A Haryanvi singer and a young producer from Rohtak make a track together over three nights. The lyricist is the singer's cousin. Nobody writes anything down, because everyone is family or a friend. The song does well on YouTube and in Reels, money starts coming in, and six months later three people have three different memories of what was agreed. We get this kind of message at RMX more often than you'd think, and by then it's always harder to fix.
The fix is boring and it takes about twenty minutes: agree the splits in writing before you upload. This guide walks through what actually gets split, what Indian law already says about it, and a simple way to put it on paper.
First, know that one song earns two kinds of money
Most fights happen because people mix these up.
The recording (the master). This is the actual audio file you send to your distributor. Streaming platforms pay for plays of the recording, and that money comes to whoever uploaded the release, usually the artist or the label account. If the singer paid for the studio and released it on their own label, the master income lands with them first.
The song itself (the composition). This is the tune and the words, separate from any one recording of it. Money for the song comes through a different route. In India, lyricists and composers collect it through IPRS, the Indian Performing Right Society, which licenses radio, TV, live events, streaming services and others. We explained how to join in our IPRS guide for lyricists and composers.
So when someone says "I want 30% of the song", ask which one. 30% of the master income? 30% of the songwriting share? Both? Each needs its own agreement.
What the law already decides for you
A couple of rules in the Copyright Act, 1957 matter here, and they're short enough to read yourself on the Copyright Office website.
- Section 19(1): an assignment of copyright isn't valid unless it's in writing and signed. A WhatsApp voice note saying "the song is yours, bhai" is not an assignment.
- Section 19(2) to (6): a written assignment should name the work, the rights, the duration and the territory. If the period isn't stated, it's treated as five years. If the territory isn't stated, it's presumed to be India only.
- Section 18(1), the provisos added in 2012: a lyricist or composer of a song in a non-film sound recording can't sign away their right to an equal share of royalties for the use of their work, except to legal heirs or a collecting society. Any agreement that says otherwise is void.
That last point surprises a lot of small labels. You can buy a song from a lyricist for a flat fee, but the law still protects the writer's right to share in royalties for its use. We are not lawyers, and for anything big you should talk to one. But if your current "contract" is a single line saying the writer gives up everything forever, it probably won't hold.
What IPRS does if you never agree
IPRS has default shares it applies when nobody has told it otherwise. According to its Distribution Rules and Methods:
- A self-published song with lyrics: composers 50%, lyricists 50%.
- A song with no lyrics: the composer gets 100%.
- A published song with lyrics: composers 25%, lyricists 25%, publisher 50%.
Those defaults are fine if they match reality. Often they don't. If the producer built half the melody, or two people wrote the words but one wrote nearly all of them, the default is wrong for you, and only a written agreement changes it. And if co-writers register conflicting shares, the song can sit in dispute with its money held back until they settle. Discography's split sheet explainer covers that process in more detail.
How to write a split sheet (one page is enough)
A split sheet is a short signed record of who wrote the song and in what percentage. Make one for every release with more than one writer. Put these on it:
1. Song title, plus any working title you used ("Untitled Bhajan 3" counts). 2. Date written, and date recorded. 3. Each writer's legal name, stage name, phone and email. 4. What each person did: music, lyrics, or both. 5. The percentage for each person. Check that it adds up to exactly 100%. 6. IPRS membership or IPI number, if they have one. 7. A separate line on the master: who owns the recording, and whether anyone else gets a share of the streaming income from it. 8. Signatures and date. An e-sign or a signed photo on WhatsApp is far better than nothing.
Do it the same day you finish the song, while everyone is still happy with each other. Asking a month later feels like an accusation. Asking on the night feels like being organised.
Three common setups we see
Singer owns the master, producer gets a fee. Common with Bhojpuri and Haryanvi artists who pay a producer per track. Write down that the fee is the full payment for production, or say clearly if the producer also gets a writing share because they helped with the tune. A beat fee alone doesn't automatically make someone a co-writer, so state it either way.
Two artists release a duet. Decide whose account uploads it, and how the other gets paid. One upload, with the second singer correctly listed as a featured or primary artist, is much cleaner than both uploading the same song, which causes duplicate content problems and can get releases taken down. Our metadata checklist explains how to credit both people properly.
A label releases songs by several artists. Rajasthani folk and devotional labels often work this way. The label owns the masters, pays the artists a royalty share, and the lyricists and composers collect their own song income through IPRS. Keep a simple sheet for every song so that when a sync or brand offer comes in, you can show who owns what in five minutes. A buyer won't license a song where one writer can't be found.
Where RMX fits
When you distribute through RMX Music, the streaming and YouTube income from the recording comes to the account that released it, and you keep 95% of it. If you run a label with sub-labels under you, the RMX dashboard pays royalties to sub-labels automatically, so you don't have to calculate and transfer each one by hand. Your split sheet then tells you how to share what you receive with collaborators, and IPRS handles the writers' side.
A Label account costs ₹4,500 once, for life, with unlimited artists and releases. The Agent account at ₹15,000 lifetime is for people managing several labels. More than 3,000 artists and 2,200 labels have sent over 20,000 tracks to 95+ platforms through us.
Got a collab ready to go? Get the split sheet signed tonight, then create your RMX Music account and send the release in.