December Is Not Downtime
December is the month when most working independent artists exhale. The fall release cycle is winding down. Holiday distraction is up. The impulse to treat the final three weeks of the year as a rest period is understandable.
It is also, from a business standpoint, a missed opportunity.
The end of the calendar year is the single most important administrative window for independent artists. The tasks that get skipped here (royalty registration, split sheet documentation, PRO enrollment, publishing setup review) tend to stay skipped. Royalties that go uncollected in December don't retroactively appear in January. In some cases, they disappear permanently.
This checklist covers the essential year-end tasks for every independent artist who released music in 2024. It is the same framework Mollohan Production Inc. uses with its own artist community, published here as a public resource, because these basics shouldn't require expensive management infrastructure to access.
1. PRO Registration: Every Song, Every Year
If you released music in 2024 and are not registered with a Performing Rights Organization (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC in the United States) you are not collecting performance royalties. Every stream, radio play, sync placement, and live performance where your song is performed publicly generates performance royalties. Those royalties flow to your PRO and from your PRO to you. If you haven't registered your works with your PRO, those royalties are either held in your PRO's account unclaimed or paid to other registered works.
Registration is free at ASCAP and BMI. There is no reason to delay it, and every reason to do it before the year ends.
If you are already PRO-registered, December is the time to audit your catalog in your PRO's portal. Log in, confirm that every 2024 release is registered, and verify that the metadata (writer shares, publisher information, ISRC codes) is correct. Incorrect splits are hard to fix retroactively and can result in royalties being paid to the wrong party.
2. The Mechanical Licensing Collective: Your Second Royalty Stream
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), established under the Music Modernization Act, collects mechanical royalties from digital streaming services and distributes them to songwriters and publishers. If you have released music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or any other DSP, mechanical royalties have been generated on your songs.
Whether those royalties reach you depends on whether you are properly registered with the MLC and whether your works are registered in their database.
The MLC offers its Matching Tool and Claiming Tool, which allow members to search unmatched uses (royalties that have been collected but not yet assigned to a registered work) and propose matches or claim shares. At the end of 2022, the MLC held $426.9 million in historical unmatched royalties accrued between 2007 and 2020, according to the MLC's 2022 Annual Royalty Recap. That number has declined as matching has improved, but unclaimed royalties remain a real risk for any artist who hasn't actively engaged with the system.
If you distributed music in 2024 and have not enrolled with the MLC, do it before the year ends. If you are enrolled, audit your registered works and run a search for any unmatched uses that may include your catalog.
3. Split Sheets: The Document You Need Before You Need It
Split sheets are documentation of who wrote a song, what percentage each writer owns, and which PRO each writer is affiliated with. They are not glamorous. They are also the single document most likely to prevent a legal dispute down the road, and the one most frequently skipped by independent artists who collaborate.
If you co-wrote any music released in 2024 (with a producer, a songwriter, a featured artist) and you don't have a signed split sheet for that song, December is when to fix it. The conversation is easier to have now, while the collaboration is recent and relationships are intact, than in two years when royalties are flowing and memories of creative contributions have diverged.
The standard split sheet covers: song title, ISRC code if available, writer names, writer PRO affiliations, ownership percentages, and signatures. Templates are available from ASCAP, BMI, and multiple music business resources. A simple signed document is legally more defensible than a verbal agreement or an email thread.
If you worked with a producer who delivered a beat or track and you wrote lyrics and topline, your split (producer and songwriter) should be documented. If that producer is also registered with a PRO, they should be listed in your work registration. If they're not, that's a conversation to have before you're sharing royalty statements.
4. Distributor Review: What You Actually Agreed To
The end of the year is a reasonable time to revisit the distribution agreement you signed when you first put your music online. Most independent artists sign a distributor agreement once and never re-read it.
Key questions to answer: What is your distributor's royalty split? Does your distributor hold a percentage of earnings in reserve, and if so, for how long? Does your agreement include any rights to your music beyond distribution (sync licensing, playlist pitching, neighboring rights collection)? Are there any term provisions that auto-renew or that affect your ability to move your catalog to a different distributor?
These questions matter most when something goes wrong, when a royalty check doesn't arrive, when you want to switch distributors, or when a sync opportunity arrives and you're not sure who controls your master. Knowing the answer before you need it is free. Finding out under pressure is costly.
If your distributor's terms are unclear, contact their support team for clarification. If the terms are clearly unfavorable, the new year is a natural window to evaluate alternatives.
5. Tax Preparation: The Records You Should Have
Music income is taxable income. If you earned money from streaming, live performance, sync licensing, merchandise, or any other music-related activity in 2024, that income needs to be reported and taxes need to be paid.
The end of the year is when to get your records in order: documentation of every revenue source, receipts for deductible business expenses (recording costs, equipment, studio time, software, distribution fees, travel for performances), and any 1099 forms you expect to receive from platforms or clients.
If you operate as a sole proprietor, a single-member LLC, or an S-Corp, your music income flows through your personal tax return and should be tracked on Schedule C. If you have not set aside quarterly tax payments, you may owe a penalty at filing time. Plan accordingly.
An accountant who works with creative professionals or musicians is worth the cost if your music income is significant or complex. The MLC's songwriter checklist and ASCAP's tax resources are useful starting points for artists managing this independently.
6. 2025 Planning: Set the Parameters Now
The final year-end task is the one that shapes everything that follows. Before January 1, answer these questions:
- How many releases are you planning in 2025, and when?
- What is your audience-building plan for each release (social content, email list growth, pre-save campaign)?
- What is your recording and production budget, and how is it funded?
- What collaborations are you planning, and are split sheets part of the pre-production agreement?
- What non-streaming revenue streams are you developing (live performance, merch, sync, direct-to-fan)?
Joshua Mollohan has developed this kind of pre-release planning discipline as a core part of MPI's production process since the early days of working with artists starting in 2020. The specific details change year to year. The principle, that release success is determined before the release date, not after, doesn't.
The independent artist who enters January 1 with a plan is in a categorically different position than one who enters it hoping for clarity to arrive on its own.
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Visit the Indie Label / Artist Dev vertical →Frequently asked
What is the most important year-end task for an independent artist who only has a few hours?
Register your 2024 releases with your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) and verify that they're correctly listed in your PRO's database. If you've done that, check your MLC registration. These two steps protect the royalty streams most commonly left uncollected.
Do I need a lawyer to create a split sheet?
No. A split sheet is a simple document, typically a one-page agreement listing writers, their ownership percentages, and their PRO affiliations. Templates are available free from ASCAP, BMI, and music business resources. Both parties sign. Both parties keep a copy. A lawyer is useful if there's a dispute to resolve, not for creating the document proactively.
What happens to mechanical royalties if I'm not registered with the MLC?
Mechanical royalties for your songs are still collected by DSPs and remitted to the MLC. If your works are not registered or claimed in the MLC's system, those royalties remain as unmatched or unclaimed royalties. They are held for a period (at least three years for the statutory window), after which unmatched amounts may be redistributed to registered works. Registering and claiming proactively recovers money that would otherwise be redistributed.
Is the MLC free to join?
Yes. Membership in the MLC is free. Operating costs are funded by the digital services that contribute mechanical royalties to the pool, not by member fees.
What's the deadline for PRO registration to collect 2024 performance royalties?
PRO registration deadlines vary by organization and royalty type. Generally, the sooner you register a work, the sooner royalty collection begins. Some royalties can be collected retroactively (dating back to registration), but most PROs do not pay retroactively for periods before you joined. Register and register your works as soon as possible; year-end is an important window, but the right time is always as early as possible.