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Songwriting,Dan Wilson, Co-Writer, Adele's 'Someone Like You TRACK SALES: 3.9 million ALBUM SALES: 5.8 million TOTAL SONGWRITING ROYALTIES: $882,700 Lady Gaga, Co-Writer, 'Poker Face' TRACK SALES: 6.5 million ALBUM SALES: 1.5 million TOTAL SONGWRITING ROYALTIES: $728,000 The-Dream, Co-Author, Rihanna's 'Umbrella' TRACK SALES: 4 million ALBUM SALES: 2.72 million TOTAL SONGWRITING ROYALTIES: $611,520 1. Mechanical Royalties: Think of this as "money for when someone buys a copy of your song (physical or digital)." In the U.S., the Record Label is responsible for paying the songwriter a fixed rate of $0.091 for each song sold. A simple example: Bob Dylan releases a new 10 song album, which sells an even 1MM copies. The Label owes Bob $91,000 for letting them "publish" his 10 songs. Here is an example with two writers: Bob Dylan writes a 10 song album with Shakira, and Shakira writes 80% of each song (Bob writes the other 20%). This album also sells 1MM copies.