What Is SoundExchange, and Why Is Money Waiting There?

Of all the registrations an independent artist can miss, this is the one most likely to have money already sitting there with your name on it.

SoundExchange is free to join, takes very little time, and collects a royalty stream that no other organization collects for you. Yet a large number of independent artists have never registered — and their share of what was collected for their recordings just sits.

What SoundExchange collects

SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties on the sound recording — your master — from non-interactive digital services.

Non-interactive means the listener cannot choose the specific track on demand. In practice:

• SiriusXM satellite radio
• Pandora's radio-style stations
• Internet radio and webcasters
• Music channels on cable and satellite TV

It is the only organization designated by the US government to administer the statutory Section 114 license covering these uses, and it reports collecting on behalf of hundreds of thousands of music creators.

Why this is separate from your PRO

This is the distinction that costs people money, so it is worth being precise.

When your song plays on Pandora radio, two different copyrights are being used at once:

| Copyright | Who collects | Who gets paid | |---|---|---| | The composition (the song) | BMI or ASCAP | Songwriters and publishers | | The sound recording (the master) | SoundExchange | Featured artists and rights owners |

Your PRO will never pay you the recording side. SoundExchange will never pay you the composition side. They are separate rights, separate organizations, separate registrations.

If you wrote and recorded your own song, you are owed both — and you have to register in both places to collect them.

Note also that on-demand streaming is a different thing again. A Spotify on-demand stream generates mechanical royalties through the MLC, not a SoundExchange payment.

The split that makes SoundExchange unusual

Most royalty systems pay the rights owner and leave the artist to chase their cut through a label agreement. SoundExchange does not work that way.

The statutory split is fixed:

• 45% to the featured artist, paid directly
• 50% to the sound recording owner (the label, or you if you are independent)
• 5% to a fund for non-featured performers — session musicians and backing vocalists

That 45% goes straight to the featured artist, even on a label deal, without passing through the label's accounting. For artists in unrecouped deals this is genuinely significant: it is one of very few royalty streams that reaches you regardless of your recoupment position.

If you are an independent artist who owns your masters, you are entitled to both the 45% artist share and the 50% owner share — but you must register in both capacities.

What it costs

Registration is free.

SoundExchange deducts an administrative fee from collections — around 4.6%, which it describes as among the lowest of any major collective management organization worldwide.

There is no signup fee, no annual dues, and no charge to maintain your account.

Session musicians get paid too

The 5% non-featured performer allocation is administered through the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund.

If you have played on other people's records as a session musician or sung backing vocals, that is a real royalty stream you may be able to claim — separate from anything you earn on your own releases.

How to register

1. Go to soundexchange.com/register
2. Register in the right capacity — featured artist, rights owner, or both
3. Provide payment and tax details
4. Add your catalogue, identified by ISRC

The ISRC part matters. SoundExchange matches plays to recordings using ISRC codes, so recordings with missing, wrong, or duplicated ISRCs are harder to match — and unmatched royalties end up in a pool rather than in your account.

Claiming what is already there

If you have been releasing for a while and never registered, do this next: SoundExchange maintains a list of unregistered artists and rights owners with royalties on hold.

Register, then work through your back catalogue to make sure every recording is properly listed and identified. Royalties do not sit unclaimed forever — there are limits on how long unmatched money is held before it is distributed to others.

What SoundExchange does not do

To avoid the usual confusion:

• It does not collect from on-demand streaming — that is the MLC on the composition side, and your distributor on the recording side
• It does not collect performance royalties on the composition — that is your PRO
• It does not collect from terrestrial AM/FM radio, which in the US pays composition royalties only
• It does not collect internationally on its own — foreign digital performance income generally requires separate arrangements

That last point surprises people: the United States is unusual in not paying artists for regular radio airplay. A US AM/FM spin pays the songwriter through their PRO and pays the performer nothing.

The bottom line

Free to join. Pays the artist directly. Collects a stream nobody else collects. Often has money waiting.

If you take one action from this article, it is registering — it takes well under an hour and it is pure upside.

The full map of who pays for what is in where your music money actually comes from.

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General information, not legal advice. Rates, splits and terms are set by statute and can change — verify at soundexchange.com.

Sonifide tracks every registration and ISRC so your recordings match and your royalties land. Start free.