March 30, 2026

How to Audit Your Music Catalog for Missing Royalties

Every songwriter and independent artist has a quiet fear that money is sitting in an account somewhere with their name on it, uncollected. That fear is usually justified. Between performance royalties, mechanical royalties, neighboring rights, and the ever-growing web of digital streaming platforms, the opportunities for revenue to slip through the cracks are enormous.

The music industry distributes billions of dollars annually, yet a significant portion ends up in what the industry calls the “black box” - a pool of unmatched royalties that eventually gets redistributed to major publishers based on market share rather than actual ownership. If you are an independent artist, that redistribution rarely works in your favor.

Auditing your catalog for missing royalties is not a one-time project but an ongoing discipline. This guide gives you a practical framework for finding and recovering the royalties you have already earned.

Who Collects What: Your Royalty Collection Map

Each royalty type flows through a different organization. Missing any one of these registrations means that stream of income goes uncollected.

Royalty Type	Triggered By	Collected By	Where to Register
Performance	Streaming, radio, live	Your PRO	ascap.com or bmi.com
Mechanical	Interactive streams, downloads	The MLC	themlc.com
Master recording	Streams, downloads	Your distributor	DistroKid, TuneCore, etc.
Neighboring rights (US)	Non-interactive streaming, satellite radio	SoundExchange	soundexchange.com
Neighboring rights (intl)	Radio, streaming abroad	Local CMOs	PPL (UK), GVL (DE), etc.

The Anatomy of a Music Catalog Audit

A proper catalog audit begins not with chasing money but with verifying that the foundation of your catalog is structurally sound. If your metadata is broken, every downstream system that relies on it to match plays to payments will fail silently. No one sends you a notification. The money simply does not arrive, and you have no way of knowing it was ever owed to you.

Cleaning Up Metadata for Digital Streaming Platforms

Metadata is the invisible infrastructure that connects a stream on Spotify or Apple Music to a royalty payment in your account. Every track you distribute carries fields including song title, artist name, songwriter credits, and publisher information. If any of these contain errors or inconsistencies, platforms cannot properly match your streams to your registrations.

A common myth is that your distributor handles all of this for you. The reality is that distributors pass along whatever information you provide and rarely verify it against your PRO or publisher registrations. Pull your catalog from your distributor’s dashboard and compare every field against your registrations at your PRO, at the MLC, and at SoundExchange. Pay particular attention to artist name spelling, including middle initials and suffixes. “John Smith Jr.” and “John Smith” are two different people to a matching algorithm.

If cross-referencing every platform manually sounds daunting, Mogul’s catalog dashboard surfaces these registration mismatches automatically - showing you exactly which songs are registered where and which ones have collection gaps.

Standardizing ISRC and ISWC Codes

Two identification codes matter most for royalty tracking. The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) identifies a specific recording of a song. The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) identifies the underlying composition. Every recording you release should have a unique ISRC, and every composition you register should receive an ISWC.

Problems arise when the same recording circulates with multiple ISRCs - which can happen if you re-release a track through a different distributor - or when a composition lacks an ISWC entirely. Build a master spreadsheet mapping every song title to its ISRC, ISWC, and every platform and organization where it is registered. Mogul tracks this registration map automatically for your full catalog - if you’d rather not maintain it by hand, your registrations dashboard shows the status of every song in one place.

Master Spreadsheet: Fields to Track for Every Song

Song title (exactly as registered)
ISRC (one per unique recording)
ISWC (one per composition)
PRO registration status (ASCAP / BMI / SESAC)
MLC registration status + date
SoundExchange registration status
Distributor used + release date
Co-writer splits and their PRO affiliations

Reconciling PRO Statements with Distribution Reports

One of the most revealing exercises in any royalty audit is placing your PRO royalty statements next to your digital distribution reports and looking for gaps. These two documents should tell a complementary story - but they almost never do, and understanding why is essential to recovering what you are owed.

Why Your PRO Statement and Distributor Report Never Match

Your PRO - whether ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or an international equivalent - collects performance royalties: payments generated when your music is publicly performed, broadcast, or streamed. Your distributor collects the master recording revenue share paid by streaming platforms to the rights holder. These are fundamentally different income streams tied to different rights.

