Sound Exchange Distributes Record $54.8m

SoundExchange announced that it will distribute $54.8 million to artists and right holders for the second quarter of 2010. It's a record for the non-profit performance rights organization appointed by Congress to collect digital royalties. Their previous top quarter was the $51.7 million paid out in Q1. Each quarterly distribution includes royalties earned through play on Internet radio, satellite radio, cable TV music channels and increased revenue from foreign societies. Digital royalties are on the rise across the board, but SoundExchange also credits increased efforts to clean poor reporting data, as well as partnerships with other organizations, for increasing the total distribution.

Some Call For More Transparency

Despite aggressive outreach to the music community, some remain critical of SoundExchange and are demanding greater transparency. For example, the organization has announced what it's paying out, but how much was collected?

It's not a simple answer according to Bryan Calhoun, the Vice President, New Media & External Affairs for SoundExchange. “Although, quarterly payments to royalty recipients represent royalties sent to SoundExchange from service providers from previous periods, there is a lag in that there is time required to process those payments." Calhoun told Hypebot. “For instance, royalties for use during January are not due until March 15th. Even if their reports of use are perfect, the payments for that month will not make it into the March distribution."

“Other factors can slow it down as well," Calhoun concluded, “but we try to get payments out as quickly as possible."