Registering Yourself

No label Or publisher
Just you.

Everybody that owes you money lets you sign up yourself. Here's how to register your work with PRS, MCPS and PPL: what to have ready, the three steps that repeat for each one, and one song followed through.

The short version

Distribution gets your music online. Registration gets it paid.

Your distributor did one job: it put your recording into the shops and streaming services. Registration is the other job — telling each society the song and the recording are yours, so the money they collect has somewhere to go.

It's a one-time task per release: tedious, not hard. Not sure which bodies apply to you? Start with who collects what — this page is purely the how.

Before you start

Have these to hand.

Gather this once and the forms go quickly. Most you already have; a couple of items the societies create as you register.

  • Your own details. Legal name, address, date of birth, and the bank details for royalties to be paid into.
  • An ISRCInternational Standard Recording Code — the ID for one specific recording. Your distributor almost always issues one automatically when you release. for each recording. Usually issued automatically by your distributor at release. You need it to register the recording with PPL.
  • Agreed writer splits. Who wrote what, as percentages adding up to 100%. Settle this in writing with any co-writers before registering — mismatched splits are the most common reason royalties freeze.
  • The full performer line-up for each recording — everyone who played or sang on it, not just the lead. PPL pays every credited performer, so anyone left off the list doesn't get paid.
  • Release basics. Track titles, release dates and durations.

You don't need an ISWCInternational Standard Musical Work Code — the permanent ID for the composition. Unlike the ISRC, you don't supply this: the society assigns it when you register the work. in advance — the society assigns the song's permanent ID when you register it. A song should end up with exactly one.

The shape of it

Three steps — the same three, whichever body you're joining.

PRS, MCPS and PPL each have their own site and form, but the job underneath is the same every time.

01

Become a member

Sign up to the body itself, once, as a person. Some are free, some charge a one-off fee. You do this part once, however many songs you release.

02

Register your works

Add each song and recording with its codes, writer splits and full performer line-up. This is the step that ties the money to you — and the one most people never complete.

03

Keep it current

Add each new release, and fix splits or line-ups if they change. A song that isn't registered, or is registered wrong, goes unmatchedRoyalties that can't be tied to a registered owner. They sit in a holding account and, after around three years, are redistributed to other artists..

Body by body

Where to sign up, and what to register.

The same three steps, applied to each. PRS and MCPS sit under one roof (“PRS for Music”); PPL is separate.

PRS

For the song

Join as a writer — a one-off joining fee. Then register each composition: title, writers and their splits. PRS assigns the work its ISWC, and collects the song's performance royalties every time it's broadcast, streamed, performed live or played in public.

MCPS

For the song's copies

A separate membership from PRS, with its own one-off joining fee, though you apply through the same PRS for Music account. Register your works here too so the mechanical side is collected — the money owed whenever the song is reproduced: pressed to disc, downloaded, or the mechanical slice of a stream.

PPL

For the recording

Free to join. Register as a performer and — if you self-release — as the recording's rights-holder too. Add each recording by its ISRC and list every performer, so featured and session players are paid alongside you.

Exact forms, current fees and the order of fields live on each society's own site and change from time to time — this is the shape of the job, not a screen-by-screen script. Doing it across all three, for every track, is the tedious part REGISTAR is being built to automate.

Follow one song

Registering “Static Light”, start to finish.

The same single from The Players — you wrote it, and you and a featured bassist played it. Here's the whole job, once.

“Static Light” · one self-released single · one writer, one featured bassist

Step 1 — Join the bodies

One-off. Sign up to PRS and MCPS as the writer, and to PPL as a performer and the recording's owner. PPL is free; PRS and MCPS each charge their own one-off joining fee.

Step 2a — Register the song (PRS / MCPS)

Add Static Light as a composition: title, and you as the writer at 100% (or split, if you co-wrote it). PRS assigns it an ISWC. The song's performance and mechanical royalties now have an owner.

Step 2b — Register the recording (PPL)

Add the recording by its ISRC, then list the line-up — you and the featured bassist. Both of you are now set to be paid when it's broadcast or played in public.

Leave the bassist off the PPL line-up and they never get paid. Register it once, correctly, and every future play of Static Light is tied to the right people.

Where to go next

Now, the common mistakes to avoid.

Myths & mistakes

Even registered artists lose money to a few small slips — duplicate song IDs, missing performers, codes that never get linked. The common ones, and how to avoid them.

See what trips people up →

The players

Not sure which of the three apply to you? Step back to who collects what, and which apply to an independent artist.

Meet PPL, PRS & MCPS →

Coming soon

Or skip the forms entirely.

REGISTAR is a tool we're building to do this across all three bodies — the codes, the splits, the line-ups — without the re-typing. Join the list and we'll let you know the moment it's ready, no spam, just one email.

One email when it's ready. Nothing else. How we handle your data.

You're on the list. We'll be in touch the moment REGISTAR opens.