A Dutch radio play creates two neighbouring-rights claims, and an independent artist can miss either one. Sena divides the licence income it receives equally between the recording’s producer, meaning its master owner, and its performers. Within the performer half, each main artist gets five points; a session musician gets one point per instrument, up to three. Those are Sena’s published distribution rules, not a streaming payout rate.
For a label running a Dutch catalogue, the practical question is simple: who registered the master, who registered each performance, and which recording version did radio actually play?
Two accounts can belong to one person
Sena is the Dutch neighbouring-rights society for musicians and recording producers. Its registration guide says a self-releasing artist who funded and owns the recording should register twice: once as a performer and once as the producer. The accounts can then be linked in MySena.
Here, “producer” is the party financially responsible for the master, not automatically the person who programmed the beat or supervised a studio session. A beatmaker who performed on a recording may have a performer claim; a label that bears the recording investment may have the producer claim. Sena says the actual rights position depends on the circumstances and agreements.
A distributor delivering the master to a digital service does not, by that delivery alone, register every performer with Sena. Put master ownership, featured performers and session credits on a separate claims checklist before the first broadcast.
The points change the performer payout
Sena’s own illustration starts with €2,200 in licence income attributable to a recording. The producer half is €1,100. If two main artists and one session musician performed, the remaining €1,100 is divided into 11 points: five for each main artist and one for the session player. Each main artist receives €500 and the session player €100. Sena also caps a session musician’s share at 50% of the performer allocation.
This is a rights-allocation example, not a promise that one spin pays €2,200. Sena says actual track amounts depend partly on minutes played and the musicians involved. Its MySena account shows the gross amount reserved for a track, which can change before payment.
The detail many labels miss: each session musician must register the track in their own musician account. The lead artist cannot add everyone else’s claim while entering their own repertoire. A session-player credit in a distributor’s metadata is useful evidence, but it does not replace that person’s Sena claim.
Register the version that was broadcast
Sena recommends registering the original mix, extended mix and radio edit separately. If a station plays the edit while only the original mix is claimed, the matching and payment trail can fail. Use the correct International Standard Recording Code (ISRC), recording title, participant names and master ownership dates for each version.
Sena matches registered repertoire against radio and television playlists and pays at the end of March, June, September and December when net royalties reach at least €5. It reserves money for unregistered rightsholders for up to three years. Its current guidance says claims for the 2023 play year close on 31 December 2026; check the live rule before filing an older claim.
On-demand Spotify and YouTube plays follow a different route: Sena says it does not collect those master-use payments. The master owner licenses the service directly or through a distributor. Confusing the two pipes can make an artist assume their distribution statement includes radio performance income when it does not.
A label’s quarterly audit
- Reconcile each radio-serviced ISRC with the Sena producer account and its ownership period.
- Ask every featured and session performer to confirm their own MySena repertoire claim.
- Check missing claims and reserved amounts before the oldest open play year closes.
- Keep on-demand master income and public-play neighbouring rights in separate royalty lines.
The distinction matters across borders too. Our German GVL registration guide explains another broadcast-money clock, while our Dutch recorded-music analysis covers the separate songwriting pipeline. For labels using InterSpace Distribution, transparent master statements are only one side of the reconciliation: the Sena accounts still need named people and correctly matched recordings.
