Where Your Royalties Actually Go Missing (and How to Claim Them)

Here is an uncomfortable sentence: a large share of the royalties generated by independent music is collected correctly, held correctly, and then never claimed - because the money is waiting for a registration that nobody completed.

Nothing dramatic happened. No one was robbed. The systems worked exactly as designed; the artist simply was not enrolled in them.

This guide is the map. It covers the four streams most independent artists are missing, why each one leaks, and how to close the gaps. If you would rather just see your own numbers, run a free royalty audit with Song Bounty - it flags your registration gaps and hands you a ranked checklist. You keep 100%.

Stream 1: Mechanical Royalties (The MLC)

Mechanical royalties are owed for the reproduction and distribution of a composition - the song itself, as opposed to the recording. In the streaming era, the US portion is collected by The MLC.

Why it leaks: mechanicals are owed to the publisher side, meaning the songwriter and publisher of the composition. Self-released artists frequently register their recordings with a distributor and stop there, assuming the distributor covers everything. Distribution covers the recording's master-side income. The composition needs its own registration at The MLC - and each song needs to be registered as a musical work, with correct writer splits, so the money can find you.

What to check: every original song you have released should exist as a registered work at The MLC, with your writer share and any co-writer shares recorded correctly.

Stream 2: Performance Royalties (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC)

Performance royalties are owed when a song is performed publicly - played on radio, in a venue, on television, or streamed. In the US, these are collected by a performing rights organization (PRO): ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

Why it leaks: there are two separate registrations, and artists routinely do only the first.

1. You, the writer, must be affiliated with a PRO and registered as a member.
2. The song itself must be registered as a work with that PRO, with splits.

Many independent artists have signed up for a PRO and never registered their catalog. An unregistered work earns nothing, no matter how often it is played. A second common failure: co-writers affiliated with different PROs, where only one side ever registers the split.

What to check: affiliation active, every release registered as a work, splits matching what is actually on your split sheet.

Stream 3: Neighbouring Rights (SoundExchange)

Neighbouring rights are the most missed stream of all, because they attach to the recording rather than the song - and because registration is entirely separate from everything else you have already done.

In the US, non-interactive digital radio and streaming royalties for sound recordings are collected by SoundExchange and paid to two parties: the featured artist and the master owner. If you are self-released, that is you, twice - you may be owed both shares.

Why it leaks: registering with a distributor does not register you with SoundExchange. Artists who have never created a SoundExchange account are, in the most literal sense, unable to be paid money that has already been collected for them. If you have featured collaborators, they have their own share that only they can claim.

What to check: a SoundExchange account exists, your recordings are registered with correct ISRCs, and every featured artist on your releases has claimed their share.

Stream 4: International and Live

Two more streams that independent artists rarely touch:

• International collections. When your music is streamed or broadcast abroad, foreign collection societies collect royalties on your behalf. Getting that money requires reciprocal registration and correct identifiers - and it is commonly left unclaimed for years.
• Live performance royalties. In the US, PROs collect for live performances of registered works, which means the setlist from a show you played two years ago may represent money you never claimed, provided the songs were registered in the first place.

Why Gaps Happen to Careful Artists

None of the above requires a mistake in the dramatic sense. The usual causes are mundane:

• Split sheets that were never formalized, so nobody knows the correct percentages to register.
• Name variants - an artist name spelled three ways across releases, so registrations do not match recordings.
• Metadata mismatches - missing or duplicated ISRCs, or works registered under a different title.
• Catalog drift - releases from years ago that predate the current distributor, PRO membership, or even the current band lineup.
• Assumed coverage - the reasonable belief that "the distributor handles it," when distribution only covers one side of the equation.

What a Royalty Audit Actually Does

A real audit is not a search for one missing payment. It is a reconciliation across every system that holds money tied to your name. One free Song Bounty royalty audit checks all of the streams above - mechanical at The MLC, performance at ASCAP/BMI/SESAC, neighbouring rights at SoundExchange, plus international and live - then flags your registration gaps and returns a ranked checklist so you know which fix is worth the most before you spend an evening on it.

Then you claim it, and you keep 100%.

Start With the Free Check

You cannot fix a gap you cannot see.

Run a free royalty scan and see what you're owed before you pay anything - it costs nothing and the answer is either "you're clean" or a concrete list of what to claim.

For the partnership details and our other artist tools, see the InstrumentaList Resource Library. If you are still choosing a distributor, our distribution guide explains which side of the royalty equation each option actually covers.

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InstrumentaList partners with Song Bounty to help independent artists collect what their music earned. More details in our Resource Library.