Every registration, and what it costs
This is the entire list. It is short, it is mostly free, and doing all of it takes about an evening for a back catalogue. The reason it is worth a course's price to somebody is that it is never written down in one place.
Three of the four cost nothing and take an evening between them. The fourth is the only one with an ongoing price, and it is optional.
| Register with | So you get paid for | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| A PRO ASCAP, BMI or SESAC |
Public performance of the composition: radio, venues, shops, broadcast, and a share of streaming | Free at BMI, $50 one-time at ASCAP a publisher entity costs more, see below |
An evening |
| The MLC | US mechanical royalties on interactive streaming, for the composition | Free | An evening |
| SoundExchange | US non-interactive digital radio, paid to the performer and the master owner | Free | Half an hour |
| Content ID through your distributor |
Other people's videos using your recording | Usually a percentage | A switch |
| A distributor | Getting the recording onto the services at all, and the master royalty back | $0–$50 a year, or a cut | Per release |
You can only be registered as a writer with one performing rights organisation at a time, and each song must be registered with the society its writers belong to. Co-writers can be at different PROs; that is normal and handled between the societies. What you should not do is try to join two yourself.
A few practical notes that save people months.
- Register the back catalogue, not just the next one. Registration generally works forward from the date you file, but works already released can still be filed and will collect from then on. The MLC in particular holds unmatched historical royalties that can be claimed once a work is matched to you.
- Register as both writer and publisher where the PRO allows it. The composition's income is conventionally split into a writer's share and a publisher's share. If you have no publisher, the publisher's share is yours, but it is frequently only paid to a registered publishing entity. This is the single most commonly missed step on this page, and it is also the only one that costs real money: joining BMI as a writer is free, but registering a publisher entity with them runs about $175 if you own it individually and around $250 for an LLC or corporation. ASCAP's $50 covers both. Worth doing once your catalogue is earning enough to notice, rather than on day one.
- At SoundExchange, claim both roles. Featured artist and rights owner are two separate payments from the same play.
- Your distributor is not your publisher. Some offer publishing administration as a paid add-on. That is a real service, but it is optional, and the registrations above are free whether or not you buy it.
You released a song three years ago and never registered it. Is that money gone?
Partly, and it depends which pool. Performance royalties through a PRO generally pay from the date you register a work rather than from when it was played, so most of that is unrecoverable. Mechanical royalties are more forgiving: The MLC holds historical royalties that were collected but never matched to anybody, and claiming a work can release what is sitting against it. So register the back catalogue rather than only the next release — and register today rather than next month, because the forward-only pools are still losing money while you decide.
You are already with a PRO. Do you still need The MLC?
Yes. They collect different things. Your PRO collects performance royalties, which are generated when the song is played publicly. The MLC collects mechanical royalties, which are generated when the song is reproduced, including on every interactive stream. The same play on Spotify generates both, and neither organisation collects the other's share. Being registered with one does nothing for the other.
Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice. Rates, statutory splits, platform rules and organisation fees all move, and every figure was checked in September 2026 against at least five independent sources. This is written from a United States starting point. If something is wrong, tell us on the forum and it gets fixed.