Hey, bands: has your music ever been played on internet radio, satellite radio or cable TV music channels? If the answer is “yes,” chances are you’re owed digital performance royalties. When you don’t know where to start, finding and claiming these funds sounds as hard as filing your taxes. But you’re not alone on this one—at SoundExchange.com, you can quickly and easily search for and access cash that’s been collected on your behalf (and if your music’s been digitally broadcast, it is being collected).

Many musicians realize too late that being in a band is more than writing and recording. There are laws in place to protect your work—and to ensure that you get credit and compensation when it’s used by others. “It’s one of those things that everyone should know about, but no one really does,” explains Kenton Yaklin, an Austin lawyer who focuses on entertainment law (and serves as general counsel for literary non-profit Attendance Records).

“SoundExchange is to digital performance royalties as to what ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are to songwriter’s royalties,” he explains. “Performers go to SoundExchange and register with them, and they get kicked money every time their song is played online. It’s that easy.”

ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), SESAC (originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, now just an acronym with a broader focus) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) are the three main performance rights organizations operating in the US. All three act as intermediaries between copyright holders—artists, publishers and labels—and those who wish to publicly use their material.

“The gist of what ASCAP does is, anytime a song is played, the songwriter is due money—that’s a use of their copyright,” Yaklin explains. “What ASCAP does is go around and collect performance royalties that songwriters are due, and they redistribute them.”

So, if ASCAP, SESAC and BMI are already collecting your royalties, where does SoundExchange come in? Let’s get technical.

The royalties collected by the Big Three don’t include payments for digital performances. Be honest: how much internet radio do you listen to? If you’re online a lot, you probably hear at least a few streaming songs every day.

Realizing that the evolution of digital media meant big things for the recording industry, in 1995 performance rights lobbyists helped enact The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording Act (DPRA). The act gives performers and sound recording copyright holders compensation for public, digital performances; in 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) helped define exactly which performances merit payoff. Pandora, XM and Sirius count—consumer sites like iTunes and Amazon, and grey areas like YouTube, don’t.

SoundExchange is the sole group authorized by the Library of Congress to collect and distribute royalties from digital audio transmissions. They do all the dirty work—collecting use reports from broadcasters, determining royalty rates and dividing money between copyright holders for easy distribution. The sound recording copyright owner—which is often an artists’ label—gets 50%, while the performer gets 45% and the last 5% is set aside in a fund for non-featured artists.

Who? Yaklin explains: “The way this royalty structure was set up, the copyright board understands that there are a bunch of uncredited musicians out there—session players, background singers, you name it—and that they need money, too. So, they set aside 5% of the royalties just for them.”

That means even if you’re not officially part of the band, if you’ve been involved with a recording, you might have royalties waiting.

And that’s not all. The AARC (Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies) is yet another org protecting artists’ rights, focusing mainly on home use of media.

“Every time a blank cd or certain mp3 players or a digital audio tape is sold, part of that selling money is put into a fund and redistributed to everyone who’s had record sales over the past year,” Yaklin continues. “The copyright royalty board knows what's going in the world—they like to be ahead of the curve. They’re really trying to help musicians out as much as they possibly can, and this is just another way they do it."

There’s no excuse not to sign up—digital performance royalties are quickly becoming a lucrative stream of income for bands. And if you have questions or concerns, there are plenty of resources eager to help out.

Here in the Live Music Capital, we’re lucky to have the Texas Music Office as a resource for local musicians. In addition to providing advice and guidance for artists, they also educate bars and business owners on ASCAP (an eternally relevant thing to know about, as the agency is fond of issuing surprise citations to violators).

“I think we all owe a lot to Austin, as far as what musicians have contributed here, and it’s the least the legal community can do to step in and help them out,” says Yaklin.

And teaching bands that laws don’t have to be scary has a huge payoff. “It’s just too important not to be signed up for it. Too much money is sitting out there—at one time, SoundExchange had millions of dollars just sitting around, collecting dust, waiting to be claimed.”

We bet you could use that extra cash to fund a mini-tour—or to splurge on that new amp you’ve been eyeing. Go ahead. Check SoundExchange now.

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To learn more about performance rights, royalties and responsibilities of musicians and broadcasters, visit the Texas Music Office’s guide to Getting Started in the Music Business.