What is SoundExchange?
SoundExchange is a non-profit Performing Rights Organization (PRO) that collects and distributes royalties on behalf of sound recording copyright owners and artists for non-interactive digital transmissions. Non-interactive digital transmissions also mean any type of radio where you can’t change the playlist because the music has already been curated. Some examples include Pandora and XM satellite radio. Any qualified public broadcasting station that has a terrestrial signal and is streaming music online must provide music use reports to SoundExchange as established by Congress in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
If you are an artist, indie label owner, or musician and you have songs released and currently streaming on stations like Pandora and XM satellite radio, you could have unclaimed royalties.
How does SoundExchange collect royalties?
SoundExchange only collects royalties on the master recording side of the copyright. This means that the record label, or the rights owner, and the artist, also known as the performer, are technically the only two people getting paid— unless there is a featured artist(s), songwriter(s), or producer(s) the artist would like to give royalties to as well.
The way this works is the label would have a rights owner account, and the artist would have a performer account. The split would be 50% for the label, 45% for the artist, and 5% for the featured artist(s), songwriter(s), and/or producer(s). The 5% for whomever else is getting royalties would come from the artist’s 50%. This is something the artist themself would have to sign off on.
Here at The Mezzo Agency, we offer account assessments to make sure all songs are registered and being collected, as well as update and manage the SoundExchange repertoire.