Payment for music creators
Sena manages the rights of over 33,000 musicians and producers who are registered with Sena. These music creators are entitled to payment when their music is played in a commercial setting. We regularly receive questions about the where the money comes from and what Sena does with income we collect. In this section, we focus on some of the most commonly asked questions.
This time we look at how Sena distributes money to Dutch artists and producers. This is the part where we zoom in on when are you entitled to receive money from Sena as a music creator.
The money that Sena receives through the various sources of income is distributed to the music creators who are entitled to it; the rightsholders. There are a couple of questions to consider:
- When are you entitled to receive money from Sena as a Dutch music creator?
- How is Sena's income distributed to these rightsholders?
In this section we’ll take a closer look at the first question: we explain what rightsholders are and which rightsholders receive payment. If you want to know more about the distribution of Sena's income to the music creators, then you can go straight to part 5.
Rightsholders
Sena represents the interests of producers and artists. Artists include everyone who has contributed musically to a song, including the main artist, backing singers, studio musicians and choir members. These are the music creators.
Music creators are entitled to money from Sena if they are affiliated with Sena and have registered their repertoire. To join, you need to sign an agreement with Sena. In the agreement you indicate if you want Sena to collect money for you in the Netherlands or abroad. You can then register your repertoire via the online portal MySena or using our app. This is how we know which repertoire belongs to you and which music to pay you for. The registered songs in your repertoire must be for sale, either physically or as a download.
Payment for rightsholders
In order to receive payment, the songs must have been played. We find out which songs have been played by using various lists:
- Playlists from radio and TV stations from the public and commercial broadcasters
- Playlists from background music providers such as Mood Media and Xenox
- Lists of legal downloads
- Playlists from dance events
Sena has been receiving the playlist data from Dutch radio and TV stations via fingerprinting technology since 2017. This data uses sound recognition to identify the song played—just like the Shazam app. The information is automatically passed on to Sena, so we know exactly which song has been played and which rightsholders are entitled to payment.