Neighbouring Rights in Canada: How to Collect Through Re:Sound, ACTRA RACS, and MROC
Neighbouring rights pay performers and master owners when a recording gets broadcast or played in public. In Canada, Re:Sound collects this, but performers don't register with Re:Sound directly. You join ACTRA RACS or Artisti for the performer share, and register your master share through CONNECT or SOPROQ.
If you only collect the royalties tied to the songwriting, you're leaving a whole second stream on the table. Neighbouring rights are paid on the recording itself, the master, every time it airs on the radio or plays in a coffee shop or runs on a non-interactive streaming service. Canada pays this. The US, for over-the-air radio, does not. If you're a Canadian performer who owns your masters, this is real money, and most indie artists I know aren't collecting it.
Here's how it works and exactly who to sign up with.
What are neighbouring rights, and why does Canada pay them when the US doesn't?
Neighbouring rights are a statutory right under Canada's Copyright Act, Section 19, for performers and sound recording makers to receive equitable remuneration when their recording is broadcast or performed in public. That covers terrestrial AM/FM radio, background music in businesses, non-interactive streaming like CBC Music, and some live events. The money attaches to the master recording, which is a separate copyright from the composition your PRO collects on.
The US is the big exception. Terrestrial radio in the US pays the performer and the label nothing for spinning a recording. The US never signed the Rome Convention and doesn't recognize a neighbouring rights regime for over-the-air radio, so only digital radio (Pandora, SiriusXM, and the like) triggers any sound recording royalty there, paid through SoundExchange. Canada does recognize the right. That's the whole difference, and it's why a Canadian act with radio play has an income stream a comparable US act simply doesn't.
One catch worth knowing up front: to qualify, the maker has to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or a citizen or resident of a Rome Convention or WPPT signatory country at the time the recording was first fixed. Most countries you'd record in are signatories, but it's a real eligibility line.
How is the neighbouring rights money split between performers and the label?
The pool splits 50/50. Half goes to the makers, meaning whoever owns the master, which for a self-releasing artist is you. The other half goes to the performers. Within the performer half, the money breaks down again: 40 percent to featured performers and 10 percent to non-featured or session performers, out of the total 100.
So if you wrote, performed on, and own a recording entirely yourself, you're owed pieces from both sides of the split. You collect the maker's 50 percent as the master owner, and you collect the featured performer share out of the performer half. Registering for only one of those roles leaves the other half sitting uncollected, which is the most common mistake here.
Makers (master owners) vs performers
Featured vs non-featured performers, out of the total
Distributed by Re:Sound in 2024, a record year
Typical lag before performance royalties show up
That last number matters for your expectations. Performance royalties can take 6 to 18 months to appear. Streaming processes faster but still runs several months behind. None of this is fast money, so register now and let it accrue.
Who actually collects this: Re:Sound, ACTRA RACS, Artisti, and the MROC situation
Re:Sound is the only organization authorized under Canada's Copyright Act to collect neighbouring rights royalties. It's a non-profit collective, set up in 1997 as the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada. But here's the part that trips people up: you don't register with Re:Sound directly as a performer. Re:Sound collects the money and distributes it through affiliated collectives, and you join one of those.
The table below shows which collective fits which role.
| If you are... | Register with | |
|---|---|---|
| A featured or session musician/vocalist, any genre, anywhere in Canada | Your role | ACTRA RACS |
| Quebec-focused, or a former MROC member transferring your mandate | Your role | Artisti |
| The maker / master owner, outside Quebec | Your role | CONNECT Music Licensing |
| The maker / master owner, in Quebec | Your role | SOPROQ |
A note on MROC, because older guides still point you there. MROC, the Musicians' Rights Organization Canada, formally wound down on December 31, 2024. It's no longer operating. MROC arranged for active mandates to transfer to Artisti as of January 1, 2025, though departing members could choose to move to ACTRA RACS instead. If you were with MROC, your collections didn't vanish, but you do need to be set up with one of the remaining collectives so your share keeps flowing.
So a self-releasing indie artist who performs on and owns their own recordings is signing up twice: once with ACTRA RACS or Artisti for the performer share, and once with CONNECT or SOPROQ for the maker share. Two registrations, both halves collected.
The single biggest miss I see: artists register as the performer, collect the 40 percent featured share, and never register the master side. That's the other 50 percent of the pool, gone, on recordings they fully own.
Once you've got your Canadian neighbouring rights mapped, the royalty calculator can help you sketch what these streams add up to across a release alongside your performance and mechanical income, so you can see which gaps are worth chasing first.
Do I also need to register with SoundExchange in the US?
