How does BananaRat Studio handle co-authorship splits?
How does BananaRat Studio handle co-authorship splits?
Plain English. This is not legal advice — for professional guidance, consult a music attorney or your performing rights organization.
What a split sheet is
A split sheet is a written agreement between co-authors specifying who owns what percentage of a song. Performing rights organizations (PROs) like ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN require split sheet information to distribute royalties correctly. Recording contracts, sync licensing deals, and publishing agreements typically require one before a song can be exploited commercially.
BananaRat Studio generates a PRO-ready split sheet export for every composition. You fill in the human authors and their percentages; the platform provides the song metadata, composition date, and a structured record of what was AI-generated versus human-authored.
The 20% threshold
BananaRat Studio applies a conservative internal threshold when generating split sheet narratives. Songs where the Authorship Evidence score reflects at least 20% documented human creative contribution receive a "Human-Authored Elements" designation in the split sheet export. This is the threshold we believe is defensible as a baseline for authorship claims — not a legal bright line, and not a guarantee of registrability.
Songs below this threshold still receive a split sheet, but the narrative will note that the Authorship Evidence is minimal and recommend the songwriter obtain a legal review before commercial exploitation.
What the split sheet export includes
- Song title, composition date, BananaRat Studio session ID
- A structured breakdown of human-authored elements (lyrics provided by import, melodic choices, structural decisions documented in the Witness Log)
- AI-generated element disclosure (required for many PRO filings as of 2024–2025)
- Fields for each human co-author's name, IPI number, PRO affiliation, and ownership percentage
- Signature fields
Platform-generated content and splits
BananaRat Studio is not an author and does not claim a split. Our position is that the AI-generated portion of a work is the result of a tool you directed — similar to how a DAW or notation software is not a co-author of music produced with it. This is consistent with the platform's no-platform-license stance: we assert no ownership or royalty interest in what you create.
Some PROs are still developing specific policies for AI-assisted works. We recommend checking with your PRO directly before filing a split sheet for a song intended for commercial release.
Multiple human collaborators
If multiple people contributed to a song — one wrote the lyrics, another directed the arrangement — each should appear on the split sheet with their agreed percentage. The split sheet export has fields for up to six named authors. For more complex co-authorship arrangements, use the PDF export as a starting point and work with a music attorney to finalize the agreement.