Technical/ Legal question- PRO Related

[edmondredd]

Hello everybody,
I am a composer who's based in Dubai, in the UAE, and I've never been registered to any PRO.
I did score a couple of local short movies in here, with a local contract under local laws.
Now that I'm on Taxi (with no forwards yet), I was wondering if I should get registered to some PRO's and if yes, which one would you guys recommend.
Or should I wait for a forward, and then for a contact/contract to take this step?
Is there any dfference between european and american PROs?
Thanks a lot,

[andygabrys]

Hello everybody,
I am a composer who's based in Dubai, in the UAE, and I've never been registered to any PRO.
I did score a couple of local short movies in here, with a local contract under local laws.

Welcome, congrats, and I am interested to know how the local laws get you compensated. PM is fine.

Now that I'm on Taxi (with no forwards yet), I was wondering if I should get registered to some PRO's and if yes, which one would you guys recommend.

you can Google search and also find a lot of info in these forums concerning this - which is a typical question from people starting out.

You can only usually be a member of one PRO. Usually its the one in your home country / place of residence. There is one situation where a foreign writer has some how registered with their home PRO (say APRA in Australia) and also registered with BMI - I am not sure of the specifics.

What usually happens is you register with your home country PRO. That PRO has reciprocal agreements with every other PRO that is out in the world. The money from foreign placements eventually makes its way to your home PRO account and you are paid.

In the US we have ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. You can check their websites to see which you like better. I chose BMI. Its fine. Depending on the specific kind of music you do, one or the other might be slightly better.

Or should I wait for a forward, and then for a contact/contract to take this step?

no. joining most PRO's as a writer is free, and not having this together shows your inexperience in the game (which is fine I suppose too) but there is no reason to wait. Do it now.

Is there any dfference between european and american PROs?

Yes. GEMA for example has a slightly different way that they work concerning signing over songs into their "catalog". You can find a recent long forum thread on that too.

I don't know the specifics of joining a US PRO if you don't have a US address. I will say that if that is where (US) 90% of your placements happen, you will get your money more quickly, but after things start flowing its a relative difference that doesn't matter.

[edmondredd]

Welcome, congrats, and I am interested to know how the local laws get you compensated. PM is fine.

Thanks a lot, PM to follow

you can Google search and also find a lot of info in these forums concerning this - which is a typical question from people starting out.

You can only usually be a member of one PRO. Usually its the one in your home country / place of residence. There is one situation where a foreign writer has some how registered with their home PRO (say APRA in Australia) and also registered with BMI - I am not sure of the specifics.

What usually happens is you register with your home country PRO. That PRO has reciprocal agreements with every other PRO that is out in the world. The money from foreign placements eventually makes its way to your home PRO account and you are paid.

In the US we have ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. You can check their websites to see which you like better. I chose BMI. Its fine. Depending on the specific kind of music you do, one or the other might be slightly better.

Thank you for your answer, I actually ran a small query already but it got me all confused and the amount of information can be a tad overwhelming. It is very specific when it comes to US writers/composers, publishing in US territories, under the US laws. Since I'm not a US citizen, nor a US resident, with nothing published yet in the US (unless CD Baby can be considered as a PRO?) made the search a bit more difficult. Apparently PRS of Music (UK based) has some agreement with BMI, and also deals with music in the Gulf region.. So that could be a good starting point for me

joining most PRO's as a writer is free, and not having this together shows your inexperience in the game (which is fine I suppose too) but there is no reason to wait. Do it now.

ok, but will just make sure all is clear, and that I get the whole intricate process before that

Again Andy, thank you so much for your answer
I really appreciate,

edmond

[mojobone]

If your music is publicly available for sale in the USA, it should be registered with a PRO, but it doesn't have to be registered with a USA PRO, since ours have reciprocal agreements with most other countries. I couldn't tell you offhand which international PRO handles Dubai, specifically, but since you speak and write English, the UK one is probably your best bet, whether you're in Dubai or Bumfuk, Egypt. (it's a real place, people; you can look it up, though they probably don't pronounce it the way you theenk) You can almost never tell when a film will get translated to another language, so I'd advise you register anything that's already in a film as soon as possible.

[edmondredd]

Thank you Mojo for your answer..
I did a couple of queries in here, and apparently there are no relevant/ actual PRO in here.
PRS does have a 'mandate' in the region, but since I'm applying mostly for Taxi listings (mainly US and sometimes UK), a US/Canadian PRO would do..
But yeah I hear you, anything would do
Thanks again for your answer,

edmond

[edmondredd]

Ok so now a question to all non-US/ non-Canadian taxi members:
How did you register with your tax payer number and banking information if you don't have any of these??