Free tool
Fill in the song, add every writer, agree the percentages, and download a clean split sheet PDF in about two minutes. Or send it straight to your co-writers and let each of them sign it online. Free, no account, no watermark.
What the splits below apply to.
Everyone who contributed to the composition, and what each of them owns.
Who owns the recording itself. Separate from the songwriting splits above, and worth agreeing at the same time.
Off. The sheet will only cover the composition.
Declaring these now is what stops a release being pulled later.
Off. Switch on if the song samples or interpolates anything.
The standard clauses cover what co-writers usually mean but rarely write down.
A split sheet is the document that records who wrote a song and how much of it each person owns. One page, every writer's legal name, their performing rights organisation, their IPI number, their publisher, and the percentage of the composition they hold. Everyone signs it, everyone keeps a copy.
It is not a contract that transfers anything and it is not a registration. It is the record of what was agreed in the room, written down while everyone still remembers it and still likes each other. When the song is registered with a PRO, licensed for a sync, or picked up by a publisher, the split sheet is the piece of paper that gets asked for.
Songs earn money years after they are made. The session where the splits were obvious to everyone becomes a session nobody can recall, and by then there is money on the table. That is the whole reason songwriter split sheets exist.
A split sheet that a publisher can actually use has more on it than names and percentages. Here is every field this generator collects and why it is there.
Title, the date it was written, and where. A working title is fine: what matters is that everyone recognises which song the sheet belongs to.
Full legal name, PRO, IPI number and publisher for each person who contributed to the composition. Anyone who wrote something goes on the sheet, even if their share is small.
Set each writer's share so the sheet totals 100%. Use split equally as a starting point, then adjust. Add master splits if you also want to settle who owns the recording.
Download the PDF and sign it by hand, or send it from here and each writer gets their own signing link. Everyone receives the countersigned PDF the moment the last signature lands.
If you would rather print one and fill it in by hand, the tool above has a blank template PDF button. It gives you the same one-page split sheet with empty rows: six writers, a master splits section, the standard terms, and signature lines. Print it, take it into the session, and get it signed in the room while everyone is still there.
The filled-in version is better if you have the details to hand, because it does the percentage maths for you and prints each writer's PRO and IPI in the places a publisher expects to find them. Either way the split sheet PDF is free, unwatermarked, and yours to reuse on every song.
Every composition is made of two halves. The writer's share is 50% of the song and it always belongs to the people who wrote it. The publisher's share is the other 50%, and it belongs to whoever publishes the song. If you are self-published, that is you as well, so you hold all 100% of your portion.
This is where most confusion starts. When a split sheet says a writer owns 50%, it means 50% of the whole composition: their writer's share plus their publisher's share. It does not mean they only get the writer's half. Switch on the writer and publisher breakdown in the tool above and the sheet will print both columns, the way a PRO registration form wants them.
None of these are rules. They are what most rooms land on, and they are a reasonable place to start a conversation that is much easier to have before the song exists than after it charts.
The composition is the song: melody, lyrics, chords. The master is the particular recording of it. They are two separate copyrights and they can be owned by completely different people. A songwriter can own half the song and none of the record, or the other way round.
Most split sheet templates only cover the composition, which leaves the recording undecided. That is fine when one person clearly owns the master, and a problem the first time a sync licence needs both sides cleared. Switch on master splits in the tool and both sit on the same signed page.
A performing rights organisation collects performance royalties for its writers: radio, streaming, live, television. Every writer should be signed up to the one in their own country, and each of them has an IPI number that identifies them globally. This generator covers 58 societies across 6 regions, so a session with writers in three countries still produces one clean sheet.
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Global Music Rights, AllTrack, SOCAN, SACM
PRS for Music, IMRO
GEMA, SACEM, Buma/Stemra, SABAM, SIAE, SGAE, SPA, SUISA, AKM/austro mechana, STIM, TONO, KODA, Teosto, STEF, ZAiKS, OSA, SOZA, Artisjus, SAZAS, HDS-ZAMP, UCMR-ADA, Musicautor, EDEM, MSG/MESAM, RAO, NCIP
APRA AMCOS, JASRAC, NexTone, KOMCA, MÜST, CASH, COMPASS, MACP, WAMI, FILSCAP, IPRS, MCSC
UBC, ABRAMUS, SADAIC, SCD, SAYCO, APDAYC
SAMRO, MCSN, MCSK, SACERAU, ACUM
The moment a song earns, the incentive to be generous disappears. Do the sheet on the day, before anyone knows whether it is worth anything.
