Does SoundExchange Owe You Money?

SoundExchange has recently released a list of approximately 9,000 unregistered recording artists and approximately 2,000 unregistered independent record labels who have until Dec 15 to sign up and collect outstanding royalties totaling over $500,000. The not-for-profit organization – designated by the US Copyright Office to collect and distribute royalties from webcasters, satellite radio services and other digital music providers to recording artists and record labels – has registered over 22,000 performers over the last year, and is looking for a few more including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Eliane Elias, Joe Lovano, Ornette Coleman, Albita, Arthur Rubinstein, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Cubanismo, Daniela Mercury, Danilo Perez, Dave Valentin, and Devil in a Woodpile.

"For a lot of managers, they probably receive the form letter and throw it in the trash without even opening it," Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw said to the LA Times in an article last month. "Now that there's a big sum involved, people will start to pay attention."

The expiring royalties were collected from between February 1, 1996 and March 31, 2000. To see if your artist is owed money for plays since March 31, 2000 visit www.soundexchange.com. Signing up to collect royalties is the responsibility of artists and labels. It's free to apply to be a member and details are here.

Says Willem Dicke, communications director for SoundExchange on the search effort in October: “It's going pretty well so far. To date we have had 681 artists and 87 copyright owners who have come forward and contacted SoundExchange to collect their royalties and that's a good start.”

You can view the list of artists here.
The unpaid label List is here.

Services covered in this post: SoundExchange (free - and they pay YOU)