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Registering library music with your PRO

When your track plays on TV, someone has to report it, and someone has to be registered to be paid. Here is who does what, and what to check yourself.

By , a composer with 300+ tracks on audio stock and 12 years in production. Updated 4 October 2026. 3 min read.

In short. Join a performing rights society (PRO) as a writer. Each work you write must be registered there, by you or by your publisher. When a TV show uses your track, the production files a cue sheet, and the society pays the writer's share to you and the publisher's share to the publisher. Check your works list, keep every title and code, and follow up when a placement brings no royalty.

What a PRO does

A performing rights organization, or PRO, collects money when music is performed in public: on TV, on radio, in films shown on TV, in shops, online. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR are PROs in the US. PRS in the UK, GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, and so on.

You join one society, usually the one in your country. It works with societies abroad to collect for you there.

Two shares: writer and publisher

Performance royalties for a work are split into two shares, usually half and half:

  • The writer's share goes to the people who wrote the music. The society pays it straight to each registered writer. In a library deal you keep it; it generally can't be signed away.
  • The publisher's share goes to the publisher. In many library deals the library is the publisher and keeps this share, in return for finding uses for your music.

If you have no publisher, ask your society how to collect the publisher's share too. Some let you register as your own publisher.

Who registers the work

  • With a library, the library usually registers the work, with you as writer and itself as publisher. Ask to be sure.
  • For your own releases and most stock sites, you register the work yourself in your society's member portal.
  • Some stock sites have a publishing service that registers and collects for you. Pond5 Publishing is one. It is optional.

Each registered work gets an ISWC. See ISRC, ISWC and UPC.

Cue sheets

A cue sheet is a list the production company files after a show: every piece of music, how long it played, and how it was used. Each piece is listed with its writers, publisher, and their societies. The society pays from the cue sheet. A placement without a cue sheet can mean no royalty at all.

You don't file cue sheets yourself. But you can ask the library which shows used your music, and check that the royalties came.

Retitled tracks

If a library retitles your track, the new title is a new registered work. A track on three libraries under three titles can be three registrations. Keep a record of every title, and which library registered it.

What to check yourself

  1. Your IPI number. The society gives it when you join. Libraries and some sites ask for it.
  2. Your works list, a few weeks after a library takes a track. Is it there, under which title, with which shares?
  3. Your statements. If you know a track aired and nothing came after a few statement periods, ask the library about the cue sheet.
  4. Your own record of every title, every code, and who registered each one.

Sources