When your song plays on the radio or in a café, two different groups can be owed money. One group owns the song itself: the writers and publishers. The other owns and performed the recording. The second kind of income is called neighbouring rights, or related rights, and many independent artists never collect it simply because nobody told them it exists.
Two rights in one radio play
Every recording contains two works. The composition is the melody and lyrics, owned by the songwriters and their publishers. The recording, or master, is the specific audio you hear, owned by whoever paid for and made it.
Songwriters collect for public performance through authors' societies. Neighbouring rights are the parallel income for the recording side. They are called "neighbouring" because they sit next to copyright in the song, and in many countries they are written into law as a separate category.
Who gets paid
Two groups share neighbouring rights income:
- The master owner, sometimes called the phonogram producer. If you recorded and paid for the track yourself, that is you. If a label owns the master, it is the label.
- The performers. This includes the featured artist, whose name is on the release, and non-featured performers: session musicians, backing vocalists, a guitarist who played on one track.
How the money is split between owners and performers depends on the country. Often it is shared in roughly equal parts, but the details are set locally, so do not assume one rule fits everywhere.
Take a fictional example. Lina Vos writes, sings and self-releases a song, and her friend Tom plays the guitar part. Lina is the master owner and the featured performer. Tom is a non-featured performer. If the song gets radio play in a country that pays neighbouring rights, all three roles can be entitled to a share, as long as each of them is registered.
Where the money comes from
Neighbouring rights usually cover the use of recordings in public and in broadcasting:
- radio and television
- bars, restaurants, shops, gyms and hotels that play recorded music
- clubs and events
- some forms of online radio and simulcasts, depending on the country
They generally do not cover on-demand streams on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. That income reaches you through your distributor or label. Live performance is different again: when you sing the song on stage, no recording is played, so that use falls under the songwriters' rights, not neighbouring rights.
The rules differ a lot between countries. In some places, ordinary radio does not pay for the recording at all; the United States is the best-known example for AM and FM radio. In others, the system is well established and pays regularly. If your music is played abroad, the country where it is played decides whether there is money to collect.
How collecting societies work
In most countries, neighbouring rights are collected by organisations sometimes called collective management organisations. Some countries have one organisation for both performers and producers; others have separate ones. Radio stations and venues pay licence fees, the society matches what was played with its database of recordings and performers, and then distributes the money.
Matching is where independent artists lose out. A society can only pay you if it knows the recording exists, who owns it and who played on it. That information is usually tied to the ISRC, the code that identifies each recording. If your recording is not registered, the money for it may be paid to others or held unallocated.
Societies in different countries often have agreements with each other, so your home society may collect for plays abroad. To register, you usually need an ID document, bank details and a list of your recordings, and some organisations charge a membership fee. Check the conditions with the organisation itself. Payments tend to arrive with a delay, because play logs have to be gathered and checked first.
What to do as an independent artist
- Find out which organisation handles neighbouring rights in your country, and whether performers and producers register separately.
- Register as a performer. If you own your masters, also register as a producer.
- Register each recording with its ISRC, title, release date and full line-up.
- Collect line-up details while you record: who played what on which track. It is much harder to reconstruct a year later.
- Tell your session musicians that they can register too. It costs you nothing and builds goodwill.
Do I need to register twice if I own the master and sing on it?
In countries where performers and producers have separate societies or separate registrations, yes: once for each role. Each role earns its own share, and registering only one of them leaves the other unpaid.
Does my distributor collect this for me?
Usually not. Distribution delivers your music to streaming platforms; neighbouring rights are a separate system. Some labels and specialised agencies collect them under contract, but that is always a separate agreement, and its terms are worth reading closely.