It’s 2019 so we can expect our PRO royalties from 2017. And of course we all have problems with this because buyers often do not fill cue sheets correctly and because whole system is very complex.
Do you know any kind of service, publisher, institution or even lawyer, who specializes in chasing undiscovered foreign royalties which can’t be found by my PRO? I use Tunesat, Soundmouse and AdRev, they are helpfull in finding broadcasted projects with my music but it’s not enough.
I am registered in Polish ZAIKS PRO which is relatively efficient in collecting royalties in Poland but still I haven’t seen ANY cash from abroad 2017. Yes, I will change PRO in the near future. Probably there is crazy amount of cash waiting for me in PROs all around the world, but ZAIKS is very poor in chasing them. It looks like all they do is sending claims to foreign PROs of broadcasts which I find on TuneSat. Any ideas?
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Truth is that it’s harder to get any royalties of music on platforms like Audiojungle. Envato has a HUGE reputation problem in this regard. Customers either don’t have the knowledge of passing on the pro data or simply don’t care. On top of that, if your tracks are without any proper publisher, then it’s very likely that those royalties will never find their way to you.
Soundmouse is a GREAT tool and long overdue, because if you spot an unclaimed placement, then you have to prove your PRO that it’s unmistakingly your track. It was time to get a system into place which eliminates these kind of bureaucracy. I really hope to get more royalties from my music in 2019.
@MykeRoss How do you use Soundmouse? I’ve uploaded there my tracks and hope broadcasters can find my music there. But I don’t see any reports. How can I spot bradcasts via Soundmouse?
The reports section is for error reports only. A match will get passed directly to your PRO. So no, there’s no indication if it’s working. We’ll see with time. Appareantly they can spot placements 3 months before the upload. So, If your PRO gets that information, is attentive and notices that this add is running for around 3 years, then you might get a part of your royalties with the very next payment shedule.
How does Competitrack work? It’s now called Numerator, and the whole website is very confusing, I don’t even know where to start… 
Hey guys, another resource I’ve found useful is ispot.tv It tracks television commercials and I find music in there sometimes too which was never reported on. It still takes some digging. As for foreign royalty collection / neighboring rights discovery and collection can be a real pain and as others have said, the best way I’ve discovered so far is to stay on top of if yourself as best you can. The alternative is to enter into a sub publishing agreement with an agency who does the leg work in another country. This can be good and bad. The best ones you can sign a song away for a few years and see how it goes, and they will ask from anywhere to 10 - 25% of the income. When it’s money you would have never seen otherwise, sometimes it is a good deal.
I’m here as I just found a national ad with 8000+ runs that wasn’t even filed properly (but certainly will be now!)…soooooo… just saying, you could have a boat load of money out there somewhere that you don’t even know about!
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Thanks @TimMcMorris ! Do you know any sub publishing agency which can collect already paid royalties in the past (e.g. in 2017) which are held in PROs somewhere around the world? I would definitely give them a share of collected money!
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Awesome info! I rather naively thought the PRO took care of this for you, esp since PRS says they do on their site but glad I know this, thanks! Got a quick question, if I join a PRO, could I claim royalties on a track that was recently sold as a non PRO item? Just sold a 10 mill broadcast licence last week in the US and now getting the feeling I could be missing out big time.
Yes it was silly of me not to go PRO right away but I’m still kinda new and actually didn’t think my music was at a level to be used in big projects yet… oops I guess? 
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Did you guys heard / use CD Baby Pro for something like this? I think they do their research worldwide and collect mechanical royalties for the author too. All of that with your P.R.O directly (if i understood it right).
I´m thinking about joining in with a few tracks and check the results.
Everyone always wants “someone else” to chase the royalties. You have to chase them down yourself man. Envato WOULD HELP US A LOT if they just demanded answers to those questions on the invoice when customers buy broadcast licenses. Is that really much to ask for??? It was done ALWAYS prior to this anything goes stock music licensing Tsunami.
We are dealing with copyrighted intellectual property and therefore when Big Brands with big media/ advertising budgets source music here…we should know:
WHO IS USING THIS?
Which BRAND?
Which ADVERTISER?
What Advertising Agency is sourcing the music track?
What Production house is sourcing the music?
WhiCH COUNTRY will it air in?
THE NAME OF THE BUYER and THEIR EXACT E-MAIL ADDRESS TO OPEN UP LINES OF COMMUNICATION.
Why is this so hard to implement for broadcast licenses and lucrative TV spot projects?
Oh! I have an idea…Let’s join elements and just give away our music for pennies and lets allow for broadcast licenses on elements, and lets’ NEVER tell the writers how their music is being used. Dumb, weak handed, paranoid composers are at it again…shooting themselves in the foot and ruining what became again, a healthy business. Time to just devalue the hell out of it and screw it up with bogus subscription models…again!
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I sold a Music Broadcast & Film License in July but this track wasn’t registered at PRO yet. So basically they bought a non-PRO track. I don’t know if I can collect royalties?
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If these subscription deals are so horrid for artists, I’m sure they’ll notice in time or shoot themselves in the foot so hard that they can’t do it anymore causing these services to die out or just be there for low quality items. Let the market find out how crap they really are… and if they’re as bad as they seem, most the composers that actually matter and provide very high quality items will withdraw from the service leaving ‘fast food’ items only. I personally have faith in free markets, they just go in dumb directions sometimes then take a while to correct.
Usually how it goes in other industries at least, and a profession is a profession so I can’t imagine it being diff for music?
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A bit off topic, but have you guys received royalty statements from BMI for Q2 2018? It’s already 5 days late…
I haven’t received ANYTHING from ANY American PROs. I’m going to have to track these down manually as I know there are several US TV commercials using my music going as far back as 2016.
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Your music is all over European commercials btw. You and Tim McMorris. Your music is also used in web commercials by WIX all the time. (Energetic Indie Rock). In this one they use only small portion on the start, but sometimes your track is in almost entire video. Google wix commercials.
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Yep, seen that one!
Do you know any European commercials off the top of your head that I might be able to track down?
AFAIK, If your royalties are under 100 USD then they’ll not pay you out untill the end of the year.
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I’ll let you know next time I see one. So many commercials here use AJ music, it’s hard to follow. I just heard Tim McMorris on a BIPA commercial, and I’ve heard yours yesterday on a radio, but I can’t remember which one.
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