No, you do not need a PRO membership to collect the mechanical royalties owed to you as the performer of a cover song — those come from your distributor through the mechanical license, not from a performing rights organization. But you do need a PRO membership to collect performance royalties, which is a separate revenue stream generated when your cover gets played on radio, streamed, or performed publicly. Understanding the difference between these two royalty types is the key to not leaving money on the table.

Cover artists routinely confuse these two systems because both involve the word «royalty» and both can apply to the same recording. But they are collected by different organizations, triggered by different events, and require different registrations. Getting this wrong means an artist either wastes time joining a PRO for royalties it can’t help with, or skips a PRO and misses royalties it’s the only organization that can deliver.

What’s the difference between mechanical and performance royalties on a cover?

Mechanical royalties are paid for the reproduction and distribution of a song — every stream, download, or physical copy generates a small mechanical royalty owed to the songwriter and publisher. Performance royalties are paid when a song is performed publicly — played on terrestrial radio, streamed on certain platforms, used in a live performance, or broadcast on TV. A cover song generates both, but they flow through completely different pipes.

When you release a cover through a distributor like Globex Music, the mechanical license is handled automatically as part of the release process, and the mechanical royalty share owed to the original songwriter gets routed to them while your share as the recording artist is paid out to you starting from $10 USD. That’s the mechanical side fully covered without any PRO involvement.

Do you need a PRO to collect streaming royalties on a cover song?

Partially — it depends on which royalty within the stream you mean. Interactive streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music pay mechanical royalties for on-demand streams, and those are handled by your distributor and the mechanical licensing system, not a PRO. But some platforms and use cases — internet radio, certain non-interactive services, and public performance contexts — generate performance royalties instead, and those only get collected if you are registered with a PRO as the recording artist or if your PRO has a reciprocal arrangement covering that use.

This is why an artist who only distributes covers and never joins a PRO isn’t losing money on their core streaming income, but is likely missing smaller royalty pools tied to radio play, public performance venues, and certain broadcast uses of their recordings.

Who actually gets paid the performance royalty on a cover song?

The performance royalty on a cover splits between the songwriter’s PRO registration and, in some cases, the performer or sound recording rights holder depending on the country and platform. In the US, PROs like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC primarily collect for songwriters and publishers — as the cover artist, you generally are not the songwriter unless you also wrote the underlying composition, which by definition you didn’t if you’re covering someone else’s song. So joining a PRO as a cover artist mainly matters if you also write original music, produce arrangements that generate separate copyright, or want to register as a performer for markets that pay neighboring rights.

Neighboring rights are a related but distinct category — royalties paid to performers and labels for the use of a sound recording, common in many countries outside the US. Collecting these typically requires registration with a neighboring rights organization (not a traditional PRO), and cover artists are eligible as the performer on their own recording even though they didn’t write the song.

So should a cover artist bother joining a PRO at all?

If you exclusively release covers and never perform your own compositions, a PRO membership will do very little for your mechanical income but can still be worth the (usually free or low-cost) sign-up if your covers get radio play, sync placements, or public performance in venues that report to PROs. The realistic math: mechanical royalties from streaming are the dominant income source for most independent cover artists, and those arrive through your distributor regardless of PRO status. Performance royalties from radio and public venues tend to be a smaller, slower-arriving supplement unless you have unusually strong terrestrial radio traction.

The practical order of operations for a cover-focused artist is to first make sure the mechanical licensing and distribution side is solid, since that’s where the bulk of the money is, and treat PRO registration as a secondary step once you have Confirmed non-streaming performance activity worth tracking.

How does this actually work when you release through Globex Music?

Every cover submitted through Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing, so the mechanical royalty compliance work is done before the track goes live — you don’t need a PRO, a separate licensing service, or any manual paperwork to get a cover legally distributed to more than 200 platforms. Moderation typically moves quickly, and royalty payouts start from $10 USD, which is a low threshold compared to distributors that hold funds until much larger balances accumulate.

On pricing, the difference matters over time. A single cover release on Globex Music costs $1, with no annual fee. DistroKid charges $44.99 per year to maintain a catalog. TuneCore charges a $24.99 base fee plus additional per-cover licensing fees and a 20% commission specifically on social platform revenue. CD Baby charges $9.95 per single and takes a 9% royalty commission indefinitely on every track, for as long as it remains distributed. Over three years of releasing a handful of covers, those recurring fees and permanent commissions add up in a way a flat $1 per-release model does not.

The bottom line

A PRO membership is not a prerequisite for getting paid on a cover song’s mechanical royalties — that system runs independently through your distributor’s licensing infrastructure. A PRO becomes relevant once your covers start generating performance royalties through radio, broadcast, or certain public performance contexts, or if you also write original material. Knowing which system pays for which use of your music is what separates artists who collect everything they’re owed from artists who assume one registration covers it all.

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