How to Register Your Music with SoundExchange to Collect Foreign Payouts & Digital Royalties

If you are an independent artist, a DIY producer, or a label owner streaming your tracks online, there is a very good chance money is floating around out there with your name on it. Every time your song plays on digital radio, satellite services, or internet-only stations, royalties are generated. But here is the catch: if you aren’t registered with the right organizations, you won’t see a dime of it.

Even worse? A lot of creators completely miss out on foreign payouts. If your tracks get spun on digital stations overseas, you are legally owed neighboring rights royalties from international collection societies.

SoundExchange is the primary key to unlocking this income in the United States, and through their global network, they help bridge the gap to international markets. Let’s walk through why this matters and how to set your catalog up properly so you never leave money on the table again.

Understanding the Landscape: Performance Royalties vs. Neighboring Rights

Before diving into the registration workflow, it helps to understand why SoundExchange exists in the first place. Most songwriters are familiar with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Those performance rights organizations collect money when your composition (the underlying lyrics and melody) is played publicly or broadcasted.

SoundExchange operates in a completely different lane. They collect digital performance royalties for sound recordings (the actual master audio file).

• The Composition Side: Handled by PROs like ASCAP and BMI (writers and publishers).

• The Master Recording Side: Handled by SoundExchange (featured artists and master owners).

In the United States, traditional terrestrial AM/FM radio does not pay royalties to master owners or performers (only to songwriters). However, digital, satellite, and internet radio do legally owe these digital performance royalties. Furthermore, many countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America enforce strict “neighboring rights” laws that pay out master owners whenever music is broadcasted anywhere in public or digitally. SoundExchange acts as a vital bridge to collect those funds on your behalf globally.

Step 1: Set Up Your Account as Both a Rights Owner and Performer

The biggest mistake creators make when joining SoundExchange is only registering halfway. If you write, record, produce, and release your own music independently, you wear multiple hats—and you need to get paid for all of them.

When you sign up for a free account at soundexchange.com, you will need to register under two distinct capacities:

1. As a Performer (Featured Artist or Session Musician): This profile collects the artist share of digital performance royalties (typically 45% of the total collection pool). Even if you are a band member or a featured vocalist, this is where your cut goes.

2. As a Rights Owner (Master Owner): This profile collects the sound recording copyright share (typically 50% of the pool). If you funded your own studio time, paid for mixing, and own the master files outright, you are the rights owner. (The remaining 5% is usually set aside for session musicians via SAG-AFTRA/AFM funds).

Pro Tip: If you are an independent artist who owns your masters, make sure you link both of your profiles inside the portal. Otherwise, you’ll only receive half of what your tracks earn.

Step 2: Search the Database for Unmatched and Unclaimed Recordings

Once your account is live, do not just close the tab and wait. You need to do some digital archaeology.

Radio stations, streaming platforms, and digital service providers (DSPs) are notorious for reporting song data with typos, truncated artist names, or missing metadata. When SoundExchange receives these plays, but the metadata doesn’t cleanly match an active registered track, the money ends up sitting in a giant pool of unmatched recordings.

• Use the SoundExchange database search tool inside your dashboard.

• Search for your artist name, former band names, album titles, and every song you have ever released.

• Look for variations or misspellings of your name.

If you find your tracks sitting under unlinked or unmatched profiles, you can claim them right then and there. Doing this often unlocks a backlog of accumulated royalties that have been waiting for you for months or even years.

Step 3: Submit New Track Registrations with Bulletproof Metadata

If you have brand-new releases or tracks that haven’t been picked up by the system yet, you need to submit them manually or through a batch catalog upload.

Clean metadata is the absolute lifeblood of digital royalties. If a single digit in your code is off, your payout can get delayed or lost in limbo. Make sure you have the following ready before you start filling out forms:

• ISRC Codes (International Standard Recording Codes): Every unique master recording needs its own ISRC. If you use a distributor like DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby, they assign these for you automatically. Grab them from your distributor dashboard.

• Exact Track Titles and Album Names: Keep them consistent with how they appear on Spotify and Apple Music. Avoid adding extra subtitles or accidental spacing.

• Featured Artists and Contributors: Clearly define who played on the track if you are splitting royalties with collaborators or session players.

• Release Dates and Durations: Precise runtime helps systems verify matches against automated broadcast logs.

Taking an extra five minutes to double-check your ISRC codes during this step saves you weeks of administrative headaches down the line.

Step 4: Authorize SoundExchange to Collect International Payouts

This is where the magic happens for global growth. Many artists assume that because they live in the US (or another specific home country), their royalties stay local. But digital streams cross borders instantly, and foreign broadcasts generate massive pools of neighboring rights revenue.

To tap into this, you must explicitly authorize SoundExchange to collect international neighboring rights royalties on your behalf.

SoundExchange maintains reciprocal, bilateral agreements with dozens of foreign collection societies around the world (such as PPL in the UK, GVL in Germany, and SPFI in France). When you grant them authorization:

• SoundExchange communicates directly with these international organizations.

• They track how often your tracks are spun on foreign digital radio, internet networks, and public digital outlets overseas.

• They collect those foreign funds, convert them, and bundle them right into your regular domestic payout schedule.

Without this authorization, foreign collection societies often hold onto unclaimed international royalties for a few years before redistributing them locally to other artists. Don’t let your global airplay fund someone else’s career—opt into international collection as soon as your tracks are registered.

Final Thoughts: Stop Leaving Global Revenue on the Table

As an independent creator, building a sustainable music career requires looking at every possible revenue stream. Streaming on major DSPs is fantastic, but digital radio, satellite platforms, and international broadcasts represent entirely separate pools of income that you have already earned.

By taking a few structured steps—registering as both a performer and rights owner, aggressively hunting down unmatched recordings, locking down clean ISRC metadata, and opting into international collections—you ensure that your art pays you back globally.