SoundExchange And CD Baby Find $1 Million In Back Royalties Owed

$1 Million For Indie Artists Found

SOUNDEXCHANGE, the non-profit performance rights organization authorized to collect royalties for the digital performance of sound recordings, and CD BABY, the online music store and digital distributor, recently announced a reprise of their initiative to notify hundreds of recording artists owed back royalties. The match, which the organizations hope to make an annual event, identified 14,380 CD BABY-affiliated artists and labels are collectively owed more than $1 million.

Federal copyright law allows music services that digitally stream sound recordings under the government's blanket license, provided they pay royalties and provide playlists to SOUNDEXCHANGE. Unfortunately, many recording artists and record labels do not know about the law that entitles them to royalties, and as a result to do not register to collect the payments from SOUNDEXCHANGE.

To encourage artists and labels to claim these royalties, the groups matched SOUNDEXCHANGE's list of yet-unregistered artists and labels to CD BABY's database of members. The exercise identified 12,806 recording artists and 1,574 labels with unclaimed funds at SOUNDEXCHANGE. This week, CD BABY began sending e-mails to all matched artists and labels, explaining the royalties and encouraging those artists and labels to register with SOUNDEXCHANGE to get paid.

"SOUNDEXCHANGE and CD BABY share a commitment to the long tail of independent artists and labels, and to supporting that community in making a living," said SOUNDEXCHANGE Pres. MICHAEL HUPPE. "We know that back royalties can sound too good to be true, and it makes a difference to skeptical artists and labels to hear about these funds from an organization as trusted as CD BABY."

"The reason that CD BABY exists is to make it easy for independent artists to get paid for their hard work," said CD BABY Pres. BRIAN FELSEN. "That’s why we’re excited to help our artists claim their royalties through SOUNDEXCHANGE. Nothing makes us happier than to see new revenue streams flowing to independent musicians."

SoundExchange Distributes Nearly $88 Million In Q3

In addition, SOUNDEXCHANGE announced TODAY (10/25) that it has distributed nearly $88 million to more than 18,300 payees designated by recording artists and labels during the third quarter of 2011.

"We've processed an unprecedented amount of digital performance data this quarter, which is proof positive that consumers are listening, purchasing and enjoying music in more ways than ever," said SOUNDEXCHANGE Pres. MICHAEL HUPPE. "These payments are the result of billions of digital performances by thousands of music services every month. It is our responsibility to ensure that this upsurge of digital performances can be converted into a reliable revenue stream for those who created the music."

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