I am an indie game developer and I am doing a game similar to guitar hero. I am using tracks composed by musicians and I contacted them to sing a licensing contract. As is my first indie project I have no idea on how I should deal with the royalties aspect of this because each track as an ISRC code and each time a track is played in public there is a fee to pay to the "local" registration authority.

An iPhone game it is downloaded and not played on air (or physically distributed), and hence I think there is a specific legislation for this that specifies how much one should pay. I own some of the tracks composed and for this I think I won't have to pay a royalty (even if the track has an ISRC code) but for other tracks I just have a license "to use".

I wonder how a game like Guitar hero can sell on iPhone for as little as 0,99$ and then have "in app purchases" for packs of 3 songs (for about 2 dollars) and make a profit (I imagine they will have to pay a ISRC royalty).

Does anyone of you have any idea of this can work or if there is a section in this forum where I can ask this question? I understand is not about coding but I think is about development of a game in the broader sense.