frequently asked questions

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General

What is TuneRegistry and the TuneRegistry Network?

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How to use

How does TuneRegistry fit in my music career or business?

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New customers

How will TuneRegistry help me, specifically?

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Extra

What else should I know about TuneRegistry?

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A high-level overview.

What is TuneRegistry?

TuneRegistry is an all-in-one music & rights metadata management platform for the independent music community.

We provide a secure environment for music creators and rights-holders to collect, organize, store, and manage metadata in an easy-to-use cloud-based catalog. What sets TuneRegistry apart from similar catalog software is our powerful Registrations Engine, which streamlines the delivery of title registrations to music rights organizations, data services, and music industry entities in our ever-growing network of exchanges.

What is the TuneRegistry Network?

TuneRegistry saves you time and headache by making it possible to deliver your registrations from your TuneRegistry catalog directly to the various exchanges in our growing network. We support ASCAP, BMI, SESAC (all pay out performance royalties), SoundExchange (sound recording digital royalties), Music Reports (mechanical and synchronization royalties), as well as exports for Harry Fox Agency (mechanical royalties) and AARC (private copy and record rental royalties). These organizations will pay you directly for the royalties that your music earns when you release it commercially and/or promote it on eligible platforms. We also deliver your metadata to data services that power some of the in-app features in many of the digital music platforms. This helps to improve search and discoverability of music on those platforms. See our complete network here.

Improving music careers and businesses.

Who is eligible to use TuneRegistry?

TuneRegistry was developed for the independent music community (writers, artists, publishers, and labels). Generally speaking, you must be at least 18 years old and you must be the rights holder or an authorized agent of the rights holder of any Song or Recording that you're managing in a TuneRegistry account. Managers and Attorneys can use TuneRegistry on behalf of their clients pursuant to their relationships with their clients. For complete details, view our Terms of Use.

Does TuneRegistry take a percentage of my copyrights or royalties?

No. We are not a publisher, record company, or music distributor, so we are not a claimant to your copyrights nor an income participant in your royalties. You retain 100% ownership of your copyrights, 100% collection of your royalties, and 100% control over the administration of your catalog.

Do I collect royalties through TuneRegistry?

No. We do not collect royalties, so you keep 100% of your royalties.

Royalty payments (if applicable) are remitted to the rights holder or their designee(s) directly from the appropriate rights exchange. In many cases, you must complete a one-time membership registration directly with the exchange prior to submitting registrations to that exchange through your TuneRegistry account. This is because the exchange must have your payment and tax information on file in order to send you any payments. Once you've joined the exchange, you do not need to login to the individual exchange websites to register your works because you will complete your registrations inside of TuneRegistry, dramatically cutting down your registrations data-entry and submissions time.

Can I use TuneRegistry if I am not a United States citizen?

Yes. Currently, we only register songs/compositions and recordings/master sound recordings with U.S. rights exchanges (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange, AARC, Harry Fox Agency) and Music Reports (a neutral international rights administration platform). You cannot register works with traditional foreign rights exchanges through the TuneRegistry Network (e.g. PRS, PPL, GEMA, SOCAN, SACEM). However, you can still use our robust music business Catalog to manage your works. In addition, we do register with global metadata exchanges and other music business exchanges that do not have citizenship requirements.

Lastly, if you are a member of your local performance rights organization and a member of ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC in the United States (you can be a member of a U.S. PRO without being a citizen), then you can register your songs/compositions through your TuneRegistry account.

Can I use TuneRegistry if I am not a member of a performance rights organization (PRO)?

Yes. At the core of TuneRegistry is our robust music business catalog where you can manage your songs, recordings, and albums regardless of your affiliation with performance rights organizations (PRO). Additionally, even if you are not a member of a PRO, you can still register your metadata with our metadata exchanges and take advantage of other features of our registrations module such as getting ISRC codes and submitting your recordings to radio airplay monitoring services when you are actively promoting your music on radio.

The right fit regardless of your role.

I'm a Solo Artist

Solo artists use TuneRegistry to manage their growing music catalog and all of the metadata associated with their music. If you are not signed to a record label and do not have a publisher, you have several rights in two assets to protect:

Asset 1: Song | Rights: Writer, Publisher
Asset 2: Recording | Rights: Performer, Master Sound Recording Owner (Label)

As a solo artist, you have four distinct rights-related roles (Writer, Publisher, Performer, Master Owner) in your own music and each require timely and accurate registrations -- before you release your music -- to the rights organizations who payout royalties to each of these income participants.

Have a publishing deal? Your publisher should register your songs with rights organizations on your behalf. However, if you are also a performer and own the master sound recordings, you can manage your recordings and register your catalog with SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) through TuneRegistry (publishers do not administer your rights in sound recordings). In addition, as a songwriter, you can take advantage of the robust music catalog to manage your song details and collaborators, save demos, and more.

Have a record deal? Generally, a record label does not control the copyrights in songs/compositions and typically only controls the sound recording copyrights. If you are a songwriter, you can use TuneRegistry to manage and register your songs with rights organizations for compositions. You can also manage your recordings and register your performer claim to sound recordings with SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC). Depending on your record deal, if you own the masters, you have even more of a reason to use TuneRegistry to register and manage your rights.

I'm in a Band

Our cloud-based catalog manager makes it easy to keep your band's entire music catalog organized and protected. No more looking for emails or files with important metadata, rights information, and ownership splits.

Just like solo artists, you may own a number of rights in your music. However, because you're in a band, you may split ownership in these rights with multiple band members. TuneRegistry makes it easy for your entire band (or just the authorized members) to collaborate and manage the band's music catalog and protect its rights.

