Apple MusicSpotifyAmazonYouTubeDeezerTikTokAnd more
Collect songwriters’ streaming royalties globally–directly from digital services.
Our direct licenses, technology, staff, accounting, and payment systems become infrastructure you control—for the songwriters and catalogs you represent.
No upfront fee55% to 100% more moneyPaid up to a year fasterTerminate with 30 days’ notice
THE MISSING ROYALTY
Every stream pays twice. A distributor collects only one
A label or distributor collects the recording royalty. Word Collections collects the songwriter and music publisher royalties—the second royalty a distributor does not collect.
Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and more have agreements allowing us to license and collect all songwriter and music publisher royalties for our clients directly from those services in covered territories outside the United States. Coverage varies by service.
BUILT AROUND YOUR BUSINESS
Direct collection without giving up control
Work seamlessly with existing PRO or CMO affiliations
55% to 100% more money
Our typical increase in digital publishing revenue over legacy collection routes outside the U.S. Results vary by catalog and prior collection path.
Terminate at will
Terminate with 30 days’ notice, with no multi-year commitment and no retention period.
Choose the scope
Choose global administration or select individual works, rights, services, and territories. Add or remove artists and works by schedule.
Paid up to one year faster
Collect directly from digital services instead of waiting for royalties to pass through several organizations.
UNITED STATES
Mechanical Licensing Collective
AVERAGE ADDITIONAL U.S. MECHANICAL ROYALTIES COLLECTED*
+20%
SERVICE-BY-SERVICE AUDIT
ONE RECORDINGAPPLE MUSICPAID ✓
SPOTIFYMISSING ×
AMAZON MUSICPAID ✓
GAP IDENTIFIEDCLAIMED + RECOVERED
The MLC receives the money. We make sure it reaches your songwriters.
In the United States, digital services pay streaming mechanical royalties into the MLC. The money must be matched and claimed correctly. If it is not, it can be distributed to others—including Sony, Universal, Warner and others—based on their market share, and it will be gone for good.
Word Collections registers and maintains your works and works directly with the MLC. Jacobi, our sound-recording identification system, identifies every known recording embodying each musical work. Concello, built specifically to audit and monitor the MLC, tracks every work and ownership share we submit, confirms what the MLC registered and audits whether each identified recording is being paid.
The MLC can pay the same recording from Apple while failing to pay it from Spotify or another service. We find these service-by-service holes, correct the data and claims, recover current, historical and unmatched royalties, then audit and repeat.
*Based on current comparative results. Results vary by catalog.
ADDITIONAL LEAD GENERATION
Identify artists and songwriters you want to work with
Clients receive access to a private, searchable lead list covering artists whose recordings have streamed in Europe, the UK, Canada, and the U.S. Find potential signings with the infrastructure already in place to collect their royalties.
✓ Songwriting and catalog information✓ Estimated uncollected U.S. MLC royalties✓ Spotify listeners and social media audiences✓ Tour dates and direct contacts✓ Management, legal, booking and publishing representation
Explore Client Leads →ILLUSTRATIVE LEAD PROFILE
HIGH PRIORITYMara Vale
Independent alternative pop · U.S.
ESTIMATED UNCOLLECTED MLC ROYALTIES$285K–$610K570M–1.22B estimated U.S. streams
SPOTIFY2.8Mmonthly listeners
YOUTUBE1.2Msubscribers
INSTAGRAM911Kfollowers
TIKTOK3.4Mfollowers
WHAT YOU GET
Everything needed to collect directly. Configured by you.
Direct collection
Direct agreements with Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and more for our clients’ songwriter and music publisher royalties in covered territories. Coverage varies by service.
Technology + data
Identify original recordings, covers, live versions, remixes, karaoke, 8-bit, and other versions of each composition, then claim and recover the royalties they earn.
Auditing
Reconcile usage and payments, identify missing recordings and unpaid royalties, and correct claims through the applicable digital service or collection system.
Staff + administration
Music experts who find all the recordings that exist of your works, maintain claims, resolve conflicts, and collect and recover your money.
Accounting + payments
Statements show source, country, usage, and gross amounts. Pay your firm, pay songwriters directly, or split an agreed commission. Use your branding or ours.
Synchronization licensing
A dedicated synchronization team to pitch your music for placement in TV shows, commercials, movies, video games and more.
ABOUT WORD COLLECTIONS
Built to get songwriters paid.
Founded in 2020 by Jeff Price—the industry innovator behind TuneCore and Audiam—Word Collections is a global music publishing administration company with direct collection relationships and Metallica as its lead investor.
Our direct collection model typically delivers 55% to 100% more digital publishing revenue than legacy collection routes, paid up to a year faster. We remove middlemen and their fees and identify recordings that traditional systems miss.
Choose a global publishing administration agreement or select individual works, rights, services, and territories. No upfront fee, no multi-year commitment, and no retention period. Terminate at will with 30 days’ notice.
Our team is a unique and dedicated staff of music leaders, engineers and copyright experts with a passion for—and a track record of—getting songwriters paid.
About Jeff Price
Jeff Price is the founder and CEO of Word Collections and the founder and former CEO of TuneCore and Audiam. Over more than three decades, he has repeatedly changed how artists and songwriters reach audiences and get paid. At TuneCore, he helped create the DIY artist sector by enabling artists to distribute their recordings directly to digital services while retaining ownership. At Audiam, he built technology to identify recordings, connect them to musical compositions, and recover unpaid digital publishing royalties.
Price helped assemble the Spotify class action and organized and funded litigation on behalf of Bob Gaudio, the Songwriters Guild of America, Thomas Dolby, and Bluewater Music Publishing. He has also testified in SoundExchange proceedings and before the Canadian government. He founded Word Collections in 2020, expanding it into music publishing in 2021.
SELECTED CLIENTS AND PARTNERS INCLUDE
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Three Days Grace
ArtlistGreta Van Fleet
G-Eazy
Bridgeport Music
Judge & JurySongwriters Guild of America
YOUR CLIENTS. YOUR CHOICES. YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE.