If you wrote the lyrics or made the tune of a song that's out on Spotify, JioSaavn or YouTube, there's a second stream of money attached to it that your distributor doesn't collect. It sits with IPRS, the Indian Performing Right Society, and a lot of the Bhojpuri, Haryanvi and devotional writers we talk to have never registered. Some have heard the name. Very few have filled in the form.
This guide walks through what IPRS actually pays for, who can join, which documents to keep ready, and the small mistakes that hold applications up.
Two different royalties on one song
Every released song has two copyrights sitting inside it.
The first is the sound recording, the actual audio file. Whoever owns that (you, if you paid for the recording, or your label) earns from streams and downloads. That's the money a distributor like RMX Music collects from the platforms and passes to you.
The second is the song itself: the words and the melody. Lyricists and composers have rights in that, separate from the recording. When the song is streamed, played on radio or TV, or used at an event, a licence fee is due for those underlying works too. In India, IPRS is the copyright society that licenses and collects for them, then shares the money with its members.
So a Haryanvi singer who wrote his own song and paid for the recording can, in principle, earn on both sides. Most only ever see one.
Is the money real?
It's not small change anymore. According to the IPRS Annual Transparency Report for FY 2024-25, the society's income was ₹741.6 crore, and ₹602.4 crore of that came from streaming platforms. It paid out ₹608.8 crore in royalties during the year, of which ₹383.1 crore went to lyric writers, composers and their legal heirs.
The FY 2024-25 Annual Report says royalties reached 13,140 members that year, up from 8,210 the year before. That's a lot of new writers getting paid in a single year.
How much any one writer gets depends entirely on how much their songs are used. A Rajasthani folk song with a few thousand plays won't make anyone rich from IPRS. But if you have a catalogue of 40 or 50 bhajans that get played every morning, it adds up quietly over the years, and it's your money whether you claim it or not.
Who can join
From the IPRS "Join as author/composer" page, membership is open to:
- Composers (music directors)
- Authors (lyricists)
- People who do both, whom IPRS calls writers
- Legal heirs of writers who have passed away
- Publishers, under a separate category
The one firm condition: you need at least one work that has been released or published. You can't register with songs sitting on your laptop. Release first, then apply.
For non-film work, IPRS wants to see an internet presence. That means a YouTube release or the song being live on JioSaavn, Gaana, Hungama, iTunes, Spotify or another streaming platform. A physical CD with an inlay card also counts.
What it costs
There's a one-time application processing fee of ₹1,200 for authors, composers and legal heirs, and ₹2,200 for publishers. The IPRS site says it has to be paid online.
Documents to keep ready
Get these scanned before you open the form. Half the delays we hear about come from people stopping midway to hunt for a bank statement.
1. PAN card. Mandatory for individuals. 2. Address proof. Passport, driving licence, voter ID or a leave and licence agreement. If you live as a paying guest or with relatives, IPRS asks for a notarised letter from the property owner with their electricity bill. 3. One recent colour passport photo. 4. Bank proof. A cancelled cheque, passbook page or bank statement that clearly shows the account holder's name, account number and IFSC code. The name should match your PAN. This is where most mismatches happen. 5. Work notification for each song. For a non-film release, a screenshot of the song's digital release page with all the credits and links visible. Take it from a platform that actually shows your name as lyricist or composer.
Legal heirs need a death certificate and a probated will or succession certificate on top of this.
How the application works
1. Go to the IPRS online member portal and pick the right category. Most independent writers will choose Author/Composer as an individual. 2. Fill in your details and upload the documents. The portal has a user guide PDF if a field confuses you. 3. Pay the processing fee online. 4. After IPRS accepts the online application, it posts you hard copies of the statutory documents to sign, including the assignment deed. Sign and send them back. 5. Once the signed deed reaches IPRS, it creates your IPI number (your unique membership number) and emails you the format for registering your works. At this point you get provisional membership. 6. The board then takes the final decision on admission, which the membership endorses at the AGM.
IPRS's membership desk is at [email protected] and +91-7700004372 if something gets stuck.
The part people skip: registering every song
Getting an IPI number is only half the job. IPRS can only pay you for songs it knows are yours, so every work has to be registered after you join, and every new release after that too.
Keep a simple sheet with each song's title, the lyricist, the composer, each person's share, the release date, the ISRC, and the platform links. When a new song goes live, add it the same week. If you co-wrote a Punjabi track with a friend, agree on the split in writing before release. Sorting out 50-50 versus 70-30 after the money starts coming is how friendships end.
Mistakes that slow things down
- Name mismatch. Your PAN says "Ramesh Kumar Yadav", your Spotify credit says "R K Yadav", and your bank account says "Ramesh Yadav". Pick one legal name for paperwork and make sure your credits carry it, or at least that the link is obvious.
- Missing credits on the release. If the song went out with only the singer's name and no lyricist or composer credit, your screenshot proves nothing. This is fixed at the distribution stage, which is why we ask for full credits when a song is uploaded.
- Applying before release. Wait until the song is actually live.
- Joining and then forgetting. Register works regularly. IPRS's distribution rules mention four main distribution cycles a year, in June, September, December and March, so a song you register late may miss a cycle.
Where RMX fits in
RMX Music handles the recording side. We deliver your songs to 95+ platforms and you keep 95% of what the master earns. We've done this for 3,000+ artists and 2,200+ labels across 20,000+ tracks, and the releases that later go smoothly with IPRS are almost always the ones where the lyricist and composer were credited properly from day one.
So the order is simple. Release with complete credits, then register with IPRS, then register each song. If you haven't released yet, you can create your RMX Music account here. The Label plan is ₹4,500 lifetime and the Agent account is ₹15,000 lifetime. Put your writer names in the metadata and your future IPRS application will be much easier.