For most Canadian artists, no, and registering directly with SoundExchange can actually cost you money. Re:Sound and SoundExchange have a bilateral reciprocal agreement. If you're a member of ACTRA RACS, Artisti, AVLA, or SOPROQ, your US digital performance royalties (SiriusXM, Pandora, and similar) get collected through that agreement and flow back to you through your Canadian collective. You don't need a separate SoundExchange registration to receive them.
There's a tax reason this matters. Re:Sound obtained IRS Qualified Intermediary (QI) status back in 2014, which lets Canadian members avoid the standard 30 percent US withholding tax on royalties collected through the bilateral agreement. Register directly with SoundExchange and you don't automatically get that treatment, so you can end up handing 30 percent to the IRS on money you'd have kept in full going through Re:Sound. For scale, Re:Sound collected over $9 million USD for Canadian creators from SoundExchange in 2018.
The practical read: route your US digital sound recording royalties through your Canadian collective rather than registering with SoundExchange yourself. You consolidate your revenue in one place and you keep the withholding benefit. The exception is session musicians collecting SoundExchange royalties directly rather than through the bilateral path, who do have to register with SAG-AFTRA in the US. For most self-releasing artists, the Canadian collective route is the cleaner one.
What do I need to do today?
Three things, in order. First, confirm you qualify (Canadian, or from a Rome Convention or WPPT signatory country at the time of first fixation). Second, register the performer share with ACTRA RACS or Artisti. Third, register the maker share with CONNECT or SOPROQ if you own your masters. If you came from MROC, make sure your mandate is settled with one of those collectives so nothing stalls.
And make sure every recording has an ISRC attached. Without ISRCs, collecting societies can't match plays to you, and your recordings are effectively invisible to Re:Sound's matching system. No ISRC, no money, no matter how perfectly you've registered.
See how your neighbouring rights income stacks up next to your other royalty streams
Frequently asked questions
Did MROC shut down, and where do former MROC members go now?+
Yes. MROC (Musicians' Rights Organization Canada) formally wound down on December 31, 2024, and is no longer operating. MROC arranged for active mandates to transfer to Artisti as of January 1, 2025, while departing members could opt to move to ACTRA RACS instead. If you were a MROC member, confirm your mandate is set up with one of those two collectives so your performer share keeps getting collected. Your past collections don't disappear, but new royalties need an active collective to flow through.
Can I collect neighbouring rights if I'm not a Canadian citizen?+
You can qualify without being Canadian, but there's a line. The maker has to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or a citizen or resident of a country that signed the Rome Convention or the WPPT, measured at the time the recording was first fixed. Many countries are signatories, so a recording fixed in one of them can still qualify. If neither the maker's status nor the country of first fixation meets that test, the recording isn't eligible for Canadian neighbouring rights.
How long does it take to get paid neighbouring rights royalties?+
Expect a wait. Performance royalties can take 6 to 18 months to show up after the airplay or public performance happens. Streaming-related royalties process faster but still run several months behind. This isn't fast income. The takeaway is to register now and let the money accrue, rather than signing up after you think there's something to collect. Recordings that were earning before you registered may have royalties waiting once your registration matches them.
Why does US radio pay performers nothing when Canadian radio pays?+
The US never signed the Rome Convention and doesn't recognize a neighbouring rights regime for over-the-air radio, so terrestrial AM/FM radio in the US pays the performer and the master owner nothing for playing a recording. Only US digital radio, like Pandora and SiriusXM, triggers a sound recording royalty, paid through SoundExchange. Canada's Copyright Act, Section 19, does grant equitable remuneration for broadcast and public performance, which is why Canadian radio play generates income a comparable US act doesn't see.
Do I register with both a performer collective and a maker collective?+
If you perform on and own your recordings, yes. The pool splits 50 percent to makers and 50 percent to performers. You collect the maker's half as the master owner through CONNECT (outside Quebec) or SOPROQ (Quebec), and you collect the featured performer share through ACTRA RACS or Artisti. Registering for only one role leaves the other half uncollected. Two registrations, both halves of the split captured.
Keep reading
Pillar guide
How to Collect Every Music Royalty
A Canadian indie artist collects royalties by registering across two copyrights: the composition (SOCAN for performance, CMRRA or SOCAN Reproduction for mechanical) and the recording (ACTRA RACS or Artisti for neighbouring rights, plus a maker collective).
Related guide
Mechanical Royalties
Mechanical royalties are paid when your composition is reproduced, including every stream.
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The Four Types of Music Royalties
There are four music royalty types: performance, mechanical, neighbouring rights, and sync.
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