A release usually pays more than one person. This page explains the two kinds of royalty, how to agree shares before you upload, and how to record them so nobody is guessing later.
Two different royalties, two different splits
Most tracks generate two separate income streams, and they are owned by different people. The recording side pays whoever owns the master: usually the performing artist, and sometimes a producer who negotiated points. The publishing side pays the songwriters and their publishers for the underlying composition. The same person can appear on both, with different percentages on each. A featured vocalist who wrote no lyrics may hold a recording share and no writer share. A topline writer who never entered the studio may hold the reverse. Treat them as two lists, not one, and decide each separately before you talk about numbers.
What a split sheet actually is
A split sheet is a short written record of who contributed to a track and what percentage each person holds. At minimum it names the track, the date, every contributor, their legal name, their role, their percentage on the writing side, their percentage on the recording side, and their signature or written confirmation. It is not a formality. It is the document you fall back on when a session from two years ago is remembered differently by three people. Write it in the room, on the day, while memories are fresh and everyone is still pleased with the work.
Agree splits before the release, not after
Splits are far easier to settle when nothing is at stake. Before release, a conversation about percentages is an administrative task. After a track starts earning, the same conversation involves money that already exists, and positions harden. Agreeing early also protects the release date: unresolved ownership questions are one of the most common reasons a planned release slips or gets pulled. Make the split conversation part of finishing the track, alongside mixing and artwork. If a contributor will not commit to a number, that is useful information to have long before you schedule a release.
When the percentages do not add to 100
Each side must total exactly 100 percent. If your writer shares add to 90, ten percent of the publishing income has no owner and will sit unclaimed rather than being redistributed. If they add to 110, the claim is over-subscribed and can be rejected or held until it is corrected. Rounding causes most errors: three equal writers cannot each take 33.33 without leaving a remainder, so decide in advance who absorbs the extra hundredth. Check both sides separately. A recording split that balances tells you nothing about whether the writer split does.
Featured artists and producers
A feature is a negotiation, not a default. Some featured artists take a recording percentage, some take a one-off fee and no ongoing share, and some take both a fee and a reduced share. Whichever you agree, write down which it is. Producers vary just as widely: a work-for-hire producer paid a flat fee holds nothing afterwards, while a producer on points holds an ongoing recording percentage. If a producer contributed melody, chords or lyrics rather than only arrangement and sound, they may also have a writer claim. Ask directly rather than assuming.
Why splits are fixed at upload
You set splits once, when you deliver the release, because that information travels with the recording into reporting and accounting systems downstream. Income is then allocated against the shares that were in force when it was earned. Changing a percentage later does not retroactively rewrite money that has already been reported and paid out. That is why the pre-release conversation matters so much. The calculator on this page is a planning aid: it takes the numbers you type in and shows how a hypothetical amount would divide. It is not a contract and it does not register anything.