A Japanese stream and a download of the same song do not allocate composition royalties the same way. The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) assigns 85% of a stream’s allocable composition fee to public transmission rights and 15% to reproduction rights. A download reverses the weight: 35% transmission and 65% reproduction. Those percentages determine which rights account receives the money, not what percentage of a subscription goes to an artist.
For a label checking Japanese income, the first question is therefore more precise than “How many plays?” Ask which product generated the use, which composition was matched, and who controls each right. JASRAC sets out the two ratios in its interactive distribution explainer.
One recording, two composition allocations
Streaming and downloading both use a musical work, but in different ways. JASRAC says a download places a copy with the listener, while a stream primarily transmits the work on request. Its distribution rules, Article 53, reflect that difference by dividing each format’s composition fee between reproduction and transmission funds.
There is a third line before either split: 0.5% of the fee goes into a distribution compensation fund for works needing later identification. Take a hypothetical ¥10,000 composition fee for a particular service and accounting period. After that reserve, ¥9,950 remains. A streaming pool would place ¥1,492.50 in reproduction and ¥8,457.50 in transmission; a download pool would place ¥6,467.50 and ¥3,482.50 respectively. These are pool allocations, not a promise that one song earns those amounts.
The distinction matters when the writer’s publishing agreement treats mechanical and performing or transmission rights differently. JASRAC explains that a publisher can sometimes receive all of a work’s reproduction allocation under its agreement, then account to the songwriter itself. A songwriter without a direct JASRAC trust may also receive both lines through the publisher. Read the contract and the society statement together before calling a missing direct payment unpaid.
The match comes before the percentage
JASRAC uses the service’s usage reports to identify the work and allocate the fee by requests. Its Japanese-language payment guide says the work registration establishes interested parties and their shares; the user’s report establishes which work was used. A correct master identifier alone cannot resolve a wrong composition title, co-writer or publisher claim.
For a foreign catalogue, confirm the work is represented in Japan through the writer’s society or publisher, then compare the Japanese work record with the release’s songwriter metadata. Our earlier JASRAC foreign-writer guide explains why the composition payment does not arrive through a recording distributor. Keep the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC), the recording identifier, beside the composition registration in your audit sheet, but do not mistake the two records for one claim.
How to read the timing and the totals
JASRAC distributes four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Article 53 generally links fees collected in one calendar quarter to the next distribution period. Its explainer says payment is made three months after the quarter in which a service paid JASRAC, following work identification. That is a society timetable after collection, not an instant settlement when a listener presses play.
The scale makes reconciliation worthwhile. JASRAC’s 2025 fiscal-year distribution table records ¥59.4 billion for interactive transmissions, a category containing digital uses beyond an individual artist’s streams. It does not publish a universal per-stream rate. A label should reconcile service, territory, use period and right type before dividing money by plays.
Build the audit around four columns: recording and ISRC; composition and JASRAC work code; streaming or download format; and the party entitled to each reproduction and transmission share. InterSpace Distribution can help deliver and account for the recording side across regional services. The songwriter and publisher must still keep the composition claim accurate. Japan’s emerging recording-performance right is another separate line, so a complete catalogue ledger should never collapse all Japanese income into “streaming royalties.”
