Live Shows: Leaving Money on the Stage

You just sold out a 500-cap room playing your own original music. Did you get paid for the setlist?

Venues pay blanket licenses to PROs so music can be performed there. If you perform your own songs live, you are legally entitled to a slice of that pool. If the compositions are not properly registered, that money gets redistributed toward the catalogs that are registered, which in practice means the top of the pop charts, not you.

Registration first, then the setlist

With RightsTune making sure your catalog is registered, you can start submitting live setlists to your PRO and actually collect a performance royalty for playing your own songs at gigs. The show income is not only the door. There is publishing on the stage if the paperwork exists.