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Before you use TuneRegistry
Guide for Preparing to Use TuneRegistry
Guide for Preparing to Use TuneRegistry

TuneRegistry eligibility and preparation checklist

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Written by Support
Updated over a week ago

Overview

TuneRegistry is a catalog management, music rights administration, and metadata delivery platform. 

We make it easy to setup your catalog once, then register rights ownership to virtually all U.S. music rights organizations and deliver metadata to the top music metadata suppliers in the world that power features in popular digital music services, mobile apps, audio devices, and smart speakers. With our "one stop shop" approach, small to medium-sized rightsholders and DIY music creators save time, lower costs, and reduce errors and omissions associated with traditional administration processes. And, you keep 100% ownership of your copyrights and 100% of your royalties.

Eligibility

TuneRegistry empowers small to medium-sized rightsholders and music creators (including self-published DIY musicians) with the most cost-effective way to self-administer music rights in the United States. Anyone in the world can sign up to use TuneRegistry for catalog management. However, only eligible parties may initiate registrations to partners in our ever-growing exchange network

To be eligible, you must be a(an):

  • individual, group (band, ensemble, etc.) or entity (record company, music publisher, production music library, music catalog investor) with administration rights to music in the United States (this includes non-US music creators and rightsholders who intend to directly collect royalties in the United States and have the right to do so based on the copyright laws and music licensing regulations in their territory); 

  • featured performer in a sound recording;

  • arranger/adapter of a song or composition;

  • cover artists of a song or composition, 

  • authorized representative or agent of any of the aforementioned parties (e.g. artist manager, lawyer, business manager, rights administrator)

There are many special circumstances when an individual, group, or entity may be eligible to utilize TuneRegistry for music rights administration and/or metadata delivery that isn't listed above -- for example, an heir to an estate, a spouse or divorcee, an artist or songwriter/composer who is approaching a copyright reversion opportunity, a non-featured performer with a negotiated grant of right or income participation, a producer or third-party holding a valid letter of direction. To discuss special circumstance, please contact us.

Joining music rights organizations

Prior to initiating certain registrations in the Registrations module, the user must make sure that the eligible party has joined or created accounts with all relevant U.S. music rights organizations

TuneRegistry currently facilitates the registering of works to ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), SESAC, HFA (Harry Fox Agency), Music Reports, Loudr, SoundExchange, and AARC (the Alliance for Artists and Record Companies). 

We also deliver works to the licensing departments of some metadata suppliers (e.g.  Gracenote, TiVo, MediaNet) that act as mechanical and/or performance licensing agents or consultants on behalf of their digital music clients, however it is not required to create accounts with these companies for the purpose of metadata deliveries. 

Each U.S. music rights organization has one or more types of member/account categories. The eligible party should join/create an account for each membership/account type that fits the way in which the eligible party represents an interest in music. For example, a music publisher would join a performing rights organization (PRO) as a publisher and a record company would join a digital radio rights organization (SoundExchange) as the sound recording copyright owner. A songwriter/composer would join a PRO as a writer and a recording artist would join SoundExchange as a featured performer. A DIY singer-songwriter who owns and administers the copyrights in his songs and recordings would join all of the above as the songwriter, performer, label, and publisher because he is his own label and publisher, as we break down in our free ebook The DIY Musician's Starter Guide To Being Your Own Label And Publisher.

Checklist for joining or creating accounts with U.S. music rights organizations:

As a Creator, you must join or create an account with:

  1. [Data-entry Time: Less than 15 minutes] ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (for public performance royalties) as a songwriter / composer,

  2. [Data-entry Time: Less than 15 minutes] SoundExchange (for digital radio royalties) as an featured performer / recording artist, and

  3. [Data-entry Time: Less than 15 minutes] AARC (for private copy & record rentals royalties) as an  featured performer / recording artist.

Total time it takes to input the information to join or create an account with all U.S. music rights organizations as a creator: Less than 45 minutes

As a Rightsholder and/or Company, you must join or create an account with:

  1. [Data-entry Time: Less than 15 minutes] ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (for public performance royalties) as a publisher,

  2. [Data-entry Time: Less than 10 minutes] Harry Fox Agency (for mechanical royalties) as a publisher or self-published songwriter/composer (instructions for creating an HFA Online Account as an individual can be found here),

  3. [Data-entry Time: Less than 10 minutes] Music Reports (for mechanical royalties) as a publisher or self-published songwriter,

  4. [Data-entry Time: Less than 20 minutes] SoundExchange (for digital radio royalties) as a label or unsigned artist (releasing via distributors and aggregators such as DistroKid, Awal, Symphonic Distribution, CD Baby, Stem),

  5. [Data-entry Time: Less than 20 minutes] AARC (for private copy & record rentals royalties) as a label or unsigned artist (releasing via distributors and aggregators such as DistroKid, Awal, Symphonic Distribution, CD Baby, Stem), and

  6. [Data-entry Time: Less than 20 minutes] A Neighboring Rights Administrator (for neighboring rights royalties). Coming soon to TuneRegistry.

Total time it takes to input the information to join or create an account with all U.S. music rights organizations as a rightsholder and/or company: Less than 2 hours 

Total time it takes to input the information to join or create an account with all U.S. music rights organizations as a creator and a rightsholder: Less than 3 hours

Setting up U.S. music rights affiliations in TuneRegistry

Once you've received your membership or account information from the organizations, you will need to input some (but not all) of that information in the Contacts module in your TuneRegistry account. There are fields to select your performing rights organization (PRO), to input your interested party identifier (IPI) assigned to you by the PRO, and to input your HFA publisher number.

CREATOR: Setting up an Artist or Band/Ensemble Member

CREATOR: Setting up a Songwriter / Composer / Lyricist / Arranger

CREATOR: Setting up a Production Contributor (e.g. Producer, Engineer, Session Musician, Background Vocalist)

GROUP: Setting up a Band/Ensemble

GROUP: Setting up a Production Team or Production Company

RIGHTSHOLDER: Setting up a Label

RIGHTSHOLDER: Setting up a Publisher / Sub Publisher / Administrator

RIGHTSHOLDER: Setting up a Self-publishing Entity of a DIY Songwriter/Composer

RIGHTSHOLDER: Setting up a Music Rights Company (controls both publishing and master rights) 

RIGHTSHOLDER: Setting up a Music Rights Company (controls both publishing and master rights)  owned by an DIY Musician or Band/Ensemble

Once you setup the eligible party, you're ready to get started adding songs, recordings, and releases to your Catalog. You'll also be able to input your contributor's information, which is required for certain registrations.

One stop shop

Once you've setup your rights information in TuneRegistry, you'll never have to re-enter your information, as long as it doesn't change. Every time you create a new song, recording, or release the appropriate information is dynamically pulled from the Contacts module into your Catalog records. 

If you have any questions during your preparation and setup process, please contact us to chat with a Customer Success Specialist.

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