Can you collect performance royalties for your recordings from other countries?

Your streams and airplay cross borders long before the money does. Our page on collective rights management and music publishing covers how collecting bodies move a song's income. This page deals with the recording side abroad, often called neighboring rights, and why it works differently from U.S. rules. It is part of our entertainment law work for artists, producers and labels.

How foreign performance income is claimed, step by step

1. Start with the country of use. The Copyright Office explains that there is no "international copyright": protection against use in a particular country depends on that country's own laws (Circular 38A).
2. Check the points of attachment. Treaties connect a work to protection through factors the Office calls points of attachment, such as the author's nationality or the place of first publication (Circular 38A). For recordings, the place of first fixation can matter too.
3. Check the treaty position. Look at whether that country belongs to the Rome Convention, the WPPT or both, and whether it limits the remuneration right for U.S. recordings because of the U.S. reservation, discussed below.
4. Find out who may claim there. Your label, distributor, administrator or a collecting society may hold the right to claim in that territory under your contracts. Our page on whether a U.S. license covers other countries explains how territory clauses decide that.
5. Document the recording. The claim usually rests on ownership papers, performer lineups, and where and when each track was recorded and first released.
6. Handle the song separately. Performance income for the composition follows the Berne Convention and your songwriter and publisher arrangements, not the recording's rights.

What are neighboring rights, and how do they differ from U.S. rules?

Outside the United States, rights in performances and recordings are often called neighboring or related rights. The Rome Convention protects performers in their performances and producers in their phonograms. When a phonogram published for commercial purposes is used directly for broadcasting or any communication to the public, it calls for a single equitable remuneration paid by the user to the performers, the producers or both (Rome Convention, Article 12). A member state may declare that it will not apply that rule, or will apply it only in part (Article 16). The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) has a similar remuneration right, which each member may restrict or, by reservation, deny (WIPO, WPPT summary).

U.S. law is narrower. A sound recording's performance right covers only digital audio transmissions (17 U.S.C. 106(6)), and free broadcasts by FCC-licensed stations are exempt (17 U.S.C. 114(d)(1)(A)). For noninteractive digital plays under the statutory license, the collective pays 50 percent to the owner of the recording's digital performance right, 45 percent to featured artists, and 2.5 percent each to funds for nonfeatured musicians and vocalists (114(g)(2)). Our page on SoundExchange and digital performance royalties covers that system. Our page on why AM/FM radio does not pay recording artists explains the broadcast gap.

Is the United States a party to the Rome Convention and the WPPT?

Not to Rome. WIPO's list of Rome Convention contracting parties, which shows 100 members, does not include the United States (WIPO, Rome contracting parties).

Yes to the WPPT, with a limit. WIPO lists the U.S. signature on April 12, 1997, ratification on September 14, 1999, and entry into force on May 20, 2002 (WIPO, WPPT contracting parties). Under Article 15(3), the United States declared that it will apply the Article 15(1) remuneration right only to certain digital broadcasting and communication to the public for which a fee is charged for reception, and to other retransmissions and digital phonorecord deliveries, as U.S. law provides (WIPO, U.S. declaration under the WPPT).

Why does U.S. treaty status matter for collecting abroad?

Because these treaties work on reciprocity. WIPO's WPPT summary explains that where a member makes a reservation on the remuneration right, the other members may, to the extent of that reservation, deny national treatment to the reserving member. Put simply, another WPPT country may decline to give U.S. performers and producers the same remuneration it gives its own, to the extent of the U.S. reservation. Whether a given country does so, and how, is a matter of its own law and its collecting society's rules, and we do not try to summarize those here.

The Rome Convention also looks past nationality. A member must give national treatment to a producer of phonograms if the producer is a national of another member, the sound was first fixed in another member, or the phonogram was first published there, including publication there within 30 days of a first release elsewhere (Rome Convention, Article 5). Members may declare that they will not apply the publication criterion or, alternatively, the fixation criterion. Performers have their own points of attachment, including a performance incorporated in a protected phonogram (Article 4). Where a recording was made, who produced it and where it first came out can therefore matter as much as the artist's citizenship.

What about the songwriter side?

Compositions travel under a different treaty. The Berne Convention requires each member to give works originating in another member the same protection it gives its own nationals' works, and protection may not depend on formalities (WIPO, Berne summary). Its minimum rights include performing musical works in public and communicating that performance to the public. WIPO lists the United States as a Berne member by accession on November 16, 1988, in force March 1, 1989 (WIPO, Berne contracting parties).

