According to this article, a royalty is a payment made to an individual or company for the ongoing use of their assets. The payment is legally binding. The assets include copyrighted works, franchises, and natural resources. For example, in a book royalty, every book that is sold, the author will receive an agreed amount. Another example of a royalty is the payment received by musicians when their original songs are played on the radio or television, used in movies, performed at entertainment venues, or consumed via streaming services (performance royalties).
Just as I have described book royalties and performance royalties, there are franchise royalties, mineral royalties and patent royalties.