I'm a Songwriter

Whether you're strictly a songwriter who writes songs for other artists or you're a singer-songwriter, it's important to keep your music organized and your rights protected. If you do not have a publisher, TuneRegistry saves time and reduces the stress of self-publishing. Manage your growing music catalog in TuneRegistry and take advantage of our integrated registrations system to register your songs with your performance rights organization and other music industry exchanges in one place.

Have a publishing deal? Your publisher should register your songs with rights organizations on your behalf. However, if you are also a performer and own the master sound recordings, you can manage your recordings and register your catalog with SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) through TuneRegistry (publishers do not administer your rights in sound recordings). 

I'm a Composer

Compose music for film/TV? Produce music for recording artists? However you create musical works, it's important to keep your music organized and your rights protected. If you do not have a publisher, TuneRegistry saves time and reduces the stress of self-publishing. Manage your growing music catalog in TuneRegistry and take advantage of our integrated registrations system to register your songs with your performance rights organization and other music industry exchanges in one place.

Have a publishing deal? Your publisher should register your songs with rights organizations on your behalf. However, if you own the master sound recordings, you can manage your recordings and register your catalog with SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) through TuneRegistry (publishers do not administer your rights in sound recordings). 

I'm a Label

Labels are challenged with ingesting, organizing, retrieving, and delivering clean and accurate metadata and rights information about a catalog that reflects numerous recording artists and associated writers. TuneRegistry can help your label streamline its administration operations while boosting your team's productivity. Use TuneRegistry as your catalog management system and easily register your repertoire to SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC).

Promoting music on the radio? Quickly register those titles via our Radio Airplay Monitoring registration feature and deliver your campaign to Mediabase, BDSradio, and RadioWave with the click of a few buttons.

I'm a Publisher

Independent music publishers are charged with diligently administering the rights of an ever-growing catalog of compositions. Some of the pain points that many publishers experience include the wrangling of writer information and splits, and the accurate and timely registering of compositions with rights organizations. Incomplete information or missed registrations can result in lost income for publishers and the writers who depend on their publisher's efforts.

TuneRegistry is helping publishers improve their business by offering a fully-loaded catalog management system with integrated registrations to rights organizations. Reduce time and errors by streamlining your catalog administration.

I'm a Manager

Today's artist managers are juggling more music business duties than every before. When your clients depend on your expertise and support, having the right tools at your disposal can make the difference.

Managers use TuneRegistry to manage their client's catalog or to collaborate with clients on the management of their catalogs. Managers of clients who do not have record labels or publishers may find that they're wearing multiple hats from time to time. TuneRegistry is a time and stress saver for multi-tasking managers who need the power and efficiency of a cloud-based music management platform.

Represent multiple clients? Great, TuneRegistry enables you to manage the catalogs of as many clients as you want.

The more you know.

Does TuneRegistry sign me up with music rights organizations?

No. We do not sign you up with any music rights organization. Each rights exchange requires rights holders or their designee to sign-up directly with the exchange prior to delivering Song and Recording registrations through your TuneRegistry account to the rights exchange.

Who and Where to join:

Writers and Publishers:
- ASCAP - A U.S. performing rights organization. You can join as a Publisher or Writer. If you are a Writer without a Publisher, ASCAP will retain the publisher's share of performance royalties until a Publisher has been registered and affiliated to your songs.
- BMI - A U.S. performing rights organization. You can join as a Publisher or Writer. If you are a Writer without a Publisher, BMI will pay you the publisher's share of performance royalties.
SESAC - A U.S. performing rights organization. You can join as a Publisher or Writer. If you are a Writer without a Publisher, SESAC will require you to create a Publishing company.
- GMR - We currently do not support registrations to Global Music Rights.

(Note: Writers can only join one of the above mentioned peforming rights organizations. Publishers can join all one or more if it represents songwriters from one or more PRO.)

- Harry Fox Agency - A U.S. mechanical licensing agency. 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.
- Music Reports - An international rights administration platform. While Music Reports often handle U.S. mechanical streaming rights, they also license and pay royalties for a variety of rights types, for a number of other kinds of services, worldwide. You can register for a free account with Music Reports and submit catalog information to MRI through your TuneRegistry account.

Featured Performers (Featured Artists) and Record Labels (or Sound Recording Owners):
- SoundExchange;
- Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC);

Non-featured Performers (Background Vocalists & Session Musicians):
- AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund (We do no register to AFM & SAG-AFTRA IPRDF. Visit www.afmsagaftrafund.org for details.)

Producers / Engineers:
- SoundExchange Creative Affiliates Program

I use CD Baby Pro, TuneCore Publishing, or SongTrust to administer my publishing, can I still use TuneRegistry?

Yes. If you have assigned your publishing rights to a music publishing company, your publisher will register your songs with the rights exchanges for compositions on your behalf. However, if you are also an artist/performer and own the master sound recordings, you can manage your recordings and register your catalog with SoundExchange and Alliance for Artists and Recording Companies (AARC). In addition, as a songwriter, you can take advantage of the robust music business catalog to manage your song details and collaborators, store demo recordings, and more. Lastly, these services typical only administer the portion of your catalog that you've given them rights to and not your full catalog. For songs that they do not administer, you can register through TuneRegistry.

I currently use songwriting software to manage my songs, why would I use TuneRegistry?

There are plenty of good songwriting tools out there that help songwriters during the writing process. But what happens when your song is finished? TuneRegistry comes in after the creation process ends and before the release process begins. Use your songwriting software to manage the creative process and when your song is complete, store the business details in your TuneRegistry catalog. When preparing to release the recording of your song, use TuneRegistry to register your song's recording across the TuneRegistry Network.

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