Breaking Down My International PRO Statement

This week was the international pay period for my Performing Rights Organization. Since a lot of people often ask how much placements pay, I thought I'd share some of that information. I realize there are a lot of factors that determine how much you get from a placement (length of use, time of day, amount of viewers, channel, etc.). Since I don't have that information, I'll just be listing the average amount per TV placement for each country.

This is the songwriter's share only (for 1 writer). I also received other royalties from things such as radio, downloads, streaming and whatnot, but this only lists the TV placement amounts. I also didn't include "Cable Retransmissions" because those are re-airings and pay significantly less than the original airing. To my knowledge these are all TV shows (no commercials or movies) and they are all instrumental tracks. Hopefully this information will give you some kind of scope!

Country	Average Placement Amount
Australia	$52.40
Canada	$0.62
Croatia	$3.59
Czech Republic	$0.23
Denmark	$7.81
Finland	$0.40
Hong Kong	$0.10
Hungary	$0.05
Israel	$0.10
Japan	$20.14
Norway	$2.79
Portugal	$0.27
South Korea	$0.40
Spain	$3.19
Sweden	$2.26
Turkey	$0.11
United Kingdom	$1.46

As you can see, Australia is the big winner on this statement! In my experience, some of the better paying countries are Japan, Denmark, Poland, UK, Germany, Sweden and France. Some lower paying ones include Canada, Czech Republic, Hong Kong and Hungary. It is also worth noting that not every country pays international royalties every quarter (hence no Germany, Netherlands or Austria etc. in this statement). This business is really a numbers game, especially in the era of streaming services.

For those of you who use Tunesat, know that it only covers a small fraction of the world! Only a handful of these placements showed up in my Tunesat account. They only cover most of the US, and some of Europe. If you're working with libraries that sub-publish all over the world, you are probably getting 4+ extra placements for every 1 that you see on Tunesat. This is very encouraging.

Study your statements carefully to see which libraries and albums are working for you, and which ones aren't. It is best to feed the highest performing libraries that get the highest paid placements. Also check your statements against any co-writer statements (if they are with a different PRO). This way you can learn which PROs pay better for certain uses. You can also choose to switch your PRO if you aren't satisfied with your results. Remember to always keep writing and recording!

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