Digital Performance Royalties and Where to Find Them

The various ways in which music listeners consume music result in many different ways that musicians get paid for their published work. With surges in streaming being a result of life in a digital era, it’s important for musicians to understand the difference between mechanical and digital performance royalties, and how to collect streaming money with sound recording royalties. This blog details digital performance royalties on the sound recording.

What are digital performance royalties?

Digital performance royalties are dues that are paid to performing artists each time a sound recording is streamed on non-interactive digital streaming services like Pandora, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, and many others. These digital performance royalty services are classified as non-interactive because the individual songs that are played are all chosen based on an algorithm, though stations are selected by the user. This structure is what separates non-interactive streaming services from interactive services such as Spotify or Apple Music, which allow users to select the exact song they prefer and pay the musician through Mechanical Royalties.

How are digital performance royalties collected?

The U.S. is the only country that classifies digital performance royalties separately from performance royalties as a whole. The non-interactive digital streaming services mentioned above pay these performance royalties to the owner of the copyright and those within it, thus, performing artists receive a cut of the streaming money (negotiated within the terms of the master copyright) each time their song is played on these streaming platforms.

SoundExchange is the agency that collects digital performance royalties from the non-interactive digital streaming services. The services must purchase a license from SoundExchange so they can legally play the licensed music, and report how many times the song was played. Furthermore, those who are registered within the sound recording need to register with SoundExchange to receive their digital performance royalties.

How do you register for digital performance royalties?

Digital streaming will continue to evolve as the economy advances, so it’s important for creatives to register with SoundExchange to collect their digital performance royalties and streaming money. This is a free and easy process that can only be done through the agency’s website at https://www.soundexchange.com/artist-copyright-owner/registration-membership/.

If you are earning more than $5,000 annually in Digital Performance Royalties or other royalty streams, contact us today to inquire about how our funding services can assist you. Call us at 844-ALL-MUSIC or fill out the info form below and someone will get back to you within the next business day.