Well Made Plays · Royalty & Revenue Review

Every account, and what to fix first

Wren Hollis · Dusty Alt-Country · Austin, Texas

• Reviewed 14 August 2026
• Accounts opened 6
• Catalog 11 songs, two EPs
• Walkthrough 30 minutes, booked 19 August

The free scan said your mechanical side was not built. Inside the accounts, that is confirmed and there are two things it could not see: an undocumented co-write on two songs, and a distributor payout sitting under its threshold since March.

Everything below is marked one of four ways: set up correctly, set up wrong, missing, or waiting on something only you can do. Nothing here says what you are owed, because nobody can honestly tell you that from a statement review.

01Registrations

Checked title by title against the actual catalog rather than in aggregate, which is where partial registration hides.

Item	Status	What fixing it does
BMI writer affiliation	Correct	Nothing to do. The writer record is clean and the IPI is attached.
BMI work registrationCaliche, 5 of 5	Correct	These five collect performance royalties as they should.
BMI work registrationYard Sale Gospel, 0 of 6	Missing	Registering them starts performance collection on six songs that have been live for eleven months.
MLC membership	Missing	Membership is free and is the precondition for every mechanical claim below.
MLC work claims, 0 of 11	Missing	Claiming the catalog connects your songs to US streaming mechanicals, including the back period the MLC holds.
Publisher shareon the 5 registered works	Set up wrong	The share exists and points at nobody. A sole-proprietor publishing entity, which you can register yourself, gives it somewhere to land.

02Splits

Song	Status	Next
Ranger Radio	Your action	Split sheet drafted and in your folder. It needs the conversation and two signatures; we cannot have that conversation for you.
Long Road Home	Your action	Same sheet, same two signatures. Same conversation, ideally in one call rather than two.
Remaining 9 songs	Correct	Sole writer, nothing to document.

03Distribution

Item	Status	What fixing it does
ISRCs across 11 songs	Correct	Consistent and unique. No duplicates, which is the usual mess.
Payout threshold	Set up wrong	The account is set to pay out at a threshold your monthly earnings have not reached since March, so the balance sits rather than arriving. Lowering it releases what has accumulated on the next cycle.
Payee and tax details	Correct	Current, and matching the name on the PRO record, which matters more than it sounds.
Statement anomalies	Correct	Eleven months of statements reviewed. Nothing irregular, and the per-platform mix is what you would expect at this size.

04Sync readiness, starter

This is the short version, deliberately. It says whether the door is open, not what is behind it.

Signal	Status	Note
Instrumentals exist	Missing	None of the eleven have an instrumental bounced. Most sync requests need one and the request usually comes with a deadline attached.
Clean versions	Correct	Nothing needs one. No explicit content in the catalog.
Metadata complete	Set up wrong	Nine of eleven songs are missing writer credits at the platform level, so ownership is not legible to anyone looking.
One-stop status	Your action	Blocked by the two undocumented splits above. With those signed, nine songs are one-stop today and eleven are once the paperwork lands.

That is where this checklist ends on purpose. The full catalog audit, with file specs, an ownership grid per song and the one-pager you actually send to a supervisor, is Sync-Licensing Prep.

05Direct-fan income

Channel	Status	What fixing it does
Mailing list, 640 subscribers	Correct	Collecting and yours. Nothing to fix, though nothing has been sent to it since February.
Bandcamp or equivalent	Missing	Merch sells at the shows and has nowhere to go between them. This is the only income that does not wait on a platform's payout schedule.
Tip or support surface	Missing	No cost to add, and the residency audience is the one most likely to use it.

06The fix list, in order

1. Sign the two split sheets.

   Everything sync-shaped is blocked behind these, and they are the only item that degrades as memories fade rather than simply staying undone.

   You, one conversation

2. Join the MLC and claim all eleven songs.

   Free, and it connects the catalog to US streaming mechanicals including the period already behind you.

   You, walkthrough written for your account

3. Register the six Yard Sale Gospel songs with BMI.

   Six songs have been earning performance royalties with nowhere to send them for eleven months.

   You, walkthrough included

4. Lower the distributor payout threshold.

   One setting. The balance stops accumulating and starts arriving.

   You, two minutes

5. Register a publishing entity and attach the publisher share.

   Half of every performance royalty currently has no destination. You do not need a publishing deal for this.

   You, with the walkthrough; a professional if you want the entity structured for tax

6. Add writer credits to the nine songs missing them.

   Does not pay you directly. It is the paper trail that publishing and sync both read.

   Us, once you confirm the credits

7. Bounce instrumentals for the eleven songs.

   Sync requests arrive with deadlines. Having these already made is the difference between answering and passing.

   You, at the next session

8. Open a direct-fan store before the October single.

   The release is the moment the mailing list and the residency audience are both paying attention.

   Us to set up, you to price

07What came with this

• Royalty trackerWorking file, one row per song, registration state per registry.
• Account checklistEvery account, its status, and who holds the login.
• Registration walkthroughsBMI, the MLC and publishing, written against your accounts, not generic.
• Split sheetFilled in for the two co-writes, ready to sign.
• Sync starter checklistThe table above as a working file.
• Report-pulling orderWhich statement to pull from where, so you can repeat this yourself each quarter.