Both are triggered by the same streaming event, yet they arrive on different timelines, use different accounting periods, and often reflect different play counts due to how each organization receives data from the platforms. Compare the two reports by song title and look for tracks that appear in one but not the other. A song generating distributor income but showing zero MLC registration is a direct signal of uncollected mechanical royalties - Mogul’s Royalty Finder flags exactly these gaps across your full catalog automatically.

Finding the Mechanical Royalties Your PRO Doesn’t Cover

Here is the distinction that catches most independent artists off guard: your PRO does not collect mechanical royalties. Mechanical royalties are generated every time your composition is reproduced - which includes every interactive stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and similar platforms. In the United States, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) is the designated organization responsible for collecting and distributing these royalties from digital services.

⚠️ Two Registrations. Neither Covers the Other.

Registration with your PRO covers performance royalties on the composition side. Registration with the MLC covers mechanical royalties on the composition side. These are two entirely separate systems, and neither organization does the other’s job.

If you have only registered with your PRO, your mechanical royalties from every Spotify and Apple Music stream are accumulating in an unmatched pool — and if you don’t claim them before the redistribution window closes, they get paid out to other rights holders based on market share.

How to Search for and Claim Your Unclaimed Mechanical Royalties

Once you understand the gap between performance and mechanical collection, the next step is actively searching for money that may already be waiting for you in the MLC’s unmatched royalties pool.

How to Search the MLC for Your Unregistered Songs

The MLC maintains a publicly searchable database of unmatched musical works. You can search by song title, artist name, or ISRC to see if any of your compositions have generated royalties that remain unclaimed. If you find matches, register those works through your MLC portal account and file a claim.

Be thorough. Search for alternate spellings, featuring artist variations, and remix titles - because the data that streaming platforms send to the MLC often contains inconsistencies. If you have a catalog of more than a few dozen songs, set aside a dedicated afternoon for this process - or skip the manual search entirely and let Mogul scan your catalog against the MLC database automatically. Mechanical royalties from streaming can be claimed retroactively up to three years, meaning songs you released in 2022 and never registered could still have significant balances waiting.

The Black Box Royalties Recovery Process

The term “black box” refers to royalties that have been collected but cannot be matched to a specific rights holder. This happens because of metadata errors, missing registrations, or conflicting ownership claims. In the US, the MLC holds unmatched mechanical royalties. Internationally, collection societies in each territory may hold performance or mechanical royalties generated by streams or broadcasts of your music in their jurisdiction.

⚠️ The Black Box Is Not a Small Problem

Industry estimates suggest $2.5 billion or more in music royalties go uncollected globally each year. Once redistribution occurs — typically after a two to three year holding period — recovery becomes significantly harder. Proactive registration across all relevant organizations is the single most effective way to prevent your royalties from entering the black box in the first place.

Find Your Unclaimed Royalties Without the Manual Search

Mogul’s royalty finder scans your catalog against the MLC, SoundExchange, and major collection databases simultaneously — surfacing unregistered recordings, unclaimed mechanical royalties, and collection gaps so you know exactly what to address and where the money is.

Run your catalog scan →

Capturing Neighboring Rights for Independent Artists

Beyond performance and mechanical royalties, there is an entire category of income that most independent artists overlook entirely: neighboring rights. These are royalties paid to performers and master rights holders when recordings are played on non-interactive platforms such as terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and internet radio services like Pandora.

Registering with SoundExchange and Global CMOs

In the United States, SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties for sound recordings played on non-interactive services. If you are both the performer and the owner of your masters, you are entitled to both the artist share and the rights holder share - together representing 90% of the royalty pool for each play. Registration is free and entirely separate from your PRO membership. Mogul’s registration process covers SoundExchange alongside MLC registration, so both gaps get closed at the same time - see what you’re currently missing at app.usemogul.com/registrations.

Internationally, neighboring rights collection requires registration with collective management organizations (CMOs) in individual territories. While SoundExchange has reciprocal agreements with some foreign CMOs, these agreements do not always cover every royalty type or territory. Direct registration with organizations like PPL in the UK or GVL in Germany can capture income that reciprocal agreements miss.

Which International Royalties Are Independent Artists Missing Most

The royalties that independent artists miss most frequently are those generated in territories where they have not registered directly. If your music receives radio play in Japan, Brazil, or France, the local CMO in each country collects royalties on behalf of performers and rights holders. Without a direct registration or a reliable reciprocal agreement, those funds sit unclaimed.

