Thousands Not Claiming Royalties. Are You One?

Attention Artist/Indie Labels! SoundExchange may have royalties waiting for you to collect. They have done extensive outreach to make the music industry aware of this through online news outlets, targeting individuals via social media channels, attending conferences/speaking on panels, and hosting informational/educational webinars. They have recently released a list of 50,000 sound recording owners and performing artists that have yet to receive their royalties with amounts ranging from $10 to over 100,000 to be collected. You can now use their searchable database to locate unclaimed royalties. (link below)

SoundExchange recently reached a peak in their 3^rd quarter payouts, which amounted to 122.5 million. This shows that there are many artists that know the importance of registering with SoundExchange, but there are still many that don’t. 

According to SoundExchange, some of the reasons why artists/labels don’t register are:

  ·  Too good to be true: Believe SoundExchange isn’t for real, or that there are strings/payments attached to money

·   Lack of differentiation between copyrights/performance rights organizations (PROs): Believe that ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC membership covers all performance royalties for them, or believe that registering with SoundExchange will jeopardize other PRO status.

·  Lack of education: Don’t understand what SoundExchange is, where this right/royalty/revenue comes from.

·   Confusion about who may be owed digital performance royalties, and who can claim them.

·   Procrastination/confusion: Have heard about SoundExchange or digital performance royalties, but are understaffed, busy, and haven’t gotten around to filling out the forms.

·  Low/incorrect expectations: Potential registrant does not register because they think they will not have a large enough check to warrant the effort or believe only big-name labels are eligible.

·  Data confusion: believing SoundExchange requires: ISRC codes, tax ID, etc.
Registration Frustration: Potential registrant has trouble with registration process; doesn’t want to fill out forms, etc.

Full Article: http://www.soundexchange.com/2012/08/17/royalties-waiting-find-out-in-our-new-database/

-Amber

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