Empowering music creators with financial education.

The SONA Foundation creates programs and resources to help songwriters:
- Understand their current financial situation
- Prepare for financial emergencies
- Decrease debt burden
- Gain insight into long-range financial planning toward individual and family goals, including wealth building, home ownership, education, and retirement
- Maximize intellectual property value of songs, scores, and other intangible assets for near-term revenue generation and long-term estate planning.

Seminar Series

Watch Year One of the SONA Foundation’s Music & Money seminars presented by City National Bank in Beverly Hills, CA

  • Session 1 (April 2023): Financial Planning for the Music Creator

  • Session 2 (September 2023): Put Your Catalog to Work

  • Session 3 (April 2024): Building Your Business and Brand

  • Session 4 (October 2024): How Songwriters Get Paid

Financial Wellness Therapy

Financial Therapy Association is a newer area of therapy that recognizes the interrelationship between money and all other aspects of life and supports wellbeing through a financial lens.

Songwriting Business Resources

MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective): www.themlc.com

PROs (Performing Rights Organizations - USA):

ASCAP: www.ascap.com
BMI: www.bmi.com
SESAC: www.sesac.com
GMR: globalmusicrights.com

Sound Exchange: www.soundexchange.com

U.S. Copyright Office: copyright.gov
(Click for more information from the U.S. Copyright Office on how Songwriters, Composers, and Performers get paid)

SONA (Songwriters Of North America): wearesona.com

Song Logs Metadata & Splits

COMPOSER NAME
PSEUDONYM
SPLIT %
PRO
TRACK TITLE
ALBUM
TRACK TIMING
PRIMARY INSTRUMENTATION
PRODUCER
IPI/CAE
PUBLISHER
UPC
ISRC
ISWC

CATALOG NUMBER
RELEASE DATE
ASCAP/BMI WORK ID
MIX TYPE (FULL, INSTRUMENTAL, ETC)
TRACK DESCRIPTION
TEMPO
BPM
KEY
MODE
METER

Business Terms for Songwriters

DSP: Digital Streaming Platform (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple, etc.)

LLC: Limited Liability Company, a legal business structure

LLP: Limited Liability Partnership

DBA: Doing Business As

S-corp: Subchapter S corporation, or Small Business Corporation, a tax classification. Both LLCs and corporations can be taxed as an S-corp, where company profits are not taxed at the corporate level, but pass through to owners’ personal tax returns.

C-corp: Subchapter C Corporation, or Corporate Corporation, a tax classification, which pays corporate income tax.

Loan: Typically provided by a Bank, a loan is a monetization of current and future royalties. In addition to the presentation of historical and projected future royalties, a copyright owner will need to present a full financial package, as a Bank will underwrite based on cash flow, and the copyright will serve as collateral.

Advance: Historically provided by a PRO, Publisher, Label, Touring Company, Merchandise Company, or a combination thereof, an advance is customarily based on a certain amount or percentage of future earnings.

Books & Podcasts