PRO and creating publisher worth it?

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daveydad
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PRO and creating publisher worth it?

Post by daveydad » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:33 pm

I have all my songs registered with BMI. Any advantage or disadvantage to this when licensing via Taxi?

I also set up my own publishing entity on BMI. Same question. Thanks!

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Re: PRO and creating publisher worth it?

Post by SANDPEARL » Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:20 am

yes both are necessary for backend deals which are becoming the norm it seems in the business...the publishing company you setup might not reap rewards early on but is needed for deals with companies who do not take the publishing or for direct licensing with music supervisors or clients...I'm not sure how you would get paid these days without a PRO registration as upfront fees seem to be going the way of the dinosaur...I'm assuming you're new to this so IMO what you should do is write lot's of songs/cues/tracks (whatever you do) and then decide if you want to go exclusive or nonexclusive with your music (or even a combination of both) - that of course is a whole other conversation :)

good luck..SP

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Re: PRO and creating publisher worth it?

Post by andygabrys » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:04 am

well the first point - there is a library that requires you to have your song registered with your PRO to be able to submit for them. I guess proves some kind of ownership. they are the only one I have heard of requiring that.

the second point - well most of the library listings generally require you to sign away your publishing, so not of much use there. but all the direct to super opportunities which allow you to retain 100% of writer / publisher, sure it would be a help there.

BMI is funny though (I am registered with BMI as well) - they have this strange way of doing things where if you don't list a publisher on your tune at all, they still will pay you the publishers share. so if its just BMI, then you could actually probably get away with only registering the writer side. If it lists "excess writer clearance" that usually indicates a cue that you only registered the writer side on.

But that's not really professional IMO. might as well do it right.

and if you do co-writes with people who are ASCAP, the whole way that BMI credits the writer for publishing as well is confusing and they won't list you as publisher on your half of the tune unless you have a publishing company and register as such.

That might not have been an eloquent explanation - but its my personal experience.
Last edited by andygabrys on Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: PRO and creating publisher worth it?

Post by daveydad » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:13 am

interesting, andy. thanks.

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Re: PRO and creating publisher worth it?

Post by Cat Herder » Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:05 pm

Interesting, I prefer that a cue is not registered with a PRO, not too serious a problem, but just keeps the registration clean. Having yourself registered as publisher can add an extra step and for me that typically is a deal killer simply because I do not want the extra step of switching publishers.

The best way to understand the royalty process is to look at writers share, and publishers share as being mirror images (Royalties are actually a single entity divided 50/50 writer publisher). If you are BMI and retain 60%, and your co-writer is ASCAP at 40% the publishing will be split between two publishers in the same percentage.

If you are publishing your music (even when it is a collaboration), you can own publishing entities in all 3 PROs. In this case you will collect 100% of publishing if you are that owner of the publishing entity(s).
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