Definition
Neighboring Rights
Royalties paid to performers and master owners when a recording is publicly broadcast or performed — radio, TV, public venues, satellite, webcasters.
Neighboring rights (also: 'related rights') are the master-side equivalent of public-performance royalties. When a recording is played on terrestrial radio in most of the world (not the US), or on non-interactive digital radio in the US (SoundExchange), the master owner and featured performers are owed money.
Collected by societies: PPL (UK), GVL (Germany), SCPP/SPPF (France), SoundExchange (US, digital only). Most US artists leave significant money on the table by never registering with foreign neighboring-rights societies.
The US is one of the only major markets that does NOT pay neighboring rights on terrestrial radio — a long-running political fight.