Sociedad Chilena de Autores e Intérpretes Musicales

SCD (Sociedad Chilena de Autores e Intérpretes Musicales) is a private, non-profit collective management organization founded in 1987 in Chile that administers public performance and reproduction rights for musical works on behalf of approximately 10,000 affiliated authors, composers, interpreters, and producers. It is the only entity authorized by the Chilean government to manage collective rights for music, and it also represents over 50 foreign societies through reciprocal agreements, administering a worldwide repertoire of millions of works.

How SCD Works

SCD operates under a mandate from Chile's Ministry of Education to license, collect, and distribute royalties for the public use of music in Chile. The organization collects from several sources:

• Radio: 367 licensed radio stations across Chile pay monthly license fees to SCD. Each station submits monthly playlists detailing every song aired. SCD also runs an online monitoring system that tracks what is played on more than 300 radio stations, with coverage expanding each year.
• Television: Open-air and cable channels pay monthly license fees. SCD distributes TV royalties based on playlists that log exact airtime in seconds for each work used.
• Live music: Concerts, festivals, and venues with live music pay license fees. SCD distributes these royalties event by event, based on setlists submitted by promoters or obtained from other sources.
• Venues and businesses: Restaurants, retail stores, gyms, discotheques, and other businesses that play music publicly hold SCD blanket licenses. For venues with live music, SCD supplements distributions with 2.5% of fees collected from general users without live music.
• Digital platforms: SCD collects royalties from streaming services, YouTube, and other digital platforms for works performed online in Chile.

SCD distributes royalties to members twice a year, in June and December. From the total collected, SCD deducts a fraction for administrative costs, social benefits, and member programs. The remaining amount is divided among national and international rights holders based on actual usage data. Songs not identified in one distribution cycle retain their payments and roll into the next cycle. If works remain unidentified after two cycles, the retained amounts are redistributed among identified works from the prior cycle.

SCD classifies members into five categories: Socio Administrado (entry level, with access to collection and social benefits but no voting rights), Socio Adherente (participation in assemblies with voice), Socio Activo (full voting rights and eligibility for the Board of Directors), Socio Benemérito (honorary degree for exceptional contributions to Chilean music), and Socio Heredero (successors managing catalogs of deceased authors).

Beyond royalty collection, SCD founded the Fundación de la Música de Chile in 2001, operates two record labels (Sello Azul for new artists and Oveja Negra for established acts), created the Premios Pulsar in 2015, and runs the Feria Pulsar international music fair. The organization publishes the annual "País de Músicos" report, the most comprehensive study of Chilean music industry trends. The 2025 edition cataloged 884 Chilean albums released that year (702 LPs and 182 EPs).

Real-World Example

A Chilean songwriter registers 20 songs with SCD. In a given six-month collection period, those songs generate the following usage: 300 radio plays across three Santiago stations, 50,000 streams on Spotify, live performance at 8 concerts, and background play in 2 licensed restaurants.

SCD collects royalties from all four sources. The radio stations submit playlists confirming the 300 plays. Spotify reports streaming data digitally. The concert promoters submit setlists. The restaurants hold blanket licenses.

If the total royalties collected for those 20 songs amount to CLP 2,000,000 (approximately $2,100 USD) in a distribution period, SCD deducts its administrative percentage and distributes the remainder to the songwriter in the June or December payment cycle. If the same songs are performed on radio in Argentina, SCD's reciprocal agreement with SADAIC means SADAIC collects those royalties and remits them to SCD, which then distributes them to the songwriter in the next international distribution.

Radio license fees are calculated as a percentage of net advertising revenue. Under current SCD tariff schedules, the rate is 1.0892% of net advertising income for the period May 2023 to April 2026, increasing to 1.1421% starting May 2026.

Why It Matters for Independent Artists

If you are a Chilean songwriter, composer, or performer, SCD membership is the only practical way to collect performance royalties for your music in Chile. No other organization is authorized to license collective music rights in the country.

Register every composition with SCD before it is publicly released. Unregistered works earn zero royalties, even if they receive heavy radio rotation or thousands of streams. Submit accurate metadata including song titles, ISRC codes, and split shares so SCD can match your works to usage data from radio playlists, streaming reports, and venue setlists.

SCD is unique among Latin American societies in representing both authors and performers under one roof. If you are both a songwriter and a recording artist, you can collect both authors' rights and neighboring rights through a single organization.

For non-Chilean artists, SCD matters because Chile is one of Latin America's most active music markets. Your home PRO should collect from SCD through reciprocal agreements. SCD represents the catalogs of over 50 foreign societies, so most major PROs worldwide have direct relationships with the organization.

SCD also offers social benefits to members, including healthcare access, pension support, and educational programs. The Fondo de Apoyo a Actividades de Difusión de la Música Chilena provides grants for Chilean artists to tour internationally, with a second 2026 call for applications now open.

Related Resources

• Performing Rights Organizations (PRO) - What a PRO is and how it functions
• Performance Royalties - How performance royalties are generated and collected
• Neighboring Rights - How neighboring rights differ from authors' rights
• Collective Management Organization (CMO) - How CMOs operate globally
• SCD Official Website - Visit SCD for membership and licensing information
• Use our Streaming Royalty Calculator to estimate your digital earnings