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Could it be that by paying the fee to soundexchange you are also being included in a copyright protection database and may be entitled to user fees from others for use of your work?
To the best of my knowledge you would only be entitled to fees is if you had a releasing agreement with an RIAA member or an ASCAP/BMI contractor. Artists under contract to the various agencies who are part of the recording/releasing/licensing industry earn royalties from the fees collected.
I believe those kinds of agreements cover things like sheet music and even play scripts that theater companies use, too. I understand that copyright law is the basis on which those rights are recognized, conferered, transferred, bought and sold.
If I am correct, you are the sole owner of any intellectual material you create (unless you sell the rights to someone else) and are free to broadcast, print or other wise distrubute that material. That would seem to include webcast, broadcast, recording and even peer to peer file sharing.
Example: I can write my own music, record my own audio file, broadcast the song on Part 15, streaming internet, podcasting, CDs, file sharing and by public performance without paying anyone a nickle. I can give a restaurant owner my CD han he or she can play that song at a place of business without paying ASCAP.
It might be that there are widely held misconceptions about the collective role of associations like the RIAA/ASCAP/BMI/MPAA in broadcasting.
So, in my opinion, as long as all the intellectual property is yours, you can distrubute it in any way you wish. The only fees you’d pay would be for the use of the medium (streaming bandwidth, CD duplication fees, venue rental), not the material.
If you can convince an agent or agency that there will be sufficient demand, you can sign a contract and have your intellectual property represented by the associations and collect your royalties 🙂
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
