SoundExchange and the UAE’s MusicNation have signed a new reciprocal agreement that will allow neighbouring rights royalties to flow between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The agreement represents another important step in the development of the UAE’s music rights infrastructure and could create new royalty income for artists, record labels and other recording rights holders whose music is used internationally.

Under the agreement, artists and rights owners represented by SoundExchange can receive royalties when eligible recordings are played in the UAE. At the same time, Emirati artists and rights holders represented through MusicNation will be able to receive royalties generated from eligible uses of their recordings in the United States.

For musicians increasingly building audiences across borders, the deal highlights an important part of the music industry that is often overlooked: neighbouring rights.

What is the SoundExchange and MusicNation agreement?

SoundExchange and MusicNation announced the reciprocal agreement on September 17, 2026.

The agreement connects the neighbouring rights systems operated by the two organisations, making it easier for royalties generated in one territory to reach rights holders in the other.

SoundExchange represents hundreds of thousands of artists and recording rights owners and plays a major role in collecting digital performance royalties in the United States.

MusicNation is helping build music licensing and royalty infrastructure within the UAE, covering areas including neighbouring rights, public performance rights and mechanical rights.

The partnership could also have implications beyond American artists.

Some collective management organisations that already have agreements with SoundExchange may now have the option of using those relationships to collect eligible royalties generated in the UAE.

That potentially makes the UAE easier to access for international performers and rights holders without every organisation needing to establish an entirely separate collection infrastructure in the country.

What are neighbouring rights royalties?

Neighbouring rights are royalties connected to the public performance and certain other uses of a sound recording.

They are separate from the songwriting and publishing royalties associated with the underlying musical composition.

For example, a song can involve several different rights:

• the songwriting copyright covering the composition
• the master recording copyright
• performance rights
• mechanical rights
• neighbouring rights connected with performers and recording owners

Exactly who receives neighbouring rights royalties and which uses generate them varies between countries.

That makes international neighbouring rights collection complicated.

An artist might be receiving millions of streams around the world while still failing to collect every royalty generated by the wider use of their recordings.

Reciprocal agreements between rights organisations help close some of these gaps.

Why the UAE is becoming increasingly important for music royalties

The UAE has traditionally been a difficult territory for international music rights collection because its collective rights infrastructure is relatively new.

That is changing quickly.

The UAE Ministry of Economy issued the country’s first collective management licence in April 2025 to the Emirates Music Rights Association, or EMRA. MusicNation received its own permit in June 2025 and began operating later that year.

The development of organisations capable of licensing music, identifying usage and distributing royalties is helping transform the country into a more established music rights market.

This matters because the wider Middle East and North Africa music industry is growing rapidly.

Recorded music revenues across MENA grew 15.2% during 2025, according to IFPI figures cited by Music Business Worldwide. Streaming represented 97.5% of the region’s recorded music revenues.

The growth creates a simple challenge for the music industry:

If more music is being consumed across the region, the infrastructure for identifying rights holders and paying royalties needs to grow alongside it.

SoundExchange continues expanding its global royalty network

The MusicNation agreement is also part of a much wider international expansion by SoundExchange.

SoundExchange says it now has more than 100 agreements with collective management organisations around the world, covering approximately 93% of the available global neighbouring rights market. Nearly 600,000 artists and rights owners use its international collection services.

The organisation has distributed more than $13 billion in digital performance royalties over its lifetime.

SoundExchange has also been expanding reciprocal agreements into additional markets.

In May 2026 it reached an agreement with Argentina’s CAPIF covering performers, while an earlier agreement with South Africa’s SAMPRA created another pathway for US performers to receive neighbouring rights royalties generated overseas.

The strategy reflects a wider trend across the music business.

Music consumption has become global much faster than royalty collection infrastructure.

Artists can now gain listeners in dozens of territories almost instantly through streaming services, TikTok, YouTube and other digital platforms. The organisations responsible for identifying and moving royalties between countries are now attempting to make the underlying rights infrastructure equally international.

Why reciprocal royalty agreements matter for independent artists

International royalty collection can be particularly challenging for independent artists.

Major record companies often have established teams, collection partners and rights-management infrastructure operating across numerous territories.

Independent artists may instead rely on a combination of distributors, publishers, neighbouring rights organisations and collection societies.

Every additional territory connected through reciprocal agreements potentially reduces the number of royalties that become difficult or uneconomic to collect.

This becomes more important as independent music becomes increasingly global.

An artist based in London, New York or Sydney might suddenly find an audience in Dubai or Abu Dhabi without ever having actively marketed their music there.

Music discovery no longer respects national borders.

Royalty infrastructure increasingly needs to work the same way.

The UAE wants to become a major global music market

The SoundExchange agreement also fits into a much larger investment in the UAE’s creative economy.

The country’s cultural and creative industries contributed AED 54.4 billion, approximately $14.8 billion, to the UAE economy in 2022 according to government figures cited alongside the development of its collective management framework.

Major international music companies have also increased their activity across the region.

Universal Music Group acquired UAE-based Chabaka Music in 2023, while Abu Dhabi-based PopArabia has continued expanding its music rights operations. The UAE is also developing major music infrastructure projects as it attempts to establish itself as a regional entertainment hub.

The creation of functioning copyright and royalty systems is an important part of that strategy.

A music market cannot develop purely through concerts, streaming consumption and investment.

Artists, songwriters, performers, labels and other rights holders also need confidence that when music generates money, royalties can be identified and paid.

Music rights are becoming increasingly global

The bigger story behind the SoundExchange and MusicNation agreement is the gradual globalisation of music rights administration.

Music itself became global years ago.

A track uploaded today can reach listeners in the United States, UAE, India, Brazil and Japan within hours.

The royalty infrastructure supporting that activity has historically been far more fragmented.

Different copyright laws, databases, collection societies and licensing frameworks can make international royalty collection extremely complicated.

Reciprocal agreements offer one way to connect those systems.

Instead of every artist or rights holder needing to register separately with organisations in dozens of countries, collection societies can work together to identify usage and move royalties across borders.

The more markets that become connected, the harder it should become for legitimate royalties to remain uncollected simply because a recording happened to be played in another country.

A potentially significant step for the Middle East music industry

The SoundExchange and MusicNation partnership may therefore be more important than simply opening another royalty collection route.

It shows how quickly the music rights infrastructure across the Middle East is developing.

The UAE only began licensing collective management organisations in 2025. It is now connecting those organisations with some of the largest rights-management networks in the world.

For artists and labels, that means another market where music usage could increasingly translate into properly tracked royalty income.

And as streaming continues to accelerate music consumption across MENA, the value of having reliable neighbouring rights collection infrastructure in the region is only likely to increase.

For the global music industry, the direction is clear: audiences are international, and royalty collection is increasingly being built to match.