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 are free, and take an evening or two between them. Content ID takes a cut, and it is optional. Your distributor, in the table below, is the other ongoing cost: a yearly fee or a cut. The one real one-off cost is a publisher entity at BMI, and you can leave that until the songs earn.
| 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 for writers at BMI and ASCAP a publisher entity at BMI 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 to $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 at BMI it is the one with a real one-off price: joining 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. At BMI that is worth doing once your catalogue is earning enough to notice, rather than on day one. ASCAP charges nothing for either if you join as writer and publisher at the same time; adding a publisher later costs $50.
- 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.
Open the Board to read what people have asked.
All nine sections, one link each, sent now. Then one section every few days for two weeks: five short emails, and then they stop. One click stops them sooner. After that, the only email you get is if we correct something that matters.
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 Board and it gets fixed. A word you do not know is in the glossary.