5 of these 17 are free, take one sitting, and pay you for music you have already released.

Royalties accruing against your name whether or not you ever registered. Nobody forwards it to you.

• SoundExchange, as both roleson a clockone sitting+
• The Mechanical Licensing Collectiveon a clockone sitting+
• A performing rights organisationone sitting+
• International neighbouring rightsa few days+
• YouTube Content IDa few days+
• Mechanicals outside the United Statesa few days+

Identifiers and rights records. Without them the money above has nothing to match against.

• Splits agreed in writingon a clockone sitting+
• ISRC and UPC on every trackone sitting+
• Copyright registrationon a clocka few days+
• Claimed profiles on every platformone sitting+

Thresholds and windows. Each is binary, and several close on a date.

• The seven-day pitch windowon a clockone sitting+
• RIAA certificationa few days+
• Sync-ready masters and clearanceon a clocka few days+

Continuous, unbounded, and where nearly every independent artist spends all of their attention.

• A posting cadence you can holdongoing+
• Paid media you can readongoing+
• An audience you ownongoing+
• Routing that follows the dataongoing+