For Songwriters

Collect Every Penny

The Complete Guide to Copyright Registration, Royalty Streams, and Full Collection

By Gregory Altman, JD  ·  Nashville, Tennessee

Get the Guide — $99

$99 · Instant PDF Download · 50 Chapters · 8 Parts · 110 Pages

Most independent artists collect less than half the royalties their music generates. The rest sits unclaimed in databases, unmatched funds pools, and accounts they never knew to open. This guide changes that.

The Problem

Your music is generating royalties right now that you are not collecting.

Every time your song streams on Spotify, three separate royalty flows are triggered simultaneously. Most independent artists only collect one of them -- the master recording royalty that flows through their distributor. The mechanical royalty and the performance royalty require separate registrations most artists have never completed.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective holds millions of dollars in unmatched funds -- royalties that were collected from streaming platforms but cannot be paid out because the songs were never registered. SoundExchange holds digital performance royalties for artists who have not claimed them. PROs distribute performance royalties to registered works only.

The system generates the money. Whether it reaches you depends entirely on whether you have built the infrastructure to receive it.

"Lower Broadway is truly the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Talented people fed into the machine and out the other side with their dreams destroyed -- not because they lacked the gift, but because nobody gave them the map. This resource is that map."

3 Royalty flows per stream
50 Chapters of operational guidance
8 Parts covering every system
15 Years of industry experience
From the Foreword

"Straight out of law school, my first client was a multiple Grammy Award winner. I did not ease into the entertainment business -- I was dropped into the deep end of it from day one, and I learned hard and fast. Over the fifteen years that followed, everything in this guide came to me the way real knowledge always does -- through experience, through mistakes, and through watching what happens when the system works and when it does not. I learned it so you do not have to learn it the same way."

Gregory Altman, JD Nashville, Tennessee
What Is Inside

Eight parts. Fifty chapters. Every system covered.

This is not a survey of the music business. It is an operational guide to one specific thing: making sure every dollar your songs generate finds its way to you. Every chapter is actionable. Every section ends with direct resources and links.

PART 1
The Legal Foundation
Copyright law, the two separate copyrights in every song, work for hire, Section 203 termination rights, the Music Modernization Act, AI and copyright, fair use, moral rights, and step-by-step copyright registration. Seven chapters.
PART 2
The Royalty Ecosystem
All seven royalty types mapped. Performance royalties, mechanical royalties, SoundExchange, master royalties, sync licensing, neighboring rights, CCLI church licensing, NFTs, and twelve hidden revenue streams. Nine chapters.
PART 3
The Registration Sequence
Nine steps in the exact order they must be completed -- Copyright Office, PRO, distribution, MLC, SoundExchange, platform profiles, YouTube Content ID, international registration, and direct sales. Ten chapters.
PART 4
Tools, Tracking, and Analytics
Soundcharts, Luminate, BDS, Tunesat, Chartmetric, Songtrust, Music Reports, and streaming fraud protection. How to verify every royalty channel is working and find every dollar that is not reaching you. Seven chapters.
PART 5
Contracts, Labels, and Protecting Your Interests
Label deals, 360 provisions, distribution agreements, publishing deals, single song contracts, management agreements, demo deals, reading royalty statements, label bankruptcy, music insurance, and legal options. Six chapters.
PART 6
Building and Monetizing Catalog
Catalog as a financial asset, release strategy, merchandising and adjacent revenue, estate planning for music rights, and taxes and business structure. Five chapters.
PART 7
The Retroactive Audit
How to find royalties already owed -- the MLC unmatched database, SoundExchange unclaimed funds, PRO retroactive claims, retroactive registration of old catalog, and international societies with accumulated unclaimed royalties.
PART 8
Reference
Complete resource directory, master glossary of 28 terms, new release checklist, royalty flow chart, and real dollar examples showing exactly what different levels of activity generate across every royalty channel.
Real Dollar Examples

What your music is actually worth -- when every registration is in place.

500,000 Streams $2,200–$4,000

One song, one year. Master royalty, mechanical royalty, and performance royalty combined -- but only when all three registrations are complete.

National TV Sync $35K–$130K

One placement in a national television advertisement -- sync fees plus broadcast performance royalties over a 13-week airing period.

30-Song Catalog $7K–$14K/yr

Passive annual income from a fully registered 30-song catalog at 50,000 streams per song per year -- without releasing a single new song.

Who This Guide Is For

If you write songs, this was written for you.

Do not give up.
Get paid.
Collect every penny.

A JD-authored complete operational guide. 50 chapters. Every royalty system covered. Every registration step documented. Instant PDF download, readable on any device.

Get the Guide — $99

Instant download  ·  PDF format  ·  Readable on all devices

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