IPRS registration, explained

The Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) is India's copyright society for authors, composers, and publishers of music. It licenses the public performance and communication of musical works: radio, television, streaming platforms, live venues, and businesses that play music. It then distributes the collected royalties to its members.

This publishing income is separate from the recording royalties you earn through distribution. A stream generates money for the sound recording and, separately, for the underlying composition. Without IPRS membership, the composition side of your income in India largely goes uncollected.

Register if you are a lyricist or composer of released music. Performing artists who do not write are not eligible on the writing side; the society represents the people who created the words and the melody. If you both perform and write, you register for your writing.

Producers who compose the underlying music qualify as composers. If you co-write, each writer registers individually and your splits are declared per work.

Keep ready: proof of identity (PAN and Aadhaar), bank details for royalty payment, a list of your released works with ISRC or release links, and documentation of your writer splits where songs are co-written. Accuracy matters more than speed. Wrong splits at registration mean wrong payments later, and corrections are slow.

Membership involves a one-time admission process and a nominal fee, after which your works are added to the IPRS database. Once registered, declare every new release so the society can match usage to your catalog.

On SUF, every track asks whether its composer and lyricist are IPRS members and for their IPI numbers, so the writer details delivered to the stores match what you registered with IPRS. Accurate credits are what lets the society match a stream to your song.

IPRS pays its members directly. SUF collects the recording royalties from the stores, which is separate money, and never takes ownership of your songs. If you share a song with co-writers, agree the shares on a split sheet before you register it.