Maximising Your Earnings: A Guide to Royalties from Copyrighted Work

Maximising Your Earnings: A Guide to Royalties from Copyrighted Work

October 24, 2024

It's time to cash in from that fire mixtape of yours 🔥 

  • Passive income streams usually require a lot of initial work and may require constant attention, so it’s not entirely “passive”.
  • Investments and side hustles are two broad ways to earn passive income, but you should be patient and expect to start slow.
  • Essentially, royalties are what you receive when somebody else buys the right to use your intellectual property. 

Royalties from Copyrighted Work 

If you make music, art, novels, or essentially anything that can be copyrighted, you can earn royalties from them. Essentially, you receive royalties when somebody else buys the right to use your intellectual property. 

You will need an agreement between both parties. This agreement gives details about:

  • The subject matter (i.e. what is the property and who owns it)
  • Scope and restrictions of property usage (e.g. can the property be used ten times, or perpetually?)
  • How/when income for the owner occurs 
  • Protection against improper use claims from the purchaser
  • An ‘earn-out’ arrangement that establishes performance-based royalties 

Royalties will vary from industry to industry, but all have similar use.

If you’ve got a specific product to sell, the royalties are likely to be based on the number of units sold. 

Example

Let's say you have written a novel. You sign a contract with a publisher and, in return, receive royalties whenever the book sells (this is a lot harder than it sounds, by the way). Once you get property copyrighted, either through a third-party publisher or yourself, you are legally entitled to receive royalty payments if another party wants to use them. 

Person reaching out for a book on a bookshelf 

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Other Ideas:

Types of Passive Income

PASSIVE INCOME IDEAS: COPYRIGHTED WORK ROYALTIES. COMPLETED. ✅

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