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April 24, 2025

Jeff Ponchick and Bo Liebman

Where do I need to Register my Music?

Congratulations! You've written and recorded a song. It's mixed, mastered, and ready for the world to hear. But wait—have you registered your music everywhere it needs to be? Chances are high that you have not. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the complex world of registering your music, the different organizations to register with, music licensing and publishing, understanding the various types of royalties, how to ensure you collect all the music royalties you deserve, and some options if you don’t want to deal with managing all this complexity yourself!
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Recording Versus Composition

Music registration is key to everything. When registering your music, it’s first important to understand the difference between registering a composition and a recording.

Composition - this is the original written music and lyrics for a song. The rights for the composition belong to the songwriters and musicians that created the song.
Recording - this is the recording of the written music and lyrics. The rights for the recording belong to the artists that recorded the record.

Understanding the difference between these is important for tracking what royalties you are due and making sure you’re registered with all of the appropriate organizations. Take for example if an artist re-recorded all of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. This would then be a new sound recording, which they own and can distribute. However, since they did not write the lyrics or melody, they wouldn’t own the publishing (otherwise known as the composition), thus they would need a license to distribute it so the publishing royalties can flow back to the original songwriters.

Another example is Taylor Swift’s famous re-recordings of her albums. Since she wrote the music and lyrics to those songs, she owned the original compositions. But, she did not own the rights to the original recordings that were initially released, meaning she did not have control of how they were used, nor did she collect any royalties paid to the master rightsholder. When she was unable to get these rights back, she decided to re-record all of the albums she did not own the masters for, thereby creating new masters which she did have ownership of.
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Understanding Music Royalties

“Royalties” are a broad term for all of the income one earns from the creation and release of registered music, but not all royalties are the same. Not only are there different types of royalties, but there are also different organizations and collectives you must register with in order to collect these different types of royalties.

While platforms like Mogul can be used to help aggregate all of your income streams, and can complete registrations on an artist’s behalf, becoming familiar with each type of royalty and the breakdown of shares from it will help ensure you are getting paid what you are owed from your music.
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Neighboring Rights

Neighboring rights are the royalties collected for public performance of a song which are paid to the owner of the specific recording used in the performance. This means it could be earned from play on satellite radio stations like SiriusXM. These rights protect the party that owns the recording (or Master) copyrights. For these rights, the royalties are split between two parties:

Rightsholder’s Share - This is the portion paid to the owner of the recording
Featured Artist’s Share - This is the portion paid to the performer(s) on the recording

If you are a self-releasing artist, then you are both the rightsholder and the artist, and you are entitled to both! Many artists miss out on the rightsholder share because they don’t know they need to register for both.

Neighboring Rights Organizations like SoundExchange in the U.S., or PPL and Re:Sound internationally, collect these royalties and then distribute them to the rights holders. Here are steps for registering with one of these organizations:

Identify the appropriate organization in your country
Go to their website and find their online registration portal
Input all of the relevant details about the recording (artist(s) name, song titles, release date, etc)

For information on how to register with SoundExchange, go to their online registration page.

For artists/managers, etc. looking to streamline this process, services like Mogul will own the royalty monitoring and registration process. Mogul will monitor and identify all missing registrations and then complete them on your behalf so you can focus on your music and growth.
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Mechanical Royalties

Mechanical Royalties are paid when an artist’s work is copied and sold. This includes vinyl records, CDs, digital copies of songs, sheet music, and most commonly in our current landscape, on-demand streaming.Payments for these royalties are made to:

Composition Rightsholder - This is the portion paid to the copyright holder of the song’s composition and lyrics, generally the songwriter(s).

For physical media, a mechanical royalty is earned each time a CD or vinyl record is pressed. For digital, a mechanical royalty is earned each time a song is streamed. This can vary depending on the country or territory the sale was made.

To collect mechanical royalties generated in the United States, songwriters and/or publishers can register with the Mechanical License Collective (MLC). Formed in 2019, the MLC is a non-profit that collects and distributes mechanical royalties. For songwriters, it can be very useful as you do not have to have a publisher in order to register. If you are working with a publisher or publisher administrator, they can also collect these royalties for you.

Here are the steps for registering music with the MLC:

Go to the MLC’s membership page and join
One a member, log-in to the MLC membership portal
Click on Work Registration from the side menu
Click Individual Work Registration from the drop-down menu

For artists/managers, etc. looking to streamline this process, services like Mogul will own the royalty monitoring and registration process. Mogul receives all data from the MLC and will monitor and identify all the missing mechanical registrations, including other issues with the MLC like “unmatched tracks”. Mogul will resolve all of these issues on your behalf to ensure you are receiving all of the royalties you are entitled to.
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Public Performance Royalties

Whenever a song is performed live, whether in a venue like a club or stadium, or in a broadcast performance (including on TV, radio and digital streams), the Composition Rightsholder can collect Performance Royalties. That means these royalties are split between:

The Writer’s Share - The parties responsible for composing the music and writing the lyrics for the song.
The Publisher’s Share - The company responsible for publishing the music. If you are independent, you will actually collect both shares yourself. This is a very common royalty for songwriters to miss out on because they are unaware they need to collect the publisher’s share as well.

One should note that this split is exclusive to the United States. When working with PROs outside of the U.S., they will collect on both shares.

Only the songwriters and composers of the song are paid for performance royalties (not necessarily the artist doing the performance).

Streaming services like Spotify will generate both mechanical royalties and performance royalties while non-interactive digital platforms (ie: online radio stations like Pandora) will only generate digital performance royalties. Artists can also submit their setlists from live performances to PROs to collect royalties owed.

