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Songwriter registration guides
What songwriter registration data looks like up close, and why finding one writer’s works is harder than it should be. The figures come from the registration data Songlinks reads.
Unclaimed streaming royalties and the April 2027 deadline
Unmatched and unclaimed US streaming royalties from 2021 go to other rightsholders by market share from April 2027, one usage month at a time. What the rule is, and what to do before the February 10, 2027 snapshot.
Why one songwriter appears many times in rights registrations
Spellings, stage names, more than one IPI name number, records with no number at all, and different people with the same name.
How to check your songwriters’ registrations: three ways
One writer by name, a list of IPI name numbers, or a CWR file and the writers in it — which to use, and what each tells you.
Works registered under another spelling or IPI number: how to get them fixed
What a split registration is, why those works may not reach the writer, and who files the correction.
IPI name numbers: what the number on a registration tells you
An IPI name number belongs to a name, not to a person. What that means when you match registrations.
IPI name number lookup, by number or by name
Run the search the guide above describes, in either direction: a number in and the writer who holds it out, or a name in and every number their registrations carry — including the records with none.
Songwriters with the same name: tell them apart with one song
When a name comes back as several people, one song they wrote shows which of them it is — including songs that were never recorded.
The most-recorded songwriters
The songwriters whose registered songs have the most recordings, each with a Songlinks person ID and page. The full ranking of 4,821.
Three ways to look up a songwriter
Keying on the identifier, pooling by name, or resolving the person — what each approach can and cannot get right, and a head-to-head whose questions were fixed before anyone answered.
We asked an AI about 150 songwriters
It knew the famous writers’ hits, but under 2% of their registered works, none of the working songwriters’ songs and no IPI numbers. A test whose questions were fixed before it answered.
Bulk songwriter lookup and catalog audit
Matching a whole roster against the registrations at once, rather than one name at a time, and why that is harder than running a lot of lookups.
A free catalog for the writers you look after
Save up to 50 writers per team and see, for each, the works on their main IPI name number and the works registered elsewhere. Shared with your team, exported as CSV.
For managers, labels and small publishers
A team roster, a check of your CWR files, and a roster audit for bigger lists.
For songwriters checking their own registrations
Look yourself up under every name you are registered as, record which registrations are yours, and hand your publisher a worksheet.
Questions people ask us
Why a songwriter you know may not be listed at all, how two writers with the same name are told apart, and what the matching actually does.