The Publisher Half
The statement looks complete. Half of everything that song earned in performance royalties sits somewhere else, and nothing on the account has the standing to ask for it.
That half has a name. Performance money on a composition arrives in two equal halves, one owed to the writer and one to the publisher, and affiliating as a writer claims one of them.
BMI states it plainly. The total writers' shares are 100 per cent, and the total publishers' shares are the remaining 100 per cent.
So this lesson shows where the second half goes, what it takes to claim it, and the two mistakes that break the chain.
One royalty, two halves
ASCAP states the same structure with different arithmetic. Writer splits on a work add up to 50 per cent, publisher splits to 50 per cent, and the two make the whole. Whichever organisation you join, one amount leaves the licensee and two land, each needing a registered claimant.
Both halves are the same size. The left has a claimant the moment you affiliate as a writer. The right waits for a publishing name most writers never create.
Why the second half waits
Nobody is holding your publisher share back. There is simply no entity registered against it, and none of it is redirected to the writer, because that share does not belong to the writer.
Songwriters hear the word publisher and picture a deal. Here it means an affiliation you open yourself, under a name you choose, with you the only person in it.
Take any performance royalty you have already been paid and halve it. What arrived was the writer share, and the other half is the subject of this lesson.
Joining as both at once
ASCAP and BMI operate under consent decrees with the US Department of Justice, so they must accept applicants who qualify. The other two US organisations are invitation only, which leaves an independent writer two options.
Both halves of every royalty have a claimant
ASCAP waives both fees on a joint application
Your publishing name on every registration
Half the performance money accrues with nobody to pay
The ASCAP publisher fee applies later
Registered works need reworking to add the entity
At ASCAP the writer membership is free, a publisher application alone carries a one-time processing fee, and both are waived on a single joint application. At BMI the songwriter affiliation is free and a publishing company carries a one-time fee, with no annual dues.
Neither organisation asks you for a company. An individually owned publishing affiliation exists at both, and no lawyer is involved in creating one.
Naming the entity
BMI refuses any publishing name identical or similar to one an established company holds, so applications ask for choices in order of preference.
Order them by preference and keep them plain. Special characters cause trouble, and a single submitted name stalls an application for weeks.
An ASCAP writer needs an ASCAP publisher. Split the pair across two organisations and the chain breaks in the middle.
Acceptance produces an IPI number for you as a writer and a second for the entity, both free, both going on every work you register.
Three or four names cost nothing to prepare and save a resubmission. The second step is the mistake that survives longest, because everything looks correct until a payment never arrives.
What this half does not cover
Your affiliation covers performance royalties on compositions. That is its whole remit, and the boundary matters more than any fee on this page.
It collects no mechanical royalties on your compositions.
Nothing owed on your recording.
It reaches nothing a non-interactive station generates.
Those three live in the lessons ahead of this one, behind two more accounts.
Where these numbers come from
The 100 plus 100 structure is quoted from bmi.com's Royalty Policy Manual and the 50 plus 50 notation from ascap.com's guidance, both checked September 2026. The consent decree position comes from a Congressional Research Service brief. Fee wording follows each organisation's joining pages.