What do performance rights, mechanical rights, and synchronisation mean?

When the royalty shares of a work are allocated, the work is normally split into two categories: performance and mechanical.

• Performance rights cover any situation in which your work is played to the public. That could be a recording of the song playing in a beauty salon or shop, or the piece being performed live on stage. Transmitting music over the internet or by radio also falls under performance, so both downloads and streams count here.
• Mechanical rights arise whenever copies of the work are made. This includes physical formats such as vinyl, Blu-ray, CD and USB, but the fully digital realm also contains a mechanical element—again for both downloads and streaming.
• Synchronisation (synch) is when you license your work to be combined with moving images, for example for a commercial, TV series, or feature film.

In short, every work is made up of a performance-rights share and a mechanical-rights share, while synchronisation rights become relevant only when the music is synced with video. Beyond the rights in the composition itself, there are separate rights in the actual sound recording, ensuring that musicians, producers and record labels are also paid. You can read more about those at the organisations SAMI and Ifpi.