Royalty Registration Checklist
Answer a few questions and see which royalty registrations you may be missing, what each one collects, and what it costs to join. Most of them are free.
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Step 1 of 3: About you
Optional. Pick one you wrote, ideally with an unusual title.
The numbers behind this
One song earns several kinds of royalty and no single organization collects them all. A performing rights organization collects for the song being played, a mechanical collector handles the reproduction side, and a neighboring rights body collects for the recording. Registering with one does not register you with the others.
Who collects music royalties, and which do you need?
How to check your royalty registrations
It is common to be missing at least one royalty registration, and the reason is almost never cost. The barrier is that nobody tells you the categories exist, so this is the checklist nobody gave you. If you want to know what your streams are worth rather than which registrations you are missing, use the Streaming Royalty Calculator instead.
Tell us your roles and where you are based
Whether you write, perform, own your masters, release through a distributor or play live. Different royalty streams apply to each, and the societies differ by country.
Tell us what you are already registered for
Yes, no, or not sure for each one. Not sure is the most common answer and we treat it as something worth checking rather than something you are missing.
Work through your checklist
Each item explains what that royalty stream is, why your answers suggest a gap, and exactly where to register. Download it as a PDF and work through it in your own time.
Frequently asked questions
What royalty streams can one song earn?
More than most people expect. The song itself earns performance royalties when it is played anywhere public, and mechanical royalties whenever it is reproduced, including by a stream. Separately, the recording of that song earns neighboring rights when it is broadcast or played in public, split between the performers and whoever owns the master. Sync is a fifth, negotiated separately each time. Your distributor collects one part of one of those. Everything else needs you to be registered somewhere, and the registrations are mostly free. If you want to model what the streaming side actually pays, that is the Streaming Royalty Calculator.
What are neighboring rights and does my distributor collect them?
Neighboring rights are what the recording earns when it is broadcast or played in public, as opposed to what the song earns. In the UK that is PPL, in the US it is SoundExchange, and they are separate from your PRO. Most distributors do not collect them at all, and a few offer partial collection of the rights-owner share only. In the US the featured-artist share is paid to you directly and SoundExchange will not pay it to a distributor, label or manager, so registering yourself is the route unless a performer society it has an agreement with collects it for you. In the UK the picture differs: PPL pays performers directly too, but you can mandate PPL or an agency to collect for you abroad. Registration is free in both countries.
What is the MLC and do I need to join it?
The MLC collects mechanical royalties for songs streamed and downloaded in the US, under a single blanket agreement covering the streaming services. Membership is free and self-administered writers can join as individuals without setting up a publishing company. Whether you need to join directly depends on what already collects for you: The MLC pays a long list of societies, MCPS among them, so an MCPS member or someone with a publishing administrator should already have a route and registering separately risks two claims on the same shares. If nothing collects for you yet, joining directly is the free option. Either way, having an administrator does not automatically mean your catalog was delivered and matched, so it is worth looking your own songs up in their public search.
Do I need both a PRO and the MLC?
In the US, generally yes, because they collect different things. Your performing rights organization collects when the song is performed publicly. The MLC collects when it is reproduced, which includes every stream. In the UK the same split exists between PRS and MCPS, which are two memberships rather than one. People routinely join the performance side and assume the mechanical side is included.
How far back can I claim live performance royalties?
This is where most advice goes wrong. You must have been a member of the society at the time of the performance, so joining today does not reach back over shows you have already played. If you are already a member there is a reporting window on smaller venues, shorter than for concert halls, so recent shows are worth submitting now. If you are not a member, the useful move is joining before your next run rather than chasing the last one. Nothing captures this automatically either: no technology listens for a band playing its own songs in a pub, so submitting your set lists is the only way it gets paid.
I am in the UK but I get streams in the US. Does that change anything?
Yes, and the answer turns on one thing: whether you are an MCPS member. The MLC lists MCPS as one of the societies it pays, so if you are an MCPS member your US digital mechanicals should already have a route home, and registering separately with The MLC risks two claims on the same shares, which tends to hold money up rather than double it. Check with PRS before doing anything there. If you are a PRS member without MCPS, adding MCPS is the fuller route, because it covers the UK mechanical side as well and should carry the US side with it. Joining The MLC directly is the free option for a writer who is not on the PRS and MCPS path at all. Either way it is one route or the other, not both. On the recording side, US digital radio, meaning satellite and internet radio rather than on-demand streaming, is collected by SoundExchange. A UK performer can register with SoundExchange directly. There is no nationality condition, only a W-8BEN tax form. The other route is to give PPL an international mandate covering the US, since PPL holds performer and rightsholder agreements with SoundExchange. Use one route per country, because a PPL mandate appoints PPL exclusively for the countries you name, so mandating PPL for the rest of the world and leaving the US out is a valid choice. Treat it as a decision rather than a box to tick: a PPL mandate can only be ended on 31 December, with three months notice, or six in the first year. In reverse it is narrower rather than absent. Because the US grants a performance right only over digital transmissions, UK law pays a US performer on that same narrow basis and nothing for UK radio or public playing, while the US rights owner is paid in full.
Can you tell me if I am owed money?
No, and anything that claims it can without seeing your accounts is guessing. Your answers never leave your browser, so this tool cannot see your accounts, your catalog or any society record. What it does is read what you told us and show which registrations look absent, which is a different and more useful thing: registrations you can act on today, rather than a number you cannot verify. Some societies publish searchable lists you can check yourself, and the checklist links you straight to them.
Is this tool affiliated with any society?
No. There are no affiliate links, no referral fees and no commercial relationship with any society or publishing administrator. Every link goes to the organization direct, because you can register with all of them yourself and most of them are free. That is also why the checklist tells you the cost next to each one.
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