Royalties

Writer's Royalties & Rights
The way a writer gets their royalties is that when their song has been recorded or performed then they are entitled to a royalty or a payment. Companies would have to pay a synchronization fee that's If their song gets played on TV, film or radio which means the companies would have to pay them and the rights from the writer's to use them.

There is another royalty called the " Mechanical right " this means that every time a track is written & recorded the writer must be paid. The way a Mechanical royalty works is that if the track gets put onto a Vinyl for instance then that's when a Mechanical royalty comes in. The MCPS (The Mechanical copyright protection safety) HAVE to negotiate on the publishers half, with other record companies, broadcaster's or more, if they wish to have a song.

Performer's royalties & license
performer's would also get royalties if their used in a recording as well. The way a performer get's their royalty as well is that if they performed a song that they recorded in the studio as well. performer's rights are owned by the people who plays instruments most of the time. If a performer wants to use their part in a song, they would need to get permission from the writer in order to use it.
If you are an artist there could be a royalty payment which means that they get paid a percentage of each record sold in a shop, Things like clubs, shops, bars, hotels or whatever

'A company called Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) collects the license money and then passes a share on to the musicians. Royalties Reunited is the simple way for you to claim airplay royalties that are owed to you.' (ref: http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499 )

How much they get
This all depends on what deal they've signed/what distributor they've signed or what the contract says. They should get about 10-20% of money, this means that every record that's sold they'll get that amount but it all depends what it says on the contract, for example they'll either get 10-20% of the retail money,whole sale, distributor price or something else. Sometimes the percentage would be more than 10-20% it just depends on whatever the contract says. You have to be real negotiable if you want a good contract.

However you must be real negotiable, this is because some labels would include 'clauses' which means that labels would reduce the amount of money your supposed to get, they would do this in contracts, this is why you must read carefully when getting a contract. 'Bear in mind that record companies will often try to include clauses in their contracts with artists that reduce the amount they have to pay them' (ref: http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499 ) . Some of these deductions would come from making copies, advertising, poster's all them kind of stuffs.

A better way in making sure you get ALL of the money/royalties to yourself is to be independent (by creating your label), selling the records yourself and much more. This way you won't have to be concerned about any contracts or have a fuss about things. On the other hand when making/having a independent label it would be a lot of work because you have to take control in everything and do it yourself. This way is a better option because you won't have to pay back anything back, everything goes to yourself and you could be in partnership with other acts/ small labels to use their recording studios for example. This option is way better than signing any label record and the reason why is because they would give you money in advance - then you would have to pay the money back to them.