The Four Types of Music Royalties (and Which Ones Most Indie Artists Are Missing)

What are the four types of music royalties?

The four types are performance, mechanical, neighbouring rights, and sync. Performance royalties come from public plays of the song. Mechanical royalties come from reproductions of the song. Neighbouring rights come from broadcast and public performance of the recording. Sync comes from pairing music with visual media. The first two pay the songwriter and publisher. The third pays the performer and the master owner.

The split that trips people up is composition versus master. Every song carries two copyrights. The musical work is owned by the songwriter and publisher. The sound recording is owned by the artist, producer, or label who made the master. These are separate, and they generate separate money collected by separate bodies (source: SOCAN, composition vs master).

If you write and record your own music as an indie artist, you own both copyrights. That means you're entitled to all four royalty types. Most people only ever set up to collect the two tied to the composition.

Sources: Copyright Alliance; Soundcharts.

Which organizations collect performance and mechanical royalties?

Performance royalties go through a performing rights organization. In Canada that's SOCAN, the only PRO in the country. In the US it's ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Mechanical royalties for the song go through CMRRA or SOCAN Reproduction Rights in Canada, and through The MLC in the US for streaming and download mechanicals.

Start with performance. SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) has more than 200,000 songwriter, composer, and publisher members (source: SOCAN centennial press release). Membership is free, and a self-published writer with no publisher listed keeps 100% of the performance royalty. SOCAN has reciprocal deals with more than 100 societies worldwide, so it collects your US and international performance money too (source: SOCAN international royalties). A Canadian songwriter should register with SOCAN, not ASCAP or BMI. You can only belong to one PRO at a time, and SOCAN's reciprocal agreements handle the cross-border side.

Now mechanicals on the composition. In Canada, CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency, now a SoundExchange company) is the leading mechanical agency. It distributed over $96 million CAD in 2024, a 23% increase over 2023, and it pays out quarterly once your activity reaches $15 CAD (source: CMRRA 2024 year-end results). Affiliation is open to copyright owners living anywhere, and self-published writers can affiliate directly. SOCAN also offers a Reproduction Rights service that collects both performance and mechanical under one roof, if you'd rather not run two memberships.

For the US side of the composition, The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) handles blanket mechanical licenses for streaming and downloads. Registration is free and open to Canadians. The detail worth sitting with comes next.

Why do most indie artists miss US streaming mechanicals?

Most indie artists miss US mechanicals because they assume their distributor or PRO already collects them. They usually don't. The MLC was set up under the Music Modernization Act to administer streaming and download mechanicals in the US, and the money waits in an account until the songwriter registers the work. No registration means no match.

The number here is the wake-up call. As of The MLC's 2023 Annual Royalty Recap, it held roughly $164.2 million in unclaimed royalties and $209.7 million in unmatched royalties, a combined figure near $374 million sitting undistributed (source: The MLC 2023 Annual Royalty Recap). Total distributions to date exceed $3.5 billion (source: The MLC homepage). The MLC even runs a Missing Member Lookup tool, because songs frequently have royalties waiting before the writer has ever signed up.

As a Canadian songwriter, you have three ways to claim these, and you should pick one. Register directly with The MLC (free, open to non-US citizens, needs a W-8BEN tax form). Use CMRRA's International Collections, which registers with The MLC on your behalf. Or use SOCAN Reproduction Rights, which claims MLC royalties for its members. The warning is real: registering directly and through CMRRA for the same works can cause conflicts and delayed payments. Choose a single path and stick with it.

If you want a rough sense of what these streams add up to across your catalog before you register, the royalty calculator lets you model it.

Model your uncollected streams across the catalog →

Why do most indie artists miss neighbouring rights?

Neighbouring rights get missed because they pay the recording, not the song, and almost nobody tells independent artists this stream exists. It's the statutory right for performers and master owners to be paid when their recording is broadcast or publicly performed: terrestrial radio, background music in businesses, non-interactive streaming like CBC Music, some live events. Your PRO does not collect it. Your distributor does not collect it.

In Canada this is real, enforceable, and worth real money. Neighbouring rights live in Section 19 of the Copyright Act as a right to equitable remuneration (source: Justice Laws, Copyright Act). Re:Sound is the only organization authorized to collect it. The split runs 50% to makers (the master owner, which is you if you self-release), and 50% to performers, of which 40% goes to featured performers and 10% to session players (source: Re:Sound distribution rules).

Here's the catch that costs people money. You don't register directly with Re:Sound. Performers join an affiliated collective, and as of 2025 that means ACTRA RACS (all genres, featured and session) or Artisti (Quebec-focused). MROC wound down on December 31, 2024, and former members were moved across to those two collectives (source: ACTRA RACS MROC announcement). The master owner's maker share is registered through CONNECT Music Licensing outside Quebec, or SOPROQ in Quebec (source: CONNECT Music Licensing). A self-releasing artist who performs on their own recordings is both a performer and a maker, so you register on both sides to collect both halves.

For the US digital side, SoundExchange administers the statutory license for non-interactive streaming (Pandora, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio). Its split runs 50% to the master owner, 45% to the featured artist, and 5% to non-featured musicians, so an indie artist who owns the master and performs is entitled to 95% (source: SoundExchange, for artists, labels & producers). Canadian performers usually shouldn't register with SoundExchange directly. Re:Sound and SoundExchange have a bilateral agreement, and members of ACTRA RACS or Artisti collect US digital performance royalties through it. Re:Sound also holds IRS Qualified Intermediary status, which avoids the standard 30% US withholding tax that hits a direct SoundExchange registration (source: Edwards Creative Law, SoundExchange for Canadian musicians).

What about sync royalties?

Sync royalties come from pairing your music with visual media: film, TV, ads, games, social. Unlike the other three types, sync isn't collected by a society on a tariff. It's a license negotiated deal by deal, and a single placement can pay both the composition and the master, because the user needs permission for the song and the recording (source: Copyright Alliance).

That's why sync is different in kind. There's no registration that makes it appear in your account. A placement starts with someone reaching out, or with you pitching the song, and then the fee is agreed directly. What the collecting societies do touch is the back-end use after a placement airs. When synced music gets broadcast, that triggers performance and mechanical activity back through SOCAN and CMRRA. CMRRA noted that a 29% jump in audiovisual post-synchronization drove much of its 2023 distribution growth (source: CMRRA press release).

So sync is the one type where the upfront money comes from a negotiation, and the societies pick up the royalties generated once that placement is out in the world.

One thing that makes all of it work: ISRCs

Every sound recording needs an ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) so collecting societies can match plays to you. Without ISRCs, your recordings are essentially invisible to SoundExchange, The MLC, Re:Sound, and SOCAN's digital matching (source: Funky Moose Records; CreateBase Education). A registration without ISRCs is a registration the matching system can't see. Get codes on every track before you start chasing any of these four streams.

To get a rough estimate of what your catalog is owed across all four types, run it through the royalty calculator.