Recording artists and rights owners will receive tens of thousands of dollars in performance royalties as a result of SoundExchange's efforts during the 2016 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) to register music creators.
For the third year in a row at SXSW, SoundExchange hosted an event during the festival to meet the people they represent and asked them to register with SoundExchange so the company could pay them the performance royalties collected on their behalf. More than 450 people attended the event at Iron Works BBQ. “Our goal is to get every dollar in royalties into the hands of the appropriate recording artists and rights owners as fast as possible,” SoundExchange President and CEO Michael Huppe said. “South by Southwest gives us a unique opportunity to do that every year, but registering artists and rights owners is a year-round effort, so we will continue to do all we can to educate the entire music community about performance royalties and the need to register with SoundExchange.”
Prior to SXSW, SoundExchange cross-referenced their list of unregistered artists with the lineup of talent scheduled to perform at the annual festival.
In all, they spoke with more than 1,000 artists and rights owners between events at Iron Works, the SXSW Artist Lounge and Stubb’s BBQ.
See More: PHOTO: Charlie Puth Stops by SoundExchange
While SXSW helped track down those who attended the music festival, the company realize there are many recording artists who could not attend the festival but have royalties waiting for them. If any artists think SoundExchange has royalties for them, they advise to check their database of unregistered artists and rights owners. Recording artists and rights owners can only get paid once they’ve registered.
If artists are not registered—or know someone who hasn’t registered—it’s important to know that it’s easy to receive performance royalties because of SoundExchange online registration tool.
Related: SoundExchange to Provide Monthly Payments to Artists and Labels
Chris Castle discussed in his recent Music•Technology•Policy blog post how easy it is to register to receive royalties. SoundExchange paid $803 million in performance royalties in 2015. They manage over 134,000 registered accounts, and currently pay out at least 95 percent of royalties to rights owners and recording artists on the tracks used by the digital music services within three years.
Pictured Charli XCX at the SOUNDExchange SESSIONS at Stubb's BBQ during SXSW 2016. Photo by Brandon Fuller for SoundExchange
For more information, visit soundexchange.com.