The financial benefit of capturing even a fraction of these international streams and broadcasts can be substantial for artists with global audiences. Services like IFPI’s international directory can help identify which CMOs are most relevant based on where your music is being played.

Building a Royalty Audit Routine You’ll Actually Stick To

A single audit is valuable. A recurring process is where the real financial benefit compounds. Music catalogs are living things: new releases, new platforms, and changing distribution deals all introduce fresh opportunities for royalties to go uncollected. Build the habit once and it runs itself.

What to Check Every Quarter

Set a calendar reminder for the first week of each quarter and run through this checklist:

Quarterly Royalty Audit Checklist

Compare your distributor’s catalog list against your PRO and MLC registrations — confirm every released track is in both
Search the MLC unmatched royalties database for new entries matching your catalog or artist name
Review your PRO statement for songs with zero earnings that should be generating income
Verify your SoundExchange account reflects your complete discography, including recent releases
Cross-check your ISRC master spreadsheet against what each platform and distributor shows
Check for new international CMO registrations relevant to your streaming geography

This discipline takes a few hours per quarter at most. It prevents the kind of slow revenue leak that compounds over years into thousands of dollars in lost income - money that is already earned but simply never claimed.

Tools That Make the Process Faster

Start With Mogul for Bulk Registration and Gap Detection

Start With Mogul for Bulk Registration and Gap Detection

The most time-consuming part of a catalog audit is cross-referencing every song across every collection organization. Mogul automates that process — connecting to your existing streaming catalog, identifying unregistered songs, and handling bulk MLC registration so you don’t have to do it song by song.

Beyond Mogul, several other tools can fill specific gaps in your audit workflow. Songtrust and TuneRegistry handle publishing administration and global PRO registration. The MLC’s own portal provides bulk upload functionality for artists with large catalogs. The goal is not perfection but consistency: a routine you actually follow is worth more than an elaborate system you abandon after one quarter.

Stop Leaving Your Royalties in Someone Else’s Pocket

Mogul finds your registration gaps, identifies unclaimed royalties, and bulk-registers your catalog across the MLC and major collection databases — in minutes, not months.

Start your catalog audit →

Frequently Asked Questions

How far back can I claim unclaimed mechanical royalties from the MLC?

The MLC launched in 2021 and holds unmatched royalties in a pool that is periodically reviewed. Generally, you can claim retroactive mechanical royalties for streams going back up to three years from the date of registration. The sooner you register your catalog with the MLC, the more of your retroactive balance you can recover before the redistribution window closes.

Do I need to register with the MLC separately for every song?

Yes, each composition needs to be registered individually in the MLC’s system. However, the MLC offers bulk upload functionality via CSV file, which makes the process manageable for larger catalogs. Platforms like Mogul can also handle bulk registration automatically by pulling your existing catalog from streaming services, which is significantly faster than entering songs manually.

If I have a publishing administrator, are they handling all of this for me?

They should be, but you should verify rather than assume. Some publishing admins are slow to register new releases or may not cover all royalty types. Log into your MLC portal directly and confirm your songs are appearing in the system with accurate metadata. An administration agreement is a contractual obligation - it does not guarantee the work has been done. Checking takes ten minutes and could uncover gaps worth thousands.

What is the difference between SoundExchange and my PRO?

Your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) collects performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers for the composition. SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties on behalf of recording artists and master rights holders for the sound recording. The same stream can trigger both a PRO payment and a SoundExchange payment - they just go to different parties for different rights. You need both registrations to capture the full picture.

Can I do a catalog audit myself or do I need to hire someone?

The core audit process - building your master spreadsheet, searching the MLC database, verifying your PRO and SoundExchange registrations, and reconciling statements - is entirely DIY-able. For artists who want a faster starting point, Mogul handles the MLC and SoundExchange registration steps automatically and surfaces gaps without the manual cross-referencing. Where it gets complicated is international collection, which involves navigating different societies, languages, and reciprocal agreements across dozens of territories. For artists with significant international streaming, consulting a royalties administration service or an entertainment attorney who specializes in international collection is worth the cost.

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How to Audit Your Music Catalog for Missing Royalties

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How to Audit Your Music Catalog for Missing Royalties

Take Hold of your

Royalties & Registrations

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