A track this client co-wrote went to number four. The public does not know the name.
Consider a non-performing songwriter, a client who does not tour, does not appear on the cover, and writes songs for other people to sing.
Three months ago, a track they co-wrote went to number four. Most listeners have heard it. None could name the writer.
They were not in the video, not on the stage at the BRITs, and will not headline a festival.
They also just received a statement large enough to make an accountant ask if it was a mistake.
It was not. To understand why, hold one distinction in mind: every released song is actually two separate pieces of property. There is the composition (the lyrics and melody, the thing the songwriter wrote) and there is the master recording, the specific performance paid to record. They are owned by different people and they pay different people. A songwriter owns a slice of the , so their money flows from how the song is used (broadcast, streamed, reproduced, licensed) no matter who sings it. The money tied to itself, and to the performer's career, belongs to the other side of the line entirely. Keep that wall in mind while sorting what the songwriter does and does not get.