How to Register With a PRO: What It Does and Why You Are Losing Money Without One

A performing rights organisation is the only practical way a songwriter collects money when their music is broadcast or performed. Join the PRO in your own country, register as a publisher too if you have no publishing deal, and then register every single work with accurate splits. Joining without registering your works is the most common and most expensive mistake independent musicians make.

What a PRO does

Radio stations, television broadcasters, venues, shops, gyms, and streaming services all need permission to publicly perform compositions. Negotiating with every songwriter individually is impossible, so PROs license them collectively — a blanket licence covering millions of works.

The PRO collects that money and distributes it to writers and publishers based on what was actually performed, using broadcast logs, cue sheets, streaming reports, and statistical sampling.

Two important boundaries:

PROs collect for the composition, not the recording. In the United States the recording side of digital radio and non-interactive streaming is handled separately by SoundExchange, and internationally by neighbouring rights societies such as PPL in the UK. These are separate registrations.

PROs do not collect mechanicals everywhere. In many countries the same society handles mechanicals and performance together. In the United States they are separate, with streaming mechanicals for compositions administered by a dedicated collective. Check what yours covers rather than assuming.

Choosing one

Join the PRO in the country where you live. Each licenses its own territory and has reciprocal agreements with the others, so your local society collects your foreign royalties too.

Most territories have one society, so there is no decision. The United States is the exception, with a genuine choice. ASCAP and BMI are both open to independent writers and differ in governance, payment schedules, distribution rules, and joining requirements. SESAC is invitation only. Compare current joining terms directly on their sites before deciding — this is one of the few decisions here where the details change and the current terms are the ones that matter.

You can only be a member of one PRO as a writer at a time. Changing later is possible but comes with notice periods.

Writer and publisher affiliations

You register as a writer. If you have no publishing deal, also register as your own publisher.

Performance royalties are conventionally divided into a writer's share and a publisher's share. Registering only as a writer means the publisher's share of your own songs may sit unclaimed. Setting up a publisher entity is usually a form and a fee, and it typically doubles what you collect on your own works.

Two practical notes: your publisher name must be unique, so have alternatives ready, and your publisher registration must be listed on each work for it to apply.

Registering works, properly

This is the step that pays.

For every song, submit the exact title as it appears on the release, every writer with their full legal name and PRO affiliation, the split percentages totalling 100, the publisher for each writer's share, and the recording details including ISRC. Once registered, the work gets an ISWC — the international identifier for the composition, distinct from the ISRC that identifies a recording.

Rules that save you pain later:

• Agree splits in writing before you register. A signed split sheet at the time of writing prevents nearly every dispute.
• Register before release, not after. Retroactive claims are slow and sometimes unrecoverable.
• Match names exactly across your PRO registration, distributor metadata, and credits. Mismatched metadata is the biggest cause of unmatched royalties.
• Register alternate versions — remixes, instrumentals, edits — if they are separately exploited.
• Register works used in sync immediately, and check the production filed a cue sheet with your details on it.

What you should expect

Payments arrive quarterly and lag the performance, sometimes by many months. Streaming performance royalties for an independent artist are small. Broadcast, sync, and live performance are where the amounts become meaningful.

Also register your live performances if your PRO supports setlist submission — many do, and money for live performance of your own songs frequently goes unclaimed simply because nobody filed the setlist.

None of this is glamorous. It is a couple of hours of admin per release that keeps paying for as long as the works are used.

Related reading: Music royalties explained, Songwriting splits explained, and How to get music on TV.