How to Register With a PRO as a Cover Song Artist

A Performance Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or SOCAN collects performance royalties when your cover song is played publicly — on radio, in streaming, at live venues, or through certain digital platforms — and pays them out based on registered ownership shares. As a cover artist, joining a PRO matters primarily for your sound recording performance royalties in some cases and, if you’ve added your own arrangement or elements, potentially a share of certain royalty types tied to your registered work. It is a separate system from the mechanical licensing that clears your right to record and distribute the cover in the first place.

Understanding where PRO registration fits — and where it doesn’t — prevents cover artists from either skipping a step that earns them money or expecting a PRO to solve a problem it was never built to solve.

What does a PRO actually pay cover artists for?

A PRO pays for public performances of a musical work or, for certain PROs like SoundExchange (technically a separate entity from performance-rights societies but often grouped in this conversation), the sound recording itself. When you release a cover song, two layers of rights exist: the composition (owned by the original songwriter and their publisher) and your sound recording (owned by you, the performer who recorded this specific version).

Joining ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC as a performer registers you to collect royalties tied to public performance of recordings and, in limited cases, arrangements you’ve registered. It does not make you the songwriter of the underlying composition — that credit and its associated royalty share always belongs to the original writer, regardless of how many streams your version generates.

Do cover artists need to register with a PRO?

Yes, if you want to collect royalties from radio play, live performance reporting, and certain digital performance income that a distributor’s standard royalty pipeline doesn’t cover. Streaming mechanical and performance royalties from services like Spotify are typically collected and paid through your distributor and the relevant licensing bodies, but terrestrial radio play, TV sync performances, and live venue performances of your cover are tracked separately by PROs — and if you’re not registered, that money often goes unclaimed or gets absorbed by blanket-license pools instead of reaching you directly.

How do you actually register with a PRO as a cover artist?

The process is administrative, not creative — you’re registering yourself as a performer and, where applicable, your sound recording, not re-licensing the song. In the US, the steps are consistent across the three main PROs:

1. Choose one PRO — ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (SESAC is invite-only for writers but open differently for certain registrations; ASCAP and BMI both have flat one-time or membership fees). BMI membership for songwriters is currently free; ASCAP charges a small one-time fee. You cannot be a member of two PROs simultaneously as a songwriter for the same works.

2. Register as a «writer» and/or «publisher» member — for original cover arrangements or associated original material, not as a claim of authorship over the underlying composition.

3. Register your specific releases as they come out, listing the original songwriter and publisher correctly. This is the step most cover artists skip and it’s the one that actually connects performance data to a payout.

What a PRO does not do for a cover song

A PRO does not clear your right to record and release the cover in the first place — that’s mechanical licensing, a separate and mandatory step under US copyright law regardless of your PRO status. Registering with ASCAP or BMI has zero bearing on whether your cover is legally distributed; a fully PRO-registered artist releasing an unlicensed cover is just as exposed to a takedown or claim as an unregistered one.

This is where distribution and PRO registration need to work together rather than being treated as substitutes. Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing on every cover song release, which is the legal clearance step — separate from, and a prerequisite to, any performance royalty collection you set up afterward through a PRO.

Sequencing: what to do first

Mechanical licensing (handled automatically through your distributor) needs to be in place before or at release. PRO registration can happen any time, but the sooner your catalog is registered, the sooner performance data starts accumulating correctly instead of sitting unclaimed. A practical order looks like this:

Register with one PRO as a performer/writer (free or low one-time fee, done once).
Upload your cover through a distributor with automatic mechanical licensing included, so the legal clearance is handled per release without you filing separate paperwork each time.
Register each release’s metadata with your PRO, crediting the original songwriter accurately.
Track incoming royalties from both your distributor (streaming mechanicals and recording royalties) and your PRO (performance royalties) as separate income streams.

Why low per-release costs matter more once you add PRO registration to the workflow

Once you’re running two systems in parallel — distribution and PRO registration — the cost structure of your distributor compounds across a growing catalog. At $1 per release with Globex Music, releasing 20 cover songs in a year costs $20 total, with automatic mechanical licensing bundled into that price and no annual account fee layered on top. Compare that to TuneCore’s $24.99 base annual fee plus per-cover licensing fees, or DistroKid’s $44.99 annual fee — both recurring costs that stack on top of whatever time you’re already investing in PRO registration and metadata accuracy.

CD Baby charges $9.95 per single plus a 9% commission on royalties indefinitely, meaning even after you’ve paid to release the track, a percentage of everything it earns is taken forever. For an artist actively building a PRO-registered catalog release by release, a flat $1 per cover keeps the distribution side simple while the PRO handles its own separate royalty stream — two systems, two income sources, no compounding annual overhead.

Payout thresholds matter here too

PROs typically have their own minimum payout thresholds and quarterly payment cycles, often with higher minimums than digital distributors. Pairing that with a distributor that pays out starting from $10 USD means your streaming-side royalties clear faster and more frequently, even while PRO performance royalties from radio or live reporting accumulate on a slower, separate schedule. Knowing which royalty stream pays out when — and not confusing a slow PRO payment cycle with a stalled distribution payout — helps you track actual cash flow instead of guessing.

The bottom line for cover artists

PRO registration and mechanical licensing solve two different problems: one collects performance royalties on music that’s already legally out, the other makes sure it’s legally out in the first place. Skipping mechanical licensing to save time is a legal risk; skipping PRO registration is simply lost income sitting unclaimed. Handling both — automatic licensing at the point of distribution, plus a one-time PRO registration — is a permanent setup that continues paying off with every future release, not just the current one.