What is Limelight?

Limelight is an online mechanical licensing utility allowing indie artists, record labels, worship groups, school ensembles, and others to easily clear cover songs and pay royalties to publishers and songwriters. We believe that there are millions of artists that want to cover songs from your catalog and pay royalties. Limelight brings these artists together, aggregating royalties due to you (the publisher). The service was launched in 2010 and is currently being used by musicians/artists in all 50 U.S. states and 150 countries worldwide.

Who does Limelight currently work with?

In addition to the thousands of artists, bands, record labels, choirs, a cappella, academic, religious, and other musical groups using Limelight, current organizations and services integrating Limelight into their community benefits or offerings include Alfred Publishing, ASCAP, CD Baby, Copyright Clearance Center, Christian Copyright Solutions, Disc Makers, Hello Music, Indie-Music.com, Indie Bible, NAfME (formerly MENC), MusicianWages.com, Nimbit, Oasis, Sound Out/Slice The Pie, Tunecore, and many others.

Why should I care about Limelight?

We believe that Limelight is a true win-win situation for artists and for publishers and songwriters. It allows artists to get proper licenses in place so they can record and release their favorite songs. For publishers and songwriters, it actively aggregates licenses and royalty payments from indie groups and artists, creating new revenue and minimizing administrative work, since Limelight consolidates all accounting and royalty processes.

What is the difference between Limelight and RightsFlow?

RightsFlow services large enterprise clients such as Youtube, Clear Channel, Viacom, Rhapsody, The Orchard, Muzak, amongst many others. These companies send us millions of recordings to license that are processed through our proprietary FLOW system. On the flip side, Limelight is an easy-to-use online portal servicing the small independent artists, labels, church group, amongst many others.

Does Limelight (or RightsFlow) take any piece of my royalties?

Absolutely not! Neither do we hold them for any period of time, nor earn interest. We pass on 100% of all royalties as soon as possible, ensuring that you get the full statutory rate for all use.

I received a Notice of Intent (NOI), what is it?

A Notice of Intention is served to you to obtain a compulsory license under Section 115 of the Copyright Act for the composition you control on behalf of our Limelight clients. You can find more information at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ73.pdf

Why won’t you license with me directly?

A NOI is the quickest method to ensure our clients’ recordings are licensed at 100% in time for distribution.

Can I send you a direct license in response to the NOI you sent?

Please do not. Once we have entered the NOI in our system there is no way to change it. We will not process your direct license. If you do not want to receive NOIs, we offer a blanket licensing arrangement for Limelight.

Why don’t you license with HFA?

HFA does not allow us to license for any configuration unless we ourselves are the distributor. Since we are not in the case of Limelight, we have to send a NOI. We also believe sending a NOI is the quickest method to ensure that the composition is licensed as well as to ensure that you are paid more promptly.

How can I make the NOIs and monthly statements go away?

The Limelight service offers publishers a blanket license arrangement. Simply provide us with your catalog, and sign our blanket license agreement covering all of your compositions under Section 115 configurations. We then mark the compositions as licensed in our system, and then send you your royalties and statements on a quarterly basis. Also, visit our Royalty Plus Partner program to start earning extra revenue on top of your royalties at http://www.songclearace.com/royaltyplus.

Are royalties really pre-paid?

Yes they are. When an artist requests a license through Limelight, he or she is required to declare the quantity of copies they intend to make, and pre-pay all mechanical royalties in full. If they exceed the given quantity, they are required to return to Limelight and make the additional payment to cover the additional use.

When do I get paid?

Once you receive an NOI from Limelight, you will be paid your royalties on the 20th of the following month. Example: You receive the NOI on December 6th. You will be paid January 20th.

I do not want to receive my co-publishers’ shares of royalties?

We do our best to identify all publishers of a composition and allocate each share. When we cannot find all publishers, we send 100% of royalties to one publisher as allowed by the Copyright law. There are two ways to help prevent receiving 100% of the royalties: 1) if you let us know your share in the composition or compositions immediately after you receive the NOI, we should be able to ensure your license is limited to your share or 2) any publisher that has a Limelight blanket arrangement with us and has provided their NOI, will only receive their share.

How can I determine the quantity of units pre-paid by your clients?

We report the quantity of units by configuration in our detailed royalty statement as the quantity may change after we send the NOI and the first royalty payment.

You have my wrong contact information?

Please email limelight@rightsflow.com with your current contact information, and we will ensure that all future communication be sent to the right place.

How can I receive NOIs by email?

We are happy to send NOIs by email. The Copyright law requires a publisher to provide an affirmative written notification that they prefer to receive NOIs by email. You can send your statement to licensing@rightsflow.com. Once we receive your request, all future NOIs will be sent electronically.

How can I receive royalty statements by email?

We are happy to send royalty statements by email. The Copyright law requires a publisher to provide an affirmative written notification that they prefer to receive royalty statements by email. You can send your notification to royalties@rightsflow.com. Once we receive your request, all future royalty statements will be sent electronically.

Can I send all of my small quantity requests to Limelight?

Absolutely! You can send us your requests and even share in the service fees that Limelight generates on any future paying clients! Check out our Royalty Plus Affiliate Program for more information at http://www.songclearance.com/royaltyplus/affiliate.html.

Limelight Catalog Data

What format should the catalog data be?

We accept CWR, TXT, and XLS. If you do not have your catalog information in these formats, please let us know and we can work with you.

What data do you need?

At a minimum, we need song title, songwriter, and your percentage share. We highly encourage publishers to map their compositions to ISRC, artists, ISWC, albums names, if available. Any additional information will only help us to identify your composition amongst our clients.