Music Licensing



Background

US Copyright laws give music producers, artists, and song writers the right to charge fees for the performance of their works. The US Congress has formalized some of these rights in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and subsequent actions, related to the broadcasting of music and other copyrighted works on the Internet. The Copyright Office has endowed the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) with the formal authority to collect fees on behalf of its membership. The RIAA has established a business unit named SoundExchange for this purpose.

In addition to RIAA/SoundExchange, there are four other organizations that represent members of this trade and collect performance fees; ASCAP, BMI, GMR, and SESAC.

SoundExchange Logo ASCAP Logo BMI Logo SESAC Logo



One-Click Royalty Reporter™

SurferNETWORK can help you stay compliant and assist you in completing your Sound Exchange reports. From our Customer Control Panel, you will be able to see all of your song data, enter any syndicate information, and print your reports. The calculator also emails your Reports of Use directly to you!

Data collection is simple with our system. We keep track of your listener counts all day, every day. If you can connect your automation system to your streaming computer, we can also automatically gather your song data. We can also include your syndicate programming in the Sound Exchange reports.

  1. Use the CCP to review your Sound Exchange data
    Review Data

    Login to the Customer Control Panel to double check that all your data is there and correct.

  2. The calculator reports numbers with a few clicks
    Click to Complete

    Calculate report numbers in our system with only a few clicks!

  3. We email you the report and you can send it to Sound Exchange
    Submit to Sound Exchange

    Fill out the online form with the numbers from the report.