What Are Neighbouring Rights in Music? A Complete Guide for Independent Artists

What are neighbouring rights?

Neighbouring rights — also called related rights — are a category of intellectual property rights that exist alongside the primary copyright in a musical composition. Where the composition copyright belongs to the songwriter or publisher, neighbouring rights belong to the performer and the recording rights holder (typically the record label or the independent artist acting as their own label). When a recording is broadcast on the radio, played on television, or performed publicly through a sound system, it generates two separate royalty streams: a composition royalty for the songwriter (collected in the UK by PRS for Music) and a neighbouring rights royalty for the performer and recording rights holder (collected in the UK by PPL). Most independent artists are familiar with composition royalties from PRS. Far fewer are aware that every broadcast of their recordings also generates a separate neighbouring rights payment — and that without registration, that payment goes uncollected.

Who is entitled to neighbouring rights?

Neighbouring rights entitlements extend to several categories of contributor to a recording:

• Featured performers — the lead vocalist or lead instrumentalist credited on the recording. This is the most common category for independent artists.
• Non-featured performers — session musicians, backing vocalists, and other credited contributors who performed on the recording. They receive a share of the performer distribution through their own PPL registrations.
• Record labels — the entity that owns the master recording. For independent artists who own their own masters, this means the artist themselves is entitled to the rights holder share in addition to the performer share.
• Producers — in some territories (notably Germany and the Nordic countries), producers are entitled to a share of neighbouring rights. UK law does not currently provide for this, but it is relevant for artists releasing internationally.

How do neighbouring rights royalties get collected?

Neighbouring rights are collected by national collecting societies, each operating within their own territory and distributing to locally registered rights holders. The major bodies include PPL (UK), SoundExchange (US, specifically for digital performance), GVL (Germany), SCPP and SPPF (France), and IFPI-affiliated bodies in most other major music markets. These societies have reciprocal agreements with each other, meaning that PPL membership can cover neighbouring rights collections in many other territories. However, the reciprocal arrangement with SoundExchange — the US body — is limited, and UK artists with significant US digital radio activity should register with SoundExchange directly to capture US digital performance royalties in full.

What triggers a neighbouring rights payment?

A neighbouring rights royalty is generated when a recording is used in a qualifying context. These include:

• Radio broadcast — national and regional radio airplay, both AM/FM and digital/DAB, across all commercial and public service broadcasters.
• Television broadcast — music used in TV programmes, adverts, or background music on TV channels.
• Public performance — recordings played through a sound system in shops, restaurants, hotels, bars, gyms, and any other public venue that holds a public performance licence.
• Online radio and streaming radio — non-interactive streaming services, including internet radio, Pandora, SiriusXM, and iHeart Radio, generate neighbouring rights payments (collected by SoundExchange in the US).
• Background music services — businesses using services like Soundtrack Your Brand or Mood Media are operating under licences that generate PPL distributions.

Neighbouring rights vs publishing royalties: what is the difference?

Publishing royalties and neighbouring rights are both generated by the same broadcast event, but they flow to different rights holders for different rights. Publishing royalties are generated by the use of the composition — the song itself, its melody and lyrics — and are paid to the songwriter and their publisher, collected by PRS in the UK. Neighbouring rights are generated by the use of the recording of that composition and are paid to the performer and recording rights holder, collected by PPL in the UK. When a song plays on BBC Radio 2, PRS logs the broadcast and generates a payment to the composer. PPL simultaneously logs the same broadcast and generates a separate payment to the performer whose recording was played. An independent artist who wrote and recorded their own music is entitled to both payments. An artist who recorded a cover of someone else's song is entitled only to the neighbouring rights payment — the composition royalties go to the original songwriter.

How much can independent artists earn from neighbouring rights?

PPL distributed over £300 million to rights holders in the UK in recent years, making it one of the largest royalty sources in the industry. For individual artists, the amount varies enormously based on broadcast activity. An artist with consistent national radio airplay may earn several thousand pounds annually through PPL. An artist whose music is played primarily in small venues and on local radio may earn hundreds. An artist with no broadcast presence earns nothing regardless of how large their streaming audience is — streaming on Spotify and Apple Music generates performance royalties through PRS but not neighbouring rights through PPL (PPL collections relate to broadcast and public performance, not on-demand streaming). The consistent finding when artists audit their PPL registration status is that royalties have accumulated against their ISRC codes without a registered rights holder to claim them.

How to start collecting neighbouring rights in the UK

The process starts with PPL registration. Join PPL at ppluk.com as both a performer and a rights holder if you own your masters. Register each recording individually with its ISRC code and full performer credits. Verify that the credits are accurate — PPL distributes to whoever is listed as a performer, and incorrect credits mean income flows to the wrong person or no one at all. Once your UK registration is complete, PPL's reciprocal agreements handle most other major territories automatically. For the US specifically, register separately with SoundExchange at soundexchange.com to ensure US digital performance royalties are captured in full.

Code Group Music registers artists with both PPL and SoundExchange as part of its standard publishing administration service. Our catalog assessment identifies which of your recordings are currently registered and where neighbouring rights income is going uncollected. Start at codegroupmusic.co.uk/#catalog-assessment.