Newbie Question - BMI/Tunecore/Taxi...

[Lipskimusic]

Dear All,

I am a new Taxi member. Apologies if this question came up before. I am still trying to read everything that has been posted in the various (and very useful) Forum categories.

From a practical viewpoint how do you deal with your Publishing Administrator (in my case Tunecore) in terms of exclusive vs. non-exlusive opportunities. I understand it does not make much sense to register any material with the Publishing Administrator as long as there is a potential exclusive (or shared) opportunity for the material.

How does it work in practice? If there was someone else out there who is a BMI member and a Tunecore artist (involving Publishing Administration) I would very much appreciate some practical tipps.

Kind regards
Matt

[TerrellBurt]

Hello Matt and welcome to TAXI! Great question and very practical in this age of digitial distribution via Tunecore and other outlets that allow artists like us chances to distribute our music. My advice would be to get out of that deal as soon as you can. Exclusive and non-exclusive libraries won't touch your songs if you have a administration deal with Tunecore. That type of deal does not allow artists to sign deals with other parties who share in performance royalties. Hope that helps!

[Lipskimusic]

Many thanks for your reply. My understanding is that Tunecore only covers the publishing administration in relation to songs that are specifically made available and identified for that. So the deal does not seem to apply to any material that has not been uploaded to Tunecore's publishing administration site.

Would you still recommend to get out of the deal? And, if so, how would you then administrate the publishing in cases where it is possible to keep the publishing rights.

Many thanks for your patience

[Kolstad]

What type of opportunities are you looking for with Taxi, Matt?
Like Terrell wrote, if you are pitching to music libraries, the administration deal with Tunecore will be an obstacle for you.

[Lipskimusic]

Hi Kolstat,

Nice to meet you! I am just starting out at Taxi. My plan was to start with instrumental tracks and I am currently working on my first track The pitch is for a library, hence my question.

It seems at Tunecore the Publishing Administration - even if you signed up for it - remains an optional service and a Tunecore artist is not obliged to register all their works with them, i.e. only songs specifically assigned for Publishing Administration will be affected. If that is correct than I should still be able to create tracks for a library pitch and simply not register them with Tunecore. What do you think? As far as I understand a Publishing Administration can come in handy if there is a pitch where the artists keeps all the rights as I would not know how to collect publishing royalties myself. How do you guys go about that? Maybe I misunderstand how this works in practice.

Cheers,
Matt

[ochaim]

Hey Matt,

In terms of collecting publishing royalties, joining a PRO like ASCAP or BMI will allow you to collect both writer's and publisher's share or the royalties. Although I believe BMI requires you to register as a publisher to be able to collect publisher's share from what I hear.

Joining a PRO is something anybody can do and they have reciprocal agreements with PRO's around the world to collect royalties on your behalf. So TC's administration deal doesnt do any more than what you could very easily do yourself. What they may have an edge on is collecting royalties that PRO's dont like mechanical royalties. But unless you are a household name those royalties dont amount to much.

You're right, TC's admin deal only applies to the tracks you opt-in for which leaves you free to sign other music to libraries. TC also offers to pitch that music for licensing opp's well under that admin deal. I've seen some placements by TC on my cuesheets so its not an entirely bad idea to have that admin deal, as long as you are aware that that music wont be able to be signed elsewhere.

The part that makes me facepalm is the part where they say they'll register your tracks around the world so you can collect the publishing. Like I said above, you dont need to register with each PRO in the world, just one that has reciprocal agreements. That has always struck me as misleading and predatory which is I dont see that admin deal in a positive light. Unless I've misread something.

[Lipskimusic]

Hi Owen,

This is really useful! Thanks! I am already a BMI member (as a writer/composer) and I will look into registering as a publisher myself. Aside from my day job I have got a small company that I could probably use for that in case BMI require a more robust setup when registering as a publisher (famous last words...).

The weird thing about Tunecore is that they said they would register songs that I upload to the Publishing Administration Dashboard with BMI themselves. They even said I should not register those songs with BMI myself as it would lead to confusions!

Yesterday, I checked the one song I had uploaded to Tunecore's Publishing Administration Dashboard (my 'test' song so to speak) and it does not seem to be in the BMI register (and it also does not show in my BMI works catalogue). I already raised this with Tunecore but so far did not receive any substantial response.

What are your experiences?

Thanks so much for your thoughts so far!

Cheers,
Matt

[Kolstad]

Nice to meet you too, Matt.

I don't know the details of the Tunecore deal, so if the deal allows for non-exclusive reps to share the publishing performance royalties, you should be fine. I guess thats the digital distribution deal with Tunecore.

Maybe it'll also depend which music library you will be dealing with. One I am with says in their FAQ "... do not submit to us if you signed to Tunecore's publishing administration deal or plan to", so hence my caution of it. I guess it's not a problem if you don't put the track under that deal, if thats an option.

With many deals you won't get the publishers share (as you don't do any publishing work), only your writers share. That's the most common deals I've come across so far.

[Lipskimusic]

Thanks Kolstat! Very useful information. The thing is that Tunecore's FAQs around their Publishing Administration Services (at least IMO) are rather light touch (I already raised that with them).
Cheers,
Matt

[ochaim]

I dont know when you can expect to see the registration in your catalogue whenever TC registers it. Some libraries only register tracks when there is a placement for it. Libraries will also typically take care of the PRO registration to avoid any potential problems during registration.

I'd ask BMI first before you register as a publisher just to make sure thats needed to collect the publisher portion. I'm with SOCAN in Canada but this came up when a BMI cowriter and I had a direct to music supe placement. In this case it's crucial to be able to collect publisher's portion.

I seem to remember seeing TC listed along with the writer in the cue sheets. Does the admin deal say anything about their entitlement in terms of publishing splits?