Harry Fox Agency (HFA) is the leading provider of rights management, licensing, and royalty services for the U.S. music industry and was established in 1927 by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) as an agency to license, collect, and distribute royalties on behalf of musical copyright owners. 

HFA issues mechanical licenses for products manufactured and distributed in the U.S. A mechanical license grants the rights to reproduce and distribute copyrighted musical compositions (songs) for use on CDs, records, tapes, ringtones, permanent digital downloads, interactive streams and other digital formats supporting various business models, including locker-based music services and bundled music offerings. 

Publishers that affiliate with HFA have access to a range of licensing, collection, distribution, and royalty compliance services, as well as to various online tools, to assist with catalog administration. 

In addition, HFA provides affiliated publishers with the opportunity to participate in other types of licensing arrangements including lyrics, guitar tablatures, background music services and more. These opportunities are circulated to publishers for participation on an opt-in basis. 

Visit https://www.harryfox.com/#/sign-up to create an online account as a publisher.

*Note - Mechanical royalties are paid out to the publisher. Self-published songwriters/composers can not affiliate with Harry Fox Agency, but you can create an HFA Online Account and still receive some of the benefits. To learn how, read this blog post.

To affiliate with HFA, "a publishing company must have at least one (1) song commercially released by a U.S. based third party (a record label) within the last twelve (12) months. Self-released recordings aren’t considered commercially released by a U.S. based third party (a record label) and don’t qualify a publishing company for affiliation with HFA."  (See: https://www.harryfox.com/#/hfa-affiliate)  

If a publisher does not qualify to affiliate, it can still set up an HFA online account, which will enable the publisher to register its songs and participate in licensing opportunities. (See: https://portal.harryfox.com/forms/newPublisher).