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A music royalty is the money you earn every time your song is played, streamed, downloaded, performed, or used in a video. There are different kinds of royalties depending on how the song is used — streaming, radio, live performance, sync (TV/film), and more. Each kind is paid by a different organization, which is why so much music money goes uncollected: artists usually only know about one or two of the systems.

When someone streams your song on Spotify, two separate payments happen. The recording royalty (about 52% of the stream payout) goes to whoever owns the master — usually you and your distributor like DistroKid or CD Baby. The publishing royalty (about 10–15%) goes to the songwriter and is split into a mechanical (paid via the MLC) and a performance royalty (paid via ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC). If you only have a distributor, you're collecting the recording side and missing the publishing side.

The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) is the US organization that collects mechanical royalties from every on-demand streaming service — Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube Music, and more — and pays them to songwriters. If your songs aren't registered with the MLC, that money sits in their unmatched pool. Over $400 million is currently sitting there, waiting for songwriters to claim it. Registration is free and takes minutes per song.

SongBounty is an AI-powered music royalty audit platform for independent artists, songwriters, and small labels. We scan your catalog across 12+ data sources — including the MLC, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube — to find unclaimed mechanical royalties, missing PRO registrations, territory gaps, and unlicensed derivatives. You receive a 10-sheet report with every flag quantified in dollars and a prioritized fix-it list.

A single stream generates two royalty types. The recording (master) royalty pays the artist and label through distributors like DistroKid or CD Baby. The composition royalty splits into a mechanical (paid via the MLC in the US) and a performance royalty (paid via PROs like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). On a $0.004 Spotify stream, roughly 52% goes to the recording side and ~10–15% to the composition side. If you haven't registered with the MLC and a PRO, the composition share goes uncollected.

Songtrust and traditional publishing admins collect your royalties and take a 15–20% commission. SongBounty doesn't collect anything. We audit what you're already owed, expose the exact registration gaps and uncollected mechanicals, and give you a fix-it list you can act on yourself or hand to your admin. You keep 100% of what you recover. Think of us as the forensic accountant, not the collector.

No — and most independent artists don't have one. A publisher helps at scale but takes a percentage, and most won't sign you until your catalog is already earning meaningfully. SongBounty is built for that gap: you're earning enough to have uncollected money, but not enough for a publishing deal to make sense yet. When you do sign one, our audit history lets them start from clarity instead of a cold catalog.

Every US mechanical royalty from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and every other on-demand streaming service routes through the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). If you haven't registered your songs, that money sits in the unmatched pool — over $400M across the industry — until someone claims it. SongBounty flags every unregistered track and gives you the exact MLC registration form, pre-filled. Registering each song takes minutes.

Yes, and it's common. Sped-up edits, slowed covers, reaction videos, unauthorized remixes, and sample-based content get uploaded to YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok every day without a license. The ad revenue and streaming payouts go to whoever uploaded it, not to you. SongBounty scans those platforms for derivative versions of every song in your catalog and gives you the specific takedown, Content ID claim, or licensing path for each one.

Industry data points to over $400M in unclaimed mechanicals at the MLC alone, plus an estimated $2.5B+ in global Black Box royalties at PROs and CMOs. For a working independent artist, uncollected revenue typically falls between $500 and $25,000 per year — driven by missing MLC registrations, unclaimed shares, territory gaps across international PROs, and neighbouring-rights airplay that never gets collected.

Most audits complete within 24–48 hours for catalogs up to 50 songs and within 3–5 business days for 300+. You receive an Excel workbook with 10 sheets: catalog enrichment, MLC registration gaps, shadow works, territory coverage, derivative detections, revenue estimates with CRB-validated math, and a prioritized fix-it list. Every flag includes the source data so you can verify it yourself.

No login credentials are ever required. SongBounty only needs a CSV or Excel file with your song titles, artists, and composers. All analysis runs against public databases, registered APIs, and licensed data feeds. Your catalog data is encrypted in transit and at rest, never sold, and never shared with third parties.

Plans are priced by catalog size, month-to-month, with no annual contract — starting at $11.99/month for up to 20 songs. Even a five-song catalog can have uncollected mechanicals and missing PRO registrations. Every plan includes automatic monthly re-scans, so new registration gaps don't pile up unnoticed as you release more music.