Royalty Registration Checklist
A song earns several different royalties, and they are collected by different organisations that will not find you on their own. Add your songs and see, in one table, what each one is registered for and what is still outstanding.
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Set up once
Account-level steps. You do these once, and then every release you ever put out runs through them.
Collects Public performance royalties for the composition: radio, TV, live venues, bars and restaurants, and the performance side of streaming.
Who needs this Anyone who writes songs. One PRO per writer, worldwide.
Note Joining ASCAP as a writer is free. BMI is the other main US option (bmi.com/join) — pick one, not both.
Collects The other half of every performance royalty. PROs split performance money 50/50 between the writer share and the publisher share.
Who needs this Every self-published writer, but the mechanism differs by PRO — this is the single most commonly missed step.
Note ASCAP: if you have not signed a publishing deal and you want the publisher's share, you have to set up a publishing company with ASCAP — the Individual/Sole Proprietor option needs a mailing address, an email address and a US tax ID, and nothing else. BMI: its Royalty Policy Manual says that where no performing rights have been assigned to a publisher, the writers receive the entire 200%, so an unpublished BMI writer is already collecting both halves.
Collects US digital audio mechanical royalties — the composition's share of every stream and download on services licensed under the US blanket licence.
Who needs this Any songwriter who has not assigned those rights to a publisher or a publishing administrator. If you use a publishing admin service, they do this and you should not also join.
Note Membership is free. US only — it does not cover other countries.
Collects US digital performance royalties for the sound recording, from non-interactive services like SiriusXM, Pandora and internet radio.
Who needs this Featured performers, and separately the owner of the master. If you recorded and released it yourself, you are both and should register as both.
Note Free to register. The statute splits this money 45% to the featured artists, 5% to a fund for non-featured performers, and 50% to the sound recording rights owner — so the artist half and the owner half are two separate claims.
Collects Nothing directly, but Spotify for Artists is where you pitch unreleased songs to editorial playlists, for free, and where you would see a suspicious stream spike first.
Who needs this Everyone releasing music.
Collects Nothing on its own. It is what stops a disputed registration years later, when nobody remembers who wrote the bridge.
Who needs this Anyone who ever writes with another person.
Your songs
Add a song or a release and work down the same list for each one. Add one now rather than all of them — the point is to see the shape of the gap, not to finish tonight.
No songs yet. Add one above and the checklist appears.
Your data
This is saved in this browser and nowhere else. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere — there is no account and no server to send it to. If you clear your site data or move to another machine, export first.
Mailing list
New tools, and the occasional song
A few times a year, when there is something here worth your twenty minutes. It is the same list as the music — you can have both or ignore half of it.