5. Registering the work and the phonogram

What to register and where in order to collect what you're owed, with Argentina as an example and its recent changes.

You can publish without registering anything. Registering serves to record what you did and to collect the rights your distributor doesn’t. The paperwork varies by country, so here’s the general logic with Argentina as an example.

What to register

Three things, three destinations

The work: as a record of authorship, in your country’s copyright registry.
The work, to get paid: with an authors’ society.
The phonogram and your performance: with the producers’ and performers’ entities.

In other countries, the equivalent authors’ entities are, for example, ASCAP and BMI in the United States, SGAE in Spain or SACM in Mexico. Look up your country’s.

The example of Argentina

Record of the work: Dirección Nacional del Derecho de Autor (DNDA).
Authors and composers: SADAIC, by declaring each work.
Performers: AADI.
Phonogram producers: CAPIF, which also manages the producer code for ISRC.
To learn more: the Instituto Nacional de la Música (INAMU) publishes a manual on intellectual property rights in music (in Spanish), and it’s a good starting point.

The practical order

Gather the data: titles, authors, percentages, length, ISRC and date.
Register the work in the authorship registry, if applicable in your country.
Join an authors’ society and declare your works.
Register the phonogram if you’re the recording’s producer.
Register your performance, if you played or sang.

🟠 Better to set it now· in distribution

The music can come out without this. But societies usually pay what's been declared, and what isn't claimed in time can be lost. It's worth doing when you start publishing regularly.

Getting paid from another country

Platforms pay in dollars, through your distributor, by PayPal, bank transfer or other means depending on the country. Before choosing a distributor, check which method works where you live, what it costs and the withdrawal minimum. This guide has no reliable, up-to-date information on taxes and payments in Argentina: ask an accountant if you start receiving significant amounts.

When to do it

A test release: you can wait.
You start publishing regularly: do it, since it’s a one-time step to join and then one procedure per song.
It plays on radio, TV or in public venues: do it now.
There are several people: agree on the splits first, since they’re asked for when declaring.

Common mistakes

What NOT to chase yet

Quick path: registration

Quick path

Publish without waiting for this, if it holds you back.
Keep the ISRC, authors and percentages.
Look up your country's entities and confirm their requirements.
Register the work.
Join an authors' society and declare your songs.
Register the phonogram and your performance.

Expected result

Your songs registered where they should be, and you know what each entity collects. If you haven’t done it yet, you have the data ready for when it suits you. There’s one last, newest topic: AI.