloads a song, a mechanical royalty is generated for the writer behind the underlying song. If you wrote the music, co-wrote it, or control publishing rights, mechanical royalties are attached to that work whether you are tracking them or not.
Mechanical rights are about the composition — the song itself — not the recording. This is distinct from streaming royalties paid for the master recording.
Who Earns Mechanical Royalties?
Songwriters, composers, and publishers earn mechanical royalties. The money follows the underlying composition, not the performer standing in front of the release.
If you write your own music, you sit on both sides of the business. You are the recording artist on the master side and the songwriter on the composition side, which means you may be entitled to both recording revenue and mechanical royalties.
When a song has multiple writers, mechanical royalties are split according to the agreed ownership shares for the composition. If you only performed on the track but did not write the song or control publishing, the mechanical royalties go to the writers and publishers instead of you.
Why Mechanical Royalties Go Uncollected
Most artists do not lose mechanical royalties because the money does not exist. They lose them because the system holding that money is fragmented, territorial, and rarely explained clearly to independent artists.
Mechanical royalties may be administered by different organizations depending on where the usage happened. That can include collecting societies and mechanical rights organizations such as MLC in the United States, GEMA in Germany, JASRAC in Japan, and MCSK in Kenya. If your songs are not properly connected to the right ownership data across those systems, the money can sit there unclaimed.
The problem gets worse across multiple territories. Registering works, matching songwriter information, and filing claims country by country takes infrastructure most independent artists and small labels do not have, which is why so much composition income never gets paid through to the people who earned it.
Most distributors don't bother. They collect streaming royalties and stop there. Mechanical royalties are left on the table — and the songwriter never sees them.
How DIMBER Collects Mechanical Royalties
DIMBER treats mechanical royalties as an active collection job, not a passive bonus. We do not wait for the money to find its own way back to you.
Identify Owed Mechanical Royalties
DIMBER scans collecting societies and territories for mechanical royalties attached to your compositions. That means looking beyond your visible distribution earnings to find publishing-side revenue connected to your catalog.
Register and File Claims
DIMBER registers your works with the appropriate mechanical rights organizations and files claims where those royalties are held. This is the part that usually blocks artists, because the money is spread across separate systems and rules.
Verify and Collect
DIMBER verifies claims and collects royalties as they are processed by each organization. This remains an ongoing process because payment timelines and matching procedures vary by territory.
Add to Your Payout
Collected mechanical royalties are added to your account and included in your monthly payout. Once recovered, that revenue becomes actual earnings instead of invisible value sitting somewhere else.
Publisher's Share of Performance Royalties
Performance royalties pay songwriters and publishers when a composition is performed publicly. That includes radio, TV, live venues, streaming services, bars, restaurants, and other places where the song is used in public.
Those royalties are split into two parts: the songwriter share and the publisher share. DIMBER collects the publisher's share on behalf of artists who control their own publishing, which means you are not limited to only the writer portion of the income your songs generate.
Most artists miss this money because many distributors do not collect publishing-side performance royalties at all. Without active registration and collection, the publisher's share can go unclaimed or remain absorbed inside PROs and collecting societies that have no direct path to pay you unless your rights are properly represented.
DIMBER actively registers your works and files claims with collecting societies and performance rights organizations so the publishing side of public performance income is tracked and collected instead of left behind.
Publisher's share performance royalties are separate from and in addition to mechanical royalties. Both are composition-side income, but they come from different uses of the song.
YouTube Composition Royalties
YouTube composition royalties are generated when your composition is used on YouTube beyond what Content ID catches at the master recording level. The money comes from the song itself being performed or exploited on the platform, not only from direct matches to your sound recording.
That distinction matters because Content ID primarily handles master recording matches. YouTube composition royalties cover the songwriting and publishing side, including uses such as covers, remixes, lyric videos, and other situations where the composition is being used even when the original master recording does not match.
Most distributors only collect Content ID master royalties. That leaves the composition side untouched, which means songwriting revenue from YouTube often stays invisible to the artists who wrote the music.
DIMBER collects the composition share on YouTube through active registration and claims for the publishing side, so your songs are monetized as compositions and not only as recordings.
Content ID royalties pay the recording owner. YouTube composition royalties pay the songwriter and publisher.
International Publishing Royalties
International publishing royalties are composition-side royalties collected across territories through collecting societies and international partnerships. If your songs generate publishing income outside your home market, that money may be sitting inside foreign collection systems whether you know it or not.
The challenge is that every territory has different societies, filing requirements, and payment timelines. Most independent artists have no realistic way to register, track, and claim publishing income country by country on their own.
DIMBER handles worldwide registration and claims across multiple territories and societies so your compositions are tracked and claimed wherever they generate publishing income. That includes the ongoing administrative work needed to keep ownership data connected across separate systems.
International royalties are some of the most commonly lost revenue for independent artists because the money often exists in territories they do not even know are generating usage. Without active collection, those earnings do not flow back to the people who wrote the songs.
Most artists never register or claim publishing royalties internationally, so the money sits unclaimed forever.
The 20% Commission Model
DIMBER takes a 20% commission on all publishing-side collections covered on this page: mechanical royalties, publisher's share of performance royalties, YouTube composition royalties, and international publishing royalties. That commission is separate from standard distribution commission because the work is separate too: registering with societies, tracking usage, filing claims across territories, and ongoing verification across multiple systems.
The important distinction is that these are realized royalties. In many cases, this is money you would never have known existed, never have registered correctly, and never have collected without someone actively going after it on your behalf.
80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Most artists get 100% of nothing because their distributor doesn't collect mechanical royalties at all.
How This Differs From Neighboring Rights
Mechanical rights, publisher's share of performance royalties, YouTube composition royalties, and international publishing royalties all belong to the composition side of the business. Neighboring rights belong to the recording side, covering performers and master rights holders when a recording is publicly performed or broadcast.
If you are sorting out where your money should come from, keep the split simple: the royalties on this page follow songwriting and publishing ownership, while neighboring rights follow the use of the master recording. For the recording-side version of this revenue stream, read Neighboring Rights.