Guides
Music publishing in Spain
How music publishing actually works in Spain: who claims which rights, what the national copyright system does, and what it takes for a publisher to set up and collect.
Who claims which rights
Performance and mechanical: SGAE. Sync: direct.
Copyright registration in Spain
Spain maintains a voluntary Intellectual Property Registry (Registro de la Propiedad Intelectual) whose certificates serve as evidence in disputes — used more than most European registries.
Setting up to claim publishing rights
SGAE admits publishers directly, but Spanish-language administration and the society's post-reform paperwork mean most foreign catalogs still operate through a Spanish sub-publisher, who also covers the Latin American reciprocal network from Madrid.
The societies
SGAE — each linked page covers the society’s history and how registrations reach it.
Two free checks for your CWR file. Is the file correct? Every record, share and control total against the spec, each problem on its exact line. Do its writers match their registrations? Every writer cross-checked against public registration data, including works registered under another spelling or IPI. Nothing stored: check a file at cwrcheck.com.