A sheet totalling 105% cannot be registered. The tool above blocks you from sending one out unbalanced.
A PRO cannot pay a person it cannot identify. Every writer needs their legal name and, ideally, their IPI on the sheet.
An undeclared sample turns into a takedown or a demand for 100% of the publishing. Declare it on the sheet even if clearance is still pending.
Someone singing a topline they did not write is a performer. Pay them a fee or give them master points, and keep the composition split for the people who wrote it.
A split sheet is a one-page document that records who wrote a song and what percentage of it each writer owns. It lists every writer's legal name, their PRO, their IPI number, their publisher, and their share of the composition, and it is signed by everyone involved. It is the document publishers, PROs and labels ask for when royalties need to be paid out.
Yes. You can fill in a split sheet and download the PDF for free, with no account and no limits. Sending it to your co-writers for signature is free too.
A split sheet signed by every writer is a written agreement between them, and it is the evidence a PRO or publisher relies on when registering a work. It is not a substitute for a lawyer on a major release, but for the vast majority of songs it is the document that settles who owns what.
No. An electronic signature is valid for this kind of agreement under the US ESIGN Act and the EU eIDAS regulation, as long as the signer intended to sign and there is a record of it. When you send a sheet from this tool, each writer signs with their own link and the finished PDF carries a timestamped audit trail showing who signed, when, and from where.
There is no fixed rule. A producer who wrote the beat the song was built on commonly takes between 20% and 50% of the composition, and many producer splits land at 50/50 with the topline writer. What matters is that the number is agreed before the song is released rather than after it starts earning.
Only if they wrote something. A vocalist who writes the topline or the lyrics is a songwriter and belongs on the split sheet. A vocalist performing a topline someone else wrote is a performer, and is normally paid a fee or given a master share rather than a share of the composition.
An IPI (also called a CAE) is the nine to eleven digit number your PRO assigns you to identify you worldwide. You get one automatically when you join a PRO. Putting it on the split sheet is what lets a publisher register the song correctly the first time instead of chasing you for it later.
BMI reports writer shares on a 200-point scale, so a song split evenly between two writers reads as 100 each rather than 50 each. This generator stores everything on the standard 100 scale and can display it on the 200 scale, so BMI writers see the numbers their statements use without anyone having to do the maths.
The composition is the song itself: the melody, the lyrics and the chords. The master is the specific recording of it. They are two separate copyrights that can be owned by different people, and a split sheet that only covers the composition leaves the recording undecided. This tool lets you record both on the same sheet.
Only by agreement. A signed split sheet says the percentages can be changed only by a new document signed by every writer on it, so one person cannot quietly revise their share later. In practice you make a fresh sheet with the new numbers, everyone signs that, and it replaces the old one. Keep both: the trail of what was agreed and when is what settles an argument.
Then you do not have an agreement yet, and that is useful to know now rather than after release. Usually a refusal means the numbers do not match what they think they contributed. When someone is sent a sheet from this tool they can say so instead of signing, the sheet is put on hold, and you get their reason by email so you can agree new numbers and send a fresh sheet.
If the beat is licensed rather than co-written, the licence is the agreement and there is no publishing split to record. The moment the producer is credited as a writer of the composition, or the deal includes a share of publishing rather than a flat fee, it is a co-write and it belongs on a split sheet. If you are unsure which one you have, read the licence: it will say whether any publishing is being transferred.
No. A split sheet is a private agreement between the writers, not a filing, so it needs no notary, no witness and no stamp. What it does need is every writer's signature and enough detail to identify them: legal name, PRO and IPI. Registration with a PRO or the copyright office is a separate step that comes after.
Every writer keeps a copy, and so does anyone administering the song. That is the point of emailing the finished PDF to everyone rather than leaving it in one person's downloads folder: the writer most likely to need it in five years is the one who lost their laptop in year two.
Legally, co-writers who never agreed shares are usually treated as equal owners, which is often not what anyone intended. In practice the song sits unregistered, royalties pile up unclaimed at the PRO, and any sync or distribution deal stalls until every writer signs off. Writing it down on the day costs five minutes.
The Vocal Market is where producers buy ready-made acapella vocals and hire vocalists for custom work. Every vocal ships with clear, written rights, so the next split sheet you fill in is a much shorter conversation.
Want the longer read? Our guide on split sheets for music producers covers how songwriting credits, royalties and PRO registration fit together. This tool is a document generator, not legal advice: for a release with real money behind it, have a music lawyer read the sheet before everyone signs.