If a Zimdancehall instrumental is sold exclusively will a record producer still be entitled to earning music publishing royalties?
Technically yes, but you gotta know that the average new Zimdancehall artist fails to breakeven i.e. the cost of buying beats vs the actual return on investment when the song is released.
E.g. if a new Zimdancehall artist purchases an instrumental for $50 USD.
In reality, they are less likely to recover that money in the next 6 months or even a year from online digital streaming platforms because of having a small audience and a small marketing budget too.
The ones that do are popular Zimdancehall artists, not the struggling upcoming artists.
This is also the reason why plenty of Zimdancehall producers don't both with split sheets unless if the artist is a big name.
On the contrary, a new Zimdancehall artist may blow up and this will obviously be detrimental to a producer who didn't both to do their paperwork correctly thinking it's the same old same average artist.