Mechanical licensing

Mechanical licensing, including the subsequent royalty processing, payment, and statement distribution, are also among the many services offered by Royalty Solutions.

tunelicensing

Through our TuneLicensing Licensing Portal, you can submit mechanical licensing requests (individually or in bulk). Upon receipt of your submission details, Royalty Solutions will research and confirm publisher splits, and then obtain the mechanical licenses from all rights holders. You will conveniently be able to track the status of your license requests on our licensing portal and will be notified via email when the composition has been fully licensed. You will also have the ability to download copies of the mechanical licenses for your records once completed.

Read our FAQ about obtaining a mechanical license through TuneLicensing.



What does it cost?

LIMITED License*

A Limited License covers a predetermined amount of digital downloads (a digital single and digital album are covered at the same price). Once the predetermined amount has been sold, you must either: relicense, convert to a Standard License*, or stop distributing the song.

Pricing:

  • Licensing Fee: $17.00

  • Pre-Payment of Royalty Fee: [12 cents x {units licensed} for the first 5 minutes and 2.31¢ per minute or fraction thereof, per copy for songs over 5 minutes ]

  • Re-license Fee: $7.50

  • Cost to convert to a Standard License*: $49.00 Licensing Fee

Standard License*

A Standard License* allows you to distribute an unlimited amount of digital downloads without the worry of overselling and/or re-licensing. Once you’ve purchased a Standard License*, you’re covered forever. That’s it—easy, legal and worry free! Please note that Standard Licenses are only available for tracks distributed through TuneCore only.

Pricing:

  • One Time Licensing Fee: $70.00

  • Pre-Paid Royalty Fee: None. Royalty fees are paid only after units are sold (you will be charged on a quarterly basis at 9.1 cents per unit sold)

  • Processing Fee: There is a processing fee of 7.9 cents per unit, capped at $200.00 per quarterly mechanical royalty’s calculation plus the mechanical royalties due.

    *Standard License option is only available for TuneCore users at this time.

Proof of licensing

Receive PDF detailing the license(s) that you have received for your track. This proof of licensing certificate can be used to show the copyright owner that you have legally obtained a mechanical license for your release.

Pricing:

  • One Time Fee: $5.00

MECHANICAL ROYALTIES

The statutory mechanical royalty rate* for permanent digital downloads is:

12¢ per copy for songs 5 minutes or less, or
2.31¢ per minute or fraction thereof, per copy for songs over 5 minutes
*All royalty fees are set by US Copyright law


What are these fees?

The licensing fee covers all the legal and administrative work Royalty Solutions performs on the back end to ensure that you can keep your focus on the music.

The processing fee (Standard License only) includes:

  • Calculation, preparation and delivery of royalty statements

  • Processing and tracking all mechanical royalty payments

  • Email notifications


ROYALTY PROCESSING AND STATEMENT DISTRIBUTION

Royalty Solutions can also handle your mechanical reporting obligations. RS will process your sales data and generate mechanical royalty statements for quarterly distribution to the applicable rights holders. Statements are available in PDF, Excel, and Music Maestro compatible formats.  RS also offers the option to distribute the payments and statements.