BeatStars Publishing tries to collect in as many countries as possible by joining dozens of local societies. Rightstune collects digital streaming through a few global hubs, then pays you monthly after the first quarter.
If you make beats, lease tracks, or release independently, almost all of your publishing money is digital. A huge local-society network is built for radio, TV, and live shows. That is rarely how a BeatStars catalog actually earns.
Important: BeatStars the marketplace (selling and leasing beats) is not the same as BeatStars Publishing. You can sell beats on BeatStars and still use a different publishing admin. This page is only about publishing collection.
Plain English
Words you will see on this page
Publishing talk is full of jargon. Here is what the words actually mean.
Publishing royalties
Money owed when someone uses your song as a composition — the melody, lyrics, and beat as a song — not the MP3 file a distributor already pays you for.
Split sheet
Who owns what percent of the song. A typical lease might be 50% producer and 50% split among vocalists. Those numbers have to be registered or nobody gets paid correctly.
Mechanical royalties
Money for making a copy of the song. A stream counts as a copy.
Performance royalties
Money for playing the song in public, including part of every stream, plus radio, TV, and live shows.
PRO
Your home performing rights organization — like ASCAP or BMI. You still need one.
Digital hub
One group that licenses many countries at once for streaming, instead of joining a society in every country.
Black box
Unmatched money. If a society cannot match a play to a songwriter, the cash often ends up with the biggest publishers in that country.
CWR file
An old-style registration file that publishers send to societies. Each society reads it a little differently, so errors are common.
How collection works
Two different playbooks
BeatStars’ playbook: collect at the source in as many countries as possible
BeatStars Publishing now runs on Believe / Sentric (from April 2026). That backend claims direct collection in 200+ territories and well over 50 local societies. The pitch is: register every split in every country so a radio spin in Argentina or a club play in Belgium does not wait on a slow mail chain between societies.
That model can help a touring act or a catalog that still earns from terrestrial radio and TV. It is expensive to run. BeatStars pays creators only twice a year, because it has to wait on many societies with different calendars.
Rightstune’s playbook: collect digital where the streams actually are
Rightstune uses six partners: your PRO, The MLC / HFA (US copies), IMPEL (global streaming via partners like SACEM and AMRA), MCPS (CDs and vinyl), CMRRA (Canada), and MRI (niche apps). One clean registration at those hubs covers the platforms where independent producers actually earn. Details are on our affiliations page.
The numbers
Side by side
Topic
Rightstune
BeatStars Publishing
How they collect
6 focused hubs
50+ local societies via Believe / Sentric
First payout
About 1 quarter
Tied to a twice-a-year schedule
After that
Monthly
Semi-annual (twice a year)
Upfront fee
$0
$50+
Mechanical fee
15%
20%
Performance (publisher share)
12%
20–40%
Sync
15%
35%
Best fit
Digital-first catalogs
Creators who also earn a lot from foreign radio, TV, and live
Rightstune rates are our published prices. BeatStars figures come from their public help pages and can change. Always check the source if you are deciding today.
For independents
What this means for you
BeatStars is built around beat leasing: one producer, several vocalists, messy splits. Those splits still have to be registered no matter which admin you use. The difference is where the registration goes.
Sending the same split sheet to 50 local societies sounds thorough. It also creates 50 places a name, IPI number, or percentage can fail. If a society rejects the file, that country’s money can sit in the black box until someone fixes it by hand.
Rightstune sends one clean registration to a few modern hubs. Spotify in Germany or Brazil reports to those hubs directly. The money does not wait for a local society to finish its paperwork. For a producer whose tracks go viral on TikTok or Spotify, monthly cash is the difference between funding the next session and waiting six months.
When BeatStars’ wide net helps: a deep catalog that still earns from terrestrial radio, TV, or live covers abroad. Multi-territory digital hubs license streaming. They do not collect a German FM radio spin or a Brazilian bar cover. Those uses still need local societies — or your home PRO’s slower reciprocal path.
Accuracy
Why blasting a song to 50 databases is risky
Old registration files (CWR) are picky. A title that works in the UK might fail in Argentina because of character limits or a conflicting older claim. Each extra society is another chance the song never matches.
Rightstune talks to hubs that already use modern digital pipelines — The MLC, IMPEL / SACEM, and AMRA. Fewer databases, cleaner matching, less black box.
Speed follows from that. BeatStars’ twice-a-year payout is not a personality choice. It is what happens when you wait on the slowest society in a 50-society pile. Rightstune’s monthly cycle is what happens when you only wait on digital hubs that already pay on a faster clock.
Bottom line
Pick the model that matches how you earn
BeatStars Publishing casts a wide net across local societies and pays twice a year. Rightstune is built for digital-first producers and artists: fewer registration points, faster matching, monthly payouts, and $0 to start.
Want the full list of Rightstune’s six partners? See Affiliations.