In practice, a writer's foreign performance income often arrives through their own performing rights organization's arrangements with societies abroad, or through a publisher or administrator, so accurate registrations at home matter.

Does it matter if your catalog is older?

It can at home. Recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 are covered by a separate chapter of U.S. law, and a digital transmission that would qualify for the statutory license if the recording were newer is treated as authorized when the statutory royalty is paid (17 U.S.C. 1401(b)). Our page on pre-1972 sound recordings protection explains how those recordings are treated.

What changes the answer

• Where the recording is played. Each country applies its own law to uses inside it (Circular 38A), including any declarations it made under the Rome Convention (Article 16) or the WPPT.
• Where it was made, where it came out, and by whom. As explained above, a producer can qualify under the Rome Convention through nationality, first fixation or first publication (Article 5), while performers attach through criteria such as a performance incorporated in a protected phonogram (Article 4). U.S. law has a similar 30-day rule for works first published in a treaty party (17 U.S.C. 104(b)).
• The U.S. reservation. As noted above, it can reduce what a WPPT member pays for U.S. recordings, depending on that member's own law.
• Recording or song. The Berne Convention covers literary and artistic works such as songs; rights in recordings travel under Rome and the WPPT. A songwriter can be paid abroad when the recording's owner is not.
• The reverse direction. A foreign recording first fixed in a treaty party is protected in the United States (17 U.S.C. 104(b)(3)), but only with U.S. rights: nothing for AM and FM broadcasts, and the statutory split for qualifying digital plays. U.S. law also says no right may be claimed by virtue of the Berne Convention itself (104(c)).

A worked example

Common mistakes

• Assuming the U.S. statutory system collects foreign plays. Section 114 is U.S. law, and foreign uses are governed by the law where they happen (Circular 38A).
• Treating Berne protection for songs as if it covered recordings. The recording's rights abroad depend on Rome, the WPPT and local law.
• Losing track of where and when each track was recorded and first released. Those facts can decide eligibility, and they are hard to rebuild years later.
• Ignoring the songwriter side because the recording side pays little abroad; the composition can earn even where the recording does not.

What to do this week

1. Register your works. The Copyright Office treats the composition and the recording as separate works (Circular 56A), so make sure both are registered and that you know who owns each; see how to register a song's composition and recording.
2. Keep metadata consistent. The WPPT treats information identifying the performer, the performance, the producer and the phonogram as rights management information used for licensing and collecting royalties. Use the same names, titles and identifiers everywhere.
3. Keep ownership documents. Hold on to master ownership papers, producer and featured artist agreements, session lineups, and a record of where each track was recorded and first released.
4. Check your agreements. Read what your distributor, label and any collecting society or administrator agreements say about who may claim performance income abroad, and avoid authorizing two parties to collect the same right in the same territory.
5. Sort out producer shares. If a producer is owed part of your U.S. digital income, put it in a letter of direction; see how producers get paid from digital performance royalties.
6. Protect your name. An international career usually needs the brand protected too. Start with trademarking your band or artist name in the United States. For other countries, see our page on international trademark filing under the Madrid Protocol.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one international copyright registration?

No. The Copyright Office says there is no such thing as an "international copyright" that automatically protects a work throughout the world (Circular 38A). Treaties simplify protection, but each country applies its own law.

Which copyright treaties has the United States joined?

The Copyright Office lists, among others, the Berne Convention, the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WPPT, the Geneva Phonograms Convention (effective for the United States March 10, 1974) and the TRIPS Agreement through the World Trade Organization (Circular 38A, relations as of July 2026). The Rome Convention is not among them.

How many countries belong to the WPPT?

Circular 38A counts 115 member parties, including the United States, as of July 2026. Membership alone does not settle payment, because members may restrict the remuneration right.

Are foreign artists paid when their recordings play on U.S. radio?

Foreign recordings first fixed in a treaty party are protected in the United States (17 U.S.C. 104(b)(3)), but on U.S. terms. That means no performance royalty for AM and FM broadcasts and the statutory split for qualifying digital plays.

Should we decide where to release before we release?

It helps. The Copyright Office advises working out the points of attachment in a country before the work is published anywhere, if possible, because protection may depend on the facts at the time of first publication (Circular 38A).

How do songwriters collect abroad?

Usually through their performing rights organization's arrangements or a publisher. Our page on how performing rights organizations work explains what those organizations do at home.

Zala IP Law advises artists, producers, labels and publishers on royalties, publishing and licensing, across the United States and internationally. If your recordings are earning abroad and you are not sure who is collecting, request a consultation or call 404-313-1701.

Atlanta artists can also read our page on intellectual property and entertainment law in Atlanta.