Are You Missing SoundExchange Money?
Every time your song plays on SiriusXM, Pandora, or internet radio, a royalty is generated for your master — and if you never signed up, it’s just sitting there.
The short answer: SoundExchange pays the artist directly for digital radio spins of your recording — it’s free to register, and most independent artists never do. That money doesn’t expire quietly; it piles up unclaimed for years.
What SoundExchange actually collects
SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties for the sound recording — that’s the master, the actual audio you recorded, not the underlying song. It’s triggered by non-interactive digital radio: the stations that pick what plays, not you. Think SiriusXM, Pandora’s radio stations, and internet / webcast radio.
Because it’s tied to your recording, this is money the featured artist and the rights owner get — separate from anything the songwriter is owed on the publishing side.
Who gets paid, and how the split works
When your recording plays on those services, SoundExchange divides the royalty three ways:
The part that surprises people: the featured-artist share is paid straight to you — it doesn’t route through your label or your distributor first. If you’re independent and own your masters, both the artist and rights-owner shares can be yours.
Why so many artists miss it
- It’s a different lane than your PRO. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC handle the songwriting side — the composition. SoundExchange handles the recording side. Signing up with one does not sign you up for the other.
- Your distributor doesn’t do it for you. DistroKid, TuneCore, and the rest put you on Spotify and Apple — they don’t register you with SoundExchange.
- It’s free, so nobody nudges you. There’s no salesperson chasing a free signup, so it quietly never happens.
- The money waits. Because most indies never register, plays keep generating royalties that sit unclaimed — sometimes for years — until someone finally sets the account up.
This is general music-business education, not legal or financial advice. Done Deal Digital is not a PRO or collection society. For your situation, talk to a qualified pro.
One source, on the full map
Don’t want to chase this yourself?
Done Deal Digital sets up every royalty source and chases your back-pay for you — SoundExchange, your PRO, mechanicals, the whole map — so the money that’s already yours actually lands in your account.
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