The good thing about being the creator and owner of a sound recording work is your right to earn sound recording royalties through Sound Exchange. If you are a home studio producer, then this is a good opportunity for you to earn some money out of your audio recording/music production works.
Soundexchange is a non-profit performance right societies that represents in behalf of the sound recording copyright owners to collect royalties of the recording performance.
Sound Recording Copyright Ownership and SoundExchange
It starts with the songwriter/musician creating the song and assigning lyrics/melodies. The songwriters themselves are the first owner of the work thus they possess the copyright of music and lyrics. When the songwriters sign-up with a music publishers; there is a transfer of copyright ownership from the writers to the publishers.
What will happen next is that these music publishers shop their songs to recording labels, recording producers or recording artists that are looking for songs for their album/single project. Supposing a certain artist/producer would license a specific song from the music publisher. The artist would then start recording the tracks (vocals, guitars, bass, piano, drums, etc.) until and fully complete sound recording of the song has been made.
This sound recording of the song is not anymore owned by the songwriter or the music publisher but this is owned by the creator which is the artist/producer in this example. The artist producer can then register the song sound recording to copyright office for official registration.
Since the artist/producer would be using this sound recording of the song in marketing and promotions. These sound recording can end up in the playlist of various digital radios, internet radios, etc.
Organizations like SoundExchange monitor the performance of sound recording copyright played in different mediums such as in radio and in the Internet. The monitored performance can then be reported back to their members and then be paid with royalties. This royalty money comes from the SoundExchange licensee which would legally perform sound recordings in any of the discussed broadcasting mediums.
If the artist/producer in the above example has his/her song listed in any of broadcasting mediums monitored by Soundexchange, then the artist/producer can earn royalties from the sound recording performance. SoundExchange requires all artist or sound recording copyright owners to be registered with them to receive royalties.
Where does SoundExchange monitor the performance of a certain sound recording?
Knowing where they monitor performance is an important information because it guides you where would you market your recording to maximize sound recording royalty earnings. The following are the common places:
1.) Web/Satellite/Internet Radio – Do a search in the Google for “internet radio” and there is a lot of popular Internet radio stations that are accepting songs from home based artist/producer. One of the most popular internet radio for independent musicians as of year 2011 is Jango.
Jango is indeed monitored by SoundExchange as well as other Internet radio. Some services are free, some are not.
2.) Cable TV music channels – if you manage to have some of your sound recording works licensed in television works particularly cable TV; then that is also monitored by SoundExchange and you will be paid with royalties.
3.) Similar platforms for streaming sound recording work– This includes other music related websites that streams sound recording copyrighted works. Before you submit work, determine first if the website streaming are monitored by SoundExchange.
How to get started being a member of SoundExchange?
Of course you will never get paid if you are not affiliated with SoundExchange. Below are the important steps that you should do to become a member of SoundExchange:
Step1.) Make sure you have completed the registration of all your sound recording works in your government copyright office. If you are marketing music in the US, you can apply in US Copyright office. If you need more information about this topic, read this guide on sound recording copyright registration process.
Wait until you have either the copyright registration number of your sound recording works or much better a copy of the copyright certificate from the US Copyright office.
Step2.) Register with SoundExchange. You can go to this URL to register.
You can either choose to register online or using the traditional paper form application. It is important to complete the application and confirm with SoundExchange that your registration is successful. Put correct and updated information in the application form, make sure all entries are correct, for example the payee name, bank information, etc. This is needed by Soundexchange to properly paid royalties.
Step3.) Register your repertoire or catalog with SoundExchange.
Features of SoundExchange Membership
To know more about Soundexchange in details; lets break down the topics into several components:
a. Unpaid royalties
b. The Play System
First: Unpaid Royalties
If you are already an established indie artist for years and has some successful songs being streamed online in radio stations, TV services and streaming websites; then you might have some money waiting for you at SoundExchange.If you remember that you have some of your songs streamed before year 2000 (long time ago), you can check it here.
You can use that tool if you are an artist or copyright holder. You can search using your last name or first name. If you see your name, then there is money waiting for you in SoundExchange, become a member (follow the steps in the previous section) and go ahead to claim it.
Second: The Play System
However they have a note: “SRCOs (Sound copyright owners) and artists who have released product since 2001 will not appear on this list.” It means that you need to further dig in the soundexchange database if you are a registered artists as well having your songs registered it too.
In this step, you can use the “PLAYS” system:
You need to sign up before you can search the database, do not worry it will not take too long. If you are still new or you have not made heavy promotions in the past (like putting your song in radio or web casts), then you will not see your name or your song in the database.
When can I be paid with royalties and to increase earnings?
Soundexchange will pay you royalties if you reach the $10 threshold. As a member, they will monitor the performance of your sound recording work worldwide. You can then login online to track how your catalog performs.
As discussed previously, you should maximize the exposure of your music in those channels monitored closely by Soundexchange. So this means you will need to do a lot of marketing and research work in how to get your sound recording work in Internet radio, webcast, satellite radio and cable television music channels.
Things to ensure that you will get paid with royalties
There are actually 3 most important requirements that you should take note:
1.) You should register your sound recording work in a government copyright office. This ensures your ownership and legality of your claim.
2.) You should be a member in SoundExchange and register your works.
3.) Your sound recording work should have ISRC code embedded in it. ISRC code is a numeric code embedded in your MP3 file which radio stations will be using to identify your sound recording work. They will then use it to report internet radio performance based on ISRC code of the songs in their playlist. If your sound recording work does not have ISRC code, the radio stations or recording labels may reject or deny your work to be included in their playlist. Or if you have managed to have your music in a radio station playlist, your track will not be reported to Soundexchange for royalties.
Read this guide on how to embed and read ISRC Codes in your MP3 files.
Content last updated on July 13, 2012