Uncertain about registering with PRO

[sammi3400]

I've been reading conflicting information. I read a post where some folks were talking about registering songs with your PRO. The general consensus was not to do it before a deal. Today's email from Michael says to have our songs registered before hand. So now I'm not sure. Also, conflicting ideas about copyright, do we really need to spend the money to copyright each song and wait several months to get the document to prove it?

[deantaylor]

1. on registering song with PRO - i'm 50-50. i think either way is fine. main reason not to register songs with PRO in advance is if you get them signed to an exclusive publisher/library, then they register them for you. but if already registered, the registration can be changed, so i'm not sure it's that big of a deal.

2. on registering songwriting copyrights with LOC - i don't do it very often. seems like such a small chance that one of my songs is ever going to be 'stolen' and my budget is small, in both time and money. if a song ever gets in a position to make a lot of money or get a lot of exposure, then I'll do it.

just my opinion .. others may feel differently

[MarkTaylorSongs]

This is a very good topic, and i was just thinking about this after seeing the latest newsletter.

I feel like registering every single song i've written with the library of congress is almost a waste of money? However, the registration process is extremely fast with the online forms that it takes no more than 5 minutes. I say if a song is about to sell or be placed, then go ahead and register w/ LOC.

Now, regarding PRO....does it cost money to register each individual song w/ a PRO such as ASCAP? If it is free, then i feel like the only downside is that a company may want to do the registering...so i am not entirely sure now.

a bit confused after that newsletter...expert advice would be great!

[matto]

I think the "conflicting" advice is conflicting because it pertains to two completely different situations. I don't think this was entirely clear from Michael's email, hence the confusion.

If you are pitching your songs to publishers, to hopefully land a publishing deal, and have those publishers pitch your songs to end users, then it makes more sense to wait to register with the PRO.
And should you choose to register with the copyright office, in this case you can wait until you have a number of tracks, and then copyright them as a collection.

If you are pitching your songs directly to end users, then you are in fact the publisher and therefore should register your song with your PRO yourself. You should also become a publisher member of your PRO in addition to being a writer member, and register yourself both as a writer and publisher.
Whenever you are submitting to Taxi listings placed directly by end users of music (such as music supervisors or ad agencies), you basically fall in this category.

People in the advertising industry are apparently VERY wary of law suits, therefore they may require to actually see things such as proof of copyright and PRO registration. In many other contract situations you merely have to "warrant and represent" that you are in fact the copyright holder.
So in the case of these ad industry listings, you may actually have to register each composition with the copyright office in order to qualify for a deal.

If you were to write a custom song/track for every ad agency listing Taxi runs, this could obviously get fairly expensive fairly quickly...
Of course if you hit the jackpot on one of these, the license fee should pay for LOTS of copyright registrations ...but naturally, the odds of hitting the jackpot on one of these high paying, high profile listings are much smaller than signing a publishing deal with a production music library or getting your song on a cable show.

HTH,

matto

[Hookjaw Brown]

IMO every writer should approach the business as the writer and publisher. Buy a ISRC code and assign every song, composition and variation with a unique number. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of the ISRC, plus writer(s), BPM, date of composition, mood, description, PRO registration, copyright application date, submissions and dates and any thing else you can think of (lyric sheet, chord charts).

The memory plays tricks on you unless your record keeping is current. Songs and compositions are not made of concrete. Once the song numbers start climbing a lot of songs sort of fade. I am always amazed when I go back and listen to recordings of ideas and wonder how I played that phrase. Then I pull up the chord chart and go ....oh....I am stupid....how else could it go.

Registering with a PRO is just one of the many things a songwriter has to do, keeping everything current is the hardest. Ariel Hyatt recommends (as one of her nine steps) is getting an intern to keep track of everything.