To collect these royalties, it’s essential to register with a PRO (Performing Rights Organization). PROs will collect the data reports from the broadcasting parties (whether a live venue, radio or TV station, or digital platform) and use that data to calculate royalty payments.

In the U.S., the three major PROs are:

ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.)
SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers)
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While the general steps will depend on the organization, the general process to register with a PRO is:

Choose a PRO and create an account.
Provide your personal and music details, including song titles, writers, and publishers.
Upload supporting material, such as lyrics or recordings (varies by PRO).
Review and submit your application.

As mentioned at the top, platforms like Mogul can help complete the registration for artists. Once registered, the PRO tracks your song’s performance and collects royalties on your behalf, ensuring you receive the money you’re owed.
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4. Sync Royalties

You’ve placed a song on a TV show, video game, movie or commercial - That’s gotta pay well, right?

It certainly can. Music licensing is a huge source of income for artists and songwriters alike. When a song is used in a movie, television show, video game, podcast or commercials, the fees paid for this usage are sync (or synchronization) royalties.

These fees are generally a lump sum fee paid upfront, with potential smaller royalties paid down the line based on the agreement and the medium (ie: if an episode of a show using your song is picked up for syndication or put on a DVD for sale, you could be entitled to further royalties). How the royalties are split for these syncs is generally negotiated in advance between the various rights holders. The royalties for syncs are split between:

Recording Rightsholder Share - The owner of the specific recording used in the sync.
Featured Artist Share - The artist performing the song in the synced recording.
Composition Rightsholder Share - The songwriter/composer of the song used in the sync.

The fees paid for syncs can vary greatly, and are also generally negotiated up front. As royalties are collected for both the Recording Rightsholder and Composition Rightsholder, the collection of these fees are split between:

PROs - A PRO will collect the royalties on behalf of the composition rightsholder.
Sync Licensing Agency/Record Label - The royalties for the recording rightsholder will be collected either by a sync licensing agency, or by the record label itself. The label will then distribute the share to the recording artist.
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5. Streaming Royalties

Every time your song gets streamed on a service like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music,Tidal, or any of the hundreds of streaming services (DSPs) out there you’re earning money.

In the current music landscape, streaming royalties are the most common ones that artists and labels earn. These are also the least likely to be missing as they are paid out to the artists on the track directly by labels or distributors.
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6. Print Royalties

Your music is so popular that stores are selling books with the music written out for budding musicians to learn from. What kind of money do you earn from this?

The fees collected from the sales of a songwriter’s sheet music, guitar tablatures or lyrics on paper (print) or digitally are known as print royalties. If the books are selling the work of the songwriter, and are not based on a specific recording, the fees are paid to:

Composition Rightsholder Share - The songwriter(s) who wrote the transcribed song.
Publisher’s Share - The publisher of the rightsholder’s song

The fees for these royalties are collected and distributed by the PRO that the rightsholder is registered with.

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The Challenges with Collecting Royalties

Even after registering with a PRO and MLC, you very likely may still not be earning all of your royalties. In fact, around 98% of users that first sign-up with Mogul are not properly registered to collect all of their royalties.

Common Difficulties with Collecting Royalties

Artists often face a number of challenges when attempting to collect royalties in the digital age. Some of the common problems that can occur are below:

Lack of understanding and expertise: a vast majority of artists, songwriters, and managers do not have a firm grasp on royalties, and the registrations and management that must be done to ensure it is all received. While the world’s largest artists have dedicated business managers, even many of those business managers are not using applications like Mogul to manage royalty and registration tracking.
Data Issues - it’s crucial that artists and songwriters make sure their metadata is accurate and consistent across digital platforms. Incomplete data (missing credits, misspelling of an artist’s name, etc) can cause PROs and the MLC to fail to collect all the royalties due to their members.
Accurate Reporting - when it comes to collecting performance royalties, PROs rely on radio stations, broadcasters and venues to accurately report to them what songs were played and how often. If these numbers are not tracked accurately, or as can be common with venues, not reported at all, the PRO will not be able to collect the appropriate amount of royalties due to a rightsholder.
Lack of Transparency - Poor communication and poor reporting can make it difficult to accurately calculate the amount of royalties owed.
Complex Contracts and Rights Agreements - When the contracts between the artists and their labels and/or publishing companies are poorly written, or if the rights to a recording are fragmented among multiple parties, this can lead to delays or lost payments.

Collecting International Royalties

Even more problematic can be collecting royalties from outside of the United States. While transparency can be even cloudier when dealing with foreign rights organizations, there are other issues to consider.

Varying Royalty Rates - The rates artists and songwriters are paid abroad can often differ from what they are paid domestically. Factoring in exchange rates as well, and this can lead to miscalculated payments.
Different Laws and Practices - Every country has its own tax treaties, withholding rates and customary practices. All of these can affect how the royalties are collected, and can lead to a number of errors in distribution.
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How to know if you are missing royalties?

Along with being able to help artists complete their registrations, if you suspect you’re missing royalties, sign-up for Mogul. Mogul allows you to connect all of the royalty generating sources you use (or should be using) like a PRO, the MLC, your label/distributor, your neighboring rights organization, etc. Mogul’s system then analyzes your statements as well as royalty databases it has access to like the MLC to identify all of your missing royalties and registrations. Mogul will then complete all of your registrations on your behalf to ensure you are set up to receive all of the royalties you are entitled to. Check out Mogul Now.

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Final Thoughts

Taking the time to register your music or using a service like Mogul that register is on your behalf ensures legal protection and financial compensation. Protect your music today and get paid for your creativity!

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