His bands' music has played 4,000 times. He's never registered. ₹4 lakh unclaimed.
🎵 Banshan, a music label founder in Laitumkhrah, Shillong, represents eight northeast-India bands (indie folk, experimental). His label, Northeast Echoes, had been uploading tracks to Spotify and YouTube for three years without formal registration with IPRS or PPL India. In May 2026, a friend in Delhi (a music tech professional) mentioned casually: you're losing ₹2–₹4 lakhs in unclaimed mechanical and performance royalties. Banshan had never considered it. His accountant had not mentioned it. The revenue was accruing somewhere — but he had no legal path to claim it. 📻
🚨 The problem
India's music royalty system is inherited from 1960s copyright law and adapted for digital streaming. Two organizations collect and distribute royalties: IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society, since 1969) handles mechanical royalties (per-stream payments from Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, YouTube). PPL India handles performance royalties (when a recording is played in venues, radio, broadcasts). Without registration with either, royalties accrue in their systems but cannot be claimed. Banshan had neither. His bands had 4,000+ streams on Spotify (approximately ₹60 in revenue held), unclaimed mechanical royalties on YouTube, and no PPL registration meaning the café in Lachung that wanted to sponsor a "Khyndaid residency" had no way to verify the music was licensed. He was, to the government, invisible. The income was real. The claim was not.
🚀 How GabFORGE helped
Banshan's girlfriend's friend (who worked in music tech in Bangalore) suggested trying a Khasi-language AI agent that reads government websites. Skeptical, Banshan set it up on his laptop and asked in Khasi. Over the next week, the agent walked him through a four-step registration sequence that he had never found on his own:
- 🔍 Step 1: Formal business registration. Register Northeast Echoes as a proprietorship on the MCA21 portal. Fee: ₹100. Timeline: 5–7 business days. Certificate received May 8.
- 💬 Step 2: IPRS registration. File Form A on the IPRS portal, provide MCA certificate, list bands/songwriters, pay ₹1,000 registration fee. Approval within a week (May 15). Now all mechanical royalties on Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, YouTube are claimable.
- 📞 Step 3: PPL India registration. More complex — requires business proof, comprehensive list of sound recordings, original artist contracts. The agent provided the checklist and contact pathway. Registered by end of May.
- ✅ Step 4: Spotify Direct and YouTube partnerships. Once IPRS and PPL registrations were live, the agent helped link them to Spotify for Artists and YouTube for Artists accounts to enable direct royalty claims.
Outcome: Northeast Echoes is now registered with both IPRS and PPL India. The café in Lachung can officially sponsor the Khyndaid residency (public performance license verified). Mechanical royalties held by Spotify (₹60 initially) are now claimable on a regular schedule. Eight bands have formal representation. The label went from invisible (no legal claim to income) to visible (registered, operational, claimable).
🇮🇳 Why this matters
India's music royalty system is opaque to independent creators. IPRS and PPL exist, but most indie labels do not know about them or how to register. The requirement to register formally as a business entity (on MCA) before registering with IPRS/PPL creates a cascade of steps that a solo founder cannot navigate without outside help. Without registration, royalties sit unclaimed in collective-society reserves, theoretically belonging to the creator but practically unreachable. An agent that maps the four registration steps and provides the contact pathways lets a label move from invisible to operational and claimable.
The long version has Banshan's Khasi-language conversation with the agent, the café in Lachung's sponsorship offer, the cascading registration requirements, and the moment Banshan realized the music was already playing but he was invisible to the system.