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Hi I'm Poundo.

I'm a writer, composer, singer.

I'm from Paris and I work all around the world.

I'm doing West A Trap, which is a mix of hip hop, trap, drill, with a bit of Mandingo music from West Africa.

Registering your sound recordings properly with all the correct codes is a crucial step to make sure that you receive proper credit and compensation when your sound recording is used.

You want to register your sound recordings with a CMO that makes most sense for you, typically the CMO representing the sound recording rights in your local territory.

CMO is short for Collective Management Organization.

Go check out our page on CMOs to learn more about them.

There can be a lot of different queries and sound recordings with the same name.

There can be misspellings and languages that use different alphabets.

That's why certain identifiers are used to register sound recordings.

And there are several different ones you need to know.

The most common identifier is the ISRC.

This is a unique code assigned to each individual sound recording.

Notice we're just talking about sound recordings here.

Not musical works.

There's also a unique identifier for the musical work that's used in the sound recording.

But to learn more about that you’ll want to visit our Registering Musical Works page.

Registering Sound Recordings with a CMO

2 min read

Why and when should you register your sound recordings?

Registering sound recordings with a CMO before they are released is important.

Here, we talk about the , not the . To dive into registering your musical works, visit the Registering Musical Works page.

Why you should register your sound recording with a CMO as soon as it is created

Registering sound recordings with a is essential for two key reasons:

  • It helps get credited when their sound recording is used.

  • It enables sound recording owners, typically and , and performers to get paid for those uses that are managed by CMOs

You can learn more about the different types of CMOs in our topic, The Music Industry Ecosystem

When should you register your sound recording?

It's best practice to register a sound recording with a CMO once it's confirmed for, but always before, its .

If you're a member of a CMO, then all your and sound recordings should always be registered with them. Both and creators should always ensure the registration is done.

For a performer signed to a record label, the registration of the sound recording is usually done by the label.

How to become a member and register your sound recordings and performances can vary in different countries, so contact your CMO to find out how.

Registering your sound recordings and performances with a CMO is a crucial step to ensure that you receive proper credit and compensation for the use of your recordings.

You can explore more about CMOs on the CMO page.

Video Credit: Tiffany Orvet, Daniel Sundström, Eric Ivar Persson, Christine Miller, Nikki Skelly, Jeff Noble, Tony Bollas, Kelly Wright, Oasis Nguyen, Tobias Leo Nordquist, Ponny Höijer, William Engström, Parapix