Neighbouring rights are one of the most overlooked royalty streams in music, partly because the name is unfamiliar and partly because the money mostly lives outside any single artist’s home country. They sit on the recording side — the master — and they reward the people who performed on and own a recording when that recording is publicly broadcast or performed. For independent artists with any international audience, this is a classic source of uncollected income.
This guide explains what neighbouring rights are, who they pay, and why they’re so easy to miss. Since the amounts depend on where your recordings are played and your role on them, we stay qualitative and point you to the Publishing Royalty Recovery Diagnostic for a structured read on what you might be owed.
What “neighbouring rights” means
Neighbouring rights (sometimes “related rights”) are the rights that sit next to the songwriter’s copyright — hence the name. Where the songwriter and publisher are paid for the composition, neighbouring rights pay the people connected to the sound recording:
- The owner of the master (often the artist or label).
- The featured performers on the recording.
- Non-featured performers such as session players and backing vocalists.
They’re triggered when the recording is publicly performed or broadcast — for example on radio, in public venues, and on certain digital services. The composition side has its own parallel performance royalty collected by PROs; neighbouring rights are the recording-side equivalent. We compare the two sides in Music Publishing Explained.
How this relates to SoundExchange
In the United States, the recording-side digital performance royalty is collected by SoundExchange for non-interactive digital services. You can think of SoundExchange as covering one slice of the broader neighbouring-rights world — the US digital performance slice — which we detail in SoundExchange Royalties Explained.
But neighbouring rights as a global concept are bigger than that one slice. Many countries also pay neighbouring-rights royalties for broadcast and public performance of recordings, collected by their own national societies. That international layer is where most of the uncollected money tends to sit.
Why artists miss this money
Neighbouring rights go uncollected for a few structural reasons:
- It’s a separate registration. Being set up with your PRO and The MLC does nothing for neighbouring rights — those cover the composition side. See MLC vs. SoundExchange.
- The money is mostly abroad. A large share of neighbouring-rights income comes from foreign societies, and reaching it generally requires registration or representation in each territory.
- Performers don’t realize they qualify. Featured and non-featured performers can be owed even if they don’t own the master. Many never register as performers anywhere.
- It accumulates quietly. Unclaimed amounts can sit in pools for years and eventually be distributed as “black box” money to others — see Black Box Royalties.
Who should pay attention
Neighbouring rights are worth investigating if any of the following describe you:
- You own master recordings that get played on radio or in public, at home or abroad.
- You performed on recordings — as a featured artist or a session/backing musician — that get broadcast.
- You have a meaningful international audience, since the bulk of neighbouring-rights collection happens through foreign societies.
If none of that applies yet, this can wait. But the moment your recordings get airplay or your audience goes international, neighbouring rights become real money.
How to actually collect them
Collecting neighbouring rights, especially internationally, is one of the harder pieces of the royalty puzzle to do entirely alone:
- Cover the US digital slice by registering with SoundExchange (free) as the master owner and/or performer.
- Address the international layer. Foreign neighbouring-rights collection typically runs through national societies, and reaching them usually requires registration or a representative with the right relationships. This overlaps directly with How to Collect Your International Royalties.
- Decide whether you need help. A neighbouring-rights administrator or a service with foreign relationships is often where the genuine value lies, similar to the trade-off we weigh in Do I Need a Publishing Administrator?.
Because the value swings so much with your specific airplay and territories, the Publishing Royalty Recovery Diagnostic is the right tool to turn “you may be owed neighbouring rights” into a structured estimate rather than a guess.
Frequently asked questions
Are neighbouring rights the same as publishing royalties? No. Publishing royalties pay the songwriter and publisher for the composition. Neighbouring rights pay performers and master owners for the recording. They’re separate, parallel rights.
Do I qualify if I only played on someone else’s record? Possibly yes. Featured and non-featured performers can be owed neighbouring-rights royalties even without owning the master, when the recording is broadcast or publicly performed.
Does SoundExchange cover all my neighbouring rights? No. SoundExchange covers the US non-interactive digital performance slice. Broadcast and public-performance neighbouring rights in other countries are collected by foreign societies. See SoundExchange Royalties Explained.
Why is so much of this money abroad? Many countries pay neighbouring-rights royalties for radio and public performance of recordings, collected nationally. If you have international listeners, a large share of your neighbouring-rights income can sit with foreign societies until claimed.
What happens if I never register for neighbouring rights? The money can accrue unclaimed and eventually be redistributed as “black box” money to other rights-holders. Registering and, where needed, using a representative is how you avoid that — see Black Box Royalties.
Estimates are for informational purposes only and are not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. For a range based on your own numbers, try the Publishing Royalty Recovery Diagnostic.