What Is a Performing Rights Organization (PRO), Explained

A Performing Rights Organization (PRO) is the entity that collects royalties whenever a song is performed publicly — played on radio, streamed, performed live, or used in a bar, gym, or TV broadcast — and pays those royalties to the songwriter and publisher. In the US, the main PROs are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC; internationally, equivalents include PRS for Music (UK), SOCAN (Canada), and GEMA (Germany). If you release a cover song, understanding what a PRO does — and what it does not do — determines whether you actually get paid for the performance side of your royalties.

This distinction matters more than most independent artists realize. A distribution service handles getting your track onto streaming platforms and, for covers, secures the mechanical license that lets you legally record and distribute someone else’s composition. A PRO handles a separate royalty stream entirely: the performance royalty. Missing this piece means leaving money on the table that no distributor, including Globex Music, is set up to collect on your behalf.

What does a PRO actually do?

A PRO tracks public performances of musical compositions and collects royalties from the venues, broadcasters, and platforms that use them, then distributes those royalties to the songwriters and publishers registered with them. This includes radio airplay, live venue performances, TV and film sync usage, and a portion of streaming activity, since streaming platforms pay both a mechanical royalty (for the reproduction of the recording) and a performance royalty (for the composition being performed).

PROs operate on behalf of songwriters and publishers, not performing artists as such — though in the case of a cover song, if you also wrote a new arrangement or are simply the performer, your role in the royalty chain depends on who owns what. For a straight cover, the original songwriter’s PRO registration is what generates performance royalties on the composition side; as the performer, you’re generally entitled to the recording-related royalties (via SoundExchange in the US for non-interactive streams, and via labels/distributors for on-demand streams) rather than the composition performance royalty itself, unless you also hold a publishing interest.

How is a PRO different from mechanical licensing?

A mechanical license grants permission to reproduce and distribute a copyrighted composition — that’s the piece Globex Music automates for every cover song release, at no extra cost beyond the standard $1 release fee. A PRO, by contrast, doesn’t grant permission to do anything; it collects money after a performance has already happened, based on royalty rates negotiated with broadcasters, venues, and digital platforms.

Put simply: the mechanical license is what lets you release the cover legally. The PRO is what collects the performance royalty once people are actually listening to or performing it publicly. These are two entirely separate legal and financial mechanisms, and confusing them is one of the most common gaps in how new cover artists think about royalty collection. A distributor secures the license; a PRO collects a specific royalty type; neither substitutes for the other.

Do cover artists need to join a PRO?

Yes, if you write original material, arrange compositions you have a publishing stake in, or want to collect songwriter-side performance royalties on anything you have rights to — a PRO membership is free or low-cost to join and has no bearing on your ability to release straight covers through a distributor. For a pure cover release where you hold no composition rights, PRO membership doesn’t generate composition royalties for you, since those flow to the original songwriter’s PRO registration, not yours.

Where PRO membership becomes directly relevant to cover artists is when you release original songs alongside your covers, or when you create a substantially reworked arrangement that qualifies for its own copyright protections in some territories. In those cases, registering your originals with a PRO ensures you collect performance royalties that would otherwise go unclaimed. Many independent artists join ASCAP or BMI specifically because they release a mix of originals and covers and don’t want to miss royalties on the material they actually wrote.

How does this fit with streaming payouts from a distributor?

A distributor like Globex Music handles the recording side: getting your master recording onto 200+ platforms and paying out streaming royalties once they accumulate, with payouts available starting from $10 USD. A PRO handles the composition performance side, paid separately and on its own schedule, often quarterly. These are two different checks from two different sources, and neither one covers what the other is responsible for.

This is a structural fact of the music industry, not something specific to any distributor’s pricing model. Even artists on major labels with full-service distribution still register separately with a PRO, because the roles are legally distinct: one relates to the sound recording copyright, the other to the underlying composition copyright. Understanding this split is the difference between collecting every royalty stream you’re entitled to and unknowingly forfeiting one of them.

What does this mean practically for a cover artist releasing music in 2026?

If you’re releasing straight covers with no original composition stake, your priority is a distributor that handles mechanical licensing automatically and pays out quickly — that’s the piece directly within your control. Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing on every cover release, with fast moderation and no annual fee, so the cost of testing a new cover idea stays low: $1 per release compared to DistroKid’s $44.99/year, TuneCore’s $24.99/year base fee plus per-cover licensing costs, or CD Baby’s $9.95 per single plus a 9% royalty commission charged indefinitely.

If you also write original songs, register with a PRO in parallel — it costs little to nothing to join and captures a royalty stream a distributor was never designed to collect. The two systems are complementary, not competing: one gets your covers out into the world affordably and quickly, the other makes sure any original material you release doesn’t quietly lose money in a system you never signed up for.