How to Register Your Song, Step by Step

If you're learning how to register your song step by step, the main trap isn't forgetting a registration. Most catalogs that get stuck were entered into the systems in the wrong sequence, leaving each submission without the identifier required by the next one.

The process has a fixed order. One stage creates the information needed at the following stage, so jumping forward leaves an empty field where an identifying code belongs.

First join a PRO and receive your IPI. Enter the songs there, find the ISWC issued by that PRO, and take it to the MLC, where the splits must equal 100%. SoundExchange belongs to a different system covering the recording.

Step 1: Sign up with a PRO and receive your IPI

This has to come first. Your performing rights organization gives you an IPI number, the worldwide identifier connecting you, as a writer, with your compositions. Without that number, there's no destination for your performance share.

US writers choose either ASCAP or BMI, never both. You can't simply choose SESAC or GMR because membership is invitation-only. To compare the two organizations anyone can join, see the detailed breakdown of their pricing, setup, and payment schedules.

Writers elsewhere should become members of the society in their own country. Our society directory shows all of them, including what they cost to join and how often they distribute royalties.

Create a publisher account too. Independent songwriters miss this more than almost any other step, and the mistake costs real money. A writer account by itself captures only the writer share, leaving the publisher half of every royalty produced by the songs unclaimed.

Step 2: Enter every work with your PRO

Signing yourself up doesn't put your music into the database. Membership and work registration are distinct tasks, and only registering the work adds an individual song to the system.

For each composition, supply the title, all writers along with their society and IPI, plus shares that reach 100%. When a collaborator uses another society, the information for that writer must agree in both places. Conflicting splits across societies prevent payouts until someone fixes them, and the freeze affects every writer on the song, not just whoever submitted the bad data.

Step 3: Find the ISWC

Once your work is entered, the PRO gives it an ISWC. Don't expect that code by email. You'll need to search for it yourself in ASCAP's ACE database or BMI's Songview, then save it.

Very few writers know to do this, yet the entire process turns on it. Your next submission depends on that ISWC.

Step 4: Add the song at the MLC

The MLC receives all US streaming mechanical royalties. It costs nothing to register, but this system is wholly independent from your PRO. An ASCAP membership doesn't automatically create an MLC registration.

For every song, provide:

• The ISWC obtained in step 3
• The song's ISRCs, meaning each recording's code supplied by your distributor
• Splits totaling 100% across the writer side and the publisher side

Leave out the ISWC and both the MLC and overseas societies must rely on approximate title matching. Common song names make that method unreliable, and it can fail without any notice or warning.

Before leaving the site, check the unmatched pool. At the start of the blanket license, the MLC took possession of over $424 million in accumulated historical unmatched US streaming royalties, and anyone can search that pool. It could contain royalties from streams your music earned in the past.

Step 5: Use SoundExchange only when it's relevant

SoundExchange distributes money for the recording, rather than the composition. You qualify when you performed as a featured artist or own the master. Someone who only wrote the composition has no claim to this pool and should omit this step.

When it does concern you, sign up on both the rights-owner and performer sides. Also verify that every ISRC is identical to the one submitted by your distributor. Most unpaid money in this system traces back to ISRCs that don't match.

Step 6: Cover international use

A PRO operates domestically. For activity overseas, it depends on reciprocal arrangements with other countries' societies, which can forward royalties only when they connect a reported work to you. The mechanics behind those arrangements deserve a separate explanation. Your practical takeaway is simpler: international collection relies on the ISWC and full splits established earlier. No later international registration can repair incomplete home-country data.

The sequence in brief

1. Become a PRO member as both writer and publisher, then obtain your IPI.
2. Submit every work to that PRO with every writer and IPI, making the splits reach 100%.
3. Search for the ISWC assigned by your PRO.
4. Take that ISWC, all relevant ISRCs, and complete splits to the MLC. Then check the unmatched pool.
5. Add SoundExchange only when you performed on the recording or own its master.
6. Proper completion of steps 1 through 4 enables international collection.

Common failure points

Submitting to the MLC ahead of the PRO. That registration goes in without an ISWC, making a dependable match unlikely from day one.

Opening only a writer account at the PRO. The unclaimed publisher half of each performance royalty remains unpaid indefinitely.

Entering splits that don't reach 100%. Payment stops and the work is held. Among independent catalogs, this is the most frequent data error.

Believing a single registration handles every right. The performance system, mechanical system, and recording system are separate. They don't exchange your information for you.

Davincii's role

We follow this same order for each artist on our roster, covering the publisher account at the PRO, the MLC, and societies overseas, while moving the correct identifiers from one submission into the next. There's no upfront fee and you retain 100% of the copyright. Our earnings come only from money we collect, at 15% for performance and 20% for mechanicals.

You can manage every step on your own. The process above contains the entire approach. The tradeoff is the attention it demands for every song, forever.